Musing Minds has moved

If you are not automatically redirected please click here x

We're getting ready to Move!

We have a new site at www.musing-minds.com. Our dual blogiversary is coming up on Saturday, February 11^th and we are slowly moving posts over and getting the template all set up. Please come by and see...

First, They Came For...

Michelle couldn't sleep last night and put together a 2 minute movie that you just have to see (link to Michelle's site, download there). Excellent Job Michelle!

Muhammed Cartoons Blogburst

Michelle is hosting the Muhammed Cartoon Blogburst

If you've posted some or all of the forbidden Muhammad cartoons on your blog in support of Denmark and the Jyllands-Posten, send a track back or e-mail me your link. It'll actually be a very useful road map for the enormous number of Internet users around the world who are trying to find the cartoons (just check Technorati and you'll see what I'm talking about).

Here are the cartoons. Click the image to go to Human Events Online's Cartoon Gallery. Jyllens-Posten Mohammed, Mohammed cartoon

Boehner New Majority Leader

Fox News is reporting that Boehner has been elected the new House Majority Leader. Blunt will remain the Whip. Vote was 122-109. This was the second round of voting. Shadegg received about 40 votes in the first round and dropped out. Cross-posted at Wizbang Bomb Squad News & Politics

Groundhog Day

...and it's sunny. Always is. Six more weeks of winter. What a surprise. Today is February 2. Spring officially begins on March 20 this year. That's 46 days. Divide by 7 (for weeks) 6.571429 weeks.

"There's a Better Way"

Update! Ian at Expose the Left has a montage of Tim Kaine's "better way". Be sure to check out the eyebrow in the screen shot before you download the video... Tim Kaine repeated this mantra over and over in the Democratic Response to the State of the Union Speech last night. Ok, Tim, if "there's a better way", could you please tell me what it is? Then there was the democrat side of the house cheering and applauding their inaction on Social Security, Hillary making faces, and Charlie Rangel refusing to stand when the President said,

There is no peace in retreat. And there is no honor in retreat. By allowing radical Islam to work its will -- by leaving an assaulted world to fend for itself -- we would signal to all that we no longer believe in our own ideals, or even in our own courage. But our enemies and our friends can be certain: The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil.

Cross-posted at Wizbang Bomb Squad News & Politics, SOTU

Welcome to SCOTUS Justice Alito!

Mrs. O'Connor, enjoy your retirement. Final Vote: 58-42. He should be sworn in this afternoon and join his fellow justices at the SOTU tonight. Roll Call will be here.

RIP Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King has died. She was 78. She had suffered a heart attack and stroke last August. She is now with her late husband Martin Luther King, Jr. and with the Lord. Rest in Peace Coretta. cross-posted at Wizbang Bomb Squad

Alito Cloture Vote: 72-25!

...so says the headline at C-Span. No rollcall available yet. Roll Call here via Bench Memos. Vote is tommorow at 11 eastern.

One Year

365 days ago, John Kerry promised, on national TV, to sign form SF-180 and release his military records. He has yet to do so. 255 days ago, John Kerry signed form SF-180 to release his military records. When will we see the records? Will the Globe post the documents? Will Kerry release the 180 so we can see exactly what he authorized for release (and to whom)? Polipundit asks, 'Where are the missing pages?' Mark at USS Neverdock asks, 'Did Kerry sign Part III of the Form 180?' Scott Johnson at Powerline says 'something is missing from his file' Captain Ed says: 'This release by Kerry still doesn't answer key questions about what he's claimed about his service.' So Senator Kerry, it's been a year. All we know is that George W. Bush got better grades than you did at Yale. Isn't it about time that you released those records to the public? After all, you are running for President again. The public has a right to know.

Kerry Wants to Fillibuster Judge Alito

John Kerry, from Davos, Switzerland no less, is calling for a fillibuster of Judge Samuel Alito. He was calling back to the States trying to muster support (who's paying that bill?) According to CNN Kerry has the support of his co-Senator, Kennedy. Easy for Kerry, there in Davos, attending the World Economic Forum, to call for a fillibuster. He won't be taking part in the "debate", will he? He won't have to stand there talking until his bladder just can't take it anymore. By the way Mr. Kerry, where are those records? The clock currently reads 361 days... Come Monday, it'll be a year since you made that promise... Senator Frist, It is time to invoke the Byrd Option and change the Senate Rules again to remove fillibusters against judicial nominees. Stop the ACLU has the story.

Others blogging: Blogs for Bush : Sore Loser Syndrome Don Singleton : Sen. Kerry calls for filibuster of Alito Michelle Malkin : (Fili)Blusterer of the Day PoliPundit : Kerry Oh How I Love Jesus : Message to Sen. Kerry: Bring It On! OpiniPundit : It's All Over But The Cryin The Anchoress : Headlines You May Have Missed Glen Dean : Kerry to Lead Filibuster

Transcript: Brian Maloney on The O'Reilly Factor

Political Teen has the video. O'Reilly: In the Back of the Book Segment tonight, as we have been telling you, the liberal radio operation Air America is having major problems. Ratings in most major markets with the exception of New York City were down big in the latest survey. And the operation is losing tons of money despite being propped up with good publicity by liberal news operations like the New York Times. Joining us now from Boston with some data is Brian Maloney who runs a blog called The Radio Equalizer. Mr. Maloney is not a fan of Air America. First, what is the latest... Maloney: {laughter at the "not a fan" comment} O'Reilly: Well I want to, full disclosure, you're coming at it, you don't like them... Maloney: Sure. O'Reilly: And I don't like them either. The latest in the New York State investigation of Air America and their charity problem. What's the latest on that? Maloney: I actually couldn't get anyone at the New York City Department of Investigations to respond to inquiries about that. If the investigation is ongoing, they have a policy of not talking about it until they're done. But essentially, $875,000 from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx ended up in Air America's coffers about two years ago and ever since then the big tug of war has been about how to get the money back. Meanwhile the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club is out of business. They've been, ah, you know, in real trouble because of this. This money had no business ending up in Air America's bank accounts. O'Reilly: It was an interest free loan I understand. Maloney: Yeah, right. {laughs} O'Reilly: Air America says that they have put the money in escrow to pay it back. Is that true? Maloney: That's right, but only after a tremendous amount of stalling, only after the DOI late last year put its foot down and said, you know, put all the money in an escrow account now. No more messing around here. O'Reilly: Okay so they were forced to pay it back... Maloney: That's right. O'Reilly: The stats we have on Air America is [sic] that they pay their San Francisco station $250,000 a quarter to carry the radio program. Usually the radio stations pay -- you, but they're paying the stations. Maloney: Right. O'Reilly: In L.A. they're paying $320,000 a quarter. And Al Franken makes more than $2 million. Garafalo makes $225,000, and this Randi Rhodes person makes $350,000. So the money coming out of Air America, they couldn't possibly cover the bills. How do they stay on the air? How do they stay solvent? Maloney: Well, that's exactly right, Bill. It's impossible. On the essay that I wrote for my website today, essentially what we're laying out here is, yeah, they are paying the station in New York City $2.5 million a year to be on the air. And as you pointed out, San Francisco and L.A., paying them a lot of money. That number's gone down a little bit with local morning shows in there now. But it is a lot of money. The fact is Franken's salary has gone through the roof and that's what's new today. That has never been disclosed. Franken's salary has gone up and up and up. It is now a base salary of $2 million a year. I've talked to guys in syndicated radio with the same number of stations or more as Franken, same audience. They're making one-tenth of the amount. O'Reilly: Here are the stats from summer to fall - these are the latest ratings. Franken's program in L.A. in the key demo of 25-54 persons is down 33 percent. In San Francisco, Franken's down 24 percent. In Boston he's down 42 percent. In Portland, Oregon he's down 18 percent. And in San Antonio, Texas they dropped the whole network, Air America, altogether. Maloney: That's right. O'Reilly: So I'm not understanding this. If they're not doing well, and they're not, and they're not making any money, they can't sell advertising because they don't have many stations and they're paying huge money to keep their format on these stations... What is it, Rob Glaser? Some millionaire bank-rolling them? Maloney: That's right. They don't want to give us the victory Bill. {laughs} So what they're doing is Rob is writing the checks. He's very wealthy from Real Networks in Seattle. He is writing big fat checks to keep Air America on the air. The fact is Al Franken is paying his main producer, executive producer, Billy Kimball, $600,000 a year. O'Reilly: I don't care about that... Maloney: Who makes that kind of money? O'Reilly: I just want to, I just want to, so we have one guy Brian [sic] Glaser, a far left guy, like George Soros - unlimited funds - he's keeping this radio network on the air by just kicking money in and paying all the bills. That's where we are, correct? Maloney: That's right. He had a little bit of money still coming in from the Durst Organization, wealthy property owners in Manhattan, a little bit from that, but a lot of the other guys have bailed out at this point. There's no new Soros money and he knows better now. O'Reilly: Prediction? Is thing going to fold anytime soon? Maloney: I think, I don't see how they can keep it going. Pay, 2008 Franken's salary goes up to $3 million a year. He is 50 percent of their programming budget right now. A huge bloated step staff. Even if the ad revenue came in, how could they possibly ever make a profit? O'Reilly: Well, that's your thought. It's a propaganda unit being paid for by a far left guy and not making any money and not doing real well. And that's the bottom line. All right Mr. Maloney. Thanks very much, we appreciate it. Welcome Pardon My English readers! Please have a look around. Transcripts, Media

Beautiful Sunset

Sunset from the plane window as we were coming home.

Snowing Again

But 80's are forecast for Orlando for the next four days!

Jawa Report Helps Nab Terrorist!

Just go there and read it! Yeah Jawa! And Happy Second Blogiversary!

Blogging Will Be Light Until Wednesday

The hubby and I have an opportunity for a mini-second honeymoon. My wonderful sister is kidsitting so we can spend a couple of days at Universal in Florida. Since I have school work to do too, I'll be bringing the laptop and might be able to fit in a little blogging, but don't expect much.

Take a Stand

Straight from Malkin

Debbie Schlussel, blogger/investigative writer/lawyer, is extending an invitation to citizens interested in intervening in the ACLU’s NSA lawsuit. She practices in Eastern Michigan, where the suit was filed.

Also be sure to read Schlussel’s exposé of some of the shady plaintiffs in the ACLU’s suit. Stop The ACLU will be the first intervening party. Per email of Debbie:

Jay: For sure. I will make you and/or Stop the ACLU the first intervening party (It will be Stop the ACLU etal vs. . . . .). But I gotta work on this over the weekend. I’ll get back to you on this.

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 115 blogs already on-board. ACLU, Law, NSA

Who Do You Look Like?

Laura Lee Donoho at the Wide Awake Cafe links to a site where a face recognition program compares your photo to those of celebrities and lets you know who you look like. The first one was Nicole Kidman which was very nice for me. Others were Julie Christie, Sean Astin and Benjamin Netanyahu. They do give you a percentage for the match. Nicole was 65%, Julie was 54%, Sean was 48% and Benjamin was 45%

Nagin on Dayside

Mayor Ray Nagin was on the phone with Dayside today. Present in the studio were Montel Williams, Juliette Huddy and Steve Doocy. Huddy: On the phone right now is Mayor Ray Nagin. Good to have you on the phone with us sir. Nagin: Good to be here. Huddy: All right. So we saw you explaining what you meant by, by "Chocolate City". You've been getting some flack for that. We have an email: "His comments are inflamatory and inappropriate. Imagine a white mayor referring to his city as a vanilla city." We've recieved a few of those. But are you okay with your comments? Do you feel like you have any regrets about making them? Nagin: Let me just kind of quickly get to the three issues that I was trying to communicate yesterday. First of all, I was trying to get a message that African-Americans are welcome in the city of New Orleans. Secondarily, I was talking about the violence that happened the day before, and thirdly, this whole undercurrent of who should come back and who shouldn't come back. I used some analogies and probably didn't hit the mark on my message, but I never intended to offend anyone. And I think if they look at the entire context of what I said they'll understand the points I was trying to make. Williams: Mr. Mayor, it's Montel here. You know we know each other and I gotta make this comment, there's a lot of anger based on what you said yesterday, but let's stop for a second and remember that Hillary Rodham Clinton, the day before, called the entire Republican party a plantation. Okay? So, what we've now proven is that politicians sometimes shoot from the hip. I'll bet you Mayor Nagin would like to take some of those comments back and re-do them and say them exactly like he said them here. Huddy: What did you say Mayor? Nagin: Especially the God comment. If I could take anything back, that's what I would take back. Doocy: So the comment that you made where you said that God was mad at the United States for invading Iraq, you would like a do-over on that? Nagin: I would like to take those back because that was a private conversation that I had with a minister a few weeks ago and for some reason at the moment that came forth. Williams: The spirit hits you. You know, I was down in New Orleans and saw Mayor Nagin enduring Katrina, I was down there five days after, worked with this man, talking with this man. Like a lot of politicians in America, and I'm not saying this as a negative to you sir, but a lot of politicians get caught up in the moment, they're caught up in the fever. He was caught up, he made some statements that he shouldn't have made. I think now that we can understand that he's at least willing to back up and say 'I made a mistake'. News & Politics, Transcripts, Nagin Welcome PoliPundit, Don Singleton and Don Surber readers! Please have a look around.