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December 15, 2008

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Appalled

1. Did Obama ever have a rep as a corruption buster? I missed that part of his campaign. Or did we elect John McCain and the news media is afraid to tell us? Obama's appeal, in part, was that he was an outsider who did not really seem to be an outsider, and knew about the nastier elements of politics, while remaining remote from it.

2. We have absolutely no idea what approach was taken to Obama's people. This is not part of Fitz's filing. We have a lot of chatter about the auction they want to conduct. But no real data. Somehow, I don't think change.gov is going to add to our store of knowledge.

Rich Berger

Tom-

I definitely loose respect for web polls that cannot get the spelling correct. And Appalled's analysis - anytime.

kim

I'm tellin' ya, 'loose' is entering the lexicon for 'lose'.
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Appalled

RB:

A small thing, but don't make typos in posts that complain about spelling.

kim

I've seen it everywhere, Appalled; I think the language is evolving.

There is something contradictory about releasing the essence of a report without releasing the details. Something doesn't smell right, and maybe this is more ham-handed damage control from Team Obama. They probably know Fitz won't contradict them, not wanting to wage war in the newspapers.

Developing.......
==========================

Sue

Guilt by looking guilty is all that is required. Isn't that the standard applied to Bush/Cheney, et al?

kim

It's too bad, because 'loose' is a lovely verb in its own right, but less commonly used now than it used to be, probably because no one knows what it means anymore.
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narciso

No, Kim, it's devolving much like Orwell predicted, in 1984; by a character who gets caught up in his supercilious sophistry.

ben

"Did Obama ever have a rep as a corruption buster?"

Appalled you were asleep while on your knees, not an easy task even for a sycophantic adulator. Obama's whole mantra of hope and change has been that he is "clean" (Biden's own words) and the shining knight who would clear the country of the "Republican culture of corruption". The fact that his political career has been spent swimming in the Chicago cesspool of corruption went unnoticed in the basking of Obamamessiahnism but the feel good part of his campaign is over. I don't agree with TM that nobody is criminally liable in the Obama camp, only that they probably won't be prosecuted. But that Obama's holier than thou image has been pierced and the teflon has been scratched, that's a given.

kim

It smells too much like stalling for time. Were the details out, reporters can follow it up.

I'm interested because it may become the 'modus operandi' of the new administration: Put out the spin, delay the details until the spin has become entrenched and no one is interested in following up the details anymore. Thank God blogs were invented in the nick of time.
=================================

Sue

It sounds to me like he his releasing while he is in Hawaii on vacation. Will he drag grandma back out to further keep the reporters at bay?

Sue

Hmmm...releasing the information. I have no idea where that went, it was there when I hit post.

Semanticleo

"I guess a release late on the 24th will be fine, then."

It may be a duel event, with Libby's pardon occurring simultaneously, to a slumbering electorate.

What an ironic juxtaposition...

kim

Dueling narratives?
============

Semanticleo

'dual' wiseass...

PeterUK

"It may be a duel event, with Libby's pardon occurring simultaneously, to a slumbering electorate."

You're making shit up again Septic,stand by for the size tens.

kim

::grin::
===

kim

Libby's pardon will come late, and may actually be a relief to Fitz. Surely, on some level, he know he screwed up on that one. I've finally come to the opinion it was to get even with Libby for Rich.
========================================

Danube of Thought

Let's litigate "inappropriate" for a while, shall we?

I, too, don't recall his saying very much during the campaign about fighting corruption, and perhaps we now know why. Nevertheless, it's wonderful to have his sycophants already disclaiming any intention on his part to do so, even before the inauguration.

Healing the planet, racial harmony, rolling back the tides--all in four years' work. (OK, I guess he's already said it might take eight.) But if you're angry about such matters as graft, deceit and corruption right under our noses, this is not the proper Messiah for you. You'll have to wait for the Third Coming.

RichatUF

Sue-

Isn't that the standard applied to Bush/Cheney, et al?

At least Fitz is giving Team Zero a chance to get their story straight. Will probably give them a nice Christmas gift about how helpful and forthright they have been.

Extraneus

OT, but I know there are some Iowahawk fans here. His latest is a best-of collection commemorating his 5-year anniversary.

Five Year Plan Fails

kim

Sun Cycle 24 still isn't ramping up. The sun is spotless. Dalton Minimum here we come. He'll have to change his tune about climate, sooner or later.
======================================

Barbara

I've seen it everywhere, Appalled; I think the language is evolving.

Talk about evolving. It's like the muddled use of I and me, who and whom.

No one ever gets it wright.

Danube of Thought

A duel event? Sabers, epees or pistols?

ben

"knew about the nastier elements of politics, while remaining remote from it."

Right, why don't you take a dive into a septic tank and try coming out smelling like a rose. I will finance your laundry bill for the experiment, unless you prefer diving in naked.

PeterUK

"A duel event?"

Shoes.

kim

Too bad the Smoker couldn't get Zach Reynolds Rocket Car; it only sold for $375,000. In that post he's got a picture of a pick-up that runs on crude oil. Sweet!
============================

clarice

"Did someone say pistols? "she said ,lifting her head off the zinc bar and checking the dagger in her garter.

Hedley

Ahh! Lili,Lili Lili.

ben

Oh oh, I thought Appalled wasn't deemed a troll and therefore interactions were sanctioned...

clarice

PUK --erh I mean Hedley--got it right, Ben. I'm poking fun at the duel notion, not at Appalled.

ben

Yeah Clarice, was just buying time so I could get this last comment in before being riddled..

Leave it to Semanticleo to equate selling a senate seat to Libby's "crime" that never was. Blago-Rahm talks are Page 41 in the NYT, while McCain's aide being "concerned about him having an affair" that he wasn't having ten years prior was a blaring front page article.

PeterUK

Obama assembles his team,

"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murders, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con-men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglars, horse thieves, bull-dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, sh**-kickers, and Methodists!"

Extraneus

"You said rapists twice."

ben

Obama assembles his team:

What? No eco-nazis, spotted owlers, tree huggers, climagroupies, furbashers and petanuts?

PeterUK

"What? No eco-nazis, spotted owlers, tree huggers, climagroupies, furbashers and petanuts?"

No they all froze to death.

ben

Foxnews:

"URGENT: Caroline Kennedy retains powerful political consulting firm to assist in her bid for Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton's Senate seat"

Just asking...if you pay $$$$ to a consulting firm other cannot afford to get yourself is that the kind of hope and change Obama is selling? Second question: if she is "bidding" does the highest bidder win?

JM Hanes

Well $%*&! I just pulled my Chicago Trib comment from the end of the &$T#W Sunday thread and posted it at the end of the #@&^! Monday thread.

topsecretk9

Fitzgerald confirms request for delay in Obama report
Associated Press - December 15, 2008 6:44 PM ET

CHICAGO (AP) - U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald today confirmed that his office asked President-elect Barack Obama to delay release of an internal presidential transition-team investigation.

Obama said today that he's holding off release of a review from his own lawyer that shows Obama had no direct contact with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Obama said he's doing so at the request of federal prosecutors.

Fitzgerald says he asked Obama to delay release so that Fitzgerald's office could conduct certain interviews.

Danube of Thought

The New York haggling is great spectacle. Obviously Obama would prefer Kennedy and Hillary would prefer anyone but Kennedy, all by reason of Caroline's endorsement of O. So who will have greater influence on Paterson? (Not asked with a straight face...)

Do we have a convention against responding to trolls? If so, I will happily abide by it henceforth. I couldn't resist with the certifiable loony TCO or whatever his name is, but I'm very pleased to ignore these fools entirely if that's the consensus.

Extraneus

The qualifications for the job of Senator from NY seem particularly low, even on today's historically low scale. I would think this bodes exceedingly well for Michelle's bid to take Barak's seat.

kim

Missstickley at Texas Darlin' makes a point similar to TSk9's that is that holding up the release of the internal report keeps the two sides from knowing what is going on. Releasing those details, true or not, would create a blueprint for the rest to follow. I'm beginning to see the value of not releasing the details, particularly from Fitz's point of view.
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Extraneus

When the history of Obama's historic election is taken up by the looming cadre of Presidential historians, Caroline's pick of Biden will no doubt figure quite large.

PeterUK

"Obama said today that he's holding off release of a review from his own lawyer that shows Obama had no direct contact with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich."

Yes,and Adolph wasn't at Wannsee.I guess he wasn't important enough to be in the loop.

A Troll

The delay is to enable the Fitz-Obama team to make certain every word in the report is kosher. Obama ends up squeaky clean and the MSM claps in unison. Merry Christmas.

JM Hanes

ben:

"Second question: if she is "bidding" does the highest bidder win?"

More important question: If she is "bidding," where is the U.S. Atty?

P.S. Regardless of any genuflection elsewhere, Appalled is a member in good standing of the JOM community -- one whose former screen name included "Moderate" which always struck me as appropriate and one of the few contrarians who is willing to post here despite being slighted on a fairly regular basis.

JM Hanes

"Findings first, then investigation?"

You, of all people TM, don't recognize the Fitz model? File the Complaint first, then use it to open up your can of worms.

Fitz must be crazy thrilled to get Obama's entire staff on record without even having to issue a subpoena. I think we can see how this is going to shape up, no? We just don't know which side the witnesses to be impeached are sitting on.

Pal2Pal (Sara)

Hillary hasn't resigned her Senate seat yet, I don't think. She would be stupid to until she knows for sure she is confirmed as SoS. I think she will face a rough confirmation both politically and with Constitutional legal challenges. I seriously doubt that Caroline is on Hillary's short list or any Hillary list.

ben

JM Hanes

I think Appalled is a kool-aid drinking Obamabot who dropped the "moderate" because to keep it would have been incredible chutzpah. But I am sure your role as wingman is appreciated.

Terry Gain

I don't trust this prosecutor. Why didn't he just let the thing play out and see how high the corruption would go?

A premature prosecution to protect a putative president, perhaps?

Pal2Pal (Sara)

Today authorities confirmed that the fire was started by an arsonist:

Whoever torched Gov. Sarah Palin's home church tried to start fires in several places around the building, the federal agency assisting in the investigation said today.

Accelerants were found in multiple locations on the outside of Wasilla Bible Church, including around entrances and exits, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

ben

"Why didn't he just let the thing play out and see how high the corruption would go?"

Conventional wisdom has it that the Tribune jumped the gun and forced his hand, but who knows?

Extraneus

Even VelVel would agree that Fitz should be fired, now, by Bush.

JM Hanes

The Trib has a vested interest in Count 2, and it looks rather like they had a counter interest vested in Count 1.

JM Hanes

Just be glad I don't pack pistolas, ben.

Pal2Pal (Sara)

Via Dan Riehl on Caroline Kennedy:

Even the Left isn't pleased and Gawker is making jokes. She's relying on her family connections political network. God bless the ruling elite. 

One can argue as to whether or not she's ever had a real job an average American could could relate to. And then there's this:

She is one of the founders (and still presenter) of the Profiles in Courage Award, given annually since 1990 to a person who exemplifies the type of courage examined in her father's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name.

The award is generally given to elected officials who, acting in accord with their conscience, risk their careers by pursuing a larger vision of the national, state or local interest in opposition to popular opinion or powerful pressures from their constituents.

Winner - 2006 - John Murtha

PD

I like that spelling, "the Transition" - complete with royal capitalization.

ben

"Just be glad I don't pack pistolas, ben."

Finally some good news.

ben

"Whoever torched Gov. Sarah Palin's home church tried to start fires in several places around the building, the federal agency assisting in the investigation said today"

I blame hate speech by Obama and the Democrats.

PeterUK

Ben
JMHanes is more of your samurai sword person.You don't notice until your head falls off.

ben

"JMHanes is more of your samurai sword person.You don't notice until your head falls off."

I take back the good news part in that case.

JM Hanes

The indefatigable Sara also reported that there is a grand jury looking at Bill Richardson in New Mexico! This is starting to be serious fun. Does anybody have a handy copy of all those Clinton friends and officials who were indicted or jailed? It looks like Obama may be going after the Clintons' record on that score too.

matt

of course it's a stall. Fitz has more fish to catch, and any tipoffs may jeopardize the investigation.All someone needs is a name, or a web of names, to start putting 2 + 2 together.....

As to Obama, he's a product of the Chicago machine and master of its politics. Not sure if he could stay clean if he wanted to. Way too much mud at the bottom of that pond.

Rezko, Blagojevich, et all are now going to be dumping all over each other seeking deals. Maybe the Madigans go down too. Illinois politics is a disgrace. Read "The Man who Emptied Death Row". It's the same cast of players.

I think Daly may finally get taken down. And if nothing else, I think this will hurt or cripple Obama when he talks about reform and change. A long way for this train to run.

matt

shouldn't Caroline be crowned Queen of Massachusetts when her uncle ascends to Heaven?

PD

Did Obama ever have a rep as a corruption buster?

Well, sure. It runs throughout that deep and wide record of accomplishment of his. What, you missed it?

JM Hanes

LOL. PUK is my favorite!

peter

OT, China deals with its financial scandals somewhat more, oh, expeditiously than the US:

China has executed a businessman convicted of bilking thousands of investors out of $416 million in a bogus ant-breeding scheme, state media reported Thursday. The official Xinhua news agency said Wang Zhendong, who had been found guilty of fraud and sentenced to death in February 2007, was executed in Liaoning Province on Wednesday.

Wang, chairman of Yingkou Donghua Trading Group, had promised returns of up to 60 percent for investors who purchased ant-breeding kits from two companies he ran.

Ants are used in some traditional Chinese medicinal remedies, which can fetch a high price. Wang sold the kits, which cost $25, for $1,300, the local news media reported earlier.

H/T Steve Sailer (LUN)

JM Hanes

matt:

"Not sure if he could stay clean if he wanted to."

The man is incapable of uttering a declarative sentence that can't be turned upside down or inside out. I'm not sure he even has personal friends. He is that detached, from everything.

Rick Ballard

If we hold a "Dumbest Living Kennedy" contest, where would Caroline fall?

Is she dumber than Kathleen Townsend?

Robert Jr.?

Patrick?

What bugs me is that we know that the MA seat is going to one of these dweebs. If Caroline is given NY then we'll have two Kennedy halfwits in the Senate rather than the one three quarter wit we have now.

JM Hanes

I denounce myself for saying this, Rick, but the Kennedy women seem to be smarter than the men.

ben

"China has executed a businessman convicted of bilking thousands of investors out of $416 million in a bogus ant-breeding scheme, state media reported Thursday"

Madoff will be hoping he has no clients in China and/or a good extradition avoiding attorney after seeing the fate of Wang Zhendong (redundant name btw).

Rick Ballard

You have potted plants which are smarter than the Kennedy men, JMH. If we could figure out how to test protozoa we could probably come up with some decent competition for an intelligence competition with Patrick Kennedy.

Rick Ballard

decent contestants for an intelligence competition

Dmaned perveiw isn't working again.

matt

one thing to remember about Obama and his clique is that they are all lawyers. The dissemble in every utterance.

Porter

The internal report would probably be written by Craig, with the follow up questions handled by Lanny Davis. It probably was written to give cover for Rahm, the guy hanging on the bumper waiting for a diagnosis of "feditis".

This investigation has two branches now, one in Illinois, and the the other in Chicago (Blago at home, and Obama in the Dirksen Federal Building in the South Loop). I believe, with no evidence in my hands other than my own gut (unmortgaged, by the way), that Rahm is the next guest star in this drama. Mr. Fitzgerald's request for a "hold" on any internal report is solely to keep the President-elect from putting himself on record as an obliging idiot. If he's on tape, and he may well be, it's a request to stop digging.

There is a great line-up of Mr. Fitzgerald's convictions and indictments in the SunTimes today. The names, largely, won't mean anything except to a local. But the count is pretty good as far as hooking Illinois pols.

LUN (I'm figuring this stuff out still)

Porter

Mr. Ballard-

But isn't the Dumbest Kennedy contest a subset of the Darwin Awards?

peter

Oh, I don't know about that, matt, lawyers don't have a monopoly on dissembling.

Rick Ballard

Judge Grants Madoff Investors SIPC Protection

That just screwed every trader of US stocks in the entire world. Stock traders pay for SIPC coverage in their transaction costs. I suppose there is an argument which could be made concerning Madoff's transactions being covered but there don't appear to have been very many transactions (other than deposits and withdrawals) involved.

Elliott

JMHanes is more of your samurai sword person.

Quassabre.

PaulL

****China deals with its financial scandals somewhat more, oh, expeditiously than the US****

I wish we did it too. I hate hearing, after thefts and frauds, that "at least nobody was hurt." Didn't horse thieves used to swing from ropes? But modern day thieves of a billion dollars should get only a few years in federal prison, because they didn't hurt anybody?

C.R.

"Findings first, then investigation?"

RE: JM Hanes' 7:29 post: "You, of all people TM, don't recognize the Fitz model? File the Complaint first, then use it to open up your can of worms.

Fitz must be crazy thrilled to get Obama's entire staff on record without even having to issue a subpoena. I think we can see how this is going to shape up, no? We just don't know which side the witnesses to be impeached are sitting on."

Exactly right, I think.

C.R.

Matt -

"shouldn't Caroline be crowned Queen of Massachusetts when her uncle ascends to Heaven?"

I'll vote for that. Oh, wait, you don't get to vote for monarchs (or Senators either at this point).

Extraneus

Did Obama ever have a rep as a corruption buster?

Doesn't he make the claim himself? Can't search for a link right now, but I believe I just read yesterday how "no one's done more to" deal with ethics in politics than Obama has in the past few years. Something along those lines, I'm almost sure of it.

Oh, here's some evidence.

Obama Applauds Senate Ethics Reform Package

Obama said the bill will significantly help change the way politics is conducted and policy is pursued in Washington, and will help put the public interest ahead of any special interest.
Maybe no one's done more to applaud "ethics reform"? Anyway, he's obviously a corruption buster extrodinaire. I'm sure the Presidential historians will make note of that.

Rick Ballard

Porter,

John Jr. did win a Darwin for his misapplication of "Kennedys are above the law" to gravity. Aside from that, their complete pickling gives them remarkable resilience. They seem almost like flatworms in their ability to regenerate the semblance of normality.

peter

"Blogging" can be so useful. LUN

centralcal

JMHanes:

The indefatigable Sara also reported that there is a grand jury looking at Bill Richardson in New Mexico! This is starting to be serious fun.

Harrumph, you are both late to the Monday F-ng party. Didn't you get your invitations?

Monday O'Blagging


Pal2Pal (Sara)

Rasmussen:

45% Suspect Obama Team Involved in Blagojevich Scandal

Captain Hate

They seem almost like flatworms in their ability to regenerate the semblance of normality.

I thought I'd have to wait for heaven to find entities that held the Kennedys in such deserved low regard.

Danube of Thought

"If we hold a 'Dumbest Living Kennedy' contest, where would Caroline fall?"

The "living" part makes this kind of a trick question. If you include "others," my pick to click would be the one who assumed room temperature after skiing into a tree. Good God, we've all seen Daffy Duck do that one a hundred times and survive.

centralcal

oooooh, DoT, you brought back memories of Sonny Bono too.

I've Got You Babe.

PD

re: the "Blogging" link.

Wow. Just wow.

One or two of these are just goofy. The cumulative weight of one after another after another leads to dizzying heights of absurdity.

bad

My eldest is curious as to why Caroline Kennedy looks like John Kerry in drag.

fdcol63

Rasmussen:

45% Suspect Obama Team Involved in Blagojevich Scandal

And tomorrow's polls will show, unfortunately, that 98% of those people don't give a damn.

They still believe that Obama is The One.

Danube of Thought

Also among the "others" category, there's the one who OD'd on Mexican brown in some shithole motel in Miami Beach.

But confining ourselves to the living, two who immediately come to mind are the estimable rapist and woman-beater W. Kennedy Smith, and the so-called "Kennedy cousin" who's now doing a stretch on a murder beef--made all the more delicious because Detective Fuhrman played a material part in his comeuppance. (He's actually only a cousin to a single strand of those lice, but what the hell--if it's good enough for the press, it's good enough for me, I always say.)

And which one was it who got caught shtupping the 14-year-old au pair? And was there or wasn't there a newborn child involved?

This is a tough one indeed...

fdcol63

Well, the best Kennedys are those who haven't worn out their welcome.

matt

Rick, aw, that's cold...and so true....

as to the coronation, my point exactly....we've had enough of multigenerational politics....no more of the dynasties, please...unless there's another Adams out there who qualifies....No more Roosevelts or Clintons, or Kennedys or even Bushes....at least for 50 or so years....let them revivify their gene pools for a while, and then only under duress should we consider them.

bad

Steve Diamond has an informative post on Obama, Balanoff, Blago, Stern and SEIU.

LUN

bad

American Thinker on Michelle Obama:

Here's a partial list from her resume:

Service Learning Initiatives, Day of Service and Reflection, Adopt-A-School programs, Principal for a Day and Real Men Cook celebrations.

Ouch

LUN

Sounds like a $300,000.00 agenda to me! Seriously, most of these "accomplishments" sound exactly like the Eagle Scout projects completed by my son's Boy Scout Troop! The difference being my son and his friends didn't charge the local hospital.

bad

sorry for the farmatting issues in previous post. "Ouch" and "LUN" are me. Everything else is AT.

bad

The Pork Hall of Fame is fascinating.

LUN

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Wilson/Plame