The Republic of T.

I haven’t been following the Winter Olympics very close, except for perusing the news photos and figuring out who the hottest athletes are. (No, I don’t need to see they play to figure that out, if you know what I mean.) but I have been following the “controversy” regarding Johnny Weir.

The Associated Press reports that two broadcasters are under fire for derogatory comments made about the former world champion.

One commentator from French-language broadcaster RDS said Weir hurts figure skating’s image, while another said the skater should be made to take a gender test. The Quebec Gay and Lesbian Council has demanded a public apology from RDS, calling the remarks “outrageous” and “homophobic.”

Weir’s agent, Tara Modlin, says Weir knows about the comments, but he’s made no public response as of yet.

The Dish Rag thinks the much buzzed-about skater will most likely ignore the nasty comments and forge ahead with his plans to start his own fashion line (much to the French commentators’ dismay, we’re guessing) after the Olympics wrap up.

Well, he didn’t ignore it, and I’m glad he didn’t. Because I just became a big Johnny Weir fan.
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File this one under “Can’t Blame ‘Em.” One of Madoff’s daughter-in-laws says her kids shouldn’t be burdened with the Madoff name.

What’s more, her husband doesn’t disagree.

One of Bernard Madoff’s daughters-in-law says she and her children shouldn’t have to bear the burden of his name.

Stephanie Madoff filed court papers in Manhattan on Wednesday asking to change her last name to Morgan. She made the same request for her two children.

She’s married to the jailed financier’s son, Mark. She says her family has gotten threats, and she wants to drop the Madoff name to avoid “additional humiliation” and harassment. Her lawyer declined to comment.

Mark Madoff says in court papers he doesn’t object.

Like I said, I can’t blame her.

Here’s a question I bet you thought didn’t need to be asked in a post-9/11 America: Does flying a plane into a building make you a terrorist or a hero?

Joe Stack attacked the IRS by flying his plane into one of its buildings. Is he a hero?

Some people think so. Stack’s adult daughter, Samantha Bell, said Monday that her father’s attack was “inappropriate” but that she considered him heroic because of his antigovernment views.

“Maybe now people will listen,” she told ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Stack is also becoming a hero to the radical right – specifically, white supremacists and their fellow travelers, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Supremacist web forums have been filled with comments that elevate Stack into an icon of resistance to tyranny, writes Mark Potok, director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project.

Potok quotes one poster on Stormfront.org, a large supremacist web site, as saying, “The Guy is a true HERO!!!”

Let’s break this down.

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OK. I wasn’t going to say anything else about the John Edwards mess. It’s gotten sordid past the point of rubbernecking, even. I just want to look away. But after reading this piece about the “quiet dignity of Rielle Hunter,” I do have something to say.
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The Sideshow

Glenn Beck, in a sense, is right. CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is not and could never be a “big tent.” Neither is the brand of conservatism it tries so hard to sell. The “big tent,” to borrow his circus analogy is usually reserved for acts featuring genuine talent and skill that tend to draw people into the “big tent.”

CPAC, as speaker after speaker demonstrated,  is more or less a sideshow — relegated to a small tent, and populated with notions that  have no basis in and would never work in reality, and that just don’t stand up to close inspection. Inside that small tent, where people who paid the admission price really want to believe their eyes, it works. But in the cold light of day, not so much.
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President Barack Obama doesn’t begrudge Wall Street’s banksters their bonuses.

The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”

Obama sought to combat perceptions that his administration is anti-business and trumpeted the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies. He plans to reiterate that message when he speaks to the Business Roundtable, which represents the heads of many of the biggest U.S. companies, on Feb. 24 in Washington.

Well, maybe the president is a bigger person than I am. Where I come from, we don’t just hold grudges. We nurse them and watch them grow.

And, like a lot of Americans, I do begrudge the likes of Dimon and Blankfein their multi-billion dollar bonuses. Not because I “begrudge people success or wealth,” but because I begrudge anyone their ill gotten gains — especially as others are made to support them and suffer the consequences of their actions.

Besides, if I can hold bear a grudge against a person, why can’t bear a grudge against corporations? After all, aren’t they people too?

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I admit, I’ve never had many great things to say about my hometown, Augusta, GA. In fact, when I was in high school, my classmates and I tended to call it “Dis-Gusta.” That was probably because it was a very conservative, sprawling suburban city with a very small town attitude — with a whole lot of nothing to do for teenagers.

Like the lyrics of “An American Dream” — that 1979 hit by the Nitty Gritty Band and Linda Rondstadt said, “Augusta, Georgia is just no place to be.” The title of a Pet Shop Boys track, “This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave,” also comes to mind.

That’s because for gay teenager in the 80s, Augusta, GA was really no place to be. And I did wait years to leave it. And while I was somewhat shocked to hear that Augusta, GA may have a Gay Pride parade, I most likely won’t be making the trip down there to check it out.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 10th through February 11th:

• Everyday this is someone's life –
• The New Deal in Reverse –
• Robert Scheer | Wall Street Wants a Refund –
• What fuels the grass-roots rage –
• How White Racial Resentment Drives the Right –
• No, the snow does not disprove global warming –

What kind of people respond to an invitation with a list of demands?

John Boehner and Eric Cantor have responded to Barack Obama’s invitation to sit down and talk health-care reform. They answered in the form of a ransom note. Here are their demands:

1) “Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over?”

2) “Does that mean he has taken off the table the idea of relying solely on Democratic votes and jamming through health care reform by way of reconciliation?”

Well, now we know. This goes on for another 6 items.

While I disagree with Ezra’s advice that the White House accept these terms in exchange for straight, up-or-down votes in the House and Senate, I agree that it amounts to a ransom note from a party that’s holding health care reform hostage, which should read something like this:

If nothing else, it’s much more honest and straightforward.

Maybe that’s how the GOP should have spelled out their demands. But that’s not how the Democrats should read this particular ransom note.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 9th from 00:24 to 11:01:

• The truth about taxes and deficits –
• The folly of Palin’s high-priced ‘populism’ –
• Les Leopold: The Tea Party Dumps Economic Populism: Where are the Progressives? –
• Let’s make a deal –
• Sarah Palin’s Cheat Sheet –
• It Takes a Village to Raise a Racist –
• Op-Ed Columnist: The Worst of the Pain –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for February 5th through February 9th:

• Kidnapping of Haitian children was no act of charity –
• *Over "Weaning" Ignorance*<br><br>by digby<br><br>More Republican "ideas":<br> –
• Arianna Huffington: The Tea Party 600: Canaries in the Political Coal Mine? –
• Why haven’t responsible Republicans spoken out against Sarah Palin? –
• Miles Mogulescu: Congress: The Banks Own the Place. Do They Own Obama Too? –
• The Problem of Too Little Money in Politics. –
• Do Black Women’s Reproductive Rights Matter? –
• It’s Like They’re Proud Of Being Ignorant Cont. –
• It’s Like They’re Proud Of Being Ignorant –
• Commentary: Child slavery in Haiti is common and legal –

Sarah Palin’s keynote speech was quite a hit at this weekend’s Tea Party convention. She even took a shot at pinning responsibility for the deficit on the Obama administration.

“The Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda will leave us less secure, more in debt and under the thumb of big government,” she added, saying voters all over the country are sending a message that they want change in Washington.

She harkened Obama’s famous campaign slogan, asking, “How’s that hope-y, change-y stuff working out for you?”

It’s too bad Palin didn’t have proper notes on hand, as she did for the Q & A after her speech. Then again, the message that it was actually the Bush administration that left us more in debt and less secure, wouldn’t go over well with her audience.

Besides, she probably couldn’t fit it all on her palm.

Nonetheless, should the former governor address the subject again, here’s a quick crash course that might help her keep her facts straight.

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• Power finally back on as of 6:45 pm. The house is warm, the kids are asleep. And I no longer smell like a goat. #snowpocalypse #pepco #

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, even after the power came back on. Frankly, I wasn’t interested. Never have been. I’d rather they put the ads on — maybe even put them in a show of their own — and left it at that.

Well, that’s kinda what’s happened online. Now I can see the ads without having to sit through the game. This one is my favorite, hands down.

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• Half the family is out if the house at least. Still no power in MoCo on Jones Bridge Rd. Pepco WTF?! #pepco #snowpocalypse #snOMG #
• Heard a rumor that the east side of East West highway has power. Any truth to that? #snowpocalypse #pepco #snowcopalypse #
• This driving me crazy. I'm down to runiing the car just to charge my iPhone, so I can have contact with the outside world. #snowpocalypse #
• Does anyone in Montgomery County have power yet? #
• Power out since 11pm last night. Snow sucks. #

• Power out since 11pm last night. Snow sucks. http://bit.ly/bH3u5m #

If you’ve ever wondered where conservative economic policies like permanent tax cuts for the wealthy, slashed social services and government spending are supposed to lead us, look no further than Colorado Springs.

David Sirota’s description of what’s happening to that conservative stronghold should serve as a cautionary tale.
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• Reading: "Delaware, New Jersey brace for blizzard; D.C. area to see heavy snow – CNN.com" ( http://bit.ly/b2f5Pn ) We are doomed. DOOMED! #

• Reading: "Delaware, New Jersey brace for blizzard; D.C. area to see heavy snow – CNN.com" ( http://bit.ly/b2f5Pn ) We are doomed. DOOMED! #

With reports that of kidnapping and criminal association have been filed in the case of 10 Baptist missionaries from Idaho, accused of kidnapping 33 Haitian children, it seems that several things are — or may be — going on. The news about the background of the groups leader, 40-year-old “businesswoman” Laura Silsby is enough cause for concern.

A CBS News employee who witnessed today’s court proceedings says Silsby told the judge: “We were trying to do what’s best for the children.”

When the judge asked, “Didn’t you know you were committing a crime?” Silsby quietly answered, “We are innocent.”

But CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports there are serious questions tonight about Silsby’s motives. The 40-year-old business woman, who convinced members of Idaho’s Central Valley Baptist Church to follow her dream of an orphanage in Haiti, has a troubling financial history.

She’s been the subject of eight civil lawsuits, 14 for unpaid wages, Whitaker reports. Her Meridian, Idaho house is in foreclosure. She’s had at least nine traffic citations in the last 12 years including four for failing to register or insure her car.

It suggests that perhaps Silsby, in convincing the church members to “follow her dream” of an orphanage in Haiti, may have actually have conned them in to becoming accomplices in what sounds more and more like a typical trafficking operation.

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