JOHN GURZINSKI/LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL NEWS----People crowded the welcome sign on the Las Vegas strip to take photos as snow fell in Las Vegas Wednesday Dec. 17, 2008
Yesterday, Weather happened. Usually it’s the Northeast and the Midwest that suffers interminably during these long, cold months. But yesterday, everyone was experience winter; it snowed briefly and lightly in Malibu, California, and Las Vegas, Nevada got the biggest dumping of the white stuff since high rollers and the Mafia ran the Strip. Up in the usually temperate Pacific Northwest, Seattle was also buried under snow (and just got a second helping in less than a week), with temps hovering in the low 20s at night. The Northeast, which was unusually calm, is expected to get the West coast’s leftovers later this week.
The dollar took a dive. After the Fed lowered the interest rate to near zero, the currency fell against the Euro–which is now at $1.44, from $1.40—the biggest slide since the Euro was introduced in 1999. Guess a European vacation won’t be in the cards any time soon.
Obama’s honeymoon ends with at least one group. The gays are not happy with the Chosen One. He’s inexplicably picked right-wing evangelical pastor, Rick Warren, who was against gay marriage (and therefore, for Proposition 8’s passage) to perform the invocation at his inauguration. So, let’s review: lunatic black pastor had to be put to pasture because he was too “extreme,” but the white guy is A-OK. And, all the hope that there’d be a bunch of gays running loose in his cabinet seems to be squashed for the moment: openly gay labor activist Mary Beth Maxwell, has taken a backseat to Harley Shaiken for the Labor Secretary post. Meanwhile, BO’s tapped another lady, Mary Schapiro as the chair of the SEC.
Another hatemonger bites the dust. Slowly, but surely, we’re shedding the bigots that helped shaped the last century—and who continue to influence this century. As of yesterday, Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond can party with Paul Weyrich in ithe afterlife. Weyrich, who coined the phrase “moral majority,” kicked the bucket.
“American Taliban” seeks pardon. John Walker Lindh, the 27-year old Californian, is seeking a presidential pardon from George W. Bush. He joined the Taliban one month before the U.S. invasion of the country, and had converted to Islam. He was charged with “conspiring to kill American citizens,” but the terrorism-related charges were dropped. He’s seven years into a 20-year sentence.
FOB’s revealed. Financier’s of Bill Clinton’s were released today, disclosing a range of donors to his foundation. Among the foreign contributions: Saudi Arabia gave $10 mil, and Norway, Qatar, Italy, Jamaica, India, Kuwait, and places rarely heard of, like Brunei and Oman, gave money to the ex-Prez. According to the New York Times, “The two largest contributors, listed as giving more than $25 million apiece, were the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, a grant-making charity that focuses on sub-Saharan Africa and India, an UNITAID, an international alliance formed two years ago to fight H.I.V./AIDS.”
Mark Ruffalo’s brother’s death ruled a homicide. The barely believable story that Scott Ruffalo died from a gunshot wound to the back of the head while playing Russian Roulette with friends has been wisely dropped.
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