Politics Report

Now this is politics. In the next few days, President Obama will journey to Russia. Almost 20 years after the cold war ended, tensions between the two countries are still there. In fact, Obama said yesterday that former Russian President Vladmir Putin, who “still has a lot of sway,” needs to be reminded that the Cold War is over.

So much sway that Obama will in fact meet with Putin, now Russian Prime Minister, as well as current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was more or less chosen by Putin.  "I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated. ... Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new,” said Obama. Read more

arnold schwazenegger:: the GovernatorThings are not looking good for the California state pocketbook. Maybe it’s time for Schwarzenegger to do a comeback movie and gather a little extra spending money for a state that has a larger economy than most countries around the world.

The Governator declared a fiscal emergency today, a move that will force the hands of state lawmakers to do something about the massive budget deficit. Schwarzenegger perhaps declared the emergency because California began the new fiscal year today with no clear plan of how to deal with the budget deficit.

How big is that deficit? Well, big like $26.3 Billion big. That’s pretty big.

California is already seeing healthcare, education and public service cuts at the state level to deal with some the financial issues- so what gives next? Read more

Gaywo Jima, gays storm heterosexual marriage.Mark Sanford’s heterosexual affair and crumbling marriage are the work of gays and Democrats, according to his wife Jenny. In her own words:

“Of course I’m not saying that Mark is gay, but he may as well be.  The moral decay in this country has claimed another victim and this time it was my family.  Our marriage was perfect until these laws started passing around the country. Clearly the slow dissolution of the sanctity of marriage in America seeped into Mark’s psyche until he no longer felt compelled to abide by our vows.” – Jenny Sanford Read more

Europe and China both came out this week asking the U.S. to do more than what is in their landmark climate change bill. As countries around the world prepare for the Copenhagen summit where global powers are poised to make pivotal agreements around goals and standards for dealing with climate change, the major powers and emissions producers are clamoring for position and relevance. Politics are by no means reserved to the halls of Washington, and long gone is the time when Washington and the U.S. could think of itself as an island in the midst of the climate change debate. The idea of not participating in the effort to battle the global environmental problems or of not coming out of Copenhagen as part of the agreement the way we did with Kyoto is unacceptable. Read more

Washington is in the midst of a clean and renewable energy revolution, looking for ways to legislate, mandate and then implement and create new sources of energy as the U.S. looks to reinvent our relationship to energy. The powers that be are of course bickering over the details, deadlines and direction of the climate change bill and the related energy creation initiatives, but the U.S. Interior Department has made a bold first step in shaping where whatever solar-focused policy will take place. Read more

Crowds on both coasts celebrated Gay Pride this weekend with parades, parties and irreverent reverie, the gay marriage and gay rights debates of the United States continued to enforce ignorance and intolerance behind the scenes. In fact, while gay pride celebrations took over the streets of San Francisco and New York city, both states continue to ban same sex marriage.

Here is the state of same-sex marriage in the United States: Currently, same sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa, with Vermont starting in September. Unless the citizens of Maine veto it, same-sex marriages will begin in the middle of September. New Hampshire is set to begin same-sex marriages in 2010. Read more

On Friday of last week the House of Representatives passed a landmark climate change bill that has the potential to change the way the United States and potentially the rest of the world deals with climate change. Of course, whether the bill makes it through the senate is another matter entirely.

The legislation that passed the House would impose limits on CO2 emissions and other gasses.

This weekend Obama had this to say about the legislation:

"It will open the door to a clean energy economy and a better future for America," President Barack Obama said Saturday.

Excellent positive vagueness. I would expect nothing less from the fine orator that is our president.

If you are like me, though, you hear a lot, even in my blog posts, about the climate change bill. But that, too, is a pretty excellent positive vagueness that tells little of the story of what would actually happen if the bill were to pass all of Congress. Read more

I opened up my iGoogle page this weekend and saw President Obama in the “YouTube Spotlight Video” section. Expecting some kind of statement about the Iran election situation, or perhaps some kind of commentary on the South Carolina Governor’s affair or even on the passing of Michael Jackson, I was thrilled to hear him start talking about health care reform.

If you haven’t seen this video yet, go here now: http://bit.ly/Zqy7a

As of 5:30 PST on Sunday, June 28, over 44,000 people have watched the YouTube video from the President. Read more

By now, you've all heard that Mark Sanford, the Republican Governor of South Carolina (well he's a Democrat, according to Fox) had a little press conference today where he tearfully admitted that his mysterious disappearance was to Argentina and to visit somebody with whom he was having an affair with.  For those keeping score at home, this is your second sex scandal involving a Republican this month as earlier, Nevada Senator John Ensign also admitted to having an affair. Considering that last year's Republican sex scandals involved congressional pages, anonymous sex in a bathroom stall, and wearing diapers with hookers, these two recent scandals are rather boring and almost mundane.

Read more

North Korea's HitlerTomorrow (June 25^th), it will have been 59 years since the Korean War had started back in 1950.  The war was started (correct me if I am wrong) because North Korea wanted to negotiate elections for the entirety of Korea.  With escalating border conflicts, on June 25, 1950, North Korea’s army stormed in on South Korea. Read more