The GOP Presidential Debate last night at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley was Rick Perry’s first since throwing his hat in the ring to become our next fearless leader, and while he can tout his jobs record as current governor of Texas, he should be humiliated by other statistics from the Lone Star State.  Problem is, there’s no way a candidate would dare show humility.  Their M.O. is to boast, complain, and offer solutions, and with the exception of a very curious and scary Ron Paul, they did.  Some generalities:

Every one of them HATE Obamacare.  Mitt Romney had to backpedal on a Massachusetts policy he oversaw as governor that is essentially the same thing.  Who cares if it’s found a level of success there? It was interested how many of the candidates, allowed to speak on the issue, made it sound as if we were fine before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed.  Our healthcare “system” was far from okay before PPACA, and nothing to gloat about now.  Its success contracts and expands and contracts again.  Let’s talk about jobs.

Michelle Bachmann claimed that Obamacare would eliminate 800,000 jobs nationwide.  I’ll let PolitiFact address that stretching, bending, misleading interpretation of the facts.  She also said that if she’s elected president, she’d get gasoline prices down to $2 a gallon.  It’s a nice idea but ridiculously unachievable given our free market economy.  (And her stylist really needs to tone down her hair.)

If I didn’t already know that Rick Santorum has some wacky ideas very different from mine, I would’ve put him near the top of my list last night.  He came across as honest, intelligent, and naturally polished, unlike the sheen I occasionally squinted against while listening to Romney, Perry, and Huntsman.

Eight years ago, I kinda liked Ron Paul.  Now, he just needs to go away.

Newt Gingrich is very angry and very straightforward – both qualities I adore in a politician even if I don’t adore Newt.

Herman Cain is a man focused on solutions.  His fellow candidates should take note.

In other news:

Russian president Dimitri Medvedev visited the site of Wednesday’s fatal airplane crash at the Volga River and called for an overhaul in his country’s flawed air transportation industry.  The crash killed all but one of a Soviet hockey team – two former Anaheim Ducks players – headed to their first game of the season.

No one yet knows why Eduardo Sencion opened fire at an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, Nevada on Tuesday, killing four before turning the gun on himself.

Somali pirates released a Danish family on Wednesday after being held captive for over six months.  Jan and Birgit Johansen and their three teenage children were headed for home in Denmark after living through “the most horrible ordeal one can imagine.”

Carol Bartz is out as the CEO of Yahoo, claiming not only that she was fired over the phone but that her former company “f***ed me over.”  But how do you really feel, Carol?

President Obama will speak tonight at 7pm Eastern (again, that’s 4pm here) on how he plans to help Americans get back to work.  I hope it’s a good plan.

Now, let’s get our priorities straight and talk briefly about what’s really important.  The NFL.  It’s baaaaaaaack, and I couldn’t be happier.  The New Orleans Saints head to Green Bay to take on the Packers in the season opener at 8:30pm this evening, which is 5:30pm in my living room.  Dinner in front of the television this evening, please don’t call me.

Enjoy the day.

Surely, I can’t be the only one who wants to stick their head in the sand over the news these days.  Friday’s employment report – that not a single job was created in the month of August – left me initially cynical: “Someone in the GOP is manipulating the numbers to make Obama look bad.”  I didn’t really believe that was the case, but not ONE new job?  There was a new face at my local Starbucks the other day.  Doesn’t she count?  On top of that, John Boehner is calling the shots on the president’s agenda because the president lets him.  Moving Obama’s jobs/economy speech to Thursday from Wednesday so it wouldn’t conflict with the GOP presidential debate was one thing, but the Green Bay Packers are playing the New Orleans Saints Thursday on NBC in the NFL season opener, so I nearly had a heart attack.  I’m breathing easier now that the White House assures us the president will be finished before kickoff.  So let’s review: Obama will speak at 7pm Eastern (that’s 4pm in the west, folks) and football begins again at 8:30pm (that’s 5:30pm for me) on Thursday, September 8.

Political gamesmanship is certainly no option in dealing with Somalia.  The famine there is now expected to affect an additional 750,000 people.  Bloomberg details the horrible news from the Horn of Africa.

With all of the media activity surrounding the tenth anniversary of 9/11, my children have been asking questions.  Explaining Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda has been interesting, and tricky.  When asked if al-Qaeda was still around, it was good to be able to address their concerns with real facts about the progress our anti-terrorist forces are making.  Today, news comes of the capture of yet another senior al-Qaeda commander in Pakistan.

Rick Perry returned to Texas today from the campaign trail as wildfires continued to wreak havoc across the drought stricken state. Two people have been confirmed dead so far.

Lawrence Wilkerson, former top aide to ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell, is suggesting that Dick Cheney could be tried for war crimes.  In my dreams.

The United States Postal Service is a shell of its former self.  With the advent of the internet, fewer and fewer of us are putting actual stamps on actual letters and/or bills, and the USPS is now billions of dollars in debt.  But will it actually close down for good in the future?  TIME Magazine ponders the question.

If you haven’t seen “The Help”, do.  It’s number one at the box office again because it’s a very good adaptation of a very good book.  I took my twelve-year old and we both cried.  We’ll be seeing Viola Davis at the Academy Awards in 2012.

Enjoy Labor Day, and whether you pray or just send positive energy outwards, keep in mind those today who work hard, those who are without jobs, and those who have the capacity to hire.  May they be inspired.

A cup of coffee commits one to forty years of friendship. – Turkish proverb

It didn’t pack the punch that was anticipated but Irene made her mark.  Everyone on the east coast knows someone without power.  Twenty-one people died.  Vermont is flooded, as well as areas in North Carolina and up the coast to Canada. Preparations were unprecedented, but better safe than sorry.  Goodnight Irene.  (Okay, how many times is that line going to be used?)

It was revealed Sunday that Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, al-Qaeda’s current number two guy, was killed by a U.S. predator drone in Pakistan last Monday.  While this kind of news might not make you choke on your coffee, it’s a big deal.  Al-Qaeda continues to plot against us and plenty of other random targets they find offensive and al-Rahman was their operations guy.  David Ignatius at the Washington Post explains more.

A new Gallup poll shows Rick Perry is the Tea Party’s guy right now for the GOP presidential candidate nomination, which leads me to share with you an article from yesterday’s New York Times Magazine by Bill Keller.  “Separation of church and state” is not a minor concept.

President Obama appointed Alan Kreuger from Princeton to be his chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, replacing the outgoing Austan Goolsbee.  Oh, good luck to you, Alan.  That sounds like a fun job right about now.

MTV’s Video Music Awards took place last night here in Los Angeles.  It’s not a show I regularly watch, but the husband was there with my cousin from out of town, so I thought I’d tune in and do a “Where’s Waldo?” to see if I could find them among the thousands in attendance.  There’s a lot I can say about the show, but none of it is important except this: Adele killed.  Every now and then, I get obsessed about a performer or performance.  I downloaded Adele’s album “21” quite awhile ago and so had listened to “Someone Like You” plenty of times prior to last night BUT seeing her and listening to her sing it live, well, it was profound and heartbreaking and unforgettable.  She wrote it about a break-up with a man she thought she’d marry who, shortly after they parted ways, decided to marry someone else.  Watch it.  You’re welcome.

I hope you’ve never been called a niddering.  Have a brave day.

As predicted, Hurricane Irene became a Category 3 storm overnight, with the Bahamas taking the brunt of its fury.  Its path is still unclear, though parts of North Carolina are already preparing to evacuate, as Irene is almost certain to pummel the Outer Banks there this weekend.  Meteorologists then expect the hurricane to avoid the east coast until it arrives in New England, possibly Sunday.

The earthquake centered in Virginia yesterday, according to my sources on the ground, was a rolling one that lasted too long.  Residents of D.C. and New York are forgiven for their emotional reactions.  After 9/11, I’m sure anything unusual, like feeling the earth move, frays the nerves.  The Washington Monument has been closed temporarily while inspectors examine a crack at the top of the obelisk.  Washington’s National Cathedral also sustained damage that is being called “significant”.

The world is contemplating Libya’s next move and the U.N., specifically, is jumping into the fray to see how it can help the rebels in a state of transition.  Gaddafi is still in hiding, but it’s an unlikely scenario that he returns to his former, creepy glory.

The husband pointed out an interesting letter to the editor at the Los Angeles Times today, asking about President Obama’s connection to the Arab Spring.

Jack Layton, the head of the Canada’s opposition party who died on Monday, was clearly a beloved man and government figure.  Let’s be honest.  We don’t spend much time thinking about the politics of our neighbors to the north, but it’s hard not to take notice when there’s such an outpouring of grief for a politician.  Who among our own in Washington now would receive a similar farewell?  Layton’s casket will lie in wait at the Parliament Building for the next two days.  Says Mia Rabson from the Winnipeg Free Press: “…it was the place Layton spent countless hours scrumming with the media.” Canada is quaint.

Surely, many of you by now have read Warren Buffett’s New York Times article from two weeks ago, “Stop Coddling the Super Rich”.  In an effort to illuminate one of Buffett’s points, Chunka Mui has written a very good piece for Forbes asking about the “fairness” aspect of the argument.  Maybe “fair” shouldn’t be the point, Mui wonders.  Maybe a look at reality and what works should be.  Worth the read.

On that note, France’s les super-riches are insisting President Sarkozy hike their taxes.

Major League Baseball is getting very serious as the season heads into autumn and the playoffs at the end of September.  It’s about the Yanks and Boston, Detroit and Texas in the American League, with our Angels three games back in the West.  In the National League, Philly and Milwaukee are first in their divisions, while the defending champs – the SF Giants – are two games behind Arizona.

When’s the last time you visited TED.com?  Need some inspiration?  Browse the sight and find it, somewhere.

Later.

A 5.9 earthquake rattled Virginia and the east coast this afternoon at 1:51pm Eastern time causing panic and excessive cell phone use across the area, but so far, no reports of damage.  We can be blasé about this because we’ve been through some doozies here in Los Angeles, but I understand the emotions.  The ground starts moving beneath you and you don’t know why or when it will stop.  Weird.

Excuse me for being Debbie Downer, but I have a bad feeling about Libya.  Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, was supposedly taken by rebel forces on Monday and held in a secure location.  TIME Magazine reports he’s cruising around Tripoli, surrounded by supporters, taunting those who say his father has been defeated and Tripoli has fallen.  And indeed, the rebels are hardly in the kind of control that inspires confidence.  This is going to be a long, messy transition.

The bad news about Hurricane Irene is that it is now a category 2 storm and will likely grow to category 3 or higher by Wednesday.  The Bahamas are being pummeled right now.  The good news is that it may only batter the coast of the eastern United States by this weekend and not move inland.  Obviously, it’s a wait-and-see situation.

Vice President Joe Biden is in hot water with a bone-headed comment he made at Sichuan University in China on Sunday, saying he “understood” China’s one child per family policy.  Regardless of the fact that he was illuminating problems in the future that China would have with just one wage earner providing for two or more elderly family members, it was an outrageous thing to say.  Naturally, GOP leaders are criticizing Biden, with Mitt Romney leading the charge.  Democrats can get on board here also.  No one should “understand” China’s barbaric policy, and everyone should “second guess” it.  Biden needs to issue a clarification.

Charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn have been dropped.  The former chief of the International Monetary Fund had been accused of sexually assaulting a New York City hotel maid three months ago.  When her credibility was severely damaged, the prosecution faltered and, barring appellate court actions, Strauss-Kahn will soon be, officially, a free man.  His reputation, however, is hardly intact and he resigned from the IMF shortly after his arrest.

In case you’re wondering, lightning hit Richard Branson’s house on the Caribbean island of Necker early Monday and started a fire.  Kate Winslet was visiting Branson with her kids and boyfriend.  Everyone escaped the fire and Winslet helped Branson’s 90-year to safety. Branson is vowing to rebuild the house in time for his daughter’s wedding in December.  That’s it.  That’s the whole story.

Ellen Ratner is a contributor for Fox News so I was surprised to read this article on their website where she defends President Obama’s right to take a vacation, and insists there’s a double standard going on. “Why haven’t we been hearing reports mentioning that by this time in his Presidency George W. Bush had taken three times the amount of vacation days away from the White House? Why was President Bush’s cutting of brush on his farm acceptable but not President Obama playing golf?” Ratner asks.  To this I say, she clearly wasn’t listening to me rant and rave around my house years ago about just that, except instead of complaining, I made fun.  Who clears brush on vacation?  But as I said yesterday, I’m still sick of seeing presidents playing golf all the time, and I like the game.  Maybe it’s just a pet peeve.

The stock market rose at the end of today’s trading, up 305 points, based on nothing.

HP reported it wouldn’t be making its TouchPad any more so retailers heavily discounted the item, people rushed to buy, and now there’s drama.  Barnes & Noble ran out of their inventory, as did Best Buy.  I’m bummed because we have an HP Veer phone which was supposed to interact with the TouchPad in really cool ways, and now I just don’t know what to think – not that I would’ve ever figured out the integration anyway.

Because you need to know, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are expecting their third child.  They’re already parents to Violet and Seraphina, so this one will be a girl also and they should name her Ann(e).  Keep it simple.

Another long post.  Sorry, but there’s just so much to say and so much coffee to drink.