Come Sunday

For no good reason, except for hearing it on NPR Weekend Edition Sunday this morning.



Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!

Newt To The Rescue

Absolutely-to-die-for-hysterical:



It would be perfect, with the additional of this:



Mitt Romney will never be President. But I am not sure if it’s because of his sheer ineptitude, or the fact that his fellow Republicans hate him.

Either way.  A lethal combo.

From Havana, Cuba to Bahia, Brazil:

Testimony to the power of the social network.

News from Cuba:

The dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez – famed for her outspoken online critiques of the country's communist regime – has issued an appeal to Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, to help her leave the Caribbean island.

Sánchez, a Havana-based writer who has been accused by Cuban authorities of conducting a "cyberwar" against the government, has not been able to leave the country since 2004 because of migration rules that require Cubans to receive government permission to travel.

She has now been invited to the Brazilian state of Bahia in February for the screening of a documentary about press freedom in Cuba and Honduras in which she features.

But speaking to the Brazilian television channel Record this week, Sánchez said she expected her latest request for an exit permit would again be declined without "high-level intervention".

You can read Yoani’s award-winning blog Generación Y, here.

Follow her on Twitter, here.

Buy her book, here.

And watch her direct plea for an exit-visa to leave the country.



Like I said, the power of the social network.

Now, time for a change.  It's got to be easier than blogging, tweeting, publishing and posting on YouTube -- all from an undisclosed location.

Win, Place or Show

So by now we know who won, lost, tied or whatever, in Iowa on Tuesday night. Or maybe not.  Romney may have been credited with an extra 20 votes.  Hope lives on for a Santorum win.

But, now on to the more important things.  Who-brought-what to our Iowa caucus potluck.  Our friends were charged with bringing a dish representing their home Congressional District.  Here goes.

NY-26 (Buffalo, NY):  Buffalo Chicken Wings

CA-6 (Marin County, CA):  Olive Bread

CA-9 (Berkeley, CA):  All-Around-Yuppie Plate

CA-2 (Redding, CA):  Roasted Vegetables

NY-11 (Brooklyn, NY):  Dominican-Style Red Beans & Rice

CA-5 (Santa Rosa, CA):  Green Chili Quiche

MA-7 (Lexington, MA):  Raspberry Lime Rickey

Conspicuously missing is a mushroom soup-green bean casserole, topped with fried onions.  Maybe next time.

Thinking of making a pot of clam chowder with oyster crackers for watching the New Hampshire primary.  Along with another Raspberry Lime Rickey, which is evidently the drink to be had in Mitt Romney's hometown of Belmont, MA.

Romney-_ _ _ _ _, 2012

Fill in the blanks. Play hangman. Former Clinton-era Labor Secretary Robert Reich spells it, R-U-B-I-O.

Last week Reich predicted Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden would be trading jobs. Obama-Clinton, 2012. This week, his thought on the opposition. The emphasis is mine:

For his running mate, Romney will choose Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida. Why do I say this?

First, Romney will need a right-winger to calm and woo the Republican right. Tea Partiers are attracted to Rubio – an evangelical Christian committed to reducing taxes and shrinking government. Rubio’s meteoric rise in the Florida House before coming to Congress was based on a string of conservative stances on state issues.

Rubio is also a proven campaigner, handily winning four House elections starting in 2002, and then beating popular incumbent Republican governor Charlie Crist in the 2010 Republican primary — with the help of Tea Partiers.

Moreover, he’s only 40, thereby giving the GOP ticket some youthful vigor.

And he’s Hispanic – a Cuban-American – at a time when the GOP needs to court the Hispanic vote.

1) Rubio ain’t going nowhere with the Hispanic vote. Not with Mitt Romney coming out this week saying he would veto the Dream Act. For the most part, Rubio’s only base is in the Cuban-American community, where Republicans have an advantage anyway. He may sway some Cuban-Americans in Miami who would otherwise vote for Obama, but not a big deal. He will help with Florida overall, though.

2) Rubio’s evangelical credits are questionable, at best. He was raised a Catholic, but attends an evangelical church. Lots of rumors that he still attends Catholic mass. The right wing would have no problem with a convert from Catholicism, but if there are questions about his sincerity, it will be a real issue. As a Hispanic, he has more to prove in the born-again realm. Rubio may be seen as a flip-flopper in the only way Romney is not: with reference to his religion.

Romney-Rubio, 2012? Not impossible. But not without its problems.

And did I say just how despicable Mitt Romney’s stance on the Dream Act really is? The Dream Act as presently conceived – the one Romney would veto – would give a path to citizenship to young folk who spend time in the military or attend college. Romney said he would consider a path to residency – not citizenship, only for those who serve in the military.

I've said it before, and I’ll say it again. We’re good enough to die for the country, but not to get a proper education.

Iowa Caucus Party

Here are our house we are preparing for our every-four-event, the Iowa Caucus potluck party. Everyone brings a dish to celebrate their home Congressional District. Below is the map we will be supplying.

Map Courtesy of Digital-Topo-Maps.com

We will be bringing Dominican-style rice and beans in honor of NY-11, and a big pile of chicken wings to celebrate our years in the rockin' city of Buffalo, NY. And plenty of America's best beer. CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox News -- on request. And my most excellent Twitter Feed.

Pictures to follow.

Enjoy the party tomorrow night! It should be a good one!