As IF Times

link The Obama Administration Has a Kiss-and-Tell Problem.

It’s not well known that Susan Rice was not the first pick for her original position at the State department.  Stung by accusations that the administration was staffed with too many inexperienced people, the original intent was to try to hire more seasoned people as spokesmen.   Being placed in the position of explaining events to the public is not always easy, since much of what is uttered is either shameless spin or outright whoppers.

Joe Izuzu was asked to come out of retirement, but he thought the task too challenging and didn’t feel that he could maintain a straight face while performing that role.  Some may remember Joe from his role in the late 80’s as the TV pitchman for Izuzu cars.  Joe Izuzu

So instead, they defaulted to Susan Rice who was the only person in the vetting process that could maintain a straight face while reading some old Izuzu ads.  John Cleese didn’t make it past the first 2 pieces.  Rice’s first big test was to convey with much gravitas and authority that the Benghazi incident was caused by a YouTube video.   Of course as the truth came out in the follow up analysis of that incident, it was obvious that the ill fated compound was not the only thing on fire.  Rice now only wears skirts.

Following up that was her second big test.  This time, she was tasked in portraying Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s military service as ‘distinguished’ and ‘honorable’.  This was the soldier who admitted to deserting his comrades while in Afghanistan, taken captive and then subsequently traded for 5 hard core Taliban commanders held in US captivity.

With such a resume of credibility, Rice today contends that Turkey has joined the coalition of nations supporting US military efforts in combatting the ISIS group in the middle east.  Only someone forgot to tell Turkey.  Given the record of how the U.S. has treated its allies in the Obama era, it’s not really a shock that no one wants to be seen with them in public.  Ask Poland.  Or the Ukraine.  Or Israel.

We find it hard to understand how anyone can listen to anything that Rice says without picturing Joe Izuzu’s face on her body.

link George Clooney and Amal Alamuddins wedding cost £8m – Telegraph.

Eight million pounds sterling is almost 13 million US dollars based on recent exchange rates.  Think about that.  $13 million dollars…for a wedding.  That’s approaching Rap star money.   In truth, we have no idea how this number was arrived at, since who would actually know?  Of course the ‘lucky’ father of the bride will have bills of some kind, the hotel, the food, maybe the dress and of course the booze bill.  If we take at face value the estimated count of high profile guests at the wedding which apparently hovers at around 100, that means that each person’s attendance cost somewhere in the neighborhood of between $100,000 to $130,000 apiece.

They must be good friends.  But how does that even possibly add up? We’ll assume George sprung for the odd water taxi and picked up the occasional bar tab.  So that leaves a lot of money thrown around for the guests and their comfort on the grand occasion.  Having first hand knowledge of the extortionate prices in Venice for everything involving food and fun, it still stretches credibility that the $13 million tab can be accurate.  It makes good headlines; who wants to say that it was a $50,000 wedding?

But let’s just say the number is accurate and the father of the bride gets stuck with the bill that resembles a telephone number.  That’s a lot of money to pay to get rid of a daughter, even if it is to arguably the world’s most eligible bachelor George Clooney.  Based on what’s known about the bride, Amal Alamuddin, she seems to be more the catch!  She’s young, an accomplished lawyer, attractive and obviously from a wealthy family.  George…well George is an actor… a good and famous one of course, but…to spend $13 million to get the deal done?  Seems molto costoso to us.