Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to your weekend open thread. There’s a lot of activity this weekend. Who went to the Wisconsin solidarity rally in Dover? Who plans on seeing Inside Job tonight? I’m planning on being at the Washington St Alehouse at 6 tonight if anyone wants to meet up before the show.
Do you remember the world’s shortest sex scandal of NY-26 Congressman Chris Lee? As many suspected, there is more to the story:
Gawker: “In the past 10 days, two D.C.-area transgender women contacted us, each with a separate story about exchanging emails with the ex-congressman. One sent us an ad that Lee allegedly posted on Craigslist in search of trans women; the other sent us a never-before-seen photo that she says Lee sent her after they started chatting by email. Taken together, they present a possible explanation to those who have wondered why such a tame ‘sex scandal’ forced Lee’s hand so quickly.”
That would probably explain it then. Obviously Lee has a lot of work to do to heal his marriage and wish him and his family the best of luck. He’s a private citizen now so I hope we’ll hear no more on this story.
It looks like things must be really bad for Gaddafi – his Ukranian nurse is leaving him. Last I read rebels had taken control of Tripoli’s main airport and Juan Cole reports that Gaddafi only controls about 10% of Libya. I believe he’s at his most dangerous right now but I can only hope that the people of Libya can take control before more people are killed.
The “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse US diplomats believe accompanies Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi is about to return home to Kiev, her daughter said in an interview published Saturday.
US diplomatic cables disclosed by the WikiLeaks website suggest that the Libyan leader is reliant on a small team of Ukrainian nurses and particularly a “voluptuous blonde” identified as Galyna Kolotnytska.
The woman’s daughter, Tatyana, told Ukraine’s Segodnya daily that her mother has been shocked by the violence raging in Libya and is planning to return to her suburban Kiev residence.
…
“Gaddafi relies heavily on his long-time Ukrainian nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska, who has been described as a ‘voluptuous blonde’,” said one dispatch using the US State Department’s standard spelling for the Libyan strongman.
“Of the rumoured staff of four Ukrainian nurses that cater to the Leader’s health and well-being, XXX emphasized … that Gaddafi cannot travel without Kolotnytska, as she alone ‘knows his routine’,” the dispatch said.
One thing that has been interesting in a perverse way is the recent insight into minds of dictators. They seem to be paranoid, eccentric and think of the people of their country as their children. While their people are out of work, they have no trouble denying themselves luxuries.
Tags: Open Thread
Are you having dinner at Washington St before the show, UI?
Yeah, I plan on being there around 6.
Obama is working very had to get gasoline to $8/gallon… looks like he will be half way there by summer.
Avagadro, it is actually the Bush tax cuts that are to blame for your high gas. As soon as it became apparent (around 10/1) that Republicans would control the House, almost guaranteeing that the Bush tax cuts would be extended, I switched money over into oil hedge funds. Didn’t you?
I mean, after all, it’s common sense. And as soon as it looks like the tax cuts have the slightest chance of NOT becoming permanent, you can safely bet… I’m switching out.
And yes, .. in doing so, I’m raising yours and my gas prices. but, … I really don’t care, because I’m making it back, and more, from the artificially high price we are setting for gas at the pump. That huge difference between what we buy it for (last years contracts), and what we sell it for (today’s barrel prices), comes to us.
Under the Clinton tax code, we wouldn’t do it simply because, the after-tax gain would be much smaller, and actually make the whole endeavor a waste of my time. Your gas prices would probably be considerably lower, just as they were during the Clinton years, as the result.
Just threw it out there in case there was anyone else out there who like you, also didn’t know.
United Federation of Teachers fires employee for trying to organize a union
New York Post ^ | August 13, 2010 | TOM TOPOUSIS
In a move of stunning hypocrisy, the United Federation of Teachers axed one of its longtime employees — for trying to unionize the powerful labor organization’s own workers… “I was fired for trying to start a union at the UFT,” said a dumbfounded Callaghan, who worked for the union’s newsletter and as a speechwriter for union leaders for the past 13 years. “This is the exact antithesis of what they preach… ” Callaghan fumed. Callaghan said he’s planning to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the UFT for illegally blocking his unionizing effort
I went to the rally and addressed the crowd. I was quoted in the Delaware State News.
The News Journal, as far as I know, didn’t even send a reporter to the capitol.They must be too cheap to reimburse gas money for the 80 mile round trip.
They DID have a piece Sunday on the Harrisburg rally in PA. WTF
I’m calling Sweeney out on this if I can get him on the phone after 8.
Do you have a link to the Delaware State News story Skip? How big was the crowd?
No, you have to pay to read the DSN online.
The crowd was around 200.
I used the sermon from Moby Dick as my opening:
“Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse in the first chapter of Jonah.
And God had created a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Shipmates, these four verse, four yarns are some of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures.”
I compared the WHALE to the bankers who brought on our economic destruction, the multi-national corporations who ship jobs off-shore and the far right who shill for them.
Jonah represents the working people of America.
I wondered if he would ever be “spit up on dry land”?
I saw you, skip. 🙂 I spoke too. I was disappointed there wasn’t more official Dem leadership & labor there, but it was a good crowd, considering the lead time.