SOTU Blogathon (2 of 3): Does Bernie Sanders Like Moo Goo Gai Pan?

With images of President Barack Obama, Washington Wizards star John Wall, and Cong. Peter King (R-NY), we present with a second round of tonight's tweets regarding the SOTU:

1) John Harwood of CNBC: Obama: 'We're threatened less by evil empires and more by failing states."

2) Lizz Winstead: Peter King needs some Activa.

3) Roll Call: Obama: 'The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. But, there are still threats.'

4) Miriti Murungi: Bernie's about to order Chinese food (image of him pulling out iPhone was beneath tweet).

5) Ken Rudin (NPR): A little history here. This is the first SOTU where the two men standing behind the president debated each other in the last election.

6) Jonah Goldberg (National Review): Wait.....WAIT!! Barack Obama killed Osama Bin Laden? I never heard that before."

7) The Onion (satire news): Biden Urges Paul Ryan To Check Out Nude Scenes from 'Porky's' on Phone.

8) Politico: Obama: "If you doubt America's commitment or mine to see that justice is done, ask Osama bin Laden."

9) The Weekly Standard (conservative magazine): Obama's talking foreign policy at SOTU right now. But, he's leaving out the sailors detained by Iran today.

10) Catholic Democrats: Did anyone ever think 8 years ago that a Democratic president would be quoting a pope in his SOTU?

11) Nicholas Kristof (New York Times): Obama has been mostly in law professor mode. But he showed passion when he denounced attacks on Islam as unfair and counterproductive.

http://www.nytimes.com/politics

http://www.theonion.com

http://www.weeklystandard.com

http://www.newrepublic.com

DC Week (2 of 8): Tweets About the Nation's Capital and the Government Shutdown

With images of 1) Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah); 2) Mabry Mill, near Roanoke, Va., which has been closed due to the federal government shutdown; and 3) Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), we begin our first of two entries in this eight-entry series geared towards Washington, D.C.

"The Roanoke Times" reported that Mabry Mill, which is located on the Blue Ridge Parkway, could be reopen. Today, President Barack Obama said that states could re-open national parks with state funds. As a result, The Statue of Liberty, The Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore are likely to re-open.

Cong. Jim Matheson (D-Utah) is considered to be the most conservative Democrat in the House, while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is considered to be the most progressive Republican in the Senate. Both are reportedly working diligently to find the proverbial common ground to restart the federal government, which is now in Day 10 of a shutdown.

Here are the tweets:

1) Cong. Jim Matheson: "Glad Utah National Parks are open. Too bad we can't vote on a clean CR (Continuing Resolution) to operate rest of the government."

2) National Review (a conservative magazine): "Barack Obama can close our parks, but he's never block American enterprise."

3) The Hill: "Chris Christie (New Jersey's Republican governor): If I was in the Senate right now, I'd kill myself."

4) Embassy of Greece: "The Embassy and Consulate will be closed on Monday. Happy #ColumbusDay weekend."

5) Politico: "New York is donating $369,300 to have park service employees reopen the Statue of Liberty."

6) Bruce Bartlett (a Republican political aide): "David Frum: Will the Republican Moderates Please Stand Up."

http://matheson.house.gov/

http://www.roanoke.com/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.collins.senate.gov/public/

http://www.nationalreview.com/

Tweets Considering All Things Washington DC (1 of 2)

Just because we have a photo of Sen. Ted Cruz, that does NOT we are endorsing him.

Here are some tweets about Washington, DC, today, and not just Congress and the federal government (well, this entry is):

1. Politico: "Delay is not a major blow to Obamacare, exchanges for individuals are still expected to open on time."

2. Hunter: "Obama is supposed to negotiate with ppl who refuse to negotiate even with their own party. Yeah, that will work."

3. The Daily Show: "Ted Cruz cites a children's book about a stubborn jerk who decides he hates something until he's tried it."(They are referring to "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss)

4. Tea Party Cat/Top Conservative Cat: "#GOPDEMANDS: All liberals must watch all 21 hours of Ted Cruz's filibuster until they proclaim him as a savior."

5. Cong Virginia Foxx (R-NC): "Americans aren't interested in spin, they're concerned about whether they'll be paying more for health care on Jan.1"

6.The Onion: "It was a gamble, but 'it paid off'...............45th President of the United States: Ted Cruz."

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.theonion.com/

Return of Friday Night Tweets: All Things Washington D.C.

Greetings to our blog readers in Mexico, South Africa and India. Tonight, if you only learn one thing from blog hopping, we hope that you take away this fact: Elin Suleymanov, we hope we spelled his name right, is the Azerbaijani ambassador to the United States.

Embassies were the focus of one tweet tonight, while others dealt with political issues du jour. It should also be pointed that unlike the web site for the Roanoke Tea Party (sorry, we aren't giving ou their link), which actually attacked Republican Congressman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia (?!), we are being nice to Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va), even though all of us here have voted for Barack Obama four times each.

Here are eight tweets which have been posted in the last 24 hours:

1. WNYC @ WNYC (NPR station in New York): Does NYC's density help protect elderly who live alone from dying in heat waves?

2. The Hill @TheHill, which is a DC-based newspaper covering Capitol Hill: "U.S. to reopen 18 of 19 embassies that were closed to terror threats. (Yemen is the lone American embassy which is not re-opening).

3. Politico @politico: "One take away from Obama's press conference. He doesn't like Vladamir Putin, not one bit."

4. The Vancouver Sun @VancouverSun: "Gay Russians seeking refuge in Canada to escape homophobic news laws."

5. Mormon Democrats @MormonDems: "#LiberalsGetUpsetWhen Republicans side with the 3 % of climate scientists who don't think #globalwarming is a problem."

6. Carson Daly @CarsonDaly: "And the Emmy goes to...........Jon Voight for Ray Donovan #wordscomingsoon"

7. Katrina vanden Heuvel @KatrinaNation: "A party that defies demographic reality, grounded in white resentment, may well doom itself to permanent minority-dom or political suicide. (Katrina is the managing editor of the liberal magazine "The Nation," pictured center. The publication has made national news for its spat with Wal-Mart over workers' wages).

8. Morgan Griffith @RepMGriffith: "Ok, Mr. President, show me the "dishes!" Show me the FISA court opinions, etc., so we can have the discussion you invited in your press conference." (Cong. Griffith is pictured bottom, he was previously the Republican leader in Virginia's House of Delegates).

For more tweets from the night go to our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com


Other Links:

http://www.azembassy.us/3/33.html

http://thehill.com/

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.utahdemocrats.org/

http://morgangriffith.house.gov/

http://www.thenation.com/

10 People Who will Decide Election (9 of 10) _Iowa

Today, we are continuing our series of how a given person in each swing state could potentially play a pivotal role in the American presidential election, which will be watched from Dover, Delaware, to Dubai.

The image above is a campaign button for George McGovern (D) who is the oldest living man who has run for the president. The former South Dakota senator who is now 90 lost to Richard Nixon in 1972.

Here is a look at our fictional voter of the day:

Name: David Harrison

Occupation: Community College Teacher

Residency: Davenport, Iowa

Age: 35

Political Leanings: Democrat, will vote for President Barack Obama


It is no secret that like Big Bird on "Sesame Street" whom Republican presidential candidate turned into a social sensation when he said he would cut federal spending for PBS during the debate last week that teachers generally vote Democratic because the party has traditionally been more supportive of education and teachers' needs as well as school funding.

The Big Bird comment was the topic of a recent "Washington Post" column by Glenn Kessler which asked: "Does Mitt Romney want to kill Big Bird?;" the same newspaper also published a stunning column by college professor Frank Portnoy who argues that America's long marathon presidential race is good for the country. One can assume that both Democrats and Republicans may actually unite in opposition to Portnoy's theory, even intellectually it was fairly well laid out.

Among the stories in the most current issue of "The Quad City Times," which serves Davenport, Iowa, and surrounding areas, the local police department is seeking a three-year contract and a three-percent pay raise.

In the comments section, a reader who attended a Paul Ryan rally in Clinton, Iowa, said that the Obama campaign had taken her comments in which she asked the vice presidential candidate about his plan to fix the economy out of context.

According to "Politico," Obama has a 48-6 to 45.5 percent lead over Romney.http://www.washingtonpost.com

http://www.politco.com

http://www.sesamestreet.org

http://www.qctimes.com

10 People Who Will Decide the Election (8 of 10) _ New Hampshire

Name: Mary Murphy (a fictional person)

Age: 68

Occupation: Antiques Dealer

Residency: Dover, New Hampshire 03820

Political Affiliation: Independent leaning Republican

Will Likely Vote for: Mitt Romney (but her state will likely vote for Barack Obama)

Today, we continue to look at how an individual in a given swing state can impact the election. Older people tend to vote Republican, so much so that the faux news publication "The Onion" wrote an article stating that GOP operatives were working diligently to keep older voters alive on Election Day, which is four weeks from today. But, women voters are favoring President Barack Obama.

In New Hampshire, Obama holds a relatively comfortable lead over Mitt Romney by a 50-44 margin according to the "Politico" swing state map. Obama is faring even better in Massachusetts, a state that Romney governed. The margin there is 59-34.

It thus appears highly likely that Romney will be the first presidential candidate to lose his home state in an election since Al Gore lost Tennessee to George W. Bush, in the highly controversial/dubious election of 2000. 

The last person elected president to lose their home state was Richard M. Nixon in 1968.

And, in case you were wondering, Barry Goldwater's running mate in 1964 was William E. Miller.

That's all we have time for today; there will be another installment in this series tomorrow.

http://wiswallhouseantiques.com (An antique store in Durham, NH)

http://www.politico.com

http://www.theonion.com

Image of the Day/Week- Ice Cream Cone

Spring is underway, and now it seems like the season, especially with global warming (forgive the political humor), to appreciate a nice ice cream cone, unless you live in Fairbanks, Alaska.

We were going to mention Giffords Ice Cream in Bethesda, Md., which had a reputation for being one of the Washington, DC-area's best independent ice cream shops, but they were purchased last year by the Maine-based Giffords Ice Cream, which lead to this headline in "City Paper" (Washington)  from Oct. 25, 2011, which sounds like an April Fool's Joke or a story in the satirical publication "The Onion:" 'Gifford's Ice Cream Is Now Called Gifford's Ice Cream.'

But, we did find an actual non-corporate ice cream place in Boulder, Colo., in the Table Mesa part of town called the Boulder Ice Cream Shoppe. However, we presume it may be easy to mistake it for Boulder Ice Cream, an organic ice cream company which says on its web site that it makes its produce from the milk of Rocky Mountain cows.

SIDEBAR: Speaking of ice cream, we loved this headline's in today's online edition of "Politico," a daily Washington, DC-based newspaper/web page dedicated only to politics: 'Rob Portman: Vice President Vanilla.'

This is in reference to the possibility that Mitt Romney will choose Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) for his vice-presidential nomination given that votes in places like Dayton, Toledo and Akron will matter significantly more than ones in Provo, Utah, or Princeton, NJ, two college-towns which will assuredly go to the respective candidates (the other, of course, being President Barack Obama) who are almost certain to carry Utah and New Jersey respectively.

Portman is liked by moderate Republicans and intellectual conservatives, such as commentator David Brooks of "The New York Times," but fervent right-wingers, birthers and tea partiers, seem to be carrying the mantra of far right Fox News host Bill O'Reilly, who is tauting Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).