Whelmed…

Whelmed… 21 July 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, DC Politics, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter.
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Flying into San Francisco over the Sierra Nevadas, 1963, found at this site.

I feel overwhelmed by the news… and all that happens to make news….

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1. marisacat - 21 July 2009: hmmm

Doctor’s Orders

By Sandra G. Boodman

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Until recently, patients whose doctors kept them waiting for hours without explanation, brushed off their questions or seemed downright incompetent had little recourse, other than complaining to family, friends or, in egregious cases, the state medical board. That was before the Internet gave everyone with an e-mail address the ability to reach a vastly wider audience by posting — often anonymously — critiques of doctors, in much the same way travelers rate hotels on such Web sites as TripAdvisor.

In the past five years more than 40 Web sites, among them RateMDs.com, Angie’s List, Yelp, DrScore and Vitals.com (motto: “where doctors are examined”), have begun reviewing physicians, providing information about one of the more difficult and important decisions consumers make routinely

…

As a defensive measure, some physicians are requiring patients to sign broad agreements that prohibit online postings or commentary in any media outlet “without prior written consent.”

Critics call the documents gag orders. Many experts say they are both unethical and unenforceable.

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2. marisacat - 21 July 2009: The latest (The Page with embedded links).. blink and there will be more scheduled speeches, town halls, blahger calls… and whatever else.

Obama will continue to push his reform agenda with remarks from the Diplomatic Room Tuesday afternoon.

In the morning he pitches plan to House Dems known as “Blue Dogs.”

Wednesday primetime news conference.

Thursday he campaigns in Cleveland to shore up support.

Plus: The POTUS wants legislation passed by the year’s end.

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3. BooHooHooMan - 21 July 2009: He’s such a good boy.
So diligent..
In continuing to carry Cheney’s water.

Let put a name with the face.
OBAMA’S – Justice Department argues (AGAIN) against releasing Cheney interview

Change You Can Believe In™ .

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marisacat - 21 July 2009: I also just read that Cheney got 6 more month os Secret Service protection.

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4. catnip - 21 July 2009: Thank Teh Lord they’re audio tapes: Alleged Berlusconi sex tapes released

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marisacat - 21 July 2009: well really the only question is, is he that fake orange all over or is it just his face. And does the dye his body hair.

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5. catnip - 21 July 2009: Fix this, Joe Trippi: Maloney uses the “N” word

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marisacat - 21 July 2009: I think she is getting a bad rap, myself… but, my goodness, Sharpton is involved and now we must all bow to him and his perceptions.

America is such a weak country, afraid of words. Periodically they want to censor new printings of Huck Finn too.

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catnip - 21 July 2009: Without getting into the long discussion about the use of the n-word (would she have said “motherfucker” if that’s what she’d heard Gillibrand said?), Maloney should have realized the faux pas. I see she’s apologized. Onward. (Does Sharpton ever sleep?)

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marisacat - 21 July 2009: yes, no one is allowed to use the very ugly word… even in retelling.. except it is all over. Meanwhile schools re segregate at a breathtaking rate.. and so on. But yes let’s circle the wagons around a Dem on Dem bitch fest. Where one is propelled by the current powers that be, one who put in the time is out. Not that it matters. May they spend themselves into a frenzy and claw each other to death.

No Sharpton is made of some weird kryptonite, mixed in cartoon colors…. More is the pity. I suppose we will be spared him in Harvard, however, defending Henry Louis Gates.

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catnip - 21 July 2009: Well, I don’t think it’s a matter of singling out one aspect of racism against another, if that’s what you’re saying. It should all be in the mix – or on the table – or up from under the bus.

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien is doing round 2 of Black in America (this week, I think) because (I think the promo goes) there was so much “discussion” about the show she did last year. IIRC, a lot of it had to do with the fact that she peddled so much crap the last time.

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marisacat - 21 July 2009: It should all be in the mix – or on the table – or up from under the bus.

except it is nto all on the table. Most assuredly not. Just as children are castigated (and blamed, as are adults) for being fat, but there is a prohibition against discussing that 75% of the public schools have NO recess nor organsied sports.. nor is any discussion allowed of corn syrup, high fructose corn, Karo syrup as a brand, in so many preserved foods. And big swaths of the country where almost all the foodstuffs readily and cheaply available are preserved – meaning canned..

Well Soledad is a token. She was nto too bad out here, she reported on tech issues.. pretty straight forward… but she knows what is up at CNN and she is not screwing with the deal she has.

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catnip - 22 July 2009: I’m currently reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food (good 2007 article here).

Via the G&M, a review of this year’s effort:

Black in America is full of fascinating ideas for addressing racial disparities in the United States, but it needs a lot less of O’Brien on camera, a lot less footage of tearful interviewees, a lot less background about the troubled childhoods they have overcome, and a lot more hard information about how to make their solutions work.

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6. marisacat - 21 July 2009: Oh yes. Not a coup. No… no it surely was not. Not a coup.

Despite Pledge to Cut Military Ties to Coup Regime, US Continues to Train Honduran Soldiers at School of Americas *

While the European Union cut off aid to the coup regime in Honduras, the United States continues the money flow, and while the US says it has cut military ties, the National Catholic Reporter reveals Honduran army officers are still receiving military training at the notorious School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Amy/Democracy NOW!

And, despite it’s being Catholic, I DO like National Catholic Reporter.

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7. marisacat - 21 July 2009: President Barack Obama’s Justice Department is arguing that former Vice President Dick Cheney’s interview with prosecutors in the CIA leak case should remain secret for five to 10 years to persuade high-level government officials to cooperate in future investigations.

“In making public the vice pesident’s interview, you will chill them,” Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith told Judge Emmet Sullivan during a two-hour hearing Tuesday on a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking release of records about the Cheney interview, which took place in 2004.

Sullivan sounded highly skeptical of the government’s arguments, but he said he had not decided how he would rule in the case. “Where do I draw the line? This happened five years ago,” the judge said. “Would there be impediments to putting this information in a time capsule?” …

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25211.html

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 July 2009: worthless fuckers.

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8. BooHooHooMan - 21 July 2009: Farouk Kaddoumi, PLO official, 2nd most senoir leader in Abbas’ Fatah Party… says Abbas was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Arafat. ..says Abbas met with Ariel Sharon to discuss killing Arafat..

Poor Mahmoud Abbas. With Ariel in chronic veg, Mahmoud-
that US and Israeli propped up tool now needs to deal with
Bebe … to knock off Kaddoumi now. That is, unless Bebe decides to murder Abbas instead to create havoc and blame it on Palestinian infighting.

I don’t know what to think . ..What a web. Fatah …Abbas…Kaddoumi -they ALL are tools, AFAIC. Frankly, I only give credence to Hamas.

Abbas and the PA is apparently freaked about Kaddoumi’s accusation and ongoing challenge Abbas leadership ..They cut off Al Jazeera in the West Bank:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has suspended Al Jazeera’s news operation in the West Bank and threatened to take it to court over its reporting of Kaddoumi’s allegations.

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catnip - 22 July 2009: They hit a little too close to home?

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BooHooHooMan - 22 July 2009: Yep . BANNING reporting and commentary on Politics.
Shameful. Good thing that doesn’t happen in ‘merka
thanks to the vigilence of Prominent Liberal Bloggers –
like Markos /”That’s-It-Your-Banned”/
/ “Dissent-With-More-Chipmunk”/ Moulitsas. Henh.

{ lingering snortle snortle snicker snicker…}

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: So………. maybe Mahmoud and Bibi can simply agree NOW on no coverage of the next great blood letting of the Palestinians. Sounds like it…

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BooHooHooMan - 22 July 2009: You’re always a step ahead.
So true, so incisive , because it’s NOT the coverage of the Politics on the surface that is core – the maintenance of Power by these various political cobblers for jackboots….. There. or HERE.

It’s the killing, the plunder. The complicity. And their fear that light is shown on it. And THEM.

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BooHooHooMan - 22 July 2009: Drudge blurbbed out that
Palin signed the Alaska Sovereignty Resolution.

I’m waiting for her to dig a trench along the AK/Canada border and sail the whole fucking landmass SOUTH with all that fuckin Oil and Gas. She could book wingers, naturalists, and unlimited buffet types alike for cruises until they figure out what they wanna do, where they wanna Go. Maybe pull up somewhere in the South Pacific , ya know. Or Make a Spring Break Destination of some touted Moose Biscuit Beach, AK. Second thought, what if they rowed that Big Freakin State off the coast of Jersey? Maybe I could see her from my HOUSE!

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: … and biden has worked out so well. the long time fixer is protected on all sides.

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BooHooHooMan - 22 July 2009: Joey B. The mook for DE.

Remember the all that hype built up around his pick last summer?
The stupid midnight text message or TwitNote , “It’s JOE!” or whatever the fuck they did…..And then when introduced out on the stump, Biden scrambling up the steps, trotting onstage all peppy and fake-young-like….sleeves rolled up… LOL.

Morbid amusement I know, but when I saw a clip of him scrambling onstage to the announcement event, I thought it would’ve been the perfect time for him to keel over with a heart attack- -How very ironical and mook like and all. LOL.

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: IOZ has a good shove at Biden up. http://whoisioz.blogspot.com/2009/07/over-hill.html

After that he has a good shove up at Hilarious.. who as best I can tell, is babbling her way thru South Asia.
marisacat - 22 July 2009: HA! From the comments on the Biden thread. I’d hang my head in shame at such a fucked fuck-up.. but then why bother. It’s the name of the game with this crew… the last crew and no doubt the next crew.

nony said…

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE56L3LB20090722?sp=true

“Literally, you are standing in a
moment in history that you have never stood at before, literally.”

Hard to argue with that.

“Biden suggested 19th century poet Taras Shevchenko, a national hero who opposed centuries of Russian dominance, would be critical of rows pitting Yushchenko against Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his estranged ally from the revolution.”

When Yushchenko comes to the States, he’s gonna tell us all about what Whitman would think of Obama’s healthcare plan.

3:20 PM
catnip - 22 July 2009: I used to live on a street named Shevchenko – a terrible address, spelling-wise, for a young child.
marisacat - 23 July 2009: gnu…..

LINK

……………… 🙄 ………………..
9. catnip - 22 July 2009: Solar eclipse pics. Love the one with the sea lion.

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10. catnip - 22 July 2009: The Ultimate Obama Insider

On Jan. 25, 2008, the day before the South Carolina Democratic primary, Barack Obama endured a grueling succession of campaign events across the state. When his staff informed him that the evening would conclude with a brief show-up at the Pink Ice Ball, a gala for the African-American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, Obama flatly refused to attend. “I’ve been to sorority events before,” he said. “We’re not gonna change anybody’s mind.”

Rick Wade, a senior adviser, Stacey Brayboy, the state campaign manager, and Anton Gunn, the state political director, took turns beseeching their boss. The gala, they told Obama, would be attended by more than 2,000 college-educated African-American women, a constituent group that was originally skeptical of the candidate’s “blackness” and that the campaign worked tirelessly to wrest from Hillary Clinton. State luminaries like Representative James Clyburn — himself an undeclared black voter — would be expecting him. They would be in and out in five minutes.

Obama’s irritation grew. “Man, it’s late, I’m tired,” he snapped. “I’m not going to any sorority event.”

The three staff members knew what their only option was at this point. “If you want him to do something,” Gunn would later tell me, “there are two people he’s not going to say no to: Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama.”

At the day’s penultimate event, a rally in Columbia, Gunn, Brayboy and Wade pleaded their case to Jarrett, the Obamas’ longtime friend and consigliere. When they were finished, Jarrett told them, “We can make that happen,” as Gunn would recall it. Jarrett informed Michelle of the situation, and when the candidate stepped offstage from the rally, Obama’s wife told him he had one last stop to make before they called it a night.

“I told Anton I’m not going to any Pink Ice Ball!” Obama barked.

Then Jarrett glided over to the fuming candidate. Her voice was very quiet and very direct.

“Barack,” she said, “you want to win, don’t you?”

Scowling, Obama affirmed that he did.

“Well, then. You need to go to Pink Ice.”

“And he shuts up,” Gunn recalls, “and gets on the bus.”

The bus he threw everybody else under, no doubt.

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: Rush is slicing him today… tapes of Town Halls with Sibelius in Reserve LA, Cardin in MD and Carnahan in MO… and tapes of the “liberal” blogger call… all on health care. It is brutal… and tapes of the Couric interview with him.

Well Jarett and MO will wuv him forever I guess. I saw NYT Mag had a piece on her, but I did nto get to it yet… thanks for the link.

GOOD LUCK is all I can say.

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11. marisacat - 22 July 2009: No shit.

Amy Walter of The Hotline (on Lehrer) is saying Ob spent a lot of hsi political capital on auto bail outs and helping the banksters. Well, LOL… she did nto say “banksters”.

Good luck! Oh and he spent on Stumble Bill too.

Now she is on to the 49 Dems who sit in House districts that McCain won.

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12. marisacat - 22 July 2009: McClatchy:

[Z]elaya was toppled June 28 as he aggressively and, some argue, illegally pursued a national referendum to redraft the constitution. With just six months left in his term, his enemies feared he was bent on abolishing presidential term limits to remain in power.

But for many Garifunas, the constitutional assembly held the promise of winning long-sought rights, such as proportional representation and legal title to communal and ancestral land.

“We have been in a continuous struggle for decades to have a voice, to be visible, to have representation,” said Celeo Alvarez Casildo, president of the Organization for the Development of Ethnic Communities. “It’s not that we supported Zelaya — and much less the events that led to his ouster — but we have our own very good reasons for wanting a constitutional assembly.”

Those hopes were dashed when the army, acting on orders from the supreme court, seized Zelaya from his home at gunpoint and flew him into exile in Costa Rica. It was the same day the referendum would have taken place. Zelaya tried but failed to return to Tegucigalpa on July 5. …snip…

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13. catnip - 22 July 2009: So, did Your Dear Leader of the Amazing Amount of Makeup have anything exciting to say at the beginning of his presser? I missed it. Did he send the Blue Dogs to the guillotine?

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: What I hear is him stepping on a lot of landmines. If he really meant to produce a system of care that helped people, I’d care…. but really drivel hiding drivel.

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catnip - 22 July 2009: I’m not exactly hearing any specifics…

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: question on transparency!

And he dodges and lies.

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catnip - 22 July 2009: Really. To say that your admin is doing better than the last one on transparency isn’t saying much at all. Pathetic.

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14. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 July 2009: Pay of Top Earners Erodes Social Security

The nation’s wealth gap is widening amid an uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world.

Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data — without counting billions of dollars more in pay that remains off federal radar screens that measure wages and salaries.

Highly paid employees received nearly $2.1 trillion of the $6.4 trillion in total U.S. pay in 2007, the latest figures available. The compensation numbers don’t include incentive stock options, unexercised stock options, unvested restricted stock units and certain benefits.

The pay of employees who receive more than the Social Security wage base — now $106,800 — increased by 78%, or nearly $1 trillion, over the past decade, exceeding the 61% increase for other workers, according to the analysis. In the five years ending in 2007, earnings for American workers rose 24%, half the 48% gain for the top-paid. The result: The top-paid represent 33% of the total, up from 28% in 2002.

The growing portion of pay that exceeds the maximum amount subject to payroll taxes has contributed to the weakening of the Social Security trust fund. In May, the government said the Social Security fund would be exhausted in 2037, four years earlier than was predicted in 2008.

The data suggest that the payroll tax ceiling hasn’t kept up with the growth in executive pay. As executive pay has increased, the percentage of wages subject to payroll taxes has shrunk, to 83% from 90% in 1982. Compensation that isn’t subject to the portion of payroll tax that funds old-age benefits now represents foregone revenue of $115 billion a year.

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15. marisacat - 22 July 2009: Poor fucking sod… he just said the financial system has “bounced back” and thus some banks “are making money again”.

If it were nto such a tragedy of a lie it would be funny

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: oh brother. he himself mentioned the Mayo Clinic…

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16. marisacat - 22 July 2009: Thank you jesus.. ti is over. Go in Peace if not in good health.

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17. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 July 2009: Is the Obama Health Care Plan Really Better Than Nothing?

Candidate Barack Obama told us to judge his first term by whether he delivers quality affordable health care for all Americans, including nearly fifty million uninsured. So why does his proposal not cover the uninsured till 2013, after the next presidential election when Medicare took only 11 months to cover its first 40million seniors? Why are corporate media pretending that no opinions exist to Obama’s left? And why has the public option part of the Obama health care plan shrunk from covering 130 million to only 10 million, with 16 million left uninsured altogether?

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: So why does his proposal not cover the uninsured till 2013, after the next presidential election when Medicare took only 11 months to cover its first 40million seniors?

Taht is one of thsoe big questions.

Big fancy withdrawals (with tens of thousands left behind on dozens of bases, and prisons too) in 2011, 2012 (so they say) and then big hoopla ”coverage” held out as some big carrot with razor wire and sharpened edges thru the election season: If you don’t vote for Obama (smiling poster on wheels) every body will DIE! For real!

Everything is working out so well.. for the people at the top.

And so on.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 22 July 2009: for the same reason the credit card bill doesn’t go into effect right away … to give the corps plenty of time to bleed more profit and figure out ways to game the new system.

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: well it is all based on re election. Very clearly. AND for him, not for congress.

He is working his way to few friends…

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: 🙄 Don’t think he mentioned they released in response to a lawsuit. Transparenceeee to a Certainteee. yeah.

After Lawsuit, Obama Administration Releases Logs of Private Meetings With Health Care Industry Executives

July 22, 2009 8:01 PM

From Jake Tapper and Karen Travers:

Faced with a lawsuit from a government watchdog group, the Obama Administration tonight released a list of visits health care industry executives made to the White House since January.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a left-leaning good-government group, filed a lawsuit today against the Department of Homeland Security after the Secret Service turned down its request for the White House visitor records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In a letter to CREW’s chief counsel, Anne Weismann, White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig said that “given the compelling public interest in the health care debate and the president’s goal of increasing transparency in government,” the administration went back and reviewed the visitors records related to the group’s request.

Craig wrote that Obama “has decided to exercise his discretion” and release the dates of private, unpublicized visits by 14 health care industry executives including PhRMA’s Billy Tauzin and Karen Ignagni, president and chief executive officer of America’s Health Insurance Plans.

Many of the health care industry executives included in the logs were present for a publicized meeting with Obama on May 11 at the White House.

According to CREW’s lawsuit, the Obama administration originally denied the FOIA request because the logs are presidential records, not agency records, and thus are exempt from public disclosure laws. The position is similar to an argument the Bush administration used for such requests. …snip…

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18. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 July 2009: A response to the Israeli Cellcom advertisement

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19. catnip - 22 July 2009: Today’s Godwin’s Law award goes to:

Israel circulates Hitler photo to battle critics

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has ordered its diplomats to use an old photograph of a former Palestinian religious leader meeting Adolf Hitler to counter world criticism of a Jewish building plan for East Jerusalem.

Israeli officials said on Wednesday Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israeli ambassadors to circulate the 1941 shot in Berlin of the Nazi leader seated next to Haj Amin al-Husseini, the late mufti or top Muslim religious leader in Jerusalem.

One official said Lieberman, an ultranationalist, hoped the photo would “embarrass” Western countries into ceasing to demand that Israel halt the project on land owned by the mufti’s family in a predominantly Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: geesh I doubt anyone outside of Israelis or Zionists or big time Israeli supporters cares. IIRC the title of Grand Mufti was bestowed on him by the British.

Prolly no one wants to look too closely at that sort of thing. A few years ago it was confirmed that Lindbergh not only met with Hitler but kept a photo of him in his private study…

So much just around the corner, out of sight.

The whole thing makes the Israeli leadership look silly.

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20. catnip - 22 July 2009: New word!

LA Times blog:

(UPDATE:9:52 p.m. The Associated Press has published a fact check article that questions or qualifies some of the prersidewnt’s assertions in the transcript below.)

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catnip - 22 July 2009: haha

OBAMA: “You haven’t seen me out there blaming the Republicans.”

THE FACTS: Obama did so in his opening statement, saying, “I’ve heard that one Republican strategist told his party that even though they may want to compromise, it’s better politics to ‘go for the kill.’ Another Republican senator said that defeating health reform is about ‘breaking’ me.”

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: the worm has turned. he stepped in so many mud piles in that hour.

All I can say is GOOD LUCK!

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catnip - 22 July 2009: Sucks when you contradict yourself in the same press conference. D’oh.

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21. catnip - 22 July 2009: The Mayo Clinic CEO is on Charlie Rose’s show after Orzag tonite.

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marisacat - 22 July 2009: yum

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