- I’ve heard of political parties turning on one of their own, but typically that comes after a person is elected to office and does something inherently contradictory to that party’s values and ideals. It usually doesn’t happen right after that individual does nothing more than winning his or her state's Democratic Senate primary. Yet that’s exactly where political newcomer Alvin Greene finds himself after his stunning win in the South Carolina Democratic primary last week. Greene is attempting to rally the party behind him, but all party leaders want to do is launch an investigation into his victory. I’ll admit that an unemployed veteran who ran no campaign ads yet managed to defeat former state legislator Vic Rawl with almost 60 percent of the vote is curious. But this isn’t some wealthy, secretive stranger who just popped up on the scene and stole the election through his cunning and savvy. The guy is a veteran who is out of work and decided he would try his hand at politics. Because he chased his dream, he will now face Republican Sen. Jim DeMint in the general election. Sounds like a feel-good story to me, which is why I cannot fathom what is going through the head of South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, who said Sunday that he has no plans to get behind Greene and is labeling Greene as "someone's plant." Clyburn, the majority whip, appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and basically alleged a conspiracy theory about how Greene won the election. "I know a Democratic pattern. I know a Republican pattern, and I saw in the Democratic primary; elephant dung all over the place," Clyburn said. Wow…..an elephant dung blast, very classy. Now, it could be that someone helped Greene raise the money pay his state party's $10,440 filing fee. That fee seems to be at the heart of Clyburn’s inquiry and he has asked the S.C. Democratic Party to request that the federal government investigate the matter. Greene contends that he funded his campaign entirely with personal money. If so, it’s quite a story because who is unemployed, has any sort of personal savings sitting around and decides to take a huge gamble like running for political office? Not even running for office, really, but running for the right to run for political office in the general election. The situation has run all the way up the Democratic ladder to White House senior adviser David Axelrod, who was asked if Greene appears to him to be a legitimate candidate and said, "it doesn't appear so to me. The whole thing is odd. I don't really know how to explain it, and I don't think anybody else does either." Green’s primary opponent is also questioning the legitimacy of his win, with Rawl claiming that election results experts not affiliated with his campaign analyzed the results and their findings "concern the campaign, and should concern all of South Carolina." Literally everyone in the South Carolina Democratic Party is calling on Greene to step down, even party chair Carol Fowler. Oh, and there is also the fact that Greene is reportedly facing a felony charge of "disseminating, procuring or promoting obscenity" after allegedly showing University of South Carolina student pornographic pictures in a computer lab and suggesting they go to her room. There is that to consider as well, which seems like a solid idea because he was arrested on November 12, 2009, and those charges are still hanging over his head. But a political candidate who engages in sexual freakery and loves porn? Sounds like a perfect candidate to me. Greene himself has no intention of dropping out of the race and actually seems emboldened by the criticism. "I'm on the ballot from here on out. I'm in all the way, and I'm the best candidate for United States Senate in this race in South Carolina," Greene said in an interview Saturday, presumably with a straight face. To his credit, Greene (or whoever planted him as a candidate) has come up with issues he stands for and he says his platform focuses on jobs, education and justice. In response to those who question his legitimacy and theorize that he may have mental impairments, Greene laughs and says, "they're the knuckleheads." According to Greene, his background includes stints in the U.S. Air Force, South Carolina Air National Guard, U.S. Army and the South Carolina Army National Guard. The only black mark on his record that he will admit to is a discharge from the Army he called "involuntary." Regardless of how this one turns out, I have to admit that this is one Senate race I’ll be watching closely in the months ahead even though I have no direct ties to it whatsoever…………
- War! What is it good for? Pretty much everything, at least if you’re North Korea. More than anyone else out there, I’ve been openly speculating as to when North Korea would realize its dream of beating Iran to the punch and starting World War III and based on comments made by North Korean Ambassador Sin Son Ho , that dream is closer to reality than most of us realized. The showdown between the North and its South Korean neighbors over allegations that the North sank a South Korean ship with a torpedo attack is escalating quickly and after international findings that North Korea was indeed responsible, Ambassador Ho on Tuesday rejected the report , warning at the United Nations the dispute could lead to war. "A war may break out any time," he said before accusing South Korea of "fabricating" the results of the investigation into the sinking of the Cheonan. The ship sank in March and tensions on the Korean Peninsula immediately went up to Defcon-5 as speculation on who was responsible immediately focused on my man Kim Jong Il and his rogue state of Communist goodness. South Korea was understandably pissed after having 46 of its sailors die and wanted justice. Both nations presented their cases to the United Nations on Monday, and South Korea then pleaded with the Security Council to take "timely and appropriate measures." The North Korean envoy was not so diplomatic, throwing down the gauntlet by saying, in essence, if you all do anything to step to us, we’re going to fight right here, right now. "If the Security Council releases any documents against us, condemning or pressuring us ... then myself as diplomat, I can do nothing. ... The follow-up measures will be carried out by our military forces," Ambassador Ho said. Quote, end of freaking quote. Why not just carry a rocket-propelled grenade launcher with you to the speech to make your point? Perhaps invade the U.N.’s main chamber to emphasize where you’re coming from? In response to Ho’s comments, U.N. Security Council President Claude Heller said Monday that the U.N. body is "gravely concerned" about the latest tensions because of the potential "impact on peace and stability on the Korean peninsula." The North Korean take is predicated on the belief that these findings are a complete fabrication. Ho even went old-school children’s book and likened them to "some kind of fiction in Aesop's Fables," adding that, "The 'investigation result' is a complete fabrication from A to Z.” Maybe that’s just the inner destructionist in me, but that sounds an awful lot like a nation itching to nuke someone’s candy a**. So rage on North Korea, because we all know what’s coming…………
- Coffee costs enough at Starbucks that this announcement should have come long ago, but the leading provider of coffee-like, sugary beverages to the caffeinated world is finally offering free Wi-Fi connections in its stores. Perhaps because customers are cutting back on their venti chi latte purchases, Starbucks will now look to entice people with the prospect of being able to get online without having to break out their credit card. Beginning July 1, Starbucks will let anyone connect to its WiFi network for free. Additionally, this fall, Starbucks will tack on a free content network called Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo and other sites, which will include local content you won’t be able to read anywhere else. “Free Wi-Fi is in my mind just the price of admission — we want to create … new sources of content that you can only get at Starbucks,” chairman and president and CEO Howard Schulz announced at the Wired Business Conference. “This is a thing that doesn’t exist in any other consumer marketplace in America.” It may not, but free Wi-Fi exists just about everywhere else - local coffee houses, fast food joints, malls, etc. Still, Starbucks wouldn’t be making this move if there were no financial benefit. Schultz would have you believe that Starbucks hopes to make money from these initiatives simply by “enhancing the experience” and making the content “so compelling that it drives incremental traffic.” He’d better hope that content is pretty freaking compelling because McDonald’s and every other eatery in the world is offering both specialized coffee brews and free Internet access. The idea of free Wi-Fi will undoubtedly hit home for all of the losers who lug their laptops, printers, briefcases and files down to the local Starbucks and commandeer two tables in the corner to construct a second office for themselves, but will it draw in the non-Starbucks junkies? To access the Starbucks Digital Network, each customer must log in to Wi-Fi and the network with a unique identifier, allowing Starbucks to know where you are and who you are. In other words, you could be swapping your right to privacy for free Internet that could well come tagged with targeted messaging and advertising. Starbucks has done its due diligence on the idea, conducting the requisite focus groups and finding those groups receptive to the idea. To ensure that its content is fresh, current and enticing, Starbucks had inked a partnership with Yahoo and is talking to AOL’s Patch.com content-creation division about having it create customized content for the network. Whether all of this is enough to offset paying two or three times as much for your coffee, that’s for you to determine………
- Hey America, eat less fat and salt. How many times have you heard that message and overlooked it? Well, look at where it’s got you: the most overweight nation in the world. So now that an advisory committee on U.S. dietary guidelines is urging the government to decrease the recommended daily amount of saturated fat in American's diets from 10 percent to 7 percent of total calories consumed, maybe you should take the hint. The forward thinkers on this panel also recommend that Americans decrease the amount of daily sodium in their diets from 2,300 milligrams to less than 1,500 milligrams and calls for drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages. "It's sort of a gradual approach to decrease the caloric intake of the American public," says Penelope Slade-Sawyer, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion at the Department of Health and Human Services. By the way, another recommendation of the panel was that Americans get more exercise by repeating Penelope Slade-Sawyer’s full name and title over and over. The panel, consisting of 13 experts in nutrition and health, met six times over a 20-month period to develop its recommendations. Their report is now in the hands of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, but we need not wait for their take on it to heed the recommendations and shape up, America. "This report is a crucial step in the development of the dietary guidelines for Americans," says Robert Post, Deputy Director of the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion at the Department of Agriculture. The report should be key in the government’s process of issuing new dietary guidelines later this year. Perhaps if we heed these words of wisdom, we can reverse the troubling trend of childhood obesity, which has tripled in the past 30 years.” Every section of this report was developed in a way that addresses the challenges of obesity," Slade-Sawyer said. From your words to the public’s ears, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Diseases Prevention and Health Promotion at the Department of Health and Human Services………
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