The silver medal in the Addled Brained Olympics goes to the Shallow Economists Cabal that litter the airwaves and the web. (The gold medal remaining firmly in the clutches of the Obama Kool Aid Team.) All the blather about green shoots in the economy is already tiresome and should not be trusted. The "green shooters" come from the same frothy school that insisted housing prices would go up forever and who forgot to mention - or did not see - that we were already in a recession starting in December of 07. The majority of the economic chattering class kept insisting that we were not in a recession through most of 2008 - until the market went cliff diving last Fall. This was perfect timing for Barack Obama - and those of us who think major historical events don't always "just happen". My tinfoil hat is still beeping after last October's serendipitous collapse
Kunslter still holds out "hope" that BHO might grapple sincerely with the economic mess, though not much. I have no "hope" for the man at all. (A.D.D. interjection: Every time "hope" was used last year "control" was the intended meaning.)
How much clearer can it be? At what Disney dollar threshold will it finally be apparent to the Hope/Change holdouts that Obama is the problem. Or at least that he is working happily for those who caused it. 100 trillion in bailouts? The construction of a Tienanmen square replica next to St Louis's Gateway Arch? Putting New Mexico and Arizona up for sale on Ebay?
A Lexicon of Disappointment (by Naomi Klein, The Nation) All is not well in Obamafanland. It's not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury's latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama's silence during Israel's Gaza attack. Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard. This is a good thing. If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programs capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding. The first stage, however, is to understand fully the awkward in-between space in which many US progressive movements find themselves. To do that, we need a new language, one specific to the Obama moment. Here is a start. Click through for the definitions of Hopeover, Hoper coaster, Hopesick, Hope fiend, Hopebreak, Hopelash, and Hoperoots. "Sample sentence: 'It''s time to stop waiting for hope to be handed down, and start pushing it up, from the hoperoots.'' Need I say that The Nation was one of the hopium pushers during last year's primary? But at least they didn't trash Hillary the way some others did.-Caro
Wednesday: Foxhole Liberals (by riverdaughter at The Confluence) I suspect that there are a lot more people out there who in the next couple of years are going to discover their inner liberal. After all, it's one thing to rail about deadbeats on unemployment when times are good. It's quite another thing to be ON the unemployment line, realizing you haven't done anything wrong but that the wealthy shareholders of your company preferred a juicier dividend to your wage slavery...That social safety net doesn't look so bad now that we're all sitting in the same foxhole, does it?... And really, are the proscriptions against gay marriage that important when we're all struggling to keep our heads above water?
Keep it in mind as you watch the tea party phenomenon develop. There is an opportunity out there to turn this country on its head for the persons who seize it. And it won't be long before Americans all over the country demand more of their government to do something. Liberalism may become the next new religion for Republicans too. Right wingers are fond of saying that a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged-presumably by a dark-skinned person on welfare. But can we now say that a liberal may be a conservative who was mugged-by Republican policies?
The opportunity that Riverdaughter points to is being squandered, however. The party poobahs still don't understand that you can't create and sustain a long-term movement based on a person or by strategizing to win just the next election. The right wing is successfully diverting the resentment shown in last week's tea parties from the people responsible for our current predicament and to each other. Democrats, so-called progressives, and so-called liberals are looking down their noses instead of trying to educate, trying to help people understand what damage the Republicans have done.- Caro
Report Gives New Detail on Approval of Brutal Techniques (New York Times) A newly declassified Congressional report released Tuesday outlined the most detailed evidence yet that the military's use of harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects was approved at high levels of the Bush administration...The Senate report documented how some of the techniques used by the military at prisons in Afghanistan and at the naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as in Iraq - stripping detainees, placing them in "stress positions" or depriving them of sleep - originated in a military program known as Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape, or SERE, intended to train American troops to resist abusive enemy interrogations.
According to the Senate investigation, a military behavioral scientist and a colleague who had witnessed SERE training proposed its use at Guantánamo in October 2002, as pressure was rising 'to get 'tougher' with detainee interrogations." Officers there sought authorization, and Mr. Rumsfeld approved 15 interrogation techniques.. "The paper trail on abuse leads to top civilian leaders, and our report connects the dots," Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Tuesday in a conference call with reporters. "This report, in great detail, shows a paper trail going from that authorization" by Mr. Rumsfeld "to Guantanamo to Afghanistan and to Iraq," Mr. Levin said.
President Obama Discusses Possible Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials (by Jake Tapper at Political Punch, ABC News) "For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it's appropriate for them to be prosecuted," President Obama said (Tuesday). "With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the attorney general within the parameters of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that. I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there." The White House also suggested, for the first time, that any public investigation of interrogation policy should be like the 9/11 Commission. The 9/11 Commission. Great. It settled ALL the questions about 9/11.-Caro Click herefor more politics and media news headlines.
Okay. I have snapped. I cannot take the Obama ring tones google ad one more day. I can't control them but the google content scanner is obviously screwed up. The audience here is NOT buying Obama ring tones.
I need this ad to go away. It makes my skin crawl. The rest of this post is a series of nasty insults to Obama in quotes in hope that the google ad "scanner" will catch up.
"Obama sucks" "Obama is an awful president" "Obama is the Apocalypse" "Obama blows" "Obama not qualified" "Pelosi might be evil" "Many people loath Obama" "Stupid people like Obama" "I am so sorry I voted for the scoundrel Obama" "That Michelle Obama works my last nerve" "I would never buy an Obama ring tone. What idiot would?" "Pro Obama Google Ads suck" "Obama fails up." "Bush and Obama are similar" "Barack Obama lies all the time" "How drunk does Biden get most nights?" "Obama is a nothing special." "Obama's inaugural address totally blew chunks." "Harry Reid looks gassy all the time" "Hope and change my ass"
Okay - I hope this changes the BHO ring tone google ads.
Dangerous: I know some of you loath any mention of Hitler as it might relate to 2009 America - so delete "Adolf" and insert "dictator". The Democratic Underground is openly speculating about an Obama dictatorship - not with fear but hope. Some of them WANT to give President Fraud all power. As I've said all year: Obama Pods are dangerous.
Paging Dr. Obama and Dr. Pelosi:There is a call from the AARP on line one... Stimulus secretly screws seniors... Puke: I won't stain this blog with these clips of Obama Pods. Go look, it you haven't already. These people are DANGEROUS FREAKS. I am looking forward to the blow back against the Pods that is coming from real people. I am looking forward to it enormously.
Given the arrest of Governor Blagojevich it is time to review. During the course of the media reach around of Obama all year they neglected to inform the rest of America about how Illinois politics works - and how Barack and Michelle Obama may have involved themselves with those machinations. Evelyn Pringle's article The Wizard of Oz is the primer. Here is another of her articles called Curtain Time for Barack Obama. Both are months old - and becoming more and more prescient by the hour. Neither Hilary Clinton or John McCain used the most damning information available to them about Obama. This I will never understand.
Also very good for reviewing the situation is Cannonfire - which I am riffing on here. He has Jesse Jackson Jr. as a possible co-conspirator. And connects the dots to Hunter Biden, the Vice-President elect's son. Cesspool comes to mind.
With that, a note about race. This blog and many others discussed early on just why Obama was bad for race relations in America. I pushed two reasons: 1. Obama, with the compliant media, weaponized race. If you criticized Obama you became a racist. I resented this deeply and still do. Much more importantly, it debased all real victims of racism. 2 . He was not who he said he was - which is now becoming clear. Obama was elevated far beyond what was justified given his resume and experience. This is precisely what white resentmentfeeds on. A national revulsion against Obama would give the worst racists among us cause to erupt. The fault for this lands squarely on the media for willfully ignoring the level of corruption Obama involved himself with. The ache for Obama to save us is still strong. But Obama's electoral enemies have been vanquished - he needed them to shine. The shine is fading fast. The damage done by Fitzgerald is to some of Obama's closest associates not him - so far. We will see if the levee has been breached. IT HAS NOT BEEN YET. I AM SPECULATING. Stand down, Pods.
My impression of Fitzgerald is that he goes as far as he can go while still winning. Hence Dick Cheney is still V.P. (Hard to believe...I'd almost forgotten the guy.) and Libby needed a pardon. The Chicago machine is good at protecting its arena. The world Cheney moves in is of a different order. Whether or not Obama has constructed a sufficient firewall should he need one remains to be seen. He may not need one. However: If BHO is in trouble Blagojevich has little reason to protect him now. "...the FBI says it heard Blagojevich complain he has to give this "motherf***er [the president-elect] his senator. F*** him. For nothing? F*** him."
"The governor is heard saying he will pick another candidate "before I just give f***ing [Senate Candidate l] a f***ing Senate seat and I don't get anything."
This would appear to exonerate Obama in the short term. But Blagojevich and Obama did not meet a week ago. The relationship is long and deep. What Blagojovich has to bargain with now is information. That's it. And he does not sound like an adoring Obama Podin the quote above.
Either this affair is going on the Whitewater track, that is sound and fury amounting to nothing until a man is entrapped into lying about a blow job - or the Watergate track...replete with a cavalcade of grifters and a lot of "plausible deniability." After one day it looks much more like a state level Watergate...but tackier. From here Illinois politics looks like a hybrid of Scarface, a used car salesmen convention in Reno, and a 30 year reunion of the Saved By the Bell cast.
The good people of Illinois need to stop paying taxes.
Obama is so good with a speech and a teleprompter - but like Bush anything outside a tightly controlled environment and he looks edgy. Yesterday his discomfort was very apparent.
1. Who will win the PAC 10 Opener - the Cardinal or the Beaver???
2. Who is smarter - a random group of crack head in Downtown LA or the DNC?
3. How many Obama Pods does it take to change a light bulb?
(Ten. 1 to drive the Prius to Whole Foods to get buy the light bulb. 1 to screw the bulb in. 7 to go into an ecstatic trance chanting "change the bulb, change, change, change...." and 1 to go on MSNBC and insist the changing of the bulb is an amazing accomplishment worthy of lasting veneration.)
4. What's the best evidence so far that Obama is deranged - the fake Presidential seal or the Greek Temple set at Invesco?
5. If John McCain where 10 years younger how far ahead would he be in the polls right now? 10 points? 20? 40?
Thanks to L.R. regular Scott for this youtube. Money Quote: Hillary: John McCain has a lifetime of experience...Senator Obama has a speech he made in 2002. With BHO's ascendancy the destruction of any remaining meritocracy in America is now complete. Screw merit and experience! WE want a SHOW! We want someone who will make us feel good!
When this endless campaign began I was excited about our options for the Democratic nominee. I was proud that our choices included a woman, a Latino and an African-American. I liked that the stage didn't look like an all white country club.
I thought Bill Richardson would be great until I saw him debate. He was scatty Cathy.
I never really cared for John Edwards but I really like his wife.
I have great respect for Senator Biden and could never understand the lack of coverage on him. Had we done what he recommended in Iraq we would be out of the mess we're in now.
I was interested in Senator Dodd.
I was interested in Senator Obama because I really liked his speech at the Democratic convention in 2004 and his stance on Darfur.
Gravel & Kucinich - what can you say?
I wasn't sure about Senator Clinton. I thought she was too divisive.
The endless attacks on Senator Clinton has changed my mind. I have watched her handle more garbage than any other candidate has had chucked at him. She has proved to me that she can more than handle the job as Commander in Chief.
I am not voting for her because she is a woman. Nancy Pelosi is a woman and I cannot abide her. I believe that Senator Clinton is the most capable candidate in the race. We've got huge problems coming down the pike (peak oil) and whoever is our next President is going to have to make tough choices. Voting "present" will not fly.
The more I looked at Senator Obama the less I liked. He has run a dirty campaign. He has stolen speeches from his pal. He has unsavory connections. He went to a racist church for twenty years. He won't debate. His record in the Illinois State Senate is spotty at best. Community Organizer is not a qualification for President. His arrogance is bigger than his resume which is the only thing thinner than him.
The press has fallen in love with Senator Obama and have questioned him less than they did the reasons for the Iraq war.
So, we have been pretty clear on this blog that we do not support Obama.
The pro-Obama supporters come over here and try to hold my uterus above my head as a reason to vote for him should he get the nomination. (Odd visual) What they forget is that being Pro-Choice means that I get to choose whom I vote for and it won't be Obama. They tell me I'm not a Democrat. I was, but the persistent yapping telling me I can't be has forced me to become an Independent. No big tent here.
We're told that Senator Obama can win without us. Let's see him try.
Checking out the internets this morning on on my first day off in two weeks and I find that we (non Obama supporters) are now called Dead Enders.
Can I tell you how much I enjoy the irony of someone using Donald Rumsfeld's words to describe me? Golly gee willackers what's next? We're going to greet Senator Obama with flowers?
Let's go with Dead Enders but separate the groups.
Dead Enders who are passionately committed to Senator Clinton. We are the Democrats who voted for Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry. We are part of the Democratic party who in the past have come around. But this primary has changed us, or at least me, in that I am no longer willing to vote for someone just because he has a "D" at the end of his name. Dr. Dean has done damage that cannot be repaired. He has split the Democratic party.
Dead Enders who are Reagan Democrats. You would think the name would be a tip off that these people do not vote according to party affiliation but let me explain it clearly: They didn't like Mondale or Dukakis and didn't care about party unity. These people are not going to vote for Obama. Without them, the Democrats lose. Oh, and by the way, calling them uneducated racists really doesn't help pull them over to your side.
Maybe there is so new Coalition of the Willing who are going to unite to put Senator Obama in the White House. I can't see it because it seems that as more comes out about Senator Obama it will be a Coalition of the Wilting. Wright has not gone away. Just because Senator Clinton isn't using God Damn America don't think for a moment that Republicans won't. The disparity between a man who spent five years in a POW camp and wouldn't leave until his men could leave to with a man who spent twenty years in a pew listening to a preacher rail against white America and wouldn't condemn him until it was politically expedient is stark.
While the Obama Pod People go nutters over Hillary's remark about long campaigns. Let's remind ourselves just how much abuse we Clinton supporters have put up with from these fiends and punks all year. Now they expect us to shut up and vote for the fraud. Nope. Not gonna happen. Not gonna shut up. Not gonna vote for him. His failure will not be on my hands.
A small sample of the pleasant comments by the Obama children is compiled here. Somehow anti-Obama blogs make these children very angry. But the Obama pods have no issue posting crap like the comments below. Nice people. I repeat the true theme of the Obama campaign is not Hope and Change - it is Anger and Entitlement. Happy mob or angry mob - it's still a mob.
snake63 wrote: "I agree with Ted Kennedy. If Hillary becomes Obama's V.P. She will have Barack assassinated Jan 21. This way she can serve three terms."
John interjection: not only is this pod paranoid - he/she is wrong about how long a VP could be Prez in that situation.
watdafuk wrote: "kick the clinton bitch to the curb she`s only out for herself."
twzzlrgirl wrote: if I were Obama I'd be scared to make her VP. I figure she and Bill would have him killed off within 6 months and then she could take over. These are not people to be messed with; but once they are out of the picture, they need to be out completely. They are like parasites that take over whatever they touch."
Gee, these people consider themselves "Democrats". Huh. Go figure.
ZZWHALE wrote: "Flush the Clintoons! political stench! hopefully never to be seen or heard from again"
This punk has no idea how long the GOP was in charge before Bill Clinton. 20 of 24 years. They are morons. The Obama childrens' memory barely goes back to last year's American Idol finals.
HillaryDivider wrote: "HAS ANYONE EVER THOUGHT THAT THE REASON THE SO CALLED BLUE COLLAR WHITES ARE NOT VOTING FOR OBAMA BECAUSE THEY ARE RACIST?"
Remember: if you don't love Barry you must be racist! It can't be because you think he's Carter Redux and is bound for failure and an empty suit with a vicious wife....and unqualified...and has bad judgement. It can't be because you LOOKED INTO BHO and found him unfit for the office. Nope can't be that. You must be a racist.
Kunstler posted his weekly piece last night. I almost always enjoy his weekly tablespoon on cod liver oil. This week he starts with: I'd like to know what Barack Obama thinks he's doing with the fiasco we call the US economy...
