Cave News

Democrats are fast and furious in their Operation Fast and Furious cover-up

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are officially trying to cover for Attorney General Eric Holder just before he testifies on Thursday about Operation Fast and Furious, with anti-Second Amendment Ranking Member Elijah Cummings leading the way.

Last night, Cummings released a 95 page waste of paper and taxpayer money report, alleging that top Justice Department officials did not authorize the program, despite evidence showing otherwise.

The report tries to pin the blame back on a few "rogue" managers in the ATF Phoenix Field Division.

This is the same argument we've heard since the beginning of the scandal: it was a local operation, nobody important knew anything.

Will Eric Holder weasel out of it?

Link to the above story here.

Fast and furious in a nutshell here.

Amish Project - 90 days without cellphone email or social media

Could you disconnect for three months? No cellphone. No Facebook. No Twitter. No email.

Use a landline phone in a hospital waiting room or in a public library.

Write letters with pen and paper and take them to the Post Office.

One 24-year-old University of Wisconsin student did just that. He voluntarily unplugged from all media for 90 days and lived to tell about it.

From October to December, Jake Reilly, son of ESPN sportswriter Rick Reilly, unplugged from social media, email, texts, and cellphones because he felt that we spend more time with gadgets and keyboards than we do with the people we really care about.

Among other things he found the difference between "real" relationships and "superficial" relationships.

Link

Report: John Edwards presidential campaign is still spending!

An article at the link below reports that the John Edwards presidential campaign committee is still spending.

Edwards faces charges that he used $925,000 in campaign funds to cover up an affair with blonde divorcee Rielle Hunter shown in photo at right with the child she had with John Edwards.

From the article:

Despite facing a federal trial on campaign contribution violations, John Edwards’ presidential campaign committee — it remains open and active — keeps spending.

Between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, the John Edwards for President committee spent $164,734 largely to maintain an office, pay staffers and consultants and fund thousands of dollars in travel and hotel expenses, newly filed federal documents indicate.

And the committee maintained $2.14 million cash on hand through 2011.

Shown above left to right: Edward's late wife Elizabeth, John Edwards, Edwards lover Rielle Hunter.

It’s unlikely, although not stated outright in the reports, that Edwards used the money in conjunction with his ongoing legal troubles.

Link

Maryland Governor proposes state sales tax on gasoline

Living up to the Democrat tax and spend label, Maryland's Governor Martin O’Malley is proposing a gas tax increase for the first time in decades.

Maryland’s gas prices could soon be going sky high. The governor has recommended applying sales tax to gas, and it could pump up prices more than 20 cents a gallon.

On Monday, the governor announced a proposal to apply the state’s 6 percent sales tax to gasoline.

The state already levies a 23.5-cent gas tax, and the sales tax proposal would be on top of that to generate new revenue for transportation infrastructure needs. The O’Malley administration said the proposal would raise the price of gas by about 6 cents a gallon in the first year, 12 cents in the second year and about 18 cents in the third year.

Link

Report: The making of a modest Monarch

At the link below British royal writer Robert Lacey has a delightful illustrated article about the making of a very modest Monarch.

He describes how a down-to-earth childhood prepared Queen Elizabeth II (pictured) for 60 glorious years on the throne.

Elizabeth was born in 1926 and was ten years old when her father became King after his brother King Edward VIII abdicated his throne in 1936.

Prior to that time she was never in line to the throne and becoming Queen some day was never on her mind.

However, on December 1936 her father became King George VI making Elizabeth next in line to the throne.

Brought up with an almost religious respect for the Crown, there seemed no prospect of her inheriting it.

Her young head was never turned by the prospect of grandeur — which is why she would prove so good at her job. Elizabeth II’s lack of ego would become the paradoxical secret of her greatness.

To this day, the Queen keeps her breakfast cereal in Tupperware boxes, and is eagle-eyed in switching off unnecessary lights in Buckingham Palace.

Link

Is Blackberry stuck in the past?

Can the business oriented Blackberry keep up with Google's app oriented Android?

The Blackberry by RIM (Research in Motion) was the hottest thing around after it morphed from a pager-like gadget in 1999 to a mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard and software that put mobile e-mail on the map.

Blackberry is looked upon as a corporate tool rather than an average device for the everyday person.

Blackberry is business orented whereas Android is more app oriented. If Blackberry can't hold on to its business followers, Android will win the Blackberry vs. Android battle.

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We are still asked: what is a QWERTY keyboard? How did it get its name?

The name QWERTY, used to describe a computer keyboard, comes from the first six letters in the top alphabet row (the row just below the numbers) as shown below.

Long before computers came along, a typewriter keyboard was called the "Universal."

The keyboard was the work of inventor C. L. Sholes, who put together prototypes of the first commercial typewriter in a Milwaukee machine shop back in the 1860's.

Now it’s called the QWERTY keyboard.

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By the way, every few weeks someone asks me where the name “Blog” came from. A blog is a web log that got its name from dropping the first two letters from "weblog" (weBLOG).

Forget global warming

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, data was issued last week without fanfare by the British Meteorological Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit.

The data confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

The Met Office released the new figures showing no warming in 15 years.

It was the University of East Anglia that tried to convince the scientific community that the earth was warming. No wonder then that this new data they released was without fanfare.

We wonder if Al Gore was contacted for comment.

Link

Report: Obama says he doesn't need Congress

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a fierce good-government advocate, slammed President Obama saying he is behaving as if he is not accountable to Congress and the American people.

"The president has decided he doesn't need Congress at all," said Grassley, in a speech delivered from the Senate floor.

Obama has said, "When Congress won't act, I will."

And he has. Obama has announced executive action on everything from mortgages and student loans, summer jobs for youth and new fuel economy standards.

One commenter wrote, "When Obama governs by Executive Order instead of allowing the legislative process to work, as he has done all along and as he has pledged to continue doing, he effectively turns the United States into a dictatorship with him as the dictator.

Link

Struggling Olive Garden to have a company makeover

With sales slipping, Olive Garden is trying to win back customers who have fallen out of love with the nation's largest Italian chain.

From a report at the link below:

Olive Garden has a lock on the “affordable Italian food” market. Or does it?

Despite its popularity and 750 restaurants across the country, the chain has lost much of its metaphorical spice in recent years.

Olive Garden executives acknowledged they let Olive Garden fall into a rut.

To improve sales, Olive Garden will remodel restaurants and revamp the menu, adding lower-priced dishes.

Its long-running ads with actors portraying perky families will get replaced, with an as-yet undisclosed new campaign.

Olive Garden salads and bread sticks are outstanding. However, if that's all you really like, it's hardly worthwhile dining there.

Link

An endangered gray wolf makes a rare appearance in California

A gray wolf has not been seen in the wild in California since 1924.

It was 88 years ago when the last known gray wolf was killed in the Golden State during a wolf extermination plan.

Now Lassen County is where a lone wolf — the first known member of his species on California soil in nearly 90 years — has decided to settle in for the winter.

The radio-collar-wearing wolf, known as OR7 to scientists, took a 300-mile, zigzagging trek away from his pack in northeastern Oregon, crossing the border into California on December 28.

His growing legion of fans call him Journey, and he has stayed put in a sagebrush-covered high-desert region known as the Modoc Plateau for more than a week.

To have a wolf set foot in the state when the last one was killed in 1924 is spectacularly big news.

Much more here.