Somebody's targetiing Rahm Emanuel

Two days ago there was an ubstantiantiated story in the British Telegraph (friendly to Republicans) which was then promoted through Drudge claiming that Rahm Emanuel was on his way out pretty soon.

The White House quickly and utterly repudiated that.

Today, someone "leaked" emails to the AP saying Emanuel "traded favors" with currently on trial Blagojevich. (The charge is pretty thin, but the headline is damning.)

The ONLY conclusion is that someone is trying to chase Emanuel from office.

Idiots

Drudge is headlining the fever dream of a "one world currency," and people on the right are still believing this is a possibility.

However, how exactly is that supposed to work when even the smaller, and more selective Euro appears possibly prepared to fall apart?

You're telling me that, at this point, the US and the Euros and Japanese and Chinese are going to sign up to let Ghana and Uzbekistan destabilize their economies?

Really? You believe that?

Issa threatens Obama investigators

Well known wank and California Republican rep Darrell Issa is promising to hire tons of investigators and to flood the White House with subpoenas if the Republicans retake Congress.

Steppin' out....

I'm doing some stuff over this weekend so blogging will probably be near non-existent. I expect to be back to regular service by Monday or Tuesday,

....so, a thought exercise while I'm gone.

How different would it all be if Hillary Clinton had won the Presidency? Would the environment be more toxic or less? (Figure more partisan and less racist.)

Would we have a healthcare bill? What would have been the tone on the bailouts? What would e the agenda now?

And, for bonus points, Imagine a McCain/Palin presidency...

Iran a year on

The Iranian government raises security as the one year anniversary of Ahmadinejad's dubious reelection rolls around.

Today

The World Cup starts today.

Because many can't watch the games live, I will not post anything about results until about 8:30 or 9:00 PM local.

A National Shame

(WaPo, USAToday) The Army has found hundreds of cases of mishandling, misplacing, or improperly buried remains at Arlington National Cemetery.

Oil now, oil forever.....

Government experts now say the BP oil spill is probably double their earlier estimates, although that only puts their estimate at 25,000-40,000 barrels a day, which, if that number has been consistent, is 5 to 6 times the size of the Valdez spill so far.

Probably more newsworthy is that BP is now saying they won't be able to plug the leak until at least August.

Too little. Very Late

The Pope finally begs forgiveness for priest abuse and promises the church will no longer tolerate it (after how many decades that they (and he) did?)

Iran

The US gets a new set of sanctions against Iran. The sanctions freeze the international assets of many semi-governmental institutions like some of the Revolutionary Guard's external businesses.

Also, these sanctions are in place prohibiting "any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons."

That would seem to be a significant expansion.

Also, Brazil and Turkey voted no on the Security Council resolution, presumably in preference to their own proposed nuclear solution in conjunction with Iran.

N. Korea

The NYTimes takes an interesting look at N. Korea from interviews with defectors.

Thought for the Day

The media is buying this "Republican year of the woman" crap.

Did they ever cover the 170 years of the fat, white, old males?

Dead Meme

Remember three or four months ago when there was all that media about all the black candidates the Republicans had running for office?

Well, most of them lost in primaries.

So, now the media has decided that this is the year of the Republican woman, instead.

(And no one in the media seems to be talking about the rather abrupt Republican move towards the right....)

California passes "open" primaries

Without too much press, California passed a new law that would change their primary system. Every potential candidate from every party will now run in a single primary with the top two vote getters moving on to something like an election day run off.

This will really change the pre-primary process and will force the parties into strongarming potential candidates out of races so that they can guarantee one candidate makes the November ballot..

N. Korea's crisis

While I was unable to post yesterday (thanks, blogger!,) there was one event that I should probably note. North Korea underwent a rather unusual turnover in a few key government positions yesterday, installing hardcore loyalists to the Kim regime in key posts.

Kim Jong Il himself attended the meetings to insure that his presence was strongly felt (...rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated.)

Alot of this N. Korean erraticism seems to be coming in advance of a changeover of power as Kim Jong Il prepares to install his younger son as the new leader for life. It may get still uglier when the new son tries to delineate his control.

Horrible

Marines are trying to kill themselves at a record pace this year despite a 2009 program aimed at stemming the problem, according to Marine Corps data.

Despite all the rhetoric when war was "in," how much care are these guys getting? How many are suffering long term PTSD or other reintegration issues? How many are self treating with alcohol and drugs? How many are non-functional or homeless?