2009 American Politics Thread II - My President Has a Goofy Sidekick

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"Because nobody messes with Joe."

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The GOP Comeback Begins Now!

i missed the first half of the speech what the hell was going on at that moment in the OP

obama said "no one messes with joe biden!" or something and biden was like "who? meee? me? biiiiiiden baaaaby"

the quote in the OP, I am pretty sure!
"That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort," the president continued, "because nobody messes with Joe."

Well done.
http://i17.tinypic.com/6ptj2ua.gifnobody messes with joe

i'm just sad that phil hartman couldn't have lived to get in at least one dead-on biden impression.

obama: "nobody messes with joe."
biden: "awwww yeah. whozyodaddy."

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53556541031

The internet: shutting down careers before they start since 1990

For those w/o FB:

http://profile.ak.facebook.com/object3/1859/109/n53556541031_4205.jpg

I got sent an invite to one of those groups approx 20 minutes after his speech! I don't even watch the show in question..

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just watching this... holy shit

"and on your left you'll see our zoo's flamingos, one of the most beauuuuuutiful species of birds on the planet"

I was blissfully asleep when all of this was on but thanks ILX for making me laugh first thing.

I'd like it if the entire internet would realize that Bobby Jindal may be all kinds of Mayberry exorcist douche, but that doesn't make it okay to let fly with Slumdog Governor namecalls or any of the other oh-haha-Indian-reference racisms that would make us go o_0 if people were sniding Obama's colour or background.

The 'outsourced speech' comments from Chris Matthews were LOLstayclassy too.

i'm just sad that phil hartman couldn't have lived to get in at least one dead-on biden impression.

― the pelvis of a mammoth (get bent)

me too now.

but i always get sad when i think about phil hartman.

While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a ‘magnetic levitation’ line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called ‘volcano monitoring.’ Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, DC.

AMIRITE?? help me somebody!

Billions for RAIL projects?!?!?! How on earth do they figure that's going to create jobs?! Throw the bums out!

I love how "magnetic levitation" goes in scare quotes to make it seem more like some sort of new-agey exercise in faith-based transportation.

hmmm, it appears tabes and suzy can carry the ball well here til day 101. :D

Passive Aggressive 101

Defining a bit broadly, one could argue that for the previous 28 years our President was the goofy sidekick.

Waitwaitwait I think Morbs just made a JOEK.

? no, if you laughed i probably didn't.

I'd like it if the entire internet would realize that Bobby Jindal may be all kinds of Mayberry exorcist douche, but that doesn't make it okay to let fly with Slumdog Governor namecalls or any of the other oh-haha-Indian-reference racisms that would make us go o_0 if people were sniding Obama's colour or background.

i have not read/heard/seen a single person, on the internet or on the television or in my presence, say anything resembling this comment, save for chris matthews's "outsourced speech" comment which i think was more of an unfortunate turn of phrase more than a "lol indian" joke.

i mean why would you even go there when you're talking about someone who gave a speech as laughably incompetent, to the point of shockingly incompetent?

I think Wonkette was making "slumdog millionaire" jokes. But honestly, do you expect more?

people be dbags iirc

me neither, and i would sincerely like to see examples if you've got them, suzy. i'm trying to imagine applying a popular stereotype about indians to that speech and failing, but if anyone did, it's probably lolsy.

if there's anything racially awkward to be said, chris matthews will say it, but it's hard to take that seriously at this point.

xposts

I love how "magnetic levitation" goes in scare quotes to make it seem more like some sort of new-agey exercise in faith-based transportation.

― Doctor Casino, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 2:17 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

totally my favorite moment

okay i will go look for this "slumdog jindal" post on wonkette, but it just sounds dumb and nonsensical.

Okay, I just woke up so I am a bit groggy, but for some reason ILX has brought this to the fore of my mind, so I'm just gonna come out and say it, no matter how conservative it might seem:

I wanted to believe in Barack Obama. But first, he surrounded himself with such a hideous number of douchebag, free-market-gospel, wealthy Clintonites, that I sort of sighed and shook my head. Then he said in his inauguration speech that we, as Americans, "are not going to apologize for our way of life," which is a completely fucked statement no matter which way you look at it. Finally, he seems even more intent than he did during the campaign to prop up the military-industrial funtime military mishaps in the middle east, no matter the cost to a country that "is slowly dying beyond our grasp."

Yes, there are some major, major policy differences between him and Bush, as well as some major personality and intellectual differences of which we are all aware. That said, I do not trust the man, and I have come to see him as yet another pawn being used to present an illusion to an illusion-eager American public, who don't want to change, who don't want to sacrifice, and who simply want to shovel as much shit into their shopping carts as humanly possible.

The problem here IS free-market capitalism, and along with unsustainable living communities and unrealistic monetary/material expectations, it has brought this country to its knees. Still, we don't want to apologize? Not only to the rest of the world for what we have wrought for the past eight years, but to ourselves, after some self-examination? No, the American public is feeding on delusional hope, and as I've said in other thread, HOPE IS A CHAIN OF SUBMISSION. It is used to keep people ignorant and un-self-conscious.

Now, I eat my store-brand-ghetto Cheerios. Adieu.

fave moment: Obama promising to cure cancer!

wonkette compared jindal to the apple dumpling gang last night but you might note that is a different movie...? if you're going to throw around hateful accusations against people maybe you could do a 30 second search of the site for the word "slumdog" or the words "bobby jindal" and see if you can actually tie these two things together, mordy.

OMG President of the United States hasn't repudiated free-market Capitalism yet?????? xxp

I kinda flinched when I read him being called "Mr. Raj-ers", but it was all joeks, so what the hey.

hey schef:

2009 American Politics Thread I - My President Likes Spiderman

I guess "Mr. wog-ers" is too British.

yeah okay that's dumb

xpost to pp

lolz Mordy otm

(if that takes forever to load, gbx called him "Mr Raj-ers")

are the weird racist comments on, like, some other ilx thread or something?

xpost thankin u morbius for answering this question!

Mocking someone for his or her race or ethnicity is always wrong.
Mocking someone's religion or culture is almost always wrong.
Mocking the public or political manifestations of someone's religion or culture is and should be perfectly acceptable.

so love me, looooooooove me, love me... I'm a liberal

fave moment: Obama promising to cure cancer!

― Comic Book Morbius (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:26 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah my man was channeling some serious jed bartlett last night

gbx called him "Mr Raj-ers"

No, get bent = JBR

fave moment: Obama promising to cure cancer!

― Comic Book Morbius (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:26 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah my man was channeling some serious jed bartlett last night

― now is the time to winterize your manscape (will), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:32 AM (16 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ha i had the same thought.

apologies, i couldn't load the thread either. it was get bent.

dudes, sorry to gbx or whoever 3 ppl were annoying you guys on the other thread but there's a reason there are moderators on this board and surprisingly it's not just so they can get tipsy and delete 77 threads -- go complain there instead of making sweeping grand generalizations about internet/political discourse! enact the change. because that thread is now literally the only place i've seen shit like that -- even weirdly maligned on this thread wonkette deletes comments tht are just racist bullshit! which is why i haven't seen it about jindal i guess. xpost ok sorry to get bent or whoever 3 ppls

anyway shame on anyone who'd say a thing like that not just because it's unfunny and kinda racist but because bobby jindal is just hilarious in and of himself without having to resort to being like lol he's foreignesque. did you hear the things he said? dude thinks louisiana is a good example of a) economic growth b) education c) private sector success in stabilizing communities! what the hell!

Yes, there are some major, major policy differences between him and Bush, as well as some major personality and intellectual differences of which we are all aware. That said, I do not trust the man, and I have come to see him as yet another pawn being used to present an illusion to an illusion-eager American public, who don't want to change, who don't want to sacrifice, and who simply want to shovel as much shit into their shopping carts as humanly possible.

I'm glad you're opening your eyes, but shouldn't you hold every candidate to the same standard? Besides, there's lots of people here who never believed in Hope, Change, and unicorns, but voted for Obama because they believed in some of his policies.

also: fuck that! if I have money, why shouldn't I shovel as much shit into my shopping cart as I want?

haha alfred the problem is that most of the ppl who are doing that do not have the moneys

schef otm about jindal

Something tells me that I'm never cooking for table.

fact: some people live in shopping carts

To be fair, a commenter on Wonkette last night tried to make a Slumdog joke about Jindal, but it's not exactly biting:

simetrias says at 10:23 pm, February 24th, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire Jindal, take it away@!

Thanks for finding that. That's what I remember reading.

i think maybe there are no funny racist jokes to be made about indians. people always are just like, "he's indian lol!"

most racist jokes about indians that im aware of work better w/ jews

Then he said in his inauguration speech that we, as Americans, "are not going to apologize for our way of life," which is a completely fucked statement no matter which way you look at it.

One thing I wanted the leader of our country to do was to repudiate us as a nation!

or if yr Rahm Emanuel's dad, A-rabs

xp

Dan, Jimmy Carter did that. Truest thing he ever said.

You know, I bet you Obama drinks corporate water.

http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2001_The_Royal_Tenenbaums/luke_wilson_gwyneth_paltrow_gene_hackman_grant_rosenmeyer_ben_stiller_jonah_meyerson_anjelica_huston_danny_glover_kumar_pallana_the_royal_tenenbaums_001.jpg

I was just going o_0 over the Wonkette comments, mostly. THERE'S NO FIRE HERE.

Jindal, sucking: a given.

LOL you cannot cure cancer, whatever. About all you can do is screen better for it and treat it at an earlier stage, lowering risk.

ok on some level - and this is not some "racism is ok if its used against republicans" shit - remember the bill maher "witchdoctor" cracks about sarah palin? because she had this african pentacostal shamen dude all up in her church? that got a lot of shit being being str8 up racist but i thought it was a semi-clever subversion of a lot of the lol-foreign cracks at obama, being used against miss polly prettyface the crackeriest cracker i ever saw. so yeah , a joke like "mr raj-ers" from jbr, who is known mostly for making bad puns constantly on ilx, i didnt laugh but i dont really get the great sin here. its off limits to say a dude reminds you of an indian mr rogers? i guess raj is a ref to british occupation, is that what bugs folks? it is a racial/ethnic/nationality joke, i just dont get this whole "DEMOCRATS ARE THE REAL RACISTS" faux outrage that comes up from selfrighteous leftier-than-thou types when this type of shit comes up. it's worth mentioning, and joking about, dude being indian + GOP fundie douche, and saying "just focus on the mayberry exorcist stuff" misses the point

it's not a sin. but it's not funny. the content of that joke is he's indian and he's like mr. rogers--why is that funny?

Sully today on Jindal and American exceptionalism:

What was a necessary pep-talk in the 1980s from Reagan became calcified into a dogma that verges on national self-idolatry. The point of the American founding was not that Americans are somehow better than any other people on earth, but that they had figured out a way to make government more amenable to freedom, stability and prosperity. Many other countries have figured this out too. But not many others have dug themselves into the ditch the US now inhabits. I don't think more cant on the Jindal lines helps.

i guess this is just one of those things you should leave to aasif mandvi or whatever but really i dont think you can be all lol-i-dont-see-race l0u1s jagg3r style and treat bobby jindal as just another rick santorum

i agree about the "democrats are the real racists" faux outrage being dumb

xpost

i'm saying, these jokes can be made, but you have to work a little harder than, "dude's indian"

given that last night I had to hear someone refer to taking a shit as "dropping the President off at the pool", I'm not really seeing "Mr. Raj-ers" as anything more than a bad probably-had-to-be-there pun

Also, the point around here is never "democrats are the REAL racists", it's "democrats can be racist too, stop fronting".

it's not a sin. but it's not funny. the content of that joke is he's indian and he's like mr. rogers--why is that funny?

― horseshoe, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:45 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the content of the joke is that he's black and he's like mr rogers, why is that funny?
http://tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:kczLaSiHtW3GTM:http://www.retrojunk.com/img/art-images/img_0390.jpg

dude

that skit is hardly lazy; whatever, ethan.

what neologism can we squeeze out of "Jindal" is the real question

Nochindal

i'm not saying its the greatest joke of all time but suzy & morbz getting all three-paragraph smug over the racist democratic reaction to jindal "all over the internet" because of a jbr screenname style joke is def pretty f'n lame

given that last night I had to hear someone refer to taking a shit as "dropping the President off at the pool"

Your restraint in not beating this person senseless is admirable.

except that was only Morbs doing that, since Suzy was reacting to a stupid comment on a Wonkette thread

they were actually talking about little known 29th president warren g. turding

it's not a sin. but it's not funny. the content of that joke is he's indian and he's like mr. rogers--why is that funny?

I think it's more clever than funny. It's wordplay.

i saw "Barbie Jingle" posted somewhere else last night, there's that

mr jindal's neighborhood is la's first congressional district, which has the fewest african-americans of any congressional district in the state

lo ethan

Ned, i'ts kind of hard to beat someone up over Ventrilo. I did consider quitting the group/guild but remembered "oh right, douchebags on the Internet" and went on to get more epic lootz.

you can refer to someone's race or gender or religion or national origin or sexual orientation without meaning to hate on them for it - it's a pretty standard joke structure about new faces on the scene to describe them as {established character} + {aspect of xxx} - sarah palin is "moosealini" bcz - lol wait for it - she is kinda fascist + she is from alaska lol - not hardly a next level zing but thats the script

I think it's more clever than funny. It's wordplay.

― Bianca Jagger (jaymc), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:54 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

okay. i like puns; i think my dismissal is in part because i've developed an irritation at the mere fact of indian-ness being presented as humorous after having seen that many, many times. it's not necessarily what jbr intended, of course. also arguing about whether something is funny is useless, so

Really, the funny thing about Jindal isn't that he is of Indian descent, it's that he looks like someone melted a plastic bag over a Cabbage Patch Doll's head.

More like a Saffron Patch Doll amirite?

Sorry.

sarah palin is "moosealini" bcz - lol wait for it - she is kinda fascist + she is from alaska lol

this is already funnier to me because someone having fascist tendencies is mockworthy?

I'm sorry moosealini is totally funny

I don't care if Jindal's black, white, yellow, brown, or orange, A COON-ASS IS A COON-ASS.

stay classy

I still can't believe Jindal's college exorcism story, largely because I can't imagine him doing anything at an exorcism beyond screaming "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" while running around the room flailing his hands above his head.

the way the dude emerged from the hallway last night was creeeeeepy

jindal's a fundamentalist nitwit. that's always mockworthy

What if you put a voice chip in a slightly melted cabbage patch doll that just ranted about volcanoes and maglev trains in that voice

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/Coonass2.jpg

wtf is this shit

I still can't believe Jindal's college exorcism story, largely because I can't imagine him doing anything at an exorcism beyond screaming "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" while running around the room flailing his hands above his head

And this is the man the GOP wants to put in charge of volcano regulation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coonass

And this is the man the GOP wants to put in charge of volcano regulation.

Jindal vs. the Volcano

lolololol I just saw the clip of Rachel Maddow after Jindal's speech:

"And Obama wants billions for 'magnetic levitation' trains! What we really need is for CONGRESS to LEVITATE itself above the ideology and partisan politics of the past!! amirite"

"National health insurance? Democrats need to INSURE that they start paying attention to the HEALTH of small business owners amirite"

Loving it when Ethan uses his amazing clairvoyance to tell distant ILX posters what they're thinking when they post and why, otherwise how would we get through life not knowing our own minds? <facepalm.jpg>

LOLtracer YHM, get to it!

high speed rail czar

http://magicalsite.com/images/mr.magic.gif

"Billions for half-baked higher-education funding? What the government needs to do GET BAKED and GET HIGH amirite"

Then he said in his inauguration speech that we, as Americans, "are not going to apologize for our way of life," which is a completely fucked statement no matter which way you look at it.

that was the best thing in the inaugural! on the surface the same kind of statement as "they hate us for our freedoms" but really a total inversion of it.

jindal's a fundamentalist nitwit. that's always mockworthy

― now is the time to winterize your manscape (will), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:04 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if this is in response to me, you're preaching to the choir. he's an entirely ridiculous person.

our way of life is egomaniacal and wasteful. (yeah i include myself)

the point around here is never "democrats are the REAL racists", it's "democrats can be racist too, stop fronting".

yes.

I haven't seen Jindal yet -- he's ludicrous -- but gee, Al Gore never sounded like Mr Rogers huh

no morbs, you really need to hear jindal's voice; it's hilarious

fwiw Gore got/gets mocked for his voice a lot

Note, I prefer this guy for head of high-speed rail, already knows his wheels of steel etc etc etc

http://www.dustygroove.com/images/products/z/zzmrmagicsrapattack_2_101b.jpg

also i'm not calling JBR racist -- I'm sure I've said similar things in weak moments -- but it struck me as somrhing ppl would get angry about if the target was different.

I still can't believe Jindal's college exorcism story, largely because I can't imagine him doing anything at an exorcism beyond screaming "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" while running around the room flailing his hands above his head

And this is the man the GOP wants to put in charge of volcano regulation.

― The Screaming Lobster of Challops (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 5:05 PM (1 minute ago)

well who else are we supposed to trust to pick the right virgins to throw into it to keep it from being angry at us?

http://images.celeb9.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/paris-hilton1.jpg

This person's always been pretty good at doing rails at high speed.

amirite

also i'm not calling JBR racist -- I'm sure I've said similar things in weak moments -- but it struck me as somrhing ppl would get angry about if the target was different.

― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:21 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

X 2

I would also add "it struck me as something ppl would get angry about if the person posting it was different."

All in context.

horseshoe: that's me agreeing. no need for anyone to go after his ethnicity when there's so much other awesome ridiculousness to choose from.

otoh the sadly transparent & cynical maneuver by the GOP to find someone not male or not white to carry their banner of bullshit deserves some poking fun at i s'pose

yeah totally. someone in another thread called it the GOPs "other kind of racism" and that seems right.

And to answer HI DERE's question about coon-asses, I would advise googling "LSU 'corn-dogs'".

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g308/ut9099/LSWho/lsu-fans-corndogs.jpg
http://vmedia.rivals.com/UserMedia/FanPagesPhoto/Gallery/20/O68007.jpg
http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/4074/lsulessailorjf3.jpg

actually this just makes things more confusing...?

given that last night I had to hear someone refer to taking a shit as "dropping the President off at the pool"

Your restraint in not beating this person senseless is admirable.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:52 AM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, I was about to post that I hope you followed him into the bathroom and drowned him in the toilet, preferably in his own president

Yes, it looks like the most retarded Vikes fans hit the MN State Fair...xpost

i dunno what there is to get, dan

xp: I realize now my response should have been "you mean 'dropping the President off in Nebraska'"

I'd hate to hear what that guy was calling cunnilingus for the past eight years.

Shockin' Oral

IT WAS A PUN. i have very little self-control when it comes to these. i acknowledged his ethnicity in a totally value-neutral way while saying he reminded me of mr. rogers, big whoop.

there's still a novelty factor (novelty meaning "new," not the weird al kind of novelty) to seeing indian-american politicians in the public eye, especially ones with thick louisiana accents, especially ones who are repping for the newly inclusive (lol) GOP.

youre absolved! remember, no fish on Fridays til Easter.

i mean, no meat

ok massive lol

more accidental joeks, rite

just don't eat anything on friday

i mean it's a strange cultural moment to process, for largely GOP-related reasons (sigh, xposts)

people who eat meat on fridays at any time of year are disgusting savages imo

Tracer is playing Streep role in new staging of Doubt

it's been pretty funny how the gop over the past year has had these moments where it's like, "a-ha now we've got the dems where we want them, wait until they see our new secret weapon" and they unleash a couple of clumsy homemade pipe bombs like palin and jindal.

i'm gonna eat pork on friday and piss most of the world off!

pork's not meat

pork snot meat

pork is Catholic meat (if there are no altar boys around)

i'm not saying its the greatest joke of all time but suzy & morbz getting all three-paragraph smug over the racist democratic reaction to jindal "all over the internet" because of a jbr screenname style joke is def pretty f'n lame

― it's darn and ielle is hot (and what), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:52 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

except that was only Morbs doing that, since Suzy was reacting to a stupid comment on a Wonkette thread

― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, February 25, 2009

haha wait i only just had time to go back and read everything but how is this a repudiation of what ethan said?

ugh morbius

how the hell you get off being all "omg a bobby jindal is an indian joke! heavens to betsy" but then make a rape joke??

dr morbius is a complicated man

And nobody understands him but Dennis Perrin.

rape is universal! like loudmouth mother-in-laws.

andtwat saying i posted anything about "all over the internet" is his usual fucking lie. My carpal tunnel is too bad to go "all over."

lol brutal crime v "mr. raj-ers" i mean c'mon dude don't make it easy on "andtwat" to bust on you at the very least

bad image there

xpost

so for the record, ethan's busting on morbius but morbius can't go all over? cool thx

don't make me go Rickles on your ass

tmi

morbs' carpal tunnel prevents him from going all over but he is still capable of going Rickles on an ass

duly noted

i'm shrivelling inside just trying to picture what that would even mean

mercifully like Marisa Tomei I can still climb the pole

somebody needs to get those Rickles checked out, they could be habit-forming

rickles' ass tunnel

*reminds self that she has work to do, clicks "x" button in top right corner*

OK fine. We're not even talking about the night's most awes moment: Ruth Bader Ginsberg walking in and getting hugged.

someone needs to cast joan cusack in a movie about a hapless new yorker who keeps meeting unsuitable boyfriends, one of whom takes her home and once in bed wants her to tell insulting jokes about his parents and wear a leathery neck mask

Meantime, 'a very plugged-in Republican strategist' speaks. To Byron York, but anyway.

Sphere: So, it's a "major doctrinal shift" for the Republicans to start talking about actual policy? This just highlights the sad state of the GOP

lol

Sphere: So, it's a "major doctrinal shift" for the Republicans to start talking about actual policy? This just highlights the sad state of the GOP

along the same lines, paul krugman makes a (legitimate) funny

"The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead."

^eg Rudy Guiliani & "community organizer"

the GOP's philosophy would line them up fairly well with anarchists if they weren't so in love with police states/military action/uniforms

I mean they're really painting themselves into an ideological corner with this whole "basically we don't believe the government should do anything" malarkey

at least B&B had their good taste in music to redeem that somewhat

wait a minute i somehow missed jindal saying that the best response to katrina is neighbors with rowboats??

it's an interesting take

Apparently the feds came down and told the rowers they shouldn't go rescuing folks without licenses and insurance, there was something about arresting a sheriff.

^^^ here is a clip of what bobby jindal said about how to best respond to katrina

b/w that and the paulie walnuts commercials, denny's makes some pretty damn fine ads

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

the GOP's philosophy would line them up fairly well with anarchists if they weren't so in love with police states/military action/uniforms

lol not to mention their need to browbeat political discourse with a laughably hypocritical strain of Christianity

i seriously couldn't get over this parTICKalur motherfucker talking about the federal government's inept response to hurricane katrina

From the headline on, a classic of vacuity.

it's sort of like a thousand points of light, except with rowboats. and extra cruelty.

yeah ed i read that part but he's telling the story for a reason, and in the context of a "govt spending bad - individual enterprise good" speech it's kind of hard to escape the conclusion that he feels the best way to handle katrina would be to let a thousand sean penns bloom

As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad. Growing up in India, he had seen extreme poverty. And as we walked through the aisles, looking at the endless variety on the shelves, he would tell me: 'Bobby, Americans can do anything.'

wait, isnt this a lie

when did he take his name from bobby brady

From Ned's link: Jindal is a smart guy, a frighteningly smart guy. I'd love to hear his real, honest, not-positioning-for-2012 response to Obama's speech tonight because I suspect he'd have some sharp and useful criticisms.

anybody know where i can find such pearls??

To find work, my dad picked up the yellow pages and started calling local businesses. Even after landing a job, he could still not afford to pay for my delivery -- so he worked out an installment plan with the doctor. Fortunately for me, he never missed a payment.

... What did he think was going to happen if his father missed a payment?

The first family dog saga is almost over.

Michelle Obama, who is on the cover of People again, told the magazine that her daughters Sasha and Malia will get their promised pooch in April, after spring break, and they are looking for a Portuguese Water Dog to adopt from a shelter.

"Temperamentally they're supposed to be pretty good," Obama says in the issue hitting newsstands on Friday. "From the size perspective, they're sort of middle of the road -- it's not small, but it's not a huge dog. And the folks that we know who own them have raved about them. So that's where we're leaning."

During the campaign, President Obama promised his girls the dog at the end -- and it became a subject of much speculation and lobbying by advocates of various breeds. There was early talk that the Obamas would get a labradoodle.

The first couple and their daughters have been going back and forth on possible names, and Michelle Obama told People she nixed "Frank" or "Moose."

frank would be an awesome name for the Obama dog

traumatic amniotic re-insertion

xxp

Rush Limbaugh just ordered his fans to stop picking on Jindal: HE liked Jindal's speech and ideas, thank you very much, and says it's no good that the GOP pick on "one of their own."

ok so ned's link means i have to retract the "no one is diong that slumdog millionaire thing, ppl" claim

btw E, I thought you were lying about the Bobby Brady thing! Apparently it happened when he was four: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Jindal

traumatic amniotic re-insertion

Psycho-somatic addict-insane

dont wanna get back into this but isnt this really just A + B?? like ok if right before obama's big primary win or something there was a movie about kenyans filmed in kenya that won a dozen oscars wouldnt maybe some people be drawing comparisons between the two

Bobby Jindal broke Florence Henderson's favorite vase

Rush Limbaugh just ordered his fans to stop picking on Jindal: HE liked Jindal's speech and ideas, thank you very much, and says it's no good that the GOP pick on "one of their own."

I wonder if this is where the penny drops for a lot of said fans.

dont wanna get back into this but isnt this really just A + B?? like ok if right before obama's big primary win or something there was a movie about kenyans filmed in kenya that won a dozen oscars wouldnt maybe some people be drawing comparisons between the two

― it's darn and ielle is hot (and what), Wednesday, February 25, 2009

why do you keep saying various versions of this metaphor over and over?

He's following the rhetorical pattern from Jindal's speech; pick a point ("Americans can do anything if [x]") and repeat it over and over and over until people think you're a little obsessed.

why do you keep saying various versions of this metaphor over and over?

― the schef (adam schefter ha ha), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 3:33 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wtf are you talking about? the moosealini thing?

to be fair i don't think even eddie murphy would have called that sketch "mr robeson's neighborhood"

After reading Jindal's speech, I can't imagine how poorly it must have been delivered if lots and lots of ppl are saying "it comes across better written" because it reads like it was written by a slow fifth-grader.

on the corner there's a youtube of Jindal on the Today show and a reader emailed in

UPDATE: An e-mail:

THAT was the Jindal I wanted last night. He should never be allowed near a teleprompter again!

02/25 10:15 AM

hahaha who does THAT sound like? hint: MOOSE.

I'm getting a little tired of everytime Obama does something really awesome, the Republicans standing up and going, "YEah, we've come a durn near ways from the firehoses, haven't we?"

I mean, yeah, it's historic, but the whole "why-lookee-there, ain't-it-somethin'?" line from them is getting stale.

Rush Limbaugh just ordered his fans to stop picking on Jindal: HE liked Jindal's speech and ideas, thank you very much, and says it's no good that the GOP pick on "one of their own."

I wonder if this is where the penny drops for a lot of said fans.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 3:31 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

i wouldn't count on it -- limbaugh's had plenty of Ceausescu-on-the-balcony moments already.

Jindal totally is Kenneth from 30 Rock.

wtf are you talking about? the moosealini thing?

― it's darn and ielle is hot (and what), Wednesday, February 25, 2009

you just keep explaining it is "a+b"! but morbs & suzy dropped their points pretty quickly so it just seems hilarious to me to say it now!

After reading Jindal's speech, I can't imagine how poorly it must have been delivered if lots and lots of ppl are saying "it comes across better written" because it reads like it was written by a slow fifth-grader.

― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, February 25, 2009

it doesn't come across better written, i mean anyone who is saying this is insane -- it's full of awful lies and twisted logic and it bore no bearings on reality! yes, he read it in the creepiest fashion possible but it was a terrible speech to begin with. pplz standards are set low after the sarah palin "thing" i guess.

... What did he think was going to happen if his father missed a payment?

― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), Wednesday, February 25, 2009 8:25 PM (2 hours ago)

duh dan thats where gogortions come from

from urbandictionary.com:

jindal 1 thumb up love ithate it

noun: a dude's junk
Bitch was slammin on my jindal last night.

junk jim uncle jim buster the mexican
by drpoon3 Feb 11, 2009 share this

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/02/24/bobby-jindal-catholic-draws-the-same-secret-muslim-allegations-that-haunted-obama.html

http://newsbusters.org/polls/should-msnbc-apologize-blasphemy-gov-jindals-response-president-obamas-s-o-t-u-speech-28416

i trust this has been discussed here? if so, carry on. if not, well ho-leee shit.

RNC chair wants Hip Hop party??

CNN has a couple of nice comebacks:

"Does the governor have a volcano in his backyard?" Royce Pollard, the mayor of Vancouver, Washington, said on Wednesday. "We have one that's very active, and it still rumbles and spits and coughs very frequently."

[...]

"Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington," Jindal said.

But Marianne Guffanti, a volcano researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey, said, "We don't throw the money down the crater of the volcano and watch it burn up."

Yeah, i live in a city built atop a volcano, and can see another one every time I cross the Fremont Bridge. Its the same thing with the planetarium funding during the debates...

it's pretty funny to see how long the gop is gonna keep going before they realize that most people don't give a shit about earmarks or pork-barrel spending. hannity's calling the stimulus bill the "porkulus bill" and it's just like, dude, no one gives a shit about earmarks, didn't you see mccain talk about that shit throughout the whole campaign and absolutely no one gave a fuck????

I think most people realize that "pork" tends to = goodies for their community. In fact, at least in my neighborhood, we keep electing the same dude (Rangel) because he does so much and gets us so much pork. One man's pork is another community's youth center.

Yeah a friend of mine keeps bringing up the fact that "pork is how we GET things in our communities goddammit, why doesn't somebody SAY that??"

right

i know i'm risking the wrath of morbz here, but being still in the new-car-small period of the presidency, i can't help just enjoying a headline like this:

Obama to Seek Higher Tax on Affluent to Pay for Health Care

And its not like Republicans weren't all about flushing money down the toilet when they were in power. Except now that theyre not they get to spew some bullshit like how they've "gotten religion" and are getting back to their fiscally responsible ways.

Fuck these dudes.

Oh dear.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3602/3307907531_ae18e2694d_o.jpg

see now that's quality

now all we need is someone to do a picture of limbaugh as the Skipper, and we'll be all set.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2009/02/25/twittering-helen-thomas

I am linking this solely for the terrifying freeze frame on the video.

cut Helen a break, she had an affair w/ James Madison

Meantime, the inevitable Jack McBrayer response to Jindal:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0209/Kenneth_the_Page_responds_to_Jindal.html?showall

Hollywood Hollywood - what a joke! Excuse them citizens of the United States and world. They are still so excited about the STD fund created especially for them, and possibly managed by John Edwards that the kool aid is spilling over in mysterious ways.

Posted By: | February 26, 2009 at 10:12 AM

I love that.

Then there are some of the responses to this Patrick Ruffini piece essentially saying "Are we out of our goddamn minds on the right?":

Puhleez!
Submitted by Lynn on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 10:19.

Why are you going to CPAC anyway?

I took this website off my list a long time ago when I realized that it was Republican-lite and it's founders thought that all we needed to regain power was technology, not conservative values, not conservative leadership, just a computer and the Internet.

I wouldn't be here now if Hot Air hadn't linked to this diatribe.

Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin speak for American conservatives because John McCain and the Ruffinis of this party won't.

As long as you continue to think that you can define the next right by letting liberals weigh in and with nothing more than a keyboard to deliver your conservalite message this website will remain off my list.

I pity them...oh wait, no I don't:

It's early February, and the happy hour at the Union Pub on Capitol Hill is jammed with an unlikely slice of young Washington strivers: conservatives, libertarians, free-market/small-government types, anyone right of center. People, in other words, in their 20s or early 30s who actually groan at the label Generation Obama.

Organized by an employee at the Grover Norquist-led Americans for Tax Reform, the party in the pub's back barroom seems naturally suited for this group: Fox News is playing alongside the Dave Matthews tracks. One drink special, $5 for a down-on-the-heels set, seems almost too perfect a nostalgic prop: "The Gipper," concocted with bourbon.

Spencer Barrs, 22, a Heritage Foundation intern, is talking with his buddies about feelings of alienation.

"My best friend called and asked who I voted for and I told him I wasn't voting for Obama," Barrs says. "And then he told me, 'I just think you hate black people.' It was a shot to the gut. You feel like you're surrounded on all corners."

His friend John O'Keefe, 23, another conservative think-tank intern who might be out of a job after his internship ends in May, dismisses his liberal contemporaries. "The only thing they have are blogs. They feel like gods of our generation," he says, before ruminating on a very Washington cure-all. "I'm hoping that people get (angry) at Obama and start forming political action committees."

Which I presume he will suggest on his blog. Er.

Progress!

At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. "I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was getting a law degree from George Washington. She was cute," he says. "But she wants to work for the ACLU, and I said, 'Oh, you're one of those.' "

Later, in a phone interview, Siggins says he struggles with some of his party's more culturally orthodox ideals. "Because I am in this generation and was raised in a pro-gay-marriage era, I am only a little bit against gay marriage, but only a little, like 53 percent to 47," he says. "I have about a dozen gay friends, 30 or 20, and they would all back me up. In college, I used to have lunch with them. . . . We went ice skating once."

At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. "I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was getting a law degree from George Washington. She was cute," he says. "But she wants to work for the ACLU, and I said, 'Oh, you're one of those.' "

hilarious!

At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor awkwardness to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. "I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was

tne drink special, $5 for a down-on-the-heels set, seems almost too perfect a nostalgic prop: "The Gipper," concocted with bourbon.

take this with a pinch of salt amirite

Dustin Efil4Zaggin

Dustin can show you his ice skating moves for a drink.

At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. "I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was getting a law degree from George Washington. She was cute," he says. "But she wants to work for the ACLU, and I said, 'Fuck you, you Commie bitch.' Then I punched her in the tit."

At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses rape to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation

so ACLU = sandy vagina to conservatives?!?

it means she's probably not into being sexually tortured

Honestly it's the 53 to 47 percent calculation that's the craziest bit. Is there a checklist?

"I have about a dozen gay friends, 30 or 20, and they would all back me up."

lol

The 47 percent covers the sodomy clause.

At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. "I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was getting a law degree from George Washington. She was cute," he says. "But I'm into guys. I have about a dozen gay friends, 30 or 20, and they would all back me up."

Honestly it's the 53 to 47 percent calculation that's the craziest bit. Is there a checklist?

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, February 26, 2009 2:04 PM (55 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://z.hubpages.com/u/216730_f520.jpg

At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. "I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was getting a law degree from George Washington. She was cute," he says. "But she wants to work for the ACLU, and then I suggest banned her "

His friend John O'Keefe, 23, another conservative think-tank intern who might be out of a job after his internship ends in May, dismisses his liberal contemporaries. "The only thing they have are blogs. They feel like gods of our generation," he says

he is right, the only thing i have is my blog...and a job, unlike him lol

lol

lolololz keep em comin

yeahyeah guy and how does a god feel?

y'know libertarians might actually be able to make some headway with 'millenials' if they expressed even a little concern for reproductive rights, separation of church & state, ridiculous drug laws and irresponsible and unethical foreign entaglements etc, rather than constantly frothing at the mouth with their free-market, anti-reg bitch-fits.

otherwise you're basically aligning yourself with dicks like Dustin ("only a little bit against gay marriage, but only a little, like 53 percent to 47") and Justin (formerly a "confidential assistant" in the White House's drug policy office) who nobody can fucking stand, probably not even their own mothers.

The most prominent libertarian bloggers I know, like Radley Balko and Jim Henley, talk about that stuff all the time! I don't think there's a more anti-drug-war person on the web than Balko. And Henley has been anti-Iraq-war from the beginning, as far as I remember. Ditto church/state issues.

The problem might be that the people you're calling "libertarians" here are actually what some bloggers call "glibertarians." They don't really have any principles aside from preserving existing power structures.

for a lot of libertarians being "libertarian" just means "young republican"

^^^yeah i think this. i'm sure there are plenty of folks that have well-considered philosophical and policy arguments, i'm really just talkin about assholes you meet at lame parties & bars and stuff

folks who

plenty people who are politically 'libertarian' but who also ... just happen to be ... fundamentalist christians. (like say, ron paul.) which prevents them from being very good libertarians.

libertarians are often just young republicans who are at least vaguely aware that it isn't cool to call yerself a republican. and this goes back to (at least) the clinton era -- it's nothing new.

Wait so it's not just "I hate taxes and like weed" anymore, it's something even stupider?

dustin & justin are fucking everywhere

really though, 2 years ago it mighta been cooler to disassociate yourself with the republican party but calling yourself a libertarian TODAY is prolly even worse than calling yourself a republican. they really don't have a coherent free market response to the economic crisis. there's really nothing for them to say about anything. at all. it's always been easy to make fun of libertarians but this is prolly the golden era.

actually, libertarians DO have something coherent to say about the economic crisis -- namely, let the banks go bankrupt, let the people upside-down on their mortgages get foreclosed, no bailout programs, etc. none of that is particularly POPULAR, but it isn't incoherent.

libertarians are often just young republicans who are at least vaguely aware that it isn't cool to call yerself a republican. and this goes back to (at least) the clinton era -- it's nothing new.

― LOLBJ (Eisbaer), Thursday, February 26, 2009 2:58 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

tad otm

for a lot of libertarians being "libertarian" just means "young republican"

― bobby dijindal (and what), Thursday, February 26, 2009 2:39 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

u mean andtwat otm

Anyway, getting back to making fun of Bobby Jindal, turns out he may not be entirely scrupulous in the truth-telling department:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/jindals_katrina_story_a_tall_tale.php

Meantime, Joe the Plumber, tribune of the people:

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2009/02/26/PH2009022600120.jpg

He wore a gray long-sleeve undershirt and baggy jeans, and looked as if he just walked in from a construction site. Joe says he plans to work in construction (hello, stimulus package!) once his gig doing commentary for a conservative Web site runs out at the end of March. Plumbing? Not happening. "I show up on a plumbing job and the first thing someone's going to say is 'Joe the Plumber didn't do the job right,' " he said. "The next thing you know, it's on the national news. It would be naive to go back to it."

Wurzelbacher says he's still no fan of Obama, but confessed that he never liked McCain all that much, either. Nor has he cared for the politicians he's met on Capitol Hill. "Liars and thieves," he called them.

The only heat generated by Joe's appearance last night came when a young man named Jabari Zakiya recounted great moments in American racism (slavery, annihilation of Native Americans, segregation, etc.) and asked Wurzelbacher if the "hegemony" of the white man in America is "doomed" now that five states and the District of Columbia have majority minority populations.

Joe replied that he believes "our American heritage is being torn apart" by flag burners, critics of the military, and those who mock Christian values. He expressed his admiration for patriotic immigrants, and said he dislikes terms like African American and Asian American ("We're all Americans," he said). For some reason, he concluded by saying, "America has always been a kick-butt, take-names kind of country."

Wurzelbacher was scheduled to speak and sign books for three hours, but the Joe Show was over in 55 minutes. Total copies of "Joe the Plumber" sold: five.

But hey they'll love him at CPAC lemme tell ya!

Flag-burners?

Meanwhile that story is gold for this bit buried in the comments:

Eleven people showed up!
That's a huge crowd compared to what I saw on CSPAN2 10 years ago.
There was impeached & removed Arizona governor Evan Mecham, talking about his book & there wasn't a single person in the seats. At the end of his loony lecture, an apparent homeless guy wandered up & it looked like he was arguing with Mecham. The the publisher's flack came up and started to get Mecham out of there.

Elsewhere:

STEELE: I love it. (inaudible)...some slum love out to my buddy, gov. Bobby Jindal is doing a friggin' awesome job in his state. He's really turned around on some core principles -- like hey, government ought not be corrupt. The good stuff...the easy stuff.

i was gonna say ... other public enemy fans, who the hell would've remembered who evan mecham was even a decade ago?!?

uhh what xp

"friggin' awesome"

who is this bozo

i know that insulting the intelligence of the average american voter has been the MO for the GOP for god knows how long, and hit a fever crescendo with sarah lol palin. but really -- "slum love"? "frigging"?!? this is some sub-high school shit.

and speaking about idiots who insult everyone's intelligence on a daily basis ...

actually, libertarians DO have something coherent to say about the economic crisis -- namely, let the banks go bankrupt, let the people upside-down on their mortgages get foreclosed, no bailout programs, etc. none of that is particularly POPULAR, but it isn't incoherent.

I think to a pretty large degree it is incoherent! letting pretty much every large bank in the world collapse goes beyond 'unpopular opinion' - it's pretty much crazy person talk. this became even more true after everyone got to see the results of Paulson's experiment w/ lehman brothers.

Asked to comment on Limbaugh’s statement, Joel Sawyer, Sanford’s Communications Director, said that “the governor was not referring to anyone” in particular when he said that anyone hoping for Obama to fail is an “idiot.” Rather, Sawyer said, Sanford was speaking “generically” and did not know that Limbaugh had previously said he hopes that Obama will fail.

Is today candyland day for laughing at morons?

truly a golden-age of political spectatorship right here. i hope somebody is writing a book on the post-'08 election Republican makeover and its fallout.

this cpac is.. something. gonna be a fun next couple of days

i take it you are there, Daria?

totally J

oh hell no! just following the news.
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/02/john-bolton-cpac-benefits-nuking-chicago

Meantime, Joe the Plumber, tribune of the people:

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 26 February 2009 20:46 (2 hours ago)

To be fair, that photo was taken in Washington DC, about the last place J the P is going to draw a crowd. Plus it was at Borders.

Cpac agenda bits posted over on other thread, too

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=30860
I found someone making Slumdog Millionaire "jokes"...

Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS

looooooooooooooooooooooooooooool

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/26/michele-bachmann-tells-mi_n_170426.html

“Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man,” she said.

You know, this whole day has been insane, now this.

holy

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k56/blogspotdog/027CongMichelleBachmann.jpg

Been caught reading
Once
When she was forty-five.

btw, how many continents could be populated by Pleasant Plains' ejaculate evry time the prez utters a sentence?

morbz the two people i know who resort most reliably to the "omg u ppl love obama he's ur messiah" line are you and a republican judge in tennessee. you should get a talk show together.

<3 the Steele era sooo much

never before have so many republicans discussed race so awkwardly

actually tips, PP is an outlier around here.

what does that make you?

ok. i still think you should get a talk show with a southern republican judge.

what should be the first week of topics?

twinks vs bears

Bill Clinton being a rightwing motherfucker

btw, how many continents could be populated by Pleasant Plains' ejaculate evry time the prez utters a sentence?

Where in the fuck did that come from?

To answer your question, at least eight.

back to easy layups:

"the values it’s intellectual leaders spent so long ignoring…"

I like how Sodahead is nothing more than just another way to push talking points, only thru banner ads and "polls"

http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/imgad?id=CJ_0u6a97oKREBCgARjCBDIIANnVM-xKqQA

http://www.thegopcomeback.com/

still can't get enough of this dude

http://7.media.tumblr.com/7gSB5gka1kcyps125Q44GmWbo1_400.jpg

he be da man

we might have missed this one:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09007/940141-100.stm

McCain volunteer begins probation program for made-up story
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
By Daniel Malloy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The McCain campaign volunteer who falsely claimed a Barack Obama supporter carved the letter "B" into her face with a knife entered a probation program this morning...

looool

i'm sorry PP, but when u said "everytime O does something AWESOME..." it was too much to resist.

btw I am cautiously non-pessimistic about some of the budget goals. (I know youre all relieved.)

I'm casually pessimistic about halving the deficit, or was Cheney right after all?

lol racism:

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. – The mayor of a small Southern California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title "No Easter egg hunt this year."

Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday's City Council meeting.

Grose came under fire for sending the picture to what he called "a small group of friends." One of the recipients, a local businesswoman and city volunteer, publicly scolded the mayor for his actions.

Grose says he accepts that the e-mail was in poor taste and has affected his ability to lead the city. Grose said he didn't mean to offend anyone and claimed he was unaware of the racial stereotype linking black people with eating watermelons.

Located in Orange County, Los Alamitos is a 2 1/4-square-mile city of around 12,000 people.

If he was unaware of it, why would he have had any interest in or understanding of the photo in the first place? Also, dude looks like this:

http://www.grose-for-losalamitos.com/Dean.Wendy.Kody-058A.jpg

My boss's assistant sent me that watermelon email a few weeks ago and that was finally the prompt I needed to tell her to take me off the list for her allegedly hilarious joeks.

Your boss' assistant should get shitcanned for that.

Please to whack hizzoner's face onto a Skipper body next to Jindal Gilligan.

Speaking of Jindal, Ann Althouse is saddened at all your reactions and gently wishes to demonstrate your errors. Are you not persuaded?

"Both Obama and Jindal are at the geeky end of the spectrum among American politicians. "

You lost me there...

i'm sorry PP, but when u said "everytime O does something AWESOME..." it was too much to resist.

no problem, morbs. I was more like "what did I do this time?" after finding nothing in a CTRL+F search of this thread.

Via RH Reality Check, we learn that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton intends to name Michael Posner, the current president of Human Right First, as Assistant Secretary of State.

Posner has a 30-year history involved in human rights work, with a focus on refugees' rights, the protection of and justice for torture victims as well as strengthening accountability for war crimes. He also helped found the Fair Labor Association, which promotes corporate accountability for working conditions in the apparel industry.

http://www.feministing.com/archives/013927.html

Dennis Perrin writing a post right now about how this guy actually eats roast babies.

holy shit

i mean, babies should only be eaten tartare imo

roasted Israeli babies.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/27/senator-calls-obama-world%E2%80%99s-best-salesman-of-socialism/

lolz Huckabee calling Obama a Leninist/Stalinist

to the gulag with him!

DeMint, but anyway.

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the only member of the senate to earn a perfect rating from the American Conservative Union,

I mean, there you go.

His remarks comes a day after Mike Huckabee told the conference of conservative activists that “the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born” with the president’s stimulus package.

“Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff,” Huckabee said of the government bailing out financial institutions

Yeah, Lenin and Stalin sure were big fans of gigantic capitalist banking institutions.

Keep in mind that this is coming from the dude who wanted to send sick people to a remote island.

Remember that time Stalin leant Russia's capitalist banks billions of dollars? Good times.

lolz x-post

but Stalin also ate babies tartare.

he ate tatars tartare

remember the "affection" ILXors had for Huckabee a year ago?

um, no...? Guy's always been an entertaining bozo.

It's not our fault! We thought he was a Socialist! XP

His bass lines were Peter Hook-style buttah.

What affection there was was rooted in watching Rush, Malkin etc. get mortally offended by his existence.

and in the schadenfreude of watching conservatives moan when 25 years of courting the fundie base finally bit their fat asses.

remember the "affection" ILXors had for Huckabee a year ago?

If you mean the "affection" where everyone said "he seems to be genuinely nice and certainly is genuinely charismatic, which makes the fact that he is batshit psycho insane even scarier", yes I do remember that.

personally I was always a bigger fan of his son, the dog murderer

http://fromtheleft.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/071214_ps11huckabeejr_vm-vertical.jpg

^^psychoooooooo

http://cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/53/36/hucktyra.0.0.0x0.432x335.jpeg

See? They're playing Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods."

They found that essence rare.

actually, isn't it worse to the dennis perrins of the world to eat palestinian babies than israeli ones?!?

but do they love men in uniform?!?

I'm wondering which person on their staff had the presence of mind to give her a telecaster bass

Fuck you guys for ruining my favorite song.

george packer, on the GOP, quotes a surrendering confederate officer at appomatox: “You may forgive us, but we will not be forgiven. There is a rankle in our hearts of which you little dream. We hate you, sir.”

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/georgepacker/2009/02/obama-swings-fo.html

that was the best thing in the inaugural! on the surface the same kind of statement as "they hate us for our freedoms" but really a total inversion of it.

― goole, Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11:15 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

way old but u are responding to a heated argument from table is the table, the dude who gets heated about 2 things, 1) capitalism and 2) minimal techno

also new yorker writers

they hate us for our m_nus

i dunno about anyone else, but i for one would love to hear an Obama speech with a Kompakt soundtrack.

"I wanted to like Obama, I really did ... but when he failed to move the U.S. capital to Berlin ... I just couldnt take it any more."

Barack Obama wanted to get back to Chicago after law school FOR THE HOUSE MUSIC.

Let's just have Kevin Spacey play Huck in the movie and be done with it.

I've been hoping that Huckabee has been an extended performance art piece for some time now.

i dunno about anyone else, but i for one would love to see a Mike Huckabee performance art piece accompanied by either Annie Sprinkle or Karen Finley.

I... would not.

I still have the picture at home.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

― HI DERE, Monday, May 7, 2007 4:50 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

¿huckabee rim jobs - c/d?

newsbusters:

There ought to be republican tour of Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Michele Bachman where they can go out and energize the base.

“You may forgive us, but we will not be forgiven. There is a rankle in our hearts of which you little dream. We hate you, sir. PS, we have no intentions of winning another election, ever. Have fun!”

There ought to be republican tour of Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Michele Bachman where they can go out and energize the base.

omg plz plz plz plz plz do this

you be da man

it'll be the Reagraham Lincool skit, brought to life.

so proud of my homegirl michele right now

There ought to be republican tour of Joe the Plumber, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Michele Bachman where they can go out and energize the base.

i'm thinking 'VH1 Series'

OH YES PLZ

they should add custos, then they'd get the mood exactly right.

so apparently combat in iraq will end by august 2010 dudes

well at least with americans around it will

what about combat for Iraqi hearts and minds?

What should they use as a theme song for this series?

Skee-Lo, "I Wish"

aw don't ruin Skee-Lo like that

anyway it should be Michael Jackson's "They Don't Care About Us"

Fuck that "Let the Eagle Soar"

There ya go, have John Ashcroft be the opening act.

Not jaunty enough. You have a packed RV full of headcases, a bizarro "Comedians of Comedy" tour if you will. Needs jauntiness.

lyrics like "Jew me/Sue me/Everybody do me/Kick me/Kike me" will even appeal to their core constituents.

god having michelle bachman representing my state is so humiliating.

sterns county syndrome!

TNC offers up an idea:

Distinguished Officials for Proper Ebonics

27 Feb 2009 10:00 am
Michael Steele's message to America:

We know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad.

Michele Bachman, professional fool, on Michael Steele:

"Michael Steele! You be da man! You be da man,"

This. Must. Stop.

I'm here to announce the formation of DOPE (Distinguished Officials for Proper Ebonics) whose sole mission will be to prevent such abominable phrases as "You be da man." We have sat quietly by, during the era "Oh no she din't" and "Women, be shopping." We have endured the apostasy of Stuart Scott. ("Holla at a player if you see him in the streets!"). We can no longer be silent. The war is on.

And as one of the comments reminds me, some of these guys must have taken that one episode of the Office to heart; the scene where Darryl starts giving Michael new slang to use.

not sure if this is the correct thread to mention this, but James Dobson resigns as Focus on the Family chair.

the hits just keep on comin', as it were.

aw cheer up matt, we have intentional lols on our side

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/06/post_1.html

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18443.html

Whelp, that was quick:

Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night -- about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?

Turns out it wasn't actually, you know, true.

In the last few days, first Daily Kos, and then TPMmuckraker, raised serious questions about the story, based in part on the fact that no news reports we could find place Jindal in the affected area at the specific time at issue.

Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn't have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, "that's ridiculous," prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

After the dinner McCarthy, told Politico he knew he was in trouble following Klobuchar. "When she was finished, Tom Pryce emailed me and said 'What are you going to do now?' And then I thought, 'my last joke is about the clap!'"

see why didn't he use that, that is hysterical

^^^dead men tell no contradictory tales, eh jindal?

Dan, incidentally a dance remix cover moderne of Sex Shooter is playing on Radio 1 right now...

so apparently combat in iraq will end by august 2010 dudes

― deej da 5'9 (deej), Friday, February 27, 2009 5:53 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well at least with americans around it will

― cindy (goole), Friday, February 27, 2009 5:55 PM

except for the 30-50,000 "advisors."

he did!

klobuchar's transcript:

http://blogs.twincities.com/politics/2009/02/sen_klobuchara_transcript_of_t.html

it's not like real comedy funny but for corny politics bs its pretty lolzy

xp morbs they will only be armed with pillows and daffodils

he did!

i mean, mccarthy did go with the clap joke

I gotta wonder how that phonecall between Dubya and Obama about withdrawing from Iraq went

and sweets

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED II

XxP

uh sorry dan my reading comprehension is off at the moment

Now, Washington DC is such a crazy place it is very different from Minnesota.

After seeing all those black limos at the inauguration I realize I went from the gopher state to the chauffeur state.

klobuchar for sec'y of dadjoeks

all killer dadjoeks imo

Since this is your night off, I’ll do the reporting and fill you in on what a few of our friends have been up to.

Hillary Clinton is of course Secretary of State and she is currently brokering a ceasefire between Caroline Kennedy and David Patterson.

Chris Dodd has been working on helping homeowners get rid of their unwanted homes that they can’t afford. Like that house he bought in Iowa. I tried that joke on him too.

And John Edwards is still talking about two Americas, which apparently is the greatest pickup line in history.

Now we have a new president. And he’s our first wired president. He is never without his Blackberry. Although like many Americans I look forward to a colorblind society when we can just call it a Berry.

Ok, oh come on you guys, I’m only like five minutes into this speech, it is still shorter than a Joe Biden sound bite.

― cindy (goole),

is this a shot at somebodys ex like when jess was "katie quirk" for a year

"There is Rick Warren, his hair looks messy in this photograph. And this is what happens if you have offended every gay stylist in the United States of America."

WIN: Klobuchar. I have all kinds of fond for her dad too.

uh sorry dan my reading comprehension is off at the moment

haha I was gonna say!

e i know u love that story but no! it's from that passive aggressive notes thread and i kind of forgot about it

Latest Gallup poll: Obama gets post-speech bump. The real shock? GOP support jumps to 42 percent.

For a second I'm all 'wait, support *for* the GOP jumped to 42 percent?'

jumps to 42% from 27%! wau

Meanwhile, the story going around some blog comments is apparently at one of these 'Tea Party' things happening today somebody got the crowd to all agree they were 'teabaggers.' Needless to say, video proof or it didn't happen but here's hoping.

oh man

Possible source of the story -- less roffly than I would have hoped on the teabagging front but on the 'look at our overwhelming numbers!' level, a source of joy.

Check out the new standard-bearer for the conservative moment:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/27/jonathan-krohn-13-year-ol_n_170642.html

He talks fast and with high-pitched emotion (no cracking of the voice), often banging his two fists against the table (each one holding a pen) for dramatic effect.

uh

Krohn's Disease.

although from Ned's link:

This lady was nice enough to raise her hand when I said "Raise your hands if you're tea bagging!"

lololol

"He came up to me, grabbed my hand, and shook it," said Joe the Plumber.

Lucky him.

What did he expect the kid to do? Come up to him, grab his hand, then wet himself and scream "MOMMY THE GREATNESS BURNS ME"?

"He came up to me, grabbed my penis, and shook it," said Joe the Plumber.

okay no

"He came up to me, grabbed my hand, and shook it," said Joe the Plumber. "If I didn't know any better I would say he was 30 years old. He definitely has a great confidence about him. I enjoyed talking with him.... He's definitely sharp."

^^ in a movement stocked to the brim with creepy manboys like tucker carlson and ralph reed you can't really blame this on joe wurtzelbacher being a dunce

The future of the conservative movement presented himself on Friday, and he was 13.

wait, you mean this ISN'T TUcker Carlson?

>>"I listened to Bill Bennett and tons of other talk show hosts... I listened to him every morning from 6 to 9 for, oh, years."

What parent has their (I'm guessing home-schooled) kid listening to endless hours of rant radio?

>>"I listened to Bill Bennett and tons of other talk show hosts... I listened to him every morning from 6 to 9 for, oh, years."

What parent has their (I'm guessing home-schooled) kid listening to endless hours of rant radio?

yeah, that's only slightly less cruel than speaking to your child in Klingon only.

just getting around to reading Klobuchar's transcript, some pretty good jokes/zings in there

But I love our lakes. And it was great to take Barack Obama to campaign in Minnesota. Because with 10,000 lakes he had plenty of water to walk on.

This room has the greatest, the most thorough, the most hard working, most brilliant reporters in the world, all of whom were scooped on the John Edwards story by the National Enquirer.

Instead you asked me and a rising star in the Republican Party, Kevin McCarthy, who like every other rising star in the Republican Party must have once been on the short list for GOP vice president. How do you go home and tell your wife that it didn’t work out. “Honey I was on the short list for vice president but they didn’t think I was as qualified as Sarah Palin.”

Ok, now we have next, Aretha’s hat. Ok, now if you look carefully at this photo, and this is a new development, I know there has been a lot written about the hat, but the hat is actually larger than George Bush. And it was a tough choice for the organizers: Should they let in 50,000 more people or let in the hat? They went with the hat.

That whole Klobuchar speech pretty much rules. STORM!

Wait, I might have missed it; have we made a 'Black Steele in the Hour of Chaos' joke on this thread yet?

No! Nice work, you be da man etc.

No credit for me, thanks. Joke already made on at least two other forums...

Lyrics are here, I'm too tired to satirize them....

http://www.publicenemy.com/index.php?page=page5&item=9&num=51

and, apparently, every other forum.

Cspan will be broadcasting Rush Limbaugh's address at CPAC later tonight at 8pm EST, I think.

So, have fun with that.

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/m4m/1052407044.html

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/2233/18143051.jpg

lolll

That's odd, nothing about ice skating.

Meanwhile, Cspan has been broadcasting from the 'State of the Black Union' at the L.A. Convention Center.

The panel they just had was excellent. I'm trying to find vid of Michael Eric Dyson just tearing it up. One of the things he said which stuck with me was "They've called him 'marxist,' they've called him 'socialist,' but since January 21st, they've called him 'President'"

And the next panel coming up will have Al Shaprton AND Michael Steele(i.t.H.o.C.)

Meanwhile, 30 minutes of Michelle Malkin! (really!)

(online feed)

one year ago:

oh lol, senator clinton: "As far as I know" Obama is not a Muslim.

― Clay, Monday, March 3, 2008 2:50 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

(not posting that as a swipe at hilz per se, it's just sort of amazing how much can happen in a year.)

that bullshit was absolutely infuriating. she did no such thing. though it reminds me, a year ago, it was so called progressives/democrats who distorted her comments, shamelessly & deliberately, and did everything they could to drive the phony story. no words, really. i'm supposed to consider huffpo, talking points memo, olbermann etc as progressive allies, but when the subject is hillary, they instantly turn into the drudge report. burn the witch

anyway.

I actually revived this thread to post this story because it is fantastic and hilarious:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/2009/03/the_wizards_fan_who_talked_tra.html

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/rawlsobama4.jpg

hahaha this guy! for real
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcsportsbog/rawlsobama1.jpg

i love that guy.

and i wasn't trying to restart any obama-hillary stuff, i just got curious what was going on a year ago and called up the old thread. how things change.

You're talking about the guy in the prez seal T-shirt, no?

holy shit:

http://www.dccc.org/content/sorry

O_O

Wonder when they first thought that up.

ayyyo

rush limblol

dems feelin feisty.

Meanwhile, Meghan McCain has not found love.

I don’t want to see my father’s picture near any picture of a guy I am attracted to, especially if we haven’t even had dinner yet.

this is the first time i have ever had sympathy for meghan mccain.

One extreme fan of my mother’s recently told me I could be “his Cindy.” And then asked me if I ever wore pearls because they probably would look as good on me as they do on my mother. No, I'm not kidding. Any guy that has a fetish for older women in pantsuits and large pearls obviously only finds my last name attractive about me.

and this is the second time.

sticking this here b/c w/ever:

http://www.badpaintingsofbarackobama.com/

Gordon BRown such a dork :)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2009/mar/03/gordon-brown-usa1

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: I've enjoyed every conversation that we've had, both on the telephone and when we've met. I don't think I could ever compete with you at basketball -- perhaps tennis.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Tennis, I hear you got a game.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: Yes, we could maybe have a --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: We haven't tried it yet.

PRIME MINISTER BROWN: I don't know if you -- I think you'd be better. But there we are. He writes better than I do as well, he's clearly a better father than I am and he certainly lasts longer than I do in bed. I wish he was MY president too.

Looking for Mr. Far Right

It’s like someone taking Lisa Marie Presley out on a date and singing “Hound Dog” in the middle of dinner.

I think Nicholas Cage did this.

And at one point, Obama seemed about to touch the prime minister on the arm, and instead let his fingers hover an inch or two above Brown's sleeve.

Still the ultrageek:

Now, Mr. Obama is surrounded by telephones. There is a large, gray Raytheon phone — programmed with speed dial buttons to most of his top aides (from “Senior Advisor Axelrod” to the “CIA Director”) — in nearly each room of the White House. He also has one in his office aboard Air Force One. And, Mr. Gibbs said, the president was particularly impressed by the many phones inside the presidential limousine.

“He thinks the coolest thing about this,” Mr. Gibbs said, “is that you can pick up the phone and say, ‘I need to reach so and so,’ and a minute later, the phone rings and they are on the line.”

http://www.privateline.com/TelephoneHistory5/information_operators.jpg

omg that apology thing

Gordon Brown has told the US Congress that the partnership between the UK and the US is "unbreakable" and that "no power on earth can ever draw us apart".

If Obama wanted to bomb say, Sutton Coldfield, just for "RONG"s, I'd be okay with that.

I'd rather he bomb Coldplay.

I can't remember a more active President at this early stage of his term (can't really recall Reagan's first 50 days, tho I'm old enough to). The stimulus package, deciding to shut down Gitmo, reversing Bush's position on how to treat alleged "enemy combatants," the foreclosure plan, disclosing some Bush Admin. legal memos, unveiling a budget that represents some fundamental progressive shifts, now a major overhaul of the government contracting process (which was horribly abused under the Bush Admin.), and -- aside from the policy stuff -- Obama seems to be everywhere at once, speaking to Congress and at events across the country. By contrast, and with two possible exceptions (the run-up to the Iraq War and the effort to privatize Social Security), I thought of Bush as being in Washington, running things top-down. I mean, I know Bush liked to bypass the "media filters" to "speak directly to the people," but I thought of that as mostly him using right-wing media figures to pass along his views.

It feels like Obama's running the Presidency like a very effective community organizer.

But the governor of Alaska said that was a bad thing.

It's awesome to see Obama govern as he said he would, with the policies he said would. It's especially awesome given the "can we trust him?" chatter in the primary period.

But the governor of Alaska said that was a bad thing.

She did. OTOH, she's an idiot.

What I like is how his MO is 'Remember that thing I promised in the campaign? Well, here it is.'

Well, from all I've read, Reagan was just this active (he had splendid relations with Congress because, as Tip O'Neil remarked, "we've seen more of the President in one month than Carter in four years"), and had economic necessity as a catalyst. A fiscal crisis gives the Executive a stronger mandate.

Interestingly, tho, Reagan's activity was to go against his campaign promises. He fought the recession by raising taxes. I think later, when things stabalized, he went back to tax cuts.

Yeah, the old bugger raised taxes several times, passed under the radar using Orwellian titles.

I'm pleased with the flurry of activity emanating from the White House (especially on the health care front), but I'm really skeptical about our ability to pay for it.

Alfred, do you recall whether Reagan's 1982 tax increase was (a) merely a partial rollback of his earlier tax cuts (n.1) or (b) an increase to levels above those in place when he took office?

______________________________
(n.1) Again, I vaguely remember him cutting -- then increasing -- taxes, all early in his first term.

Kind of shitty that Yahoo is running Politico articles like this one as the featured story on their homepage.

Alfred, do you recall whether Reagan's 1982 tax increase was (a) merely a partial rollback of his earlier tax cuts (n.1) or (b) an increase to levels above those in place when he took office?

The top tax rate never -- has never -- returned to its pre-1981 levels. As far as the tax increases, the OMB cleverly turned them into payroll taxes.

this six-year-old Washington Monthly article talks about the Reagan tax increases (as well as the other occasions when Reagan didn't act like the Limbaughesque caricature that some Republicans think that he was)

which isn't to say that reagan was a stealth liberal (he wasn't), that he'd have a better handle on what's going on now than Obama or anyone else (he wouldn't -- the S&L crisis [a mini-version of our present shitstorm] started under his watch and was left to Bush, Sr. to clean up after), or that one doesn't have legitimate beefs with his administration (they do).

The Lou Cannon biography is exemplary.

this slate article is a great antidote for idiots who bitch about tax increases
http://www.slate.com/id/2213029/

A transcript of an interview with Obama yesterday.

If these deluded ideologues want to dump their portfolios, I'm more than willing to buy the stocks they're pounding, thus transferring future wealth from douchebags to me.

haha "future wealth"

Daniel Esq & Euler's droling lapdoggism is mega-deluded.

drOoling, obv. more on the 101st day.

Yes, you've obviously been saving yourself 'til then.

uh huh.

woof. At least I'm droll about it.

also not sure how what I've said lately counts at lapdoggery. Maybe that I'm impressed at how Obama has done what he said he'd do? That's a pretty low standard for lapdoggery methinks.

"remember how I kept mum on whether I'd continue Bush policy on detainees and rendition? Well..."

I'm under the impression that this hasn't been finalized yet. Also the Bush policy was pretty far-reaching, and in order to satisfy your characterization, all he'd have to do was discontinue parts of the Clinton-Bush rendition policy, like e.g. sending people to Egypt to be tortured, and obv. not torturing them ourselves. I dunno, does it make me complicit in the moral evil of America to think US agents can apprehend on foreign soil people against whom we have firm evidence that will be fully aired in a public trial? I'd say no. It gets grey when the government of that nation disapprove, but provided the evidence is public, I'm inclined to think this is ok.

Morbs. Come on. Obviously we all want Bush and his whackers to be tried but the idea has to gather force outside of people who are to the left of Obama and that momentum is just not there yet, so it's not just his fault. Also a case has to be built out of incontrovertible facts and how can you be sure those are not being gathered?

Besides, John Conyers is out there quietly gathering evidence, as the NYT reported this week.

I feel like there was this notion (though I may be overreading it) that if a Democratic took the White House there'd be a ton of evidence just lying around the Oval Office that would indict Bush immediately for all sorts of things. So there may be some disappointment that this Disney conclusion hasn't quite come to pass.

Well, there IS tons of evidence! But why would a Chief Executive refuse some of the superpowers that Bush bequeathed to his successors? Therein lies the problem.

Seems to me that there'd be more power value in sending your predecessor to jail, possibly destroying the minority party, and guaranteeing the 2012 elections (and all the associated bargaining power that comes along with) than just maintaining Bush's Executive Privileges. But I'm willing to be wrong about that.

Given that 'the minority party' still got 60 million votes in the 2008 presidential election, I don't think destroying it should be paramount. Of course I hope the Congress pursues whatever evidence they have against Bush-administration malfeasance, of which I suppose there's ample. But let the aim be the good of America rather than settling scores or ensuring the future dominance of another political party which is full of corruption as well.

Yeah -- political parties aren't "destroyed."

XP I'm just saying that if you're reading ulterior power-hungry motives into Obama's hiding evidence that would result in Bush being indicted... you might as well go all the way?

There are people who ask for the impossible, because they live to be disappointed.

^YES. Unfortunately we have a situation where the FBI is reporting a ridiculous rise in the level and vitriol of hate groups who want to do evil things to Obama and FISA helps catch the fuckers, which is an unintended consequence for sure... ::makes 'weighing up' gesture::

Daniel Esq & Euler's droling lapdoggism is mega-deluded.

lol.

the imaginary etymology of "droling" is killing me right now

"neologism combining the terms for dry wit, unmodulated voice & a lack of social graces & motor skills"

Droling, you know, like this mf:

http://www.exclaim.ca/images/up-steven_wright_lg.jpg

if you're reading ulterior power-hungry motives into Obama's hiding evidence that would result in Bush being indicted

People will just never get it.

We get that you're a snide asshole when it comes to politics.

just when it comes to refusing to put my tongue... NEVAH MIND

I think I'm gonna give you good Amerikans 1,000 days.

more like ameriKKKans right

oh maxiepaws

Prezzes are much more like Mafia dons than Grand Wizards

anyway turnin on the WBC

People will never get it.

Dr. Morbius gets it.

Therefore . . .

the Pope shits in the woods.

drO_oling lapdogs

http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/JumpTheShark.jpg

is that obama or morbz?

Lookit his thighs!

morbs

I think I'm gonna give you good Amerikans 1,000 days.

That's generous.

People will just never get it.

Morbius, you argue like ...NEVAH MIND.

If you ever actually made an argument as opposed to snide, orthoganol statements veiled in MYSTERY and dripping with enough self-satisfied smugness to make Tom Cruise pause, I might have the slightest interestin what your opinion was. Since you don't and, more to the point, you won't, fuck off.

J0hn D and the table is the table have also expressed misgivings from the left re: Obama and no one wants them to to gag on their rhetoric; just you. You are worse than anyone else on these threads because you feel absolutely no need to justify your viewpoint; all you want to do is gloat and feel superior as to how much more enlightened you are. We get it, you're fucking amazing. Kudos to you. Go away.

Morbius would like you to know that you misspelled orthogoNEVAH MIND.

snide, orthoganol statements veiled in MYSTERY and dripping with enough self-satisfied smugness to make Tom Cruise pause

You know , personally I can't detect this alleged "mystery" (which I might actually admire were I to detect any), only gnomism and a free-floating sense of grievance. The latter is slightly touching but extremely irritating, and its manifestations are so predictable they could as well be computer generated.

http://images.dawgsports.com/images/admin/Nicholson_closeup_A_Few_Good_Men.jpg

i like morbs's contributions to politics threads

you could always just not read them!

We need an emoticon for eyeball-rolling.

yer always a snide fucking asshole, chorister. May you enjoy your dissent-free zone.

http://linked2leadership.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/drunk-on-power6.jpg

Morbs, sweetie, take a chill pill: I wasn't talking about you. And who still drinks Absolut anyway?

That was to me and basically proves that Morbius is so fucking full of himself that he doesn't see or understand that I don't give two shots
about "dissent".

Dr. Morbius you know you & I are nearer the same side of a lot of questions than you and, say, others, but do you see how you're accusing Dan of not brooking dissent as a sort of "stop telling me what you think" move, and how that's not really in line with your values? He didn't threaten to ban you, he didn't hint at any use of "power." He told you what he thought, and it made you mad. How is telling somebody you think they're talking like an asshole a drunk-on-power move? It isn't.

J0hn D and the table is the table have also expressed misgivings from the left re: Obama and no one wants them to to gag on their rhetoric

in fairness Dan I got told to stfu a lot (often with good reason but sometimes not) & I usually get increased tips from the customers when I offer to gag on rhetoric, my own or theirs

haha I hate typing ON IPHONE

All I want, Morbius, is for you to state, without sneering hyperbole and with factual backup, instances where Obama reneges on his campaign promises. Your pithy one-liners would actually be worth something if there was more to them than "look, I'm clever and I hate American politics!" (yes yes very rich coming from me, I'm fully aware of the contradiction)

meanwhile, an NY Times reporter asked him "are you a socialist?" and he answered kinda boilerplate at first but then sent this completely awesome addendum:

Just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter. It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question. I did think it might be useful to point out that it wasn't under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn't on my watch. And it wasn't on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement - the prescription drug plan without a source of funding. And so I think it's important just to note when you start hearing folks throw these words around that we've actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word socialist around can't say the same.

also, ty President Obama for my new screen name

As I was getting on the copter = l'esprit de l'escalier FOR TODAY.

suzy, I didn't know you had any power, not directed @you.

Life's too short to do detailed arguments here (for mine, mix Chomsky & Rev Wright, shake well).

and Bam blew up his Iraq withdrawal schedule already (yeah, I know it came with a bullshit loophole caveats). As I didn't vote for him in November, you know how I feel about his "promises."

no we don't please tell us

hah I didn't think I had power but I did feel like I was being called a chorister of something or other.

morbs i think the problem here is, on one hand, a lot of people who voted for obama with their eyes open and a reluctant but realistic sense of what can be accomplished in the basically corrupt and distorted american political process -- with all the expectations of disappointment, compromise and failures of vision and nerve that implies -- and on the other hand, you pointing out over and over that obama is not in fact a golden unicorn who poops diamonds. there might be a couple people around here who were expecting diamond poop, i don't know, but i don't think there are many, and so you tend to look like you're mostly setting strawmen on fire.

and if your point is just, "the game is rigged and i refuse to play," i think that's a respectable position. but it sort of leaves the actual dirty work of governing up to whoever comes along. which i think is why a lot of people choose to get invested in the system one way or another.

Morbs' problem is, like Limbaugh and my mother, he assumes that people on this board voted for Hope and Change instead of for the candidate who best addressed their concerns. Posters trying to whitewash Obama's record here are rare!

w/in those built-in limits, he could do lots better. I do believe it.

i agree! get rid of geithner and summers, for a start. but he could also do lots worse.

He should nationalize the banks already. Is that WWI proviso on which FDR relied still legal?

^^^seems inevitable at this point

The problem for me with deciding what to do about the banks is that I suspect I don't understand finance well enough. That's true of our political class generally (including the mainstream national media), I think---and the few who do understand it well enough, have had their allegiance bought, implicitly or explicitly, by Wall Street.

Our political turgidity depends on a populace of economically under-informed people like me. I should try to learn how e.g. derivatives work. The problem would be how to get a profile high enough to make a difference---without having been co-opted by Wall Street and thus afforded business-class "authority", I wouldn't be taken seriously by enough people to make a difference, I fear.

Thanks to Tipsy for the new user name.

The problem for me with deciding what to do about the banks is that I suspect I don't understand finance well enough.

I've been looking for a few good articles explaining, in straightforward language, the options for bank nationalization and/or conservatorship, and what the various options mean. If anyone's found any useful articles along those lines, please link them.

(I know there's a ton of materials to sift through on this, but most of the articles I've seen haven't been as helpful as I'd hoped).

Yes, as I read about this, I get the nagging suspicion that few know what they're talking about. The ones who do are keeping their mouths shut (to keep their wallets open).

Our political turgidity depends on a populace of economically under-informed people like me. I should try to learn how e.g. derivatives work. The problem would be how to get a profile high enough to make a difference---without having been co-opted by Wall Street and thus afforded business-class "authority", I wouldn't be taken seriously by enough people to make a difference, I fear.

don't be so sure that those that you think are "in the know" really ARE. there was an awful lot of "plug and play" going on along Wall Street regarding derivatives -- and even Bernanke himself at one point acknowledged that he wasn't (initially) very knowledgeable about derivatives, CDOs, etc.

Yeah, that's terrifying. I want to say: we should avoid resting the economic health of the nation (and world) on financial instruments our political leaders don't (can't?) understand. Isn't that common-sensical? But then a lot of people made a lot of money under this political neglect since the late 90s, and it's hard to resist that, I guess.

Derivatives--which function like risk purée-ers-- actually exacerbate the risk they purport to ameliorate. Averaging out the risk of default throughout the entire world financial system my seem like what re-insurers do, but old-style insurers and re-insurers, as callous as this sounds, are sort of protected from truly catastrophic loss contractually and because they have the the option of declaring force majeure.

I've been looking for a few good articles explaining, in straightforward language, the options for bank nationalization and/or conservatorship, and what the various options mean.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=375

I found this very helpful in explaining the options simply.

yes, that episode was great

Thanks, Nicole. I'll listen to it tonight (even better if I can download it to my iPod; we'll see if (a) it's possible and (b) if so, whether I'm tech-savvy enough to figure it out).

I wanted to just mention that I personally need to learn a lot more of finance, from the personal to the national to even basic economics. Part of the kicker, tho, is that since I got laid off on thursday, my hesitancy to approach these subjects has exploded.

I fear that learning about how fucked we truly are on this planet will just drive my personal anxiety level(why just be morbid when you can be co-morbid?) into like 6000 rpm and the engine will blow up and we'll have catastrophic system failure. Heh. This is kinda like why I haven't been able to watch an ep of "Frontline" from about Nov 2004 onwards.

Part of the other thing is about the guys running this mess on the upper bank level tend to be of a certain personality type(Jim Cramer's onscreen persona IRL) where they're powered by 1) ego and 2) massive piles of blow, and steps taken to fix and even rewire this mess won't work because douchebags still have enough power to fuck it all up again.

In other news, it just started snowing again. Hooray.

good luck usa

first, sympathies about the layoff, kingfish. that sucks.

second, as far as figuring out what's going on, at least in one important corner of the clusterfuck, josh marshall has a good post about the catch-22 of dealing with the zombies.

I'm sorry Kingfish.

Very sorry to hear about the layoff, Kingfish.

That's an interesting article, Tipsy (tho my questions focus on the "toxic assets" side of the issue). I wonder if it works like a garden-variety bankruptcy when a bank fails. That is, are assets -- e.g., the bank's investments, real estate seized via foreclosure, the right to foreclose on various properties if the debtor doesn't timely repay the loan -- gathered and sold "at the courthouse steps" with the stakeholders taking in the normal order (creditors, then shareholders (not sure where depositors above the 250k federal guarantee fit into that equasion)).

Very sorry to hear this.

Re: Nationalization. Here's a 40-minute discussion on NPR with Simon Johnson (former Chief Economist of the IMF and a professor of Entrepreneurship at the Sloan School of Management at MIT) that's apparently pretty informative.

freeman out.

because of a jewish conspiracy? http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/exiting-chas-fr.html

holy hell

Thanks again, Nicole, for linking to that episode of This American Life. I just listened to it. It was very helpful. And sobering. The snippet that grabbed me most -- and it's something I've heard before, but didn't come alive for me until this radio show -- is how the sharp upward trajectory of consumer debt reached 100% of GDP in 2007 like it did only at one prior point in history: 1929. There's a bunch of interesting analysis of whether the "twin peaks" theory is right, BTW. In any event, it's frightening.

I still have lots of questions, such as how the government would "cleanse a bank of its toxic-assets" during a nationalized phase (i.e., before re-privatizing it). I mean, if I understand the idea of nationalization, the government swoops in, resolves the problems on the liabilities side of a bank's asset sheet, and takes over the bank (to greatly oversimplify, the government would say to Bank X: "Your assets are worth 50% of their booked value; we'll invest enough capital so you can cover your depositors and other creditors, in exchange for (temporary) ownership of the bank"). So now the government owns the bank, which in turn owns all these toxic assets. How do they deal with them any differently than the private bank did? How do they "cleanse the bank" of those assets more efficiently/successfully than the private bank?

That's a nice global economy you've got there . . . I'd be a shame if something should happen to it.

Scary.

BTW, the group website Simon Johnson contributes to -- The Baseline Scenario -- is another great resource on the financial crisis. In particular, check out the Financial Crisis for Beginners page.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/10/freeman/

yeah Rev, recognizing that Likudnik lobbyists & their acolytes frame US public dialogue on Israel is not belief in "a jewish conspiracy."

^OTM.

morbs.....otm?

It happens.

Charles Schumer, Likudist in Chief.

I wish NY had a senator.

right morbs, maybe I should have put up a big "LOLOLOL this be a j03k" signpost to warn all comers, but I thought the wry question mark sufficed

and meanwhile, one of my state's senators was holding up the omnibus spending bill because he still has a hard-on over "punishing" Fidel Castro.

i.e., you can take Bob Menendez outta [the muck that is] Hudson County, NJ; but you can't take the Hudson County, NJ outta Bob Menendez ...

Menendez is one of the few Dems the Cubans here consider a hero (guess my senator Bill Nelson joined them).

sorry Rev, things haven't been the same since I started looking at board at 7 a.m.

ay, np, just your coffee on I guess

Yeah in case it wasn't immediately clear I was "holy hell"ing at the article itself, not Freeman.

House of cards continues to fall, Good Luck USA!

WASHINGTON - The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000, tried for years to get congressional authority to collect the premiums in case of a looming crisis. But Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized - and that bank failures were so infrequent - that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.

Now with 25 banks having failed last year, 17 so far this year, and many more expected in the coming months, the FDIC has proposed large new premiums for banks at the very time when many can least afford to pay. The agency collected $3 billion in the fees last year and has proposed collecting up to $27 billion this year, prompting an outcry from some banks that say it will force them to raise consumer fees and curtail lending.

http://www.buckeyeinstitute.org/uploaded_images/Head%20in%20Hands.jpg

I hope Alan Greenspan falls and breaks his hip soon.

awesome.

that FDIC thing was reported last week where ya been

Sick with sinusitis, THANKS FOR ASKING!

:)

uhoh

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,612684,00.html

A German frozen food company hopes to raise sales with a new product: Obama fingers. The tender, fried chicken bits come with a tasty curry sauce. The company says it was unaware of the possible racist overtones of the product...

change has come to washington
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123688875576610955.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

"We're having a repeat of what Democrats bitterly complained about under President Bush," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R, Pa.), who drafted legislation to nullify Mr. Bush's signing statements. He added that if Mr. Obama "wants to pick a fight, Congress has plenty of authority to retaliate."

lol tough guy

The company says it was unaware of the possible racist overtones of the product...

Between this and the mayor in California who sent around the watermelon cartoon, this sentence is fast becoming my favorite rong disclaimer of the year.

http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/more-rights-claimed-for-detainees/

The Obama Administration, taking its first position in a federal court on claims of torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees, urged the D.C. Circuit Court on Thursday to reject a lawsuit by four Britons formerly held there. In addition, the new filing argued that a recent appeals court ruling makes clear that “aliens held at Guantanamo do not have due process rights.”

Moreover, the document called for a sweeping ban on lawsuits against U.S. military officials, claiming constitutional violations by such officials. Allowing such lawsuits “for actions taken with respect to aliens during wartime,” it said, “would enmesh the courts in military, national security, and foreign affairs matters that are the exclusive province of the political branches.”

FDIC thing is hilarious because someone defended it as "well, FDIC was well-funded, so there was no reason to demand premiums."

"So if Allstate was in the black last year, there's no reason for me to pay my auto premium this year?" was met with a blank stare.

yeah my wife (an insurance broker) saw that and said "what kind of facachta insurance plan doesn't collect premiums"?

JD abolishes enemy combatant designation

greenwald, tpm, on obama and secrecy:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/09/tpm/index.html

doesn't look good. not sure what to do about this one, as a citizen. i voted for the right guy, wtf?

the fact that not only greenwald, but TPM is on it.. well, it's a start. josh marshall was one of the lead people who helped torpedo bush's attempts to privatize social security back in 04, and he uncovered the firing of us attorneys scandal as well (bush justice department.. politicizing the judiciary system..). it even showed up on olbermann's show as the top story (i'm rather stunned that he's criticizing obama for anything, but i hold a grudge against him and don't watch his show, maybe he does have some integrity). so, that's something.

i'm not sure what next although i expect the blogs will make more noise about it. greenwald mentions 'civil libertarians' vaguely, not sure who that may be and if they're organized (just ACLU?) what also interests me in that regard is, jane hamsher (@ firedoglake) suggested just today that rahm emanuel in particular, how he rolls is - liberal interest groups are real hesitant to push back against the obama administration on issues that matter to them, b/c all it takes is rahm calling a big donor & their funding is cut & they are in deep shit.

It's contemptible, and I hope the blogs keep up the pressure.

incredible.

Lame.

Although I can't say I really expected the genie to be shoved back into the bottle. This is the kind of extension of power that, if not immediately aggressively curbed by the other branches of gov't, tends to get quickly enshrined as standard practice.

I have to admit that I was upset watching CNN give serious time to "Obama Critics Cry Fascism" until I realized the whole piece was devoted to mocking Beck et al.

Rove also said few presidents would spend a long time with anybody in the Oval Office, particularly "with all due respect, a blowhard like Joe Biden."

its funny to me that Rove and Cheney don't seem to realize that the more they open their mouths, the better it is for Obama. Too concerned with protecting their "legacy" I guess. meanwhile, Bush is sucking down brewskis and makin the lecture circuit, nary a care in the world...

it seems like that whole story makes Rove look worse for bitching about it rather than Biden, but what do I know, I'm pretty biased

"You should not exaggerate and lie like this when you are the vice president of the United States.”

lolz so true

I can't even process the layers of irony with these clowns anymore

wait wait tell me again about the links between Al Qaeda and Sadaam that shit never gets old. I hear there was a meeting in Prague or something?

On the Media on Bam's state secrets bullshit:

http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/04/10/01

clearing my throat for what Gore V described as the sweetness of "I told you so..."

torture memos coming out today

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/obama_releasing_four_torture_memos.php

But that is not what compelled the release of these legal documents today. While I believe strongly in transparency and accountability, I also believe that in a dangerous world, the United States must sometimes carry out intelligence operations and protect information that is classified for purposes of national security. I have already fought for that principle in court and will do so again in the future. However, after consulting with the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and others, I believe that exceptional circumstances surround these memos and require their release.

ie "you're gonna have to trust me". ehhh

Hooray!

Then, naturally, there's this:

Obama Will Release CIA Interrogation Memos [Andy McCarthy]

A terrible decision, pushed for aggressively by AG Eric Holder. NYTimes has details, here. Holder's press release, which suggests that the interrogators are in fact guilty of torture ("'The President has halted the use of the interrogation techniques described in these opinions, and this administration has made clear from day one that it will not condone torture,' said Attorney General Eric Holder.

bbbut--!

In releasing these memos, it is our intention to assure those who carried out their duties relying in good faith upon legal advice from the Department of Justice that they will not be subject to prosecution. The men and women of our intelligence community serve courageously on the front lines of a dangerous world. Their accomplishments are unsung and their names unknown, but because of their sacrifices, every single American is safer. We must protect their identities as vigilantly as they protect our security, and we must provide them with the confidence that they can do their jobs.

releasing these memos is an obvious bid to build up the political capital/credibility he will need to draw on when he needs to defend questionable, secretive actions in the future

yes.

Fun:

"the use of waterboarding constitutes a threat of imminent death," but is nonethless permissible and legal because it does not result in "prolonged mental harm."

I am curious what Dr. Morbius makes of the right-wing "Obama is a socialist" meme.