Last night's SOTU was President Obama's 3rd; let's hope there is a 4th because the alternative is absolutely unthinkable.
Let's move onto "this day in history." On this date in 1533, King Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn. He began a whole new damn church just to be able to marry her, and he lopped her head off anyway! On January 25, 1882, Virginia Woolf, the British novelist, was born. Oh my, The Hours is one of the few movies that makes me absolutely sob.
On this date in 2006, the Islamic militant group Hamas won a large majority of seats in Palestinian parliamentary elections. Yea, this country pushes for "democracy" in that part of the world, but, sometimes, those we are trying to "democratize" vote for folk this country doesn't like.
Let's Countdown!
And, David Shuster's pinch - hitting for Keith, so thanks awfully very much!
#5 "State of the Campaign" - President Obama's hitting the road while last night's SOTU is still a hot topic; he's in IA today. I wonder if he went to the Figge Art Museum to see the Pollock Guggenheim Mural? :D Speaker Sobber kept up the "politics of division & envy" $hit. Mittens & Newt are in a stat dead heat in FL in a new poll. The MENSA members are sniping at each other & at President Obama. Rep. Pelosi insists there's something in her bag of tricks to ensure Newt IS NOT the nominee. Steve Kornacki gets SOTU review. He believes it was after the debt ceiling debacle was the "Eureka!" moment as far as this administration trying to work & play well with the GOBP. He also called Speaker Sobber the most weak Speaker in decades; yea, I'll go along with that! As Rachel Maddow asserts, to paraphrase, Speaker Sobber is $hitacular at his job. :) 91% of respondents in a poll last night liked what they heard. Mr. Steve thinks the GOBP might actually move a bit on the payroll tax holiday stuff; well, we'll see. Ben White's with Politico; a new face, I think, so welcome! Newt has to appeal to the rabble rouser element in the GOBP to have a "respectable" debate performance. Man on Dog just might be done after FL? Whatever will we do without that frothy element?! ;D Newt's still at a money disadvantage even with the casino dude's family's big donation to the SuperPAC supporting him. There's another MENSA meeting to miss tomorrow night? OK! ;D Rep. Pelosi may or may not have something up her sleeve, but she's sure getting the MENSA folks' panties in a bunch. :D
#4 "Giffords' Goodbye" AKA "Good Luck Gabby!" - I watched some of the Rep. Giffords' activity in the House today; anyone who didn't get choked up even a little bit has termites in their soul. I have absolutely no doubt she will be back when she feels she's able. The vote on her final piece of legislation passed with no "no" votes. Daniel Hernandez saved her life that horrible day last year. He thinks she'll be back, too. :) Ya' know, I wonder if Keith went to DC today? Much of Gabby is still there, but she doesn't have the words yet to fully express what she wants to say, and that's gotta be damn DAMN frustrating. Mr. Daniel's 22 today! Whipper - snapper!! :D
"Time Marches On!" - An 8 - year - old Aussie girl is rockin' out! A kitty had a stand - off with a gator over a chicken; kitty bapped the gator!! :D A high school basketball player from IL made a hell of a shot in the wrong basket - OOPS! ;D
#3 "Great Scott?" - Governor Scotty has raised a ton of coin (probably out of state) for his recall campaign. A poll in WI shows he's slightly ahead of any potential Dem challengers?! WHAT THE SPARK??!! Verification of the signatures on the petitions will take a couple of months. $1 million of the coin he's raised has come from 4 out - of - state donors. There's gotta be a way to figure out how much of his money has come from inside WI; that could make a hell of a campaign ad for whichever Dem ends up running! Governor Scotty's making quite the television & snail mail presence. Nice! Graeme Zielinski can hopefully shed some light on those sparky poll results! He's not taking the results very seriously; apparently, the pollster's a BFF of Governor Scotty's. Really?! HA! The poll came from Governor Scotty's alma mater???!!! Well $hit! OK, I feel better now. :D Governor Scotty's giving a state of the state speech tonight? Oh, THAT'S gotta be good! WI has lost jobs for 6 months in a row - a first from just south of heaven. Dems who might run against him aren't freaked by this poll, either.
#2 "Taxing Our Patience" - Mittens released 2 years' worth of tax returns; that's how we found out about that 13% rate, the Caymen Islands stuff, the Swiss bank account stuff, etc. Out of the $40 million he made last year, $7 million was donated to charity. I wonder if one of those charities is the Mormon church? His tax rates for previous years might have been even lower because he didn't have to pay any taxes on investment losses. He still might have investments in Iran & in stem cell research, too. We also don't know how much he profited from the businesses Bain bankrupted. Senator McCentury got 23 years worth of returns in 2008????!!!! $HIT!!
#1 "Not Easy Being Green" AKA "'All Out' on Energy" - President Obama did mention opportunities for green energy in last night's SOTU. Drilling off - shore might go on the uptake. He also mentioned continued support for fracking operations for natural gas; you know, the stuff that makes it possible to set tap water on fire! Susan Casey Lefkowitz talks SOTU - environment division. She wants us to move off big oil. Well... She also touted the fuel efficiency standards passed by this administration. She seems pretty happy with what she heard last night.