Bits & Pieces - Monday, July 13th, 2009

Bill Clinton really is the first Black president now. Black fraternity inducts Bill Clinton.

It's time to let Hillary take off the burqa. I like this article (titled, Obama's Other Wife) because it takes the "Hillary marginalized by Obama" thread that is going around and brings it into focus, both pointing out that Secretary Clinton doesn't seem bothered by her supporting role, but that it might behoove the president to bring her to the forefront a little more, as he is slowly being caged in by what they call a "White House driven" presidency. In particular they point out that not taking Hillary to Saudi Arabia probably cost the US some concessions that she, and the team at State, probably could have teased out of King Abdullah. (Remembering of course that the Clinton's are pretty tight with the Saudi royal family.)

Sonia Sotomayer's confirmation hearing in the Senate are going on now. Watch here. Overall, I'd say her pre-confirmation campaign has run well, and I expect she will be easily confirmed.

In spite of an overwhelming majority in Congress, Democrats are still eating each other alive over Health Care Reform. Idiots.

President Obama has picked Regina Benjamin as the new Surgeon General.

The political standoff in Honduras is still going on full force, with no concrete results from meetings in Costa Rica this weekend. And someone else agrees with me that the US stance that it was a "coup" is wrong, and this "constitutional order" they are talking about was actually upheld by the "coup." Secretary Clinton herself refused to specifically support Zelaya's return to power, although she did meet with him. Interestingly, the interim president, Mr. Micheletti, seems to have revved up the Clinton Machine to get his own side heard.

Iran's religious elite are still fighting amongst themselves, and it appears that Khamenei may be getting pushed further and further out of the "Ayatollah club". Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri made the following statement: "Those who have lost, religiously and reasonably, the credibility for serving the public, are automatically dismissed, and the continuation of their work has no legitimacy."

The G-8 (really, President Obama) has issued an ultimatum to Iran to comply with demands to cease their nuclear program by September, or we will unchain our attack dog, Israel, and let them obliterate Iran. At least everything's back to normal. I thought for a second we might actually be making some progress toward Middle East peace. I forgot, that's not what anyone wants.

Obama likes nice booty. I say, big deal. I like nice booty, too, and I look at it. Good for you, Barack.

A pretty interesting stand-off between the president and Congress is going on over a signing statement the President issued, indicating he would ignore certain oversight provisions in the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009 (H.R. 2346). Both parties of the House quickly rejected this, threatening to cut funding if the president doesn't play by their rules. Signing statements, which are a fairly common presidential side-step of Congress, became a big deal during the Bush administration, when George W. Bush challenged hundreds of laws using signing statements, particularly to ignore regulations concerning the use of torture and the pursuit of terrorist suspects internationally.

CIA Director Leon Panetta has implicated former Vice President Dick Cheney in the CIA torture cover-up, putting additional pressure on Attorney General Eric Holder to launch a probe into Bush-era abuses of power.