THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† The Best Baseball Promotional Giveaway – Ever (second item): Last year, the St. Paul Saints gave away a promotional a “bobble-foot” that brought to mind ID Sen. Larry Craig’s vice squad arrest in the men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport – though Sean Aronson, Director Broadcasting/Media Relations for the independent league baseball team insisted the novelty was meant to commemorate Tap Dance Day.
This year, Aronson hits another one out of the park with the "Re-Count" bobblehead doll, which is dressed like “Sesame Street” character Count von Count and has two faces - one for Norm Coleman (R) and one for Al Franken (D) – to immortalize the still-undecided Senate race between the two candidates:
The first 2,500 fans at the Saints' May 23rd game against the Sioux Falls (SD) Canaries will get the bobblehead.
† As The Armenian Vote Goes, So Goes The Nation?: As he promised he would, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has introduced a House resolution calling upon President Barack Obama to "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide" in his April 24th message commemorating the crime against humanity. “The Affirmation of the U.S. Record on the Armenian Genocide” (H.R. 252; .pdf) resolution is co-authored by Reps. George Radanovich (R-CA), Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Mark Kirk (R-IL), and has 76 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle.
The larger question: When Schiff reintroduces the Armenian Genocide Resolution and assuming the bill makes it past the Senate, will Obama sign it? The Washington Post notes that “Obama repeatedly has said he would embrace that language”:
For years, President Obama has not minced words about labeling as "genocide" the deaths of Armenians more than 90 years ago during the demise of the Ottoman Empire. Nor have Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Vice President Biden.
All three regularly signed letters to President George W. Bush demanding that he recognize "the mass slaughter of Armenians as genocide" and saying that such an act "would constitute a proud, irrefutable and groundbreaking chapter in U.S. diplomatic history." During last year's presidential campaign, Obama repeatedly insisted that, as president, he would "recognize the Armenian genocide." …
Obama's pledge may have been smart politics: His campaign rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), infuriated Armenian Americans when he said it was unfair to blame present-day Turkey for the deaths. But now that Obama is president, his pledge has put him in a diplomatically difficult position. The question of calling the deaths a genocide has returned just as Obama is preparing for a visit next month to Turkey, which firmly rejects such a label. …
[T]he administration's outreach to Turkey must be balanced against the high hopes that Obama inspired among Armenian Americans. For decades, they feel they have been disappointed by presidents on the genocide debate. Only President Ronald Reagan, in 1981, referred to "the genocide of the Armenians." …
"This is the change he promised, and this is the change we expect," said Bryan Ardouny, executive director of the Armenian Assembly of America.
The Stiletto has zero - less than zero - expectation that Obama will keep his word. It will be interesting to watch his reputedly legendary oratorical skills in action as he bamboozles the credulous Armenian community – which voted for him in numbers rivaling those of blacks down South - into believing he will keep his campaign promises, if they are patient just a little while longer.
† Iraq Was Supposed To Become Like The USA - But The Reverse Has Happened: Part II: As evidenced by these two headlines in Sunday’s Washington Post:
“In Iraq, Chaos Feared As U.S. Closes Prison”
“Plan For Prison Closures Stirs Fears”
† Updates To Previous Posts (sixth item, That ‘70s Show): The New York Times reports that “[a]fter five days of searching rooftops, eyeing potential trajectories and using a classic “good cop, bad cop” strategy” the NYPD has its man:
The 2½-foot arrow that struck the woman, Denise Delgado Brown, 51, came from the ramshackle house next to the nursing home that a plumber named Eric Collins was moving into. …
The police said Mr. Collins was shuttling boxes in and out of the house on Sunday. Around 2 p.m., said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, “he stopped, picked up a bow and arrow and shot it at the fence” separating his grandfather’s yard from the nursing home.
They police said that when it pierced the plastic fence about 10 inches from the ground, its trajectory changed, putting it on a collision course with Ms. Brown. They said that Ms. Brown had not been a target, and that her being wounded was accidental.
According to the New York Daily News, the hole in the fence wasn’t the only tip-off:
Police became interested in Collins as a suspect while they were performing a standard canvass of the area, asking neighbors what they had seen or heard. …
"He was acting a little squirrely," a police source said.
"He was sweating and shaking. It was clear he knew more than he claimed."
Editorial Note: The Times learned that Collins comes from a once-celebrated family: He is a grandson of Charles and Ethel Collins, who in 1949 became parents of the first quadruplets in Bronx history.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II): U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction against a rule enacted by President George W. Bush that allowed national parks visitors to carry concealed weapons if state law permitted them to do so in other public places, on the grounds that an environmental impact study was not first carried out, reports The Washington Post.
† Updates To Previous Posts (second item, What It's Like To Be Sheriff Joe): The New York Times hates him and the Justice Department is investigating allegations of racial profiling against him, but sixty-eight percent of Arizona voters have a favorable view of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, according to a Rasmussen Reports telephone survey:
Arizona voters also strongly approve of some of the tactics the sheriff employs to fight illegal immigration and crime related to it.
Seventy-four percent (74%), for example, believe that when a police officer pulls someone over for a traffic violation, they should automatically check to see if that person is in the country legally. Twenty-one percent (21%) disagree. These numbers are virtually identical to national findings on the same question.
Sixty-three percent (63%) say that if law enforcement officers know of places where immigrants gather to find work, they should sometimes conduct surprise raids … Thirty-one percent (31%) oppose those raids. Voters nationally are a bit more supportive of this tactic to fight illegal immigration.
Editorial Notes: The Re-Count post was updated to include a new link, plus another photo courtesy of the St. Paul Saints showing the bobblehead doll from various angles. Also, the Armenian Genocide post was edited to clarify that Schiff has introduced a bill "affirming" the historical facts, and plans to reintroduce the Armenian Genocide Resolution as well.
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