Friday Already?

Posted on February 11, 2011 by votermom

 

Mubarak decides Cairo is too hot and heads for the Red Sea. Nothing like a swim to cool off.

EDIT BREAKING NEWS: MUBARAK RESIGNS! Buh-bye!!!!

Philly faces another Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal. Lock em up and throw away the key!

Barack Grover Obama decides it’s time to drown Fannie & Freddie in a  bathtub.

But who cares, because after months of freezing weather, they say it will hit 50F this weekend! WOOT!!!!

So what’s going on in your part of the world?

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66 Responses

  1. votermom, on February 11, 2011 at 8:10 am said:

    Ya know, i had hopes of making a grand debut on this blog with a deep and thought-provoking post, but wth, you gotta go with the brain you have and not the brain you wished you had. And right now my brain is off-duty. :)

  2. yttik, on February 11, 2011 at 8:22 am said:

    It’s a good post!

    Just to get people riled up, Happy Birthday to She Who Shall Not Be Named! I wish NOW would refer to Rick Santorum as a knuckle dragging neanderthal, because you can’t go wrong with that one! It makes a statement against sexism and points a finger at the right.

  3. Anonymous, on February 11, 2011 at 8:27 am said:

    Governor Jerry Brown flies coach and takes the senior discount as well as he headed to LA for meetings.

    Frugal might be an understatement for this guy. Got to love that.

    • okasha skatsi, on February 11, 2011 at 9:02 am said:

      When he was Governor before, he actually answered his own phone when his secretary was on lunch break. I’m a Texan, couldn’t vote for him, but that’s when I really started to like him.

      Can we trade Rick Perry for him?

  4. Bull J. Moose, on February 11, 2011 at 8:27 am said:

    The Egyptian VP made an announcement that Mubarak has stepped down. I hope so. I’m not sure I believe it all yet though.

  5. insanelysane, on February 11, 2011 at 8:28 am said:

    Governor Jerry Brown flies coach and declines the $16.00 up grade and also takes the senior discount as he heads off to LA for meetings.

    Frugal may be an understatement for this guy.
    Got to love that.

  6. Bull J. Moose, on February 11, 2011 at 8:34 am said:

    Mubarak was the sphynxter of Egypt. …I’ll be here all week. :)

  7. Owen, on February 11, 2011 at 8:54 am said:

    Ummm
    VP just said that he was transferring authority to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to “run the affairs of the country.”

    How is Egypt ‘free’ if the Army is running the affair???

    • votermom, on February 11, 2011 at 8:57 am said:

      I think we don’t know what is going t happen to Egypt now, to be honest. Right now they are under military rule (aka martial law), and I really have my fingers crossed that Egypt manages to walk the tightrope to open democracy from here.
      But they are free of Mubarak, and that is huge.

    • Three Wickets, on February 11, 2011 at 9:04 am said:

      Free is a relative term in most of the world including ours.

    • okasha skatsi, on February 11, 2011 at 9:13 am said:

      They’re free of an authoritarian tyrant with Mubarak’s departure. Perhaps even more importantly, they’re now free of his enforcer and his and the CIA’s torturer. Ousting Suleiman was just as important as ditching Mubarak for the country’s future and the possibility of actual free elections.

      Everyone will now be doing a wait/see on the military. While military juntas have a decidedly negative history (underastatement of the year!), the armed forces’ refusal to intervene on Mubarak’s behalf is a considerable positive.

      • votermom, on February 11, 2011 at 9:40 am said:

        Is Suleiman out as well? I think he’s still in — he’s on the military Supreme Council accdg to this
        http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121185311711502.html

        General Omar Suleiman, vice president and former intelligence chief, is among the key retired or serving military officers on the council.

        Others include Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, defence minister; Lt Gen Sami Anan, chief of staff of the Egyptian army; Air Marshal Ahmed Shafiq, minister for civil aviation.

        That includes the 3 members of the “triumvirate” being suggested last week (Suleiman, Anan, Tantawi) plus the article mentions Air Marshal Reda Muhamed and

        Lieutenant General Abd El Aziz Seif-Eldeen, commander of air defence and Vice Admiral Mohab Mamish, chief of navy.

        • okasha skatsi, on February 11, 2011 at 10:13 am said:

          First reports indicated that he had stepped aside, too. They may or may not be accurate. What’s virtually certain, given the history of such military juntas, is that the original arrangemet will shake out to a smaller group fairly soon. Suleiman’s toxic, both to the Egyptian people and to non-conservatives elsewhere, but he’s got a strong hand if he chooses to blackmail Obama, other western leaders, and no doubt some of his Egyptian colleagues..

        • votermom, on February 11, 2011 at 10:29 am said:

          I read on Hillaryis44 (comment) that Sec. Gates called Tantawi last night, and today Tantawi chaired the Sup Council mtg. Not conclusive since Gates has been calling Tantawi several times since they are counterparts, but I wonder if that’s the call where the thumbs up was given to give Mub the heave.

        • okasha skatsi, on February 11, 2011 at 11:03 am said:

          If it was, I’ll bet the very belated breakfast I’m about to go out for that the decision was made between Hillary and Gates, with Obama’s consent only a formality. It’s been fclear throughout that Hillary’s been carrying the negotiating/policy load here, and of course Gates would be working the military front.

        • votermom, on February 11, 2011 at 11:09 am said:

          I agree. Even the msm acknowledge that Gates & Hillary work well & closely together. It seems like their first choice was a civilian interim leadership and this was their fallback.

          My impression of BO throughout this whole thing has been that he’s completely clueless and just parroting whatever his PR people tell him to say; while leaving the actual handling to State Dept & Pentagon.

  8. Three Wickets, on February 11, 2011 at 9:18 am said:

    Thanks for the news on Fannie and Freddie votermom. The article says 150 billion as the total taxpayer bailout for both. That vastly understates the real cost to everyone and the economy, which is virtually unmeasurable in terms of lost homes, livelihoods, equity, assets, confidence, productivity, bailouts and guarantees across private and public sector. The Fed now owns at least a trillion dollars of these mortages. The rest of the 4-5 trillion (book value) in Fannie and Freddie loans are in some bundled form with banks, insurers, retirement investments, foreign investors, gamblers, etc. So when BO says he’s going to start unwinding, hope he does it carefully.

  9. jjmtacoma, on February 11, 2011 at 10:01 am said:

    Glad you are posting here!

  10. Bull J. Moose, on February 11, 2011 at 10:05 am said:

    Oh, and a big welcome to the front page votermom!!

  11. Three Wickets, on February 11, 2011 at 12:15 pm said:

    Wow, looks like David Brooks is not afraid of targeting entitlements.

    Specifically, they have to get behind an effort now being hatched by a group of courageous senators: Saxby Chambliss, Mark Warner, Tom Coburn, Dick Durbin, Mike Crapo and Kent Conrad. These public heroes have been leading an effort to write up the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission report as legislation to serve as the beginning for a serious effort to get our house in order. They’ve been meeting with 20 to 40 of their colleagues to push this along. It’s not always the most famous senators that are involved in this effort. It’s the midranking and junior ones who are willing to risk political ire to save the republic.

    • djmm, on February 11, 2011 at 12:26 pm said:

      “Courageous” is not the adjective that comes to my mind about these mangy congress-critters. Thanks for reading Mr. Brooks, Three Wickets — I can hardly bear to do it.

      djmm

  12. djmm, on February 11, 2011 at 12:23 pm said:

    Great first post, Votermom!

    I am happy for Egypt but I will be even happier if the new government (whatever it is to be) accords Egypt’s women all the rights and privileges of full citizenship. I am hoping the cure is not worse than the disease.

    djmm

  13. Bull J. Moose, on February 11, 2011 at 12:30 pm said:

    I have to admit it, Obama gave a great speech just now about Egypt. Then again, he’s always pretty good at the speechifying. But good one.

    • foxyladi14, on February 11, 2011 at 1:04 pm said:

      well my dear sweet Lord :( .any idiot should be able to read a Teleprompter :mrgreen;

      • Pips, on February 12, 2011 at 3:50 am said:

        Spot on foxyladi!

        Besides Merkel, Cameron and others had long since made their remarks sans teleprompter! before Obama finally had his opinion written out for him … to read. :roll:

    • Three Wickets, on February 11, 2011 at 2:03 pm said:

      No doubt the speech was written by Ben Rhodes, used to be BO’s speechwriter for foreign policy, promoted to Deputy National Security Advisor, lined up with Samantha Power these days against Hillary, Gates and Donilon apparently. Rhodes is not even 30 and has a masters in fiction writing from NYU. WTF.

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