President Obama last night attributed his low approval rating, which has recently dropped down to 41 percent for only the second time, to the high gas prices which are closing in on $4 a gallon nationwide. At the fundraising dinner in Brentwood, Calif., Obama said, “If I wasn’t professionally in this, I wouldn’t be following all of these debates in Washington,” to an audience that included the likes of Steven Spielberg, Will Ferrell and George Clooney.—-
During another one of Obama’s fundraising events in San Francisco on Thursday, 21 activists interrupted the president’s speech to protest the detention of Army Private Bradley Manning. Manning is accused of leaking confidential documents to WikiLeaks. The hecklers sang, “we paid our dues, where’s our change?”
Obama announced Thursday that the Justice Department is putting together a team to investigate possible fraud or price manipulation in the oil market. “We’re going to make sure that nobody’s taking advantage of American consumers for their own short-term gains,” Obama said.
Some drivers in Seattle are now resorting to what’s called “slugging,” a legal form of hitchhiking. People will meet up and get a free ride in a stranger’s car so the driver gets to speed through in the carpool lane.
People who have seen the movie The Hitcher are buying cars that run on electricity instead of trying to get picked up by strange men in Astro Vans. The Nissan Leaf, which was named “World Car of the Year,” at the New York Auto Show, has no ignition key, no muffler nor does it emit pollution or masculinity of any kind. The Leaf doesn’t use gas and goes 100 miles on an overnight charge.
Earlier today, House Speaker John Boehner announced that American taxpayers would be paying for former Bush Solicitor General Paul Clement to defend the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, which bans federal recognition of same-sex marriages. Clement is rumored to be raking in $5 million a year, but Boehner’s office refuses to release the engagement letter with the big-money man, in which it says just how much it costs the American people to defend DOMA.
Florida pastor Terry Jones, the crazy bastard who burns Qurans, on Thursday accidentally discharged a round from his gun while in his car just before going on live TV with Huel Perkins on the Let it Rip show. Jones says the gun going off should have no bearing on his trial, which is going on today. Jones is in court defending his intentions to conduct a protest outside a nearby mosque, promising he had no intentions of burning Qurans or images of Muhammed.
This article appears in Apr 20-26, 2011.