Trouble In Paradise

Charlie Savage of the NY Times explores the divisions within Team Obama over the legal basis some of our counter-terrorism policies.  My favorite:

“I think the change in tone has been important and has helped internationally,” said John B. Bellinger III, a top Bush era National Security Council and State Department lawyer. “But the change in law has been largely cosmetic. And of course there has been no change in outcome.”

Comments

[Neo]

Noah Feldman, a Harvard law professor who specializes in war-power issues. “The two problems most plaguing Obama in the war on terrorism are ...
Well ... at least at Harvard they are still calling it the "war on terrorism"

[narciso]

Well he did spend some time with the CPA in Iraq, so he's not , so itotally clueless, although there is no standard to gauge these developments from, so it's a sucker's bet what they will decide from day to day.

[Dave (in MA)]

Holder probably thinks the latest front in the WOT is in MI.

[narciso]

That's certainly what the TSA nominee, Southers thought

[Strawman Cometh]

Holder probably thinks the latest front in the WOT is in MI.

One hopes he's got his eye on Dearborn, but I'm sure that not what you are referring to.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

The Econosphere planets are aligning:

Steve Landsburg March 27, 2010 at 11:03 am

SteveS:

PS Did you know that DeLong routinely excises comments from people that post thoughtful comments disagreeing with him?

Yes, I know. DeLong once posted a highly critical (but not highly unreasonable) critique of a column I’d written in which I asserted, among other things, that wealthier people choose to work less. One of his other commenters characterized that assertion of mine as nothing but armchair psychology, and complained about economists just making stuff up as they go along. Because I believe that one of the single most important lessons of economics is that you can’t just make stuff up as you go along, I composed a careful reply explaining that there is good theory and evidence for this assertion, and that it’s precisely the sort of thing for which an economist would *require* theory and evidence. DeLong excised that comment. I at first thought there’d been a glitch, so I retyped the whole thing and resubmitted it, whereupon it promptly disappeared again.

[daddy]

Gad,

The destruction of America's image continues abroad.

Here in Guangzhou, on the channel that sometimes carries Bloomberg Business, we just got an ad that said starting soon we'll be able to hear this Reporter's Interview Show all around the World.

Now remember they've already got CNN International and the BBC, so you're thinking 'maybe FOX News; Brett Baier? Bill O'Reilly? Greta?

Of course not, but if you guessed Charlie Rose---Bingo!

[Janet]

Charlie Rose...what an arrogant guy. Always nodding his head and pondering the deep gibberish being spouted by his guests. The show where nonsense is given legitimacy.

[bgates]

It's pretty clear Obama is bringing a renewed focus and determination to the problem of international terrorism, based on the fact that he was willing to travel to Afghanistan while there was a college basketball game on tv.

[Janet]

LUN more pictures from Searchlight.
Love the shirt-
Holy Crap
I'm a Tea Party Patriot
Barney Frank is a teabagger

[narciso]

Good god, 60 Minutes is sticking up for Nadia
Prouty, Hezbollah's spy in the CIA, they don't even have the pretense of shame, anymore

[narciso]

I wish I was making this up, in the LUN

[Jane]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PD!

[narciso]

Happy birthday, PD

[Jane]

he was willing to travel to Afghanistan while there was a college basketball game on tv.

He just didn't want to pay off his bets.

[rse]

LUN is a link to 2 juicy stories:

-how blown away and rude the WH was over the HCR announcements "as no one there has ever had a real job" and

-how poorly they treat the EU because Sarkozy and Merkel are not enamored.

You really are self-centered when you talk about "me, me, me" in a speech before troops in harms way.

[Do they recharge them?]

By God, I've got it; Obama's team is good at changing toners.
================

[Janet]

LUN pictures from the 3-20-10 Kill the Bill Rally. I'm in one back in the riff-raff smoking section. Yo Quiero sign and JOMers Say sign.

[BobS]

With reference to daddy's "distruction of our image abroad" a brief anecdote:

While watching the games yesterday at a local watering hole a gentleman next to me stated the old thought about how Bush had
"destroyed our image abroad". I asked him to be specific and to tell me how Obama had changed this. He was unable to respond. But this is not atypical in that most folks are unable to get beyond the mantra. What a change we might see over the next few years.

[Jane]

I like Arnold Kling's take on the state of affairs. A taste of the remedy:

In fact, I believe that the elites have so mistreated the American people that we should declare that a state of war exists between America and Washington. Our goals in this war must go well beyond the repeal of this year’s health care legislation. Here is a list of additional goals that I would propose:

1. End the current bailouts and prevent future bailouts. Starting immediately, limit the Federal Reserve to holding only Treasury instruments. The Fed needs to go back to being a central bank, not a piggy bank.

2. Cut the pay of civilian Federal workers by 10 percent. The private sector is making painful adaptations to hard times. The government needs to start doing what any other organization would do when its revenues are down.

3. Restructure entitlements so that the future path of spending is sustainable. Congressman Paul Ryan’s “road map” is an example of what an honest budget would look like. If Democrats would prefer higher taxes to such a road map, then those taxes should be explicitly budgeted, rather than pretending that the funds for future benefits are going to appear by magic.

[centralcal will not comply]

Happy Birthday, PD.

Thanks, Janet, for the links to all the great pictures.

[Petitganteus99]

That Canadian torture guy sure is mad. Maybe we should make a little journey help him like agency work. CIA has nothing to worry about with their university doctors' torture, it's a domestic issue; just ask Plame and her talking pals .

Colombia or Columbia, Stanford or Sanford, Georgia or Georgia. The terrorists sure are domestic.

We should do more earthquakes.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 14 today.

[matt]

the4 headlines on the "Christian M9ilitia" would seem to be a joke. 3 gun violations is all they came up with. It would seem that they either didn't wait to get6 real charges or have become domestic terrorists themselves.

[Danube of Thought]

Hey, Janet--atta babe! Looking great!

[narciso]

It will be down again, soon enough, because people deep down, don't believe the good news
about unemployment, and the HCR bill hasn't lived up to the hype

[Ranger]

2. Cut the pay of civilian Federal workers by 10 percent. The private sector is making painful adaptations to hard times. The government needs to start doing what any other organization would do when its revenues are down.

This is far to minimal of a goal. Given that government workers now make between 30% and 40% more than private workers when benifits are added. Government workers should be given an option. Give up 40% of their pay and keep their benifits packages or give up their benifits packages (they can buy priavate health care insurance and open up a Roth IRA) and keep their current pay.

After that, the next step should be breaking up the beltway and relocating the vast majority of the DC beaurcracy across the country. Leave DoD, the various Intel agency, and the DoJ in Washington, and send everyone else to new locations across the country with small liaison offices in DC. Force the government to live among the people.

[Ranger]

Oh, and if those ideas seem too radical, just have congress change the rules for how benifits are treated for government employees at tax time. If every penny of benifits were treated as income, you would have immense preasure in DC to extend the Bush tax cuts once the beltway folk saw the tax brackets they were going to be pushed into.

[Neo]

Guess who said this …

“The United States of America does not quit once it starts on something. You don’t quit, the American armed services does not quit. We keep at it. We persevere.”

George W. Bush (could have but) .. no, it’s Barack Obama.

Damn that TOTUS .. putting words in his mouth.

[MayBee]

Janet! Look how cute you are!

[Ranger]

“The United States of America does not quit once it starts on something. You don’t quit, the American armed services does not quit. We keep at it. We persevere.”

I heard that on the radio yesterday and all I could think was:

'Really? You really think we will accept that from the guy who spent his entire carreer in the US Senate trying to get us to cut and run from Iraq? You think we will forget that you said you would have voted against the surge even if you knew it was going to work because it was more important to beat the Republican president than to win the war? I didn't hear you standing up and denouncing Harry Reid when he said on the floor of the Senate "This war is lost."'

[Janet]

Did y'all notice the green bordered JOM sign with Caro's flyer. Thanks to all you guys for the sign ideas. I gotta make some new ones for the April 15th Tea Party.
Contrary to the MSM there weren't any racists, bigots, or homophobes in the riff-raff section.

...and a Big Happy Birthday PD!

[Danube of Thought]

Samuelson is essential reading this morning. One thing seems certain to me: if US Treasuries are downgraded before November, 2012 Obama is a one-termer. And no, I don't think tens of millions of ordinary Americans know exactly what that means, but I'd bet the ranch that they know very well that it is something historic and terrible, and that it has to do with reckless spending.

[anduril]

Good articles:

Karzai's China-Iran dalliance riles Obama

By M K Bhadrakumar:

Great moments in diplomatic timing are hard to distinguish when the practitioners are inscrutable entities. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visits to China and Iran within the week rang alarm bells in Washington which were heard in the Oval Office of the White House.

Karzai's two days of talks in Beijing last week were scheduled exactly at the same time as the high-profile strategic dialogue taking place between the United States and Pakistan in Washington.

Karzai has coolly defied the President Barack Obama's do-or-die diplomatic campaign to "isolate" Iran in the region - not once but twice during the past fortnight. Karzai earlier received his Iranian
counterpart, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, with manifest warmth in Kabul while the US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was on a visit to Afghanistan.

Washington lost no time signaling its displeasure. Obama flew into Kabul on Sunday unannounced for an "on the ground update" from Karzai.

...

Clearly, the Americans are furious that Karzai is steadily disengaging from the US's grip and seeking friendship with China and Iran. Pretences of cordiality are withering away even as Washington realizes that the ground beneath its feet is shifting.

Curiously, two days after his return to Kabul from Beijing on Thursday, Karzai flew to Tehran to celebrate Nowruz festival. By celebrating the advent of spring at an extraordinary conclave of Persian-speaking regional countries in Tehran, Karzai drew attention to Afghanistan's multiple identity as a plural society of pre-Islamic antiquity.

But in political terms, he ostentatiously displayed his freedom from American control. His itinerary in Tehran included a meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

...

Ahmadinejad's consultations in Kabul, followed by Karzai's dash to Islamabad, and now his visits to Beijing and Tehran - the sudden spurt of high level exchanges suggest a pattern.

What should alarm Washington most is that the Chinese position on Afghan national reconciliation meshes with Karzai's political agenda and accords with Iran's overlapping concerns and interests.

The China-Afghan joint statement affirms Beijing's readiness to expand economic cooperation, trade and investment while upholding the principle of "respect for the Afghan people's choice of development road suited to their national conditions".

Washington will factor in that it is quite within China's financial capacity to reduce Karzai's dependence on Western largesse, in turn encouraging the Afghan leader to shake off the West's attempts to dominate him.

...

It cannot be lost on Washington that Beijing and Tehran share similar concerns on almost all core areas of the Afghan situation.

Iran rediscovers value of Persian roots:

Over the weekend, Iran hosted the presidents of Iraq, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan to celebrate Nowruz, the ancient Persian new year marking the first day of spring that is celebrated by some 300 million people around the world who together form an important cultural bloc.

[Old Lurker]

True, that, DoT. But as you know, the markets often beat the ratings agencies to the punch. Like last week when good US Corporate Bonds got better rates than like term treasuries. Then when the rating actually falls to catch up with the interest rates, all hell breaks loose because certain investors must hold only bonds of the highest rating.

[Rick Ballard]

I'm going to bump a Dennis the Peasant piece linked by Jim Ryan yesterday. The piece is about Waxman going after public companies who have complied with SEC requirements concerning immediate disclosure of adverse impact. Passage of HCR constituted an event which will adversely impact the earnings of a lot more companies than the ones which have already filed 8Ks and any company which fails to file a disclosure may be subject to SEC investigation and is certainly open to shareholder criticism and possible suit.

The 3M disclosure has a bit more clarity than did ATT's, although the hit to asset value appears to much smaller.

[narciso]

And delusion sets in, and doesn't go away, like a bad fever, in the LUN

[MarkO]

Obama should be a one termer, but the opposition has to have a candidate. Just who? So far, I don't see anyone who can stand up to the thugs and inspire the troops.

[Ranger]

Over at http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NWY4OTdmMmM0YzBmNzQ1NTllOTI4OTJiOTA3YjdmMGE=>Campaign Spot, Jim Geraghty post a couple of key quesitons and asnwers from a new interview with Aetna CEO Ron Williams:

Will insurance premiums go up?

The answer is yes, and some of the things that will drive those premiums are significant additional taxes the industry will ultimately have to pay in the first year.

The President said that this bill would not have any impact on people who already had coverage, that it was about the uninsured, that there would be no change. Will this legislation change the coverage of people who are already paying for it?

My perception is, yes, things will change. You might not have a plan that includes the exact same doctors. You might have plans that have richer benefits, and therefore you're going to pay more for benefits you may or may not want. It would have been a better message to say, we're going to make certain you maintain your eligibility.

I'm sure that will help Obama sell Obamacare. Can't wait to see those quotes in campaign commericals this fall.

[Old Lurker]

And once filed, investors comb through the 8K's to see if these are one time charges or recurring charges. As a result of that, they decide how much less the stock is worth based on the newly disclosed information. It's against the law not to file in a timely manner since, as in this case, the stocks are worth less because of this event. Go Henry...

[Danube of Thought]

Just who?

I'm sure Coach K would answer the call.

[rse]

In honor of Melinda and anyone needing a laugh on this Monday morning.

LUN

Chicago to streamline and update graft programs.

Yeah, so they can then nationalize it.

[Danube of Thought]

...investors comb through the 8K's to see if these are one time charges or recurring charges.

But no one will comb through any of the filings as thoroughly and promptly as the plaintiffs' securities law class action bar. If Bill Lerach weren't a convicted felon he'd already have a few complaints on file.

[Ignatz]

--Charlie Rose...what an arrogant guy. Always nodding his head and pondering the deep gibberish being spouted by his guests.--

Here's an idea for some must see TV and the perfect Charlie Rose show guest; Tom Friedman.
Charlie would get his most earnest look on his face, furrowing his brows and get in nodding position.
Then Tom plants the chin of his big flat head on his folded hands and furrows his brow and looks deadly serious. Finally Tom purses his lips pensively and Charlie starts nodding sagely.
Then for the next half hour Tom, making that face that he thinks smart and thoughtful people make, furrows his brow ever more deeply at Charlie, while Charlie smiles and nods knowingly back at him.
It would be the least stupid either one has ever sounded.

[Alien for Amnesty]

Will insurance premiums go up?

Hell yes. How else is it possible for children up to 26 (when they should have been married with 2 kids at least) to remain insured under dad's plan? Just that whites will, in the main, be the ones to pay for it. Blacks, Hispanics and and the thousands of illegals who will get to vote in 2012 will enjoy the ride while they extol the virtues of Obama, the Father of Dependency.

[It's not only Bad that is dead.]

It's just amazing to contemplate that the Democrats willingly took on this burden of bankrupting our country and lessening the satisfaction with healthcare all with one stone. This great big rock will chronically stick in the public's craw and provide an ongoing source of frustration and anger as the inability of Americans to pursue happiness becomes increasingly and unbearably manifest.

Whatever possessed the Democrats to get in the car with the drunk driver at the wheel? Well, maybe not drunk, but dangerously impaired anyway.

Like seeing your bitter mother-in-law going over the cliff in your beloved Cadillac. Unfortunately, this gang is suicidal, but sort of like the bombers, they are taking a lot of us and ours along with them.

It's a hard Cadillac gonna fall. Everybody knows.
========================

[First as Tranzi, then as Farsi.]

anduril, remember the three C's that Axelrod and Obama and piles of money and propaganda can't budge, Climate, Capital, and China? Well, here's China.
===========

[Ignatz]

--True, that, DoT. But as you know, the markets often beat the ratings agencies to the punch.--

It would be a rather amusing irony if, after being rightly excoriated by the Feds for their lax performance in rating private instruments before and during the financial panic, that the first recipient of the ratings agencies' new bulldog attitude is Barry's listing ship of state. Especially delicious if it happened in say, Sep 2012.

[Barbara]

So far, I don't see anyone who can stand up to the thugs and inspire the troops.

As far as standing up to the thugs and inspiring the troops, I'd say that Sarah Palin has proved herself. I for one refuse to buy into the prog/msm spin that she's not a viable candidate. She outshines the candidates on both sides.

There is also a good group of up and coming Congressmen/women who have led the battle against health care reform and now repeal. Ryan, DeMint, Cantor, Minnesota's Michelle Bachmann and hopefully the new Senator from Florida, Marco Rubio. There are good prospects out there for the Republican party if only they could wrest control away from the old line of "bi-partisan", stodgy, RHINO leaders.

[Captain Hate]

Good god, 60 Minutes is sticking up for Nadia Prouty, Hezbollah's spy in the CIA, they don't even have the pretense of shame, anymore

I turned the tv on and saw her being thrown softball questions with no degree of skepticism of her responses and just turned it off.

[Danube of Thought]

Kim, Daniel Henninger on March 25 was right on the page with you:

Liberals in the private sector have to come to grips with the fact that what they do for a living is an abstraction to the people they are sending to Washington. Nobody at the top of the party is much interested in them anymore. House and Senate Democrats hammered insurance, pharma and medical-device makers with taxes and intimidation. It wasn't just politics. It was belief. With this bill, the party made the transition from market unionism to Alinskyism, from a politics tempered by the marketplace to one that milks the marketplace.

[Thomas Collins]

Happy Birthday, PD!

See LUN for another Kenneth Anderson post in The Volokh Conspiracy on Koh's speech.

[narciso]

I didn't actually watch that, Capt, "Die Harder" was on, and it's more realistic but
I saw a snippet on Fox and Friends, and they
were almost as clueless, Speaking of curious
circumstances, this doesn't look good, in the LUN

[Ranger]

Especially delicious if it happened in say, Sep 2012.

Posted by: Ignatz | March 29, 2010 at 11:02 AM

My bet is well before that. With SS going into the red, they can't use that money any more to soak up debt, they will have to publicly sell even more bonds just to raise the same amount of money. Add to that the Illinois fiscal time bomb that will probably go off some time next spring or summer. And once one state goes down, the preausre on the rest will increase. Either the Fed or the Federal Government is going to have to take a huge load of bad debt off of the states if they are going to have any chance at recovering their fiscal ballance.

[peter]

Ignatz, brilliant idea, How about a dubbed, "What's New Pussycat?" version of Tom Friedman on Charlie Rose.

[Jane]

Go take this CBS poll. The results will thrill you.

[Rob Crawford]

After that, the next step should be breaking up the beltway and relocating the vast majority of the DC beaurcracy across the country.

Except that you'd have them taking the pay cut, relocating to a place with a 30% lower cost of living, and *still* living well off the work of others.

[Pagar]

"send everyone else to new locations across the country"

If they send them to the frontier states the Medicare payments will be higher under the the new Healthcare fraud act. Oh wait, you're talking Government employees, so they are not affected by the new healthcare fraud act, Right?

[JM Hanes]

Neo & Ranger:

Here's a look at the President's rhetoric in an item about
Jonathan Capehart, an "Editorial Writer" at the WaPo, Capehart doesn't understand why the President's lofty sentiments, like this paragraph from an Obama healthcare speech, don't "resonate" with tea partiers:

But today, we are affirming that essential truth -– a truth every generation is called to rediscover for itself –- that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations. We are not a nation that falls prey to doubt or mistrust. We don’t fall prey to fear. We are not a nation that does what’s easy. That’s not who we are. That’s not how we got here."

Big Journalism's writer nails the disconnect:

What is Obama saying we are refusing to “scale back,” for instance? What “aspirations” is he striving to implement? What effort that isn’t “easy” is he reaching for? If all these actions that Obama is  praising are efforts that are in keeping with our culture, our history, our principles and our laws, then that’s all good. But, if those “hard” actions he’s talking about are essentially un-American actions, then we have a problem. Without the qualifiers telling the listener what actions his flowery rhetoric is being used to cover, these words are empty bits of fluff without meaning.

And that is just the problem. Capehart hears all the fluff free of any substance and he doesn’t mind it a bit. In typical Obama-speak, the president uses soaring rhetoric that, upon closer examination, slips right through your fingers like air for its weightlessness.

[Sue]

Jane,

That was eye opening. At CBS no less.

[Jimmah]

Miss me yet?

[Pagar]

"This doesn't look right"
Nothing about that deal has looked right for a good while.

[Rick Ballard]

Ranger,

The loss of excess SS "contributions" (around $64 billion) is going to be dwarfed by the miss in anticipated tax revenue (estimated = $2.334T, actual is running at about $2.149T). That's a $185 billion bust to which the $64 billion SS shortfall must be added.

All the numbers are easily accessible and Samuelson could have strengthened his argument significantly by pointing out the risible nature of the Maladministration and CBO projections concerning the current budget after just six months.

BOzo and the Democrat Clown Corps aren't quite bright enough to run a shoeshine stand.

[PaulL]

Speaking of "Great" Britain, the "Conservative" Party leader, David Cameron, is on record as saying he admires Obama.

My sister in Scotland was watching a political talk show on Sunday. The "Conservative" shadow education minister was asked about the "Conservative" Party's plans for education and what sort of shake up would result, and he characterized it as an "Obama-style" change. He didn't explain what that meant and the interviewer didn't bat an eye.

[That came from the shiny can.]

Where do I go to get the shit wiped off my shoes, Rick?
===============

[Danube of Thought]

That was eye opening. At CBS no less.

It's dated January 19.

I had not heard of Nada Prouty before watching 60 Minutes. Since the gov't. didn't offer anybody to respond, I had to draw my own conclusions about what had gone on. What's the deal?

[centralcal will not comply]

Jane - I think CBS has had this (or a similar poll) online for awhile - with the same encouraging results. In fact, last week I read at some blog or other, how the poll was being "manipulated" because rightwing bloggers were sending their followers there to screw up the results, yadda yadda. LOL!

[A Wilde thought.]

JMH, these are people who know the value of everything and the price of nothing.
==========

[Ranger]

Except that you'd have them taking the pay cut, relocating to a place with a 30% lower cost of living, and *still* living well off the work of others.

Posted by: Rob Crawford | March 29, 2010 at 11:26 AM

Well, its just a concept at this point. We can refine the details as we move forward. First key is to convince people that government employees are significantly over-compensated and that the Beltway needs to be broken up.

[Rob Crawford]

The "Conservative" shadow education minister was asked about the "Conservative" Party's plans for education and what sort of shake up would result, and he characterized it as an "Obama-style" change. He didn't explain what that meant and the interviewer didn't bat an eye.

That means they'll spend a lot of money, funnel large amounts of it to Marxist buddies, declare the whole thing a failure, and blame everyone else for it.

[Rick Ballard]

Error - The $185 billion probably includes the $64 billion SS excess contribution shortfall but the excess contribution is dedicated to the purchase of Treasury debt and therefore increases the total amount which must be financed by other than intra-goverment sleight of hand.

Kim,

Just leave'em on the porch until '12 - they're not gonna stop stinking any more than BOzo will.

[JM Hanes]

anduril:

Bhadrakumar, per usual, misses a big piece of the story:

What should alarm Washington most is that the Chinese position on Afghan national reconciliation meshes with Karzai's political agenda and accords with Iran's overlapping concerns and interests.

What should alarm the rest of us is that Team Obama has singlehandedly brought us to this sorry state of affairs. Not only have they publicly treated Karzai like pond scum from day one, they have been hopelessly inept in their dealings with China, Russia and Iran.

If anyone could still be wondering, Valerie Jarrett confirms that the space cadets are in charge at the White House:

Well, what I can tell you is what the president has said consistently, which is that we're going to continue to put pressure on Iran. The fact that the president and Russia are about to sign the START Treaty is a good sign that we're making cooperation and good progress with countries such as Russia. We're going to have a coalition that will really put pressure on Iran and try to stop them from doing what they're trying to do....

In fact, over the last year, what we've seen, when the president came into office, there was a unified Iran. Now we're seeing a lot of divisions within the country, and we're seeing steady progress in terms of a world coalition that will put that pressure on Iran. So no, I think that we have a strong force in the making, and Iran will back down.

How's that coalition workin' for ya?

[Gabriel Sutherland]

The Soviets won the Cold War.

[bgates]

the new healthcare fraud act

I think the name "Obamacare" really fits.

"Health care act" implies that the goal of the act is to take care of health....

(Also, with the use of the name "Obama", fraud can be assumed.)

[narciso]

Look at my LUN at 7;56, she's unreliable on some things, but on Islamist penetration or
cooperation, she's fairly solid.

[Captain Hate]

Wow, just when you think Michael Steele couldn't be more of a useless embarrassment, check out the LUN @ AoS. Is he really that stupid to think that this wouldn't show up somewhere?

[Jack is Back!]

The Michigan militia arrests are the first shot across the "Tea Party as violent prone, right-wing racists" meme. Of course, they were Anti-Christ Minutemen and survivalist but they fit the narrative like most left-wing flippant rhetoric. So, lets make the most of it and create the 10 second sound bite that will resonate with the base and hopefully pull in the Indies.

It has already started, the HCR bragging-bonanza. Already, a very much in play house seat in Daytona Beach area, held by Suzanne Kosmas, has her doing TV commercials on all the wonderful benefits of the new legislation without, of course, any mention of higher premiums, increased deficits, 111 new bureaucracy's or the ball and chain on our future generations.

[Porchlight]

JMH,

Capehart is an idiot and a true believer. I went to college with him and he was an idiot then, too. Even as an undergraduate all he wanted to be was a reporter. A nice guy though.

[narciso the harpoon]

She didn't just say, that Iran was unified because Obama had not been elected yet, I think the stolen election that was brushed off
and the protests that emerged from it had something to do with it

[DrJ]

Heaviest Element Yet Known to Science Discovered

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has now identified with certainty the heaviest element known to science.

The new element, Pelosium (PL), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Pelosium is inert, and has no charge and no magnetism. Nevertheless, it can be detected because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Pelosium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Pelosium has a normal half-life of 2 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a biennial reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

Pelosium mass will increase over time, since each reorganization will promote many morons to become isodopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Pelosium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with money, Pelosium becomes Senatorium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Pelosium since it has half as many peons, but twice as many morons.

[Danube of Thought]

From Raz today:

One week after the House of Representatives passed the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, 54% of the nation's likely voters still favor repealing the new law. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 42% oppose repeal.

Those figures are virtually unchanged from last week. They include 44% who Strongly Favor repeal and 34% who Strongly Oppose it.

Repeal is favored by 84% of Republicans and 59% of unaffiliated voters. Among white Democrats, 25% favor repeal, but only one percent (1%) of black Democrats share that view.

[Janet]

If the info at the AoS link is true about Steele...he needs to go NOW.

[Clarice]

Happy Birthday, PD.

Good plan, Jane.

Good catch , narciso. I believe I wrote about Prouty hen she first was caught. Haven't heard much about her or her sister since.

Terrible about the Moscow bombing. Watch how the Russins "coddle" Islamists from now on.

[bgates]

Point:
we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations.
Counterpoint:
We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK.

Point:
We are not a nation that falls prey to doubt or mistrust.
Counterpoint:
What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

What I am opposed to is the attempt by political hacks like Karl Rove to distract us from a rise in the uninsured, a rise in the poverty rate, a drop in the median income — to distract us from corporate scandals and a stock market that has just gone through the worst month since the Great Depression.

Point:
We don’t fall prey to fear.
Counterpoint:
A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe....We need to act now or we may never recover.

Point:
We are not a nation that does what’s easy. That’s not who we are. That’s not how we got here.
Counterpoint:
That's easy. Close down Guantanamo.

-ok, I have to give him that last one.

[narciso the harpoon]

Thanks, Clarice, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that 60 minutes took up her sob
story, is there anyone that they won't flack
for, rhetorical question I know. How was Cabo

[Isn't white slavery racist or sumpin'?]

Heh, CH, I wonder who the poor fool is who actually submitted that voucher.
===================

[Danube of Thought]

I'd say replacing Steele has now become an urgent necessity. Anybody know to whom we might direct our outrage in order to help bring this about? An RNC website or something?

[hit and run]

From JMH's quote of Obama:
But today, we are affirming that essential truth -– a truth every generation is called to rediscover for itself –- that we are not a nation that scales back its aspirations.

The smell on kim's shoes are from Obama's asspirations.

[Ignatz]

That was hilarious, DrJ. Was it yours?
And good catches all, bgates.

Lastly, Steele has always needed to go. Let's hope this is the final nail.

[Sue]

bgates,

I've always thought a video of Obama debating himself would be the perfect campaign spot.

[DrJ]

Ignatz,

I wish I were that clever. My wife got it from a sales rep in the life sciences. It's an updated version of "administratium."

[Jack is Back!]

DrJ,

Did you know that if you introduce Reidium to Pelosium it begins to sag under a suffocating weight of increased pessimism and induces an increase in negative morons?

On another note, however, Sarah Palin channels David Axelrod's mustache, David Plouffe's twitch, Obama's Chicago nuances and Coach K's half-time shout out.

[Love the cartoons and comments at LUN]

Heh, he was casting asspersions and I stepped in one.
==============

[Sue]

I asked an RNC spokesman about the story — specifically the charge that money was spent at Voyeur West Hollywood.

The spokesman said: “We are investigating the expenditure in question. The story willfully and erroneously suggests that the expenditure in question was one belonging to the chairman. This was a reimbursement made to a non-committee staffer. The chairman was never at the location in question, he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable. Good reporting would make that distinction crystal clear. The committee has requested that the monies be returned to the committee and that the story be corrected so that it is accurate.”

KLo at The Corner.

[narciso the harpoon]

"I voted for Kang" I mean Blackwell

[Thomas Collins]

Dr. J, I have read that experiments on Pelosium have lead to a revolution in particle physics. Apparently, heating Pelosium unleashes special particles that have been labelled frankwaxmanstupakmaxinepatchesquacky quarks. Paricle physicists are astounded, as such particles have not appeared in connection with any other element.

[Danube of Thought]

Welcome back, Clarice. We missed you in our collective hour of need, but no one deserved a vacation more than you.

Just found the RNC website, registered, and posted on their forum (topic "2010") saying Steele has to go.

[Sue]

The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, sources suggest to the BBC.

Great. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8591714.stm>US 'may not veto UN resolution

[Old Lurker]

"frankwaxmanstupakmaxinepatchesquacky quarks"

Physicists were further astounded to learn that though the new particles were numerous, their atomic weights approached zero.

[Pagar]

"(Also, with the use of the name "Obama", fraud can be assumed.)"

More and more every day.