Posts Tagged ‘president’

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No More Obama Mania for Me

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

I have unsubscribed from President Obama’s “Organizing for America” email list.  When asked the reason, I stated “I’m tired of all the hype.”  For me, the last straw was his health care speech last night, which I turned off after the first two paragraphs.

And what did these paragraphs consist of?  Health Care Insurance Horror Stories.  Well, there are also Health Care Horror Stories, Hospital Horror Stories and the like.  I don’t need to hear anecdotes.
Obama wants to ram the whole thing through. He told Congress last night that he was not the first president to try to reform health care, but he is determined to be the last.  I think he should start at the bottom and work up.

We elected a president, not a king.  Just because Obama says or thinks something is true doesn’t automatically make it so.  Unfortunately, the Republicans are good at heckling and not much else.  Hopefully, “centrists” like Joe Lieberman (my favorite) can slow down the “Obama Express”, which is beginning to look more and more like a train wreck.

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ADULTEROUS POLITICIANS

Sunday, June 21st, 2009

ADULTEROUS  POLITICIANS
(I don’t have time to provide references, so you will have to Google.)

Politician                                                      “Offense”

President Warren G. Harding         had mistress living in the White House. Evidently they sent her on a long trip to the Orient during the presidential campaign.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt     several long term mistresses (mitigating factor: Eleanor)

Pres. candidate Wendell Willkie     living with mistress before running for president

President Dwight Eisenhower                     Had an affair with (female) driver during WWII.   General George  Marshall wouldn’t let him divorce  Mamie.

President John F. Kennedy         Sex maniac. Multiple affairs and one night stands.  At one point he shared a mistress with Mafia Don Sam  Giancana.
President Lyndon Johnson              Played around

Pres. candidate Nelson Rockefeller  Multiple affairs, including Angie Dickenson.  Second wife, “Happy”, gave birth to their child one day before 1964 California primary. Bad timing!  Nelson died en flagrante in 1979.

Pres. candidate Robert Kennedy     Multiple affairs, including one with Marilyn Monroe.   (There is some question about what involvement, if any, he and JFK had with Monroe’s death by accidental drug overdose in August, 1962.)

President Richard Nixon                 No affairs that I know of. Rather, he screwed the  entire country.

President Ronald Reagan                Active sex life after divorce from Jane Wyman and  before marrying Nancy.  (Said he often didn’t remember the name of the woman he woke up in bed with. )  Their daughter Patti was born eight months after their wedding.

President George H. W. Bush          Supposedly had affair with State Dept. staffer named Jennifer. Never confirmed.

Senator Bob Packwood (R-OR)        Multiple shenanigans with staff members and others. Forced to resign in 1993.

Pres. candidate Bob Dole                  Divorced first wife in 1975. Shortly thereafter married Elizabeth Hanford.

President Bill Clinton               Sexual predator. Possible rapes and sexual assaults. Getting blow job in Oval Office besmirched the presidency, but it was not an impeachable offense.

Vice Pres. candidate Joe Lieberman    Divorced first wife in 1981. Met his second wife,  Hadassah Tucker, in 1982.

Pres, candidate Al Gore                 No offense, Tipper.

Pres. candidate John Kerry          Divorced first wife. Second wife Theresa is widow of  Senator John Heinz, a fact she doesn’t let anyone  forget.

Pres. candidate John Edwards        Had affair with staffer, which produced a baby.  She  snared him by saying “You’re so hot!”

Pres. candidate John McCain       Divorced first wife after returning from Vietnam, where he was a POW.  Then married beer distributor heiress Cindy Hensley.

Pres. candidate Rudy Giuliani     Peccadilloes too numerous to mention, including  shopping while dressed in drag.  Announced divorce  from wife Donna Hanover at press conference.  She  later pitched him out of Gracie Mansion, and he stayed with some gay friends.

Pres. hopeful Newt Gingrich         Multiple infidelities.  Served first wife with divorce  papers in hospital room where she was being treated for cancer.  Had affair with future third wife while married to the second, (and during Clinton  impeachment proceedings.)  Recently converted to  Catholicism.

Congressman Henry Hyde (R-IL)   Busted up first marriage of his second wife at age 41.  He called it a “youthful indiscretion.”

Senator David Vitter (R-La)         Relationship with hooker while in the House. An “adult entertainer” may challenge him for his senate seat.

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID).            anonymous gay sex in public restrooms.

Senator John Ensign (R-NV)          Affair with staffer whose husband was also on his staff.

Gov. Elliot Spitzer  (D-NY)            Relationship with hooker.

So did (or does) any of the above affect these politicians’ ability to govern or serve?

JFK: Who was watching the “nuclear button”?
Clinton:  Could have been subject to blackmail (by the Israelis?) Fighting impeachment was a great distraction.

In general, the answer is “no”, except when they are breaking the law, or the hypocrisy factor.  (Family values, fighting prostitution, my wife is an integral part of my campaign, etc.)

Barack Obama benefited from two marital scandals while running for the US  Senate in 2004, one during the Democratic primary and one which removed his probable Republican opponent. So, such scandals can sometimes have a very positive effect!

So why aren’t there any women on my list?

Eleanor Roosevelt.  Some say she was a lesbian.  (Especially lesbians!)
Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra?  Only on Saturday Night ,Live.
Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster?  She certainly was justified.

Well, enough of this salacious political gossip.  After all, it’s Fathers  day

Update (6/27):  Now you can add Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) to the list. He wants to stay on as governor to set a good example to his sons.  A strange reason!  Anyway, it won’t cancel out his bad example. His wife is great! (Born and raised in the Chicago area.)

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President Obama’s Time Better Spent Wheedling Rather Than Weeding

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

Washington’s Not So Secret Garden” is the title of a “Room for Debate” article in today’s New York Times. Here is the comment I posted.

Why should President Obama have to spend any of his time weeding? They may be just another American family, but the South Lawn of the White House is not just another American lawn. Obama is entitled to spend his spare time as he sees fit. I doubt that includes weeding, unless one means wheedling things out of Congress.
(end of comment)

Maureen Dowd, in her column today, “Toxic R Us“, writes:

“The tableau of Michelle Obama hoisting a pitchfork on Friday with her sinewy arms and warning that the commander in chief would be commandeered into yard work left me wondering if the wrong Obama is in the Oval.
It’s a time in America’s history where we need less smooth jazz and more martial brass.”

Give me a break! Have we lost the ability to distinguish symbolism from substance? Admittedly, George W. Bush tried to merge them whenever possible. President Obama has to do the “heavy lifting” for the country, but this does not mean he has to wield a pitchfork.

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That Cartoon. An Update

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Here is the statement from Rupert Murdoch in Tuesday’s New York Post about “that cartoon”.

“As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.
Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.
Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you – without a doubt – that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.
We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.”

I believe him. After all, the main author of the Stimulus package was Nancy Pelosi, so the chimp, in the cartoonist’s mind, was akin to one of those monkeys I referred to in my earlier post. It was too “overtly racist”, if you will, to refer to Obama. However, the key phrase in Murdoch’s statement is “sensitivities”. Old racist stereotypes die hard, and they are still alive in many people’s minds.

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That New York Post Cartoon

Friday, February 20th, 2009

First, the cartoon, by Sean Delonas.

Cartoon by Sean Delonas

Second, the response by the Post to the criticism it received.

THAT CARTOON

Wednesday’s Page Six cartoon – caricaturing Monday’s police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut – has created considerable controversy.
It shows two police officers standing over the chimp’s body: “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill,” one officer says.
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else – as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.
To them, no apology is due.
Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon – even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.

Third, my attempt to logically analyze this.

I should point out the difficulties in trying apply logic to what is written in newspapers, let alone newspaper cartoons, but here goes.

The Post said that the cartoon was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Surely the caption gave the strong impression that the dead chimpanzee represented in some way the writer(s) of said bill. Now there’s that old joke about if you had enough monkeys on typewriters, one would do Hamlet. By the same token, one would do the stimulus bill. Is that where the cartoonist was going? One dead chimp to a lot of (dead) monkeys?

Then there’s the Post’s disclaimer that their apology doesn’t apply to opportunists looking for payback. So their apology only applies to people who were genuinely offended, as opposed to those who are always looking for ways to be offended by the Post.

But let’s ask ourselves, who in fact wrote the Stimulus Bill. Evidently it was written by Congressional Democrats and their staffers (the monkeys?), with guidance from the White House. However, at the end of the day, if one name has to be attached to the bill, it is that of our president, Barack Obama, who just happens to be an African-American.

Enter stage right the longtime racist identification of black people with apes of various kinds. So was the chimpanzee, and a dead one at that, meant to represent our president? If so, we should bring on the Patriot Act.

End of my analysis. To paraphrase Fox News, I pontificate, you decide.

PS. I’m sure you’re dieing to know where I come down on this. I think that, subconsciously, the cartoonist associated Obama with an ape, though not a dead one. Such associations should really be banished, even from humor. They just aren’t funny, not to mention disrespectful. The New York Post has plenty of other ways to spread its venom.

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