Around the World in 80 Lines - Or Less

Gadhafi’s Speech Fails to Set Record

Looking like a refugee from a Star Wars’ bar scene, waning Libyan strong-man Moammar Gadhafi broadcast his confused harangue to an audience of captive Libyans for a mere two hours. He again failed to set a Guinness World Record for speech length by a dysfunctional, megalomaniacal, delusional tyrant. 

The current record is in dispute, but Fidel Castro, Nikita Kruschev and Hugo Chavez all have much longer, documented diatribes. Kim Jung Il’s speeches were disqualified because they are actually delivered by a Disney-manufactured Animatronic “Doc” dwarf with a bad dye job.

Gadhafi is blaming the US for his domestic problems and is vowing to make himself “a martyr” in response. As Oscar Wilde said, “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it,” but if Gadhafi wants to inhale an RPG then I might be willing to think about it.

The self-proclaimed “Mad Dog of the Middle East” decides upon martyrdom just as a former Libyan Justice Minister states that Gadhafi was much more involved in downing the Lockerbie, Scotland, downing of Pan Am Flight 103 than previously believed. I’m sure there are Americans - especially those related to the 259 innocents killed, as well as Libyans, who would gladly help Gadhafi toward his stated goal of assuming room temperature.

Remember the Federal Debt

With the focus of Americans split between the Middle East and the Wisconsin teachers’ drama, the federal debt has slipped from the view of many. Republicans are in a position to use an agreement to a continuing resolution to wring spending cuts from Democrats. The questions will be: 1) Will the Democrats believe they can bluff Republicans into approving a series of continuing resolutions that fail to cut spending; and, 2) If, as is almost certain, they do believe so, will Republicans then fold?

Washington’s addiction to spending taxpayers’ money is obvious – as is the fact that Congress is in denial. Is there a 12-step program for governments?

Democrat State Legislators Continue Hide-n-Seek Marathon

Rumor is that the missing Democrat Wisconsin state senators are hiding on loony leftist Keith Olbermann’s TV show. This will likely come to light as soon as Olbermann has a viewer. 

Correction and Amplification: It turns out Olbermann's scheduled show on Current (aka Albert Gore, Jr.) TV has not yet aired. Who knew?

Democrat state legislators from Indiana are also in hiding rather than vote on legislation which they do not have the votes to stop. At this rate Democrats may want to change the name of their party to reflect something they actually believe in; and it’s obviously not representative Democracy. I’m accepting nominations for a new, more appropriate name and symbol. One nomination is the “Denial Party” and their mascot would be an ostrich.

Harry Reid and Prostitution

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is working on a way to continue to fund the federal government rather than work on ways to cut federal spending. Reid is also calling for an end to legal prostitution in Nevada. Having just run a political campaign there, isn’t Reid a hypocrite?

Beautiful, Sleepy, Deadly Mexico

Recent tragic events have brought home the point that Americans are no longer safe in Mexico. It appears that warring drug cartels are a large part of this, but this is a departure from their previous strategies that avoided violence toward Americans. It begs the question, “What happens when those drug cartels change their strategies to include distribution in the United States?”

For Mexican drug cartels, it’s a business decision. There are those who argue this will never happen, but for the drug lords, it’s simply “vertical integration”. Like all business decisions, it’s a matter of risk and reward and the only way to halt it is to either increase risk or reduce reward so that it’s not a profitable project.

Part of that strategy to increase drug cartel costs might be to do a much better job of halting illegal border crossings. So obviously the Obama Administration will . . . file another lawsuit against Arizona! Yes, the Arizona legislature has proposed new anti-illegal immigration legislation, which will inevitably be challenged by the Obama Administration as soon as it is passed. Good luck on that, Arizona.