Nonsense Upon Stilts

As loath as I am to agree with the New York Post on anything at all, I have to say that they got this story right. Why is Mayor Bloomberg’s technology commissioner claiming to live in Florida full time? And to save $3,000 a year in taxes? That’s insane. She makes over $200,000 a year by herself, and I’m sure her husband has income, too. There’s no excuse to be so cheap. Of course, today her husband informed the good people of Florida that she is not, in fact, a full-time resident, and hasn’t been since 2001. It’s not as though this was a case of oversight; they actively claimed that she still lived year round in Florida; she had a Florida driver’s license; and she voted in Florida elections. Seriously???

Was it worth the talk of fraud and loss of reputation? I will never understand politicians.

No Comments | In: Boo!, Facepalm, Government/Law, Horrible horrible people, Politics, Seriously? | tags: Carole Post, Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Florida, Fraud, Lies Lies Lies, New York City, Politics. | #

It seems like so much of what I read in the news is negative or at least not terribly encouraging, so I really enjoyed reading this article on Michelle Bachelet, the president of Chile. I know almost nothing about Chile, but Bachelet’s approval rating is over 70%, up from a low of 35% in 2006. She saved money wisely and was able to not only shield her country during the economic downturn, but also to place Chile in a position where its sovereign funds gained money during the global crisis. She didn’t get the job by being the widow of a dead politician; moreover, she’s agnostic and a single mother in a heavily Catholic country. I love it when the underdog succeeds.

No Comments | In: Awesome, Government/Law, Politics, Things I like | tags: Chile, Good News, Michelle Bachelet, Politics, Presidents, South America. | #

It’s been a while since I checked in with her, and I don’t do well with change, so it’s a relief to know that our friend Michele Bachmann is still as crazy as ever. This time, she temporarily blocked voting on the resolution that celebrated Hawai’i’s 50th year as a state, and, (oh!) also named it as the birthplace of our 44th president. Controversial stuff, there, right? Thankfully, her nuttiness didn’t impede the resolution from being passed 378 – 0 (not that it was unanimously approved; over 50 cowardly jackholes just abstained from the vote).

No Comments | In: Amusing, Barack Obama, Government/Law, Horrible horrible people, Politics, United States Congress | tags: Barack Obama, Hawai'i, Michele Bachmann, Politicans, Politics, U.S. House of Representatives. | #

Of course, it would be remiss of me to rag on West Bend, Wisconsin and not even mention the big news in New Jersey today. A boatload of politicians and religious leaders were arrested today on charges of corruption. One of those people is Hoboken’s mayor, Peter Cammarano. I’m not surprised that a mayor would get caught up in this; this is New Jersey, after all, and Secaucus mayor Dennis Elwell and Ridgefield mayor Anthony Suarez were also arrested (I linked to the Google caches, in case industrious city workers remember to yank these). No, what surprises me is that Cammarano has only been on the job since July 1. And he’s being accused of taking$25,000 in that time. So this man, if the charges are to be believed, has taken over $1,000 in bribes for every day that he’s been on the job. He should be happy the feds arrested him; how could he have possibly kept up that pace? Also, it might be good for him that this happened so quickly, before he could make more incredibly boneheaded statements. All in all, I’m pretty sure that this is not what Cammarano had in mind last night (his 32nd birthday!) as he poured beer  for the opening night of Hoboken’s St. Ann’s festival.

No Comments | In: Amusing, Boo!, Facepalm, Government/Law, Politics | tags: Corruption, Hoboken, New Jersey, Peter Cammarano, Politicians, Politics, Ridgefield, Secaucus. | #

My buddy, Sarah Palin, has decided to step down from her post as governor of Alaska. Initially, people thought that this might be to give her time to get her act together, so that she could run for president in 2012. And, seriously: how sweet would that be? With Palin as the Republican nominee, Obama could introduce Hookers and Blow Tuesdays in the Oval Office and still beat her handily.

The timing of this announcement can only be called curious; much like Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey’s announcement of their divorce immediately prior to Thanksgiving, Ms. Palin’s July 3 press conference seems like nothing so much as an attempt to dodge as much of the media as possible during this holiday break. The Mudflats, a web site from Alaska that I visited a few times during the presidential election, linked to a transcript of Ms. Palin’s speech and provided some speculation as to why she would step down as governor (rhymes with “skimbezzlement”).

I wonder, too, if this has anything to do with the tell-all book about Ms. Palin that is being written by Steve Schmidt, her former campaign strategist (and the guy who picked her to run with John McCain; do we really trust his judgment anymore??); Gawker had a juicy tidbit from it the other day, and if the rest of it is as forehead-slappingly stupid as this bit, no wonder the woman wants out before publication. Gawker also speculates as to why the Alaska governor decided to resign her post.

Doing a quick look around the tubes and twitter, it seems that trouble with the IRS is the most prevalent theory. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

No Comments | In: Awesome, Barack Obama, Election 2008, Facepalm, Government/Law, Politics, Sarah Palin, Things that make me go hmm | tags: 2012 Presidential Election, Alaska, Barack Obama, Gawker, Hookers and Blow, Mudflats, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Steve Schmidt, Twitter. | #

Okay, Obama. Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General? Seriously? This is troublesome, unless of course you would like to consider Press Secretary Jon Stewart, and then all will be forgiven (until the next boneheaded cabinet appointment). I know that Dr. Gupta really is a surgeon, but do we really need to resort to selecting our Cabinet members from basic cable? Were there no other authoritative, intelligent, reasonable surgeons in the whole country? This is not going to help matters with those who find Obama’s worldview to be drastically different than their own.

In good news, Al Franken is now the governor of Minnesota. I know! Even when I was rooting for him, I didn’t think that he had any sort of chance. The results were close enough that Coleman is definitely going to pursue a legal challenge, but for now, we have a former Saturday Night Live actor as a state’s governor. Of course, Minnesota famously elected Jesse Ventura, so it’s not like Franken is even the most interesting television performer elected in the Gopher State.

If you’re wondering why I’m more okay with Franken being senator than Sanjay Gupta Surgeon General, here’s a short list:

• Shut up.

No Comments | In: Barack Obama, Politics | tags: Barack Obama, Politics, Sanjay Gupta. | #

I know that I put a facetious, Nixon-inspired title on this post, but I’m actually encouraged by the fact that President Bush can express regrets for negative things that happened during his tenure. He didn’t want to speculate on whether he would still have gone into Iraq if it had been known that the WMD rumors were untrue, but I actually respect that. I feel that regrets and second-guessing really never help at all, and can actually obscure the path that should be taken in the present. Anyway, here’s the article.

No Comments | In: Politics | tags: George W. Bush, Politicians, Politics, President Bush, United States. | #

A year and some change ago, when she was still heard from all the time, I might have expressed a conservative amount of glee at the fact that Ann Coulter has broken her jaw. Mean, I know, but I’ve never pretended to be that nice. But the thing is, Ann has either mellowed, or people have stopped reporting on her nastiness, or maybe I’m just growing up, but this news makes me feel bad for her. A broken jaw seems like a horrific injury, and I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.

Also, after hearing all the untrained, unfocused vitriolic craziness that was passed off as cogent political commentary during the election cycle, I actually missed Ann a bit. She can be horribly mean and play to people’s worst fears, but she does it with a kind of style. I think that people know by now that Ann Coulter loves being reported on in the media she pretends to abhor, and therefore tend to take even the nastiest things she says with a grain of salt because of it. Plus, she has been known to talk a bit of smack about Republicans too, while a lot of the new breed seem to find Republicans to be above the type of scrutiny they direct toward Democrats. Unlike other conservative and Republican commentators, Coulter never seems like a psycho ranter; lots of people, myself included, often doubt that she means a lot of the horrible things that she says. People have even questioned whether “Ann Coulter” isn’t the best bit of performance art since Andy Kaufman, as Ann-the-person seems infinitely more likable and sensible than Ann-the-commentator. Even to people who should know better, Ann Coulter often comes off as too reasonable to be as deluded as her words would have you think. Did anybody ever believe that about Sarah Palin? Not that I’ve heard. In fact, I feel it’s much more likely that Governor Palin has deep reserves of crazy that she hasn’t even drilled into yet.

So: Godspeed, Ann. I wish you the most painless and quick recovery possible, and look forward to the day when the sight of you opening your mouth once again annoys me.

No Comments | In: Politics, Sarah Palin | tags: Andy Kaufman, Ann Coulter, Ann Coulter Broken Jaw, Broken Jaw, Health, Injuries, Michelle Malkin, Performance Art, Political Commentary, Politics, Sarah Palin. | #

Remember Stephen Lewis, the Murfreesboro Free Press columnist who thought it would be hilarious to rewrite the theme song to The Jeffersons with the Obamas in mind? Well, as the person who commented on my post mentioned, in addition to reworking songs and ridiculing the accents of naturalized Americans in his free time, Mr. Lewis spends his days as a principal of an elementary school. Oh goody, because he is exactly who I want overseeing the next generation! (Overseeing! See what I did there?)

It seems that, in addition to the apology published by the editor of the Free Press, Mr. Lewis emailed his own tepid apology to the parents of those children who attend his school.

Although my hobby as a columnist is not connected directly to my position as principal I should have known better than to attempt to find humor in a subject so sensitive to so many. With all of that being said, I truly apologize to those of you who were offended by my comments.

What an apology, huh? I’m guessing that the school board or whoever actually hired him told him to write that. It certainly doesn’t sound heartfelt. To me, it sounds a lot like, “I’m sorry you overly sensitive whiners can’t take a joke.” I still really cannot believe that anybody would be dumb enough to write that column, but especially somebody who works with diverse populations every day and knows about the standards to which educators are held. How could this have seemed like a good idea? It would have been a terrible thing just to forward to a few friends, so how much more boneheaded was it to submit it for publication in a newspaper? You have to wonder about some people.

For those people who were directed to this post because of its title, George said that in an episode of Seinfeld, a show I generally don’t care about at all, but which I find selectively quotable.

No Comments | In: Barack Obama, Election 2008, Facepalm, Horrible horrible people, Politics | tags: Apologies, Barack Obama, Education, Educators, Facepalm, Followup, Ignorance, Murfreesboro Free Press, Murfreesboro Tennessee, Politics, Principals, Race-baiting, Racism, Schools, Stephen Lewis, Stereotypes, Stereotyping, Tennessee. | #

My mom is understandably super happy about Obama’s win. It really shows her how far we as a nation have come. My mother grew up in segregated South Carolina. Only her youngest brother (last of my grandparents’ 10 surviving children), ever went to school with white children, and then I think only in the last few years of high school. So my mom doesn’t hate anybody, but still has comfort issues around white people. She doesn’t really hang out with any, and I think that, to her, my having so many white friends is a source of confusion, amusement, and perhaps a little bit of pride (she’s happy that I don’t have the same bad associations that she does).

So anyway, I received all of these really uplifting, corny, cheesy, vaguely messianic emails from her about Barack Obama going into the election, and the volume, corniness, cheesiness, and messianic undertones have all increased since his win. Just like everybody else on the Internet, I have seen Patrick Moberg’s illustration pretty much everywhere since November 4.

And now you've seen it, too!

But by now we all know that too much saccharine sentiment in our diets can lead to an irony deficiency, so here are two covers that I prefer to a lot of things my mom has sent me (predictably, she hated them). They’re from the Chicago Reader. The Obama cover is the one they went with (for obvious reasons), but they had the McCain cover all ready just in case.

No Comments | In: Barack Obama, Election 2008, Politics, The Fam | tags: Barack Obama, Chicago Reader, Election 2008, Election Aftermath, John McCain, Patrick Moberg, Political Cartoons, Politics, President-elect Barack Obama, Presidential Election, Segregation. | #