• I'm guessing good ol' Gov. Goodhair thought his George W. Bush charm would let him play the "aww shucks" card and weasel out of what was one hell of a bomb in last night's GOP candidate debate. We'll see as the news reports roll in.

    Too bad there's a distinct difference between being human and being astonishingly ill-prepped and half-assed. There's a sprinkling of good ol' fashioned "dumbass" in there, too.
  • This is the type of stuff you'd expect from a bad Maury Povich episode:

    A former employee of the United States Agency for International Development says Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain asked her to help arrange a dinner date for him with a female audience member following a speech he delivered nine years ago.

    Donna Donella, 40, of Arlington, said the USAID paid Cain to deliver a speech to businessmen and women in Egypt in 2002, during which an Egyptian businesswoman in her 30s asked Cain a question.

    "And after the seminar was over," Donella told The Washington Examiner, "Cain came over to me and a colleague and said, 'Could you put me in touch with that lovely young lady who asked the question, so I can give her a more thorough answer over dinner?'"

    Donella, who no longer works for USAID, said they were suspicious of Cain's motives and declined to set up the date. Cain responded, "Then you and I can have dinner." That's when two female colleagues intervened and suggested they all go to dinner together, Donella said.

    Ok, ok, so all Cain did was try to get you to be his wingwoman. Not necessarily in good taste, but...

    Cain exhibited no inappropriate sexual behavior during the dinner, though he did order two $400 bottles of wine and stuck the women with the bill, she said.

    Tsk, tsk. No wonder they didn't want to down your pepperoni or sample your special sauce.

    Donella said she felt it was important to describe her encounter with Cain after hearing more serious allegations of sexual harassment brought by other women.

    "I couldn't swear that he had some untoward intentions, but we all thought his tone was suspect and we didn't feel comfortable putting him in touch with that woman," Donella recalled.

    "I think [Cain] should not be a serious candidate for the presidential nomination because of what I've seen," said Donella, an independent who said she voted for President Obama in 2008 and probably will again next year. "He's not a person I would want running the country."

    Don't worry, Donna. By the end of this week, no one's gonna be taking Herman Cain seriously for much of anything anymore.


  • Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier has died after a long bout with liver cancer, according to a report from WPVI News in Philadelphia.

    His family issued this statement on Monday:

    "We The Family of the 1964 Olympic Boxing Heavyweight Gold Medalist, Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion and International Boxing Hall of Fame Member Smokin' Joe Frazier, regrets to inform you of his passing. He transitioned from this life as "One of God's Men," on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We thank you for your prayers for our Father and vast outpouring of love and support."

    Frazier was 67.

    Leslie Wolff, who has been the fighter's manager for seven years, said Frazier has been flooded with get-well messages from former boxers and fans. Wolff told The Associated Press some fans have offered to donate a liver.

    Frazier was diagnosed last month with the disease. His manager said the boxer had been in out and out of the hospital since early October and has been receiving hospice treatment the last week.

    Smokin' Joe Frazier was before my time, but I still admire and respect him as one of the boxing greats. We'll all miss him. R.I.P.
  • You had legislation reaffirming that “In God We Trust” is our motto? That’s not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work.

    Sorry, Mr. President. The GOP-led legislature has better things to do than make jobs for unemployed Americans. In fact, they'd rather not see a single job created until your black ass is thrown out of the Oval Office come January 20, 2013. Besides, brushing up their "pious asshole" credentials by reaffirming "In God We Trust" as the official U.S. motto. "Separation of Church and State" means nothing to a bunch of folks angling for a "Christian nation" or such other nonsense.

    Seriously, "E pluribus unum" sounds much better and also avoids that whole "Separation of Church and State" business. Besides, the president thought it was cool. Maybe that's what got all the pious assholes in the House all upset:

    As evidence of this "disturbing trend," Forbes pointed to the fact that in a 2010 speech in Indonesia, President Obama called the phrase "E pluribus unum" the nation's motto. He also pointed to the dispute over the use of the phrase "in God we trust" in the relatively new visitors center at the Capitol Building.

    Meanwhile, the Obama White House has its hands full with pushing the jobs bill through. Congress is allowing choice bits and pieces to go through, but any hope of the whole hog coming through died in the Senate.

    The GOP seems more interested in thumping bibles, guaranteeing corporate wealth, preserving the sanctity of life until it manages to leave the womb and regulating how females handle their own reproductive organs. Oh, and sandbagging the economy so your black ass can look bad and lose on November 4, 2012. The next time the GOP and conservatives say they want to "help" America, take a look at the above and ask yourself, "is this the kind of 'help' I should expect from these people?"
  • See folks, this is what I've been waiting on.


    Hear that? That's the sound of the Cain Train rolling off a bridge and plummeting hundreds of feet into a jagged ravine. This makes accuser #4. In Chinese folklore, "4" represents death. So does the color white. You get what I'm saying.

    It also helps the accuser happens to be a blonde woman of white American heritage. If a black woman was going through the same crap in the following, the MSM wouldn't be the least interested and Cain could have smothered this story with a pillow, a la Clarence Thomas.

    Bialek described an incident in July 1997 where she and Cain were in a car and he offered to show her the trade group's headquarters. She had reached out to Cain at the behest of her boyfriend and came to Washington as part of the job search. She was surprised to find she had been upgraded at her hotel to a "palatial suite."

    Cain took credit for that upgrade, she said.

    "Instead of going into the offices, he suddenly reached over and … put his hand on my leg, under my skirt toward my genitals," Bialek said about the incident in the car.

    "He also pushed my head toward his crotch," she said.
    Herm, I don't think those nice Republican ladies you jigged around back in Huntsville are gonna appreciate these revelations, if they decided not to forget you ever existed.

    Cain's campaign has been roiled for more than a week by the allegations. He is tied with Mitt Romney for the GOP presidential nomination in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. But 53% of Republicans say they wouldn't vote for a candidate if accusations of sexual harassment by a candidate were proven.

    Not anymore. If the GOP doesn't decide to toss ol' Newt Gingrich a little spotlight before Super Tuesday, expect Mitt Romney (the guy the GOP establishment really wanted all along) to step up and make himself known.

    You're done, Herm. I hope you can make a decent living from tell-all books and the Fox News circuit.

    EDIT: I guess poor Rushbo's having a hard time handling these new revelations:


    Seriously, that's all he could muster. Sucks for him that Cain still has a coveted "(R)" next to his name, don't it?
  • - Jahessye Shockley remains missing, as the case hits the three-week mark. Sad to say, when cases like these drag out for this long, the chances of the missing turning up alive dwindle to nil. Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Lee Duggard are among the rare cases where kidnap victims turn up alive. Meanwhile, the police are taking a closer look at the parents, although they are not being regarded as suspects.

    - The cases of ex-Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky and athletic director Tim Curley provide further proof that 1)the world is a rather fucked up place, 2)if enough people are willing to turn a blind eye, you can get away with damn near anything, and 3)people should stop worshiping upon the altar of college football.

    - Herman Cain's busy keeping his "Cain Train" on track as he navigates through the recent sexual harassment revelations. So far, not much detail beyond what was already offered, and quite possibly for good reason:

    Had she come forward, had she provided more detail, he and his advisor would have a clear target to attack, smear, discredit and blame. They would have deflected some of the heat off of Cain.

    No one knows who these accusers look like or what ethnicity they are. As I said before, if they are black, expect the scandal to blow over in short order. If they are white...

    - Greece's prime minister George Papandreou steps down after a new coalition government was formed amid the chaos of Greece's horrific economic situation.

    - Andy Rooney of the CBS show "60 Minutes" passed away yesterday at the age of 92. Rest in peace.

    Remember, folks. Daylight Savings Time is over. If you haven't set your clocks back an hour, I'd suggest you do that.
  • BBVA Compass originally planned to build a new office tower in downtown Birmingham, as part of a plan to expand operations and relieve crowding conditions at the corporate headquarters in the Daniel Building. According to a Birmingham News report, it looks like that's not going to happen. Instead, BBVA Compass will spend $15 million on renovations on renovating and expanding its operations center east of Railroad Park.

    This wouldn't be a noteworthy story to blog on DDSS, except for a few interesting comments from AL.com's comments section:

    A good friend of mine was working on the project for quite some time. The real reason is that the leadership of BBVA in Spain saw the excessively harsh immigration laws of Alabama as bigotry against Spanish speaking immigrants. They were particularly disturbed by Sen. Beason's comments in the paper last Sunday... with him stating that the fact that immigrant families were being broken up were a sign that the "law was working".

    Keep spewing your mindless drivel if you want, but I assure you, the blame for this one rests squarely on the shoulders of the leadership in Alabama. I forget... which party pushed for this immigration law that's causing all this damage?

    I can vouch for this post. BBVA is now pouring resources into Houston and as a result of the immigration law in Alabama will continue to move more people over to Houston. Why would a Spanish speaking executive want to be viewed as a second class citizen in Alabama?

    The building was cancelled because of the immigration bill and that's just beginning.

    Thanks for the article Russell. It is likely Alabama's immigration law caused Birmingham to loose a major investment. I have heard a similar rumors.

    It is time for the governor and other bill sponsors to "listen" to concerns. Last week, RSA chief executive David Bronner spoke with the Birmingham News about a group that cancelled their golfing trip to Alabama because of the law.

    Has the Birmingham News contacted Mayor Bell or Gov. Bentley for comment?

    BBVA has high rise building planned for multiple locations including Houston. Birmingham was on the list, but the immigration law killed that future investment. A lot more jobs are moving to Houston now and the Birmingham economy is going to hurt because of it.

    If this is true, then the impact from HB 56 isn't just being limited to farms and small businesses. When multinational corporations take a dim view of your shenanigans and decide to scale back on in-state investments, that's a pretty big hint you'd have to take. The other shoe that'll drop behind this is BBVA Compass leaving Birmingham altogether in favor of Houston.

    I expect the lawmakers in Alabama who supported HB 56 to stand by their convictions, right up to the moment when their own campaign funds and kickbacks become threatened as a consequence of HB 56.
  • Plenty has gone down surrounding Dr. Casey Wardynski, newly minted superintendent of Huntsville City Schools. If it isn't the parade of new $100k+ hires during a time of proration and teacher layoffs, the drop-kicking of several school principals and a $500k push to higher educators funneled through the Broad Institute network, it's the sudden proposal to change the name of the newly built Lee High School and the controversial move of the New Century Technology School magnet. Yeah, the man seems to be shaking things up, for better or worse.

    Okay, folks. You need some background.


    • Ever since Wardynski got on board, there's been the sense of unilateral decision-making on part of the superintendent on a variety of issues. Case in point, the firing of Fillis McGhee, Jo Ann Thompson and Keith Henderson. Each case has their merits, and they all reek of an underlying motive somewhere. These moves are being hailed as a shakedown in corruption within HCS, except any genuine shakedown would have to involve sawing off dead wood off the White Street tree.
    • Meanwhile, Wardynski's made a few of his friends welcome at their new home by throwing a total of $641,000 their way. And now he's chasing around a $550,000 $850,000 $1,700,000 four-year contract with Teach for America.* Gee, Casey, I thought we didn't have all that money to throw around. The schools are broke, teachers are getting let go right and left, and parents are tired of sending their kids off with their own rolls of toilet paper.
    • Then there's the ham-handed way Wardynski's handling the renaming of the new Lee High School. Pulling down the Lee name without consulting anyone about it is a bit of a dick move that suggests unilateral action, Casey.**
    • Even more ham-handed is the proposed move of New Century Technology from its current location within the crowded Columbia High School, located smack dab in Research Park, to the new Lee High School several miles east. Keep in mind Lee had its own magnet program already in place. Also keep in mind that New Century wanted its own campus for years. Butler or Westlawn would fit the bill for a new campus, as both are a lot closer to Redstone Arsenal and Research Park than Lee is.

    There's also a not-so-subtle push for the school system to gain "unitary status." In short, that means HCS can finally throw off that decades-old desegregation order and start building and zoning schools the way they want without asking the U.S. Justice Department for permission. That doesn't sound so bad until you find out how the school system and the city in general is effectively segregated via north and south sides. I'll explain.

    Thanks to the desegregation order, HCS can't build any new schools in the heavily white southeastern portions of the city. That means the city can't build another school to relieve the rampant overcrowding of Grissom High School, the only public high school in that particular area. That means the Tigers will have to put up with those portable classrooms out front.

    Meanwhile, you have the heavily black northwestern and north-central portions of the city. The houses are cheaper, the people are working class and the schools are majority black, and therefore assumed to be complete shit by the Weatherly/Whiteburg crowd. Schools like J.O. Johnson and S.R. Butler High are operating at way under capacity, for a number of reasons. In Butler's case, all of the Redstone Arsenal students were rezoned for Columbia High when it first opened, drop-kicking Butler's enrollment numbers. Majority-to-minority school transfers rule the roost (guess in which direction), thereby placing further strain on the already over-capacity southeastern schools.

    Given the property values north of University Drive, east of Sparkman & Jordan Drive and west of the Parkway are a bit paltry, to say the least, the schools there don't get as much funding as the schools in the more affluent Whitesburg/Weatherly/Jones Farm/Lilly Flagg areas. Unfortunately, there seems to be an inclination to blame a lack of proper school funding and the education opportunities that are thereby stifled on the somehow natural inferiority of black minds and their criminal, trouble-making tendencies. And I speak as a survivor of a school system where the administration and teaching faculty have already assigned stereotypical notions of who you are supposed to be and thereby act accordingly.

    The only way to get out from under the order is to find a way to bring the ethnic composition of the schools across the city to a desirable enough level for the Justice Department to give an okay. So far, that has not happened. And thanks to the screwed-up ethnic demographics of the city in general, it never will, at least not for the next decade or two.

    And that's why I ask about the way Fillis McGhee was fired. Yes, it's generally not a good idea to try to use your position to get favors for your kid, no matter how well it would benefit them in the end. However, keep in mind this was a black principal of a majority-white school in a majority-white part of town. I hate to lace up  the "Air Rs," but if Wardynski's shakedown is actually the first salvo of many signifying a movement to...ah..."put things back to where they were" or "bring back neighborhood schools" or some such thing...

    Better bloggers than I have covered the ongoing HCS saga in greater detail. I present to you links to Geek Palaver, Merts Center Monitor and Redeye. Go read them.

    * EDIT: Per Geek Palaver, the four-year Teach for America contract actually totals to approximately $1,700,000. I keep that in mind next time I hear about yet another round of teacher layoffs.


    ** EDIT: Wardynski had the "Lee High School" motif put back up after student and community outcry.
  • You all remember the video of Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams beating his then-16-year-old daughter and resulting outrage it sparked. Now a Detroit Free Press article reveals what the judge claims is the real motivation for his daughter Hillary making the video public.

    Her father's statement said: "Just prior to the YouTube upload, a concerned father shared with his 23-year-old daughter that he was unwilling to continue to work hard and be her primary source of financial support if she was going to simply 'drop out,' and strive to achieve no more in life than to work part-time at a video game store."

    The statement said she warned her father if he reduced her financial support and took away her Mercedes, which he had provided, he would "live to regret it."

    Oh. So it's just a case of a spoiled, whiny little brat who's just mad she can't freeload off Daddy and keep the Mercedes anymore, so she threw a little tantrum and posted the video to get back at poor dad.

    Okay.
    *immediately forgets about the video*
    *immediately starts castigating Hillary Adams*
    *immediately starts praising Judge Adams for "taking a hard stand" and being a "good dad"*

    Damn. So that's how it feels to be a red-state conservative. Daddy defuses blame for his prior recorded actions by whining about how the little bitch* just wants his money and Mercedes and the low-information crowd starts eating it up.

    Conservatives now have an out and a target for victim blaming. I expect this story to blow over in a hail of dismissals and "spoiled bitch" slander in conservative circles. The impact of the video is minimized now that Hillary Adams has been discredited as a spoiled brat, therefore the sympathy disappears and people have a reason to be assholes again.

    William Adams needs help, not another reason to remain his natural asshole self.

    *Not that he actually said that, but that's probably what he's been thinking. Yes, his own child, but people can be weird like that.

  • Looks like your 15 minutes are finally up and there's no way for you to keep feeding the meter. Not with this on your plate:

    Oklahoma political consultant Chris Wilson says if the woman behind the reported sexual harassment complaint against GOP Presidential hopeful Herman Cain is allowed to speak publicly, it'll be the end of Cain's run for the White House.

    But you saw it coming. Everyone did.

    Interviewed today on KTOK's Mullins in the Morning, Wilson, of Wilson-Perkins-Allen Opinion Research headquartered in Washington, D.C. explained he was a witness to the incident. "I was the pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Herman Cain was head of it and I was around a couple of times when this happened and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time, knew that this was gonna come up."

    Wilson described the woman as a low level staffer who was maybe two years out of college. "This occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City (Virginia) and everybody was aware of it," he continued. "It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left---everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up."

    Wilson said for legal reasons, he can not discuss details of the incident. "But if she comes out and talks about it, like I said, it'll probably be the end of his campaign." The consultant said Cain is digging himself a deeper hole by challenging the woman. He also believes it has put the Restaurant Association in a position where it will have to release the woman from her confidentialilty agreement. "If she talks about it, I think it'll be the end of his campaign."

    Sounds like a threat, Herm. A very clear one at that.

    The GOP establishment didn't have you in mind for Super Tuesday, and they weren't going to let your special brand or hell, anyone else's special brand of Teabag bullcoonery screw up their plans. You can hope for this to somehow blow over, but I doubt it will play out that way. You can either back off now or let this all blow up in your face.

    I mentioned something about the GOP burning through each and every one of their hopefuls so Mitt Romney can emerge just before the GOP convention and play the "Only Sane Man" role to the hilt. Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Dick Santorum and others flashed and fizzled out on the GOP stage, with Mittens puttering around in the background (nevermind Jon Huntsman. I doubt anyone even realizes he's campaigning at this point). I'm sure Newt Gingrich will get his shot at leading the polls and then fade out just like the rest of them. Romney's nomination was set in stone months ago.

    The music's stopped and everyone's looking at you funny. Well, maybe just the crazy Christian cat lady and a trail of anal post-coital effluent:

    Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) last night joined Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) in questioning former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain over recently-uncovered sexual harassment allegations from Cain’s time at the National Restaurant Association.

    Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have both completely ignored the harassment claims (and Cain’s odd responses).

    Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who can (and does) say whatever he wants, commented only to speculate about “who is making the charges and what the motivations are.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich dismissed the allegations as “gossip.”

    If one of Cain’s accusers goes public and reveals damning details, the story might become so big that the top-tier candidates feel compelled to weigh in.

    Even the DJ's looking at you with disbelief, Herm. There's no way you can get people back to doing the "Cain Train" again.

    Meanwhile, you got not one, not two, but three women willing to speak out on your alleged sexual harassment. Damn, Herm, exactly how many women did you ask about the pubic hairs on your Coke can...wait, wrong guy.

    A third former employee considered filing a workplace complaint against Herman Cain over what she deemed aggressive and unwanted behavior when she and Cain, now a Republican presidential candidate, worked together during the late 1990s, the woman told The Associated Press on Wednesday. She said the behavior included a private invitation to his corporate apartment.

    The woman said he made sexually suggestive remarks or gestures about the same time that two co-workers had settled separate harassment complaints against Cain, who was then the head of the National Restaurant Association.

    At least Clarence Thomas' sexual harassment of Anita Hill didn't hamper him any. Then again, he wasn't in the direct path of a candidate pre-picked by GOP establishment figures. It helped his victim wasn't a white woman, either.

    People are leaving the party. Soon enough, you'll be the only one left in the room, aside from the DJ, but he's just waiting to get his pay for the evening.

    Last person to leave the room, please cut off the lights.
  • There are times when you gotta break the belt out and over someone's ass, but there's also a difference between stern discipline and wanton abuse.

    This is stern discipline.


    This is wanton abuse.


    If you disagree, feel free to let me know. I'd like to hear your rationale.

    Hat tip to RiPPa and PunkJohnnyCash.




  • “They harangue blacks and tell them ‘you can’t be a Republican, you can’t be a Republican,’ it is so hard for a black to be a Republican,” and then complain when conservative events are mostly white-attended, Coulter argued. “Maybe you shouldn’t harangue them so much!” Coulter also told Hannity the source of why liberals “detest conservative blacks” is that “it is ironic in a cruel, vicious, horrible way… that civil rights laws were designed to protect blacks from Democrats,” and now there are “liberal wimen using laws to protest blacks in order to attack conservative blacks with these vicious, outrageous charges.”

    Gee, I don't know. Maybe, just maybe, they don't want to be Republicans. Have you ever thought about that, Miss Ann?

    Didn't think so.
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