March 29, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
March 29 is … Festival of Smoke and Mirrors Day
Gadhafi was made for this day as are most politicians, including our President. I hope President Obama didn’t pay much for that commercial he read last night. It was not very informative or news worthy in my thinking. The speech belonged on a Sunday morning talking heads program not prime-time, speak to the nation time slot.
The wonderful Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on Margaret Langdon’s novel, Anna and the King of Siam, opened this night in 1951 on Broadway. The King and I starred Yul Brynner in the role of the King of Siam. The king, along with his subjects, valued tradition above all else. From this day forward, the role of the King of Siam belonged to Yul Brynner and no other.
Brynner appeared in this part in more than 4,000 performances on both stage and screen (the Broadway show was adapted for Hollywood in 1956).
Anna, the English governess hired to teach the King’s dozens of children, was portrayed by Gertrude Lawrence. Ms. Lawrence and Mr. Brynner acted, danced and sang their way into our hearts with such memorable tunes as Getting to Know You, Shall We Dance, Hello, Young Lovers, I Whistle a Happy Tune, We Kiss in a Shadow, I Have Dreamed, Something Wonderful, A Puzzlement and March of the Siamese Children.
The King and I ran for a total of 1,246 outstanding performances at New York’s St. James Theatre.
I mentioned this was going to happen in my blog of March 26, 2011. It will likely get worse. Elizabeth Taylor left an enduring legacy of great films and even greater acts of philanthropy. She also amassed a huge fortune estimated between $600 million and $1 billion, most of that from her savvy business dealings. Already, the fighting has begun as to who will get to manage that bounty along with all the money she's destined to make in death. Her last wish was for her lucrative jewelry collection, valued at a staggering $150 million in 2002, to be auctioned off and the proceeds given to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and amfAR. "Elizabeth also made arrangements to split the rest of her fortune between her four children and other charities that she cared so much about," a close friend of the stars has reportedly stated. "But what is causing all the problems is not the money she made during her life, but rather what should happen to the millions she is going to make after her death." the close friend confided. Beauty product giant Elizabeth Arden has already announced they'll continue selling Liz's still-popular fragrances, they made $77 million last year alone, and there are countless other opportunities, like film re-releases and merchandising that the estate could profit greatly from. "The one thing she didn't do was understand that, much like Elvis and Michael Jackson, she might be worth more in death," a source says. "This is what has already started to cause friction between family, business managers and the many charities that meant so much to Elizabeth." The two-time Oscar winner has been worth a lot of money for decades. In 1996, when she divorced her last husband, Larry Fortensky, documents showed her net worth was $608.4 million. The New York Post reported that during the 1990s, Taylor earned about $2 per second, or about $63 million per year. Her perfume, White Diamonds, has never stopped selling.
This is going to make the fight between the NFL owners and the NFL players look good before it is over. The rich are fighting over becoming richer. Lawyers love it.
Everybody knew this was going to happen even though our Congressional leaders said a compromise would be worked out during the time the temporary resolution passed two weeks ago granted all involved. More lies from our leaders once again. The specter of a partial government shutdown looms again as Congress returns to Washington with Democrats and Republicans as far apart on a bill to keep the government running as they were two weeks ago. Despite mounting pressure and a deadline looming, talks have stalled, with Democrats accusing GOP leaders of catering to tea party forces and Republicans countering that the White House isn't offering serious proposals to cut spending. The vehicle for the debate, left simmering when lawmakers went back to their districts last week, is must-do legislation to bankroll the day-to-day operating budgets of federal agencies including military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year. Other major tests will soon follow, as House Republicans unveil a blueprint to attack the broader budget mess next week and a must-do measure to maintain the government's ability to borrow money to meet its responsibilities. Last month, House Republicans passed a measure cutting more than $60 billion from the $1.1 trillion budgeted for such programs last year. All the savings were taken from domestic programs and foreign aid, which make up about half of the pot. Democrats in the Senate killed the measure as too extreme, citing cuts to education, health research, food inspection and other programs and services. Reaching agreement between Democrats and Republicans is proving difficult enough. Then comes the harder part for House Speaker John Boehner: convincing his many tea party-backed GOP freshmen that the sort of split-the-differences measure Obama could sign isn't a sellout. The shutdown scenario was mostly set up in last year's midterm election campaign, when Republicans emphasized sharp spending cuts to attack mounting federal deficits and won control of the House, enough additional political clout to more strongly challenge President Obama on budget issues. The GOP promised that it would ratchet spending down to 2008 levels and force Obama to backtrack on generous budget increases made on his watch. To meet the promise, GOP leaders initially pressed for about $35 billion in cuts in a proposal that took account of the fact that the budget year was almost halfway over. That idea didn't sell with tea party activists, and House Speaker John Boehner was forced to almost double the size of the cuts, driving away any potential Democratic support. But that meant the halfway point between the House-passed measure and a proposal advanced by Democrats controlling the Senate was roughly where Boehner started out in the first place. "The speaker knows that when it comes to avoiding a shutdown, his problem is with the tea party, not Democrats," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Time is running short. Staff-level negotiations last week ran aground, and the principals are going to have to pick up the pace to have any chance of making an April 8 deadline to avoid a partial shutdown of the government. Right now it appears that the shutdown that both sides have sworn to avoid is possible - if not probable.
The frustration boiled over on Friday, with Republicans criticizing Democrats for not presenting significant cuts. An offer a few days earlier had ponied up just another $10 billion or so, GOP officials said, which prompted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to accuse Democrats of "negotiating off of the status quo and refusing to offer any sort of serious plan for how to cut spending." The tough rhetoric was matched by volleys from Boehner, R-Ohio, and other House GOP leaders. That prompted Democrats to accuse Republicans of blowing up a near agreement on a "top line" of spending cuts that would have likely given Republicans more than half of their $60 billion-plus in reductions.
Time is running short. Staff-level negotiations last week ran aground, and the principals are going to have to pick up the pace to have any chance of making an April 8 deadline to avoid a partial shutdown of the government. Right now it appears that the shutdown that both sides have sworn to avoid is possible - if not probable.
The frustration boiled over on Friday, with Republicans criticizing Democrats for not presenting significant cuts. An offer a few days earlier had ponied up just another $10 billion or so, GOP officials said, which prompted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to accuse Democrats of "negotiating off of the status quo and refusing to offer any sort of serious plan for how to cut spending." The tough rhetoric was matched by volleys from Boehner, R-Ohio, and other House GOP leaders. That prompted Democrats to accuse Republicans of blowing up a near agreement on a "top line" of spending cuts that would have likely given Republicans more than half of their $60 billion-plus in reductions.
"The division between the tea party and mainstream Republicans is preventing us from reaching a responsible solution and prevented negotiations from taking place over the weekend even as the clock ticks toward a government shutdown," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Monday. Democrats also say that House Republicans insist on using House-passed legislation slashing more than $60 billion from the current-year budget as the starting point for talks, pulling back from an agreement with Boehner's office to work off a baseline essentially set at last year's levels. Boehner appears to be in a no-win situation. Any agreement with Obama is sure to incite a revolt among hard-line tea party figures who want the full roster of cuts and an end to funding for Obama's signature health care law. And social conservatives are adamant that the measure cut off money for Planned Parenthood clinics that provide abortions in addition to the family planning services the government funds. Any attempts to outmuscle Obama with legislation that pleases tea partiers, however, would surely incite a shutdown. One option circulating among Republicans is to use the Pentagon’s budget to pass a short-term measure to avoid a shutdown but carry stiffer spending cuts than the $10 billion in bipartisan cuts to earmarks and domestic accounts achieved so far.
On this date in history;
1882 Knights of Columbus chartered for Catholic men
1886 Chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise for Coca-Cola (with cocaine)
1886 Chemist John Pemberton begins to advertise for Coca-Cola (with cocaine)
1951 Julius & Ethel Rosenberg convicted of espionage
1962 Jack Paar's final appearance on the "Tonight Show"
1971 1st Lieutenant William L Calley Jr found guilty in My Lai (Vietnam) massacre
1973 Last US troops leave Vietnam, 9 years after Tonkin Gulf Resolution
1976 8 Ohio National Guardsmen indicted for shooting 4 Kent State students
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
Faith will not die while seed catalogs are printed.
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In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
