This was touched on briefly before I went on sick call, and it's nice to have taken the time to see things develop so completely. Egypt is in the throws of almost full on revolution and that's not a word to be tossed around lightly. After eight days of protests, mild calamities and the government losing its mind, things are starting to change. ( Read more... )

Here we are loyal fans, and possibly new, the State of the Union. As keeping in with annual tradition, I'm gonna analyze every bit of this speech, god help me. It was over an hour long and there were fewer interruptions for applause than usual, so it's more words. Luckily, this was Barack Obama and the man knows how to give a speech. More ( Read more... )

For once, this is more than just a cute metaphor, there really is a Gas City, Indiana. With the Indiana primaries coming up on Tuesday, as well as the North Carolina, Obama and Clinton have both been seeking ways to turn up the heat on each other and show how different they can be and they found a real issue to show their differences. In the face ( Read more... )

Sorry for lack of rants, managed to pull a couple of muscles ranting. I'm just that good. But, tonight, we marked the sad anniversary and grim milestones that 5 years of American war in Iraq and 4000 American soldiers killed in Iraq. That doesn't count other coalition deaths, Iraqi civilian deaths, nor does it include exactly how many terrorists we ( Read more... )

Yes, another state of the union, and there was nothing great that happened and nothing great he put forward. He had no real bold visions for the future, but seemed to be visions of the past. Granted, they were visions of HIS version of the past, including his bringing up discredited "terrorist plots". He did mention all the key events of the past ( Read more... )

Here we are on the day before Bush's final State of the Union address (yes, tomorrow will be the great big recap of it all here on MidnightRanter). It is always interesting to see powerful people at the end of their time. Queen Elizabeth in her final days did her damndest to not appoint a successor while all those around her kept trying to ( Read more... )

CNN, in the ever growing attempt to market directly to Baby Boomer Americans, had a feature story on Adjustable Rate Mortgages rising in October. They had another banner story on the director of the hurricane center stepping down but had only a brief story about Arab flags flying in Israel for a truly historic peace summit between the Arab League ( Read more... )

One of the biggest gripes of the American public has been rising energy costs. It was one of the key promises of the Democratic candidates in 2006. It's been one of the reasons the economy has been sluggish despite growth in other areas. Three years ago, gasoline prices were almost half of what they are now. People are scared the Middle East, a ( Read more... )

Yes, here we are again, the State of the Union but this is different from all the other years. Here, Bush is facing a hostile congress, poll numbers more like Nixon than Clinton and vice presidential aides looking to better deal against their superiors. It's not Bush's best week ever, but it is entertaining for those of us here in blogland. The ( Read more... )

No, this is not a misdated post, this is about an even worse re-election that took place today in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez, who wins the dubious honor of being the subject of two rants in a row, was just re-elected overwhelmingly as president of Venezuela. Currently, with nearly 80% of the precincts reporting in, Chavez leads over his opponent, ( Read more... )