Archive for May, 2011
Friday Open Thread: May 6th, 2011
May 6th: Today in History
1998– Kerry Wood strikes out 20 Houston Astros to tie the major league record held by Roger Clemens. He threw a one-hitter and did not walk a batter in his 5th career start.
2001 – During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
2010– The second largest intraday point swing in Dow Jones Industrial Average history occurs.
What’s on your minds this Friday?
What are people talking about in your part of the world?
GOP Presidential Debate Watch Thread
The 2012 GOP nomination campaign officially kicks off tonight with a presidential debate sponsored by the GOP and Fox News, televised at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time on Fox News.
The five participating candidates, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and businessman Herman Cain, have all formed a presidential exploratory committee, filed state GOP paperwork and paid $25,000 to get on South Carolina’s primary ballot.
This should be quite an interesting event, with candidates ranging from the Cocktail Party end of the spectrum (Santorum and Pawlenty) to the libertarian end (Ron Paul and Gary Johnson). Herman Cain, a frequent speaker at Tea Party rallies, is probably somewhere in the middle.
South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a Tea Party favorite, praised the wide range of GOP views.
“The only really logical debate when you’ve got a government that’s $14 trillion in debt is between conservatives and libertarians,” he said. “You should no longer have a debate between moderates and liberals because we don’t have any money to spend.”
So, who impressed you? Who disappointed you? Who surprised you?
Did the debate change your mind or reinforce your opinions?
To show or not to show.
I am not sure how I feel about the death pictures of Osama bin Laden. On the one hand….I think that most Americans need a little closure to 9/11 and seeing that SOB dead would help with that closure a little. On the other hand, would it put our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in more danger by agitating the already unstable Islamic jihadists? I’ve been listening to various talk show hosts today and reading opinions of different bloggers and most feel that the pictures should be released to the public. I agree. I don’t think we could agitate those crazy extremists any more than they already are and I have full faith that our military can handle whatever comes their way. There are going to be conspiracy theorists on both sides of the aisle so whether you release the photos or not isn’t going to make a difference. Let’s face it….we have hundreds of videos of the airplanes flying into the twin towers and some people still think it was a controlled demolition.
Wasn’t Obama originally going to release the Abu Ghraib photos? Talk about inflammatory. I think Obama should release the pictures (or the picture) of the dead Osama and be done with it.
I suspect that a photo will be “leaked” to the media anyway. Oops.
What do you guys think?
Thursday Open Thread: May 5th, 2011
May 5th: Today in History
1904 – Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans throws the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
1961– The Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 3 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, making a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes
2010 – Mass protests in Greece erupt in response to austerity measures imposed by the government as a result of the Greek debt crisis.
What’s on your minds this Thursday…other than fajitas and margarita’s?
What are people talking about in your part of the world?
First GOP debate in 2 days…Juan Williams is asking for our help
Juan Williams
The first official GOP debate of the 2012 primary season will be this Thursday May 5th at 9pm in South Carolina and it’s being hosted by Fox. The moderators will be Juan Williams, Bret Bair, Chris Wallace and Shannon Bream…..I think this is a pretty fair mix of left and right. The field of candidates that are appearing for the debate is pretty thin. Rick Santorum, Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain, Gary Johnson and Ron Paul are going to be the only participants. Where’s the Donald? Where’s Gingrich, Bachmann, Daniels and Huckabee? I’m confused as to who has officially thrown their hat in the ring and who hasn’t. Of course, the 2 biggest names that are absent are Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney. Juan Williams thinks that Romney is waiting because “he wants the Republican faithful, especially people with big money, to come to him out of frustration with a mediocre field and give him the nomination by acclamation.” I think he may be right.
So….Juan is asking people to submit debate questions and the panel will consider them for their lineup. This could be fun….if they are really serious about it.
Let’s all get involved with this….even if the field of candidates participating doesn’t excite you too much. Maybe we can weed out the ones who should drop out of the race ASAP. I’m looking forward to hearing from Ron Paul….for some reason, that man scares me. I really, really like Herman Cain but…is he presidential material? I think Tim Pawlenty is about as exciting as a banana sandwich but maybe he will change my mind after the debate.
What do you guys think?
Post the questions that you want asked and then send them to Juan at @foxnews.com">foxforum@foxnews.com.
This is an Red Team Action Item.
White House puts pressure on newspaper to remove unflattering piece about FLOTUS
A small local newspaper in California was asked by the White House to remove part of an article that was a feature on Marine One because it made Michelle Obama look bad. A writer at the Pleasanton Weekly said that she didn’t get to actually ride on Marine One but that she got a VIP tour and was able to take pictures of it for her story. The president of the Pleasanton Weekly, Gina Channel-Allen, got a call from the White House asking her to take out one sentence that made Michelle look bad.
The part of the story that the White House wanted removed…..
“Basically the reporter said that the First Lady didn’t speak to the pilots but acknowledged them by making eye contact,” Allen said.
Really? I’d say that’s being a little thin skinned.
Of course, the White House is denying the whole thing and Allen said that she complied with the request because it “wasn’t worth making a fuss over.”
I think Ms. Allen was being way too nice.
Wednesday Open Thread: May 4th, 2011
May 4th: Today in History
1989 – Iran-Contra Affair: Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges. The convictions, however, are later overturned on appeal.
1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord regarding Palestinian autonomy granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho
2007 – Greensburg, Kansas is almost completely destroyed by a 1.7mi wide EF-5 tornado.
So…what’s on your minds this Wednesday?
What are people talking about in your part of the world?
TSA gets mocked in chainsaw commercial
This is one of the funniest commercials I have ever seen. Considering how ridiculous some of the TSA policies are today…this commercial really hits the spot. I actually feel sorry for most TSA agents because they are only following orders from above but the lack of common sense that some of them have makes a mockery of our national security.
I love the ending when the guy is sitting on the plane cradling his chainsaw.
Priceless.
Canada moving right?
With so much going on in the news yesterday, the Canadian elections got almost no attention but…something very big is happening up north. General elections were held in Canada yesterday and it appears that they are doing in Canada what we did in the United States back in November.
(National Post) Canadians elected a historic government to office on Monday, handing the Conservatives their long-coveted majority and promoting the NDP to Official Opposition status for the first time ever.
The Liberals were reduced to less than half the seats they won in the last election, and the Bloc Quebecois dwindled to just a handful of seats in a province that, for the first time in 20 years, handed the majority of its seats to a federalist party.
Good for them.
Go Canada Go!
Tuesday Open Thread: May 3rd, 2011
We’re going to add a “Today in History” to our Open Threads each morning so chime in if you have other historic events to add.
Today in History:
1802: Washington DC is incorporated as a city.
1999: The southwestern portion of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is devastated by an F5 tornado killing forty-five people, injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in damage. The tornado is one of 66 from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak.
2006: Zacarias Moussaoui is sentenced to life in prison in Alexandria, Virginia.
So…What’s on your minds today?
What are people talking about in your part of the world?
