Watch the entire track of Hurricane Irene in this video from NASA. This is one of the most amazing hurricane images I've seen. NASA describes it as "an animation of satellite observations from August 21 through August 29 showing the birth of Hurricane Irene in the Caribbean and her track over Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Bahamas, the U.S. East Coast and into Canada." UFO Shock added some nice music underneath the video. Watch it there, or see it here:
August 29, 2011 - The Australian newspaper reports that Barack Obama's uncle Onyango is being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as an illegal immigrant. (See related video below.)
Onyango Obama, 67, was drunk as hell and driving an SUV when he almost hit a police car last Wednesday night, August 24, in Framingham, Massachusetts.
The photo of Onyango Obama, left, is a mugshot taken by the Framingham Police Department.
The Australian notes that Onyango Obama "was detained as an illegal immigrant because the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has an outstanding warrant for him because he was previously ordered to be deported to Kenya."
Official records say that Obama was "picked up outside The Chicken Bone Saloon in Framingham, Massachusetts, at 7:10 pm on August 24" because, police charge, "he nearly crashed his Mitsubishi 4x4 into a patrol car."
MetroWest Daily News reported on August 26 that a "man illegally in the country from Kenya was drunk when he nearly ran his sport utility vehicle into a police car Wednesday night on Waverly Street, police said. After the near crash, Onyango Obama, 67, told Officer Val Krishtal that Krishtal should have yielded to his Mitsubishi SUV, according to a report filed yesterday in Framingham District Court." The report also notes that "Obama failed a Breathalyzer test, registering .14. The state legal limit is .08." (For you Obama sycophants, a breathalyzer is also known as an "inhalator.")
Human Events reports that "Uncle Omar" tried to use his connection to the White House to get out of the DUI trouble.
August 26, 2011 - New York City - In preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, Mayor Michael Bloomberg today ordered a mandatory evacuation for "Zone A" low-lying areas, "as well as the complete evacuation of the Rockaways," reports Business Insider.
A map of the NYC's evacuation zones was issued as a PDF by the city government. Crisislanding has an amazing interactive map of Hurricane Irene's entire path. Business Insider also notes that "major affected neighborhoods include" Manhattan’s Battery Park City, Coney Island and other Brooklyn beach communities, The Rockaways in Queens, Shore areas of Staten Island.
New York City police will patrol the streets to enforce "the evacuation mandate."
This post brought to you by Straight Talk. All opinions are 100% mine.
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From my other blog, Homeless Patriot: I'm in a desperate race against time to find another room. You see, I've been lucky to have had a room for the past few weeks here in Madison. After sleeping in a shelter and on the streets, I was able to get a space in a fraternity house just off of the U.W. campus.
Frat houses take boarders in the summer. Summer leases begin just after school lets out in the spring, of course, but I did not arrive until mid-July.... I'll keep looking, but time is very short now. It's just past noon on Wednesday, August17. If I don't have a place by noon this coming Saturday.... Full post at Homeless Patriot... Update: Yes, I am again homeless. The one-month lease that I had expired at Noon on Saturday, August 20. Here's what I did that night...
This video, "Obama's Debt-End Bus Tour," is sure to tug at your heart strings. Well, okay, at your wallet chain. It's a production of the Republican National Committee (RNC), but that doesn't make the facts presented any less true.
Obama is touring the Midwest "on a new $1.1 million bus purchased by the Secret Service, an impenetrable-looking conveyance the size of a cross-country Greyhound, painted all in black, with dark tinted windows and flashing red and blue lights." (CBS News) Isn't it nice to know that in these tough economic times, President Obama is not wasting taxpayer money on things like expensive new buses for his own personal campaign? Isn't it?
August 15, 2011 - The Homeless Patriot is reporting this afternoon that a homeless man, 37, drowned in Lake Mendota on Madison's north side.
Homeless Patriot reports that the man, who went by the name of "Teddy," was swimming about 100 feet off shore at the end of the 600 block of N. Henry Street when he "just disappeared." Full drowning story at Homeless Patriot...
This is the second time within a month that Homeless Patriot has scooped Madison's media on local stories.
August 11, 2011 - Madison WI - The Democrats were soundly defeated in Tuesday's six special recall elections. That didn't stop their "victory" celebration in the rotunda of Wisconsin's Capitol Building. Chicago News Bench was there. Here's our little video, below. The group was well behaved, but weirdness was certainly present. Just before the sing-a-long began at noon, one participant approached a Capitol security guard and berated him for - get this - holding and drinking from a bottle of water. "You should be protecting people, not drinking water," she yelled at him. The guard and I exchanged bemused looks as the woman stomped off.
August 11, 2011 - The U.S. Department of Labor reported today that unemployment benefits claims "fell" for the week ending August 6. That's good news, right? I don't think so, because the amount by which the numbers fell were so small that they are statistically insignificant. In fact, the number averages to a mere 140 fewer claims per each of the 50 states.
"Claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly dropped last week to a four-month low," a Bloomberg report noted today, "signaling the job market is being hampered by a lack of hiring rather than more firings. The number of applications for unemployment insurance payments fell 7,000 in the week ended Aug. 6 to 395,000, the fewest since early April..." (My emphasis added.)
That 7,000 number is statistically insignificant. It's not enough to matter. 140 fewer claims per state is pitiful. The more significant number is the 395,000 new applications. Repeat: New applications. That averages to 7,900 per state. In other words, more than a third of a million new unemployment benefits claims were made in the week ending August 6.
Bloomberg's report also noted that the Labor Department’s jobless claims report also said that "the number of people continuing to collect benefits dropped by 60,000 in the week ended July 30 to 3.69 million."
That drop, however, includes a lot of people whose claims have simply expired, and people who have taken jobs that are not as good as those they previously held but now disqualify them for continuing benefits.
August 9, 2011 - Madison WI - The wind was taken out of the sails of Democrats in Wisconsin, who were confident earlier today that they would route Republicans in recall elections. Of the six elections held today, we now know (at 10:40 p.m.) that three Republicans have won their elections and one Democrat has won. That leaves two elections, and those are too close to call at this time.
The undecided races are those in State Senate 08 and 18. In 08, as of this writing, Darling (R) has 49% to Pasch (D) 51%, with only 63% of the results reported. In 18, Hopper (R) and King (D) are tied at 50% each with 87% reporting.
The Democrats were hoping to take at least five of the six races. To lose at least three, and to have two so close this late in the evening, is a moral blow for them.
Another winner has already been declared, too: Harsdorf (R) is bumping challenger Moore (D) in State Senate 10 by 58% to 42% respectively.
Chicago News Bench will call Olsen (R) the winner in State Senate 14. Olsen is trouncing Clark (D) by 54% to 46% with 95% reporting as of 9:53 p.m.
RELATED:
TPM Election Scoreboard - talkingpointsmemo.com
I just left the Square minutes ago. While hundreds of socialists, union thugs and anarchists chant on the Capitol Square, I am sitting at Frida Mexican Grill, an upscale Mexican eatery half a block away. I thought I'd kill some time with a margarita (on the rocks, salted rim) while I and the rest of the world breathlessly await the results of six special recall elections held today.
There are two groups of anti-Gov. Walker folks gathered on the Square. The big group is at Washington Avenue and North Pinckney Street on the Square, where a brightly lit stage supports local socialist cheerleaders speaking with their lips too close to the microphone. News media are all over the place. Many wear red shirts with "Recall Walker" emblazoned on them. Some carry handmade signs that say clever things like "Walker Hates Living Things," and similarly ingenious political insights. A good number carry pre-printed AFSCME signs.
The smaller group is having a sing-along at West Mifflin Street and North Carroll Street. There seems to be no national media there, and the group seems content to sing standards such as "This Land Is Your Land" with lyrics altered to express their contempt for Governor Walker and for the electoral process that put him in office in the first place. These folks are holding similar signs and wearing the same kinds of shirts.
I considered taking photos of the liberal drones on the Square. No, I thought, my photos would only show the same generic libtards that we've seen a million times at similar leftist rallies. My video would have let you hear the same old tired chants, too. You know, the ones that have some local socialist leader urging the crowd to answer his over-modulated questions that all end with, "... when do we want it?" or "...what do we do?" Eventually and predictably, the whole chanting thing devolves (as it did tonight) into a string of chants that begin with "Hey hey, ho ho..." It's boring and cliche. Besides, someone else will post their boring and cliche video and images later.
The evening here is beautiful, cool but not cold, with a nice breeze coming off of Lake Mendota. It's perfect weather for coached, pre-scheduled non-spontaneous chanting. There is a huge carbon footprint being laid down by the brightly lighted stage set up at East Washington Avenue and North Pinckney Street on the Square, not to mention by the brightly illuminated Capital Building.
The polls closed at 8:00 p.m. I wonder if any of the polling places have electricity. Perhaps the ballots are being delivered on horseback. Stand by for news.....
RELATED:
TPM Election Scoreboard - talkingpointsmemo.com
Live Recall Election Coverage - WisconsinVote.org
Wisconsin Recall Election Candidates Battle In August 9, August 16 Races - HuffPo
The most amazing thing about this is not that a member of Congress would just let a fart fly during a live interview. No, wait, even more amazing is that Barney Frank's butt is still tight enough to be capable of making a fart sound at all. Perhaps even more amazing is Frank's ability to fart out of his mouth for extended periods of time. Barney Frank's televised fart is nothing, of course, in comparison with the way he has been shitting all over the U.S. economy for decades. Wait, wait, hold on: THE most amazing thing is that during the interview with Maddow, Frank deflected his criminal behavior with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by blaming the U.S. debt problems entirely on military spending. What an a-hole. Get it?
Uptown, Chicago - On Wednesday, August 3, as many as 300 liberals demonstrated their displeasure with President Obama. They did so in Uptown, a far north neighborhood of Chicago along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. My good friend John Ruberry covered the unhappy campers in Uptown in his post, "Leftists protest Obama at 50th birthday party fundraiser in Chicago."
I lived in Uptown for two years, from late 2008 to late 2010, about two blocks from the Aragon. That's where the Obama birthday bash was held. Uptown is one of the most violent neighborhoods on Chicago's north side (as I have reported many times here on Chicago News Bench). I have personally photographed more than one murder scenes within a few blocks of the Aragon over the past three years (see here and here and here).
The protesters listed many reasons for being unhappy with Obama, as seen on their homemade signs. One reason for them to be unhappy with Obama, however, was apparently missing: He is one of the least "green" presidents we've had to suffer. As with so many of his lavish trips, Obama and his birthday entourage left a big fat carbon footprint. "Hypocrites," says the National Review, in their post titled "Trying to Add Up the Carbon Footprint of Obama’s Birthday Bashes."
The Aragon, by the way, did not turn a single light out for Earth Hour last year.
