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Nu Obs & Ops
News, Observations and Opinions with a Sensa Humah  


1/21/13: The President Of the United States of Liberalism

Violence is out of control in Syria – now Russia says it's sending planes to Beirut to evacuate Russian nationals. 

Nothing’s quite as sure as change – once the biggest name in video games, Atari today filed for bankruptcy.  They're most remembered for Pong, the early video ping pong game, one of the first such games to reach commercial success.

The latest listed victim of the hostage-taking in Algeria – 57-year-old Victor Lynn Lovelady, a graduate of Nederland high school south of Beaumont, Texas.

President Obama took the oath of office again this morning, in that most unique American ritual, the presidential inauguration.  Then Obama spoke specifically to his supporters rather than to all of America.  As the Washington Post put it today, the president that liberals were waiting for is finally here.  The accompanying message is he’s the president of liberals, leaving the rest of America wanting.  In his speech today, there was precious little for the millions who have no job, no hope for a job and only some home for part time work. The unemployment rate is the same now as it was when he took office. He paid tribute to events of the last century that for many of us seem like ancient history.  He dissed the Tea Party, saying government programs do not make us a nation of takers -- he promised to address climate change, an issue not settled in the minds of many, and gay marriage, and defending abortion on demand, he spoke glowingly of the collectivist approach to public policy and called on the constitution to condemn the rich getting richer while the poor grow.  In this most divided time in America politically, this is the Obama administration’s way.  Then there’s the highway. 

As the Rev. Martin Luther King put it, "We must learn to live together as brothers, or parish together as fools."

This was the most depressing day of the year -- worldwide, according to Wales psychologist Cliff Arnell.  The combination of cold weather, a long stretch of days with little or no sunshine, Christmas bills coming in, difficulty keeping new years resolutions sinking in, spring seems a long way off – the confluence of these make January twenty-first most depressing, Arnell says.  But now, look on the bright side, January twenty-first is over!  Now of course, there's always April fifteenth...

1/16/13: Hostages in Africa -- and in America?

Hostages taken in northern Africa – the two dead during the kidnapping are now said to be French and British nationals who were working at a natural gas facility deep in the Sahara desert, on a bus headed for an airport when they were attacked by terrorists.  At least 24 others, including an unknown number of Americans, were taken hostage too. 

The al-Qaeda related terrorists are said by Reuters to have taken control of that gas field, which supplies energy to Europe, so – it boils down to this:  Because France is deeply concerned that Islamic terrorists are taking over the nation of Mali, putting terrorists dangerously close to Europe, France and other nations sent in air fighters over the weekend, and troops who arrived today, intervening in Mali’s civil war.  In retaliation, Islamic extremists sent groups of Islamists into the nation of Algeria, where they took hostages this morning.

And the hostage-takers make it clear, there are demands to be made – and hostages are at risk if those demands are not met.  Now Paris, Washington and London are in something of a dilemma:  How to get that gas field back to producing much-needed energy during this cold winter – and how to save hostages that could be killed any time – without negotiating with terrorists who appear intent on turning what was once an obscure civil war in Mali into an international incident...

...President Obama is "frustrated with our republic," with the way it works.  That’s the estimation of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, commenting on Obama’s speech this morning calling for more control on guns and gun owners.  Rubio said this afternoon that when Obama made 23 executive orders instead of allowing the gun control debate to fully go to Congress, Obama was abusing his power and ignoring the constitution.  But there are analysts on Capital Hill who say Obama’s challenge to Congress to ban certain weapons is being met with little enthusiasm by members of Congress – and may indeed by dead on arrival in the House of Representatives. 

1/15/13: New York, Atlanta and other outposts of The Universe

It’s the biggest thing in the universe.  The Royal Astronomical Society says an international team of researchers has found the largest known structure in the universe – a big clump of quasars – which are the center of galaxies – quasars that are lumped together in a mass so big it’s mind boggling even to astronomers.  So big, seriously, that if you wanted to cross this mass of outer space matter in a starship  -- travelling at the speed of light – it would still take you about 4 billion years to cross it. 

Here in the United States, what are people in general concerned about? Gun laws?  A new Gallup poll says people are worried about the state of the economy in general – then the budget deficit second – dissatisfaction with government third.  And then, fourth, unemployment; fifth, lack of money; sixth, taxes – then gun control.

New York’s Governor has signed a new law, the toughest gun control law in years.   Obama is set to announce his gun control plans any time now.

An Atlanta man named Larry Ward has designated this Saturday as Gun Appreciation Day.   He says it may be coincidental that it's just hours before the president’s inauguration. Word is spreading fast and gun appreciation events are being scheduled nationwide. 

Fitch’s rating service says the US will see a credit downgrade if Congress and Obama don’t raise the debt ceiling.

Dell computer is treading water on the markets – stock down 40-percent over the past five years – now the company based near Austin is talking with investors about going private.  Investment houses are skeptical, though, that that will turn the company’s fortunes around.

The Golden Globe awards Sunday night had a turn of fortune – ratings way up.  The consensus is it was an entertaining show – humor writer Howard Levane notwithstanding.  Levine called it "Useless statues given for unimportant movies presented by people of modest stage talent."  Yeah, but did you like the show, Howard?

1/11/13:  Random Notes

There’s speculation that the White House may tap Texan Kay Bailey Hutchison to replace Transportation Secy Ray LaHood – and Hutchison would be a great choice, but Obama likely has lots of female candidates – he’s probably got binders full of women. 

Obama says US troops this spring will begin taking on a supporting role in Afghanistan, as part of the winding down of our military operations there.  We’ll still be training Afghan troops – but before you know it we’ll be leading from behind.

The White House announced today that the state of the union address is set for Feb. 12.  If that date sounds familiar, well, it’s Lincoln’s birthday.  But it’s also Josh Brolin’s birthday and he’s a big Obama fan.

The more we’re reading about the background of what happened in last year’s presidential election, the more it seems like the two candidates didn’t really want all that much to be president.  It must have been nice to be around for the 1968 election. Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. Now there were two guys who really wanted to be president.

New York City – a comedy improvisation group plans to gain publicity Sunday by riding the subway wearing no pants.  Don’t ask why, it’s New York.

Houston’s mayor Anise Parker says she’s supporting Wendy Greuel for mayor of Los Angeles.  Sorry if I sound like Andy Rooney, but I have trouble supporting anyone who’s last name reminds me of that terrible food they kept feeding Oliver Twist in the Charles Dickens novel.

A study of the new Texas legislature meeting this week shows that nearly a third of members are lawyers.  That means all you have to do is stand there in the senate or house and scream the words "I've fallen and I can't get up" -- you may draw a very  interested crowd.

Most of all, it’s nice to know that new Texas US Senator Ted Cruz has a sense of humor.  After spending a week getting settled in Washington, he landed in Texas and said, "It's great to be back in America!"

1/8/13:  Hottest US Temperatures In the History of the World -- and Even More Hyperbole!

Politics as practiced in Washington today is doing serious harm to the nation.  That’s the takeaway from today’s Gallup poll – 68-percent of democrats agree – 79-percent of Independents – 87-percent of Republicans agree --  politics as usual is bad for America.

Lots of partying in Austin last night – the Texas legislature convened today at noon – Joe Straus remains speaker of the House – politicos will be settling in for a couple of days before they face a number of problems, including the increasingly scarce and important resource – water. 

Headline in the Dallas Morning News today – "Texas School Districts Want the State to Get Off Their Back."  Districts are starting to understand how many taxpayers and business owners feel about the federal government.

The Obama administration will be around another four years – so if you’ve got big bucks its time to get on board – a committee paying for the inauguration on January 21, encouraging everyone to contribute up to a million bucks.  ASAP.

The global warming agenda – The National Climatic Data Center today said last year was the warmest ever.  USA Today says 2012 was the hottest year in the history of the United States.  The New York Times says, "It’s official: 2012 was hottest year ever in US."  Okay.  Actually, records have only been kept since 1895, so there are plenty of years when it could have been hotter but we don’t know.  1782, perhaps.  But you can read the entire article on the New York Times website and they don’t even tell you how hot it actually was last year – but the answer is -- 2012’s average temperature was one degree higher than the previous hottest year, 1998 when the average national temperature all year was a scorching 54.3 degrees. 

12/31/12:  Hold You In Their Armchair You Can Feel Their Disease

In the old cowboy movies, "Go for your guns" meant a standoff on Main Street.  But for Calfornia senator Dianne Feinstein, it means tough new gun legislation she promises to introduce soon – calling for fingerprinting gun owners, forced registration of guns that are not registered, and widening the definition of assault weapons.  Senator Feinstein says her bill will stop the sale, transfer, importation or manufacture of deadly assault weapons.  Unless of course Eric Holder decides to let some loose in another gun-walking operation.   

It’s starting to look like the Environmental Protection Agency staff at the top is just out of control.  Back in the spring, it was EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz, quoted as comparing his job of enforcing EPA rules with the job the Romans did – figuratively crucify some companies as an example to pollution violators.  Now it looks like EPA administrator Lisa Jackson has been using fake name emails that have that are now part of a lawsuit against the agency – a lawsuit that says the EPA has been aggressive – to put it nicely -- in suppressing the coal industry because coal is a heavy air polluter. 

Recall -- more than Nap Nanny baby recliners are being removed from stores after at least five infant deaths and dozens of reports of children nearly falling out of the recliners – the Consumer Products Safety Commission says go to their website for details on the Nap Nanny baby recliner design problems.

Still nowhere near any solution to the so-called fiscal cliff – unless you count the solution that Starbucks coffee shops have come up with – they say their cups will feature the political message – two words – "Come Together."  As in the old John Lennon song, now directed to the pesident and congress.  You know, the classic philosophical song about the spinal cracker and the Ju-Ju Eyeballs. 

Our notes after spending most of Friday 12/14 covering a tragic shooting in Connecticut:

Authorities in Connecticut are now releasing official information on Friday’s shooting at an elementary school not far from the city of Danbury.  They say the shooter who killed at least 18 children was 20-year-old Adam Lanza.  A Connecticut officer earlier mistakenly said the shooter was Adam’s older brother Ryan, but Ryan is in custody, and is not a suspect, according to investigators and the Associated Press .  Shooter Adam Lanza committed suicide – in the school -- after the shootings, the New York Times reports, and one of his first victims was his own mother, a teacher shot in her classroom.  The New York Post says the school principal died of gunshot wounds, but one teacher is in a hospital, expected to survive.  Lanza is described by those who lived in his neighborhood as being "odd" – displaying what they call signs associated with mental illness.  He’s said to have used two handguns and a shotgun, AP reports.  Another body related to this case has been found at another location, but there are no details.  It was originally reported that shooter Adam Lanza’s mother may have been that victim, but police are not commenting on it, which is being treated as associated but separate investigation.

One note – emotions were running high this afternoon – some news media picked up the mistaken report that Ryan – not Adam -- Lanza was the shooter.  Then they put Ryans facebook page on the internet.  Big mistake, which led to some confusion.  And emotions are still high – New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg used this tragedy to again call for gun control.  So did the mayor of Boston.  Connecticut has one of the most stringent gun control laws in the nation.  Perhaps there should be a cooling off period while we mourn the loss of these children, before we jump back into politics as usual.

11/9/12:  Trende says: It Was Not About the Minorities Who Showed Up, It Was About the 'Whites' Who Didn't

This makes sense now that we've been bombarded for days with demographic numbers that don't add up.  One analysis of the 2012 election says forget about the rising number of minorities at voting booths, Mitt Romney lost because millions in the majority stayed home on election day.  Y'know, newspapers and websites abound (see NYT, WP, Politico and on and on) with a pat explanation that Republicans lost last Tuesday because of the increasing number of minority voters...

...But a Real Clear Politics.com columnist with the appropriate name of Sean Trende says apples-to-apples comparisons of the turnout on the 2008 and 2012 election days show only slight increases in minority voting.  But the mix of people generically called white people just stayed home by the millions this past election day, largely in ignored rural areas where unemployment is high.  Trende says the reason is likely that they don’t like the job Obama’s done – but the negative ads portraying Romney as an isolated, rich Wall Street fatcat who couldn’t articulate a clear positive agenda for the future made their votes look futile.  The whole thing will be clearer when the official voter demographic breakdowns are released. 

Masking In the Limelight

 

We were worried about this whole election.  As a friend of ours points out, this election was complicated and verbose and very, very expensive and it put a lot of money into my industry, broadcasting, so I enjoyed it.  And I enjoyed doing radio commentary about it, reporting the news stories about the election and hearing what people said about it and what people said about what people said and so on.

 

But we were worried because the whole election was a done deal days ago, if people had just been paying attention.  Oh, we were caught up in the game of politics and the usual Gotcha stuff and My Way Or the Highway stuff that politics -- and political correctness -- is all about these days.  And we were caught up in doing Hallowe'en with our kids too, so we didn't notice that an important bellwether had been mentioned in the news media.

 

The sales of Hallowe'en masks gave away the direction in which the election winds were blowing.  The Obama mask outsold the Romney mask by a landslide: 60% for the incumbent, 40% for the challenger.  No contest. 

 

For heaven's sake.  Why, our friend questions, did it take Romney till November 6th -- a full 6 days after the Obama mask landslide results were in -- to concede the election?

QUOTE OF THE YEAR (SO FAR:)
"Let’s get one thing clear once and for all: the only person who has ever been allowed to “reach out” (and, in her case, touch someone you love) was Diana Ross. Anyone else should just “get in touch with” their colleagues, perhaps even “write a letter” asking for their views. What was once a mild rash has become a contagious bug and we need to find a vaccine for all this reaching out. Not only is it a drippy, meaningless phrase, it also conjures up an unpleasant image of people’s sweaty paws grabbing at you.

"The people who 'reach out' are also those whose thinking is always “blue sky," who can’t describe anything vaguely contemporary without incorrectly enlisting phrases such as “minimalist” or “modernist” and who don’t have to hurry to the airport but need to “rocket” there. But for now if we can just get everyone to delete “reach out” from their memory banks, opening our emails will be a less tense experience. And if they don’t, perhaps we’ll have to reach out – and grab them by the throat."
-- Monocle magazine

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Mike Shiloh, editor at TheLatest.Net, is an award-winning broadcast news reporter, anchor and Internet writer, a regular on CNN, as heard on WINK News Radio, KNTH, KKHT, KTRH, KRBE, KILT, KKHT, KKBQ, KVST, KNTH, KSEV and KQUE.

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