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Weekend 2 July 2010

Posted by marisacat in Afghanistan War, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, U.S. Senate.
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St Ulrich, Austria: A goose peers through feathers as it cleans itself near lake Pillersee [Kerstin Joensson/AP]

****

Freedom Weekend.. or something like that.. You will not be too surprised to hear that Joe [Lieberman] and John [McCain] will appear on TW and FOX w/Chris Wallace this Sunday, both live from Afghanistan.

Perhaps they are interlocutors for Petraeus… who has said he will now not speak to the media for 30 days.  The exigencies of taking over Afghanistan.

And all that.

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1. marisacat - 2 July 2010

Fixers. Hard at work.

Mokhiber – Corporate Crime Reporter – C-punch

[Federal] Judge Weinstein brought Feinberg back to try to settle the asbestos cases, the DES cases and the case of the nuclear contractors at Shoreham, Hager said.

And now President Obama has brought him in to limit BP’s liability.

We know who Feinberg is, Hager says.

“The real question is – what is Obama’s motivation in appointing this guy when he has followed a career of helping corporations escape the consequences of inflicting massive injuries and helping government to cover-up its misdeeds?”

Is there a written agreement governing the BP $20 billion fund?

The White House did not return calls seeking comment.

Hager says we don’t know.

“But I wouldn’t be surprised that there is no written agreement,” Hager said. “Feinberg is going to get some money. Both Obama and BP trust him. He’s done this so many times in the past. He’s covered everybody who needed to be covered. It is the service he provides.”

Is there an agreement covering Feinberg’s fee?

“We don’t know that either,” Hager said. “He might have said – we’ll work it out later. He’s already made a lot of money doing these things.”

“In 9/11, he notionally waived his fee. But he got 1.2 percent of the total $7 billion for administrative costs. So, he was spending a lot of money during the whole three years or so that he was working on that case. He had his very substantial costs covered. Over $80 million in three years.”

“So, he has the flexibility to make all kinds of different deals here.”

“He may even waive his fee in the BP case.”

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 3 July 2010

I’m not holding my breath:

BP Criminal Case in Oil Spill May Be Inevitable, Analysts Say

Whether BP or any individuals will face felony charges –or even prison time — is a more complicated question. One hint of what a broader indictment might look like comes from an unlikely source: private civil-racketeering lawsuits that have been brought on behalf of property and business owners in Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida.

One of the suits, filed on June 12 in federal district court in Pensacola, Florida, by the plaintiffs’ firm, Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Echsner Rafferty & Proctor, accuses BP and Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward not only of discrete instances of pollution; it also alleges the company engaged in an illegal “enterprise” to mislead regulators over a period of years.

Included in this alleged pattern of wrongdoing was BP’s failure to improve its safety practices in response to past incidents, resulting in criminal fines, the suit says. An explosion in 2005 at BP’s Texas City refinery, which killed 15 workers, and an oil leak in 2006 from a BP pipeline in Alaska are among the episodes cited in the suit.

RICO Law

Taken together with the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Florida suit alleges, these events show that BP engaged in a scheme that violated the civil provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The RICO law was enacted in 1970 to help prosecutors put Mafiosi behind bars. It has been used more broadly against corporations and high-profile individuals, including junk-bond impresario Michael Milken in 1989.

It allows prosecution of people who operate or oversee an illegal enterprise, even if they did not commit the main criminal acts in question. The maximum prison term is 20 years for each count. In the hands of a bold prosecutor, the facts and theory that underpin the Levin Papantonio firm’s civil suit could add up to something more: a criminal indictment.

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marisacat - 3 July 2010

ugh I think because of the heavy business that DoD does with BP, that alone, we are sunk. They’ll b sued (think I read there are 30 suits already) and they’ll be fined… bigger showier fines than Oil and Gas usually pay………… but it all won’t be much against the destruction.

It would take mass mobilisation in the streets of all 4 states, as i see it, at this point, for ANYTHING to make a difference.

What happens tho as the oil clearly enters the loop and takes a hard south.. what happens as other countries get hit and test and track the source, I have no idea.

I don’t know… what is the coastal areas of 3 states, much fo the coast of a 4th, at least on one side, myriad jobs, lives, RE value, businesses, fisheries… what is it worth?

A lot less than we think it is worth.

I hope Obby likes his choke chain – nto that he even needs one…. I hate feeling it affects me as well.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 3 July 2010

they’re plainly worth less than letting Big Oil and Big War keep doing what they do.

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marisacat - 3 July 2010

There is a fisherwoman, wife of a fisherman, LA… they have a couple boats and small cafe. Kindra Arneson. She has been spoken to/ filmed/ interviewed by FOX, CNN, Australian version of 60 Minutes… Lehrer on PBS…. after a bit they (ALL of them) keep up her text interview, but they ALL have pulled the vids. Of her talking, of her taking a film crew thru the marshes… of her standing up in a lcoal meeting, etc.

As someone pointed out on The Oil Drum, FOX, for one, is happy to push all kinds of conspiracy theory, incite, hype, etc (and i am half iwth htem on this oil mess) but a local wife and mother, they pull the vids.

You have to wonder.

Even in Australia. I think it is the reach of oil money in politics, globally.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 3 July 2010

they can’t run their security apparatuses without Big Oil … I think it comes down to that.

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marisacat - 3 July 2010

That has to be it.

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CSTAR - 4 July 2010

I’d also like to see the Catholic Church merit prosecuted under RICO.

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marisacat - 4 July 2010

Agree.. globally. They so need to be strung up at the Hague.

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3. Madman in the Marketplace - 3 July 2010

Charles Pierce: America, the Poisoned: Hold These Truths to Be Self-Inflicted

There’s a poison in the public bloodstream these days, and it’s affecting the mind, as poisons will. One entire political party has lost its mind, and well may succeed for having done so. A congressional candidate in Alabama is running commercials equating progressive taxation with slavery and the Holocaust. A candidate for the Senate in Nevada seems to deny any role for a central government short of raising an army, and perhaps not even that, since she seems to suggest that, if the election doesn’t go her way, her several followers may go to guns in response. The members of that party in the national legislature have utterly abandoned their duties to the public good for unalloyed obstructionism. On Wednesday, the Senate again failed to pass an extension of unemployment benefits for the first time since the 1950′s, and this in a time of 9.5-percent unemployment. The government is unwilling to bring the criminals of the previous administration to justice, and seemingly unable to bring the corporate criminals of the previous decade to justice, either. Some 20,000 barrels of oil are spilling daily into the Gulf of Mexico, where now huge columns of smoke are beginning to rise from the surface of the sea. And maybe it is time to read Revelations with a fresh eye, after all, except for the fact that the horsemen are not unleashed upon us. We invite them in to ride.

The poison dulls the mind and enervates the body. It leaches away the critical faculties and leaves in their place a kind of dull-eyed acceptance that borders on chronic lassitude. We accept what we cannot change and then decide we can’t really change anything, and thereupon, we accept anything. A political party that embraces public lunacy in its candidates, and public dereliction in its elected officials, should pay a political price for that. It will not, because the only people motivated at the moment are the people who are motivated in support of the lunacy and, in fact, who would like to see more of it. And they may well do so. Instead, we study the lunacy as if it were a phenomenon detached from our daily lives, the way that we have detached ourselves from the discipline and responsibilities of self-government, congratulating ourselves on how fair-minded we are for giving the lunatics a hearing and then becoming mystified when we realize that, if they are empowered in the government, they mean to do what they say.

An unemployment rate that nudges 10 percent should occasion societal upheaval. Instead, we give a polite hearing to responsible “moderates” who argue that it’s pretty much the way it’s going to be for a while, and to conservative voices telling us that the unemployed are simply entitled parasites, drowning in indulgence and flat-screen TV’s. And we congratulate ourselves for being broad-minded enough not to call an obscenity what it is out loud. In a properly functioning, self-governing republic, the corporate criminality that nearly brought down the economies of the world, and the corporate criminality that has turned the Gulf of Mexico into flaming toxic stew, would demand a vigorous political response. But, generally, we accept the notion that the latter would be impractical, that it essentially would be requiring one conjoined twin to beat the other one over the head.

That this is a mortal sin against what we are supposed to be, a primary heresy against the American faith, is lost on us. (James Madison thought corporations as inimical to self-government as organized religion, and Tom Paine hated them as much as he hated George III.) Instead, we channel what outrage we have into sub-comic spectacles — idiots in tricornered hats, spouting off about the founders, the crackpot Glenn Beck’s pretending to be Paine, who would’ve eaten his liver and asked for sauce. Comfortable with oligarchy and comforted that we are We and not They, we bestir ourselves only to be mean and vengeful. We bestir ourselves, when we bestir ourselves, to be proud of our ignorance, vain in our rootless delusions, and vaunting in our sad pretensions.

But that is not the poison. The poison is the wars.

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marisacat - 3 July 2010

On Wednesday, the Senate again failed to pass an extension of unemployment benefits for the first time since the 1950′s, and this in a time of 9.5-percent unemployment.

If the Democrats had inveigled Ben Nelson to go along, rahter than be foremost handmaiden of the handmaiden party, it woul dhave passed.

Funny how Charles Pierce who knows better, at least in the extract, can only blame R.

A candidate for the Senate in Nevada seems to deny any role for a central government short of raising an army, and perhaps not even that, since she seems to suggest that, if the election doesn’t go her way, her several followers may go to guns in response.

right cuz Harry Reid is such a fucking winner.

**

Off to read and see if CP has heard the word, OH BAH MAH. If he has not it is because an election is coming up in less than 5 months. 4 really.

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marisacat - 3 July 2010

Think if one were to excavate he might mean Obby. But hell maybe not. Maybe he means Holder.

The government is unwilling to bring the criminals of the previous administration to justice, and seemingly unable to bring the corporate criminals of the previous ….

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Madman in the Marketplace - 3 July 2010

I think in a lot of ways he writes as though they aren’t there … I don’t think of the donks as even a functioning part of the political process, any more than as fake opponents to the right.

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marisacat - 3 July 2010

ugh see I DO see them as functioning. Part of a whole.

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4. marisacat - 3 July 2010

Scammed this from The Oil Drum:

[new] snakehead on July 3, 2010 – 3:52pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

BP admits failing to use industry risk test at any of its deepwater wells in the US

BP was facing fresh criticism over its approach to safety on Saturday night after critics said it did not use an industry standard process to assess risk ahead of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

By Rowena Mason

Published: 8:55PM BST 03 Jul 2010

The procedure, known as a safety case, was developed in Britain after the catastrophic Piper Alpha oil rig explosion of 1988 in which 167 people lost their lives.

Royal Dutch Shell confirmed that it always develops safety cases – a lengthy written document – on each of its thousands of wells in the world, even though they are only mandatory in some countries
.
However, BP admitted to The Sunday Telegraph that it does not use safety cases on any of its US wells, including the high-pressure deep water Macondo well from which up to 60,000 barrels of oil per day are still leaking in the Gulf of Mexico. ….

There is also a story running around, I let it slip from me, that BP is moving head with a new DW oil drill in the Arctic. On a waiver that makes it “onshore”. They built a little fake island under the rig.

We should just lie down in very wet mud and breathe deeply til we are dead.

Get it over with.

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 4 July 2010

As Oil Industry Fights a Tax, It Reaps Billions From Subsidies

When the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform set off the worst oil spill at sea in American history, it was flying the flag of the Marshall Islands. Registering there allowed the rig’s owner to significantly reduce its American taxes.

The owner, Transocean, moved its corporate headquarters from Houston to the Cayman Islands in 1999 and then to Switzerland in 2008, maneuvers that also helped it avoid taxes.

At the same time, BP was reaping sizable tax benefits from leasing the rig. According to a letter sent in June to the Senate Finance Committee, the company used a tax break for the oil industry to write off 70 percent of the rent for Deepwater Horizon — a deduction of more than $225,000 a day since the lease began.

With federal officials now considering a new tax on petroleum production to pay for the cleanup, the industry is fighting the measure, warning that it will lead to job losses and higher gasoline prices, as well as an increased dependence on foreign oil.

But an examination of the American tax code indicates that oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process.

According to the most recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, released in 2005, capital investments like oil field leases and drilling equipment are taxed at an effective rate of 9 percent, significantly lower than the overall rate of 25 percent for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry.

And for many small and midsize oil companies, the tax on capital investments is so low that it is more than eliminated by var-ious credits. These companies’ returns on those investments are often higher after taxes than before.

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marisacat - 4 July 2010

sigh

But an examination of the American tax code indicates that oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process.

Like all the huge farm subsidies that go to an address in NYC.

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6. Madman in the Marketplace - 4 July 2010

They’re incapable of feeling shame:

Secretary Clinton: ‘Citizens Must Be Free To Come Together, To Advocate And Agitate’

“Some of the countries engaging in these behaviors still claim to be democracies,” Clinton said at an international conference on the promotion of democracy and human rights. “Democracies don’t fear their own people. They recognize that citizens must be free to come together, to advocate and agitate.”

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marisacat - 4 July 2010

Isn’t all of that from her appalling? And she went on and on and on and on. She offered up version after version of the supposed belief.

gah.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 4 July 2010

I seriously wonder just how mentally ill these people are … it’s PLAIN that we don’t do as we say, that we far worse about it than many other countries, yet we have “leaders” who keep wagging their fingers and nagging the rest of the world.

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marisacat - 4 July 2010

I seriously wonder just how mentally ill these people are

Just a few weeks ago Gore was out here at the Panetta Inst down at Monterey for a slap dash something or other. And intoned from the stage, where he sat with some flunky asking him questions submitted by the sheep in the audience, that “the world agrees that America is and should be the leader”.

In what fucking universe? We are holding the world, rich and poor, hostage.

Inevitably there will be a day of reckoning.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 4 July 2010
8. marisacat - 4 July 2010

A blogger at SF Gate dot com who has been death on BP, the government, CG, etc., from minute one posts this…

Under threat of a federal felony, National Incident Commander Thad Allen HAS BANNED ALL MEDIA ACCESS to boom operation sites and clean up sites. Allen’s orders effectively bans all media – print, television, radio and Internet bloggers from talking to to any clean-up worker or to even come close to take pictures or videos of booms, clean-up workers, oil soaked birds, dead dolphins, dead marine life, burned and dead endangered sea turtles.

Allen has issued a blanket order that bans anyone from getting close to any spill clean up site, boom site, areas where there are clean up workers or any other oil disaster related area or persons effectively shutting down the first amendment rights of the media. The zone of exclusion is 65 feet. There was rumor that Coast Guard bosses wanted to impose a 300 feet exclusion zone but later relented to a 65 feet no trespass and exclusion zone. …

Read more: Benjamin at SFGate.com

There is hard, what appears to be organised, push back in his thread, including an official looking response from someone at DWH Response Team. (not the satire group either).

BUT, he links back to this at NOLA.com which says the same damn thing.

[T]he Coast Guard on Tuesday had initially established an even stricter “safety zone” of more than 300 feet, but reduced the distance to 20 meters – 65 feet – on Wednesday. In order to get within the 65-foot limit, media must call the Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans, Edwin Stanton, to get permission.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the oil spill, said in a press briefing Thursday that it is “not unusual at all” for the Coast Guard to establish such a safety zone, likening it to a safety measure that would be enacted for “marine events” or “fireworks demonstrations” or for “cruise ships going in and out of port.”
…..

Of course none of those things is a crime. NOR is any of them of significant national importance. Nor is any of the three an ongoing disaster.

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marisacat - 4 July 2010

hmm the NOLA.com article has some harsh response comments from photogs and other reporters, as well as Nungesser who says anyone is welcome in his area, where ever.

[A]ssociated Press photographer Gerald Herbert, who has been documenting the oil spill, raised concerns about the restrictions within his news organization on Wednesday. He has asked for a sit-down with Coast Guard officials to discuss the new policy – and the penalties – but has not received a response.

Photographers have had similar problems viewing the oil’s impacts from the air. Photographer Ted Jackson of The Times-Picayune was trying to charter a flight with Southern Seaplane in late May to photograph oil coming ashore on Grand Isle, but the pilot was told that no media flights could go below 3,000 feet, due to restrictions from the Federal Aviation Administration.

That FAA policy has remained in effect, requiring media outlets to get special permission in order fly below 3,000 feet.


“Often the general guise of ‘safety’ is used as a blanket excuse to limit the media’s access, and it’s been done before,” Herbert said Thursday. “It feels as though news reporting is being criminalized under thinly veiled excuses. The total effect of all these restrictions is harming the public’s right to know.” …..

Oddly as I was putting this comment together, there was quiet line at the end of the local ABC coverage, rather tired stuff about tourists and tears at seeing “big globs of oil” on the once “pristine beaches”, that

“the government will be taking control of information related to the on going disaster”.

Seems so… the NOLA.com report closes saying this comes ”from the top”.

Although the order mandating the safety zone was carried out by the captains of the Ports of New Orleans, Morgan City and Mobile, Ala., a spokeswoman at the joint information center for the unified command said the order was a Coast Guard-wide directive from the top.

We live in a big fat Safety Concern Gulag.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

Oddly as I was putting this comment together, there was quiet line at the end of the local ABC coverage, rather tired stuff about tourists and tears at seeing “big globs of oil” on the once “pristine beaches”, that

“the government will be taking control of information related to the on going disaster”.

HA! replying to myslf… reading threads at The Oil Drum, apparently the US gov (Homeland Security as it turns out… I feel so cosy and homey with that group… Janet Nap is such a winner) is taking over the official BP oil spill site. Gah.

AP has a story up on it…

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

hmm Don’t laugh too hard. When this administration talks about “transparency”… well …. check the punch bowl at the party for floaters. And other misplaced items…

[A] DHS spokesman told The Associated Press on Sunday that the joint relationship won’t change when the website is given a dot-gov address instead of a dot-com address.

But who can post information to the site would change. Details are still being worked out.

The spokesman, Sean Smith, said the government wants to be as transparent as possible and increase Americans’ access to information. ….

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010

Marine Biologist: Corexit Being Sprayed by Coast Guard

Dr. Chris Pincetich, marine biologist and toxicologist, explains how the use of Corexit on the Gulf oil spill has a whole cascade of toxic effects.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

it was such a huge mistake.

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10. Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010

Freelance Photographer Detained By Police After Taking Pictures Of A Texas BP Refinery

MSNBC: Rosenfield was released after officials looked through the pictures he had taken and took down his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information, the photographer said. The information was turned over to the BP security guard who said this was standard procedure, ProPublica quoted Rosenfield as saying.

Rosenfield, a Texas-based freelance photographer, said he was followed by a BP employee after taking a picture on a public road near the refinery, and then cornered by two police cars at a gas station. The officials told Rosenfield they had the right to look at the pictures taken near the refinery and if he did not comply he would be “taken in,” the photographer said according to ProPublica.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

I took issue with the two police cars getting in on the … I don’t know what to call it. I suppose if a detail working for BP is onerous… distasteful and not right, but……….. but then the cops were obviously operating on behalf of BP.

It would b nice if Americans were paying attention and perhaps realising that the big transnationals not only run this country, but own it. Lock stock and etc.

Very depressing.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010

I saw on something the other day that LA, and other states as well, let cops use their uniforms and cars when they’re doing private security jobs, and they don’t have to tell you when they’re acting privately.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

oh that is RIDICULOUS. Should be illegal.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010

it’s one way cops pad their salaries …

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

well i suspect most of them moonlight way to much… but you can’t really stop someone from taking on extra work… or I doubt you could iwth the police force. But wearing their uniform is something else…

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Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010

I vaguely remember NYC cops threatening strikes when they tried to limit their overtime and ability years ago …

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

yeah I doubt it could be taken away or mandated away in the contracts… but being allowed to wear the uniform is too much. Seems to cross a line to me.

11. Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010

Administration Officials Not Invited To Teachers Convention; Probable Heckling The Reason

NEW ORLEANS — For two years as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama addressed educators gathered for the summer conventions of the two national teachers’ unions, and last year both groups rolled out the welcome mat for Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

But in a sign of the Obama administration’s strained relations with two of its most powerful political allies, no federal official was scheduled to speak at either convention this month, partly because union officials feared that administration speakers would face heckling.

The largest union’s meeting opened here on Saturday to a drumbeat of heated rhetoric, with several speakers calling for Mr. Duncan’s resignation, hooting delegates voting for a resolution criticizing federal programs for “undermining public education,” and the union’s president summing up 18 months of Obama education policies by saying, “This is not the change I hoped for.”

“Today our members face the most anti-educator, anti-union, anti-student environment I have ever experienced,” Dennis Van Roekel, president of the union, the National Education Association, told thousands of members gathered at the convention center here.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

what a hoot!

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12. Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010

British Medical Association labels gay conversion therapy harmful, discredited

Following a year-long undercover investigation by a reporter, the British Medical Association has determined that “gay conversion therapy” is not therapy, is more harmful to patients than helpful, and should be banned.

Journalist Patrick Strudwick posed as a patient seeking “gay conversion therapy” or “reparative therapy” for a year. In his report on his experience, he described what amounted to psychological torture; Strudwick went to two conversion therapists. One, a Christian, focused on turning him to focus on her god and tried hard to convince Strudwick he’d been sexually abused. The other focused on explaining to Strudwick that he was somehow “wounded”, and that he had to find the source of those “wounds” to discover the roots of his sexuality.

Both of these “therapists” were licensed and receiving funds via the NHS. Strudwick learned that they use methods created by Joseph Nicolosi, the Christian Evangelical American founder of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

The British Medical Association has determined that such “therapies” have been discredited, are damaging to patient, and should be banned. The Association’s membership further agreed that the NHS should investigate any cases of such conversion therapies, and terminate any public funding to such practices.

Tom Dolphin, vice-chair of BMA’s junior doctors committee, proposed the motion. “Sexuality is such a fundamental part of who a person is, that attempts to change it just result in significant confusion, depression and even suicide. You can’t just wish away same-sex attraction no matter how inconvenient it might be,” says Dolphin.

Strudwick commented on the successful motion, “My undercover investigation for The Independent, which prompted this motion, highlighted the fact that not only are psychiatrists and psychotherapists still peddling these abhorrent techniques, but that in some cases the NHS are paying for it.

“Hopefully, anyone involved in the so-called treatment of homosexuality will realize that the medical profession considers them dangerous charlatans, and will reconsider their beliefs. I also sincerely hope that any vulnerable gay person who is unhappy about their sexuality takes notice of this motion and realizes that it is the world that needs to change, not them.”

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13. Madman in the Marketplace - 5 July 2010
14. BooHooHooMan - 5 July 2010

Fellatio, anyone? And these guys are “journalists”.

Judicial Change to Believe In
By E.J. Dionne
::
Obama Gets a Bum Rap With Anti-Business Charge: Albert R. Hunt
::
Well he certainly does get the bad wrap there, ~AL.
Gad. Hunt blowing Obbie the corporate gigolo. And E.J. Dionne, prancing about talkin “Change” ™, is almost cherrypopping grateful for the opportunity to JAP-hump Kagan.

The standard account of Kagan’s testimony is that she was brilliant, charming and evasive. The brilliant and charming part is right, as even her Republican critics on the committee were gracious enough to concede.

Wha’ev, E.J , ~ Change.™
Like into another cheerleading miniskirt with the the pom poms and white vinyl boots. Maybe that’ll work, dude. In fact, pick up a set -
for your E.J. self…Al and Judy, the new Justice ..
And something frilly for Obbie the –
-and don’t laugh TOO hard at Al Hunt now –
the much unnoticed Pro Biz Prezzy. :lol:
(But he’s secretly for the Small People too! It’s Political Chess!)

The American Press is a fucking j o k e.
A buffoon buffet lousy with the likes of “Al” and “E.J.” spreading the shit salad narrative on thick. These Vichy journos make their nice corporate- hacks- serving- corporate- hacks living dressing up turdburger after political turdburger ever laden with the latest in complimentary corporate cockroaches like Obama and Kagan.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

”EJ Dionne, twerp Catholic Democratic columnist, in a dramatic turnabout, confessed on the FP of the Wapo today that he molested priests. THEY were all innocent. It was him.

His wif and 4 (or is it 5) children were with him t the presser.”

I mean, he might as well. Same diff as endlessly shilling for the husk of Dem party Imperialism.

Other than that, prepare for 3.5 months of Palin bashing. Rush bashing. Michael Steele bashing. FOX bashing. “Oh but for Joe [Lieberman] and Ben (Nelson) we would be the PERFECT party”. Etc.

All the Dems have. It’s not really an issue by now that we have a reprehensible media and political class, but it is all they have..

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BooHooHooMan - 5 July 2010

:lol:

E.J.’s ass just happened to envelop the Monsignor’s penis.
Happens all the time. LOL.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

:lol:

He tripped and fell upon the Monsignor.

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BooHooHooMan - 5 July 2010

Al Hunt’s Catholic too.
Such good Altar Boys.
The types that would sell you out for swearing are now ready to sell Social Security out too.

What a shit. A Classic White NeoLib Third Wayer:
A little something needs to be done for the little people who “genuinely believe” they’re getting screwed but Al says it’s NOT the fault of Obama or the Pols. TOOL! He, like a number of his pals were retained by Bloomie and are plying their shameless tradecraft under his patronage now…

His conclussion from the article above:

Call for Sacrifice

If the result is simply, let’s reduce the deficit on the backs of the working class while providing more tax breaks to wealthier Americans and corporations, they’ll just be one more group of special pleaders. A more thoughtful, balanced suggestion — to the political right of where Obama and most Democrats will be — that entails some sacrifice from their ranks would afford credibility. That’s true, too, for the president, if he tackles tough issues on the entitlement side, like cutting back on the growth of Social Security.

Oh Al will be there to explain why Social Security needs to be
{Sigh! } – DOWNSIZED? PRIVATIZED? PILLAGIZED?? SIGH!
HYBRIDIZED, Anyone?!??

Here’s where Al channels the Small People who are mistaken to hold Pols ACCOUNTABLE. And trots out the “difficult times” aberration excuse with exceptionalist ease. As if the banking cabal hasn’t had its fists in everything right down to Hunt’s polka dotted panties for the last 60 years, EASY.

Many Middle Americans really do despise Wall Street, BP and the oil companies and bitterly resent the outsourcing of jobs.

That’s not a product of the policies or rhetoric of Obama or Washington politicians. It’s because theygenuinely believe

…that in these difficult times, {™} :roll: fat cats are privileged and protected while they’re getting the shaft. It’s in the interests of both the Obama administration and the business community to appreciate and address this reality.

Al Hunt’s Exceptionally Shitty Shit Salad.
“not a product of the policies or rhetoric of Obama or Washington politicians.”….”In these difficult times, that fat cats are being protected”
This Bubble Machine has been going on for years. What a jerk.

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marisacat - 5 July 2010

Aww.

In the fine catholic tradition, it’s raping Soc Sec.

BTW, Abner Mikva married Al and Judy… so what then is the religion…. some version of Chi-Town All Stars?

Reply
BooHooHooMan - 5 July 2010

so what then is the religion

Fair Game Bashable.. ism ( Congealing Clusterfuck Congregation)

Reply
marisacat - 5 July 2010

snicker

The Kneels and Bows. And of course the Bow Wows.

[ :lol: ]

Reply
BooHooHooMan - 6 July 2010

From his perch over at Bloomberg, Hunt was humping Mikva in APRIL, all but teeing Mikvah up for the SCOTUS nod. Certainly laying the ‘turf in advance of the gopher (mole more like it ) that we’re gonna get.

Supreme Court Needs Politicians, Not Ideologues: Hunt

Hunt’s transparently shilling piece in April did the ole
Liberalish 2 Step: Hunt wrote of Mikva as “staunchly Pro Roe” but quoted Mikva (and backed him up with Apologist Al’s bogus Seal of Approval ) that Roe might be better left up to the States.

It really is a loathesome piece of work. I mean I can fight back the urge to vomit over the cheap boosterism , (one would puke 24/7 otherwise) -

Chicago Mentor

No one understands this better than Abner J. Mikva, whose combined political and judicial credentials are unsurpassed. He’s a former member of the Illinois legislature and U.S. Congress, was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for 15 years, rising to chief judge, and later counsel to President Bill Clinton.

But it’s more than boosterism. And if mere Boosterism was their meager religion perhaps we could All Get Along™ and I could put up with Al /Donohue Kerry Teddy Hair Mold/ Hunt and his tres cliche IN ONE SENTENCE talk about in difficult times™ and fat cats™ and Middle America getting the shaft™. But it’s more Middle America GMAFB than that.
He’s a paid professional liar for DUALS in , Democratic Cons, thieves and reactionary killers, both , and all, engaged in the US / Israeli endeavor.

Back to smiling thieves and killers with an agenda, and, of course, the LYING:.

[Mikva] He’s been one of Obama’s mentors, though he’s not involved in this selection process.

“The issues that come before the Supreme Court often are more about policy than law,” Mikva says. “They are not black- letter issues; we need people who can weigh in on what the pluses and minus are on the people’s lives, what the consequences are.”

An ideal choice, Mikva believes, would be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with whom he clashed during the Clinton administration.

DUALS. Hunt and Mikva both.

‘Political Disaster’

“For all the good Roe has done it has been a political disaster,” says Mikva, who unabashedly supports abortion rights. “Nobody on that court was aware of the consequences; it was a policy decision that probably would have been made by many state legislatures.”

There are a plethora of issues facing the Supreme Court these days that have a decidedly political factor: voting rights and redistricting, campaign-finance laws, the legislative intent of Congress, gay rights, affirmative action and, of course, the recently enacted health-care overhaul. All these questions are as much societal and political as they are legal.

Always the political out , always some syrupy lament whether it is – sigh™ – for U.S. and Israeli Wars defending™ OUR™ Way of Life™. But the syrup runs hemorrhagic shock bloody for these Wars AND -sigh™- abortions that – sigh™- now politically™ see- sigh™- might be better secreted away to some™- sigh™- Geri Santoro’s resting place STATE ( “Moderate” CONNECTICUT in 1964 and now with the Insurance Scam pushing 50 years later)

And what piece by shits like Hunt wouldn’t be complete with out invoking Martin?

One of the great speeches Obama gave was at the start of the last presidential campaign, in Selma, Alabama, at Brown Chapel. It is captured in David Remnick’s brilliant new biography of Obama, “The Bridge.” The young candidate reminded civil-rights veterans that day that he was standing on the shoulders of those advocates and activists who went before him.

As the former law school professor, now president, weighs his choices for the Supreme Court vacancy, he would do well to think back on that speech. And to remember that some of those courageous pioneers at Selma stood on the shoulders of that 1954 Supreme Court decision made by a bunch of politicians.

I’m so sick of these shameless creeps.
Way past puke time.

Reply
marisacat - 6 July 2010

I moved ths comment forward… sorry I let some lag time in between getting the new thread up…

marisacat - 5 July 2010

HA!

If Kagan is a ‘JAP” the brand is suffering. I went to school with some stellar versions, and I do mean stellar, of the brand.

Reply
BooHooHooMan - 5 July 2010

LOL. It was meant to be ironic on several levels: mostly E.J’s eagerness over gettin him some strange….change.
I was gonna pull it it but figured…Naaah.

Reply
15. marisacat - 6 July 2010

Gnu thread…

LINK

……………………. 8)

Reply

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