Random thought: the tragedy of missed opportunities

Moments when this country could have made epic and positive changes – but didn’t.

President Andrew Johnson –  He entered the White HOuse following Lincoln’s assassination. He had utter disdain for the emerging Reconstruction policy, stopped it and led with is own bigotry.  The legacy of slavery wasn’t addressed again until the mid-20th century (Truman to Johnson).

GW Bush – Following 9/11, just eight months into his presidency, George Bush had a nation that would have followed its president anywhere, risen to any challenge. He had a chance to give us a ‘go to the moon’ challenge and the US could have begun a journey to lead the world in alternative energy technology (not instead of Afghanistan; the efforts could have been side by side).

Obama – He walked into office on a day when the nation would have enthusiastically gotten behind a call for vast reform of the financial industry, the  tax codes and a stronger regulatory structure. But he didn’t. Stimulus was the right thing to do, but it stopped short. And in the financial industry at least, it reenforced the bad behaviors that led to the meltdown.

Huh?

Today, the President of the United States (through an administration person) opined in a Congressional hearing that Gaddaffi will prevail in Libya.

We’re not supposed to say stuff like that. Is anyone home?

Calling Robert MacNeil!

Mostly we do a good job . . .

From the  PBS News Hour report just now on Obama’s talk wtih Egyptian President Mubarak:

What Obama said – “an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now.”

What viewers of the PBS Newshour heard – “an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin . . .”

Mr. Lehrer? What happened to that last word. It was, pretty much, the most important word of the entire message.  I’m prepared to believe it was an error of some sort. If so, somelthing should pop up on their web site shortly. If not, I simply don’t know what to make of this.

Live blogging da speech

We’re done. Let the jibberers begin their jabber.

10: 12 “Our destiny remains our choice . . . the state of our union is strong.”

10:09 “As messy as our democracy can be, there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on earth.” Orgasmic O’s . Of course. Kind words for Joe B and for Boehner – he was pleased.

10:07 “Enlist our veterans in the great task of building our own nation.” Another fine line. “And, yes,  some of them are gay.” Wow.

10:05  South Sudan – we supported; we did good. We stand with the people of Tunesia. Good luck brothers. Soldiers good again. Applause again. Long applause.

10:02 We’re controlling bad weapons – gettin’ those nukes. We’re forgin’ alliances in the Americas.

Is he going to say ‘State of the Union is strong’ or something?

10:00 “Reform, responsibility and innovation”.  Soldiers – applause.   Muslims are Americans too – standing O.  Tough fighting ahead. Iraq finished; Afghan, well, lot of words, but ya’ know . . . .

9:56 I will veto any bill with earmarks inside. Got that?

Boehner is still looking detached. Still orange though. I was kind of hoping he’d cry – I find I’m becoming fond of that eccentricity of his. Really.

9:55 Winding down now. “Win the Future’ again. Competent government. Efficient government. The last major reorganization of government happened in the age of black and white tv.  (Smoking joke) Administration will submit a proposal.

9:53  Strengthen Social Security. Don’t subject it to the whims of the stock market. Must end tax cuts after the two years. Simplify the tax code.

Kathleen Sibelius has nice hair.

9:52  Annual domestic spending is 12% of budget. It’s not enough. Need to cut more. Defense, health care, tax breaks and loopholes. Malpractice reform  – yes, I’m down with that.

FREEZE DOMESTIC SPENDING FOR FIVE YEARS – $400 billion over a decade. Painful cuts. Defense will cut. Community programs. But let’s not cut on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.

9:50  Debt. Worst of recession is over. Time to deal with it.

9:48  “So instead of refighting the battles of the last two years, let’s fix what needs fixing and let’s move forward.” Great line.

9:46  Ordered a review of gov’t regs but will enforce safeguards.   HEALTH REFORM – just got first ‘mixed’ standing O – half up, half down. Then he made a joke. I’ll work with you – we can start with some corrections – applause. 

I wasn’t going to do this – I’m tired already.

9:44  Corporate tax rates – big guys get out of paying, little corps pay high high rates – fix the tax code! Standing O on that one.

9:42  Connect every part of America to the digital age. Expand wireless around the country.

9:40  High speed rail and high speed internet!!! Whooo!!! Our infrastructure used to be the best. Our nation’s engineers gave us a D on today’s infrastructure.  But he’s not asking for money that I can tell.  Give 80% of Americans access to high speed rail – in five(?) years!!

9:38 Illegal immigration. Camera to John McCain. He is, thankfully, awake. Stop kicking people out after we educate them.

9:38 John Boehner looks bored, keeps looking into his lap. I sure hope he’s not tweeting.  

9:37  Still education – this is important. Community colleges good. Raise expectations. Give the kids a chance.

9:34 Still talking schools, education. Keep it up Barry! “We want good schools.” In South Korea, teachers are known as ‘nation builders’ (second standing O). “become a teacher, your country needs you. ” Extend tuition tax credit – please.

It’s kind of nice to hear a speech go forward without those constant interruptions for partisan applause. This is a good thing. George Will was right! (I hate to say that.)
9:30   We’re falling behind in education and we can’t. Have to change this. Just got first standing ‘O’ – celebrate winner of science fair as well as winner of superbowl. 

9:28 Cut oil subsidies! Invest in clean energy – the fuels of tomorrow, not yesterday. Hmmmm, he’s saying ‘clean energy’ – he be talkin’ coal, what they ‘call’ clean coal. Not so good.

9:26  “We’ve begun to reinvent our energy policy. We’re not just handing out money – we’re issuing a challenge.” Lots of science talk – a good thing!

9:25 New budget – we’ll invest in biomedical technology, information technology and clean energy.”

9:25 Sputnik. NASA. “we unleashed a wave of industries”. Our Sputnik moment.

9:23  “In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives; it is how we make our living.” Okay, that was cool.

9:22  “Winning the future”. How to get there. Here we go.

9:21 “the future is ours to win”. We can’t stand still. (It’s our turn to [dare I say] invest?)

9:21   Saying how great we are (applause), the ‘but’ will be the heart of the speech I imagine.

9:19  China is now home to the world’s fastest computer(!) – investment talk begins – I hope.

9:18 “Proud men and women who feel like the rules have changed in the middle of the game. They’re right. The rules have changed.”

9:17 “challenges that have been decades in the making” Good line.

9:15 That was a really strong start. Cut right to the reality. We’re bigger than party.

9:11 Boehner just introduced the Prez. Very brief, the usual words, but spoken in an oddly detached way.

9:08  Just a brief glance at the First Lady’s box, but did I see Lt. Chu up there? (The West Pointer Iraq commander who ‘came out’ last year.)

8:58 Is CNN still covering the Tea Party response?

8:52  Most egregious aisle hogs – Sheila Jackson Lee and Vern Buchanan. So far.

8:50  Fun watching who’s chatting up who. Best so far – Rand Paul and Al Franken, laughing – a lot. Wonder if they’re each other’s date tonight? Odd seeing so many Senators whose faces are new to me.

8:45  CSpan covered the magisterial moment when 100 Senators leave their chamber and ‘cross the aisle’ to the House, where they are welcomed, much as the President is when he enters. Nice.  Never saw that before.

It’s going to be cold outside anyway

Ten day trip? India? Asia? This is what’s on the President’s near term schedule. I just heard about it and immediately thought, oh no, don’t do that. Stay home, stay in your office and do some paperwork. Strategize how to run the country. Be the president in the West Wing office and meet with people who need to meet with you.

And wow, that’s what Matt Yglesias at Think Progress said too! (Well, not exactly, but sort of.)

Now Mark Shields on the PBS News Hour is saying that Obama’s press conference today was premature. I  thought that too – as soon as it was announced!

Hey, I’m good at this. Maybe these big time talkers should check with me to see what’s going to be tomorrow’s conventional wisdom?

Yglesias’ column is not important or lengthy; it’s a column, but an excellent one. He says Obama should step away from the legislative process. Cuz there’s lots of other stuff to do.

For the past 20 months, Obama has spent a lot of time acting as his party’s leader in legislative negotiations, especially in the United States Senate. The correct way to respond to the midterms is, I think, to stop doing this. Let Harry Reid do it. . . . [there will be] time for more meetings with folks from the Counsel’s office about judicial vacancies. There should be a nominee for each vacancy! That’ll probably set up a problem of getting the judges confirmed, but the first step is coming up with the names.

Yeah.

The United Citizens of da’ money

Ooohhh, Tom Toles is very very good.

More here.

The usual disconnect

I am watching CNN Live – they are talking to and gushing about an American mining engineer, Jeff Hart. He is the actual drill operator whose team broke through to the miners much faster than it was thought possible. They did a great job. He did a great job. He works for a company called Layne-Christianson who sent Hart to Chile to work the company’s Latin American affiliate, Geotech Boyles Brothers.

I mention this because I see that right now over at Michelle Malkin’s blog that American is ignoring Mr. Hart. (CNN is congratulating him right now.)

Apparently the disgrace is that we were supposed to be celebrating Mr. Hart in verse and song throughout, but we haven’t because he works in an industry Obama doesn’t like. Apparently.

I didn’t know there were rules.

While I’m orbiting a different sun . . .

Listen up and stop yer whinnin'!!

(It appears the world goes on even as I take time off. Hmmmm. )

Here’s a terrific article by Frank Schaeffer for those of us who aren’t sufficiently enthusiastic about the mid terms and about our President:

Obama Will Triumph – So Will America By Frank Schaeffer

“Before he’d served even one year President Obama lost the support of the easily distracted left and engendered the white hot rage of the hate-filled right. But some of us, from all walks of life and ideological backgrounds — including this white, straight, 57-year-old, former religious right wing agitator, now progressive writer and (given my background as the son of a famous evangelical leader) this unlikely Obama supporter — are sticking with our President. Why?– because he is succeeding.

“We faithful Obama supporters still trust our initial impression of him as a great, good and uniquely qualified man to lead us. “

Much more here.

Eighty three point four

While the nation once again settles in for another day of blaming the current president for the wars we’ve been engaged in for (respectively) nine years and seven and a half years,  for the perfectly fine economy he mucked up and for his failure as prophet (he promised unemployment wouldn’t go over 7%, 8%, 9%, take-your-pick) . . . here is something I know. I know that Iraq is Obama’s fault because he’s a Democrat and Iraq was their fault – or so said Dan Senor on Chris Mathews‘ tonight – and he got away with it. (Senor was the PR flack for Paul Bremmer when he was emperor of Iraq).

But about that economy thing. This is a chart that I created some time ago for another post in which I was referring to the far right column, a percentage increase in debt – by president. As I said then, taking any one of these line items alone would mean nothing. But over this period of nearly 70 years, the pattern is clear. And damning.

This time, I ask that you look at the number in the first column after Barack Obama’s name. Just look at it. It is the number he gets to start with. So look again at that number. The starting number. And weep. Obama’s economy my ass.

UPDATE: A commenter thinks the chart above explains nothing and asks ‘where are the jobs?’.  So maybe these graphs will help him see where the jobs went. GOP loses jobs, DEMS have to get them back. Old story.

What, me worry?

While our Muslim, Kenyan president is daring to vacation with his so-called ‘family’ at that communist den in Nantucket Sound, Bill at Under the Lobsterscope reminds us:

“BTW, by this time in George W Bush’s Administration, GWB had taken 115 days off. Obama has taken 48, counting this week’s trip to Martha’s Vineyard.”

The most-important-thing-in-the-world, sayeth the free press

Lifted directly, shamelessly and in its entirety from The Backchannel Blog, some food for thought.  

Well, the world is going to hell in a hand basket, the economy is in the dumps, we’re in two wars, so what does the President decide to do?  GO ON VACATION!  And not just any vacation.  They’re going to Martha’s Vineyard, that bastion of snobby, effete, elite liberals.  This is another sign that he is a socialist Muslim born in Kenya.    

 

The Bush compound in Kennebunkport

Or perhaps the problem is that the Obama’s don’t have a vacation home.  FDR had Warm Springs,  Truman had Key West, JFK had  Hyannis Port, LBJ had his ranch, Nixon had San Clemente, Ford had Vail, Carter had his peanut farm in Georgia, Reagan had his ranch in Santa Barbara, Bush 41 a retreat in Kennebunkport, and Bush 43 his “ranch” in Crawford.  The only two presidents in recent history who didn’t have a vacation home are Clinton and Obama.   

Studies have shown that successful people all take time to recharge their batteries.  To those of the chattering class that are offended that the President is taking a little time off from the most stressful job in the world, I’d suggest it’s time for you to take a vacation.  

And may I add that if a vacation were not enough to prove him unworthy of the presidency, that he doesn’t go to Church ought to finish it. This failing actually made the network news (ABC) last night. Shame, shame, shame on them for being snookered again. And shame, shame, shame on the White House for putting out that “the President, however, prays every day – to Jesus”. Jeebus save us.  

Oh, and Reagan  didn’t go to church.

Obama just said ‘homeland’

I hate that.

I wish this hadn’t occurred to me

PBS is broadcasting the Paul McCartney White House concert from a mnth or so ago. I was enjoying it until I realized . . .

Paul McCartney is old enough to be Obama’s father. Worse, Obama is young enough that Paul McCartney could be his father.

That is all. I am now turning to drugs.

Back from vacation

Only Jon Stewart could envision this:

Obama as Trump

Not in the headlines

While we’re all weeping in our lattes about how Obama isn’t doing what we want him to do or he’s not doing it fast enough,  David Brooks talks about short term and long term and reminds us of a few things:

“It occurs to me that the Obama administration has done a number of (widely neglected [I think he means underreported]) things that scramble the conventional categories and that are good policy besides. The administration has championed some potentially revolutionary education reforms. It has significantly increased investments in basic research. It has promoted energy innovation and helped entrepreneurs find new battery technologies. It has invested in infrastructure — not only roads and bridges, but also information-age infrastructure like the broadband spectrum.

These accomplishments aren’t big government versus small government; they’re using government to help set a context for private sector risk-taking and community initiative. . . . These long-term problems, Obama could say, won’t be solved either with centralized government or free market laissez-faire. Just as government laid railroads and built land grant colleges in the 19th century to foster deep growth, the government today should be doing the modern equivalents.”

I do not approve

It seems my President is going to be on “The View’. I wish he wouldn’t do that.

It’s fine for candidates. Presidents need to maintain a little more distance from the rest of us. He needs to learn that.

There’s a fat lady out there singing for me

Not that it ever mattered, but I have always believed there would never ever ever be a time in my life when I would agree with anything uttered by Jonah Goldberg (editor of NRO, spawn of Lucienne Goldberg [LBJ’s Monica] and frequently and inelegantly referred to in the lefty blogshpere as the ‘doughy pantload’ – vulgar, I know, but . . . ), but omg, here I am doing  just that.

In a post on NRO’s blog The Corner, he gently, softly and affectionately takes to task his dear dear wonderful and usually so upright friend Andrew Breitbart (the author of yesterday’s “racist black lady!!!” kerfulle) on that subject. And in so doing, he adds:

“Meanwhile, as a matter of politics, I think this episode demonstrates that this White House is a much more tightly wound outfit than it lets on in public. The rapid-response firing suggests a level of fear over Glenn Beck and Fox that speaks volumes.”

I agree. Maybe not with the why, but with the inappropriate speed of the responses. The fat lady cometh.

Empty, empty, empty

I’ve been trying to wean myself off commenting on the vacuous and vacant kefuffles that erupt and pass for news. And failing. (As it says to the right, I find that “Resistance is futile”.)

But bad behavior by ‘journalists’ in the ‘liberal media’ is always on my list. And now, bad unprofessional behavior by two in 2008, criticized as such by fellow journalists at the time, has been redrawn as proof that not only is the media liberal but they conspire to protect Obama.

The outrage of the last week or so has centered on a ‘list serve’ called Journolist, begun by Ezra Klein of the Washington Post. He created it as a place for journalists to discuss and tangle with the stuff they were reporting about. List serves are common in industries – hell, I belong to one and am about to try to start another. But they’re not public – although anything with hundreds of members is not very secret.

The way this became an outrage is just too long for me to recount. Go google it.

Now over the last 48 hours, there’s a new twist which has inspired hours of radio time, the usual FOX treatment and an explosion of right wing outrage in the blogshpere. The indignity – the thing which has set them off –  has to do with comments on the list serve following the 2008 Presidential debates, where George Stephanopolous had asked Obama about Rev. Wright and also why he didnt’ wear a flag pin. At the time, a number of media critics and list serve participants –  took issue with that – charging  the two moderators with a failure to address or ask about the pressing issues of the day.

This old and sorry and not particularly substantive story is what’s set our right wing friends afire. They’ve interpreted it to mean that liberal journalists conspired to protect Obama from hard questions and the criticism following the debate was because anything re Rev. Wright was a hard question so that proves conspiracy. Follow that?

My head hurts.

This 2008 column from Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher pretty much describes what the list serve thread was criticizing:

“In perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years, ABC News hosts Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos focused mainly on trivial issues as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off in Philadelphia. They, and their network, should hang their collective heads in shame.

“Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the health care and mortgage crises, the overall state of the economy and dozens of other pressing issues had to wait for their few moments in the sun as Obama was pressed to explain his recent “bitter” gaffe and relationship with Rev. Wright and not wearing a flag pin — while Clinton had to answer again for her Bosnia trip exaggerations.

“Then it was back to Obama to defend his slim association with a former ’60s radical [Bill Ayers] — a question that came out of right-wing talk radio and Sean Hannity on TV, but was delivered by former Bill Clinton aide Stephanopoulos. This approach led to a claim that Clinton’s husband pardoned two other ’60s radicals. And so on. The travesty continued.

“More time was spent on all of this than segments on getting out of Iraq and keeping people from losing their homes and — you name it. Gibson only got excited complaining that someone might raise his capital gains tax. Yet neither candidate had the courage to ask the moderators to turn to those far more important issues. Talking heads on other networks followed up by not pressing that point either. The crowd booed Gibson near the end. Why didn’t every other responsible journalist on TV?” [emphasis mine]

 

It always happens

An old six year projection from CNN

Obama is turning grey. Of course he’s at an age when aging becomes visible. Our last two presidents entered office already having grey hair (although Clinton went from grey to white), so we haven’t seen this in a while.

The TV is on and he’s congratulating the congress on passing the financial reform bill.

He looks good grey. And it’s a comfort to those of us who aren’t crazy about having presidents younger than ourselves.

I think it’s about Kennedy

Listening off and on to the Kagan confirmation hearings. Everything I hear (except from the old misogynist Jeff Sessions) reinforces the portrait of a consensus builder, a master negotiator. 

I’m beginning to think that Obama named her to target Kennedy who has become the swing vote since O’Connor’s retirement. He’s more conservative than she was, but he’s traveled around the spectrum quite a lot since he was appointed. For instance, that conservative bugo-a-boo, horror of teh foreign law – Kennedy expresses a deep understanding of that in recent years. 

Got an eye on you Mr. Justice Kennedy

 Kagan for Kennedy? Makes sense to me. A reliable liberal most of the time installed to turn someone else into a sympathetic vote more of the time.

A question

The President, along with everyone else, has pretty much established over the last weeks that BP lies; that we cannot trust what BP says.

So why, Mr. President, did you just state with confidence that most of the oil  will be being captured by the end of the month.

Who told you? BP?

Disappointment, part the second

A few days ago I wrote that I thought Obama was getting bad advice. After tonight’s speech – more evidence of that – I have to take it further and allow that he’s the one taking that advice. Tonight’s speech was so insufficient. So lacking. And wow, so short. Has a president ever before addressed the nation for only sixteen minutes?

I think the folks at MSNBC – every hair in place – were ready to do some serious and lengthy analysis. But they’d pretty much said all they had to say and shut it down after their own 16 minutes.

I’m almost afraid of the reaction. Or worse, the lack.

Another disappointment

Obama? Where was the challenge? It’s not enough to say we need to get off fossil fuels – tell Americans they have to pitch in. Talk about how. Use some numbers. I am disappointed.

Here we go again

I think Obama is getting terrible advice.  He’s apparently scheduled a meeting with Hayward, the CEO of BP. Why in the world should a Head of State sit down with a disgraced CEO?? It’s as if George Bush invited Ken Lay in to chat. And worse, I just heard that the meeting will be in the Oval Office.

Mr. President, if you must meet with this guy fer god’s sake, do NOT invite him into the Oval Office. Meet the guy in a conference room down the hall or something. I don’t want to see Hayward sitting on the couches.

(This thing looks to be a PR move and if so, it’s 10 days too late. And not the first time that Obama has bowed to media pressure to do the wrong thing.)

Wish I could write like this

But I can’t. That’ s why Bob Herbert has a column in The New York Times and neither you nor I do. This morning, he’s feeling a tad testy about his President and about those big oil companies.

From An Unnatural Disaster:

“Where I was wrong,” said President Obama at his press conference on Thursday, “was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.”

With all due respect to the president, who is a very smart man, how is it possible for anyone with any reasonable awareness of the nonstop carnage that has accompanied the entire history of giant corporations to believe that the oil companies, which are among the most rapacious players on the planet, somehow “had their act together” with regard to worst-case scenarios . . . 

These are greedy merchant armies drilling blindly at depths a mile and more beneath the seas while at the same time doing all they can to stifle the government oversight that is necessary to protect human lives and preserve the integrity of the environment.

President Obama knows that. He knows — or should know — that the biggest, most powerful companies do not have the best interests of the American people in mind when they are closing in on the kinds of profits that ancient kingdoms could only envy.

That’s about right.

Trying to plug that sucker with press releases

An interesting post from a diarist over at Kos, which I don’t visit much any more. Not because it isn’t superb – it is! Because there’s so much gold over there these days, that it’s too much to absorb. If I try, I get lost and life stops calling. Kos has become the biggest friggin’ depository of smart informed commentary and reporting on the web. We just can’t have that!

This diarist, Fishgrease, spent 30 years in the oil extraction business. He takes us to ‘boom school’. 

“Generally, boom is long and bright bright orange or yellow. It is not bright bright orange or yellow so you can see it, dear fledgling boomer, but so Governors, Senators, Presidents and The Media can see it . . . “

“Boom is not meant to contain or catch oil. Boom is meant to divert oil. Boom must always be at an angle to the prevailing wind-wave action or surface current. Boom, at this angle, must always be layered in a fucking overlapped sort-of way with another string of boom. Boom must always divert oil to a catch basin or other container*, from where it can be REMOVED FROM THE FUCKING AREA.” (* I have never heard this mentioned. If it’s true, they are truly wasting time.)

And he knows. And, sadly, he then says this (he really likes to say ‘fuck’):

“Now the Coast Guard? They know booming. They know what fucking proper fucking booming looks like. Coast Guard commandant, Adm. Thad Allen should be fired. Today. Now. This minute. Before he can give another press conference echoing what BP said not five minutes before him. Then he should be fucking court-martialed and fucking sent to prison before BP can give him a goddamned fucking job. He’s a shameless piece of shit. And so is President Obama if he can’t see that. People who know me and how I’ve supported our President through thick and thin, know how hard it was for me to write that. I’m literally on the verge of tears, right this second. But I won’t erase it. There it is.”

I agree that the Obama administration should be presenting a more coherent face on this. And I evaluate everything with the knowledge that no President in my lifetime has faced such a mess coming into office. I’m sure fixing Minerals and Mining didn’t make it to the top of the list; so many agencies needed cleaning up at the staff level. And so many top jobs weren’t filled in a timely fashion because some friggin’ Republican Senator or other had a hold on the nomination.

Let’s not forget – ever – that two oil executives occupied the White House for eight years. They declawed the regulatory agencies and put in people from the extraction industries. When the investigations gain some steam, it’s going to be ugly. But I’m sure Dick Cheney will still come on my teevee to blast Obama for something.

Bet ole Cheney is too busy perfecting his sour scowl to notice it’s the 230th day of the ninth year of the War in Afghanistan.

(When you think about the cost of oil, remember to count the cost of war.)

Well, almost a trillion dollars. Isn’t that nice.

According to Politico, the Federal government is – once again – going to pretend to beef up enforcement at the Mexican border. I have seen this movie before. Today, Obama is asking Congress for $500,000,000 for the effort. That’s half a billion. We’re spending a friggin’ billion dollars a day on wars.

And by the way, we are just a few scant billions (two in fact) away from a grand total of A TRILLION DOLLARS spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But it’d be fun to see them side by side in golf shirts

The blessed New York Post, desperate for a headline this morning (has Blessed Father Murdoch cut the budget?), has this:

Obama Won’t Golf With Limbaugh

Wouldn’t the etiquette require the President to issue any invitation? Does the New York Post think Limbaugh is more important? Why, yes they apparently do. Or their syntax could use some work.

Through the looking glass for sure

It’s 11:25pm and I just took a last look at memeorandum to see what’s up in the world. Especially to see what’s up in my country.

Republicans Circulate Draft of Financial Regulation Alternative (oh good – love that ‘starting over’ thing they do )
Mexican government warns citizens to use extreme caution if visiting Arizona (Yes, they do mean it as an insult)
New Oklahoma law: women must undergo an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before having an abortion (why not just make it illegal to think?)
Install microchips in illegal immigrants, GOP candidate says (no comment)
Birthers prepare to march on Washington (well, that’ll help)
and the clincher:
“Enthusiastic” Voters Prefer GOP by 20 Points in 2010 Vote

Tylenol PM for me tonight.

Beggers the imagination

Conservapedia.com  (run by the spawn of Phyllis Schafley) is an amusement that gets about one one-thousandth the hits that Wikipedia gets. As stunningly stupid as that concept was, it has now been surpassed.

Meet popmodal.com. They bill themselves as the “Conservative Alternative to YouTube”.  Honest. I’m speechless.

(I got there following links from a blog post by my conservative friend Steve. It set me off to find out who was this Dr. James David Manning who is staging a ‘trial’ to prove Obama wasn’t born in the US and is also a CIA agent ad a Marxist. Which should be amusing to say the least.