Can’t Catch a Break

I was thinking about President Obama this morning. I love the guy, even though there are things he’s done as POTUS that I don’t agree with. After pondering what’s been going on, especially the last few months, I feel bad for him. Dude can’t seem to catch a break. In reverse chronological order (more or less):

• Japan

Earthquake, tsunami, nuclear power plant, devastation

• Middle East

From Egypt to Yemen, the entire region has revolted. A country with an ally-dictator unseated and a country with an enemy-dictator who is hanging on to his until it’s taken from his cold, dead hands.

• Labor

The working class is starting our own revolt

• Gas Prices

See Middle East

• Tuscon Shooting

Memorial and miraculous recovery (Thank God)

• START Treaty

It just had to expire during his presidency

• Bush Era Tax Cuts

They just had to expire during his presidency

• Midterm Shellacking

Congressmen, Senators, and Governors whose sole purpose in office/life is to make sure he doesn’t win in 2012

• Terrorism

Oregon teenager, Fort Hood psychiatrist, Yemeni toner cartridges, Detroit underwear

• Iraq & Afghanistan

Insurgents and Insurgents

• Gulf Oil Spill

BP, compensation, regulation, moratorium

• Health Care

Repeal attempt, lawsuits

• Haiti

Earthquake, homelessness, cholera, devastation

• Economy

He inherited the US’ and the world’s tanked economies

It seems like a larger-than-normal presidential crapload has happened/is happening in his term. I would have been curled up in a ball, in a corner, inconsolably crying by now. No, actually, I would have probably killed myself long before. That’s why I could never be POTUS. And why I wonder why anyone would want to be POTUS.

I don’t see it getting better anytime soon. Good luck Mr. President.

Fuller’s 5150

Ay ya yi. What now?

James Fuller, victim of the Tuscon tragedy, yells, “You’re Dead!” to Trent Humphries in a taping for Christiane Amanpour’s show. Humphries suggested that any gun control discussions should wait. Fuller disagreed loudly (and violently, obviously).

Thank God he is where he is supposed to be – getting a psych evaluation. The arm-chair psychologist in me is pretty sure it’s PSTD. He desperately needs help, whatever the diagnosis. 

It’s a tragic shame that Jared Loughner didn’t get the help he desperately needed. Why didn’t he? Erratic outbursts in class – some threatening to harm others. A teacher was afraid that a discussion she had with him would have turned violent. Danger to self or others. Should that have warranted an evaluation? I guess it’s easier to kick him out of school. It’s no longer their problem.

If Loughner got the evaluation Fuller is getting, could the tragedy have been avoided? Sadly, we’ll never know.

Shut Your Cake Hole, Sarah Palin

Am I the only one who thinks this?  I’m really annoyed with Caribou Barbie. Well, more so than usual. She gives this 8-minute speech after the tragedy in Tucson railing the media for blaming her for the shooting. Even the semi-sane of us know it isn’t her fault.  But she IS responsible (along with other screaming heads like Rush and Hannity) for creating an environment that can cause an unhinged paranoid schizophrenic to go on a shooting spree targeting a Congresswoman.

Words DO have power. Ask Hitler. Am I comparing her to Hitler? No way. She just seems to spread hateful, angry messages. Constantly referring to the mainstream media as the “lamestream media.” “Don’t retreat. Reload.” Placing cross-hairs on a map to target people she doesn’t like. And we’re supposed to buy that those are “surveyor” symbols?  McCain’s former campaign aide nailed it when he said, “when you’re explaining, you’re losing.”

In that speech, she accuses people of “blood libel.” I had no idea what that meant.    I doubt she did either because she wouldn’t have used it. A phrase Jewish people finds offensive, and she uses it. And Congresswoman Giffords is Jewish. Brilliant.

Anything of value from that speech was negated by two words.  But it’s all good, right?  Words don’t really have that much power.

You betcha.