Pork Dork: St. Louis Man Allegedly Whacks Out His Own Uncle in Argument Over a Damn Plate of Pork Steaks!

43-year-old John Cunningham (pictured above) really knows his pork steaks.  And so when this mean-ass meatman is fixin' to toss a platter of pork steaks on the ol' grill, don't you trying telling him that said steaks are really pork chops or some other cut of swine. Lest you want this pork afficionado to go all butcherblock on your ass (allegedly)!

It actually sounds like this story began lovely enough, with Cunningham paying a nice little visit to the house of his uncle (44-year-old Lessie Lowe) and other family members to cook up some eats late Sunday night (link below). But alas: Enter pork steak. And all hell broke loose from there...

As Cunningham prepared to cook up a big mess a' meat, a thorny point of porky pig contention reportedly reared its ugly pork snout: Cunningham maintained that the meat cuts at issue were pork steaks, while Uncle simply did not agree, retorting that nephew was in fact totin' a slew a' pork chops.

Apparently not being familiar with the tired but true old phrase, "we can agree to disagree," the two men took to fightin' (reportedly) and "had to be separated by someone else in the home." But Nephew Cunningham, being ever the prideful porkbelly that he is, wasn't about to let this meatball matter lie...

But what's a piss-and-vinegar porker like him to do? Maybe re-engage Uncle in oral argument? Or resume the fisticuffs? Or even give Uncle a little chumpchop cheapshot? Nope, none of those things. Instead, Nephew chose the next most logical option -- meaning he allegedly scurried off "to another part of the home," got his meathooks on a shotgun, and came out blastin'!

Clipped by the piece, Uncle allegedly hit the floor faster than a porkshank at a Vegan convention -- later dying at the hospital. Meantime cops have slapped a meaty murder charge on Nephew's pork carver ass, while also taking the time to the inform the media that Nephew Cunningham was correct that the meat in question was, indeed, pork steak. Glad 5-0's around to clear that up for us. Hate loose burnt ends over here.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-police-jennings-man-shot-uncle-to-death-over/article_a281ed60-fc21-11e1-b1fc-001a4bcf6878.html#.UE-j_z3xBwU.facebook

[Postscript: Thanks to Joe G in St. Louis for passing this story along.]

A Day Late & $5 Trillion Short: Obama's Response to the Egypt & Libya Embassy Attacks Epitomizes His Failed Presidency...

How convenient.  When Obama finally trotted out mid-morning Wednesday to grace us with his thoughts on the Tuesday 9/11 attacks on U.S. territory abroad (the U.S. Consulate in Libya and the U.S. embassy in Egypt ), he focused entirely on the later-occurring Libyan attack with not a mention of Tuesday morning's Egyptian attack!  The attack in Egypt, of course, was the one where radical Islamic thugs overran the U.S. embassy, burned the American flag, and hoisted their own Al Qaeda-inspired flag atop the joint.

I can only surmise that Obama's deliberate ignoring of that attack and his complete focus on the later-occurring Libyan attack was intended to give him political cover for his disgraceful failure to say anything about these attacks on the day they actually occurred -- which, BTW, just happened to be 9/11.  By treating the Egyptian attack as if it had never occurred, he and his minions (including his complicit lapdog "mainstream" media, all in line!) were able to claim Wednesday that he had simply waited "until all the facts were in" on the Libyan attack before he said anything.

What a laughable load of bunk! [I actually just laughed!] That's because the Egyptian attack did occur, and Obama should have had his ass out there on TV on Tuesday afternoon condemning it.  As it stands, he still hasn't said anything about it! Not to mention, the Libyan attack also occurred during the day Tuesday, and we first knew that at least one person had been killed there by the early evening (also) on Tuesday.

For Obama to have said absolutely nothing Tuesday about either situation was completely deplorable and embarrassing, as noted in this space Tuesday night (Wednesday post).  As Obama and his surrogates seemed so fond of saying back in 2008, you can't put lipstick on a pig, Mr. President.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/obama-statement-on-attack-on-libya-consulate/2012/09/12/2460a58c-fcd2-11e1-98c6-ec0a0a93f8eb_story.html

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Anniversary of 9/11, Two U.S. Embassies Attacked in the Middle East, One American Dead: So Where's the American President on Tuesday?

M-I-A. Just like so much of the past 4 years.  Off campaigning somewhere.  Too busy to speak on such things on the day they occurred.  And too busy with his political schedule (reportedly) to grant a requested meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a potential (probable) Israeli strike on Iran lurks dangerously close.

You know, I've said this before: If you don't intend to vote for stand-for-nothing gop-er presidential candidate Mitt Romney, I get it. I don't intend to vote for him either (I'm goin' third party candidate)...

But what I also don't get is how any American who's not a part of the leftist 20 percenter base of the democrat party (i.e. about 20% of the American population) could possibly vote in 2012 for the reelection of the individual we currently have as president.

He's been that awful as a Commander-in-Chief.  And I'm convinced that he will ultimately go down (along with W Bush) as one of the worst, most ill-qualified presidents in American history.  30, 40, 50 years from now -- do you really want to look back as having voted for this individual's reelection?  I think I'll take a pass on that particular distinction.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6DacmYa1ZQojLmahnf_JisGWVjg?docId=CNG.fa3469febe41919ad806e34a5f19827b.4b1
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2012/09/11/cairo-us-embassy-protesters-prophet-mohammad/70000126/1#.UE-AdkbCz8A
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/white-house-declines-netanyahu-request-to-meet-with-obama.premium-1.464328

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WHACK the Scuzjob: "Murderer Who Kidnapped & Raped His Teenage Victim Begs Judge for Death Penalty." Agreed!

I'm on record over here as generally being opposed to the death penalty because sometimes innocent criminal defendants get put to death (which I think is an intolerable result in a civilized society)...

But when it comes to confessed Subhuman Sewer Slimes like this 34-year-old William Davis in Florida, who admits raping and murdering 19-year-old Fabiana Malave in 2009, I say give him his Whacking Papers yesterday. 

Now, I'm not saying he needs to be tortured first or placed on the rack or drawn 'n quartered or anything like that. Since after all, we do in this country have an 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment...

But: Firing squad; a good hanging; or even a clean beheading -- any of those work for me; quite like the much, much worse horror that he inflicted upon his poor innocent victim worked just fine for him.  Bye, bye, Sleaze-Swine!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2201397/Bipolar-murderer-begs-judge-death-penalty-knows-bad-happen-goes-meds.html

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"He's a Very Sick Man, He Needs a Lot of Help": Peeping Tom Admits to Setting Up Camp Under Floorboards of Woman's Trailer Home to Watch Her Use the Toilet!

A Salem, Massachusetts woman thought she heard a critter scurrying around beneath her trailer recently. She says she knew something was down there, so she took a gander down the floor air duct in the trailer's crapper.  But what the startled woman saw down that duct was a head -- a human one -- and wouldn't ya know that the head looked her square in the eye and starting talkin'!...

"Hello," the courteous head reportedly said to the woman (links below). "What are you doing? Watching me go the bathroom?", she shot back.  But the head was quick to reassure her that the head's eyes hadn't yet had time to get a good peak:  "No, no, no, I just got set up [and] I didn't see anything yet," confided the head.

Cops have since placed the head upon the shoulders of 44-year-old Christian Hobbs of Orleans, Massachusetts (mug shot above). Hobbs has reportedly admitted that it was him down there under the shithouse (pic of trailer below). 

He also stands accused of setting up a "lewd network of video equipment" down there, aimed at spying on the female resident and her four-year-old boy (including one alleged recording where the boy was nude).

Cops says Hobbs became smitten with Mama when he was performing some handyman work at the trailer a few weeks earlier.  But alas, Mama rebuffed his advances and his requests for dates.

So, naturally, it was off the crawl space for Hobbs (what else is a jilted handyman pervert to do?) so that he get as close to the broad as he possibly could without a date.

And just for special added weirdness, Hobbs allegedly lived multiple days down under the trailer -- "living off power bars" and various "beverages" as he illegally surveilled Mama and the kid. He even reportedly had a good stock of "tissues" down there, although I don't even want to speculate or go there...

Suffice it to say: "He's a very sick man, he needs a lot of help," said Mama, as Hobbs now faces a bevy of criminal charges from the incident, including manufacture of child pornography. And for that charge especially, this creep should really be looking forward to his hoosegow stay -- since inhabiting low places appears to be right up this skunk's alley.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120816/NEWS03/708169913
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2190210/Christian-Hobbs-Woman-catches-peeping-tom-spies-her-toddler-son-hole.html

Grades from the Final Night (Thank God) of These Two Parties' Conventions: Barack Obama, Joe Biden & John Kerry...

First it was the republic partisan party last week, then the democrat party wrapped up its national convention Thursday night. But the only party I'm concerned with today is the one I intend to throw now that these two annoyingly grating and endless events are finally and actually over.  I feel like I just completed a two-week-long marathon in the Sahara desert followed by 12 rounds in the ring with each of the Klitschko brothers.  To paraphrase a line from the old Muppet Show, it's like some kind of torture to have to watch these clowns...   

1.  John Kerry (losing 2004 democrat party presidential candidate & current US Senator):  C-.  The word disingenuous comes immediately to mind (e.g., Obama keeps promises, has led on Iran, has a big supporter in Bibi Netanyahu, hasn't pursued any neo-con "nation building" like Romney will, blah blah blah), as well as fairly bitter and mean-spirited.  You know, watching this goof rant on and on at the top of his lungs only reinforced for me the fact that is the God-awful presidential choices that these two rotten parties have foisted upon us like a hoosegow warden for the last four elections:  John Kerry (with sleazebag John Edwards as the running mate)?  Al Gore?  W Bush? Tired Old Man McCain? O-Freakin'-Bama? Stand-for-nothing, King Flipflopper Mitt Romney?  Jeezal peezal, talk about a pathetic motley crew.  A Parade of Horribles.  A damn Creepshow. Little wonder this country is in the sick state it's in (sorry Jeeves to end a sentence on a preposition).

2.  Joe "Hope and Chains" Biden (walking gaffe reel and the most ill-qualified vice president since Dan Quayle):  A- (!!!).  My highest grade given to any speech in this convention.  And Biden earns it for one simple reason and one reason alone:  Despite a fair amount of stuttering and stammering about and almost as much shouting and screaming as John Kerry (collectively earning Biden the "minus" in my grade), Biden actually made it all the way through a speech without any major gaffes! (At least that I heard). And over the span of almost 40 minutes! After witnessing something miraculous like that, the grade given needs to match the special nature of the occasion. 

3.  Barack Obama (hands down one of the two worst presidents of my lifetime, along with W Bush, and I'm old enough to have lived through Jimmy Carter):  C.  Not a bad speech by any means, but also mostly the same type of speech I've heard over and over from this guy for years now.  To wit: Lots of generalized, non-specific, and seemingly nonpartisan and/or centrist lofty rhetoric from a hyper-partisan who's perhaps the most left-wing president in American history.

For me, I didn't buy that act in 2008, and by now it's just tired, old and hollow.  This stuff works decently enough at motivating the politically ignorant to "feel good" emotionally, but accomplishes little else.  Far fewer swing voters in 2012 are as susceptible to that playbook as they were in 2008. That's why this election will be incredibly closer than 2008 -- I'm thinking more and more Obama wins by winning the electoral college while Romney wins the popular vote. Not that I have any dog in this Fight (of the partisan Assclowns).

And I'm actually now in a very good mood: Four more years before I have to sit through another round of these week-long partisan freakshows. That's Exhibit 1 for any non-believers out there -- there is a compassionate God above.

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Wed Nite at the democrat party Convention: Grades for the Speeches of Slick Willie, Cherokee Chief Dan George, & Birth Control Broad...

This night, publicity build-up wise, was all about Bill Clinton's speech.  Very telling that Obama (who definitely does not like the Clintons) would permit the Old Man to take such a prominent role at this (Obama's) convention.  It shows most starkly Obama's realization that he's in real danger in the November election, even if he does still cling (in my opinion) to about a 55% chance of winning reelection even despite his terrible presidency (the reasons for that are multi-factorial and well beyond the scope of tonight's post).

So this was "Big Dog" Windbag's night, and it got me thinking: Does anyone else reading this post even know whom the other speakers are (Sandra Sponge Fluke and Medicine Moll Elizabeth Warren)???  I do, but I follow this crap every day ("God" help me for that -- as boos, hisses and catcalls suddenly emanate from the democrat party convention floor). If you couldn't care less about Fluke and Warren, then feel free to skip on down to #3 below for my thoughts on Slick Willie tonight...

1.  Sandra Fluke (Obama surrogate, prophylactic fanatic, and Georgetown law student):  C-.  Very short speech, with very little memorable, for better or for worse.  Methinks the democrat party wisely limited her so that she would have little time to gush much in the way of provocatively left-wing social policy blather.  These folks at the democrat party, after all, are very good at hiding whom they really are and what they truly believe and want to accomplish.  Yet, I still noted a few nuggets from Fluke in her seemingly 2-minute speech:  She broadly cast the gop-er party as being made up of a bunch of "bigoted extreme voices."  Pot meet kettle, BC babe!  She also credited Obama as "having our back."  That's actually a very true statement from her perspective.  I've often said that if you're an American leftist 20 percenter (i.e. the base of the democrat party), then Obama's probably been a pretty good president for ya.  But what about the other 80% of us?!?

2.  Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate and proud Native American):  C+.  Now here's a bona fide devout leftist 20 percenter.  Remember when Obama told us that if you have a successful small business, "you didn't build that" -- rather the federal government necessarily played an integral role?  Well, Obama stole that line of thinking straight from Warren, who first spewed it a year or more earlier.  (She should tell Barry sometime, "Get your own damn material!").  But Obama could come right back at her, as she used Obama's favorite leftist catchphrase, "fair share," over and over tonight.  But I'll say one thing about Warren as a speaker: That she really believes in the leftist agenda definitely comes across, and very sincerely. It's a world view that I have long ago eschewed, but if you can look me in the eye and convince me that you truly believe all that stuff, then at least I won't ya a liar (all highly sketchy past Native American ancestry claims aside), and I'm also liable to add a "+" to your speech grade.

3.  Bill Clinton (President Slimeball himself and probably the most talented pure politician and political performer that I've seen in my lifetime):  B+.  To this day, the sleazy yet talented and hugely popular Bubba remains the only presidential candidate from either party for whom I have ever voted (albeit that was back when I was just a stupid, only partially educated kid in 1992).  Clinton tonight was his usual charismatic (and usual highly long-winded) self, doing his best to conjure up old images and sounds from 15-20 years ago concerning the successful aspects of his 1990s presidency (and the reasons for them), as well as to apologize for Obama's failure to create any such successes himself (e.g., balanced budgets, bipartisan welfare reform, etc.).  (My favorite line from Clinton tonight was "[we can't afford a] double down on trickle down" -- an outstanding catchphrase that I wish I'd thought of and written myself, frankly).

Only problem?  Clinton and Obama are two radically different presidents.  Clinton, largely a non-ideologue, was driven always by the polls and his own popularity, by an incessant fixation on whether history would remember his presidency as a success.  So when the gop-ers roared to a shocking House majority in 1994 as a rebuke to the policies of the first two years of Clinton's presidency, Clinton made a sharp turn to the political center and bipartisanship, resulting in his easy reelection in 1996.  Obama, when faced with a complete 1994 repeat in 2010, took the opposite approach: He doubled down on his leftist agenda much like the devoted leftist ideolgue that he is, quite content to allow the two years that followed to be an illustration of some of the very worst Washington gridlock in American history...

Listen folks, we won't reach a balanced budget or ever start reducing our stifling $16 trillion national debt until we have two willing parties in DC full of conviction to get those things done.  The right-winger gop-er party has showed scant interest in achieving such results in recent years, but likewise has Obama and his far-leftist controlled democrat party.

I think Clinton is a scuz, and I don't like the man, but after the two terrible presidents we've seen the past 12 years, I've resorted to saying in the past few years, "I'd actually take Clinton," at least compared to what we've had.  I doubt much of any statement could possibly be more telling concerning the pathetic double whammy these two shameful parties have foisted on us for 12 long years now.  Will America ever recover, I often ask nowadays.  Ain't lookin' so good, truth be told.  And no amount of dusting off of old fossils like Bill Clinton is going change any of that.

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Last Week the gop-ers, This Week the democrat party, Gets the Full Rager Treatment for its National Convention. Grade Card Time from Tuesday Night...

I figured I better give a little equal time, a little equal consideration, a little equal opportunity, to the leftist 20 percenter democrat party this week at its national convention and the speeches that I have a chance to see.  I want them to receive their "fair share."  Because the democrat party is just that special.  Especially on the very day when the U.S. national debt surpassed $16 trillion ("Un-American!", as the ultra-bipartisan visionary Barack Obama might say (and has said previously)).  Let's Get It On!...

1.  Kathleen Sebelius (Obama HHS secretary and Kansas redlegger):  D.  Last week I referred to several of the right-winger gop-er convention speakers as the "Boring White Guys" and gave them all collectively a "D" grade.  Well, Sebelius is a very "Boring White Woman," both generally and as a speaker.  Completely cliched defense of the Obamacare monstrosity that a majority of Americans hate.  They couldn't get the hook out fast enough for this broad.

2.  Rahm Emanuel (current Chicago mayor and former Obama DC enforcer/Chief of Staff):  C+/C.  "Once in a generation president," Emanuel trumpeted Obama.  I couldn't disagree more, since there have been two presidents from the years of my generation and lifetime who have equally stunk up the White House: (1) Barry and (2) his predecessor, W.  Still, however, I gave Emanuel the grade I did since he sounded like Lincoln and Douglas all rolled into one in comparison to Sebelius' speech right before him.

3.  Martin O'Malley (Maryland governor):  C-.  This guy offers more stupid grinning per minute than Pat Robertson at a Joker comic book convention.  What the hell?  Only escapes a "D" because this goof did seem to be enjoying himself up there.  Glad someone was.

4.  Julian Castro  (San Antonio mayor; pictured above):  A-/B+ (a "90," which I believe is the same I gave to gop-er Marco Rubio last week).  Castro generally spoke in fairly innocuous political terms throughout (coupling his staunch support for Obama by actually using words and phrases such as "God," "rugged individualism" and "bootstraps," which surely made the leftist 20 percenter democrat party base absolutely cringe and probably want to take out some PAC Ads against this young Hispanic).  The generic rhetoric made it difficult for me to gauge where the hell this guys stands on much of anything -- reminding me very much of 2008 and pre-2008 Obama speeches (although I knew exactly whom that guy was back then given his voting record).  Still, though, the personable-seeming Castro came across as a very talented speaker with a bright political future.  I'll be interested to see more of substance from this cat going forward.

[Quick aside:  Does the democrat party have any talented young up-and-comers who aren't city mayors?  (See Castro and Corey Booker).  If so, whom?  Realize, before blathering any response to me, that my definition of "talented young up-and-comer" is probably not the same as the typical leftist or right-winger partisan.]

5.  Michelle Obama (the First Dietician; pictured at top):  B.  A decent enough performance (she seemed proud to be speaking to her country tonight), but missed out on the opportunity to lob very many tacit bombs the way of the opponent, quite unlike Ann Romney (who fired off plenty and fairly effectively).  As a result, I found the speech a bit boring, if admittedly well-delivered (and she did look quite attractive and positively stunning), as I slammed down a big carryout plate of fried fish and chips from the joint down the street... 

Truth be told, I had this one down for a "B-" until Michelle actually provided a big laugh near the end of the speech with this absurdity: "For my Barack, there's no such thing as us and them -- He doesn't care if you're a democrat or a republican or none of the above."  The hell he doesn't, ma'am. The hell he doesn't.  And that's why he fails.  (But from me, extra credit always goes to those who make me laugh).

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"Touching You, Touching Me" Lyric Puts the Kibosh on Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" at Penn State Football Games. A Blessing in Disguise?

Penn State has reportedly decided to ban the playing of famous karaoke-type favorite "Sweet Caroline" at all school home football games.  The ban will extend for at least this season, if not longer (link below). The obvious reason: The Neil Diamond standard's use of the lyric "touching you, touching me" in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse and molestation scandal.

Now, while Sandusky (and the inactions of former PSU head coach Joe Paterno) have absolutely buried Penn State and its football program, I wonder just how many students and alums will be losing any sleep over this latest piece of fallout (i.e. the "Sweet Caroline" ban)?

They may call Neil Diamond the "Jewish Elvis" (a cool moniker, truth be told), and I may like a number of Diamond songs, but "Sweet Caroline" is the pits -- one of the most positively annoying rock songs in the genre's history.  I cannot stand it! Even hearing its Intro starts to make my blood boil. And it's only made worse by the fact that one can't ever attend a karaoke event without the damn thing playing!

However, and leaving completely aside the Jerry Sandusky scandal, the current news item from Penn State should at least result in one positive by leading to universities and pro teams nationwide taking a fresh look at banning highly annoying rock/pop songs from sporting events...

Start with these five (right after "Sweet Caroline"), why dontcha:  (1) "Start Me Up," The Rolling Stones;  (2) "Hey Baby," Bruce Channel; (3) "Who Let the Dogs Out," Baha Men; (4)"Rock and Roll, Part 2," Gary Glitter; and (5) "Don't Worry Be Happy," Bobby McFerrin. 

I mean, c'mon, college and pro teams: There's plenty rotten in the world right now already.  Make the world a little better place.

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2012/08/27/penn-state-wont-play-sweet-caroline-during-football-games-this-season/

Final Grades from the Final Night of the gop-er Convention: "Clint, Marco & Mitt" -- Might Sound Like Something from a Bad Canceled Soap Opera, But Also Entailed Some of the Better Speeches of the Convention...

The grades tonight picked up dramatically from the first two nights of the republic partisan convention, but that's to be expected:  The last night's always for the big guns and the nominee.  And while I'm not exactly sure Clint Eastwood deserved an "A" (as discussed below), I openly admit being more in the tank for the old gunslinger than the "mainstream" media at an Obama press conference. So let's get to it...

1.  Marco Rubio (U.S. Senator from Florida):  A-/B+ (a "90").  Two words:  Political heavyweight.  I've said that about this Cuban-American cat from the jump.  He's a devout right-winger, and therefore not exactly ideologically my cup of tea party.  But Rubio has the skill that his young gop-er contemporary, Paul Ryan, doesn't have to nearly the same degree: Delivering the prepared speech most adeptly (Ryan's much bigger skill is communicating with people off-prompter and contemporaneously).  Like him or not, I predict Rubio will be president of the United States some day.  And yes, you can make book on that.

2.  Clint Eastwood (my favorite film star of all-time):  A*.  The asterix is because while I'm unbiased when it comes to gop-ers and democrat party people (I don't much care for any of 'em), I'm not unbiased when it comes to Clint.  So maybe I should've recused myself from giving him a grade?  Nah. Don't think that's really necessary. But good grief is ol' Clint gettin' old, and it showed at times.  But still plenty of funny lines and zingers from the old fart.  Personal favorite: Regarding Joe Biden, "He's kind of a grin with a body behind it."  Nailed it.

3.  Mitt Romney (I call him stand-for-nothing King Flipflopper, but you know him as the 2012 gop-er presidential nominee):  B/B+ (an "87").  Still don't think Romney stands for much of anything, but one reason why he's a danger to the individual we currently have as president is because Romney's a fairly talented performer.  He's a natural at giving speeches, even if that same aforementioned "individual" is even a bit better (at least on those occasions when Barry's engaged).  And from the gop-er debates I witnessed (all 732 of them), Romney's a dude who's typically fairly solid (if not spectacular) on his feet and off-prompter, whereas I'd only describe Obama as being mediocre in that skill (although as a consolation for the leftist 20 percenters, Reagan too was very mediocre off-prompter).

So here we are.  One of the two worst presidents of my lifetime (Obama, with the other being W) pitted against this Romney character whom it's hard to get excited about after witnessing eight terrible, destructive years from the last president the republic partisans offered up to us.  I have no dog in the fight, think it's (yet again) an awful choice these two pathetic parties have given us, and will be voting third-party as I have in every election since 1992.  But, it should be fun to watch, because this is likely a very close election, possibly with a 2000-repeat involving one side winning the popular vote, but not the one (the electoral college) that counts.

And before I hear any cliched "pick a side" cat-calls from the peanut gallery, I'll say this:  I very much worry this country will never recover from the economic and other destruction wrought over the past 12 years by Barack H. Obama and George W. Bush.  Given that track record, why in the hell would I consider voting for either of these two parties ever again?!?  Feel free to get back to me on that.

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More Grades, This Time for Wednesday Night gop-er Convention Speeches (The Good, the So-So & the Ugly)...

...No "A's" tonight (but I've still yet to give an "F" to anyone).  Artur Davis last night remains the best speech I've seen at this gop-er national convention (and my only "A" grade so far, albeit an "A-"):

1.  Boring White Guys:  D.  This included Tired Old Man John McCain, Rob "Who?" Portman and Tim Pawlenty Bland.  These cats couldn't excite a mouse tick in an Alabama shithouse.  (Didn't see the speeches of Mitch McConnell or Rand Paul, but does it matter? They get lumped in here too).

2.  Mike Huckabee (former presidential candidate and Ark. Gov):  B.  Not a barn-burner speech, but a decent one, and a welcome departure from the Boring White Guys who preceded him.  Entertaining me, and not boring me, is always huge with this Independent when it comes to these partisans on both sides.

3.  Condoleezza Rice (Secretary of State under W Bush):  C+.  She's never been an elected politician and it showed.  Didn't seem overly comfortable (although she improved as the speech progressed and was much better at the end, garnering her the "+" in my grade above).   Speech was too heavy on boring wonkish foreign policy discussion at the outset, and lofty cliches throughout.  This one was reminiscent of Chris Christie last night:  Not a bad speech, but I expected more.  On a side note: I noticed that leftist propaganda outfit MSNBC actually carried Rice's speech after ignoring all speeches by black and minority gop-ers last night.  Shock!

4.  Susana Martinez (New Mexico Gov.):  B-. This speech was my first big exposure to Martinez, who hasn't gotten a ton of media play nationally in the past.  Not a great deal resonated with me in a major way, substance-wise, from Martinez' speech, but this broad has a certain in-your-face, firebrand style that's difficult not to like or at least be entertained by (sorry Jeeves for ending sentence on a preposition).

5.  Paul Ryan (Romney VP selection):  B+.   A complete Tale of Two Speeches!    When Ryan was selected by the Mittster recently, my observation in this space is that Ryan's strength is talking off-prompter, speaking contemporaneously -- at which he very much excels. In turn, I observed that Ryan's previously appeared to me to be fairly mediocre giving the prepared speech (he struggles with not being very natural when reading words in a speech -- an observation first formed after the State of the Union response he did in the past few years).  So I wasn't expecting (in contrast to someone like Chris Christie) a knockout speech from Ryan tonight.  And that's precisely what he delivered in the first 2/3's of his speech: Mediocre.  I had a "C" penciled in for him for most of his speech.  

But Good Grief did Ryan pick up his business in the last 1/3 of the speech!  He suddenly seemed natural and energized, and he almost perfectly hit upon speech text explaining the leftist extremism of the individual we currently have as a president.  If Ryan had been that engaged throughout the speech, he'd have earned my second "A" grade after Artur Davis last night.  My fellow Gen-X'er Ryan (a personable sort who's nonetheless way to the right of me), at the end of tonight, did himself and King Flipflopper a lot of good with this speech.  And to think, I was fully prepared over here to be for voting "C" on Ryan, before I was against it!

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Grades on gop-er Speeches I Watched Tonite from Their Convention: Ranging from A through D...

I won't even touch upon all the gop-ers I saw in Tampa in the crowd wearing cowboy hats (except to say, didn't their Mama ever tell them it's rude to wear your hat indoors?) ... But I will offer some observations and official Grades, based upon how each speech resonated with this Independent, with respect to the several speeches I watched tonight from the right-winger gop-er convention:

1.  Artur Davis (pictured above) (turncoat black Alabama congressman who recently switched from huge Obama supporter in 2008 to the gop-er party):  A-.  I don't like political turncoats at all (see Joe Lieberman, Colin Powell, Charlie Crist).  I've often said in this space that if you see fit to cast your lot behind one of these two terrible, corrupt, extremist, out-of-touch political parties, then at least have the character to stick with that choice and not abandon it when switchin' sides is in your political best interests.  That said, Davis in my opinion gave the best speech I saw tonight.  In his words were messages that talk very successfully to those of us in middle America who do not wish to embrace the gop-er right-wingers, but who also see a modern incarnation of the democrat party which is very foreign to us and which we cannot possibly support (likely ever again).

2.  Nikki Haley (South Carolina governor):  B.  Not a lot that the sometimes-tea-party favorite Haley had to say exactly resonated with me, but I thought she seemed (and surprisingly so) very comfortable on tonight's prime-time stage.  Right at home.  Truth be told, I could see this right-winger broad running for president someday, and perhaps even (although against the odds) successfully.  Too much focus on her unique experiences in South Carolina, but all in all, she did a good job for herself politically tonight.

3.  Chris Christie (New Jersey governor):  C.  And that grade may be fairly charitable on my part.  I fully expected a highly entertaining spectacle from the off-the-cuff, often-hot-headed NJ Gov in his headliner speech tonight, but I found it full of cliches and fairly boring.  His talk of "principled compromise" did resonate with me, but most of the rest of it seemed fairly typical.  Not that it was bad.  Just mediocre.  (Sorry, gop-ers, he ain't no Reagan).  Which means a "C" grade.

4. Rick Santorum (former PA senator and failed gop-er presidential candidate this year):  D.  Add to my various surprise above and below that the right-wingers put this guy in prime time, and his speech did nothing to question that sentiment.  This guy is your prototypical deranged right-winger, all too happy to focus on a bunch of social conservative agenda issues that most Americans simply don't care much about, especially in the face of a $16 Trillion National Debt and a "New Normal" 8% unemployment rate that seems unending.  Santorum's sub-par speech focused way too much on his own family (I thought he wasn't a candidate anymore?) and said something (more like several things) that were positively right-winger zany for every decent, resonating thing that he happened to spout (there were a few, but I can't even recall them now).  BUST.

5. Ann Romney (pictured at top) (spouse of gop-er presidential nominee, Mitt Romney):  B+.  She's not a politician, and it showed at times (her snickering for no good reason at various times in her speech), but all in all, I was surprised at how effective this non-politician, potential First Lady-to-be was in her speech.  She was natural in the setting and natural on her feet tonight.  Her speech (wonder who wrote for her? -- give that gal or guy a big raise!) adeptly propped up her Old Man while (for a so-called "non-political speech") taking plenty of tacit and not-so-tacit shots at the failed Obama presidency.  One could argue she deserves something in the "A" range, but I'm Old School to the last, I grade on the damn curve, and I've already given out my one "A" for the night.  Regardless, it's undeniable that Mitt's Old Lady did a hell of job kicking off this event tonight for the Old Man.

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He Was (And to a Large Extent Remains) The King of the World! So Why Is His Boyhood Home Run-Down & On the Market for Peanuts? I Say the Joint Should be Historically Preserved...

The countryside of America is riddled with preserved boyhood or girlhood homes of so-called historical figures who can't even shake a stick at "The Greatest," Muhammad Ali.  So why is his boyhood home in Louisville not being historically preserved?  Instead, the house is in terrible condition, worth less (in the abstract) than $25K reportedly, and currently on the market "by owner" for a paltry $50K (link below)...

Ali is one of the very biggest (if not The Biggest) sports figures in American history.  He remains to this day one of the most well-known (if not The Most Well-Known) Americans worldwide.  Go to some tiny village anywhere on the planet -- South America, Africa, Asia, doesn't matter -- and the locals, including many of the kids, will still to this day know his name and who he is.

He's always been that big.  Completely larger than life, even over the span of the last 25-plus years when the terrible disease of Parkinson's syndrome has robbed The Champ of most of his physical motor skills.  

Agree or disagree with Ali's past political stances -- including his late '60s U.S. Supreme Court case that pitted 1st Amendment religious freedom rights against a compulsory military draft -- it still remains undeniable that this man is one of the most fascinating, famous and memorable American sports or historical figures ever to exist.

In all the incredibly wasteful trillion-dollar spending of the Obama "stimulus" in 2009, you mean to tell me we couldn't find room for a mill or two to historically preserve The Greatest's boyhood home and turn it into a museum and/or tourist attraction?

And what about Louisville and the State of Kentucky?  Good Grief, Ali's is as big of a native son as you will ever have!  And you guys have also ignored this very obvious, intuitive opportunity to preserve a great big piece of history right there in your backyard?  Has Joe Frazier just been elected Mayor of Derby City or something?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2194426/Muhammad-Alis-childhood-home-sale-50-000-crumbling-property-worth-half-asking-price.html

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"I Think We're All Going to be a Lot Thinner": Drunk Man Gets "Trashed" in More Ways Than One, Somehow Survives Being Crushed TWICE in a Garbage Truck Compactor!

As these kinds of stories tend to go, at least this guy wasn't buck naked (link at bottom). And he was trying to be responsible.  That's why after recently getting wasted at a local bar in Portland, Oregon, 27-year-old Justin Gilpatrick (pictured above) says he made the decision to sleep it off rather than trying to drive home.

So he just fell asleep in his car 'til morning?  Nope.  Found a nice park bench to lay down upon?  Nah.  Simply took a long powder right there on the sidewalk?  Nothing like that, either.  Instead, the pie-eyed Gilpatrick reportedly curled up inside a damn trash dumpster.  Where ELSE would one ever possibly choose to lay his head?!?  (Although, maybe he was famished and looking for some scraps before hitting the hay?)

And being a dumpster, there's always the little problem of the fact that they, you know, tend to get picked up and tossed in the back of a trash compactor truck every now and then.  Which is precisely what reportedly happened at about 1:00 a.m. that night.

After the truck drooped the dumpster's trashy contents (including Gilpatrick) back in its compactor, the truck driver reportedly "drove for about a quarter of a mile and compacted his load twice before hearing Gilpatrick's terrified screams."

Lucky for this tanked trash man Gilpatrick, there wasn't much trash in the truck at the time -- which reportedly savid his life. Also lucky for him that the driver heard him screeching. 

As for that male driver, a local "waste management spokeswoman" told the media  that the driver deserves commendation for stopping the truck and "shutting down all of the moving parts" after he heard Gilpatrick raisin' a ruckus back there.  And with grounds like that for commendation from the ol' trash truck company, I'd hate to see what it takes to garner a reprimand from 'em.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/oregon-man-survives-being-compacted-dumpster-twice-175751385.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/justin-gilpatrick-survives-recycling-truck-compactor_n_1772507.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

They Call Her the "Sea Hag," and Watch Out You Don't Get Killed (Like Some Codger Down in Florida) If You're Not Willing to Turn Over a Fair Share of Your Booze to Her...

It's an old lyric so on-point with reality that a judge recently used it in a written court decision in Florida: In this life, there are certain things that you just don't do -- "You don't tug on Superman's cape/You don't spit into the wind/You don't pull the mask off that old Long Ranger" . . . And now add to that list: You don't mess around with the Sea Hag if she wants to borrow a brewski off ya...

It apparently doesn't take a whole hell of a lot to get the Sea Hag to pull her pistol and start firing (much like Popeye's nemesis of the same name in the old cartoons).  She's 62-year-old leatherface Carolyn Dukeshire (pictured above; links below). Although I never would have thunk it, the linked stories report that Dukeshire's "'Sea Hag' nickname stems from her weathered appearance."  With that cleared up...

The ol' Sea Hag was apparently VERY thirsty (and then some) on one recent night. Cops in Conch Key, Florida say the old battle axe spied her neighbor (64-year-old Martin Mazur) and his friends drinking out in the neighbor's yard after the group had returned from a night out at a local joint called "Brass Monkey" (That Funky Monkey).

And I suppose that by the Sea Hag's way of thinking, she took one look at that cooler full of beer and applied some of the same principles we've been seeing on the news lately: 

Neighbor didn't build that cooler. He didn't put that stash together on his own. He had help. Roads, bridges and teachers were involved. And that means he needs to share. As in, everyone gets their fair share. And everyone pays their fair share. Whatever fair share means. Or so the Sea Hag must've thought...

Only problem? Neighbor Mazur apparently didn't hear that speech. And when the Sea Hag approached and demanded a beer, he told the old nag to buzz off.  Bad move, neighbor dude...

Cops say that upon being refused her booze, the Sea Hag (who came packin' heat) immediately pulled out a sidearm and started blasting. And kept blasting. All told, the Sea Hag allegedly hit Mazur with bullets all about the wrist, abdomen and back.

Mazur was dead; meantime, the Sea Hag allegedly tried to jettison her weapon out to sea by tossing it in a nearby canal. Regardless, cops still tossed her old Sea Hag ass in the hoosegow on first degree murder charges. But methinks this one may have eventual presidential pardon written all over it.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/sea-hag-charged-killing-man-give-beer-article-1.1125007
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2181439/Woman-dubbed-Sea-Hag-fatally-shoots-man-times--refused-beer.html

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Senate Candidate in Washington State Tells Reporter to "Go Fuck Yourself!" Why Can't We Give These Politicians the Same Treatment? Actually, We Can. What's Sauce for the Goose...

He's some right-wing buffoon called Michael Baumgartner (pictured immediately above), and he's a gop-er Senate candidate in Washington.  The linked story explains how this boob told a Seattle Met magazine reporter to "go fuck yourself" after the reporter asked him "to clarify his position on abortion."

You know, I'd love to see more of us, the American people, telling the politicians on both sides the very same thing.  As much as these slimeball politicians go around using vile rhetoric constantly -- including those from a sleazy democrat party whose disingenuousness-embodiment president actually had the gall to preach "civility" to us a few years back -- I think they could use a little of their own treatment and business from us every now and then.

So: To the deranged right-winger republic partisan gop-ers; And to the loony leftist 20 percenter democrat party creatures (and even to borrow a little Joe Biden lingo and cadence):  Y'all can officially go FUCK YOUR-selves!  

 That's a sentiment and spirit that this space has always embraced, and always will.  And if you want a bit more "civility", then OK, I gots your civility over here:  G-F-Y!  How's that?

http://us.mg4.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=fn8ei5u96pcfa

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He's Stayin'! Deranged Right-Winger gop-er Missouri U.S. Senate Candidate Todd Akin Thumbs His Ugly Schnoz at Party Brass, Says He'll Remain in the Race Despite His Recent Disgusting Rape Comments. Works For Me!

I thought for sure this idiot would get out.  Akin had a Tuesday 5 p.m. deadline (after which his name cannot come off the ballot), and he'd been told by top republic partisan party slimeballs across the country (including King Flipflopper Romney himself) to just bow out. Just go away.  But instead late Tuesday, Akin gave us his best "I'm Stayin'" impersonation from the immediately above-pictured Old Dead Cow Face Roy Williams in Y2K!...

All this after this right-winger goof Akin weighed in last Sunday -- in a very, very dumb fashion -- with his views on the issue of rape victims who want an abortion.  As a part of expressing such viewpoint (which most would consider to be extreme) that even rape victims should not be able to have an abortion,  Akin blathered the following in the now-notorious Sunday interview:  "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down." 

Leaving aside the obvious issue that no rape is ever "legitimate" (extremely Biden-like phraseology), there appears to be not one shred of scientific or medical evidence out there that women who are raped are somehow able to "shut down" the pregnancy process internally without needing to resort to an abortion. Sort of like, in a much different context, that there's no real tried and true method for internally fixing stupid...

These asinine comments garnered widespread national calls from gop-ers that Akin (and that God-awful toupee) resign his party's nomination, while predictably drawing NO such calls from members of the democrat party -- since this is exactly the kind of goof the democrat party wants running against highly vulnerable incumbent Missouri U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (herself a rather pathetic political creature whom I view to be just as much of a slimeball as Akin, for the record).

Akin's decision to stay in the race was very surprising to me, because he's been told by myriad scuzjob gop-er party powerbrokers that his national money is now going to shrivel up even more quickly than his melon rug has in recent years, not to mention a complete disappearance of gop-er PAC ad support.  In that sort of environment -- where McCaskill is sure to far outspend Akin -- his chances for victory sure don't look so good (with his only chance being McCaskill's high and well-deserved unfavorability ratings with Missouri voters).

But regardless of all that, He's Stayin'!  And I, for one, am glad.  Just think:  If this moron can't even go more than a few weeks after his gop-er nomination without saying something as completely stupid as he did on Sunday, then just imagine some of the things that'll be coming out his mouth between now and November!  We should be in store for some high entertainment over here.  Which is about the most you can ever ask from these sleazebucket gop-ers and democrat party people, truth be told.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/akin-we-are-going-to-continue-with-this-race-for-the-us-senate/article/2505506

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Stick a Fork in the Slimeball, He's Done: 73-Year-Old "Gangster Granny" in Houston Gives Burglar a Real "Pain in the Neck" with a BBQ Fork!

She stuck it to his scuzjob ass (errr, neck) all too good!  73-year-old Margaret Jackson (pictured above and below; links below) -- a "tough-talking Houston grandmother" says she doesn't mind at all the new nickname the locals have given her.  She's the "Gangster Granny" -- a new moniker earned after she recently carved up a would-be intruder's neck with a huge fork like said neck was a BBQ brisket or something...

Double G says she spotted the crumbwad shinnying his way in through a window in her daughter's home, and that's when all hell broke loose!  First Granny reportedly grabbed a "pair of scissors and a barbeque fork" and "raced" towards the goonbag in order to show him what's what. A struggle ensued, says Granny, in which the dirtwagon "pushed me."

But when the creepshow next tried running out the home like the coward that he is, "Jackson was set on showing him who was boss."  Said Granny:  "He got to running, and right here I got him -- WHACK -- in the neck!" (as she points towards the huge BBQ fork she deposited right in the sewer rat's scrawny little neck).

Granny says she even got the sleazebucket real good as he tried to scale a fence to escape:  "He ran, he jumped that fence, but I got him with this here [again exhibiting the fork] -- I got him in the neck!"

And now, reports the New York Daily News, Jackson is "certain the punk will think twice about coming back for seconds."  Says Granny:  "Well, he gonna go tell all his friends so they don't come here."  Yes, I would think so -- since, while the brutejacket burglar remains on the loose, I gotta think he knows that ol' Granny might next time get them scissors goin' in addition to the fork.  Can you say, a little "fillet of finkbait" to toss out on the barbie?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gangster-granny-houston-pain-neck-would-be-robbers-article-1.1140076
http://www.click2houston.com/news/Police-Gangster-granny-stabs-Houston-home-invasion-suspect/-/1735978/16179646/-/mahqbuz/-/index.html