News of the Day

News of the Day...

or what I'm tracking.

Mr. Obama is expected to announce Afghanistan troop drawdown today. No doubt this will make some people happy and make a few others, like those fighting there, and the non-Taliban folks get kind of jumpy. Well, mission accomplished, and there's no more money. Besides, we've got Syria to stick our junk into. No, not kidding. It looks like Senator Graham is beating the drum to start a SIXTH war in Syria. Come on.

I wonder how our new Secretary of Defense feels about this? Yeah, Gates is leaving, if you didn't see his farewell tour the last couple months. Leon Panetta was unanimously confirmed as new Secretary of Defense.

Back to politics, Newt Gingrich's hilarious new political comedy continues to lose team members faster than Chef Ramsey expunges game-show contestants. Newt's team just lost his fundraising director and consultant. Now that's a reality show I'd watch on C-Span Ocho!

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman enters race for Republican presidential nomination. For some reason, excuse me if I barely noticed. Am I supposed to be excited, angry, or meh about this? I'm going with meh.

And the story that pretty much writes itself Half-term Gov. Sarah Palin Packs In Her Bus Tour...Halfway Through. It really was a short bus.

Oh and Ai Weiwei was supposedly released. That's cool. They nabed him for tax evasion.

And finally, Wisconsin has passed right-to-carry legislation, leaving Illinois as the only one where only the bad guys are allowed to possess firearms. Guess it's going to be a summer of flash mobs in Chicago?

Newt Has Been Newtered

Gingrich’s Senior Campaign Aides Resign

Newt Gingrich’s campaign manager and a half-dozen senior advisers have taken their ball and have gone home.

To say it's a 'minor setback' is akin to waiting for the fish to bite in the Dead Sea.

The campaign manager, Rob Johnson, along with advisers in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, joined together to step down after a period of deep internal disagreements about the direction of the campaign. In other words, he was a pain in the ass who wouldn't listen to reason.

Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker who has been fighting to regain his political footing after a rough campaign announcement last month, had been absent from the campaign trail for about two weeks on what aides had described as a pre-planned vacation. He made his first return to the campaign trail on Wednesday in New Hampshire, one day before the resignations were announced.

Or, perhaps he just wasn't getting the kind of money Mitt was, and the attention Palin is - and she's not even running.

Someone feel free to Photoshop "Newt 2012" on the picture. Or just imagine it.

PS - Newt had a vasectomy. He's been neutered.

He Turned Me into a Newt

Gingrich to Make It Official: He's 'Exploring' Presidential Bid

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is taking the first formal steps toward launching a presidential campaign.

No surprise to Blaspheme's readers. We've been reporting that he's been hanging out in Iowa... a lot.

A senior Republican official confirmed the news, first reported by ABC.

Legally, Gingrich does not need to form a committee to begin the "exploratory" phase of a presidential campaign. The Federal Election Commission requires only that he begin tracking his donations and report them when he forms a full-fledged presidential committee.

To all you folks out there yelling and screaming and jumping on chairs - I seriously doubt that candidate Gingrich has a chance at the nomination. He has more baggage than an the Orlando Airport carousel. What with his family values kind of not-parallel with the rest of the party image.

Between the hard-core Republicans and hard-core Progressives who absolutely hate Newt, he's nothing more than a potential punching bag on the debate stage, and to this author, may very well may be a wringer.

Now that said -- he'd be a PERFECT Veep candidate for the GOP!

Electric Boogaloo

The Republicans are set to unveil their new "Contract With America II: No Really, This Time We Mean It". The 1990's contract has gotten some credit for the Newt Gingrich Republican Revolution, which was about as revolutionary as a decision to change crack dealers.

In 1994 Newt Gingrich and the Gang put out a Contract on America - er, 'with' - introduced six weeks before the 1994 Congressional election and signed by all but two of the Republican members of the House and all of the Party's non-incumbent Republican Congressional candidates; provisions included 12 year-term limits.. ironically this bill rejected by the U.S. House 227-204. By then Newt was Speaker.

Remember all the hype about cutting government spending? Of the departments and programs that the Republicans pledged to eliminate, their combined budgets had grown by 13% by the year 2000. I repeat, what's going to happen when the Tea Party people get hit with more broken promises out of their candidates they backed? What's going to happen when these same double-crossing double-speak establishment Republicans return to their usual corporate masters, er, I mean, interests?

Really, what happens then? Start thinking about it.

Guess Who Voted to Limit the Liability of Oil Companies?

S

Man, people are pissed about that oil spill. But some of that blame is (rightfully) bouncing back to the congress-persons who voted for the Oil Pollution Act. Many believe that those who voted for it are directly responsible for the oil spill in the Gulf. That's a stretch... But they did enable British Petroleum to loosen their safety procedures, to operate without redundant oil spill prevention systems, to take risks, and be, you know, capitalist pig dogs. The argument is that this is why they're using the same oil spill clean up technologies used the in the late 70’s are still in place today.

The Oil Pollution Act diluted (heh heh) any motivation for improvement in oil spill safety, prevention and oil spill containment procedures by removing the penalties for neglect.

Many congress-persons who voted for this act are still in office today. The cry for these people to be removed is getting louder... and yes, I agree, but not for this. What we really should be outraged is that government, which demands obedience to protect us from these things, accepts no liability when they happen.

But anyway, here are their names (these congress-persons voted for the Oil Pollution Act of 1990):

United States Senators – [source]

Richard Shelby – Alabama

John McCain – Arizona

Barbara Boxer – California

Chris Dodd – Connecticut

Joe Lieberman – Connecticut

Joe Biden – Delaware (currently Vice President)

Tom Carper – Deleware

Daniel Inouye – Hawaii

Daniel Akaka – Hawaii

Dick Durbin – Illinois

Richard Lugar – Indiana

Chuck Grassley – Iowa

Tom Harkin – Iowa

Pat Roberts – Kansas

Jim Bunning – Kentucky

Mitch McConnell – Kentucky

Olympia Snowe – Maine

Ben Cardin – Maryland

Barbara Mikulski – Maryland

John Kerry – Massachusettes

Carl Levin – Michigan

Thad Cochran – Mississippi

Kit Bond – Missouri

Max Baucus – Montana

Harry Reid – Nevada

Frank Lautenberg – New Jersey

Jeff Bingaman – New Mexico

Chuck Schumer – New York

Kent Conrad – North Dakota

Byron Dorgan – North Dakota

Jim Inhofe – Oklahoma

Ron Wyden – Oregon

Arlen Specter – Pennsylvania

Tim Johnson – South Dakota

Orrin Hatch – Utah

Patrick Leahy – Vermont

Robert Byrd – West Virgnia

Jay Rockefeller – West Virginia

Herb Kohl – Wisconsin

U.S. House – [source]

Don Young – Alaska

Jon Kyl – Arizona

Howard Berman – California

David Dreier – California

Elton Gallegly – California

Wally Herger – California

Jerry Lewis – California

George Miller – California

Nancy Pelosi – California

Dana Rohrabacher – California

Henry Waxman – California

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen – Florida

Cliff Stearns – Florida

Bill Young – Florida

John Lewis – Georgia

Jerry Costello – Illinois

Dan Burton – Indiana

Pete Visclosky – Indiana

Hal Rogers – Kentucky

Barney Frank – Massachussetts

Ed Markey – Massachussetts

Richard Neal – Massachussetts

Steny Hoyer – Maryland

John Conyers – Michigan

John Dingell – Michigan

Dale Kildee – Michigan

Sander Levin – Michigan

Fred Upton – Michigan

Jim Oberstar – Minnesota

Gene Taylor – Mississippi

Frank Pallone – New Jersey

Chris Smith – New Jersey

Donald Payne – New Jersey

Gary Ackerman – New York

Eliot Engel – New York

Nita Lowey – New York

Charles Rangel – New York

Jose Serrano – New York

Louise Slaughter – New York

Ed Towns – New York

Howard Coble – North Carolina

David Price – North Carolina

Marcy Kaptur – Ohio

Peter DeFazio – Oregon

Paul Kanjorski – Pennsylvania

John Spratt, Jr. – South Carolina

Jim Cooper – Tennessee

John Duncan – Tennessee

Bart Gordon – Tennessee

John Tanner – Tennessee

Joe Barton – Texas

Ralph Hall – Texas

Solomon Ortiz – Texas

Lamar Smith – Texas

Frank Wolf – Virgnia

Jim McDermott – Washington

Nick Rahall – West Virginia

Alan Mollohan – West Virgninia

Dave Obey – Wisconsin

Jim Sensenbrenner – Wisconsin

and

Newt Gingrich

Now what ought to REALLY anger you is how many of these jokers are still incumbents TWENTY years after. That is greater of incumbents that existed under one party rule in China and the Soviet Union. I think only Castro has outlived these lifetime Congressional 'leaders'?

And since we're on the issue, weren't these the same idiots who were against liability caps for medical malpractice just a few months ago, pointing to the increased cost of business that are incurred as a result of doctors taking great pains to avoid litigation? If you didn't support the doctors in that case and then turn around and yell they didn't put big enough caps or should have unlimited liability in the case of Big Oil Spill, perhaps you can share why? Also, do you consider a cap on medical liability an intrusion of government? Why would your opinion change so radically, and so quickly?

Guess He's Going For It?

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) will visit Iowa later this month to keynote the American Future Fund's Conservative Lecture Series.

The event, which takes place in Davenport on May 26, is the latest sign that that the former House leader isn't just dabbling with a run for president in 2012. No politician goes to Iowa by accident. It just doesn't happen. Gingrich's schedule reads like that of a presidential wannabe.

He addressed the Republican National Committee's meeting of state chairs and is also slated to speak at this weekend's annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Charlotte, North Carolina. The organization hosting the event, Iowa-based American Future Fund, has been actively involved in key 2010 primaries. The advocacy group has spent over $1 million on TV ads in the California Senate race targeting former Rep. Tom Campbell (R) for his refusal to sign an anti-tax pledge, and has run more than $100,000 worth of TV ads against ophthalmologist Rand Paul (R) in Kentucky's Senate contest.

Gingrich's Iowa visit, which would be the first of the 2010 cycle, had previously been announced in early March. However, he had previously been slated to attend only two events: the Polk County Republican Party's spring fundraiser in Des Moines, and a fundraising luncheon in Cedar Rapids.

If he weren't interested, he wouldn't be in Iowa. He'd be writing more alt-history World War Two books in his cabin. Or maybe alt-Korean war where Macarthur's use of nuclear bombs as suppressing fire on the Chinese kick starts WWIII. Just an idea, Newt. Run with that.