Many of my friends know I love good political humor. Now that the Bush administration is at last only in history books, for old times sake, you should check out this website


http://whitehouse.georgewbush.org/index.asp

This site did some very funny photoshop versions of old WWII posters. Re-live all your favorite moments of the last 8 years, while you can still recognize a photo of John Ashcroft and Tony Blair. See it before they shut it down and send it to Top Secret Storage in a lead lined bunker next to Dick Cheney's EKG records.

courtesy Whitehouse.org

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Question: What does it mean to get your “Pound of Flesh”..?

Answer to yesterday’s question below: Gitmo has been called an American Gulag. What does that mean?
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History for 2/6/2009
Birthdays: Christopher Marlowe, Eva Braun, Ronald Reagan, Francois Truffaut, Babe Ruth, Elias Disney- Walt’s dad, Bob Marley, Queen Anne Ist of England, Aaron Burr, Robert Townsend, Mike Farrell, Tom Brokaw, Mike Maltese, Haskel Wexler is 83, Axel Rose, Patrick McKnee- Mr Steed of the Avengers, Kathy Najimy is 52, Rip Torn is 78, Zsa Zsa Gabor is 92!

Chuck Jones once referred to Mickey Mouse as the " Zsa Zsa Gabor of Animation, famous for being famous."

1481- The first public burnings of heretics by the Spanish Inquisition. Six men and women were marched out to a public square in Seville and burned at the stake. The executions soon took on a pageant like atmosphere and were called the Auto-da-fe’ an Act of Faith.

1778-The Kingdom of France signed an alliance with the rebellious North American colonies calling themselves the United States. Queen Marie Antoinette was charmed by the American ambassador Benjamin Franklin and called him 'Le Ambassadeur d'Electrique'. In the House of Commons Prime Minister Lord North had said that he doubted any European monarch would ever ally itself to the rebels: “For it would raise in America a new Empire dedicated to missionary it’s form of radical democracy around the world. “ German philosopher Goethe said: “We wish the Americans every success.”

1847- The Treaty of Waitangi- Britain settled New Zealand from the Maoris. Hobbits to follow….

1865- THE NERO BALL- During the Civil War as Sherman’s army burned and looted it’s way up from Georgia through the Carolina’s Sherman’s cavalry leader Judson Kilpatrick came up with newer and more novel ways to commit acts of cruelty on the civilian population. This day at the town of Barnwell South Carolina, Kilpatrick invited all the belles of the town to a “Nero Ball” The ladies didn’t understand the meaning until that evening, when he forced them to dance with his officers while he burned their homes. One of Kilpatricks officers protested:” It was the bitterest satire I ever witnessed”. Even his own men hated him, and called him “Kill-Cavalry”. But Gen Sherman defended him.”I know he’s a helluva damn fool, but I need him for my cavalry”.

1919- The Great Seattle General Strike. 100,000 people walk off the job and paralyze the city.

1919- Because defeated Berlin was awash in communist and rightwing paramilitary mobs fighting in the streets, the German government moved to Weimar to write it's democratic constitution. Germany in between the wars was called the Weimar Republic.

1926-Oliver Hardy tried once to be a dancer in a minstrel show, but wound up running a movie theater in his home town of Millidgeville, Georgia. He watched the comics on screen and thought" I am funnier that those guys.." He moved to Hollywood and this day signed a contract with the Hal Roach Studios to appear in short comedies, usually as a villain. Next year director Leo McCarey teamed the rotund Hardy with skinny British music hall comedian Stan Laurel, and a legendary team was born- Laurel & Hardy.
Note: Laurel & Hardy were both over 6 feet tall.

1935- The board game Monopoly is announced by Parker Brothers. The prototype monopoly board was round oilcloth and had street names derived from Atlantic City NJ. It now is in the toy collection of Forbes Magazine in New York.

1935- BOXERS OR BRIEFS? Arthur Kneibler patented the men’s underwear brief. He got the idea looking at Frenchmen’s bathing suits on the Riviera and called them Jockey’s.

1937- John Steinbecks novel “Of Mice and Men” published. In a result Mr Steinbeck probably didn’t anticipate was the stereotype image of a mildly retarded man as the big dumb sidekick Lenny, cartoonists used so often. “Duh, tell me about da rabbits, George.”

1943-“GET ME GEISLER!” Actor Errol Flynn was acquitted of two counts of sex with adolescents, which even if it is consensual is still considered statutory rape. The two girls who brought the charges had actually tried this shakedown with other celebrities. They weren't exactly adolescents despite testifying in court with pigtails and a lollypop. Flynn hired lawyer to the stars Jerry Geisler and he slowly took the girls story apart. Geisler discovered one girl had a prior conviction for 'public lewdness' and the other had had an abortion which then was illegal. So Flynn got off- literally. Flynn had just finished a film called "Gentleman Jim" and at the end of the film when he says to Alexis Smith:"I never said I was a Gentleman." Peals of knowing laughter rang out from audiences. This is also the time the slang term for living it up was coined- to be “In Like Flynn”. Flynn’s limo soon sported the license plate- R U 18?

1948- In Paris’ Cherche-Midi jail, Nazi General Von Stuelpnagel, the former commandant of Paris, shot himself rather than face trail for war crimes. Stuelpnagel was part of the Valkyrie Plot to overthrow Hitler and disobeyed the Fuehrer’s orders to destroy Paris landmarks, but he also executed many of the French Resistance and sent Paris Jews to concentration camps.

1952- King George VI died at 56 of lung cancer. Princess Elizabeth found herself queen at 27 years old.

1985- Steve Wozniak, the young engineer who started Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in his garage, resigned from the company. He’d rather be an engineer and teach children.

2007- PSYCHO ASTRONAUTS-Lisa Nowak, Space Shuttle commander, and mother of three, nicknamed RoboChick by the other astronauts, was enamored of another astronaut on the program, William “Billy-O” Oefelein. Today Lisa shocked America by driving 900 miles from Texas to Orlando non-stop to threaten the life of her lovers’s new girlfriend. When arrested She wore a wig, a Huggies diaper to prevent having to pull over to use the restroom and was carrying handcuffs and duct tape. The incident spawned dozens of puns- Astro-Nut, Lust in Space, The 150 Mile High Club, etc.
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QUESTION: Gitmo has been called an American Gulag. What does that mean?

Answer: In the 1960’s Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote the Gulag Archipelago, which described the Soviet Union’s system of forced labor camps for political dissidents, located chiefly in Siberia. Gulag was an acronym in Russian for Chief Administration for Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies.

"Guantanamera,
guajira guantanamera.
Guantanameeeeraaaa,
Guajira guantanameraaaa"

Yo soy un hombre sincero
De donde crece la palma
Y antes de morirme quiero
Echar mis versos del alma
Guantanamera, guajira, Guantanamera

Mi verso es de un verde claro
Y de un carmín encendido
Mi verso es de un ciervo herido
Que busca en el monte amparo
Guantanamera, guajira, Guantanamera

Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazon con que vivo
Cardo ni ortiga cultivo
Cultivo la rosa blanca
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Con los pobres de la tierra
Quiero yo mi suerte echar
El arroyo de la sierra
Me complace más que el mar
Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera


"Guantanamo Peasant Girl"
Traditional Cuban song with lyrics by José Martí. A cuban patriot and most
famous poet
( Special Thanks to Oscar Grillo)