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Showing posts from May, 2011

Articles that make me wonder why I still go to The Huffington Post

Headlines on one random day on Huffington Post - May 31, 2011: - In Badminton, Pants Are Back - Snooki In Custody After Cop-Car Crash - WATCH: Mika HITS Joe - WATCH: Tennis Player Infuriated After 12-Year Old Ball Boy Disrupts Point - Woman Allegedly Wheeled Around Trash Can Full Of Body Parts - PHOTO: Naomi Campbell Fuming Over 'Racist' Candy Ad - Real Housewife Reveals Truth About 'Fights' On The Show - WATCH: Giant Prehistoric Shrimp Was A Killer, Scientists Say - Oh, Boy: Giant Baby Born In California At this rate, here's my predicted headline upcoming: AOL re-thinking their offer to buy Huffingtonpost.com for $315 million

Obama Poll Numbers

Opinion Research Corporation for CNN (PDF) (5/24-26, adult Americans): Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president? Approve: 54% Disapprove: 45% Now compare this to his numbers in early April, according to the same polling firm: Approve: 48% Disapprove: 50% That's a net swing of 11 points in the positive direction in a little less than two months. Notably, much of that shift has come from independents and Republicans. Here's the net swing by party: Democrats: -4 Independents: +23 Republicans: +24 Interesting that we Dems like him less now than everyone else, though not statistically signifigantly. Doesn't seem to be any policy reason, so maybe it's just because R's are starting to like him that we are changing our minds. For the record, I haven't changed mind.

NBA Finals

I doubt I'll watch much, but like 90% of the rest of the country, I will loudly say: "GO MAVS!"

My letter to the editor earlier today

Amongst all the usual hate and froth from the usual two or three right-wing writers to the Daily Local, I was shocked this past week to see two of them giving so much credit to socialism! Our President has rescued our country from world economic collapse – the worst since the great depression, and the RWRs – the right-wing ranters - want to give all the credit to, of all things, socialism? I am not a socialist, but if that is the economic system that has accomplished in a few years what it took two to three decades to accomplish last time, I think it’s time we looked into it. And what exactly has the President done? He rescued General Motors and Chrysler, saving up to 100,000 hard-working American jobs in the process. General Motors is now recording quarterly profits in the billions and this week Chrysler announced that they were paying off their government loans in full, more than six years ahead of schedule. It took a lot of courage for President Obama and the Democrats to put that

And Ammar was there to see the whole thing

Weird stuff from last night's Phillies - Reds 19-inning marathon: - In one inning, the Phillies walked three, hit one and still did not allow a Cincinnati run to score. - Wilson Valdez is the first player to start a game in the field and then win the same game as a pitcher since some guy named Babe Ruth did it 90 years ago. - The two teams combined to throw exactly 600 pitches. - When Jay Bruce hit a home run in the 10th inning, a Phillies fan who caught it threw it all the way back to the place it had been a half-minute earlier - the pitchers mound. - Phillies relievers pitched 12 innings and had more strikeouts (10) than walks and hits allowed combined (8). - The run the Reds pitcher allowed in the 19th was the first run he's allowed this year. (OK, in just 4 games). - That was the first time in his 19 years of managing that Cholly Manuel has allowed a position player to pitch. - If the game had gone to the 20th, the Reds manager was going to bring his shorts

Oh, and try to study something that makes you enough money to live on

For the past few months, I've inexplicably been thinking of what I would say in the, not just unlikely, but impossible event that I would ever be asked to give a Commencement address. And then out of nowhere, I found out that an old friend of mine from 9th grade, Becky Leuchak, not only will be giving a commencement address, but will be giving it our school's graduation this year, and thanks to Ev's graduating, I'll be there! So, very typically thoughtful of her, she asked her old classmates for any advice they had to share. I spent the better part of 2-3 weeks thinking about it, and this is what I posted on our OJR Class of 1974 facebook page: OK, Becky, I’ve given this a lot of thought over the past week or two and since you asked for advice, here’s my 3 cents, even though you may have already finished it and even though you may not use any of these suggestions. This is not as polished as I’d try to make it if I were giving the actual speech but hopefully it kind

All Pro Dad | AT&T Ad from 1993

All Pro Dad AT&T Ad from 1993

A tale of two presidents: Bush, Obama and Osama bin Laden

A tale of two presidents: Bush, Obama and Osama bin Laden I'm posting this to my blog primarily so I don't forget where I saw it. It's the clearest explanation I've seen of how the Bush administration had every warning about 9/11 and chose to pay more attention to giving tax breaks to the wealthy. And it begs the question - which did they botch worse - the lead up to 9/11 or the response?
Colin Powell told graduates of South Carolina's premier historically black university that they were graduating during a tumultuous time that saw a royal wedding, a pope's beatification and a U.S. military assault that killed Osama bin Laden, "the worst person on earth." But the former secretary of state and Joint Chiefs chairman told South Carolina State University's 400 graduates on Friday that he particularly enjoyed another recent event: "That was when President Obama took out his birth certificate and blew away Donald Trump and all the birthers!"

I show you his, if you show me...his

I know, I know - the Birthers are crazies, and they are still whining a week after the official birth certificate was revealed. Now they want Kindergarten records, among other crazy things. But I will stand as the one liberal...excuse me, progressive, to semi-defend them. First, I don't care from a political standpoint if they make all these demands...polite requests. It makes them look much worse than it makes Obama look. Second, I still want to know where GWB was during his year of National Reserve duty, when not one person ever came forward fro the time he was supposedly stationed i Georgia to say they had served with him there. And since that questions was never answered, I have at least a little bit of empathy for the birther crowd.