Bits & Pieces
Bits and pieces from this reporter’s notebook.
Da-deet-da-deet-.....It used to be that the Secretary of State was supposed to represent the pinnacle of diplomacy. Condoleeza Rice, for all her huge failures, always seemed polite. At a speech last week she said, “You'd have to be an idiot to trust the North Koreans.” True, of course, but not very diplomatic.
Da-deet-da-deet...During the presidential campaign, both McCaina nd Obama said they would put another two or three brigades in Afghanistan, that is, increasing American forces by about 12,000. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he is looking at adding up to 30,000 more U.S. troops by summer. That would bring the total to about 65,000. The Soviets had about 115,000 when they were pushed out.
Da-deet-da-deet...An L-A Times editorial excoriated Dick Cheney for his flagrant unrepentance for the disasters he produced over the past eight years, from lying us into Iraq to endorsing torture. They closed with this: “Cheney likes to joke about himself that when he told his wife, Lynne, that he had been nicknamed ‘Darth Vader,’ she didn't get angry. Instead, she responded: ‘It humanizes you.’”
Da-deet-da-deet...The people who pushed through the anti-gay marriage measure in California last month are now trying to invalidate the 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred between last spring when the state supreme court declared such unions legal and the vote in November. Meanwhile, California’s attorney general and likely 2010 gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has petitioned the court to throw out the election result on the grounds it was unconstitutionally presented.
Da-deet-da-deet...Finally, speaking of balloting and the courts, the Minnesota senate race will likely wind up in the judiciary. Al Franken is up over incumbent Norm Coleman a couple of hundred votes out of three million after a painstaking, and yet to be completed hand recount. Constitutionally, the Senate could have final say.
©2008 SetonnoteS
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