Waffle House Index

Hurricane Michael has been upgraded to 18 Waffle House closings.

The Waffle House Index is 'kinda' used by FEMA to determine the effect of a storm and the likely scale of assistance required for disaster recovery.

The index has three levels, based on the extent of operations and service at the restaurant following a storm:

GREEN: full menu - restaurant has power and damage is limited or no damage at all.

YELLOW: limited menu - no power or only power from a generator, or food supplies may be low.

RED: the restaurant is closed - indicating severe damage or severe flooding

The joke among the first responder's is if you see a spot where the Waffle House is closed - that's where you are needed.

McCain Expected to Win

Gawker.com is predicting a John McCain win.

They're quick to mention how 'real conservatives' hate John since he's for campaign finance reform law, voted against the Bush tax cuts, supported "amnesty" in comprehensive immigration reforms, among other things — and very hesitantly supported him in 2008. Everyone thought that the Tea Party-backed Hayworth might finally get the job done. That's not going to work. Polls in the past couple of months have shown McCain with a 20- or 30-percentage point lead. One showed him ahead by 45.

But here's the deal - John is another one of the olgarcy ruling class of Americans that keep getting re-elected and re-elected -- and John doesn't even bring home the bacon to AZ. Especially since he lost the big one.

How does he do it? Well the $21 million he's spent, compared to Hayworth's (approximately) $3 million on the campaign MIGHT have something to do with it? At this point, why doesn't he just give everyone a check at the polling box and save his fellow Arizona citizens the constant drum beat of 'friends' before every sentence?

The goal of serving the people of the United States shouldn't be to die in your Senate chair.

Life Altering Device Created

It’s a Waffsicle maker. Nuff said.

via [thetrendygirl.]

Wut File: Putin Warns US About Socialism

To quote Walter Sobchak: "Has the whole world gone crazy?"

Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence”.

“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”

Sounding more like Barry Goldwater than the former head of the Communist KGB, Putin said, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”

No, really.

Putin also cautioned the US against using military Keynesianism to lift its economy out of recession, saying, “in the longer run, militarization won’t solve the problem but will rather quell it temporarily. What it will do is squeeze huge financial and other resources from the economy instead of finding better and wiser uses for them.” Ahem. Mr. Putin’s comments come in sharp contrast to Russia’s own military buildup and expansion.

Sounding more like Ron Paul, Putin added, “we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debts and ‘bad’ assets. True, this will be an extremely painful and unpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearing for their capitalization, bonuses, or reputation. However, we would ‘conserve’ and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balance sheets.”

“The time for enlightenment has come. We must calmly, and without gloating, assess the root causes of this situation and try to peek into the future.”

Yeah, Putin!

Absolutely the strangest of times.

Waffle House Wedding

For years, the couple tried to marry on their Independence Day anniversary. But the bride was always scheduled to work. Instead of waiting any longer - she got the day off at the last minute; Mathis had to report for the morning shift - the couple of nine years decided to seal the deal at work.

The result was what a NASCAR tailgate might be like if Hank Jr. himself stopped by with all his rowdy friends: Loud and proud - country music, storytelling and plenty of Dale Earnhardt paraphernalia - and not an iota of pretentiousness.

Shortly after exchanging vows under the shade of a tree next to the parking lot, both man and wife let out sighs of relief as they picked up their two little blonde girls and chatted with family and friends.
George "Bubba" Mathis puts on his shirt and tie before the start of his wedding ceremony in the parking lot of the Waffle House. Mathis married his girlfriend and fellow Waffle House employee Christian after he completed his morning shift at the restaurant.



(There's a Slide Show, with audio Link)

Costco Size Obama Waffles

Obama has already waffled on the War, protecting Israel - (or pandering to the Jewish voting block), NAFTA, and the biggest one of all -- his promise to use public funds.

Now, off the top, I remind you I can't do math. I'm barely verbal - but I can figure out the difference between 89 million and 500 million. I get it. There's a couple more zeros there.

It's the way he put out the most half hearted reason for not sticking to his promise. There's a video -- but to boil it down, Obama didn't just say, "It's a whole lot of money."

Joe Biden said today, "In terms of undermining the public financing idea for everyone'' the decision "doesn't help,'' Biden, a Delaware Democrat, "It's going to be harder to make the case'' for public financing, he said.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a McCain supporter appearing on the same program with Joe Biden, said Obama "is reinforcing everything that's wrong with politics.''

"This is a game changer in terms of the general election,'' said Graham, of South Carolina. "This will not go unnoticed by the American people.'' McCain plans to take public financing for the general election campaign. I disagree, as there are about five people who have noticed this 'game changer.' I guess I'm one of the five?

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson defended Obama, saying the Illinois senator's decision "is in the spirit of reform of the public financing system.''

Through May 31, Obama has taken in $277 million, $10 million of that for the general election. McCain raised around $121 million. The taxpayer funding available for the general election is $84.1 million for each candidate.

But does anyone really give a rip? Why should they? What this means is - and what I've taken away from this - is that the typical NASCAR type of funding and stickering of your political guy is now going to be reinforced... and it's a president for the next and every following election.