Friday Night at Winston Boogie's

++Sesame Street wants you to know that Bert and Ernie are just puppets and they don't have a sexual orientation.

++Mariano Rivero saved his 30th--making it nine years of 30 saves or above. The apocalypse has been averted..for now.

++Karl Rove will not fund-raise for Rick Perry. Besides Karl has to take back the Senate, something he failed to do in 2010, even though that was his assignment.

++Alan Keyes thinks Rick Perry is not sincere about his Christian beliefs. He also says Perry is weak on the issue of abortion.

++Richard Viguerie says that the GOP needs to have Big Ideas like in the days of Ronald Reagan. He says the nominee must persuade the base he or she really is a conservative and that he or she can really beat Obama. He says none of the people on last night's stage have shown that capacity.

++Ron Paul won the FoxNews poll on the debate--that's why they pulled it. The Crusaders of Liberty were trying to give Paul a send-off.

++Juan Williams believes President Obama won last night's debate. The President appears "sleek,fast and so very hip" compared to the "1950s Oldsmobile Republicans."

++Willard filed his personal financial info today. Romney has a net worth of around $264 million. This caused a Republican to comment that the unease people feel with Romney is the same as that felt by Republicans with Al Gore and John Kerry--a sense of entitlement from a very wealthy person. Richy Rich.

++Neocons are lining up behind Perry. They say he will come out for a vigorous unilateralism in comparison to the neo-isolationist sentiment in the current field. They also claim he will boldly outline the use of military force by the United States.

++David Plouffe, the architect of Obama's 2008 "Velvet Revolution", opined that the Republicans had "a transcendent victory in 2010" and now the approval rating of Congress is at a historic low. He claims this is a rejection of precisely the policies discussed at last night's debate.

++The Washington Post writes that Rick Perry will draw the stark contrast between the GOP vision of the country and that of President Obama. CBS is already hyping Perry by talking about the Texas Miracle. What will Al Gore say about Perry since Rick was his campaign manager.

++The 11th Circuit Court of Appeal by a vote of 2-1 ruled that the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. Judge Marcus' dissent was a bravura performance. Judge Marcus was first appointed to the bench by President Reagan. The 6th Circuit Court has previkously ruled the individual mandate was constitutional. Interestingly,the 11th Circuit Court ruled that the rest of the law was perfectly fine,preserving all the elements Americans find popular. Next stop, the Supreme Court. Perhaps someone should send a few greenbacks to Clarence for his vote.

++Congressman Burgess from Texas believes the next gambit to slow up President Obama is to impeach him. He thinks this will tie him down so he can't get anything done. Interesting view of impeachment. But it actually might serve to occupy the Teabaggers so they can't be as obstructionist. They'll have to debate on what grounds to impeach the President.

++A new Marist poll shows that 59% of Americans believe Obama inherited today's economic mess, while 33% believe it's Obama's fault--the same percentage who are teabaggers.

++Chicago Bears fan,President Obama finds himself in an awkward position. He's now a shareholder in the Superbowl Champion Green Bay Packers. The only community owned franchise is the NFL, they awarded the President some shares at their White House meeting today.

++Steven Strassburg, the Nationals phenom trying to recover from Tommy Johns' surgery, continued his rehab tour with another outing where he threw in the neighborhood of 98mph. The Nationals believe he will be ready for a major league start sometime in September.

++On the passing of former Governor Hugh Carey. The last great political debate I every saw was the debate between Hugh Carey and Warren Andersson, the Republican leader of the New York State Assembly. Both men were so obviously heavyweights and both men knew the state budget backwards and forwards. They went at it non-stop for about 90 minutes. I don't remember who I thought won--I was just so impressed that people could know that much about government.

++Senator Mark Hatfield represents the passing of the "liberal" wing of the Republican Party. Hatfield was a classy man with alot of style. Best known for his dissent on the Vietnam War, he was one of the early crusaders in the modern Republican Party for environmental issues.

++Don't miss on the various blogs the clips from George Romney talking about how he was "brainwashed over the Vietnam War". People resurrected the piece over son Mitt's gaffe on "corporations are people". Some suggest there is a genetic issue here.

++One blogger suggests one solution to our current economic situation is for President Obama to invoke the Humphrey-Hawkins full-employment act of 1974, which called on the President to take such measures as necessary to create full employment--which, according to the law, is 4% unemployment.

++Another blogger suggests that President Obama create the America Infrastructure Bank by declaring a national economic emergency. Our infrastructure now gets a grade of D from the appropriate agencies who study such things. Since we have to get it done sometime, why not now?

++When will the gay, lesbian, transgender community record "It will only get better" videos for the rest of us? So far the only demographic which seems to be making any progress during this time is the gay/lesbian/transgender community.

++We're back to the times of the underclass. Over 50% of African-American teenagers are unemployed. Not only are they lacking opportunities but they are removed from job possibilities. This is dooming a generation from never being able to access the ever-dwindling American Dream.

++On a lighter note,Frank Gaffney is advising Michelle Bachmann on the threat of sharia law in tghe United States. Somehow the anti-Muslim aspect of the GOP was toned down last night.

++After all the Republicans leave Iowa, President Obama will be entering the state for a bus tour. It will be interesting to see his reception after the state has been bombarded by attacks on him and his record.

++The Supercommittee of Congress has all been appointed. I think the choices make the whole endeavor a big dud but I am not in an optimistic mood these days.

++Richard Clarke, the former counter-terrorism adviser to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, slipped a fast one by us yesterday. Clarke argues that the CIA tried to recruit the 9-11 hijackers and that there had been a cover-up by George Tenet and others about this aspect of the tragedy.