HALF-FULL REPORT 02/20/09

Ensconced in a booth in the HFR Saloon, we have to be extra careful today.  For no matter how many of Durk Pearson’s Party Pills we take to nutritionally protect us from booze, if we were to drink to all the marvelous events of this week, we would all get very seriously sloshed.

So, bartender, just set down a bottle of 12 year-old Famous Grouse and we’ll each have a wee dram in praise of…

Let’s see, first would have to be celebrating the ongoing travails of Senator Tombstone Burris.  He has become such an embarrassing joke to the Dems that not only has the Chicago Tribune and Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn called for him to resign, the black pastors of Chicago have as well.

But he won’t.  Tombstone has such an inspiring combo of 2-digit low IQ and sky-high ego that he’ll hang on to his tainted seat at whatever cost in damage to his party.

Burris is a gift that will keep on giving all the way to November 2010.  His Illinois seat will most likely go Republican, as will a number of others as he is another reminder in a growing list of Democrat tax-cheating lying corrupt crooks:  Rahm Emanuel, Charlie Rangel, Chris Dodd, Barney Frank, Traitor John Murtha, Rod Blagojevich, Tom Daschle, Tim Geithner, with the list sure to grow.

Wow, Famous Grouse sure goes down easy.

***
Yes, better be careful, especially when the toast involves schadenfreude.  So just a small sip in thanks for never having to see Teddy Kennedy voting in the Senate ever again.  His inability to fly to DC and provide a desperately needed vote for the Porkalooza (which carried by the bare minimum of 60 votes thanks to the Three RINOs) is confirmation that his brain cancer is so advanced that he has only weeks or a couple of months to go.

Word is now that he is asking that his wife Vicki be appointed to replace him.  Yet she’ll have to run in 2010 with stiff Republican opposition, perhaps from Mitt Romney.  In 2010, Massachusetts and America may finally be rid of the Curse of the Kennedys at last.

***
What was it that W. C. Fields said about water?  That it was the stuff that rusts pipes, that you can’t trust it because even a straight stick turns crooked in it, that fish do unmentionable things in it.

In light of another of his famous quips, that "Once in the wilds of remotest China, I lost my corkscrew, and was forced to live on food and water for days…" he might get a chuckle out of this headline of February 16:

"Parched China to Slash Water Consumption by 60 Percent"

It was almost five years ago (May 2004) that TTP explained China’s Three No’s – no water, no wives, no banks. Since then, thanks to America’s bankrupting itself binging on Chinese exports, China’s banks are flush with $2 trillion of our dollars.  But the Chicoms suffer even more now from wife and water shortages. 

Especially water.  It’s mind-boggling to even imagine cutting water consumption by 60%, much less pulling it off – particularly what water they want to conserve is too polluted to irrigate crops, much less drink.

It’s yet another example of just how major-serious China’s economic problems are – the very last solution to which is to spend all their savings on propping up Zero by buying U.S. Treasurys.  The Chicoms have to spend their stash on propping up their own economy, not ours.

So, please, bartender, don’t even think of serving us water or ice with our Famous Grouse.  We prefer it neat.  Gumbai!

***
Ah, speaking of warnings.  A few days after the November 4 lunacy last year in There’s Got To Be An Elephant In Here Somewhere, it was pointed out that the claim of electing a black president "heals the wounds of racism" in America was delusionary – that accusations of racism would increase, not vanish.

And sure enough, less than one month into Zero’s presidency, our new terrorist-pardoning Attorney General, Eric Holder, has accused America of being "a nation of cowards" regarding racism.  There’s outrage all over the place at this, yet people should be as shocked as Claude Rains in Casablanca.

The irony is that Holder is right, in precisely the opposite way he intends.  America is a nation of cowards for electing Obama.  The only reason he was elected is because he is black. 

Do you think a white guy with his total lack of experience at anything, a first term Senator with an empty suit résumé, would have come close to being nominated much less elected, or would have had the religious adulation of the media?

He was elected by voters too cowardly to reject the accusation that they would be racist if they didn’t vote for him.  Thanks for making this clear, Eric. 

***
Well, that didn’t take long.  Last week’s HFR revealed that National Security Director Jim Jones was receptive to an Airborne Laser (ABL) test on the Omid satellite launched by Iran’s mullahs on February 3^rd.  Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but on February 10, Omid suddenly and mysteriously stopped transmitting its radical Islam propaganda.  Nobody is saying a word about it, including the mullahs who are silent about their dead bird in space.

***
Now for a truly heartwarming story.  In 1999, I took a father and his son to the North Pole.  I’ve taken a lot of people to 90 North in the course of my 21 expeditions there, and a number of them have become good friends.  He was one of them.  His name is Leonard Abess.

Leonard is genuinely nice guy, the sort of fellow you enjoy having a beer or cup of coffee with.  If you met him, you’d never have a clue that, starting as the lowliest of employees, he worked his way up to run the most successful private bank in Miami. 

Successful enough to buy Sylvester Stallone’s mansion in Coconut Grove on Biscayne Bay, with 11 acres that just doesn’t have 100 palm trees, it has 100 different species of palm trees.  You’ve never seen a tropical garden like it.  I sure haven’t.

With exquisite timing giving the ongoing banking meltdown, Leonard sold 83% of his Miami City National Bank to the Spanish bank Caja Madrid for $927 million last November.  City National will continue to be solidly run since Leonard remains as chairman/CEO.

You may have heard a story that appeared in newspapers and on Drudge this week with the headline:  Miami Banker Gives $60 Million of His Own Money to Employees.  That’s Leonard.

Not only did Leonard share his wealth with all 399 of the bank’s employees – he even tracked down 72 former and retired employees and gave them bonuses as well.

Many people around the country and the world have been pleasantly stunned and surprised by what Leonard did.  But I’m not – for I’ve known what a good and decent man he is for years.  I am so very proud to have him as a friend.

***
Before we polish off our bottle of Grouse, I’d like to offer a toast to another friend – and to ask a favor of you.

A week from tomorrow, February 28^th, is Jack Abramoff’s 50^th birthday.  Instead of being able to celebrate it in freedom with his wife Pam, his children and friends, he continues to rot in jail because he was framed by John McCain and the Washington Post.

The story of how McCain, as chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, criminalized Jack’s lobbying because Jack took away business from McCain’s former staffers who had become lobbyists for various Indian tribes is told in The Perfect Villain by Gary Chaftez, a journalist for the Boston Globe.

The favor I’m asking is that you consider sending a birthday greeting to Jack.  As Pam says, receiving a kind word from a friend would boost his spirits tremendously.  Let him know that he is in your prayers.  It is a frightful injustice that he is endlessly enduring, and this is a small way we can help.

His address is:

Jack Abramoff, 27593-112
FPC PO Box 1000
Cumberland MD 21501

Sometime this spring, I’ll be going out to Cumberland to pay Jack a visit.  It’s in way northwest Maryland.  If any of you would like to join me, let me know.

With the last drop of our Famous Grouse – here’s to you, Jack.  We’ll be thinking of you on your 50^th.