Category Archives: Gimme a Break

Sarah – Where’s My Dollar?

Last night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, bragged on herself for being a reformer saying, ” I told the Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks,” on that Bridge to Nowhere. If our state wanted to build a bridge, we were going to build it ourselves.”

Okay, Sarah, let’s see how this worked. You were a small town mayor, whose town of 6,000 had never gotten much Federal largess until you hired one of Sen. Ted Stevens’ favorite lobbyists (yes, that Ted Stevens, the one now under Federal indictment), and then you suddenly got more than $12,000 per capita in Federal bucks. You then run for governor as a reformer. You tell the Federal government that, you know, that bridge you gave us $230 million to build? Well, we won’t build it. Did you return the $230 million to the American taxpayers? No, but you did make a special refund of $1,200 to your fellow Alaskans, most of whom are already earning a $2,000 income directly from the state in the form of oil payments.

So I don’t care what sport you root for, Sarah, and I don’t fancy pitbulls whether or not they’re wearing lipstick. I just want my $1.00 from that bridge you decided not to build. I figure at least that much of my tax dollars went to fund it.

Banksy’s Gift

Sketch for Essex Road

This article caught my eye in today’s Independent Online:

When Banksy offered one of his highly sought-after canvases to Labour to auction for Ken Livingstone’s ill-fated re-election campaign, the party’s high command was jubilant.

They were left with a conundrum, however, when they realised that the secret identity of the famously elusive graffiti artist would cost their hard-pressed coffers tens of thousands of pounds.

The winning bid for Sketch for Essex Road, a canvas of two children with hands on hearts pledging allegiance to a Tesco carrier bag on a flagpole, was £195,000. But that meant Banksy’s painting would have to be declared as a gift to the party, requiring it to release his true identity on the internet along with hundreds of other donors – blowing apart his well-guarded anonymity.
He’s anonymous, so Banksy’s gift is impermissible – News, Art & Architecture – The Independent

Bad Political Jokes

Pawn was in a deli this morning, having breakfast, and another diner came in and took his seat at the counter. He leaned in conspiratorially and asked the waitress if she wanted to hear an Obama joke. He then proceeded to tell it.

Obama goes up to heaven and approaches the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is there waiting for him.
St. Peter: Can I help you?
Obama: I’m President Barack Obama.
St. Peter: You were president? I don’t think so.
Obama: Yes sir, I was.
St. Peter: When were you inaugurated?
Obama: Ten minutes ago.

The waitress looked at him with a blank expression. “Get it – he got assassinated. Ha, haha”

Pawn was inclined to offer this version of the joke:

McCain goes up to heaven and approaches the Pearly Gates. St. Peter is there waiting for him.
St. Peter: Can I help you?
McCain: I’m President John McCain.
St. Peter: You were president? I don’t think so.
McCain: Yes sir, I was.
St. Peter: When were you inaugurated?
McCain: Ten minutes ago.

Get it – he keeled over dead with a heart attack, or was it cancer…

Let’s face it, if the joke is offensive and just as unfunny when the shoe is on the other foot, then maybe it doesn’t need to be told.

Present Foot…Load Weapon…Ready, Aim, Fire

Every four years, like clockwork, the far-left fringe of the Democratic Party comes out of the woodwork with one or another idea which is sure to polarize the electorate against them, driving vast tracts of voters into the waiting embrace of the right, and ensuring another insufferable term of Republican leadership. I know, I am a member of the far-left fringe. But, I can see this for what it is; a bad idea with the potential to screw the party out of yet another opportunity to lead.

“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business,” Frank said during a Capitol Hill news conference. “I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.”
Legislators aim to snuff out penalties for pot use – CNN.com

Four years ago it was Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, who just couldn’t wait for the law to catch up to his ambition, and almost single-handedly started the stampede towards same-sex marriage in California. This time it’s Barney Frank and marijuana. Jeez!

Must we? How does this do anything but help the right? Barack Obama will have to choose between endorsing the move, giving a potentially powerful wedge to McCain, or opposing it, further disenchanting a sizable chunk of the youth vote who are already disillusioned by his rightward tack on FISA and other recent changes (be they real or perceived).

Why did Frank have to bring this up now? What possible purpose is served when he knows, and he must know, that it will not possibly pass his own house, hell even his own caucus, let alone get to the president’s desk.

Yikes what poor legislative reasoning he has. Must have an old pot debt to clear.

Do us a favor Barney, go back to reading the New Yorker.

Presidential Hubris Or Truth? You Decide

In a move that puts the ass in classic, Geo. Bush left his final G8 summit with this parting shot:

As he prepared to fly out from Japan, he told his fellow leaders: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

President Bush made the private joke in the summit’s closing session, senior sources said yesterday. His remarks were taken as a two-fingered salute from the President from Texas who is wedded to the oil industry.
Bush to G8: ‘Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter’ – World Politics, World – The Independent

Remind me again why we should be anything but grateful to see him leave the world stage?

And your point is…?


Pawn was visiting western Wisconsin this past weekend, and read this bizarre missive in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, a response to an article about same sex marriage. I am still not sure exactly what the writer, one Charles Charnstrom, of Watertown, was trying to get at:

Whenever objection is raised to GLBT issues or same-sex marriage, name calling is invoked, usually either “hate-filled” or “homophobic.” I am against same-sex marriage and I am not homophobic or hate-filled.

Civilization is fragile and marriage is hard. Living with a person of the opposite sex is much more difficult than living with someone of the same sex. If same-sex couples are granted the same benefits as married couples, people will cease to get married and have kids.

Proof can be found in other Western countries. Babies are not being born from Japan to Italy. Russia even made a national holiday for workers to stay home and procreate.
Letters to the editor for Sunday, June 29

Last time I checked, neither Japan, Italy or Russia permitted same sex marriage, so he can’t possibly mean that those countries were lead to extreme measures due to such a move. If I read it correctly, the only reason men and women marry is because it helps to compensate for the onerous duty of living together and having sex. At least I think that’s what he’s trying to say.

Hmm….

Say What – Part III

A week ago The Independent online broke the story (poo-pooed in the US MSM) that the Bush administration and our viceroy in Iraq were negotiating a then secret agreement with the Iraqis which would allow Bush to “declare a military victory in Iraq and say his 2003 invasion has been vindicated before he leaves office.” Here is an excerpt from today’s follow-up, which details modifications to the agreement meant to molify an increasingly restive Maliki government:

The agreement is being negotiated by David Satterfield, the US State Department’s top adviser on Iraq, who still maintains it can be initialled by a July deadline which Mr Bush set last year last year. “It’s doable,” he told reporters in Baghdad. “We think it’s an achievable goal.”

At a news conference, Mr Satterfield kept repeating that the US wants only to create a more independent Iraq. “We want to see Iraqi sovereignty strengthened, not weakened,” he said.

But Iraqis say that US demands for long-term military bases in the country even if the numbers are reduced, give the lie to that assertion.

US negotiatiors are also determined to maintain policies that allow them to arrest Iraqis without the approval of Iraqi courts, maintaining immunity for US troops and contractors from Iraqi prosecution and carrying out military operations without the Iraqi government’s knowledge or approval.

Washington also wants to retain control over Iraqi airspace and the right to refuel planes in the air, which has raised concerns that President Bush wants to have the option of using Iraq as a base to attack Iran.
Bush forced to rethink plan to keep Iraq bases – Americas, World – The Independent

Is it just me, or is this guy up for the George Orwell Public Speaking award?

Persian Red Herrings

I have been meaning for a week to get around to addressing this absurd question asked by George Stephanopolous, of Mickey Mouse dot com, at last week’s Democratic Presidential debate in Pennsylvania:

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Obama, let’s stay in the region. Iran continues to pursue a nuclear option. Those weapons, if they got them, would probably pose the greatest threat to Israel. During the Cold War, it was the United States policy to extend deterrence to our NATO allies. An attack on Great Britain would be treated as if it were an attack on the United States. Should it be U.S. policy now to treat an Iranian attack on Israel as if it were an attack on the United States? (as per Council for Foreign Relations transcript)

I held off because there has been such a din off criticism of the debate, and criticism of the criticism, i figured someone else would raise this.

The responses to this question varied from Sen. Obama’s rather restrained

…I will take no options off the table when it comes to preventing them from using nuclear weapons…

which was wrapped up in an answer which dealt mostly with the unasked question of non-proliferation and containment, and on follow up,

…it is very important that Iran understands that an attack on Israel is an attack on our strongest ally in the region, one that we — one whose security we consider paramount, and that — that would be an act of aggression that we — that I would — that I would consider an attack that is unacceptable, and the United States would take appropriate action.

to Sen. Clinton’s more bellicose response

Of course I would make it clear to the Iranians that an attack on Israel would incur massive retaliation from the United States

which then lead to a more extensive explanation of the importance of non-proliferation and containment.

This was only the begining, though.  Here is further belicosity from Sen. Clinton on Good Morning America (also a Mickey Mouse property) when asked by Andrew Cuomo to expand on her earlier comments she said this:

I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran…In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.

So, what is my complaint here?  Is it the apparent inconsistency in Sen. Clinton’s position with regard to attacks, diplomacy or, for that matter, hypotheticals?  No, tho that is ably covered by Jake Tapper in this piece No, my complaint is the absurdity of the question, and why neither candidate demonstrated an understanding of the region by answering simply:

While such hypothetical scenario as an Iranian nuclear attack on Israel may seem stark, there is more heat there than light.  The more likely threat in the region is that with Iran’s expanding capability to enrich uranium, and their complicity in the training, arming and command and control of Hessbollah, and now Hamas; the more likely scenario is one in which the Iranians supply one of these terrorist forces, these avowed enemies of Israel, with a suitcase bomb.  If we are to be serious about such threats then we need to find productive means to engage Iran and bring them back into the community of nations who demonstrate through deeds as well as words their willingness to comply with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.  And should they fail to, we must make sure that they know that they will be held responsible not just for their actions, but for their client’s actions.

Of course the right question was not asked, and the right answer was not given.  Oh well, we can now look forward to World War III.

Iraq War Propaganda Rubs Brit Teachers Wrong


The Independent has a cover story today about a Ministry of Defence curriculum being fed to the British schools which has the teachers union up in arms (so to speak). It is what the union reads as a revisionist history of the Iraq war. Here is an excerpt from their story:

At the heart of the union’s concern is a lesson plan commissioned by an organisation called Kids Connections for the Ministry of Defence aimed at stimulating classroom debate about the Iraq war.

In a “Students’ Worksheet” which accompanies the lesson plan, it stresses the “reconstruction” of Iraq, noting that 5,000 schools and 20 hospitals have been rebuilt. But there is no mention of civilian casualties.

In the “Teacher Notes” section, it talks about how the “invasion was necessary to allow the opportunity to remove Saddam Hussein” but it fails to mention the lack of United Nations backing for the war. The notes also use the American spelling of “program”.
Iraq: teachers told to rewrite history – Education News, Education – Independent.co.uk

That last sentence has Pawn wondering if someone in the American administration had a hand in this little propaganda campaign.

In Haste – An Apology

In a post from Prague earlier today I referred to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist as “a fatuous moron.” This was in reference to his appearance on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNN which I had earlier seen. I was wrong, and for that I apologize.

My pique had been raised by Crist’s comments about holding a do-over Democratic primary in his state. I stated in that posting that Crists’s claims of his citizens being “disenfranchised” was fatuous since the leaders of the Democratic party in Florida had willfully broken the national party’s rules by holding their primary so early.

Again, I was wrong. I had forgotten, until Penn. Gov. Ed Rendell pointed out in a later broadcast segment that the Democratic party leaders in Florida had asked for their primary to be held on Feb. 5, Super Tuesday, but that Charlie Crist and his fellow Republicans in the state legislature overruled the Dems and voted to hold the primary earlier.

Fair enough. I’m a big man. I can admit when I’m wrong, and I will hereby post a correction. Charlie Crist is not a fatuous moron. Governor Charlie Crist is a fatuous duplicitous moron.

Oh, and Wolf Blitzer, who is actually paid to talk to people about this stuff is even more of a hack than I thought for not pointing this out to the duplicitous moron while he was on air.

Back to our regularly scheduled rants.