Putting The Tip In Perspective

Reached at her home in Iowa, the waitress, Anita Esterday, said that neither she nor a colleague who helped serve Mrs. Clinton recalled seeing any tip.

She said a local staff member of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign was in the restaurant on Thursday to tell them that the campaign had left a tip.

She said that when she and her colleague said they had not seen a tip, the staff member gave each of them $20.

Ms. Esterday said she did not understand what all the commotion was about.

“You people are really nuts,” she told a reporter during a phone interview. “There’s kids dying in the war, the price of oil right now — there’s better things in this world to be thinking about than who served Hillary Clinton at Maid-Rite and who got a tip and who didn’t get a tip."

Piling On

Hilary Clinton goes to a Maid-Rite restaurant in Iowa. She glad hands, eats a sangwich, glad hands some more, chats with the waitress, and leaves. NPR reports she doesn't leave a tip.
Then, ABC News picked up on the story.
**Clinton campaign official: 'The campaign spent $157 and left a $100 tip at the Maid-Rite Restaurant' The Maid-Rite manager, Brad Crawford, caught in the political mixer, said the senator's staff did pay a tip but "it might have not been disbursed properly."
Then the Drudge Report pulls up a story from February, 2000.
Meanwhile, back in reality, The Huffington Post reports that corrections to the story now run at NPR, ABC News, and MSNBC. All of them carry statements both from the Clinton campaign and the manager of the restaurant. Drudge has a correction of sorts: a linkless sentence carrying the campaign's statement on the matter. In lieu of the widely available exculpatory statement from the Maid-Rite manager, Drudge has recycled a story on a similar incident that transpired eight years ago, reported by the no-doubt entirely non-critical Washington Times.

There are some pretty vile websites out there featuring Hilary Clinton. Some of the stuff is pretty vicious, reminds me of what the Swift Boat lies did to Kerry. I was going to post some of the links, but I decided against it. If you want to read that drivel, you are going to have to find it for yourself.

Cow Tipping

Chatter has a funny posting about a cow that fell off a cliff and landed on a minivan. I guess it isn't funny if it is your minivan that the cow fell onto. The German's have a word for it: schadenfreude.

Somewhere in my internet surfing, I came across this road sign:
If fits with Chatter's post.
In other news, the hole in the backyard is slowing getting filled up. The neighbor and I put dirt and rocks and rubble from a rock pile in it. The two cement trucks cleaned out the cement hoppers and dumped the leftovers in the hole. I am so glad the septic tank wasn't in use and was empty! I wonder how many people have septic tanks in their backyards and don't know it. I knew there were some dogs buried in our backyard by a tree, but I never dreamed there was a septic tank back there! I was more worried about the cement truck crushing a sewer line that falling into a septic tank.

I Didn't Know There Was An Old Septic Tank In The Backyard

I do now.

Even Fred Doubts He Will Be President......

Trying to encourage his studio to hurry up so an interview could start, Carl Cameron of Fox News said into his microphone: "The next president of the United States has a schedule to keep." Standing beside him, a deadpan Mr Thompson interjected: "And so do I."

He was lampooned mercilessly after a YouTube clip showing him asking an audience Iowa underwhelmed by his stump speech: "First of all, could I have a round of applause?" Or maybe it is just Fred's style of deadpan, self-depreciating humor. That is funny sometimes and sometimes just awkward.

Either way, should presidential candidates look and act presidential? The UK Telegraph has the story. Money quotes: "The American people like folks that have a positive, hopeful message," said one prominent Republican.
Fergus Cullen, New Hampshire's state Republican chairman, said Mr Thompson had made a big mistake in September when he opted to declare his candidacy on the "Jay Leno" talk show rather than attend a New Hampshire debate.

Mr Thompson is running at about 17 per cent in the national Republican polls, second behind Mr Giuliani.

But he is languishing in fifth place in New Hampshire and fourth in Iowa.

I'm Mad As Hell And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore

Howard Beale thinks I am a Crypto-facist. No, not that Howard Beale, but this blogger from Fired Up! Missouri, this Howard Beale.

Consider that, at the time of this post, two of the most recent three blogposts on "Ozarks Left" were aimed squarely at reinforcing some very nasty right-wing themes. They are the sorts of ideas that more properly belong on the blogs of conservatives or crypto-fascists.
One of the posts, by a fellow named Jim Lee, is a bizarre mash-up of a "Hardy Boys" elementary school detective story with the modern day issue of state-sponsored torture by the United States. Lee's intended point is more or less inscrutable, but regardless of his intent Lee's post serves mainly to minimize the abject horror and revulsion that those of us on the "left" feel about the topic of waterboarding. The title of his post "Why Waterboarding Isn't Torture," is as unambiguous a summation of an anti-progressive view as one can imagine

What did Jesus do?

What did Truman do?

As God Is My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly: Ozarks Left Blog

This is an article about some kids who did a flyover at a football game.

The FAA requires an altitude of at least 1,000 feet when flying over a large group of people. Dropping the shoes and the football from the plane also may have been against FAA rules

Hey, guess they have never been to Yellville, Arkansas and the Turkey Trot Festival in the Fall.

Remember that great WKRP in Cincinnatti show and flying turkeys.

For several years we made the gig at Yellville. One year they dropped frozen turkeys. One of them hit the top on the Merry-Go-Round and tore a hole in it. Turkeys don't really fly, they just sort of flap their wings a lot and glide. People went crazy trying to get those turkeys. I got pictures somewhere, we were with Indianhead.

Speaking of turkeys, look for us and several other bloggers over on the News-Leader Opinion page. Today's editorial says it best:

On our politics sites, we have local residents, some bloggers already, some former members of our community editorial advisory board, who love to talk about the decisions our elected officials make. From Springfield to Jefferson City to Washington, D.C., these neighbors of yours will talk about the issues of the day and point you to more information online so you can be informed.

From conservative Republican blogger Paul Seale to liberal Democrat blogger Jim Lee, we're sure you'll find somebody on our new politics blogs that you agree with. Then again, you might disagree. Either way, they'll make you think, and we hope you will join the conversation.

The link is here, look on the right side of the page for "Ozarks Left". "Ozarks Right" is there also.

Which Candidate Matches Your Views?

Select A Candidate, from Minnesota Public Radio (home of Al Franken, Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy), is a survey which lists candidates who most agree with your views.

I took the test and the results are in:
Chris Dodd 25.0
Dennis Kucinich 25.0
Hilary Clinton 24.0
Bill Richardson 24.0
John Edwards 23.0
Mike Gravel 20.0
Barak Obama 20.0
Joe Biden 16.0
Ron Paul 15.0
Rudy Giuliani 11.0
Mike Huckabee 4.0
John McCain 4.0
Mitt Romney 3.0
Duncan Hunter 0.0
Tom Tancredo 0.0
Fred Thompson 0.0

Seeing Things That Aren't There, Part 1: Phantom Fastback

Snowflakes

Snowflake: Donald Rumsfeldesg style of memo and talking point that leads to the conclusion the other side doesn't know what the heck they are talking about.
I got a phone call tonight from Roy Blunt wanting to know if I thought it was fair that people who make more than $62,000 a year should be receiving health benefits that were designed for poor children. Do I agree with Representative Blunt that he should continue to fight for the poor children instead of those people who make more than $62,000 a year.
His recorded message kept referring to people who make more than $62,000 a year and people getting benefits designed for poor children.
Every question was designed to lead to one answer: Blunt is right, those who disagree with him are wrong. Ala Bush.