Tuesday Evening News Roundup

With President Obama set to nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel to lead the Pentagon, there's been a surprising amount of opposition coming from Republican ranks. On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled that it would be rough sailing for Chuck Hagel in the Senate. Hagel's former friend, John McCain, looks like he is going to lead the opposition. Remember that Chuck Hagel and John McCain really separated ways over the Iraq war. This is going to be a good knock-down drag-out fight. I'm just not sure what the Republicans hope to gain by opposing Hagel.

So, former Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head by a crazed gunman last year, decided to visit some of the families who suffered losses in the Newtown shooting. For some reason, Rep. DebraLee Hovey decided to post the following welcoming statement, "Gabby Giffords, stay out of my towns!!!" She went on to say that Gifford's visit must be politically motivated. Within less than 24 hours, she retracted her venomous statements. Craziness.

There is much speculation over what happened or what is happening with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He's been AWOL for more than a month.

A military judge criticizes the Obama administration for the treatment of Bradley Manning. To me, it is clear that his treatment was over the top.

A petition on the White House website has garnered more than 25,000 signatures. The petition states that Senator Dianne Feinstein should be tried for treason for violating the Second Amendment. Because the petition has garnered more than 25,000 signatures, the White House has to respond. I suspect that the White House will say something about free speech and move on.

Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, have launched a gun safety group called Americans for Responsible Solutions. We'll see if this is just another social group or whether it will actually have some political influence.

Please don't forget that global warming is a liberal hoax. Last year was the second warmest on record.

One of the things that frustrated me for years was the difficulty in upgrading from one Windows operating system to the next. I see little if any advantage to upgrading to Windows 8. Windows 7 works and it is stable. On my computers it is fast. So, I had planned to wait until I bought a new computer to plunge into the new operating system. It appears the switch is as big a pain in the tush as I thought it would be. Days of headache for very little gain.