The Waterglass

She may be focusing on a presidential bid in 2012:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she will resign from office July 26. Her spokesman wouldn’t say why Palin decided to step down, but the announcement stirred speculation that she would focus on a bid for the 2012 Republican nomination for president.

I look forward to seeing what she’s going to pursue next.

The most ethical Congress in history goes on travel spending spree on our dime:

Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That’s a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as “codels,” has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.

And if the people don’t like it when Speaker “Culture of Corruption” Pelosi takes an eight-day vacation in Italy on their dime, let them eat cake, the proles. It was a working vacation.  And despite the 9.5% unemployment rate, things are bound to get better!

Plopp.

The Democrats’ plan to tax the American electorate into starving submission continues apace:

In a triumph for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House narrowly passed sweeping legislation Friday that calls for the nation’s first limits on pollution linked to global warming and aims to usher in a new era of cleaner, yet more costly energy.

The vote was 219-212, capping months of negotiations and days of intense bargaining among Democrats. Republicans were overwhelmingly against the measure, arguing it would destroy jobs in the midst of a recession while burdening consumers with a new tax in the form of higher energy costs.

 

The House’s action fulfilled Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s vow to clear major energy legislation before July 4, and sent the measure to a highly uncertain fate in the Senate.

 

Obama lobbied recalcitrant Democrats by phone from the White House as the debate unfolded across several hours, and Al Gore posted a statement on his Web site saying the measure represents “an essential first step towards solving the climate crisis.” The former vice president won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work drawing attention to the destructive potential of global warming.

 

On the House floor, Democrats hailed the legislation as historic, while Republicans said it would damage the economy without solving the nation’s energy woes.

It’s unbelievably dismaying.  Where is the money going to come from?  With all the puling and whining and bitching and moaning about Bush’s spending, the Democrats have been making him look like a rank piker for months now, with no end in sight.  They’re using the country as the largest social experiment in human history, with the American taxpayer and his children footing the bill.

It’d be pretty interesting to hear anyone who voted Democrat complain about the economy; it’s like setting the house on fire and bitching about the damage.

Lead singer of the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, is dead at 50:

Michael Jackson, the show-stopping singer whose best-selling albums — including “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad” — and electrifying stage presence made him one of the most popular artists of all time, died Thursday, CNN has confirmed.  He was 50.  He collapsed at his residence in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles, California, about noon Pacific time, suffering cardiac arrest, according to brother Randy Jackson. He died at UCLA Medical Center.  Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy would probably be done on the singer Friday, with results expected that afternoon.

“Michael Jackson made culture accept a person of color,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said. “To say an ‘icon’ would only give these young people in Harlem a fraction of what he was. He was a historic figure that people will measure music and the industry by.”

He will be missed.

And to think he might have been president:

U.S. Sen. John Kerry must have been channeling his inner Letterman yesterday.

The Bay State senator was telling a group of business and civic leaders in town at his invitation about the “bizarre’’ tale of how South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford had “disappeared for four days’’ and claimed to be hiking along the Appalachian Trail, but no one was really certain of his whereabouts.

“Too bad,’’ Kerry said, “if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.’’

The Democratic-centric crowd laughed.

These are the same sorts of people who laughed at Letterman’s joke about a baseball player impregnating Palin’s 14-year-old daughter.  I wonder why they hate Sarah Palin so much.  I mean, they won.  You’d think they’d be a bit less tiny and bitter and angry.

President Obama gets out a zinger at the press conference:

But the president himself addressed that question today, when asked about Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham calling his response to Iran timid and weak, and then asked if the words that he used today for Iran’s treatment of protestors — “deplored, appalled” and “outraged” - were “influenced at all by McCain’s and Graham’s accusations.”

“What do you think?” Obama abruptly asked the reporter, with a bit of “duh” in the air, followed by nervous laughter in the press room.

“I think John McCain has genuine passion about many of these international issues and, you know, I think that all of us share a belief that we want justice to prevail,” Obama said. “But only I’m the president of the United States. And I’ve got responsibilities in making certain that we are continually advancing our national security interests, and that we are not used as a tool to be exploited by other countries.” [Emphasis mine.]

So, in other words, “I WON!  I WON!!!  I TOTALLY FUCKING WON!!!  TOUCHDOWN!!!!!!!!”

I think it’s pretty awesome that we finally have a president who isn’t afraid to tell us, more than once, that he was elected president.  And if you dare criticize him or question his decisions (or lack of decisions), he’ll remind you who’s boss.  That’s leadership.

Longtime Johnny Carson sidekick and Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes schill, Ed McMahon, is dead at 86:

Ed McMahon, the loyal “Tonight Show” sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding “H-e-e-e-e-e-ere’s Johnny!” for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86. McMahon died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman. Bragman didn’t give a cause of death, saying only that McMahon had a “multitude of health problems the last few months.” McMahon had bone cancer, among other illnesses, according to a person close to the entertainer, and had been hospitalized for several weeks. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information. McMahon broke his neck in a fall in March 2007, and battled a series of financial problems as his injuries preventing him from working.

McMahon and Carson had worked together for nearly five years on the game show “Who Do You Trust?” when Carson took over NBC’s late-night show from Jack Paar in October 1962. McMahon played second banana on “Tonight” until Carson retired in 1992.

McMahon, who never failed to laugh at his Carson’s quips, kept his supporting role in perspective. “It’s like a pitcher who has a favorite catcher,” he said. “The pitcher gets a little help from the catcher, but the pitcher’s got to throw the ball. Well, Johnny Carson had to throw the ball, but I could give him a little help.”

He will be missed.

A bold anti-tobacco law is making America’s cigarette sale and advertisement laws closer to that of Europe:

President Obama signed landmark legislation Monday giving the Food and Drug Administration new power to regulate the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gives the FDA power to ban candy-flavored and fruit-flavored cigarettes, widely considered appealing to first-time smokers, including youths. It also prohibits tobacco companies from using terms such as “low tar,” “light” or “mild,” requires larger warning labels on packages, and restricts advertising of tobacco products. It also requires tobacco companies to reduce levels of nicotine in cigarettes.

The new law “represents change that’s been decades in the making,” Obama said during a bill-signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. “The decades-long effort to protect our children [has] emerged victorious. … Today, change has come.”

Altria Group, which owns Philip Morris USA, the nation’s biggest cigarette company, previously called congressional passage of the law “an important step forward.”  A narrow majority of adult Americans opposes the law, according to a Gallup Poll released Monday. Fifty-two percent of Americans — including most smokers — are opposed to the measure, while 46 percent support it. The survey was conducted June 14-17.

As protestors are murdered in Iran, the Washington Post reports a puff piece about President Obamessiah taking his kids out for ice cream:

On the eve of Father’s Day, the First Father showed how it’s done, taking his daughters Malia and Sasha for some frozen treats at The Dairy Godmother, a boutique custard parlor in Alexandria.

President Obama and his girls motorcaded over to Alexandria from the White House this afternoon. Malia had a waffle cone of vanilla custard and Sasha had her vanilla custard in a cup.

Contrast this with the Washington Post reporting on President Bush’s golf game in 2002:

Bush, wearing khakis and a knit shirt, was holding a driver in his gloved left hand. The rest of his foursome, including his father, former president George H.W. Bush, was waiting. However incongruous the setting, the president plunged ahead. “There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process that we have started, and we must not let them,” he said. “I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers.”

His business out of the way, Bush barely paused for breath before saying, “Thank you. Now watch this drive.”

The abrupt segue illustrates the dilemma Bush will face over the next month as he relaxes and works at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., at a time of global political volatility.

What about the dilemmas Obama is currently facing?  What about the incongruity of reporting on ice cream flavors when the Post’s colleagues in journalism are so stifled in Iran during one of the most tenuous moments in the country’s recent history?

And while closeted English homosexual Chip Mango may claim that some concepts are being bollixed up, he’s WRONG.

UPDATE: Also, I don’t really begrudge any child getting ice cream, but it’d sure be nice if the TOTUS would look like he’s taking what’s going on in Iran seriously.   Appearances matter.