SOTU Tweets Blogathon: Good Morning Dubai....

Good morning, Dubai! Where it is now 10:00 a.m. Kudos to Aston Villa, the last place team in the English Premiere League for their 1-0 triumph over Crystal Palace.

Here is our final list of tweets, which does NOT involve any commentary from the likes of George F. Will and Fozzie the Bear.(pict. center).......

1) Taz Ahmed (American Muslim female comedian, activist): Can you PLAY INTO THE MODEL MINORITY STEREOTYPE any harder, Nikki Haley ?!?!?!

2) Catholic Democrats: So Nikki Haley is just repeating GOP talking points w/a clenched jaw and a southern accent? Cool, it's not like we expected anything else.

3) Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va., pict. top): As POTUS noted the scourge of opioid addiction  cuts across party lines. Let's come together to lift up communities hurt by this epidemic.

4) Andrea Mitchell (NBC, she is mentioning Sen. Ted Cruz R-Tex.,pict. bottom; he was campaigning for president in New Hampshire today instead of being at the SOTU): Ted Cruz rejects POTUS criticism of his threat to carpetbomb ISIS, says Obama and Hillary Clinton are putting their head in the sand regarding terrorism.

5) Jonathan Scott (Huffington Post): Wolf Blitzer also thought Jesus was born in Jerusalem on Celebrity Jeopardy.

6) Maryland Dem Party: Nikki Haley literally said nothing. Nothing of substance, and no answers.

7) Chuck Todd (NBC): If it's possible for Haley to actually rise up on the VP short list, she accomplished that as well tonight. Strong showing for SCGOV.

8) Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY): POTUS is right, vote. Speak out. Stand up for others, esp the vulnerable, knowing each of us is only here 'cause somebody stood up for us.

9) Josh Kraushaar (National Journal): Donald Trump is providing a rare moment of bipartisanship tonight.

10) Liz Mair (conservative new media adviser): "Judging by Twitter, it appears that continuing to watch 'Making a Murderer' (a Netflix doc series) was the right call."

11) 9NewsDenver: "SC Gov. Nikki Haley sounds optimistic tone in GOP SOTU response."

http://www.lizmair.com

http://www.goodmuslimbadmuslim.com/tazandzahra/

http://www.catholicdemocrats.org/

http://www.9news.com/

Quote of the Week- Michael J. Fox

Aside from the conservative columnist George F. Will, who we have made fun from time to time, it's hard to think of many clebrities who use an initial with his or her time. If I were to do that, I'd have to refer to myself as Tilly F. Gokbudak, and that might be pretty annoying.

But, Michael J. Fox is one person who has made using his initial seem kinda cool. And, given his ordeal with Parkinson's Disease, the star of the "Back to the Future" movie franchise, who turned 50 this year, seems like a person who has earned this unique quirk.

This month, we are quoting famous Canadians, and though it's been a while perhaps since Fox was back home in Winnipeg (actually, we have no idea where he's from in Canada, and we don't have time to wiki it right now), he is indeed a famous Canadian.

And, here is his quote, from Fox who was also in the popular '80s sitcom "Family Ties," as he refers to his early fame.

"Everybody in the world knew who I was before I knew who I was."

SIDEBAR: We've had an occasional series on both of our blogs with the Tweet of the Day. For various reasons, we've been neglecting that lately, but I loved this one from Arsalan Iftikhar, better known as "The Muslim Guy," and it is great pie in the fae for someone who truly deserves it: "Anne Coulter said, 'our black guys are better than their blacks. This proves the devil wears prada.' The black guy that Coulter, a real-life right-wing Looney Tunes character, is Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who is embroiled in a sexual harrasment controversy. Personally, I think there are at least 125 other reasons why he is not qualifies for president.

SIDEBAR TWO: Have you been in a bit of a funk, lately? Well, I will admit I have. Perhaps, it comes with being an adult on Halloween and realizing that you can't dress up like Underdog and go trick-or-treating like you did in 1976 (that was actually my costume 35 years ago).

But, apparently, there is someone who has made their inner demons public as the blog "hyperbolenadahalf.blogspot.com" which has great cartoons starts off like this:

"Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling sad and hapless for no reason. It's disapppointing to feel sad for no reason."

And, on that note, when I last checked the earthquake which occured on Oct. 23rd in Van, Turkey, had reached a death toll of 596. Since I heard that two days ago, I imagine the number has risen up to 600*. Perhaps, now is a good time for a "Seinfeld" rerun!

*-For more info on how you can help, go to www.ataa.org which is the web page for ATAA, the main Turkish-American association in North America, based in Washington, D.C.

Things We Learned on the BBC Today- Fidel Says It's Good to Be Alive

According to the BBC, Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who is reportedly sharing a Cuban cigar with Glenn Beck in Provo, Utah, as we speak, says that he was at the grim reaper's door during his long illness.

Castro actually made those comments in an interview with the Mexican newspaper "La Jornada" in which he also said that it was difficult for him to aspire to live much longer.

The long-time Cuban president, who many have deemed to be a dictator for his long-standing human rights abuses, first got sick in 2006 when he suffered from intestinal illness.

But, Castro says that he's made a full recovery and that he can now walk without a cane.

One can always hope that he may venture from Havannah to Frederick, Md., (an hour from Washington, DC) to see a minor league Frederick Keys game with right-wing pundit George F. Will, who will probably still believe global warming doesn't exist when it's 98 degrees in Bethesda in late January. The Keys are actually having community food drive from now until Sept. 3. Last night, the team lost a home game to the Kinston Indians by a 9-2 score. The two teams plays each other again tonight.

As for Castro, there are always a number of interesting musings about him on Cuban-American blogs which generally lean to the right politically. There was this quite radical one we used to glance at now and then that pretty much compared President Barack Obama to Gargamel (the villain in "The Smurfs").

We lost track of that particular blog, but we did find one today called BabaluBlog (http://www.babalublog.com) which is also understandably quite critical of Castro, but we have no idea if they have compared Obama to Gargamel, Iago or Ming the Merciless. But, if they do, we will kindly remind them that George W. Bush was as bad as Gargamel, Iago and Ming the Merciless!

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Groundhog Day

Whatever Mr. Groundhog says today, yet another %$#&*@ winter storm is headed for North Carolina and Virginia. This would mark the third time we get slammed. The last storm for those of you living in sunny Fargo, ND, was last weekend.

Although I shouldn't complain because a few years ago, I was offered a job in Rockville, Md., a Washington, DC suburb, but it didn't pay well enough to live in the area. I've always whinned that I would have been happier there (I live in rural NC, and I'm a city boy who likes his Woody Allen movies!), but hey, well they get the same snow we get- in fact, even more of it!

So, for the second weekend in a row, my major plans might be thwarted.

I was hoping to either see the North Carolina State women's gymnastics team, which is off to a good start this season and ranked #22 in the country, host SEC power Florida (ranked #3) in Raleigh, or see the experimental band Toubab Krewe from Asheville, NC, perform at the Cat's Cradled in Carrboro, NC, or go to my alma mater Radford University's homecoming festival in Radford, Va. The school is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and we have a pretty good men's basketball team which is supposed to host High Point University on Saturday.

Instead, I may have to watch talking heads discuss political issues which will resolve themselves when I'm old enough to collect social security on PBS' "Washington Weekin Review" (but, I love host Gwen Ifill!) or the Sunday talk shows (I guess one can always see if George F. Will is wearing a bow-tie or a regular neck tie).

And, of course, there should be an unholy amount of college basketball games to watch on ESPN and the networks. But, by time the Super Bowl comes on, I might have fallen asleep from watching the infommercials between "Meet the Press" and the pre-game show.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............