RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES May 18

AIG CEO Edward Liddy told 60 Minutes the company is trying to pay back the American public, acknowleging that the company has "a unique place" in public opinion. Unique? Hardly. AIG shares a spot in public opinion with Osama Bin Ladin, Adolf Hitler and Black Death

Liddy added that AIG is doing the best they can to repay the taxpayers. He said if the economy really turns sour, the "have a plan." Oh great. I hope it's a better plan than the one they had when they collapsed and cost the taxpayers almost $200 billion. 
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President Obama wants to show the Conservatives and Moderates that he can be just as tough on National Security issues as his predesessors, and hopes his stance on Gitmo and terrorist interrogations will give him an in to find some middle ground with his opponents in Congress. Liberals are livid. What next? they ask, Dick Cheney for vice president?

Compromise is the grease that runs the machine of Government. Politics is the sand thrown into the gears.

The repair mission on the Hubble Telescope is proving more difficult than they originally planned. Stuck bolts, dead battery. Maybe they should have called NAS-AAA.

Archaeologists are investigating whether the Navajo Indians could have used smoke signals to warn of approaching enemies. Seeking out mountaintop positions and using special flares, the scientists are testing the theory that signals could have been rapidly spread through the region in times of crisis.Arnold Schwarzenegger is watching the results. He may have found another way to spread the alarm about the state budget. 

As the California Special Election gets closer unions representing teachers, correctional officers and service employees are pushing hard for favorable concessions and financial guarantees from the state in case the outcome of the election forces them to make cutbacks and givebacks. They shouldn't worry, though. The only thing with more pull than the unions on the politicians in Sacramento is gravity.

Governor Schwarzenegger has been taking every opportunity to play Chicken Little about the State Budget, warning that collapse is imminent unless voters do exactly what he says. But voters aren't listening. They must think they are State Legislators.

It might have been a bad idea to throw the budget solutions to the voters rather than dealing with it in the Capitol. Folks might start thinking that we don't need full-time Legislators. After all, if they had to spend half the year making a living under the same rules as the rest of us, they'd spend the other half of the year making it easier.

If ever a politician makes a campaign promise that he or she, if elected, will just sit in their office and do nothing, they'd have my vote. 

The Queen of England is somewhat perturbed at the scandal brewing involving her Prime Minister. Word is she might take him out to Ye Olde Woodshed for a flogging.