China factory growth suggests contraction

I found this story through Americablog, with the source story coming from CNBC.Com:

China factories expanded in June at their slowest pace in 11 months while price pressures eased, a purchasing managers' survey showed on Thursday, the latest evidence the economy is losing steam in response to a spate of tightening steps.

The HSBC flash manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI), the earliest available indicator of China's industrial activity, eased to 50.1 in June, which was the lowest since July 2010 and close to indicating a contraction in the sector.

That compares with the final reading of 51.6 in the HSBC PMI for May. A figure above 50 points to expansion on the month.

"Demand is cooling thanks to the effect of tightening measures and the slackness in external markets," said Qu Hongbin, the chief China economist at HSBC.

I'd certainly say that demand is cooling--especially with the U.S. consumer, where China sends a ton of their exports. The American consumers are not buying, as they do not have any money to spend. The unemployment rate is at 9 percent here--possibly double if you add in the underemployed or those who have dropped out of the labor market. Housing is still in the pits. Food and energy prices have stayed relatively high. We've been the big market for China's products for years. Now that we have no money to buy China's products, where is China going to sell their stuff? So in some ways, it does not surprise me that China's factory index has dropped. I'll certainly be curious to see what the next quarter's index is--will it go below 50, to measure a real contraction?

Sarah Palin just quit her bus tour

I guess midnight has arrived, Paul Revere had warned the British that the British were going to take away all our guns, and Sarah Palin's bus tour has turned into a pumpkin. From Real Clear Politics:

Less than a month after she appeared poised to shake up the Republican presidential campaign, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has once again receded from the 2012 limelight.

When Palin launched her "One Nation" bus tour on Memorial Day amid a swirl of media attention and excitement from her fervent fan base, many political observers who had once dismissed her were reminded of the jolt that her candidacy could provide to what has thus far been a relatively sleepy GOP nominating fight.

Less than a month after she appeared poised to shake up the Republican presidential campaign, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has once again receded from the 2012 limelight.

When Palin launched her "One Nation" bus tour on Memorial Day amid a swirl of media attention and excitement from her fervent fan base, many political observers who had once dismissed her were reminded of the jolt that her candidacy could provide to what has thus far been a relatively sleepy GOP nominating fight.

The question I would have to ask is why did Sarah Palin even embark on this "One Nation" bus tour before quitting after a month? I'm guessing that Sarah Palin wanted the media attention. She announces a big bus tour, and the media salivates like Pavlov's dogs--will Sarah Palin run in 2012? Palin makes a gaffe on Paul Revere's ride, and the media speculates as to whether the British were warned that they were going to take our guns. Or was it Sarah Palin's guns? The media hype on Palin starts to die down. Palin's bus tour becomes a snooze, and the next thing you know, Sarah Palin's back in Alaska, planning her next publicity stunt.

If only she'll just stay in Alaska.

Harrisburg praying God can pull them out of financial ruin

I found this story through Americablog, and even I can't believe it. The source story is from CNBC.com:

If all the brightest minds in Harrisburg’s government can’t solve the city’s financial problems, maybe God can.

That seems to be the thinking in Pennsylvania’s capital city, where Mayor Linda Thompson and a host of other religious leaders are about to embark on a three-day fast and prayer campaign to cure the city’s daunting money woes.

Maybe Greece should have thought of this.

“Things that are above and beyond my control, I need God,” Thompson told WHTM TV, the region’s ABC news affiliate. “I depend on Him for guidance. Spiritual guidance. That’s why it’s really no struggle for me to join this fast and prayer.”

But judging by its financial picture, the city of 49,000 in the central part of the Keystone State may not even have a prayer.

According to a recent analysis from the state’s Department of Community and Economic Development, Harrisburg is likely to end the year with a nearly $3.5 million deficit in its $58 million budget, and things are only expected to get worse.

All I can think of is this:



Instead of prayer, why doesn't the mayor bring some economists or financial experts in to propose tough solutions to fix Harrisburg's financial situation--even if that may include a combination of budget cuts and tax increases?

Newt Gingrich's campaign finance team quits

About two weeks ago, top campaign aides for Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich resigned en mass, on "differences over the direction of the campaign." Gingrich promised he would continue "running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring," in spite of the resignations.

Well, it appears that Gingrich's finance team has also quit: From The Associated Press:

The top fundraisers for Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign have abandoned his struggling bid amid anemic fundraising and heavy spending.

Campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond is confirming to The Associated Press that fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman have left the team.

The former House speaker's campaign has been on life support since earlier this month when 16 top aides and advisers resigned en masse over disagreements with the Republican candidate.

People familiar with Gingrich's campaign spending say his fundraising has been weak since he launched his bid and that he has racked up large travel bills. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk openly about campaign inner workings.

Gingrich has insisted that he will stay in the race.

I'm starting to wonder how long Newt Gingrich can stay in the race, now that his top campaign staff has already left him. This makes me wonder where the top staff will go to now? Will they join President Barack Obama's former ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman? Or will they go to Mitten's Romney? Or Michele Bachmann? The Republicans have a huge field of candidates, some are just about perfect to entice the right-wing crazies of the party, while others are still flirting with bus tours to preach that Paul Revere was warning the British that the British will take away all our guns. I'm not looking at a GOP presidential campaign to oust Obama--I'm watching a slow-motion clown show of a three-ring circus!

And as for Newt? I don't think he ever had his heart in the campaign for the White House. He still has some serious baggage to contend with, with his polarizing speaker record in the late 90s, and his attempt to impeach Bill Clinton from the White House. Instead, I see Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign as a way to keep Newt Gingrich in the media spotlight, possibly picking up whatever cash he can get to continue playing the spotlight (And possibly enrich himself as well). The question we have to ask now is when will this clown be finally kicked out of the ring?

Guy robs bank of $1 to get health care coverage

There is something seriously wrong in this country, where a guy has to rob a bank in order to get health care coverage. From ABC News:

A 59-year-old man has been jailed in Gastonia, N.C., on charges of larceny after allegedly robbing an RBC Bank for $1 so he could get health care in prison. Richard James Verone handed a female teller a note demanding the money and claiming that he had a gun, according to the police report.

He then sat down and waited for police to arrive. "I say, 'I'll be sitting right over here, on the chair, waiting for the police,'" Verone told reporters, recalling the June 9 robbery in an interview from Gaston County Jail.

And wait for the police, he did.

"He's sitting on the sofa as you walk in the front door," the bank teller said in a 911 call.

Police arrested Verone where he sat. He was unarmed.

Verone said he asked for $1 to show that his motives were medical, not monetary, according to news reports. With a growth in his chest, two ruptured disks and no job, Verone hoped a three-year stint in prison would afford him the health care he needed.

"I'm sort of a logical person and that was my logic, what I came up with," Verone told reporters. "If it is called manipulation, then out of necessity because I need medical care, then I guess I am manipulating the courts to get medical care."

But the charge of larceny, not armed robbery, is unlikely to keep Verone behind bars for more than 12 months. He is being held in Gaston County Jail on a $2,000 bond, according to a spokesman for the jail, and is scheduled to appear in court June 28.

Would you spend $100,000 on a razor?

Yes, this is a $100,000 razor. From Yahoo News.

This is just insane. Then again, I guess the ubber-rich have got to buy something to entertain themselves. From Yahoo.com:

$100,000 can buy many things: a brand new sports car, a boat, or a ridiculously luxurious vacation, just to name a few. But if you already have a new Audi in your driveway, a yacht at the marina, and just got back from a trip around the world, perhaps you'd rather drop your cold hard cash on a limited edition iridium razor. The pricey item is crafted by Zafirro, a company which seems to have just one product in its lineup, and just 99 of the "Zafirro Iridium" razors will be made.

The handle of the razor is made entirely of iridium, an extremely scarce and expensive metal that is so dense it could survive a drop into molten lava. Most iridium that appears on Earth is the result of crashed meteorites.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif The blades of thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif beast are made from artifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gificially grown sapphire, making them hypoallergenic, not to mention many orders of magnitude sharper than your average Bic. The company boasts a 10-year blade life, and backs it up with free sharpening for a decade if the razor ever dulls.

The Zafirro Iridium, while promising "generations" of enjoyable use, is clearly made for the millionaire who already has everything. The company says the upgrade from a traditional razor to the $100,000 model is like changing from a CB radio to an iPhone, but unless your morning shave takes place at the mouth of a volcano, we're not sure it's worth it.

Zafirro via Laughing Squid

Florida Governor Rick Scott Writes Letters So You Don't Have To

I found this through the Washington Monthly, and I'm just amazed. The original source story is through the Orlando Sentinel:

For a guy who claims not read newspapers — or care what the polls say or the public thinks — Rick Scott sure is putting a lot of effort into trying to score some good publicity.

In fact, if regular old rank-and-file Floridians won’t write nice things about him in letters to the editor, Scott has decided to write the words for them.

One of the newest features on www.rickscottforflorida.com is a page where Scott supporters can send pre-written letters of praise for Scott … written by Scott’s campaign team. Just pick the newspaper you want to contact. (Yes, the Sentinel is one of the seven.) And then you can add your name to a letter that says: “While politicians usually disappoint us and rarely keep their promises,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif Rick is refreshing because he’s keeping his word. His policies are helping to attract businesses http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifto our state and get people back to work.”

It’d be even more refreshing to read letters sent by people who actually wrote them themselves. But it appears that Scott has reached the point where he doesn’t care about such nuances.

You can read the full pre-written letter – and attach your own signature to it – here: http://www.rickscottforflorida.com/2011/06/14/email-a-newspaper-editor/

I'm having trouble trying to wrap my head around this. Apparently Rick Scott is one of the least popular governors in the U.S., drawing a 57 percent disapproval rating from Florida voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, on May 26, 2011. Rick Scott has been a disaster for Florida. He's cut unemployment benefits, teacher's pay, and low income health services to fund corporate tax cuts. Scott has rejected Florida's receiving federal funds to build a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. Scott has signed legislation, creating a pilot program that will place "hundreds of thousands of low-income and elderly Floridians into managed-care plans" as a Medicaid overhaul. This pilot program allows a company called Solantic, a chain of urgent-care clinics, to receive funds from this pilot program. Solantic was founded by none other than Florida's governor Rick Scott. There are even more reports of fraud that took place at a Columbia/HCA, when Scott was head of the company. It is no wonder that Scott has a disapproval rating of 57 percent.

So Rick Scott wants to improve his publicity. He could try to create legislation to benefit the people of Florida, rather than himself, the corporate, or ubber-rich monied interests. Forget that--let's create web-based, formed email letters that Florida's citizens can sent to their local newspapers! It is beyond ridiculous! What is even more crazy is that it is Rick Scott's staff that wrote the emails--you just have to sign your name and email address, allowing the Rick Scott for Florida campaign to bombard your email address for campaign donations. It is almost like a publicity stunt that the Scott campaign has created for the 30-percent conservative crazies to accept their marching orders from Der Leader.

If you write it, the crazies will come.

Tea Party Creates a Summer Camp

I found this story through the Washington Monthly, and I just can't believe it. The original source story is through TampaBay.com:

TAMPA — Here's another option now that the kids are out of school: a weeklong seminar about our nation's founding principles, courtesy of the Tampa 912 Project.

The organization, which falls under the tea party umbrella, hopes to introduce kids ages 8 to 12 to principles that include "America is good," "I believe in God," and "I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable."

Organized by conservative writer Jeff Lukens and staffed by volunteers from the 912 Project, Tampa Liberty School will meet every morning July 11-15 in borrowed space at the Paideia Christian school in Temple Terrace.

"We want to impart to our children what our nation is about, and what they may or may not be told," Lukens said.

A Tea Party summer camp? Is this for real? To me, this camp feels like a way for Lukens to shove his ideology down young children's' throats, rather than allow the children to find their own way, and develop their own political philosophy. I mean, Government cannot force me to be charitable? I can assure you that when I was around 8 to 12, I was more interested in playing "Cops and Robbers," or "Army men," rather than spouting how government is forcing me to be more charitable.

But wait, there is more:

Tampa Liberty is modeled after vacation Bible schools, which use fun, hands-on activities to deliver Christian messages.

One example at Liberty: Children will win hard, wrapped candies to use as currency for a store, symbolizing the gold standard. On the second day, the "banker" will issue paper money instead. Over time, students will realize their paper money buys less and less, while the candies retain their value.

"Some of the kids will fall for it," Lukens said. "Others kids will wise up."

Another example: Starting in an austere room where they are made to sit quietly, symbolizing Europe, the children will pass through an obstacle course to arrive at a brightly decorated party room (the New World).

Red-white-and-blue confetti will be thrown. But afterward the kidshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif will have to clean up the confetti, learning that with freedom comes responsibility.

Still another example: Children will blow bubbles from a single container of soapy solution, and then pop each other's bubbles with squirt guns in an arrangement that mimics socialism. They are to count how many bubbles they pop. Then they will work with individual bottles of solution and pop their own bubbles.

"What they will find out is that you can do a lot more with individual freedom," Lukens said.

The more I read this, the more I'm starting to think about another "political" summer camp that was started in the 1930s:



Are the conservatives starting to get that crazy?

Obama Impersonator Cracks Racist Jokes at Republican Event

This is from the New York Times:

NEW ORLEANS — A comedian impersonating President Obama who was hired to perform here on Saturday at the Republican Leadership Conference delivered racially tinged remarks about Mr. Obama’s heritage and offered a mocking assessment of the Republican presidential candidates.

The impersonator, Reggie Brown of Chicago, opened his act by joking about Mr. Obama’s family history, referring to his white mother from Kansas and his black father from Kenya. He said that he was born in Hawaii, adding, “or as the Tea Partiers like to call it, Kenya.”

He said that Michelle Obama, the first lady, enjoys celebrating all of February, Black History Month. He said the president celebrates only half the month.

“My mother loved a black man and, no, she was not a Kardashian,” Mr. Brown said later, referring to the family that stars in reality shows. Khloe Kardashian, who is white, is married to Lamar Odom, who is black and plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The audience, which was nearly entirely white, watched with befuddlement as the impersonator told them to look into the future to see what the Obamas will look like when they are retired. An image of a feuding husband and wife, from the TV show “Sanford and Son,” was flashed on screens in the ballroom.

Republican strategist Doug Heye wrote a message on Twitter, "Wonder why many minorities have problems with the G.O.P? Our own fault." What were the Republicans thinking of, when they hired this guy for entertainment at a political event? What is even more ironic is that Brown then made "derogatory jokes about Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich before his hosts cut him off with loud music and escorted him from the stage before his act was over." So while Brown was cracking jokes on both Obama and the starting lineup for the Republican presidential candidates, the Louisiana Republican Party, who hired Brown, apparently did not like the jokes against their party's candidates and cut him off.

Here is some of the YouTube video of Reggie Brown's performance:



Watching it, the "Republican" audience laughs when Brown makes fun of Obama, but then the crowd gets real silent as Brown turns towards their own politicians--you'll even hear a collective groan when Brown talks about Mitt Romney's multiple first, second and third ladies. Of course, the audience really laughed at Brown's Sanford and Son joke. There certainly was not much befuddlement on the audiences' part, as they were laughing at Brown's jokes against the president. The "befuddlement" came when Brown started making fun of the GOP politicians. It is almost like the Republicans can't laugh at themselves.

Student's Don't Know Much About History

This is really depressing. From MSNBC News:

U.S. students don't know much about American history, according to results of a national test released Tuesday.

Just 13 percent of high school seniors who took the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress — called the Nation's Report Card — showed solid academic performance in American history. The two other grade levels tested didn't perform much better, which just 22 percent of fourth-grade students and 18 percent of eighth-graders scoring proficient or better.

The test quizzed students on such topics as colonization, the American Revolution, the Civil War and the contemporary United States. For example, one question asks fourth-graders why it was important for the United States to build canals in the 1800s.

"The history scores released today show that student performance is still too low," said Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a prepared statement. "These results tell us that, as a country, we are failing to provide children with a high-quality, well-rounded education."

Education experts say a heavy focus on reading and math under thehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif federal No Child Left Behind law in the last decade has led to lagging performance in other subjects such as history and science.

"We need to make sure other subject like history, science and the arts are not forgotten in our pursuit of the basic skills," said Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University and former U.S. assistant education secretary.

I love history. My interest is mainly recent U.S. history, from the Second World War to today. One of the advantages of learning history is that it teaches you critical thinking skills. Why was it important for the U.S. to build canals in the 1800s? In that test, only 44 percent knew that it was increased trade among states. That was for the fourth graders. You've got to wonder how the high school seniors would have answered questions on the reasons the United States to have entered into the Civil War, or the Second World War. Or even to look at the issues and events that defined the Cold War, the Civil Rights struggle in the 1950s and 60s, or even how Watergate may have shaped the political arena to this day. Unfortunately, our public schools seem to spend more time cramming facts into students' heads, in preparation for standardized tests. I can never remember all the facts, or dates, or who said what in history--I can look that stuff up on the internet. But I can look at the issues, causes, results of historical events and determine their relevancy or why they occurred, or even if history will end up repeating itself.

Apple Announces iCloud Storage Service

I saw this news story this morning on the TV news, and wanted to delve into it. From CNet News:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs today announced an online cloud storage service called iCloud that's designed to make it simple to wirelessly share music, e-mail, photos, calendars, and other data between handheld gadgets and desktop computers.

The new Apple service, which has been the subject of intense speculation for more than a year, attempts to harness the power and flexibility of cloud computing for home users. It uses techniques that have already proved popular with businesses to make it easier to move data stored on Apple's servers back and forth between multiple devices and applications.

Jobs introduced iCloud this morning at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco as part of a broader announcement that also highlighted the forthcoming version of Mac OS X Lion, available in July for $29.99, and new features for iOS including a newsstand and tabbed browsing on the iPad.

iCloud represents a direct challenge to Google's cloud-based offerings, which already use services like Gmail, Calendar, Picasa, and Google Docs to let users see and edit the same document or photo across multiple devices. In addition, Google recently announced Google Music and, in March, Amazon.com unveiled Amazon Cloud Drive.

I'm starting to wonder if Apple is a little late on their introduction to cloud computing. There is a wide range of cloud computing services for consumer to choose from. A perfect example is internet-based photo sharing, such as Google's Picasa, Photobucket, and Flickr. Businesses can develop their own email and marketing campaigns through Constant Contact,and you can back up your computer hard drive's data files through Carbonite. There are a ton of free email services with Yahoo, Google, Hotmail, AOL, and such. This is just what I can remember off the top of my head--I'm sure there are many other cloud-based services out there for computers, netbooks, touch-pad computers, and smart phones.

However, this next paragraph really struck me:

About 10 years ago, Jobs said, Apple experienced one of its most important insights: The PC would become the digital hub for your digital life and store photos, video, and music, which would in turn be synchronized with mobile devices plugged in to it. Now, he said, his company is at a similar turning point, where iCloud can store data and wirelessly push it to every device you own.

I think Steve Jobs saw the light a little late here. Jobs may have believed that the PC would first be the digital hub for your digital life, with storing photos, music, and video. Apple concentrated into selling its operating system to really organize your digital life around the computer. But the combined rise of smart phones and social networking threw a monkey wrench at Jobs--you can't access your iTunes or digital photos on your smart phone when you're away from your computer. So Jobs is shifting Apple's attention towards this bigger market of cloud computing, where you can purchase your iTunes at the Apple Store, and then store them on Apple's cloud servers to access them from your iPhone and your iPad. I'm sure Apple will also provide a digital photo sharing program (if they do not already have one). Will Apple allow developers to write applications to their mobile operating system, as we see with Google's Android? It will be interesting to see how Apple develops its iCloud system here, considering how successful they have been with their iTunes, iPhone, and iPad technology.

Then again, Google is not going to sit around and wait for Apple to catch up, as they are introducing their own Google Music to compete with Apples iTunes. The cloud computing world has just gotten a lot more competitive for consumers' dollars to go up in the clouds....

Stephen Colbert on Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

I guess Sarah Palin was right--Stephen Colbert just proved it with his re-enactment of Paul Revere's famous Midnight Ride. It is hysterical.

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Sarah Palin on Paul Revere's Midnight Ride

It has been a while since I've posted on this blog, but I found this story about the former half-term Alaskan governor, and former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and I'm just amazed. From the Los Angeles Times:

Sarah Palin, if you haven't heard, is taking some of her family around the country, visiting historical U.S. landmarks, and talking to the media along the way.

Thursday her "One Nation" traveling road show stopped in Boston, where the former Alaska governor, her parents, her husband, and little Piper visited Paul Revere's house, the Old North Church, and Bunker Hill. Palin posted photos of that leg of her trip on the SarahPAC blog.

One moment that you won't find posted on the blog is Palin's respohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnse to reporters when they asked her who Paul Revere was. Instead of saying, "Come on, everyone knows who Paul Revere, the silversmith and patriot is," she stammered while saying this:

"He who warned, uh, the British that they weren’t gonna be takin’ away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."

Needless to say, the lamestream media are having a field day with that gaffe.

Here is the YouTube video:



Can anyone really be that ignorant and...dare I say...stupid? To think that if John McCain had won the White House in 2010, this lady would have been a heartbeat away from the presidency?

And now Sarah Palin is on a traveling bus, playing like she's campaigning for 2012. Unbelievable.

Update: Sarah Palin continues with her ignorance of American History. According to Think Progress:

As ThinkProgress reported, during a June 2 stop in Boston on her “One Nation” bus tour, Sarah Palin managed to spectacularly flub the historical account of Paul Revere’s famed “Midnight Ride.” Describing Revere as warnhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifing “the British that they weren’t going to be taking away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells and, uhm, making sure as he’s riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells,http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif” Palin’s version inspired confusion and some much-deserved jibes from across the media.

None of this has deterred Palin herself, however. This morning on Fox News Sunday, she doubled down on her creative re-imagining of Paul Revere’s ride, saying “I didn’t mess up.”

Here is the YouTube clip of Palin saying how she "didn't mess up;"



And here is the printed quote:

CHRIS WALLACE: I gotta ask you about that real quickly, though. You realize that you messed up about Paul Revere, don’t you?

PALIN: You know what? I didn’t mess up about Paul Revere. Here’s what Paul Revere did. He warned the Americans that “the British were coming, the British were coming.” And they were going to try to take our arms so got to make sure that, uh, we were protecting ourselves and, uhm, shoring up all of our ammunitions and our firearms so that they couldn’t take them.

But remember that the British had already been there — many soldiers — for seven years in that area. And part of Paul Revere’s ride… And it wasn’t just one ride. He was a courier. He was a messenger. Part of his ride was to warn the British that were already there that, “Hey. You’re not going to succeed. You’re not going to take American arms. You are not gonna beat our own well-armed, uh, persons, uh, individual private militia that we have. He did warn the British.

And in a shout-out, gotcha type of question that was asked of me, I answered candidly. And I know my American history.

I went into Wikipedia's reference for Paul Revere's "Midnight Ride," and this is what I found out:

In the days before April 18, Revere had instructed Robert Newman, the sexton of the Old North Church, to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known. In what is well known today by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea", one lantern in the steeple would signal the army's choice of the land route, while two lanterns would signal the route "by water" across the Charles River.

Riding through present-day Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Revere warned patriots along his route - many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own. By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army's advance. Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him ("The British are coming!"), largely because the mission depended on secrecy and the countryside was filled with British army patrols; also, most colonial residents at the time considered themselves British as they were all legally British subjects, [MY Ephasis]. Revere's warning, according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere's own descriptions, was "The Regulars are coming out,"[My Emphasis]. Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight, with Dawes arriving about a half hour later. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were spending the night at the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington, and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news. Revere and Dawes, meanwhile, decided to ride on toward Concord, where the militia's arsenal was hidden. They were joined by Samuel Prescott, a doctor who happened to be in Lexington "returning from a lady friend's house at the awkward hour of 1 a.m."

Revere, Dawes, and Prescott were detained by British troops in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to Concord. Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped into the woods; Dawes also escaped, though soon after he fell off his horse and did not complete the ride. Revere was detained and questioned and then escorted at gunpoint by three British officers back toward Lexington. As morning broke and they neared Lexington Meeting-house, shots were heard. The British officers became alarmed, confiscated Revere's horse, and rode toward the Meeting-house. Revere was horseless and walked through a cemetery and pastures until he came to Rev. Clarke's house where Hancock and Adams were staying. As the battle on Lexington Green continued, Revere helped John Hancock and his family escape from Lexington with their possessions, including a trunk of Hancock's papers,

[My Emphasis].
From what I have read in the Wikipedia account, Revere set out to warn the colonial patriots that "Regular" troops were marching out towards Lexingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and Concord--there were plenty of colonials that were also sympathetic to the British government. Revere did not shout out that "The British are coming," as the colonials thought of themselves as British subjects--the warning was meant for the patriots. Finally, Revere had to warn both John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the Regular troop movements, who would arrest both men if found. The information on Paul Revere's ride is there--you just have to quickly and easily look it up. I'll admit that I had tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif look up some of the details on Revere's ride.

Does Sarah Palin correct herself from her previous comments? No. She continues to spout her same, incoherent babble about how her events on Paul Revere's rid are correct. In some ways, it shows us just who Sarah Palin is. She certainly can't admit when she's wrong--even when the facts are arranged against her. Palin has embarked on this "bus tour" for who knows why? Is it a precursor to a 2012 presidential run? In some sense, this tour keeps Sarah Palin in the news, inflating a probably narcissistic personality with a huge ego. She doesn't read newspapers or magazines to keep up with foreign events. And every time I listen to Sarah Palin talk, it seems that she can't articulate a clear thought from her head. It makes her come off as being "stupid," or an "idiot." Maybe she is an idiot. I can't say, but this is not an individual that I want in the White House--certainly not with her fingers on the nuclear button.

And yet, there are plenty of right-winged extremists that love her. That is scary.