Sunday, June 20, 2010

Flotilla Fizzles, Russia Hopes to Earn Your Trust, Jane Norton Panders 9/11

Kathleen Parker
Maureen Dowd
Peter Grier

Joe Nocera
"Fatherhood is more than a drop of DNA." - Kathleen Parker
"Many people were suspicious of Father’s Day. Some religious figures thought it was just a plot to sell hats. Some men thought it was just a plot to make them come in from the garage and get cleaned up for dinner." - Peter Grier

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY


I forgot to comment on Colbert King's opinion piece yesterday, where he contrasted President Obama's fatherhood and marriage experience with two of his loudest opponents, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. Barack Obama, he says that: "He married and, equally important, has stayed married to Michelle Robinson, a Princeton graduate and Harvard Law alumna. He lives with his wife, two children and his mother-in-law. Obama: constitutional law professor, civil rights lawyer, state legislator, U.S. senator, 44th U.S. president, family man."

I have to admit that I think Rush has gone off the deep end, and is broadcasting his mental illness five days per week. All he does is say hateful things, never any well thought out arguments. Unfortunately, the Republican Party uses these hate phrases as a template for their own Congressional behavior and strategy, which is why they became nicknamed "the party of no."King says of Rush: "Limbaugh, who dropped out of college after one year, married his first wife, a sales secretary, in September 1977. She filed for divorce three years later; it was granted in July 1980. Limbaugh next married an usherette in 1983; they divorced in 1990. In May 1994, he married an aerobics instructor he met online. They separated in June 2004 and divorced that December. Two weeks ago, Limbaugh married a Florida party planner. He's still wedded to her as far as I can tell."


"Gingrich is one nuptial behind Limbaugh. But he started earlier. In 1962, at age 19, Gingrich married his 26-year-old former high school geometry teacher. Gingrich left her in the spring of 1980. He did return to see her at the hospital where she was getting treatment for cancer. He was there to discuss divorce terms. Formally divorced in 1981, Gingrich remarried six months later. That marriage lasted until 2000. By his own admission, Gingrich started an affair with a woman 23 years his junior during his second marriage. It was around the time he was taking Bill Clinton to task over Monica Lewinsky. Gingrich's second marriage ended in 2000, and he married his girlfriend the same year. "


Congratulations to Barack Obama this Father's Day, a man who is a good father and husband, a believer and practicer of solid family values, unlike the vain men with shallow hearts who oppose him. It's ironic that Obama is the example of the kind of values that the evangelicals wish that we all would follow, yet they spend every waking hour trying to demonize him...


It looks like the flotilla frenzy may have run its course for now, with the Israeli cabinet revising its list of forbidden items into Gaza and opening the land borders with a liberal policy. Israel's debkafiles reports: "Barring surprises, the sea campaign against Israel's naval blockade of Gaza spearheaded by Turkey may have run its course.  Beirut is close to abandoning the Lebanese convoy, Damascus has turned away requests to use its ports, Cyprus is negative and even the Iranian expedition appears snarled. In the last 24 hours, Israel won US, European and Mahmoud Abbas' support for its sea blockade after its cabinet approved the delivery of all civilian goods to Gaza over land." This is geared towards allowing small businesses to order and receive commercial goods, and new schools can be built. Inspections for items that could be beneficial to Hamas will still take place.
"Israel seeks to keep out of Gaza weapons and material that Hamas uses to prepare and carry out terror and rocket attacks toward Israel and its civilians. All other goods will be allowed into Gaza." - Benjamin Netanyahu
Of course, the spokesman for the impotent and discredited Hamas said that this was not enough, as Haaretz reported: "Hamas minister Ziad al-Zaza characterized Israel's decision as "deception", and said that the blockade must be lifted completely to allow Gaza to import all necessary materials, particularly cement, iron, raw materials for industry and agriculture, as well as import and export between Gaza and the world." But these are significant steps for Israel to take, the most it has done in awhile. Mr Netanyahu will next jet off to Washington for some high level schmoozing with the Obama administration. And, in response to that, a Hamas official was taped saying: "that Hamas would never change its policy of 'resistance' against Israel," and that Palestinians in the West Bank should be firing rockets into Israel...


Now that Russia's Prime Minister Vladimer Putin has gotten as much as he can to stabilize his personal fortune by partially nationalizing the successful oil companies, President Dmitry Medvedev is attempting to broaden the economy so that foreign investors would feel more welcome. Realizing that basing an economy solely on gas and oil may lessen profits in a changing global market that is seeking alternative sources for energy, and enamored with the US's development of high technology, he wants to play catch up: "Economic diversification has been a top priority for Russia, the world’s largest energy-exporting nation, since its oil-dependent economy faltered in the autumn of 2008, though there have been few results so far. What is new is the policy of linking the goals of diversification and modernization with improved access for foreign investors."
“Creating a comfortable climate for investors is essentially our most important task. These are the goals of our modernization."  - Dmitriy Medvedev”
"Mr. Medvedev said Russia would cut capital gains taxes, reform white-collar criminal law and privatize state enterprises, all to make the country more attractive to investors in sectors other than the boom-and-bust oil and mining industries. The government, he said, would reduce the number of wholly owned state companies to 159 from 230, though this reform would not cover the largest state companies like Gazprom because they already had private shareholders. Mr. Medvedev noted changes in legislation requiring prosecutorial oversight of police enforcement of financial crime, apparently intended to curb widespread police corruption." The biggest problem will be corruption, which is at all levels of the government and police. Convincing someone to invest in a Russian enterprise that won't turn around and steal your profits and put you in a Russian jail or on a show-trial will be a pretty tough sell. Even the past head of BP in Russia had to leave two steps ahead of the police, thanks to Mr Putin...

jane norton...
Politico reported on the latest dumb idea from Colorado's Jane Norton and how the Democrats plan to jump all over her pandering butt: "THE 9/11 CARD: Democratic veterans in Colorado plan to target Republican Senate candidate Jane Norton Friday for posting what they'll call a "deeply offensive web video that seeks to exploit the tragic events of September 11th and politicize the brave service of our men and women in uniform." In the video, Norton warns that "liberals in Washington seem to have forgotten" -- at which point the screen goes dark, and the sound of airplane jets is briefly heard before Norton returns to view and concludes: "But we haven't. Let's win the war on terror."


State Rep. Joe Rice, an Army reservist, and retired Army Capt. Jason Crow, a Democratic attorney, will circulate a petition calling on Norton to pull the video and return any contributions given in response. "We believe that the events of that day are to be met with solemn reverence; Jane Norton seems to believe they are to be met with a campaign contribution," they write. "Jane, you have done a disservice to our troops by degrading their effectiveness and bravery. You should be ashamed." This is more than a tactical drive-by against Norton: it's a preview of how Democrats will take advantage of the increasingly strident rhetoric the former lieutenant governor's using as she attempts to fight off a primary challenge from conservative Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck." This is where all of the fun is, the fight between Norton and Buck, on who is the most conservative, dammit. Some of it is posturing, I haven't met Ken Buck yet, but Jane isn't the brightest lightbulb in the package, so she should easily be baited. The major problem with Jane, many feel is that: "... state Republicans have voiced resentment over what they see as Washington insiders picking their candidate for them. They're probably right — the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee purchased two Internet domain names for her weeks before she decided to run."  For some reason, locals like to make their own choices, not dictated to by the Republican national Committee. Which reminds me, we haven't heard from Michael Steele in awhile. Time for him to make some more public gaffes...


late night jokes:

"There is a new bill in the Senate that is upsetting a lot of people. This bill would give the President the power to shut off the Internet. Al Gore is strongly opposed to it. Not because he invented the Internet. Because he did. But because he just signed up for Match.com." –Craig Ferguson

"Well, the big story, President Obama will set aside $20 billion to pay the victims of the oil spill in the Gulf. Well, that is good news. The bad news — it still comes out to less than, like, a dollar a gallon." –Jay Leno

"These British Petroleum guys can't do anything right. The chairman of BP, Carl-Henric Svanberg, told reporters that sometimes large oil companies are greedy and don't care, but 'not BP. We care about the small people.' That's what he called the residents of the Gulf — 'the small people.' But to be fair, English is not the guy's first language. Money is." –Jay Leno

"See, the problem is I do believe they care about the small people. Problem is, they don't care about the big leak." –Jay Leno

"Tony Hayward. You read about this guy? He's a little weasel guy. Well, he was testifying before — why do they even call it testifying? Testi-lying, that's what it was." –Jay Leno

"Well, the sad part is, environmentalists say if this leak continues unabated, some species might become endangered, like Democrats." –Jay Leno

"And now the other oil companies are turning on BP While testifying in Washington this week, Exxon executives blamed the Gulf oil spill on lapses by BP See, that's when you know things are bad, when Exxon is lecturing you on oil safety, huh? That's like Heidi Montag saying, 'Just be yourself.'" –Jay Leno

Top Ten Signs Your Father's A Loser


10.Whenever you say, "Dad", he says, "Shh, not so loud"
9.At your baseball game cheers for someone else's kid
8.Couldn't drive you to camp because he swallowed the car keys
7.The only thing he's ever given you is a receding hairline
6.Spends most weekends blowing his own vuvuzela
5.Destroyed country's economy and standing in the world along with his vice president Dick Cheney
4.His job is sledding on an ice track -- sorry, that's a sign your father's a "luger"
3.Hasn't left the basement since '77
2.Taught you how to smoke (videotape of Smoking Baby)
1.Has late night talk show on CBS

2 comments:

  1. Typical drivel ... all Reps are racist, bigoted homophobes huh? Get some new material...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd get some new material if the situation actually changed... I, myself am a Republican who has ended up more liberal in thought than what is currently popular, after observing and commenting on politics for over the past 40 years.

    The basis for my blog is that if you are a right wing conservative, then you are mentally ill. Thanks for proving my point...

    ReplyDelete

Hi! Thanks for commenting. I always try to respond...