Colorado Republican Debate Blogathon: People Are Watching This in Israel?!

It dawned us that it was quite ironic that tonight's CNBC Republican debate was taking place in Boulder, Colorado, the state's most liberal community, which is represented by Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), one of the few openly gay members of Congress.

Polis is not the man pictured here who is in fact Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) one of three current U.S. Senators seeking the GOP nod; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), a democratic socialist is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination.

Here are tweets from a crazy night:

1) Felix Salmon: Carly Fiornia thinks she can bring the tax code down from 70,000 pages to 3 pages. So realistic.

2) Red Six Jones: I'm going to need more wine for this debate.

3) E.J. Dionne (Washington Post): One of my NH Republicans: "Wow! This is a zoo!"

4) Cyclone Volleyball (Iowa State): Different lineup to start set four. Capeizo. Conaway. Lazart up front, Berta, Harris, Nolan in back.

5) Michael Medved (conservative radio host): Whoever advised Jeb that he could help himself by attacking Marco Rubio did him no favors....makes a nice, serious guy look like a bully.

6) Ken Rudin (non-partisan political analyst): Methinks Jeb's attack on Rubio's attendance record in the Senate was a mistake. There was no need for it.

7) Chemi Shalev (Haaretz, Israeli newspaper): Finally, GOP debates gets heated enough to start resembling Israeli tv shows.

8) Cenk Uygur (liberal talk show host): Republicans think it shows strength to ignore the questions and talk over the moderators.

9) David Frum (center-right pundit): 'They don't believe in building walls.' Even when he's not talking about immigration, Jeb Bush talks about immigration."

Chaos in DC: Tweets from the Republican Congress Mess

Greetings to our blog readers in Serbia, Finland, and Scotland.........


Yes, it has been a full two weeks since I last posted. In the mean time, actor James Woods has reverted back to being a progressive and Susan Sarandon has become a tea partier......well, of course, neither of those things has happened, but we are still here, and we still maintain a center-left point of view.

The images pictured here are of: 1) Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), who is one of 46 Republicans trying to become House Speaker since Cong. Kevin McCarthy stunned the nation by dropping out of the race (in actuality, there are 10 candidates who might be speaker), 2) Bao Bao the National Zoo panda who doesn't get to vote for House Speaker, and 3) Turkish ambassador Serdar Kilic posing with President Barack Obama, the man who has replaced Thomas Jefferson on the two dollar bill. (I think we lost some conservatives in the audience with that quip).........we refer to Kilic because Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was mentioned in a tweet (see below).......

Here are 11 tweets, one for each member of the D.C. United soccer team regarding the predicament over which Republican will prevail as House Speaker in the wake of Cong. John Boehner's (R-Ohio) stunning resignation.

1)  Donna Brazile: #TheSpeakerofTheHouse is second in line after the Vice President to accede to the Presidency. This is serious.

2) The Hill: Amid chaos, Dems catch GOP off guard with Planned Parenthood vote.

3) Roll Call: One member* stomped into an elevator away from reporters with an emphatic "no!" when asked if running for speaker (*-Cong. Trey Gowdy R-SC).

4) Slate: Ted Cruz ambushed the Sierra Club's president** on climate change (**-Aaron Nair). 

5) Gawker: Dr. Ben Carson just won't quit it with the Hitler talk.

6) Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.): "#chaosintheHouse who will be speaker?"

7) Politico: Leading Republicans to GOP conference: keep calm

8) Jonathan Chait: Biden seen ordering ice cream cone.

9) Ken Rudin: Newt Gingrich says he wouldn't rule being temp House Speaker.

10) New York Post: Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich won this year's Nobel Prize in literature.

11) The Economist: Turkey's Erdogan once visited Brussels begging for favours. The tables have turned.

Now, that we're done, we should head to the Turkish restaurant Meze http://www.mezedc.com though it is late and we don't actually live close to the nation's capital.

Best Ten Comic Strips Sunday Greensboro News and Record: Hoorary for the Unicorns

Greetings to our blog readers in Belgium, Cyprus, and Slovakia, all European Union countries. We just got a notice from our server that we are supposed to tell all EU nation citizens who might come to this blog about our cookies. We have no idea what that really means, but we will try to accommodate you in any way you can, or we'll just refer to Cong. Virginia Foxx (R-NC).....we just love making fun of Republicans.

Foxx does not actually represent Greensboro, NC, in Congress, but we gather she represents Winston-Salem, NC, of course, here in the Land of the Free they change the lines often, which doesn't really seem democratic. I guess we should send our complaints to Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) but we don't live in Colorado!

Today we going with  comic strips from the"News and Record," the main daily newspaper for Greensboro.

We really like "Phoebe and Her Unicorn," which is carried by that newspaper, and this Sunday's strip with Phoebe talking to her pet unicorn about crying at the movies was quite touching. We also liked "WuMo" which dealt with archeologists finding remains of a human pyramid in Egypt.

"Judge Parker," a comic strip in soap opera format, featured a conversation in front of horses, unlike Mister Ed, they can't seem to talk. (Bottom image is of Secretariat).

Here is our top ten:

1. Phoebe and Her Unicorn

2. Foxtrot

3. WuMo

4. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy

5. Pearls Before Swine

6. Doonesbury

7. Non-Sequitur

8. Jump Start

9. Judge Parker

10. Ziggy

http://www.visitgreesnboro.com

http://www.gocomics.com 

http://www.comicskingdom.com

Tweets of the Day: All Things Damascus

Here are a sample of tweets from objective and subjective sources including former Cong. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), who was one of the most liberal members of the house, and Liz Cheney, the daughter of Dick Cheney, the 43rd president of the USA (forgive the political humor), both of whom are against a possible American military strike on Syria. Both Kucinich (top) and Ms. Cheney (bottom) are pictured here.

I will be put in my subjective view and openly state that while I am personally center-left politically, I am for military intervention in Syria, as Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt are overwhelmed with refugees. The Turkish newspaper "Today's Zaman" said as many as one million refugees will have fled to Turkey from Syria by the end of the year.

Here are the tweets:

1) Dennis Kucinich @DennishKucinich: "#Syria: The threat to US credibility isn't what happens if we don't intervene, but what happens if we do, @SenMikeLee (yes, Kucinich acutally quoted far-right Tea Partier Sen. Mike Lee, Republican from Utah).

2) National Review @NRO (a conservative magazine): "If Obama isn't seeking permission to wage war, why is he in Congress at all?" #Syria

3) Politico @Politico: "Even as he makes the case for a military strike against #Syria, John Kerry is careful to keep the light on for Russia."

4) Mustafa Akyol @AkyolinEnglish  (Akyol is prominent Turkish journalist): "Al-Assad should be bombed soon and hard."

5) Syria Freedom @FreeingSyria: "Obama to make G20 push for #Syria strike_ US President Barack Obama gives a press conference in Stockholm."

6) Katrina vandenHeuvel @KatrinaNation (She is the managing editor of the liberal magazine "The Nation"): "73% MoveOn members say Congress should oppose authorization to use military force in Syria."

7) The Hill @hillballotbox: Liz Cheney says she'd vote against Syrian strikes.

8) WeeklyStandard @weeklystandard (a conservative magazine): National Review: "Yes" to U.S. Action in Syria. The editors of National Review endorse military action in Syria."

9) JerodPolis @jaredpolis Cong. Jason Polis (D-Colo.): "Sounds like I will be voting on military action in Syria! Send me information/articles to read as I study the issue to make a decision."

10) TheDailyEdge @TheDailyEdge: "Rick Santorum: I wanted to strike #Syria right up to the moment Obama said we should. Now, I think it's a bad idea."

11) Roll Call @rollcall: "Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.): "Senators will get DVD of CIA evidence showing 'horrendous' effects of chemical weapons."

12) BBCWorld @BBCWorld: "US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power accuses Russia of holding security council hostage on #Syria."


http://thehill.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/

http://thewhitepath.com/ (Mustafa Akyol's web site)

http://www.politico.com/

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.weeklystandard.com/

http://www.nationalreview.com/

Blogging in 3.5 Minutes or Less_ Our Favorite '80s High School Films

Whether you are a supporter of Cong. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) or Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), you will probably agree that brevity is not one of our strengths.

With that, and greetings to our blog-readers in Mozambique, Venezuela and Jordan, we bring you the latest installment of Blogging in 3.5 minutes or less.

Today, we are going to list our six favorite high school films, with no order of preference, from the 1980s.

This idea came to mind when saw that The Sundance Channel, which along with IFC airs reruns of the cult tv show "Freaks and Geeks," which ran for 18 episodes in 1999, asked followers of its Facebook page what their fav high school film was. It is also Throwback Thursday here in America, and perhaps in Jordan too.

 Here are our's:

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982; pictured_ yes, that is a year young Nicholas Cage)

"The Outsiders" (1983)

"Porky's" (1983)

"Risky Business" (1983)

"The Breakfast Club" (1985)

"Heathers" (1988, which is the year I graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland*)

*-Not really where I went to school

http://www.jasonforcongress.com

http://www.jaredpolis.com

http://www.sundancechannel.com

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org