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Sunday 26 September 2010

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, 2012 Re Election, Divertissements, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems.
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When Sergio Amiti took his wife on a romantic break to Capri last month, he did not expect to find a seagull stealing their breakfast on the balcony overlooking the sea

When Sergio Amiti took his wife on a romantic break to Capri last month, he did not expect to find a seagull stealing their breakfast from a table on the balcony overlooking the sea           [Sergio Amiti/Exclusivepix]

*****

Oh just for laughs… apparently some big profile of Axelrod will post online tomorrow in The New Republic… but a couple snips were in the Mike Allen email.

They came, they failed, but no, it is Washington that deeply disappointed them. 

“Them” being the Chicago boys, Axelrod in particular, who (I guess) massed outside DC, made their assault with their long guns, astride their mighty steeds…

and fell face down.  

Obama, and the white boys behind him, did fine by their masters… but I still think he was supposed to keep a lid on the populace, keep patting them down, saying he loved them.  Mesmerise them with his few talents.

Something like that…

“Obama and Axelrod both believe in changing Washington for its own sake. ‘It’s in the president’s nature, it’s also in David’s nature,’ says Stephanie Cutter, a senior White House aide. …  [vomit worthy, truly —Mcat]

Whatever his tendency to fall in and out of love with politicians, there’s no evidence Axelrod has soured on Barack Obama. Quite the contrary-he is said to take enormous pride in the president’s legislative accomplishments. ‘When Obama rejects Axe’s political advice, David’s attitude is not like, “Why isn’t he listening to me?”’ says one administration official. ‘It’s more like, “This is why I love this guy. He’s willing to follow his heart even when the short-term politics are not with him.”’

Instead, the source of Axelrod’s disillusionment these days is Washington itself … As long as he was a civilian, Axelrod could blame the pace of change on the flawed politicians he helped elect. He could always move on and invest his hopes in someone else. But now that he’s serving in government, it’s clear that the problem isn’t so much flawed people-though, like anyone, Obama has his flaws-as a ferociously stubborn, possibly irredeemable system. For an idealist like David Axelrod, that may be the most terrifying thought of all.” 

Posting tomorrow:   http://www.tnr.com  (ugh… if anyone could stand to read it.)

I don’t think the narrative makes any sense at all, but seems to be the cover story in process:  Washington failed the miniature pols and fixers from Chicago.   It wasn’t them, oh no.  Couldn’t be them.

 Well whoops. 

I am reminded of the crew that utterly blew the Olympics bid, made a public spectacle of pretzel and pretzel consort (in a dress that did not fit, no less)… and acted like no one noticed the amateurish play. 

And the big fat fail.

***

Meanwhile over at the Right Wing Ranch this tidbit surfaced… bet this was quite the fascistic little hoe down:

NEW YORK — Even among the gays, the right is on the rise.

The broad surge in the conservative grassroots made it as far as PayPal founder Peter Thiel’s grand apartment overlooking New York’s Union Square Tuesday night, where about 150 backers of the conservative gay group GOProud gathered to laugh at Ann Coulter’s red meat riffs on Democrats, blacks, and the Obamas at a fundraiser organizers touted as “Homocon.”

GOProud is the tea party of the gay rights movement, with well-tailored dark suits in place of revolutionary war garb. The event, complete with lithe young men in black “Freedom is Fabulous” t-shirts guiding guests to the elevator, marked a new high tide in the shift of the Republican Party away from “social issues” and toward a broader complaint about Democratic management of the economy, national security, and the idea of America. GOProud is an explicitly gay group that isn’t particularly focused on gay rights, and Coulter’s speech – full of conservative red meat, and only the occasional Judy Garland joke – reflected its focus.

The gay right is thriving at a moment that the mainstream gay rights movement faces a profound crisis. ….

Hardly surprising, hardly different than things have been, just more out in the open.

*************

Comments»

1. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2010

Wait, I thought Chicago politics was supposed to be all tough and manly and stuff …

I’m so confused.

marisacat - 26 September 2010

Time to go back to reading John Kass in the Chicago Trib, as he has kept the “Tough Chicago Politics is Resident in the WH” myth going.

What will he say now?

It is pretty funny, to me anyway:

Whoops! I was whupped (and schtupped) by Washington.

2. marisacat - 26 September 2010

Madman comment moved forward from the last thread:

It disgusts me the way that “believers” will almost ALWAYS side with the abuser on not their victims.

CNN Anchor Don Lemon Tells Eddie Long Supporters “I am a Victim of a Pedophile”

marisacat - 26 September 2010

hmm i am just touring the news……. and the 4th to come forward against Eddie Long is out of state, or at least it started out of state… Charlotte NC, in an affiliated New Birth Baptist Church. Supposedly convinced the teen to move to Atlanta and is the one he took to Kenya.

Be interesting to see how this all shakes out.

Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2010

If the scandal goes true to form, there are probably more to come.

marisacat - 26 September 2010

LOL bring them on!

Where there is 4, there will be 4 more… etc.

3. marisacat - 26 September 2010

uh Hoyer on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace… is just totally out of it. Ossified. Called Wallace “Charlie”.

I had not seen Hoyer in a while.

Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2010

I really wish they’d all just retire to their eventual lobbying jobs and let someone else have a chance to screw us over.

marisacat - 26 September 2010

they are so elderly, they need to go. So the 45 year olds can have a 30 year run.

😆

Might as well laugh.

I think inviting Colbert for a very out of synch, mess of a perfromance highlighted how useless congress is, during whcih display Zoe Lofgren, who as chair presumably extneded the invitation, even she looked non-plussed. I wondred if she knew of the character and the routine. Or what.

I wonder whose dumb fuck idea that was.

ms_xeno - 26 September 2010

Madman, you cynical, ageist brute. :p

Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2010

🙂

4. Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2010

Another milestone on the road to imperial collapse

Found this after following Corrente’s link:

2010 marks a deadly milestone for America’s privatized wars.

ProPublica’s T. Christian Miller reports this week that, for the first time in history, more US contractors than soldiers have been killed overseas.

According to government stats analyzed by ProPublica, 235 soldiers were killed in war zones in the first half of 2010, whereas more than 250 contractors were killed over the same time period in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“This milestone in the privatization of modern U.S. warfare reflects both the drawdown in military forces in Iraq and the central role of contractors in providing logistics support to local armies and police forces, contracting and military experts said,” ProPublica wrote.

marisacat - 26 September 2010

Paramilitaries! Yeah!

Soon to be wearing corporate logos!

I imagine the ones detailed to oil, just as example, and paid by this or that consortium or corp, I bet anything they wear little cameras, so the corporate boardrooms can have streaming war. Their guys, their battlefield.

Madman in the Marketplace - 26 September 2010

it wouldn’t surprise me.

CSTAR - 26 September 2010

War porn. What else.

5. ms_xeno - 26 September 2010

The first of our “summer” tomatoes are in– and they are splendid.

Oh, and I’m still “a tool of the patriarchy” for not kissing Hillary’s posterior on a daily basis. 😆

Other than that, not much is going on.

Hope you all are hanging in there. [hugs]

marisacat - 26 September 2010

who thinks you are a tool of the patriarchy?

(Hillary’s butt is kissed enough, imo…. 😆 )

ms_xeno - 26 September 2010

basement angel at Corrente.

I got the same spiel at Reclusive Leftist. Nothing new.

I’m just sick and tired of hearing that our crusade in Afghanistan is a sign that we love Wimmens. Yeah, throw posies to that bastion of feminism, the U.S. military.

What a crock of shit. I’d support a liberal [lower case] immigration policy for those who are fleeing violence of the patriarchal sort. But I’m over the idea that bombing is a measure of sisterly love.

marisacat - 26 September 2010

oh i think ba is a freaking nutter.

ms_xeno - 26 September 2010

But– but– don’t you SEE?

If we leave Afghanistan, THE BAD GUYS WIIIINNNN!!11 No more roses and gumdrops dropped from our planes onto the wimmens and baaaaabys!!

Shit. You’d think I’d know better by now, right?

Off to bed. Have a good week, Everyone. :/

6. marisacat - 26 September 2010

hmm Rather than put a post-it on the TV, will put this here and for anyone else in Cali who may be interested….

I no longer care who wins… tho for Meg, Cali is likely just a stepping stone. She loses this after spending, so far, 120 million… welll… She’s a BAD INVESTOR!!

For Brown, his last elected office. NTIM, 😆

4 Debates, over two weeks wtih Whitman and Brown.

on the air:

The first of four debates between gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown, a Democrat, and Republican Meg Whitman is 6 p.m. Tuesday at UC Davis.

Here’s where you can tune in:

Live TV: KTVU Channel 2, KCRA Channel 3, and KSBW Channel 8

Tape-delayed TV: Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Wednesday at
1 a.m. on KTEH (Channel 54 or Comcast Channel 10)

Online: You can also watch or hear the debate online at websites for KCRA, The Sacramento Bee, Capital Public Radio and UC Davis.

Radio: A number of Bay Area radio stations will air the debate live including KCBS, KQED-FM and KALW-FM. KQED radio will also air a replay at 11 p.m. Tuesday.

Whitman and Brown will meet again in Fresno on Oct. 2, then in a radio debate on Ronn Owens’ KGO talk show Oct. 5, and finally at Dominican University in San Rafael on Oct. 12.

marisacat - 26 September 2010

😆

While I am on cali, the SF Chronicle/SF Gate endorses neither Babs nor Carly in the senate race.

And leaves both in shreds on the floor.

🙄

7. marisacat - 27 September 2010

Oh too much! 😆

How’s that vote working out for you?

hmm?

Report: US seeks to ease Internet wiretaps

(AP) – 18 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration wants to make it easier for the government to eavesdrop on Internet and e-mail communications like social networking Web sites and BlackBerries.

The New York Times reports Monday that the White House plans to submit a bill next year that would require all online services that enable communications to be technically equipped to comply with a wiretap order. That would include providers of encrypted e-mail, such as BlackBerry, networking sites like Facebook and direct communication services like Skype.

Federal law enforcement and national security officials say new regulations are needed because terrorists and criminals are increasingly giving up their phones to communicate online.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

catnip - 27 September 2010

Choking off privacy rights at every single turn while moving closer to Soviet Union style repression every day. Heckuva job, Obamalama!

CSTAR - 27 September 2010

Reminds me of a guy that hung around UC berkeley (maybe he diffused throughout the Bay Area) in the late 60’s who called himself general wastemorland.

8. marisacat - 27 September 2010

weekend aerial bombardment of Laos. Or maybe it was Pakistan.

Soon we will claim the Scots aid worker is across the border………………

catnip - 27 September 2010

Via your link, this guy looks like actor Stephen Rea dressed in a wardrobe malfunction.

9. catnip - 27 September 2010
marisacat - 27 September 2010

I thought that was hilarious. Right off the cliff and into a river.

Bye bye……….

marisacat - 27 September 2010

Speaking of the Segway high diver:

SMBIVA (don’t miss the pic that rides at the top)

[E]state in Yorkshire! “Offroad” version of the loathesome gadget — the Segway SUV! And of course the guy made his bundle as a war profiteer supplying the aggressors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Fished out of a river” is ghoulishly vivid, isn’t it? One can just see the sodden former mil-spec mushroom billionaire, dressed from head to toe in dripping Barbour tweed. The only thing missing, annoyingly, is the name of the river: that would have provided just the touch of specificity needed to hammer the nail home. (It was the Wharfe.) ….

10. brinn - 27 September 2010

It’s true (or as my kid would say: TRUEZZ!!), as I’ve been telling people for 25 years:
economics is not rocket science!

The SEC’s Rocket Scientist: He Aimed for the Stars, He Hit …
Scientists, Secrets and Wall Street’s Lost $4 Trillion

My favorite part:
The risk models used computer methodology; the corruption that was human-inspired could not be adequately translated to binary code.

Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2010

what a horrible misapplication of talent.

11. brinn - 27 September 2010

Damnit.

I wish I had the $$$$ to make a rebuttal to Waiting for Fucking Superman.

Color me most unamused.

marisacat - 27 September 2010

They used clips of it quite a bit in the MTP yesterday with Weingartner, Rhee, forget the name of Ob’s stooge…. the Sec of Ed… and the emergency something or other from Chicago, another stooge.

It was a terrible line up, along with the movie clips.

Gah.

marisacat - 27 September 2010

Oh too funny! NetFlix shows it gets a PG, which apparently it got for “thematic, some mild language and some smoking”

Their “common sense” rating is still 12 or over.

And it s supposedly about education.

snicker.

Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2010

NBC’s various networks are doing non-stop PR for that thing all week.

12. Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2010
marisacat - 27 September 2010

great minds……………….

😉

13. marisacat - 27 September 2010

…. 😆

Here is thought: Biden should STFU an siddown.

Vice President Joe Biden stoked a firestorm of liberal discontent with President Barack Obama on Monday – demanding that the Democratic base “stop whining” and start fighting Republicans instead of the White House.

Biden, speaking at a frozen yogurt plant in New Hampshire, said he wanted to “remind our base constituency to stop whining and get out there and look at the alternatives. This President has done an incredible job. He’s kept his promises.”
….

Laugh a minute:

Biden’s comments weren’t premeditated and reflect Biden’s shoot-from-the-lip style, officials said. But that matters little to a Democratic base grown somnambulant and frustrated with the president’s willingness to accept ugly, if productive, compromises on the stimulus, Wall Street reform and health care.

Judging from the initial reaction to Biden’s remarks in Manchester, the base is plenty fired up – and ready to go.

At Biden’s throat.

One Democratic operative gasped when told of Biden’s remarks and wondered “why they would pick a fight with the base” five weeks before a midterm election that will hinge on turnout. ….

As if any operative or consultant cares….

Also has a long quote from heavy hitter, Markos Moulitsas. If you remember him………….

snicker snax.

Read more: Link

Hey maybe Biden was DRUNK? Try that excuse…

😉

14. marisacat - 27 September 2010

what drahma. just go…. LOL I hope he loses. TO whomeever.

Breaking News from ABCNEWS.com:

Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel Likely to Announce White House Departure This Week [9:15 p.m. ET]

For more on this and other breaking news go to ABCNews.com:

What a joint, a few weeks ago JJjr and his wife were supposedly discussing which one, Jesse or the wif, should run for Mayor. Both being so great.

There is not enough popcorn on earth….

catnip - 27 September 2010

From the Department of Halle-fucking-lujah. The less I see his mug, the better. Asshole.

marisacat - 27 September 2010

I just read he is not only due to announce this week, but to actually LEAVE this week.

I’d say there is a whiff off all of this.

catnip - 27 September 2010

POLITICO Breaking News
————————————————-

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is expected to leave the White House soon – perhaps as early as Friday – to explore a run for mayor of Chicago, according to two people familiar with the situation. “No final decision has been made,” said a person close to Emanuel. Emanuel is still assessing his chances and the impact of a campaign on his wife and young children, sources say. But the need to begin planning for a potentially tough Democratic primary on the ground – coupled with President Barack Obama’s desire to move beyond the speculation swirling around Emanuel – is moving him closer to the door.

They’re getting quite poetic over there at El Politico.

Will he move closer to the door or won’t he? Will the door hit his ass on the way out or not? (He has a wife and children? Merde.)

Madman in the Marketplace - 27 September 2010

maybe he can go to the country he really loves and help build some illegal settlements.

15. marisacat - 27 September 2010

Nicholas Lemann in The New Yorker, iwth some push back on The Great Education Re-Form Blather.

[I]t should raise questions when an enormous, complicated realm of life takes on the characteristics of a stock drama. In the current school-reform story, there is a reliable villain, in the form of the teachers’ unions, and a familiar set of heroes, including Geoffrey Canada, of Harlem Children’s Zone; Wendy Kopp, of Teach for America, the Knowledge Is Power Program; and Michele Rhee, the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. And there is a clear answer to the problem—charter schools.

The details of this story are accurate, but they are fitted together too neatly and are made to imply too much. For example, although most of the specific charter schools one encounters in this narrative are very good, the data do not show that charter schools in general are better than district schools. There are also many school-reform efforts besides charter schools: the one with the best sustained record of producing better-educated children in difficult circumstances, in hundreds of schools over many years, is a rigorously field-tested curriculum called Success for All, but because it’s not part of the story line it goes almost completely unmentioned. Similarly, on the issue of tenure, the clear implication of most school-reform writing these days—that abolishing teacher tenure would increase students’ learning—is an unproved assumption. …

Read more Link to The New Yorker

16. marisacat - 27 September 2010

From the Tapper version of Biden Lays Seige to NH Dem Voters…

😆

[A]cknowledging that voters are angry, the Veep said, “You take it out on those who are in office…They should be able to be angry with us.

If we make this a referendum on the current state of affairs, we lose, and so that’s why we’ve got to make this a choice.”

What choice?

snicker… I’d LUV to hear what Hodes and Shea-Porter thought of it. Or maybe they were fine with it…

17. marisacat - 27 September 2010

Supposedly (so Ynet News says) the same online PR firm is helping the Baby Fat Hunter with her obesity campaign as well.

Obama’s PR experts to brand Israel

Marketing agency that promoted Obama, Lance Armstrong to help Israel win over US youth

Itamar Eichner Published: 09.27.10, 12:06 /

After creating US President Barack Obama’s successful online campaign and introducing Lance Armstrong’s yellow wristbands to the world, American marketing agency SS+K faces a new challenge – branding the State of Israel among American youths.

The company has been hired in order to come up with various marketing schemes for diverse target audiences, and also to provide general guidelines for an Israeli public relations campaign in the United States.

The agency had been paid a $250,000 fee for its work.

The company’s executives met Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon in New York over the weekend and presented him with their efforts so far.
…..

marisacat - 28 September 2010

Think this goes here, seems related… I would nto waste time thinking that ANY of these chumps care what happens to poor children, but any time they want to play with gasoline and burning matches, tossed at each other, is fine.

A bill to provide healthful school lunches for low-income children — a high-profile project of first lady Michelle Obama — has raised tensions between the White House and President Barack Obama’s key allies in the House of Representatives.

Despite heavy lobbying by the first lady, more than 100 House Democrats have balked at approving the Senate’s $4.5 billion version of the nutrition bill because it is funded in part with $2.2 billion in cuts to SNAP, the federal food stamp program. They want assurances from the Obama administration that the funding cuts the Senate approved will be restored in the near future.

“The White House’s preference is to just pass the bill,” said a congressional staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity while the negotiations are ongoing. “So far, our folks … they’re not willing to do that.”

Late Monday, the White House signaled that it is willing to work with House Democrats to find a compromise.

“There’s no disagreement within the White House, and we’re working with House leadership to move the process forward and see that this comes to a vote,” said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin. “We’re committed to trying to find a different offset in the future.” [bridges for sale! — Mcat]

Under pressure from advocacy groups and the first lady to pass the bill before the current authorization expires Sept. 30, West Wing efforts to persuade House allies to support a second cut to SNAP have escalated to a frantic race against the clock. The first lady, frustrated over the pace of the legislative process, has applied pressure behind the scenes — on the president’s aides as well as on lawmakers. ….

Oh gee, she is FRUSTRATED. I suggest a return to hand manicured Spanish beaches.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42800.html#ixzz10ph5SlGJ

I would doubt that Nancy, who may be about to lose her Speakership (repeat, may) plays nice over this… and is a lot lot lot tougher than the latest version of FLOTI. Or much of anything in the West Wing, East Wing, etc.

Just a wild guess.

marisacat - 28 September 2010

😆

Here is a deadly little barb inside the article:

Michelle Obama has been working the phones, calling Democrats she has had little contact with since moving into the White House.

Asked how many calls the first lady has made, a spokeswoman said, “Not going to be able to get into specific numbers.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42800_Page2.html#ixzz10pzbHtgQ

18. catnip - 28 September 2010
marisacat - 28 September 2010

I see Obby has a comment too that is running around, any Dems who are bitching and moaning and “threatening to take their ball and go home” were ”never serious”.

LOL

Any wonder his favorability numbers are down? I suggest an old style Dale Carnegie course. Basics.

19. marisacat - 28 September 2010

In case anybody cares, MSNBC kindly reprinted the whole of the RS interview… Obby and Jann. From the Oval. To you.

MSNBC

He says he tears up at the thought of his wife. No, he did say that.

20. catnip - 28 September 2010

Court tosses prostitution laws’ provisions

An Ontario court has thrown out key provisions of Canada’s anti-prostitution laws in response to a constitutional challenge brought by a Toronto dominatrix and two prostitutes in 2009.

Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice ruled Tuesday the Criminal Code provisions relating to prostitution contribute to the danger faced by sex-trade workers.

Dominatrix Terri-Jean Bedford and Valerie Scott and Amy Lebovitch had argued that prohibitions on keeping a common bawdy house, communicating for the purposes of prostitution and living on the avails of the trade force them from the safety of their homes to face violence on the streets.

The women asked the court to declare legal restrictions on their activities a violation of charter rights of security of the person and freedom of expression.

Likely to be appealed but it’ll definitely raise more consciousness of the issues.

21. marisacat - 28 September 2010

nu

Link

……………… 8)


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