Buck and I are getting a bit gloomy up here in Pensito Review’s musty, dusty electronic garret because our cohort Trish has been out of commission due to a bit of scheduled (as opposed to emergency, but not elective, so don’t go there!) surgery.
We heard from her today and all is as well. Please join us in sending positive healing energy vibes in the direction of Northeast Florida.
We knew North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il was a film fan, but who knew he was an auteur. His latest film, “Diary of a Student Girl,” has them lining up to buy tickets, or else:
The North Korean’s official news agency KCNA reports that “Diary” — which conveys the trials and tribulations of a girl and her younger sister as they strive to be scientists — is screening “before full houses in [the capitol] Pyongyang every day, evoking lively response from people of all walks of life.” What’s more, KCNA says that the film “embodies the Juche-oriented idea of aesthetics of leader Kim Jong Il,” and that Dear Leader found time during his “continuous inspection tour of frontline army units” to work on the script and produce the film, hailed as “a masterpiece of the times.” (Juche is the guiding North Korean ideology of self-reliance.)
“Dear Leader” Kim has long had an obsession with film, claiming to have written and directed several movies. He also allegedly kidnapped the director considered the Orson Welles of South Korea and his actress wife, forcing them to create propagandist pictures for the Communist state.
Of course, we would tell you that “Diary of a Student Girl” was the top hit of 2006 in North Korea, but it’s not even 2006 there — the North’s calendar starts in our 1912, the birth year of Kim Il Sung, so over there, it’s Juche 95.
No rest for the stupid: National Journal’s PollTrack for today examined the views of Capitol Hill insiders toward George Bush’s decision to stay on his ranch in Crawford when the nation’s security system was placed in its state of highest alert ever following the break-up of the British airline terrorism plot.
Regardless of whether the United States is winning the war on terrorism, it’s clear that fighting it is a round-the-clock job. President Bush has been at his ranch in Crawford since last week, and Democrats were quick to pounce on his decision not to return to the White House following news that the nation was on its highest security alert for the first time. Considering this is the second consecutive summer vacation crisis for Bush (last year it was Hurricane Katrina), how long is too long for a presidential summer break?
‘When the Middle East is in chaos, it is the height of stupidity to take any vacation at all,’ one Democrat said.A plurality of Republican and a majority of Democratic political insiders told National Journal that two weeks off for the president sounded about right. “The same amount as most of middle-class America,” said a Republican respondent. “That’s what most Americans get, if they’re lucky,” a Democrat agreed.
Though more of the 64 Democratic insiders thought the president deserved two weeks — 53 percent compared with 42 percent of Republicans — more of the 71 Republican insiders thought Bush should get three weeks (10 percent) or a Euro-size four weeks (11 percent). Just 5 percent and 6 percent of Democrats, respectively, were feeling similarly generous.
“Vacation length is not the problem,” a Republican responded. “The problem occurs … when the staff fails to get him to realize the gravity of the situation — which seems to occur more frequently in Crawford.”
Several Democrats expressed incredulity that Bush was spending his days “cutting brush” amid the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the current crisis in Lebanon. “When the Middle East is in chaos, it is the height of stupidity to take any vacation at all,” one Democrat said.
Sounds like the Worst President Ever — achieving new heights of stupidity and new depths of performance simultaneously.
But it’s not his birthday: His Majesty’s adoring subjects applaud Emperor George II’s new outfit upon his arrival in Wisconsin for a political fundraiser yesterday.
Cognitive dissonance: Supporters of Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum have lent their monetary support and signatures to help get a Green Party candidate on the ballot to run against Santorum and his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Santorum himself called for support of the Green candidate, and man, his supporters responded generously:
When Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) encouraged everyone in state politics to help the Green Party earn a spot on the November ballot, at least one group answered the call: Santorum donors.
Fourteen Santorum supporters gave $40,000 to fund a petition drive that has allowed Carl Romanelli to collect about 100,000 voter signatures to qualify for the Senate race. That’s 33,000 more signatures than required, and double what independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader gathered here in 2004.
That’s also almost 80,000 more signatures than there are registered Green Party voters in Pennsylvania. Hmmmmm.
Santorum currently trails Casey in the polls. The newspaper speculated that Santorum is betting that pro-abortion, anti-Iraq war Romanelli will syphon off Dem votes from anti-abortion Casey, who also opposes setting a timetable for withdrawl from Iraq. Hey, the strategy worked in 2000, when Green Party demagogue Ralph Nader helped George Bush beat Al Gore by screwing up the votes in New Hampshire and Florida.
TPM Muckraker has more here.
Ascension time: Spokesman for Jesus Jerry Falwell turns 73 today. We believe that’s a pretty good run and pray that the Omnipotent One will consider calling Falwell home to the bosom of Jesus so he’ll stop making mischief here on earth. Lord knows, he’s done enough.
While we’re on the subject, we fervently pray there’s a Katusha rocket out there with Pat Robertson’s name on it. He’s currently over in Israel checking on his investments and seeking signs of the Apocalypse — and giving interviews on Fox News. Lord, let Hezbollah be the instrument of Your Will and send Pat wherever he belongs for eternity.
Pundits say that Trump’s $5,000 midterm bribe was an overreach,
And they agree that if lies were a crime, he’d be impeached.
Despite all the dividend promises he’s made,
The fact is, not one has ever been paid,
So even before the midterms, he already owes us $8,000* each.
*$5000 stimulus checks via “DOGE dividend”; $2000 stimulus checks via a “tariff dividend”; $1000-plus checks via “savings” from expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
