The search for missing actor Andrew Koenig came to an end yesterday when his body was discovered in a park near Vancouver.
His famous father, Walter Koenig, held an emotional press conference and urged those families who have family members suffering from depression to act before it’s too late.
Rest in Peace, Andrew.
The televised health care debate was a joke.
Nothing got accomplished, the abortion language remained intact, and the illegal measures that are unconstitutional remained in place. And there were enough distortions of what will and what will not happen that it’s as clear as mud.
Time for the voters to have their say on this matter. They ought to throw this entire mess onto the ballot and let the American people vote it straight up or down.
THEN we’ll see where the American people stand on this issue.
Why are the conservatives crying about Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) voting for a Democratic jobs bill? He stated his intentions loud and clear up until now; what were they expecting? This guy’s another McCain. Who didn’t know that?
He promised to be the 41st vote against Obama’s health care mess. But he also said that he wasn’t going to be bound by party labels.
Republicans from New England have to appear independent enough from the GOP in order to keep the support of Democratic-leaning independents, so why all the fuss now?
They got their 41st vote, but Scott Brown will not follow the party blindly. He’s a Massachusetts version of John McCain, who is notorious for wheeling and dealing and being a closet Democrat. So will Brown. They can shut down health care, but they had better not count on Brown’s support on other issues, unless they can convince him to support their stand for all the right reasons.
Get over it and get on with the business at hand: shutting down this HORRID health care bill.
Andrew Koening, son of actor Walter Koening of “Star Trek” fame, has been missing for eleven days, and the search has been growing more desperate by the hour.
He went up to Vancouver from his home in California, after dispatching a dark letter to his parents, who called the police after contact was lost. Andrew has been suffering from depression, according to the Koening family.
Andrew was a child-star on the 1980s TV show “Growing Pains” and has been an activist, writer, director and actor since “Growing Pains” ended.
Thoughts and prayers for the Koenings. I hope this situation is resolved with Andrew being found safe and sound. But it doesn’t look good.
I hope Congress is paying close attention to the still-developing crisis between debt-overloaded Greece and their partners in the European Union, because there’s a warning for the United States in between the lines.
Several European newspapers are calling the EU moves against Greece a “shocking” and “crushing loss of Greek sovereignty.” It’s apparently in a part of the EU treaty that member states can lose control of their own monetary policies if their national debts exceed the 3% limit of deficit to the country’s GDP. Greece is currently at 12% and threatening to default on its debt load, which is 113% of its GDP.
The way that Europe is lording it over Greece, a lesson is there for all to see. With the types of numbers coming out of Washington, and the depth of borrowing that the current Administration and Congress is proposing to engage in, how long can it be before China and other nations try to lord it over us? What if China starts trying to dictate our monetary policy by threatening to reject American borrowing requests from Chinese banks? What happens when they start to dictate our foreign policy?
The American government must live within it’s own means, without borrowing another red cent.
No nation on earth should hold sway over our national interests; we can make our own decisions on whether we want to welcome the Dalai Lama to our country, or whether we want to sell weapons to Taiwan to deter Red Chinese aggression.
And if we want to give our taxpayers rebates, we don’t borrow the money from China to do it. That was the height of irresponsibility from the last Administration, and a national disgrace.
If the government can’t survive on a $2 trillion budget, they can learn to do without. But enough of this financial irresponsibility. There should be NO talk of a health care plan until our financial mess is straightened out.
Feral cats may be the new targets for hunters in some municipalities around the country. And I’m enjoying the picture a great deal. Even though I know that the proposition will probably fail.
In any case, feral cats kill tens of millions of birds a year.
Where might one get a license??!
The rape of the criminal justice system continues unabated.
Now that they’ve introduced legislation to bar funding for trials of Guantanamo Bay inmates in civilian courts, Constitutional shredders in Congress have targeted the Christmas Day bomber as well, saying he should be tried in a military court.
Bull honkey!
The military does not have any jurisdiction as the attempted bombing took place on a civilian airliner, in civilian airspace over an American city, not on a military flight, in military-controlled airspace or over an American military base. Moreover, the arresting officers were FBI, who are also non-military law enforcement personnel.
The line between civilian law enforcement and military law enforcement clearly needs to be strengthened as the line separating the two, aka the Posse Comitatus Act, has been weakened via attempted acts of Congress and the previous Administration. It was in response to Hurricane Katrina, and authorizations of Congress for President Bush to use troops in law enforcement in and around New Orleans as civil authority had broken down there. These acts of Congress expired in 2008 and the line was tenuously re-established.
I have faith in our military, but not in our elected Constitution-shredding leaders, who don’t seem to have any issues trampling all over the Constitution that they are sworn to uphold.
The same Congress people who are yelling about the Christmas Day bomber being in civilian court should think twice before putting the military tribunals (which are considered illegal under international law) above those of the civilian criminal justice courts.
The military courts should handle military matters. The Christmas Day bombing is a civilian matter, to be decided in civilian courts. This man was not arrested on some distant battlefield under military control; he was arrested in Romulus, Michigan, home of Detroit Metro Airport, attempting to blow up a passenger jet.
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land, and anything that threatens the integrity of the Constitution should be banned out of existence and forgotten.
We dare not blur the lines of distinction in order to use enhanced torture methods. That’s a slippery slope that has been barely kept in check to this point.
Some things became a little clearer today when the U.S. government said that it had to pressure Toyota into recalling eight models for defective foot pedals.
And Toyota experienced a 16% drop in sales in sales in January.
As a former Toyota owner, I can tell you that this problem has been around for a while. I had to get the gas pedal on my 1994 Toyota pickup fixed because it was experiencing the EXACT problem that this current recall is about. I can remember the mechanic at the Toyota dealer telling me that it was a common problem. That was twelve years ago.
I haven’t had any problems with gas pedals in my Dodge.
So, it now appears that Toyota had no intention of doing this recall, and government pressure forced them into it, which was the reason they didn’t have a fix ready to go. In my mind, it turns this from a case of simple stupidity on the part of Toyota into one of denial and evasion, particularly since nineteen deaths have been linked to the defective gas pedals. Shame on Toyota!
I couldn’t help but notice that President Obama scrapped the Constellation program over at NASA, as it was an outdated concept when they retired it forty years ago, and was even more outdated when they proposed doing an upgrade to the forty-plus year old concept to replace the retiring shuttles.
Now that he’s gotten around to cutting the budget, I have another suggestion for him on where else he can make cuts:
Scrap his health care plan. His reasons for scrapping Constellation also apply to his health plan: it can be done cheaper and far more responsibly (AND without throwing people in jail, too, I might add).
He needs to go much deeper and make a dent in the debt. Closing up shop in Iraq this year would save more money in one year than he’s currently proposing for his ENTIRE current ten-year plan.
The President’s $3.8 trillion budget is a BUST. He needs to pare it down to about $2.2 trillion, and put the savings into paying down the debt owed to foreign creditors. It’s better to replenish the well and keep it in reserve, rather than draining it completely dry, which we are currently on track to do.
Congress and the President need to pass a balanced budget.
I’ve been watching the Toyota recall and can’t help but wonder: what is Toyota doing?
They issued the recall on eight models of Toyota vehicles and stopped selling those across the country. Then it emerged that they don’t have a solution, or permission from the federal government to proceed with a fix, which are required. If they saw a problem, why on earth didn’t they develop a fix first before announcing a recall?
I remember when Dodge issued a recall six years ago how efficient it was. They announced the problem (a recall of the upper ball joint), sent out mail to all Dodge owners with the affected vehicles (2001-2003 Dodge Durangos and Dakotas) and asked them to schedule appointments so that the right part could be shipped to the dealer ahead of the appointment.
A couple of hours after dropping my truck off at the dealer, I had it back with a clean bill of health.
After going through that, and then seeing that Toyota issued a recall in the last few days without a fix, it makes me wonder…what are they DOING? They announced a recall without a fix. They didn’t even have a fix on the drawing board so that they could discuss it with the feds.
Dodge developed a fix, and permission from the appropriate federal agency to carry out the ball joint repair prior to their huge announcement. This is how most American companies take care of their problems. Toyota didn’t do things his way, they’re doing it backwards.
The problem with the Dodge ball joints was thought to have been more widespread than the reported problem with the gas pedals in these Toyota vehicles, but more information is being released, almost on an hourly basis.
The Big 3 are gleefully watching Toyota’s market share shrink, but hopefully they’re taking notes on what NOT to do.
