Dominique Dunne vs. the Kennedys

Dominique Dunne died on 8/26/09 at the age of 83 but this was overshadowed by the death of Ted Kennedy a day earlier. Both were Irish Catholics from New England (Dunne from Connecticut and Kennedy from Massachusetts). But these guys really disliked each other.

Dunne’s daughter had been murdered in 1982 and since that time he had devoted much of his energy to reporting on crime stories (primarily from the side of the victims). It was probably about the time that Dunne started reporting on the trials of William Kennedy Smith and Michael Skakel (the nephew of Ethel Kennedy) that the Kennedys started hating him.

I wish that Dunne was in the crime reporting business back in 1969 for the Chappaquiddick “accident”. On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy was on Martha's Vineyard's Chappaquiddick Island at a party for a group of young women who had worked on his brother Robert's presidential campaign the year before. Kennedy left the party, with one of the women, 28-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne and accidently drove off Dike Bridge into a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island. Kennedy escaped the overturned vehicle, swam to safety and left the scene. He did not call authorities until after Kopechne's body was discovered the following day.

On July 25, Kennedy plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a sentence of two months in jail (suspended). That night, he gave a national broadcast in which he said, "I regard as indefensible the fact that I did not report the accident to the police immediately", but denied driving under the influence of alcohol and denied any immoral conduct between him and Kopechne (did she die before he had the chance?).

Do you believe that alcohol was not a factor? Do you think that Kennedy got special treatment because of his political and family connections? If we had had Dominique on the job we might know the answers today.

Homeless World Cup

Can you believe this? We heard about this and could and thought they were joking.

“The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. It has triggered and supports grass roots football projects in over 60 nations working with over 25,000 homeless and excluded people throughout the year.“

Might the funds be better used for better health care, mosquito nets or water filtration systems for these people?

"The VA lost my health records"

I heard this from a veteran today – “I am currently rated at a 20% disability by the VA. I am appealing their decision because they could not find my medical records.” So perhaps Washington should improve the VA health care system, and work on making it a little more efficient before they try and take on the rest of us.

Doing business with Al Qaeda

Sign in the front of a Petaluma, California business.

"We would rather do business with 1,000 Al Qaeda Terrorists
than one single American."

This sign was prominently displayed in the window of a
business in Petaluma.

You are probably outraged at the thought of such an
inflammatory statement. But we pride ourselves on being a
society that holds Freedom of Speech as perhaps our greatest
liberty. And after all, it IS just a sign. You may ask what
kind of business would dare post such a sign?

Answer: A Funeral Home

Interesting piece by Mark Cuban

http://blogmaverick.com/2009/08/22/the-irony-of-the-video-business/

Mark Cuban always has an intersting perspective.

If the US Government can't make the USPS work how do they expect to suceed at Health Care?

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/03/news/companies/usps_postal_service_privatize.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009080410

Before we turn over more of our health care system to the Federal government why don't we first clean up some of our current messes like the US Postal Service. If we can't make this monopoly work how do we expect to manage something as complex as health care for 330+ million Americans and illegal alliens?

Excellent article in Fortune.

Australia busy subsidizing their auto industry

From Melbourne, Australia Aug 10, 2009. The Australian government has been hard at work subsidizing their auto-makers in the country with a $200 million (Aus) credit line for local auto makers.

Politicians the world over are subsidizing the old-world industry of car making. Not much is going anywhere to new industries because small entrepreneurial firms have virtually no union jobs.

The big problem is there is too much auto production capacity world-wide and cars last far longer than they used to. In a world unencumbered by strong politician-union ties many of these plants would be allowed to shut down and these auto workers would find a new line of work just like when the buggy companies lost out to the new auto companies in the early 20th century. But instead these plants world-wide will be subsidized as if the auto industry in a strategic gateway into a strong economy tomorrow. Wrong!

Brothel Stimulus Program Discussed

It’s been a one-two sucker punch. First high gas prices squeezed away business, then the recession has threatened to put the final nail in the coffin. On the heels of the recent “cash for clunkers” program, several of the roughly 25 legal brothels in Nevada (which employ about 300 prostitutes) are hoping for a similar program.

Like all stimulus packages, this proposal promises to aid numerous layers of businesses and individuals tied to the prostitution industry. There is a real multiplier effect for each prostitute that is fully employed. For each sex professional, there is a manager/madame, a gynecologist, state health inspectors, and of course higherer condom and Viagra sales. In addition, each successful sex worker contributes to the maintenance of the “ranches”, along with related real estate (and other taxes), utilities, and improvement projects. And of course a fully employed prostitute can afford to trade in her old “beater” and get a new car as well.

While the “clunkers” program offered up “to $4,500 for each clunker turned in for a new, more efficient car, proponents of the Brothel Stimulus program argue that a government rebate of as little as $25 per pop would do the trick (forgive the pun) for brothels.

US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is from Nevada and as the former head of the Nevada Gambling Commission he knows his vice. And his state doesn’t have a single automobile plant, so Nevada has been left out in the cold. It’s about time that Nevada got it's share of the “booty”.

Too Big to Fail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnE5zvosplc

A fun song on You Tube.