From Denny: At the beginning of this leap year month it was "Rick Santorum -who?!" In just the past two weeks he climbed the GOP primary charts. With that sudden rise in popularity came the late night jokes to prove he was noticed by national voters. Of course, never mind he achieved that notice by screaming out the most weirdo conservative positions. He took a page out of the Gingrich Playbook. If it worked for him, maybe it would work for Santorum. Then came the rambling undisciplined speeches from Santorum that left the voters wondering what he said. Republican political strategists wildly started pulling out their already thinning hair at the notion of Santorum making it to their convention. Forget my fellow journalists. The best guys to vett any political candidates are the comedians in my book. Since I'm the publishing and journalism industry's dreaded hybrid they have yet to catch up to or understand, - a journalist blogger - I'm delivering the unvarnished truth to my loyal readers with a dash of spicy opinion and a liberal dose of humor. After all, who said we can't enjoy some funnies along with our consideration of who we will consider not voting for in the November election?
Check out the comics' view of this GOP candidate, Rick Santorum (former Senator - PA)
From Denny: Leave it to the comics to ferret out the twisted thinking of the Republican political strategists. It's clear they are desperately reaching for just about anything to make their voters so terrified they will vote for any candidate they place in front of them. Yeah, their 2012 field is really that awful.
Of course, the Democrats have been running the same game to scare their voters into staying with Obama no matter how little he has done for them. The only difference is that they Democrats are correct about the Republicans' complete lack of leadership or interest in governing.
To hear the Republicans tell the Fear Game If The Other Guy Wins reaches the levels of the hilarious and the ridiculous. That funny fact was not wasted upon Jon Stewart who could not resist lampooning their efforts.
From Denny: You know it isn't cool any more when the old guys adopt the younger generation's culture like flash mobs. :)
Seriously, this was a group of seniors from the World War 2 generation that remember growing up in the tough economic times of the Great Depression.
They also remember how they used to pick up their spirits - and those around them - by singing in groups their favorite patriotic songs on holidays like President's Day.
Seniors from three different retirement communities came together in one public place to sing "America The Beautiful" and "God Bless America" in Beaverton, Oregon. Many of the 100 plus flag-waving participants were almost 100 years old.
This event carried a lot of meaning and a lot of memories for them. They were well received by the surprised and smiling camera-phone wielding younger generation, happy to document the event and post it on Twitter and other social sites.
Here's the link to the local news station's video of the event if the embedded version does not seem to be working. President's Day was Monday, 20 Feb 2012. Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) was yesterday, Tuesday, 21 Feb 2012. And, today, I'm just getting around to posting it all. :)
From Denny: Social sites are a great way to while away some hours of boredom, learn something new, and, most of all, connect. You never know who you might meet.
Well, here's a shocker. Either this person is great at laying on the BS to pull on our heart strings as some people might speculate or is someone in deep need, reaching out into the thin air, hoping someone will listen. How about a lot of us - especially fellow reporters and bloggers - take the time to investigate this story and see what we can do to help?
From Denny: What a week. The comics could not ask for better material. It was handed to them on a silver platter. And the Obama White House aides are dancing in the halls because they cannot believe their good fortune.
Don't get cocky, guys, it might not last. Besides, there are always the fast rising fuel prices to torpedo what you thought was an easy win. Obama and the health insurance debacle
President Obama fumbled the health insurance football when it came to the issue of women's birth control, desperately trying to woo back the women's vote from his own party. So, he shoved it down the throats of the religious groups' hospitals and teaching institutions. The stormy political theater all played out without much forethought as is typical of this too political White House that prefers to campaign rather than actually doing the hard work of governing the country.
The Catholic Church's bishops were immediately the most vocal, hoping unrealistically, like a crazed frightened horse running out of a burning barn, to regain women's issues politically into their camp. Obama received a hurricane level of push back from a wide spectrum of religious groups. After the dust settled it was revealed that the push back has backfired on the churches and the Republicans.
From Denny: President Obama touts new websites of gathering two million followers to do the work of his political team for free. It's the Democrats' answer to the Bush years' juggernaut of crushing the opposition. But then most politicians and their handlers are men and men like smash mouth sports. They are also cheap when it comes to being employers for troops on the ground. Stuffed political war chests
Team Obama brags they have collected over $250 million for their political war chest. They were aiming for over $1 billion. You really have to ask yourself one question: If either political side of the aisle is willing to collect this much money for a campaign then just how crooked are all of them? America got sold out by both sides a long time ago.
The Minions Campaign
Back to The Minions Campaign... What President Obama is looking for are bloggers willing to debunk the GOP attacks. Come on; we all know the GOP candidates lie about every issue. The Republicans know the lies work with the weak minds and easily manipulated hot tempers of their racist electorate.
From Denny: Since I could care less who wins or who loses the GOP race for president, I'm free to mock it in style.
At our house we were watching the GOP primary returns for the last three states of Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Much to everyone's surprise it was the non-candidate Santorum that ran away with two of the races.
Though delegates were not awarded it is Santorum that has basically caught up with front-runner Mitt Romney by about 86 for Santorum to 94 delegates for Romeny. The winner needs about 700 to win.
Santorum, a Catholic, has sharpened his message to be known as the middle class guy and conservative. Romney is painted as the rich guy who is out of touch.
Lately, since getting trounced in the last race Romney is working hard to overcome the perception by portraying himself as a sensitive guy. He even laid claim to being a Mormon minister for 10 years and how he truly understands the unemployed and marital difficulties as a result of not being able to pay your bills.
From Denny: The nation's top five Big Banks are pushing hard to avoid millions of lawsuits by outraged homeowners - with yet another skewed settlement heavily in favor of the Big Banks.
Yes, the homeowners already foreclosed and homeowners seeking modified mortgage loans are getting the shaft by their federal and state governments.
It's an election year and these politicians and attorneys are actually foolish enough to sign off on this lousy agreement the average middle class homeowner does not want. The American public grows more angry by the day at being ignored by national and local leaders as well as nickeled and dimed to death with excessive constant fees from every business quarter, mostly from banking. If this settlement goes through as analysts are predicting, there will be a ferocious backlash come November.
The Swamp House at New Orleans Audubon Zoo that houses T-Boy Nutria, the Groundhog Day prognosticator - Image via Wikipedia
From Denny: Groundhog Day contenders are popping up all over America. Groundhogs are not native to Louisiana (because it's too hot) but we didn't allow a little factoid like that to stop us. Louisiana likes its holidays so what effort was it to rustle up another creative idea than to draft the swamp rat nutria into the Groundhog Day?
Up in the northern part of America it's considered really bad news when a groundhog sees its shadow, foretelling another miserable six weeks of winter. But here in Louisiana it means a spring that is shorter than usual.
A short spring means summer's grueling heat and drippy humidity will return sooner than desired. So, you see, burrow-loving animals can come in handy to predict the weather both in the chilly North and the hottie Deep South.
Louisiana's answer to Groundhog Day
Louisiana sports two famous nutria - and a crawfish - for the Groundhog Day predictions: Pierre C. Shadeaux hails from New Iberia and T-Boy Nutria enjoys his crib at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. Personally, I think they should rename the New Orleans guy "New Orleans Louie" - but no one stopped long enough to ask my opinion. It just goes to show you can be number one in Louisiana on Twitter (warriorlight) for the most tweets but you still can't get no respect from your local peeps. :)
Pierre C. Shadeaux of New Iberia (about 2 hours outside of New Orleans, near Texas)
This is Pierre C. Shadeaux and this year he predicted a longer spring and milder summer for 2012.
From Will Chapman, creator of the Cajun Groundhog Day celebration in New Iberia and publisher of the Daily Iberian newspaper: "As Southerners, we don't want some Yankee groundhog predicting our weather, so we turned to a nutria, the closest thing we could find to a groundhog. "If Pierre sees his shadow, it's bad news for locals as it means a short spring and that summer's heat and humidity will be here early. No shadow for Pierre, and its good news - a longer spring, milder temperatures - a postponement of summer's heat and humidity."
Chapman explains about Pierre, "Pierre lives in the swamps. Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries agents are nice enough to bring Pierre to town. He stays at a local veterinarian's office for a few days, where he gets spa-like treatment as he's pampered, cleaned up, fed and hopefully gotten into a good temperament and a good frame of mind for making his prediction. And then they bring him over that morning and put him in the cottage."
Pierre enjoys some decadent Louisiana architecture, a custom-built Acadian home in the style of a traditional Cajun cottage. As many as 100 people show up to view his weather prediction. Word of mouth and the ensuing tourism should increase the crowds in the coming years.
T-Boy Nutria of New Orleans
This is T-Boy Nutria (short for Little Boy in Cajun French) at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans and the Cajun version of a groundhog predicted the same as Pierre C. Shadeaux - a longer spring and milder summer for 2012. These cute little swamp rats grow to twice the size of groundhog Punxsutawney Phil, weighing in at 30 pounds. Yeah, we grow 'em big down South.
The staff at the Audubon Zoo like to create a very special Lady Gaga kind of showy entrance for T-Boy to start off the festivities. This year he popped out of a wedding cake float to discover his "bride" Kim Kardashian.
T-Boy made some other spectacular entrances in previous years in his Louisiana Swamp Exhibit at the zoo. After Hurricane Katrina he emerged - not from a burrow - but from a miniature FEMA trailer.
Last year was quite the show too. He rode a Mardi Gras carnival float past an accusatory traffic camera. His license plate boasted of the New Orleans Saints' world champion football title. What a show off.
What is a nutria you ask?
For the uninitiated, nutria were first brought to Louisiana from South America when some Cajun fools thought they would get rich off their fur coats. Of course, as they are nothing but big rodents, when let loose they multiplied like crazy in the marshes, the bayous, the canals and the swamps - all because they had no natural predator. The nutria set about devastating the wetlands and became a general pest.
Louisiana chefs wasted no time figuring out how to cook up the rodent infestation/harvest and market it in the local grocery stores. Yes, nutria tastes a lot like chicken. Nutria are mighty cute as babies, sweet looking and fuzzy. They grow up a bit ugly, sporting long, fierce orange teeth.
As one of the zoo keepers talks about the choice of a nutria over a groundhog,Rick Atkinson, curator of the Louisiana Swamp Exhibit says, "One of the reasons I really like nutria is that when they make their appearance, the first thing they’re going to do is reach for the piece of corn or carrot I’ve provided and begin to eat - and an eating animal is not a traumatized animal. They don’t easily get rattled, and it’s all about the stomach. They are more outgoing than a groundhog, especially when it comes to food."
Claude the Cajun Crawfish
Who is another groundhog contender for the holiday in Louisiana? There's Claude the Cajun Crawfish from the northern part of the state, Shreveport. The tradition is that if he waves his claws toward the sun then he is signaling the cold spell will come to an end and that it's time to rock on and enjoy Mardi Gras season.
Claude also says he is better at predicting than groundhogs. Why? He says it's because he has no fur standing between him and the weather. He is also annoyed that people like to eat crawfish and even more miffed that no one has ever taken a bite out of Punxsutawney Phil. No photos of Claude as he is a bit camera shy.
Baton Rouge Boudreaux
Baton Rouge is the capital city of Louisiana and we have no Groundhog Day contender yet recognized but a fan base is growing via Twitter - or so we keep telling ourselves. Her name is Baton Rouge Betty Boudreaux and she's a real groundhog. She likes some things to remain traditional - but not all - don't you know. There are enough men in the game; why not a diva female to rock the boat?
Betty Boudreaux likes to sport a hot pink bikini, drink Abita Voodoo beer, dine on King Cake all year round while she drapes herself in mountains of Mardi Gras beads. Her trendy ensemble is topped off with a casually tossed purple feather boa.
To her every day is a party. She's been spotted on the red carpet in large floppy hats with long-stemmed fleur di lis waving at the crowd.
Her BFF is Pierre the Pelican, famous for his movie director styled Martin Scorcese eye wear and jamming swamp parties. Trailing close behind is Betty's faithful bodyguard, Gautreaux the Gator. He's a famous bar bouncer from the French Quarter that migrated up from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. He fell in love with Betty and Baton Rouge, never to return to his former home, Sin City. Gautreaux says he has no regrets.
Remember to vote for Baton Rouge Betty Boudreaux next Groundhog Day. Her political platform is a Mardi Gras float in every driveway, a King Cake in every kitchen and a free crawfish boil in every neighborhood.
My virtual world is a rich place teeming with interesting characters, sort of like the real world Louisiana, don't you think? You should never pull a news journalist off the oh, so predictable news and let them loose in the creative world. It can get downright scary in there - or make you laugh.
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From Denny: Predicting the end of winter is serious business in America. We take our groundhog psychics seriously, so seriously that several other cities are promoting their own prognosticators. Watch the media attention grow and the dollars flow in for tourism.
Punxsutawney Phil
The psychic rodent best known is Punxsutawney Phil of Pennsylvania. His fan club, The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, keeps those all important statistics.
Their groundhog Phil has seen his shadow 99 times, which means winter will continue another six weeks. He has not seen his shadow only 16 times. Only nine years are not accounted for since they have been keeping records since 1887. FYI, it isn't the exact same rodent for the past century.
From Mike Johnston, Vice President of the Inner Circle of Punxsutawney Phil, he says that Phil "has never been wrong. Phil can't err because he never applies his prognostication to a specific place. I guarantee you someone's going to have six more weeks of winter." I bet he winks every time after dishing out that boat load of wisdom.
