Midwest Monday News 11.28.05

Posted by Steven Bellah on 11.28.2005

Stay away from retail...

Good Monday to everyone....now on to the (abbreviated) news.......

Working retail is not fun, especially around the holidays. I worked at Borders Books & Music over two holiday seasons, and our business quadrupled each time. I recently took a management position with Target, and our store made an extra $125,000 on Black Friday. Interestingly enough, Saturday and Sunday were not very busy at all. Still, the store closed at 11pm, and here I am to try and write my news report before it gets too late.

There are a couple of interesting points, both from Yahoo news that I will share with you.......


No chance, that's what you've got.....

"A former Green Party member who advocates an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq says he will challenge incumbent Hillary Rodham Clinton for the 2006 Democratic nomination for Senate.

"She's in favor of the war and in favor of continuing the occupation," Steven Greenfield, a professional saxophone player, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his New Paltz home.

A senior adviser to Clinton, Howard Wolfson, declined to comment on Greenfield's declaration.

Clinton voted to give President Bush the power to go to war, and while she has been critical of his conduct of the effort she has stopped short of calling for a troop withdrawal.

Greenfield, 44, who has a degree in economics, switched to the Democratic Party just last month so he could challenge Clinton. He says he likely will need 15,000 petition signatures statewide to get on next September's ballot.

In 2002, as a Green Party candidate, Greenfield challenged Democratic U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey. Greenfield got fewer than 3,000 votes to Hinchey's more than 113,000.

Among Republicans, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro is facing several other candidates for the nomination to oppose Clinton.

----Now, I know this guy doesn't stand a chance, but hey, I can't stand Hillary, so here's an alternative. I'm not too big on the immediate withdrawal of troops, however. As I've said before, as much as I am against the war in Iraq, pulling everyone out NOW would be a huge, huge mistake. There is still a chance to win the peace. Now, in 5 years, if the whole country is crawling with terrorists, I think it will be time to go. But not right now.

I like how he switched to the Democratic Party just so he could challenge Hillary. I'd like to see them ask him to speak at the 2008 convention.

That last comment was to be taken with sarcasm. Just so you know.



Not bad. Not bad at all.

Also from Yahoo:

"The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Sunday suggested that President Bush use an FDR-style presentation to update people on progress in the war in Iraq.

Sen. John Warner, recalled that during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt often went on the radio in "fireside chats" to explain to the nation in detail the conduct of the war in Europe and Asia.

"I think it would be to Bush's advantage," said Warner, who served in the Navy during the war.

"It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have, about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public," he said.

Bush plans a speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on the fight against terrorism.

The Senate voted 79-19 on Nov. 15 to urge the Bush administration to explain publicly its strategy for success in Iraq and to provide quarterly reports on policy and military operations. A call for a plan to set a phased withdrawal of troops, which Bush opposes, was dropped from the nonbinding resolution when Republicans and some Democrats objected.

In an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Warner reiterated his opposition to a timetable for troop withdrawal. He sharply disagreed with Delaware Sen. Joe Biden's assertion that the military cannot maintain its baseline troop levels past next year, citing assurances from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace.

Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposes an immediate withdrawal of troops. He did say the Pentagon would have to draw down forces next year, by as much as 50,000, or extend tours, deploy more National Guard members and take other measures.

Warner responded that Pace told him on Saturday that the military will maintain force levels in part by retraining certain segments of the Army and the Guard to perform basic fighting against the insurgents.

"Artillerymen can become infantrymen, artillerymen can become policemen," he said.

Nearly 160,000 U.S. troops are serving in Iraq. The Pentagon has said that level will drop below 140,000 after Iraqi elections on Dec. 15, if they are no longer needed for additional security.

Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said there was a need for more information about policy and success rather than a change in course in Iraq.

"Our committee hopes to provide a whole lot more so the debate might be enlightened," Lugar told "Fox News Sunday."

"We want to hear from the administration," he said.

Sen. Russ Feingold, who is on the committee, said a public timetable for withdrawal would show the Iraqi people that the U.S. is not set to occupy the country permanently.

"The right thing for the United States right now is to refocus on the fight against terrorism," Feingold said on "This Week" on ABC. "Iraq has ended up being a real distraction. Actually, a problem. I think it's actually made us weaker rather than stronger."

Feingold, considered a presidential hopeful for 2008, voted against giving Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq. He said that, unlike his Democratic colleagues in the Senate, he thought the administration was exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

"The Bush administration did a brilliant job, which has continued until today, not in getting us into the war and handling it correctly, but they did a brilliant job of intimidating us into somehow thinking that if we didn't vote for this, we weren't supporting the troops and we were soft on terror," Feingold said.

"I could tell that they were taking every piece of evidence, exaggerating it, pushing everything they could and twisting everything in favor of going into Iraq," he said.

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected any suggestion that the administration intentionally misled the public as it made the case for invading Iraq and removing Saddam."

----I've always been against the Iraq war, but if President Bush wants to make Americans understand WHY we are there, I think something like FDR's fireside chats might be helpful to him, and to us.

It seems that the only time Bush makes a national speech or address is when his poll numbers are down. Would he have spoken from New Orleans about Hurricane Katrina if his approval rating hadn't suddenly dipped? I think that's what some Americans see in him--he only starts talking when he is in trouble.

I think a quarterly address from the Oval Office would work wonders for this war and helping Americans understand it. Hey, when Ross Perot bought prime time TV space and spent an hour talking to us with his voodoo pointer, it got him a respectable 19% of the vote. I actually liked what the guy had to say. Of course, that was 1992, and I was only 10, but he made quite the impression on me.

Giving speech after speech about the "Axis of Evil", the "Evil Doers", or "Staying the Course" is all fine and dandy, but after a while people want to know HOW we will stop that Axis, those Doers, and how we will stay that course. Giving a pep rally speech every time your numbers are below 40% won't win you any more fans.



Well, well, well

Two of my predictions have come true!

--Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey are separating, and eventually divorcing. I blame no one but the media on this one. From the day that they got married, all the magazines and TV shows could talk about was how the marriage was on the rocks and how it would all end very, very soon.

Well, it did, and expect to see every publication giving them the usual "We said it wouldn't last, and we were RIGHT!" treatment. I guess the moral of this whole soap opera is: If you are famous, DO NOT marry someone else who is famous as well. The media really, really, really, really wanted Nick and Jessica to split up because heaven forbid two celebrities can be happy together.

What strikes me now is how fashionable it is to be either married for a short time, or engaged for a short time. Does anyone think Christina Aguilera's marriage will last? Did anyone think Paris Hilton was really going to marry that guy named, er, Paris? In Hollywood, whenever two people marry, it's almost like there is an office pool to see how long it will last. I'm convinced some people get married to further their careers. Jennifer Garner married Scott Foley, and from the start it was like they were put together by the studio. I can remember Letterman asking her how the marriage was, and all she could say was "fine". Yeah, she really loved him, huh?

Tom Cruise is going to spend 30 thousand dollars on a sonogram machine to use to monitor his lovechild with Katie Holmes. Of course, he couldn't have spent that money on a WEDDING now, could he? Does anyone think those two will actually tie the knot, EVER?

It's unfortunate that so many romances in Hollywood go the way of the dodo. My favorite latest one is that the chick from Laguna Beach broke off her 3-week engagement to her boyfriend of 2 months. And who is her best friend? Paris Hilton. I know, I am as shocked as you are.

--Britney Spears exploited her newborn son and sold the EXCLUSIVE photos to, you guessed it, People Magazine. The same photos that she blew a gasket over when they were leaked a month ago has now put her and Kevin Federline on the cover of the magazine for the SIXTH time in the last year. Apparently Britney doesn't have enough money already, so she had to SELL the photos. And also, apparently she had decided against the whole idea because she "didn't want to use her son to make money"---then People upped their offer and she took it. I don't know about you, but that sounds more like negotiating to me.

Of course, the issue will sell 5 billion copies, and we'll see them on the cover again when Kevin's rap album comes out, again when the baby turns one, again when Britney gets knocked up again, and again when the whole marriage ends because well, it's a Hollywood marriage, and you know how those turn out.

I have to send this off before it gets too late, so see you next week!