A role for Lou Dobbs right out of central casting, given his xenophobic mindset.
His name was quickly floated as a potential challenger in 2012 to United States Senator Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat, an ardent advocate for immigrants’ rights and the chamber’s only Hispanic member. (Mr. Dobbs, 64, lives on a horse farm in rural Wantage, N.J.)
“I think Lou is realistically saying, that’s a long way off, but if he did run for office there’d have to be an intermediary step, such as the Menendez seat,” said the spokesman, Robert L. Dilenschneider. He said Mr. Dobbs was impressed by Republican gains in New Jersey in November and by President Obama’s sinking popularity.
Mr. Dobbs’s two biggest assets in a Senate race would be name recognition and his fortune. But it is less evident that he has a political base of support, even in Sussex County, where he lives, and where Republicans dominate every level of politics.
Richard Zeoli, a former Sussex Republican chairman who was just elected a county freeholder, said he did not know whether Mr. Dobbs would energize Republicans on a full range of issues or focus too much on a few subjects. “Beyond immigration, there’s a lot of things that party leaders would want to ask,” he said.
Virginia Littell, a former state Republican chairwoman, said Mr. Dobbs and his wife, Debi, had been only “peripherally involved” in the community. “I don’t even know anything about him politically,” she said. “I know he was a Republican and now he’s an independent. So, say he comes back to be a Republican. Is that really who he is?”
Asked whether Mr. Dobbs would run as an independent or a Republican, Mr. Dilenschneider first ventured that it would be “highly unlikely” that he would return to the party, given how much he had done to brand himself as an independent. But after getting through to Mr. Dobbs, he reported back that the former anchor would not rule out a Republican candidacy. “It’s just too early to come to a conclusion on that,” he quoted Mr. Dobbs as saying.
Mr. Dobbs’s past outspokenness could also complicate his return to the Republican fold. Last year, he ripped into Christopher J. Christie, then the United States attorney in New Jersey, over immigration enforcement, calling him “an utter embarrassment.” He also briefly considered a primary run against Mr. Christie in the governor’s race.
And in late October, Mr. Christie’s aides took notice when Mr. Dobbs gave an independent candidate, Christopher J. Daggett, air time on his CNN program when it appeared that Mr. Daggett’s candidacy was damaging Mr. Christie.
Mr. Christie, now the state’s governor-elect, will presumably have something to say about who should be the party’s nominee for the Senate in 2012.
It is that time of year when I step my feet into the shoes of Nostradamus and make a prediction about the person that will grace the cover of Time magazine as the Person Of The Year 2009.
As I look at the world landscape the person who seems to be generating the most debate, both cerebral and heated, is the one who rightfully requested and will receive more troops for Afghanistan. The military scenario that this man will develop and employ in the war in Afghanistan will not only impact foreign policy, but will also leave a huge fingerprint on the life of President Obama. The stakes are great, and the nation is watching. All eyes this year were riveted on the war in Afghanistan, and the same will be true next year as even more soldiers are to be sent to fight a needed war, one that we must win. The Taliban must not control that nation, or be allowed to nest in the mountains ready to undermine Pakistan.
Therefore I predict that Time Person Of The Year 2009 will be…..
General Stanley McChrystal
For all my readers without clouds tonight…….
Space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) this morning at 4:53 am EST. Their separation sets the stage for double flybys of many towns and cities on Wednesday evening, Nov. 25th, when Atlantis and the ISS will soar through the night sky side by side–a fantastic sight. Atlantis is not scheduled to land until Friday morning, Nov. 27th, so the double apparitions will continue on Thursday, Nov. 26th, Thanksgiving in the United States. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flybys: http://spaceweather.com/flybys .
| SPACESHIP SIGHTINGS: Would you like a call when the space station is about to fly over your backyard? Sign up for Spaceweather PHONE. |
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There is an old saying that applies to those who wish to turn the pages backwards on women’s reproductive rights. “Give them an inch, and they will take a mile”. The abortion issue that has been needlessly injected into the health care debate in Washington, and is a clear example of how the phrase applies to politicians. While conservatives already had a law on the books that prohibited federal funds from being used for abortions, they had to try and grab for more control of the rights over women’s bodies. Typical.
In the House debate earlier this month, an amendment offered by Congressman Stupak stated that the health bill’s publicly run health-insurance plan couldn’t cover abortions. But then it went even further into areas not entered before and forbid anyone who receives a federal health subsidy under the health bill from buying an insurance policy, even if with mostly their own funds, that would allow for abortion coverage. Then in a slap to women in almost every state these members of the House allowed people to purchase a rider covering abortion with their own money, knowing damn well that such abortion riders are available in only a handful of states.
Needless to say it is time for abortion-rights activists to rally to the cause of common sense and work to stop this regressive action in the Congress.
Activists plan to rally in Washington and lobby on Dec. 2, during the week that Senate floor debate begins on health care. The Center for Reproductive Rights has aired television ads criticizing the reckless restrictions. A new group, the Coalition to Pass Health Care Reform and Stop Stupak, a network of more than 30 groups will be announced next week.
Will you write a letter to the newspaper, or call your representative in Congress to make sure that women’s reproductive rights are not made into yet even more political football?
This is 2009, after all, and we are still fighting about the rights women can have over their own bodies!
The question over who is the biological mother for Trig Palin is one that has been argued over and over, and seems to have a need for an answer given the scenario that Sarah Palin tells over how the child was born. (I think Levi Johnston knows the answers, and at some point will tell.) If you listen to Palin’s version of Trig’s birth it stretches the believability factor to such an extent that her story becomes cheap theatre. Andrew Sullivan who has raised numberous questions about Trig’s real mother, and has written a fair amount concerning this matter, has another column that adds still more layers of intrigue. Intrigue it should be noted that starts from Palin’s own words from her book. If we are to believe all of this that Palin offers will she think we are then so gullible that she can add ‘immaculate conception’ to the story of Trig’s birth? You snicker now…………….
Take one story that every mother will relate to: the drama of her delivery of her fifth child, Trig. She tells us that at eight months pregnant with a child she knew had Down’s syndrome and would need special care at birth, she got on a plane from Alaska to Dallas, Texas, to attend an energy conference. Most airlines won’t allow this but Alaska Airlines did. Palin then tells us that at 4am on her first night in Dallas, “a strange sensation low in my belly woke me and I sat up straight in bed”. In an interview she gave with the Anchorage Daily News just after Trig’s birth, she confirmed that she had amniotic fluid leaking at that point.
So she was a mother eight months pregnant with a special-needs child thousands of miles from home. She wakes up in the middle of the night with contractions and amniotic leakage and she tells her husband she doesn’t want to call her doctor because it would wake her up at 1am. And she is the sitting governor of a state and her doctor is a close personal friend. Not only that, but she gives the speech as planned in the afternoon, during which she makes a rather good joke. She then tells us what happens next: “Big laughs. More contractions.”
After the speech, does she then go to a local hospital to get checked out? Nah. She gets on two separate aeroplanes all the way back to Alaska, with a stopover in Seattle, because she is determined to have the child in her home town and she just knows that the contractions and amniotic leakage are not signs of imminent delivery. She has had four previous kids so she has experience. “I still had plenty of time … It was a calm, relatively restful flight home,” she explains of the next 15 hours.
You might imagine that an airline would have some qualms about letting a woman in some sort of labour at eight months, and pregnant with a Down’s syndrome child, get on a long transcontinental flight. What if the baby were born in mid-flight? The plane would have to be diverted. What if something happened to the baby? The airline could be liable. Palin never told the flight attendants. Couldn’t they tell, one might innocently ask. In the Anchorage Daily News story about the birth, Alaska Airlines said: “The stage of her pregnancy was not apparent by observation. She did not show any signs of distress.” Palin makes Xena, the warrior princess, seem fragile.
Question remains, who is the biological mother of Trig Palin? Or are we left to conclude that Sarah Palin was hoping for a result that would not force the family to deal with a special needs child? When one looks at the story she tells it seems clear that one or the other has to be answered honestly.
Chase Whiteside conducts more interviews with those who were in line to buy a copy of Sarah Palin’s book. I love how Chase never laughs out loud, but instead uses their words for follow-up questions to underscore they have no clue at all as to why they support Palin. These amusing conversations underscore pretty much what we know already about the level of discourse about the issues from her supporters. No one can be shocked since Palin offers the same type of ‘depth’ in her interviews too!
There is always a reason to get up in the morning. Nothing is ever dull when you have the likes of Lou Dobbs to follow in the news.
Former CNN host Lou Dobbs fueled already rampant speculation about his political future Monday, sending the clearest signals yet that he’s mulling a bid for president — and leaving third-party political operatives salivating over the possibility of a celebrity recruit for the 2012 campaign.
Less than two weeks after announcing his departure from the cable network — and after a series of interviews in which Dobbs encouraged speculation about his political plans — the anchorman known to fans as “Mr. Independent” finally made his presidential ambitions explicit on former Sen. Fred Thompson’s radio show Monday.
Asked if he might make a run at the White House in 2012, Dobbs answered flatly: “Yes is the answer.”
“I’m going to be talking some more with some folks who want me to listen in the next few weeks,” Dobbs told Thompson. “Right now I’m fortunate to have a number of wonderful options.”
Dobbs’s political future, however, remains shrouded in question marks. He has left open a variety of paths to public office — in addition to toying with a presidential campaign, Dobbs hasn’t ruled out a bid for the Senate in 2012 in New Jersey — and also left his party affiliation a mystery.
After watching David Letterman tonight joke about Sarah Palin I thought there must be a site where all the late night jokes are presented in written form. Ka-Ching! (When you visit the site you might want to hit the ‘refresh’ button to get the current jokes about our ‘next president’.)
“In Sarah Palin’s new book, she says when she first laid eyes on her future husband, she said out loud, ‘Thank you, God,’ which is the same thing the Democrats said when they first laid eyes on Sarah Palin.” -Conan O’Brien
“Former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is promoting her new book and she’s going to appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Sarah and Oprah. On the one hand, a very powerful woman qualified to be President of the United States, and on the other hand, you have Sarah.” –David Letterman
“But if you think about it, Sarah Palin and Oprah Winfrey have a lot in common. They both helped get Obama elected.” –David Letterman
“Sarah Palin’s book is big, 400 pages. She wrote the book herself and agonized over every word, and so will you.” –David Letterman
“Sarah Palin’s new autobiography doesn’t come out until November, but it is already No. 1 on Amazon. And if you go to the website, it says, ‘People who bought this book also bought no other books in their entire life.’” –Jimmy Fallon
“This week Sarah Palin’s memoir became a bestseller. It’s not even out yet and it’s been translated in English.” –Bill Maher
“Sarah Palin’s 400-page memoir is going to be released on November 17th, and it’s called ‘Going Rogue: An American Life.’ And critics say that it starts out okay, it get’s really exciting and then confusing, and then the last 100 pages are blank.” –Jimmy Fallon
“The book costs $24.99, but it has a $5,000 jacket.” –Jimmy Fallon
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