Steve's Random Thoughts

Politics in Virginia

2019-02-06T19:59:00.001-06:00

This whole situation in Virginia keeps changing. Now, the governor and the top two officials in the line-of-succession (all Democrats) have serious accusations against them — one related to sexual assault and the other two racial. Ironic that the next in line — the state’s speaker of the house — is Republican. He won election by the draw of a hat so if it gets that far, I’m sure there will be legal action taken. You could never sell this story to Hollywood!

A black eye

2019-01-18T21:22:00.001-06:00

Wow! Journalism is taking a hit tonight!

DNA testing

2019-01-14T19:15:00.001-06:00

I just completed watching an episode of The Romanoffs, a limited series on Amazon Prime, created by Matthew Weiner (Mad Men). This specific episode dealt with a married woman who had an affair with her husband’s best friend. She had a daughter, but never told her husband that he was not the father. It has been a 20-year secret between the woman and the best friend.

With DNA testing becoming more and more popular, I wonder how many long-held family secrets have been exposed and how many lives have been changed.

Anyone still out there?

2017-01-11T14:28:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted for about 3 years. Anyone still there?

Bridge-gate

2014-01-10T00:19:00.000-06:00

Has anyone been following the "scandal" involving New Jersey Governor Chris Christie? I was not even aware of it, but it seems like it became a big news story overnight.

Christie ran for re-election last November and won handily. The mayor of Fort Lee, NJ did not endorse Christie for re-election. Fort Lee is located on the Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge spans the river into New York and into the Bronx. It's a heavily traveled bridge as you can imagine.

Allegedly, a member of Christie's staff ordered lanes on the bridge to be closed for four days. Christie faced accusations at the time that the lanes were blocked in retaliation over the mayor's refusal to endorse him for re-election.

Christie said he was "misled" and was not involved in the decision to close portions of the bridge.

That's really all we know at the moment with Christie scheduled to hold a press conference later in the morning.

This has turned into a national story for a number of reasons. First, at the moment Christie is considered to be the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. Second, Christie's style has alienated both Democrats and Republicans.

The silence from the Republican camp has been deafening. Usually somebody from the party would have defended a fellow Republican, but most main-stream Republicans have maintained their distance.

Democrats, of course, are blasting Christie, but these critics are facing their own charges of hypocrisy. The Left thinks Christie should have known what this high-ranking aide was doing, but at the same time defending President Obama about his lack of awareness of the recent scandals plaguing his administration. And, to quote the president, "elections have consequences."

I think Christie should give the middle finger to his critics by going on national TV telling the world that he is "outraged" over this act, will promise to get to the bottom of it, fire nobody and, in a few weeks, label it as a "phony scandal."

Besides, "what difference...does it make?"

Update #1: At his press conference, Christie announced that he had fired his deputy chief of staff who was the person involved in the lane closures and had authored several emails which appear to link Christie to the closings.

Update #2: Christie received generally high marks from crisis management professionals on the way he handled the press conference...assuming nothing else comes out.

Posterous

2013-10-20T10:26:00.001-05:00

I used the Posterous blogging platform and would cross-post to this blog as well as to other blogs. Posterous shut down earlier this year and I forgot that blogs (especially images contained in them) would no longer be viewable in the other blogs. That explains the empty placeholders appearing in this blog.

Flooding in Chicago

2013-04-18T22:26:00.002-05:00

The Chicago area has received a TON of rain. My in-laws live in Des Plaines across from the Des Plaines River and the river has risen over the road in front of their house. The only way to navigate is by canoe!

24

2013-01-04T15:03:00.001-06:00

Watching Season Two (Day Two) of "24". The Audience Network (Channel 239 on DirecTV) is showing the episodes. They ran Season One last Saturday and Season Two on Sunday which I recorded.

It's been several years since the show debuted and I had forgotten how good it was for the first few seasons. It's also interesting to see the actors who played minor roles in "24" who are starring in other series right now. The actress who plays Abby in "NCIS" had a minor role in Day One and the actor who plays Deeks in "NCIS Los Angeles" played George Mason's son in Day Two.

Steve's Random Thoughts

Politics in Virginia

A black eye

DNA testing

Anyone still out there?

Bridge-gate

Posterous

Flooding in Chicago

24

Benghazi hearing

Saturday evening

Saturday evening

Israel and Iran

This is absolutely one classy guy!

Untitled

Gas price relief!

AP Sources: White House Preparing For Mandate To Be Struck Down

NASA Voyager 1 spacecraft nears interstellar space

Hot weather coming

A sad day!

Getting the band back together!

Blogging about bacon

Really?? It's 29 degrees with snow on the ground right now and they're saying the mid-sixties by next week!?

See a solar eclipse from outer space

Friday evening sunset.

NASA’s ‘Blue Marble’ Photos Set Flickr Record