China Upping the Ante, the Genius of Michael Steele

Roger Cohen
David Ignatius
Alice Rivlin

"If I do something, there's a reason for it." - Michael Steele

One day, I'm a genius. One day, I'm a bum. You know, every day there's a new winner and a new loser." - Barack Obama

UPI reports: "China is expanding its military capabilities at high speed, and no one knows what they are going to do with them, a new Pentagon report warned.
The U.S. Department of Defense issued the report, "Military Power of the People's Republic of China," Wednesday. It said that China's "armed forces continue to develop and field disruptive military technologies," with nuclear, space and cyber warfare all mentioned. The Pentagon said such developments were upsetting the military balance in Asia. The report added, "Much uncertainty surrounds China's future course, particularly regarding how its expanding military power might be used."

China took exception and told the United States to "drop the Cold War thinking."

It looks like the Post Office will soon be delivering mail only five days per week, supposedly netting a savings of $3.5 billion per year. In a hearing before Congress, the Postmaster General presented his case, saying that they lost $2.8 billion last year. Oh, and they will keep raising the price of stamps... I used to buy stamps by the roll of 100, buy now I buy them by the sheet of 25. Of course, the art of letter writing has died, they mostly deliver bills, magazines, and junk mail.

There was a short article that a top of the line F-22 Raptor fighter jet had crashed yesterday near Edwards Air Force base. This is a tragedy, but my first thought was, boy, I sure hope they hadn't let John McCain fly again...

The White House sent out an e-mail to all members at the Pentagon, that we no longer would use the term Global War on Terror. Personally, I love the phrase, it has such an ominous ring to it, in a Darth Vaderish way... Responding to reporters questions about it, the Pentagon spokesman said "Well, I don't think there's anything in that term that identifies any particular faith or ethnicity. I mean, there are terrorists of all faiths, of all colors, of all races and ethnicities. And so perhaps a better -- another way to refer to it would be, you know, a campaign against extremists who wish to do us harm." That's right, it's all about us...

Politico has reported on my new favorite public figurehead, the RNC's own Michael Steele. Just think of the unintentionally funny conversation that would happen if we locked him in a room with Sarah Palin: "Michael Steele just did an interview on CNN. And in addition to speculating about a possible future run for president, he seemed to say that his blow-up with Rush Limbaugh was actually a strategic decision to see, or rather smoke out, who would stand up and criticize him if he did something really stupid.

I guess he got his answer: a lot of people."

And this from Politico's Shenanigans blog: "Tuesday night was the National Republican Congressional Committee’s big donor dinner at the National Building Museum, with the GOP headliner, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.

And next to Jindal sat a big, empty seat. With a nameplate.

Whose seat could that be? Why, it was reserved for RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

RNC staffers were overheard at the dinner saying they didn’t understand the error; they thought it was on his schedule.

But an RNC official disagreed with that notion and told Shenanigans: “[Steele] spoke at the Business Summit during the day and was not scheduled to attend the dinner.” If true, then why the heck was he — the big GOP fundraising man — not scheduled to go to a big donor dinner?
As one scoffed, “Maybe he’s embarrassed he only raised $1M instead of the $5M Mike Duncan was going to write.” And the hits just keeeeep on coming ...."

Continuing in that interview with CNN, Mr Steele answered whether he had thought of running for President in 2012: "God has a way of revealing stuff to you, and making it real for you, through others. And if that's part of the plan, it'll be the plan... If I run it'll be because that's where God wants me to be at that time." So, of God wants you to be embarrassed by being kicked out of RNC Chair, and perhaps land behind bars because of the current criminal investigation against you, that will really be where God wants you to be? What have you done to offend such a jealous God?

The White House asked people for questions to ask Barack Obama at an upcoming town Hall style meeting. 92,000 people responded by asking questions about decriminalizing marijuana and taxing it...

Finally, Politico reported on The Big Question that must be going through everyone's minds: "Is Arnold Schwarzenegger going to run for the Senate? Yesterday, the California Republican said, "I'm not running for anything." Asked if that meant he is ruling out a race against Sen. Barbara Boxer, Schwarzenegger added, "When I say I'm not running for anything, that's exactly what I mean ... until you change the Constitution."

Late night jokes:

"Hey, you hear about this? Very strange incident at JFK Airport in New York City today. An AIG executive going through security had to empty out all his pockets. You know what fell out? Senator Chris Dodd." --Jay Leno

"On '60 Minutes' the other night, if you saw the interview, reporter Steve Croft asked President Obama how he could laugh with all the financial trouble going on. And the President said it's necessary to have a measure of 'gallows humor to get you through the day.' You know why Obama likes gallows humor? It works much better for him than bowling humor." --Jay Leno

"The country of China is going to be doing a Broadway style play based on Karl Marx's book on communism. A play based on communism. You know, that's where capitalism has been replaced by the government taking over control of all private industries. Or as we call in this country, 'a stimulus package.'"--Jay Leno

"Hey, congratulations to Japan for winning the World Baseball Classic right here in Dodger Stadium. Yeah, they beat Korea 5-3, which is perfect. You have the Japanese playing the Koreans in a city full of Mexicans to determine who's best at America's pastime. I think Lou Dobbs' head is going to explode when he hears this." --Jay Leno

"Voters in Iowa are already receiving phone calls about whether or not they approve of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. They're instructed to press one for 'yes' and two for 'you betcha!'" --Jimmy Fallon

"Mexico's government just offered a $2 million bounty on its top drug lords, which is different from what we do here in America. We give our biggest criminals bonuses." --Jimmy Fallon

"President Obama held a big press conference earlier tonight. He's on TV a lot these days. The only way Obama could get more TV time is if he had eight babies." --Craig Ferguson

"Let's not forget the AIG company. The AIG stands for 'ain't I greedy?' No, they changed the name of the company today to 'AIU' Oh! Okay then. Everything's forgiven.' AIU for 'ain't I unethical?' There you are." --Craig Ferguson

"Shouldn't they change their name to something that will throw people off because they love it? Like, they could change their name to 'Puppies and Moonbeams Inc.' or something." --Craig Ferguson

"AIG changing their name is like Hitler changing his name and hoping people won't notice." --Craig Ferguson

"Obama also repeated his support for Treasury Secretary Geithner, who unveiled his plan yesterday for the government to buy up the so-called toxic assets from troubled banks and sell them to China, which will then make them into children's toys, and should solve the problem entirely." --Jimmy Kimmel

"Michelle Obama -- and I think this is a lovely idea -- she's going to put a garden in the White House, out there where the Rose Garden is. A very nice idea. And she's out there digging it up. She found three of Dick Cheney's hunting buddies." --David Letterman