Namaste

Great way to start my morning Attaturk!

Well, at least we now know what to expect from the McSFB campaign. We’ll also see if Karl has another one in him.

We’ll also see if Karl has another one in him.

another one? -> yes.

Same as the other one(s)? -> also yes.

This followed his mere presence at the memorial service with the miracle of veteran home wrecker & Protestant sociopath Sally Quinn eating of the transubstantiated body of Tim Russert (it tasted of hot wings & blue cheese).

roflmao!

attaturk,

The love boat picture would work better if you took your execrable photoshopping skills to it, and have him saying something like, “Welcome aboard, you trollope and c*nt.”

On McCain campaign’s new Karl Rove look
http://www.swamppolitics.com/n.....akeup.html

Which should be easier to counter than the last two times. Obama’s got quite a crew to fight the Rethug crap. He’s certainly not the fool Kerry was/is.

Facts not in evidence. Obama’s campaign hasn’t looked too spiffy since his seismic shift to the right.

sociopath Sally Quinn

There’s some serious cosmetic surgery on this 67yo woman. Much more skin stretching and she’ll have a goatee.

I’m just talking about his NoSmear folks.

That too could change.

I’m certainly amazed at the attitude of those for whom Obama didn’t actually turn out to be god.

Don not think Empty Wheel, nor I for that matter, would agree with ya.

I recently laid in extra freeze-dried popcorn just to watch the Obama Clown show stick those big shoes in each others mouths and dang but….

I did not have to wait long.

Obama has to be one of, if not the, most inept politicians to run for POTUS in some time. It’s nothing but mistake, ‘Uncle Vanya’ anecdotes, and outright contradictions of what he said last week.

Just pathetic.

Yep. Said a couple of days ago that Lefties have to stop hoping for saviors. More & better Ds is only possible way to develop leaders who one day might do a decent job as prez.

Was the Capitol Police acting for the Sargent-in arms-and thus making my day, and since my day is the eve of the 4th of July, the country’s day in the history of its revolution against tyrants? Or was it just photoshop?

Seriously, was this picture ever for real? (I am naive, I am hopeful, and I am also without coffee and writing not under the influence of very needed caffeine.)

Have a great pre-fourth everyone!

We are in such a predicament in this country. It’s time to challenge some reps and senators in the primary. Right now Obama is running for President and McCain is not an option but we can develop a progressive party from the ground up.

Not until corporate influence and money is removed from the system.

Not to mention when he gets to bloviating on policy.

I luvs me some Jesus just leaves me cold.

Shivering in fear of a ‘leftist’ version of Bush doing yet more damage to our Constitution all in the name or every sanctimonious shit’s favorite word:

‘Faith’

Yeah….’Constitutional Scholar…’ Myself, I find another word comes of mind when I think of Obama….

Fake…

Yep. Took Rs 40 years (and destroyed it in 8), so keep on working at it.

I’ve forgotten, which one of the more capable primary candidates did you support?

Wll never remove the corporate influence, but can reduce its influence.

There will always be those who will sell their souls. No way around it.

OT
June employment report weakness was about as expected (down 62,000; unemployment rate steady at 5.5% after big jump in May). Instant reaction seems to be oil down, dollar up, U.S. equities up.

Mods are quick this mornin’. Must remember to leave ‘em a big tip.

Indeed, problem is with Herr Obama as POTUS it will be much more difficult to do as you say, and with which I agree.

Frankly, McCain won’t kill our nation and a victory by him would put the Deans and Braziles where they belong.

On the street looking for work.

And yeah I’m serious. The ‘Democrat’ Party will not change until they are all but destroyed. A Rethug winning this year would do that.

It’s out of progressive’s hands anyway as I just do not see the citizenry voting for Barry once they get to know him. You will have noted the transition? A month ago you would not have dared to criticize The One here and, now, today even ‘Egg all over his face’ Markos is pulling away from supporting Senator ‘SnakeOil’.

Edwards.

The nastiness would piss me off,even if I agreed with him.

Pinellas County and city of St Petersburg just made a multi-million dollar deal, in secret, to keep Jabil Circuit from relocating. Info only released after the deal was done. More tax breaks for the already wealthy. No company the county/city has made these outrageous deals with have lived up to their part of any bargain. Imagine that. But the local pols made out like bandits.

Actually after reading a textbook on U.S. Gilded Age, which pointed out all the failures of labor & farmers against monopolies and clearly abusive corporate practices, I decided that emotional support for corporations in this country runs deep, even when it is not in the self-interests of voters. Helps explain why there’s so little dissatisfaction today when corps are screwing workers directly at the workplace and indirectly thru political influence. So I wouldn’t be too optimisitic about geting support for election finance reform, when workers are unwilling to stand up and be counted when it’s their paycheck or benefits that are at stake.

I get tired of having to call the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaambulance every time I see his shit. Although the tough guy hasn’t called me pal or chump yet. I guess he realizes I ain’t his pal.

I agree. It’s going to take an economic disaster to get their attention.

Good morning everyone.

Thanks for the visual Attaturk. It’s so nice to see Rove being carted away first thing in the morning! It must be an omen for a good day!

I just tried my hand at writing again on kos. It’s a piece that compares how the media has treated the Clark comments vs. how they treated the Taguba war crimes comments. It’s a rather long piece (my writing is still a work in progress) but I hope some of you will take a look at it and make a comment.

Clark & Taguba - A Media Tale of Two Generals

http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....320/545803

It seems much more problematic now that they have the entire world for cheap labor. The only end I can see is when some have gathered all of the marbles and there are none left capable to be consumers.

Well said on dkos, pmorian. I haven’t yet read the Broken Lives paper, it’s on my list for this long weekend, although I have read Taguba’s preface. That and the Army’s big report released this week. Will have to just scan it cuz that sucker’s 700+ pages.

some have gathered all of the marbles and there are none left capable to be consumers.

That’s part of what Marx writes about in Capital concerning where capitalism will end up

Thanks SouthernDragon. I appreciate your comment.

Thanks for the visual Attaturk. It’s so nice to see Rove being carted away first thing in the morning! It must be an omen for a good day!

I especially like the credit line “via The Steve Doocy fantasy sexline”

You hit the nub of the problem. Workers are also consumers, so when layoffs occur, corporatins are firing their customers. U.S. consumers have proven to be fundamentally insatiable, so despite poor wage & job propects, they have managed to support spending by borrowing. That is temporarily halted but will be coasted over with as much fiscal stimulus is required (more tax cuts if they’re needed) and further cuts in interest rates if necessary (for the Fed, growth stimulus will take precedence over inflation if it comes to that). But that’s an unhealthy mix for the economy and will eventually result in major problems. Not this time, maybe not even the next time, but in due course.

Icing on the cake.

recommended, pmorlan!

mMmm cake
*Homer droolz*

Oooh, Karl Rove Steve Schmidt,

“My god - look at the size of his head. It’s fucking huge.”

(h/t Tbogg)

Thanks Elliott.

You’re welcome. Credit where credit’s due. I might add that after seeing the entire Clark segment I agree with all that he said. Schieffer has turned into just another old hack. And Clark hasn’t backed down, to his credit.

Same old..same old…we can anticipate the oil slick to start any time now. Which smear will it be this time?

Yes, it seems that way to me also. One possiblity which just occurred to me is that with decreasing fossil fuel, transportation costs could ultimately lead to a retrograde in world, or even national trade, and ultimately result in something closer to localized sources and markets.

(I increasingly find myself thinking, “Ah, I won’t have to live to see that.”

No saviors, eCAHN - it’s like economic/community development at the local level: No one’s going to come and save you - ‘grow your own’.

And McCain is still whining because Clark and Webb are picking on him. Obama to his credit said that his speech on Patriotism had nothing to do with Clark.

“Ah, I won’t have to live to see that.”

I’d love to live to see it. But I’d prolly have to get into the Guinness Book of World Records to do it.

I agreed with Clark too and I’m glad that he stood his ground although I’m sure the Obama camp is not. If we had a REAL media this would have been a blip on the radar screen but we don’t so we will probably have to suffer through more days of coveage on this.

I love the “go local” movement for personal reasons, but as a macroeconmic event, don’t hold your breath. World economies have gone too far with intergration. Changed policies by developed countries, like removing farm supports in Japan, Europe & U.S., and not requiring food aid be supplied by U.S. farmers, would help local economies in Africa and other developing countries immensely, but that seems to be going nowhere fast.

Obama’s just another corporatist. I expect him to do what every other corporatist has done to get elected.

Really excellent piece! Now that mention it, there really wasn’t much of a media furor over General Taguba’s findings, was there?

To enter the ‘candidate’ fight again is never rewarding, but I never thought Obama was all that ‘left-leaning’, but he was an organizer. I thought that bode well for the campaign. And I knew that Hillary was not as ‘populist’ as she was talking. She was even more right than Bill and Bill’s heart really leaned to the right anyway, he was just wise enough to gild the lilly for us left leaners, for a while.

Hillary would be saying much of what Obama is saying. Biden? give me a break. He loves corporate — anything. I just want the middle back again. And I do not think Obama is right on FISA, and believe he should be challeneged on that, but he is the one I want fighting on my side. Not perfect - by a long shot - but definitely a step in the right direction. I will not undermine his efforts.

O.K. I will flip flop. I will undermine him by saying he should put more ads up in Minnesota. Obama who, is the refrain of the day here, and several people I talked to are having doubts. And they hate McCain.

“This used to be a drug song, now it’s a protest song…”

Neil Young, 1999

“Homegrown’s
all right with me.
Homegrown
is the way it should be.
Homegrown
is a good thing.
Plant that bell
and let it ring.

The sun comes up
in the morning,
Shines that light around.
One day, without no warning,
Things start jumping up
from the ground.”

Love to stay and chat but gotta go swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

Namaste

I know. I was just trying to see longer than I normally care to do.

With you, SD, and others, I like some pats of a more localized economic system, but I think there is also a tendency to romanticize some concepts of pre-industrial revolution life. Reading the headstones in old cemeteries gives a pretty good idea of the tenuouness of life in the not too distant past.

Nice point about pre-industrial life. My country house was built in 1817, so I can imagine what it might have been like, though I now have all the modern conveniences.

Thanks. I couldn’t believe when he accused them of war crimes that the media still downplayed it as if all he had said was that they made a mistake. The Post really surprised me because of Dana Preist’s excellent work on the secret prisons. I would have never guessed that they would downplay it.

Working on an essay for my place. Just watched Ted Stevens endorse Mark Steyn’s America Alone as the inspiration of his backing of the Patriot Act and Real ID. Isn’t Steyn the person responsible for the origin of the Obama madrassa myth?

I would have never guessed that they would downplay it.

Drive by on the way out. With the exception of Dana’s work, the Post should be embarrassed with the way they beat the war drums and continued to support it when everything started to go south. Talking up Taguba’s points would have shown them for the fools they are.

mornin ET! Smoking salmon yet?

Looks like the Bush adminstration will be working on new legislation. I wonder what CYA measures they will try to stick in the new legislation?

Bush has not decided whether he will announce that GTMO should be closed, sources say. But at the very least, sources say, he will soon announce a host of these legal and policy changes that will force Congress to come up with a solution–including where to imprison those detainees if GTMO does, in fact, shut its doors.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/legal.....ose-g.html

Whew! Good thing I watched Fox & Friends to hear Brett Bozo tell me about how the media hasn’t stopped and will never stop “fawning” over Obama and how BO has not gotten any negative press and never will.

I saw the photos. Very nice. It’s hard for me to imagine living in a home built during the Monroe administration. I remember from history courses, that period was referred to as “The Era of Good Feeling.” It must have been a good omen.

I watched Fox & Friends

You are wearing a Hazmat suit for protection, aren’t you? That place is dangerous…

Hiya, Elliot. Two batches done. Waiting to catch a few more fish for the third one.

Ah, but back then, the “national” government & economy had very little influence on most people except for wars. Builders of house fought in Revolutionary War (father) and War of 1812 (son), but then they went home & just farmed.

OOoo! nice, just loved your pics from last year. Hope Ms ET’s roses are bloomin’ :)

those two wars were a little closer to home *g

To be sure!

Per “FISA Follies: Sen. Obama is right to support the compromise on government surveillance.” Washington Post, Thursday, July 3, 2008; Page A16

THE CONTENTIOUS issue of whether telecommunications companies that participated in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program should be granted retroactive immunity from being sued is a particularly disturbing example of the Internet tail wagging the legislative dog. The dispute snarled Senate passage of the latest rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before lawmakers left town for the July 4 recess. In the interim, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who indicated that he would support the compromise even with an immunity provision, is simultaneously being attacked as a flip-flopper — he had previously vowed to filibuster any bill that shielded the companies — and urged to flip again. An Internet petition drive is underway to pressure Mr. Obama to knuckle under. Mr. Obama should hold firm, along with other colleagues who support the underlying, painstakingly achieved bipartisan compromise.

[…]

Mornin’ all,

per an email from ((((Mike Stark,)))) our Say No to FISA group is anticipating a statement from the campaign this morning. I am not holding my breath. X~(

FISA group wiki

Schieffer, whom I used to admire, practically guranteed that response from Clark with his statement about Obama never having been shot down.
What followed Clark’s declaration was even worse. An incredulous “really”.
As for the rest of MSM, they’re making me sicker by the day. I don’t blame wingnuts for pushing this story, as that’s what they do, but for MSM to not point out there was no disrespect shown towards McSame’s service is shameful.

Did anyone see MSNBC show footage of Lieberman this morning? That pathetic man actually tried to pretend that the Columbian government briefed them on the hostage rescue because McCain is just so wonderful. It was absolutely sickening.

a while back CSPAN ran a series on the Presidents. I got sucked into the series at Van Buren when they were shooting at his home up your way. Where I live we are losing our colonial homes one at a time, but it is adding up.

Have you gotten a metal detector? would be fun to treasure hunt around your property.

No, but the piece wasn’t that long. I was starting to gag and it ended. A good hosing down oughta do it. It’s not hot yet here, though. I was hoping to kill 2 birds w/ 1 stone.

I allowed a person with a metal detector to hunt, but he found very little. I’ve got three 20th century dumps (one very large) on the property, but the only thing I’ve found from earlier times is pottery shards. And I’ve done a lot of planting and also foundation repair on house, so if anything were there, it would have been dug up by now.

Funny Van Buren connection. I bought an over-mantle mirror in an antiques store in Hudson, NY. The dealer said it came from the Van Buren house. So I contacted the curator, who said they had thoroughly documented Van Buren’s possessions thru estate inventories, letters, accounts, etc. There is no mirror like the one I now own. However, before the federal government bought the house in 1964, it was occupied by an antiques dealer, so it’s possible that the mirror traversed thru the house during that period. Anyhow, for a brief period I thought I owned a mirror that was once owned by a prez. Alas, it was not to be.

oh snap!

The other day I noted the term “Okay” used by a foreign journalist. I thought it was interesting since the term is most commonly thought to have originated as a code expression indicating that one favored Martin Van Buren of “Old Kinderhook.”

yep.

Obama’s in Fargo today speaking to a group of veterans and military families and the general public. That’ll spill over attention to the northwest quadrant of Minn as well as eastern ND.

We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but even the good don’t get it right all the time. Have you contacted your local senators’ offices about FISA yet?

Prairie Today: FISA and the sagging middle

How did it play to your ears? Did MSNBC hacks leave the viewer with the impression that what lieverliar was saying was credible?

Sheriff McCain walks into a saloon and all the bad guys surrender at once.

McCain, like Reagan, got the hostages freed because he is the reincarnation of John Wayne.

Even worse by the BBQ media–here’s lookin’ at you, Mrs. Greenspan– is to make it appear by editing and disingenuous commentary that Clark was dissing McCain.

and pmorlan@75, Sad L’il Joey just wants ever’body to like him, he really really does….

This whole flap over Clark’s statement is the silliest thing I’ve ever seen. Perhaps it’s based on some people’s inability to parse negation. IIRC, Clark said that Bob Schieffer noted that Obama hadn’t had those experiences nor had he ridden in a fighter plane and been shot down, and Clark replied, “Well, I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.”

At worst, Clark is guilty of belaboring the obvious. There is no criticism of McCain, direct or implicit, in that statement.

Are people interpreting Clark as having said, “I think that riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a disqualification to be president” ? That would be criticism.

as I said yesterday when the news broke about the hostage rescue:

OMG– McBush and Lieberman briefed yesterday about the rescue in Colombia!!

(via CNN)

CIA musta known.

What a farce.

Now he’s gonna be billed as the “great white hope against terrorism”

miracle brought to you by the GOP

Clark’s reply was still inartful. He could have said: “There are many other factors besides the one you mention that are crtically important for a prez to have, such as …”

That way, there wouldn’t be a sound bite of Clark repeating Schieffer’s remark, and would have been a more substantive response.

If there’s not media training in avoiding falling into such traps, there ought to be, and the prez campaigns out to encourage anyone who might appear on their behalf to take such media training.

Mika Brezhinski was the most loathsome to me. She talked about it in hushed, tight-lipped tones, like Clark was guilty of necrophilia or something. No matter how dumb she is, her father had to have verified for her that Clark spoke the absolute truth.

Nevertheless, it’s probably best to let the whole matter drop, because it appears that an appreciable group of “low information voters” can’t tell the difference between a statement of obvious fact and defamation.

Thanks for the link, then again maybe not.

I didn’t get to hear their reactions (was getting a 2nd cup of coffee). I’d be curious though to see if anyone heard their response. My guess is that they let the comment speak for itself and didn’t question it one way or the other.

I’m glad to see that someone else can’t stand Mika.

Sheiffer’s incredulous “Really!!” indicates that Sheiffer believes (and his audience believes by association) that riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is both very impressive (That codpiece!) and it does qualify John McCain to be President.

Wasn’t Sheiffer the guy that went gaga over Bush’s ability to identify Italy on a map?

Morning all,

Another ‘Great Depression’will have salutory affects in this regard, eCAHN.

There is nothing like ‘concentrating’ the mind, when it comes to ‘education’ …

;~D

A very good point. But why the flap over it? He said nothing negative about McCain, except that this part of his resume was not relevant to the job he has applied for. Where’s the criticism in that? Whenever I review applicants, I ignore most of the stuff they put down, and look that the factors that are relevant.

I’ve said the same thing about McCain in environments where I knew it would shock. And it does. For people who are favorably inclined to him because of his service and his terrible imprisonment, to say that is not a qualification for being prez is like slapping them in the face. If you’ve never watched someone react to such statements, you have no idea how powerful they are. Thus the flap.

Digg this pudding

Christy’s up — in arms
FISA

I saw footage of McCain I guess from Columbia. His wife was behind him and her head was popping over his shoulder. It looked like he had two heads. Like one of those strap on kinds. (And save the strap on jokes for Late Night.)

Hmmm, yeah well I think that’s up next. If this batch of Dems are lucky/smart enough to get it fixed by the next major election cycle they might sneak through, but it will be a lot like herding cats.

Seems to me they are trying to recreate the Reagan got the hostages out of Iran scenerio from 1979-1980. It’s very possible that this was done on McCain’s behalf. RNC has enough money to buy hostages out and they probably feel that the money was well spend as they could have used it for network commericals, but then the problem is what to say about this disaster of a man….