Saturday Thinking, October 9th

It looks as if Nancy Pelosi's reign as "Madame Speaker" has ebbed. Last Wednesday she she decided it was time for the House to adjourn  before the Republicans could force a vote on extending tax cuts. In times past, all she had to do was express how she wanted a vote to come out, make a few backroom deals, bend a few arms and voila! Done! But not this time. This time the vote tied and she was forced to break custom and vote (The Speaker of the House does not customarily vote while in that office). Her vote made it 210-209, and she was not a happy camper. Apparently there are a lot of Democrats in the Congress worried about their future and not crazy about towing her line any longer.....

The Suffolk County SPCA removed a 3 foot long alligator from Alpine Liquors in Wading River, New York. After receiving a citation for possession of an illegal animal, the owner claimed she was taking care of it for an employee and thought is was a monitor lizard.... yeah, right...

We can all learn from the example set by our President. He and Michelle earned $5,505,409 last year and are worth $10,111,000. His Auntie Zietuni, the President's father's half sister (she is mentioned in his book "Dreams from My Father") came to the United States 7 years ago. This 58 year old lady walks with a cane, lives on $700 a month public assistance and in public housing. The President is setting the example by having us pay taxes to support his relatives so he can keep his hard earned money. A good lesson to remember (at election time),

Never ask a question until you are truly prepared to answer it. -a wise old saying of my grandfather's that Rahm Emanuel probably wished he had heard. He went on a "Be Heard" street tour upon his return to Chicago so that he could go out and get in touch with the common people --and boy did he... People, speaking directly to Rahm and on camera, were saying things like "Will Rahm's candidacy be over before it starts?" and "You haven't been here for 2 years. It's not fair for you to come back and be Mayor." One anchor man summoned it up with "Welcome Home, huh?"

Fox and Friends made a booboo the other morning. They reported a story saying that the Los Angeles Police Department was ordering jet packs to fly around with. They had some fun discussing it but they should have done a little more looking at their figures. According to the story, as they were reporting it, LAPD was ordering 10,000 of them at $100,000 apiece. -That means the city would be spending a billion dollars for jet packs. No, not even in LA. When someone finally decided to check they found out the story was bogus. --oops!

I know this one will come as a surprise but it seems that the Obama Administration puts politics ahead of public interest. Associated Press: "The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and committed other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster..." Among other things the administration made erroneous early estimates of the spill’s size, and President Barack Obama’s senior energy adviser went on national TV and mischaracterized a government analysis by saying it showed most of the oil was 'gone.' The analysis actually said it could still be there." Other than that, though, they've done an awesome job.

Oh, I see Gubu World is back. Good. He has been away on personal business for a while and I have missed his excellent posts -always a blog that makes a good read. Welcome back, we've missed you...


Live Long and Prosper....