blzrul

You missed the point. All of France isn't outraged. It's the wingnut web sites who are saying that. THEY are outraged. And delicious irony of all...since when do wingnuts get UPSET that FRANCE is unhappy? Wingnuts hate France, because of course France hates Freedom. The blog is funny though - but the whole thing about the letter is pretty stupid. Poor wingnuts have to cling to whatever they can.

I hate to burst your bubble, but you have been taken in, along with the rest of the wingnuts. Obama was in fact REPLYING to a letter that Chirac sent to him. And he was referring, of course, to working with him during the next four years in terms of his Presidency...Not Chirac's. From the Christian Science Monitor: Obama writes letter to Chirac - blogosphere goes crazy By Jimmy Orr | 03.23.09 Want to know how quickly rumors get spread on the Internet? Here’s a prime example. The right side of the web is apoplectic this morning claiming that President Obama doesn’t know who the French president is. They point to an article in the French newspaper Le Figaro reporting that President Obama last week wrote a letter to former French President Jacques Chirac. “I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world,” Obama is purported to have written. This has electrified the Internet. Why would President Obama initiate correspondence with Mr. Chirac instead of President Nicolas Sarkozy? One excited blogger writes, “Doesn’t Obama ever consult his staff before acting? Sarkozy is the President there! It’s like Sarko writing to George Bush and saying he looks forward to working with him. Chirac is the FORMER president.” That’s a good heads up. But let’s dig a little deeper. Our handy colleague, Laurent Belsie, who writes the New Economy blog here at the Monitor, speaks French. (We don’t hold that against him.) With his help we found out that another French newspaper, the New Observer, explained that Obama was merely replying to a Chirac letter who was writing him as the head of his foundation — the Jacques Chirac Foundation for sustainable development and cultural dialogue. The foundation is promoting access to water and medicines in west Africa, combating deforestation in the Congo Basin, and trying to save dying languages in Polynesia, according to a spokesman who helped set up the foundation. Of course it is much more fun to write things like “Maybe President Obama’s correspondence office needs a teleprompter too!” But in fact, there doesn’t seem to be a controversy here. Le Figaro did opine in its article that “in using the word ‘peace,’ Obama was offering an implicit homage to the former French president who had opposed the Iraq war.” But other French news organizations confirmed with Chirac’s entourage that they believed the reference was not in regards to the Iraq war but to Chirac’s current work as head of the foundation. Whatever. In any case, there is no evidence that the language has upset President Sarkozy or anyone else in France." Now don't you feel stupid?

I think it'll burn its way out. The gov't will take back the money from the TARP loans and the American people will boycott AIG until AIG gets smart and changes its name. And then everyone will forget when the economy is humming again...until next time.

Ha. I bet they'll have it in Toronto.

Actually it makes it easier to plan our drinking binges.

Hmm and it seems our President, a constitutional scholar (how refreshing) does not agree with this either. Hence I would suspect he ain't gonna sign a bill if one is ever presented. I think it was satisfying to see some action taken and perhaps a bunch of AIG executives collectively soiled their undergarments...but of course it's not constitutional.

Gotta love it. Kay Bailey Hutchison is running against Rick "Goodhair" Perry for Gov of TX (Perry is the incumbent). Previous headlines revealed Perry operatives sniffing around Dallas city hall and other places for dirt on KBH. This is even funnier - since Gov. Goodhair made a big show of turning down the stimulus funds, KBH is all over him. What she's not mentioning is that she voted AGAINST the stimulus in the first place. It is to laugh. Keep this up and Kinky Friedman could actually win - and that wouldn't be a bad thang at all.

You're a man. You don't get a vote.

You can't do anything. If the person can answer the appropriate questions and pass the litmus tests (eyes react properly to light, follow a moving object etc) then you can't just haul them off to the hospital against their wishes. And if a headache comes on, well you hit your head, you'd kind of expect that. This was a terrible freak accident.

I was skiing with a physician years ago in Vermont. A woman in front of us wiped out and you could hear the sound as her head hit the ground. Her husband was some ways ahead of her and didn't realize she'd fallen. As we stopped to check on her the physician said "please don't say I am a doctor - because I don't specialize in head injuries and I am afraid of getting sued". At the time I was an EMT so I was able to render aid but...she declined help too in spite of my recommendation that we get the ski patrol. I am certain to this day she at least had a concussion, but she was able to ski down on her own power with her husband so there wasn't much I could do about it other than mention it to the ski patrol when I got to the bottom and have them try to persuade the woman to be treated. Sad commentary that an internist witnessed the incident and didn't dare help... although I knew that emergency medicine was not this person's forte and I was better equipped to provide the assist. It's easy to cast blame in hindsight ... fact is head injuries are not often visible and if the patient refuses aid there is not much you can do unless he/she is OBVIOUSLY injured. Richardson could have fallen on the ice on the sidewalk outside the best head injury clinic in the world, and if she waived treatment, she still would have died. This has nothing to do with the country ... except maybe in the US where everyone sues for everything, medics might have been more forceful about seeing her out of the fear of being sued.

And I AGREED with Kelly. Dumb thing to say, happens to us all, worse when it's the President. And it's REALLY bad when you consider that chances are good that this man, at least once in his life, was called "!@#$" or maybe even "oreo". He really should know better. I hope he's learned his lesson. You can't unring the bell. The words are out. What matters is what happens next. I do hold the President to a higher standard. I am glad you do too.

I am not disagreeing. I am merely pointing out that anyone who screams about how terrible a thing it is, ought to also consider what they say too. As the parent of an autistic son who bore the brunt of a lot of abuse I tend to think that stuff, on a daily basis from his peers and even strangers, was quite hurtful. If Obama never makes a gaffe ever again, that stuff will still go on. My statement about something good coming from this was expressing hope that maybe some people will realize how mean it is and try to avoid that same behaviour. I guarantee you my son was far more hurt that the Cub Scouts would not let him join than anything coming out of the mouth of a politician.

not funny

Ron Paul told CNN yesterday something I've said more than once - Congress and its knee-jerk reactions (and he cited the Patriot Act, thanks Ron we agree) are getting out of hand. Not that I think greedy incompetent people on the dole from the government deserve my tax dollars but...there have to be other methods of redress. What these idiots at AIG etc do not seem to realize is that when this is all over they're going to have to hope Americans remain stupid and lazy, so that when AIG changes its name to cover its past (like KBR) people will continue to do business with them not realizing their history.

I think the point is that there was a net gain. However I will admit that when I was running thru the airport yesterday and just saw the headline I expected to see that the Dow closed up again yesterday and was somewhat surprised at the drop. However I don't see this as much leaning one way or another as just another stupid media outlet's stupid headlines that are designed to grab attention instead of conveying news. That is why it's important to read the article instead of assumign the contents based on a headline.

Two-thirds of the people on this thread are guilty of the same thing - you know who you are, the ones who like to call others "Retards" when you disagree with them. Obama said a very stupid thing, I agree. It was thoughtless and is a very good example of what not to say. He's just learned the hard way that "joking around" sometimes isn't funny. On the upside, he realized his error immediately and contacted the special olympics before the show aired to tell him what he'd said and to apologize, instead of trying to minimize his error and side-step it. With all this publicity and flap over the error maybe some good will come out of it.

He'd better watch out he doesn't get nailed for violation of copyright laws if he didn't properly attribute it.

That's a lot less than Newt Gingrich got (and tried to conceal) ... how odd. I can't imagine anything Gingrich had to say being worth more.

Vials? Vials of poison? She dissed counties? Which ones? At least you got principles correct.

You'd think that these ijits would know that every knee-jerk reaction they have results in a train wreck. Anyone who knows anything about the industry understands the bonus system and should have anticipated this. Did they really think that AIG would "do the right thing" in terms of the situation? Stupid and stupider. So while I love the idea of taking away the bonuses via a special tax or whatever (why shouldn't these greedy pigs have the rugs pulled out from under them like so many Americans who have done nothing wrong)...it's just another knee-jerk reaction that will probably likewise blow up.

As the wife of a disabled veteran...I can tell you my husband would only use VA services if he had no other recourse. I don't doubt the medical staff and others who work at the VA care greatly, but they cannot deliver the level and quality of care they would like (and our vets) deserve under the present situation. Something has to change. The choices are leave the system operationally as it is and throw a ton of money at it, or revamp the whole thing. The question is really what's best for these folks, not what's most comfortable for those who have run the system the same way for decades....

WTF is it with soccer fans?. Our MLS season kicks off this Wednesday and we're also hosting the MLS Cup in 2009...I wonder if there's time to build a bunker in the backyard....

I don't disagree. I just think it's the ultimate irony that the self-proclaimed party of "family values" would have as one of its "leaders" the grandmother of a - gasp - illegitmate child! That means that the GOP platform of abstinence, marriage, bla bla bla...maybe is kinda ... hypocritical? Maybe they should focus on other stuff and stop throwing stones? And maybe they should realize that just as it happens to teenagers of well-off parents, it happens to teenagers of not-so-well-off parents? So that when the GOP seeks to cut programs that currently benefit those children, such as school lunch, Head Start, etc etc etc... And by the way I don't think this was a case of "testing parental values". It was just a couple of stupid kids who, both arrogantly and ignorantly, decided it couldn't happen to them, and it did.

Ha. That used to crack me up. Don't watch it any more.

Oh I read it alright. A visit to the PA unemployment web site and a review of the unemployment handbook reveals that WHEN YOU APPLY FOR BENEFITS you will receive DOCUMENTATION ABOUT THE OPTIONS FOR PAYMENT with THE CONFIRMATION OF THE APPLICATION. Then, you make your choice - when you're approved. So people file...wait for information...don't read it...make their choice...and then complain. Sure he read it - too late. Since 2005 debit cards have been used in 20+ states. PA moved to give the OPTION for debit cards in 2007. The other option was DIRECT DEPOSIT...not a check. So if you already have a debit card, why get a new one? The fees are not new and not secret. He just opted to get a debit card and didn't do his due diligence up front. Either that or every person who's received a debit card for unemployment in 30 states since the year 2005 has been ripped off and this guy is a freaking genius for being the first of what, 2 million people, to figure this out?