Take Ben Stein's Rep

Felix Salmon aids and abets Ben Stein's auto-immolation.

Daniel Drezner provides an interesting sidebar, the gist of which is, yes, we would be in Libya even if these prominent Frenchmen had disgraced themselves a few weeks earlier.

Comments

[jimmyk]

"to the kind of deliberation" -> "for the kind of deliberation"

[Jane]

You don't think a discussion of litigation strategies is enough?

[clarice]

There's no indication she even attended is there?

[Frau Lehrerin a.D.]

Yesterday -- Dominique and Timmy,
Sitting in a tree ...

Today, Timmy has dropped him like a cold freedom fry.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Rick-

These 16 pages are worth the time.

[clarice]

These political friendships are so enduring, frau.

[centralcal]

My neck of the woods - the agricultural California Central Valley - is deeply upset about USS Cesar Chavez. Jeesh - why not USS Jimmy Hoffa?

[Frau Lehrerin a.D.]

Nuthin' beats a fresh piece of group politics, cc.

[centralcal]

This clip from an article about Ahnold's mistress struck me as funny. She now lives in Bakersfield:

Native Dancer Street, the quiet cul-de-sac where Ms. Baena now lives in this Central Valley city, was a maelstrom of television cameras, reporters and onlookers Wednesday morning as her identity became known.

Native Dancer Street????? Good grief!

[centralcal]

Dang it Frau - a year or so ago, Soylent was supposed to be putting together a JOM cookbook of accumulated thread recipes. He had to chuck the project when he got deployed. How about you coming out with a German translation booklet of your different screen names, so we can all be in on the jokes? lol!

[Old Lurker]

Mel's link at 4:04 is a keeper for all the numbers folks. Rick will like it.

Mel, between you and my SIL and the two women in your lives, I suspect you Chicago men do not stand a chance. They don't need Jane's video to beat up on you.

[centralcal]

hhhmmm - my comment got eaten? Spies?

Will try again with different subject matter. Fishbowl DC caught presidential protection twittering that they were monitoring Fox News.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

That son of a bitch Gingrich should do two things: publicly, forcefully and humbly apologize for and repudiated his remarks, and withdraw immediately from the campaign.

Another apology? Why? He already apologized to Ryan 2 days ago, both privately by phone and very publicly on both Hannity and Greta.

[centralcal]

That was eerie. When I used the words s*cr*t s*rvic* my comment disappeared. What all are they monitoring?

[Melinda Romanoff]

OL-

My wiles were well interpreted at the time. I covered all my bases, including asking the grandmother for the OK. Also, the date of my ask was what would have been my grandparent's 50th anniversary.

Symbolism not lost on said subject.

[Danube of Thought]

"most inexcusably, sent Lt. Col. Terry Lakin to prison"

Lakin went to prison because he disobeyed lawful orders.

[Danube of Thought]

Native Dancer was the name of one of the great thoroughbreds of all time.

[Elliott]

I see that John Boehner has edged in front of Obama in the polling.

[centralcal]

Well, that's a relief to know, DoT! lol.

[Threadkiller]

Maybe your posts just got crossed up, CCal.

Were you trying to say the “Secret Cervix” lives in Bakersfield?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Via Gateway Pundit:

Boy wonder Ezra Klein proposes taking away senior voting rights.

The Washington Post reported:

Here’s your out-of-the-box policy idea for the day:

America should implement weighted voting to make voting more objective and fair, and give the young more power, because the consequences of political decisions will affect them the longest. Weighted voting would restore power to twenty and thirty year olds, where it resided before the advent of medical science. With the aid of computers, it would be easy to give everyone a Voting Score, just like we all have a credit score.

If your response to this is that it’s crazy and offensive, that all American adults are equal and so is their vote, you might want to familiarize yourself with the U.S. Senate, where a Wyoming resident’s vote is worth almost 70 times as much as a Californian’s, or the electoral college, where the presidency could be won by a candidate who loses the popular vote 4:1.

All of which is to say, we already reweight voting in this country. But we do it to give residents from small states more power. Does that really make more sense than reweighting by age, education, race, income or some other demographic characteristic?

[centralcal]

Ha, TK. Well, I hope that is what the Secret Cervix thinks if they did snatch my comment.

[Janet]

dropped him like a cold freedom fry.

Hahaha...too funny!

Native Dancer Street????? Good grief!

The over-the-top PC has become comical.

[rse]

Frau-

Thank you. I was tracking LDH before Steve Diamond's great link to her "Democracy at Risk" but after that, I knew she was the current visionary.

I love it when people who will not allow effective reading instruction at the charter elem school they sponsor then complain about the prison population. They create the illiterates and then want to use the deliberate failure for more money and power.

LDH was the Chief Behavioral Scientist at the Rand Corporation in the 80s before going to Columbia ed school as a prof. One of my points is that she went through that federally financed 5 year Rand Change Agent Study (1973-78) and started to come up with strategies to stop every identified means where implementations have deviated from federal intent.

All was in place had Gore won in 2000 via New Standards/Goals 2000/School to Work but with the controversy, it got derailed at the federal level.

So they have split it up this time between feds and states and implementation documents almost no one reads. It is one of the main purposes of the Stimulus plan (ARRA).

She did me a favor though. She got giddy and said 2 different things last fall that were part of my epiphanies. The first was that the Common Core national standards "were finally fulfilling Dewey's vision". The second was that the purpose of Common Core was primarily to foster social and emotional learning and content was only important as an aid.

She sees victory in sight and she is getting careless in what she says.

Thanks again for taking time to repost. I am not online too much but I try to check in. Real stories help me track in reality what I understand in my head so I can explain it to normal busy people in terms they can relate to.

[centralcal]

“An employee with access to the Secret Service’s Twitter account, who mistakenly believed they were on their personal account, posted an unapproved and inappropriate tweet,” Special Agent in Charge Edwin M. Donovan said in a statement to ABC News. “The tweet did not reflect the views of the U.S. Secret Service and it was immediately removed. We apologize for this mistake, and the user no longer has access to our official account. “
(snip)

Asked why the employee was monitoring Fox News Channel, Donovan said, “Our public affairs employees monitor all the news channels throughout the day for stories that effect the Secret Service.”

Asked which story this employee was focused on, Donovan said “I don’t know.”

From Jake Tapper's blog.

[Porchlight]

Good grief. Why does the Secret Service have a Twitter account in the first place? Surely some institutions are not required to keep up with the times.

[JM Hanes]

henry:

Made in the USA?

"ccal, I bet the shirts are made in China."

We can settle that question pretty quickly. Just look for the union label.

[jimmyk]

The Secret Service certainly needs to keep with the times. I don't know how useful having an actual Twitter account is, but I could imagine Twitter being potentially helpful in tracking communications and sniffing out security concerns. (Disclaimer: I have a brother-in-law and sister-in-law high up in the SS.)

[narciso]

Klein is very dim. isn't he, more than one of these mandated florescent bulbs

[centralcal]

I sure hope your SIL and BIL like you, jimmyk!

[bunkerbuster]

Will be a shame if we don't get to witness a debate with Newt, Palin and Ron Paul each making the other look dishonest, rash and uninformed.

[Extraneus]

It probably won't matter to our kids that DSK is eating alone at his new digs on Riker's Island tonight, or that Newt is sending Rush back-tracking emails to prove he's still a conservative, but

Pakistan Rushes to Finish Construction of Fourth Nuclear Reactor

Iranian FM says Bushehr nuclear plant is operational

[Ignatz]

--Will be a shame if we don't get to witness a debate with Newt, Palin and Ron Paul each making the other look dishonest, rash and uninformed.--

Barry does it all by himself.
That's talent.

[Janet]

a wonderful comment at the Klein article -

"lamkoid wrote:
The USA is not a democracy nor it is not a representative democracy. It is a constitutional republic. The architecture of our government is designed to fragment power so as to keep government from screwing up people's lives.

The founding fathers carefully crafted the Constitution to avoid the mobocracy of a pure democracy, fearing "the tyranny of the majority".

Thus the primary goal was not to make everyone's vote count equally, but to ensure that the government did not crush the citizens of this country. They did this by creating three separate competing branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial (no, not Chuck Schumer's: House, Senate and presidency). They also split powers between the federal and states governments. The power of the states was much more pronounced before the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913 which took the election of senators away from state legislatures. Thus the aggregate of states, including small states, holds the federal government in check. The primary purpose of the structure of our government to protect the citizens from an overreaching government., not to ensure that everyone's vote is equally weighted.

Ezra Klein can't be expected to understand any of this since it took place, "Over a hundred years ago." But this does bring up a pertinent point: Why is Klein still on the WaPo's payroll? After inventing an organ for subverting the news into left wing propaganda, JournOlist, and gleefully flaunting his ignorance of the Constitution, one really has to wonder if he is the son or nephew of some influential board member. It certainly says a great deal about the journalistic standards of the Washington post that he is still on staff."

[jimmyk]

I sure hope your SIL and BIL like you, jimmyk!

cc, there are many reasons I post semi-anonymously here!

[centralcal]

Excellent comment, indeed, Janet. Thanks for sharing it.

I see Rush Limbaugh has a note on his web page announcing that Newt will be on tomorrow.

[jimmyk]

But Janet, didn't Ezra go to Harvard and stuff like that? He's so smart he doesn't need to know facts and history.

[centralcal]

Barry does it all by himself.
That's talent.

lol. Well, he often has to use TOTUS, Iggy.

[narciso]

UCLA, Harvard is the other twit,Yglesias.

[Extraneus]

Ignatz reads where others see no need to tread, but I see no purpose for Newt's debate performance, and would prefer to see him drop out before having to witness it. Of course, he can hardly do that after his recent foot-shooting, and will probably stay in to the end now, unfortunately.

A good debate would involve people who believe what they're saying, rather than spout calculated taking points. Ron Paul would be welcome in that debate, as would Santorum, Bachmann, Palin and Perry, although I don't see the point of a Bachmann candidacy if Palin gets in.

[maryrose]

"Barry does it all by himself"
yes and usually ends his diatribe by opening mouth and inserting foot.

[maryrose]

He's also fond of "stepping in it".

[JM Hanes]

Clarice:

Obamacare was passed March 21, 2010 -- i.e. the day the first email in Jane's excerpt was written. Kagan was nominated to the Court 6 weeks later on May 10th, confirmed on August 5th, and sworn in on the 7th.

[maryrose]

I say the more repubs the merrier. Let's have a real discussion of the pertinent issues of the day. lord knows we will hear none of this from pipe dreams of obama. Fast rail, amnesty, new lightbulbs and electric cars are not what the american people are about nor do they really care about these topics.Bin Laden will fade and at election time the electorate will want to know what Obummer has done for them lately. Sadly for him it will be a big fat nothing.

[Janet]

Ron Paul would be welcome in that debate, as would Santorum, Bachmann, Palin and Perry,

Have we already abandoned Captain Hate?

[MaryD]

maryrose, I love your posts both for their content and unfailing optimism. I hope you are right.

[Rick Ballard]

Mel,

Thanks for the link. It's an interesting read and I believe that LaPolla provides some very good insight into probable outcomes. I would have liked to seen a little deeper analysis of the demographic shift which is occurring and I'm curious as to why he did not include residential real estate trusts in his buy recommendations. All the defaulters are going to become renters - and sooner rather than later.

[JM Hanes]

"Will be a shame if we don't get to witness a debate with Newt, Palin and Ron Paul"

It would be a shame if we never got to witness a debate between Dennis Kuchinich, Joe Biden, and Mike Gravel. Oh, wait.... How about a corruptocrat face off between Chris Dodd and John Edwards? Oh, wait.... Or maybe the slurpeed alligator guy vs. the dragon queen. Oh, wait....

[Extraneus]

So let's say Perry is the guy. Who's the VP pick in that scenario? Christie? (I'm looking to buy a new domain name.)

[Army of Davids]

Some call it the New Normal.

Some call it Hope and Change.

I call it the Long Suckiness.

But whatever it is....it ain't the Old Always.

[Captain Hate]

Have we already abandoned Captain Hate?

What?!?

[hit and run]

centralcal:
a year or so ago, Soylent was supposed to be putting together a JOM cookbook of accumulated thread recipes. He had to chuck the project when he got deployed.

Truth-be-told I asked and received the recipes from Soylent. It was during unemployment,and I figured I had the time to get the cookbook finished.

I blew it and didn't get it done before going back to work.

Still have them. My plan is to get to them . . . some day.

[clarice]

Thanks, JMH. I think the account Jane cited was a bit hyperbolic in the description of what the exchanges reveal.

[Danube of Thought]

Somebody be sure to alert us all when the John Edwards sex tape goes public.

It is a rare and joyous thing indeed to see such utter disgrace and humiliation visited upon a man so vile. The phony deserves all of it, and I hope he does time.

[maryrose]

'All defaulters will become renters sooner rather than later"
So true and in a reality check will be better off financially because they will be living within their means. Going to bed every night with a huge mortgage which you can't pay hanging over your head is no way to go through life.
MaryD:
Thank you for your kind comments. There's something about the name Mary that brings people together. 3 of my closest friends are named Mary as were my mom and her mom.

[maryrose]

DOT:
I think the suffering for John Edwards has already begun. I think the depression and self-loathing are upon him. Look for him to be admitted to a hospital soon as all this starts to rain down on him. I feel for his children who have lost their mother and now have a compromised father.

[Danube of Thought]

I have known for quite a while that you are a much kinder person than I am, Maryrose, and I commend you very highly for that.

"It would be a shame if we never got to witness a debate between Dennis Kuchinich, Joe Biden, and Mike Gravel." You left out that dude they ran for the Senate in S.C.

[rse]

DOT-

You're as bad as me. When some mom gushes at me for just being courteous "You're so sweet".

I usually smile and say "Not especially but I'll be happy to do that".

[Extraneus]

If there's any justice in the world, Alan Grayson would be in the Dem debates.

[centralcal]

Drudge links to the WAPO story about the Cheney book to be released on Aug. 30th. His daughter Liz:

Asked if he will cover some of the events mentioned in “Decision Points” — Cheney’s alleged unhappiness with the president over not pardoning former vice president aide I. Lewis Libby, Cheney’s alleged offer to remove himself from the 2004 GOP ticket — Liz Cheney said “that’s just scratching the surface.”

“There’s a whole range of interesting stories that haven’t been talked about,” she said.

[Sue]

Drudge is headlining that the Frog is going to get bail. $1,000,000.00.

[matt]

the kicker, mel, is the item on the leverage of the European, and specifically German banks at 3-4X that of the American banks. maybe it's time to put our money into Halifax Bank.

Much of the money from TARP went to the German banks, and now those same banks are the ones on the hook for much of the Greek, Irish, Eastern European, etc debt.

That the ECB is monetizing their debt through the purchase of EC debt that is then loaned to deadbeats like the PIIGS is a descending spiral.

Not only has the US become a nation of deadbeats, but now Europe is playing Russian Roulette with bullets in 4 cylinders. The governor of the Bank of japan said yesterday that their economy is in a "severe state".

Which leaves China to sell their good to? Not to mention the RE and industry bubbles.

[Sue]

The insider said: 'Rielle thought they would be married by now or at least finalising wedding plans. 'At this point, she's completely baffled about their relationship.'

Sheesh. Let me help her out with defining her relationship with John Edwards. Some women are so stupid.

[Captain Hate]

“There’s a whole range of interesting stories that haven’t been talked about,” she said.

Damn I'd love for him to go Terminator on Duke and Duke

[clarice]

Well, if he gets bail we won't see him again. Maybe we should do this more often to get rid of tranzi trash and raise revenue.

:Some women are so stupid"--I remember when the rule was don't put anything in writing..How smart could either of them be to videotape it?

[pagar]

"Lakin went to prison because he disobeyed lawful orders."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2520543/posts
Eight charged with accessing Obama records plead not guilty.

Obama Passport security breach

"A third contractual employee working for The Analysis Corp. (TAC), a McLean-based information firm that has helped the State Department automate the Terrorist Watchlist over the last several years, was reprimanded. TAC is headed by Obama’s top terrorism and intelligence adviser, John O. Brennan, which has earned millions of dollars providing intelligence-related consulting services to federal agencies and private companies. Brennan is also a former CIA agent.

http://www.therightperspective.org/2009/07/24/security-breach-may-lead-to-obama-natural-born-status/

Course before that we have Divorce record for Obama's opponents leaked etc.

Seems like a good reporter could come up with a Lot of bad things happening to good people that wonder why we don't know anything about the President of the US.
Things like US citizens not having standing to know anything about the leader of our country.

[Sue]

She had nothing to lose. And everything to gain by having proof. But you are right, neither are very smart.

[JM Hanes]

Love can make you really stupid, but John & Rielle passed that marker at a run, a long time ago. Even the prurient must have lost interest by now.

[MayBee]

Lakin refused orders. His CinC was Obama, so his story is not well known.

Lt. Watada, on the other hand, now has a movie made in his honor.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1594303/

[Sue]

JMH,

I know I had forgotten about them until today.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Frau Lehrerin a.D.

"Mrs Retired Teacher"

[Rick Ballard]

"Even the prurient must have lost interest by now."

Yep. 'Druther shoot rats down at the dump. These particular rutting pigs just don't have the proper panache.

[Threadkiller]

--"Who's the VP pick in that scenario? Christie? (I'm looking to buy a new domain name.)"--

Gutsyfull.com?

[Captain Hate]

How smart could either of them be to videotape it?

Did you ever see the video of Silky having his hair done before a campaign appearance? I don't think "smart" and "videotape" can be positively correlated in a sentence about him.

[Jane]

The phony deserves all of it, and I hope he does time.

This has got to be the longest grand jury in history. It feels like it's been a decade. Hand down an indictment already.

DSK will be out of here as soon as the bail is posted. Hopefully he won't be the next president of France, but you never know.

[pagar]

"--"Who's the VP pick in that scenario? Christie?"

Why can't we leave these Governors alone to finish the job they have started to get a few states straightened out?

[clarice]

Is it just me? I can't imagine the public interest in Edwards using campaign contributions to pay off Rielle is sufficient to justify the effort being put into this investigation.

[Captain Hate]

pagar, although I agree with you that they should complete the job that they're already doing well, at least the governors have the executive experience that is so lacking in the halfwitted quibblers in the Senate that dither forever and make horrible candidates; and, well, look what happens when one gets elected.

[Frau Lehrerin a.D.]

"The Long Suckiness" 2008-2012
AoD - grab the domain for that fast, before Ext. beats you to it. Also, a great bumper sticker!

Your bingo card is filling up fast, ChaCo. a.D. = außer Dienst and applies to retired bureaucrats, judges, soldiers, etc., but not elected officials. The general word for retired is "Ruhestand" and Charlie and TK probably learned that, too.

[Jim Miller]

For some time I have suspected that John Edwards didn't really want to run for the presidency, that he was doing it mostly as a front man (using man loosely) for his wife.

(I base that mostly on how blankety-blankety lazy he was as a senator.)

If that is true, then there is a simple explanation for his recklessness: He may been, consciously or unconsciously, looking for a way out.

[Frau Lehrerin a.D.]

Jane, DSK's great adventure in NYC may just lend him that 'je ne sais quoi' to thrust the ex-commie (not sure about the ex) into the Palais de l'Elysee. If so, they should put in a doggy door for him to use.

[Jack is Back!]

What is the over/under on how many hours it will take DSK to pull a Polanski once he is bailed? Without a bracelet and a passport deposit he is a goner.

If I remember it correctly, World Bank is an American and IMF is always someone else from the G7.

[clarice]

I think that, too. Jim.

It will be interesting how he makes his great escape, Frau. Will it be a helicopter pickup off a skyscraper to a private airport or yacht at sea?

[Captain Hate]

If that is true, then there is a simple explanation for his recklessness: He may been, consciously or unconsciously, looking for a way out.

That makes sense because, not to speak unkindly of the dead (LOL; who am I kidding), Elizabeth had enough ambition to fill every nook in that mansion they lived in. Silky was such a smarmy grifter that I think the Snopses would've looked down on him in a Faulkner novel.

[Ignatz]

Frontpage mag tells us 100 flowers bloom in Egypt's Arab Spring.
Of course 12 Coptic Christians were murdered and 232 injured in the process, but hey that's a fair tradeoff, right Barack?
Any number of dead Christians are more than balanced out by the wonderful prospect of the MB imposing strict sharia on the place.

[narciso]

I think you have to say it, with the Doctor Evil 'raised pinky' one million dollars.

[Jane]

60% of the french think it was a set-up. That is probably the same margin he expected to won by in the election.

So he won't be coming to any state dinners - well unless Obama is still in office - he won't care if the guy is a rapist.

Sounds like a win/win - unless of course he gets AIDS.

[pagar]

Capt Hate, I agree with every we word you say. I'm just saying we really need to have the state house in these states in strong Republican hands. I don't want any Senator and the only House member I think would be good is Rep West.

This article has some comments on Gov Perry that indicate he has some Texans that don't think he should rise any higher.

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/05/18/why-rick-perry-should-run-for-president/#respond

[pagar]

Please strike the word we from the 1st sentence in my 09:24 post.

[Captain Hate]

Does anybody find it interesting that the IMF bailed on him being in NYC on official bidness? Sounds like they might want to give him the bum's rush although you more worldly people can tell me the errors of my assumptions.

[MarkO]

Golly, Rick. Not even a footnote?

If love makes one stupid, lust really scrambles the brain. John, who went along, is one of those really intelligent Democrats who are bringing us Doom. Stupid is as . . ..

As to why? Sue was going to explain some of that Joe Jackson stuff.

Bail? Well, you know what I think of the criminal "justice" system, but if you've got $1 million you can get bail for rape, otherwise, poor boy, sit in jail.

Back to the game. Did I mention I hate the Heat?

[Captain Hate]

pagar, you're right of course in what you wrote. Voters are so fickle anyway; remember how a significant number of people were thinking of Scottie Centerfold as a possible Preznit candidate 6 months ago? That evalumation is somewhere around OBL's body now.

[daddy]

Can Mo blow a 1 run lead and the Yankee's choke in the 9th?

[Captain Hate]

evalumation == evaluation

[daddy]

Looks likely.

Mo gives up the tying run. Now its 1 - 1, 2 out, still 1 man on.

[daddy]

On to extra innings!

Hee hee hee hee hee.

[Sue]

Sue was going to explain some of that Joe Jackson stuff.

I was?

[MarkO]

T thought you were going to explain why so often beautiful women were in the company of ugly men. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just having one of those episodes. Wow. Look at those colors.

[Sue]

Money and laughter. Mostly money.

[Rick Ballard]

CH,

The economic problems which are going to remove BOzo from office are beyond political solutions. I would place the ability to inspire trust and confidence far above any executive experience wrt qualities to be sought in the next President. Mitt Romney has plenty of executive experience but all he inspires me to do is turn him off and hope he goes away.

Even a President capable of inspiring trust and confidence is not going to shorten the period necessary for restructuring at this point. Congress and Mad Ben have guaranteed that the liquidation necessary is going to drag on for at least another three years - if we're lucky.

I don't really dislike Romney, he's just another plastic figure in the oligarch null set to me.