SOTU Tweets Blogathon (1 of 3): Enter Paul Ryan

With the new House Speaker Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) getting a new job that 'nobody in Washington wants' according to Chris Cillizza of "The Washington Post" simply because both his Republican Party and Congress as a whole is a frigging mess.

Our images are of Cong. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Kermit the Frog (since "The Muppets" aired on ABC right before the SOTU), and Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), who gave the GOP response to President Barack Obama's speech.

We must thank WNYC-FM, New York City's NPR station for airing the SOTU which was not aired on my local public radio station.

For those of you in Albania, SOTU stands for State of the Union.

Here are the tweets:

1) Tom Tomorrow (liberal cartoonist): "Guys, I think they drugged Paul Ryan."

2) Audra Sparks (progressive activist): You won't be remembered as the president who fought for the environment.

3) WBTV-News (Charlotte, NC): SC Governor Nikki Haley to deliver GOP response after SOTU.

4) Cong. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.): We need to continue our economy and make it work for everyone.

5) Cong. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC): Ok.....the first thing I can agree with. Figuring out ways to help people up and out of poverty should be a priority.

6) National Zoo (we couldn't resist): Orangutans are the largest tree-dwelling animals in the world.

7) Andrea Mitchell (NBC News): POTUS hits climate deniers saying when Russians beat us into space we didn't deny Sputnik was up there, we raced to the moon.

8) Zeke Miller (Time): Obama: We're every immigrant and entrepreneur from Boston to Austin to Silicon Valley racing to shape a better world.

9) Nerdy Wonka: Pres. Obama: 'Look if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change have at it,  you'll be pretty lonely.

10) Cong. Gerry Connolly (D-Va): POTUS tells GOP that their climate change denial will make 'em pretty lonely given business, military, science international consensus.

11) Katrina vanden Heuvel (chief editor of "The Nation"): YES__ We spend more on our military than the next 8 nations combined, but why?

http://www.wnyc.org

http://www.thenation.com

http://www.cq.com

10 for 10 (2nd Entry): Our Six Most Popular Entries..........a quote from the athlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner

Greetings to our blog readers in Albania, Egypt, and Canada.....

Over our ten years of blogging, we have not been too consumed with which entries get mega-hits and which ones are ignored like the opening act at a Rolling Stones concert, but Bruce Jenner (now known as Caitlyn Jenner or Jessica Lange) and Bristol Palin both got us attention in ways we never imagined!

A quote from Jenner (top) and Palin (bottom), the daughter of Sarah Palin, a governor of Alaska who ran with John McCain as the veep nominee for the Republican Party made for entries which both rank in our top image. The Bristol Palin quote is the number one entry, while the Bruce Jenner quote was our third most popular entry, helped in all probability by his stunning gender-change.

Other popular entries include one about how we ate a whole entire anchovy pizza in Washington, DC, during a 2010 trip (anchovies are pict. center), a silly image to fill space for an angora cat, and a quote from Che Guevara, which probably helped us become popular in Cuba and El Salvador.

Here are the six most popular entries.........with entries to the ones which have photos....

1. Things We Learned on Twitter (the Bristol Palin entry). April 7, 2010. 14,416 hits.
http://politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com/2010/04/things-we-learned-on-twitter-this.html

2. DC Diary_ I Ate a Whole Anchovy Pizza. Dec. 28, 2010. 5,036 hits.
http://politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com/2010/12/dc-diary-i-ate-whole-anchovy-pizza.html

3. Quote of the Day_ Bruce Jenner. March 6, 2012. 4,765 hits. http://politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com/2012/03/quote-of-dayweek-bruce-jenner.html

4. Silly Photo to Fill Space_Angora Cat. Jan. 27, 2010. 3, 917 hits.

5. Special Quote of the Week from Che Guevara. May 2, 2009. 3,390

6. Special Screening_ Harold and Maude. June 24, 2009. 2,562 hits. http://politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com/2009/06/special-screening-harold-and-maude.html

Parade of Nations (Two of Four)- Albania to Italy

We continue our Parade of Nations of flag-bearers for their respective countries, with the likes of an Albanian women's weight-lifter to a Cuban wrestler:

Albania: Romela Begaj (women's weightlifting)

Azerbaijan: Elnur Mammadi (men's judo)

Chile: Denisse van Lamoea (women's archery)

Cuba: Mijain Lopez (pictured below, wrestling)

Cyprus: Marcos Baghdatis (pictured above, tennis)

Hungary: Peter Biros (water polo)

Iran: Ali Mazaheri (boxing)

Italy: Valentina Vezzali (pictured center, fencing)

http://www.olympic.org

http://www.valentinavezzali.com

Status Update_ Ah, Macedonia!

Status Update: "I can apparently locate every country in Europe of size on the map, except Macedonia!"


I don't what it is, but I can seemingly never get all the questions right. It doesn't seem to matter if it's a Psychology 101 test or a pop culture quiz on the Internet.

Today, I took a geography quiz on mentalfloss.com and it appears that I can locate every country of size (yeah, Liechtenstein is a problem) except Macedonia, which I somehow mistook for Albania.

The key to not making this mistake again is apparently to remember that Albania has a coast with the Adriatic Sea while Macedonia, which was until a decade ago or so, a republic in the former Yugoslavia.

Greece is also angry with Macedonia for reasons we will not go into because I'm half-Turkish, and we've already talked about Cyprus! (see earlier entry). Macedonia is also famous for its folk dances.........