war | Marisacat

war 13 June 2011

Posted by marisacat in 2012 Re Election, Afghanistan War, WAR!.
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Kabul graffiti – in pictures: Boys stand in front of graffiti printed on to a wall [Ahmad Masood/Reuters]

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1. diane - 13 June 2011: the ‘child’ at the fore, a forty year old face? ..will we choose death …or life …getting kind of late in the day …and who doesn’t want to live a life that isn’t filled with the daily threat of annihilation?

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marisacat - 13 June 2011: These wars are not going to end. That much we know.

We did not build hundreds of bases, new prisons and whatever else, just to pull out.

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2. diane - 14 June 2011: Welp, after almost 6 years, our government sleuths have finished counting, and determined that what was once termed one of the largest thefts in history:

What has happened to Iraq’s missing $1bn?

By Patrick Cockburn in Baghdad

Monday, 19 September 2005

Was probably the largest theft in history:

US: $6.6bn in Iraq aid ‘may have been stolen’

By David Usborne, US Editor

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Years after American auditors said they had lost track of vast sums of reconstruction cash for Iraq in the wake of the ousting of Saddam Hussein they are now admitting for the first time that much of it was almost certainly stolen.

In a revelation that is stirring anger both on Capitol Hill and among Iraqi officials in Baghdad, the office that was created by the Bush administration to monitor efforts to get Iraq on its feet after the 2003 invasion is saying that $6.6bn (£4bn), all delivered in cash, cannot be accounted for.

Surprise!

The money was mostly drawn from Iraqi oil revenues and the UN Oil-for-Food fund. Consequently, the Iraqi government may demand that Washington compensate the country for the missing money.

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3. diane - 14 June 2011: Not a surprise, but still disgusting, it was disgusting the last time too:

Obama goes cap in hand to the ‘fat cats’: President woos Wall St as he gears up for election run

Barack Obama has begun courting wealthy Wall St donors for his 2012 election campaign – barely a year after he branded them ‘fat cats’.

The President invited two dozen senior financial executives to an intimate meeting in the White House’s Blue Room just before he announced he would seek re-election.

So keen was he to get their cash that he followed up the discussion with phone calls to each of them afterwards.

Top Obama aides have also been dispatched on a charm offensive to persuade hedge fund managers to open their wallets.

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: Yes it’s trickling out…

I especially loved him sitting at a panel table … yesterday, I guess in NC, with none other than Immelt. Immelt lecturing about how to make jobs.

😆 Might as well laugh. Meanwhile Big Mama was in LA extruding about how hard he works, how he reads “every word of every memo” so he will “know more than anyone briefing him”.

Distribute the in flight barf bags, by the gross. (Really)

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diane - 14 June 2011: Now, now, she was also in Beverly Hills providing guidance on how to integrate stories about military families into film and television. since that’s their most pressing need, being portrayed on tv .

Anyway, I guess that means you won’t be forking out $10K for a piccy and some private time with the Baby Fat Hunter?

(woopsie, looks like some of the commenters weren’t too impressed, they’ve scrubbed the comments)

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diane - 14 June 2011: Quick! Shut down BART, The Bay Bridge, Interstates 880, 580 and 680 … Mickey’s in ‘Oaktown,’ and she’s lookin for Premium Baby Fat Fodder for Endless Wars.

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: The singing protesters that got into (and paid to get into) Ob’s last visit here, breakfast at the Sheraton iirc… well they tried to get into BFH breakfast fundraiser at the Claremont in the Oakland/ Berkeley hills… and were turned away.

I read that Ob’s … think it was a dinner, fundraiser in Miami last night was not nearly sold out.

It’s hard out there for pimps.

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diane - 14 June 2011: I could be wrong, but, I generally connect dial up ping backs (I can hear the ping backs as a landline ring) to high net surveillance, and I’m getting a ton of them today, …not that I think it’s directed towards me individually ….but I’m imagining since Mickey’s in the state, ….that there’s a large presence surveilling Cali communications…..

Of course if the World Pimps weren’t so contrary and threatening to their own citizens, let alone other Sovereign Nations, I suppose, they wouldn’t have to worry about such things….I won’t be the one, I’ve never cared for the unnecessary spilling of blood..unlike some, who indiscriminately drone thousands……..and call it heroism.

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4. diane - 14 June 2011: (say honey: yeah, waste not want not……. thought ya might like these? …yeah well, what can I say hon, …not too original, …sigh, ……..on a severe budget …;0) …..)

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: 😆

Yeah I thought that was a lovely bouquet, back when I found it….

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diane - 14 June 2011: (That photo always touched me hon, …I’ve boughten bouguets as gifts, because I thought they were beautiful, …..which looked near identical. ….;0) ….)

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5. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2011: Supreme Court reinstates collective bargaining law

Madison – Acting with unusual speed, the state Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers.

The court found a committee of lawmakers was not subject to the state’s open meetings law, and so did not violate that law when they hastily approved the measure and made it possible for the Senate to take it up. In doing so, the Supreme Court overruled a Dane County judge who had struck down the legislation, ending one challenge to the law even as new challenges are likely to emerge.

The majority opinion was by Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler. The other three justices – Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and N. Patrick Crooks – concurred in part and dissented in part.

The opinion voided all orders in the case from the lower court. It came just before 5 p.m., sparing Republicans who control the Legislature from taking up the contentious issue of collective bargaining again.

Legislative leaders had said they would have inserted the limits on collective bargaining into the state budget late Tuesday if the court hadn’t acted by then. But the high court ruled just before that budget debate was to begin.

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: It feels like some days did under Nixon. Maybe the courts can save some shreds…

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: reinstated Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to all but end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers.

Oh NO rereading it… the first run thru I read it upside down.

Shoot.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2011: very depressing, though like I said not a huge surprise.

From the dissents:

Update 2: Here’s some quotes from Justice Shirley Abrahamson’s dissent:

On the timing:

Today the majority announces for the first time that it is accepting the case. And today the majority decides the case.[3]

I write to emphasize that in a case turning on separation of powers and whether the legislature must abide by the Open Meetings Law and the Wisconsin Constitution in adopting the Budget Repair Bill, it is imperative that this court carefully abide by its authority under the Constitution and follow its own rules and procedures.

At its most basic level this case is about the need for government officials to follow the Wisconsin Constitution and the laws.

The District Attorney’s challenge to the Budget Repair Bill asserts that the Open Meetings Law is a codification of the mandates expressly provided for in the Wisconsin Constitution. The District Attorney relies on Article IV, Section 10, “[t]he doors of each house shall be kept open,” and also on Article I, Section 4: “The right of the people peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, and to petition the government, or any department thereof, shall never be abridged.”

The legislature declared in the Open Meetings Law that the legislature would comply with the Law to the fullest extent “in conformance with article IV, section 10” of the Wisconsin Constitution.[4] Statutes are interpreted to give effect to every word. A court assumes that the legislature says what it means, and means what it says. The words in a statute are not to be treated as rhetorical flair.

Justice Crooks’ dissent was even more pointed:

It is rather astonishing that the court would choose to decide to take and decide such an unusual and complex case without benefit of the complete record.

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6. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2011: Seriously, just fuck Biden and Obama with a rusty fencepost:

It’s a small stupid thing, but it just reinforces the fundamental dishonesty of this administration. This is the website he’s talking about. It’s a low-budget website. The money involved in putting it together has already been spent. The only reason to get rid of it is that it works to promote appreciation for an endangered species that the Administration has decided stands in the way of its policies being enacted.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2011: More on the tortoise bullshit:

It’s a small stupid thing, but it just reinforces the fundamental dishonesty of this administration. This is the website he’s talking about. It’s a low-budget website. The money involved in putting it together has already been spent. The only reason to get rid of it is that it works to promote appreciation for an endangered species that the Administration has decided stands in the way of its policies being enacted.

This is Reagan-style lying. I didn’t vote for Reagan back in the day, and I don’t plan to now. This is the straw that broke the tortoise’s back, for me.

I’m glad to say I never voted for this motherfucker.

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: This is Reagan-style lying. I didn’t vote for Reagan back in the day, and I don’t plan to now. This is the straw that broke the tortoise’s back, for me.

You know, taht is very accurate. Reagan hated small things that made a difference. He really DID say that ketcup is a vegetable speaking of school lunches… and

“seen one tree, seen them all” – speaking of the coastal redwood, which is so astounding as to be almost unbelievable.

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: You know Bush 2 was extremely, profoundly destructive but there is a fuckedupedness and sheer MEANESS about Ob and consort that really pisses me off.

And Biden is just one more hand out to be greased, slack jawed hack.

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: I thought the extreme reaction was odd whn I heard it… I mean what does an internet page cost? And, from what i heard, no more on other creatures, either.

Maybe Obster wants a page in praise of all that BP did for the gulf tortoises.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2011: gawd knows what that fucker wants/thinks …

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Chris Clarke - 15 June 2011: My assumption is that the White House singled out the tortoise in part because the desert tortoise has been a roadblock in pushing through the “renewable” industrialization of public lands under the banner of solar.

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: Hello Chris… just to let you know your comment went to moderation as it was the first… now that you have commented, and the weak little system that is WP has read you name and references, comments should go thru fine.

in pushing through the “renewable” industrialization of public lands under the banner of solar.

Oh yes, our great “green” future. More likely something dripping toxic green ooze. Heaven forfend anyone fall in love with a tortoise. So in the way….

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Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2011: Great posts on this Chris.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2011: I think you’re right.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2011: FEMA: Razed Houses In Alabama Have ‘Insufficient Damage’ To Receive Funds

Not that I give a shit about a state full of hillbillies who more often than not vote for destroying the gov’t, but now does a completely destroyed house NOT qualify?

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marisacat - 14 June 2011: Oh one TV news camera crew just walked thru Berkeley today asking how people on the street feel about how closed to th public, closed to the press Snob’s Bay Area drop in is ($1000 – 2500 per ticket, at least one instance of a mother taking her young daughter to the luncheon).

They don’t like it, but they will vote for him. Her. Whoever.

The problem is being fucking stupid is bi partisan.

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8. Madman in the Marketplace - 14 June 2011: Michelle Obama Now Going After Fat Babies

In America, privileged babies exit the womb and are immediately put into the loving arms of a full-time non-relative caregiver, perhaps an illegal Colombian, who nurtures them and takes them to Montessori school when the time is right. The less fortunate babies are sent to live at day care, where they mix with other babies and do things with finger paint. This is the scene of our FLOTUS’ latest anti-obesity efforts.

The first lady watched as toddlers ate a healthy lunch of fish, fruit and salad greens, did the bunny hop with youngsters in a P.E. class and clapped along with singing time at CentroNia, a bilingual child care center that stresses just the kinds of healthy practices that Mrs. Obama is trying to encourage.

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9. diane - 15 June 2011: Hadn’t known the following. Have never used Google Earth, because I’ve always despised it. …The public, at large, was never asked whether a private company should: receive access to surreptitious government photos, (Keyhole ….many of which, were likely: Unconstitutional from the get go), then worse, be allowed to invade citizen’s privacy even further, with no permissions asked. Call me Unsurprised:

Tuesday, June 14, 2011
People should know about this: how Google protects Israel
“There is one entire country, however, that Google Earth won’t show you: Israel. That’s because, in 1997, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, [pdf] one section of which is titled, “Prohibition on collection and release of detailed satellite imagery relating to Israel.” The amendment, known as the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, calls for a federal agency, the NOAA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs, to regulate the dissemination of zoomed-in images of Israel. When asked about the regulation, a Google spokeswoman said to Mother Jones, “The images in Google Earth are sourced from a wide range of both commercial and public sources. We source our satellite imagery from US-based companies who are subject to US law, including the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act of 1997, which limits the resolution of imagery of Israel that may be commercially distributed.“” (thanks Bert)
Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 8:49 AM

(bolding mine)

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: We are so protective of our girl friend…

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diane - 15 June 2011: Or is it our parent?

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10. ts - 15 June 2011: My uncle works with the Indian tribes out near Blythe, where several hundred to a thousand year old geoglyphs are going to be bulldozed to make way for Our Solar Future, really just monopoly profits for the big energy companies to make massive returns without having to take an ounce of risk or even use their own capital.

One of the first things to go down the crapper when the CA budget crisis hit were funds for small independent local solar producers which were pretty much the market outside of PGE/SDGE. Now that most of them are out of business and the big money has nobody to trouble them. It’s all about big money now. Tell the little people whatever they’ll swallow. They don’t matter. Only the filthy lucre matters.

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: Oddly enough I have been to Blythe… at the tag end of a bizarre journey down the Colorado. I always refer to it as:

The least Blythe place on earth.

BI has a page on the top investment holdings of the top guys (and Wasserman Shultz nd La Nana) in congress… heavy into big energy. Big banks, etc.

(not that this is news)

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Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2011: Thanks for that … well, maybe “thanks” isn’t the right word, but I appreciate knowing what these bastards are up to.

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11. ts - 15 June 2011: This book hasn’t even been printed yet, and it’s already got an audio book read by the best narrator imaginable. I agree with one of the reviewers that this book is cathartic – you never get too frustrated with the kids again because you automatically think of this book.

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: Just after you posted this, the local talk radio had the author on, it sounds absolutely charming…

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Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2011: that is so fucking great.

I read somewhere that they’re trying to get Werner Herzog to go a version.

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: Oh that would b great!

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Madman in the Marketplace - 15 June 2011: Woo hoo!

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: oh isn’t that wonderful! If I knew people with small children any more I would be buying it as gifts…

The interviewer on the local news talk said it was like a “Good Night Moon for seriously sleep deprived parents”.

I loved GN Moon as a child, and like seeing that thru the years, it does not age, nor do the illustrations…

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12. BooHooHooMan - 15 June 2011: Corporate Jet Set: Leisure vs. Business

A Wall Street Journal review of FAA flight records found that dozens of jets operated by publicly traded corporations made 30% or more of their trips to or from resort destinations, often to places where their top executives own homes.

Surely now that Obama is in chargey change-o…………. 😆

Of course the union busting , that is boss and pol co-opting Boeing
EFCA passed yet? –> LOL) and GE reap beaucoup via corp jet leasing and finance.

‘course it is high flyin’ GE, who paid 0, ZERO corporate income taxes, whose head honcho has his ass kissed and balls waxed regularly by Obama and his boychicks… when not ,uh. you know, “serving” the mere pedestrian class on that bullshit President Ob’s Economic Recovery, eh, …whatever the fuck they call it…

I must say tho, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Christie recently squealing like an airlifted pig during rescue flight here in Jersey.

Thiecing bastards all. Let everybody else pay they figure…

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BooHooHooMan - 15 June 2011: Thieving AND thiecing bastards, all. LOL

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: The whole union, Boeing, NC, Everett, who took jobs, did they take jobs as a punitive measure was it retaliation, etc., strikes me a huge fat mess. There is a vid that is not getting enough exposure of the top guy at Boeing, in interview, saying they cannot be vulnerable to shut downs like the 58 day strike….

A long long time ago, somewhere in the early 80s, I read a three parter in the old “not on our knees to the Democratic party” New Yorker, about how major corps decide where to locate, or often, RE locate the HQ. Over and over it is due to hwere the top one, two, three top guys want to live.

Period.

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13. BooHooHooMan - 15 June 2011: 😆 Well it turns out Lipless Gibbs got passed over for the Facebook spokeshole gig in favor of Joe Lockhart.

I swear to Gad, if the ever remake The Graduate, they’d have to rework that line of career advice: “Plastics”.

One word: Retreads.

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: Oh god I saw that. Joe Lockhart. A nothing.

One thing, I am sure JL was a lot cheaper than Lipless. Not that either is worth the skin draped over them.

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14. BooHooHooMan - 15 June 2011: No joy….

Liberal senators lash out at Obama on GOP trade deal

Two liberal senators 🙄 {As IF – bhhm}
facing reelection next year {Of COURSE™! – bhhm}
lashed out {with Feather!} at President Barack Obama on Wednesday for negotiating a deal with Republicans™™™ that would tie three long-stalled free trade agreements with renewal of an aid program for workers hurt by foreign trade.

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Bob Casey (D-Penn.) stepped up their calls 😆 for Congress to pass a stand-alone five-year extension of the aid program, known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance for Workers, before it takes up trade deals with Korea, Panama and Colombia.

“This is a continuation of [George W.] Bush policies – slightly changed,” 😯 Brown told reporters of the White House negotiations. “I think the president is wrong on this.”

Added 😳 Casey:

“This is a road that we shouldn’t take.”

…in Mudville.

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: Obama 2012! Continuing Bush policies but Half the EVIL! Vote for us, buy our mugs!!! Feel the Change!!!!!!!

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BooHooHooMan - 15 June 2011: The mugs are nicer.

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.
.
😆 😉

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: much nicer!

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BooHooHooMan - 15 June 2011: 😆

And it’s all a matter of looking at things, really.
Is the mug half evil or full?
You wouldn’t want full evil would ya?
Vote Democratic! Sort of Evil your way into things!

😉

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BooHooHooMan - 16 June 2011: Oh! And speaking of mugs!
Johnny Blow Wave from Carolina!

Methinks Bluffer Boy will cop a plea eventually.
A trial? With Rielle’s video work in hotel?
Good Lord. Fuckin Pocorn and Retreads.
Like Pappy in Carolina used to say.
Get in on the ground floor.
Through a back door if you’re lucky, son!
(meaning the Federal courthouse for any
would-be Sodomites out there…)

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marisacat - 16 June 2011: I see the case getting dealt down, no matter what…

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: I am convinced the exhumation of Casey, the whole and complete rewriting of his [horrible]
father being shut out of giving a stage speech at the convention was/is a deal the Democrats made wtih the Catholic hierarchy.

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BooHooHooMan - 15 June 2011: Well, it’s a road they shouldn’t have gone down.
I mean, FEEL the inspiration!
Talk about weak. Casey and the Holy Men Who Wear Dresses and the Men Who Love Holy Men Who Wear Dresses, like that nut Bill Donohue. All I can say is a. reeeeal. smaaaart. move all around. FEEL the Brilliance! Appeasing Irish Catholics keen on incarcerating or otherwise running off Hispanics. Welp, maybe the Casey family and other Irish political machinists are stocked up on potatoes and serviceable relics,
cuz THEY”RE GONNA FUCKIN NEED ‘EM. 😆

I see Obby was pandering down Puerto Rico way….

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marisacat - 15 June 2011: I see Obby was pandering down Puerto Rico way….

Speaking of the PRs….

I am hunting for a Forbes piece on how the Latino vote is going to be problematic for L’Obster, but i think they scrubbed it. Right at the moment, I see BammyBaby losing. (I go back and forth)

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15. marisacat - 15 June 2011: New…

LINK

…. 🙄 … 😯

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