COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“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."

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Incredibly Shrinking Obama and John Stewart





Laughs in short supply as Barack Obama gets serious on The Daily Show

Obama makes history as first sitting president to be interviewed by Jon Stewart on Comedy Central show

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk,

Thursday 28 October 2010 06.35 BST


The last time Barack Obama appeared on the Daily Show, he was a young, up and coming senator vowing to change the way politics was done in Washington and trading wisecracks with presenter Jon Stewart.

Last night however, in making history as the first US president to be interviewed on Comedy Central's satirical news show, he struck a more sombre tone. Obama appeared to have decided that in the present political climate, with unemployment high and many voters expressing disappointment with his performance, jokes were inappropriate.

Even Stewart was subdued and generally respectful, referring to the president as "sir", except for one reflex moment when he could not help himself and called him "dude". It was also the first time the show was devoted to a single interview, with no monologue from Stewart as an opener or any satirical sketches.

Stewart repeatedly contrasted Obama's heady campaign trail rhetoric, of hope, change and audacity, with what he called the timidity of his legislative programme. Obama appeared agitated. Having been leaning back in his chair, he sat forward, pointing his finger at the desk separating him from Stewart.

"Jon, I love your show, but this is something where, you know, I have a profound disagreement with you," Obama said. "And I don't want to lump you in with a lot of other pundits, but this notion that health care is timid ..."

It produced a rare rejoinder from Stewart – "I'll tell you what I mean, and I don't mean to lump you in with other presidents" – which won laughs from the audience.

The show, normally recorded in New York, was shot in Washington because Stewart and his crew have moved to the capital in preparation for his 'Restore Sanity' rally on Saturday, a liberal riposte to recent conservative gatherings on the Mall. The audience of 550 was more partisan than the New York audiences and gave Obama a long standing ovation when he entered the studio.

Obama stuck with two key messages throughout the 30-minute interview: that he had done a good job in getting healthcare reform through Congress, and passing financial regulation laws. The White House said his appearance was mainly aimed at winning over young voters ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections.

The one news point in the interview was a hint that he favoured reform of the Senate's filibuster tactic that frequently obstructs legislation. But he did not tackle it when the Democrats had a big majority in the Senate and the chances of doing so in the next Congress, in which there will almost certainly be more Republicans, are slim.

Stewart teased the president about his campaign slogan "Yes, we can", suggesting that these days it was "Yes, we can, with conditions attached".

Obama replied: "When I say that when we promised during the campaign, change you can believe in, it wasn't change you can believe in in 18 months ...What I would say is, 'Yes, we can', but it is not going to happen overnight."

Stewart suggested one of the problems was that far from bringing about change, Obama had brought into power many of the same old faces, such as his economics adviser, Larry Summers, who is about to leave the administration and has been heavily criticised over the lacklustre state of the economy. "In fairness, Larry did a heck of a job," Obama said. Stewart interjected: "You don't want to use that phrase, dude."

George Bush used the same phrase to describe the hapless Michael Brown, who was head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during hurricane Katrina.

65 comments:

  1. There were two stories that caught my attention this morning related but impossible to put up as a single post.

    Obama continues to trivialize the position of his office. It is all about him and his image. The reality of our welfare and security is tied into the previous post on the Federal Reserve. It is unfortunate that we have selected such a man to lead us in such a time when secure and steady leadership is needed.

    Instead we have Barack Hussein Obama, a know nothing political hack and racial Charlatan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We have devolved from a nation, in a financial depression, listening to a reasoned presidential fireside chat to a nation watching this pathetic narcissistic fool as we head to financial ruin.

    Perhaps it was all the coke and his dysfunctional adolescent life, but our leader in this dangerous time is clueless.

    Hopefully, on Tuesday, we will begin a process to get rid of him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Three straight years of $1.3 Trillion Deficits and it won't matter What the Fed does.

    I'm not a "big-time" deficit hawk, but Congress, and the Administration need to cut that deficit in Half, Now.

    There are a handful of steps that they could take before lunch on the first day that would accomplish this, but they would be a "perceived" political nightmare, so, don't hold your breath.

    Given some help from the "fiscal" end, I believe Bernanke could handle the Monetary end.

    We're getting eaten alive by,

    1) China

    2) OPEC

    3) Corporate Tax Policy

    4) Foreign Adventures

    We need all four addressed immediately, and I'll be surprised if even one is better two years from now.

    We need to "catch a break."

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've been pretty much a free trader since I knew what "trade" was. But, this is the first time in my adult life that a foreign country had the Capability, And the Desire to destroy us.

    China is One Dead Serious Adversary, and we'd better get our heads out of our collective asses right now.

    China ain't Colombia, or Chile, or Mehico. China is one big, powerful machine - and getting "bigger," and more "powerful" by the minute.

    We "Have" to have OPEC's oil for the time being. We don't "Have" to have China's "weedeaters, and video recorders. It is an absolute necessity that we get 8 Million people back to work.

    And, we can no longer let the Big Corporations take all the profits (and, thus, Investment Dollars,) and lock them up overseas "Forever."

    Continuing down this path is as close to economic suicide as anything I've ever imagined.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Selah said...
    Talk about suicide.

    Mohammed has become the most popular name for newborn boys in Britain.


    I posted that on the PREVIOUS thread

    ReplyDelete
  6. and from Jolly ole Londonstan


    Mohammed has become the most popular name for newborn boys in Britain.

    It shot up from third the previous year, overtaking Jack, which had topped the list for the past 14 years but was relegated to third spot.

    Thu Oct 28, 07:06:00 AM EDT

    ReplyDelete
  7. .
    CNBC has been discussing different means of reducing the deficit this week. They came up with three "plans" and had viewers vote on them.

    1. Reduce Gov't Benefits 12%
    2. Tax religious institutions 82%
    3. Sell-off Government Assets 6%

    The first involves increasing co-pays on programs like Tricare. Bush tried to push through these increases three times. Since it doesn't affect me, I would have no problem with it. According to CNBC, there have been no increases in recipient costs for this program in the last 15 years. Because of the rise in private sector costs over that time, it seems like a fairness issue.

    Number two would assign a value to religious properties and tax them. I'm unsure as I missed the explanation, but I assume they would also tax parishioner contributions otherwise it wouldn't affect the deficit. I'm kind of neutral on this one to the extend I think religious bureaucracies create as many problems as they solve. However, I suspect you would probably lose more than you gained. First, many small churges run on a shoestring and would likely shut down. Even large churches are struggling right now and have cut staff to the bone. The famous 'Crystal Cathedral' in Texas along with a number of others have filed for bancruptcy.

    There are also the benefits that the churches offer that would be lost or have to be paid for in their absence. The obvious one would be non-public schools. Also, many of the large denominations, Jewish, Catholic, etc. run charities, some of them huge.

    The third option would to sell off government properties throughout the U.S., government lands, parks, etc. This is one I can't support. They had a couple guys estimating what the U.S. could get out of this sale. They estimated the sale would bring in about $3 trillion. They used figures from one of the states attempt to sell off a portion of one of the national parks as a surrogate to determine the value which came out to be about $77,000 per acre.

    It's hard to get a good estimate because the more you sell the more the average price drops because of supply and demands factors.

    At any rate, in my opinion it is a short-term solution that does not address the issues we face and therefore does nothing to solve our problems. $3 trillion would cover two years of budget deficit after that we are right back in the same boat as before only without out national treasures.

    Someone described it as a home owner refinancing his home, spending the money he pulls out, and then being worse off than before. We've seen how that turned out.

    I don't think people are pissed off about paying taxes per se. I think they are pissed about paying taxes only to see the government flush it down the toilet, bailing out the banks and big business for bad decisions, shipping in millions in cash on pallets and handing it out to thugs in Iraq and Afghanistan, financing university studies on frogs in other countries, etc.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  8. First Warren Buffett, now Frank Langone on taxes, SS and the regulatory environment.

    I can't find a cite right now, but I believe Jack Bogle is on record saying something similar.

    The old white guys seem remarkably homogeneous in their thinking - and reasonably apolitical in their pronouncements.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think Obama is making a mistake - a politically naive mistake - in trying to ride the wave of Republican malfeasance and unpopularity into a quorum for economic and social policies that are either ill-advised, badly timed, or simple empirical failures (stimulus spending). The Dems cannot execute. The Repubs execute all too well - just not always on behalf of this country.

    Mohamed El-Erian, PIMCO said recently that the Fed's monetary policy won't be enough. Structural reform and fiscal policy will be required to extricate the country from the pending deficit crisis - of a Congress soon to be frozen in gridlock, like some ancient bug encased in amber.

    Yet all we hear is the debate over Helicopter Ben's monetary policy. Nothing but sideshow distraction from the deadwood in Washington.

    ReplyDelete
  10. PUSSY ALERT, PUSSY ALERT, PUSSY ALERT

    First steps for French pullout from Afghanistan day after Bin Laden threat

    The day after Osama bin Laden warned France to remove its troops from Afghanistan, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced Thursday, Oct. 28 that the withdrawal of French troops would begin in early 2011. Paris then raised its terror alert level to "red" after confirming the authenticity of the Bin Laden audiotape aired Wednesday. DEBKAfile's sources report: Paris takes the threat very seriously, apparently convinced that al Qaeda teams may already be in Paris to back it up.

    The world is getting interesting...

    But our resident Cliff Claven will tell you that Islam is not at war with us...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Things to do before lunch:

    1) Cut ALL Departments' budgets 10%

    2) Make ALL Taxes owed by Corporations "World-wide," Payable, Immediately.

    3) Begin withdrawal of Troops from Afghanistan.

    ReplyDelete
  12. .
    PUSSY ALERT, PUSSY ALERT, PUSSY ALERT

    Bull.

    What surprises me is that any of these countries are still in Afghanistan after we drag them into a war and then tell them we decided to pull out in 2011.

    Why should they stay?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  13. That their behavior indicts anyone but themselves, ludicrous.

    *They* attribute behavior to some fill-in-the-blank doctrine.

    *We* attribute behavior to personal choice.

    East meets West.

    Or something like that.

    I'll go out on a really long limb.

    Strategies such as COIN derive from attempts to modify doctrinaire-driven behavior. Long-term is an understatement.

    Strategies such as mine, having serious chats with Saudi royalty about course-correcting their own radicals, derive from presumptions that choice-driven behavior can be imposed by force, as required.

    And that's only half tongue-in-cheek.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Actually 52 arabs are worth ONE israeli pistol...

    This keeps on getting better and better...

    A report in Yediot Achronot Thursday said that Israel recovered the personal weapon of missing IDF soldier Ron Arad in 2000 – in exchange for the release of 52 Arab and Lebanese terrorists and security prisoners. Arad went missing in 1986 when his plane went down over Lebanon, and he was captured by the Lebanese Shi'ite militia Amal and later turned over to Hizbullah.

    According to the report, Arad's family was invited to an emergency meeting with the head of the Mossad at the time, Efraim Halevy, and were told that the weapon was recovered. Israel sought to make the deal in the wake of the kidnapping of Elchanan Tannenbaum at the time. Hizbullah chief terrorist Hassan Nasrallah set the conditions for the return of the weapon and other personal effects of Arad, and Israel agreed


    So let's get this straight, THE ARABS set the value on the trades...

    To them the WORTH of a IDF's PISTOL, taken from a prisoner that they in fact MURDERED, after he was captured, is worth as much as 52 terrorists for a trade...

    WOW..

    ReplyDelete
  15. The French are caving...

    It's simple really...

    Wave the white flag...

    The good news?

    There are 10's of thousands of moslems in France that are ready to go jihadi...

    ReplyDelete
  16. WiO whined: I posted that on the PREVIOUS thread

    What that means, Mr. Nuke Mecca, is that 9 times out of 10 I skip over your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Dumb Fuck Turkey Inserts himself in Campaign.

    ...Churchill drank:
    Bush sees God in Putin's eyes and Abdullah's omens.
    Outlaw AA!

    ---

    From 911's "Day of Fire" to "Katrina" to "Financial Crisis", Bush explains how he returned to his faith, time and time again.

    And the faith of others.

    The president details how he bonded with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia -- and a magical bird!

    Arriving angry at Bush's Texas ranch over the president's position on Israel and Ramallah, Abdullah quickly decided he wanted to leave.

    But the prince spots a turkey on the road -- and takes it as a good omen, a sign from Allah!

    ReplyDelete
  18. .
    No U.S. Sanctions on Four Countries With Child Soldiers

    WASHINGTON — In 2009, the government of Chad conscripted refugee children for unlawful use as guards and combatants in its desert battles against rebel forces; the army of the Democratic Republic of Congo forced children to carry ammunition and supplies through the jungle, and some died under their weight; hundreds of boys and girls were forced into the army of southern Sudan, despite a commitment to release them; and in Yemen, children as young as 14 make up perhaps half the ranks of both the government’s forces and the rebels opposing them.

    Despite those findings, in an annual State Department report on human trafficking, the Obama administration is allowing American military aid to continue to the four countries, issuing a waiver this week of a 2008 law, the Child Soldiers Prevention Act..

    In a memorandum to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday, President Obama said he had determined that the waiver was in “the national interest...”


    Do As We Say Not As We Do

    .

    ReplyDelete
  19. Can anyone here defend Bush's decision to do this BEFORE the election?

    Reagan's most disasterous choice:
    Bush for Veep.

    ReplyDelete
  20. .
    The French are caving...

    It's simple really...

    Wave the white flag...


    WiO, misogynist and rock killer, now calls out France for announcing an anticipated move in Afghanistan when the US, the main reason for France being there in the first place, announced the same type of plans months ago.

    Time to have that radon re-checked.

    Perhaps it's the Ohio water.

    :)

    .

    ReplyDelete
  21. .
    Can anyone here defend Bush's decision...

    No.

    I can't even see a commercial reason for it. Surely, the libs will search it for bits they can use but I doubt they will be buying the books. It will probably turn off those who would normally buy the book.

    Politically, it's too late for it to have too much of an effect.

    I could be wrong.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  22. Selah said...
    WiO whined: I posted that on the PREVIOUS thread

    What that means, Mr. Nuke Mecca, is that 9 times out of 10 I skip over your posts.


    No what that means is that your lazy

    ReplyDelete
  23. What the frack, Rufus? I mean, what the fracking frack!

    With fracking, drillers inject water, sand and chemicals deep underground to crack gas-bearing rocks. The technology, which has been around for a long time, has advanced dramatically. Literally trillions of dollars' worth of shale oil and gas can now be economically extracted.

    ReplyDelete
  24. rufus said...
    I've been pretty much a free trader since I knew what "trade" was. But, this is the first time in my adult life that a foreign country had the Capability, And the Desire to destroy us.

    China is One Dead Serious Adversary, and we'd better get our heads out of our collective asses right now.

    China ain't Colombia, or Chile, or Mehico. China is one big, powerful machine - and getting "bigger," and more "powerful" by the minute.

    ---

    "Free Trade" is Sestak's only hope for victory over Toomy:

    Will "Free Trade" become the Pubs Achilles Heel going foreward?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Quirk states:

    WiO, misogynist and rock killer,



    Hardly a misogynist....

    And I only want to KILL ONE specific rock...

    But I would not mind killing that ONE rock and ONE Golden Dome that squats on my Temple Mount..

    It would be a lovely site to see the DOme of the Rock, bulldozed

    It would also be a lovely site to see all of those women hiding under their black burkas in bikinis

    I wonder what kind of undies do they wear under those hot, sweaty black gowns..

    Victoria Secret or granny panties?

    Do islamic gals wear thongs?

    Do they also only wipe their asses with their left hands?

    Do Islamic gals shave their assholes like their menfolk?

    Inquiring minds really dont want to know

    ReplyDelete
  26. Do islamic gals shave their bushes?

    Do their bushes ever see daylight?

    ReplyDelete
  27. "Environmentalists worry that fracking might poison our water, even though the drilling takes place thousands of feet below the water table. Fortunately the technology is there to get at these reserves in an extremely safe way."

    Some lying shit enviro wrote a book claiming water tables are routinely devastated.

    Calls came in from people who had wells on their properties with no problem.

    One caller's family farm in PA had 9 wells with no problems.

    ReplyDelete
  28. .
    I wonder what kind of undies do they wear...Victoria Secret...thongs...Islam...

    Time for that vacation WiO. I think Bob mentioned he has rooms to let. You guys could sit around and talk about common interests.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  29. You guys are tuned. Like it.

    Why did Bush do it?

    He's an asshole.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Doug, the "Fracking" liquids (diesel, Benzene, various other carcinogens) are injected under Very High Pressure. Sometimes the Vertical pipe fractures, and releases said materials into the water table. It doesn't happen "often," but it does happen.

    Most groundwater contamination, however, comes from "Disposal" of said materials.

    ReplyDelete
  31. You all know Forbes is a complete Doofus. Don't pay a lot of attention to what he babbles. They're "shutting down" shale gas plays right, and left. Companies are burning through investors/shareholders' cash and going broke every day in the shale plays.

    The wells deplete so rapidly that the company has to drill continuously. You probably have to have gas at least in the $6.00 to $8.00 range to profitably do shale.

    ReplyDelete
  32. 84. truepeers

    "The fact that they didn’t retreat when it was so obviously the right thing to do is part of that unmasking"

    -Indeed, though how many people on the right will still elect the kind of politicians who might wheel and deal in preserving a centre with the left? There are so many reasons for politicians to want to do that, but is it really any longer possible in a nation whose accounts are so out of whack, and where the ground has become so bloodied by polarizing resentments and libels? Here in Canada, the centre still holds; though even here, the tired, cultic nature of much the left, and its incessant slanders of the normal, is becoming more and more apparent. The city of Toronto, of all places, just elected a populist “cut the City Hall gravy train” Mayor, despite the brutal attacks on the “fat angry anti-immigrant white guy” that candidate Rob Ford had to endure from the media. In the end, a lot of non-whites must have voted for him;

    I can’t help but think part of the reason is that the left’s leading candidate was a white homosexual married male with an adopted Black infant son.

    I don’t think much of our divese multicultural society is quite ready for that yet.

    FWIW, I think that was a kind of doubling down, however unplanned and just a natural evolution of today’s liberal society.

    ReplyDelete
  33. "Most groundwater contamination, however, comes from "Disposal" of said materials."

    ---

    That seems obvious, now that I think about it:

    Got any links?

    ReplyDelete
  34. .
    Sharon Angle Thanks Bahar

    People here probably know what I think of Sharon Angle; however, I have to admit the note and flowers sent to Bahar was a nice touch.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  35. 1. Reduce Gov't Benefits 12%

    This should be easy and done across the board.

    We do not need:

    * Post office.
    * Dept of Commerce.
    * Dept of Energy.
    * Civil Rights Commission.
    * TSA.
    * Labor Relations Board.
    * A Presidential Palace.
    * Two Houses of Lords.
    * A 100% Professional Military Establishment.


    2. Tax religious institutions 82%

    Add a tax on all charitable trusts and offer no exemption for any real estate.

    3. Sell-off Government Assets 6%

    Privatize infrastructure or convert all of it to a fee for use and then sell it.

    I think the federal lands are best left alone. We just saw what the private sector did for real estate misallocating capital for McMansions. Entire counties of good farm land trashed by NYSE listed real estate firms and home builders.

    Social Security can be fixed by separating retirees from long term disability cases. No one can question when you are 65. Why should you be there if you are a chronic drug user?

    Deal with the disabled in a different manner.

    Offer retirees an opt out where after 65, where they can work with no income tax, but must continuing paying into social security with no wage cap. Earn a million, keep it minus 9%, with the nine percent going towards the SS fund.

    Eliminate the food stamp program in its entirety.

    Health care insurance should be paid by the pound as should air travel.

    The tax exemption for mortgages should be scrapped. Why should the government care if you rent or own?

    ReplyDelete
  36. The spell check on Google is so aggressive that you get some pretty wild word substitutions.

    Down boy.

    ReplyDelete
  37. BC Commenter newrouter just posted this link to the transcript:

    The Stanley Kurtz Interview

    ReplyDelete
  38. Go Back Where You Were
    President Obama. Is. A. Lazy. Bum. And. Loser.

    And, I might add, a substantial of his "supporters" in 2008 are no longer "supporters". They should be ashamed of themselves, actually, for being such suckers, and putting all the rest of us in the toilet along with themselves.

    And all the "YAY'ers" out there who are still smoking weed and hoping for that "hopey-changey" thing - we knew you in school. You were the dimwits who just never could get your name on the paper in the right place, and asked a question of the teacher immediately after she had explained exactly what you had asked about, either because you were dumber than a box of rocks, or just wanted everybody to know how nifty you were for asking a question in class.

    We need to bring back literacy testing prior to voting. I suspect the dem votes would disappear.

    Larry of IL @ Oct 28, 2010 16:38:53 PM

    ReplyDelete
  39. Matt Beck:

    "After the bloodbath she will be the only one left standing, the only major Democratic figure not tainted with the stigmata of failure.
    It will be easy for her to imply that the party should rally around her.

    By that time Barack Obama will be utterly isolated and increasingly desperate. His public appearances will descend to Ceausecu-esque levels of absurdity.

    The legitimacy rapidly sublimating off his dessicated presidency will accrue to Mrs. Clinton like copper ions to the cathode.

    It remains to her only to choose the optimum time and place to make her move."

    ReplyDelete
  40. "The legitimacy rapidly sublimating off his dessicated presidency will accrue to Mrs. Clinton like copper ions to the cathode. "

    ---

    I love that.
    Hate to contemplate POTUS Hillary, tho.

    ReplyDelete
  41. "Environmentalists worry that fracking might poison our water, even though the drilling takes place thousands of feet below the water table. Fortunately the technology is there to get at these reserves in an extremely safe way."

    Risk management reduced to rubble, Barney Rubble.

    The risk constraints have not been 'well' defined, if at all.

    What is the appropriate level of risk for well contamination? Right now, the Precautionary Principle holds, which means the level of tolerable risk is zero.

    The first well to be contaminated can shut down the entire effort.

    ReplyDelete
  42. But Barack Obama is not an “other” so much as he is a child of the 1960s. His coming of age paralleled exactly the unfolding of a new “counterculture” American identity.

    And this new American identity—and the post-1960s liberalism it spawned—is grounded in a remarkable irony: bad faith in America as virtue itself, bad faith in the classic American identity of constitutional freedom and capitalism as the way to a better America.

    So Mr. Obama is very definitely an American, and he has a broad American constituency. He is simply the first president we have seen grounded in this counterculture American identity.

    When he bows to foreign leaders, he is not displaying “otherness” but the counterculture Americanism of honorable self-effacement in which America acknowledges its own capacity for evil as prelude to engagement.

    - Shelby Steele linked @ BC

    ReplyDelete
  43. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Still, Gibbs dismissed the idea that Obama was getting a rougher handling than his predecessor or former Vice-President Dick Cheney, who were seldom subjected to similar treatment during their appearances on FOX and other outlets.

    Olbermann had no problem making the link.

    “I don't think the Right ever seriously criticized Bush. Even the parts of it he screwed, like the Evangelicals, kept quiet for six years and more,” he said.


    'Genetically Disappointed'

    ReplyDelete
  45. Over 2,600 ballots have been hand delivered to Chicago Prisoners.

    (not legal according to state constitution.)

    Over 2,600 military from Illinois serving overseas have been denied ballots.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Illinois Soldiers Wait for Ballots. Prisoners Get Hand Delivery.

    Over 35 counties in Illinois missed the deadline to mail military ballots to our soldiers defending America. But in Chicago, county election officials have taken special steps to ensure that no inmates at the Cook County Jail are unable to cast a ballot.

    The Chicago Board of Elections hand delivers ballots to the jail. They don’t even wait for the inmates to apply – they bring the applications with the ballots! Over 2,600 inmates have cast ballots so far – strikingly similiar to the 2,600 soldiers who will likely not recieve a ballot for the Nov 2 election.

    Disgraceful does not begin to describe the Illinois Election system.

    ReplyDelete
  47. WiO,

    I tried to break it to you at Viktor's, nicely: you're next. There are worse fates:)

    ReplyDelete
  48. WiO,

    I tried to break it to you at Viktor's, nicely: you're next. There are worse fates:)


    Next to what?

    Die?

    ReplyDelete
  49. WiO's like Buddy Lee jeans. You can't bust him.

    ReplyDelete
  50. judging by the attention Obama has gotten for his Jon Stewart interview at this just little ole place I'm guessing it was worth it for him to sit down with Jon.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Obama trip to India sets new records:

    40 aircraft

    both Air Force Ones

    570 rooms in Taj Mahal

    Over 800 rooms total

    30 sniffer dogs

    6 armored cars

    6 helicopters

    ...etc.

    I know I repeat myself, but:
    Harry Truman drove home in his Plymouth
    He and Beth toured the nation with it, staying with friens and in motels.
    Alone.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Very insightful, Ash!
    Ass!
    Worth it to cement his fate.

    ReplyDelete
  53. .
    ...I'm guessing it was worth it for him to sit down with Jon.

    We're always looking for a good laugh at the EB and there is nothing funnier than watching two liberal dipshits going at each other.

    You're right though. I'd like to see more of it (well not literally "see" as I didn't watch the first one and am unlikely to watch the next.)

    .

    ReplyDelete
  54. Remember no trips to Vegas and no private jets for us subjects?

    ReplyDelete
  55. Auto execs forced to arrive in a Volt!

    ...prior to being fired by the Supreme CEO.

    ReplyDelete
  56. .
    ...30 sniffer dogs...

    Now that's just braggin.

    Not right. Not by a long shot.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  57. .
    Obama trip to India sets new records:

    Asia hasn't seen a display like this since Xerxes put together his little expedition to Greece.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  58. Wio, Indeed never mind. Don't let Mel bust your chops.

    ReplyDelete
  59. If my few words drive out someone like WiO shit I'm more powerful then I thought.

    And besides I love all kinds remember. Jews, muslims and even quirk. My granddaughter's grandmother was Israeli. I don't bust anyone's chops based on religion or culture. An ass is an ass in my book. And I don't kiss anyone's.

    ReplyDelete
  60. But, he's not insufferable and he is the first to admit that he is an ass. Not unlike most of us here.

    ReplyDelete
  61. But he should not be rude to a Lady. A great Dame!

    ReplyDelete