The Washington Post breathlessly tells us today that 33 lawmakers are being investigated for questionable conduct that includes defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling. Granted, this is a legitimate story in Washington. But for the rest of the nation, it most likely will produce a collective yawn. "What else is new?" they might ask. The report was prepared in … [Read more...] about Ethics Probe Of 33 Lawmakers A Yawner
Obama has Become a Japanese Verb
The Japanese seem to really like President Obama. This goes beyond last year's song from Obama City in Fukui Prefecture (it's easiest to think of prefectures as being like states). Japanese youths are now using the President's name as the verb "obamu", which means "To ignore inexpedient and inconvenient facts or realities, think 'Yes we can, Yes we can,' and proceed with … [Read more...] about Obama has Become a Japanese Verb
Iran’s Reversal: Why Isn’t This Story Getting More Play?
Front page of the NYT: Iran told the United Nations nuclear watchdog on Thursday that it would not accept a plan its negotiators agreed to last week to send its stockpile of uranium out of the country, according to diplomats in Europe and American officials briefed on Iran’s response. And yet, over at Memeorandum, as of 11:00 am ET, the top three memes were about … [Read more...] about Iran’s Reversal: Why Isn’t This Story Getting More Play?
How Hath The Mighty Fallen
Try to imagine. It's 20 years ago. It's 1989 and you come across the following headline, a headline that actually appeared on today's New York Times website: "China Helps Build Huge Texas Wind Farm." In 1989 you probably would have laughed, thinking this headline was totally whacky. So whacky that it must really have been picked up from that year's equivalent of The Onion. … [Read more...] about How Hath The Mighty Fallen
The House Health Bill: Here come the taxes
Just to be clear, I have not read the entire House health care bill which dropped on our heads like a roughly 2,000 page albatross yesterday. (I've gotten through the first hundred or so, and my hat is off to anyone who reads fast enough to have finished the whole thing already.) However, Americans for Tax Reform have the manpower to split up the job and have helpfully … [Read more...] about The House Health Bill: Here come the taxes
Voice From the Republican Past
Two days after his 90th birthday, Edward Brooke was at the Capitol yesterday to receive the Congressional Gold Medal from President Obama and scold Mitch McConnell for his failure to be bipartisan. Brooke, the first African-American ever elected to the Senate in 1966 as a Republican from Massachusetts, took the occasion to tell his party's leader: “If you can’t stand the … [Read more...] about Voice From the Republican Past
Obama Witnesses: The Escorts of the Dead
I live walking distance to Fort Logan National Cemetary. Every day, every every day come the black hearses, and color guard, the rifle squads and the often old VFW bugler. I can hear taps sometimes when the wind is just right. Military wife here (USAF 21 years of service by my DH). Working in post trauma recovery at VA over decades now, the men who volunteer to be escorts see … [Read more...] about Obama Witnesses: The Escorts of the Dead
Is The House Bill a Real Answer For Health Care?
Although the House has finally come up with a bill for national healthcare it falls short of accomplishing Democrat’s original goal of total healthcare. When the news broke out today it was touted as an $894 billion piece of legislation, but the congressional budget office believes the bill will spend more like $1.05 trillion over the next decade. Republicans fear that the … [Read more...] about Is The House Bill a Real Answer For Health Care?
Pres. Obama Stands Witness at Dover Air Force Base
I use the words, "stands witness," because they have a very singular significance. George W. Bush did meet privately with selected families of fallen Americans, but he did not put himself there on the tarmac in the dead of night to witness, directly and in person, the graphic human consequences of his war policies. Whether the war in Afghanistan, or any war, is justified and … [Read more...] about Pres. Obama Stands Witness at Dover Air Force Base
I guess they failed Ninja school
Every time I think there are limits to stupidity, I discover there apparently are not. From CNN.com: Police received a call Friday night that two men with hooded sweatshirts and painted faces had tried to break into a man's home in Carroll, Iowa. When police stopped a vehicle matching the caller's description blocks away, they were stunned by the men's disguises. There were no … [Read more...] about I guess they failed Ninja school
Blood feuds among warlords could scuttle Obama
Incredibly, President Barack Obama’s in-depth Afghanistan review is underplaying the evident peril that arming unruly warlords empowers them to use American war techniques to scuttle his agenda and settle mutual scores with more lethal force instead . It is fast-forwarding two great dangers. First, it is ensuring that Afghanistan can have no central government in Kabul … [Read more...] about Blood feuds among warlords could scuttle Obama
“The Pain! The Fire! It Hurts! Ohhhhhhhhhh!”
It all has to do with abortion... somehow: … [Read more...] about “The Pain! The Fire! It Hurts! Ohhhhhhhhhh!”
Watertown Daily Times Endorses Scozzafava
The Watertown Daily Times has endorsed Republican Dede Scozzafava for the race to represent the 23rd Congressional District in New York. Below is their endorsement. The national attention focused on the special election for New York's 23rd Congressional District has proved exhilarating, frustrating and slightly irrelevant. Political analysts have cast the three-way … [Read more...] about Watertown Daily Times Endorses Scozzafava
Hillary’s ‘Unfortunate’ PR Stunt Falls Flat: The Nation, Pakistan
Message to America: A bewildered man emerges Wednesday from a restaurant in Peshawar, Pakistan, to a scene of utter devastation. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 107. If this editorial from Pakistan's The Nation is anything to go by, Hillary Clinton's "hearts and minds" visit to Pakistan is, as the headline says, "falling flat" - … [Read more...] about Hillary’s ‘Unfortunate’ PR Stunt Falls Flat: The Nation, Pakistan
Get off your lazy duffs!!
Now that most economists, our government, the Federal Reserve, Wall Street Barons, and our ignorant and shallow 24/7 info-entertainment Media pundits have pronounced that the recession is over, there are no more excuses. For all those people still lounging around on unemployment benefits, given up looking, or working at temporary and part-time jobs, get off your lazy … [Read more...] about Get off your lazy duffs!!
This Is Pretty Cool
From the local CBS affiliate in Boston: … [Read more...] about This Is Pretty Cool
Why Are We Still in Afghanistan?
Yes, yes, to fight the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. But eight years later, American blood and treasure are still being poured into a country of dirt-poor, illiterate people who support themselves by growing poppy for opium and heroin under one of the most corrupt governments in the world. As Barack Obama makes a midnight visit to honor the incoming dead and console … [Read more...] about Why Are We Still in Afghanistan?
Tom Friedman’s logic
The vote is in. Tom Friedman says no more troops for Afghanistan. Why? When I think back on all the moments of progress in that part of the world — all the times when a key player in the Middle East actually did something that put a smile on my face — all of them have one thing in common: America had nothing to do with it. America helped build out what they started, but … [Read more...] about Tom Friedman’s logic
The Unbalanced Balance
You'll be seeing many variants of this headline today: "Economy growing, but not jobs." Like so much of recent economic reporting, it's deceptive. It suggests a kind of balance between two things of equal weight and importance, one good (economic growth) and one bad (unemployment). Such a deception implies that except for a difficult jobs situation, other key elements of the … [Read more...] about The Unbalanced Balance
No Statute of Limitations for Valor
Two questions that come up when I write on the subject of our nation’s highest award for valor, the Medal of Honor, are why it sometimes takes so long for the Medal to be awarded and whether an award can be “upgraded” to the Medal of Honor. (I use that term reluctantly because I don’t want to make awards and decorations for our brave troops sound like a product that can be … [Read more...] about No Statute of Limitations for Valor