HuffPost headline: "Piers Morgan's CNN Show Is Being Canceled" -- You know, except for HuffPost headlines, I didn't know who Piers Morgan was or that the show being canceled actually was on TV. Hmmmm, I think we can survive this and not worry about a future "reunion" show.

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From the "it ain't over til it's over" department - Online story: "KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — With an ally claiming presidential powers Sunday and the whereabouts and legitimacy of the nominal president unclear, newly freed opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko may feel her chance to take Ukraine's leadership has come. But even among protesters who detest President Viktor Yanukovych, Tymoshenko sparks misgivings. * Just a day after she left the hospital where she was imprisoned, demonstrators outside the Cabinet of Ministers expressed dismay that she could be Ukraine's next president. One of them held a placard depicting Tymoshenko taking power from Yanukovych and reading, "People didn't die for this." -- Hmmm, something tells me this will not be solved by a new election.

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There's a list of the "18 worst things about Hawaii", and Judas 00-Barnum nor Secret Service roadblocks are included.. Looks like we've rounded out the Top 20.

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Online headline/story: "The UAW, in a statement released Friday, cited “a firestorm of interference from politicians and special interest groups” as playing a central role in causing workers to vote against the union. * In its complaint, the UAW argues that “a coordinated and widely publicized coercive campaign (was) conducted by politicians and outside organizations to deprive Volkswagen workers of their federally protected right to join a union.” -- Good grief! Unions are the most politically protected entities, the most special interest group in the Democratic Party base, and the UAW is claiming "politics" are dirty? Looks like the pendulum has finally swung back.

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Online story: "Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will reportedly propose a Pentagon budget that will shrink the U.S. Army to its smallest number since 1940 * Under Hagel's plan, the number of troops in the Army will drop to between 440,000 and 450,000, a reduction of at least 120,000 soldiers from its post-Sept.11 peak." -- Hmmm, as I recall, even Japan thought that number was small enough to attack in 1941, and al Qaida thought it was weak enough post-Clinton to do the same.

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From story above: ""Personnel costs reflect some 50% of the Pentagon budget and cannot be exempted in the context of the significant cuts the department is facing," Defense Department spokesman Adm. John Kirby told the Journal. "Secretary Hagel has been clear that, while we do not want to, we ultimately must slow the growth of military pay and compensation." -- You know, for a "service organization, 50% in salary/benefits (personnel costs) is pretty efficient. Private sector considers 60% the goal. Of course, In our MCSD budget, almost 85% goes for salaries/benefits. Maybe we should hire Chuck Hagel as our next Superintendent and get our school payroll costs under control.

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You know... Judas 00-Barnum once said, basically, that he wanted an interior army of his own of 250,000 men. With DHS acquiring VRAP armored vehicles, and more than 1.6 BILLION rounds of ammo, and more than 100K Army soldiers to be out of a job, we better keep close tabs on any Judas 00-Barnum "recruiting" said "laid-off" troops under a "job creation bill".

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Online story: "Meteorologists forecast a pair of storms could dump several inches of rain on parched cities and croplands throughout California in the coming week, bringing welcome news to a state that has just endured its driest year in recorded history." -- Hmmm, looks like a case of Knee-mail being more effective than e-mail to Washington.

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Update: Yesterday, I flagged a City Manager's Agenda item of spending $64K on radio improvements for the City Service Center and Natatorium. I did get one response as to why the City Manager wants to spend another $64K on radio improvements inte 311Center and Natatorium. Seems there are a couple of "dead spaces" where radios don't work. Huh? How many times does the City Manager actually think there'll be a Sheriff's Deputy in the 311 Center/Natatorium caught in a "dead spot" and have an urgent need for a radio?

Got the "rather be safe than sorry" response, but for the situations she described, I doubt a Sheriff's deputy would even be on the premises, and those situation would/should be handled by anyone with a cellphone.

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Sorta an "instant replay" for an above observation being rehashed by a low info voter's L-E "soundoff": The United States spends 60 percent of its budget on the military and its operations. We’re becoming like ancient Sparta. You know what “Spartan” means, don’t you? Do without." -- Instant replay from above - From story above: ""Personnel costs reflect some 50% of the Pentagon budget and cannot be exempted in the context of the significant cuts the department is facing," Defense Department spokesman Adm. John Kirby told the Journal. "Secretary Hagel has been clear that, while we do not want to, we ultimately must slow the growth of military pay and compensation." -- You know, for a "service organization, 50% in salary/benefits (personnel costs) is pretty efficient. Private sector considers 60% the goal. Of course, In our MCSD budget, almost 85% goes for salaries/benefits. Maybe we should hire Chuck Hagel as our next Superintendent and get our school payroll costs under control.

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Online story: "Two Missouri students who went toe-to-toe for 66 rounds in the annual Jackson County spelling bee aren’t quite finished after event organizers ran out of words for the contest. * The Kansas City Star reports 25 students started the championship round Saturday, but only two remained after 19 rounds.
* From there, fifth-grader Sophia Hoffman of Lee’s Summit and Kush Sharma, a seventh-grader from Kansas City, buzzed through the list of words provided by the national bee, as well as 20 others plucked from the dictionary. * At about 2 p.m. — five hours after the contest started — bee officials decided not to pull more words from the dictionary and instead decided to continue the competition March 8 at an undetermined library location." -- Hmmm, sounds more like the students should be hired to replace the teachers.

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Online story: "With possibly hundreds of thousands of rape kits untested across the country, a number of states are proposing legislation to address backlogs that in at least one case dates back nearly three decades. * The New York-based Rape Kit Action Project says that there are more than 12,000 untested rape kits going back to the 1980s in Memphis, Tenn. alone." -- And government commands we turn the US healthcare system as well over to it?

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Why is the Stocking Strangler still breathing! In 1977/78, 8 Columbus women were attacked, 7 of them died, and I knew all of them. They were friends of my family. 36 years have passed but the memories have never left. The memories are stirred up again and again as justice is delayed. End it!

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General Pat Foote (“The Army sent me there (Vietnam) wearing heels, hose and a cute little suit with no weapons and no training; women assigned there were ill-equipped in the event of an attack,” she said.) is now an expert on how Hillary says to handle Irani nuclear actions? Gimmee a break.

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L-E story: " A 25-year-old Columbus man told police that a burglar took around $3,000 from his Spencer Lane home between 4 p.m. Saturday and 2:20 a.m. Sunday. * Most of the money was taken from the front pocket of a vest in the victim’s closet and a clothes drawer, according to a police report." -- Hmmm, sounds suspiciously like the "burglar" had inside knowledge if "it" looked in a vest pocket in a closet...

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L-E headline/story: "Georgia debates leasing of solar panels * (State Rep. Mike Dudgeon), Johns Creek Republican says the increased competition could lead to lower consumer energy bills. His proposal also would allow third-party companies to sell solar electricity directly to customers." -- Good grief! We know that no such action will reduce the rates the PSC will allow GA Power to bill us. If anything, it would be decades before GA Power would even worry about such "competition, and when it did, GA Power would get the PSC to allow it to buy up the competition.