Archive for March, 2011
Monday Open Thread: March 28th, 2011
Talk…talk….talk….talk. The ultimate spin doctor. I thought this video was appropriate for today considering the Spin Doctor in Chief is going to speak to us “little people” tonight about our “Kinetic Military Action” in Libya.
Blah!
So…what’s on your minds this Monday?
What are people talking about in your part of the country?
A little song to get us ready for Obama’s speech tomorrow night on our “Kinetic Military Action” in Libya
(h/t Constitution Club)
I read this on Iowa Hawk this morning and had to share. It’s very clever.
(this song is sung to the tune of “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”)
Overseas-Contingencies-Kinetic-Aliocious
In trying to explain himself when bombing foreign lands,
It behooves a modern president to keep his prose in hand.
One little slip in lexicon accounting for the rubble
Will end up in congressional investigative trouble.
Ohhhhhh!
Overseas-contingencies-kinetic-aliocious
I must admit the messaging is really quite atrocious
But if you say it soft enough, you’ll always sound precocious,
Overseascontingencieskineticaliocious!
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
In olden days they called this thing a stale three-letter word
But in this new millenium I find that quite absurd.
My unabridge-ed thesaurus is dog-eared through and through,
One syllable seems pitiful when thirteen more will do!
Ohhhhhhh!
Overseascontingencieskineticaliocious,
When you put it in that way it won’t seem so ferocious.
Gargle first with Listerine in case of halitosis,
Overseascontingencieskineticaliocious!
Um-twiddle-diddle-um-twiddle dee
Um-twiddle-diddle-um-twiddle dum
Unlike Bush adventurism, there’s no “war” to fear
It’s um… it’s er… it’s uh… it’s mmm… let me be crystal clear
In days not weeks we cease it all, for “peace,” or as you know,
Suoicilacitenikeicnegnitnocsaesrevo.
Ohhhhhh!
Overseascontingencieskineticaliocious
A neologic tailor-made for media hypnosis
If you hear it long enough you’ll drink until cirrhosis,
Overseascontingencieskineticaliocious!*
I’ll be humming this all day.
ADVICE NEEDED: How to confront a regular drunk driver to get her to stop
I am currently in a living Hell, helplessly watching someone I love make the same reckless, dangerous decision, night after night, without any way to get through to her.
A friend I will call Cassie works in a bar in Boystown. As a woman working in a place that’s 95% gay guys, she never feels like she fits in and thinks she is teased and marginalized a lot at work.
After the bar closes, the employees all get a drink on the house…and whatever shots the bartenders want to pour as they are closing up. Cassie feels that she can’t turn down these drinks or she will be made fun of…so she takes all the shots she is given.
Cassie lives 40 minutes away from Boystown and drives home from work.
After drinking all those shots, rapid-fire.
I have been to dinner with Cassie and one glass of chardonnay gets her buzzed.
Last night, a coworker filled her full of Jeager…knowing she was going to get behind the wheel and drive.
But, he kept giving her the Jeager anyway.
Cassie is 30, and yes she should know her limit. I am 33 and know I can have at most three beers when out…and I never touch shots because they are too potent for me. I politely refuse shots when they are offered…and I walk home from the bars. I just don’t feel safe drinking that much and making the trek home, since I know muggers have been working the neighborhood for the last few years.
I would not DREAM of getting behind the wheel of a car when drunk, but Cassie has been doing this almost every night for the last month (and this is just what I have been aware of).
Last night, Cassie was so drunk that when she got back to her apartment she couldn’t work her keys so she slept in the hallway.
She made a joke about it on her Facebook, which prompted me to call her and ask what’s going on.
She just keeps saying that she is a good driver and that she feels like she can’t turn down the free drinks at work afterhours…or she can’t say no when her co-workers ask her to join them at Little Jim’s or the Closet (the 4am closing late bars in Boystown) after her shift is over.
I have been praying and praying on this because it gives me nightmares. Cassie is a dear friend whom I love, and I can’t shake the image of her getting into a serious accident late one night because she was too scared (and stupid) to tell her co-workers she can’t take all those shots.
Today, I prayed on this again, because after getting off the phone with Cassie she still didn’t understand how dangerous drunk driving is.
Clearly, hearing me talk about this does not get through to her.
I am hoping that putting this problem out there someone who reads this can give me advice on how to make Cassie reevaluate what she is doing.
I know that only Cassie can help Cassie, and that SHE needs to see she has a problem.
But this is just eating me alive.
She is going to kill someone if she keeps driving drunk every night. She is going to hurt herself.
How would you intervene in this situation if Cassie was your friend?
Full disclosure: I have had to tell Cassie in bars that she had enougb that night…and I have taken her keys away and made her sleep it off on my couch before I let her drive in the morning. She gets mad and doesn’t talk to me for a few weeks, but that’s fine with me…so long as she was safe those nights, she can be as mad as she wants at me.
But the problem is that I am not Cassie’s babysitter and can’t watch her every night.
She needs to stop this from happening herself.
How can I nudge her to that decision?
++++++
UPDATE: I really appreciate all the advice that is coming in on this…it backs up what my heart tells me to do anyway.
I should have thought to do this before, but I think it would help if I printed these comments out and gave them to Cassie to show her I am not the only person telling her this…but coast to coast people feel this way.
Can you post directly to Cassie and tell her what she should hear?
How exactly would you confront her and what would you say?
I am going to make her read all these comments, every last one, tomorrow night as I have convinced a few friends to help do an intervention.
Your help on this means more than I could ever say, as we are trying to stop this behavior before our friend Cassie hurts someone.
Christopher Hitchens, world famous atheist, seeks cancer treatment from unlikely source
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens, the world-famous author, journalist and vowed atheist is dying of esophageal cancer and at the moment, has a grim prognosis. Hitchens is the author of the book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. He has done many lectures and talk shows on the subject of atheism…yet he is seeking a miracle cure to his devastating cancer from an evangelical doctor named Francis Collins. Dr. Collins is part of a team that has mapped out the entire human DNA sequence and he is the former director of The National Human Genome Project. He is also a devout evangelical christian and the author of the book The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.
Dr. Francis Collins
( The Blaze) “It is a rather wonderful relationship,” Hitchens says of his friendship with Collins. The two have publicly debated religion before and are good friends.
How will this experimental procedure work? First, Collins has already mapped out Hitchens’ entire DNA sequence. Then:
On each sample six billion DNA matches were run, in order to catalogue the mutations in the cancerous cells which had given Hitchens cancer of the oesophagus.
Then in the New Year Dr Collins found a mutation and went about tackling the DNA directly.
He discovered that a drug already existed to treat the particular mutation and now Hitchens takes just one tablet a day, rather than undergoing grueling chemotherapy.
“These are early stages, but in theory it should attack the primary site of the tumour,” Hitchens said.
For the sake of Hitchens–and the world of cancer treatment at large–here‘s hoping that Collins’ therapy works.
I like this story.
It’s something to give us hope on this Sunday.
Sunday Open Thread: March 27th, 2011
(h/t Moonbattery)
What’s on your minds this Sunday?
What are people talking about in your part of the country?
Geraldine Ferraro dies at age 75
Geraldine Ferraro has died at the age of 75 after a long battle with blood cancer. I have always liked her and I especially enjoyed watching her as a Fox News contributor over the past few years. This makes me very sad.
Here is the notice from her family…
Geraldine A. Ferraro, who earned a place in history in 1984 as the first woman and first Italian-American to run on a major party national ticket, has died, according to her family. Ms. Ferraro passed away today at Massachusetts General Hospital, surrounded by her loved ones. The cause of death was complications from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that she had battled for twelve years. Ms. Ferraro was seventy-five years old.
Geraldine Ferraro during the 1984 campaignBy Barbara Ries, USA TodayHer family said “Geraldine Anne Ferraro Zaccaro was widely known as a leader, a fighter for justice, and a tireless advocate for those without a voice. To us, she was a wife, mother, grandmother and aunt, a woman devoted to and deeply loved by her family. Her courage and generosity of spirit throughout her life waging battles big and small, public and personal, will never be forgotten and will be sorely missed.” Ms. Ferraro was born on August 26th, 1935 — Women’s Equality Day — in Newburgh, New York to Antonetta Corrieri and Dominick Ferraro. She is survived by her husband of 50 years, John A. Zaccaro; her three children and their spouses, Donna Zaccaro Ullman and Paul Ullman, John and Anne Rasmussen Zaccaro, and Laura Zaccaro Lee and Josh Lee; and her eight grandchildren, Matthew and Natalie Ullman, Elizabeth, Samantha and John Zaccaro, and Daisy, Alexander and Jane Lee. Ms. Ferraro resided in New York City.
RIP Geraldine Ferraro.
“Obama is cool”
Our friends are back arguing the logic behind Libya among other things.
I love these videos.
Obama to address the nation on Libya…a day late and a dollar short.
The One
Yesterday the White House released the following statement….
WASHINGTON–On Monday, March 28 at 7:30PM ET, the President will deliver an address at the National Defense University in Washington, DC to update the American people on the situation in Libya, including the actions we’ve taken with allies and partners to protect the Libyan people from the brutality of Moammar Qaddafi, the transition to NATO command and control, and our policy going forward.
The speech will be pooled for TV and open to correspondents. More details, including press credentialing information, will be released as they become available
Didn’t we start launching missiles last Saturday? Obama has been feeling the heat all week from both Republicans and Democrats on why he didn’t come to them (Congress) first before he involved the US in this war. The far left has made it very clear that they are not happy with him.
Many are asking…who’s in charge of this attack on Libya? In the good old days….the US would take the lead and everything would be handled ( like Desert Storm in the early 90′s). Mission accomplished. Period.
(NewsMax) Confusion reigned Monday among U.N. and NATO nations about who’s in charge of the multi-country attack against Libya, even as an international coalition continued air strikes against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
President Barack Obama’s White House hasn’t definitively addressed that essential issue about an operation that has cost the United States well more than $100 million, and is increasingly rapidly. Other questions looming:
- Are the United States and its allies attacking Libya to save the country’s citizens from slaughter at the hands of their leader Gadhafi, as the U.N. resolution endorsing the enforcement of the no-fly zone called for, or are they ultimately trying to push him out of power? That oust-Gadhafi question resonates with echoes of previous statements from both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the ruthless dictator must go. And how do those messages mesh with a top admiral’s statement that Gadhafi could remain in power?
- How, and when, will the United States hand off leadership of the military attack to other countries?
- What is the potential for this to become a U.S. police action and/or extended involvement like that in Iraq and Afghanistan?
This is so typical of this mushy-gushy-wishy-washy-which way is the wind blowing administration. So…to make everyone happy…Obama has decided to make a speech so that we (the little people) can understand what he ( The Great One) has done.
WASHINGTON – The White House says President Barack Obama will give a speech to the nation Monday explaining his decision-making on the Libyan war.
The timing comes as some lawmakers of both major parties have complained that Obama has not sought their input about the U.S. role in the war or explained with enough clarity about the U.S. goals and exit strategy.
U.S.-led forces began launching missile strikes last Saturday against embattled Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi’s defenses to prevent him from attacking his own people.
It’s no real surprise that Obama didn’t follow the War Powers Clause in our Constitution.
After all….why should a global citizen be bothered with the approval of Congress?
Saturday Open Thread: March 26th, 2011
Letterman would never dis "The One" like this... but it's funny anyway
Happy Saturday!
What’s on your minds today?
What are people talking about in your part of the country”
The new meaning of transparency
Transparency? Ha!
(Big Government) President Barack Obama has won praise from the media — and from himself — for putting the White House visitor logs online. Yet the visitor logs may hide more than they reveal.
The White House is still holding back “tens of thousands” of visitor logs, according to congressional testimony last week by Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, who also added that “the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration.”
We also know that some of the most important presidential visitors don’t even walk into the White House. The administration meets K Street lobbyists at Caribou Coffee, and holds secret meetings in Jackson Place townhouses where there are no visitor logs.
The visitor logs that have been released are problematic, because they are simply lists of names, with no way to verify whether a specific name belongs to a particular person.
When the first names were released on Oct. 30, 2009, late on a Friday afternoon, then-White House “ethics czar” Norm Eisen noted the lists included “false positives” — “names that make you think of a well-known person, but are actually someone else.” According to Eisen, these included ordinary visitors named “Michael Jordan, William Ayers, Michael Moore, Jeremiah Wright, Robert Kelly (“R. Kelly”), and Malik Shabazz.”
A number of conservative bloggers noticed the names, but not Eisen’s blog post. With speed and precision suggesting direct coordination from the top, ThinkProgress, the core of the heavily funded John Podesta/George Soros “progressive” world, gleefully attacked its ideological foes for reporting “false positives.” The next release included “Louis Farrakhan” and “James Taylor,” but this time conservatives were more careful.
Yet there is no way to prove that the “false positives” really are false, because the White House refuses to reveal identifying information about visitors. In December 2009, citing visitor logs, Big Government reported that ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis had likely visited the White House on a special “staff tour” on September 5. The timing of Lewis’s visit — as the far-left regrouped in the aftermath of the health care town halls — seemed suspicious.
Ben Smith of Politico then reported that an anonymous White House source said we had the wrong Bertha Lewis. I asked Smith why, if that were the case, the White House would use an anonymous flack to put down our report, rather than busting us cleanly. Smith agreed it was weird. The next day, the official emerged, but the newly revealed Jen Psaki refused to say who the real Bertha Lewis was, citing “privacy concerns.”
With no way to verify, there is no real transparency. Of course, with Andrew Stern, the former president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who visited the White House over twenty times through October 2009, there is little doubt that he is the Andy Stern. That information helped establish the credibility of the visitor logs. Yet there are three “Andrew Sterns” who visited with group tours–are they just “false positives”?
What is the point of listing hundreds of thousands of tourists, if not to help create “false positives”? Eisen and the White House have created a haystack that can hide a needle. Considering that Eisen, a major Obama bundler in 2008, was responsible for smearing former Inspector General Gerald Walpin, and was elevated to an ambassadorship through a shady recess appointment, that hardly seems impossible.
Evidence has emerged to suggest the White House tried to manipulate media coverage of the visitor logs to create an impression of transparency. Indeed, Fitton reported to Congress that in the fall of 2009, Eisen “encouraged [Judicial Watch] to publicly praise the Obama administration’s commitment to transparency, saying it would be good for them and good for us.” Yet the White House still refused to provide all of the visitor logs.
In the name of “transparency,” the White House has turned the guest list into the “guess list.” Tragically, the media seem fine with that. Last week, representatives from Sunshine Week — funded by the hapless American Society of News Editors, among others — tried to give the president a “transparency” award. It was postponed — but when they hold the event, bloggers reporting the news the “real” journalists won’t report ought to beware: the Newsweek reporter in the visitor logs may not be that “Tunku Varadarajan.”
//
This White House is about as transparent as a brick wall.
