Friday Round Up

Stephen Corbert did his show from Iraq this week and it was hilarious! Corbert is definitely the funniest guy on television these days and he did not disappoint this week from Baghdad. If you missed it you can watch some video clips here.

It’s time for the subway series this weekend and the Yankees get to take their recent frustrations out on the Mets. Weather permitting (it been raining here since mid May) I will be at tonight’s game. I’m taking my nephew, who presence with me a few weeks ago (and timely departure in the 8th innings) help propel the Yankees to a long winning streak. Let’s hope my nephew brings them that same luck again. If not, no more games for him!

It’s been another ugly week on the Conservative watch. It ranges from the pitiful to the frightening to the very frightening. First the pitiful - Carrie Prejean, Miss California. You will remember her as the airhead that stumbled through a question about Gay marriage and immediately seized the right wing victim mentality when she was (gasp!) force to defend her words. She was so successful in portraying herself as persecuted that she got a guest spot hosting on FOX News and had Donald Trump stepped in to let her keep her crown even after caught lying about the existence of her racy photos. Unlike other Miss America's who were fired for the offense, she parlayed her manufactured martyrdom to get a 2nd chance.

Alas, her special treatment could only go so far. She was fired this week for .... um ... well .... not doing her job! It seems she was just interested in doing the right wing talk show circuit and she just never showed up for work. There are charity events and ribbon cutting type of things that all Miss Americas have to do. But, she apparently did not feel like she had to actually follow those rules or live up to her responsibilities. Trump, who had pandered to her just weeks ago, let her go for not showing up for work. Her response to her firing?

"Bottom line, I answered a question at a beauty contest and now I’m being punished, I’m being dethroned because of the answer that I gave,” source

Oh Brother! How pitifully typical.

This week in the Conservative movement we have seen more frightening domestic terrorism. Long time readers of me know that I have been sounding the alarm about this for many years on this blog and on radio during the 1990's. The shooting of the doctor by Scott Roeder reminds us of the undercurrent of hate and violence in some quarters of this country. The shooting at the Holocaust Museum the other day was another reminder. I hope these are a couple of isolated incidences that will not be repeated. The majority of people on the right would never do anything like this. Unfortunately though, history teaches us that this is indeed, an accepted tactic from some on the Right in America. In fact the museum shooter left a note which talks about the "lack of Obama birth certificate" and other standard lies being repeated in the right wing media. These people are created - not born. Here is a quote from the museum shooter to remind us where these people's heads are at.

"You want my weapons - this is how you'll get them," ..."There is no Obama documentation -- no records -- no paper trail -- none -- this is no accident. It is being done on purpose with Media help -- but to serve whom & why???"

The similarity to this statement and what's repeated everyday on talk radio and FOX is frightening.

And now for the really frightening news from the Right. With all this violence and talk of succession coming up, one might think that the leaders of the movement would call for level heads. Nope! The lies that helped drive the museum shooter and the language enraging the doctor assassin are being ratcheted up and the behavior of these domestic terrorists, are being softly condoned! Here's Glenn Beck in his own words this week, after the shooting:

"What they're missing is: The pot in America is boiling. And this is just yet another warning to all Americans of things to come.

Yes the pot is boiling because ... Obama doesn't have a birth certificate, and Jews have a museum and doctors dare to follow U.S. law. Yep, it's natural to get angry at this. This from a guy, Beck, who is paid millions to fan the mentality embraced by these "lone nut cases". Very frightening indeed.

Oh they want to boycott American cars too because they got the government bail out. When they want this country to fail, they really mean it.

Iran is having an election and things seem to be heading in a positive direction. Current nut case President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was all set to win reelection, as every single previous Iranian President has done, until about a week ago. Many people credit the Obama speech in Cairo in helping bring life to the Iranian opposition and making this election much closer than expected. Keep your fingers crossed.

President Obama has really brought hope to many places around the world and here in the USA. Our reputation has dramatically improved and the image of the United States seems to be bouncing back. World leaders almost universally love Obama. There area couple of exceptions though. First, Israel's Benjamin Netenyahu. I have always disliked and distrusted this guy and apparently Obama feels similarly. After years of pandering to the Israeli right, Obama has said "enough". That's long overdue. It's great to see Netenyahu have to scramble to follow policies which have the highest level of likelihood to bring more peace to the region.

The other leader that seems to have a problem with our new President is Germany's Angela Merkle. She just does not like Obama! I'm not sure if it's a race thing, but I think it is more likely a little jealousy. He is more popular in Germany that she is and she does not like that one bit. That's so interesting. Obama certainly has mass appeal and I can understand how some leaders might feel threatened. I know Ahmadinejad does. Maybe Merkle does too.

It is really fascinating to watch this and Obama has to be careful not to overuse his popularity to the detriment of being able to cooperate with world leaders. Personally, I think it's great that Obama's popularity with "the people" is forcing Netenyahu to the middle and hopefully, maybe, forcing Ahmadinejad out of office, this dynamic is not without some potential peril. This is not a problem now. In fact, almost all leaders warmly welcome the intelligent, thoughtful, forward thinking leader from the United States. But some might not appreciated being out shined by a foreign leader and having their own population influenced by him. This is a potential problem that Obama needs to keep an eye on.

Apple has come out with a new laptop and will soon have a new iPhone. The new iPhone looks great. It will be much faster and have some cool bells and whistles. The new laptop is just dreamy. But, why do they have to be so expensive? I want one, especially for the video editing I will do as soon as I have time, but it is so hard for me to make a big purchase. I need to spend a day off (a what?) at the Apple store playing with one of them to see if I feel it's worth the investment. Everyone, and I mean everyone, who owns an Apple swears by them. That says something.

Happy Friday and a great weekend to one and all.