Paul the Psychic Octopus has retired. His German handlers at the aquarium say he is returning to his original profession "making children laugh" and will no longer be making predictions about sporting events. He ends his career 8 for 8 in the World Cup. He will be remembered.
Tuli Kupferberg has died at the age of 86. One of the Fugs, he called the band the "U.S.O of the Left. He will be missed.
Also missed at Vishnu Jindal's berms. Photos on Americablog show them being washed away along with the bulldozers. I guess they didn't do much in stopping the oil in the Gulf.
The "Cooch" is at it again. Virginia's Attorney-General made a legal ruling that couples who get married out of state are not considered married in the Commonwealth. While this is seen as a preventive measure against same-sex marriage, the first victims turned out to be a straight couple who got married in Maryland. Now people are raising questions whether anyone married outside the state like my wife and I are considered married. Has anyone noticed the deterioration in conservative lawyering these days?
Pundits are marvelling at the $1 billion campaign expenditures for this year's elections. But some perspective is necessary. Over 10% of that will be spent by Meg Whitman to buy the state of California. So far that has actually bought her a slight lead in the last week over Jerry Brown. Surprisingly, Democrat Jack Conway has matched Rand Paul's donations for their Senate race in Kentucky. While Senator Burr has a $6million war chest to go against Elaine Marshall in North Carolina. This seems to be the result of corporate donations to a candidate, whome no one can figure out what he does.
Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle has told Ralph Reed, who has been resurrected from the dead after the Abramoff scandal, that God chose her to run in Nevada. God also chose Jan Brewer to run for governor in Arizona. Somehow God has decided to be a teabagger this year.
67-year old Newt Gingrich says he will decide to run for President by early 2011. Newt claims Obama is the worse President in history and his administration is incompetent. He also said that whoever wins the Republican nomination will win the Presidency. Alot of Newt's activities these days is really to keep somewhat relevant until the presidential session starts. He has to keep his money-machine going no matter what he does.
Jonah Goldberg writes today that he hopes the GOP runs on Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for the Future". As I've written before Ryan's budget plans include phasing out Medicare, privatizing Social Security and ,according to the OMB, running titantic deficits for years without end. It is a recipe to deliberately transform the United States into a Third World country. It is estimated that the United States would not see a balanced budget for 75 years under Ryan's plan. If the Republicans take back the House, he would be in charge of the budget committee. While his plan is ruinous for America, conservatives have fully embraced it and believe this fulfills their ideological objectives.
Senate Republicans today say they want to cut Obama's budget because of government spending. While this year's budget contains the budget cuts the President required and the freeze on mandatory spending, it calls for an increase in Defense spending. The GOP wants to cut from the defense spending. You will recall last week President Obama announced the far-reaching program for veterans who suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome. He has streamlined the process for veterans from all wars including Vietnam to get assistance on this issue. Naturally, this is the area where Republicans want to create the defense budget. Is it because the President announced the initiative or is it because they have a hard time dealing with PTSD as a real malady? Also to be cut in the Republican plan are measures to address the issue of homelessness among veterans. Roughly 25% of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan now become homeless on their return from abroad.
It appears that almost every Republican will vote against Elena Kagan next week. They wanted more time to review her written answers to the Judiciary Committee. And they even wanted to stall the vote. It's really a matter that the white boys want to send a message to the President and Ms. Kagan about who the real bosses in this country are.
I'll believe it when I see it. Rumors have the Senate actually voting on the extension of unemployment benefits next week. While the votes have been there for the past four months,Republican Senators, along with Ben Nelson, have managed to stop cloture on the issue.
Our distinguished number 2 Republican in the House, Rep. Cantor held a jobs fair in his district with dozens of corporations, who are donating to the Republicans. Of the several dozen companies coming to thank the representative in bringing stimulus money to Virginia, even though he voted against it,there were only 5 jobs available among them and hundreds of Virginians came for nothing. If the unemployment benefits are not renewed, this will affect roughly 45,000 additional workers in the state.
Showing posts with label Elena Kagan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elena Kagan. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Friday, May 7, 2010
Friday Night Wrap-Up
Well, our Attorney General "Cooch" Lysensko has been denounced by the Washington Post, the ACLU, the American Association of University Presidents and the University of Virginia for his attempt to go after climate scientist Michael Mann's research. It seems this is particularly sensitive because all his writings were "peer reviewed" so the Cooch must be an extraordinary mind to evaluate the research. Or perhaps the "Cooch" is doing the bidding of the Massey Energy company, which has been responsible for all the coal mine disasters in West Virginia and here in the state. The owner of Massey Energy called President Obama evil the other day because the Administration is spot checking all his mines for safety violations, which show up by the score in each facility.
The Democrats are trying to shed light on the mysterious and secret holds on over 100 nominees for posts in the Administration. At this time in the Bush Administration there were only eight. One of the stranger holds is Tom Coburn's hold on Dana Perino, Bush's press secretary, who has been nominated to the Broadcasting Board, which oversees things like RFL,VOA and Radio Marti.
Michael Steele fired his finance director and his deputy today over the Lesbian strip club incident. As he said about the incident,"This happens in business."
Ken Blackwell, the former Attorney-General of Ohio, who was instrumental in ensuring Bush's 2004 victory in the state, has a new book out Blueprint about how Obama plans to subvert the Constitution and create an imperial presidency. Why does he have to have a blueprint, he inherited one.
Teabagger and Republican congressional candidate in New York Kristia Cavere, who gained national attention for her claims to have raised a record $400,000 within moments of announcing her candidacy, released her financial reports today. She has $12. in the campaign account. Hmmm.
Democracy was dealt a severe blow today in Florida. The Florida legislature failed to pass an anti-bestiality law.
Elsewhere in Florida, Rev. Rekers has found a new friend. Male escort "Chaz" has surfaced to identify the Baptist minister as a client, who said he liked "vanilla"--no oral or anal--light body massages. Shouldn't sex workers be unionized? "Lucien", the minister's baggage handler, only received $75 per day for his services. Should he sue?
5 Middle-aged Georgians--not from the country but from redneck land, were arraigned today for making pipebombs. State police found a trunk full of the pipebombs. They told the judge that they liked making them and exploding them for fun. Included in the group was a 62-year old woman.
Meanwhile, General Petraeus said that Faisal Shahzad was a "lone wolf", who tried to emulate the Taliban. The Taliban itself at first claimed credit, then backed off knowing Faisal but praising his actions. Time magazine links Faisal Shahzad to the American Yemen preacher and a whole network of terrorists. Since the American Spectator has backed Petraeus as the next Eisenhower, he must be right. Stay tuned on this because at the end of the day very few people are going to be right.
Bristol Palin, now a paid political consultant for SarahPac, was spotted at the 1Oak Club in Mahattan trying to be a naughty girl. One problem is that she is underage and club owners are concerned they'll get into trouble.
NPR had an interesting discussion between E.J. Dionne and Doug Brooks about the British elections and the lessons for America. Both men agreed that the Republican Party could learn from the changes in the British Conservative Party. E.J. said that Cameron took the hard edges off conservative ideology to win the upper middle class suburbanites; while Doug said that he was quite right in abandoning the "economy-centric" ideology of Margaret Thatcher as Republicans should with Reaganism. Doug emphasized that Cameron claimed the problem of Britain was that society was failing apart and hence he talked about community-oriented policies rather than the economics of old. E.J. said that the Conservatives had to try to win moderates and independents in England and Republicans should do the same here. Doug said flat out that Republicans should but they wouldn't. And then Doug launched into the possibility that America might see the development of a third party. This is what David Broder has been writing about recently in his columns trying, I think, to draw a false moral equivalency between the Charlie Crist situation and that of Joe Lieberman, showing the disintegration of parties in the United States.
Mark Lilla writing in this issue of the New York Review Of Books tries to deal with the tea party phenomenon as a serious issue, reflecting the logical conclusion of ideological individualism, a libertarian Jacobinism that has emerged as a result of twenty-five years of Americans hyping maximum individual freedom as the prime value in our society. When I fully digest the piece, I'll report further.
As a consequence, Bob Bennett is likely to go down to defeat tomorrow in Utah because of the teabaggers. Bennett, a solid conservative, even more right than that, is being accused of working on the TARP legislation, which he did 24/7 in those fall days of 08, and willing to compromise with Democrats on health reform legislation. Adding more insult to injury, he attacked Glenn Beck and Beck has responded in kind. Utah has not elected a Democrat to Congress since the early 1970s and it was Bennett's seat for the asking. The teabaggers have taken over the state's Republican Party ,which operates on a caucus system. By every outside observer, Bennett would win the general election by a landslide. It will be interesting to see what he does when he loses. Will he run as an independent? And can he? The best comment I heasrd on NPR by a teabagger against Bennett was " The government should have absolutely no role in the economy at all." Best of luck, Bob.
Meanwhile the geniuses at Joseph Farah's WND website have produced a new book-length attack on Obama as the Manchurian Candidate and pretending to document his vast ties to the radical Left.
Huffngton Post did an excellent wrap-up on the head of the Tea Party Express and his failed career in right-wing radio. Apparently, he got his beginnings as part of Richard Nixon's dirty tricks department and was thought not to have any morals and lacked judgment. Also, he was a notorious stoner and a big counter-culture maven.
Strongest rumors in town are that Elena Kagan will be Obama's choice for the Supreme Court. While I would have liked one of my two lesbian Wasp choices, she would be satisfactory. She will be attacked for her stance against military recruitment at Harvard because of her belief the military discriminated against gays. And she will be attacked because of her past statements that these confirmation hearings are a charade. There have already been rumors floating around the media that she is gay, which she denies. I have doubts about her record on policies concerning detainees and other issues pertaining to anti-terrorism. She is an expert on the law as it pertains to the Presidency and I am afraid will reinforce the powers of the executive. However, she is fully qualified and has a long history of distinguished public service and, for Obama purpose, has already been approved by the Senate first under Clinton and then last January.
The Democrats are trying to shed light on the mysterious and secret holds on over 100 nominees for posts in the Administration. At this time in the Bush Administration there were only eight. One of the stranger holds is Tom Coburn's hold on Dana Perino, Bush's press secretary, who has been nominated to the Broadcasting Board, which oversees things like RFL,VOA and Radio Marti.
Michael Steele fired his finance director and his deputy today over the Lesbian strip club incident. As he said about the incident,"This happens in business."
Ken Blackwell, the former Attorney-General of Ohio, who was instrumental in ensuring Bush's 2004 victory in the state, has a new book out Blueprint about how Obama plans to subvert the Constitution and create an imperial presidency. Why does he have to have a blueprint, he inherited one.
Teabagger and Republican congressional candidate in New York Kristia Cavere, who gained national attention for her claims to have raised a record $400,000 within moments of announcing her candidacy, released her financial reports today. She has $12. in the campaign account. Hmmm.
Democracy was dealt a severe blow today in Florida. The Florida legislature failed to pass an anti-bestiality law.
Elsewhere in Florida, Rev. Rekers has found a new friend. Male escort "Chaz" has surfaced to identify the Baptist minister as a client, who said he liked "vanilla"--no oral or anal--light body massages. Shouldn't sex workers be unionized? "Lucien", the minister's baggage handler, only received $75 per day for his services. Should he sue?
5 Middle-aged Georgians--not from the country but from redneck land, were arraigned today for making pipebombs. State police found a trunk full of the pipebombs. They told the judge that they liked making them and exploding them for fun. Included in the group was a 62-year old woman.
Meanwhile, General Petraeus said that Faisal Shahzad was a "lone wolf", who tried to emulate the Taliban. The Taliban itself at first claimed credit, then backed off knowing Faisal but praising his actions. Time magazine links Faisal Shahzad to the American Yemen preacher and a whole network of terrorists. Since the American Spectator has backed Petraeus as the next Eisenhower, he must be right. Stay tuned on this because at the end of the day very few people are going to be right.
Bristol Palin, now a paid political consultant for SarahPac, was spotted at the 1Oak Club in Mahattan trying to be a naughty girl. One problem is that she is underage and club owners are concerned they'll get into trouble.
NPR had an interesting discussion between E.J. Dionne and Doug Brooks about the British elections and the lessons for America. Both men agreed that the Republican Party could learn from the changes in the British Conservative Party. E.J. said that Cameron took the hard edges off conservative ideology to win the upper middle class suburbanites; while Doug said that he was quite right in abandoning the "economy-centric" ideology of Margaret Thatcher as Republicans should with Reaganism. Doug emphasized that Cameron claimed the problem of Britain was that society was failing apart and hence he talked about community-oriented policies rather than the economics of old. E.J. said that the Conservatives had to try to win moderates and independents in England and Republicans should do the same here. Doug said flat out that Republicans should but they wouldn't. And then Doug launched into the possibility that America might see the development of a third party. This is what David Broder has been writing about recently in his columns trying, I think, to draw a false moral equivalency between the Charlie Crist situation and that of Joe Lieberman, showing the disintegration of parties in the United States.
Mark Lilla writing in this issue of the New York Review Of Books tries to deal with the tea party phenomenon as a serious issue, reflecting the logical conclusion of ideological individualism, a libertarian Jacobinism that has emerged as a result of twenty-five years of Americans hyping maximum individual freedom as the prime value in our society. When I fully digest the piece, I'll report further.
As a consequence, Bob Bennett is likely to go down to defeat tomorrow in Utah because of the teabaggers. Bennett, a solid conservative, even more right than that, is being accused of working on the TARP legislation, which he did 24/7 in those fall days of 08, and willing to compromise with Democrats on health reform legislation. Adding more insult to injury, he attacked Glenn Beck and Beck has responded in kind. Utah has not elected a Democrat to Congress since the early 1970s and it was Bennett's seat for the asking. The teabaggers have taken over the state's Republican Party ,which operates on a caucus system. By every outside observer, Bennett would win the general election by a landslide. It will be interesting to see what he does when he loses. Will he run as an independent? And can he? The best comment I heasrd on NPR by a teabagger against Bennett was " The government should have absolutely no role in the economy at all." Best of luck, Bob.
Meanwhile the geniuses at Joseph Farah's WND website have produced a new book-length attack on Obama as the Manchurian Candidate and pretending to document his vast ties to the radical Left.
Huffngton Post did an excellent wrap-up on the head of the Tea Party Express and his failed career in right-wing radio. Apparently, he got his beginnings as part of Richard Nixon's dirty tricks department and was thought not to have any morals and lacked judgment. Also, he was a notorious stoner and a big counter-culture maven.
Strongest rumors in town are that Elena Kagan will be Obama's choice for the Supreme Court. While I would have liked one of my two lesbian Wasp choices, she would be satisfactory. She will be attacked for her stance against military recruitment at Harvard because of her belief the military discriminated against gays. And she will be attacked because of her past statements that these confirmation hearings are a charade. There have already been rumors floating around the media that she is gay, which she denies. I have doubts about her record on policies concerning detainees and other issues pertaining to anti-terrorism. She is an expert on the law as it pertains to the Presidency and I am afraid will reinforce the powers of the executive. However, she is fully qualified and has a long history of distinguished public service and, for Obama purpose, has already been approved by the Senate first under Clinton and then last January.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)