Well yes, she’s an idiot, but is Debby Wasserman Schultz feeling the heat from her Democratic Jewish base?

 

The brains behind the Democrats

The Democratic Party Chairman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, goes after Obama for not working his job.

President Obama does his job less often than any commander-in-chief since Grover Cleveland, who held the office in the 19th century.

That’s according to Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was interviewed on MSNBC Wednesday ahead of a Republican-backed measure to sue Obama for overstepping his executive authority, especially in his unilateral actions to implement Obamacare.

But in the interview, Wasserman Schultz, a U.S. congresswoman from Florida, inadvertently agreed with a complaint levied most often by Republicans that Obama has not put much effort into his job.

“I’m going to go to the House floor and actually debate why we shouldn’t be voting for the first time in American history to sue the president of the United States for doing his job, and doing his job actually less often and at a rate that is lower than any other president since Grover Cleveland,” said Wasserman Schultz, while fingering Republicans who she claims “refuse to do anything.”

Assuming that Wasserman wasn’t just running off at her mouth – and she could well have been; she’s the Joe Biden of female Democrats, there must be a reason for her dissing her president. The only reason I can come up with is that Obama’s siding with Hamas over Israel has infuriated the big money donors of the party, and this is her way of reassuring them.

Or something – you figure it out.

From flame thrower to chain whip, I want at least one of each

 

It’s the Evil GAR Princess!

“Ten weapons you won’t believe are legal”. The editors of the Financial Times may be incredulous, the soft little Brits, but to me, they’re what every red blooded American boy or girl should have in their home.

Change comes to Fondle My Paloma

 

 

An unfortunate wall accessory

“The Little Pub” will be opening in August at the site of the former Mexican restaurant. From its pictures (ignore the dreadful one I chose, and the fake barn beams) and description, it sounds like a winner, but I was amused at this bit of naiveté expressed by Greenwich Chamber of Commerce director Marcia O’ Kane: “If Little Pub delivers the same casual dining and pub experience that Fonda La Paloma did, it should be a success.”

I hate to break it to Ms. O’Kane, but local lore has it that Fonda La Paloma stayed in business over the decades while serving execrable food with rude service because it was a regional drug distribution center – the restaurant served as a laundry, not a dining spot.

That’s just the local rumor, of course. I personally never went back after a memorable, but horrific dining experience there in 1971 or so but like many in town, I wondered at its longevity, and the legend explains that mystery, accurately or not.

In any event, another casual dining spot in Cos Cob should do fine, especially if it really serves food.

She may have a certificate in fung shui, but these buyers would have been better off with an agent who understood real estate

Fungi specialist and real estate advisor

The requested variance to build a house at 610 Lake Avenue, which I mentioned yesterday, was denied by the Zoning Board of Appeals last night.

In my experience, something will eventually be built here, almost certainly a structure that will offend the objecting neighbor more than the current plan, because first attempts in these sort of cases are usually designed to minimize any intrusion on neighbors’ sight lines and that, of course, is no longer a consideration once a variance is denied – the next house plan will be designed specifically to avoid the need for a variance, the neighbor’s wishes be damned. I’ve seen that happen, again and again.

I myself warned off two protective buyers from considering this site precisely because of the complexity of attempting to replace the dilapidated structure that stands there now.Neighbors always object to change of any kind, and any sort of reasonable house to be built here was going to require a variance and thus be at the mercy of third parties.

The poor land owners here didn’t receive the benefit of my advice because, perhaps because they are Chinese, they chose a Realtor who claims to be a certified Feng Shui expert. That will come in handy when it’s time to choose a color for the front door and the placement of windows, but is absolutely useless in building a structure in which to hang those things in the first place.

Here’s a bargain

212 Old Mill Road, 5 1/2 acres, has had a troubled past. Purchased for $2.6 million in 2006, the owners got wetlands approval for a new house and septic to replace the existing (quite livable) building already on it, then encountered financial difficulties and put it back up for sale in  2008 for $3.299. That didn’t work and a few price cuts later, foreclosure began, bankruptcy followed, and so forth.

Long story short, today the owners’ new lawyers have filed an appearance with the court, together with a flurry of motions to set aside judgements and so forth, and relisted the property for $1.550 million. I can’t link to the GMLS listing yet, hence the old Zillow listing above (if you ask nicely, I can email you the info via GMLS’s “client” mode) , but 5+acres, even with some wetlands, on Old Mill Rd, is a good deal.

 

Open house report

 

18 Hidden Brook

18 Hidden Brook, Riverside, came out very well indeed. Smallish, and a small yard, but Hidden Brook, from a traffic sense, comes from nowhere and goes nowhere, so it’s a very quiet street. The finish work inside is top quality: performed by Doran Sabag under the watchful eye of Jim Hoffman* and, all in all, a very pleasant house. Excellent renovation and for this location in Riverside, $2.395 isn’t unreasonable.

*You must have left for lunch while Doran was painting, Jim, because the skylight trim in the studio bathroom was left in its primer undercoat. Send him back.

There’s a couple in W. Virginia who could have spared them from this cultural faux pas

 

Barbie and Ken do the Commonwealth Games

Malaysians insulted by presence of Scottie Dogs in Commonwealth Games opening parade.

Malaysian politicians are barking mad about the Scottish terriers that pranced through the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Dogs are considered unclean in some Islamic cultures, which means their presence at the games vexed some Muslims.

Mohamad Sabu, of the opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, said that Malaysia and all the other Islamic countries of the Commonwealth deserved an apology.

“This is just so disrespectful to Malaysia and Muslims — especially as it happened during Ramadan,” Sabu told The Telegraph. “ Muslims are not allowed to touch dogs, so the organizer should have been more aware and sensitive on this issue.”

“It is hoped this incident can teach other Western countries to be more respectful in the future,” he added.

Dominatrix Barbara Jean “B.J.” Geardello and her slave, Robert Deyell would surely have been delighted to march in the parade in the place of the Scottie designated “Malaysia”. “Robert would do it on all fours, on a leash, but he couldn’t wear no banner,” BJ told FWIW, “it might hide his nakedness, and that’s no fun.”

When Darwinism fails

 

Aw, Christians for dinner AGAIN?!

Michigan woman plans on suing zoo for not doing enough to prevent her from sticking her finger into lion cage, where she received only a quick manicure, instead of her just deserts.

“They should have done more to prevent me from petting it”, says local cretin Renae  Ferguson.

Warning signs, fencing and indeed, the very nature of the beast itself weren’t sufficient to stop her – I suggest the zoo administer IQ tests to visitors before allowing them on the grounds.

The Streisand effect

I want to be alone with my nose

Chances are, not many people had heard of Chicagoan (Arlington Heights, it looks like) Sabrina Kropp and her cocaine problem until she filed suit against her plastic surgeon for publicizing her image. Now, who hasn’t?

JULY 30–A Chicago woman is suing her plastic surgeon for publishing before and after photos of her facial reconstruction and labeling the images “Cocaine Nose.”

Sabrina Kropp, 55, alleges that Dr. Robert Walton posted the photos to his web site last year without her permission, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in Cook County Circuit Court. The photos were taken in 2004 and were supposed to be kept confidential, Kropp contends.

The photos, which have been removed from Walton’s web site, were originally posted in a section highlighting assorted “nose procedures” performed by the 68-year-old surgeon.

Three “before” images (seen above) were captioned, “Pre-operative view of a cocaine injured nose with collapse of the nasal lining.” A trio of “after” images were described as “Post operative views of the cocaine injured nose following reconstruction of the nasal lining with a microsurgical Bat Flap. A stable nasal platform has been restored allowing for projection of the mid face. Rib cartilage grafts were used to provide structural support.”

According to her complaint, Kropp has suffered “great harm” as a result of the publication of the photos. Walton, she added, should have realized that the photos would cause her distress, shame, and embarrassment.

Nice headline/picture combination from Business Insider

Dollar Bill resurfaces: in West Virginia, naturally

Democrat clam bake, 2014

Police called after reports of dominatrix walking naked man on the street

A naked man down on all fours, ankles bound, hood over his head, being walked on a leash by a woman wearing a purple nightgown.

A picture of the couple was snapped on a cell phone by a passing driver.

“We started knocking on doors,” says Lt. Croft.

Tips led to an apartment building on Roney’s Point Road.

“The female at first denied any involvement,” Lt. Croft said. “We had a witness positively identify her, and she admitted it, as did the male.”

“They said it was consensual sex, a consensual sex game, and they were offended that people were stopping and calling them freaks,” Lt. Croft.

Deyell, who told deputies he was a willing participant, was not seriously injured, says Lt. Croft.

“Except for ligature marks, obvious ligature marks on his feet and ankles,” he added. “Other than that, he denied any injury. We won’t go into the other thing.”

One from the archives

While digging around for my earlier report on 186 Shore Road when it was new, I came upon this story from 2009, about Bill Clinton, foreign bribery and a “donation” of $31.3 million to the Clinton Foundation. 

Part of it read:

Late on Sept. 6, 2005, a private plane carrying the Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra touched down in Almaty, a ruggedly picturesque city in southeast Kazakhstan. Several hundred miles to the west a fortune awaited: highly coveted deposits of uranium that could fuel nuclear reactors around the world. And Mr. Giustra was in hot pursuit of an exclusive deal to tap them.

Unlike more established competitors, Mr. Giustra was a newcomer to uranium mining in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. But what his fledgling company lacked in experience, it made up for in connections.Accompanying Mr. Giustra on his luxuriously appointed MD-87 jet that day was a former president of the United States, Bill Clinton….

Within two days, corporate records show that Mr. Giustra also came up a winner when his company signed preliminary agreements giving it the right to buy into three uranium projects controlled by Kazakhstan’s state-owned uranium agency, Kazatomprom.

The monster deal stunned the mining industry, turning an unknown shell company into one of the world’s largest uranium producers in a transaction ultimately worth tens of millions of dollars to Mr. Giustra, analysts said.

Just months after the Kazakh pact was finalized, Mr. Clinton’s charitable foundation received its own windfall: a $31.3 million donation from Mr. Giustra that had remained a secret until he acknowledged it last month.

Read the whole thing – secret meetings in Chappaqua that were denied until they were exposed, then “remembered”, Hillary using her influence as a senator, cover ups, denials, bribery; the whole, typical Clinton method of operation. And they’re still at it.

Using zoning instead of your pocket book

The neighbor of 610 Lake Avenue will be sending her lawyers off to the P&Z Board of Appeals tonight to protest the razing of Ernest Thompson Seton’s “studio”, built in 1928. As the picture shows, the place is uninhabitable, with plastic tarps strung over the top to keep water out, etc. Ms. Betty Cobbs Brown tells the Greenwich Time (it’s behind the GT cash wall, and I refuse to pay $2.50 to see it) that she and her husband bought five of the 7 1/2 acres of what was left of the Seton property back in 1954 and have enjoyed it ever since.

That’s just fine, and I’m glad Ms. Brown has had a good time of it, but she could have purchased this parcel in 2012 for $890,000 and protected her seclusion while adding to her land holdings at a minimal price. I find it upsetting that she – or any owner, this isn’t directed at her – is allowed to avoid spending her money, yet can achieve the same thing merely by objecting to anything being built on it by the person who did pay up.

I’m fairly familiar with the property, although I didn’t represent either the buyer or the seller, and between the pond on the property and wetlands, with their own setback requirements, nothing can be built here without a variance. That’s okay – in fact, that’s why zoning systems are set up to have an appeals process – but I do find it objectionable for a neighbor to object to that building when she could have put her money, rather than her lawyer, where her mouth is.

610 Lake Avenue, with pond scum

78 Baldwin Farms S. sells again

 

78 Baldwin Farms South

It sold for $3.224 million in October, 2012,  then came back on at $3.495 the next year and sold today for $3.265, pretty much right back where it started. The link goes to the old, 2012 sale but the house is pretty much the same, except that the new owners undid some unfortunate wallpaper choices made by the their predecessors, cleaned out the Rinfret look, and spruced up the kitchen.

Presumably the sale was triggered by a change of plans, rather than as part of a plan to flip-for-profit.

A silk purse?

 

18 Hidden Brook

18 Hidden Brook Road in Riverside is new to the market today, asking $2.395 million. That’s a pretty good price for Hidden Brook, but I can’t tell from its pictures how much its been transformed from its 1965 developer-tract origins. Interior’s by Jim Hoffman, so that’s promising. Look forward to seeing it at its open house.

Imagine selling your nice, $800,000 Minnesota home and discovering what awaits you here

29 Midbrook

29 Midbrook Lane reports an accepted offer, $1.243 million. The GAR has removed its details from public view, but I can tell you this: it’s no $800,000 Minnesota mansion.

Mosquito trap?

 

Lampshade askew, toppled picture, must have been a hell of a party in that bar

It took a year, but 48 Orchard Street got its price.

 

48 Orchard

April contract, just closed for $1, 482,500. The picture’s deceptive – this house was totally redone and expanded in 2007 and it’s a great house. Draw back is its location on busy Orchard Street, but that also places it within walking distance of school, shops and even (long walk, but I watch people do it every day) the train. So I get it. It came on at $1.695 million at the end of March, 2013, and wouldn’t sell, but when it was dropped to $1.495 this past March it went in less than three weeks.

Nice house. Here’s that “Planomatic” thing.

Will history repeat itself?

 

186 Shore Rd, street view

186 Shore Road, in Old Greenwich, started off a year ago asking $7.995 million but today sees a new broker and a new price, $7.495. It’s a gorgeous house, but I recall that when it was new in 2009, its builders also started off at $7.995 and ended up selling it to these owners for $6.625. Same pattern developing?

This house has some really, really great features, including a glass “wall” that opens the living room to the sea, for breezes, views and what must be an incredible entertaining flow between home, terrace and pool area. Big, airy rooms and top quality finishes. The negatives are the beach traffic on Shore Road (though to be considered is that, after sunset, when Tod’s is closed, Shore becomes a very quiet dead end), and the cluster of less expensive houses between this one and the water.

It’s a matter of personal preference, of course, and I’m curious to see where this one ends up on the price scale.

Won’t you be my neighbor?

The woman who would be king

 

 

So who are the idiots, them or us?

Hillary: Hamas hides its missile sites and armaments in hospitals and schools because Gaza’s so small, there’s no place else to put them

Speaking to journalist Jorge Ramos yesterday, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that Hamas operates in civilian populated areas in Gaza because it’s “pretty small.” “The problem is, and this is something, I’m not a military planner but Hamas puts its missiles, its rockets in civilian areas, part of it is that Gaza’s pretty small and it’s very densely populated.

Katie Pavlich of Town Hall points out the obvious:

Hamas doesn’t operate in civilian areas because it’s a “pretty small” place, not even “in part.” Hamas intentionally and deliberately operates in civilians populations, including in schools and mosques, in order to get innocent Palestinians killed so they can use dead bodies as propaganda against Israel. Hamas purposefully uses human beings as shields. Period. Hamas doesn’t operate inside civilian areas “in part,” that’s where their entire operation and propaganda campaign is based.

We keep hearing how smart Obama and his former and current Secretaries of State are. Just for the sake of argument, let’s grant that; in which case, the administration’s decision to ignore Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority and negotiate instead with Hamas, whose charter calls for the complete destruction of Israel and Jews, and Turkey and Qatar, both enemies of Israel and, in Qatar’s case, one of the largest funders of terrorists world-wide, suggests that Obama and his crowd are doing so deliberately. They aren’t naive or innocent, as persons of good will might consider them, but  implacable foes of Israel.

Yet both Hillary and Obama will continue to receive huge donations from super-rich Jews in Hollywood and New York.

Huh.

Thanks from John

Sarah forwards this:

My friends! Oh boy do I have some serious gratitude to express right now. You’d better sit down.

Since this ship sailed outta ol’ Shitstorm Harbor some months ago, you guys have supported me in all ways possible. Online fundraisers, benefit shows, you guys have come out in spades and I sincerely have no idea how I could possible thank you enough.

Then my sister Sarah, hellbent on world domination, started a campaign on Giveforward.com and blew the roof off, raising almost $40k in under a week. Holy shamoly, folks. What the heck am I going to do with all this loot?

Well let’s answer that question. Many of you have graciously donated way more than necessary, telling me to get to the bottom of my bucket list. And while as a registered Democrat I’m all for the wanton and gratuitous spending of other people’s money, I feel it best in this scenario to make like my father’s constituents and approach this new found wealth with conservative prudence.

I’m going to stay put and fight this. I’ve been doing a bit of jet-setting (I’m out in Portland West with my sister, by the way) but after next weekend I’ll be settling back down in Maine for a good long while. I would like to spend the winter in a house on the ocean, kicking ass, eating right and laying low. I’ve spent the past ten years living out my bucket list, so maybe this is chance to grow some roots and ground myself. We may find in time that a heavy bout with cancer was exactly what I needed.

Or it will kill me, and I will forever haunt the corridors of Facebook, remiss at failing to live my dream as a wild-haired Cadillac-driving bank robber. Life is a fickle pickle.

Portland, Oregon is super cool. Verdant jungle growth, crazy good music, and more vegan eateries you could shake a kale stalk at. And I get to spend a week with my sister! Then this Thursday I fly down to Catalina Island to drink wine mixers and cage-fight sharks. You know what I always say: life is short, punch sharks in the face.

So thank you, every one. I am really beyond grateful. At this point there is no way I could ever reciprocate what you all have done for me, unless a scenario should arise in which someone from Earth must boldly sacrifice their physical self to rid the galaxy of an alien scourge. I’m that guy. You call me when that happens. Because thank you.

I love you all. I’m glad you’re here with me.

Ps. I still feel great. No one knows why. Short hair, don’t care.