Rorschach test

When the stock market rose sharply yesterday, conservatives on Twitter were attributing the rise to the beating the health care reform bill was taking.

While reading through some random tweets today, I read one from a liberal who credited yesterday's rise to Obama's health care reform press conference the night before.

Just sayin'...

(PS: Yes, I think the first group has it right)

"Gates-gate" a revealing moment

Law enforcement organizations are righteously (and rightfully) pissed over Obama's ill-considered ramblings about the arrest of Harvard scholar Skip Gates at his home last week.

Many police officers across the country have a message for President Barack Obama: Get all the facts before criticizing one of our own. Obama's public criticism that Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" when they arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. could make it harder for police to work with people of color, some officers said Thursday.

It could even set back the progress in race relations that helped Obama become the nation's first African-American president, they said.

"What we don't need is public safety officials across the country second-guessing themselves," said David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents 15,000 public safety officials around the country. "The president's alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments."

In other words, it's not a good situation for law enforcement officers to be left with the impression that a sitting president's instinctive reaction is to side against an officer in cases like this. What other impression can one take away from Obama's comments?

Obama began his remarks with the disclaimer that he didn't know all the facts, just before saying conclusively that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates. How can Obama come to that conclusion unless he harbors deeply-held biases against and mistrust of white police officers? For a supposedly "post-racial" president, that's pretty, um, racial.

If one needed any evidence that Obama does, in fact, share the beliefs of Jeremiah Wright, his pastor and "spiritual advisor" of 20 some years, look no further.

ObamaCare illustrated

Click for larger view

House Republicans produced this depiction of the incomprehensible bureaucracy that would be created under the health care bill. Of course, House Democrats say it's inaccurate, and are blocking House GOP members from mailing it to their constituents.

Transparency!

Transparency? Eh...never mind

The Obama administration is continuing yet another Bush era policy of keeping secret the names of visitors to the White House, even when those visitors are meeting on matters of public policy such as health care reform.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to the Secret Service asking about visits from 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and other players in the debate. The group wants the material in order to gauge the influence of those executives in crafting a new healthcare policy.

The Secret Service sent a reply stating that documents revealing the frequency of such visits were considered presidential records exempt from public disclosure laws. The agency also said it was advised by the Justice Department that the Secret Service was within its rights to withhold the information because of the "presidential communications privilege."

Yeah, I know. The left will say, "Well, Bush did it, too!", and they're right about that. Remember Cheney's meetings with energy company executives?

But guess what? When you just spent eight fucking years howling about every little thing Bush did while he was in office, you don't get to say "It's OK, 'cause Bush did it, too!", especially not when this president promised a new kind of politics and the most transparent administration ever.

"Tranquility base, here..."

Yeah, I know, I'm a day late here. But then again, I'm hopelessly behind on blogging as it is. Just too much work and travel (just got back from two weeks in Europe) and too little time for posting anything worthwhile. But I couldn't let this go unnoted here.

I was nine years old when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and remember it like it was last week. I still get the chills whenever I hear that line "Tranquility Base, here...The Eagle has landed".

On a side note, back around 1967 or '68, I was living in Lima, Peru where my dad was posted to the US embassy. For whatever reason, the Apollo 11 crew was making the rounds, and I met Aldrin, Armstrong and Command Module pilot Michael Collins at the embassy. I remember my dad telling me and my brother that they were going to be the first to the moon. I don't know if I believed him at the time...my dad's a notorious puller of legs.

Incentives

Honor By August, one of my favorite DC-area bands, has an upcoming show at the 9:30 Club in Washington on July 11th, and they've engaged in some creative incentives to get their fans to bring as many friends as possible. To wit:

Tickets:
2 - HBA sticker
3 - Lottery entry for signed HBA drum head
5 - one free music lesson from a band member of your choice
10 - Your choice of bowling or dinner with the band at your house
15 - Personal show (invite as many as you want!)
20 - Personal show + we will make a DVD
25 - We will throw a party in your honor (we will supply band, burgers and beverages!)
50 - Michael will clean your house
100 - HBA will write a song about you and perform it at a private show at your house, which we will have just cleaned
500 - HBA will grant three wishes. Seriously

Too bad I'll be in Europe...I'm sure I could have rounded up 20 people to go.