Me and the Gov
I had a brief opportunity to meet with Governor Bev Perdue last Monday. I didn’t get any wishes granted. Nor did she ask for any campaign contributions. So, I guess it was a GREAT meeting.
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Sexism and Schlafly
This is pretty over the top. I wonder if there are any single women who work and pay their bills in the US. I wonder if Phillis Schlafly knows any of them..?
From TP:
One of the things Obama’s been doing is deliberately trying to increase the percentage of our population that is dependent on government for your living. For example, do you know what was the second biggest demographic group that voted for Obama? Obviously the blacks were the biggest demographic, y’all know what was the second biggest? Unmarried women. 70% of unmarried women voted for Obama. And this is because when you kick your husband out, you’ve got to have Big Brother Government to be your provider. And they know that. They’ve admitted it. And they have all kinds of bills to continue to subsidize illegitimacy… The Obama administration wants to continue to subsidize this group because they know they are Democratic votes.
Grab Bag Monday — late edition
Sometimes, it’s hard to believe how fast the day goes by.
- I’m not sure what’s going on in the United Arab Emirates. I’m not sure why they think it’s a great idea to limit e-mail access on BlackBerrys. Would the UAE be the definition of a police state?
- A huge sum of money was pulled out of mutual funds over the last year. $1.1 trillion to be precise. It is unclear exactly what Americans did with that money. Pay bills? Try to prevent foreclosure?
- One of the biggest examples of our failure in Iraq has been our inability to turn the lights on and keep them on. Electricity is still spotty at best. Could we have completely rebuilt their electricity grid three times over during the last eight years?
- Another Democrat is in trouble with the House ethics committee. Longtime California Democrat Maxine Waters appears to have asked for federal aid for a California bank in which her husband served on the board and owns stock. She, of course, has admitted no wrongdoing. From a Democratic standpoint, this is more than problematic. Two long-serving congressman are embroiled in ethics scandals. This simply isn’t good. Personally, I am saddened by even questionable ethical practices. Both Representative Waters and Representative Rangel understand they are under scrutiny at all times. They have to have their acts together. They can’t do anything that’s even a little bit shady — unfortunately, it looks like they forgot this basic lesson.
- Politicians are rolling in campaign cash.
- How does 4.9 million barrels of oil look to you? It looks like the worst spill of all time to me.
- There are a number of reasons why the Bush tax cut needs to be allowed to expire. Robert Reich has a few reasons.
- I don’t understand the recent push to try to repeal the 14th amendment. If you’re born in the United States, you should be a United States citizen. If your parents got here illegally, that’s not your fault. Why should you be penalized?
- Countrywide has agreed to pay $600 million to settle lawsuits.
- Al Jarreau is out of the hospital.
Remember the auto bailout?
Remember the auto bailout? This happened a lifetime ago, back in 2008. Americans were uneasy. We were losing jobs at the rate over 500,000 per month. We shouldn’t, we couldn’t get into the auto industry. Well, that was then. Now, what’s it looking like in the auto industry?
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From Political Animal:
As we’ve been talking about over the last couple of days, President Obama’s decision to rescue American auto manufacturers looks awfully good with the benefit of hindsight. Republicans were apoplectic at the time, but more than a year later, we now know the GOP was wrong and the Obama White House was right.
The more amusing angle, however, is watching Republicans scramble to justify their enormous mistake. At a moment of crisis, and with the GOP’s credibility on the line, Republicans made the wrong call — but with a little revisionist history, they’re hoping you won’t notice.
Early last year, as this clip helps make clear, the GOP saw the bailout of the auto industry as a policy that wouldn’t, and quite literally couldn’t, work. It was deemed wholly unacceptable for practical reasons (it would waste money and the industry would fail anyway) and for ideological reasons (it was “Marxism” in practice). Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) proclaimed Obama’s actions “truly breathtaking” and said the government ownership roles at Chrysler and GM “should send a chill through all Americans who believe in free enterprise.”
Now that this same policy has been deemed an unqualified success, most Republicans are biting their tongue, embarrassed about having been wrong once again. But some GOP officials are nevertheless still talking — and taking partial credit for the policy they perceived as the end of American capitalism.
“The ideas [Republicans] laid out there were followed through,” Corker told the Washington Post. “I take some pleasure out of helping make that contribution.”
Got that? Corker hated the policy last year — it offended his notion of how the government should operate on a fundamental level — but now that it worked, and the evidence is clear that Obama was right, he wants the public to think the president succeeded thanks to the Republican “contributions” to the policy.
This is not only a reminder of just how shameless this crowd really is, it’s a reminder how fortunate America was that Republicans weren’t calling the shots when the pressure was on.
The Monkees
Why not? I guess that imitation is the best form of flattery. The Beatles were taking America by storm in the mid-1960s. I’m not sure who was behind the Monkees. They were clearly designed to be a group that looked like the Beatles. Yet, as luck would have it, they actually had some musical talent. None of their songs, as I recall, were deep or thoughtful. They were mostly fun. Fun and catchy. On a Saturday night, there’s nothing wrong with fun and catchy.
Artist: The Monkees
Tune: Last Train to Clarksville
ELO
The Electric Light Orchestra was an interesting, if not confusing, band. Their sound as I recall was different. It was never consistent. They had a couple of huge hits, including this one. (I don’t like this live version as well as I like the recorded version. It just doesn’t seem to swing.)
Artist: ELO
Tune: Don’t Bring Me Down
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Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, full-time sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
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