FoxNews NH Forum

Ron Paul is being excluded from a Fox News Republican forum in New Hampshire. This is fine since they're a business and get to decide what they want to do.

It really doesn't matter if they're supposed to be "Fair and Balanced." We already knew that they weren't. It only matters that they're being fair and balanced in their own minds when looking at the other stations like CNN. If you're the opposite of another entity, doesn't mean that you're any better than that entity.

Republicans and Democrats are different sides of the same coin. They're not really the yin to the other's yang. They're about consolidating power and doing what is best for their own power base.

After the Republican loss you would think that they would understand that America doesn't like where they're going. It's going to happen with the upcoming Va Senate race when they put forward Jim Gilmore as their candidate. Gilmore will be hammered by Mark Warner. Warner basically had to step in to fix the budget mess that Gilmore got us into.

Republicans don't really seem to have any fiscal control. Democrats might want to spend money, but at least they understand that they have pay for it in some manner. Republicans seem to want to spend and spend, but want to defer payment.

I love the following quote from this article:

The Finance Committee's top Republican, Charles Grassley of Iowa, said it was time for Democrats to abandon their "PayGo obsession," referring to the "pay-as-you-go" principle that tax cuts or spending increases should be paid for so as not to add to the federal deficit. With the "clean" AMT bill, "the Senate Democratic leadership seems to realize that the AMT should not be offset," he said.

Circuit City and Bonuses

Here's a good post about cutting top sales people and having to pay bonuses to senior management to get them to stay on. The basic point is that Circuit City fired its top sales people. Their sales are horrible and stock is dropping fast. They're now paying bonuses up to $1 million to keep their executive management.

Of course management isn't going into the store to sell things. It sounds like they're trying to make themselves more appealing as an acquisition target. Keep management around and someone will come along and buy. Why would you buy them unless it's for the property and maybe the brand? CompUSA is out of the picture now. Best Buy will probably rule the retail electronics business.

UK Banning Swords and Other Blade Weapons

Apparently the U.K. is having a problem with knife crime. They're in the process of banning various forms/styles of knives. It looks as though people found other means to commit murder after the gun ban. Here are some more links. A google search will provide many more.

There's even a group called Mother's Against Knives.

Dialects of Mountain People

I was curious about dialects and found this interesting article. What made me think of searching for something was the wasp which as a kid we would turn into wasper or waspers for plural. We discussed this in an Appalachian studies class that I took in college.

Snow Today

It snowed in Abingdon today. It snowed in a most places north of here. It was nasty in Smyth and Tazewell Counties. Icy in patches.

Here's a pic: