"A country, like a car, is the sum total of all its parts. Remove the tires or the spark plugs and see how far a driver gets down the road." ~ Self

CBS News
The Big Three's dramatic U-turn?
In 2011, "Ford was up 11 percent. General Motors: up 13 percent. And Chrysler was up a whopping 26 percent."
Read More...

Update: Superbowl XLVI Commercial
"This country can't be knocked down by one punch. We get right back up again and when we do the world is gonna hear the roar of our engines." 
~ Clint Eastwood


Karl Rove ‘offended’ by Clint Eastwood’s Chrysler ad?
Read More...
Clint Eastwood’s Manager: Chrysler Ad ‘Not a Political Thing’?
Read More...

Why discover a new economic truth when it's politically more comfortable to continue to wrap oneself in the rhetorical status quo?
Can you say," Cost-benefit analysis"?
Read More...

Campaign Slogan of the Week:
"Bin Laden is dead
and General Motors
is alive."
~ Vice President Joe Biden
Can you say "Bumper Sticker"?

Embracing the current political SUCK with a BIG SMILE and HOPE?

IF you're running for President and your NET FINANCIAL WORTH is OVER $250,000,000s, it's an X-tremely BAD IDEA to joke about being UNEMPLOYED with an audience of out-of-work voters struggling to keep a roof over their heads & food on the table. It's like joking about your sore GOLF knees to a room full of amputee combat veterans.


Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney decides NOT to release his tax returns?
Read More...


Campaign Update:
Romney paid 14.5% rate on $42.6M over the last 2 yrs?
(January 24, 2011)
Read More...

Newt Gringrich for President?

Seriously? Really? Could General Ripper's conspiracy theory linking "fluoridated water" with a Communist plot to weaken American society be true? Every time this blogger reads about the candidate's recent surge in the polls, a single rhetorical cliché best describes my thoughts regarding Newt's book selling run for the White House:

Can you say "Lipstick on a Pig"?

Despite Newt's well-documented, extremely checkered political record, a growing number of Republicans actually believe he's the best candidate to beat President Obama in 2012.

Good luck with that one!

Perhaps Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who's NOT known for her intellectual prowess or problem solving skills, put it best. On CBS' Face the Nation, Bachmann stated, "He's the 'King of K Street. For a person who's been influence peddling for over 30 years in Washington, D.C. - to think that Newt Gingrich is somehow an outsider, when he is the consummate establishment insider?"

Hopefully, between now and the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary, GOP voters will WAKE UP and take another look at Jon Huntsman and Buddy Roemer. Otherwise, Republican voters should be prepared for the GOP to suffer its biggest Presidential defeat in its long, proud history. In terms of Jon Huntsman, he has an extremely strong foreign policy background (which during the Cold War actually meant something with Republican voters). As far as supporting a candidate like Buddy Roemer, well, GOP voters could walk away from a 2012 defeat with dignity and some glimmer of hope for the Party's political future.

Political Quote of the Week:
"If a corporation is a person, I can't wait until they get drafted in the next war."
~ Buddy Roemer on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan Show
December 8, 2011



Photo Credit: Peter Rimar's wife in an art gallery located in Beijing's 798 District (May 2008).
Reference Links:
Lipstick on a Pig
Dr. Strangelove

The Former King of K Street Speaks Out?

"Our system is flawed and needs to be fixed."
~ Jack Abramoff
60 Minutes
November 6, 2011



According to the Center for Responsive Politics (based on data collected from the Senate Office of Public Records), in 2010, 12,951 lobbyists worked the corridors of power in Washington D.C. on behalf of a long list of corporate clients. Read More...

If you think corporate influence on the democratic process is limited to just the White House and Capital Hill, think again.

The residents of quiet North Dakota, a state rarely mentioned in the national media, got an education on the real workings of crony capitalism. Earlier this year, the former Republican Governor personally lobbied the state's representatives in Bismarck to lower the tax rates for oil companies. As a thank you, one extremely grateful oil company gift wrapped a new job title and 11,945 shares of its own stock (worth over $770,000) to Ed Schafer.
Read More...
No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington ~ Condoleezza Rice (Hardcover)

This week in American History?

Poor Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann. Who actually remembers the Presidential Election of 1936? Alf Landon? Or his running mate Frank Knox? The latter of which went on to serve under FDR as Secretary of the Navy during World War II, but I'll leave this feel good political story for another bipartisanship kind of day.

So, what else happened THIS WEEK? The approval rating for the U.S. Congress, the bedrock of this country's democratic principals and ideals, is now in single digits. According to the latest CBS News/New York Times poll, only 9% of the American people think our representatives are actually doing a decent j-o-b. While GOP voters are still searching for a Presidential candidate to support, Congressional incumbents from both parties are wondering if they'll still have a j-o-b after the next election. Read More...

Beyond Lindsay Lohan posing nude for Playboy, the #Occupy Wall Street Movement and the ongoing trial of Dr. Conrad Murray, one story got this Blogger's attention. While it's a story which will never appear as some future newspaper sidebar highlighting this week in American History, it's a story which reminds us all, that during this specific week, the United States is still a country at war:

CBS News
Soldier in Afghanistan killed during
14th deployment
October 25, 2011
Read More...

...reflections...

IUC Nurse at the bedside of Medal of Honor Recipient 
Marine Corporal Jason Dunham 

Ibn Sina Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq

April 2004

Photos by Peter Rimar.