Sunday Morning

The traditional post-rapture open thread.

Comments

[Jane]

Mitch Daniels out.

[Rick Ballard]

I wonder what kind of "door" his wife hit him with? 16 stitches suggests a frying pan but it might have been one of the fireplace tools.

Enough for him to take the hint, at any rate.

[peter]

Apparently this New York Times electronics correspondent likes the app on the i-phone that lets you beat your wife with it. LUN

[rse]

I am not pleased with Tim Pawlenty's involvement in the past with either the Education Commission of the States or Achieve.

Suggests he is quite comfortable with government as a decisive agent in the economy.

[lurker9876]

I am not thrilled about Mitt and Tpaw. Am glad Daniels is out. Cilizza says that the Daniels news may open up the race wider. I hope not!

[centralcal]

Just finished reading Clarice's Pieces. Excellent as always and I note some very thoughtful comments about it at AT.

I am not all that surprised about the Daniels news, I can't imagine his wife wanted to subject herself to liberal blood sport.

[clarice]

Thanks. The Daniels announcement is odd coming right after that mysterious head injury.

[sbw]

Post rapture, huh?

Was it as good for you as it was for me?

[narciso]

Excellent pieces, clarice, as always, so they put the smoking barrel in our hand, yet we're
supposed to be civil:

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/05/21/huntsman-calls-civility-during-new-hampshire-speech

[sbw]

Huck supporting Romney?

That ought to tell you that Republicrat RINOs are worried about losing control to tea party ideas.

[anduril]

Interesting discussion: Wolves, coyotes, and dogs: species or races? Goes into recent developments as coyotes have spread throughout the country.

[clarice]

sbw, you have to ask?

[Jane]

Capn'

What did you think of Cain on Fox News Sunday. I was not overly impressed.

[Cecil Turner]

Guess I gotta mow the lawn after all. Carp.

[clarice]

Thanks, narciso. It often does seem as though liberal candidates win by vicious attacks on their opponents while claiming to be above that sort of thing while Republicans really are above that sort of thing and just stand there and take it.

[Danube of Thought]

They were probably those tiny plastic sugeon's stitches. I split my forehead open once, a gash of a little over an inch, and for cosmetic reasons they had a plastic surgeon sew it up; it took forty stiches.

[Janet]

President Obama is on the golf course once again,

Slacker indeed.

Nothing in the WaPo about Syria today.
Sir Golfsalot is critiquing Israel while Syria guns down its citizens....

[narciso]

He's like Tiger Woods, except without the talent:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f9YAg--wRkg/Tdj3Y8QZRKI/AAAAAAAAwQM/D1z8SlDcDJY/s1600/theo1.jpg

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 10 at Raz today.

[Melinda Romanoff]

clarice-

Your excellent piece's comments have better supported thoughts behind them than that WH mudpie.

Just sayin'.

[Porchlight]

I agree, DoT - at first I thought 16 stitches, wow - but if they're the tiny ones it's not that big a deal.

I am not surprised Daniels is out, stitches or no stitches, though. Captain Hate and others called it a few days ago.

[Danube of Thought]

Cain has never impresses me at all.

[The egg came before the chicken, no...]

Brad DeLong;

"Four years ago we economists were writing learned papers about the "Great Moderation": about how it looked as though the governing institutions of the world economy had finally learned how to control and moderate if not completely eliminate the business cycle--the epileptic seizures of the economy that leave us with pointlessly high unemployment, pointlessly idle capacity, and pointlessly rusting away machines in spite of there being no fundamental cause for machines to be idle, factories closed, and workers unemployed. In such an epileptic seizure of the economy, workers are unemployed and machines are idle because there isn’t the demand to employ them, and there isn’t the demand to employ because the workers are unemployed and have no incomes."

Kind of silly, isn't it?

[Soylent Red]

Boy I really do like Herman Cain. What he says, not how he says it. I get a real "not ready for primetime" vibration off the guy.

Still, all this rush to announce is counterproductive. Election season is still months away, there's lots of time to get coached up on issues. And why give the Democrat Machine time to do oppo research? Much better to let Barry step on his own crank and have his handlers focused on responding to attacks from several unannounced maybes, than for the press and Dems to have a narrow field to lock in on.

Teh Sarah is apparently moving to AZ (probably temporarily). I'm sure it's to be closer to McCain - hopefully swinging a hockey stick. Drudge speculates on whether she'll run. I think she will, and I think she will be a game changer, if only because the press will queue up to throw rocks and ignore everyone else.

What do I know though? I ran up my credit card bill and punched my boss in the nose in anticipation of being Raptured.

[Porchlight]

Anyone know if the WH hosted a dinner for the Netanyahus? I thought I heard that would be the case but I can't find coverage.

[Melinda Romanoff]

I may not know about the dinner plans at the WH last night, but I do know a new european flight hazard when I see one.

[Old Salt]

Four years ago we economists were writing learned papers about the "Great Moderation": about how it looked as though the governing institutions of the world economy had finally learned how to control and moderate if not completely eliminate the business cycle--the epileptic seizures of the economy that leave us with pointlessly high unemployment, pointlessly idle capacity, and pointlessly rusting away machines in spite of there being no fundamental cause for machines to be idle, factories closed, and workers unemployed. In such an epileptic seizure of the economy, workers are unemployed and machines are idle because there isn’t the demand to employ them, and there isn’t the demand to employ because the workers are unemployed and have no incomes.

[Janet]

Herman Cain is appealing because he is bold. IMO conservatives are starved for someone that is bold.

Hey Soylent, Did you get a motorcycle? I think my husband is looking around for a bigger motorcycle for me.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Old Salt-

One small edit.

Add:"and pointlessly amassed superfluous, personal debt" .

There are more pieces to the puzzle than you get to decide.

[narciso]

One curious thing, is that Delong was once in a policy position, at Treasury, the other was
that people believed in such fatuousness,

[Danube of Thought]

I realize Huntsman has a son at the Naval Academy, which actually means nothing more than that the guy has an infallible son. Apart from that, he ain't really blowing any air up my dress.

[MarkO]

The rumor I'm starting about the Daniels departure is that his wife's ex objected to the run.

[MarkO]

A Mormon fistfight?

Politico reports that Huntsman, while examining rifles at Riley's Gun Shop in Hooksett, didn't miss a beat in jumping on the chance to jab at Romney for an awkward public relations moment from the 2008 presidential campaign.

"Asked what he hunted by Politico, Huntsman took only a second to reply. 'Oh … large varmints,' Huntsman said with a smile. It was a veiled swipe at Romney, who in 2008 struggled to explain his own relationship with hunting and guns — eventually acknowledging that his hunting was limited to '(small) varmints.' "

[PAY-THEN GO]

Harold Meyerson says if the Republicans are serious about cutting the deficit, they need to look at the real source of costs: red states.

the Tax Foundation — a conservative Washington-based think tank — has, however unintentionally, provided the answer. In 2007, the foundation published a survey of 2005 federal spending in each state and compared that with each state’s contribution in federal taxes. In other words, the foundation identified the states that sponge off the federal government and those that subsidize it. The welfare-queen states and the responsible, producing states, as it were.
The list, alas, hasn’t been updated — in part, no doubt, because conservatives didn’t like what it revealed: that those states that got more back from our government than they paid in were overwhelmingly Republican. The 10 biggest net recipients of taxpayers’ largess were, in order, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, South Dakota, Kentucky and Virginia. The 10 states that paid in the most and got back the least were New Jersey, Nevada, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Illinois, Delaware, California, New York and Colorado.

[Threadkiller]

If I have learned anything from this faux-pocalypse, I have learned how much booze I can drink in one night.

[MarkO]

TK, have you considered that we all might be on "the other side"? [placement of question mark outside not optional.]

[narciso]

It's a wonder, how Politico, is unable to understand what words mean, ala Vizzini:

http://www.stoptheaclu.com/2011/05/22/suddenly-citing-the-willie-horton-ad-is-not-raaaaacist/

[hit and run]

Soylent:
Still, all this rush to announce is counterproductive.

True from the perspective you mentioned indeed. But part of the rush to announce is to try and lock up staff and donors.

When candidates formally announced in the 2008 election:

Democrats
Gravel: April 17, 2006
Richardson: December 7, 2006
Kucinich: December 12, 2006
Edwards: December 26, 2006
Biden: January 7, 2007
Dodd: January 11, 2007
Clinton: January 20, 2007
Obama: February 10, 2007

Republicans
Hunter: January 25, 2007
Huckabee: January 28, 2007
Giuliani: February 5, 2007
Romney: February 13, 2007
McCain: February 28, 2007
Paul: March 12, 2007
Thompson: September 5, 2007

I didn't look up every candidate -- sorry Tommy Thompson, I just didn't.

I hadn't realized that Obama was the last Dem to get in -- and even that was in February.

The Fred is the only candidate who hadn't announced by now in the 2008 election cycle.

[narciso]

And that campaign seemed intermina. . very long indeed.

[PAY-THEN GO]

5 ways Pawlenty can win.

Daily Beast;

1. He Must Make a Virtue of Boredom
Have we mentioned that Pawlenty isn’t the most incendiary, charismatic candidate? “The words ‘passion’ and ‘Tim Pawlenty’ don’t often occur in the same sentence,” cracks Stu Rothenberg, editor of The Rothenberg Political Report. But while Pawlenty might not lead a youth movement, as Barack Obama did, his views can be appealing to Republican primary voters and caucus-goers. “They think he’s dull today, but as he articulates his view, he’ll come off as a solid conservative,” says Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist who managed Mike Huckabee’s campaign in 2008. The Obama comparison could be instructive: While the candidate’s charisma whipped voters into a frenzy, many Americans have been disappointed in the president. Likewise, there’s seldom a dull moment with Newt Gingrich, but some see the former House speaker’s campaign splitting at the seams over its lack of discipline. Think of the early campaign as flirtation and the primaries as engagement; it’s a variation on the rule that one should date bad boys or girls and marry good ones. “At a moment when people are really rather fed up with what they think they’re being given or sold by their leaders, sell what you got,” says Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who served in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations. “The important part really is that you don’t make this man into something he’s not.”

2. He Must Win Over the Evangelicals
Huckabee’s decision not to run will have far-reaching effects, but the early consensus is that his exit is a boon to Pawlenty more than anyone. Iowa’s caucus base is more socially conservative than many in the country, and Huckabee—with his strong support among evangelical Christians—won the state in 2008. With him out of the way, Pawlenty’s well-positioned to snap up that vote: Evangelical voters remain skeptical of Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman’s Mormonism and Gingrich’s three marriages; and Rick Santorum hasn’t made much of a splash yet. But Pawlenty’s fellow Minnesotan Michele Bachmann, as well as perpetual will-she-won’t-she candidate Sarah Palin, could steal them away.

3. He Must Hold the Line on Policy
Already, Pawlenty has found himself apologizing for his record as governor. Back in 2007, he put himself on the record advocating for a cap-and-trade policy to deal with climate change. Since then, that position has become so toxic that even Democrats are skittish (see Joe Manchin’s 2010 Senate ad, in which he takes aim at it). During the first GOP debate on May 5, Pawlenty apologized clearly and profusely: “I’ve said I was wrong. It was a mistake, and I’m sorry… I just admit it. I don’t try to duck it, bob it, weave it, try to explain it away. I’m just telling you, I made a mistake.” That’s the right path, Rollins says. “The public is more than willing to accept an admission of mistake,” he says, adding, in a thinly veiled swipe at Romney: “as opposed to someone who’s out there doing what their pollsters want them to do.” Pawlenty’s reversals are far fewer and less heretical than Romney (on an individual mandate for health care) or Gingrich (most recently, on whether he’d vote for Paul Ryan’s budget plan). If Pawlenty can stick to his guns, he’ll appear more consistent and courageous than his opponents.

4. He Must Let His Campaign Do the Heavy Lifting
So Pawlenty’s not a ball of fire. But he’s a smart boss. In April, he managed to snag Nick Ayers, a wunderkind in Republican circles who served as executive director of the Republican Governors Association and was highly sought as a manager in this cycle. (This hasn’t been a good week for Ayers—a video of him being arrested for DUI surfaced—but it’s likely to pass.) Pawlenty’s also got Vin Weber, a notoriously smart former Minnesota congressman, in his corner. What they do behind the scenes could have as much impact on the primaries as what Pawlenty does.

5. He Must Stay Quiet and Consistent
Above all, Pawlenty needs to play a patient waiting game. Jonathan Bernstein and E.J. Dionne, both writing in The Washington Post, have described it as the Dukakis strategy. In 1988, the Massachusetts governor was quiet and consistent, as Joe Biden (speech plagiarism scandal), Jesse Jackson (too radical), Gary Hart (sex scandal), and others got bruised and bloodied. In short, Pawlenty might not be the most amazing candidate, but if he’s consistent and reliable, and everyone else self-destructs, he may still be standing when the dust clears. “I think he gets the nomination by being everybody’s second choice,” Rothenberg says. “Most football teams don’t go into the Super Bowl and say, ‘We’re not all that good, but we’re good enough.’ But sometimes they do say, ‘We’re going to play really good defense, we’ll let the other teams make mistakes, and we’ll capitalize.’”

[PAY-THEN GO]

HR;

Daniels was close to Coolidge, but will Pawlenty do? (see 'make a virtue of boredom)

[narciso]

They really have no shame, and thanks to Clinton, pay little consequence:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-other-rosenberg-case/

[hit and run]

TK:
If I have learned anything from this faux-pocalypse, I have learned how much booze I can drink in one night.

I think you could have had one more.

You really need to buckle down and apply yourself.

[PAY-THEN GO]

"Because federal prosecutors in New York’s Southern District under then U.S. Attorney Rudy Giuliani decided that they would not pursue charges for her alleged part in the Brink’s armored car robbery"

Damned Clinton/Giuliani !!!!

[PAY-THEN GO]

Obama about to speak to AIPAC.

That should be good.....

[narciso]

She had a 58 year sentence, but Holder submitted a get out of jail card, and Clinton signed it.

[rse]

Has anyone here ever recognized the JFK Exec Order allowing public employee unionization as "a social movement closely connected to the struggles for black liberation and women's liberation"?

Certainly puts the angst over Madison in a new light.

That order was listed as one of 3 transformative class events in a book about 10 years old.

If the 21st century Marxists viewed it as a seminal event before it was being called into question, we should probably believe them.

Only the government, especially the fed, can change the class you were born into.

Not you. Not your own efforts. Nice message being sent out in both higher ed and in K-12 through the true believing teachers.

[hit and run]

Daniels was close to Coolidge, but will Pawlenty do? (see 'make a virtue of boredom)

I may be a RINO for saying so (or a hen-pecked wuss),but I really did like Daniels. I'm not paying attention enough to justify it much more than "he was like Coolidge",but there you go.

Pawlenty? Eh,sure. He's fine.

I would love to have a boring president.

That boring is practically guaranteed to lose an election is something to shed a small tear over,imo.

Don't get me wrong -- I like the energy that Cain brings. I like the way Sarah can drive not only an entire national debate,but a lib's head to explode. I like conservatives who kick ass and take names.

I just wish that that wasn't necessary to be the hawt presidential candidate -- from the perspective of who I actually want in office.

I Blame Global Warming.

[PAY-THEN GO]

Cisco;

Turnabout is fair play, in both war and politics....ala Willie Horton.

"With former Govs. Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Jon Huntsman in the 2012 mix—and a few other current and former chief executives perhaps in the wings—the issue of pardons and furloughs is one that could play an unexpected and damaging role for some campaigns.?

[PAY-THEN GO]

The parallels between 1932 and 2008 are not trifling.

Hoover won the nomination with 98% of the delegates, but it would be nearly 20 years before republicans regained the WH and 60 years before the House was regained.
Start rebuilding now, all ye of conservative hope.

Comment Posted By Al Asad On 5.02.2008 @ 21:16

[PAY-THEN GO]

"I just wish that that wasn't necessary to be the hawt presidential candidate"

We live in a popular media culture. It is a very discouraging at times.

[narciso]

Well I don't argue with anyone with a chainsaw, hit, Coolidge's mettle was proven
in the Boston police strike, that's why Harding had to put him on the ticket, For what it's worth, Will is talking up Tpaw.

[Marcia in Phoenix]

To see Stenny Hoyer (NOW and very, very good; repudiating Obama's position) and then Obama, you can see it all LIVE
at www.aipac.org/pc (home page, right side, live coverage of the AIPAC Policy Conference). Will there be boo-ing? 10,000 attendees.

[Rocco]

Hmmm, Bela cost the Air Force over two million in two years traveling about.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2723357/posts

[hit and run]

Obama about to speak to AIPAC.

MayBee pointed this out yesterday -- but as a candidate,Obama spoke to AIPAC,saying that Jerusalem "must remain undivided". And then after the passing of less than 24 hours he had to backtrack because Palestinians were righteously outraged -- and he went back and said, "of course the status of Jerusalem is something that will have to be negotiated."

He has a spine of steel and the resolve of legend.

Of course,my first real introduction to Obama (I don't even remember his 2004 Dem convention speech) was via a speech he gave to AIPAC back in 2007 right after he announced.

"The biggest enemy I think we have in this whole process (and why I'm so glad to see a lot of young people here, young in spirit if not young in age) -- the reason I think it's so important, is because one of the enemies we have to fight -- it's not just terrorists, it's not just Hezbollah, it's not just Hamas -- it's also cynicism,"

Cynicism as big a threat as terrorists. He said it with a straight face and virtually no one at AIPAC (nor anyone else outside the conservative blogosphere) batted an eye. My God,how did this man become president?

[PAY-THEN GO]

Three cock-puppets, and counting...

Threadnoodler;

I hope it wasn't you making the 'kike'
defamations.

(PuD, Old Lurker notwithstanding)

[Ignatz]

--Harold Meyerson says if the Republicans are serious about cutting the deficit, they need to look at the real source of costs: red states.--

I absolutely agree with Leo. We should eliminate the progressive income tax so that all those rich blue state progs don't have to support their poor red state neighbors through food stamps and other social justice programs, even though Jesus Himself said that the progressive income tax and the Leviathan welfare state were the very definition of loving your neighbor as yourself. You can look it up. It's in the Gospel of Karl.

[PAY-THEN GO]

In context, the 'cynicism' is the process
which has stalemated progress.

Egalitarian cynicism across the range of participants.

Parallels run throughout the World of Politics.

[narciso]

This might drive one to 'drink heavily':

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110522/OPINION09/105220312/Biden-deserves-credit-bin-Laden-killing?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Home|s

[hit and run]

For the state so loved it's citizens that it gave politicians the right to tax them, that whosoever votes for them should not want for anything but have everlasting handouts at the expense of the producers.

[Ignatz]

--Interesting discussion: Wolves, coyotes, and dogs: species or races? Goes into recent developments as coyotes have spread throughout the country.--

Pretty short journey from pondering the genetic purity of Jews to that of dogs I imagine. At least it was 70 or so years ago when it was last in vogue in northern Europe.
I note you never answered my question about your peculiar and incoherent theology yesterday. I'm not surprised as there is no readily apparent answer.
Off for a pleasant, troll and/or bigot free Sunday.

[PAY-THEN GO]

Ronald Reagan SOTU

" Our standard here will be fairness, ensuring that the taxpayers' hard-earned dollars go only to the truly needy; that none of them are turned away, but that fraud and waste are stamped out. And I'm sorry to say, there's a lot of it out there. In the food stamp program alone, last year, we identified almost [$]1.1 billion in overpayments. The taxpayers aren't the only victims of this kind of abuse. The truly needy suffer as funds intended for them are taken not by the needy, but by the greedy. For everyone's sake, we must put an end to such waste and corruption."

Iggy;

Given there will always be slackers and thieves looking for opportunity to mooch, how do you square 'Truly needy' and not-so-needy?

How would you regulate without additional bureaucracy and cost?

It's a genuine dilemma.

[Ian R Thorpe]

I drove through town this morning having stayed in last night to miss the end of the world.

As my Honda cruised smoothly along I noticed the scence.

A few creatures that may once have been human shuffled around the debris strewn streets, their faces gray and expressionless, eyes dull and unseeing. Here and there bodies lay on the ground, dead, or perhaps just comatose they wrere surrounded by pools of blood and vomit.

Alarms blared unanswered from shops with windows smashed.

Gulls and ravens feasted on dead flesh that lay in the streets outside fast food vendors.

And everywhere there was a sense of desolation and abandonment.

After the apocalypse? No, a typical Sunday Morning in a small town in northern England.

[Rick Ballard]

H&R,

How? Take a look at Pawlenty's CV - poli-sci/JD followed by nothing but play in the public funded "problem solving" sandbox. He's never met a payroll that wasn't funded by organized theft. He's not quite as charismatic as My Friends to boot.

BOzo is a poor liar of very limited intelligence but if his opponent has embraced government as a cure rather than a source of infection, he'll still have a chance because it comes down to choosing between liars.

I'm with SR - there's plenty of time and BOzo's Clown Circus will not improve.

[OldTimer]

Wow. So far, Barry's AIPAC address sounds just like Bush--did someone steal a Bush speech and beef up the words to more effectively tickle the ears?

[jimmyk]

I would love to have a boring president.

Coolidge was right for his times, but I'm afraid at the moment we need a Allen West/Christie-style fighter. Daniels might have been tough, but I'm sure he didn't face the same kind of opposition in Indiana that he would in D.C.

Clarice, thanks for the h/t in your latest and excellent-as-always Pieces. I am humbled.

[Danube of Thought]

The Powerline guys brought this item back as a reminder (note that we are still above where we would have been without the recovery plan):

[narciso]

They ask us to believe it's cynical for us to consider the incitement to violence that comes from state run television, the schools,
and the mosques, from Bangor to Bokhara, and say 'not that there's anything wrong in that"

[Danube of Thought]

One thing we know Biden deserves credit for is blowing the cover of the SEALs.

[Extraneus]

Tucson SWAT Team Defends Shooting Iraq Vet 60 Times

How can it still be legal for a SWAT team to break into somebody's house and kill them for brandishing a weapon?

I know the whole point is to prevent drug dealers from flushing the evidence, but something has to be done to fix this. Why should a person be forced to submit to a home invasion in order to survive the experience?

The video at the link is another story, where a 7-year-old girl was killed by officers during another home raid.

The police have too much power.

[Jane]

Let me know if any of you watched Meet the Press. I found it fascinating (so far).

[PAY-THEN GO]

"They ask us to believe it's cynical for us to consider the incitement to violence that comes from state run television, the schools,
and the mosques, from Bangor to Bokhara, and say 'not that there's anything wrong in that"

It seems you are quibbling about the 'degree of cynicism'.....

[narciso]

Probably, Ext, although you can't discount the fine training of "Yosemite' Dupnik, in this.

[hit and run]

jimmyk:
Daniels might have been tough, but I'm sure he didn't face the same kind of opposition in Indiana that he would in D.C.

Excellent point to consider. I think the same is true of Bush. Texas largely has a different kind of Democrat than DC.

[Jane]

The White House instructed the AIPAC people to not boo.

[Danube of Thought]

A fine one today, Clarice. Let us just imagine that G.W. Bush had referred to a "Teutonic shift." Seriously, think about it.

[Extraneus]

Or else what, Jane?

[Jim Ryan]

I don't know how to tell Sarah that I've met someone else...I didn't mean for it to happen...I just hope she can accept it and maybe even someday take her place as Herman's Secretary of Energy.

[clarice]

Hit, I'm posting your comment as a PJM blog.

[narciso]

What did you find interesting about it, Jane?

[hit and run]

Speaking of PJM -- did I just find out Charlie is a Dallas Cowboys fan?

[clarice]

Here, hit:
http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/05/22/obama-and-israela-trip-through-memory-lane/

[clarice]

Yes, DoT. Though I doubt they'd let him continue on the public stage if he'd said there were 57 states and Eau Claire, Wisconsin was one of them.

But then I'm--how do you say?--cynical.

[sbw]

Well, come on now. Wasn't Obama speaking frankly? Didn't he make a 1930s Teutonic shift in ME policy?

[PAY-THEN GO]

The Australian=

A Mole in the Compound?

Didn't Osama get HBO-Big Love illustrates the impossible dilemma of multiple wives,

THE three widows of Osama bin Laden are turning on each other in custody, with two older Saudi women blaming a much younger Yemeni wife for leading US intelligence to their hideout.

"It's vicious," said a Pakistani official briefed on the interrogation of the widows.

"The older wives think the younger one tipped off the Americans or was tracked when she came to join him."

The al-Qa'ida leader was living with three wives when he was killed in Abbottabad three weeks ago. Until US investigators discovered his hiding place, it was not known whether bin Laden and his family were alive. Some reports suggested they had been killed in the US bombing of Afghanistan.e

Although the compound where bin Laden hid for five years was large, the three wives were all cooped up in the same house. The older two lived on the second floor and the youngest one on the top. Their husband alternated between them. Pakistani officials who have been debriefing the women portray life in the compound as an Islamic version of Desperate Housewives

"It's a well-known fact that when you have two older wives and then this young one comes along half their age, they don't like it," said one.

[hit and run]

Thanks Clarice. I added a comment just to make sure that the quotation is documented accurately. I was going from memory, so actual quote marks on the second quote were misplaced.

[clarice]

Thanks, hit.

[clarice]

Pay, Maybe Obama turned HIMSELF in to get away from all that squabbling and squalor.

[PAY-THEN GO]

Clarice;

It's always the youngest wife who creates havoc.

Margene was also jailbait......

[PAY-THEN GO]

Cornel West’s criticism of Obama sparks debate among African Americans

By Krissah Thompson, Published: May 18
Scholar Cornel West’s scathing critique of President Obama’s liberal bona fides in a series of recent interviews has ignited a furious debate among African American bloggers and commentators.

The well-known Princeton professor and author, who has released rap albums and starred in Hollywood films, supported Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign but now calls the president a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”

“I was thinking maybe he has at least some progressive populist instincts that could become more manifest after the cautious policies of being a senator,” West told Chris Hedges in an interview for the liberal political blog Truthdig.

Focusing on Obama and race, West said: “I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men . . . It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cornel-wests-criticism-of-obama-sparks-debate-among-african-americans/2011/05/18/AFlGTf6G_story.html?hpid=z6

[JM Hanes]

DoT:

"Apart from that, he ain't really blowing any air up my dress."

I've seen your favorite dress, DoT, and I don't think there's any room left over for air.

[Jane]

Or else what, Jane?

He will bomb them to smithereens - I guess.

What did you find interesting about it, Jane?

Paul Ryan was a guest. His manner along highlighted David gregory's prejudice. Ryan was superb.

Congressman Chris Van Holland was on the panel - what's that about? And he spent a lot of time bashing the republicans for "giving tax breaks to the oil companies."

The panel harped on how unpopular Ryan's plan is. I'm not convinced that is true.

[Danube of Thought]

I'm not convinced that is true.

The polling suggests it's what killing the GOP in NY-26.

[Jane]

Well then I stand corrected. I thought it was the fake tea party guy. But I'm not following it closely.

[JM Hanes]

"[T]hose states that got more back from our government than they paid in were overwhelmingly Republican."

So, who are the smart guys and who the rubes in this picture?

There's an obvious solution, of course. Eliminate federal taxes and programs, and let the states take care of themselves. You'd think the blue states would have figured that one out a long time ago, but no. Liberals had better prepare themselves for regressive taxes, if the rich folks ever figure out that they're putting in more than they get back too.

[PAY-THEN GO]

"the rich folks ever figure out that they're putting in more than they get back too."

"If you're so smart, why aren't you rich" is occasionally heard, to which I reply "If you're so rich, why aren't you smart"

I'm pretty sure most rich people are smart enough to have figured it out already.

[Jim Miller]

Sixteen stitches doesn't sound like much, especially on the face.

Years ago, I needed eleven stitches to fix a cut less than an inch long over a cheek bone.

(Nothing serious, just an errant elbow in a pick-up basketball game.)

[Extraneus]

The polling suggests it's what killing the GOP in NY-26.

The actual details of the plan, or the portrayal of the plan by its opponents, who don't themselves have a plan?

Speaking of portrayals, it's pretty obvious how a Republican defeat will be portrayed.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Speaking of PJM -- did I just find out Charlie is a Dallas Cowboys fan?

Who, me? Nah.

I do think it's open-minded of me to suggest that a Cowboys fan might otherwise be a good person.

[(Another) Barbara]

Jane, I was so doggoned proud of you for picketing the LWV event -- couldn't wait to read more about it and see some pics. By now, though, I've almost worn out my clicker, dashing over to You Too ten times per hour for the past day. Please feed my need! Tell us what your sign said, for starts, and the messages on other signs. Did any of the LWV members walk over to talk with the demonstrators?

Thanks.