Quick Hits For January 26, 2011 (State of The Union And Snowbound Edition)

OK boys and girls....I've been slacking off (NOT) for the past few days, and it's time to get caught up with some of the stories people are talking about, the one's that are keeping me up at night, and total fluff that maybe one or two of you have even heard of....plus a couple of personal opinions.

(1). To all parents who want to get your lazy teenage kids to remove snow from your driveway, here's a sure fire method; just buy them a car.

(2). The President's State of the Union speech last night was without a doubt a move to the center- about 90% was a message that even the Republicans couldn't rail against. How do you sit there with arms folded when Barack Obama calls for improvements to education, or new forms of energy, or a presidential veto of earmarks? His mention of a need for high speed rail and a cutting of oil subsidies met with a chilly reception for the Republicans, and a mixed review for another look at the Dream Act, as well as blank looks at the mention of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

But for much of the speech, there was little that the Republicans could pounce on and yell "extremism", though that hasn't stopped the lunatic fringe in the media, the blogesphere, and even in Congress from doing so.

(3). As I type this on January 26, 205 Americans have been shot on this day alone. On a night when Gabrielle Giffords chair was left empty, and the family of little Christina Taylor Green were sitting in the gallery with Mrs. Obama, shouldn't the President have mentioned the need to restrict the sale of extension magazines for handguns? Even Dick Cheney has mentioned that maybe its time to re-examine the easy access to high capacity ammo clips. How much is enough?

(4). Representaitive Michele Bachmann.....oh brother! I confess, I didn't watch her personal rebuttal to the SOTU that followed Paul Ryan's official Republican rebuttal. But I can't take her seriously....not when she actually told a group that the Founding Fathers did away with slavery....and she can't say she was misquoted because, as they say in football, there is "indisputable video evidence" to the contrary.



Ms. Bachmann......go into your wallet. Take out a five dollar bill. Do you see the man with the beard? Excellent! Write down his name and GOOGLE it.

And write a 500 word essay due on Friday....then you can go back to Congress, or run for president.

Anyone for tea?

(5). I was supposed to be at the Rutgers-UCONN women's basketball game at The RAC in Piscataway at this very hour.....but the weather is not co-operating. We had four inches of snow so far today, then there's been a brief pause, and a second storm that will dump around ten additional inches is just starting. The game will not be postponed because UCONN is already in town, and so are the officials.

So anybody who's reading this can have my seat in section 104 tonight.....if you can get there. My guess- they'll be around 6,000 no shows tonight for a game that usually sells out at the 8,000 seat RAC.

(6). Jets go down in Pittsburgh. I guess the countdown to baseball season has officially begun.

(7). Speaking of COUNTDOWN......that Olbermann guy has turned into The Twitter King.

(8). You're not going to believe this.....but there's lightning and thunder outside in a winter storm in January! Nah, there's no climate change!

I just checked outside, and it's freezing rain....and it's driving.

(9). I swore I'd never watch Big Love after the disaster of a season last time around. But I'm back watching.....and I'm still wondering why.

(10). Finally....I'm getting concerned that we could lose power. So I'm outta here.

THE LONG ORDEAL OF JAMES BRADY - NYTimes.com

Pictured; Jim and Sarah Brady

In the September 27, 1981 link below Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, a Washington neurologist and medical writer, told the story of President Ronald Reagan's press secretary Jim Brady, shot in the head by John Hinckley during Hinckley's attempted assassination of the President on March 30, 1981.

What followed were hours of confusion and false reports of Brady's death by the news media while the fight to save his life continued at George Washington University Hospital. Some of what is presented in the article will remind the reader of the ordeal of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, of the possible trauma to her brain and the swelling that could have resulted in her death. Like Jim Brady, Gaby Giffords was shot in the daytime, a fact that may have given her a better chance of survival since full daytime staff was on the floor of the hospital as she was brought in.

Brady's story of survival and the aftermath of the shooting may serve as a guide as to what to expect in Gaby Giffords' road to recovery. Dr. Cytowic's story is an eight page glimpse of what it was like on the day Ronald Reagan almost lost his life, and Jim Brady's life was altered forever.

Click the link below for the full story, from THE NEW YORK TIMES.


THE LONG ORDEAL OF JAMES BRADY - NYTimes.com

It is January 21, 2011. As of 8:00PM, 224 Americans have been shot this day.

Had enough? Visit The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

The President's Speech and The Loss of A Precious Young Life

Just in case you were in a cave last night and didn't hear President Obama's speech at the memorial service in Tucson last night, here it is below in it's entirety.




The one victim of this senseless tragedy who has continue to haunt me, and millions throughout the world was nine year old Christina Taylor Green. Below are some of President Obama's remarks regarding the little girl who's short life was bookmarked on each end by tragedies, her birth being on September 11, 2001, and her passing last Saturday. (From a transcript found at cnn.com).

That’s what I believe, in part because that’s what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine, imagine here for a moment, a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just beginning to glimpse that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism, vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.

This was already mentioned, Christina was given to us on September 11th, 2001, one of 50 babies born that day to be pictured in a book called “Faces of Hope.” On either side of her photo in that book were simple wishes for a child’s life. 'I hope you help those in need,' read one. 'I hope you know all of the words to the National Anthem and sing it with your hand over your heart. I hope you jump in rain puddles.'

If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here, on this Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and we commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.

May God bless and keep those we’ve lost in restful and eternal peace. May He love and watch over the survivors. And may He bless the United States of America.


The rest of the night I couldn't get this old song from The Moody Blues out of my head, "The Eyes of a Child", composed by John Lodge, and released on TO OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'S CHILDREN (1969). I found this very appropriate video on YouTube.

BLOOD LIBEL: A Video History (Mrs Palin, Are You Watching?)

Today Sarah Palin broke her silence after the tragedy in Tucson last Saturday, by posting a video that repudiated the accusation by some that the harsh political rhetoric in the country had any connection with the shooting that left six dead and more than a dozen wounded, including Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, the target of alleged shooter Jared Loughner.

Palin's website at one time had a picture of Ms. Giffords in crosshairs such are found in a rifle, targeting Giffords for ouster in the upcoming midterm elections.

Palin said the following in the video.....

I listened at first puzzled, then with concerned, and now with sadness to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event If you don't like a person's vision for the country, you're free to debate that vision. If you don't like their ideas, you're free to propose better ideas. But especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."

And as usual, Palin did her best to portray herself as a victim. And Sarah being Sarah, she made a huge tactical blunder by using the term blood libel, which was used in the past and in the present day by anti Semites to accuse Jews of sacrificing Christian and Muslim children and consuming their blood. Jewish groups, upon hearing Palin use the term, expressed their outrage.

Furthermore, Gabrielle Giffords is the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona.

Below, a video history of "blood libels".

The Shooting of Gabrielle Giffords; A Commentary

Commentary

When I heard the news yesterday of the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a meet and greet in a Tucson supermarket I must admit, I was not shocked. I was saddened to hear of the incident that left Ms. Giffords shot through the head, and six others dead and another 12 people wounded. A man who can best described as a deranged lunatic named Jared Lee Loughner was the alleged gunman. Federal judge John Roll, 9 year old Christina Taylor- Green-the granddaughter of former Phillies manager and Cubs general manager Dallas Green, Gifford's aide Gabriel Zimmermann, 76 year old Dorothy Murray, 76 year old Dorwin Stoddard, and 79 year old Phyllis Scheck lay dead after the scene was sprayed with shots from a handgun that we're told held 30 rounds of ammo in it's magazine.

No, I was not shocked in the least....in fact I said to myself, well, it finally happened. "It" being a violent event so shocking that the entire nation would be talking about it, just like after Virginia Tech, and just like after Columbine. And as in the case of those two horrific incidents, much will be said about guns and gun violence in America, and the examination of the Second Amendment...and ultimately nothing will change.

But this slaughter was different from the others in that it seemed to have a sitting member of Congress as it's target. We know that Ms. Giffords' congressional office in Tuscon was vandalized in the hours after the healthcare bill was passed last year- Ms. Giffords was a supporter of the bill. And we know that Sarah Palin had an image of crosshairs on her website targetting Giffords and 19 others for defeat in 2010 (Palin's aid Rebecca Monsour defended the image in an interview conducted Saturday).

No rational person can say that the angry rhetoric we hear in political discourse everyday was responsible for the shooting. But sometimes irrational people can believe the nonsense that they're hearing and act on it. I've often wondered if Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck actually believe even half of the BS they spew out daily, or are they just throwing it out there to appeal to a lunatic fringe. The extreme voices that talk about "second amendment remedies", and accuse a sitting president of being (pick one) a Communist, Nazi, racist, Marxist-Socialist, a Muslim, or not even being an American citizen didn't pull a trigger that killed six and wounded a dozen others. But they stir a pot that's ingredients are fear, ignorance, and paranoia.

And to certain deranged minds, like that of Jared Loughner, the conspiracy theories and angry rhetoric make perfect sense.

The Right will say there was anger and vitriol pointed towards the Bush administration and towards conservatives in general. To be sure, there were angry words- but never did members of People For The American Way show up "locked and loaded" with firearms at a Bush political event, nor did any Blue State governor call for secession if we didn't stop using his states' National Guardsmen in an Iraq war he didn't support. There was anger, but the progressives left 19th century remedies where they belong.

And to those who say the words of politicians and extreme media members don't incite people to violence, well aren't some of those the same people who fingered rappers and rockers for lyrical content that they contend lead young listeners to misogyny, drug addiction, and the murder of the nation's cops?

Many years ago I worked in a hotel in Miami. The Speaker of the House at the time, the Democrat Thomas Philip "Tip" O'Neill was a frequent guest with his wife.The Speaker would vacation with his best friend from Massachusetts, the Republican Silvio Conte. Among those in their close circle of friends were Bob and Elizabeth Dole, both Republicans and, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Bob Strauss. That was about 25 years ago, but it was a glimpse as to how things used to work in Washington- lawmakers were like an extended family, with disagreements on certain issues, but in many instances with deep personal friendships when the nation's work ended. It's no coincidence that the wedge that began to divide America was born in the late 1980's with the rise of Right Wing talk radio. The conservative base found a voice with Limbaugh, and he spawned scores of imitators and wannabes.

And the nation changed....and for my money, not for the better.

Below, a special comment from Keith Olbermann.

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