Quick Hits Redux

Just some stories that caught my eye,
You might laugh, you might cry.
One thing’s for sure, you can’t deny.
A poet I’m not, but at least I try.

All Starbucks to Close for Three Hours Tonight

My friend Bill B. from Washington DC and I used to go to Starbucks every Monday through Friday. But as I got older I decided to lower my caffeine intake and the financial out flow that resulted from my Starbucks habit. Starbucks says it is doing this mass 3 hour closing to improve the so-called "Starbucks Experience". Honestly, I don’t think that is the problem with their coffee people. It’s that 2 to 3 bucks for a coffee is too fucking expensive when a gallon of gas goes for $3.25 and the country is teetering on the edge of recession.

MSNBC.COM: Starbucks to Close for Three Hours

Please Don’t Tell My 7-Year Old Daughter About This

A teenager in Wisconsin convinced the local city snow removal crews to dump seven truck loads of snow in his front yard so that he could make a snow fort that fits 20 some people. Now, we’ve had a lot of snow this year and my daughter is constantly looking for ways to make her snow forts bigger and better. This usually involves daddy, which is cool, but I’m getting a little too old for something that ambitious. Besides, according to the kid, who has been doing this for a few years, once it melts you find “"…beer cases (and) lots of dog poop that would have been plowed in the street. You find a lot of hats and gloves … springs, nuts and bolts, nails.” My front yard has enough issues already thank you.

Appleton Post-Crescent: Neenah teen builds ultimate snow fort

Silent Clarence Strikes Again

According to the Associated Press, “Two years and 142 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments.”

Two Years? He didn’t have one question in 142 cases? Has anyone checked to make sure this guy is still sucking air? Clarence. Dude. Here’s the thing, and maybe they didn’t explain this to you before you took the gig. You are supposed to ask questions, you are supposed to press the lawyers on points of law, that’s your job. Sitting there like some black-robed Sphinx pretending to pay attention while you wait to hear which way Scalia and your other conservative handlers tell you vote just isn’t cutting it. Hell, I could do that. Who am I kidding; I couldn’t sit through one case without popping off about something. Did you hear me Justice Thomas? Just wink twice for “yes.”

CNN.com: Thomas silent as Supreme Court talks on and on

An interesting article about Hillary's Campaign

Andrew Sullivan has written an interesting piece for TheAtlantic.com about why the Clinton campaign is imploding and what her management of this campaign tells us about the kind of administration she would have should she be elected.

Clinton is a terrible manager of people. Coming into a campaign she had been planning for, what, two decades, she was so not ready on Day One, or even Day 300. Her White House, if we can glean anything from the campaign, would be a secretive nest of well-fed yes-people, an uncontrollable egomaniac spouse able and willing to bigfoot anyone if he wants to, a phalanx of flunkies who cannot tell the boss when things are wrong, and a drizzle of dreary hacks like Mark Penn. Her only genuine skill is pivoting off the Limbaugh machine (which is now as played out as its enemies). Her new weapon is apparently bursting into tears. I mean: really.

Wow. It may only be his opinion, but talk about letting it go with both barrels.

After reading this I was reminded of a phone call I got from my sister asking me why I was supporting Obama and why not Hillary. After twenty minutes on the phone it came down to the fact that I didn't trust her and I wondered if what we really needed was another Clinton or another Bush. I wish I had read this piece prior to talking to her, I could have just e-mailed her the link and been done.

The Clintons' Last Stand

Even my Seven-Year-Old Shakes Hands After the Game

It is the beginning of the end for Hillary. Her rhetoric is getting more shrill, they are hitting Obama on things as trivial as sharing speech lines with friends and not giving them credit. After the last few primary losses Hillary has failed to congratulate Obama on his win. And as stupid as it may sound to even mention it, for men, this is a huge deal.

Just like the crying thing in New Hampshire seemed to humanize Hillary with women, this failing to acknowledge your opponent after a hard fought contest just reaffirms what many men fear about Hillary. They are afraid of the "ice queen". They secretly fear that she is a vindictive, overly ambitious harpy who will do anything to win and says fuck it to the niceties of sportsmanship and fair play. For the most part, men don't respect that, in men or women and they certainly don't want those qualities in their President.

I'm afraid that Hillary is getting some bad advice these days, and I just hope that she isn't doing any real damage to her reputation. Regardless of what the pundits say, we don't have a nominee yet and it could still be her. And I would rather have Hillary be President than that fossil the republicans are putting up.

CNN: Analysis: Obama continues to chip away at Clinton's base


Bush in the Bush
When you are the sitting President of the United States and you travel all the way to Africa, you aren't supposed to see signs of support for a man who isn't even yet the nominee to replace you. Knowing the Republican hardliners, they probably just wrote it off as "a black thing."

Africans for Obama

Lindsey Lohan Goes Nude
The part I don't get is this: Is this supposed to help her get work? I think Hollywood already knew she was a tart. I think most of the casting directors and producers in town know that she has large breasts. And as the pictures show, the world now knows that she looks like hell as a blonde.

And was the whole New York Magazine with a famous photographer thing supposed to class it up? I'm no prude, you want to do nudies, knock yourself out. To quote The Godfather, "It makes no difference to me what a man does for a living." What I am is a realist. If Lindsey Lohan thinks doing soft-core porn is a good career move, she might as well go the full nine yards and take the cash from Playboy. I'm sure Hef would have paid well and his photographers wouldn't have made her look like a hooker trying to channel the ghost of Marilyn Monroe in a effort to up her price another $50 an hour.

Virginia Tech Shows Real Class

This Saturday, the Virginia Tech basketball team is playing Georgia Tech. The score won't matter much to me, or the rest of the nation because the players and the fans are showing us something more important than basketball. They are showing us compassion and strength. They will be wearing Northern Illinois University colors to show their support for the families and friends who have lost so much. VTech's wounds are still fresh and yet they are reaching out to others in an effort to ease their suffering just a bit. Good for you VTech, well done.

Virginia Tech Athletic Department to show support of Northern Illinois University

"Why Mrs. Parker, aren't you just the clever one."

Observation
By Dorothy Parker

If I don’t drive around the park,
I’m pretty sure to make my mark.
If I’m in bed each night by ten,
I may get back my looks again.
If I abstain from fun and such,
I’ll probably amount to much;
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.

I don’t know why I posted this except it seems to sum up my mood today.

Repeat after me...

O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!

That is the sound of old man moe. The momentum has shifted my friends and Hillary is starting to take some serious damage here in the middle rounds. Fundraising questions, several lost primaries in a row, unless she can score a big win in Ohio or Texas, she is in trouble.

Now, that being said, this is still a very tight race and you should never count a Clinton out until the votes are counted. But if I were her campaign staff, I'd be looking for post convention work now...just in case.

FLASH NEWS!

According to CNN, Mitt Romney will soon announce that he is suspending his campaign for President.

Romney to suspend campaign

Super Tuesday!

With 24 Democratic primaries/caucuses and nearly as many Republican ones, today is going to give us a certain amount of clarity as to where each of the candidate's chances stand. (It is important to note that polling shows Obama has been pulling close to even with Hillary in California and New Jersey. This cannot have her pleased.)

So, get out and vote people. I am off to the polls myself in an hour or so. I have already declared for Obama, but frankly folks, I don't care how you vote. I just want you to participate. Of course, I think you should consider voting like me, but I'd rather you voted for someone else than not at all. At least that way you've got some skin in the game as they say.

Barack and Hillary sitting in a tree...

The one-on-one debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton yesterday was one of hugs and kisses. It seems that both the candidates got the message loud and clear. Quit pounding on each other and get to the real business of beating a Republican. The only place they really differed was on the issue of experience. Is Obama to young (politically) and inexperienced to be President?

Honestly, I don't know.

But I do know this. Every time I hear him speak I end up thinking to myself, you know, I want some of that. I want some of that hope he is talking about. I want a diverse coalition of Americans working together instead of against each other. I want to believe again. Give him a listen and see if he talks to you. Really, put aside your concerns about his experience for 17 minutes and listen. I think you'll hear what I hear, the sound of hope and change.

Obama South Carolina Acceptance Speech

I am not naive enough to think one man can turn the course of a country. But I do believe that one man can be the catalyst of change. Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Abe Lincoln, they all stood in the path of the status quo and helped others embrace and affect change. Maybe, just maybe, Obama can do a little of that too.

Super Tuesday is right around the corner and I am one of the millions who will be going to the polls to make a choice. Until now, I have stated no preference. But I feel it is best to disclose by predispositions. I will be pulling the lever (or poking the chad, or touching the screen) for Obama on Tuesday.

Come the general election, I'll vote for either Hillary or Barack, which ever gets the nod. But if the Democratic Party is asking my opinion, I have to say, give me some of what that Obama guy is selling. That sounds pretty darn good to me.