++Huffington Post has an historic video clip of a grey-haired 63-year old Dr.J, Julius Erving, making a smooth slam dunk. I remember the Dr when he played at U.Mass.
++A Philadelphia couple,who are Verizon customers, are suing President Obama and the NSA for targeting their cellphones because they are critics of Obama and the military. They have sued unsuccessfully before because their son was a Navy Seal, who was killed in a helicopter attack in Afghanistan.
++Larry Klayman, ambulance chase par excellence, is suing all Internet companies who are involved in the Prism program in a class action suit. Klayman certainly knows that lobbyists won the Telcom companies immunity from all suits from spying allegations.
++More promising ,however, is that Edward Snowden did reveal a list of Americans targeted for surveillance,which he has given over to the Guardian. This would provide evidence for ACLU lawsuits. The Supreme Court rejected the ACLU's bid to close down the surveillance program because it argued it could not prove their clients were actually targets. This time they will be able to move the ball forward.
++In an astonishing move, the national security agencies actually briefed the entire House of Representatives on their programs and safeguards. Impressive display of CYA.
++Frank Gaffney writes in the Washington Times today that Obama is spying on all Americans instead on jihadis. Naturally, he claimed that the IRS director met a record number of times with President Obama at the White House to target conservatives.
++It has been a month since President Obama outlined his policy on national security at the National Defense College. In the speech, he wanted to establish legal guidelines for drone attacks among other things. Maybe now is the time to pivot on the surveillance state and reign it in before a Bobby Jindal becomes President.
++Rep. Issa refused today to release the transcripts of interviews with IRS officials like Rep. Cummings demanded. Wait until the weekend for them to be released.
++Former congressman Ron Paul warned that his supporter Edward Snowden might be killed by a drone attack.
++Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame urged Snowden to seek asylum in Latin America. Others have urged the Scandanavian states or Iceland. The local Hong Kong authorities want him to leave that enclave. People believe that he can get asylum by using the treatment of Private Manning as an example.
++A former military contractor with a Top Secret clearance wrote at the Democratic Underground that don't be naive about the surveillance program. The only practical way to modify it is to repeal the Patriot Act, which paved the way for abuses since 9/11.
++The EU wants briefings by the Obama Administration and guarantees that their citizens' rights to privacy would be observed.
++The Obama Administration has announced they will be tapering off any prosecutions of detainees held at Gitmo. Senator McCain publicly floated out the trial ballon of closing the base down and sending the remaining detainees to upstate Illinois as the Obama Administration wanted to do in the first months after President Obama took office the first time.
++Missing in all the outrage over the surveillance program is any coverage of the Chinese stealing the plans and blueprints of all the future weapons planned by the United States. Also missing is any coverage of the Pentagon putting on its internet the plans to build a rocket base in Israel, which prompted fury by the Israeli government.
++The State Department is fighting back hard on the memo of the Inspector General saying that there has been cover-ups of misdeeds by State Department personnel. The Ambassador to Belgium fought back saying that he did not consort with prostitutes in the park outside his home.
++The Pentagon did successfully test their new bunker buster bombs to demonstrate they can destroy Iranian nuclear sites buried in the mountains north of Tehran.
++Conservatives are saying that Gallup shows that W is now more popular than President Obama. Ah, no, not quite. W is at 49% people liking him. Obama is at a 47% approval rating for the job he's doing. His popularity is always significantly higher as I noted throughout election year. Apples and oranges.
Showing posts with label Frank Gaffney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frank Gaffney. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Afternoon Laughs at the Last Manatee
It didn't take long before the House turned into amateur hour.
Remember the New Republican Party won the House last November and they ran on their Pledge to America so they've had enough time to get their acts together. Budget mogul Congressman Ryan, considered the GOP's fiscal wunderkind, appeared on Fox and could not name a single program the Republicans were going to cut. Congressman Pence appeared today on Fox News and was asked about the pledge to cut $100 billion from the budget and he said he didn't know whether that was going to be possible. The Fox anchor said that the American people would realize that it might take a year, can you promise in a year you would cut $100 billion. Pence couldn't even make that commitment.
As a personal note, when I ran the International Republican Institute, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee was Bob Livingston, who later had to resign as speaker because of a sexual affair. But in terms of budgetary matters, Livingston and his staff were dynamos. I always enjoyed sitting around the table talking to his staff, which had years of experience. They could recite the entire budget backwards and forwards. They were real pros. They also could have cut the budget with a scapel and you wouldn't know the difference.
Asked who would help him cut programs, Ryan said he was proud to have hired someone from the National Review. If you think the Bush administration was run by ideological know-nothings, you ain't seen nothing yet.
If I were Tom Donoghue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,I would be on the phone every minute asking the House leadership to find some professional help. After all, this was the Congress the corporations bought. Maybe that was the real thinking of having real corporate lobbyists and not political operative take up staff positions. Did you notice that Donoghue said he would not fund a campaign against President Obama? Maybe even he understands there has to be one sane person in town.
The reading of the U.S. Constitution only cost taxpayers about a $1 million. And it was censored at that. They abridged it to exclude those slightly embarrassing passages on slavery. I'm sure the teabaggers would have cheered. There was some discussions whether the teabaggers would boo the parts of the Constitution they didn't agree with. A Birther had to be removed after she cried out on the natural born citizen requirement for President,"That's not Obama, Jesus Help us."
John Boehner says that he will hold the Debt Ceiling law hostage to budget cuts. It's clear the Obama Administration is already preparing budget cuts. Today Bob Gates announced cuts that will save billions over ten years. Two more reports like that and Boehner will have his deal--and Ryan won't have to work.
Matt Tiabbi has written a new piece on John Boehner in the new Rolling Stone. Tiabbi is a bit harsh on Boehner saying he is a corporate shill. But the good news is that he's lazy. His ideal is to drive to the White House and make a deal and the Obama Administration officials will have to fgure out how to implement it. That saves him heavy lifting and doesn't embarrass the House Republicans.
For all his campaigning about "Where are the Jobs?", he did not mention one job creation idea in his opening speech. It was Nancy Pelosi who said that if the Republicans came up with job-creating ideas Democrats would be willing partners. Crickets, so far.
Boehner did the first diss of the CBO today. The CBO announced that the repeal of "The Job-Killing Healthcare Bill" will add $300 billion to the national debt over 10 years. The healthcare reform actually will create an estimated 400,000 jobs. But Boehner said the CBO was entitled to their own estimate but had to observe the Budget Act. Sounds clever, heh? Well,the Budget Act doesn't break Boehner's way. It actually mandates that CBO estimates have to be in every bill. This is just the first shot in this war.
What's amazing is that the once well-run Republican machine is in tatters. They have even forgotten how to spin. Yesterday, Boehner was introduced by a freshman who talked about Boehner struggle to get a college education and his having to sweep floors to earn his tuition. News commentators remarked how it took 7 years for Boehner to earn his degree. Then another broke into ask who was more powerful-- Boehner or Issa? This started a lengthy discussion of how many times Issa had been arrested for car jacking and how he burned down his own business for an insurance payoff. This would never had happened if Karl Rove was still alive. This discussion then went off to Rick Scott assuming the governorship of Florida. Then we had a whole discussion of how many times Rick Scott invoked the fifth amendment during his grand jury testimony. One time, he said he had to invoke the Fifth or else the jury would have to indict him. This led to a discussion of Tom DeLay convicted of money laundering but how aides to DeLay had been re-hired by the House.
The theme throughout the day was on criminal behavior and how much could corporations really expect from the House. If you remember Nancy Pelosi had vowed to "drain the swamp" of corruption. Now we have 12 sitting GOP member with serious ethical issues and at least four incoming freshman already have their hands full with allegations over their campaign funding.
Then we have the Koch Brothers hosting a cocktail party for the freshman. This was preceded by a fund-raising dinner for freshman that featured that country-western darling and champion of family values Ms. Rimes, who only the week before talked about how she was cheating on her husband with another married man. Welcome to Tea Bag America!
A little war has broken out among conservatives as groups have come to defend CPAC from the accusations by Frank Gaffney that it had been infiltrated by the Moslem Brotherhood. On the other hand, Heritage pulled out of the CPAC conference because they had invited GOProud, the Republican gay group. As the Family Research Council said, "Homosexuality is not a conservative value." Actually, from my experience during the Reagan Revolution, I thought it was. Leading conservative groups were all led by gays. But I digress.
Michelle Bachmann has slipped the leash. Despite being assigned to the intelligence committee where mum's the word, she has hinted at running for President. This allows her to opine on everything under the Sun. Which really raises the question about how much control can Boehner and his bad copy Ricky Cantor exert on the teabaggers. Even if Boehner reaches a deal with the White House as he did on tax cuts, could he enforce any other deals as Speaker?
A colleague commented on my State of the Union remarks saying that this year it will be raucous with teabaggers shouting down the President. With Boehner up behind the President,how's that going to look? Maybe they will be able to step on the President's message. If true, then he should address the nation from the White House anyway.
Progressives are up in arms about the appointment of William Daley as Obama's chief of staff. While Daley opposed Obama's reforms of healthcare and the consumer protection agency, he's not in the post to liason with Washington insiders but to outside of the Beltway constituents. I expect you will see some other surprises before the State of the Union. Most of Obama's circle are being moved out to start the preparations for the 2012 election.
Bruce Bartlett, the renegade supply sider and deputy secretary of the Treasury, wrote a piece in Salon how absolutely insane the teabaggers and Rand Paul are on the debt ceiling vote. I'll write a blog in the next two days about the Congressional Research Service's analysis from last year about what would happen if Congress didn't pass the debt ceiling law. And it's not good stuff.
The Manatees are fleeing the cold waters around Florida and swimming into iinlets around power plants in the state to keep warm.
And Rafael Palmeiro did not make the Hall of Fame. He still claims the steroids discovered in his testing were from a contaminated dose of vitamin B Manuel Tejada gave him. I think Rafael could run for Congress.
Remember the New Republican Party won the House last November and they ran on their Pledge to America so they've had enough time to get their acts together. Budget mogul Congressman Ryan, considered the GOP's fiscal wunderkind, appeared on Fox and could not name a single program the Republicans were going to cut. Congressman Pence appeared today on Fox News and was asked about the pledge to cut $100 billion from the budget and he said he didn't know whether that was going to be possible. The Fox anchor said that the American people would realize that it might take a year, can you promise in a year you would cut $100 billion. Pence couldn't even make that commitment.
As a personal note, when I ran the International Republican Institute, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee was Bob Livingston, who later had to resign as speaker because of a sexual affair. But in terms of budgetary matters, Livingston and his staff were dynamos. I always enjoyed sitting around the table talking to his staff, which had years of experience. They could recite the entire budget backwards and forwards. They were real pros. They also could have cut the budget with a scapel and you wouldn't know the difference.
Asked who would help him cut programs, Ryan said he was proud to have hired someone from the National Review. If you think the Bush administration was run by ideological know-nothings, you ain't seen nothing yet.
If I were Tom Donoghue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,I would be on the phone every minute asking the House leadership to find some professional help. After all, this was the Congress the corporations bought. Maybe that was the real thinking of having real corporate lobbyists and not political operative take up staff positions. Did you notice that Donoghue said he would not fund a campaign against President Obama? Maybe even he understands there has to be one sane person in town.
The reading of the U.S. Constitution only cost taxpayers about a $1 million. And it was censored at that. They abridged it to exclude those slightly embarrassing passages on slavery. I'm sure the teabaggers would have cheered. There was some discussions whether the teabaggers would boo the parts of the Constitution they didn't agree with. A Birther had to be removed after she cried out on the natural born citizen requirement for President,"That's not Obama, Jesus Help us."
John Boehner says that he will hold the Debt Ceiling law hostage to budget cuts. It's clear the Obama Administration is already preparing budget cuts. Today Bob Gates announced cuts that will save billions over ten years. Two more reports like that and Boehner will have his deal--and Ryan won't have to work.
Matt Tiabbi has written a new piece on John Boehner in the new Rolling Stone. Tiabbi is a bit harsh on Boehner saying he is a corporate shill. But the good news is that he's lazy. His ideal is to drive to the White House and make a deal and the Obama Administration officials will have to fgure out how to implement it. That saves him heavy lifting and doesn't embarrass the House Republicans.
For all his campaigning about "Where are the Jobs?", he did not mention one job creation idea in his opening speech. It was Nancy Pelosi who said that if the Republicans came up with job-creating ideas Democrats would be willing partners. Crickets, so far.
Boehner did the first diss of the CBO today. The CBO announced that the repeal of "The Job-Killing Healthcare Bill" will add $300 billion to the national debt over 10 years. The healthcare reform actually will create an estimated 400,000 jobs. But Boehner said the CBO was entitled to their own estimate but had to observe the Budget Act. Sounds clever, heh? Well,the Budget Act doesn't break Boehner's way. It actually mandates that CBO estimates have to be in every bill. This is just the first shot in this war.
What's amazing is that the once well-run Republican machine is in tatters. They have even forgotten how to spin. Yesterday, Boehner was introduced by a freshman who talked about Boehner struggle to get a college education and his having to sweep floors to earn his tuition. News commentators remarked how it took 7 years for Boehner to earn his degree. Then another broke into ask who was more powerful-- Boehner or Issa? This started a lengthy discussion of how many times Issa had been arrested for car jacking and how he burned down his own business for an insurance payoff. This would never had happened if Karl Rove was still alive. This discussion then went off to Rick Scott assuming the governorship of Florida. Then we had a whole discussion of how many times Rick Scott invoked the fifth amendment during his grand jury testimony. One time, he said he had to invoke the Fifth or else the jury would have to indict him. This led to a discussion of Tom DeLay convicted of money laundering but how aides to DeLay had been re-hired by the House.
The theme throughout the day was on criminal behavior and how much could corporations really expect from the House. If you remember Nancy Pelosi had vowed to "drain the swamp" of corruption. Now we have 12 sitting GOP member with serious ethical issues and at least four incoming freshman already have their hands full with allegations over their campaign funding.
Then we have the Koch Brothers hosting a cocktail party for the freshman. This was preceded by a fund-raising dinner for freshman that featured that country-western darling and champion of family values Ms. Rimes, who only the week before talked about how she was cheating on her husband with another married man. Welcome to Tea Bag America!
A little war has broken out among conservatives as groups have come to defend CPAC from the accusations by Frank Gaffney that it had been infiltrated by the Moslem Brotherhood. On the other hand, Heritage pulled out of the CPAC conference because they had invited GOProud, the Republican gay group. As the Family Research Council said, "Homosexuality is not a conservative value." Actually, from my experience during the Reagan Revolution, I thought it was. Leading conservative groups were all led by gays. But I digress.
Michelle Bachmann has slipped the leash. Despite being assigned to the intelligence committee where mum's the word, she has hinted at running for President. This allows her to opine on everything under the Sun. Which really raises the question about how much control can Boehner and his bad copy Ricky Cantor exert on the teabaggers. Even if Boehner reaches a deal with the White House as he did on tax cuts, could he enforce any other deals as Speaker?
A colleague commented on my State of the Union remarks saying that this year it will be raucous with teabaggers shouting down the President. With Boehner up behind the President,how's that going to look? Maybe they will be able to step on the President's message. If true, then he should address the nation from the White House anyway.
Progressives are up in arms about the appointment of William Daley as Obama's chief of staff. While Daley opposed Obama's reforms of healthcare and the consumer protection agency, he's not in the post to liason with Washington insiders but to outside of the Beltway constituents. I expect you will see some other surprises before the State of the Union. Most of Obama's circle are being moved out to start the preparations for the 2012 election.
Bruce Bartlett, the renegade supply sider and deputy secretary of the Treasury, wrote a piece in Salon how absolutely insane the teabaggers and Rand Paul are on the debt ceiling vote. I'll write a blog in the next two days about the Congressional Research Service's analysis from last year about what would happen if Congress didn't pass the debt ceiling law. And it's not good stuff.
The Manatees are fleeing the cold waters around Florida and swimming into iinlets around power plants in the state to keep warm.
And Rafael Palmeiro did not make the Hall of Fame. He still claims the steroids discovered in his testing were from a contaminated dose of vitamin B Manuel Tejada gave him. I think Rafael could run for Congress.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Iced Coffee at the Last Manatee
Let it be recorded that on June 23, 2010, official Washington and the Beltway pundits actually agreed that President Obama did something well and did something right in removing General McChrystal. This was the first time in his administration this has actually happened and maybe the last. So it should be commemorated. Perhaps even made into a National Holiday.
Apparently, the firing really was caused by McChrystal's criticism of our European allies in Afghanistan and not the remarks about Obama and Biden.
If you are an environmentalist abandon all hope. I've heard from a number of people on the Gulf Coast, who lament the destruction of their way of life but are utterly committed to deepwater drilling. Unfortunately, they did not watch Rachel Maddow's little segment on why American oil isn't American. Along with her coverage of the Gulf disaster, she deserves credit for her side segments. First was the segment on how the oil companies amassed fortunes untold in the history of man but did not invest in any cleanup technologies after 1979. The second was her explanation that oil is traded on the global market.
As I've written, we could drill everywhere in the United States and offshore and only save 3 cents on a gallon of gas and fuel the American economy for a year or two max. The question is whether we are willing to pay the dire environmental cost. Apparently, the answer is yes. What BP did with one blowout, it took the oil companies almost forty years to do on the Niger Delta, the current model for the Gulf region.
The Last Mantee is no longer ironic. The oil spill has washed into the manatee breeding grounds in Alabama. Also, we are only two Sperm Whale deaths away from that species vanishing for good. I find this somewhat ironic since scientific studies released this week show that whales are closer to the human species than previously thought. But they tend not to kill each other.
Admiral Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that the greatest security threat to the United States was the national debt. Where was he during the last administration? Or maybe he would like to look in the mirror and ponder the cost of our military/ terrorist complex? Without factoring in inflation, the military/terrorist budget is twice that of the Cold War period. Feel more secure?
The British are basically raising the pension level to 70 to try and eradicate their deficit. I am sure something like that will happen here. But how many blue-collar workers will be healthy enough to work until then? And who will hire them? We have to fight back on this nonsense about the social security system, the most successful social program we have and the most financial solvent of anything in our whole government system. It is clear that the Deficit Commission has several options planned for an overhaul of the social security system. But caveat emptor.
Senator Kyl of Arizona joined the long line of Republicans who lie about President Obama. He claimed that the President Obama told him privately he would do nothing about the southern border of the country until there was immigration reform. Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano positioned drones to monitor the border. I'm sure Kyl will be apologizing to the President on the floor of the Senate.
This is been a particularly vile week of receiving e-mails and other communications calling into question the President's citizenship,his competence and his desire to fulfil his agenda of "progressive socialism". He's going to grant a blank amnesty to all illegal immigrants (like Reagan?). He's going to create his own military loyal to him (Mike Savage). He outlawed the National Day of Prayer ( court ruled it unconstitutional and Obama is appealing), doesn't go to church (AMZ Baptist and Angelican Churches here in Washington) and by inviting atheists to a faith-based initiative function wanted to portray evangelicals as "knuckle-draggers) (not true?) Also he attacked the traditional family on Father's Day by acknowledging different types of families including those with two Dads. I received a public demand that President Obama and his cabinet resign immediately because of their deception, dishonesty and corruption. Jon Voight claimed Obama has caused a "civil war in Arizona" and is "purposely isolating Israel, our most loyal (?) ally". I received photos of captured arms caches in Arizona portraying the menace of illegal immigrants (although the settin looked suspiciously like Honduras). And for historical purposes, I also received an e-mail wanting Obama for Treason, which is almost identical to the ones produced against JFK.
At least Rush Limbaugh is becoming humanistic. This week he urged poor children to dumpster dive for food. And on the other side of the spectrum communitarian guru Amitai Etizoni called for the invasion of Iran.
As the temperature rises, the polling data worsens. The Gulf oil disaster has stopped all movement in polls showing the country was going in the right direction. Confidence in President Obama's ability to solve the economic crisis has taken a battering. But at least 40% of Americans still believe that George W. Bush is almost exclusively responsible for that situation. But the number blaming Obama has jumped to 27%, which is almost triple what it was about four months ago. The generic polls still fluctuate. A recent poll shows Republicans with a 2% spread on the Democrats. Pollsters are beginning to say that by the end of June attitudes become frozen about the November elections. I doubt this. I still say Labor Day.
President Obama is in for a fight at the G-20 summit since Merkel of Germany is battling him on the need to extend stimulus spending to make sure the global economy recovers. What bothers me with the European austerity measures is that government austerity does not translate into prosperity. I believe this will act like the protectionism in the Great Depression.
No one gives the administration any credit for China's decision to float their currency. This is a major diplomatic victory but like other Obama successes it will not concretely manifest itself in a way that people appreciate.
Polls are showing that Americans are now favoring the health reform bill, except for those over 65. On that issue, the problem has been the Republican filibuster to raise doctors' compensation for Medicare patients. Instead, they have been forced to take a 20% cut in pay, jeopardizing the availability of medical care for Medicare patients. Interestingly, it turns out that one of the persons who has benefited the most from Medicare payments is Rand Paul, whose whole eye practice depends on the elderly.
Remember Elena Kagan? Well, this week has seen the new conservative attacks on her. Even Mitch McConnell won't rule out the filibuster since he has regained his confidence by stopping the Jobs bill and aid to the states. After his defeat on healthcare, he told the media the GOP would not filibuster. According to Frank Gaffney, Elena Kagan, a single Jewish professional women, favors Sharia Law! I won't dignify this by explaining. Judge Bork says that she's pro-choice, which the last time I looked was constitutional, and she favors activist judges like Judge Barack in Israel! One interesting development has been the posting by the Sunshine Foundation of all her e-mails from the Clinton Administration. Easy access and interesting reading. I'm sure we will have more new revelations as the weeks move on. Oh yes, her family are leftwingers from New York City.
For the next Supreme Court choice, I now really want an American Indian so that the conservatives' heads explode. This choice could say, "My people have been trying to fight illegal immigration since 1492" and "we would like some say about the Constitution."
Then I had to hear about the Mosques (it grows with each telling) being built around Ground Zero. At this point, I hope they ring the 9-11 monument with mosques and declare the park a monument to the success of conservative security policies. I mean ,who can forget the immortal words of George Tenet, "I hope it's not the guys from the flight school". At least this whole flap got the head of one of the Teabaggers to resign and coordinate opposition to this plan. The man in question won his spurs as a member of Nixon's dirty tricks squad.
I have not been able to assimilate all the primary results yet. The sultry Sikh romped to vistory in South Carolina and will win the race for Governor. But now the religious right is asking questions about Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal--whether their conversions are real. On the Democratic side Elaine Marshall won over Carl Cunningham in Nortb Carolina and right now is tied with Republican Burr--that's one I believe the Democrats can win. In Texas, White is tied with secessionist Rick Perry.
In California, Democratic operative Chris Lahane had a nice putdown of Meg Whitman,"Jerry Brown has won more elections than times that Whitman has voted." Whitman has done a pivot on immigration, recording an ad in Spanish, which totally contradicts her primary postion to built a wall on the border and pass an immigration bill.
For the joys of homophobia, consult www.rightwingwatch.com ,which has been reproducing the great hits from the Religious Right for the past two weeks. It's such a rich bounty I would spend days retelling.
Yes, Virgnia, there will be a Wall Street Reform bill come out of conference. Whole armies of lobbyists have been fighting to water it down but something significant will emerge. But by the time it does it will disappoint progressives and upset conservatives. Will it be a substantial imrpovement on the status quo--yes. Will it be a significant achievement of this administration? Yes, but he'll never get credit for it.
At this stage, I believe there are only two other major pieces of legislation that might be able to pass during the rest of Obama's first term--immigration reform; and/or an energy policy bill. And then that will exhaust the ability of Congress to do anything constructive.
Apparently, the firing really was caused by McChrystal's criticism of our European allies in Afghanistan and not the remarks about Obama and Biden.
If you are an environmentalist abandon all hope. I've heard from a number of people on the Gulf Coast, who lament the destruction of their way of life but are utterly committed to deepwater drilling. Unfortunately, they did not watch Rachel Maddow's little segment on why American oil isn't American. Along with her coverage of the Gulf disaster, she deserves credit for her side segments. First was the segment on how the oil companies amassed fortunes untold in the history of man but did not invest in any cleanup technologies after 1979. The second was her explanation that oil is traded on the global market.
As I've written, we could drill everywhere in the United States and offshore and only save 3 cents on a gallon of gas and fuel the American economy for a year or two max. The question is whether we are willing to pay the dire environmental cost. Apparently, the answer is yes. What BP did with one blowout, it took the oil companies almost forty years to do on the Niger Delta, the current model for the Gulf region.
The Last Mantee is no longer ironic. The oil spill has washed into the manatee breeding grounds in Alabama. Also, we are only two Sperm Whale deaths away from that species vanishing for good. I find this somewhat ironic since scientific studies released this week show that whales are closer to the human species than previously thought. But they tend not to kill each other.
Admiral Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that the greatest security threat to the United States was the national debt. Where was he during the last administration? Or maybe he would like to look in the mirror and ponder the cost of our military/ terrorist complex? Without factoring in inflation, the military/terrorist budget is twice that of the Cold War period. Feel more secure?
The British are basically raising the pension level to 70 to try and eradicate their deficit. I am sure something like that will happen here. But how many blue-collar workers will be healthy enough to work until then? And who will hire them? We have to fight back on this nonsense about the social security system, the most successful social program we have and the most financial solvent of anything in our whole government system. It is clear that the Deficit Commission has several options planned for an overhaul of the social security system. But caveat emptor.
Senator Kyl of Arizona joined the long line of Republicans who lie about President Obama. He claimed that the President Obama told him privately he would do nothing about the southern border of the country until there was immigration reform. Today, Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano positioned drones to monitor the border. I'm sure Kyl will be apologizing to the President on the floor of the Senate.
This is been a particularly vile week of receiving e-mails and other communications calling into question the President's citizenship,his competence and his desire to fulfil his agenda of "progressive socialism". He's going to grant a blank amnesty to all illegal immigrants (like Reagan?). He's going to create his own military loyal to him (Mike Savage). He outlawed the National Day of Prayer ( court ruled it unconstitutional and Obama is appealing), doesn't go to church (AMZ Baptist and Angelican Churches here in Washington) and by inviting atheists to a faith-based initiative function wanted to portray evangelicals as "knuckle-draggers) (not true?) Also he attacked the traditional family on Father's Day by acknowledging different types of families including those with two Dads. I received a public demand that President Obama and his cabinet resign immediately because of their deception, dishonesty and corruption. Jon Voight claimed Obama has caused a "civil war in Arizona" and is "purposely isolating Israel, our most loyal (?) ally". I received photos of captured arms caches in Arizona portraying the menace of illegal immigrants (although the settin looked suspiciously like Honduras). And for historical purposes, I also received an e-mail wanting Obama for Treason, which is almost identical to the ones produced against JFK.
At least Rush Limbaugh is becoming humanistic. This week he urged poor children to dumpster dive for food. And on the other side of the spectrum communitarian guru Amitai Etizoni called for the invasion of Iran.
As the temperature rises, the polling data worsens. The Gulf oil disaster has stopped all movement in polls showing the country was going in the right direction. Confidence in President Obama's ability to solve the economic crisis has taken a battering. But at least 40% of Americans still believe that George W. Bush is almost exclusively responsible for that situation. But the number blaming Obama has jumped to 27%, which is almost triple what it was about four months ago. The generic polls still fluctuate. A recent poll shows Republicans with a 2% spread on the Democrats. Pollsters are beginning to say that by the end of June attitudes become frozen about the November elections. I doubt this. I still say Labor Day.
President Obama is in for a fight at the G-20 summit since Merkel of Germany is battling him on the need to extend stimulus spending to make sure the global economy recovers. What bothers me with the European austerity measures is that government austerity does not translate into prosperity. I believe this will act like the protectionism in the Great Depression.
No one gives the administration any credit for China's decision to float their currency. This is a major diplomatic victory but like other Obama successes it will not concretely manifest itself in a way that people appreciate.
Polls are showing that Americans are now favoring the health reform bill, except for those over 65. On that issue, the problem has been the Republican filibuster to raise doctors' compensation for Medicare patients. Instead, they have been forced to take a 20% cut in pay, jeopardizing the availability of medical care for Medicare patients. Interestingly, it turns out that one of the persons who has benefited the most from Medicare payments is Rand Paul, whose whole eye practice depends on the elderly.
Remember Elena Kagan? Well, this week has seen the new conservative attacks on her. Even Mitch McConnell won't rule out the filibuster since he has regained his confidence by stopping the Jobs bill and aid to the states. After his defeat on healthcare, he told the media the GOP would not filibuster. According to Frank Gaffney, Elena Kagan, a single Jewish professional women, favors Sharia Law! I won't dignify this by explaining. Judge Bork says that she's pro-choice, which the last time I looked was constitutional, and she favors activist judges like Judge Barack in Israel! One interesting development has been the posting by the Sunshine Foundation of all her e-mails from the Clinton Administration. Easy access and interesting reading. I'm sure we will have more new revelations as the weeks move on. Oh yes, her family are leftwingers from New York City.
For the next Supreme Court choice, I now really want an American Indian so that the conservatives' heads explode. This choice could say, "My people have been trying to fight illegal immigration since 1492" and "we would like some say about the Constitution."
Then I had to hear about the Mosques (it grows with each telling) being built around Ground Zero. At this point, I hope they ring the 9-11 monument with mosques and declare the park a monument to the success of conservative security policies. I mean ,who can forget the immortal words of George Tenet, "I hope it's not the guys from the flight school". At least this whole flap got the head of one of the Teabaggers to resign and coordinate opposition to this plan. The man in question won his spurs as a member of Nixon's dirty tricks squad.
I have not been able to assimilate all the primary results yet. The sultry Sikh romped to vistory in South Carolina and will win the race for Governor. But now the religious right is asking questions about Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal--whether their conversions are real. On the Democratic side Elaine Marshall won over Carl Cunningham in Nortb Carolina and right now is tied with Republican Burr--that's one I believe the Democrats can win. In Texas, White is tied with secessionist Rick Perry.
In California, Democratic operative Chris Lahane had a nice putdown of Meg Whitman,"Jerry Brown has won more elections than times that Whitman has voted." Whitman has done a pivot on immigration, recording an ad in Spanish, which totally contradicts her primary postion to built a wall on the border and pass an immigration bill.
For the joys of homophobia, consult www.rightwingwatch.com ,which has been reproducing the great hits from the Religious Right for the past two weeks. It's such a rich bounty I would spend days retelling.
Yes, Virgnia, there will be a Wall Street Reform bill come out of conference. Whole armies of lobbyists have been fighting to water it down but something significant will emerge. But by the time it does it will disappoint progressives and upset conservatives. Will it be a substantial imrpovement on the status quo--yes. Will it be a significant achievement of this administration? Yes, but he'll never get credit for it.
At this stage, I believe there are only two other major pieces of legislation that might be able to pass during the rest of Obama's first term--immigration reform; and/or an energy policy bill. And then that will exhaust the ability of Congress to do anything constructive.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
White Men Riot
My wife and I huddled around the computer last night waiting for radio signals from the Midwest. At 1 am loud and clear The End of Radio Show was beamed in. I felt we were like our Central European brothers and sisters waiting for Radio Free Europe to begin. The program was punk rock with a heavy dose of newer bands. For old timers like us, we recognized Fugazi, the Melvins, the Ramones,and the Clash. The D.J. had a melodious, smooth voice which was a nice contrast to the dissonance of the music. By the end we knew some day we would be free. Maybe Leonard Cohen is right," Democracy is coming to the U.S.A." The DJ was my son Ian, who ran the play list off his Ipod, which now sports over 20,000 cuts. I'm sure the students from Oberlin College never heard the bands played last night. So we'll listen every Wednesday until the Wall is torn down.
Have spent the day watching the Health Care Summit. It was exciting as watching paint dry. I didn't get any sense that the Republicans had any intention of trying to reach any agreements. They would talk about principles of policy but not propose anything. President Obama was like the head teacher trying to get unruly students to behave. Why John McCain was there is anyone's guest since his whole life has been spent on government health care, including his stay at the Hanoi Hilton. President Obama politely slapped him down by saying, "The campaign is over, John." Republican Congressman Pat Ryan was the one to watch out for. While he came across as slick, his budget proposals call for ending Medicare and Social Security. That's why he argued against the Congressional Office of the Budget because he desparately needs to demonstrate that any Democratic plan will not cut the budget. His plan has resonance among Republican candidates for the House. All point to his plan of his website and absolutely none of these people talk about cutting the Defense Budget. As it is now, the Obama plan would allow me to purchase medical insurance at the same rates as government employees, a savings of 50%.
I talked yesterday about a coming cultural revolution. But I didn't think it would be conservative. There was one article yesterday on Breibart's news service that convinced me otherwise. I should know better about Baby Boomers--we're a bunch of stoners. Cheech and Chong said they wanted to get stoned with Sarah Palin because it was obvious from what she said that she had the best stash. I disagree. It has to be Frank Gaffney, who must be smoking up a storm. Gaffney gave the Eternal Flame or Flaming Asshole award to Dick Cheney earlier in the year.
Yesterday Frank weighed in on the redesign of the logo for the Missile Defense Agency. This is as big a scandal as Proctor and Gambel's satanic logo of years ago. Drudge and the Freerepublic claim that the new logo is a deliberate rip-off of the Obama campaign logo with the Islamic crescent and star added for good measure. But Frank says it is even more nefarious. Team Obama--the new tag used by the right against the Administration--is acting in a treacherous way by limiting the deployment of missile interceptors and radars in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. This is a deliberate policy of unilateral disarmament, which is to be expected from " an Alinsky acolyte", and shows that the U.S. is submitting to Islam and the "theo-political-legal program the latter's authorities call Shariah." "Team Obama" is accomodating the "Islamic Republic"'s aggressive approach in the Persian Gulf.
Wow! So this Jewish guy who talked like he was from the Bronx ends up in Chicago before Barack Obama and starts advocating Islam and Sharia Law. This sounds like a stoned riff of George Carlin building up to a humorous laugh line. Saul Alinsky son is alive and has been laughing about how his late father still drives conservatives up the wall a generation later. I suggest we get Bill Ayres out of retirement to bomb Gaffney's bathroom. Ayres was always good at blowing up toilets--and a few of his friends. Gaffney could then use that to raise funds. "Bill Ayres wants me dead. Send money!"
I've learned one thing in the last few months--national security conservatives have the widest acceptance of cerifiably insane people than any other demographic.
Have spent the day watching the Health Care Summit. It was exciting as watching paint dry. I didn't get any sense that the Republicans had any intention of trying to reach any agreements. They would talk about principles of policy but not propose anything. President Obama was like the head teacher trying to get unruly students to behave. Why John McCain was there is anyone's guest since his whole life has been spent on government health care, including his stay at the Hanoi Hilton. President Obama politely slapped him down by saying, "The campaign is over, John." Republican Congressman Pat Ryan was the one to watch out for. While he came across as slick, his budget proposals call for ending Medicare and Social Security. That's why he argued against the Congressional Office of the Budget because he desparately needs to demonstrate that any Democratic plan will not cut the budget. His plan has resonance among Republican candidates for the House. All point to his plan of his website and absolutely none of these people talk about cutting the Defense Budget. As it is now, the Obama plan would allow me to purchase medical insurance at the same rates as government employees, a savings of 50%.
I talked yesterday about a coming cultural revolution. But I didn't think it would be conservative. There was one article yesterday on Breibart's news service that convinced me otherwise. I should know better about Baby Boomers--we're a bunch of stoners. Cheech and Chong said they wanted to get stoned with Sarah Palin because it was obvious from what she said that she had the best stash. I disagree. It has to be Frank Gaffney, who must be smoking up a storm. Gaffney gave the Eternal Flame or Flaming Asshole award to Dick Cheney earlier in the year.
Yesterday Frank weighed in on the redesign of the logo for the Missile Defense Agency. This is as big a scandal as Proctor and Gambel's satanic logo of years ago. Drudge and the Freerepublic claim that the new logo is a deliberate rip-off of the Obama campaign logo with the Islamic crescent and star added for good measure. But Frank says it is even more nefarious. Team Obama--the new tag used by the right against the Administration--is acting in a treacherous way by limiting the deployment of missile interceptors and radars in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. This is a deliberate policy of unilateral disarmament, which is to be expected from " an Alinsky acolyte", and shows that the U.S. is submitting to Islam and the "theo-political-legal program the latter's authorities call Shariah." "Team Obama" is accomodating the "Islamic Republic"'s aggressive approach in the Persian Gulf.
Wow! So this Jewish guy who talked like he was from the Bronx ends up in Chicago before Barack Obama and starts advocating Islam and Sharia Law. This sounds like a stoned riff of George Carlin building up to a humorous laugh line. Saul Alinsky son is alive and has been laughing about how his late father still drives conservatives up the wall a generation later. I suggest we get Bill Ayres out of retirement to bomb Gaffney's bathroom. Ayres was always good at blowing up toilets--and a few of his friends. Gaffney could then use that to raise funds. "Bill Ayres wants me dead. Send money!"
I've learned one thing in the last few months--national security conservatives have the widest acceptance of cerifiably insane people than any other demographic.
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