TRADING DICTATORS

How about sending Baby Doc to Egypt and Hosni Mubarack to Haiti? . . well just a thought.

. . . And so it goes.

EGYPT DIARY: PRESIDENT ELBARADEI?

It's time to get ahead of the curve in Egypt. The least worst solution is Mohammed ElBaradei, late of the IAEA. But in any case, we can't seem as hesitant when the people in the street are speaking with a clear voice; they want Murbarak out. Let's hope ElBaradei has the political strength to stave off the more radical factions in Cairo. We should at the least encourage the army to have contact with him. Anything short of that, such as holding elections is September, is antithetical to our interests.

Our president and the State department need to review our policy and change it --quick.

MORNING ROUNDTABLE - GOOD DAY

Quote of the day:

"You wouldn't talk that way about me if my writers were around." -- Jack Benny

JUSTICES BEHAVING BADLY

You have to be of a certain age to remember those bumper stickers that read 'Impeach Earl Warren.' Maybe it's time to dust off the idea and replace it with the name Antonin Scalia.

The spectacle (though it wasn't open to the press) of Justice Scalia's pimping, yes pimping, for Michelle Bachmann's Tea Party Congress 101 class brings the concept of injudicious and unseemly to new heights.

The Roberts Court has become the most activist and partisan Court since, well, the Warren Court.

Justice Alito mumbled 'not true' at the last SOTU speech and Justice Thomas's forgetfulness as to his wife's source of employment income shakes the very foundation of an impartial Court. We rely on these lifetime appointees to be like Caesar's wife -- not Louis the XVI's.

Time to bring back those bumper stickers, this time: IMPEACH ANTONIN SCALIA.

OLBERMANN R.I.P.

Face it, Keith Olbermann is narcissistic, over-the-top, mercurial, and a tad vicious; not the uberviciousness of the gaggle of prima donnas at Fox news, but antagonistic nevertheless.

Having said that, you rooted for the guy, hoping the better angels of his nature would win out. It just didn't happen. Eventually he'll be back in some lesser incarnation -- old anchors never die, they just fade away.

NOT AGAIN, OLD PAINT

Some right wing bloggers are calling for Gabby Giffords to step down. Really? What are they thinking? At best, it's insensitive, over the top and completely dottie. "Let us not assassinate this lass further, senator. . . . Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last?"

Joseph Welsh knew how to do it at the Army-McCarthy hearings in the '50s. Let's hope there's big pushback from the grownups in congress.

MORNING ROUNDTABLE - GOOD DAY

Why all the play about Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes? Does anyone really care? After all, it's just Hollywood -- which reminds us of this:

"You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a flea, and still have room left over for two caraway seeds and the heart of an agent." -- Fred Allen.

AH, THE EISENHOWER YEARS

Today, Monday, January 11, 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address warning against an overbearing military-industrial complex. A pretty fair speech -- and such prescience from a Republican.

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

. . . and so it goes

MORNING ROUNDTABLE - GOOD DAY

Who would make the best Republican nominee in 2012?

Join the conversation and comment.

PATENTLY PANDERING PAWLENTY (Click to link to Times article)

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2012, says he opposes raising the nation's debt ceiling and is urging Republicans in Congress to do the same.

Where was he when he said that? Iowa, maybe? The governor's micturating into a pressure gradient on this one.

Leaves and Conceits:The Best of the Society Pages

The Cabots speak only to the Lodges and the Lodges only to the Lord, at least that’s what mother told me. I’ve had more than a passing interest in the social calendar ever since. And this season, for me at least, has been the most significant and momentous in memory. Below are a few highlights:

30 PRESENTED IN RYE

Thirty Women from Westchester County were presented last night at the Eggs-Over-Easy Debutante Ball in Rye, New York. In a traditional ceremony, each woman received roses and a small island off the Greek coast.

Proceeds from the annual event will go to The Fund for The Reconstruction of The Eisenhower Administration.

MOREHEAD SNEAD CAPTURES CUP

In one of the most exciting finishes in memory, Moorehead Snead III, skipper of Impervious, crossed the finish line some thirty seconds ahead of the sloop Hegemony to win field yachting’s prized Skeffington cup. In field yachting, a sleek, single-masted craft is pulled along a polo field by day laborers known as ‘sloop caddies.’ The first yacht to traverse the field and cross the goal is declared the winner.

Moorehead Snead III, an overrun specialist with the Lockheed Corporation, and the crew of Impervious clearly ran the tactically superior race and were never headed by the opposing yacht, Hegemony. Hegemony had its problems from the start as it strayed off course and interrupted the second chukker of a polo match being played on an adjacent field. Seven ponies died in the incident.

SARAH OGDEN ROOT TO BE BRIDE

Announcement has been made of the impending marriage of Sarah Ogden Root to Osgood Stegman Jr., a lobbyist for the Poppy Seed Association, currently secondered to the Ministry of Agriculture in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Miss Root, who is currently engaged in experimental salmon farming in her condominium in Aspen, Colorado, graduated from Miss Porter’s School and holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University. She is the great-granddaughter of Zachariah Root, an Assistant Secretary of the Interior in the Coolidge administration and inventor of the aluminum shovel.

NORTH KOREAN OLYMPIANS TRAIN IN GREENWICH

In a whirlwind display of swimming pool diplomacy, the exclusive Greenwich Country Club hosted sixteen members of the North Korean Olympic diving team. Less than forty-eight hours after their Ilyshin II-14 touched down at Kennedy International, the divers were in the water.

A few members of the club, unaware of the invitation, complained about ‘Asians flailing about in the pool.’ Sin Sun Ho, North Korea’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, assured the group that his government will reciprocate later in the year. U.S. divers will be invited to use the facilities at the Glorious Fissile Enrichment Pool located outside of Yongbyun.

MUFFY ELIZABETH LODGE TO WED HEBREW

Mr. and Mrs. Steven Shriver Lodge of New York and Kennebunkport, Maine have made known the engagement of their former daughter, Muffy Elizabeth, to Henry F. Mazel, son of Abe and Ida Mazel of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.

The future bride, an officer with the private banking house of Brahmin Brothers, Saks and Forrester, graduated Smith College. She was presented at the 2003 Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball, and recently was asked to resign her seat on the board of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mr. Mazel, the future bridegroom, is a merchant associated with the Pitkin Avenue Herring Works, as was his father before him.

###

HAMMERED

Tom Delay was sentenced to three years in the hoosegow for money laundering. He claims the jury was the most liberal in Texas, which isn't saying a whole lot. But didn't his lawyers ever hear of premonitory challenges, or don't they have those down there?

SISTER SARAH

Sister Sarah missed the turn. While most are fed up with the vitriol Palin continues her one note violence metaphors. She's marching in the wrong direction. After Tucson it'll be far more difficult to demonize the president, and the Frank Luntz type inflammatory rhetoric won't be looked upon kindly by much of the body politic. A sea change?Probably not, but a turn in a new direction, maybe. And so it goes . .

OH, HIM

Reince Priebus of Wisconsin succeeded Michael Steele as the head of the RNC. Who?

Let Us Pray . . .

. . . there shall never be another Bush in the White House.

American Fatwah - What a country

Did you see where Pat Robertson issued a fatwah on Hugo Chavez's head? Jesus! Now, if Chavez he does get hit, either by a Born-Again doing the reverend's business or some crazy Venezuelan, we'll get blamed and there'll be Latino rucksackers on the Florida Gold Coast. And, you know, we're at a real disadvantage at this asymmetrical war stuff. You can't send a carrier task force against some suicide-belted guy up from the slums of Caracas. Not to mention, what happens if El Presidente dies of natural causes? I think I'll watch Bananas again and see how Cosell handled it.

Nonsense - Italian Style

As those who read this column know, I'm a liberal, and damn proud of it. But Giuliana Sgrena -- the former hostage in Iraq, who works for the communist rag Il Manifesto, pushes a particularly virulent form of Euroland paranoia.

She actually claims she may have been a target! in the accidental shooting of Nicola Calipari, the brave Italian security agent who died protecting her. It's pure nonsense -- even to entertain the notion -- we were gunning for her because the Italians paid ransom to terrorists. We may not like ransom payoffs, it is not our policy, but even the Bush administration is incapable (and that includes intellectually) of such Machiavellian contretemps.

That comes from an unreformed Scoop Jackson Democrat, thank you very much. And I'll just drop the Mc Auliffe line in here -- NUTS!

In This Corner, The Radical Lefty Pinkos

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The Motion Picture Association of America should take a hint. All that swirling controversy around Million Dollar Baby and you'd think maybe the MPAA would come up with some new ratings.

I was watching Inherit the Wind the other day, and Spencer Tracy was clearly promoting evolution, the pinko bastard.

And now Clint Eastwood pushing the liberal agenda with his 'boxing' picture. I mean I don't want to have to think when I plunk down ten bucks, now do I? Just give me that popcorn in a bucket and entertain me.

So Dan Glickman and his ilk (he's not in Kansas, anymore) ought to add to G, PG, PG-13, R, and the what is it, again, NC-17?

How about LT-25 (Light Thinking - adolescence are warned some material contains a soupçon of introspection)

And DT-65+ (Deep Thought - adults are strongly cautioned this film requires serious cerebral attention). Feel free to add your own.

Iraqi Voters: Dizzy from the Count?

Those eight million Iraqi voters sure in hell were motivated. Dashing through the Gelignite and into the polling stations, they were confronted by a mind-numbing list of party slates. And we didn't even get them all:

Islamic Da'wah Party
Constitutional Monarchy Movement
Iraqi Islamic Liberation Party
Iraqi Justice and Development Party
Iraqi National Accord
Council of Baghdad Notables [did they mean notaries?]
National Reconciliation Movement.
Islamic Democratic Current Party.
Islamic Movement of Kurdistan
Kurdistan Islamic Group
[Good ole'] Iraqi Communist Party.
Kurdistan Islamic Union
Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party
Kurdistan Toilers' Party [the sorrow and woe vote]
Ahl Al-Sunna wa al-Jama'a
Assyrian Democratic Movement
Assyrian National Congress
Assyrian Patriotic Party
Assyrian Socialist Party
Bayt al-Nahrayn Democratic Party
l-Da'wah Al-Islamiyah Party.
Al-Fudala Society.
Constitutional Monarchy Movement
National Democratic Party
Democratic Monarchy Alliance
Free Iraq Council
Free Iraqi Society Party
Al-Fudella Comedians Homeland Alliance [just kidding - checking to see if you read this far]
Democratic Monarchy Alliance [the bring back the Faisals guys]
Muslim Ulama Council
Free Democratic Homeland Party
Free Officers and Civilians Movement
Grouping of Free Iraqis
Higher Council for National Salvation
Independent Iraqi Democrats/Democratic Centrist Tendency [caused the ballot to present as a spreadsheet]
Iraqi Democratic Center Party
Iraqi Homeland Party
Iraqi Islamic Forces Union
Iraqi Islamic Party
Iraqi Justice and Development Party
Iraqi National Alliance (INA)
Iraqi National Congress (INC) [a.k.a. Ahmad Chalabi, Inc.]
Iraqi National Movement
Iraqi Officers Movement
Iraqi National Rally (INR)
Iraqi Turkoman Birth Party
Turkoman National Association
Al-Sadr II Movement. [Muqtada's band of merry men]
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq
Turkomaneli Party

. . . Stop! There are even more - with descriptions, yet - courtesy of Kathleen Ridolfo

#30# (whew,finally)

On Second Blush: Sistani Plays it Chill

sistani
From the beginning, the Grand Ayatollah Sistani played the game well, too well. He jawboned and outmaneuvered the 'coalition' into holding the election now. While Moqtada Sadr screamed, Sistani whispered. He looked like the the solid non-threatening cleric we could deal with. The nonthreatening 'Negro' -- Joe Lewis to Sadr's Jack Johnson. Will we take anything as long as there's no civil war? The Shia are making noises; there won't be too much Islam in the yet-to-be written constitution they say -- but in some parts of the south, local judges are already imposing Shariah.

At first blush the Iraqi elections looked like a victory for neo-con deep think -- was it? The outcome may be too early to call -- but it looks from here like creeping theocracy is the winnah!

Islamic Constitution in Iraq