Monday, March 05, 2007

News In Brief (And The Usual Opinionated Commentary)

Yes, it's that time again. I goofed off a lot this weekend, after a hard week of doing various kinds of tasks that had to be done. I moved my daughter from a dump to a fairly nice place, worked, set my mother-in-law's medications up for the week, paid bills, followed all legal and lawful orders from my wife, and all of the other things necessary to maintain life-support systems.

So, without further rambling from me, it's time for that time-tested feature that usually generates some kind of an argument, when we least expect it.


China Increasing Military Budget

China will raise its annual defense spending by almost 18 percent, the government announced Sunday, as it continues a rapid military buildup that has drawn criticism from the United States.

On the eve of the opening of the annual session of the Chinese Parliament, formally the National People's Congress, a parliamentary spokesman, Jiang Enzhu, said Chinese defense outlays would increase to 350 billion yuan, or $45 billion, this year.


With new found profits creating more tax revenues for the Chinese government, we can look for more increases in the future, as well. But it should come as no surprise, it's an issue I have been covering here for quite awhile now. It's not cause for saber-rattling, but it bears watching. Closely.


A New Global Warming Documentary

That is, if you live in Britain, I guess. But it's not the usual. It pretty much goes against the grain of what the norm, so those of you that have criticized my stance are still likely to, no matter how I present it. But in essence, this is my core argument in the matter:

.....film-maker Martin Durkin argues that the theory of man-made global warming has become such a powerful political force that other explanations for climate change are not being properly aired.




Russian Expert Shot Fours Days After Interview

FBI agents say they are assisting police in suburban Washington who are investigating the shooting of a Russian expert — a man who spoke out on "Dateline NBC" last weekend and strongly suggested that remnants of the KGB were responsible for the bizarre poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.


Even though I get hammered on it in the comment section (from time to time) on it, I have been hard on the Russian government. And this is just one more (added to many others) reason, why I have.



GOP Candidates Condemn Coulter Slur

This is a follow-up to Saturday's post on the Coulter remark about John Edwards. In my goings-about this weekend, I have yet to find anyone (that is aware of it) that thinks this is okay. Both parties need to get a handle on this kind of behavior and send a message to angry extremists, on both sides of the spectrum.



GOP Set To Fight Jefferson Appointment To Homeland Security Panel

Republicans plan to force a floor vote on Rep. William Jefferson's move to the Homeland Security Committee in an unprecedented maneuver to force Democrats to go on the record supporting their embattled colleague who is the target of a federal bribery investigation.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) pledged to call for a recorded vote on the House floor when Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) introduces a resolution to make the Jefferson move official.


Well, need I say anything more?

I think, there's a pretty sad state of affairs going on in our government when we have a Speaker of the House introducing a resolution to make a member accused of a bribery offense, a member of the most important committee in the House of Representives.

First, Murtha a shady politician that was implicated in the ABSCAM case was considered for Majority leader. Then, she wanted Alcee Hastings, an impeached federal judge, to be the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Now, she wants William Jefferson, a man that was caught on tape taking the money that was later found in his freezer, to be a member of the HSC.

I mean, come on now. Is there anyone else that has enough brains to do these jobs that do not have these measures of improprieties showing up on their resumes? If so, there is a serious question of leadership here. If not, there's a real problem with the Democratic Party, as whole.



Well that's all the time we have for this installment of News In Brief (And The Usual Opinionated Commentary). Join us next time.

Now hammer away.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh. This is why I refuse to register to vote under either party. Both corrupt, mainly interested in protected their own, preserving their power.

Mary Ellen said...

Hi LA

I have a zillion things to do today and have little time for blogging. I'll just answer to a few of your topics and get back later if I can.

Regarding Murtha, he was implicated, BUT...was not indicted in the bribes-for-political-favors probe and ultimately cleared of wrongdoing by the House ethics committee. Is he shady? Not any more shady than most politicians. Besides, I don't think the right wing should start pointing fingers, considering how many in this administration alone and their cohorts (Abramoff) are spending time in prison.

Murtha was attacked readily by you guys regarding his stance on withdrawing American troops from Iraq. His plan was called "cut and run", when in fact, that was not part of his plan at all. Now, it's the most popular plan out there and is being embrassed by a very large number of Republicans. Hmmmm.....There's always Murtha bashing coming from the right, and you may not like his brash style, but he's not stupid and he is usually right.

I'm not sure why Pelosi wants to put Jefferson on any committee. I think until he is cleared of charges, he shouldn't be given this responsibility. Like you said, there are plenty of good people who could take that position.
************************************

Coulter

Well, we all agree on this blog the woman is not doing much good for the GOP at this time. However, lets look at how the GOP has embraced her in the past, for making the same allegations as this.

On the July 27 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, "How do you know that [former President] Bill Clinton is gay?" -- referring to her comment the night before on CNBC's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch that Clinton "show[s] some level of latent homosexuality." Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But [former Vice President] Al Gore -- total fag." She went on to defend her theory about Clinton's sexuality by stating that "everyone has always known, widely promiscuous heterosexual men have, as I say, a whiff of the bathhouse about them." Coulter claimed she was "just kidding" about Gore, but said of her theory about Clinton, "It's not only not a joke, it's not even surprising."

As usual, after making remarks like that, she says, "I was only kidding".

I find it interesting that all of the sudden the GOP sees her as a pariah, when they could not get enough of her offensive remarks when they were in the majority.

I'm sure Chris Matthews, will change his opinion of her after the remarks this weekend and act all offended, even though he wasn't the least bit offended by the remarks stated above on his show. In fact, he laughed and said he would love to have her back again. Now, that would be hypocrisy!

***********************************

China

I was laughed at on "the other blog" when I said we should be watching China closely and I felt that they are going to be a real threat to us. I also mentioned that Putin couldn't be trusted...again, certain bloggers there laughed at that. I guess I don't know enough...you know, American school education and all. What would I know? ;-)

Have to run, have a good day!

Mary Ellen said...

Now, it's the most popular plan out there and is being embrassed

embrassed? Damn American education! I meant "embraced". Geez....

I'm sure there are other spelling errors, chalk it up to old age and not enough coffee...and I'm a liberal Democrat...whatever.

BEING HAD said...

I would not worry about being too hard on Russia these days. They have it coming and everyone knows it. But China this last week made several statements about having socialism as their main objective in all of their dealings. Also, Hugo Chavez down in Venezuela has just taken over most of the oil fields and has also claimed a socialist future for his country. Russia's Gazprom is basically a state held monopoly, and so I believe that all of these issues are interconnected and that you are looking at rather wide reaching attempt to combat the world's only "superpower" with a return to socialism as an alternative to open capitalism.

Mary Ellen said...

Ya gotta love those Republicans...when something goes wrong, blame the victims. Here's a video clip of Newt Gingrich at the CPAC meeting today.

http://tinyurl.com/2m8hh6

Unbelievable. The Compassionate Conservatives at work. Oh yea...he divorced his wife who was fighting cancer to run off with his girlfriend. Compassion...it just ooozes from this crowd.

Anonymous said...

M-E: I was looking forward to viewing your clip, but it didn't work for me. I did get to the page, though - Liberal Oasis? Sounds like a vacation destination for hard-core lefties. :0

Anonymous said...

Hey, Mary-Ellen, I also read that we agree on China and Putin. You're gonna be a centrist in no time! Wait! You already are!

Mary Ellen said...

Greg

That's right...I'm a liberal political centrist. :-D

Hey...when it comes to our security, I think it's stupid to ignore China and Russia. I guess growing up during the cold war and the Cuban Missile Crisis keeps my eyes open. Unfortunately, (here comes the liberal part of me) Bush is such a moron, he decides its in our best interest to invade Iraq on trumped up charges and lies , run up our debt to the point that China practically owns us now, destroy our military, especially our National Guard which makes us less safe in the US, and treat our soldiers as if they are nothing more than photo-ops for his political gain.

Yeah...that's me...the centrist.

Mary Ellen said...

Greg

The audio clip that I linked to was taken from the CPAC meeting today. It's on a lot of blogs. I didn't get it from Liberal Oasis, though. I think it was from Katrinacrat.

Of course, the right wing blogs wouldn't carry that on their blogs.

Hey, regarding Coulter. I just saw on Tucker today, he and Pat Pukecannon said that Coulter was courageous. Yeah...the right wingers, they love the bitch. I'd like to see how courageous she would be without her body guard thugs surrounding her.

LA Sunset said...

Greg

//You're gonna be a centrist in no time! Wait! You already are!//

And

ME

//Yeah...that's me...the centrist.//

Yeah, right. And my uncle plays lead guitar for the Who, too.

;)