Cinco de Mayo, and Other Verities: Obama IS Bambi; Guns' Head-fake; G.O.P. Bad Guys; Krugman=A**hole (but Correct?)

Sun. May 5, 2013:                            CINCO DE MAYO


Dear Worthies -- What better day, than Cinqo de Mayo, for another Grab-bag of randomly useful corrections made by this past week's news.



1.  Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day, which instead is celebrated on September 16.
Mexicans in certain provinces celebrate May 5 for an unlikely military victory over the French in 1862.

2.  For those of us who have spent over 4 years defending Obama from even worse voices on the Right,
it is time to admit that voices from the Left have Obama Critiques that ring true.  None more so than the disapppointed Obama sympathizer, the snarky liberal Maureen Dowd, who years ago created the phrase "Obambi" to deride the President's lack of Machiavellian steel.
Check out Maureen Dowd's latest -- the withering "Bottoms Up, Lame Duck":

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/dowd-bottoms-up-lame-duck.html?_r=0

3.  Please note, too, that by any measure, Obama's team appears to have done a miserable job preparing the nation for its Obamacare rollout.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows:

12% of Americans believe that the law has been repealed by Congress.
 7% think it has been overturned by the Supreme Court.
23% "do not know enough to say what the status of the law is."

4.   Why doesn't anyone call out the pro-gun argument that "repairing mental health system" is the way to go?
Up in NH, Senator Kelly Ayotte is facing organized pressure against her recent vote to defeat expanded background checks.  NYT, May 1, 2013:

Ms. Ayotte has powerful allies in state and national gun owners' groups [who are running the following ad]:
"She knows the only way to prevent tragedies like Sandy Hook is to fix our broken mental health system."

But, why doesn't ANYONE point out the obvious fact that there is NO WAY to pre-screen mentally deranged shooters?  To do so is to lock up millions of us before we even have a glint in our eye about getting a gun.
So:  Another pro-gun head-fake, to distract, and to sew confusion.



5.  GOP, as Maureen Dowd says above, is hardly repentant after blowing the 2012 Election.
Read, and gnash:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/us/politics/koch-brothers-plan-more-political-involvement-for-their-conservative-network.html

AND

http://memegenerator.net/Scumbag-Gop

AND

http://www.politicususa.com/bill-maher-labels-rick-perry-ted-nugent-sarah-palin-axis-aholes.html

6.  Paul Krugman, unrepentant after admirer Clive Crook's recent criticism about his dismissive arrogance for those who disagrees,
has 2 new articles lambasting the inflation fearmongers.  His repetitive contempt IS annoying (but he may also be correct!):

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/opinion/krugman-the-story-of-our-time.html

AND

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/opinion/krugman-not-enough-inflation.html