“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Not immediately clear when First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia would leave the Vineyard.
Obama has not rested while in Martha's Vineyard, so engrossed has he been in organizing federal resources to cope with Hurricane Irene. Racked with fear and worry about the oncoming hurricane, unable to focus on his putting, stern faced Obama spoke to the nation through his teleprompters. Obama shared his profound thoughts: “indications point to this being a historic hurricane.” Following his riveting and vacuous announcement, Obama the imperious, had no time to answer a reporters question about how the hurricane would affect employment.
Watch this:
The First Big Ass, Michelle, was not quite finished her top-shelf vacation so that taxpayers now have to pay for the Obamas to fly back on seperate 747s. Tough luck for the security people and home owners in the area who cannot return to prepare for the hurricane.
Journalist idiots that see the President as Superman, flitting from place to place to "Take Charge" of any event big or small. Screw what a media cabal in NYC defines as "optics" and "appropriate vacation duration" as a function of events.
In defense of Obama (his vacation happy wife is a completely different story) - the guy has taken less "real vacation, working vacation" time than Reagan, Bush II did. More foreign junkets in his 1st year than anyone, but he has wound down on that.
What I want to know is whether his continued presence on the island is complicating islanders' efforts to get ready for the hurricane. I'll bet it is (didn't they have to shut down the airport when they arrived?) I'm sure they'd be relieved if he'd clear out and take all his jets and SUV motorcades and extra mouths to feed back where they came from.
It's mostly the symbolism, though, of vacationing serenely while the rest of the east coast scrambles. I have never seen such a politically tone-deaf president -- and he was supposed to be the great political genius!
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Hundreds of Islamist militants were among the prisoners freed from a notorious Tripoli prison this week, according to a former Libyan jihadist. The freed militants had been imprisoned in Tripoli's Abu Salim prison by Moammar Gadhafi's regime during the height of the insurgency in Iraq, according to Noman Benotman, once a senior figure in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Benotman said he believes as many as 600 militants may have been among the prison population at Abu Salim.
Now the real fun hits in democratic libya. Every swinging dick begins to realize the Daffy is done and gone and starts thinking about who will be in charge. The friend of my enemy is my enemy. All the Sunni Arabs, the Bani Hilal and Bani Salim, all of the 140 clans, the Warfallah, all 52 subtribes of them, the Az-Zintan's, Awlad Busayf, the blah - blah-blahs blah-blahs, will coalesce into a new democracy that will look more like cans and bottles on a super market floor after an earthquake than the two bouncing bettys that pop up and down at our State of the Union charades. No, there will be no melting pot, not with those newly honed road warriors with their acquired skills with 50 caliber toys.
All will be forgotten and forgiven soon. For sure.
On Thursday, there were reports that the bullet-riddled bodies of more than 30 pro-Qaddafi fighters had been found at a military encampment in central Tripoli. At least two were bound with plastic handcuffs, suggesting that they had been executed, and five of the dead were found at a field hospital.
More bodies turned up in the streets on Friday, where occasional volleys of gunfire were heard. Near Colonel Qaddafi’s abandoned citadel, Bab al-Aziziya, rebels began hauling away nine bloated bodies. The face of one was so badly decayed it appeared charred.
Maggots crawled over the torso of another.
“Only a butcher could commit a massacre like this,” said Sami Omar, a rebel.
Six were dumped near a trash receptacle, two left under a stairwell and one thrown in a large ditch, his hands apparently cuffed.
Rebels said Qaddafi loyalists had killed them as they celebrated his fall. But one resident said they were his fighters, slain by rebels.
Thinking deeply about it, I don't care if Michelle, Sasha and Malia ever leave Martha's Vineyard as long as we don't have to hear about it day after day.
Let 'em stay there and pig out at the local McDonald's.
We'll just have to change sides, then. After all we've got that responsibility to protect, dreamed up by that nitwit Powers. There is nothing else for it, if we are do our moral duty there.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged those who needed to leave to do so right away Saturday morning. The city doesn't have enough resources to evacuate everyone after the weather worsens, he said about 2 1/2 hours before the transit system was to shut down.
"Staying behind is dangerous, staying behind is foolish, and it's against the law, and we urge everyone in the evacuation zones not to wait until gale-force winds," he said in a news conference from Coney Island as rain began to fall. "The time to leave is right now."
You can put it in a dress, even put lipstick on it, but it's still fascism, pure and simple.
Oh, wait, Bloomberg is in Reform Judaism, I guess that makes me anti-Semitic.
I don't know, T. If a Hurricane came ashore at just the right place there are many areas of NY that would have Massive Losses of Life. Some of those would be Emergency Responders trying to go in and save the morons that stayed in dangerous areas.
It just sounds like "Common Sense" to me to tell the idjits to get outta the way.
The real value in Mr. Bernanke’s speech is that he explained what really ails the economy — and made the case for a better fiscal response to address those ills. “Good, proactive housing policies” would speed recovery, he said, as would “putting people back to work.”
If Mr. Bernanke advocated specific policies to achieve those aims, he would be violating the etiquette that requires Fed chairmen to leave fiscal details to Congress.
So allow us. The best, proactive way to revive the housing market is to help bankrupt and delinquent borrowers rework their mortgages through principal reductions. It is also important to ease refinancing rules so underwater borrowers who are current in their payments can trade in their high-rate mortgages for lower-rate loans. The Obama administration is considering new refinancing rules, but mortgage investors are sure to resist...
If the Obama administration comes out with a proposal to fix the housing problem, we can expect that it will be based more on politics than upon economics.
I know a lot of mortgage brokers. I used to work with them. My understanding is that a Huge number of those "Adjustable Rate" Mortgages were sold to people that had No Idea what they were getting into.
Fraud was Rampant.
The Big Banksters don't talk much about that. They, also, don't mention that a new wave of "Option ARMS" are hitting right now.
The more I hear from The Bernanke, the less confident I am in his judgement.
The housing problem remains one of the key drags on the economy. There are a number of ways to fix it, none of them good.
The NYT suggests the banks should restructure loans to reflect current property values. Also, they should allow property owners who have had no problem paying their current mortgages to refinace at todays lower rates. While I can agree with the latter, the first suggestion will never happen in the absence of government mandate.
The banks refuse to recognize the real value of the property on their books because to do so would result in short term pain which would hurt reported profits and more importantly bonuses. In addition, they have no incentive to do it. They are making bundles of money anyway because of the FED's low interest rate.
There is also the moral hazard side of letting homeowners, those who were trying to get rich in the asset bubble, off the hook (although there are ways to assure the venal do not unduly profit from their speculation).
In my opinion, as a spectator, I think Big Ben should start letting interest rates rise. First, it would allow homeowners to pay off mortgages with cheaper dollars and second it would provide incentive for the big banks to solve the toxic asset problem they have on their books.
Obama offers 2012 election supporters change they can believe in — next term
Three years after storming the White House with the “fierce urgency of now,” President Obama has a new message for his reelection campaign: Be patient, democracy is big and tough and messy.
“When I said, ‘Change we can believe in,’ I didn’t say, ‘Change we can believe in tomorrow,’ ” Obama told a crowd of 2,400 during a birthday celebration in Chicago this month...
Harbor Beach — Jack Noble looks over the rows of ramshackle, empty docks that house a handful of boats at Offshore Marina and can't help thinking of busier times on Lake Huron.
"This place used to have a waiting list to get a slip," said Noble, 75. "Now there's five boats. At one time, there were 19 or 20 charter boats in this town. Now there is one. This town is dead. We don't even have a grocery store. … And it's not the economy. It's the fishery."
Just a decade ago, that fishery was ruled by king salmon. From Lexington in the south to the Straits of Mackinac, charter captains charged eager anglers hundreds of dollars to catch hard-fighting, great-tasting kings until coolers were brimming with fish.
Today, southern Lake Huron is virtually devoid of king salmon, thanks to food web changes wrought by invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels...
"I do not expect to see the kind of fishery that I knew here 10 years ago in my lifetime because of the DNR and their damn foot-dragging," he said. "I would very much like to see my grandchildren have the same opportunity in Lake Huron. But they won't bite the bullet and do what they have to do."
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools that voted Big O A path to nowhereland
Haven't had much weather related news here except for the record spring rains. The harvest is very late, it is almost the Moon of the First Wolf Kill, the Moon of the Corn Cutting, the Moon of the First Wintering Coat on the Ponies (the Nimiipuu were not metallurgists but they became world class Horse Breeders) the garbanzos are mostly green, the hard spring and winter red wheat is late, and if Miss T the weather goddess turns the shower back on lots of money is going to lost from dockage.
Obama has a change of format in his weekly radio broadcast. He is switching from a NPR format to an "Oldies but Goodies" blast from the past.
9/11?
Heck it worked for Bush and Company. (Well, until it didn't.)
The president made his appeal during his weekly radio and Internet address, two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the day al-Qaida terrorists turned commercial jetliners into deadly weapons in New York, Pennsylvania and northern Virginia.
Obama plans to observe the anniversary on Sept. 11 with stops at ground zero in lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Center towers fell; at Shanksville, Pa., where one of the commandeered planes crashed; and at the Pentagon, which was also hit by a hijacked jetliner...
But he cast his plea for good will today against the backdrop of the economic challenges facing the country today. Coming in the aftermath of bitter partisan fights over government spending and tough criticism of his administration by Republican presidential candidates, his remarks were an overt call for greater cooperation...
Appaloosas have white sclera visible around the iris when the eye is in a normal position, this my daughter pointed out to me, one of the few, maybe only, breeds that have this feature.
The DNR sounds a lot like the Idaho Fish and Games.
We have a big mussels prevention program here now. Your boat has to be checked at a check station before entering the Snake complex if you are new to the area for instance.
Journalist idiots that see the President as Superman, flitting from place to place to "Take Charge" of any event big or small.
ReplyDeleteScrew what a media cabal in NYC defines as "optics" and "appropriate vacation duration" as a function of events.
In defense of Obama (his vacation happy wife is a completely different story) - the guy has taken less "real vacation, working vacation" time than Reagan, Bush II did. More foreign junkets in his 1st year than anyone, but he has wound down on that.
What I want to know is whether his continued presence on the island is complicating islanders' efforts to get ready for the hurricane. I'll bet it is (didn't they have to shut down the airport when they arrived?) I'm sure they'd be relieved if he'd clear out and take all his jets and SUV motorcades and extra mouths to feed back where they came from.
ReplyDeleteIt's mostly the symbolism, though, of vacationing serenely while the rest of the east coast scrambles. I have never seen such a politically tone-deaf president -- and he was supposed to be the great political genius!
Bob rules.
I think I said that.
ReplyDeleteSo now you're blaming him for the weather also? Wow! The guy is more powerful than even I thought.
ReplyDeleteIdiot.
Anon, Just for clarity, are you calling me an idiot or is that your normal signature?
ReplyDeleteI know I'm not losing it.
ReplyDeleteGod does not like me.
Because it's The Elephant Bar, it's special.
Absolutely.
I have know all along that Blue does not know what he wants, especially with himself.
… except to run his playground for juvenile men.
ReplyDeleteO second thought, maybe I am an idiot.
ReplyDelete: )
ReplyDeleteMost important and meaningful thing said so far this thread is:
ReplyDeleteBob rules
You listening Quirk?
I can have you stooped, poking the dried earth for camus roots with a digging stick.
Got it?
b
A Pleroma on the Rocks for Trish, tender.
ReplyDeleteb
And a double Pleroma on the Rocks for Confedgal.
ReplyDeleteb
Some of the Fruits of Empire:
ReplyDeleteTripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Hundreds of Islamist militants were among the prisoners freed from a notorious Tripoli prison this week, according to a former Libyan jihadist.
The freed militants had been imprisoned in Tripoli's Abu Salim prison by Moammar Gadhafi's regime during the height of the insurgency in Iraq, according to Noman Benotman, once a senior figure in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group. Benotman said he believes as many as 600 militants may have been among the prison population at Abu Salim.
Now the real fun hits in democratic libya. Every swinging dick begins to realize the Daffy is done and gone and starts thinking about who will be in charge. The friend of my enemy is my enemy. All the Sunni Arabs, the Bani Hilal and Bani Salim, all of the 140 clans, the Warfallah, all 52 subtribes of them, the Az-Zintan's, Awlad Busayf, the blah - blah-blahs blah-blahs, will coalesce into a new democracy that will look more like cans and bottles on a super market floor after an earthquake than the two bouncing bettys that pop up and down at our State of the Union charades. No, there will be no melting pot, not with those newly honed road warriors with their acquired skills with 50 caliber toys.
ReplyDeleteAll will be forgotten and forgiven soon. For sure.
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, there were reports that the bullet-riddled bodies of more than 30 pro-Qaddafi fighters had been found at a military encampment in central Tripoli. At least two were bound with plastic handcuffs, suggesting that they had been executed, and five of the dead were found at a field hospital.
More bodies turned up in the streets on Friday, where occasional volleys of gunfire were heard. Near Colonel Qaddafi’s abandoned citadel, Bab al-Aziziya, rebels began hauling away nine bloated bodies. The face of one was so badly decayed it appeared charred.
Maggots crawled over the torso of another.
“Only a butcher could commit a massacre like this,” said Sami Omar, a rebel.
Six were dumped near a trash receptacle, two left under a stairwell and one thrown in a large ditch, his hands apparently cuffed.
Rebels said Qaddafi loyalists had killed them as they celebrated his fall. But one resident said they were his fighters, slain by rebels.
I really doubt God or The Elephant Bar has anything to do with not liking you. I'm pretty sure it's just that you're a non likable person in general.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed the two daughters are drinking the dreaded Coca-Cola!
ReplyDeleteJeez, how gauche.
And supersized too.
Where's the Perrier Water, we are on Martha's Vinyard.
b
Those are McDonald's coke containers!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteb
Nobody ever buys a supersized coke without supersized greasy fries.
ReplyDeleteb
Nobody ever buys supersized coke and supersized fries except in a Big Mac Super Meal.
ReplyDeleteThe White House veggie garden, my ass.
b
Stick that last in your ear, or elsewhere, anon.
ReplyDeleteb
Thinking deeply about it, I don't care if Michelle, Sasha and Malia ever leave Martha's Vineyard as long as we don't have to hear about it day after day.
ReplyDeleteLet 'em stay there and pig out at the local McDonald's.
b
We'll just have to change sides, then. After all we've got that responsibility to protect, dreamed up by that nitwit Powers. There is nothing else for it, if we are do our moral duty there.
ReplyDeleteLater, we may have to switch back again.
b
Ah, Well, Really, The Hell With The Responsibility To Protect
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump might approve.
b
Nobody ever buys a supersized coke without supersized greasy fries.
ReplyDeleteIf the White House really wanted to cut spending they’d rein in Michelle Obama. When good men do nothing, they must eat their peas.
.
ReplyDeleteMost important and meaningful thing said so far this thread is:
Bob rules
Delusions of granduer.
One more pathology to add to the list.
Sad to watch.
.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged those who needed to leave to do so right away Saturday morning. The city doesn't have enough resources to evacuate everyone after the weather worsens, he said about 2 1/2 hours before the transit system was to shut down.
ReplyDelete"Staying behind is dangerous, staying behind is foolish, and it's against the law, and we urge everyone in the evacuation zones not to wait until gale-force winds," he said in a news conference from Coney Island as rain began to fall. "The time to leave is right now."
You can put it in a dress, even put lipstick on it, but it's still fascism, pure and simple.
Oh, wait, Bloomberg is in Reform Judaism, I guess that makes me anti-Semitic.
Delusions of granduer.
ReplyDeleteDelusions of Grand View
I don't know, T. If a Hurricane came ashore at just the right place there are many areas of NY that would have Massive Losses of Life. Some of those would be Emergency Responders trying to go in and save the morons that stayed in dangerous areas.
ReplyDeleteIt just sounds like "Common Sense" to me to tell the idjits to get outta the way.
It's downgraded to a Cat 1. This whole thing has been overhyped, especially by Sean Hannity.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the weather it is hard to blame someone for being overly cautious.
.
.
ReplyDeleteEDITORIAL
Mr. Benanke's Warning
The real value in Mr. Bernanke’s speech is that he explained what really ails the economy — and made the case for a better fiscal response to address those ills. “Good, proactive housing policies” would speed recovery, he said, as would “putting people back to work.”
If Mr. Bernanke advocated specific policies to achieve those aims, he would be violating the etiquette that requires Fed chairmen to leave fiscal details to Congress.
So allow us. The best, proactive way to revive the housing market is to help bankrupt and delinquent borrowers rework their mortgages through principal reductions. It is also important to ease refinancing rules so underwater borrowers who are current in their payments can trade in their high-rate mortgages for lower-rate loans. The Obama administration is considering new refinancing rules, but mortgage investors are sure to resist...
How to Solve the Housing Problem?
If the Obama administration comes out with a proposal to fix the housing problem, we can expect that it will be based more on politics than upon economics.
.
Katrina would have been overhyped had a cold front changed its course.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of mortgage brokers. I used to work with them. My understanding is that a Huge number of those "Adjustable Rate" Mortgages were sold to people that had No Idea what they were getting into.
ReplyDeleteFraud was Rampant.
The Big Banksters don't talk much about that. They, also, don't mention that a new wave of "Option ARMS" are hitting right now.
You are pushing the envelope now Quirk.
ReplyDeleteAs a warning and reminder I'll give you this about the camus with mention of the Nimiipuu digging stick.
Read and Consider Carefully Quirk
Bob rules
A digging stick, usually a three-foot metal probe with a handle, is used to pry the root
ReplyDeletefrom the ground.
This is of course wrong, Quirk, the Nimiipuu weren't metallurgists. They get these from Ace Hardware, nowadays.
What you will be using will be the authentic old style single probe digging stick made from the branch of a hard wood tree.
Bob rules
.
ReplyDeleteThe more I hear from The Bernanke, the less confident I am in his judgement.
The housing problem remains one of the key drags on the economy. There are a number of ways to fix it, none of them good.
The NYT suggests the banks should restructure loans to reflect current property values. Also, they should allow property owners who have had no problem paying their current mortgages to refinace at todays lower rates. While I can agree with the latter, the first suggestion will never happen in the absence of government mandate.
The banks refuse to recognize the real value of the property on their books because to do so would result in short term pain which would hurt reported profits and more importantly bonuses. In addition, they have no incentive to do it. They are making bundles of money anyway because of the FED's low interest rate.
There is also the moral hazard side of letting homeowners, those who were trying to get rich in the asset bubble, off the hook (although there are ways to assure the venal do not unduly profit from their speculation).
In my opinion, as a spectator, I think Big Ben should start letting interest rates rise. First, it would allow homeowners to pay off mortgages with cheaper dollars and second it would provide incentive for the big banks to solve the toxic asset problem they have on their books.
.
Grand View, Grand View, my kind of town. (hummed softly inside to the tune of some old song)
ReplyDeleteBob rules
.
ReplyDeleteDo you really want me to tell you the first thing I would do with that digging stick Bobbo?
(Although I recognize it would be prudent of me to first check on the penalties for assaulting the 'mentally challenged' in Ideeeho.)
.
.
Even if you survived the sentence, I suspect you'd be on some sort of "list," Q. Prolly shouldn't do it. :)
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteObama offers 2012 election supporters change they can believe in — next term
Three years after storming the White House with the “fierce urgency of now,” President Obama has a new message for his reelection campaign: Be patient, democracy is big and tough and messy.
“When I said, ‘Change we can believe in,’ I didn’t say, ‘Change we can believe in tomorrow,’ ” Obama told a crowd of 2,400 during a birthday celebration in Chicago this month...
I've Got Big Plans For 2013. Trust Me.
Methinks, the Big O needs to work on his message. This one just ain't that inspiring.
.
His prior message, "It coulda been worse" wasn't so hot, either. :)
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteSalmon disappear from Lake Huron, towns suffer
Harbor Beach — Jack Noble looks over the rows of ramshackle, empty docks that house a handful of boats at Offshore Marina and can't help thinking of busier times on Lake Huron.
"This place used to have a waiting list to get a slip," said Noble, 75. "Now there's five boats. At one time, there were 19 or 20 charter boats in this town. Now there is one. This town is dead. We don't even have a grocery store. … And it's not the economy. It's the fishery."
Just a decade ago, that fishery was ruled by king salmon. From Lexington in the south to the Straits of Mackinac, charter captains charged eager anglers hundreds of dollars to catch hard-fighting, great-tasting kings until coolers were brimming with fish.
Today, southern Lake Huron is virtually devoid of king salmon, thanks to food web changes wrought by invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels...
"I do not expect to see the kind of fishery that I knew here 10 years ago in my lifetime because of the DNR and their damn foot-dragging," he said. "I would very much like to see my grandchildren have the same opportunity in Lake Huron. But they won't bite the bullet and do what they have to do."
Manipulating Fish Stocks is Hard
The DNR has no friends.
.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
ReplyDeleteCreeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools that voted Big O
A path to nowhereland
Haven't had much weather related news here except for the record spring rains. The harvest is very late, it is almost the Moon of the First Wolf Kill, the Moon of the Corn Cutting, the Moon of the First Wintering Coat on the Ponies (the Nimiipuu were not metallurgists but they became world class Horse Breeders) the garbanzos are mostly green, the hard spring and winter red wheat is late, and if Miss T the weather goddess turns the shower back on lots of money is going to lost from dockage.
Bob rules
.
ReplyDeleteObama has a change of format in his weekly radio broadcast. He is switching from a NPR format to an "Oldies but Goodies" blast from the past.
9/11?
Heck it worked for Bush and Company. (Well, until it didn't.)
The president made his appeal during his weekly radio and Internet address, two weeks before the 10th anniversary of the day al-Qaida terrorists turned commercial jetliners into deadly weapons in New York, Pennsylvania and northern Virginia.
Obama plans to observe the anniversary on Sept. 11 with stops at ground zero in lower Manhattan, where the World Trade Center towers fell; at Shanksville, Pa., where one of the commandeered planes crashed; and at the Pentagon, which was also hit by a hijacked jetliner...
But he cast his plea for good will today against the backdrop of the economic challenges facing the country today. Coming in the aftermath of bitter partisan fights over government spending and tough criticism of his administration by Republican presidential candidates, his remarks were an overt call for greater cooperation...
Remember 9/11 and Tax the Rich
.
Appaloosas have white sclera visible around the iris when the eye is in a normal position, this my daughter pointed out to me, one of the few, maybe only, breeds that have this feature.
ReplyDeleteRisky rules
The DNR sounds a lot like the Idaho Fish and Games.
ReplyDeleteWe have a big mussels prevention program here now. Your boat has to be checked at a check station before entering the Snake complex if you are new to the area for instance.
b
Qadafi In Zimbabwe?
ReplyDeleteWhat a paradise that place has become. Used to export food all around Africa, now there is starvation there, in Zimbabwe.
There was an early type of hominid there long ago, very advanced with a very large cranium.
Didn't make it, got wiped out by the more brutish. According to Loren Eisely (sp?).
b
5 to 10 inches.
ReplyDeleteof rain and 50 to 70 mph winds in phila
ReplyDeleteMakes me not want to go out.
ReplyDeleteI just don't want to lose power.
ReplyDelete