Microcosm

The Racine crowd’s reaction to Obama was nicer than I thought it would be. With 14% unemployment rate, a labor dispute, and a Tea Party presence, Racine could have boiled over.

Here’s a roundup of opinions by local newspaper Journal Times.

President shoots, scores in Racine visit

Obama wows Racine. C-SPAN recorded today’s Town Hall Meeting on the Economy.

A big cheesehead welcome! President Barack Obama greets military personnel and police as he arrives at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee today before traveling to Racine, for a town-hall style event on the economy. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Racine, Wisconsin looks forward to bending the President’s ear during his scheduled visit today. Local newspaper Journal Times reports.

Shiloh remains a gender/fashion DON'T

Angelina Jolie-Pitt’s a great Mom, judging from her nonchalance about her fashion-don’t preschooler, Shiloh. 

Salon’s Mary Williams Walsh breaks it down.

It's a BFD

Internet privacy is the oxymoron for the 21st century.

Here’s why.

Funny

Nancy Pelosi is profiled here by Gail Collins.

GOP doing what it does best

Here’s Harry Reid talking to The Congressional Quarterly on the Republican attempt to dodge extended unemployment benefits and ditch measures to preserve Medicare payments to doctors.

I thought the GOP was supposed to be pro-business.

WH tells insurers no spikes

A rule setting session held yesterday by Pres. Obama and Capt. Kathleen — a proposed superhero name for HHS Secretary Sebelius – told health insurers to forget premium hikes as a compensation for reforms.

The PR fireworks over healthcare are only going to get more colorful, so this was a healthy dose of prevention.

Senate to US: Get a job

A Times editorial today is right on the money on the wrongheaded unemployment cuts coming our way, if the Senate can squeeze in a vote between summer fundraising parties:

“All indications are that when the Senate finally does pass a bill, it will be stingy and cynical — hacking away at jobless benefits and fiscal aid to cash-strapped states, while preserving tax breaks for the wealthy and other well-connected political donors.”

On the beach

Readers, all 8 of you, thank you for your patience while I work on 2goodeyes , and finish some other projects during June.  The arrogance that produced the Gulf spill is never far from my thoughts, like many others, I suspect. The sights alone of all those suffering birds and marine life are overwhelming.

Something to consider:  Obama issued an energy-policy statement last week that was short on words and long on meaning.  He said that Big Oil will no longer be allowed to siphon off tens of billions of dollars each year from U.S. taxpayers.

On top of everything else, we subsidize Big Oil’s outdated, belching technology and the administrators who keep it propped up. 

The funds will be redirected towards sustainable energy and a sane future:  wind, bio-diesel, solar and geothermal energy, said Obama.

“I will find the votes,” he said, seeming to promise himself as much as us.

Golfing for Grandmom

Yesterday the Mullins of Philadelphia held the Bootsie Open, our annual golf game named after our grandmother, Marguerite Mullin, or “Bootsie.”

I hope my cousins played golf better than the Phillies played baseball yesterday, but that’s setting the bar too low.  They blew a 5-run lead going into the 9th inning, losing 13-10 in extra innings.