Orly? Yes, really.
Feb 8, 2010 Uncategorized
Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time.
I spent the last four days in Nashville at a blogging conference, Blissdom, and as luck would have it, our conference was in the same hotel as the National Tea Party. Right next to it, in fact. So, there was some comical mixing of bloggers and Teabaggers.
The weather was shitty – about the same as NYC – but it didn’t really matter, since the Opryland Hotel was gigantic and gorgeous, with indoor areas so huge I felt like I was outdoors, only better, since there was no weather or bugs.
I had finally left the hotel on Saturday, to go across the highway to Cooter’s Place. I was raised on The Dukes of Hazzard, so this was something of a pilgrimage for me.
On my way back to my conference I went past the ballroom where Sarah Palin was about to give her keynote address. I saw a bunch of cameras and reporters huddled around a blond dye-job in bright red and from a hundred feet away – from the back – I knew I had struck gold: Orly Taitz was talking. It wouldn’t really matter what she was saying, it’s always entertaining.
There was a lot of background noise, so I’ll sum it up for you: She predicts that the democratic party will ask President Obama to step down before the next presidential election, to help the party. I didn’t get a chance to ask her if Heidi Montag would win a Nobel prize.
Thanks very much to my Blissdom sponsor, Juice Box Jungle.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Blissdom, Nashville, National Tea Party, Orly Taitz, President Obama, Teabaggers
I’m all over the place
Sep 8, 2009 Uncategorized
I’ve mentioned my friend Jennie’s blog before, In Jennie’s Kitchen. I love her no-nonsense approach to food and her zucchini parmesan hummus was totally yummy. So I was thrilled when she asked me to guest-post on her blog last week. And being me, I used it as an excuse to bitch about something. Please stop over there and read it, and I promise I’ll be a good guest if you ever invite me over.
I’m also on the NYC Moms Blog today talking about how insane it is that some conservatives don’t want their kids to hear the president speak about staying in school and studying hard and being responsible. Please stop by and get pissed at the insanity. Or don’t, and tell me why. Because as the article says, talking with people you disagree with is a good thing. It makes me smarter. And every once in a while it changes my mind.
Teach Your Children To Think, And Then Let Them
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Cash for seniors
Aug 12, 2009 Uncategorized
I saw this clip on tv last night, and I was floored:
[kaltura-widget wid="7euyxc1q68" width="400" height="365" addpermission="" editpermission="" /]
Apparently, what Nancy Pelosi is saying is that President Obama’s health care reform plan would give out a cash reward to doctors or family members who convince old and/or sick people to end their lives, so that they’re not a burden on society. You would get half a million dollars for convincing grandma, and a cool million for convincing grandma and grandpa. Sweet.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: health care reform, President Obama, rumor, Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Did the Prez pull a West Wing?
Mar 24, 2009 What's Going On
According to the NY Post, President Obama was wandering around The White House last Friday, and just happened upon a meeting between Vice President Joe Biden and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, “The president tends to roam around the larger [White] House and sometimes walks into meetings that weren’t previously on his schedule.”
Really? The president went for a stroll through the halls of the West Wing and stumbled upon this meeting? Sounds suspiciously like a West Wing plot to me!
In “The Lame Duck Congress” episode from season 2 of my favorite show ever, a Ukranian politician wants to meet with President Bartlet during a scheduled trip to The White House. President Bartlet can’t do this even though he knows that this guy, Konanov, will someday be the Ukranian president, because doing it now would be a slap in the face to the current Ukranian president. But Konanov shows up (drunk) demanding that he sees the president.
Chief of Staff Leo comes up with an idea: they could set up a meeting between Konanov and someone else. President Bartlet will just happen upon this meeting, thus giving Konanov what he wants without having to jump through 23 diplomatic hoops and risk alienating the current administration. Leo puts the plan to his deputy like this: “When I was Labor secretary we did it with the Dalai Lama. Obviously Beijing doesn’t want the President to have any diplomatic contact, so they arrange a low level meeting,
keep the door open, the President wanders by, ‘Hey, how ya doing, Dalai Lama.’”
So, perhaps it would have caused too much of a fuss if President Obama had tried to have an official meeting with Gorbachev? “Hey, how ya doing, Gorby?”
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: Mikhail Gorbachev, President Obama, Vice President Biden, West Wing
Congress has lost its damn mind
Mar 21, 2009 What's Going On
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: AIG bonuses, Congress, President Obama
Here’s what Coach K. really said
Mar 20, 2009 What's Going On
This is why you don’t take people’s comments out of context. This is what Coach K. of Duke has been quoted ad nauseum about President Obama not picking Duke’s basketball team for the final 4 in his NCAA brackets: “Really, you know, the economy is something that he should focus on, you know, probably more than the brackets.”
But here’s what he said next: “Why would I care about that? I love the guy and I think he’s gonna be great.”
My husband is an obsessive news reader. And even though he knew about the first part of the quote, he was shocked when I told him the second part.
Anybody quoting the first part without quoting the second part, just to make President Obama look bad, is being irresponsible and deceptive.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: basketball, Coach K, Duke, NCAA, President Obama
Bush’s regulation didn’t go far enough
Feb 28, 2009 What's Going On
On the day that Barack Obama became president, a rule quietly went into affect that basically gave all health care workers the right to refuse to give a patient information or care if it involved anything the provider had a moral objection against. If your pediatrician were anti-vaccine, he could refuse to vaccinate your child, or even tell you about vaccines. Want to fill your birth control prescription at your local drugstore but the pharmacist is Catholic? He wouldn’t have to fill your prescription.
President Obama is moving to reverse the rule, but I think that’s a mistake. I think it should go the other way. Things are headed in that direction anyway, so we’ll get there quicker with federal help. There are Muslim cabbies refusing to take fares who are carrying alcohol. Hell, if that’s OK, then why do some racist white cabbies in NYC have to pick up black fares? Does it work for bus drivers too? Can they refuse to let ugly people on the bus?
If it goes against a health-conscious waitress’ morals to serve french fries, her job should be protected. Same for the frugal bank teller who refuses to give money to the customer wearing Prada. Movie theater employees shouldn’t have to sell tickets for movies that offend them. And if your black child goes swimming at a public pool with a white supremacist for a lifeguard, you’d better hope your baby can swim, because that lifeguard won’t have to save anybody who offends his morals. He won’t even be required to yell for another lifeguard.
Oh Bush, you had so many good ideas. I’m sorry you couldn’t achieve all you wanted in eight short years. Damn term limits.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
White House set to reverse health care conscious clause [CNN]
Tags: President Bush, President Obama, Provider Refusal Rule
Negotiate this, Republicans.
Feb 3, 2009 What's Going On
For the past few days, Republicans – especially John McCain – have been all over TV, talking about how President Obama :-) needs to negotiate his stimulus bill in the Senate if he wants bipartisan support, which he does. He didn’t get it in the House. And he negotiated in the House. He took things out of the bill that Republicans didn’t like, knowing that they were inconsequential anyway and that Republicans were just looking for easy fights (Abortion! Abortion! Obama’s paying for Abortions! Look, everybody!). The bill passed anyway, even if it didn’t get a single Republican vote (there are some reasonable Republicans out there, so I have a feeling some pets and small children were being held hostage until after the vote).
It all reminded me of a quote I read a couple years ago, and with my husband’s help I was able to find it:
It is no big scoop that the majority party in Congress has always found ways of giving the shaft to the minority. But there is a marked difference in the size and the length of the shaft the Republicans have given the Democrats in the past six years...it is a one-party town — and congressional business is conducted accordingly, as though the half of the country that the Democrats represent simply does not exist.
So far, President Obama :-) has shown a determination to act the way I’m sure he would have liked to be treated when he was in the Senate under Finally Former President Bush. He’s trying to embody the golden rule in the face of amazingly short-sighted behavior by Republicans. They’re asking for things that they not only denied Democrats for six years, but denied them in a spectacularly blunt fashion, as if Republicans would be in power forever (an attitude that sped up their demise – talk about screwing yourself!).
If you do only one thing today, please read the article that the above quote came from: The Worst Congress Ever, by Matt Taibbi. It appeared in Rolling Stone in 2006 and yes, it is long, but it’s worth it (and funny, in an “I can’t believe grown people – our leaders! – are acting like that” kind of way). After you read it, think about it every time a Republican asks for negotiation, fairness, and consideration. And then watch in wonder as President Obama :-) probably gives it to them.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: Democrats, House, John McCain, MattTaibbi, President Bush, President Obama, Republicans, Rolling Stone, Senate, Worst Congress Ever
