Yike!

The traditional Friday afternon collapsed time management open thread.  At some point I hope to pile on to the LightSquared debacle - a billionaire Obama crony plans to bring down our weather and military satellites, disable our cruise missiles and crash airplanes.  But it would create jobs, and the lead investor is a Dem donor, so no worries.

Comments

[Buford Gooch]

But Obama's a Lightworker, or Lightbringer, or something. LightSquared is a natural for him. He will personally put every satellite back in place, etc.

[Cecil Turner]

Interesting. I didn't put too much stock in the interference claims in the initial stories, but that FAA assessment is pretty unambiguously alarming. And that's for the revised plan, so . . .

As to process, that WH interference in Shelton's remarks and possible pressure on the waiver smacks of the worst sort of political payola. Though at this point it's likely to be only embarassing.

[GMAX]

Assuming this group is capable of embarassment, yeah. Color me highly skeptical of that assumption, however.

[narciso]

Paging Max Zorin, to the red courtesy phone
(that was the scenery chewing semiconductor
billionaire, played by Chris Walken, in one
of the more unintentionally funny James Bond films)

[Danube of Thought]

The General's spokeswoman must fear for her boss's job.

[Jane]

Shouldn't "Yike" have an "S"?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Unless, of course, some spectrum might get freed up when a weak cell phone company suddenly becomes vulnerable when the Justice Department blocks a merger with a stronger horse.

Like T-Mobile had happen to it in it's merger with AT&T.

[Threadkiller]

Oh my!

From March, 2011:

Obama Invested in Company That Got Sweet Deal From FCC

"More significantly, the FCC also allowed LightSquared to exploit a loophole that allows it to deploy a national 4G wireless network to handle cell phone calls and data. LightSquared is getting valuable wireless spectrum on the cheap, while its competitors like AT&T and Verizon are spending billions to build out their networks.

Not included in our February 2 letter to Issa is the fact that Barack Obama invested $90,000 in the obscure, thinly-traded SkyTerra in 2005. He was put into the investment by a UBS broker at the behest of a major donor to Obama's campaigns named George W. Haywood, who was also a major investor in SkyTerra.

In 2007, when the New York Times reported the investment, Obama claimed he knew nothing about the stock, and said he lost money when it was sold. In any case, it is obvious Obama and Haywood remain close. Haywood and his wife, for instance, were on the guest list for the India State Dinner."

I did not know I had the stock, but I do know I lost money on the stock I did not know I owned.

There is a sickening video at the link.

Ooofff!

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Shouldn't "Yike" have an "S"?

Only if you have more than one.

[Jane]

I rear my case since we have about a million just this week.

[Porchlight]

OT and FWIW,

I'm listening to the Bob and Mark show in Alaska. Lots of speculation around the web in the last 24 hrs that Palin will announce on their show today (she promised them months ago that if she did run, they would be the first to know).

They have announced that she is calling the station in a few minutes.

[Clarice]

Great Ford ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_mwjaEI_hM&feature=player_embedded

[Charlie (Colorado)]

I rear my case

Don't go running around with straight lines like that, you'll put an eye out.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Music?

Porch, what're you doin' to me?

[Chubby]

Porchlight, looks like you made a real good choice and your kids are soooo lucky to have a dad that can play a button accordion, (one of my favorite down home sounds for joy.) They must adore it. Sounds like he has French Canadian blood in his veins.

[Jane]

Or I could REST my case, if I would preview.

[Porchlight]

Mel, sorry, this Bob and Mark show is tedious. I think the Sarah thing might have been a joke - they had some dude calling pretending to be her. Sorry for the tease.

Thanks, Chubby! His name is French-sounding, but he's actually a straight up Scots-Irish Southern boy.

[Jim Ryan]

The Dem base will remember Obama as follows. "He was great when it came to ideas, people skills, and communication skills, but his political leadership skills just weren't that great. That's the only reason he got only one term." They won't learn anything.

But will non-base Dems learn something from the gruesome collision between statism and reality?

[Melinda Romanoff]

But there is a fishing report, so we're all good now.

[Jim Ryan]

Here's a new Hitler video at VP: attackwatch guffaws.

[Porchlight]

But will non-base Dems learn something from the gruesome collision between statism and reality?

Good question. Too soon to tell.

[MarkO]

"Or I could REST my case, if I would preview"

I usually blame the keyboard.

[Thomas Collins]

Porchlight, on the call with the 15 year old, Bob (or was it Mark) did claim Palin was going to announce her decision on the show at some point, although it seemed he admitted he had no reason to think it was going to be today. I wonder whether Bob and Mark are simply savvy guys who know how to pump up the ratings (I certainly wouldn't have gone to the Bob and Mark web site but for a potential Palin announcement).

[Porchlight]

Yeah, TC, they did jump on the opportunity to get everyone riled up. Guess I can't blame them. But doing that will almost certainly ensure that fewer people will tune in next time they tease it. They'll be The Boys Who Cried Grizzly. ;)

[Neo]

PJM wrapup

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

Yahoo MFM headline:
"Hillary Clinton most popular national political figure: new poll"

Letter from Zero's doctor being typed up. Better start propping up our favorite ex-President Zero now.

[pagar]

Well, cheer up, if you don't have time for the Solyandra and LightSquared mess, Pajamas Media says the WH has a new one for you.

"Today, as the LightSquared and Solyndra scandals heat up, the Obama White House is rolling out yet another potential technological boondoggle."

Wonder if this will be like ATMs, putting people out of work?

[Comanche Voter]

Obozo and his left heel have an instinct for the banana peel. Nice to see him fall on his keister on these things.

[OldTimer]

Melinda's David Asman video is scary in its implications. The Chicago thugocracy has reached a point where they barely hide their crimes against the American people.

I wonder how far have they've taken us down, as they go about quietly dissembling the rule of law and growing their power and wealth plundering the national treasury. How much have we *lost* that we don't even know about...yet?

[Neo]

"The Citbank incident, and others like it, reflected a more pernicious and personal dilemma emerging from inside the administration: that the young president's authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers," Suskind writes.

I expect the White House to go with this when "Fast and Furious" go really bad.

[Jane]

Old Timer,

I do think it will be years and years and years before we find out all the damage. Meanwhile, every Obama crony will get richer and richer.

Anyone know if Tony Rezko ever got sentenced?

[Melinda Romanoff]

Jane-

Excellent question.

Answer: Not just yet.

[jimmyk]

the young president's authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers

Geithner is "seasoned"? I think he's even younger than Obama, and every bit as much in over his head. Unless "seasoned" means ready to be grilled, in which I'm ok with it.

[Melinda Romanoff]

OldTimer-

I don't think I've linked video today. Someone else is due the credit.

[Threadkiller]

Skyterra (a little too close to Skynet, if you ask me) is the new name for Llightsquared.
If you search "skyterra site:.gov" you will find they were in line for Recovery Act money. Also fema picked them as a sole contractor on certain projects. The lobbyist disclosures look like they will be fun too.

To much to sift thru. I will look again when I am home.

WRT to skynet, the military jamming Skyterra satellite was launched in Kazakhstan. Hmmm, why were the shuttles mothballed?

[Janet]

Unless "seasoned" means ready to be grilled, in which I'm ok with it.

Hahahahaha!

[jimmyk]

More love for teh Sarah from the MSM. LUN

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Geithner is "seasoned"?

Sure.

Assaulted by doubt.

Peppered with questions.

lacking sage advice.

Running out of thyme.

[Threadkiller]

Go ahead and rub it in, ChaCo.

[Melinda Romanoff]

"Shooting at Davis-Monthan AF Base"

[OldTimer]

Oops, sorry Melinda--Threadkiller actually posted the video and your name was on the post above.

Perhaps it's a good thing I'm finally due for my cataract surgery next month... :)

[Melinda Romanoff]

OT-

Just wanted to make sure credit is given where it is due.

[pagar]

From "Pick your Pony" thread.

"a web site that tracks and lists every penny that is spent on frivolity like the above is much needed"

Are we going to get that? Of course Not.

What the Govt wants:

"The proposed Obama administration regulation, however, will force Homestead and its packing partner to post all of their business transactions on the USDA website, justify all deviations from the market price and open up their business relationship to bureaucratic meddling and possible punishment. Worse, the vague wording of the proposed regulation opens up small businesses like Homestead Meats to lawsuits by the USDA, or even a competitor."

How is any private business supposed to survive this out of control govt interference into their business?

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/09/16/job-killing-uncertainty-hits-colorado-rancher/

[Chubby]

not to mention that his tax records are highly un-savory

[Chubby]

thanks very much for that link Jimmyk. I was very distressed yesterday upon reading about the Doonesbury cartoons, but the article you linked to posted this great news:

((The Chicago Tribune and other newspapers have declined to publish the “Doonesbury” strips, with the Trib explaining, “The subject matter does not meet our standards of fairness.” ))

along with a lot more great news

[JM Hanes]

Interesting comparison between Perry & Romney from Chubby's On the Issues link:

[narciso]

Well Bruce's Rule, clearly comes through yet again, for those who are new; 'Any story about
Palin, that seems too false, it is' The reaction of Maslin in the Times, and Ulin on the other coast, seems to have driven Lupica
into a frothing rage, how is that different from any other day, you ask?

[Captain Hate]

The Mike Lupica that is George Costanza's favorite "author"? What is it with NYC newspapers letting nimrods from other fields write about politics? It's probably how Odormann got unleashed on us.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Cap'n-

It was the tenor of his voice, the richness of his delivery, that got Olberman the job.

The fact that he was reading the board at McDonald's out loud at the time, will go unsaid.

[Chubby]

who'd a thunk it, eh JM H?

[Melinda Romanoff]

It's Friday Night in DC! That means it's sneaky release time for the WH. What's first, you ask?

The WH ok's the Net Neutrality Regulations. To be published in 1-3 weeks, and go into effect 60 days after that.

[Clarice]

It coulda been a full billion and change:

Daily Caller:

"ailed solar panel maker Solyndra’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings show that seven months after the Obama administration’s Department of Energy approved a $535 million federal loan guarantee, Solyndra applied for a second one valued at $469 million.

“On September 11, 2009, we applied for a second loan guarantee from the DOE, in the amount of approximately $469 million, to partially fund Phase II,” Solyndra wrote in a report it filed with the SEC on December 18, 2009. “If we are unable to obtain the DOE guaranteed loan in whole or in part, we intend to fund any financing shortfall with some combination of the proceeds of this offering, cash flows from operations, debt financing and additional equity financing.”

Solyndra applied for that extra $469 million the same year it received the $535 million of ultimately wasted taxpayer money which is the subject of a current congressional investigation. According to the company’s SEC filings, that $535 million was only intended to cover Phase I of the construction of its “Fab 2″ solar panel manufacturing facility.

The second application came just one week after Solyndra broke ground on its facilities construction project on Sept. 4, 2009."

[Melinda Romanoff]

Clarice-

What? You've never seen CRA applied to tech companies? Here we call them TIF loans.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Only friends and family need apply!

[boris]

That diagram needs a kickaxis too.

[Rick Ballard]

Back to the subordination - OMB nixed the $469 million but subordinated the $535 million in order to pry $75 million out of the VC folks.

Why would OMB authorize subordination after determining that the second loan request stunk so badly they didn't want it in the office? That's the albatross that President Albatross is going to wind up wearing.

[Danube of Thought]

What is the reference to the insufferable twit Lupica all about?

John Fund ponders what would happen if a committee of wise elders approaches The One and persuades him to retire as an outstanding one-termer. It's at Hot Air but I can't link.

[peter]

have a Friday afternoon laugh at this story. LUN

[RichatUF]

Danube of Thought-

Obama would be a lame jackass.

[Clarice]

Here, DoT.http://hotair.com/archives/2011/09/15/john-fund-what-if-a-committee-of-prominent-dems-approached-obama-and-asked-him-not-to-run

Fund says Black voters wouldn't buy it and the Dems are sewed to this albatross

[narciso]

Meanwhile, you will be glad to know, that the Bureau in Tampa, says there was nothing to the
whole Ghezzawi 'roadrunner escape,' pre 9/11,
'these are not the droids you're looking for'

[Extraneus]

Bloomberg invites minorities and union thugs to riot over jobs

"We have a lot of kids graduating college, can't find jobs," Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show.

"That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."

Unfair headline? I don't think so.

[hit and run]

Jane:
Shouldn't "Yike" have an "S"?

Yike in the singular is a signature TMism of longstanding.

I have to admit to having surcame to its usage myself.

Not only do I use it on my own blog in the singular . . . I now unconsciously correct any usage of the plural.

Such is the power of TM.

[narciso]

Of course, the image that comes to mind with that heading, is Wile E Coyote, hanging over
the cliff, hanging on to an exclamation point.

[Extraneus]

Drudge headline: Europe bristles at lecture from Geithner on debt...

"We can always discuss with our American colleagues. I'd like to hear how the United States will reduce its deficits ... and its debts," Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders said somewhat tartly.

[hit and run]

To be fair,the name Didier just screams "tart"

[Extraneus]

Wow. Is the FBI still one of us? (Via Instapundit.)

FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’

The FBI is teaching its counterterrorism agents that “main stream” [sic] American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers; that the Prophet Mohammed was a “cult leader”; and that the Islamic practice of giving charity is no more than a “funding mechanism for combat.”

At the Bureau’s training ground in Quantico, Virginia, agents are shown a chart contending that the more “devout” a Muslim, the more likely he is to be “violent.” Those destructive tendencies cannot be reversed, an FBI instructional presentation adds: “Any war against non-believers is justified” under Muslim law; a “moderating process cannot happen if the Koran continues to be regarded as the unalterable word of Allah.”

[Danube of Thought]

The skin continues to crawl:

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman Jr. questioned the electability of his party’s two primary front-runners, saying Rick Perry is out of the mainstream on important issues and Mitt Romney lacks foreign policy experience.

And Jon's got the coveted Tom Ridge endorsement locked up.

[centralcal]

Yeah, DoT, I was so impressed with the Tom Ridge endorsement for Huntsman! /snark

The things one learns from Mark Knoller on twitter. Looks like Obama stiffs his contributors (okay, the small fry, not the big fish):

markknoller Mark Knoller The Obama Campaign has yet to pay off on the June contest - but is now offering another dinner with Obama for a pricier $25.00 entry fee.

SUCKERS!

[narciso]

The new book, by Ali Soufan, well known to these pages, is measurably better than Glenn
Carle's offering this summer, however it still suffers from assuming facts not in evidence, such as because KSM did not give us
the Madrid and other plots, EIT's are worthless

[Danube of Thought]

Biden on Enron, January 2002:

“My sense is this could be very big, Tim…If it turns out to be true that the Enron execs got out and they let the bag be held by their employees and the average stockholder then there’s going to be heck to pay, number one. Number two, if there was any, any involvement because of the incredible help the Bush campaign got from Enron here, it will be–I don’t know that there has been–but it will be devastating,” said Biden.

Much more in this vein here.

[Jane]

Yike in the singular is a signature TMism of longstanding.

Where was I?

[narciso]

Carney, really does make my skin crawl, he's sort of the smarmy character that Jason Bateman used to play in his early days

[Danube of Thought]

Bret Stephens fact-checks Ron Paul. It's not pretty.

[Danube of Thought]

Steve Javie has announced his retirement. Someone--I believe it's Captain H.--will be very happy.

[Extraneus]

Obama might have a lot less to worry about right now if he had picked Hillary to be VP. Has a president ever bowed out in favor of his VP?

[C.R.]

I did a quick search for one-term presidents, and it looks like they all lost re-election bids.

[bgates]

Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders

Sounds like a phone call from Santa Claus' Chicagoland taxidermist. "Yeh - I didier reynders, dere. Dey look real good. Real lifelike. Should dat one little reynder up front have a colored nose, though?"

[Jane]

Has a president ever bowed out in favor of his VP?

Nixon - well that was his second VP.

[Clarice]

HEH HEH HEH, bgates.

[narciso]

It's like shooting fish in a barrel, but someone had to do it:

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/42446

[Extraneus]

Young Afghan fighters eager to rejoin Taliban

“We’ll fight against America for a thousand years if we have to,” said Ali Ahmad, 17, sitting at a desk that has hearts and Koran verses scratched in the wood. “Jihad is the duty of every Muslim.”

[Captain Hate]

Steve Javie has announced his retirement. Someone--I believe it's Captain H.--will be very happy.

Not me DoT; Javie was one of the few that called them straight, unless I'm getting him confused with somebody else.

Check this out; I guess Marty Peretz is giving the children of the corn the complete run of the New Republic:

Peter Orszag has a provocative solution for our paralyzed political system. The former director of the Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget suggests that, since Congress seems incapable of addressing the challenges that face the country, it’s time to give more power to experts and special commissions.

First of all, LOL @ Slapdick Orszag talking about CONGRESS being unable to face the challenges. Why did Congress get none of the blame for the challenges of 2008. Second, what could go wrong with giving more power to unelected drones.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vnjagvet]

Government by Mandarins. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[narciso]

More like Lord of the Flies, Capt.

[hit and run]

Jane:
Where was I?

Probably out saving the country.

But anyway

[Jane]

Wow! I might be older than I thought.

[MarkO]

"Not me DoT; Javie was one of the few that called them straight, unless I'm getting him confused with somebody else."

Over the span of about 20 years I have watched Javie throw game after game after game. I don't want to repeat all my prior takes, but, to be somewhat short, a former FBI man who watched games for the league told me how officials fix games and the spread. It was everything that Javie did relentlessly. My his pension be found to be in Madoff’s portfolio. I would wager that he was forced out.

[Danube of Thought]

it’s time to give more power to experts and special commissions

I see. And where does the Constitution figure in all of this?

[Jack is Back!]

Unfortunately for bgates that is not how you pronounce Reynards in Flemish. But you have the situation there in perfect synch. Which only proves, why do you need an elected governence?

[Danube of Thought]

What the hell. It's time...

[MarkO]

In my experience, experts and special commissions are merely means of avoiding responsibility. Don't get me wrong. The failure to take responsibility has created such a market in litigation that I can make my mortgage payment. But, it's not only unconstitutional, it's just plain stupid. Most experts are not really smart, they, like Obama, have degrees. Special commissions are as special as those so anointed by Church Lady.

[MarkO]

The Blue Velvet Martini.

[Benjamin Franklin]

Solyndra, now Lightsquared.......

Another Maguire AnnenNothingBerger?

Well, his reach should exceed his grasp.

[Ignatz]

--Another Maguire AnnenNothingBerger?--

Shouldn't you change your name to Mizaru or Kikazaru?
Iwazaru is certainly not the apt ape in your case.

[Benjamin Franklin]

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/rick-perry-as-howard-dean/

"Last week, I compared Rick Perry in 2012 to Barack Obama in 2008: Like Obama four years ago, Perry doesn’t have the profile of an ideal general election candidate, but he’s the kind of figure that an influential portion of his party’s primary electorate is eager to find a reason to support. As Perry fumbled his way through last night’s Republican primary debate, though, the Texas governor seemed a lot more like Howard Dean in 2004 — a candidate, again, who many Democratic primary voters wanted to support, because he was speaking their language and gleefully throwing insults in the teeth of a president they hated, but also a candidate whose weaknesses were obvious enough that he couldn’t finally make the sale.

But whereas Dean wasn’t often attacked from the left during the 2004 race (save over his professed desire to be the candidate of “guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks”), Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are all happy to exploit Perry’s ideological deviations, which left the Texas governor taking fire from the center and the right alike last night. Maybe this will just toughen Perry up and make him a more nimble and formidable general election candidate. But he didn’t look particularly nimble or formidable on the CNN stage; he looked overconfident and ill-prepared."

Indeed. Perry could replace "Yaaaarrrrggghhhhh" with a couple of verses from "Dixie".

[Boatbuilder]

So I guess we'll mark you down as a big fan of crony capitalism, Ben. I thought that you were an opponent of corporate fat cats siphoning off billions of taxpayer dollars through political connections. Guess I figured wrong. No big deal if it might make the home team look bad.

[Ranger]

And your Libya update:

Anti-Gaddafi forces 'in retreat'

Anti-Gaddafi forces have been forced to pull back from Bani Walid after meeting fierce resistance from those loyal to the ousted Libyan leader.

Days, not weeks indeed...

[Benjamin Franklin]

"So I guess we'll mark you down as a big fan of crony capitalism, Ben. I thought that you were an opponent of corporate fat cats siphoning off billions of taxpayer dollars through political connections. Guess I figured wrong. No big deal if it might make the home team look bad."

You (and Maguire) would have a lot more credibility if your outrage at Corporate Welfare were Bi-Partisan. As it is; you ring hollow when
you rage at only the Democratic Machine.

[Benjamin Franklin]

http://consortiumnews.com/2011/09/16/dick-cheney-son-of-the-new-deal/

Exclusive: Dick Cheney is an inspiration to right-wing Republicans set on dismantling the New Deal and getting rid of as many government jobs as possible. But Cheney’s memoir traces his success in life back to the security created by the federal programs of Franklin Roosevelt, writes Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

Former Vice President Dick Cheney would agree that he is about as right-wing as an American politician can be, openly hostile to the federal government’s intervention in society except perhaps for protections on gay rights, an issue that affects his family.

But one surprise from his memoir, In My Time, is that Cheney recognizes that his personal success was made possible by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal and the fact that Cheney’s father managed to land a steady job with the federal government.

“I’ve often reflected on how different was the utterly stable environment he provided for his family and wondered if because of that I have been able to take risks, to change directions, and to leave one career path for another with hardly a second thought,” Cheney writes.

In that sense, Cheney’s self-assuredness may be as much a product of the New Deal as the many bridges, dams and other public works that Roosevelt commissioned in the 1930s to get Americans back to work. By contrast, the insecurity that afflicted Cheney’s father was a byproduct of the "