Quote of the Day
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.
Stewart Udall
American Red Cross Tornado Relief
I know in the Baltimore area, we've gone through several tornado warnings over the past 24 hours, but the real story is the worst cluster of tornadoes in nearly 40 years, with nearly 300 dead over 12 states and Alabama alone accounting for two-thirds of the casualties and a million of our fellow citizens without power in just that one state. The American Red Cross has provided food and shelter for up to 2700 people. To people volunteering their time, effort, and resources to help our fellow citizens, I salute you; I welcome others to join me in contributing to the American Red Cross. I have a link to a donation page in the heading above (if you don't trust embedded links, go to www.redcross.org).
Corsi, Fox News, Trump, et al.
You didn't expect the story (about Obama's now released long-form birth certificate) to go away, did you? Not with Corsi with soon-to-be-released book on the "issue". He sent out an email today pointing out that his problem with the certificate has nothing to do with the additional information on the long form but with the certificate number (which he notes is the same for the both the short and long forms). He argues that birth certificate numbers were assigned (after the birth fact) in strictly ascending sequence by a single-threaded state process unique/one-time-only numbering scheme, and certain girls supposedly born in the same hospital after Obama have lower certificate numbers.
Now I'm sure there's more to Corsi's book and I have little interest in promoting his book or rebutting it in detail (any more than I feel it necessary to spend my time refuting people whom believe the earth is flat), but let's just assume everything he says is true, for the sake of argument. What does that prove? All we can conclude from that scenario is that Obama's certificate was processed out of sequence. There could be a variety of reasons I can speculate as to how that could have happened, e.g., from batch processing of certificates out of date/time sequence to a procedural delay in processing Obama's certificate (say, because of missing information). I might be more impressed if Corsi found a coincidence of Obama's certificate number with another Hawaiian native's. (Without knowing more about circumstances, I can easily conjecture related issues. For example, at a past employer, there were occasional printer issues running company payment processes using numbered blank company checks. We would have to reset the printer, modify the payment batch, and resubmit the job.)
Unfortunately, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig: it was the conspiracy theorists whom argued that the short-form birth certificate couldn't be trusted and constantly pushed for the long form. I heard Sean Hannity (whom is repetitive) questioning why Obama didn't provide it sooner. Well, if Sean understood the facts, he would have known that the state of Hawaii doesn't provide a copy of the long form even to the person whose name is on the birth certificate; Obama had to obtain a policy waiver.
Rev. Franklin Graham asked Sunday, "I don't understand why Obama doesn't go ahead and provide the (long-form) birth certificate--I have one." This is sort of like a policeman asking you if you didn't kill your (living) mother with an ax, what do you have to lose by agreeing to take a polygraph? What do I have to gain from complying with a frivolous, unconscionable request? I know I didn't do anything--I have to jump through someone else's hoop, satisfy somebody else's curiosity whom is implicitly suggesting perhaps I killed my own mother, an outrageous allegation under any circumstance? Maybe I don't like being dared as if I was still on the playground in grade school (not to mention the fact that there's always a risk the technology could yield a false positive...); most people aren't being asked if they murdered their mothers... The point is--who do you think you are to make outrageous demands of another person? The burden of proof is on the police (or the conspiracy theorist).
I've had to take drug tests over the years for a variety of jobs or subcontracts (rules for any incoming worker by the company in question). I have nothing to hide, but it's a hassle to go to a clinic and have the sample taken (never mind the presumptuousness of the requirement). I remember one party sensed some reluctance on my part and noted to "ease my mind" after the fact that the test came out fine. As if I didn't know that! [I did have colleagues whom perpetually worried about eating a hamburger on a poppy-seed bun...] I had a near-full pain pill bottle after recovery from a minor surgery a couple of years back.
If, in the case of Obama, for legal purposes (to get a driver's license, register to vote or provide documentation for your I-9), the short form is considered to be sufficient, what right does any birther have to say, "I don't care if the short form satisfies the government--the short form doesn't satisfy MY standard of proof..."
Fox News had a decidedly negative impression of President Obama coming out to personally discuss release of the long form yesterday, particularly saying that it was time for the silliness to end, that it was a distraction (and then you had the usual judgmental nonsense where numerous others noted that Obama had time to fly to Chicago to visit key supporter, talk show host Oprah, whom is wrapping up her daytime talk show over the next few days, and to attend a couple of fundraisers). I can't stress enough how annoying I find this sort of pettiness on the part of FNC personalities and several media conservatives. Hearing that Rush Limbaugh give Donald Trump credit for wearing down Obama on the long-form certificate just reinforces the growing irrelevance of the media conservatives. Granted, the media conservatives like Hannity and Bachmann are trying to walk a thin line, saying they had never been birthers, but defended the right of birthers to raise "important questions" which deserved to be answered. I absolutely disagree. One FNC morning anchor sounded angry, demanding to know whom called it a "fake issue". Let me make myself clear to Fox News and various anchors and news contributors: I'm calling it a fake issue. The fact of the matter is that Donald Trump--with all the bigger stuff to discuss--the Ponzi scheme of entitlements, trillions in the national debt and a struggling economy with millions out of work--chose to focus on Obama personally, not his policies.
From a political standpoint, personal attacks on Obama are absolutely incompetent and counterproductive--Obama has high personal favorable ratings. Have these angry media conservatives learned NOTHING from the loss of several key Senate seats last fall? Who would you rather control the Senate--Mitch McConnell or Harry Reid? Trump is trying to win the battle, but he's going to lose the war: RED MEAT IS A COMPLETE TURN-OFF WITH MODERATES AND INDEPENDENTS. Romney is saying exactly the right things: he's saying that Obama is a nice guy, but he just doesn't understand how the economy works.
I have to smile when Trump promises a "surprise" announcement following the final episode of Celebrity Apprentice in a few weeks. Well, let's analyze that. If he wasn't running, there would be no point to setting up operations and/or visiting Iowa and New Hampshire; if he wasn't running, he wouldn't wait until after Celebrity Apprentice to announce that, and he wouldn't have raised the topic of running on his TV show. No, I think he's trying to build a buzz so he can maximize eyeballs for his announcement...
On the State Front....
Well, when you have a Democratic governor and a Democratic-controlled state House in blue state Massachusetts and unsustainable current/retired state or municipal employee costs, you have no choice but to do things like curtail collective bargaining rights for health care. You know what this means for Governor Patrick: union supporters are going to paste Governor Scott Walker (R-WI)'s face over his on protest signs... Congratulations, Massachusetts: at least in one case, the rights of the taxpayer are being represented; let's hope that the state senate is also intent on representing the people instead of special interests.
This clip focuses on the states' mishandling pensions. In essence, state legislators have been hoping for pension fund earnings to limit the need for the states to kick in more to meet pension checks. The private sector has been saying for years that states have been overestimating returns so they won't have to have to kick in more money, but the states have been painting themselves into a corner....
Political Humor
David Letterman/Late Show
Top Ten Surprises On Barack Obama's Birth Certificate
10. Was born at a luau
9. Parents crossed out original choice for first name, "Gary" Brock
4. Under "Conspiracy?” They checked "No"
3. Document notarized by Magnum P.I.
1. Fine print at bottom: Not an actual birth certificate
[ 8. Under "Doctor", "Kildare"
7. Under "County, State or Foreign County": "Kenya Honolulu, Hawaii"
6. Under "Natural Born?" They checked "Yes"
5. Under "Signature of Witness": "Steve McGarrett, Hawaii 5-O"
2. Under "Date Conceived": "March 7, 1965 (after the Selma march)"]
An original:
- Donald Trump raised questions about Barack Obama's citizenship at birth in Honolulu, HI, but not about his endorsed 2008 candidate John McCain*, whom was born at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone. When asked to explain, Trump said, "I thought he was born in Panama City, FL..."
* Some will point out that military bases overseas are considered American property. However, foreign-born children of American citizens are considered natural born citizens by birth.
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update
IAEA notes:
- Wednesday: As of late Monday, white smoke was no longer observed leaving reactor 4 facilities. Smoke continued to be observed from reactors 2 and 3. Thirty-nine samples of food/raw milk from the Fukushima region from last Friday through Tuesday showed all within LNT safety thresholds.
- today: Ongoing scattering agent (to minimize risk of radioactive particle drift from area debris) continued to the east of the Reactor 3 buildings.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ABBA, "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"
