Happy Mid Year

These days it seems like so much is happening (partially a result of the information explosion which transmits news of all sorts instantaneously) that it no longer is appropriate to have just a year-end summary. Indeed why not such a summary at mid year which of course is now here? This way, you might recall some of the following events:

Still in the News:

• The Oil Spill. It's not improbable that unfortunately this will still be a major story at the end of the year (of course November's midterm elections are huge). Few heroes but many losers!

Pretty Much Forgotten:

• The Haitian Earthquake. Now that it's been supplanted by all things BP, does anyone care what has happened to the beleagured Haitian people? Sadly, yesterday's tragedy du jour.
• Tiger Woods. Not much coverage anymore especially since he has failed to excel on his return to competitive golf. And then of course there's Jesse James (no, not the outlaw) and others to keep the tabloid fires burning.
• Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien. Why was so much made of one multimillionaire late night star pushing another one off the air temporarily? In more ways than one, much ado about nothing.
• The Winter Olympics. Quick, name 3 medal winners. OK, there's Apollo Ohno, Lindsay Vonn and let me think awhile. Interesting entertainment for a few weeks but egregiously overpromoted by NBC, which lost a small fortune televising the Games. But the lead-ins to their regular programming! WOW!
• The Implosion Of Toyota. Unbelievable damage to a respected brand, with the result that Toyota recently erected a huge sign at Wrigley Field, home of another formerly respected brand--the Chicago Cubs.

After laboriously churning out this summary, TNB will now go out and celebrate Mid Years Eve in the traditional fashion--joining other like minded revelers (grateful that they've survived another six months) for a nightcap. That is, if anything's open past 10 PM.

Joe the Oil Apologist

Remember way back in 2008 when Joe the Plumber burst onto the scene and was quickly anointed a hero by John McCain and Fox News? Turned out of course that he was neither "Joe" nor a working plumber but his temporary elevation to cult status probably to some extent presaged the rise of the so-called Tea Party. BTW, do you ever wonder if say Joe Biden were President whether the Tea Party rhetoric would be so vicious? Just saying.

Anyway, back to our latest Joe hero--actually named Joe Barton. He's the Republican congressman from Texas, long financed by the oil industry, who's the ranking minority member on the House Energy Committee (he'll be chairman if the Republicans win the House in November). At today's Committee hearing called to publicly excoriate BP CEO Tony Hayward, Joe briefly stole the show when he "apologized" to Hayward for yesterday's White House "shakedown" (Joe's words) whereby BP agreed to forego its 2010 dividend and place $20 billion in an escrow fund to compensate victims (those "small people" as called by BP's Chairman the other day!) of the Gulf of Mexico spill.


After both Democrats (no surprise) and the Republican leadership (doing damage control) disavowed Joe's remarks, Joe spent the afternoon retracting his earlier "apology", in effect apologizing for it. He, of course had been threatened with having his seniority rights stripped away, a fate second only to losing his oil industry donations. After all the "spin" cleared what remained was the absolute certainty that Joe really meant it all along--and he's hardly the only "oil apologist"in the Republican ranks. Had the spill gone West, towards Texas, instead of heading East, TNB wonders what apology Joe would have uttered.


What is it with the name Joe anyway? During the last State of the Union address, President Obama was heckled from the House floor by previously obscure GOP representative Joe Wilson of Georgia who promptly raked in millions in donations. Is there any doubt that this a great country? TNB may change his name to "Joe the Blogger"--guaranteed to be a winner.