Heaps & Barrels: Edition 4

TOP OF THE HEAP

Runners-up:

Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh gets a runner-up position because he’s not supporting John McCain.  Huh?  Conservative radio has always been portrayed by the mainstream media as a tool for the Republican party.  But Limbaugh is sticking with the conviction that McCain would not be a good President, a point of view he held in 2000 when McCain last ran for President.  Limbaugh’s in a no-win situation here:  root for McCain and be labeled a hypocrite for his 2000 remarks, or root against him and draw ire from the conservative establishment.  Good for Limbaugh for sticking with his original thesis.

Barack Obama

You have to admit, Barack Obama has coordinated a brilliant campaign, so brilliant that he is poised to win the Democratic Presidential nomination.  Six months ago, everyone thought the primary season would be a coronation for Hillary Clinton, but Obama’s campaign speeches have attracted many young people, a segment of the population that doesn’t normally vote. Obama has also conducted a positive and classy campaign.

Top of the Top Of The Heap:

New York Giants, Super Bowl XLII victors

Was that a great game or what!  Tell you what, more than a few people were predicting the upset on this game, so many that Las Vegas lost money on this game.  Tom Coughlin completely out-coached Bill Belichick, and his defensive unit gave Tom Brady fits all night.  Eli Manning had a magical postseason run and all the offensive plays went his way.  How did Manning elude three tacklers and convert that 35-yard bomb to David Tyree?  Seems like the Giants added by subtracting Jeremy Shockey and Tiki Barber.  Perhaps NBC can add by subtracting Tiki Barber next year!
The trick will be returning to the big dance, as nowadays an NFC team in the Super Bowl does poorly the following year.  Their division might actually be worse next year, so that’s a plus for them.

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

Runners-up:

Jane Fonda

Here’s a washed-up actress and Vietnam-war traitor who needs a little publicity.  What does she choose to do?  Drop the C-bomb on the Today show.  That’s great, Jane; say that vulgar word during morning viewing.  As far as I’m concerned, she lived off her father’s name to start her career, and married Ted Turner to keep her name in the news.  Now that she’s no longer married to Turner, guess she needs this kind of publicity to keep her name out there.

Michael Medved

Aww, other conservative talk show hosts not voting the way you want, Mikey?  So you feel they’re not as bright as you, as thoughtful as you?  And since they won’t support your guy, you feel they’re “liberal” and overly-emotional?  Maybe Olbermann is right (gasp!), you should go back to reviewing movies.

Bill Belichick, New England Patriots head coach

Face it, Tom Coughlin out-coached you and based on you running off the field with 1 second left in the game, you were outclassed.  Look, you should have won the game; if Asante Samuel has caught that possible interception with 2 minutes left, or if Eli Manning was sacked instead of converting that 35-yard bomb, your team would have been 19-0.  But as the leader of the Patriots, you needed to be a classy loser.

Mercury Morris, former ‘72 Dolphins running back

This is the reason why I was rooting for the Patriots, because I’m sick and tired of these angry, bitter Dolphins rooting for teams to lose every year.  When it looked like the Patriots would go undefeated, the ‘72 Dolphins, led by Mercury Morris, had the gall to say they’d be second-best because they were the second the be undefeated.  And he rubbed it in big time when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl.  What a low-class individual.  Care to discuss the .400-average opponent’s record that year?  Lucked out when Terry Bradshaw was injured too, huh?  Oh, what about your drug abuse?

Montel Williams

Lots of runners-up this time around!  Trash TV icon Montel Williams was on Fox & Friends to discuss the death of Heath Ledger.  Montel decided he would take a shot at the hosts of Fox & Friends by stating the show spends too much time on tabloid fodder.  Exactly what does Montel discuss on his show?  When Montel said they should talk about fallen soldiers in Iraq, host Greg Kelly (a military veteran) asked Montel to talk about a soldier that had recently died in Iraq.  Predictably, a flustered Montel could not identify a fallen soldier to discuss.  Hey Montel, we all know you couldn’t care less about fallen soldiers.  Nice try though.

David Shuster

Another angry personality on MSNBC.  Usually, Shuster directs his ire at the Bush administration, but this time he decided to tell his audience that Hillary Clinton was “pimping out” her daughter Chelsea.  I’m not sure if it was his overt bias toward Obama or misogynism, but nobody deserves to be talked to like that.  Good for Hillary Clinton for calling him and MSNBC on it, and Shuster deserved to be suspended.  Oh, where did he get the idea to use the “pimping” term?  Olbermann’s earlier statement that Bush was “pimping out” General David Petraeus when Petraeus discussed the success of the Iraq war surge.

Bottom of the Bottom Of The Barrel:

Mike Huckabee

I make no bones about it; I have no respect for Mike Huckabee.  I firmly believe that he uses God to pursue his political, personal, and professional ambition.  His Baptist ministry was a stepping stone to a political career, and he continues to play this card to court social conservatives during his quixotic run for President.
Clearly, Huckabee struck a deal with John McCain to “win” the West Virginia primary, in order to knock Mitt Romney out of the race.  How?  First, the media already portrays the South as a bunch of hick evangelicals.  Second, the victory was announced in the early afternoon, so this got plenty of play in the media.  I’m sure many potential voters then concluded that a vote for Romney was a losing vote, so voila!  Huckabee takes all the southern states, and McCain takes everything else.
Now we are seeing the real Huckabee.  Now that John McCain has sewn up the nomination and Mitt Romney has thrown his support to McCain, Huckabee says he’s staying in until the convention.  Blind ambition from Mike Huckabee — so blind that he may have forfeited his spot as a running mate.
As a Georgian, I am thoroughly embarrassed that Huckabee won this state’s primary.   John McCain would be ill-served having Huckabee on the ticket or in his cabinet.

Heaps & Barrels: Edition 3

TOP OF THE HEAP

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Runner-ups:

Drew Carey, new The Price Is Right host
OK, time to give Drew his due. He’s been the host of The Price Is Right for 4 months now, and the ratings have been the same as they were last year. His hosting style shows much more levity and looseness, somewhat of a contrast with Bob Barker’s automatic, polished style. I think he’s done about 50 out of 72 active pricing games, lots of Money Game, Any Number, and Plinko. He’ll be doing some nighttime shows starting in February, so check him out. TPIR is a much better show than Power of 10.

The Biggest Loser
Speaking of “game” shows, I’ve started watching The Biggest Loser and it’s amazing seeing people lose 40% of their body weight in eight months. This show is more worthwhile watching than Survivor or Big Brother. The contestants actually change their lives.

Neil Cavuto
Finally a voice of reason regarding the vote-buying scheme known as the $150 billion stimulus package. Cavuto, along with the Wall Street Journal, have rightly described the stimulus bill as a feel-good, do-nothing bill, which at best provides a one-year middle-class tax cut and at worst destroys the soul of the Republican party.
Top of the Top of the Heap:

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)
Give John McCain credit — he was literally written off as a serious contender 3-4 months ago, and now he could be a week away from being the Republican nominee. Now that he has won Florida’s primary, McCain has the momentum, the delegates, and the donations. Now that Giuliani appears ready to drop out, the Republican nomination is a two-man race between McCain and Mitt Romney. To be sure, Mike Huckabee will likely win 2 or 3 southern states next week, but McCain looks poised to take the larger states like New York and California.
The Republican base is dissatisfied with McCain’s liberal stance on tax and spending policy, but on the most important issue of our time, the War On Terror, McCain is unquestionably qualified to lead this country.
So far this election season, John McCain has emerged at the Top Of The Heap.

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

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Runner-ups:Bill Shipp
I’m starting to get tired of Bill Shipp’s bitter, hateful diatribes about anything regarding a conservative value or politician in the state of Georgia. It’s plainly obvious he feels the dividing point between Georgia being a top-notch, envy-of-the-U.S. state and becoming a racist, uneducated, and undesirable state is when Democrat Roy Barnes lost the governorship to Republican Sonny Perdue. Shipp doesn’t use much facts to back up either the status of Georgia during the Barnes’ administration vs. the status during Perdue’s tenure. It doesn’t matter; he’s become just a know-nothing bombthrower. I’d also like to know why Shipp is no longer on The Georgia Gang. Perhaps he can no longer debate his less-than-salient thoughts against Dick Williams and Martha Zoller.

Keith Olbermann
Does this guy ever stop lying? How bitter is Olby, losing in the ratings to Bill O’Reilly by 3-to-1? This weekend, even fellow lefty Howard Kurtz half-heartedly called out Olby for his obsessive personal attacks on Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, Rudy Giuliani, and George W. Bush. Olby is completely incapable of debating anyone leaning right-of-center politically, as evidenced by his guest on his opinion show. The most shameful act, however, is during coverage of the Republican primaries. During the various speeches, Olbermann laughs and makes snide jokes during these speeches. Completely disrespectful and out-of-line. Shame on MSNBC and the NBC News brand for allowing this to go on.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kansas)
How do you follow up an awful State of the Union speech by President Bush? A good strategy would be to offer a top-notch response, maybe something uplifting or appealing to the Democratic base. Instead, we were treated to a ghastly speech by Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas. This poorly-rehearsed speech (as evidence by her poor TelePrompter reading) repeatedly contained the snide, condescending phrase “let’s get to work.” Probelm is, she offered nothing concrete to work on. The next day, she endorsed Barack Obama. My guess is she is “getting to work on” being picked for the VP slot.

John Gibson
Heath Ledger’s tragic (and apparently accidental) death at age 28 wasn’t a joking matter, but Gibby made quite a few awful jokes at Ledger’s expense on Gibby’s radio show. The jokes made the assumption that the drug overdose was an intentional suicide attempt, and portrayed Ledger as a drug abuse. Gibson’s lucky he didn’t get canned from both his radio show and his TV show.

Bottom of the Bottom of the Barrel:

Rudy Giuliani, (Former) Presidential candidate
It was just a month or two ago when Rudy Giuliani was considered a lock for the Republican nomination, having had a commanding lead over Mitt Romney and the rest of the Republican contenders. Something must have happened; I don’t know if Rudy got lazy, took for granted his considerable lead, made too many blunders, or was just outsmarted by Romney and John McCain and Mike Huckabee (?). At any rate, Giuliani has to be the biggest disappointment of the 2008 election cycle. In my opinion, he lost this election when he badly lost New Hampshire. Giuliani was then forced to play an all-or-nothing strategy in Florida, and as of the writing, Giuliani is fighting for 3rd place. Time’s up on Rudy’s bottom-of-the-barrel campaign, but he’s still a 9/11 hero.

Heaps & Barrels: Edition 2

TOP OF THE HEAP

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Runner-up:
Eli Manning, East Rutherford, NJ Giants QuarterbackRewind to about 16 months ago for the NY Giants: the team’s star running back Tiki Barber seemed more interested in leaving football and pursuing a broadcasting career, coach Tom Coughlin’s job is on the line, and the famously vicious New York media wanted Eli and Tom Coughlin gone.Now to the beginning of the season: Coughlin is still the coach but he’s on notice, Tiki Barber (now a football analyst on the hideous NBC pre-game show) is declaring Eli Manning not much of leader, and the sports media pretty much declared Manning an average quarterback and nothing more.

Well surprise surprise, the Giants are in the Super Bowl, beating the two best teams in the NFC (Dallas and Green Bay) and doing it without tight end Jeremy Shockey and running back Brandon Jacobs. Eli Manning has been playing flawless football for the pst 3 months, and almost won the their final game of the regular season, against the now 18-0 New England Patriots.

That’s Eli’s next challenge, beating those same Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. He received high praise from more celebrated brother Peyton. Eli solicited advice from Peyton, and Peyton told Eli that he could offer him no advice since he has surpassed the point where Peyton could give him advice. If you’re keeping score, Eli made the Super Bowl in just his fourth year; Peyton reached the Super Bowl in his ninth year.

It’s about time the sports media, the New York media, and Tiki Barber lay off Eli. In fact Tiki, more and more it looks like you caused the Giants to flame out at the end of last year. Hope you enjoy rating fashion on the Today Show, while Eli and your former teammates play in the Super Bowl. For perserverance, Eli Manning is the runner-up to the Top of the Heap.

Top of the Top:
Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve Chairman

On January 22, before the markets opened for the week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke took the bold step of reducing the federal funds rate by 3/4%. Recognizing that individuals and businesses are having an increasingly difficult time obtaining credit, Bernanke and the Federal Reserve lowered the funds rate to loosen the flow of money. Doing so will make loans more affordable in the hopes of stimulating the economy.

Recall several years ago right after 9/11, Alan Greenspan pursued a similar strategy to keep the economy from a more severe recession. Greenspan brought the funds rate down to 1%, which combined with the 2001 tax cuts, helped keep the 2001 recession shallow and strengthened the economy for years to come.

The downside to the Greenspan strategy is since credit was so cheap, it contributed to the housing bubble in the early and mid-2000’s, and when inflation increased (due to soaring energy prices), the funds rate had to be greatly increased to tighten credit and keep inflation in check. That caused the housing bubble to burst, and now housing valuations and construction are dropping precipitously.

Bernanke’s move will attempt to jump-start lending, which will jump-start the housing market and consumer spending, which will stimulate the economy. The problem is this rate decrease will not work its way through the economy for 6-12 months, and a recession may already have taken hold by then. Bernanke is using all the tools at his disposal to keep us out of a recession and doing so expeditiously. For that, Bernanke is at the Top of the Heap.

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

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Runner-up:
John EdwardsDoes anyone really buy this guy? Does anyone truly believe John Edwards genuinely wants to help the poor and downtrodden? Give me a break!John Edwards is exactly what’s wrong with politics today. His common theme is this “Two Americas” B.S. where he pits those with not-so-much against those who have much in order to generate anger in the electorate. This, he hopes, will give him votes, or at least favorable press.

The truth is, he could care less about those less well-off than he. Not only that, he knows he doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the Presidency. He garners just enough popularity to be a factor in the eventual nominee’s campaign. In 2004, John Kerry felt compelled to bring Edwards on the ticket, because Edwards sold himself as someone who could balance the ticket. Fast forward to today. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a bitter campaign, and now John Edwards is positioning himself as the one person who can help either Clinton or Obama to win. Beware to them; Edwards is looking for a quid pro quo, the high-level position in a Clinton or Obama administration.

But wait, there’s more. Edwards has the gall to say he feels like a victimized minority because of all the attention Clinton, a woman, and Obama, a black man, receive in the media, and Edwards can’t get a word in edgewise. What a slime! Any other week he would take up residence at the Bottom of the Barrel, but…

Bottom of the Bottom:
Center for Public Integrity Report

The headline “Study: Bush, administration made 935 false statements leading us to Iraq War” was plastered all over print, TV, and internet media. Sounds like an indictment on President Bush and how he distorted information to lead us to the Iraq War. The statements Bush and members of his administration made from 9/11 to the start of the Iraq War in 2003 regard Iraq’s alleged WMD stockpiles and links to Al Qaeda.

Unfortunately, things are not all that they appear with this study.

Let’s start with the time frame of the study, as it starts with 9/11. Starting with a date of 9/11 factors out all the faulty intelligence gathered prior to 9/11, in fact going back into the 1990’s when Bill Clinton was president.

Speaking of faulty intelligence, the study also neglects to mention this same intelligence was corroborated by numerous intelligence agenices all over the world, and had been since the 1990’s. Including these facts would not fit the study’s premise of painting Bush as a war-mongering liar.

Finally, the author of the study is an organization called “Center for Public Integrity.” This organization is far from an unbiased observer of ethics in government and public policy. In fact, this is another organization funded by billionaire smear-merchant George Soros, who has turned out to be a master manipulator of the mainstream media. The Soros link to the study is never made in the mainstream media.

Shame on the mainstream media for not looking deeper at the premise and flaws of the “study,” but for George Soros and this shadow faux-watchdog agency, they are truly at the Bottom Of The Barrel.

Heaps & Barrels: Edition 1

TOP OF THE HEAP

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Runner-up:
The internetI’ve never done a true blog until now, where I can express my opinion, and allow others to agree or disagree with that opinion. I thought coming up with a blog that points out a couple of good news or personal items, combined with a couple of rotten items, would be something interesting to write about once in a while.The internet has also been my lifeblood for about a decade now. I have been working as a software engineer for 18 years, and my most prosperous years have been during the prominence of the internet.

I am also convinced that, when unrestricted by governments, that the free flow of information afforded by the internet will increase freedom around the world. Oppressive governments tend to restrict information, and the internet makes information easy to obtain. It is up to the individual to disseminate and scrutinize such information.

Top of the Top:
Fatherhood

Let’s start on a good note here — I was married for over 13 years before I was blessed with a child. The story I like to tell people is that when my wife took one of those home pregnancy tests and it came up positive, I told her that she was dreaming and come back to bed. Well that dream did indeed come true, and my kid is the most precious girl on earth.

Having a child of my own has definitely changed my life, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s cool to have perfect strangers come up to you when we’re in a restaurant or a store and compliment us on how cute or how well-behaved our daughter is.

As a scientist, I’m fascinated by her growing awareness of herself and her surroundings.

Are there challenges? Sure there are, but fathers have it easier than mothers, starting at conception! Being a daddy is most definitely at the Top Of The Heap.

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL

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Runner-up:
President Bush’s $145 billion stimulus planThere’s no doubt the economy is slowing down. Some legitimate organizations believe the U.S. is already in a recession, while other agenda-driven organizations, led by the mainstream media, have been saying for years that the U.S. is in bad shape in order to shape opinion.One item that is causing the U.S. economy to slow down is the high gas prices we all have had to pay for the last four years. Money paid at the gas pump means less that can be paid for other expenses.

More recently, credit is now harder to obtain, due to irresponsible lending practices during the big housing boom earlier this decade, combined with the raising of interest rates. This is affecting consumer spending at all levels.

Now that it’s an election year, President Bush obviously wants the Republican party to remain in the White House and pick up seats in Congress, so he has proposed a $145 billion stimulus package composed of $100 billion in tax “rebates” and $45 billion in business tax breaks.

Here’s the problem: these “rebates” have been done before and proven not to stimulate the economy, this is straight deficit spending, the rebates will be given to those not paying federal income tax, and the rebates will not be given to people making “too much” money. In other words, this is a horrible waste of money, and is classic pandering during an election year.

What should have happened is more comprehensive tax reform, both at the corporate and individual level, should have occurred while the Republicans were in control of Congress. Instead, the President and Congress were spending money like it grew on trees. This stimulus package and its true intention, a vote-buying scheme, is a runner-up to the Bottom of the Barrel.

Bottom of the Bottom:
Kirk Mellish, WSB-AM Meteorologist

WSB-AM is one of the premier news-talk stations in the country, flanked by nationally-syndicated hosts Neal Boortz and Clark Howard. So how can such a station carry nationally-syndicated disgrace Michael Savage and employ fraudulent weather-caster Kirk Mellish?

Kirk Mellish reads the weather for Atlanta news-talk station WSB-AM. He predicts the weather in terms of a “Mellish Meter.” Nobody knows how that meter reading is calculated; one would have a better chance of figuring out what a Wang Chung is.

The Atlanta area had a snowstorm and subsequent icing this past Thursday. For days and even hours before the storm hit, his prediction was light rain and that was all, citing his own “models.” He went on to state this was his hardest forecast in 10 years. Most other meteorologists had forecast light snow and a gradual warming overnight to light rain. We ended up with about 1/2 inch of snow at the Atlanta airport, about 1 inch just north of the Perimeter (I-285), and 3-4 inches in the mountains, all occuring until midnight, then rain after that as the temperatures climbed above freezing.

What puts Mellish at the bottom of the barrel? He had the nerve to state the weather had turned out exactly as he predicted, by citing the light rain during the morning rush hour. Not only that, other WSB-AM talent propped him up as a great predictor of the weather (which included Boortz, who claimed that TV meteorologists routinely copy Mellish’s forecast. Sorry, not buying it). Blind arrogance, combined with inaccuracy, puts Mellish at the Bottom of the Barrel.