Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) will not run next fall….another one bites the dust…

Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), voted against the Healthcare bill in the House…..Baird was popular…and easily won re-election the last time he ran for the seat…..but his vote against the Healthcare bill hurt him dearly in his district…..who ever runs as the Democrat in the fall will probably be running against Rep. Jaime Herrera (R)…

Note:….In total right now…..9 Democrats have annouced they will not run for their seats next fall, and 12 Republcans have done the same…..

Pay them and they will sign up to fight in Afghanistan……

It seems that works in Afghanistan…since the Afghan government increased the pay to almost match the Taliban …..Sign ups have increased dramatically….

…Money huh?

It works there also……

Kasim Reed will be the next mayor of Atlanta…..

The recount placed his new lead at 714 votes…….Because of the closeness of the race, Kasim Reed, who is black,  has extended an olive branch to Norwood…and must deal with a city that is actually losing its black population as different minorities move in…..

Ms. Norwood, who is white and calls herself an independent…. .. Finished first in the general election, lost momentum among crossover black voters, said Michael Leo Owens, a political scientist at Emory University. Voting analyses suggested that Ms. Norwood won more than 20 percent of the black vote in the general election but as little as 15 percent in the runoff, Professor Owens said.

“Mary Norwood ran as if we live in post-racial Atlanta,” he said, pointing to her message of uniting neighborhoods and races.

“It was demonstrated quite clearly on runoff day that we don’t,” he said, adding, “The blacker the district, the greater support was for Kasim Reed.”

Is Gay-Marraige Dead?…..

While several states have gotten rid of the policy….propionates of the policy hope that pushing a sense of ‘inevitability’ will ultimately win the day….but it doesn’t seem to be playing out that way……

It has even been suggested that the issue could be looked at in terms of, old vs young, since younger people tend to poll much more favorable to the change then older people….

That could mean a long wait…..and what if the younger people change their minds, as they get older?

Ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is mad……

At the Future of Finance Initiative conference, organized by the Wall Street Journal, in London, the former Federal Reserve Chairman stroke out, asking if anyone understood that the economic down turn that the United States and the world is coming out of was……’ not solved by any financial innovation’ ….and that the United States should bring back the separation of Banking from other financial institutions through the reimposing of the Glass-Steagall Act…..

Volcker going on……’criticized complex financial products that helped lead to economic ruin, such as credit default swaps. He challenged the industry to provide “one shred of evidence” that these financial products are socially useful.’

Volcker has also cautioned that the recovery for the United States will be long and slow…..

This story has ran for several days and highlights something known mostly in the beltway of Washington D.C………Volcker, the Chair of President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, hasn’t done much ADVISING for the White House…..

As a matter of fact he’s been shut out in favor of the White house economic players ….Fed Chair Beneneke, Treasury Sec Geithner and White House Economic Advisor larry Summers…..

After his London performance I don’t know if those guys are going to invite him back to building……

The World Trade Center rises again in New York City…….

The World Trade Center is rising from the bedrock of Manhattan Island, after a lot trash talking, political posturing, lawsuits and insurance company wriggling…….

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owners and builders of the original two buildings, is on its way to has begun resurrecting One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan……

The steel is going up, and they are moving through the fourth floor on their way to the top of the building 1,776 feet above ground…..here are pictures and video’s of the progress of the building…..in addition, the Port Authority is also working a Transportation Center, Memorial Building and Vehicle Security Center ….along with covering the PATH line under the construction Deck……

The entire project is scheduled to be done by 2014…..three years after then Governor Pataki promised, and 13 years after the tragedy of September 11, 2001…..in addition, the Port Authority is unsure if all the originally planned buildings will ever be built (Buildings 2, 3, and 4)

Jon Stewart outs FOX anchor as…. NOT a dumb blonde, but a college grad, who can play a violin…….

That’s right….FOX anchor Gretchen Carlson, of the channel’s “FOX and Friends”, is no dumb blonde…she’s one pretty smart lady …..

While trying to come across on the tube as someone who doesn’t understand those city slickers…Stewart calls her out as a Stanford college graduate (honors), Oxford  (England) student, who plays classical violin and was a beauty queen….so we all get the point….stop trying to play dumb…and own up to the fact that your sidewalk act is just that……an act on the FOX Channel to just fit in with your audience demographics……

Note:….The thing starts off on some questions on Climate survey…..and she disses Obama…and then Stewart goes after her….he, he, he….Stewart really nails her on the  act…..

Magazine's that have increased their ad revenue in these trying times…..

Here’s the piece on the numbers…..

Here’s the New York Daily News pick of covers from 20 of the magazines……

Magazine’s that have increased their ad revenue in these trying times…..

Here’s the piece on the numbers…..

Here’s the New York Daily News pick of covers from 20 of the magazines……

Very few sports figures are hero's off the court……

I’m not passing any judgments…..but Bill Plaschke over at the LA Times is….