I must be part Japanese...hahaha b/c I think the iPhone is junk too.

Well, I get it now!! I have not gotten an iPhone, I've not really thought they were that super cool and have been in the minority with most phone people because I don't think they are all people crack them up to be...guess it must be because I'm either a) part Japanese or b) technically ahead of my time. hahaha

This also explains why my newest phone I have (LG) does mutlimedia texting, takes awesome pictures, makes movies and yes I can watch TV (live TV!) on it (and do email, games, blah blah blah all the other basic stuff)...all that plus I bought it off ebay without having a contract...wow. Oh yeah, and I can do it all with only one hand...heh.



http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/02/why-the-iphone.html



The article above is awesome! Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone...



My favorite quotes from the article:

"Japanese citizens possess high, complex standards when it comes to cellphones. The country is famous for being ahead of its time when it comes to technology, and the iPhone just doesn't cut it. For example, Japanese handset users are extremely into video and photos — and the iPhone has neither a video camera nor multimedia text messaging. And a highlight feature many in Japan enjoy on their handset is a TV tuner."

"So that would suggest that in Japan, carrying around an iPhone — an outdated handset compared to Japanese cellphones — could make you look pretty lame."

hahaha
sayonara

Parents Magazine...too funny.

I ran across this and just had to share it...classic.

Great Quote from John Adams

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams

The all-encompassing power of facebook.

I continue to be amazed at how facebook works. Here is the latest, fairly humorous, thing I have observed. First, let me state that this actually happened to me...not some random story from somewhere on the web.

Everybody is on facebook and everybody has friends on facebook and most people have friends that are shared with other friends, etc...blah blah blah. Well, I posted a status update that was seen by friends and got a couple of comments. One from a friend who I haven't seen since elementary school, who is a host/reporter for a certain radio station in a college town and the other friend of mine I met through a statewide leadership program who is a media relations coordinator for a university. I'm sure you can figure out what happened...

Well, here are the comments...

is scientifical...yeah, that's right. Scientifical. 11:08am - Comment

at 11:11am January 14

Really, now...

at 11:17am January 14

If that's the case then being a science writer makes me super-scientifical. Or even... scienterrific? I'm stopping now.

at 11:51am January 14

Scientifilicious.

at 11:57am January 14

Are you the same ***** who works one floor above me in the communications building at **? Because if so, Facebook has officially made the world more ridiculously small. And that would indeed be Scientifficacious.

at 4:35am January 15

I am the same. Crazy Facebook...
How do you know ***?
(He and I went to the same elementary school ...)

at 2:37pm January 15

SO...I'm not sure which is crazier...the fact that you two actually know each other or the fact that you two are communicating with each other through comments on my status...hahahaha ;)

at 2:42pm January 15

Oh, we've now opened up our own line of communication... we've left you in the dust, I fear.

Just another day in the life of facebooking...hahaha

I'm glad I could "re-introduce" you two...hahaha

Even Microsoft Uses Apple Products

I came across this picture while being amused at other failures just like it...too funny! Check out the site when you get a chance...

Fastest gun in the west...make that world!

I was stumbling through the internet and happened to run into, what may be, the coolest video I have ever seen. I wish I could find the whole show, but this segment is pretty darn good. You have to watch it all...you get past the guy's cockiness really quick when you see him back it up. Insane!!

Remembering Goody's Family Clothing

S0, I heard this story today on the radio as I was heading into work and it made me a little sad. Especially since Goody's is HQ'd in Knoxville TN (go vols). They carried decent stuff fairly cheap, but the sad thing is, I remember getting an AWESOME KICK-ASS Sweater Vest from there one year (well, maybe not kick-ass or awesome, but I thought I was cool) way back in the day. I guess since people aren't buying that many sweater vests anymore, the company just couldn't hold up. I knew I shouldn't have stopped shopping there...

Goody's Family Clothing to liquidate stores

Tue Jan 6, 2009 12:12pm EST

]

By Chelsea Emery

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goody's Family Clothing, a privately held apparel retail chain which emerged from bankruptcy in October, plans to liquidate its remaining stores as the U.S. economic recession has undermined its ability to continue operating.

"The company is in the processes of obtaining bids to liquidate substantially all collateral and inventory," said Cathy Hershcopf, a bankruptcy partner at law firm Cooley Godward Kronish LLP. "The retail environment is very difficult and they did not have sufficient capital to weather the bad times."

The law firm is acting as a liaison between Goody's vendors and the company and Prentice Capital Management. PGDYS Lending LLC is Goody's parent company, and Prentice is the manager of PGDYS.

Bob Carbonell, chief credit officer for retail credit rating service Bernard Sands, confirmed that the company plans to liquidate.

Going-out-of-business sales will begin as early as Friday, said Hershcopf.

When the company emerged from bankruptcy, it operated 287 stores in 20 states.

The Knoxville, Tennessee-based retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 9, hurt by high gasoline and food prices that have forced consumers to cut back on nonessential purchases. It emerged from bankruptcy protection in October after cutting operating costs and closing at least 69 underperforming stores.

(Reporting by Chelsea Emery, editing by Matthew Lewis)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Super Mario Game 4

I found this online and thought, how neat...but how relevant?

Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer's Shortcut to Stronger Writing

Copyright © 1995 by C.J. Cherryh

Copy and pass "Writerisms and other Sins" around to your heart's content, but always post my Copyright notice at the top, correctly, thank you, as both a courtesy and a legal necessity to protect any writer.

Writerisms: overused and misused language. In more direct words: find 'em, root 'em out, and look at your prose without the underbrush.

1. am, is, are, was, were, being, be, been … combined with "by" or with "by … someone" implied but not stated. Such structures are passives. In general, limit passive verb use to one or two per book. The word "by" followed by a person is an easy flag for passives.

2. am, is, are, was, were, being, be, been … combined with an adjective. "He was sad as he walked about the apartment." "He moped about the apartment." A single colorful verb is stronger than any was + adjective; but don't slide to the polar opposite and overuse colorful verbs. There are writers that vastly overuse the "be" verb; if you are one, fix it. If you aren't one---don't, because overfixing it will commit the next error.

3. florid verbs. "The car grumbled its way to the curb" is on the verge of being so colorful it's distracting. {Florid fr. Lat. floreo, to flower.}

   If a manuscript looks as if it's sprouted leaves and branches, if every verb is "unusual," if the vocabulary is more interesting than the story … fix it by going to more ordinary verbs. There are vocabulary-addicts who will praise your prose for this but not many who can simultaneously admire your verbs as verbs and follow your story, especially if it has content. The car is not a main actor and not one you necessarily need to make into a character. If its action should be more ordinary and transparent, don't use an odd expression. This is prose.

   This statement also goes for unusual descriptions and odd adjectives, nouns, and adverbs.

4. odd connectives. Some writers overuse "as" and "then" in an attempt to avoid "and" or "but," which themselves can become a tic. But "as" is only for truly simultaneous action. The common deck of conjunctions available is:

   • when (temporal)
   • if (conditional)
   • since (ambiguous between temporal and causal)
   • although (concessive)
   • because (causal)
   • and (connective)
   • but (contrasting)
   • as (contemporaneous action or sub for "because") while (roughly equal to "as")

   These are the ones I can think of. If you use some too much and others practically never, be more even-handed. Then, BTW, is originally more of an adverb than a proper conjunction, although it seems to be drifting toward use as a conjunction. However is really a peculiar conjunction, demanding in most finicky usage to be placed *after* the subject of the clause.

   Don't forget the correlatives, either … or, neither … nor, and "not only … but also."

   And "so that," "in order that," and the far shorter and occasionally merciful infinitive: "to … {verb}something."

5. Descriptive writerisms.

   Things that have become "conventions of prose" that personally stop me cold in text.

   • "framed by" followed by hair, tresses, curls, or most anything cute.

   • "swelling bosom"

   • "heart-shaped face"

   • "set off by": see "framed by"

   • "revealed" or "revealed by": see "framed by." Too precious for words when followed by a fashion statement.

   • Mirrors … avoid mirrors, as a basic rule of your life. You get to use them once during your writing career. Save them for more experience. But it doesn't count if they don't reflect … by which I mean see the list above. If you haven't read enough unpublished fiction to have met the infamous mirror scenes in which Our Hero admires his steely blue eyes and manly chin, you can scarcely imagine how bad they can get.

   • limpid pools and farm ponds: I don't care what it is, if it reflects your hero and occasions a description of his manly dimple, it's a mirror.

     As a general rule … your viewpoint characters should have less, rather than more, description than anyone else: a reader of different skin or hair color ought to be able to sink into this persona without being continually jolted by contrary information.

     Stick to what your observer can observe. One's own blushes can be felt, but not seen, unless one is facing … .a mirror. See above.

   • "as he turned, then stepped aside from the descending blow … " First of all, it takes longer to read than to happen: pacing fault. Second, the "then" places action #2 sequentially after #1, which makes the whole evasion sequence a 1-2 which won't work. This guy is dead or the opponent was telegraphing his moves in a panel-by-panel comic book style which won't do for regular prose. Clunky. Slow. Fatally slow.

   • "Again" or worse "once again." Established writers don't tend to overuse this one: it seems like a neo fault, possibly a mental writerly stammer---lacking a next thing to do, our hero does it "again" or "once again" or "even yet." Toss "still" and "yet" onto the pile and use them sparingly.

6. Dead verbs. Colorless verbs.

   • walked
   • turned
   • crossed
   • run, ran
   • go, went, gone
   • leave, left
   • have, had
   • get, got

   You can add your own often used colorless verbs: these are verbs that convey an action but don't add any other information. A verb you've had to modify (change) with an adverb is likely inadequate to the job you assigned it to do.

7. Colorless verb with inadequate adverb: "He walked slowly across the room."

   More informative verb with no adverb: "He trudged across the room," "He paced across the room," "He stalked across the room," each one a different meaning, different situation. But please see problem 3, above, and don't go overboard.

8. Themely English

   With apologies to hard-working English teachers, school English is not fiction English.

   Understand that the meticulous English style you labored over in school, including the use of complete sentences and the structure of classic theme-sentence paragraphs, was directed toward the production of non-fiction reports, resumes, and other non-fiction applications.

   The first thing you have to do to write fiction? Suspect all the English style you learned in school and violate rules at need. Many of those rules will turn out to apply; many won't.

   {Be ready to defend your choices. If you are lucky, you will be copyedited. Occasionally the copyeditor will be technically right but fictionally wrong and you will have to tell your editor why you want that particular expression left alone.}

9. Scaffolding and spaghetti. Words the sole function of which is to hold up other words. For application only if you are floundering in too many "which" clauses. Do not carry this or any other advice to extremes.

   "What it was upon close examination was a mass the center of which was suffused with a glow which appeared rubescent to the observers who were amazed and confounded by this untoward manifestation." Flowery and overstructured. "What they found was a mass, the center of which glowed faintly red. They'd never seen anything like it." The second isn't great lit, but it gets the job done: the first drowns in "which" and "who" clauses.

   In other words---be suspicious any time you have to support one needed word (rubescent) with a creaking framework of "which" and "what" and "who." Dump the "which-what-who" and take the single descriptive word. Plant it as an adjective in the main sentence.

10. A short cut to "who" and "whom."

    • Nominative: who
    • Possessive: whose
    • Objective: whom

    The rule:

    1. treat the "who-clause" as a mini-sentence.

       If you could substitute "he" for the who-whom, it's a "who." If you could substitute "him" for the who-whom it's a "whom."

       The trick is where ellipsis has occurred … or where parentheticals have been inserted … and the number of people in important and memorable places who get it wrong. "Who … do I see?" Wrong: I see he? No. I see "him." Whom do I see?

    2. "Who" never changes case to match an antecedent. (word to which it refers)

       • I blame them who made the unjust law. CORRECT.
       • It is she whom they blame. CORRECT: The who-clause is WHOM THEY BLAME.
       • They blame HER=him, =whom.
       • I am the one WHO is at fault. CORRECT.
       • I am the one WHOM they blame. CORRECT.
       • They took him WHOM they blamed. CORRECT---but not because WHOM matches HIM: that doesn't matter: correct because "they" is the subject of "blamed" and "whom" is the object.
       • I am he WHOM THEY BLAME. CORRECT. Whom is the "object" of "they blame."

       Back to rule one: "who" clauses are completely independent in case from the rest of the sentence. The case of "who" in its clause changes by the internal logic of the clause and by NO influence outside the clause. Repeat to yourself: there is no connection, there is no connection 3 x and you will never mistake for whom the bell tolls.

    The examples above probably grate over your nerves. That's why "that" is gaining in popularity in the vernacular and why a lot of copyeditors will correct you incorrectly on this point. I'm beginning to believe that nine tenths of the English-speaking universe can't handle these little clauses.

11. -ing.

    "Shouldering his pack and setting forth, he crossed the river … "

    No, he didn't. Not unless his pack was in the river. Implies simultaneity. The participles are just like any other verbal form. They aren't a substitute legal everywhere, or a quick fix for a complex sequence of motions. Write them on the fly if you like, but once imbedded in text they're hard to search out when you want to get rid of their repetitive cadence, because -ing is part of so many fully constructed verbs {am going, etc.}

12. -ness

    A substitute for thinking of the right word. "Darkness," "unhappiness," and such come of tacking -ness (or occasionally - ion) onto words. There's often a better answer. Use it as needed.

    As a general rule, use a major or stand-out vocabulary word only once a paragraph, maybe twice a page, and if truly outre, only once per book. Parallels are clear and proper exceptions to this, and don't vary your word choice to the point of silliness: see error 3.

CHERRYH'S LAW: NO RULE SHOULD BE FOLLOWED OFF A CLIFF.

Looking Around - Best News Day in a While

So, while looking around and coming up with all that junk in my previous post, I also ran across some interesting news items i thought I'd share:

The U.S. government's bailout of the American International Group is helping promote Shariah law, a lawsuit filed in federal court in Michigan alleges.

Merry Christmas! Buffet at Health Department Party Sickens 42 (sad, but oh, so funny...)

'Sex chip' will have us wired, Oxford University researcher Morten Kringelbach says

Laguna Beach, The Hills & The City

LOS ANGELES — Let’s face it "The Hills" wasn’t exactly a real reality show, but it is already starting to look as though Whitney Port’s spin-off "The City" is even more err, scripted.

Port and co-star Olivia Palermo both attended Grey Goose’s Ball for Charity in New York last week where they filmed the highly anticipated MTV show. According to our inside source, every moment the girls weren’t repeating the same scene over and over (which went on for more than two hours) they excitedly stood behind the lens and chatted happily like close friend, despire the fact that they’re portrayed as enemies on the show.

So, I read this online from, fox news of all places...hahaha and knew that those shows are all scripted, but have never really see anything be so blatant about it. Well that got me to thinking about finding info on the MTV show(s) which state it's either fake or real...

The Debate on Laguna... most agree it's fake.

Ummm, this guy thinks it's real, but I'll give him the benefit of doubt b/c this was written in 2004...hahaha

An authority I guess? It's fake.

The Hills...most agree it's scripted too...except Lauren (LC). And yeah, this is a post about something with the script...

The City...OK, by now I'm sick of looking all this stuff up...I stopped here. It's just too much for me to handle...I know it'll be fake too...

Times are hard and the economy is bad. I thought I'd help out those of you who are looking for a job and feel you have been given the shaft by many potential employers. I found this copy of the ultimate rejection letter and and wanted to share. I hope it's beneficial to you. haha

The Ultimate Rejection Letter

---

Herbert A. Millington
Chair - Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA  34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16.  After careful consideration, I
regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me
an assistant professor position in your department. 

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually
large number of rejection letters.  With such a varied and promising field
of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals. 

Despite Whitson's outstanding qualifications and previous experience in
rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at
this time.  Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor
in your department this August.  I look forward to seeing you then. 

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen (of this is made up and you can put your name here)

Love that chili...

A young cowboy walks into a seedy cafe in Prescott, Az.

He sits at the counter and notices an old cowboy with his arms folded
staring blankly at a full bowl of chili.

After fifteen minutes of just sitting there staring at it, the young
cowboy bravely asks the old cowpoke, "If you ain't
gonna eat that, mind if I do?"

The older cowboy slowly turns his head toward the young wrangler and in
his best cowboy manner says, "Nah, you go ahead."

Eagerly, the young cowboy reaches over and slides the bowl over to his
place and starts spooning it in with delight. He
gets nearly down to the bottom and notices a dead mouse in the chili.

The sight was shocking and he immediately barfs up the chili into the
bowl.

The old cowboy quietly says, "Yep, that's as far as I got, too."

Election Results

So I got this picture and thought it was very interesting how the country is laid out. Obviously the most populated areas/states are what determined the final results. But it is curious as to how the country, by county, voted. See for yourself...

Michael Crichton has died

Sad Day... The author of some of my favorite books (Jurassic Park, The 13th Warrior, Prey & Timeline) has died suddenly.

Read more here.

His Web Site

Obama fact check from the debate

OBAMA: "I believe this is a final verdict on the failed economic policies of the last eight years, strongly promoted by President Bush and supported by Senator McCain, that essentially said that we should strip away regulations, consumer protections, let the market run wild, and prosperity would rain down on all of us. It hasn't worked out that way. And so now we've got to take some decisive action."

THE FACTS: McCain has indeed favored less regulation over the years but supported tighter rules and accountability on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years before the start of a financial crisis prompted in part by those giant mortgage underwriters. Obama was not a leader in that unsuccessful effort. Some of the current problems can be traced to legislation passed in 1999 that lifted many regulations over the financial industry. That deregulation was championed by then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, a McCain supporter, but also by President Clinton, who signed the legislation, and by former Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, now a top Obama economic adviser.

McCAIN: In a jab at Obama, McCain said that the last president to raise taxes during difficult economic times was Herbert Hoover during the Great Depression.

THE FACTS: While the recession of the early 1990s didn't compare to the Great Depression, Bill Clinton raised taxes.
— NBC News' blog First Read

OBAMA: Said McCain's proposal to give people a tax credit in exchange for treating employers' health insurance contributions as taxable wages amounts to "what one hand giveth, the other hand taketh away."

THE FACTS: Obama's suggestion that McCain's health care plan is a wash for families is misleading. McCain offers families a $5,000 tax credit to help them buy health insurance. The corresponding increase in taxable wages would result in a much smaller cost than the value of the tax credit, at least at first. Over time, the value of the tax credit may diminish as premiums rise. However, the Tax Policy Center estimates that McCain's plan would increase the federal deficit by $1.3 trillion over 10 years — mainly because it would lead to less tax revenue coming in, meaning it is a true tax break overall.
— The Associated Press

OBAMA: "Actually I'm cutting more than I'm spending so that it will be a net spending cut."

THE FACTS: Obama has many ambitious plans to spend more taxpayer dollars on a variety of federal programs, including clean energy technologies and job training. He's said he'll cut pork-barrel programs and the costs of the war in Iraq to pay for it — as well as raise taxes on the wealthy — but the specifics of his new spending plans greatly outweigh the few spending cuts he's identified.
— The Associated Press

OBAMA: "We're spending $10 billion dollars a month in Iraq, at a time when the Iraqis have a $79 billion dollar surplus — $79 billion dollars."

Well, not quite. As Factcheck.org put it, "The country was once projected to have as much as a $79 billion surplus, but no more. The Iraqis have $29 billion in the bank, and could have $47 billion to $59 billion by the end of the year."
— NBC News' blog First Read

obama and his terrorists buddies

Sol Stern
The Bomber as School Reformer http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon1006ss.html
Voters—and debate moderators—shouldn’t let Bill Ayers and Barack Obama off the hook.
6 October 2008

Back in the early eighties, in an interview with David Horowitz and Peter Collier, Bill Ayers remembered his reaction upon learning that he would not be prosecuted by the government for his bombing spree as a member of the Weather Underground. “Guilty as hell, free as a bird—America is a great country,” he exulted. Ayers is now a university professor, but he must have been exulting all over again after reading Saturday’s front-page story in the New York Times.

The article explored the putative relationship between Ayers and Barack Obama during the time they worked together on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a five-year philanthropic venture that, starting in 1995, distributed over $160 million in school-improvement grants to the Windy City’s public schools. Ayers wrote the grant proposal that secured seed money for the schools and ran the implementation arm of the project; Obama became chairman of the board that distributed the grants. Not only did the Times exonerate the Democratic presidential candidate of having anything like a “close” relationship with Ayers—their paths merely “crossed” while working on the Challenge, the paper said—but it also bestowed the honorific of “school reformer” on the ex-bomber. “Mr. Ayers has been a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the author or editor of 15 books, and an advocate of school reform,” the article maintained. On Meet the Press Sunday morning, Tom Brokaw—who will be moderating tomorrow’s debate between the presidential candidates—picked up this now conventional wisdom and described Ayers as “a school reformer.”

Calling Bill Ayers a school reformer is a bit like calling Joseph Stalin an agricultural reformer. (If you find the metaphor strained, consider that Walter Duranty, the infamous New York Times reporter covering the Soviet Union in the 1930s, did, in fact, depict Stalin as a great land reformer who created happy, productive collective farms.) For instance, at a November 2006 education forum in Caracas, Venezuela, with President Hugo Chávez at his side, Ayers proclaimed his support for “the profound educational reforms under way here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chávez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution. . . . I look forward to seeing how you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.” Ayers concluded his speech by declaring that “Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education—a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation,” and then, as in days of old, raised his fist and chanted: “Viva Presidente Chávez! Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana! Hasta la Victoria Siempre!”

As I have shown in previous articles in City Journal, Ayers’s school reform agenda focuses almost exclusively on the idea of teaching for “social justice” in the classroom. This has nothing to do with the social-justice ideals of the Sermon on the Mount or Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Rather, Ayers and his education school comrades are explicit about the need to indoctrinate public school children with the belief that America is a racist, militarist country and that the capitalist system is inherently unfair and oppressive. As a leader of this growing “reform” movement, Ayers was recently elected vice president for curriculum of the American Education Research Association, the nation’s largest organization of ed school professors and researchers.

Despite the Times story, American voters still don’t have an accurate picture of the relationship between Obama and Ayers during their work on the Annenberg Challenge. The paper’s account quoted several people who worked on the project as saying that they didn’t think Ayers had any role in selecting Obama for his position as chairman. But we haven’t heard a word about the subject from the two principals. For the first time in his life, Ayers seems to be observing Democratic Party discipline and won’t be talking until after November 4. Meanwhile, in one of the Democratic primary debates, Obama said that Ayers was just “a guy I know in the neighborhood”—which certainly qualifies as one of the biggest fibs told by any of the candidates so far.

Is it too much to hope that one of the moderators of the two remaining debates will press Obama for a fuller accounting of his work with Bill Ayers on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and also ask Obama what he thinks of Ayers’s views on school reform? If the mainstream media deem it important that voters know which newspapers one of the vice presidential candidates reads, they certainly ought to be demanding more information from a presidential candidate about whom he collaborated with in distributing $160 million to the public schools. How about it, Tom Brokaw?


Sol Stern is a contributing editor of City Journal and the author of Breaking Free: Public School Lessons and the Imperative of School Choice.

Joe Biden Gone?

First, read my previous post about Joe Biden being replaced by Hillary Clinton...that's what this is all about...now this comes out today referring to the same thing I posted a few days ago...I find it very funny. :)

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/24/biden-dropping-out-rumor-thrives-on-internet/

Biden Dropping Out? Rumor Thrives on Internet

It’s almost certainly just a case of the telephone game gone high-tech, but there’s an Internet rumor surging through inboxes and discussion boards that Joe Biden will drop out as Barack Obama’s running mate after his Oct. 2 debate with Sarah Palin — and that he’ll be replaced by Hillary Clinton on the Democratic presidential ticket.

The story line goes as follows: John McCain’s selection of Palin has generated so much interest in the Republican ticket that Obama needs to make a radical move to regain momentum. So in the days after the vice presidential candidates debate in Missouri, Biden will bow out, citing “health problems” (Biden underwent surgery in 1988 to repair two brain aneurysms). Enter Clinton.

Furthermore, the story goes, any damage the gaffe-prone Biden does during the debate will be erased by his abrupt exit.

It sounds like a job for Fight the Smears, the Web site the Obama campaign set up to quash damaging Internet rumors. But Fight the Smears hasn’t touched this one, perhaps out of fear that it would only further a wild rumor. The Obama campaign has not commented on it, other than to say that Biden’s medical records will be released soon.

Snopes.com, a site devoted to picking apart online rumors and urban legends, has labeled the status of the claim “undetermined.” Several online discussion boards have been loaded up with denials.

Biden has caused a few hiccups for the Obama campaign. On Monday, he had to issue a clarification after he called one of his own campaign ads “terrible” in an interview with CBS News. He also faced a rebuke from Obama after he spoke out against the government bailout of American International Group last week before Obama was ready to take a position.

On Tuesday, he said that President Franklin Roosevelt had gone on television in 1929 to discuss the Wall Street crash (Herbert Hoover was president in 1929 and the TV hadn’t been invented yet).

At one point, he even said Hillary Clinton might have been a better pick for Obama’s No. 2.

The Republican National Committee has gleefully set up a Biden “gaffe clock” to monitor his rhetorical flubs on the campaign trail.

Nonetheless, Democratic supporters dismiss outright any speculation that he might be dropped from the ticket.

“It’s crazy. … It’s just not gonna happen,” Democratic strategist Bob Beckel said.

Dropping Biden from the ticket would be a throwback to George McGovern’s shocker in 1972, when he replaced running mate Thomas Eagleton after it was learned that Eagleton had undergone electro-shock therapy for depression.

McGovern lost to President Nixon in a landslide, suggesting that seventh-inning lineup changes are not the best strategy for presidential candidates who want to shake things up.

Speaking hypothetically, Beckel said that, if it were to happen, the Democratic National Committee could feasibly call a mini-convention of sorts to confirm a new running mate. He also said “it would be so disruptive” that it would make no sense for Obama to pursue such a change.

Deadlines have passed in some states to send absentee ballots to military personnel and civilian voters overseas — meaning they would have received a ballot already with Biden (and Palin) on their parties’ tickets.

“I doubt it,” said Christopher Hull, presidential scholar and adjunct government professor at Georgetown University, when told of the Biden rumor. “Joe Biden is not that big a liability. Joe Biden was arguably the most experienced candidate in the [Democratic primary] race.”

“Joe Biden, of course, has shot off his mouth and gotten himself in trouble,” he added. “It’s Joe Biden we’re talking about.”

Though Obama lost ground in the polls after McCain tapped Palin to be his running mate, he has recently regained some of that footing. The FOX News Opinion Dynamics Poll on Wednesday gave Obama a 6-point lead, and a Washington Post-ABC News poll put his lead at 9 points. The Gallup daily tracking poll gave the Democrat a 3-point lead.

Hull said he would understand the desire to put Clinton on the ticket if Obama were persistently trailing in the polls.

A recent Associated Press-Yahoo News poll showed former Clinton backers are still reluctant to support Obama. The survey showed just 58 percent of them back him - unchanged since a similar poll in June.

But Hull said he doesn’t sense panic in the Obama ranks.

“I don’t think the Obama campaign was panicking even when the rest of the Democrats were panicking,” he said.

Obama, meanwhile, is standing by his man.

“Joe Biden is also an outstanding public servant and I am very proud of the choice that I made,” he told NBC’s “Today Show” in an interview that aired Tuesday. He said he’s a “great admirer of Senator Clinton’s” and he hopes she remains a “close adviser.”

And Biden is dutifully living up to his role as attack dog.

“Time and again, on the most critical national security issues of our time, John McCain’s judgment has simply been wrong,” the Delaware senator said Wednesday in Cincinnati.

Biden has campaigned all over the country for Obama, hitting long-shot states like Montana as well as key battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and Michigan. He’s largely hitting working-class towns, especially in the Midwest.

Though Snopes.com ruled the validity of the dropout rumor was “undetermined,” the write-up did cast serious doubt on the idea that Obama would dump the Senate veteran who seemed to fill in Obama’s perceived foreign policy gap.

“It’s difficult to definitely prove a negative, but rumors of Biden’s replacement as a VP candidate seem to be nothing more than e-mail chatter at this point,” the site said. “Whatever boost Barack Obama’s campaign might conceivably gain by swapping Joe Biden for Hillary Clinton just a month before the general election might also be more than offset by criticism that such a last-minute switch demonstrated poor decision-making ability and was indicative of a weak and vacillating presidential candidate.”

~FoxNews.com, by Judson Berger

Replacing Joe Biden

haha i got this email and figured...what the heck, I'll post it... ;)

The 'DEMS' know they're in big trouble since Sarah Palin and I've heard, from other sources, this is what they are planning to do about it. J.M.

...from excellent sources within the DNC:
On or about October 5th, Biden will excuse himself from the ticket, citing health problems, and he will be replaced by Hillary. This is timed to occur after the VP debate on 10/2.

I have already seen a few short blurbs about this - the 'health problem' cited in those articles was aneurysm. probably many of you have heard the same rumblings. However, at this point, with this inside info from the DNC, it looks like this Obama strategy will be a go. Therefore, it seems that the best strategy is to get out in front of this obama maneuver, spell it out in detail, and thereby expose it for the grand manipulation that it is.

So, let's start mixing this one up and cut the obamites off at the pass - send this info out to as many people as you can - post about it on websites and blogs - etc etc

obama's mama...

so a friend sent me this link for this video. I think the guy's serious, but I kept cracking up at the way he said things... If this stuff is true, not sure why a preacher would spend so much time on it. Oh well, it is entertaining...



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