"Princess Leia"'s Dad is dead. No, it's not Anakin Skywalker, you Star Wars geeks! ;D
As far as I'm concerned, he's most famous for ditching "Princess Leia"'s Mom, Debbie Reynolds, for Elizabeth Taylor who, in turn, ditched HIM for Richard Burton. How shocking! ;D
Actually, "back in the day," what whole shtick WAS quite a scandal. I don't think our culture has changed all that much since then in that respect. Am I right or wrong on that score?
Let's move to "this day in history." On Sept. 24, 1896, the author of my #2 all - time favorite novel and famed American novelist of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald, was born. I just lurve The Great Gatsby! One of these years, I need to get up to MN to see the Fitzgerald stuff. It's not in Bat$hit Bachmann's district, is it?! ;D Jeremy Irons (HUBBA - HUBBA!) portrayed F. Scott Fitzgerald in the movie, Last Call. Yes, I own it! ;D
On this date in 1789, Congress passed the First Judiciary Act, which provided for an attorney general and a Supreme Court. I wonder how they would react to seeing who's there now - women AND minorities??!!
Finally, in a birthday that I am SO TEMPTED to bring out THE CAKE for but won't because I'm feeling a tinge of compassion, Lou Dobbs is officially eligible for Social Security & Medicare because he's 65 today. He's not going to have any part of those commie socialist Nazi policies, is he? In lieu of THE CAKE, I'll send Reps. Raul Grijalva & Luis Gutierrez to his house with a bunch of tacos so they can sing "Happy Birthday" to him IN SPANISH - HA!
Let's Countdown...
ALL RIGHT! A town in "my fair state" is gonna make WPITW!
#5 "Will Dems Fight Back?" AKA "Fight or Flight" - While the vote on tax cuts in the Senate is officially DOA until after the election, the vote is still on life support in the House. Speaker Pelosi plans a vote next week before the Congress critters recess to go campaign to keep their sorry political hides employed. She is retaining the right for the House to do as it wants! There might be 2 separate tax votes, and she might actually tinker with some rules to the Dems advantage that would make a super majority put the kibosh on anything. Other workings going on in the House include the possibility of a 1 – year extension of cuts to those people making up to $500K and 5 – year extension of current tax rates for the rest of us. Um...well...yea, that’s sure a compromise, but will it pass the math muster?
Blue Dogs are still pushing for more permanent tax cuts for the super rich AND a decrease in spending. What version of reality are these doggies living in?! Senators Schumer & Menendez were privately pushing for the tax cut vote in the Senate, but Mitchie McConnell KNEW the vote would be a big – time embarrassment for this fellow Senate GOBPers. Ezra Klein’s live in studio! Is it just me, or does Ezra have a bit of a 5:00 shadow? ;D Speaker Pelosi’s going to try some suspension House "stuff" to enforce the super – majority option. Speaker Pelosi’s used to having to wait and/or move on without the Senate; there are 372 bills that have passed the House that have gone to die in the Senate. OK, if most people were that poor in their job performance, THEY WOULD BE FIRED! That is really disgusting.
President Obama is disappointed at the cowardice of Senate Dems. Well, ya’ know, he was in that little club for awhile. What did he do to try to get the Dems in the Senate to either $hit or get off the pot? DID he intercede at all, or did he do the same thing as HCR & let the "sausage making" in the Senate go on its own? Here’s Arianna Huffington again. She explained that this issue is a winner for Senate Dems on 3 fronts but are still $hitting their drawers at the possibility of a 30 – second ad or FAUX News distorting what they did. Let me tell you something, Senate Dems. THEY WILL DO THAT ANYWAY! I’ve got a couple theories of my own as to why there won’t be a vote in the Senate. The Dems can’t stand the prosperity of having the largest majority in the Senate in YEARS, and their psyche still thinks GWB & DICK are lurking about to tell America that Dems are soft on {fill in the blank}. I’ve made this comparison before. They are the nerdy kid with the glasses on the playground that will do ANYTHING to make the bully stop taking his/her lunch money away. 31 Dems in the House are on record as being in favor of extending the cuts for EVERYBODY. Another 30 or 40 might go along with those 31.
On a completely different subject, more court action went AGAINST DADT in WA; a judge ruled that an Air Force major who’d been dismissed based on that policy had had her rights violated, and she needed to be reinstated ASAP. Keith asked if THIS decision would move the White House to action on DADT. I can answer that before Arianna does; no, it won’t.
#4 "The Verdict" AKA "Bush Tax Cuts: the Verdict" AKA "What the Bush Tax Cuts Did" - There is actual concrete mathematical facts & conclusions of what the GWB tax cuts did for the economy & what continuing those cuts for the super rich will CONTINUE to do to our economy. Well, facts don’t matter to some people; facts just entrench their position. But, we’ll proceed on anyway! ;D Countdown got early access to a report by David Cay Johnston, who sat down & did THE math (as opposed to the TurdBlossom math). When the first cuts were announced, the benefits were going to help everyone – even the most poor. In reality, the wage of the typical American worker went down during the GWB years.
30% of the gains went to people making more than $1 million/year.
The other argument was that the tax cuts would pay for themselves in a good economy by people spending more. But, the government took in way less money in 2008 than in 2001. Wow! Did y’all see that chart?! The number of people making over $200K/year AND paid no taxes went from 1467 in 1998 to 22,256 in 2008 – HOLY $HIT!
And, here’s Mr. Johnston! Only just over 3 million jobs were created during GWB’s infestation of the White House, and people’s incomes went down.
Parents who paid taxes AND had kids under 16 AND aren’t under the alternative minimum tax did OK. 1 out of every 8 dollars still went to the super rich.
** Robots are playing soccer in India. Was it any more exciting than when humans play soccer? An evangelical "bammed" a new hip into a parishioner. Models in London are having problems staying on their feet. **
#3 "Protecting America’s Harvest" AKA "Capitol Colbert" - Stephen Colbert went to Congress today – well, a Congressional committee anyway. I saw his opening statement – too...damn...FUNNY! :D Then, however, he got really REALLY serious. "The usual suspects" ragged on him on both counts; SPARK "THE USUAL SUSPECTS"! They’ve never done migrant work in their lives. Rep. Conyers wanted Mr. Colbert to submit his opening statement then leave??!! Are you $hitting me???!!! Ugh...THAT, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with 99.9999999% of the Dems on Capitol Hill! Wow...OK, I might just have a new sig line:
I like talking about people who don’t have any power.
DAMN! Can he try that run for office again SERIOUSLY this time?! He even invoked Jesus! Do any GOBPers know about Jesus anymore, or do they need to spend some time in Sunday school instead of attacking Muslim community centers in New York City?!
WPITW – The Blue Waters Group is responsible for a sign near South Bend, IN. ;D For the record, South Bend’s a damn site far away from Indianapolis, but, still, I feel so proud (?)! There’s "Hoosier" educational values for y’all in a nut shell! Sharron Angle has now offended pregnant women & parents of autistic kids. She sounds like some people who *itch about paying taxes by saying they don’t have kids in school. DICK’s spawn is back!
Fridays with Thurber "The Night the Damn Broke Part Deux" Damn...DAMN good story! :D