Danielle Speaks

I love you JS

Forget about me- the world is spinning fast on Super TUESDAY...

I have not been able to post because of technical difficulties but i am back and fully fixed! I also have cable now and i have been able to watch my beloved CNN and some interesting CALI public stations. I am ruefully sad that I was remiss as a citizen and did not register in time to VOTE in the primary here- I suppose i could have filled an absentee ballot for NYC but I would have voted for Hillary and she has won that state- so no matter- It is more exciting that this is the most important primary CALI has had in 40 yrs. There have been so many memorable quotes today- here are some of my favorites:

Commenting on Winning Virginia:

This just goes to show that the American people can elect a president and not the pundits and the media conglomerates.

                                                                                 -Huckleberry Christ

Regarding his wife Maria Schriver voting for Democrats:

We respect each other's opinions and when we stood there at the alter we promised to be together in sickness and in health and this is her sickness.

                                                                                        -the Govenator

Regarding her winnings thus far:

After 7 yrs of a president listening only to special interests you ask for a president who hears your voice and your dreams....And I want to thank my mother particularly- who was born before women could vote and is watching her daughter tonight on this stage.

                                                                                    -mistress Clinton

I am really enjoying the fact that this race is so much about passion and people's honest emotions regarding their politics. To be perfectly honest I almost wish Huckleberry would win because then it would be the true picture of part of this country against the movement that is forming finally in the left side of life. I guess a fight between Obama and Huckleberry would be the even battle of Zealots and I think that is why Hillary has had such a hard win- she is up against a movement instead of a person. She is practically an incumbent and has real answers to real problems - yet I can not smite the OB campaign- it moves me and speaks to the feelings that I have felt for a long time- I just don't think the man equals the movement. I think he lacks a level of forethought in his actions that speaks to the arrogant vibrancy that has supercharged this campaign- it's his downfall and yet the vagueness also speaks to how hard it actually is to make change- maybe he just does not have the answers- he just knows that we need to hear upfront that EVERYTHING IS WRONG.   Believe me, I wanna live in a world where any race, creed or color can be president- I just don't think he is the man to do it. I think if he were to be the VP for two terms than he would gain the respect, experience and seasonality he needs.  But I almost know its going to be Edwards and Clinton and that saddens me that instead of the ticket being truly who we want ( as the close race tells them so) its going to be the marginal winner with the Christian VP to help play the politico game. Well, either way- I really do believe that change is coming in whatever it comes in.  Peronally, I want the lady and Bubba.  I am just a little nervous of that awful denture wearing McCain and his goofy gosh  golly gee side kick: Huckleberry Hound.

Tucker did you write this?

By Far- my favorite line is- "Universal Healthcare reform, it makes me warm!"

Tonight on CNN there will be the Democratic National Debate and the candidates will be answering questions posed on Youtube You can vote on Youtube, CNN, and NPR for who answered the answers best-  there will be a whole slew of good questions on these sites for the audience to answer really letting us know what people think. Be sure to tune in- its your duty. Thats tonight at 7pm!

In other notes there is a great NPR story about Campaign songs and I have to admit that whenever I hear "Don't Stop" by Fleetwood Mac I get a little tear in my eye. Dear G-d I miss Bill Clinton. He was the first President I could vote for and I don't remember ever EVER taking so much pleasure in voting since. I know he has issues but I would be perfectly happy to change the birth laws and let Arnold Schwartenegger run for pres if we could lift the term limit and bring BUBBA back!  As Bill Maher says "it would be the terminator against the sperminator."

On Michele Obama

April 25, 2007 Op-Ed Columnist

She’s Not Buttering Him Up

By MAUREEN DOWD WASHINGTON

Usually, I love the dynamics of a cheeky woman puncturing the ego of a cocky guy. I liked it in ’40s movies, and I liked it with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, and Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis in “Moonlighting.” So why don’t I like it with Michelle and Barack? I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal — a comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god. The tweaking takes place at fundraisers, where Michelle wants to lift the veil on their home life a bit and give the folks their money’s worth. At the big Hollywood fund-raiser for Senator Obama in February, Michelle came on strong. “I am always a little amazed at the response that people get when they hear from Barack,” she told the crowd at the Beverly Hilton, as her husband stood by looking like a puppy being scolded, reported Hud Morgan of Men’s Vogue. “A great man, a wonderful man. But still a man. ... “I have some difficulty reconciling the two images I have of Barack Obama. There’s Barack Obama the phenomenon. He’s an amazing orator, Harvard Law Review, or whatever it was, law professor, best-selling author, Grammy winner. Pretty amazing, right? “And then there’s the Barack Obama that lives with me in my house, and that guy’s a little less impressive. For some reason this guy still can’t manage to put the butter up when he makes toast, secure the bread so that it doesn’t get stale, and his 5-year-old is still better at making the bed than he is.” She said that the TV version of Barack Obama sounded really interesting and that she’d like to meet him sometime. Many people I talked to afterward found Michelle wondrous. But others worried that her chiding was emasculating, casting her husband — under fire for lacking experience — as an undisciplined child. At a March fund-raiser in New York, she tweaked her husband for not “putting his socks actually in the dirty clothes.” And at a lunch last week with Chicago women, she gave the candidate a fed-up look about that melting butter and said, “I’m like: ‘You’re just asking for it. You know I’m giving a speech about you today.’ ” She throws in nice stuff, too, about how he’s “the real deal” and a trustworthy “brother.” But this princess of South Chicago, a formidable Princeton and Harvard Law School grad, wants us to know that she’s not polishing the pedestal. The Chicago Tribune profile of “Barack’s Rock” on Sunday noted that her career had caused her husband discomfort: “Critics have pointed out that her income has risen along with her husband’s political ascent. She sits on the board of a food company that supplies Wal-Mart, which Sen. Obama has denounced for its labor practices.” The Obamas are both skeptical of hype. Michelle dryly told a reporter at her husband’s Senate swearing-in that perhaps someday, he would do something to earn all the attention he was getting. But it may not be smart politics to mock him in a way that turns him from the glam J.F.K. into the mundane Gerald Ford, toasting his own English muffins. If all Senator Obama is peddling is the Camelot mystique, why debunk the mystique? Besides, the coolly detached candidate, striving to seem substantive, is good at turning down the heat himself. He manages to tamp down crowds dying to be electrified. He resists surfing his own wave of excitement. Michelle conveys the appealing idea that she will tell her husband when he’s puffed up or out of line. She aims high — she ordered her husband to stop puffing on cigarettes as he started campaigning. But then, why didn’t she see the red flags on the Rezko deal? In order to get a bigger yard for their new house on Chicago’s South Side in 2005, the Obamas got into what the senator now confesses was a “boneheaded” real estate arrangement with a sleazy political dealmaker named Tony Rezko, who has been indicted on influence-peddling charges. On Monday, The Chicago Sun-Times reported more shady Rezko news: “Obama, who has worked as a lawyer and a legislator to improve living conditions for the poor, took campaign donations from Rezko even as Rezko’s low-income housing empire was collapsing, leaving many African-American families in buildings riddled with problems,” from a lack of heat to no lack of drug dealers and squatters. Mr. Obama riposted that “it wasn’t brought to my attention.” But isn’t that where a dazzling, tough, smart and connected wife could help a guy out?

I completely did not even know

An Italian journalist kidnapped by the Taleban in Afghanistan two weeks ago has been released. 

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Daniele Mastrogiacomo was in good health in hospital in Afghanistan.

Mr Mastrogiacomo, who works for the La Repubblica daily, was seized with two Afghans in southern Helmand province.

He was trying to interview senior Taleban officials at the time. Reports that the Taleban killed one of the Afghans have not been confirmed.

The fate of the other is still unclear.

Uhmmmm like the the Talaban is totally two years ago, no? (Imagine a Cher from Clueless tone)

I feel a little stupid for letting Afganistan fall of my radar and for not knowing that people are being held hostage in exchange for troop rescind in the area.  I wonder how many other hostage situations are going on right now that I don't know about.

What the eff is wrong with this country????

Today Senator McCain had to apologize for using the word "wasted" instead of "sacrificed" regarding the estimated 3100 lives lost in Iraq.  Barrack Obama had to do exactly the same just days before. They obviously feel it was a waste! Washington demanded these apologies claiming that to say these lives were wasted is to demean the hard work and efforts of our courageous men and women oversees! You know what? Screw that! if you value human life so much and it is becoming almost utterly agreed upon that this war is not a good war then YES these lives were wasted for some barely went to the coast guard inept politician and his careless presidential legacy effort. This was about oil lobbyists and pissing off the other side! That means that indeed these lives were wasted. To say it was a sacrifice is an arrogant cop out. Why were these sacrifices made? To what gods and goddessess did this human flesh get bartered with? And you know what else- this is the United States of America where I thought everyone was at least entitled to their own opinion in the dearth of health insurance, pensions and up to par educations. When did politicians have to apologize so frequently for word usage. When was it not OK to protest the war???

This goes along with Hilary Clinton demanding that Barrack Obama give back the money that went to his campaign from David Geffin because Geffin made comments about Hilary as a candidate to the NY post that were disparaging. not rude or mean, simply oppositional. The man has a difference of opinion. Obama has to give back the $$$$$ because the $$$ came from someone who is totally for him????? WHAT THE EFF IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY. Why are people quibbling over other people's business and falling short on the business at hand?????

I had a thought

It happens. I was thinking about how Dubai is now the Las Vegas of the Middle East and how slowly but surely other places are becoming westernized not just because of the "war against terror" but because many leaders are having the foresight to understand that soon oil will no longer be a viable source of income for their country. Now don't get me wrong- plenty leaders will let their people starve. But I find it interesting that tourism is postulated as the new income in the Middle East. Many places are trying desperately hard to lure travelers and it would seem that the usual route is occurring- first the lone scraggly European here and there, and a few Australians because they go EVERYWHERE. Soon Americans will follow. Dubai, Qatar and others will be the new Thailand.  Recently Asia had its own form of Olympics at Qatar. And so my thought was that the thing that will bring peace to the Middle East is not any Western country's military actions or any agreement on the table but the power of the mighty dollar. MONEY will perhaps be the greatest motivator of peace.  That was my thought. Thank you and good night.

The First 100 hours

Congress began its new session today in its newly shiney democratic pants. I am scared and in awe of Nancy Pelosi's brazen promise to pass six bills of fairly liberal agenda passed within the first 100 hours:

1.anti-terrorism measures

2. Expanded federal funding for Stem Cell Research

3. Minimum wage increase:

All three of these are completed along with new rules on ethics, lobbying and budgeting

With just three bills to go, and one of those scheduled for passage Friday, Democrats appear on their way to accomplishing their promise, regardless of which clock is used.

After acting on a measure to make the government negotiate directly with drug companies for lower Medicare prescription drug prices, the House turns next week to the final two bills on their 100-hour to-do list: cutting interest rates on some student loans and getting more money for the government from oil companies. (link)

This last measure is huge. This involves layers of debate- it perhaps is the most complicated global debate. The US imports 25% of the worlds crude oil. We use 3% of our own - and by this I mean we have uncovered 3% but we do not drill it because 85% of our resources are located on coasts protected for natural preservation purposes- the Atlantic coastline for one. Secondly it should be noted before I go on that we get most of our oil from Canada- indeed not the dreaded Middle East who poses a threat on our national security. Ms Pelosi said when she was still the minority leader that a republican can absolutely not resolve our energy crisis problems because he/she are wed to oil company needs. Now as the house majority leader she is pushing for these nefarious oil companies to actually pay for the research on uncovering of renewable resources. But if most of our oil comes from Canada then our dependence on crude oil does not impose a national threat- our reluctance to school the oil magnates on their marriage to Arab oil moguls does.

The other issue is this- if we do not know what we have under that preserved land- do we dig it? Do we destroy land now to save a nation later? Do we part ways from exporting to extort nature?

WASHINGTON, DC, January 12, 2007 (ENS) - The last of the six designated bills up for consideration during the House Democrats' first 100 legislative hours is the legislative program's only environmental measure.

Introduced today with 199 cosponsors, H.R.6 will shift roughly $13 billion in oil industry subsidies toward renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The House is scheduled to vote on H.R. 6 on January 18.

Specifically, the measure ensures oil companies that were awarded the 1998 and 1999 leases for drilling paid their fair share in royalties. It also closes loopholes and ends giveaways in the tax code for Big Oil, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says on her website.

The bill creates a Strategic Renewable Energy Reserve to invest in clean, renewable energy resources, promoting new emerging technologies, developing greater efficiency and improving energy conservation.

Over the last several years, profits and subsidies for Big Oil have climbed, as has our dependence on foreign oil, Pelosi says. In 2006, the big five oil companies made $97 billion - nearly five times their profits in 2002. Gas prices have topped $3 per gallon at the pump.

The United States now has a record dependence on foreign oil, which has climbed to 65 percent, and the country is sending about $800 million per day to the Middle East and other oil producing countries.

Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is critical to bolstering our national security and creating good-paying new jobs.

Republicans oppose this line of argument siting that that these royalties should be invested in American oil companies and utilized to drill our own resources not shuttle out to inter-nation companies making leaps and bounds in renewable resources.

The truth of the matter is this- a car really can run on fuels created by crops- planted by American farmers- there is on nationally run renewable resource!

hmmmm I need to further investigate this.

Poor Paula- all the clips that morning!

Dear GOP,

Don't Let the door hit your ass on the way out you *&^%$#@!

Looks like we're not staying the course! 

( This message is dedicated to the DNC, to all 2,837 men and women -and counting- who have needlessly lost their lives in Iraq, to Nancy Pelosi- for being unabashedly liberal and winning her way to becoming the very first female speaker of the house (!!!!!!!) , Rahm Emanual, Naral, Planned Parenthood, the over 1300 and counting people who lost their lives last year in Katrina, and the infinite number of people still living and surviving, all of the wonderful men and women who got arrested protesting the 2004 RNC in NYC, Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Harry Read, Wolf Blitzer for not containing your joy, Jon Stewart, Howard Dean- you old vivacious lug!!!, and America for waking the f@ck up!)

love sincerely,
Danielle

PS-  Now I am going to bed- don't let this dream turn into another nightmare when I wake up tomorrow!