New Hampshire Democrats Apologize, Quit After Sarah Palin Death Wish Posted on Facebook

Ah....the joys of anti-social networking.

One Granite State Democrat is in trouble after posting on a state representative's Facebook page that they were sorry former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her former son-in-law Levi Johnson weren't on board the plane that crashed and killed former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and four others on Monday.

In a posting on New Hampshire state Representative DJ Bettencourt's (R-Salem) Facebook page, NH State House of Representatives candidate Keith Halloran said of the fatal crash "Just wish Sarah and Levi were on board". Ironically, Bettencourt's post seemed to be lamenting the tendency for people to dogpile on a public figure and their legacy after their death.

State representative Tim Horrigan (D-Durham) weighed in on the crash by wishing Palin good health for his own less-than-altruistic reasons:

Just for the record, I don't wish Sarah Palin dead... but not merely for compassionate reasons. I also want her to live because a living Sarah Palin is less dangerous than a dead one. Her rise to the status of Head Tea Partier had nothing to do with anything she ever said, did or accomplished--- but as long as she lives she might be able to say or do things which could serve as a moderating influence. And she also might commit a gaffe bad enough to shock her followers, though that is unlikely. Unless of course she endorses Obama for President in 2012.

A staffer for Democrat Congressman Paul Hodes (NH-2) weighed in and tweeted "I wonder if & when Sarah Palin will learn the meaning of our state motto 'Live Free or Die'".

After initially dismissing his comments as a 'tempest in a teacup' Halloran announced Thursday that he was pulling out of the state House race and issued the following written statement:

After consulting with the secretary of state's office, I am withdrawing as an active candidate for the New Hampshire House. I urge registered voters to consider supporting and voting for the truly progressive candidates on the ballot on Sept. 14 and Nov. 2

That's a crying shame, because from what little I know about Halloran, he seems like the picture-perfect little progressive. Soothing and pretty words about justice, equality and helping the middle class while masking an angry, petulant, condescending, whiny, duplicitous individual who gleefully wishes for others to die for the high crime of not agreeing with their worldview. Or maybe he didn't put enough effort into his boilerplate progressive 'I'm for the little guy' speak hence the mask slipping and him not caring- at least in that moment- what other people thought about what he had to say.

Horrigan also announced his resignation and the suspension of his re-election campaign on Thursday. Representative Horrigan sent a formal letter to House speaker Terrie Norelli and later made an apology to Palin via Facebook.

Full disclosure- anybody paying attention knows that my politics lean to the right of center. And as much as I agree with her on a number of issues, there's still the fact that Palin quit halfway through her first term as governor. Quitters tend to be unappealing. With that said, I find the amount of obsessive hatred and vitriol directed at what is now a private citizen and her family by this country's institutional left bordering on the comical. Of course, she does make a nice big juicy distraction from the current administration pile-driving this nation into the ground.

As for the whinging about Horrigan and Halloran's freedom of speech, I actually wish they would stick around some more. I'm trying to see where, in all the criticism of their comments, somebody said that they DID NOT have the right to say it.....granted it's early, but so far- nothin'. It's classless and vindictive, but I have yet to hear somebody say they don't have the right to say it. These two were gotten rid of because they would be a distraction and liability to other Democrat candidates in New Hampshire. To even imply that the two are now some sort of martyrs for free speech would a transparent ruse that would insult the intelligence God gave a kumquat.

*BUMPED* A Tale of Two Memorable Last Days- HOPA & Change and the Emergency Exit

UPDATE 8/12: I have been informed by reliable sources that the whiteboard story was actually a crafty publicity stunt by TheChive.com [the thought had crossed my mind that this might be a hoax, but that was followed up by the question of 'to what end?' -NANESB!]. As for the Jet Blue flight attendant, despite achieving almost instant folk-hero status, some of the passengers have come forward to let the world know that he's kind of a dick.

Ever have one of those days where you not only wanted to quit your job, but burn your bridges with gusto while squirting more lighter fluid onto the flames and then taking a prolonged whiz on the ashes?


Even with the economy and unemployment the way it is right now, some people have had enough and decided to take their chances out there with unemployment and marked their last day with a decidedly dramatic flourish (that doesn't involve a killing spree- just sayin').


The first such instance is a brokerage assistant only known as 'Jenny', who announced her resignation via e-mail and attached a series of photos of her holding up a whiteboard. The Chive posted 34 pictures of her, and the message on the whiteboard in the first few frames says that she'll miss everybody and thanks them for all that she's learned after 2 years there. With the noticeable exception of somebody named Spencer, who's apparently some sort of supervisor.


In subsequent photos, 'Jenny' reveals that she's listened in on phone conversations where Spencer referred to her as HOPA (Hot Piece of Ass- one picture seems makes light of the inconsistent acronym) and points out that while Spenser was monitoring other employees online usage, she used the same software to find out that he spent nearly 20 hours a week playing Farmville on a company computer.


Interestingly, the last 3 images of 'Jenny' show her dressed much more casually while still holding the whiteboard and reassuring readers "Something tells me I'll be just fine". No word yet on whether this was an actual resignation or a cleverly staged publicitiy stunt done on the cheap.


Jet Blue [NASDAQ: JBLU] flight attendant Steve Slater decided that Monday was his last day at work. Slater was apparently cursed at and hit on the head by a passenger taking his luggage out of the overhead bin as the aircraft was pulling up to the gate at JFK Airport as it arrived from Pittsburgh. Slater had told the passenger he couldn't retrieve his bags yet, and after getting hit on the head, Slater let loose a profanity-laden tirade directed at the passenger over the PA system before announcing "I've had it", grabbing some beer from the beverage cart and letting himself off the plane through the back using the emergency slide.


Slater was eventually arrested by the NYPD at his Queens home and charged with tresspass, criminal mischef and reckless endangerment. The low-altitude DB Cooper was out on $2500 bail as of Tuesday.

[h/t: Pi Guy on the 'Jenny'/HOPA photos]

What's in a Name? House, Senate Don't Even Bother Naming 'Emergency Funding' Bill for Unions

Might as well call it Cash for Clunkers Trumkas.

President Obama passed a $26 billion teacher/public employee emergency funding bill on Tuesday which was marketed as emergency funding to prevent layoffs of teachers ahead of the new school year.

Besides not having a name at this time, HR 1586, also known as the _____ Act of ______ (no, really!) also stands out because Congress interrupted their six week midsummer recess to go back to Washington DC to vote on it. Personally, I liked this Congress much better when they were far far away from the Capitol.

Not surprisingly, most of these jobs that Obama and Congress rode in on their proverbial white steed and saved during the August recess are union jobs. That makes it almost a certainty that the Democrats who voted for the _______ bill will likely get funds back from the SEIU, AFSCME, NEA, AFL-CIO and other public employee unions between now and November courtesy of dues collected from members.

Don't all you red states with budget surpluses now footing the bill for dysfunctional blue states like California, Illinois and New York feel silly now?

For every Bell, CA that's out there, there's some Congresscritters out there who think everybody else has an obligation to clean up the local messes of some of these cities' own making.

Somehow, I suspect the lion's share of that $26 billion will somehow manage to avoid right-to-work states like the plague.

But there is good news! As predicted by yours truly, this Administration has suddenly found religion when it comes to deficit hawkish-ness. And the budget cuts start with the military!

Former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens Killed in Wilderness Plane Crash

86 year old Ted Stevens was among 5 people killed in a single-engine plane crash in a remote area east of Dillingham, AK late Monday.

Stevens was the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, taking office in December 1968 and leaving office in January 2009 after losing his re-election bid. Steven's seniority earned him enough clout where he was able to steer government and military spending towards his home state. Stevens was also responsible for lifting the cap on contract size for the Alaska Native Corporations established under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

The WWII Flying Tigers veteran left office under a cloud when he was found guilty of giving false statements in a Washington D.C federal court just days before the 2008 election. However, that conviction was later voided when it was learned prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence and testimony from the trial. The prosecutors and some of their witnesses were in turn investigated by the Justice Department for prosecutorial misconduct.

Stevens and six others- including former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe- were travelling to a fishing lodge in the remote western part of the state when the single-engine DeHavilland went down. Ironically, Stevens survived a 1978 plane crash that killed his first wife Ann and four other passengers. Stevens remarried in 1980 and had a daughter with his second wife Catherine.

7.6 Earthquake Strikes Vanuatu, Tsunami Warning Issued

Authorities in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu have warned residents to seek higher ground after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck at 4:24 PM local time on Tuesday. Although there are no reports of damage in the capital city of Port Villa, local police warned residents to take refuge in the hills fearing that the tremors could spawn a sizable tsunami.

Residents say that there was considerable shaking for about 15 seconds, but no apparent signs of damage. A warning was issued by the NOAA's Pacific Tsunami warning center, although it was considered unlikely that any tsunami generated by the quake would reach the west coast. Vanuatu sits on top of an active seismic and volcanic reigon that's part of the 'Ring of Fire' circling the Pacific. The island chain lies between Australia's northeastern coast and Fiji.

Earlier this year, plans were made to evacuate nearly 3000 villagers from Torba Province in the northern part of the country after the Gaua volcano there bombarded nearby towns with ash, sulfur and molten lava. Like the Icelandic volcano earlier, ash spewing from the Gaua volcano threatened to play havoc with international air travel.

Split Pea Series Sports Chowdah Update- Hallowed Halls: Bloodied Sox Split Series in Bronx; Pre-Season Footbal with A Side of Rice

The somewhat depleted Red Sox came away from their weekend 4-game series with the Yankees splitting the series at 2 games each in the Bronx. The series got off to a good start for Boston with a 6-3 win behind Clay Buchholz's pitching performance and Ryan Kalish's 2-run homer in the top of the 6th on Friday night.

Lackey and Beckett were were stuck with the losses on Saturday and Sunday, with the Yankees winning 5-2 in the day game Saturday and 7-2 for the Sunday night game. During the Sunday night game, Derek Jeter passed Babe Ruth on the career hits list with 2,874 hits for 38th all time with a 2nd inning single and Yankees starter Dustin Mosley got the W.

But the Sox had a chance to salvage a split from the 4-game series with a win today. Jon Lester pitched 6 and 1/3rd shutout innings with run support from a Bill Hall RBI single and a JD Drew groundout with a runner at third in the top of the 2nd inning. Over the first six innings, Lester gave up 2 hits before giving up a single to Jorge Posada, a double to Marcus Thames and hitting Austin Kearns with a pitch to get into a bases loaded with one out jam in the bottom of the 7th.

On came Daniel Bard to keep the Yankees off the board with runners everywhere with nowhere to put 'em. Bard would strike out Jeter and Swisher to end the threat, but go on to give up a solo homer to Mark Teixeira to lead off the bottom of the 8th. A-Rod would then single before Robinson Cano grounded out and Jorge Posada walked. Bard got new Yankees acquisition Lance Berkman to pop out to left field before Papelbon came on for a 4-out save. In the bottom of the 9th, Papelbon struck out Granderson before walking Jeter and then striking out Swisher and Teixeira to close out his 28th save of the year and Boston's 2-1 win.

The Sox will travel north to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays Tuesday night. The Jays came off a convincing 3-game sweep of Tampa Bay over the weekend and on Sunday carried a Brandon Morrow no-hitter into the 9th at the Rogers Centre before Evan Longoria was able get a 2-out single. Morrow would close it out for the 1-0 Toronto win. Daisuke Matsuzaka (8-3; 3.96 ERA) will go up against Ricky Romero (9-7; 3.37 ERA).

OTHER SOX NEWS: Carlos Delgado signed a minor-league deal with the Red Sox last week in the hopes of getting called up to Boston by September. Delgado hadn't played a major-league game since May 2009 and went 0-3 against Scranton Wilkes-Barre's Kei Igawa in Pawtucket's 2-1 loss at PNC Field in Moosic, PA on Monday night

NFL: Are you ready for some football!? Me neither.

Neither were the Cowboys or Bengals during Sunday night's pre-season Hall of Fame Game, apparently. Dallas came away with the 16-7 in over Cincy, but the real story was the NFL Hall of Fame Class of 2010.

Not surprisingly, receiver Jerry Rice was a first ballot Hall of Famer. Rice had a record-setting 1549 receptions for 22,895 yards and 197 career TD's in a 20 year NFL career, most of which was spent in San Francisco as the favorite target of Joe Montana and Steve Young. Rice also played for the Oakland Raiders and Seattle Seahawks later on in his career.

Running back Emmitt Smith, the last of the Cowboy's 'triplets' (Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin) to be nominated to the hall of fame was also inducted over the weekend. Smith had a career 18,355 yards and 164 rushing TD's (both league bests).

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: President Obama took time out of his busy schedule of golfing, shooting hoops and fundraising to welcome the New Orleans Saints for the defending Super Bowl Champion's traditional visit to the White House this weekend. The team was welcomed with a number of Gulf Coast dishes in the East Room and a band playing 'When the Saints go Marching In'. Later on, Saints players also met with injured soldiers and their family members recuperating at Walter Reed Army Hospital.

NHL: An arbitrator upheld the league's invalidation of Ilya Kovalchuck's big money 17-year contract on Monday.

The NHL's decision went into arbitration after the NHL Player's association filed a grievance against the league, but the arbiter ruled that the Devils and Kovalchuck circumvented the NHL's salary cap with the 17 year $102 million deal by having the salary taper off sharply in the last five years.

Technically Kovalchuck remains a free agent, but has already expressed an interest in attempting a 2nd time to sign long-term with the Devils.

Christina Hendricks in Plastic? Not so Fantastic....

Can you spot the difference? Didn't think so.

File this under 'N' for 'Noooooooooooooo!!!!!'

Little known fact- Mattel helped celebrate the kickoff of Mad Men's 4th season with the release of limited edition Barbies depicting characters from the series late last month.

Of course, there's the exception of Christina Hendrick's Joan Holloway character. She's apparently been replaced by a stick figure that's been inspired by a cross between a formally dressed Strawberry Shortcake and those aliens from the supermarket tabloids.

Just.....yikes....gone are the curves that put both the series and Hendricks on the map, replaced with the standard and more unrealistic Barbie figure (which can be yours, for a paltry $74.99 on Amazon.com). I'm not even going to pull the 'Think of the Children' card when it comes to promoting a certain body type- that was pointed out here earlier- but most of Hendricks' appeal is that she's enthusiastically and convincingly bucked the heroin chic and plastic surgery trends coming from the entertainment industry and made a name for herself with good old-fashioned all-natural, Elvgren-esque curves.....Good Lord- it would be like marketing a super detailed David Ortiz MLB action figure only to have Urkel in a Red Sox jersey and batting helmet hit the shelves.

Reportedly, serious collectors are very dismayed with this discrepancy between the Holloway Barbie and Hendrick's real-life measurements.

Philly blogger Wyatt Earp laments this travesty of a sham of a mockery as well.

Connecticut State Police Release Warehouse Shooter's 911 Audio; Vigil Held in Manchester; Zero Discrimination Claims Against Hartford Distributors

Connecticut State Police last week released audio from a 911 call by a man identifying himself as the Hartford Distributors gunman, Omar Thornton.

In the beginning of the call, Thornton said, "I took it into my own hands and handled the problem. I wish I could have got more of the people."

In the call, Thornton sounds calm as he told police why he said he went on a shooting rampage inside the warehouse. "They treat me bad over here. They treat all black people bad over here," Thornton said.

Thornton also made similar claims in a final phone call to his family before offing himself. Since the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saw it fit to point out how cop-killer Richard Poplawski (who, unfortunately is still among the living) voted McCain-Palin in the 2008 Presidential elections, then I think mentioning Omar Thornton's affinity and enthusiasm for President Obama is fair game as well.

Thornton [and his mother] were especially excited when Barack Obama was elected the first African American president, Hannah said. He listed Obama and the gun range among his interests on his Facebook page.

Meanwhile, the horribly racist and evil company that did bigoted things like hiring a black employee such as Thornton at the beginning of a substantial recession had exactly zero racial complaints filed against it in the past decade according to the US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission and Connecticut Commission on Human Rights. One black employee who retired from Hartford Distributors in March said he never experienced any sort of racial discrimination in his two decades of working for the company. A company spokesman noted that about 20% of Hartford Distributors workforce are minorities. [Of course, in wonderful Ultra Blue state liberal-land, any absence of evidence of discrimination against Thornton is somehow proof positive of systematic discrimination- NANESB!].

I will say this right here and now. The racism accusations are a very malicious, fucked-up and transparent attempt by Thornton's loved ones to try and deflect attention from the fact that he was caught red-handed stealing from his employer and subsequently murdered eight of his co-workers. Omar's skin pigment is not a 'get out of responsibility free' card.

Friends and family of the murdered were among 500 mourners who had gathered at Manchester's Center Springs Park for a candlelight vigil on Sunday. Local religious leaders began the vigil with a prayer and a violinist played Amazing Grace as hundreds of candles were lit by attendees. Manchester town manager Scott Shanley described the vigil as a 'pretty good end to an awful, awful week'.

In other developments, police in East Windsor CT arrested a 33 year old Enfield, CT woman identified as the person videotaped accepting stolen beer from Thornton. Christy Quail was charged with larceny for theft on Friday, according to E. Windsor police chief Edward DeMarco. The videotaped theft of beer was what led to Thornton's resignation immediately prior to his killing spree.

Today's Train of Thought- Amber Cars of Grain; Aug 7, 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to the land of Warren Buffet, the College World Series and lots and lots of agriculture.

Omnitrax, like Rail America or WATCo, operates a number of smaller, disconnected shortline and regional railroads throughout the USA and Canada. Among those is the 550 mile Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railway, which operates three disconnected lines in western Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. Not surprisingly, much of their traffic base includes corn and wheat- although they also serve the Gerald Gentleman coal-fired power plant just outside of Sutherland, NE (somewhat surprisingly, ethanol apparently isn't a major traffic source- just grain in it's less refined form).

Here, railpictures.net contributor Craig Walker caught Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railway GP30M# 5 heading across a small trestle at Marion, NE on its way to the end of the branch at St. Francis, KS under wide open skies on a sunny May 2008 day. The GP30 started life on the Baltimore & Ohio before being rebuilt and was retired by successor CSX transportation and purchased secondhand by Omnitrax.

What Dangerous Armed Black Paramilitary Groups?

Apparently the latest meme that had been circulating around the leftosphere over the last few weeks is that Armed Black Separatist or Paramilitary Groups are actually a fabrication of FOX News- and even if they aren't, then they're perfectly harmless blowhards in berets or bow ties who should be ignored. Heck, even Erick Holder's Department of Justice allowed them to engage in some videotaped voter intimidation with no real consequence.

With that said, this week marks the 3-year anniversary of the murder of Oakland newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey. Bailey was shot dead in broad daylight in downtown Oakland shortly before an investigative piece of his about the pending bankruptcy of Your Black Muslim Bakery for the Oakland Post was scheduled to be published. Bailey's killer approached the editor and fired three rounds from a stolen Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun before fleeing in a waiting Ford Aerostar van.

The Your Black Muslim Bakery was supposedly a grassroots enterprise that provided food, jobs and vocational training to inner-city youth and was run by a Nation of Islam offshoot. In practise, it combined the worst attributes of a cult and a street gang. Bailey's article was to highlight problems within the Your Black Muslim Bakery that were much more sinister than bankruptcy- since 2002, the local institution's management had been in flux when then-Bakery head Yusuf Bey was taken into custody for 27 counts of rape and sexual assault against minors. Bey died of cancer at the age of 67 while awaiting trial in 2003.

Bey's successor at the bakery didn't last long. Waajid Aljawwaad went missing in late February 2004 and his decomposing body was discovered in a shallow grave near King Estates Park in Oakland in July of that year. I'm guessing by his relatively short tenure and the Bakery's other ventures (extortion, assault, kidnapping, rape, real-estate fraud, homicide), Waajid Aljawwaad might've been the only person at Your Black Muslim Bakery who was interested in baking bread.

One of Bey's sons- Antar Bey- took over the bakery and mortgaged the property to cover back taxes and other costs before defaulting. Antar was shot dead in October 2005 in what police say was a botched carjacking.

A month later, men wearing suits and bow ties swarmed into a pair of West Oakland corner stores run by Yemeni grocers , smashing bottles of alcohol and windows. The shotgun used to kill Chauncey Bailey was stolen from one of these stores. Yusef Bey IV, the new head of the bakery, and an associate were arrested after surveillance camera footage of the attack began circulating.

According to the Chauncey Bailey project, Oakland Police Sgt. Derwin Longmire interceded on Bey IV's behalf with other officers investigating the market attacks.

Fast forward to 2007, when Bey IV and his associates decide to raise money for the bakery that's more than $1 million in debt by kidnapping and robbing drug dealers. In May 2007, they allegedly kidnapped two women who they thought were customers of an East Oakland drug dealer and began interrogating them in a vacant house when they were scared off by a passing patrol car.

The morning after Bailey's murder, Oakland Police arrested 19 members of the bakery in a series of pre-dawn raids on the bakery's four locations as well as other properties owned by Bey IV on probable cause warrants. Devaugndre Broussard, a 19 year old handyman at the bakery, initially confessed to being the triggerman who killed Bailey.

Bey IV was taken into custody on the earlier kidnapping charges and was secretly videotaped in a San Leandro Police interview room with his brother Joshua Bey and associate Tamon Haflin. In earlier interviews with the police, Bey IV denied knowing anything about the shooting of Bailey.

The lead investigator in the Bailey homicide was none other than Sgt. Derwin Longmire. A series of recorded phone calls turned over to Alameda County prosecutors in 2008 revealed that Bey IV and Longmire were good friends and that Longmire may have shifted the focus of the Bailey investigation away from Bey IV.

Broussard had also since recanted his his confession, saying that Bey IV had convinced him to take the fall. The unrelated kidnapping charges against Bey IV were dismissed by an Alameda County Superior Court Judge in April 2009, although prosecutors immediately re-filed charges in the case. Bey IV is also standing trial for real-estate fraud where another judge ruled that Yusuf Bey cannot act as his own attorney.

Yusuf Bey IV's attorney, Lorna Patton Brown, was alleged to have smuggled a hit-list of witnesses out of prison for Yusuf back in March of this year. The list was delivered to Bey IV's family and accomplices on the outside.

Of course, according to the NAACP and most press outlets, the tea party movement is far more dangerous than the Nation of Islam splinter group (or it's bakeries). I'm not sure how to break this to Keith Olberman and the good people (with plenty of time on their hands) at Media Matters, but however fringe Bey's group might be, they've already racked up a body count of black murder victims than a group of Americans expressing their first amendment rights.

Just some food for thought courtesy of Your Black Muslim Bakery.