Obama loves to talk and hear himself talk. He has been spoiled and spoiled badly by the sycophants that have raised him and praised him. He is also lucky and has realized a rebuke on his policy but not on him. By coincidence he has a state of the union speech next week. The American people will give him a second chance.
We know Obama is smart but is he foolish?
As for health care, believe me amigos, "something" will pass.
ReplyDeleteIf it has to be the unedited Senate version of the Bill, then that's what we'll get.
As for a "change" in course, I will not be holding my breathe, waiting.
From Time:
ReplyDelete*
* Share
*
The U.S. military's just-released report into the Fort Hood shootings spends 86 pages detailing varying slip-ups by Army officers, but not once mentions Major Nidal Hasan by name or even discusses whether the killings may have had anything to do with the suspect's view of his Muslim faith.
Read more:
Seat Brown.com
ReplyDelete...link provided by bar member Doug, first to suggest here, that Brown might turn BHO's World upside down.
OBAMA PLEDGES FULL SPEED AHEAD ON HEALTH REFORM...
ReplyDeleteBBC News -
ReplyDeleteThe blockade of the Gaza Strip is putting residents' health at risk, the UN and aid groups have warned. Medical facilities and equipment are in disrepair, many damaged in Israel's military operation a year ago have not been rebuilt, they said.
You see, rufus, in Israel there is not 100% coverage for all Israelis. Those that live on the West Bank and in Gaza are denied equal access and coverage.
ReplyDeleteAlmost 2 million of the 8 million residents of the Israeli controlled sections of the Levant. Over 25% of the residents are provided third whirled medical facilities. While the other 75% luxuriate in the finest whirled class facilities available.
Re: Gaza
ReplyDelete...Yawn...
A beautiful day is shaping up here in mid-Georgia.
A gunman who is suspected of killing eight people before firing on law enforcement officers and hitting a police helicopter surrendered to police Wednesday morning, Virginia State Police said.
ReplyDeleteSgt. Thomas Molnar said the suspect, 39-year-old Christopher Speight, approached officers at the crime scene at about 7:10 a.m. and turned himself in.
No rag on his head, not a typical Islamic name. Just another random mass murder.
Indication of Asian carp in Lake Michigan roils waters
ReplyDeleteLos Angeles Times -
DNA evidence of the invasive species is reported just hours after the US Supreme Court rebuffed a request for an injunction by other Great Lakes states to force Illinois to close river locks.
Interactive Map: Results and Analysis
ReplyDeleteScott Brown galvanized the state’s independent voters, winning a decisive victory.
More From The Caucus »
Should we wonder if Christopher Speight is a Christian?
ReplyDeleteWas he raised in an "Eye for an Eye" household?
Did he pull the wings off of flys, as a child?
rodent quips: desert rat said...
ReplyDeleteYou see, rufus, in Israel there is not 100% coverage for all Israelis. Those that live on the West Bank and in Gaza are denied equal access and coverage.
There in only ONE Israeli in Gaza and he get zero Israeli health care.. Gilad Shalit, he was kidnapped 3.5 years ago by Hamas and has never been seen since that day when Hamas invaded Israel (thru rat holes ((tunnels)) and murdered 3 of Gilad's fellow soldiers, wounded Gilad and took him into Gaza.
It's been 3.5 years and the red cross has never been allowed to see him...
As long as the Israeli maintain the blockade, all of Gaza is Israel and all its' residents, ISRAELI.
ReplyDeleteThere is no Two State Solution.
It is all one country.
A Jim Crow Nation
ReplyDeletedesert rat said...
ReplyDeleteBBC News -
The blockade of the Gaza Strip is putting residents' health at risk, the UN and aid groups have warned. Medical facilities and equipment are in disrepair, many damaged in Israel's military operation a year ago have not been rebuilt, they said.
Egypt, the HISTORIC supplier of all things GAZA controls a border (that the EU monitors were driven off by hamas at) that they choose to keep sealed..
Interesting news out of gaza:
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has issued a statement condemning the latest round of Palestinian-upon-Palestinian violence in Gaza. “In the past 4 days,” it said “unknown persons detonated bombs in a pharmacy and two coffee shops in the Gaza Strip. Such attacks are the result of the state of security chaos and proliferation of weapons in the Palestinian territory.”
The international media continues to ignore Palestinian-upon-Palestinian violence, which I report about occasionally on this email list. Instead some Western media and “human rights groups” have dishonestly added those Palestinians killed by other Palestinians onto death tolls of “Palestinians killed by Israelis”.
In further violence, two Palestinians were killed when the explosives they were carrying accidentally detonated near the town of Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. And in separate incidents, according to the PCHR, bombs were detonated in Gaza city in a hardware store, a billiard hall, a police vehicle and a private vehicle belonging to a member of the naval police.
and this:
Cairo has warned Hamas' Damascus-based leader Khaled Meshaal in its toughest language ever that Egypt will have no more truck with his Palestinian extremist organization until the snipers who shot dead an Egyptian soldier on the Gaza-Sinai border on Jan. 6 are tried and executed, DEBKAfile's intelligence sources report.
Their names are known to Cairo.
The Egyptian ultimatum was relayed through Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which are trying to patch up the quarrel between Cairo and Hamas.
Meshal offered to come to Cairo and apologize formally for the Egyptian soldier's death. He was brusquely snubbed: The Hamas leader had better not land in Cairo because he would not be let off the plane, he was told: "We have given Hamas-Gaza the names of the men who shot the Egyptian soldier and now Hamas must hang them." Until then, the Hamas leader has no business in Egypt.
Our sources add: Saudi security officers who interceded with Egyptian intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman were told that the Palestinian group's leaders had become too uppity and begun addressing Egypt as their equal. President Hosni Mubarak decided they needed cutting down to size and taught to respect the region's real boss.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that Egypt has tightened its siege of the Gaza Strip, regardless of the torrential rains and flashfloods which swept Egypt and Israel this week. Some 12 Egyptians and tourists died and more are missing, while two Israelis were swept to their death by the raging waters which devastated roads and infrastructure in Sinai and the Negev.
Nonetheless, dozens more military roadblocks went up on all the Sinai road links to Gaza's smuggling tunnels at a distance of 60-80 km and Egyptian surveillance helicopters began passes, day and night, over the Bedouin smuggling routes.
...closer to home and AMERICAN health care...
ReplyDeleteOn to Plan C
...from a Democrat:
"I believe it would only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Senator-elect Brown is seated."
I understand that the Palestinian, Major Hassan aka Fort Hood Butcher, is gettng excellent treatment at taxpayer expense. We just cannot do enough for our veterans.
Maybe if the people of Gaza stopped playing with high explosives & missiles they would not need so much medical care...
ReplyDeleteHow I learned to stop worrying and love the bubble
ReplyDeleteI did it. I went out and took out a huge honkin' mortgage to buy an overpriced house.Yep, me. W.C. Varones. Lifelong renter, perpetual doomsayer.Why? Because there is no exit strategy.
Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama have sworn to destroy the dollar in order to reinflate the housing bubble.
They will stop at nothing. They will bulldoze vacant houses to shrink the inventory. They will offer free citizenship to foreign buyers to stimulate demand. They will take more and more bad bank debt onto the Treasury's books. They will print infinite amounts of money to buy mortgages, Treasuries, Goldman Sachs CDOs, whatever it takes.
You can get a government cheese 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5%. Five percent!!! Have you seen the deficits Obama is running? Running deficits at 13% of GDP is not consistent with low long-term interest rates. Taking out a 30-year-fixed is the best way for individuals to short the Treasury. By the back half of your mortgage, you'll be paying it off with Monopoly money. Or Zimbabwe dollars. And if that's not enough, you get an $8000 tax credit just for taking the free money.
If Obama and Bernanke are going to destroy my country and my dollar, I'm at least going to get a free house out of it.
WiO,
ReplyDeleteLet's make a deal: Let the silly man blather, without further comment from either of us.
Deuce and Whit have a great site. It is a pity to see it abused daily by a couple ill mannered guests.
Anyone of integrity at the EB isn't going to pay attention to the dog returning to his vomit in any case.
WiO,
ReplyDeletePS: If we resist the natural temptation to defend truth against calumny and just stick with the topic at hand, this excellent site can attract more people like our friends linear and viktor. And who knows how many reincarnations of Ms T await us :)
"We just cannot do enough for our veterans."
ReplyDelete---
PBUHassan!
Mass. has 19% registered Republicans.
ReplyDeleteGaza is part of Egypt, even Rafah is split between Egypt and Gaza on the fake border...
ReplyDeleteEgypt controlled Gaza for decades, it's people are arabs that share the same culture of the arabs that live on both sides of the fake border, there is a state that should absorb Gaza, It's the world's largest arab state EGYPT..
Israel should cut off all assistance to the strip at once, including power, water, food and aid. It should not restrict any imports to gaza of any kind
and of course should respond to any rocket fire with overwhelming destruction that would eliminate any population pockets that are attacking a sovereign nation.
Gaza is not a nation, it is a lawless land mass inhabited by terrorists (a defined by the UN & the USA) and as such it has no rights to other nations health care or aid..
If the lands called "Gaza" continue to be a hot bed of terror, it should be laid waste and it's population of arabs returned to Egypt. Once Gaza is emptied of it's population it can be leveled and then annexed to EITHER Egypt or Israel to be rebuild as the sovereign nations choose..
But when the police arrived, chaos ensued. Officers were fired on by a man hiding in the woods, the authorities said, and a helicopter hovering overhead was hit four times in and around its fuel tank, forcing it to make an emergency landing nearby. No officers were hurt, the authorities said.
ReplyDeleteSgt Molnar said that among the eight dead, three were found inside and five were found outside a house on Snapps Mill Road. Mr. Speight’s home address is listed at 3030 Snapps Mill Road. The Richmond Dispatch said Mr. Speight’s home — a 3-bedroom, 3 bathroom home on a 34-acre plot — was listed as being up for sale.
34 acre spread, in VA. Sounds like a survivalist, Spreight is a short haired white fella, if the picture is to be believed.
Certainly not your typical suburbanite.
(CBS/ AP) The Obama administration's choice to lead the Transportation Security Administration withdrew his name Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteIn a statement, Erroll Southers said he was pulling out because his nomination had become a lightning rod for those with a political agenda. President Barack Obama tapped Southers, a former FBI agent, to lead the TSA in September but his confirmation has been blocked by Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, who says he was worried Southers would allow TSA employees to engage in collective bargaining with the government.
allen: And who knows how many reincarnations of Ms T await us :)
ReplyDeleteLet's see, I am up to 10....
Ms T, Lil, Teresa, T, Lilith, Catwoman, Lady Leather, Princess Linux, Queen of Boom, LINUXGAL
...apropos the Army's Fort Hood murder investigation PC whitewash...
ReplyDeleteDutch anti-Islam lawmaker faces hate speech trial
Iran in billion-euro gas deal with Germany
UK Olympian Suffers Major Wardrobe Malfunction on Bobsled Track
Allen: If we resist the natural temptation to defend truth against calumny and just stick with the topic at hand, this excellent site can attract more people like our friends linear and viktor.
ReplyDeleteI'm already on board with the girlcott of Desert Rat, not because he's a neo-Nazi, but because he insists he will not use my "Lilith" nickname as I requested.
And who knows how many reincarnations of Ms T await us :)
I enjoy your comments on the Elephant Bar, Allen, it would really disappoint me if you joined the growing club of bar members who'd rather jerk my chain than talk to me.
WiO,
ReplyDeleteGood deal! Let's do it, remembering that silence is golden. If nothing else, let's do our part to give Deuce and Whit a good day.
Re: reincarnations
Wow! You have a far better memory than mine.
Lil,
ReplyDeleteYou have always shown yourself to be an intelligent, courageous and witty barkeep and contributor. With all due respect, stop worrying so much about that chain and smile, darned you, smile :)
Doug: Ben Bernanke and Barack Obama have sworn to destroy the dollar in order to reinflate the housing bubble.
ReplyDeleteThe dollar is up today, which means gold and oil is down. There will be less "peak oil" talk until the dollar's random walk takes it down again.
The trend is down, of course, but that's fine with me. Our fixed rate mortgage is currently our largest monthly account payable. By the time Obama gets finished, our satellite TV bill will be larger.
"...he can recalibrate and do what is very hard for most politicians and admit he was wrong."
ReplyDeleteOr he can, as someone remarked, do what President Bush did and double down on the very issue that engendered widespread frustration and anger, and not a little rebuke, in 2006 - letting the chips fall where they may. His own Party in disarray and the opposition energized, he vowed to drive on in Iraq. And he did. (The Executive attitude toward Republican members of Congress at the time was, "What have you done for us lately?")
McArdle OTOH supposes that if President Obama, like Clinton, accepts defeat on what is conceded to be the centrally animating concern of health care, he can still carry on a largely successful presidency and perhaps extend his tenure. (The Party was divided and massacred in the short term, but them's the breaks.)
There must be at least a dozen other comparisons, however ill-fitting, out there.
I personally can't imagine Obama walking away from HCR, nor entertaining another Congressional overhaul of same. I can see him sidelining Rahm until Rahm is sent packing.
Democrats are bound to suffer some defeat come November because "it's the economy, stupid." They're caught for the time being between jobs that people no longer have and HCR for which in its current guise there is vanishingly little real enthusiasm.
Sucks to be them.
allen: Re: reincarnations
ReplyDeleteWow! You have a far better memory than mine.
No, what i didnt remember I simply made up or I looked at her site for ideas..
Even in the girlcott, it's still ...
ReplyDelete"All about me!"
Thank you.
What is this, the 5th grade? All these folk screaming "nyah, nyah, I'm not going to talk to you, blah, blah blah" Fortunately I can't hear them stomping their feet.
ReplyDeleteDoug, the flip side to your "How I learned to stop worrying and love the bubble" is the following possible scenario - Following the election of Brownie in Mass. the Tea Party (a marketers dream name) continued to grow their political influence and no new stimulus money was legislated, monetary policy tightened, and protectionist Buy American policies thrived. Deflation and even higher unemployment followed.
The problems I see for Obama, trish, with the Bush analogy is that Health Care depends upon legislation that emanates from Congress whereas in Iraq he could simply order the troops about and deal with the spending bills separately.
ReplyDeleteObama's TSA Nominee Withdraws From Consideration
ReplyDelete.
Hitler
ReplyDeletelearns of Brown's Victory
Egypt's government-owned al-Ahram newspaper reported in an op-ed on Saturday that without Mossad chief Meir Dagan, Iran would already have nuclear weapons.
ReplyDelete"Over the past seven years, he has worked in silence, away from the media," the op-ed read. "He has dealt painful blows to the Iranian nuclear program … he is the Superman of the Jewish state."
Among the steps taken by Dagan against Teheran, Al-Ahram listed diplomatic action to embarrass the Islamic republic, action to fuel opposition protests, assassinations and covert attacks against nuclear facilities.
The op-ed stressed that while the Mossad under Dagan's leadership achieved many bold victories against Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, it never took responsibility for its operations, but wisely chose to wait for the other side to declare that they had taken place.
"The problems I see for Obama, trish, with the Bush analogy is that Health Care depends upon legislation..."
ReplyDeleteI know. That's why I said "comparisons, however ill-fitting."
The similarities, to me, are in the genuine centrality of the issues to the respective administrations, and the desperate fear and loathing so inspired in the Congress. Fear on the part of Republicans and loathing on the part of Democrats, generally speaking.
Though currently of course it's fear on the part of Democrats and loathing on the part of Republicans.
ReplyDeleteAsh,
ReplyDeleteAlthough you gave it the old college try, I ignored you yesterday.
Following this, I will ignore you for the rest of today.
You have nothing to say, as you have been repeatedly told; but that doesn't stop you. Perhaps silence will.
Yeah, I mentally noted the "ill fitting" disclaimer but I'm not sure how they can pull something off. Rat's sure "something" will pass and I guess the crux of the matter revolves around the procedural issues of which I don't know much about. I've expressed amazement that a 60-40 domination in the Senate is considered razor thin and DEFEAT (or VICTORY on the 'pub side) is proclaimed when it gets to 59-41. Is a super majority really necessary to pass something other than a spending bill in America? If so that is really quite extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteI recall the Clinton admin. failing miserably on health care early in their first administration and they proceeded on to another term. I'm guessing that Health care reform will fall by the wayside not to be considered again for a long long time. I could very well be wrong and the democrats will grow a spine and battle a filibuster but I dunno. Compromise with the republicans seems a long shot despite people like Deuce saying most Americans want all Americans to have health care but that requires Socialism and that term is so toxic that views like Viktor's, Doug's, Bob et al will stymie any chance at compromise because they'd have to embrace *gasp* socialism to do so. Nope, much easier to have a tea party and say NO TO GOVERNMENT!
my, allen, I could have sworn I heard your feet stomping all the way up here. Are you fingers firmly lodged in your ears? Please avert your eye now.
ReplyDeleteAnd John Cole quotes Jon Walker at the (notoriously obnoxious) FDL:
ReplyDeleteLet me put this as simply as possible. Democrats control everything in Washington right now. They control the White House. They have a huge margins in the House and in the Senate. Democrats have larger margins in both chambers than any party has had for decades. They have zero excuses for failing to deliver. Americans will not find some nonsense about having only 59 Senate seats as an acceptable excuse for failing to accomplish anything. If Democrats think they can win in 2010 by running against Republican obstructionism, they will lose badly.
Not only will Democrats lose badly if they adopt this strategy, but they will be laughed at. Republicans never had 59 Senate seats, and that did not stop them from passing the legislation they wanted. Trying to explain to the American people how, despite controlling everything, Democrats cannot do anything, because a mean minority of 41 Republican senators won’t let them, is a message that will go over like a lead balloon. If you try to use that excuse, people will think elected Democrats are liars, wimps, idiots, or an ineffectual combination of all three.
I add: You betcha.
The counter to that argument trish is that they had a super majority and still didn't get it passed. Now, without it they'll dig in? With guys like Liberman on their side? ewwwww.
ReplyDeleteIt's not over 'til the Fat Lady sings, Ash.
ReplyDeleteAnd to mix cliches, HCR is only "mostly dead."
Just sayin'.
ReplyDeletelol,
ReplyDeletere: constitutional challenges based on requiring all citizens to buy health insurance - are there any working their way through the courts regarding Mass. current Health Insurance law which has a similar requirment?
Market celebrates Brown win,
ReplyDeleteBlows off 180.
In fairness, the market was, probably, already anticipating a Brown win. This is "selling the news," perhaps.
ReplyDeleteJan 20 (Reuters) - China urged other powers on Tuesday to show more flexibility in dealing with Iran's disputed nuclear programme, playing down prospects of sanctions after six countries met to discuss the standoff.
ReplyDeleteGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday Iran would face further sanctions unless it changes stance in talks over its nuclear programme, even if there is no United Nations agreement to act against Tehran.
At a meeting of major powers on Saturday, intended to discuss prospects for further sanctions against Iran, China made clear it opposed more punitive action, at least for now. More sanctions were now on the big-power agenda and the six would be in contact again soon to continue the discussions.
Mitchell: Syria, Lebanon key to Mideast peace
ReplyDeleteBy The Associated Press
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Wednesday that Syria and Lebanon were key to achieving peace in the Middle East.
Mitchell was in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday and traveled to neighboring Damascus at the start of a regional tour aimed at restarting Middle East peace talks.
The visit is part of a U.S. effort to end Israel's conflicts with the
P
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alestinians, Syria and Lebanon and, more broadly, normalize Israel's ties with the rest of the Arab world.
"Syria, certainly has an important role to play in all these efforts, as do the U.S. and international community," Mitchell added in a brief statement to reporters after a meeting with President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
Haaretz.com
The "Real" driver today seems to be China moves to curtail lending.
ReplyDeleteIt's not all about "us" anymore.
China may not be interested in being "The Next Bubble."
ReplyDeleteApropos of nothing in particular.
ReplyDeleteRead this interview a few days ago and found it quite interesting:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/johncassidy/2010/01/interview-with-gary-becker.html
And Andrew Sullivan notes the hilarious Village Voice headline today:
ReplyDeleteScott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate
The "Village Voice" Must be Hillary's Village.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I bet the Clinton's are feeling pretty smug today. Remember Teddy endorsing the Kenyan?
I really think SecState's gone mid-term, Gag. Under her own steam.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's a shame because she's a good one and there's no decent replacement on the horizon.
She's actually unlike her husband in that she doesn't automatically suck the oxygen out of whatever environment she momentarily inhabits.
ReplyDeleteI am sure it will be someone very Janet Reno-esque
ReplyDeleteIf the election yesterday can be taken as a vote of disapproval, and I think it can, it may not be enough to change significantly the administration’s agenda.
ReplyDeleteAn angry public has no third party option to articulate a compelling, contrary agenda. Consequently, both political parties are left to make of the election what they will. While this may cause some short term chaos, little else may come of it.
On two things both parties work merrily in a bipartisan fashion: pork and the rigging of state election law to hobble third party challenges.
Even were a third party to be formed on the basis of undifferentiated public displeasure, getting on the ballots in the 50 states will be nearly impossible.
On the question of who may participate in televised debates, third party candidates have had a rough row to hoe as well.
I have a hard time foreseeing a credible third party challenge in 2010. Despite this, incumbents, Democrats particularly, may still suffer major setbacks.
It is going to be an interesting year.
Trish,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that interview link. A good read. And that Village Voice headline sums it up nicely!
I am sure it will be someone very Janet Reno-esque
ReplyDeleteWed Jan 20, 11:54:00 AM EST
My bet's a guy. (And not because HRC isn't - just the odds of it.) Brought in from outside the current DOS pool. There isn't even anyone really to transplant from DOD.
An academic maybe with peripheral experience in the field.
Sound lousy?
Does to me, too.
"What is this, the 5th grade? All these folk screaming "nyah, nyah, I'm not going to talk to you, blah, blah blah" Fortunately I can't hear them stomping their feet."
ReplyDeleteI rarely agree with you Ash; however, in this case you are right on.
These constant, indignant, self-absorbed pronouncements assume that anyone else here really gives a shit (including the person who is being blackballed).
If you don't want to post to someone, don't do it. Announcing it as if it has any kind of importance is unnecessary and kind of childish.
.
Glad you liked the interview, Ash.
ReplyDeleteQuirk: If you don't want to post to someone, don't do it. Announcing it as if it has any kind of importance is unnecessary and kind of childish.
ReplyDeleteI do it as a public service, in the interest of preserving bandwidth. Someone might flood the channel with all sorts of queries, anticipating a reply that will never come until the intervening apology.
Please.
ReplyDeleteLove you L, but no one here is that important to the discussion.
.
...add this to a growing list of screwups, such as the Fort Hood "investigation"...
ReplyDeleteIntel chief says Christmas bomb case mishandled
We have been saved from another 9/11 by the fact that our adversaries are marginally dumber than our protectors. One day our luck is going to run out.
Quirk,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, if you find the company here unimportant, why do you keep coming back to comment on it?
At one time or another, everyone on this blog, including the proprietors has threatened to leave, for instance. Are Deuce and Whit unimportant and "childish"?
If you have an opinion on any matter, I would enjoy reading it. Last night you did and I found it thought provoking. However, your usual "snarkiness" is childish and tiresome to the extreme, giving the impression of someone very much attached to himself.
"We have been saved from another 9/11 by the fact that our adversaries are marginally dumber than our protectors. One day our luck is going to run out.
ReplyDeleteStrictly my opinion, but I think the terrorists are still winning. We were saved from a complete disaster by their incompetance on Christmas Eve. But everytime one of these things happen (even the ones that "fail") our freedoms get restricted even more.
.
Do you guys really believe that if the Christmas Bomber had succeeded it would have been "another 9/11 " (allen) or a "complete disaster" (Quirk)?
ReplyDeletePrager had a 23 year old Mass. caller, asked him what he did not like about RomneyCare.
ReplyDelete23 year old Mass. Resident replied that it was a little weird to get a letter in the mail asking for proof of his medical insurance.
Comrade Rufus replies:
"If he isn't doing anything wrong, what does he have to fear?"
(the hate-crime of being a human being?)
Is Being a hate crime?
What would it have been Ashie:
ReplyDeleteA walk in the park?
...or do the Black Ghettos of Detroit not qualify as stand-ins for Manhatten Island?
Is Being Human a hate crime?
ReplyDeletedesert rat said...
ReplyDelete"As for health care, believe me amigos, "something" will pass."
I'm looking forward to a toilet-clogging turd of Desert Rat Dimensions.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBeing outranks "being human" because "being" includes my cat.
ReplyDeleteYes, Ashie:
ReplyDeleteI needed that "pointed out"
(gotta be the most non-Shakesperian term I have ever heard)
If he succeeded it would hardly have been a walk in the park but it also would be nowhere near as devastating as events of 9/11 were. I'm surprised you need that pointed out.
ReplyDeleteAshie has been pointed out as a pointy-headed "liberal."
ReplyDeleteDoug reads Ashie's simple mind, responds before Ashie's digits tap the keys.
ReplyDeletePBUDougie
"With all due respect, if you find the company here unimportant,"
ReplyDeleteAnother red herring, Allen. You will note that what I actually said was "that important to the discussion". With regard to any conversation on any subject here the loss of one or more of those who post here would be unlikely to materially change the overall flow of the discussion.
"Are Deuce and Whit unimportant and "childish"?"
Not unimportant since it is their blog. Whit's recent threat to leave the blog was important for the same reason. However, were they to come out with some self-important announcement that someone here had offended them to the degree that "they are no longer going to post to them" would be as I said unnecessary and, yes, childish.
"However, your usual "snarkiness" is childish and tiresome to the extreme, giving the impression of someone very much attached to himself."
No denying I am very much attached to myself. However, you using the term "snarkiness" in reference to someone else is highly amusing.
.
What was the one state that voted for McGovern?
ReplyDelete"No denying I am very much attached to myself."
ReplyDelete---
As opposed to me, myself, and I.
"Do you guys really believe that if the Christmas Bomber had succeeded it would have been "another 9/11 " (allen) or a "complete disaster" (Quirk)?"
ReplyDeleteThis is the reason I rarely agree with you Ash. Nearly 300 people on the plane. Detroit Metro is surrounded by residential areas. The potential for hundreds more dying.
Hell, if one person died because of this it would have been a total disaster.
What's the matter with you?
.
Yeah, I guess "complete disaster" has more perspective than "another 9/11 though I've tended to equate "complete disasters" with events more extreme than the downing of single airliner. Airliners have crashed on numerous occasions though and, other than to the people killed and their immediate families it is not often referred to as a complete disaster though I'm sure some did.
ReplyDeleteAshie is a Compleat Disaster.
ReplyDeleteBe thankful for the benchmark.
I caaaan't hear you dougie 'cause my fingers are in my ears - nyanah, nyanah.... nyanah, nyanah!!!
ReplyDeleteThe state mandated insurance experiment in Massachusetts is running up a big tab and the costs are rising. That, combined with the usual Democratic overspending, will bankrupt the state at some point. Our Masters have drained the rainy day fund and raised taxes, fees, fines on just about everything and the state sinks further into the hole. The unemployment rate here isn't quite as bad as it is nationally, but it's not good. As a national model, I'm not convinced. It seems to me that a universal health care plan should be able to be sold on its merits if it has any. The absence of any attempt to do this ( not counting the town hall meetings of last fall where the politicians tried to explain a bill they had not read) tells me that the merits are few if any. That the details won't stand the light of day is telling. Many voters in Mass. feel the same. Why inflict our pain on everyone at an added cost to us?
ReplyDeleteGo Scott G0!
Quirk,
ReplyDeleteYour point is taken. We will have to agree to disagree.
When/if I need your advice, I will ask.
Deuce and Whit do us all a favor by putting up this site. If either of them calls me on my behavior, I take it seriously because 1) I respect them and 2) I was raised to believe that when I am in someone's house, I play by their rules. Unlike rufus, I do not bad mouth my hosts. Unlike DR, I do not start anti-Semitic rants at the start of almost every thread. Now that I think about it, why don't you give both DR and rufus a piece of your mind? I'm sure both will take it with their usual comity.
By the way, I too believe the terrorists are winning. Like you, I see my freedoms limited by an otherwise impotent bureaucracy.
...off to Atlanta!...Have a good afternoon.
Bizjournals.com - 23 minutes ago
ReplyDeleteOregon's unemployment rate rose to 11 percent in December from the revised November figure of 10.7 percent. The rate has been close to 11 percent for the last four months of 2009.
Shit Creek,
ReplyDeleteNo Paddle.
desert rat said...
ReplyDeleteBizjournals.com - 23 minutes ago
Oregon's unemployment rate rose to 11 percent in December from the revised November figure of 10.7 percent. The rate has been close to 11 percent for the last four months of 2009.
I wonder how many voted for Obama?
"Now that I think about it, why don't you give both DR and Rufus a piece of your mind? I'm sure both will take it with their usual comity."
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't seen my disagreements with Rat and Rufus, you haven't been paying attention. Or perhaps, they all took place between Friday afternoon and Sunday.
In fact, my disagreements with Rufus go back farther than this blog. But he's still a good guy (although a little goofy at times).
As far as "comity"?
You have obviously gotten me confused with someone who really gives a shit.
.
You had to use my name, didn't you, you lying asshole?
ReplyDeleteI think McGovern carried two states, Doug. Minnesota, and Massachusetts. I could be wrong. Believe it or not. :)
ReplyDeleteChachapoya: The state mandated insurance experiment in Massachusetts is running up a big tab and the costs are rising. That, combined with the usual Democratic overspending, will bankrupt the state at some point.
ReplyDeleteBankruptcy is not as bad as people make out. What happens is that you are temporarily protected from your creditors and the management of your finances is taken out of your own incompetent hands and given to adults. If you want to go on a junket to Copenhagen, or spend $1.2 million dollars for a giant crucifix immersed in a glass tub of urine in the capital rotunda, for example, you would need the bankruptcy judge to approve it.
Mass made the same mistake that both the Senate, and House Bills will make. The Penalty HAS to be higher than the "Premium."
ReplyDeleteSorry, Allen.
ReplyDeleteI should have added a :)
after that last comment on comity.
I'm trying to be less snarky. I am just not any good at it.
.
Meanwhile, it seems as if the Mass citizens are divided about 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 on their Health Care. Pretty much evenly divided among Like, Dislike, and "Eh, whatever."
ReplyDeleteSenate leader Reid says he will wait until Massachusetts Senator-elect Brown is seated before taking votes on healthcare. Obama no longer thinks Health Care Reform will pass this year. But he has unchecked power with Executive Orders - Watch him go crazy - no one can stop him till 2012.
ReplyDeleteOnward Christian Soldiers!
ReplyDeleteUS troops issued with gun sights carrying coded references to Bible passages
Wherever "The Won" goes,
ReplyDeleteall symbols relating to Christianity are removed, or covered.
Muslim artifacts, not so much.
Ash for Religion Tsar!
Onward fucking dickwad!
ReplyDeleteObama:
ReplyDeleteMe, Me, Me.
Brown:
You, You, You.
Ash:
Zero
Ash:
ReplyDeletedo the bible verses on the scopes offend you?
By the way, Trijicon makes an excellent rifle scope.
McGovern, Mass and DC.
ReplyDeleteThat was it.
Worse defeat in history.
The winner deposed not long after.
Man of "Misdirection's" boycott did not last a day.
ReplyDeleteHow amusing.
By the way, again, they are not in some kind of code (that's laughable). They are simply Bible Book, chapter and verse.
ReplyDeleteI guess they got the "coded" part as the bible references are part of the serial numbers on the scopes.
ReplyDeleteStephen Colbert did a funny bit on last nights show (it is online) where he suggests they really haven't gone far enough. He introduced the "handgrebibile" and the "The promised land mine" a means to put Jesus into their heart, and spleen and....
so, Ash, does that offend you?
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not easily offended but I can see how the Military brass might be a bit uncomfortable with it. Not really good on the propaganda front. Would you be offended if a company owned by Jews inscribed religious references on equipment they manufactured for the US military? How about a company owned by a Muslim inscribing stuff from the Koran?
ReplyDeleteTrijicon puts Bible verses on all their products, not just the ones going to the military.
ReplyDeleteAllen:
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time foreseeing a credible third party challenge in 2010. Despite this, incumbents, Democrats particularly, may still suffer major setbacks.
Wed Jan 20, 11:55:00 AM EST.
Don't become too fixated on the 3rd party meme, Allen.
Independence doesn't require an Independent Party. Success of "independent" candidates will pull the center of gravity their direction, in this case to starboard. Party "leadership" that's not blind and tone deaf will follow that shift or be replaced.
Hey, speaking of treating religions differently are you offended by how Google executes their search suggestion items? You know, they offer (you might have to have it enabled) completion suggestions as you type in search items?
ReplyDeleteTry
Christianity is
Juadism is
Islam is
Does that offend you?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'll betcha that "State Senator" Brown voted For the current Mass Health Plan.
ReplyDeleteNot at all! But in past posts you seem to be offended by anything Christian, and in your Alinski/Liberal/EastCanadian way respond by either ridiculing or sneering at anyone who claims to be Christian.
ReplyDeleteI'm more like rufus on the religion matter - I'm not religious myself but if you are fine, but I particularly don't like most of what the fundamentalists of all the faiths preach.
ReplyDeleteI am also sure you just offended or Jewish friends on EB by grouping them with Muslims. Christians and Jews are basically on the same side, in case you didnt know it, Ash.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that you are not offended by the Googles PC treatment of Islam. But you are Gag Reflex and not necessarily like many of the folk here.
ReplyDeletethats "our" Jewish friends.
ReplyDeleteYou and Rufus eye to eye. Thats funny.
The fundamentalists have been messing up religion since the beginning of time. I suggest reading the Book and decide for yourself, instead of listening to the guy with the big watch.
But you are Gag Reflex and not necessarily like many of the folk here.
ReplyDeleteHUH?
re HUH?
ReplyDeleteA lot of the folk here don't like it at all if companies give any special treatment to Islam. Remember the Cartoons that so incensed many in the Islamic world? I didn't see many here thinking that self censorship was the appropriate path. Now Google does it but you don't care.
From rat:
ReplyDeleteMitchell: Syria, Lebanon key to Mideast peace
By The Associated Press
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Wednesday that Syria and Lebanon were key to achieving peace in the Middle East.
Heh. All this time Mitchell, Hillary, Obama, et al, been beatin' out the song that it was somebody else bein' the key to peace.
Goes to show you. Ya cain't believe anything them people say.
.
What do I care what Google does? I use BING :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat do you like about Bing? I've checked it, and it doesn't seem as functional as Google Advanced Search.
ReplyDelete'I'll betcha that "State Senator" Brown voted For the current Mass Health Plan.'
ReplyDeleteAs bad an idea as it is, it should be a state's rights issue, not a national mandate, in my opinion.
Linear,
ReplyDeleteI own stock in Microsoft and not Google, nuff said?
It's Sackcloth and Ashes Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous Dem staffer emails Marshal:
[...]
(I)t seems we've spent the entire year moving our own goalposts farther away. Things have gotten so bad that in roaming the halls today it feels exactly as if we lost the Majority last night.
The worst is that I can't help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They're afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That's the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.
I believe President Clinton provided some crucial insight when he said, "people would rather be with someone who is strong and wrong than weak and right." It's not that people are uninterested in who's right or wrong, it's that people will only follow leaders who seem to actually believe in what they are doing. Democrats have missed this essential fact.
The stimulus bill in the spring showed us what was coming. In the face of a historic economic crisis, Democrats negotiated against themselves at the outset and subsequently yielded to absurd demands from self-described "moderates" to trim the package to a clearly inadequate level. No one made any rational argument about why a lower level was better. It would have been trivial to write "claw-back" provisions if the stimulus turned out to be too much or we could have done a rescission this year to give these moderates their victory, but none of this was on the table. We essentially looked like we didn't know what the right answer was so we just kinda went for what we could get. This formula was repeated in spades in both the Climate and Health Care debacles.
This is my life and I simply can't answer the fundamental question: "what do Democrats stand for?" Voters don't know, and we can't make the case, so they're reacting exactly as you'd expect (just as they did in 1994, 2000, and 2004). We either find the voice to answer that question and exercise the strongest majority and voter mandate we've had since Watergate, or we suffer a bloodbath in November. History shows we're likely to choose the latter.
Although I realize this is far too long to publish, if you do decide to use any of it, please keep my anonymity. Just in case I'm wrong and there is more good to do yet.
linearthinker said...
ReplyDeleteFrom rat:
Mitchell: Syria, Lebanon key to Mideast peace
By The Associated Press
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Wednesday that Syria and Lebanon were key to achieving peace in the Middle East.
Heh. All this time Mitchell, Hillary, Obama, et al, been beatin' out the song that it was somebody else bein' the key to peace.
Goes to show you. Ya cain't believe anything them people say.
---
The Key to
Drug Free
is your local Pusher.
Anonymous Dem staffer:
ReplyDelete...This is my life and I simply can't answer the fundamental question: "what do Democrats stand for?" Voters don't know...
On the contrary, sweetheart. Voters do know what Democrats stand for.
And they obviously don't like it.
Trish,
ReplyDeleteLast nite @ dinner I explained to my politically disconnected (she's too busy working in addition to being female) wife that Daschle wrote a book that said the problem with Hillarycare is that they took too long.
...but that Daschle, unlike all the other tax cheats was excluded for cheating.
A year later, after enjoying a SuperMajority for 365 days, no "healthcare"
Thank God
Ash, on Vacation in SOCAL
ReplyDeleteGeorge Packer reflects on Obama's first year:
ReplyDelete"[T]he whole drift of political currents—especially in the wake of last night’s Massachusetts result—is away from Obama’s agenda, and toward a kind of populism that, like a wild fire, can shift directions with any light wind that blows through and quickly burn up large tracts of land (it just immolated Martha Coakley). This is a politics that Obama has never been comfortable with. His preferred approach, as we’ve learned this past year, is to bring together his relatively non-ideological advisers, let each one argue a point of view, then make a decision on the rational basis of evidence and expertise, and explain it to the public in a detailed, almost anti-inspirational manner. Thus the bank plan, the Afghanistan policy, the “jobs summit,” etc. A Democratic politician recently told me that the best way to get Obama to do what you want is to tell him that it’s the unpopular, difficult, but responsible thing.
"If Obama has any ideology, it’s this process. It is not an approach that’s easily adapted to leading and guiding the volatile hearts and minds of a beleaguered and cynical public. My guess is that it’s driven his political advisers around the bend many times."
Well, Pollster.com has the HCR for/against at 39/50.
ReplyDeleteAnd the big news today was Franks appearing to seriously bail, Scott and Coakley having split his district down the middle.
He can't be the only one in danger either.
Rahm is (in)famous for his f-bombs - carpet-bombing really - and I imagine there have been no shortage of sorties today.
Unless the President has already muzzled him. A distinct possibility.
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has lifted a US ban on a planned visit by a leading European Muslim critic of the Iraq war, in a move rights groups hailed as a victory for civil liberties.
ReplyDeleteYou're on a roll Red, good stuff.
ReplyDeleteWe go back down Saturday to house hunt. It's been a full two years since I've been back there.
ReplyDeleteWading through the suddenly funereal Democratic blogosphere as I have been, I feel like I ought to be taking The Covered Dish Of Condolence.