Blago Gets Booked Bigtime

Former Governor Blagojevich has got himself a 2 million dollar book deal. Condi’s got a book deal. Laura has a book deal. I don’t know if Barney has one, but I’m 100% sure he could get one if he wanted, as long as he agreed not to bite the ghostwriter too hard. Everyone and his mother has a book deal but nobody wants to hear from W.

Bobby Jindal – Not as Dumb as a Post

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Kathleen Parker wants to know what happens to the Bobby Jindal she knows. The one with a great big intellect.

I liked the old Bobby Jindal better – the one whose brain moves so fast, he's already indexing questions his interviewers haven't thought of yet.

What did they do with him?

The Jindal who responded to Barack Obama's address to Congress was less the brilliant statesman than a terribly mixed metaphor – equal parts Mister Rogers, Bobby Brady and Kenneth the Page.

I know Bobby Jindal, and that guy wasn't Bobby Jindal.

She knows what happened to him and says so. Staff, handlers, consultants. The same types who have done such humiliating damage to both politicians in both parties. But that’s only part of the story. The other two parts are much more troubling for Jindal’s future.

His allowing his handlers to turn him into a developmentally disabled Mr. Rogers was just plain Leadership Fail. Leaders don’t allow themselves to be handled into an alternate personality. They can communicate on different levels and sound perfectly natural whether they’ve got their wonk hats on or are in a more populist mode. They also don’t sound like totally different people. Bill Clinton could do it. Obama has it down perfectly. Jindal – not so much.

The even larger problem, though, and this is direct to Ms. Parker, is that your party has campaigned on rejecting intellect, science or even rational approaches to problems in favor of….Joe the Plumber. Rush Limbaugh is the standard bearer of the GOP. Rational Republicans like Charlie Christ are vilified. Can you blame Jindal for thinking he had to communicate on a kindergarten level? You need to fix the party before you can fix Jindal.

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Technorati Tags: Kathleen Parker,Bobby Jindal,Leadership,GOP,Republicans

Snow Day

That’s not a minivan or station wagon. That’s at least 16 inches of snow on the ‘02 Galant. The driveway is under about the same amount of snow except where it’s drifted higher. I think we’re too freaking old for this. Last time we had some snow we got an offer to shovel from some guys who looked big enough to be equal to this. That time there wasn’t enough on the driveway to bother with. We subscribe to the “let it melt” school of snow removal whenever possible. Not going to work this time. I sure hope those guys show up this time. We’re prepared to pay through the nose. I mean, what good is grocery money if you can’t get to the store, right?

Technorati Tags: Snow

O’Reilly to speak at fundraising event for rape victims.

From Think Progress.

This should go well.

Technorati Tags: Bill O'Reilly,Rape,Think Progress

6th Time's the Charm?

I just noticed that today this blog is one month old. Now, I'm not going to be celebrating every monthiversary, but the first one is always special. I think this is my sixth blog, but this one is the real thing. I'm sure. It just feels right, like the eHarmony ads are always talking about.

It’s been a great first month. Traffic shot up from the high single digits to the (very) low single digits quickly. It’s been a pleasure to connect with old blog friends to make some wonderful new ones.  Blogger has made that much easier with their handy dandy new blogroll thingy, which tells you when your favorite blogs have updated. I’m really liking that.

I’ve got my blogging head back on straight. If you hear or read something interesting and your first impulse is to discuss it with friends or family instead of evaluating whether or not it’s blogworthy, well then you know you’ve lost your mojo. That’s where I was at, but no more. Now, once again, I can spend a whole evening saying nothing to Mr. Yenta but, “Please, I can’t talk now. I’m trying to blog.”

This blog has been so good to me that I thought I’d get it a little gift to mark the occasion, so I downloaded Windows Live Writer. It does have a lot of nice features and really handy plugins that you can download. Of course, the first post I tried with it, it froze right up. We’re giving it one more shot. I’d like that to work out because there’s a Zemanta plugin and Zemanta is really handy. I use it mostly for the photos and the links. It suggests the photos and provides them  and will put in the incidental links for you. If the photo is part of the point of the post, I wouldn’t use it, but if you just want something illustrative, it’s a great timesaver. I’ll also suggest tags and give you related links if you want them. So, I’m kind of crossing my fingers that this works out.

In any case, I just want to say thanks to everyone who’s dropped by, commented, followed, blogrolled and just generally been so friendly in our first month. Now I promise not do another post like this until it’s been a year.

Technorati Tags: Blogging,Blogger,Zemanta,Windows Live Writer

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MCGOP

Nate's done it again. From the conservative who brought you the excellent response to Eric Cantor's ill-fated Aerosmith Video there's now one that aspires to help Micheal Steele keep it real. Yo, Nate. You be da man!

Give it up for Nate and maybe rate him up on You Tube if you're so moved.

Tags: That's Right Nate, Politics, GOP, Rap, Hip-Hop, Michael Steele

March is Roaring In

With gusty winds and 10 to 14 inches of snow predicted before all is said and done tomorrow, it's looking like a classic case of March roaring in like a lion. Hope that the lamb arrives on time as well.