Time To Say Bye Bye Bush, We Certainly Won't Miss You!

Dubya will go down in history...as the worst president this country ever had! Take a moment to check out His Chimpness in photos that were taken during his disastrous days in office.  

 

 

photos source - king-mag.com

Blagojevich stuns everyone by making senate appointment!

Gov. Rod Blagojevich stunned everyone yesterday by appointing Roland Burris (right) to the vacant senate seat left by president-elect Barrack Obama.

It's apparent that Blago is as brazen as they come, as he defiantly made the appointment despite the legal problems that will probably kick him out of office. It was just a month ago since Blago was taped trying to sell the senate seat to the highest bidder! To add to this growing circus, former Black Panther-turned-Daley-machine-functionary, Bobby Rush decided to throw a race card out there by suggesting that anyone who tries to stop Burris from taking the senate seat is a racist!

Give me a friggin break! Rush threw out words like "hanging and lynching" a black appointee when he made his appeal for Burris to take the senate seat without opposition. Well, guess again Rush. This isn't about race, it's about a corrupt governor trying to make an appointment before his indictment comes through in another week.

How could anybody be expected to not be concerned with any appointment that Blago makes? The guy's a corrupt politician and that's all there is to it.

Gambled Thrived During Great Depression, But That's Not True for Our Current Depression!

      By Dave Stancliff
    My father lived through the Great Depression and over the years he’s told me interesting stories about those tough times. One was that gambling stayed popular, either in spite of or because of, financial desperation.
      “People gambled and went to the movies,” Dad assured me. As far as I can tell people are still going to the movies during our current depression (screw the term recession). It seems all bets are off for the gambling industry in America today.
        As more people lose their jobs, the revenues for state lotteries and casinos are dropping. That old notion that gambling is recession proof is being challenged. People don’t feel “lady luck” will be any nicer to them gambling than what she showed them at the workplace.
        For an industry that doesn’t create wealth but simply transfers it-mostly from the poor to the already rich-the future is not rosy. Their shaky stocks don’t translate to buying lottery tickets. State governments are scrambling to make up for an average 2 percent dip in lottery revenues in the third quarter compared with last year.
       Companies that run casinos saw their stock prices drop by more than 60 percent in 2008, while on the Las Vegas Strip, gambling revenues have fallen nearly 10 percent. Nevada faces a sobering moment about the risk of risk. Not only is its gaming industry suffering, but the state has the highest rate of home foreclosures.
       To me it appears the gambling mentality extended to buying homes, on the assumption that prices would always go up. That belief-nationwide- is now as dubious as the pull of a slot machine.
        It’s the state lotteries that are particularly pernicious because elected officals, supposedly the guardians of public morality, prey on the most vulnerable to supplement their budgets. Experts say that about 1 in 5 people play the lottery regularly. They are the wrong people however. Those who spend the most on tickets earn less than $12,400 a year, parting with about 9 percent of their income!
       There’s some states, like New York, who want to expand their gambling to make up for budget shortfalls. “Get rich” marketing has become more aggressive, trying to hook young people in. I’ve heard that there are some tickets that are infused with smells like chocolate. I guess the buyer can eat them after their numbers don’t deliver them to financial security.
       As It Stands, gambling will never be the answer to people’s problems, it will only compound them.

'Kissing the way into the New Year' on Most Viewed List Today

Thanks to the Times-Standard readers for putting my last column of 2008 on the Most Viewed online list with a Number One rating.

If you haven't had the opportunity to read this column yet, click here. 

Who do you plan to kiss the New Year into with?

 

 

Man shot in movie theater by crazed gunman who wanted silence!

         A South Philadelphia man enraged because a father and son were talking during a Christmas showing of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button took care of the situation when he pulled a .380-caliber gun and shot the father, police said.

James Joseph Cialella Jr., 29 (right), is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons violations for allegedly shooting a guy who talked through a movie!

Talk about an attitude. This guy just sat back down to watch the movie after shooting the dad. I have a feeling this guy has a lot of bad days and should be locked up somewhere safely. At the moment he is locked up and being charged for his actions.

It's getting so that you have to be careful anywhere you go, because people with guns are everywhere. There's good gun owners, and there's bad one's, like this clown who was packing in a movie house.

Price of gasoline going up in California while it goes down nationwide

I really get sick and tired of all the bullshit excuses why Californians have to pay higher gasoline rates than the rest of the nation.

Here in Humboldt County we generally have the highest gasoline prices in California, giving us a dubious reputation.

The Los Angeles Times today takes a detailed look at the whole situation. Click here to read the reasons why we get screwed in California.

Confessions of a Hybrid Writer: I Just Want To Have Fun

   

By Dave Stancliff
I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a hybrid between a traditional journalist and blogger.
The traditional part of me, the one that was a newspaper editor and publisher, is concerned about the fate of newspapers.
The blogger part of me says that it doesn’t matter if you lose the dead wood if you can still communicate with people. Reaching out to readers, after all, has always been the point of journalism.
The perception of bloggers being a bunch of nerds and nuts has long given way to legitimacy that called for them to be represented during the recent presidential election. Both parties made sure to save press room for the blogger community.
In the last seven months I’ve started a blog and moved my opinion column from the

Eureka Reporter to The Time-Standard. In both cases I’ve been astounded (and gratified) at the readership for my column.

The Times-Standard ran the results for their Online readership for 2008 recently. My column - “Judge Says Feds Violated 10th Amendment by Subverting state Marijuana Laws” - was #1 in their Top Ten.(see column on right under Times-Standard for link.)
My other column to crack that Top Ten was - “America in Crisis: Are We Preparing For Martial Law?” - came in 5th on the list.(See column on right under Times-Standard for link)
Both went viral to get there. That means over a million readers viewed each column. I’m humbled by the interest shown.
I’m also amused at Times-Standard editor James Faulk, who wrote the short article about the newspaper’s Top Ten online stories for 2008. He asked in the article, “What does this list mean? Nothing.” he assured the reader.
Well gee...doesn’t it count for something if over a million people view your article? What other yardstick can an editor use in this cyber age for such accuracy in tracking readership? Those little hits, every time someone views the article, add up to money in online advertising.                                                                                                                                
So it seems to me the list has some value. I guess it depends on how you look at it. My overall goal to attract readers to my newspaper column appears to be doing alright, and my overall goal to have fun with my blog has been achieved.
It hasn’t been a year yet since I started the blog, but it is turning out to be a blast! I’ve decided not to advertise on my blog, which eliminates any concerns for content. I can continue to say what I damn well please this way!
Reader feedback really gets me reeved up! I just love that interaction. I’ve learned to take the good with the bad a long time ago (1981 was my first editorship with a newspaper - the Desert Trail in 29 Palms, California).
I had plenty of up close and personal visitors for years In the old days, reader feedback often went beyond a letter-to-the-editor and often meant a visit to my office when I use to work full time. They weren’t always pleasant visits, but I managed to remain professional and not let them irritate me.
Now my critics are online and it’s easier to maintain a calm response with that  barrier.                                                                                   

As It Stands, my guess is that there are more “hybrids” out there going through the transition from traditional to the new cyber age of communicating.      

What would the Mona Lisa look like painted by other artists?

  

  Matt Groening                                   Pablo Picasso 

Andy Warhol

Manga Style Art                              Roy Lichtenstein

All Art by Aviary

  

How to compound a catastrophe, or Murphy's Law wins!

  

You think the above is the end of this situation, don't you? Not even. It's only the start of what must have been a long day for several tow-truck drivers. Click here and watch how the whole story pans out in photos. You'll be amazed at the resulting havoc which reportedly took place in Ireland somewhere.

Israeli airstrikes continue to bombard Hamas in Gaza

 

Hatem Omar, Associated Press

A Palestinian family flees the Rafah refugee camp after an Israeli strike. The Palestinian death toll rose to 303 with an estimated 900 injured as raids continued. Some Gazans reportedly tried to break through the border to Egypt, but were repelled by Egyptian forces.

As It Stands Column is #1 & #5 in Online Top Stories in T-S

By James Faulk/Times-Standard     

For most of this year, I was the Web editor here at the old Times-Standard, toiling away on making sure that this newspaper did its best to bring all of its brilliant content to the Internet.

It was a nice job in a cozy office with Jeff Soderberg, the technical guru of all things interactive at the T-S.

But since early November or so, I have switched jobs, becoming the city editor and leaving my digital roots behind. But even with that transition, I can't help but be interested when the top 10 list of online stories for 2008 was circulated in the office.

First, here goes the list for 2008:

1. Judge says Feds violated 10th Amendment by subverting state marijuana laws (See column to the right under Times-Standard for a link)

2. Feds launch massive pot sting (with video)

3. SoCal's atheist billboard taken down

4. UPDATED: Major sting targets commercial grow op (with video)

5. America in Crisis: Are we preparing for martial law?

(See column to the right under Times-Standard for a link)

6. No longer a Long shot?: Raiders' Davis may land his prized possession after all

7. Rodoni dies in 101 crash

8. Seized pot worth $25M to $60M

9. Arcata man falls to his death

10. Driver sought: Suspected drag race on 299 results in fatal crash

So what does this reveal about the Web? I argue, absolutely nothing! What we have here is a collection of random stories, some of which went viral. Those that went viral, for whatever reason and because of this or that blogger, got the most hits.

The Web is such a strange, interesting place, the likes of which have never been seen before in human history. It's such a dynamic place that it's hardly possible to predict what will be the top 10 stories of the year ahead of time, or even what type.

It depends so much on what gets noticed, and what gets forwarded, that developing a plan of action to produce such results is self-defeating.

I would argue that only the Rodoni story, and one or two others, were made popular by primarily local views, and the only ones driven by our paper's traditional news audience. The rest is directly the result of a viral spread.

What does that teach us for driving traffic at the T-S Web site? Beats me, but it sure is fun to watch.