The Dash To Dumb (Ongoing...)

The morning is young but I'll bet this will be the silliest thing I read today, or maybe this year [and let's pull it back out of the memory hole rather than letting it slink away in shame].  The military effecting a civilized, bloodless coup because they don't like the current leadership?  The United States military?  They have spent over two hundred years not doing that, and they have far too much pride and honor to start now.

I'll worry about more plausible disasters, like the Yankees flying to the wrong city and forfeiting a playoff game.

AND ECHOING FROM A MOUNTAIN ON THE LEFT:  Via Matt Drudge, Gore Vidal sees the US drifting towards a military dictatorship, but the timing is not specified:

Today religious mania has infected the political bloodstream and America has become corrosively isolationist, he says. “Ask an American what they know about Sweden and they’d say ‘They live well but they’re all alcoholics’. In fact a Scandinavian system could have benefited us many times over.” Instead, America has “no intellectual class” and is “rotting away at a funereal pace. We’ll have a military dictatorship fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together. Obama would have been better off focusing on educating the American people. His problem is being over-educated. He doesn’t realise how dim-witted and ignorant his audience is. Benjamin Franklin said that the system would fail because of the corruption of the people and that happened under Bush.”

Comments

[JM Hanes]

PUK:

"OK you fashionistas - Of you go!"

Guess it falls to me to do the honors, though others will doubtless join in after cocktails. I have to say: What he said!
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In this round, how can even Obama out outré Oprah?
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She's seems to have lost control of her shawl, but she's definitely bagged the gold.

BTW, beach babes aren't the only attraction south of the border. If I were on the Olympic Committee, Brazil would have me at Pele (©)*

*Suggested shorthand for dibs, not soccer.

[hit and run]

The Two Most Powerful Women in the World:

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/ap/20090930/capt.47ce4da46e39462083358275d8c0a7e6.denmark_olympic_2016_bids_chicago_dnkd108.jpg>

Sorry, Michelle, you're just a prop.

[PeterUK]

Hey! She took her own dumbells.

[centralcal]

I am really, really ticked. I have seen photos (not merely those posted here) around the web of Michelle, Oprah, and Valerie - in NONE of them are they wearing matching, or coordinating outfits! Also, none of the outfits seem anywhere close to the winning designer suit, we viewed just a day or two ago.

More money spent. More money wasted. I am sure they realized they would look utterly rediculous in the same clothing in photos - since they are such varied body types. Just irks me that I am missing all sorts of snarking fun, and Ann/JMH photos provoking same.

Bah humbug!

[hit and run]

JMH:
If I were on the Olympic Committee, Brazil would have me at Pele (©)*

Well, I almost posted this yesterday. Swear on a stack of beer cases, Pele was in my dream two nights ago.

He called me, helping a company that was recruiting me. I gushed over the phone how as a kid I did bicycle kicks in my backyard emulating his signature move.

I have no idea why he was in my dream. There is no conscious reason he should have been...I certainly hadn't made the connection between Rio-Brazil-Pele.

But I think I'll go check monster.com to see if Brazil has any last minute lobbying positions open for helping Rio land the 2016 games.

It could have been a sign.

[Neo]

Not even a "stern" letter ...

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has thanked Iran for providing the agency with information about the construction of its new pilot enrichment plant.

[clarice]

Why, cc? When I see Michelle and Oprah I think T and A--not on the same person but nevertheless......

[John Doe]

Tom: Perry is a rightwingNUT because he advocated a coup and called Obama a Marxist. Being a rightwinger does not make someone a nut. Advocating nutty things while being a rightwinger makes someone a rightwingnut. You are paranoid.

[Rick Ballard]

T & A? 'Hubba, hubba, look at the blubba' is more like it.

[hit and run]

Clarice:
Why, cc?

Because centralcal is the one that found the huffpo article claiming they were coordinating their outfits.

When I see Michelle and Oprah I think T and A--not on the same person but nevertheless......

Man, I've been waiting y-e-a-r-s for this, and after that it is finally justified. Um, come here Clarice...

***THWACK***

[VIMH: Did that feel as good as you always imagined?]
Oh yeah, better than even you ever imagined.

[Elliott]

in NONE of them are they wearing matching, or coordinating outfits!

I think Friday is the day the uniforms go on.

[Elliott]

Is Obama going to wear his Occidental boater with the gray slacks-blue blazer ensemble?

[PeterUK]

More glamorous pictures from the Olympic bid.

[clarice]

(I have my new keyboard. Can you tell?)
Calerie Jarrett looks rather relaxed. Guess she hasn't read big government yet.
I'm pretty sure she's NEXT.

Ooooohh , Hit.

[PeterUK]

Obama in uniform.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Don't you suppose, Sara that those latest votes are to provide cover for the blue dogs to vote against this pig?

This pig as you call it, is so screwed up at this point, I no longer have a good grasp of what is what or who is what and I tore up my scorecard in disgust about a month ago. :)

[JM Hanes]

PUK:

"It would be an interesting exercise to se how many of Team Obama belong to other organisations"

You're in luck! Just this afternoon, I decided to map out the interconnected web of lefty organizations with their own stove-pipes into the West Wing:
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As you can see, the Greens and the Reds are well represented.

[clarice]

jmh, that's just what we needed--a clear graph and some scientific evidence.

[Extraneus]

I cas anyone hasn't seen the BigGovernment stuff about the abandoned ACORN PCs in Oklahoma...

Investigators found computers, hard drives, documents, registration forms, I-9 employment information and boxes with return addresses to ACORN’s New Orleans home office, as well as a regional IRS office last October.

From the hard drives, it seems ACORN wasn't necessarily living up to is non-political obligations:

“Therefore, the route to power is twofold: First, build powerful city organizations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa that can control these municipalities. Second, become an influential organization by shaping a handful of strategic legislative districts that, by themselves, can change who controls the state legislature.”

“(W)e will be seen as the force that is making Oklahoma a progressive state in the way that it was 100 years ago.”

“By using this power to win significant changes for working people, by the end of our 5 years, we will have legitimized the progressive takeover of the statehouse and head into 2012 with a real possibility of changing what Oklahomans look for and expect out of their Congressional delegation.”

Under a subsection titled “Politics and Elections,” in 2007 and 2008, ACORN was looking to take over State Senate District 43, which they referred to as “the biggest prize,” in hopes of unseating Republican Sen. Jim Reynolds. This district includes part of Del City, abuts Tinker Air Force Base, and portions of southern Oklahoma City and northern Cleveland County.

There's plenty of juicy stuff, such as

“(W)e will be seen as the force that is making Oklahoma a progressive state in the way that it was 100 years ago.”

and

“We’re hiring for people to go door to door talking to registered voters in Houston to get out the vote for Barack.”

Etc.

[Captain Hate]

Calerie Jarrett

LOL; her less than the others....

[bishop]

Just when you think they are too easy to parody, they reach for the extra rung, in the LUN

[daddy]

Amazing Bishop Such sacrifice from our Leaders.

OT Local Anchorage stuff.

Wonderful news. Last night at a Council meeting amazingly a Dem turned and made the vote 6 - 5 to allow a city Lawyer to investigate allegations that Begich deceived the public and City Council by withholding deficit forecasts so as to get Council Members to vote for super-expensive Union contracts.

The big moment was a wonderful 8 minute speech by Conservative Council Member Coffee, laying out how Begich purposely withheld info to accomplish this. Investigators have already found that the City's Chief Financial Officer has apparently deleted all the sent e-mails from her work computer so that besides the single smoking gun memo we have from her, until subpoena powers are granted to tear open her hard drive (if it hasn't yet been scrubbed clean) we'll have we to wait a bit, but at least it's moving up the chain.

All this was entirely ignored last night on all 3 News Channels and by the ADN, all of which had reporters there yesterday. Now it is slowly seeping out but they are still playing Begich apologist as hard as they can.">http://www.adn.com/3559/story/954595.html"> (ADN), though it's getting awfully tough to ignore, now that that single DEM, Patrick Flynn, crossed the aisle to vote to not squelch an investigation. (He has self-serving ambitions himself, so I think this is amove to ingratiate himself with an angry public at the expense of his less sharp and more corrupt Dem cronies, but that's a different story)
Talk radio is the sole thing keeping this alive, but the furor is growing. I am optimistic that if we can keep this going we are going to find that the true Senatorial Candidate in the last Election that was a bonafide crook was Begich, not Stevens.

Anyhow, I do hope JOM'ers don't mind me doing these asides about local stuff. Please tell me if they are out of line and I will try to find a different way of getting the info out there without clobbering threads.

[Extraneus]

Not out of line at all, daddy. Please carry on.

[Bill in AZ]

I don't see how government corruption at the highest levels is Off Topic on any of these threads daddy - keep posting as you find it.

[bishop]

passive voice, in the third person no less, these folks at the Daily News have no shame,
then again, we've known that since last August 29th.

[Ann]

Why, cc? When I see Michelle and Oprah I think T and A--not on the same person but nevertheless......

ROFLMAO, Clarice: That was special! :)

[clarice]

Thanks, Ann. When you aren't around, I feel a need to step up to the plate.

[PD]

For fans of Amity Shlaes' Forgotten Man, I recommend also reading What Social Classes Owe To Each Other, but William Graham Sumner. He's the one who came up with the term "the forgotten man," and this is the book in which he explains it.

Got mine from Better World Books, cheap.

[PD]

daddy, keep up the Alaska updates.

[Ranger]

I am optimistic that if we can keep this going we are going to find that the true Senatorial Candidate in the last Election that was a bonafide crook was Begich, not Stevens.

Posted by: daddy | September 30, 2009 at 09:45 PM

What are the chances of an actual criminal complaint being filed by either the city or the state? Sounds like a case of deliberate fraud to buy union support for his senate race. If he worked with the Chief Financial Officer to do this, then its conspiracy as well.

[daddy]

Ranger,

Long way to go yet. It was pulling teeth to get a vote just to get a City Attorney to now review these contracts, but to even get that limits were placed on what he could initially look at by the Lone Dem who voted with the Repub's to look into the darn thing. I don't know who this attorney is, but if public anger keeps this alive and he actually finds something, then he has the option to come back in front of the council for another vote to then give him enhanced powers to investigate this situation. The 8 minute speech by the assemblymen Repub Coffee that convinced the lone Dem to support the vote last night was played on all the radio stations today was powerful and he was all over the radio. The Begich supporters are trying very hard to say Begich didn't have to release a memo from his Chief Finance Officer that said if we approve such contracts we may go 30 to 100 million in the hole. He is maintaining that he followed what the Law required him toreveal, and his supporters are saying that sort of by osmosis everybody knew the budget situation already. That has been flatly contradicted even by half the Dem Council members, but we can't do anything until we get answers from this newly empowered attorney. It's wait and see time. The sad thing is that even with all this Begich stuff that should be generating big headlines, instead 2 story's about Sarah's new book are above it in the paper, and ">http://community.adn.com/adn/node/143825"> this one discusses the National exposure 2 local enemies of Sarah are now getting on the HiffPost and on MSNBC as RachelMadow guests enlisted to hammer Sarah' new book.

So all in all the Anti-Sarah campaign is alive and well and roaring down the highway, while the investigation of Begich is just tottering along on baby steps and is dependent on an unknown City Attorney's report due in mid November. And thanks folks for letting me know this stuff is of interest.

[Tom Bowler]

JMH,

Now that the Perry howler has been disappeared, TM could just redirect his link to your Perry bio. From Get-A-Job.com, Exercise #1: Turning your life as a gopher into a resumé.

TM's taking resumés??

[pagar]

""It would be an interesting exercise to se how many of Team Obama belong to other organisations""

The NewZeal Blog and RBO have shown that all the lines connect to people in the White House from DSA, the New Party, the Working Families/ACORN/SEIU.

"Considerable attention has been focused on Gaspard’s ties to the radical community group ACORN.

This post looks at Gaspard’s ties to the groups behind ACORN–the groups that helped President Obama during his Chicago days–Democratic Socialists of America and the Communist Party offshoot Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. "

LUN

RBO also has the Glenn Beck show highlighting Valerie Jarrett.

[Jane]

Clarice we got that one right - about Jarrett

[clarice]

Breitbart always signals where he's going next..and you ought to believe what he says about that.