Paul Harvey Dies at 90

"I'm a professional parade watcher who can't wait to get out of bed every morning and rush down to the teletypes to pan for gold."

Chiefs Acquire Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel from Patriots

The Kansas City Chiefs acquired quarterback Matt Cassel and linebacker Mike Vrabel from the New England Patriots on Saturday in exchange for a second-round pick (34th overall) in the 2009 NFL Draft.

The agreement is contingent on both players reporting and passing their physicals.

Chiefs GM Scott Pioli, who was hired in January to oversee the team’s football operations after nine seasons in New England, orchestrated the deal for two of his former players.

"I have a long history with both players," Pioli said in a statement. "Mike and Matt are men that I respect both personally and professionally. I look forward to having them as new members of the Chiefs family."

Cassel, a seventh-round draft pick of the Patriots in 2005, was a career backup until a breakout season in 2008 in relief of the injured Tom Brady. Cassel saw the first significant action of his career, taking over as the starter for Brady in Week 2 and starting 15 games, completing 63.4 percent of his passes for 3,693 yards and 21 touchdowns with 11 interceptions.

He was designated as the Patriots’ franchise player on Feb. 5, guaranteeing him $14.65 million next season.

"It is very easy to root for guys like Matt Cassel, who do everything the right way and flourish as a result," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said in a statment. "As much as we would have loved to continue working with Matt, we wish him nothing but the best as he takes this next step forward in his career."

The 33-year-old Vrabel spent the last eight seasons in New England, where he was a part of three Super Bowl-winning teams. He started 14 games last season, registering four sacks and an interception.

Friday Funny

"There is absolutely no STIMULUS in the EARMARK bill"

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 -- BILL HR 45

1/6/2009--Introduced. Sponsored by: Rep. Bobby Rush [D, IL-1]

Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 - Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm unless that person has been issued a firearm license under this Act or a state system certified under this Act and such license has not been invalidated or revoked. Prescribes license application, issuance, and renewal requirements.
Prohibits transferring or receiving a qualifying firearm unless the recipient presents a valid firearms license, the license is verified, and the dealer records a tracking authorization number. Prescribes firearms transfer reporting and record keeping requirements. Directs the Attorney General to establish and maintain a federal record of sale system.
Prohibits:
(1) transferring a firearm to any person other than a licensee, unless the transfer is processed through a licensed dealer in accordance with national instant criminal background check system requirements, with exceptions;
(2) a licensed manufacturer or dealer from failing to comply with reporting and record keeping requirements of this Act;
(3) failing to report the loss or theft of the firearm to the Attorney General within 72 hours;
(4) failing to report to the Attorney General an address change within 60 days; or
(5) keeping a loaded firearm, or an unloaded firearm and ammunition for the firearm, knowingly or recklessly disregarding the risk that a child is capable of gaining access, if a child uses the firearm and causes death or serious bodily injury.
Prescribes criminal penalties for violations of firearms provisions covered by this Act.
Directs the Attorney General to:
(1) establish and maintain a firearm injury information clearinghouse;
(2) conduct continuing studies and investigations of firearm-related deaths and injuries; and
(3) collect and maintain current production and sales figures of each licensed manufacturer.
Authorizes the Attorney General to certify state firearm licensing or record of sale systems.

This is a synopsis of the entire bill:
You will have to carry a photo ID firearms license.
A training class is required to be licensed.
Disclosure of your storage method is required for license.
A thumb print is required for license.
Every sale recorded by the federal government.
If you move, and don't tell the Attorney General within 60 days, you are a criminal.
If a firearm is stolen and you don't report it, you are a criminal.
There will be no grandfathered firearms.
If you do not obtain a license and report every firearm you currently own, you are a criminal.
There will be a license fee and a fee for the "services" provided at purchase time.
Licenses must be renewed every 5 years.

PLEASE CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES AND PUT A STOP TO THIS BILL THAT WILL ANNIHILATE OUR GUN RIGHTS AND OUR RIGHTS OF PRIVACY. THIS BILL IS BEING DONE VERY QUIETLY AND VERY QUICKLY. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH ON IT. IT IS BILL HR 45.

Behold The Tax Man Cometh

For anyone who had the stomach to watch the state of the nation speech last night you will remember Obama making a grand and deliberate statement about how those making less than $250,000 will have absolutely no tax increase. Not only that but they will have a tax cut according to Obama. I would like to take this time to expose just one of the lies involved in these statements. What our President failed to mention is that he has ALREADY PUT IN PLACE an ENORMOUS tax hike for ANYONE who uses any form of tobacco in their daily lives. This tax is what is going to pay for the bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). This tax will go into effect on April 1st, 2009. Here's the breakdown of the increases:

Cigarettes -- currently 0.39 tax per pack -- new tax 1.00 per pack -- increase of $0.61 per pack

Large Cigars -- currently 20.719% of price -- new tax 52.75% of price -- increase of 32%

Little Cigars -- currently 0.04 per pack -- new tax 1.00 per pack -- increase of $0.96 per pack

Pipe Tobacco -- currently 1.09 per pound -- new tax 2.83 per pound -- increase of $1.74 per pound

Chewing Tobacco -- currently 0.19 per pound -- new tax 0.50 per pound -- increase of $0.31 per pound

Snuff -- currently 0.58 per pound -- new tax 1.51 per pound -- increase of $0.93 per pound

Cigarette Papers -- currently 0.01 per 50 papers -- new tax 0.03 per 50 papers -- increase of $0.02 per 50 papers

With the new federal tax rates going into effect on April 1,2009 the SCHIP law also requires that retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers pay a floor stock tax on cigarettes and all other tobacco products held in inventory at 12:01 A.M. on April 1, 2009. The floor stock tax equals the difference between the new rate of tax and the old rate of tax.

Now I am not an everyday smoker. I do, on occasion, like a good cigar or a nice pipe of tobacco. Usually when I am fishing. But the idea of taxing the heck out of one portion of the people in order to pay for your policies and then telling those same people that you WILL NOT raise their taxes is disingenuous to say the least. Maybe next year they will bow to the Goracle and tax carbon emissions. Or maybe they will up the taxes on alcohol. How about a tax on trans-fat? Or maybe they will put an extra tax on coffee? Who knows? Just because I am not a smoker does not mean that I think it is right to charge them ENORMOUS taxes in order to create bigger government. What's your opinion on this?


SMOKE 'EM IF YA CAN AFFORD 'EM!!!

How Much Did We Just Spend?

I found this over at my friend Chuck's blog and thought I would help get the word out as well. Thanks Chuck!!!

2009 YEARS X 365 DAYS X $1,000,000 = $733,285,000,000
$54,000,000,000 less than what congress just wasted.

Just in case you're wondering what your share of the tax cut will be the answer is $7.69 a week. CONGRATULATIONS!!!
$400 a year tax break divided by 52 weeks of work = $7.69. Don't spend it all in one place.

Who Should Really Be Upset?

This New York Post CHIMP comic has......


this New York CHUMP upset but......


if anyone should be upset it should be........

for being blamed for the most wasteful and useless piece of legislation in years.

For Those With Eyes to See

DOW -297.81 -3.79%
7,552.60

NASDAQ -63.70 -4.15%
1,470.66

S&P 500 -37.67 -4.56%
789.17

Of course, the duckling will say this has nothing to do with us throwing $787,000,000,000 into the rancid winds of change today. It's interesting to me that this is how the market reacts to EVERY major step in Barack Obama's presidency.

The Opportunity of Crisis

It is no secret that this so-called stimulus bill, which was just voted in without ever being read, is just a grab bag of big cash for liberal proposals that have long been under dust in a file cabinet somewhere. The question is how is it that our elected officials would be so callous and uncaring as to saddle this gargantuan debt on our children and their children. People are indeed hurting right now. People are losing their jobs and America is losing good businesses. Every time Obama does anything noteworthy the market responds to his socialist ideas by tanking in a big way. Our government grows larger and larger by the day. Seriously.....every single day. The stimulus bill itself contains some 200 NEW federal programs. These are suppose to be "temporary" but history teaches us different about NEW government programs.

I, myself, was told this week that the district I work for will be freezing our pay and cutting 10 days off of my contract next year. And I'm very fortunate right now to have some sort of security in my job. So how is it that the democrats dare cram unneeded spending and pork down our throats as we barely tread water? For a bill said to be aimed at spending in hope to stimulate our economy why is it that far less than 200 billion of the 789 billion will even be spent in the next YEAR? And some of the money won't even be spent until 2019!!! The answer to this is the fact that it is exactly the intention of Obama and of his crony Rahm Emanuel to use this unsettling time to force this piece of smoking dung legislation down the throats of starving America. To them our bad fortune is their "opportunity of crisis."

Happy St. Valentine's Day

Now that Chicago politics have come to Washington DC let me remind you to watch your backs.........literally.

Even Fools Can Become Poetry

Life is a song we must sing with our days
A poem with meaning more than words can say
A painting with colors no rainbow can tell
A lyric that rhymes either heaven or hell
We are living letters that doubt desecrates
We're the notes of the song of the chorus of faith
God shapes every second of our little lives
And minds every minute as the universe waits by

CHORUS:
The pain and the longing
The joy and the moments of light
Are the rhythm and rhyme
The free verse of the poem of life

So look in the mirror and pray for the grace
To tear off the mask, see the art of your face
Open your ear lids to hear the sweet song
Of each moment that passes and pray to prolong
Your time in the ball of the dance of your days
Your canvas of colors of moments ablaze
With all that is holy
With the joy and the strife
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life

I Must Be a Fool

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to men
He must have seemed out of His mind

For even His family said He was mad
And the priest say a demon's to blame
But God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane

Chorus
We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
And we in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
And so we follow God's own fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable
Come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son
For a man who had died for a dream
And you'll feel the faith His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Have the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see

Chorus

So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

1 Little 2 Little 3 Little Traitors......

Senator Susan Collins of Maine


Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine


Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania

How Much More "Stimulus" Can We Take?

DOW 381.99 -4.62%
7,888.88

NASDAQ 66.83 -4.20%
1,524.73

S&P 500 42.73 -4.91%
827.16

A Tribute to Papa

if you want to see a tribute to jason, check it out at MYSTIC MINSTREL

51st Grammy -- Best Performance of the Night

Those Who Ignore History......

In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------

In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------

Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------

China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------

Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
---- ------------- -------------

Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
------------------------------

Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
-----------------------------

Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.

Another Obama Employed Criminal -- Anyone Surprised?

(CNN) –The street artist who created the ubiquitous red, white and blue Obama "Hope" posters was arrested Friday in Boston on outstanding graffiti charges, police said.

Shepard Fairey, 38, was arrested en route to an opening party for his first solo art exhibition on two outstanding warrants for property damage by graffiti, Boston police said.

Officer James Kenneally said the instances of graffiti involved images of the late wrestler Andre the Giant — Fairey's tag.

The Friday arrest represents Fairey's second legal tangle this week.

Earlier, the Associated Press accused him of copyright infringement, saying the iconic "Hope" portrait of the president is based on an April 2006 photograph of Obama taken by AP's Mannie Garcia.

Todd Haley New Head Coach of the Kansas City Chiefs

By DOUG TUCKER –-

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Whenever conversation at the Haley family dinner table turned to football, it was more than just talk.
It was education. While Dick Haley was personnel director at Pittsburgh and helping craft the great Steelers dynasty of the 1970s, Todd Haley was taking it all in.
Todd Haley rose to prominence this year as offensive coordinator for the NFC champion Arizona Cardinals and on Friday, just weeks shy of his 42nd birthday, was introduced as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.
"I would not be where I'm at right now without my father, or without having the father that I did," said Haley.
He replaces Herm Edwards, who was fired at the end of a 2-14 season, and fills the NFL's last remaining head coaching vacancy.
Dick Haley was personnel director at Pittsburgh from 1971-90 before going on to other front office jobs in the NFL.
"He knew what good was," Todd Haley said. "And I've just always believed that was a big asset of mine, the fact I grew up in personnel, went to bowl games with him, went to practice with him, watched tape on the wall with him."
One of the people who worked under the elder Haley in New York was Scott Pioli, who was hired as Chiefs general manager last month. Pioli became friends with his new head coach when the two were with the New York Jets.
"I worked for Todd's father, Dick, who's probably one of the finest personnel men in the history of the National Football League," Pioli said.
"Todd has a very unique background, and something I told (Chiefs owner) Clark (Hunt) was important was finding a head coach who not only understands personnel, but understands scouting, understands football players. I think Todd brings a very unique background in the sense that he grew up in a football family. His father was a personnel director and one of the best ever."
Haley inherits a team that lost all but two of its past 25 games and is joining a franchise that hasn't won a postseason game since an aging Joe Montana was quarterback in the 1993 season.
"Todd is very bright," Pioli said. "He's extremely dedicated and very strong-willed. Those are the qualifications I was looking to partner with, Clark was looking to partner with, and we really feel Todd is the right guy and is going to do a heck of a job here."
Edwards was considered a players' coach by the Chiefs, but Haley can be combative and sometimes clashes with players. During the NFC championship game against the Eagles, he had a first-half argument with quarterback Kurt Warner, then a short blowup in full view of television cameras with wide receiver Anquan Boldin. He also had a spat with Terrell Owens when he was receivers coach in Dallas.
"It's part of how I coach," Haley said. "It's part of how I motivate, and I like to think I've had some success doing it. But obviously, you've got to keep things in check. It's something I'll turn to if I need to. But I'll do my best to keep from losing control."
Haley helped shape an offense that carried the Cardinals to an improbable NFC West title and came within seconds of beating Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl.

Why Letterman's the King of Late Night

$9718.49 For Each Of Us -- Just Don't Expect to Ever See It

To arrive at that figure, CNNMoney.com took the total of the bank bailout, $700 billion, and added that to the proposed stimulus spending in the House of Representatives bill, $819 billion. That totals $1.519 trillion.
We then divide that number by 156.3 million, which was the total number of U.S. filers in 2008.

So: $1.519 trillion divided by 156.3 million equals $9,718.49 per U.S. taxpayer.

Paying My Debt

Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. This year I lost. That's the bad news for me. But the good news for me is that all of you out there are losers right along with me. My apologies in advance for the images that will surely be burnt into your minds now. Yes, Daniel, you won and I have lost. Caution for those who dare to go any further in this post.








Since Nanc twisted my arm here's last year's pictures:

Superbowl XLIII

AND THE WINNER IS: