Thursday, May 14, 2009

Take Me Now God! Review



What A Novel Idea.

Now I figured since this is the only ad free Internet newspaper making it either a far sighted business plan or just plain stupid, maybe you wouldn't mind if I deviate from my usual objective hard news and give you a sneak peek at one of my recent but not published manuscripts. If I am not overwhelmed with bad comments after this peek I will be posting excerpts in the CPT and you can be like a focus group if you dare to send in comments. Here is a reviewer's look at my latest book, Take Me Now God!.

TAKE ME NOW GOD!
a novel by Jim Putnam

So what happens when one pursues every course of self-enlightenment and discovery available to people with too much time on their hands? And what happens when they have exhausted their search through religion, cults, mysticism, spiritualism, Native American cultures, prophecies, politics, the psychic world and beyond?

At the journeys end they have only one option left. "Take Me Now God!" A demand to the Creator, Source, or God, no matter what you choose to call him or her, for immediate salvation. As the author says, "In the beginning was the Word, and no one listened."





In the first chapter of this "unauthorized autobiography", he laments; "She's right you know. I'm not compatible with humans. Hell, half the time my damn dog loses it's loyalty. She once asked me if I ever considered suicide. Who wouldn't after what I'd seen. But I said no. So she rephrased the question. Maybe I should consider suicide. That's why I decided to end it."

Beginning with the opening Post Mortem, the author rushes to dispose of all that is important in his life so God can take him now. And the reader is taken on a hilarious journey through the world of religions, the metaphysical, spiritual and more leaving a trail of shattered searches for inspiration and failure to find the hidden meaning in life.







Excerpts:

True love: "I was star crossed from day one, double crossed by day two, and nailed to the cross by day three."










The Illuminati: "The New Age of enlightened beings - the Illuminati. Often caught up in their own delusional hysteria. Demanding to be heard. Demanding to be followed. Judging others as they don't want themselves judged. Know how to tell the difference between a fraudulent Illuminati and enlightened one? You can't."

The Rapture: "There are a lot of interesting things in the spiritual world, but of all of them, the Rapture wins hands down. Think about it, the optimum lift off. The ultimate high. No more bills. No more taxes."

Creation: "Ever wonder about creation? I do all the time. Seems the Bible can account for about 6,000 years, back to the time of the big surf, or flood. The Hopi and Mayan Indian can account for another 250,000 years, including the mystic kingdom of Atlantis. Dinosaurs are 60-120 million years old. The Grand Canyon is 2 billion years old. Earth 4 billion, while the universe as we know it is 26 billion years old. I figure that is more than enough time to accommodate just about every version of creation there can be."






Psychic Channels: "I want real proof. Give me the winning numbers to next week's Powerball lottery and I'll be a true believer for the rest of my annuities. Those damn lotteries. Why is it there are only a few thousand possible combinations of winning numbers, yet the odds of winning are 12 million to one? Where does that math come from? Pythagoras in a drunken stupor?"

Native Americans: "I always had an affinity for them. Was the only kid that ever volunteered to be the Indian. Didn't bother me to get killed in most battles. Every once in a while we played Little Big Horn and I kicked some white ass."




Genetic Manipulation: "I've had suspicions about it since I was 5 years old, when I first tasted cooked spinach. That shit had to be genetically engineered poison. And don't you think it made me more than a little suspicious about my mother, who was trying to kill me with it?"

Ancient Prophecies: "There is nothing I want more than to believe the ancient prophecies. After the mess we have made of the Earth, we deserve no less than the catastrophic earth changes that have been foretold. It would be a fitting tribute to our self-aggrandizing ego trip."



The Past: "I'm with Einstein, like I said before, on that time - space continuum bending time. Past, present and future all take place at the same time. I haven't even committed all my sins of the past. They're happening as we speak. Same with the sins of the future. Don't need to wait, I'll just do them all together. Things get complicated when you are a free thinker."

From dogs to demons, Christians to pagans, Take Me Now God! takes one on a wild ride through the life of a searcher, albeit, one who came up empty handed but with no regrets.

Who Gets Credit for Backing Joe Biden's Line of Credit?







With credit card reform being debated in Congress our "people's" Vice President Joe Biden has been unnaturally silent on the bill and the criticism of the credit card companies. He should be silent. It is much harder to stick your foot in your mouth when your mouth is closed, or is that sealed shut.


Maybe it is for good reason. Look at the position of his boss, President Obama, who has railed against lobbyist money and attacked the unscrupulous practices of the giant credit card companies.


The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported that Joe Biden, D-Del., took more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from Delaware based credit card giant MBNA during his 35-year career in the U.S. Senate.


Consumer advocates may take a harsh view of Biden’s vote in favor of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. The law was the first major re-write of the bankruptcy code in over 30 years, and, according to critics, made it harder and more expensive for lower and middle-class consumers to file for bankruptcy. Biden may have reason to regret that vote.
Robert Lawless, a bankruptcy law professor at the University of Illinois-Champaign, said Biden and other legislators apparently viewed that bill "as a 'free vote' to benefit their corporate constituencies. Now most people think that law was a disaster and that vote is coming back to haunt them, especially with this ongoing consumer credit crisis."


The credit card and banking lobby, including Biden-donor MBNA, pumped millions of dollars into Congress over 10 years to help get approval of that bill. Biden worked for the bill for ten years and voted for it in 2005, while Obama was one of the 25 senators who voted against it.

During the same time Biden's son was getting a very lucrative job and lobbying contract from MBNA. Needless to say Biden insists the fact his son was a hired lobbyist at the same time his dad was championing the MBNA bill and stripping consumers of their rights had no relationship, nor did the $200,000 MBNA poured into his federal campaigns.


So can somebody please tell me what is transparent and new about this Administration? The only change I see in this new Administration it that fat cat Senators or Vice Presidents can now change their vote and act like they really didn't take all those contributions, act like their son really is not a lobbyist for the same credit card companies and be comfortable with such a house of cards because the liberal media will never be able to question the real record of our VP.

Did I mention MBNA also purchased a million dollar house from Biden? I wonder what kind of line of credit Biden earned after all those years of protecting the credit card industry?



Search for Grand Dame of St. Clements Manor Underway


The Coltons Point Times, in honor of the historic Mary Land Grant and St. Clements Manor grant from 375 years ago, is acknowledging the right of the Mary Land colonists to establish an American nobility as authorized by King Charles II of England and Lord Baltimore.

As such we are designating the first title of colonial nobility in our modern history by undertaking a search for the Grand Dame of St. Clements Manor. In other words, we are searching for the woman with the strongest genealogy ties to the royalty represented by the colonists who first settled Maryland.

St. Clements Manor was first settled about March 3, 1634, with the landing of the Ark and Dove from England. There were three colonies set up by the English in America, the Jamestown Colony in 1608, Plymouth Colony in 1620 and the Maryland Colony in 1634. The first two were Joint Stock Companies while Maryland was a Proprietary Colony.

St. Mary's City is often considered the first chartered town in Maryland. Truth is there were no towns in Maryland until St. Mary's was chartered in 1668. However, there were many chartered Manors and St. Clements Manor was the first. It was settled in 1634 and chartered in 1636 as confirmed in a 1638 survey of the Manor. That makes St. Clements Manor one of the four earliest settlements in America.

The other three, Jamestown, Plymouth and St. Mary's City all were abandoned and dissolved in the 1690's which leaves St. Clements Manor ( Coltons Point and St. Clement Island) the oldest continuously occupied chartered settlement in English speaking America.

Now many of you may not know the extent of the royalty represented in the early colonists since we are such a laid back community in spite of being the oldest continuous settlement in the English speaking colonies of America. Well let me give you a few examples of how blue the blood flows. But first enjoy this photo of St. Clements Manor House after being rebuilt twice, on the shore overlooking the island.






Dr. Thomas Gerard, first Lord of St. Clements Manor, came from one of the most prominent Catholic families in English history. In fact long before the landing here in Maryland his family was actively working with George Calvert and other prominent Englishmen to secure a colony where the Catholics could be free to practice religion. Direct descendants of Gerard in modern times include Prince Charles of England and Princess Diana. Two of Gerard's daughters married John Washington, the great grandfather of our nation's father George Washington. One died so the other took her place.

Of course Gerard was not only among the most noble of Englishmen to come here, he was also among the most contentious which was a requirement for the feisty settlers of Coltons Point and the 7th District. To prove it this son of a most prominent Catholic family married a Protestant wife and raised his children as Protestants here in the Catholic colony.

In summary, there were a couple of boatloads of prominent people landing here at St. Clements Island and the founding fathers of Maryland were among them. To honor the rich colonial heritage we intend to find the Grand Dame of St. Clements Manor with the most direct connection to the original colonists.

photo of Lady Michelle



We have two early nominees for this highest of nobility honors here at St. Clements Manor and a thorough genealogy search will be needed to determine the ruling Grand Dame. However, all citizens of the area may submit other nominees along with information on why you think they qualify as the Grand Dame of St. Clements manor.

The early nominees are Lady Helen Blackiston-Dorsey and Lady Michelle Combs-Raditz. Lady Helen is from the Blackistone family whose patriarch married a daughter of Dr. Thomas Gerard back in the early days of the colony, 1669. Lady Michelle and her Combs family also go back to that time period as her family patriarch, Enoch Combs, bought land from the same Dr. Thomas Gerard around 1640.

Thorough research is underway to discover the ties to England and the English royalty of these Ladies and any other claims that may be submitted. We congratulate these noble blue bloods and look forward to our final crowning of the Grand Dame of St. Clements Manor. By the way you can see Lady Michelle at her Vintage Source Emporium and Social Club open this weekend. For details see http://www.thevintagesource.net/ and bring your money, the deals are the best in metropolitan DC.

Unfortunately, we need a photo of Lady Helen Dorsey and she seems to be missing. There have been no recent sightings of this reclusive blueblood since Obama got elected which may or may not have anything to do with it. However, when Lady Helen misses a fund raiser you know something is out of the ordinary and she has missed recent activities. Why she was even absent when her name was read at the 375th Maryland Day program at the St. Clements Island Museum, most certainly a grievous violation of her Dorsey family rules of etiquette.

Any sightings of Lady Helen should be reported to the CPT. Also, if you have any other nominations for the Grand Dame title besides Lady Michelle Combs-Raditz and Lady Helen Blackistone-Dorsey be sure to submit them. This is a very exclusive club.







Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Health Industry Capitulation - This Sure Ain't No Pythagorean Theorem



This week Obama announced that members of the doctors, pharmaceutical, hospital and insurance industry involved in health care have agreed to give up 1 1/2% of their future price increases. Man would I like to be a hero for giving up 1 1/2% of what I don't even have and may never get.

That is a slick math move like many we have already witnessed from these clever craftsmen of New World economics. We are going to save $2 trillion over the next ten years in health care costs, $2 trillion in price increases that haven't even been approved. Is that a negative attitude or what. If you buy the language we already have the 7% a year in price increases guaranteed for the next ten years.


Obama isn't even going to be president for ten years unless that is another law they intend to disregard. Anyway, the problem with health care is that we already have the most expensive system in the world and still 46 million Americans don't have health care and we are far from the healthiest people on Earth. I guess money not only can't buy you love but it can't buy you quality health care either.


Now 12 million of the 46 million uninsured are illegal aliens. Most already have insurance so we really should not count them as uninsured. Of course the liberals still think our social programs are inadequate but they don't understand how many people have already figured out how to take advantage of the programs.

Another 10 million uninsured are college students but they could be covered by family or school insurance programs. That leaves 20 million Americans really uninsured, not 46 million. In spite of the generous cut in future increases by the health industry, it means health care costs will still increase by billions of dollars a year in the most expensive but not the best health care program in the world.

If the program is already too expensive then cut the budget, don't let it increase. Believe it or not that is how you get budgets into balance. Obama has got a 1 1/2% reduction in future costs leaving a 5.5% annual cost increase that he says is acceptable. He has asked for $750 billion more in health care spending next year alone.

So why is it costing us billions more to reduce the cost of health care? I say a 7% annual increase on top of the astounding increase in health care costs the past two decades is ridiculous. Just eliminate the 7% we don't even have and cut the fraud, corruption and waste in what is here right now. We should be able to cut the budget and still expand coverage to everyone. Does that sound too American and not enough socialist, I mean liberal?





If you really want to cut health care costs stop prescribing prescription drugs to our children and seniors and we can save billions. Do you know the average senior in America has 6-8 drug prescriptions? Then there are estimates that up to 6 million kids are taking Ritalin prescriptions for attention deficit disorder though less than half that number have been diagnosed with the problem.

Prescribing unnecessary drugs does have a multiplying effect in terms of a stimulus program however. The excessive payment to the pharmaceutical company that makes it, the payment and/or kick back to the doctor who prescribes it, the insurance company for processing fees for the claim, why even the patient who is transformed into a Zombie by the tranquil illusion from the drug.
You could eliminate half the cost of prescription drugs and have no effect on the health of the patients. Better still go to a Medicine Man or Woman and actually get healed. What a concept!



Monday, May 11, 2009

Preakness Week in Maryland



Leg two of the triple crown of horse racing moves to Pimlico in Maryland for the Preakness this Saturday. If the Kentucky Derby is the pride of the southern aristocrats and the Belmont in New York is the pride of New York, the Hamptons, Cape Cod and New England Eastern society then the Preakness is surely the pride of the beer drinking college party crowd.

Very strange things are happening, however, that may forever doom the Animal House image like the State of Maryland said no one can bring their own cooler full of beer this year. Last year 126 people were thrown out of the infield for disorderly conduct while six were arrested. Kids may not want to spend the big bucks for Preakness beer so they might not show up.

There is the theme, "the People's Race - the People's Party." That sounds like words out of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx. Then again a state like Maryland might want to impress the new liberal Democrats in control of our nation's capitol. We may find out soon if they are the people's party.




You see there is a filly named Rachel Alexandra who has won 5 straight stakes races. The owners kept her out of the Kentucky Derby and ran her in the Kentucky Oaks for fillies instead. She won by 20+ lengths. The only way she can race in the Preakness is if other eligible horses do not run.

Twenty horses ran in the Derby. Only 14 are allowed to run in the Preakness. There were 13 triple crown horses committed to run leaving one opening if no other eligible horses filed to run. Along comes Rachael whose new owner wants her in with the big boys.

Suddenly the owners of horses eligible but not running are being called by owners in the race and asked to enter their horse in the Preakness, even if they didn't intend to run, so Rachael would not get in the field of fourteen. It seems the filly has some of the money people scared she may distort the odds and blow away any chance Derby winner Mind that Bird has for a triple crown.



Television ratings are everything. It has been 31 years since we had a triple crown winner, the longest stretch in history. During those years eleven horses won the first two, (Derby and Preakness) but lost in the Belmont. Big money wants to keep Rachael out while the People want her in.

If Rachael gets denied the chance to race it will be a result of skullduggery and collusion on the part of owners in the race. That would be a big blow to the liberal Democrats, media and Obama backers who are the self-proclaimed protectors of the "people's party". I say give the filly a chance to prove herself.

On the other hand this could all be a contrived media act to manipulate the odds as if Rachael gets in the race she will be a 1-1 favorite over all the guys. The odds on all the rest of the field will go up meaning more money will be made if any beat Rachael. The TV Ratings will increase, they are already sliding, if there is some new drama in the plot.


To top it all off, there will be a show in the infield to distract the college kids from realizing they are paying a fortune for beers. There will be man's favorite Olympic competition, Women's Beach Volleyball with the bikini clad bronzed babes like Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh, USA Olympic champions.




Add to that a concert by ZZ Top and a couple of other rock groups, all on the infield with the volleyball babes and thousands of drunk kids and you might think you just dropped acid, I mean, you were supposed to be at a horse race in Maryland and wound up in a flashback at Woodstock.

I'm for Rachael.



Friday, May 08, 2009

Coltons Point Times Financial Articles



Because of interest in the financial articles previously posted and the fact they are running on dozens of other web sites including Ron Paul's home page the following is a listing of all the previously released stories from the Coltons Point Times on Wall Street, Capitol Hill, the White House, the Rothschilds, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, the trillionaires, oil price conspiracy, credit crisis, bank bailout, sub-prime mortgages and related actions causing our economic meltdown and recovery.
A painting of prayers with the Rothschilds.

Click on the link and enjoy the articles that tens of thousands of people have been reading.

The Obama Goldman Rothschild Update - The Trillionaire Puppet Masters at Work


The deeper we dig into the world economic chaos the clearer the picture becomes that what has happened the past two years in the international economic meltdown could be a strategic move to solidify control of the US and world economies. For three years this paper has projected market manipulations underway that resulted in the near collapse of world economies. From the sub-prime mortgages to oil and commodity price manipulations, swaps and derivatives to a credit crash, a cascading series of unlikely events sent the world to the brink of economic disaster.


In the process regulatory agencies were proven to be toothless when it came to enforcement, Congress was inept in identifying problems or solutions, hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into political campaigns from Obama to our congressional leaders while behind the scenes the puppet masters were busy carrying out the script. This week the long awaited bank stress test results were released and surprise, surprise, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs continue to separate themselves from the rest of the world.


The world economy may have been on the precipice of disaster but these two companies benefited in ways it will take years to assess and one has to wonder why? If you followed the series of articles in the Coltons Point Times you would have known. You can see the index of the Economic articles in the recent past at the Coltons Point Times http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/ .
House of Rothschild Family Crest


Let's examine where we are today. First, the Rothschilds control JP Morgan as they have for most of the past century along with an astounding number of major banks, brokers and corporations around the world. Then it is no surprise that in terms of the Market Cap on investment banking institutions in America JP Morgan stands alone with over $130 billion. They along with Goldman also had the highest ratings in the bank stress test and do not need any additional capital.


Behind Morgan comes Wells Fargo $99.16 billion (Warren Buffett is a substantial investor), Bank of America $69.39 billion but dropping, and Goldman Sachs at $64.37 billion (Warren Buffett is also a savior of that bank). Bank of America was the worst of all banks but not bad all the same and Wells does need to raise some capital.


How about the stock prices the past year. JP Morgan lost 27.8% of value, Goldman Sachs lost 31.6% of value and Wells Fargo lost 22.5% of value. All outperformed the markets which are still down about 40-42%. In the banking sector Bank of America lost 73.6% of value and Citigroup lost 87.3% of value. Most important, since Obama got elected our golden boys JP Morgan and Goldman both more than doubled in value to lead the economic rebound.


During the past year virtually all the competition to the golden buys disappeared, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers were wiped out, companies that were founded in 1923, 1914 and 1850. All other major competitors were left broken like Bank of America and Citigroup.


Goldman probably owes it's survival to the fact it has long served as a front or partner with JP Morgan, meaning the Rothschild empire, just as the JP Morgan company survived by being a front for the Rothschild family. While Morgan has a market cap of over $130 billion, the Rothschild fortune is estimated to be as high as $200 trillion, not billion. That is more than the annual budgets of every nation on earth, actually more than every nation's budget on earth combined. The largest budget by far is the USA at $3.44 trillion with $11.2 trillion in debt, pocket change to the Rothschild family.


If the Rothschilds are the puppet masters of the world Goldman is their star puppet being in the forefront of every major financial catastrophe in recent history and benefiting each time. They secretly backed Obama well before he was a candidate for President and have been getting dividends on their investment ever since.

Both Morgan and Goldman got billions in bank bail out money from the last Administration, approved by Congress and approved by Senator Obama. Neither needed or ever used it. Since becoming President Obama gave billions to bail out AIG and AIG turned around and paid off billions in debt owed to Morgan and Goldman. How do these things happen under the very nose of Congress and federal regulators?


Look at the record of where former Goldman executives have settled. Here is just a partial list and it makes you wonder if Goldman Sachs is controlling Wall Street and Washington?

Henry H. Fowler - 58th United States Treasury Secretary (1965-1969)
Robert Rubin - Former United States Treasury Secretary, ex-Chairman of Citigroup.
Henry Paulson - Former United States Treasury Secretary.
Edward Lampert- Hedge Fund Manager of ESL Investments. Brought K-Mart out of Bankruptcy in 2003
Joshua Bolten - former White House Chief of Staff
Erin Burnett - CNBC Host
Jon Corzine - Governor of the State of New Jersey.
Michael Cohrs - Head of Global Banking at Deutsche Bank
Emanuel Derman - Author of My Life as a Quant and co-developer of the Black-Derman-Toy
model
Jim Cramer - founder of TheStreet.com, best selling author, and host of Mad Money on CNBC
Ashwin Navin - President and co-founder of BitTorrent, Inc.
Abby Joseph Cohen - Perma-bull market forecaster formerly of Drexel Burnham Lambert
George Herbert Walker IV - member of the Bush family and current managing director at Neuberger Berman
Robert Zoellick - Uniteed States Trade Representative (2001-2005), Deputy Secretary of State (2005-2006), World Bank President.
Mark Carney - Current Governor of the Bank of Canada
Michael D. Fascitelli - President & Trustee of Vornado Realty Trust
Neel Kashkari - Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability
Charlie Haas - Wrestler, who is working for World Wreestling Entertainment
Malcolm Turnbull - Australian politician, currently the federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia
John Thain - former Chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch, and former chairman of the NYSE.
Thain was replaced at the NYSE by Goldman veteran Duncan Niederauer.
Robert Steel - Chairman and President, Wachovia Bank.
Reuben Jeffery III, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs (2007-)
Romano Prodi, Prime Minister of Italy twice (1996-1998 and 2006-2008) and President of the European Commission (1999-2004)
Mario Draghi, governor of the Bank of Italy (2006- )
Massimo Tononi, Italian deputy treasury chief (2006-2008)

Goldman just hired former Barney Frank staffer Michael Paese to be top Washington lobbyist.
This position was formerly held by Mark Patterson, the current chief of staff at the Treasury.
Tim Geithner, Obama Secretary of Treasury was mentored by Gerald Corrigan, a former New York Fed president and current partner and managing director of the Office of the Chairman of Goldman Sachs. Geithner’s replacement as president of the New York Fed, William C. Dudley, is also a former Goldman executive

Ed Liddy, who the government appointed as CEO of AIG was Goldman’s vice chairman

Akshaya Prasad has left Goldman's and joined investment company Greater Pacific Capital as co-head of their Indian business.

Of course these high-level appointments are probably just coincidental. Just as it was probably coincidental that on September 15, 2008, then New York Fed president Tim Geithner pressed for AIG’s biggest counterparty, Goldman Sachs, to help the insurer raise capital after it became clear that AIG was at risk of going bankrupt. And that on the same day Goldman’s current CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, was at the New York Fed. And that Goldman ended up in receipt of about $12 billion in tax dollars thanks to AIG’s wholesale credit-default swap and after the government bail out.

Just today we learned that the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Stephen J. Friedman, abruptly resigned on Thursday, days after the Wall Street Journal raised questions about his ties to his former employer, Goldman Sachs.
Mr. Friedman, who led or co-led Goldman from 1990 until 1994 and remains a director, was chairman of the New York Fed at the same time. He also held a substantial stake in the firm as the Federal Reserve drew up plans to keep Wall Street’s banks afloat.


Because the New York Fed approved a request by Goldman to become a bank holding company, the chairman’s involvement in Goldman was a violation of Fed policy, The Wall Street Journal reported. The New York Fed had asked for a waiver, which, after about two and a half months, the Fed granted, the newspaper said. During that time, Mr. Friedman bought 37,300 more Goldman shares, which have since risen $1.7 million in value.

In fact the control of the Rothschilds and Goldman are so complex the following is a chart tracking some of the Goldman connections.



As the world economy improves which it must for the golden boys to benefit maybe you should look carefully at our politicians and Wall Street executives and look closely for the puppet strings from the real Master.




Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Derby Day at the Point



The gang at Coltons Point gathered for the 135th Kentucky Derby with a bevy of hats and a flurry of long shots making it a most interesting ride. After the morning favorite scratched from the race it was wide open and the Pointer faithful managed to bet in a manner that had eight winners of the various pools.
Even Mary Poppins showed up...


Only in the Point could the results come out like they did as I, for one, picked a long shot West Side Bernie who finished ninth and I still won the pool for third place. It seems the handicapping of the crowd was lacking as no one picked 6 of the top 8 horses.


Then again even the pros had a tough day since the favorite at the time of the race finished 18 out of 19. The jaw-dropping winner, Mine That Bird, broke all the odds and almost all the records with the second highest payout in Derby history at 50-1 odds, paying $103.20 on a $2.00 bet.


A horse that sold for $9,500 racing against multi-million dollar horses. A trainer who broke his leg and hobbled around on crutches had to tow the Derby champion in a trailer on a 21 hour drive from New Mexico to get to Churchill Downs. Most horses come by chartered jet. A jockey not given a chance but who won the Derby two years ago on Street Sense simply could not believe the horse he was riding.

The high rollers were in town...

Back at the Point the hats were all the buzz and the participants were pretty buzzed themselves. Mint Juleps were everywhere as we learned more about the strange little horse. The trainer, Bennie "Chip" Woolley was an ex-rodeo cowboy who broke his leg in a motorcycle accident two months ago.



The owners were two New Mexico buddies, Mark Allen and Dr. Leonard Blach who purchased him in Canada of all places. You could not miss the cowboys with their bolo ties and cowboy hats. The jockey, Calvin Borel burst into tears as he crossed the finish line but had never seen the horse until the Monday before the race.

Winners of the hottest hat contest...


The owners didn't believe the little horse had a chance and the trainer almost left the grandstand halfway through the race when his horse was far behind the leaders and trailing the entire field of horses. And then the Gods of Churchill Downs stepped in and the horse was on fire blazing to a 6 3/4 length victory.


The Price of Being President

I guess it is too much to expect the new royalty of American politics to get it all right but at least we know they do make mistakes.

Like Michelle Obama addressing workers at a food program for the poor in $546 sneakers.



Or maybe what happens to our President when the teleprompter fails to work. Without the script he is just another clumsy speaker.



Of course there is also the next in line for the presidency, just plain Joe Biden.



Even the late night rulers have found fun with Obama on occasion.



Finally there was the top secret challenge between Obama and McCain to decide who would win the election, the Dance Off for President.



Have a good day.

A Video You Must Watch

Rarely does the internet provide us with something that can really influence your day in a positive way what with the politicians, media analysts and games but this is it. Check it out.



From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes this version of Stand By Me recorded with various artists throughout the world. The Virtual Studio is a breath of fresh air.