“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” – old Italian proverb [as near as anyone can tell].

There is no doubt that Breitbart & company deserve all the blame for ACORN. The media should have done some fact checking, but things spun out of control quickly, and the GOP piled on in a flash.

This time, people held off. It would appear that while Bill O’Reilly featured it, the story about Shirley Sherrod did not appear on the “hard news” daytime schedule on Fox. Everyone seemed to be considering the source, after getting burned by the ACORN mess, and waiting for some confirmation.

They got their confirmation from the Obama administration and the NAACP, who attacked Mrs. Sherrod’s character without having the courtesy to listen to her side on the story.

Then the media ran with it, and didn’t halt until an elderly lady from Georgia called CNN and told them that the story was wrong.

Breitbart, O’Reilly, Beck, Limbaugh, et cetera ad nauseum are “scorpions”. That they manufacture stories to slander innocent people isn’t news, it’s “olds”. This is how they make their money, so they aren’t going to stop doing it. Even the M$M has figured it out.

The Beaten Dog Democrats™ in the White House need to have Alan Grayson teach them how to respond to attacks. Apologies after you defame and fire someone does not make that person whole, and does not give confidence to people who might vote for you.

CNN reports on the latest admitted safety violation on the Deepwater Horizon: Deepwater Horizon alarm had been ‘inhibited,’ technician testifies

Kenner, Louisiana (CNN) — An alarm system on the Deepwater Horizon had been “inhibited” for about a year before the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and started the worst oil disaster in the nation’s history, the platform’s chief electronics technician testified to a federal panel Friday.

An inhibited mode means sensors for toxic or combustible gases or fire are active and will alert the platform’s computer system, but the computer does not trigger an audible or visual alarm, technician Mike Williams told the six-member panel.

Supervisors on the Transocean rig were aware that the alarm system had been inhibited, Williams said.

“When I discovered about a year ago it was inhibited, I inquired as to why it was inhibited, and the explanation I got is that … they did not want people woke up at 3 o’clock in the morning due to false alarms,” Williams said.

While as a computer person I appreciate that the computer was given warning of its impending doom, I think it might have been more useful for people to know. If they were getting a lot of false alarms, the systems should have been fixed, but I don’t think they were getting false alarms. Based on the testimony of a number of people on the vessel, the Well from Hell was belching methane on a regular basis, and nothing was done about it.

This is like investigating a house fire and seeing the smoke alarms without batteries and pennies replacing fuses in the electrical box – it was a tragedy waiting to happen.

We have two members of the plutocracy attempting to buy elected positions in Florida.

Rick Scott is running against Bill McCollum for the Republican nomination for governor of Florida, and Jeff Greene is running against Kendrick Meek for the Democratic nomination for US Senator. Scott is a multi-millionaire while Greene is a billionaire. It is almost impossible to avoid the output from their self-financed campaigns.

Scott made his money the old-fashioned way, from Medicare and Medicaide as the CEO of HCA [formerly Hospital Corporation of America]. Despite record fines for his corporation’s billing practices, HCA made enough money to reward Scott with tens of millions of dollars in compensation.

While one of the secrets of HCA’s huge profits was cutting costs by eliminating jobs, Scott keeps saying he is going to cut taxes and the jobs will magically appear, i.e. another supply-side true-believer with nary a clue as to how the economy works. Of course he opposes the Federal government, not realizing that the stimulus is about to end and Florida is in dire financial straits, making tax cuts irrelevant as no one has any money for taxes anyway.

I know more about what Greene was up to because I was in California when he made his stake in the 1980s during the over-heated real estate market by flipping properties. He bought distressed properties, did some rehab, and re-sold them. He says that he has a proven record of job creation, but hiring day-labors to do some rehab work isn’t creating permanent jobs.

Greene left when the bubble deflated and made the big money with credit default swaps. One of the few big winners in the global financial melt-down thinks that he has the skills to create jobs, after destroying tens of thousands of jobs with his Wall Street gambling.

There’s no telling what the people of Florida will do, but these guys are part of the problem with our economy, not the solution.

At this point in time, the Democrat Alex Sink looks good for the position of governor, and Charlie Crist is running ahead in the Senate race. These guys are doing a lot of damage to their primary opponents, and that isn’t good for the chances of their supposed parties in November.

Bordeaux – Pauillac

Distance: 52 kilometers.

This is a time trial and Andy Schleck’s last chance to make up the 8 seconds that Alberto Contador has on him.

Fabian Cancellara has won the second time trial stage, just as he won the first, and Andy lost 31 seconds to Alberto.

With Thor Hushovd only 10 points behind Alessandro Petacchi in the battle for the Green, the sprints will dominate tomorrow as Alberto parades into Paris.

Alberto Contador ( Esp – AST – 001 ) [Yellow] 89h 16m 27s
Alessandro Petacchi ( Ita – LAM – 208 ) [Green] 213 points
Anthony Charteau ( Fra – BBO – 153 ) [Polka Dot] 143 points
Andy Schleck ( Lux – SAX – 011 ) 2 [White]
Team: Radio Shack RSH ( 021-029 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Fabian Cancellara ( Sui – SAX – 013 )

They’ve gone 3,539.4 kilometers [2,199.3 miles] at an average speed of 39.6 kph [24.6 mph].

OVERALL STANDINGS:

[Read more →]

Position: 28.5N 87.6W [ 4 PM CDT 2100 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [300°] near 14 mph [22 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 30 mph [50 kph].
Wind Gusts: 40 mph [65 kph].
Minimum central pressure: 1011 mb ↓.

Bonnie was systematically pulled apart by wind shear and dry air from an upper level low pressure area and is now a remnant low pressure area.

All Tropical Storm Warnings have been discontinued. Bonnie is “pining for the fjords” and no further advisories will be issued.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]