Nobody Asked Me, But...

Wow, pretty exciting Thursday night, huh? Obama's international travels were reviewed, not once, not twice, but three times! And Scary Black Pastorrrrrrrrrrr attended a White House function in 1998! OMG! He stains Hillary too!

:-)

1) So three separate people on three separate occasions looked at Obama's passport records. Ironically, this monitoring system was put in place after it had been revealed that the Karl Rove-led Bush re-election team had misused White House authority to investigate then-Presidential hopeful Bill Clinton's travels in Russia.

2) I'm tending to chalk this up to three knuckleheads trying to impress their dates or friends or something. I think the Obama camp reaction is a bit over the top: yes, investigate the incidents, yes, blame the State Department and the White House, but I think it stops there. Bill Burton and Eric Holder ought to get a grip. Stupid people do stupid things, and it got compounded by even stupider people (like the independent contractor overseeing this matter) doing even stupider things (like not notifying State in a timely fashion in an attempt to keep their contract).

3) Which raises the ugly spectre of Obama's tendency towards overreaction to even the slightest hint of impropriety. A levelheaded leader would give some thought to the fact that there's a process, and that an investigation will show what the facts are. This reeks of the Republican congress in 1996, versus the Clinton White House.

4) One unintended consequence of the Fed rate cut. As usual, the little guy gets squeezed for the big guy's profit. Community-based initiatives for economic growth should be a prominently featured package of any Presidential candidates bid. So far, I've only heard Hillary talk about this.

5) Everybody who read this story probably thought about Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, and figured the ray was defending itself. I didn't. Neither did many divers. We know that a 500 lb eagle ray can breach the water (sometimes they get startled, sometimes they leap to clear some parasites). This was an unlucky woman in an unlucky place.

6) Oh...the scary black pastor story. Some asshole set up a blog, anonymously, to defend Trinity Church and Rev. Wright, posting a bunch of stories and pictures about him. Fair enough. Rev. Wright led a congregation of 3,000 and if I'm a black Chicago ambitious politician, I'm a member too. You're not going to find a better place to network on the South Side, I'm sure. That he met with the Clintons is no surprise either. Big Dog was the first black President, after all. Bill also met with Jesse Jackson, not precisely a moderate-speaking pastor all his life, as well as Billy Graham, who also has said some bizarre stuff.

So what?

7) Presumably this is a VP signal from Obama. Presumably, this is a VP signal from Hillary. So long, dream ticket!

8) It looks like the trouble in Tibet is flaring up again, now that winter is ending. China is desperate to keep this tamped down ahead of the Olympics without taking drastic measures. Tibetans must know this.

9) 2,200 prisoners face death in prison in this country, all of them under the age of 18.

10) Too much weird stuff...so let's pile on more! I know how this guy feels. OK, not quite as bad, but I was married!

11) Holographic television just took one step closer.

12) I don't know how you did on your brackets last night, but I got clobbered. Baylor? UGA? What was I thinking????

13) Finally...Moral turpitude? They still have that????