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Let’s all faint! 23 June 2010

Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, WAR!.
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U.S. Central Commander Gen. David Petraeus
FILE – In this June 15, 2010 file photo, U.S. Central Commander Gen. David Petraeus is surrounded by staff after appearing to pass out on Capitol Hillin Washington, while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee. President Barack Obama has named Gen. Petraeus to succeed Gen. Stanley McChrystal as top war commander in Afghanistan (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Somewhere in the Rose Garden comments Ob said we are going to succeed.

At what I wonder.

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1. marisacat - 23 June 2010

[pounding head against brick wall]

Sen. John Kerry: “The commander-in-chief has made it clear no one is bigger than the mission.”

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catnip - 23 June 2010

And, once again, John Kerry had made it clear that he’s a blithering idiot.

Some kossack: “This is good for Democracy[sic], everywhere”.

To which I responded: “It’s good for democracy in Norway? Who knew?”

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

They just say anything. Politicians, Kosswhacks.. etc.

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

There was a piece at People mag a coupel of days ago, about how people dread his lecturing or discussing climate issues with them… he goes on. And on. And on. And then some more. :lol: Not the best salesman.

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catnip - 23 June 2010

Speaking of climate change, the Cons here finally bowed to pressure and added it to the G8 agenda last week. They ignored it as long as they could.

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CSTAR - 23 June 2010

Is that Cons like in “quelle connerie”?

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catnip - 23 June 2010

You got that right. ;)

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Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010

maybe you’ll need a little purple heart band-aid for your head after pounding it on the wall!

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

little purple heart band-aid

oh that si right… what a scene that was, at the Republican convention.

Just reading this at LAT… one thing about this story, pundits had to wing it early am Tuesday… it was clear, little prepping had gone out to them. AND Obby + whoever did manage to keep the announce quiet til they hit the Rose Garden.

[B]y Monday, an advance copy of the article was in the hands of a press aide for President Obama, setting in motion a chain of events that culminated less than 48 hours later with McChrystal’s ouster and Obama seeking to reassert control over a military leadership that appeared disdainful of civilian authorities.

The article caught the White House wholly unprepared. “There was no forewarning,” a senior administration official said in an interview. “It was like, ‘Holy —-!’ ”

Vice President Joe Biden was flying home from Chicago aboard Air Force Two on Monday when McChrystal called to apologize. But Biden didn’t know what the general was talking about — he had no inkling that the article existed. …

I wonder if Ob “got it”, for all his whining about the media, real undercutting is much closer to home.

And so the wars go on, one chest full of medals walks in, one walks out.

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2. Intermittent Bystander - 23 June 2010

About that gunshot death:
Boat captain working oil spill dead from gunshot wound, Coast Guard says
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/boat_captain_working_oil_spill.html

The boat was docked at the time, and deckhands heard the shot and then found the captain dead on deck. Alabama police are investigating.

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

IB! How are you???

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Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010

Hi IB!

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3. catnip - 23 June 2010

Swiped this from the Great Orange Military HooHah:

Obama Gives Petraeus Remarks Low Marks

By ELI LAKE, Staff Reporter of the Sun | September 11, 2007

WASHINGTON — Senator Obama, the Democrat from Illinois seeking his party’s nomination for the presidency, is giving the Iraq progress report of General David Petraeus low marks, going so far as to claim the one clear success in Iraq in recent months — the rout of Al Qaeda in Anbar — has nothing to do with the military surge the general in Washington is defending.

“I’m not sure that the success in Anbar has anything to do with the surge,” Mr. Obama said today at the first of two hearings featuring General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. “You yourself said it was political.”

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4. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010

BP Is Incinerating Sea Turtles And Other Wildlife

And while delegates at the World National Oil Companies Congress in London this week argue that they must be allowed to continue deepwater drilling despite the risks because land and shallow-water oil supplies are running out, BP is further destroying what little public support they have left, – other than from those Republicans and judges who own shares in oil production – by obstructing private citizens with small boats from doing their best to rescue sea turtles. BP is using shrimp boats to corral the spill into enclosed areas with fire-resistant booms, then setting it on fire to burn off the oil, not only killing hundreds if not thousands of sea turtles by boiling them alive, but destroying incalculable numbers of crabs, slugs, and surface fish that live in the Gulf of Mexico’s sargassum seas, crucial habitats for turtles, birds and larger fish.

Yet rather than aid volunteers and scientists battling to save the sargassum wildlife, BP is aggressively hindering any rescue efforts. ‘They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us back in there,’ one of the rescue boat captains, Mike Ellis, told conservation biologist Catherine Craig.

BP has good, if shocking, reason to want to kill these turtles. The Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle is on the Endangered Species Act list. Harming them is punishable by prison sentences and fines of up to $25,000 per violation – per turtle. But rather than allow rescuers to collect injured turtles from the burn boxes before the containment fires are lit, BP is choosing to deliberately burn the animals alive, thus incinerating the damning evidence.

Blair Witherington, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who has been part of the sea turtle rescue mission observed the destruction going on in the sargassum waters. ‘Ordinarily, the sargassum is a nice, golden colour,’ he said. ‘You shake it, and all kinds of life comes out: shrimp, crabs, worms, sea slugs. The place is really just bursting with life. It’s the base of the food chain.’ But now those areas are dying or already dead. ‘We’ll see flying fish, and they’ll land in this stuff and just get stuck.’ The sea jellies and snails that drift in these currents that form the major food sources for turtles have been almost totally exterminated. ‘These animals drift into the oil lines and it’s like flies on fly paper,’ Witherington said. ‘As far as I can tell, that whole fauna is just completely wiped out. Most of the Gulf of Mexico is a desert. Nothing out there to live on. It’s all concentrated in these oases.’

:cry:

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

I suppose there could be a more perfect and horrible metaphor, the sargassum “floats”, oases in the Gulf with all the little bits of life being boxed up and burned, but hard to see how.

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catnip - 23 June 2010

That’s horrendous.

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010
catnip - 23 June 2010

Heh. I didn’t even know he played in the NFL.

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6. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010
7. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010
8. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010

Get ready for more food riots

Farmers are slaughtering their livestock for food, after having eaten all the grain reserved for the animals. According to the UK Guardian:

In Niger, which the United Nations classifies as the world’s least developed country, starving families are eating flour mixed with wild leaves and boiled plants. More than 7 million people – almost half the population – currently face food insecurity in the country, making it the hardest hit by the crisis. According to UN agencies, 200,000 children need treatment for malnutrition in Niger alone.

This is interesting to read alongside the current cover story in Harper’s magazine, which is all about how investment banks managed to jack up the price of food on the commodities market over the past ten years. The problem here is twofold: West Africa is suffering drought and poor harvests, but at the same time investment banks have speculated to the point where food staples have gotten artificially expensive. Now starving people can’t buy imported foods even though they are available.

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9. catnip - 23 June 2010

lol…jbou takes on one of the True Believers:

more importantly there are (4+ / 0-)

things WE can do. Like offer him our support.

He is doing the best he can .

The constant non-constructive criticism and Obama bashing from ‘the base’ is not helping.

by missliberties on Wed Jun 23, 2010 at 07:44:35 PM MDT

*
Obama is not an addict going through a 12… (1+ / 0-)

program. He doesn’t need our support, he needs a kick in the ass and a change of direction. His policy choices are not doing enough.

You can call it the “Tea Party” all you want; but I know the Klan when I see it.

by jbou on Wed Jun 23, 2010 at 08:00:04 PM MDT

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

He is doing the best he can .

geesh. wee wittle wObbly Obby.

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10. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010

Senator’s Aide Resigns Over Knifing, Drunk Driving Charges

Brent Furer, an aide to Sen. David Vitter, resigned today over reports that, among other things, he’d knifed up his girlfriend good in 2008, sending her to the hospital. And he was the aide in charge of “women’s issues.” Ugh.

ABC News broke the story last night of the girlfriend attack, which Vitter’s office has known about since forever. But they still did not get him to resign until this morning, citing other drunk driving charges also revealed in the ABC News report as the impetus. So that makes it okay; he was a good worker when he was just cuttin’ up that one gal.

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11. Madman in the Marketplace - 23 June 2010
12. marisacat - 23 June 2010

WSJ/NBC poll out. Conducted jointly by Dem (Hart) and Republican pollsters.

The good sign is the high and rising numbrs who want significant regulation of industries, from Wall St, banking to health insurers… etc.

[N]early two-thirds in the survey said they wanted more regulation of oil companies. Majorities also favor more regulation of Wall Street firms, health insurers and “big corporations.”

While a majority still favors greater offshore drilling, support has slipped considerably over the past month as the Gulf oil spill has grown worse—from 60% in May to 53% now.

Sixty-three percent support legislation to reduce carbon emissions and increase the use of alternative and renewable energy sources, even if it means an increase in energy costs.

But for Obby and incumbents, I guess pretty rough going.

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catnip - 23 June 2010

He’ll ignore the polls. That worked so well for him when he scrapped the very popular public option.

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

I don’t think Obby wants teh job… probably rather ambivalent about it to start with. He got a bit enervated over this, McChrystal, as it was about him personally.

Good luck to them all…

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13. ts - 23 June 2010

Maybe he can get some tips from John Isler and Nick Mahut, who are on the third DAY of their Wimbledon singles match without a winner, fifth game is currently 59-58.

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marisacat - 23 June 2010

That is kind of a stunner isn’t it? Ultimate “draw”…. for now anyway.

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lucid - 23 June 2010

Has someone ever died on a court… my question… I was updated on it all day from a dear friend in Brighton. That’s some shit. What do you bet someone comes out tomorrow and breaks first.

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catnip - 23 June 2010

I don’t know enough about tennis to know how that could even happen – apparently. I thought the scoring was pretty simple.

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14. catnip - 23 June 2010

Maybe it’s just me but it seems the CNN banner headline “President Relieves McChrystal” is just ripe material for jokes.

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15. catnip - 23 June 2010
16. marisacat - 24 June 2010

New

LINK

…………………. 8)

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