Next stop for the bipartisan express will be a Feb. 25 forum on health care. House GOP leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, has signaled that his members will be reluctant players. He suggested it’s “time to scrap the bill and start over.”
The chilliness endures, but at least they’re talking.
On the Net:
http://www.sfgate.com
Feb. 10
Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, on Chinese drug rehab:
In China, “drug rehabilitation” doesn’t deserve the name, according to a recent New York Times article.
The authoritarian Chinese government apparently allows its police forces to send anyone caught with drugs to one of the country’s compulsory drug rehabilitation centers. No trial, no judge, no defense.
The minimum stay is two years, and the rehab is physical abuse and forced labor – no drug treatment involved. The new “rehabilitation” system “replaces” the government’s previous approach: Sending addicts to labor camps with prostitutes and dissidents.
See the full article from “San Luis Obispo Tribune”
… Well, congratulations to the world champion New Orleans Saints for winning the Super Bowl. That’s the best thing to happen to New Orleans since George Bush left office.” -Jay Leno
“Did everybody watch the Super Bowl? Everybody’s happy for New Orleans. In fact, FEMA announced plans to congratulate them in about two weeks.” -Jimmy Fallon
“President Obama just held his first monthly bipartisan meeting and said that working together on jobs would be a good place to start. You know where else would have been a good place to start? A year ago.” -Jimmy Fallon
“And just two weeks before he is scheduled to go to Nevada to campaign for Harry Reid, President Obama said Las Vegas is a place of excess that people should not visit during hard times. I guess the president feels if you want to see people cavorting with prostitutes and wasting your money, go to Washington.” -Jay Leno
See the full article from “About – News & Issues (blog)”
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dennis Hopper’s wife has agreed to stay 10 feet away from the ailing actor and not contact him directly as they wrangle through their divorce, court records filed Thursday show. The agreement came after the “Easy Rider” actor requested an emergency restraining order prohibiting contact with his wife of nearly 14 years. His petition claimed his wife, Victoria, has engaged in “outrageous conduct” in the past year and was accompanied by a doctor’s declaration that his treatment for prostate cancer required him to eliminate unnecessary stress.
Police: Iowa mom accused of pimping daughter
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A Cedar Rapids woman was accused of arranging her daughter’s effort at prostitution. Mary J. Doolin was arrested Wednesday in connection with a Sept. 29 incident in Coralville. Police said Doolin sent her daughter to meet an undercover officer who had contacted her during a prostitution investigation. According to police, Doolin’s daughter, 37-year-old Debra Voshell, was later charged with pandering. Police said Doolin admitted to running a prostitution ring for a number of years and has prior convictions for pimping and prostitution.
See the full article from “KMPH Fox 26″
Jindal said he opposed the Democratic health-care bill but he went further to extend an olive branch to Landrieu. “The bill is awful, but it’s unfair to criticize Sen. Landrieu or the rest of our delegation for fighting to correct this injustice to Louisiana. Our entire delegation is working together across party lines to correct this flawed formula.”
That was then.
Since, Republican party leaders — not just professional blowhards such as Rush Limbaugh, or cranks of the Tea Party movement — have bayed like hounds about the “Louisiana Purchase,” in which Landrieu cast a key vote to advance the health bill in what they say was an exchange for money for her state.
The criticism is part of a larger crusade against the health-care bill. The outcry about political prostitution has made this debate more pungent.
See the full article from “2TheAdvocate”
Jockularity for Tuesday, Feb. 9
By Greg FrazierDaily News Sports Editor
Posted: 02/09/2010 07:15:02 AM PST
Updated: 02/09/2010 07:15:03 AM PST
The Florida Sun-Sentinel’s Dave Hyde, after Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie was kicked off the Pro Bowl team: “It was his first Pro Bowl, and he evidently was so taken by the honor that he celebrated it by, well, celebrating. And celebrating. He missed four of the five NFC practices, a team meeting, the team photo, and last anyone heard from his Twitter account, was leaving South Beach, evidently for a North Dade strip club. Man, that was such a fun sentence to write I need a cigarette.”
ESPN The Magazine’s Rick Reilly, daring to dream of a Saints victory: “Can you imagine? A Super Bowl parade in New Orleans? It would make Mardi Gras look like two boys pulling a beagle in a wagon.”
See the full article from “San Jose Mercury News”
Then they turned ahead the hands of time by having Tom Petty, whose first hit was on the radio when Rosalyn Carter was still hanging drapes in the White House. After that? AARP cover boy (really) Bruce Springsteen. And now we get The Who. And it’s not even The Who. It’s Who’s Left. Keith Moon died from an overdose of pills (for a rock ‘n roll drummer, that’s “natural causes”) in ‘78. Monster bass player John Entwistle died from a cocaine overdose while humping a stripper in Las Vegas in 2002 (again, “natural causes”). So that left The Who with a creaky, preening front man suffering from LSD (Lead Singer Disease), and a cranky old guitar player with a shady interest in child porn who shambled onstage looking like the befuddled granddad of Axl Timberlake. It was like watching a couple of 65-year-olds out there, flailing around like they were singing “Those Were The Days” at their daughter’s retirement party. Oh, wait—they ARE a couple of 65-year-olds.
See the full article from “New West”
Brees is something else entirely. Chalk it up to the magic of football: New Orleanians in the last couple of days have been building a shrine to their beloved quarterback outside the gates of his home. With its heartfelt Sharpie-scrawled sentiments and random totems of life in this particular ‘hood — a six-pack of Abita, the local brew, a Hubig’s pie, a storied New Orleans junk-food staple — you’d think, observing from a distance, that the guy had been the victim of a drive-by, not a Super Bowl MVP.
“How’s the ‘Who Dat’ nation feel tonight?” Brees said as his float stopped at Gallier Hall. “We love you and we won that championship for you.”
A man took a microphone to wish Brees the best, on behalf of all of the fans who have waited 40-plus years for New Orleans to experience this moment. It turned out to be U.S. Sen. David Vitter, the family-values Republican running for reelection here despite the fact that his phone number famously appeared on a prostitution service’s list of clients.
See the full article from “Los Angeles Times”
Back in New Orleans, in Bourbon Street, Jackson Square and the French Quarter, in neighbourhoods that were until recently scenes of dereliction, the city erupted in one giant party that lasted till dawn and set the scene for the ultimate Mardi Gras celebrations over the coming week.
People poured on to the streets in the team’s black and gold colours, dancing, hugging and weeping. “Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?” they chanted. Jazz bands let rip. Bars blasted out When the Saints Go Marching in. Fireworks exploded.
Police officers gave up the pretence of staying aloof and joined the pulsating throngs. Strippers stopped dancing. Priests and nuns joined the uproar. The city’s newspaper, The Times-Picayune, printed nearly 200,000 extra copies of an edition that is certain to become a collector’s item. Even dogs were dressed in Saints shirts, and Mitch Landrieu’s election on Saturday as New Orleans’ first white mayor in three decades was overshadowed.
See the full article from “Times Online”
Las Vegas has the gambling dens and bright lights but when America wants to party hard, when the people want to let their hair down and not give two hoots how it looks, they head for the Crescent City.
The Big Easy has long had a reputation as a modern-day Sodom, a place where anything goes, where you can drink all day and all night, and where you are viewed a little strangely if you don’t.
It is a city of strip clubs and street hustlers, home of Mardi Gras and a place where, in the middle of the afternoon, women rip off tops and bras, and let it all hang out on Bourbon Street for no more reward than a baying crowd and a few necklaces of festival beads.
See the full article from “Mirror.co.uk (blog)”
LOUISIANA: Ecstatic fans poured into
the streets of the French Quarter late on Sunday as storm-scarred New Orleans
celebrated its first-ever Super Bowl win by their beloved Saints.
A
city famous for diversions – Mardi Gras, music and colourful politics, to name a
few – set aside distractions to focus on the big game. Even the strippers on
bawdy Bourbon Street stopped dancing. Instead, they joined thousands of
revellers cheering the Saints on live television sets at nearby bars.
“We have no music, no stages. It’s the first time I’ve seen a club
shut down and I’ve been doing this for five years,” said Sam Stonebraker, 34, a
host at Rick’s Cabaret. “The game is pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime event in
this city.” White fireworks burst in the distance. Strangers hugged, whooped and
hollered in the streets, waving flags, shaking cowbells and dancing to
spontaneous brass bands. College students embraced restaurant waiters. A
homeless man toasted beers with well-dressed tourists. Cameras flashed.
Motorists honked horns with a cheerful cadence usually heard only at Carnival.
See the full article from “Times of India”