Newt's Former Staff Are Talking; Competence Will Be An Issue; President Obama Twits or Did He?; Negotiating with the Muslim Brotherhood?; Rampant School Cheating; A Former Student Reminisces About His Gay Teacher: A Touching Story

Casey Anthony was found not guilty. That means that President Obama's economic team is only the second most clueless group in America. --Leno

• First the good and expected news: Eliot Spitzer, former disgraced gov. of NY, got axed from his CNN show.  His audience was a whopping 290,000. Even Herr Keith Olberman has better numbers--not too much better-- on a very weak network. One critic said he could now talk to himself in front of a mirror and have a larger audience than he did at CNN (NY Post).
• Recently I went to what was once one of the major malls in the Philadelphia area, Granite Run Mall. On the second floor alone, I counted at least 14 vacant store fronts--FOURTEEN! Don't for a minute try to tell me this recession is over.
• There is no doubt the next election will hinge on the economy. Most do. Mark my words, there will be another issue in the rear-view mirror: the issue of competence.
• You probably heard about the president's Twitter summit yesterday. The questioning broke down this way. Questions relating to jobs: 28%; to the budget: 18%; to taxes: 17%; about education 7% and about housing 6%. (USA Today stats) Do you notice anything missing?--------About Afghanistan and Iraq. President Obama was permitted to exceed the 140 character limit in his responses.
• As the president talked about everyone having to sacrifice, we learn today that White House staffers got raises this year which were more than DOUBLE the national average of 3-4% (Drudge).
• Newt Gingrich's former staff are talking. In short, they complained he spends too much, and appears too lazy in terms of campaigning. For example, they said he was more interested in taking naps than in campaigning...They also said he was "very unpredictable." Additionally, they reported his campaign could be over a million dollars in debt (Emily Smith, NY Post).
• A story you might have missed last week with the impending Independence Day holiday was the Obama's administration's plans to contact the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. As I wrote several months ago, the Obama administration's unloading Mubarak left a vacuum. It not only helped place a military dictatorship in power, but now they are faced with negotiating with people who have terrorist ties and a long history of anti-Semitism.
• Someone asked me why I despise the likes of Jane Fonda, John Kerry and Sean Penn. For those too young to remember, Jane Fonda sat on top of a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun in North Vietnam and posed as if she was shooting down American aircraft. That was one of many acts of treason she committed in my opinion. Sean Penn, if you recall, was in Iran in 2005 and was among a group of thousands of people shouting, "Death to America," and "Death to Israel." And Sen. John F. Kerry, a Vietnam Vet himself,  maligned every Vietnam Veteran  upon his return to the U.S. when he accused them--en masse--of murder and genocide.
• It's bad enough that cheating is rampant in many of our nation's schools. It's worse when teachers and school administrators allegedly do the cheating. In the Atlanta schools, a state report accused over 170 teachers and principles of cheating on state exams. A investigation in the Washington D.C. schools found similar cheating (USA Today).
• As reported yesterday, the National Education Association threw their support behind Pres. Obama for re-election. If anyone wanted any more proof the NEA is a political organization--not advocates for children--this is it. And do they think there are no Republican or Conservative teachers?
• On Herr Keith Olberman's arrival on Current TV, "He's has gone down the food chain," said Brad Adgate, senior VP of Horizon Media. Current is second only to ESPN Classic as the lowest-rated cable network measured by Nielson. Fox News' O'Reilly Factor attracted 8 times the viewership (Philadelphia Inquirer).
• Dumb Ass Quote of the Week"--Casey Anthony said, "I want to have more children...and I'd like to adopt." Anyone have the duct tape handy?
• Let's take a final word to lighten things up a bit. From the Onion this week, "Band Teacher Gay In Retrospect." The piece reported on a former teacher.  "Pine Bluff Middle School band teacher Walter Moreland was 'so clearly, obviously' gay in retrospect, former student Gary Dolan, 32, realized Monday." Dolan added, "I figured he acted flamboyant because he was artistic...I knew he was different, but as a 12-year-old boy, my understanding of gay culture was limited to Three's Company. I had no idea they actually walked among us in Pine Bluff {AR}." Dolan continued to retrospect. "Thinking back, he even looked gay...his hair was always perfect and he had a well-trimmed little mustache. He dressed better than any of the other teachers, in these crisp button-down shirts and nice shoes..."