Sleepless in Midland

The King's Speech -- American style

Jeff Nussbaum and Micheal Sheehan are the Lionel Logue of the Obama administration. WashingtonTimes.com:

On top of the more than half a million dollars it spends on speechwriters, the White House is using tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on a public relations firm headed by Democratic image maker Michael Sheehan — once dubbed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as an “extraordinary media coach” who helped her master the teleprompter.

Ah, help with the teleprompter. Nice job if you can get it. More:

According to a 2010 payroll report, the White House employs seven speechwriters earning a combined $624,200. The team is led by Jonathan E. Favreau, the director of speechwriting, who earns $172,200, according to the report, which was released by the White House. Two other senior presidential speechwriters are paid $100,000 each. A pair of presidential speechwriters are paid $75,000 each, and a speechwriter and speechwriting assistant earn $60,000 and $42,000, respectively.

Via Thomas Lifson of AmericanThinker.com who adds,

As Dirty Harry said, "A man's gotta know his limitations." I do give credit to Obama for getting help. But can we please stop witht he praise of his oratorical skills? The man knows how to read a teleprompter (with help), but as many have pointed out, when one his own, he often gets tangled up and ungrammatical.

FBI bank robbery stats for 2010

Some interesting bank robbery statistics from the FBI--

In 2010 there were 4,997 robberies at banks, a smattering of robberies at mutual savings banks, savings and loans and credit unions, for a grand total of 5,546. Additionally, there were 57 burglaries at banks.

The total loot taken amounted to $43,016,099.07 and $8,193,065.41 (19%) was recovered.

Most of the perps were black although whites ran a very close second. The most likely time of day for a bank robbery was between 9-11 a.m. and with a slightly better chance on Friday, but not by much.

The counter at a branch office in a commercial district in a metropolitan area in California was the most likely place to get hit.

Firearms were used in 1,445 (26%) of the cases, and firearms were threatened but not observed in 2,461 (44%) of the cases.

Acts of violence were committed during 236 (4 %) of the cases. The most likely person to get injured or taken hostage was a bank employee, but the most likely person to get killed was the perp.

Bait money was used in 1,830 cases. And tear gas or dye packs were taken in 562 cases.

Finally, there were 48 armored car robberies with a haul of $12,655,586.44. Of that $1,553,988.41 (12.28%) was recovered.

See the whole thing at FBI Bank crime statistics 2010.

George Harrison (the Beatle) was Dallas (tv show) fan

This is amusing. That TV show "Dallas" really had the fans, among them, Beatle George Harrison. This comes from Houston Press where Richard Connelly tells us that Michael Palin's diaries reported that the Beatle didn't appreciate Palin's phone calls when "Dallas" was on.

J.R. Ewing certainly held the world's attention.

True story -- I was a tourist standing at a bus stop in Rome, Italy, one morning a few years after "Dallas" had finished its run. I struck up a conversation with another tourist, a Scot from Glasgow who introduced himself as "Join" (spelled John, actually). We did the "where are you from" thing that tourists do, and when I said I was from Texas, he replied, "Oh, that's where J.R.'s from." Yep, if Fes Parker hadn't already done it, J.R. put Texas on the map.

Fire, then new life

There was a remarkable and refreshing sight on the highway. These photos were taken on US 380 in New Mexico not far from the Texas border a couple of weeks ago, and they reveal a moment within in a life cycle.

We are all armchair scientists now having been educated so thoroughly by the Discovery channel, PBS and others. Applying our skills to this scene tells us there was a wild fire. Grass was burned, and firefighters probably used plenty of water to extinguish the flames.

And we see a patch of fresh green grass growing out of the burned patch within a much larger field of dry grass.

Our sense of forensic botany tells us the new grass grew from seeds germinated by the water used to put out the fire.

Makes sense to me.  Is there a better explanation?

Osama sleeps with the fishes

Osama bin Laden probably wasn't really the mastermind of the 9/11 attack although he may have encouraged the idea and helped raise the money for it. But he took credit for it and was held up by the Arab street as the leader of the anti-American movement.

So his execution is certainly symbolic. Book-ends. A start and a finish. Finality.

Yeah, it's really just a few chapters in a long book, but it finally got done, and Americans showed the tenacity to follow it through to the finish. Congratulations to all those involved, from the Seal Team who breached the door to the Gitmo interrogators who flushed out the intel.

Dancing in the American Street

Now that's something most of us were surprised to see on our TV sets this morning -- the spontaneous singing, the impromptu pledge of allegiance to the flag. Those infamous scenes of Arab street celebrations of the terrorists' success after 9/11 with their in-your-face attitude toward America cemented a resolve in many Americans who watched it. And no doubt many of the Americans celebrating this morning had those scenes fresh on their minds. We shall see what reaction the Arab Street has toward our celebrations given that bin Laden was a has-been in hiding.

A question and a nomination

Question: Can foreign helicopters fly over Pakistan undetected by any means other than eyes and ears?

Nomination for best line goes to the Osama's neighbor, Sohaib Athar. "There goes the neighborhood," he tweeted after learning what all the ruckus was about.

Sunday diversions -- sometimes it's ok to pick up hitchhikers

Via El Opinador Compulsivo.

White House Correspondents' Dinner 4/30/11

Things must really appear bad for Obama when the liberal comedian hand picked for the correspondents dinner speech can't be counted on for 100% allegiance to Obama.

It was more like 80%. But speech by Seth Meyer did hit a truth that must have left a lot of progressives nodding in quiet agreement -- the Obama of today is not the Obama of the 2008 campaign.

Judging from Mr. Obama's prepared remakes, the biggest threat* he perceives at the moment is Donald Trump. Obama and his supporters went all out to ridicule Sarah Palin in years past, but this time it's Trump who drew the most fire. Republican front runners probably breathed a sigh of relief as Trump stepped out as human shield to absorb all the shrapnel thrown his way as he sought answers to some of the big questions surrounding Obama. After all, Obama has been holding his fire on the birth certificate question for three years waiting for the whites of his enemies' eyes. He has found his enemy, and it's Trump.

*Or perhaps a thorn in Simba's paw.