Happy 76th Birthday, Daffy Duck

We want to wish Daffy Duck a Happy 76th birthday. The beloved Looney Tunes cartoon character, who is arguably among the fussiest and most negative of cartoon characters, first appeared in the cartoon "Porky Goes Duck Huntin" on April 17, 1937.

Daffy Duck was the subject of a brilliant Jeff Greenberg column which said that political candidates who were more like Bugs Bunny, such as Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, were more likely to win elections than ones who were more like Daffy Duck, such as Walter Mondale and John McCain, who is coincidentally talking about guns in America in the U.S. Senate today.

One famous quote from Daffy Duck is from the cartoon "Duck Amuck" (1953): "Thanks for the sour persimmons, cousin"

We are going to wish Daffy Duck a happy birthday in six different languages:

1. Grattis pa fodelsedagen (Swedish, ironically Donald Duck is very popular in Sweden)

2. Dogum gunun kutlu olsun (Turkish)

3. feliz compleanos (Spanish

4. joyeaux anniversaire (French)

5. Alles Gute zum Ceburtstag (German)

6. furaha ya kuzaliwa (Swahili: a language spoken in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda)

12 of the 24 Countries Mentioned in Last Night's Debate

Last night, 24 countries were mentioned in the last debate between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. David Brooks, a center right columnist for "The New York Times" and commentator for PBS said the debate was a tie that will probably not swing polls much in either direction. Mark Shields, also of PBS, said that he was surprised that India and Japan, two global economic powers, were not mentioned at all.

The debate last night also proved history repeats itself as Romney said Obama should have done more to help Iran, a charge that then-president Ronald Reagan laid out against the Jimmy Carter administration when he debated Walter Mondale, Carter's veep, in a 1984 presidential debate.


In case you are wondering, the flags above are for: 1) Greece (Prime Minister Antonis Samaras), 2) Turkey (Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan), 3) Israel (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu). There is sort of an in-joke here as Turkey, my late father's country, has a long-standing rivalry with Greece and there is currently diplomatic turmoil with Israel.

Here are 12 of the countries in alphabetical order:

Afghanistan, Cuba, France, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Yemen


For the 12 other countries, go to our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time." http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Quote of the Day/Week- Al Gore

Today, we continue our month-long series of quotes from American vice presidents. Today, we quip Al Gore, 64, who served under President Bill Clinton, who is for some strange trending on Twitter today. My fellow progressive Turkish-American Cenk Uygur hosts "The Young Turks," a progressive political talk show on Gore's Current-TV at 7:00 p.m.

Gore is also known for being an advocate for global warming, which seems to be quite accurate given that Minnesota is now as hot as Alabama on any given day in July.

We have a quote from Walter Mondale, who served under President Jimmy Carter, on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Here is Gore's quote:

"The day I made that statement about inventing the Internet, I was tired because I'd been up all night inventing the camcorder."http://www.algore.com
http://www.current.com