The Past Week: January 25-31, 2009 (Two Ex-Presidents Acting Like Misogynistic Jerks; Coins; Grammy Awards Sound Truck Stops by for a Visit [Pics!])

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

By far the most aggravating part of this week involved the disrespect shown by the Bush I-Clinton banter from the past Monday.  The video is self-explanatory and is a disgrace.  Our “leaders”…and now Obama playing around with women as a bargaining chip (failed) with the Republicans. Birth control BEFORE pregnancy for Medicaid recipients…it could have been a real WINNING issue if Rahm Emanuel and Chicken Obama hadn’t set it up as a “negative.”  I guess all those “pastors” filing in to discuss all the taxpayers’ money that they’ll be getting as Obama continues Bush’s “faith-base” crap must be feeling mighty fine.

I’ve been looking up information on some old coins we have had for years. The one I like the best looks like an old silver dollar, but it’s 5 French francs with King Louis Phillipe pictured as Caesar which dates from 1847.  I haven’t looked into this coin but I’m figuring it might be worth something.

Along the way I’ve picked up a couple of useful sites to share…

The first one is a guide to the grading of coins from the U.S. Mint; the second is a guide to coin value trends. It’s really fascinating to look at!   And there’s some basic information about buying gold and silver at the site of the American Numismatic Association and some really interesting articles on subjects like the value of the Kennedy half dollar.

In another exhausting week, the one bright spot was the quick, overnight visit of one of my nephews, whom I haven’t seen in 5 years. He’s on his way to California from the East Coast in one of the XM sound trucks that will be used during the Grammy Awards. He’s driving the smaller of the two mobile studios that are being ferried to Los Angeles  from New Jersey. He’s spending the next week getting the sound right during rehearsals, then will be working with about 5 or 6 computer screens in the main truck, keeping things on track during the actual live broadcast February 8.

Here are a couple of pics showing the “Truck behind the Stars” parked outside my house!

Grammy Sound Truck 1

Grammy Sound Truck 2

Grammy Sound Truck 3

Grammy Sound Truck 4

Grammy Sound Truck 5

I have to say that it was sort of nice seeing Jersey license plates again!

I’ll be taking a few days off to re-group.  Lots to catch up with and a few things I’m working on need some more research. So, unless I just can’t tear myself away, we’ll be quiet here for a few days this week…Besides, Groundhogs Day (Prairie Dog Day in these parts) is on Monday and that’s a big day for me…another birthday that I’d like to forget!

THE PAST WEEK

Molly Ivins: 2 Years After Her Death, People Who Knew Her Are Putting Words into Her Mouth (Are They Holding Seances?)

The Bush I-Clinton Roadshow Takes the Low Road in New Orleans at Guess Who’s Expense? (Hint: Women, of Course)(UPDATE 1X–FULL VIDEO)

PALIN LAUNCHES “SarahPAC”!! (Updated 1X–It’s Not Just the Alfalfa Club for Palin This Weekend)

Take Action: Call Your Representative about the House Vote on the “Stimulus Package” Today! (Info on the Bill, Including ACORN, too) (Update 1: Birth Control OUT OF BILL!)

Drip-Drip-Drip: Obama Top Aides, Associates Named in U.S. Attorney’s Subpoena (Last Friday’s News Dump)

Environmental Three-Card Monte? Obama *May* Grant Emissions Waivers to States Today? (”Immediately Work on It” vs. “Reconsider”) (But Other Policies Already Having a Negative Effect on Bears–Warning, Pic!) (Updated 1X) (Update 2X–After Announcements, NY Times Still Pushing Obama Kool-Aid) (Update 3X–Gore Surfaces)

The Past Week: January 18-24, 2009 (Condi Rice Getting Booked; Pat Paulsen, We Need You!; VOA and wwiTV.com; Questions)

Molly Ivins: 2 Years After Her Death, People Who Knew Her Are Putting Words into Her Mouth (Are They Holding Seances?)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Molly Ivins

(Courtesy Wikipedia)

Tomorrow, January 31, will mark the second anniversary of Molly Ivins’ death from breast cancer.

At the time of her death, a lovely tribute was composed by her editor and friend of many years, Anthony Zurcher.  In his moving tribute, he wrote:

Goodbye, Molly I.

Molly Ivins is gone, and her words will never grace these pages again — for this, we will mourn. But Molly wasn’t the type of woman who would want us to grieve. More likely, she’d say something like, “Hang in there, keep fightin’ for freedom, raise more hell, and don’t forget to laugh, too.”

SNIP

But while she was here, her heart never failed to see clear and true — and for that, we can all be grateful.

Almost exactly one year before she passed away, Molly Ivins announced:

Molly Ivins: Not. backing. Hillary.

Friday, January 20, 2006; Posted: 9:18 a.m. EST (14:18 GMT)

AUSTIN, Texas (Creators Syndicate) — I’d like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone.  This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

(SNIP)

I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway (“First, you have to win elections”). Can’t you even read the damn polls?

Here’s a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, “There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008.”

This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, emboldened by “a string of bad new from the Middle East … into calling for premature retreat from Iraq,” versus those pragmatic folk like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman.

Oh come on, people — get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war — from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump on us daily.

MORE

I can understand what Molly wrote back in 2006 because, to be honest, I was thinking much the same thing.

Well, now we fast forward to 2009 and Molly’s former assistant, Betsy Moon, described as “FORMER ASSISTANT AND “CHIEF OF STUFF” FROM 2001 to 2007,” has decided to commemorate Molly’s death by being a mind reader.

What Would Molly Think?

Betsy Moon

AUSTIN, Texas — The question I have been asked most often during the last two years is, “What would Molly think about this?” Molly Ivins would have loved this election. She would have loved the beautiful sight of “We the People” finally stepping up to become the real deciders. She would have loved the drama, the comedy and the characters.

SNIP

In fact, we know how she would have felt, because she was as prescient about this election before her death two years ago as she was about all the other tragedies of the Bush years. Carlton Carl, CEO/publisher at Molly’s beloved Texas Observer, recalls her saying after Obama’s 2004 speech at the Democratic convention, “You know … that young man could be president someday.”

Before Barack Obama announced his candidacy, Chicago Magazine asked a number of luminaries if they thought he should run. Opinions varied. Molly was succinct and direct, and with her usual wit and certainty said: “Yes, he should run. He’s the only Democrat with any Elvis to him.”

And, in her column on Jan. 20, 2006, she said: “It’s about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership.

If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator … with the guts to do it.” She was speaking about Gene McCarthy then, but it might as well have been Barack Obama.

SNIP

She’d love that Barack Obama began his community organizing knowing that power lies in all of us united and that he continues to remind us that we are the deciders.

SNIP

Ken Bunting, an old friend of Molly’s who’s now associate publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said of Molly on Election Day, “I’m not much of a believer, but I think our friend is looking down and smiling right along with Barack’s grandma.” You know, I think he is right.

Where do I begin? First of all, I think it’s a bit presumptuous for anyone to speak for a person who can’t speak for themselves. What, did Moon and Bunting conduct a seance?

Secondly, just because Molly didn’t like Hillary Clinton and had some good words for Obama’s “Elvis factor” back in 2006, doesn’t mean she would feel the same way today.  Furthermore, for Moon to state that Obama shares the same qualities of “guts” with Eugene McCarthy is a reach, isn’t it? I still have my McCarthy bumper sticker from back then…somehow, I don’t see Obama as having the same courage of Eugene McCarthy!!

Then there’s the matter of what Molly thought, not only of Clinton, but also about Rahm Emanuel and Joe Biden, both now hanging around the Obama Administration. Emanuel, of course, is in a very powerful position as Chief of Staff, while Biden is posing as VP.  And Clinton is rattling around at the State Department.

So, what would Molly Ivins be thinking now? I DON’T KNOW, but if she were staying “clear and true” I think she MIGHT be throwing some caustic comments out there into the ether, particularly with regard to the “stimulus package” and some of the little games played by Obama over the last couple of days aimed at attracting GOP support (and winning ZIP with the House vote). And would she really think that we were “the deciders”??

As for Moon and Bunting–is seems that they are transferring their OWN fascination with Obama into a dream of  what they would WANT Molly Ivins to think.

OK, Molly, give us a sign.  I sure would like to know what you’ve been REALLY thinking about  all that’s happened over the last year…

But I sure have MY opinion…Molly, have you been listening?

Dollars and Cents, Dirty Hands and Obamanomics

~~By American Lassie

Here is something I needed to get off my chest today. This is the last time I refer to the background  of the heir apparent unless something comes of the Berg lawsuit.

I’m not joining the “Hallelujah Chorus”.

I’ve said before, and I’m saying again, until he produces documentation proving his eligibility I do not consider Obama the legal POTUS. Perhaps Justice David Souter will get to the bottom of his eligibility – perhaps not.  But if not, nothing he does or anything he proposes under Executive Order will be legal.  This country could be reduced to utter chaos.

So far Obama refuses to satisfy the requirements under the Constitution to hold this office.  If our Constitution is trashed this way, none of our laws or institutions mean diddly squat.  Why don’t some of those people who are bowing down to him take a minute to ask him why he doesn’t just show a legal birth certificate and put a stop to all the speculation?  It would be so simple for him to tell the truth about where he was born.  He has named two different hospitals in Hawaii but neither one has any record of his birth.  He is getting ready to occupy the most powerful position in the world  – and we have no idea who he really is.  He has spent his whole political life running for office but has never done anything once elected, except prepare to run for the next higher office.  His administration is already tainted by the crooked way the primaries were run.

He has chosen Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff.  Emanuel comes to the position with dirty hands.  Emanuel sat on the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac during the time they were practicing questionable accounting and lending practices.  He contributed to the financial mess we are now in, and now he will be advising the president on how to clean the mess up.  This is putting the fox in the hen house to guard the chickens.  Is this change you can believe in?

Now the co-chair of Obama’s transition team** says the economic crisis will not prevent Obama from pursuing the priorities he outlined on the campaign trail.  What kind of magic do they plan to work?

My background is in accounting.  I’ve been an accountant long enough to know that what he is proposing isn’t possible without going further in debt to foreign governments or taxing the life out of the American people – or both.

I served on the Board of Directors of a United Way funded poverty agency for five years, and witnessed fellow board members try to spend more than we took in – time and time again.

I had my own tax business until a serious illness forced me to curtail my activities.  Now that I’m on my feet again, I intend to keep fighting for this country of ours with every fiber of my being.  I don’t profess to be the smartest person in the world, but I do know a little about finances and how to balance the books.  Enough to know that we are on a slippery slope to a complete melt-down.

Unemployment is up.  Retail sales are down. Our auto industry is tanking – and the hopey-dopey experts are promising champagne on a beer pocket book.

Both political parties are sick.  We can’t look to either one to straighten out this mess that Congress – yes, CONGRESS is primarily responsible for.  We have to fend for ourselves.

God help all those poor people who think the Messiah has come to deliver them from all their problems.

There won’t be enough Prozac in the world to take care of the mental depression that is on the way.

Luck to all.

—

**IA adds: That’s Valerie Jarrett, long-time Obama buddy who said the other day that Obama will be ready to “rule” from Day 1….