Slacker World Series prediction

Usually you post these BEFORE the series starts. But since it is tied it's still valid.

My original prediction, before a brilliant Game 1 performance by Cliff Lee, was Yankees in 5. Honest. I stand by that prediction. Which will not exactly make me popular in the Slacker household as the offspring are rooting for the home town Fightin' Phils.

Happy Halloween !!!

We are back !!!

Just got sprung from the rice patties -- seems I was not sufficiently impressed by the crease in Obama's pants.

Actually, I have been tied up with my job 24/7 for the last few weeks -- i.e. the job that actually pays since this blog has generated less economic growth than Obama's non-stimulative porkulus.

There has been so much that has gone on that there is no way to catch up. So we will just move forward. Starting tomorrow. Hey this blog does have "slacker" in its title so this should not come as a surprise.

Another Friday document dump by the most transparent administration -- EVAH !!!

This time about the deficit.

The Obama administration said Friday that the federal budget deficit for the fiscal year that just ended was $1.4 trillion, nearly a trillion dollars greater than the year before and the largest shortfall relative to the size of the economy since 1945.
......

The shortfall for the fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, translates to 10 percent of the economy, according to a joint statement from the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, and the director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter R. Orszag. For the 2008 fiscal year, the deficit of $459 billion was 3.2 percent of the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product.

Economists generally agree that annual deficits should not exceed 3 percent of the G.D.P., and that is the level President Obama had vowed to reach by the end of his first term in 2013.

But subsequent spending and tax cuts to stimulate the economy, and lower-than-expected revenues as the recession deepened before bottoming out, combined to push the administration’s deficit forecast to 4.6 percent of G.D.P. for the fiscal year 2013.

At 10 percent of the gross domestic product, the 2009 deficit is the highest since the end of World War II, when it was 21.5 percent.

Hope and Change = Let's make a change and hope it works!!

RIP Captain Lou

Lou Albano dead at 76. 76 ?!?! I am really getting old quick.

Wrestlers Rescue founder Dawn Marie says Albano died Wednesday of natural causes. The organization helped raise funds for Albano's care after he was placed in hospice care.

An outsized personality, Albano had a taste for Hawaiian shirts and rubber bands hung from his cheek.

His sports career spanned nearly five decades.

Can we re-set the re-set button ???

Looks like relations with Russians haven't gotten all warm and fuzzy. We threw Eastern Europe under the bus (again) by unilaterally discarding an anti-missile shield. And what do we get ??

Cooperation on Iran?? Nope.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned major powers on Wednesday against intimidating Iran and said talk of sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme was "premature".

Putin, who many diplomats, analysts, and Russian citizens believe is still Russia's paramount leader despite stepping down as president last year, was speaking after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Moscow for two days of talks.

"There is no need to frighten the Iranians," Putin told reporters in Beijing after a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

"We need to look for a compromise. If a compromise is not found, and the discussions end in a fiasco, then we will see."

"And if now, before making any steps (towards holding talks) we start announcing some sanctions, then we won't be creating favourable conditions for them (talks) to end positively. This is why it is premature to talk about this now."

Clinton failed to secure any specific assurances from Russia on Iran during her visit, leaving her open to criticism at home that she had not received anything from Moscow after earlier U.S. concessions on missile defence.

What we do get is a Russian warning that they have no qualms about a pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons

A top Russian security official says Moscow reserves the right to conduct pre-emptive nuclear strikes to safeguard the country against aggression on both a large and a local scale, according to a newspaper interview published Wednesday.

Presidential Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev also singled out the U.S. and NATO, saying Moscow's Cold War foes still pose potential threats to Russia despite what he called a global trend toward local conflicts.

The interview appeared in the daily Izvestia during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as U.S. and Russian negotiators try to hammer out a nuclear arms reduction treaty by December. It also came amid grumbling in Moscow over U.S. moves to modify plans for a missile shield near Russia's borders rather than ditch the idea outright.

Patrushev said a sweeping document on military policy including a passage on preventative nuclear force will be handed to President Dmitry Medvedev by the end of the year, according to Izvestia.

Officials are examining "a variety of possibilities for using nuclear force, depending on the situation and the intentions of the possible opponent," Patrushev was quoted as saying. "In situations critical to national security, options including a preventative nuclear strike on the aggressor are not excluded."

It seems that Russians aren't awed by Obama's Nobel prize or his vision of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. In fact, it seems that they interpret these unilateral concessions as signs of weakness. Who would have ever imagined ???

Also, while both articles reference Clinton, (and she does deserve some of the hit as Sec State) make no mistake, these are boy-genius' policies.

So, this is "smart diplomacy" ?? Boy good thing we don't have the dumb cowboy or the Alaskan chillbilly in office. They would only muck it up. Sheesh!

Gaia shows even more contempt for the Al Gore crowd

Remember after Katrina how we were nagged warned that this was only the beginning? About how we would see a huge increase in the number and severity of such storms? So, how accurate were the Chicken Littles ??

Uh, not so much.

Thanks to El Nino, the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season has been the quietest in more than a decade, offering a reprieve for residents in the danger zone and a chance for insurance firms to refill depleted coffers.

With the peak of the season -- late August to mid-October -- now behind, the Atlantic-Caribbean basin has seen just two hurricanes and a total of eight tropical storms.
.......

If the full season, which runs from June through November, ended today, it would be the lowest number of storms since 1997. The last time an Atlantic season produced only two hurricanes was 1982.
.......

"There was for all intents and purposes no hurricane damage in the United States this year," Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, told Reuters.

"It's something that will help the insurance industry create very favorable earnings comparisons in the third quarter compared to the third quarter of last year," he said.

Forecasters saw nothing on the horizon on Wednesday.

Obama advisor, Robert Reich, to elderly: Drop dead - literally! !!

And quickly, please !!!

Nobel Peace Prize winner declares war ...

... on FOX News.

Calling Fox News "a wing of the Republican Party," the Obama administration on Sunday escalated its war of words against the channel, even as observers questioned the wisdom of a White House war on a news organization.

"What I think is fair to say about Fox -- and certainly it's the way we view it -- is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," said Anita Dunn, White House communications director, on CNN. "They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."

Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente, who likens the channel to a newspaper with separate sections on straight news and commentary, suggested White House officials were intentionally conflating opinion show hosts like Glenn Beck with news reporters like Major Garrett.

"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming," Clemente said. "It seems self-serving on their part."

Not content with CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times and most of the dinosaur media, President Prissypants wants to pick a fight with the one network that won't carry his water.

You should be more concerned when even The Nation calls you the Whiner-in-Chief.

Good grief -- Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize

This is not satire..

I have already heard some liberal commnetators trumpeting that this erases the Olympics snub and shows that the world really, really likes us again. But doesn't it really say the opposite. This award is nothing more than a slap at Bush and at America as it existed pre-2009; before the Obama-maculation.

As noted in the article, the deadline for nominations was February 1st. Only roughly two weeks after Obama even assumed office. Nevertheless, even now Obama has no concrete achievements unless you count throwing Eastern Europe under the bus by withdrawing our promise of a missle shield. In foreign policy and the prosecution of two wars*, Obama has essentially continued Bush's policies.

So Obama wins for his speeches. Which goes back to the earlier point that the award may be to an American, but is, nevertheless, another example of anti-Americanism. Let's remember that theme of the BHO World Apology Tour to date: America is a terrible place, with great sins that is primarily responsible for anything sucky in he world today; but that was not on my watch and isn't evrything all unicorns and Skittles now ??

Even the AP can't hide from this point:

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama's name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

Speculation had focused on Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator and a Chinese dissident, along with an Afghan woman's rights activist.

The Nobel committee praised Obama's creation of "a new climate in international politics" and said he had returned multilateral diplomacy and institutions like the U.N. to the center of the world stage. The plaudit appeared to be a slap at President George W. Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for resorting to largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Rather than recognizing concrete achievement, the 2009 prize appeared intended to support initiatives that have yet to bear fruit: reducing the world stock of nuclear arms, easing American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthening the U.S. role in combating climate change.

What's really scary is that this normally inconsequential award could actually do harm in this case. If the Narcissist-in-Chief sees this as a vindication of his policies (and we already know how giddy he gets bask in the warm glow of anti-Americanism) he might go all-in and ramp up Apology Tour v.2.0.


* Hey Nobel people -- do you appreciate the irony of awarding your Peace Prize to the head of state of a country prosecuting not one, but two wars ?? Then again, you also gave this award to Arafat so you obviously care little about your credibility.

Headline of the week:

"One gay man, two lesbians, a three-legged cat and a poisoned curry plot" - from the Daily Mail. Long story short:

A gay man tried to poison his lesbian neighbours by putting slug pellets into their curry after he was accused of kidnapping their three-legged cat.

Not sure what else I can add to this, but this was just too good not to pass on.

Drunks pick fight with the wrong cross-dressers

Turns out the boys in drag were really cage-fighters who decided to lay a beating on their attackers.

Two thugs who attacked what they thought were a pair of transvestites picked on the wrong men - when their intended victims turned out to be cage fighters on a night out in fancy dress.

Dean Gardener, 19, and Jason Fender, 22, singled out the two men walking along a street in wigs, short skirts and high heels.

Bare-chested Gardener was caught on CCTV confronting one of the men in a pink wig, black skirt and boob tube - then seen swinging a punch, a court heard.

But the other cage fighter, wearing a sparkling black dress and matching long wig, sprang to his friend's help, delivering two lightning-quick punches to the two stunned yobs.

The cage fighters were then seen teetering away in their high heels, stopping only to pick up a clutch bag they dropped during the melee.

Having had some mixed-martial arts training, I am not surprised by the result; especially fighting a couple of drunks. Can't say I really understand the cross-dressing though. Maybe it's a British thing.

(H/T - Ace)

Dirty Deeds

One of the better ads the GOP has produced in a long time.

Real American Heroes: Mr. Faithful-like-a-trial lawyer

From PJTV

Actually, as a trial lawyer, I am appalled by Arlen Sphincter. Most trial lawyer actually stay with their clients once they've been retained.

CNN hits a disgusting new low

School kids now sing for health care reform live, on the set....

Here's the link. -- if you can stomach it. I gave up when it got to the lyrics: "Bipartisanship was tried, so you couldn't be denied. But Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!'"

No wonder FOX gets more viewers at 3am than CNN gets in prime time.

Washington Post: "Obama's a pussy !!"

Maybe not those exact words, but those are the sentiments expressed by Richard Cohen.

Barack Obama's trip to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago for the Olympics would have been a dumb move whatever the outcome. But as it turned out (an airy dismissal would not be an unfair description), it poses some questions about his presidency that are way more important than the proper venue for synchronized swimming. The first, and to my mind most important, is whether Obama knows who he is.

This business of self-knowledge is no minor issue. It bears greatly on the single most crucial issue facing this young and untested president: Afghanistan. Already, we have his choice for Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, taking the measure of his commander in chief and publicly telling him what to do. This MacArthuresque star turn called for a Trumanesque response, but Obama offered nothing of the kind. Instead, he used McChrystal as a prop, adding a bit of four-star gravitas to that silly trip to Copenhagen by having the general meet with him there.

This is the president we now have: He inspires lots of affection but not a lot of awe. It is the latter, though, that matters most in international affairs, where the greatest and most gut-wrenching tests await Obama. If he remains consistent to his rhetoric of just seven weeks ago, he will send more troops to Afghanistan and more of them will die. "This is not a war of choice," he said. "This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans."

Obama could have gone further. Not only would the Taliban be restored, but the insurgency might consume Pakistan. If that happens, then a nuclear power could become a failed state -- Pakistan's pretty close to that now -- and atomic weapons could fall into the hands of terrorist organizations. India, just next door and with mighty antipathy for Muslim terrorism, could well act on its own. The bloodbath the British tried to limit in 1947 when they partitioned the subcontinent might well resume -- this time with nuclear weapons

Also of note in the article -- after years of the media breathlessly reporting every casualty in Iraq, Cohen now finds it necessary to put the casualty count in perspective.*

America, after all, has little tolerance for loss of life. The killing of eight American soldiers in Afghanistan over the weekend was front-page news. Contrast that with the numbers from Vietnam -- 61 dead from a single battalion in a single 1967 battle.

* To be clear, the loss of every single American in this war is a terrible price and an unspeakable tragedy for a family here in the states and should never be minimized. My point is simply that context was never provided when they were trying to denigrate Bush.

The Day ObamaCare Died -- from Paul Shanklin

Check out Paul's site

Darwin Award contestant

Maybe bears shouldn't be kept as pets.

A northeastern Pennsylvania woman, whose husband is an exotic pet dealer operating on an expired license, was mauled to death by a black bear over the weekend.

Authorities say Kelly Ann Walz, 37, of Ross Township in Monroe County, was attacked by her 350 pound pet bear while cleaning its cage at about 5 p.m. Sunday. Walz had reportedly thrown a shovelful of dog food to one side of the cage to distract the bear while she cleaned the other side, but the animal turned on her and attacked.

Walz's children and the neighbor's children saw the attack and summoned help, and the neighbor shot and killed the bear while it was atop Walz, said Tim Conway, an information and education supervisor with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

"Why this woman chose to go in the same area that the bear was in is beyond me. It's a fatal mistake," he said. "These things are not tame animals, they're wild animals."

They may look cute a and fuzzy but they are quarter-ton predators with sharp claws and big teeth.

Picture of feminist groups protesting David Letterman in Times Square

Or maybe it was the Ninja Parade -- I forget.

In any event, the silence from the left is deafening.

Something new to worry about -- raccoon "gang attacks"

Raccoons gone bad in Lakeland, Florida

A Lakeland woman is recovering from serious injuries in the hospital after sheriff's investigators say she was "gang attacked" by five raccoons Saturday afternoon.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says 74-year-old Gretchen Whitted was trying to shoo the animals away from her front door when they suddenly attacked.

"When she fell down, they enveloped her," said Sheriff Judd in a news conference called Sunday to warn the public of the aggressive raccoons.

"She's literally bitten and scratched from face and the chest all the way down through the legs."

I am sure this is also Bush's fault.

Uh oh, seems like it might be okay to laugh at Obama now

At least SNL thinks so....

Any doubts that Obama is about to fold on Afghanistan ??

I know the official word is that he is weighing a strategic course. Leave aside for now that he has been in office for almost 9 months during an ongoing war and is only now deciding upon strategy.

How hard would it be to simply bow to the request of your own appointed general who is calling for more troops. Also, he would have political cover to say that he deferred to the judgment of the trained military professionals.

Instead, I fear that the "strategy" being discussed is how to politically sell withdrawal defeat.

Rest of the world not in awe of Obama either

Chicago ousted from Olympic consideration in the first round.

But I thought everyone was just supposed to like us now.

Guess the bloom is off the rose.

So, how's that recovery working out ??

Good thing we passed that stimulus plan as unemployment is now at 9.8 %; the highest rate since 1983.

Yes, please tell us again how we should all just close our eyes, cross our fingers, and just trust you guys on health care.