The Mack Attack

Thought-provoking clap-trap for the skeptic-minded

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Her tater tots are the bomb!

NAPLES, Italy -A 74-year-old Italian grandmother who bought a sack of potatoes at the her local market found a live grenade among the spuds.
"I found a bomb in the potatoes," Olga Mauriello said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
"I went to the market to buy some potatoes and that's where the bomb was. But this bomb was covered in dirt, and I put it in water and got all dirt off. And then I realized 'It's a bomb'!"
Police said the pine cone-shaped grenade, which had no pin and was still active, was the same type used by U.S. soldiers in Europe in World War Two. Authorities believe the mix-up happened at a farm in France, where the grenade was plucked from the ground along with potatoes.
To the woman's relief, police and explosives experts in the small town of San Giorgio a Cremano, near Naples, recovered the grenade and safely detonated it on Wednesday.
But Mauriello was still shaking off her close brush with death. It didn't look like a potato and it was heavier than one. But what if she had cooked it?
"If I hadn't felt its weight, I wouldn't even have realized that it was a bomb," she said.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Libby's Fate In Hands Of Jury

A federal jury ended its first day of deliberations yesterday in the perjury trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby after the presiding judge urged jurors to rely on their "life experiences" in deciding whether the vice president's former chief of staff lied to investigators -- or made an honest mistake -- about his role in a CIA leak.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton's instructions to the jury of eight women and four men reinforced the issue of the fallibility of human memory that has been central to one of Washington's most celebrated trials in years.

Prosecutors allege that Libby, then Vice President Cheney's top aide, lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury to obscure the fact that, in the spring and summer of 2003, he aggressively sought out and shared with reporters information about Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA officer. Plame is married to former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who was emerging then as a harsh, early critic of President Bush and the Iraq war.

The only person accused in the three-year CIA leak investigation, Libby, 56, is charged with five felonies: two counts of making false statements to FBI agents, two counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice. He is not charged with the leak itself. If convicted of all charges, he would face a potential prison term of 1 1/2 to three years under federal sentencing guidelines, prosecutors outside the case have said.

Libby's attorneys contend that Libby did not intentionally lie, but inaccurately remembered his conversations about Wilson and Plame with administration colleagues and Washington journalists.

The trial has delved deeply into a volatile period inside the White House shortly after the war began, when the administration was vulnerable to political attack because no proof had turned up of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that Bush had cited to justify the war.

Evidence and 14 days of testimony have shown that Cheney, Libby and other top administration officials sought to discredit Wilson, who was sent by the CIA to Africa in 2002 and concluded that there was no basis for reports that Iraq had tried to buy nuclear materials there.

Prosecutors have asserted that Libby told reporters and a White House press secretary about Plame as part of the campaign to tarnish her husband by suggesting that the CIA chose him for the mission because of nepotism.

Before the jurors began deliberations late yesterday morning, Walton provided them guidelines for sifting through the prosecution and defense's contradictory depictions of Libby's memory and the memories of other witnesses.

The judge instructed them to use their "common-sense experience" to assess such factors as how long people can be expected to retain clear memories, the nature of the person or event they were asked to recall, the circumstances that existed at the time and their impressions of the "memory capacity" of the people whose memories were questioned.

"Making an honest statement that turns out to be inaccurate or wrong . . . does not rise to the level of criminal conduct," Walton said. On the other hand, the judge emphasized that the jury should consider inconsistencies the prosecution cited in Libby's account of events.

The jurors have been largely attentive during weeks of complex testimony. Many have taken notes and, under a practice that Walton allows, some have questioned virtually all 19 witnesses at the end of each one's testimony.

At the outset of the trial, potential jurors were screened during lengthy questioning by both sides. Defense attorneys filtered out District residents who said they have negative opinions of the Bush administration or the war. The result is a jury that is relatively apolitical. Many of the jurors are highly educated.

Although most District residents are African American, the jury includes six white women, four white men and two black women.

Under rules Walton set yesterday, the jury will deliberate every weekday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Who says FEMA is slow?

An elderly woman, who had been living without power in her home due to hurricane damage sustained 15-years ago, finally saw the light on Friday when power to her home was restored.

What makes her story amazing is that the hurricane which put her in the dark was not Katrina or Rita -- but rather it was Andrew, which struck August 24, 1992.

No heat when the winter chill settled over South Florida.
No air conditioning when the mercury climbed into the 90's and the humidity clung to 100% . Not one hot shower at home in nearly 15 years. Every morning started with an icy blast.

Norena, who didn't want her full name used because she is embarrassed by her situation, lives in Cutler Bay, Florida and her home was severely damaged when Hurricane Andrew slammed South
Miami-Dade in August, 1992.

Like many people after that horrific storm, she had a problem with an unscrupulous contractor, and when the money from the insurance settlement ran out, the contractor did too, leaving her home half-repaired and not up to code, which meant it would not have the electricity connected.

She didn't have the money to complete the work, and she didn't have anyplace else to go."It just never got done, and the money was gone, so I couldn't do a lot of things to allow me with Dade county to get my power back on," she said.So she lived with it. She celebrated the new millennium with one tiny lamp and a single burner. On the 10th anniversary of Andrew in 2002, while her neighbors celebrated their recovery, she was still living in the disaster.

Electrical contractor Kent Crook was amazed when he saw how she managed to get a tiny amount of electricity into the house for a Spartan existence."She has extension cords running into her house, plugged into a tiny little refrigerator and a cook top, and a lap or two in front of her house," he marveled.

Somehow, her situation fell through the cracks. Her neighbors never noticed her near-pioneer lifestyle, and County code inspectors never caught the violations which prevented her from connecting up the power.

A tip got the city and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez involved, along with a visit from Crook's company. A few hours of work and an inspection was all it took to get the power flowing again to her home. When darkness fell Friday night, she no longer had to huddle in a single dimly lit room.Something as simple as getting light by flicking a wall switch, something most people do a dozen times a day without thinking, almost overwhelmed Norena.

"It's hard to describe having it come on, to switch on. It's overwhelming," she said.Now, her house is flooded with light, and the hot water is flowing through the pipes for the first time since that terrible night in August, 1992 when the wind shook her home to its foundations and set her life on end.Her plan is to let the water get hot, really hot, and then take her first bubble bath, in her own bathtub, in a decade and a half.While the power is back on, and Norena is again living in the 21st century, many problems remain.

Her home still needs repair, and her overgrown yard is a danger in future hurricanes.Volunteers say they'll be back to help clean up the yard and assist with repairs, but for now Norena is happy for one thing.

She can say "Let there be light", and there will be.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Clinton, Dean and Griffith

Hillary Clinton so far is dominating the early polls for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Looking across the political landscape it seems this race resembles the Bill Clinton/Bob Dole match up of 1996.
If the theory is that the South still has crucial sway over the Presidential election, pundit Dick Morris may be right that no one can stop Senator Clinton in her quest for the White House in 2008.
Unless of course she stops herself.

Howard Dean’s quest for the Presidency was cut short by a noise canceling microphone. Unknown to Dean at the time, the microphone filtered out the crowd noise so his speech sounded manic to Television viewers. Some question whether he was setup by CNN or others.
One of the great movies of the late 1950’s was
“A Face in the Crowd”, the story of the fictional Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, played by Andy Griffith. Rhodes by luck and talent is propelled from radio to Television and becomes a star. Along the way he betrays the people who believe in him and helped him to the top.
In (perhaps) a Howard Dean moment, Rhodes is betrayed by Marcia Jeffries, played by Knoxville Tennessee's own Patricia Neal.

At the end of a “Lonesome” Rhodes Television broadcast while the announcer does a voice over, Rhodes is bragging to the control room how he controls the viewers and mocks them as “idiots,” “morons,” and “guinea pigs.”
Rhodes does not know that Marcia Jeffries has turned on his microphone and the viewing audience can hear his mockery of them.

His career is finished.

Is it possible that the only person in America that can keep Hillary Clinton from the White House is herself?

We'll see.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

More bathroom humor...

Need to sit on the toilet for hours at a time?
Roto-Rooter's "Pimped out John" is outfitted with every feature a modern king or queen could want in a bathroom throne, and underneath all of the trappings, is a superb Kohler® toilet (see link to photo below).

This amazing commode is fully loaded with the following "luxury enhancements":

Philips™ 20-inch LCD TV and Star Wars DVD

Xbox™ 360 gaming system

Philips™ DVD player

Gateway® EMachine™ laptop computer with fully articulated robot arm

iPod™ with stereo docking station equipped with toilet paper dispenser

Roto-Rooter "emergency" button

Tivo™ recorder

Avanti™ refrigerator with beer tap, stocked with drinks and snacks

Magazine rack and subscriptions to Sports Illustrated, ESPN and GQ

Bike pedal exerciser

Cup warmer / cooler


YOU could win one!
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO AND CONTEST ENTRY FORM: http://www.rotorooter.com/john/index.php

Monday, February 12, 2007

PISSY CONVERSATION

2-12-07 (SANTA FE)
New Mexico is taking its fight against drunken driving to men's restrooms around the state.

The state has ordered 500 talking urinal cakes that will deliver a recorded anti-DWI message to bar and restaurant patrons who make one last pit stop before getting behind the wheel.

"Hey there, big guy. Having a few drinks?" a female voice says a few seconds after an approaching male pulls out his pecker and sets off a motion sensor in the device. "It's time to call a cab or ask a sober friend for a ride home," coos the sultry voice.

Transportation Department spokesman S.U. Mahesh said the urinal cakes are a way to reach one group that's a target of state safety campaigns. Men commit about three times as many drunken-driving infractions as women.

The devices, manufactured by New York-based Healthquest Technologies Inc., were invented by Richard Deutsch. He said there's no other device like it on the market.

"The idea is based on the concept that there is no more captive audience than a guy standing at a urinal with his johnson in his hand," Deutsch said. "You can't look right and you can't look left; you've got to look at the ad."

Public awareness campaigns in New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Australia have used the devices, as have commercial advertisers.

In New Mexico, the device uses the state DWI slogan "You drink, you drive, you lose."

Some Albuquerque bars installed the devices this week, and the state plans to distribute them to Santa Fe bars and restaurants as well as establishments in Farmington, Gallup and Las Cruces.

The state spent $21 for each talking urinal cake for the pilot program but will ask bars and restaurants to pay for future orders if the idea catches on, Mahesh said.

The cakes have enough battery power to last about three months. After that, some unlucky soul will have to change them.

Honeybee barbeque

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp72gXkYJIw

web page hit counter
Travelocity Discount Travel