Now Gates Is Dubious About Afghanistan

Per the WSJ Sec Def Gates is doubtful that more troops are the answer in Afghanistan.  As a Bush holdover with success in Iraq Gates ought to have good credibilty with the right.  We will see.

Comments

[RichatUF]

She wore THAT to a formal occasion. YIKE.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I'm thinkin' "Rainbow Sherbet".

[pagar]

". "But now Sen. DeMint refuses to let the nominations of two distinguished public servants even be considered on the floor of the Senate."

I'd like to see the Republicans put a hold on any Democrat nominee. I don't see a single one of them that deserves a dollar in Federal pay.

[centralcal]

Woo Hoo - you showed up just in time Ann! I am about to go have dinner (my hours are so behind all you other JOMers), but whaddaya think about The Lady is a Tramp?

Actually, MaBelle's choice of attire was not as bad as we have seen on several other occasions, but it was definitely a "LOOK AT ME" screaming gown. No?

[pagar]

Bishop, best lun of the night!

[Ann]

cc, Have a nice evening. The music was so very appropriate! However, the Gold Olympic dress and arms made me think of the theme song to Rocky!

Ha, please let Rio win!!!

[centralcal]

Okay, I have had cocktails before I ate my dinner, but did you all hear Greta announce that David Letterman admitted to having "sexual relations" with several of his staffers on his show tonight?

Am I hallucinating, or is everyone on the left imploding?

[bgates]

David Letterman admitted to having "sexual relations" with several of his staffers on his show tonight

Is it sweeps week already?

[Sue]

How obvious is it that Chicago is going to get the gold? Can they be anymore blatant about it?

[bgates]

And thank you Ann, for answering the question, "What would it look like if a Rolo candy became First Lady of the United States?"

[Melinda Romanoff]

Sue-

I really don't want to evacuate my office tomorrow, so I hope not. But I got some interesting local biz sleaze I'll share tomorrow night, if it does. AON.

G'night all.

(no typo...)

[Ann]

cc,

I just posted about that on the previous thread.

Malkin tweets: Maybe Letterman will shut up and leave the Palin family alone now

Snarkandboobs tweets: Obvious Letterman hashtag: #stupidhumantricks

ha ha ha ha ha

[JM Hanes]

"Olympic Gold Home Coming Dress"

LOL! Mme. Mots Justes! The pop bead multi-brooches were the perfect finishing touch -- of, by & for the children!

We've got baubles for the grownups too.....

.....because you've sacrificed so much.

[Gregory Koster]

Dear bgates: good eye, but why didn't you post the video of the Bellies of the Bawl?

[bgates]

GK - I wanted something with the gold foil more prominently displayed.

Michelle Hussein's a Rolo.
Mmm, mmm, mmm.

[PD]

Didn't y'all larn nothin' from the first nearly five years we banged our heads on the mud walls of Iraq.

Not sure it's wise to learn things from people who bang their head against the wall.

[PD]

David Letterman admitted to having "sexual relations" with several of his staffers on his show tonight

He had sex on the show? Whoa.

[Pofarmer]

All right.

LUN.

Proof that LIBS JUST DON'T GET IT.

Detroit: Too broke to bury their dead...

"One way we look back at a culture is how they dispose of their dead," said the county's chief medical examiner, Carl Schmidt, who has been in his position for 15 years. "We see people here that society was not taking care of before they died -- and society is having difficulty taking care of them after they are dead."

When hit upside the head with a cluebat, you just get a blank stare.

[Sue]

LOL.

[Sue]

Well that laugh is totally out of place. Po slipped in ahead of me. The laugh was for PD's post.

[clarice]

This thread is so nasty--I love it.

[JM Hanes]

Why should POTUS & FLOTUS have to make all the sacrifices?

I'm going to Rio! where I will run out the Olympic countdown while it lasts.

Picture Chicago. Picture Rio. D'oh.

[Ann]

Madame JMH, je vous remercie beaucoup!

Love the O's. (Gives a new meaning to The Lord of the Rings)

To bad the Olympic committee is being paid off with stimulus our childrens money because they really need to read about Chicagoland

[PD]

Those of you snarking about MO's Copenhagen duds should be grateful that at least she didn't show up in one of those "With a shirt this awesome, who needs pants?" shirts that shows up on the sidebar occasionally.

[JM Hanes]

Funny, but it didn't seem out of place, Sue.

[JM Hanes]

Sidebar?

[Gregory Koster]

Dear Pofarmer: Thought of applying to BigGrovernment.com? You've just proved that The Once's stimulus isn't working.

How did I land among such bloodthirsty folks inhabiting this thread? Let Rio win the Olympics, and in six weeks The Once will sign an arms deal with Hugo, Hugo to buy a hundred billion bucks of US arms (with money we've "loaned" him) The next day Hugo will invade Brazil, howling about Venezuela's manifest destiny. Amidst the smoking wreckage of Brasilia, Hugo will accept Brazil's surrender, his boot over Prez Lula's throat, while signing over the Olympics to The Once. As a consolation prize, The Once will throw in Honduras. As a consolation prize back, Hugo will rename the new province "Barackzil."

All of this will combat global warming somehow.

Soon to be a minor motion picture.

[clarice]

Niters--I'm hightailing it before the cops show up ..
Rio,huh? Sounds perfect. (Where'd I put that Carmen Miranda hat?)

[sbw]

Is it a multi-lingual pun in Copenhagen to hum 'Blame it on the Boss-O-nuevo'?

[JM Hanes]

Is it racist to blame it on Samba?

[bgates]

Sidebar?

Pants?

[Ann]

(Well, now that Clarice hightailed it! :))

bgates,

You gotta come up with the "Top Ten Reasons" you know you are a liberal.

1. You raped a thirteen year old (Polanski)

2. You and your wife knew about your affair and love child but decided on running for President of the U.S.A by covering it up and convincing everyone your wife was dying.(Edwards)

3. You have sex with your staff (Letterman)

4. The group that got you elected into office gives advice to hookers and pimps. (ACORN)

5. You think beautiful, moral, Christian women are liars, stupid and whores. (Palin)

6. You elect a senator that murdered a woman, make him the senior senator of your state for 46 years, make the taxpayers donate billions to his monument and name the death to America bill after him. (Kennedy)

7. @#$%^ Carter

8. @#$%^& Kerry

9. @#$%^ Harry Reid

10.@#$%^ Nancy Pelosi

11. @#$%^ Schumer

12. @#$% Barney Franks and Ménage à trois Dodd

Oh, nevermind, it would take 60 minutes or a HBO special to get to number ONE.
And to think we let them get away with Foley!

[JM Hanes]

Here's a shortcut for ya, Ann:

You know you're a liberal if you don't know you're a liberal.

[bishop]

That last part was like an old Def Comedy routine there, Ann.

[bgates]

Ann, people from all political backgrounds and none have raped 13-year-old girls.

But if you've defended someone else's rape of a 13-year-old, you're probably a progressive.

Lunatics from across the political spectrum can try to run for office by lying about their personal lives and presenting a false version of their worst behavior as their greatest strength.

But if you get away with it, you've got to be a progressive!

No political faction monopolizes sleeping with the help.

But if most of your self-esteem consists of feeling superior to members of another political faction, because you imagine they are doing the same despicable things that you are, you're almost certainly a progressive.

Anybody could spend decades working closely with a national organization that's so morally bankrupt that most of its members will not only offer to help a pimp run a brothel full of underage sex slaves but try to get him a tax write-off for it.

In theory anybody could do that, I guess, but in real life the only people who do that are progressives.

If you honestly think a woman who owned a small business and raised several kids before (and while) she fought through a corrupt political machine to become the popular governor of a state is a bimbo, you might just not be very bright.

If you meet such a woman and keep slandering her anyway, you must be a dirty progressive whore with a 6-lane wide vagina like Tina Fey.

[Ann]

bgates,

Bravo! Progressive is a better qualifier but it sounds to nice (and no one knows what it means). We need a new term to conjure up the madness of what we are up against. Earlier, I said that "We are not in America anymore, Toto." I feel that way more and more everyday.

Get this:
Amid terror threat, Dems chip away at Patriot Act

It is like aliens have landed and taken over.

Maybe someone can photoshop a string of large pearls on this picture:

And we can call it Predator Pelosi! (I am not being mean. That is a real movie about an alien and it was quite good!)

Maybe, America will get involved if we call it the Patriots vs. Predator game. Sheesh, I am so cynical! And Nancy would be so upset if she knew there was a picture out there on the internet before her botox treatments.

I am going to bed. I promise! Niters!!! :)

[bishop]

How low can these vermin go, you ask, how about trying to deny every triumph, every
success, in this case, suggesting that the
record sales are due to bulk purchases, that's the operative theory at third place
MSNBC

[bishop]

Oh here's another moment of karmic payback,
with the lovely Katie, in the LUN

[matt]

Bishop, my friend.

this illustrates the need for 24/360 envelopment in the news more than anything else. The media can pick and choose data points at will while the agenda is set and redefined at will by people of ill will such as Ahmedinehjad. I truly do not know the answers.

Defining the truth seems to have become a job in itself these days. Once that is established we can argue, but it is a terribly moving target when dealing with the helots.

[JM Hanes]

Obama has more invested in the Olympics than I realized:

Obama’s personal involvement in pushing an American bid is unprecedented for a U.S. president. In addition to being the first president to personally lobby the IOC, Obama established the first-ever White House Olympics office (tapping Jarrett to head it) and recorded several videos seeking support from IOC subcommittees.

Until joining the Obama administration, Jarrett was both vice chairwoman of Chicago 2016, the $49 million nonprofit enterprise created in 2006 to lead the city’s bid, and CEO of The Habitat Co., a real estate company that is among the bidders to build the 3,500-unit Olympic Village.

Though she sold most of her holdings in Habitat real estate, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said Jarrett “was unable to sell” one real estate holding and a self-insurance interest.

“The holdings have nothing to do with the Olympic bid,” said LaBolt, adding that ethics officials “determined these presented no conflict in performing her duties as a White House adviser.”

Penny Pritzker is deep into the pro bono Olympic weeds, of course, along with all the other usual Chicago suspects. "Pritzker’s family also owns or manages a handful of hotels singled out by Chicago 2016 as accommodations for Olympic workers, press and family members."

On the bright side, Tony Blair spent three days in a "flurry of closed-door lobbying of IOC members in the run-up to their vote." He didn't just sweep into town for a glitzy full court public press, and it's easy to see why Daley was concerned that Michelle might not be up to snuff. What an embarrassingly parochial set of remarks! Then there's this little gem:

“If they’re going to add a new sport for the Chicago Olympics, corruption would be a great one — they’re really good at that,” said David Wallechinsky, vice president of the International Society of Olympic Historians, which is meeting in Copenhagen.

He was jus' keeeeding, of course, but with a joke like that making the rounds.....

[Elliott]

Anyone going to live blog the Chicago presentation?

[Elliott]

Okay, The Lovers of Italian Opera, Southside Chapter are all gathered at Rigoletto's the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Committee go before the IOC in Copenhagen shortly. No sight of the uniforms yet.

[JM Hanes]

Are you watching, Elliott?

[Elliott]

FLOTUS, international fashion icon that she is, is not wearing the delegation's advertised kit, although the first presenter appears to be donning it.

Video: Red and yellow and green and gold...all these colors apparently can be found in Chicago.

USOC President, Bill Probst introduces the mayor, who looks to be wearing the same outfit as Probst. POTUS may have the same jacket, but he is wearing a different color shirt.

Daley is telling us that Chicago deserves the Olympics because of Jesse Owens and his good progressive agenda.

[JM Hanes]

Daley does a great satire of an Obama pitch for Chicago.

[JM Hanes]

Given the competition, I'm not sure I'd have started out my promo on the Chicago beach....

[JM Hanes]

Basketball in chadors!

[JM Hanes]

Obama thought bubble: [Zzzzzz]

[Elliott]

After another video, the Chairman of the bid committee is at the mic. Universities and businesses want to get theirs facilitate a successful games.

"In Chicago we have great foundations and philanthropic institutions..."

(Public-private partnerships, anyone?)

[Elliott]

Bid chairman is getting his digs in at Rio with his references to Chicago's safety. Perhaps he could have picked a better week for that?

Okay, now we have a fast moving slideshow with musical accompaniment.

[Elliott]

The Olympic village will be centrally located, with great amenities. Plus, home stays for families. And, lest American jingoism get out of hand, the committee will make sure everyone has someone cheering for him.

[Elliott]

They are promising no carbon footprint.

The Architect insists on talking French.

[JM Hanes]

Ryan promises we'll hear from Obama soon. Anybody know if Tom Ayers part of the Chicago 2016 team?

On no, "on a personal note" --

Listening to a suit talking about Chicago's world class shopping, just steps away from your hotel -- If Chicago gets the Games, you'll know really, really BIG $$$ changed hands.

You'll love this: Athletes have always the focus of Chicago 2016!

You're going to be only steps away from EVERYTHING you could possibly want to do in Chicago.

....

Oh, sorry, my mind was wandering. Chicago will live you with tears in your eyes.

Obama bubble: [Geez, what am I doing here? I coulda had a V-8. I could be doing hoops with Reggie. I could be sleeping.]

[Elliott]

MSDNC is back from commercial and the Architect has verted to English to introduce somebody else, who also is big on this "partnership" thing. "With the power of the movement we can accomplish world changing things together," he intones. It's too much even for MSDNC and we get the reporter outside.

[JM Hanes]

Thank heaven you're back Elliott! Nobody live blogs like you live blog! And nobody should have to blog this bore alone.

[JM Hanes]

We can drive home olympic values!

[Elliott]

More shots of the lake! Still looking carefully for any pictures Altgeld...

[JM Hanes]

I heard Daley applauded our new interest in Kyoto, but I'm not hearing anyone talking about all the green jobs the Olympics are going to create, are you?

I really don't think you have to work quite that hard trying to sell the IOC on the value of sports.

Hey kids want to compete in the Olympics? Who knew?

TOGETHER, WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Elliott]

Poll time: How heavily influenced was the maker of Chicago's videos by Ferris Buehler's Day Off?

[Stephanie]

How TF do you you have a carbon neutral footprint at the Olympic games with a big assed torch that stays lit and you can see for miles for 14-17-21-26 however many days?

[Elliott]

The FLOTUS is from the south-side, a community strengthened by sports. She remembers cheering on Olympians from her father's lap.

Thankfully she is not going the Hillary route and claiming she wanted to be an Olympian.

[JM Hanes]

Oh no, Michelle is going to speak, in a banana peel dress.

Did you know she grew up in a neighborhood of working families and shtrong values? Sitting on her father's lap, cheering for Nadia. That's why she can finally dream big dreams today! This kind of urban renewal is just what my hometown needs. Choose Chicago, Choose America. It's not about me, or the two beautiful young women I'm raising, or about my Dad. Well, actually, it is about my Dad, so let me tell you about my Dad.

[Elliott]

Dad had MS, limiting his athletic outlets. Taught her to throw a better right hook than any boy in the neighborhood. (ed. So she can throw better than POTUS, then?) Instilled great values. Her dad would have loved the Paralympic Games.

[JM Hanes]

It's not about what we can offer the games, but what the games can offer us.

A new era of international engagement. Ta Da! My husband!

I come here today as a passionate supporter of ______________.

[Elliott]

Chicago 2016: new era of international engagement, hope, bringing inspiration all over the world.

And with that, here comes his excellency

BO: Big supporter of the games, the movement, a proud Chicagoan, a faithful representative of the American people.

[JM Hanes]

Sacred trust! It's really about my Dad.

[Elliott]

Obama to IOC: Choose Chicago for the same reason I did?

(ed. What does Ayersy have to do with the Olympics?)

Obama: I had no roots until I got to Chicago.

[JM Hanes]

The Bio Campaign is alive and well, and it's in Denmark.

[Elliott]

Obama: Chicago diverse but united at the same time.

[Stephanie]

Obama: I had no roots until I got to Chicago.

IOW... that's when the puppet master added the strings.

[Elliott]

MSNBC has gone to commercial

Obama: No one expects the Games to solve all our collective challenges. But [we] believe...peaceful competitions between nations shows what is best about our humanity.

[JM Hanes]

We stand at a moment in history.... shared this..... new partnerships!!!!

Teachable moments...

My God, world waited with baited breath for the results of the Presidential election.... but this is not about me!

[Elliott]

Obama: Almost one year ago everyone in the world was watching me, on election night. Of course that was not about me...

[JM Hanes]

Can you believe this, Elliott?

[JM Hanes]

I don't see anybody fainting.

[Elliott]

O: There is nothing I would like more than to step just a few blocks from my family home with Michelle and our two girls and welcome the world.

[blah, blah]

I urge you to choose Chicago. I urge you to choose America. [blah, blah] And if you do, the city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud. Thank you so much.

[Elliott]

Prince Albert of Monaco does not have much of an accent.

[Elliott]

The Architect speaks English, talking about cycling at the University of Wisconsin.

I can not imagine that a trip from UW to the Olympic village on the private beach in Chicago could be fairly described as "convenient."

[JM Hanes]

I don't even know how to snark this thing. I'm mostly hanging on to see if anybody with a pulse shows up -- Like, say, Lula "I love that guy" da Silva.

[Elliott]

Can you believe this, Elliott?

Yes, unfortunately.

[JM Hanes]

I think Albert went to BSchool (Wharton, maybe?) in the States and worked on the Street in NY.

[Chicago wants to put the life back into the Games. Already talking legacies?]

[Elliott]

It's been entertaining, though it appears the cable news networks have had their fill.

[Elliott]

Question: "Sometimes foreigners going into the United States can go through a rather harrowing experience. With so many coming for the games, how do you intend to deal with it?"

We get another White House Czar, apparently. And now, to Obama...

Obama: One of the legacies I want to see is a reminder that America at its best is open to the world. Full force of the White House and the state department to make sure this is a successful games and visitors feel welcome and come away with a sense of the incredible diversity of the American people. Matching up host families with athletes. This meeting could be in Chicago because we look like the world. Sometimes over the last few years the realization of that has been lost. [something about America's links to the world]

::Applause::

Obama goes down to shake hands with IOC president.

[Elliott]

Camera shots of FLOTUS confirm: something is rotund in the state of Denmark.

[JM Hanes]

How on earth would you pronounce this guy's name? Assuming I even got the letters in the right order: Mr. Ctvrtlik was the only bright-eyed guy on the platform. Otherwise, it was like jet-lag city.

Obama just can't help himself. We were lost but now we're found.

[JM Hanes]

Ha, Elliott! La Rotunda...[insert operatic humor after nap]

You really are a whiz at this. By the time I get the first half of a comment typed up, I've forgotten the second half.

[Elliott]

Only 20 minutes until Tokyo's delegation makes its pitch.

[Elliott]

Hmm...Chicago should be having a press conference, but I don't see that anywhere. The presentations are shown online.

[Elliott]

2 hours until the Rio deal. In the meantime, here's what the AP's Jim Litke has to say:

It's too bad the International Olympic Committee isn't taking bribes anymore. Imagine what a lock Chicago would be then.

[Elliott]

Thanks, JMH. Hope to see you again in a couple hours.

[JM Hanes]

One weekend, a couple of eons ago, PBS ran several years worth of Forsythe (sp?) Saga episodes back to back, round the clock. I'd drift off now and then, and wake up to discover that somebody had kids while I was napping, and Sunday am, I'd find myself missing the guy who died on Saturday afternoon. If I actually cared about any of the characters here, that's what this would feel like.

My hopes of a Lula appearance anytime soon having been dashed, I'm just waiting around to see if all the presentations are dull as dishwater, or if that's Chicago's forte.

[Holly]

Jeez, this was embarrasing. Maybe I'm tired, but Obama was pathetic.

[JM Hanes]

Hi Holly! Three muskateers are we! I'm afraid I can't remember thanking you for for offering to help with an address for a sock puppet launching in Maine, but I appreciated the kindness, and may yet take you up on it if Olympia and Susan start misbehaving again.

[JM Hanes]

Japan at bat. And they're wearing uniforms!

[JM Hanes]

OK, so one muskateer.

I like Japan's video -- a waitress athlete, a cook athlete, a gardener athlete...

[JM Hanes]

The Japanese out partnership the Partnershipper-in-Chief. And they've brought plans. And graphics. And energetic women.

[JM Hanes]

Their paralympian (sp?) speaker was very moving. This is so much more interesting than the Yanks presentation.

[JM Hanes]

All the Japanese (including their athletes) are speaking in English, btw.

[Holly]

Hi JMH!

I'm packing for a flight departing in five hours, so I'm on and off the 'puter. Re Maine -- anytime.

Thanks for the commentary. Much more entertaining than the tv.

[JM Hanes]

Here comes Rio! They're all dressed in charcoal! Where are the boas? A disturbing development.