Hi, Christy.

Hey barbara — how are things at your house? Hope you and yours are doing well…

Hi Christy, You going to be in Denver soon I’d like to meet ya

That’s what we need - a real, live superhero who has the mind of a turnip and the morals of an alley cat.
Bring ‘em on.

Heya — I don’t get in until mid-day Sunday, and I can’t remember if we are going to try and plan a coffee thing for locals or not. (Way too much going on today and not nearly enough of me to keep up with it. Ugh.) We’ll definitely post a day/time thing if we do, though.

Digg it here:

http://digg.com/politics/WaPo_.....les_Sidoti

I hope everyone likes the Digg title. ;-)

Christy,
I will admit that some of the older Steven Seagal movies are a bit of a guilty pleasure.

But he seems to also like to make movies where the Big Company Polluters are the source of evil and therefore targets for his righteous wrath.

Which would seem to place Steve Schmidt at odds with Mr Seagal.

Honestly — comparing him to Steven Seagall?!? He’s a fricking political operative who is known for his Rovian acolyte smarm tactics, for hell’s sakes…

I’ve been wondering what those donut sprinkles are made of. Are they some kind of mind control drug that makes all who partake into obedient zombies?

It is awfully bizarre, isn’t it?

Steven Seagal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Segal
See overlap in marital history
I have read that many of his films have been financed by underworld figures

P.S. I always thought that he taught GWB how to walk

A-yep. His coal-mine epic featured John Prine’s “Paradise” in the closing credits:

Daddy, won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County…

Thing is, the comparison’s actually insulting to Steven Seagal. He has more morals than Karl Rove.

When I was in college at WKU, we used to torment a couple of girls whose fathers worked for Mr Peabody’s Coal Company by singing that song.

This whole sprinkles thing is giving me PTSD
“cause for me, sprinkles are for pink cupcakes and Hot Fudge Sundaes.
and donuts (of course for me it really should be do-naughts)

Sprinkles is a happy word.
Must we let McCain own it?

Give him — -
McCainoply
Seven House McCain
McSame
McNasty
McNot
(go on … )

there are so many variations,
please let’s not give him the sprinkles.

We can piss, moan, fuss and fume, and I do, but the MSM isn’t going to change.
We have to understand that and proceed accordingly. For instance, I don’t care much for campaigning on stupid stuff your opponent says. But, this McCain flap over houses is tailor made for the MSM. So, I guess you push the hell out of the story. It is too bad it is this way, but there it is.

PTSD = post traumatic sprinkle trauma?

But then, who doesn’t?

!!

Although for the record, the song Paradise is about a town in the western part of Kentucky while the Seagal movie that used it is supposed to be set in the eastern Kentucky/Appalachia area.

YES!!

I dare say, the only cure is a petit-four

Thanks, Christy. Long, hard week in our heartland home. But apart from that, so darned excited about GOP convention here, peeing pants hourly.

Post traumatic Sprinkle Drama
fixed it for ya

Heh. So does roadkill.

I’m excited, too. Can’t wait for the real story from the Lake people.

Have you tried Depends?

Oh, yes. See photo.

That is truly funny. :)

Anybody who would get in bed with Rove after being slimed by him.

OT From Raw Story: As federal agency declares ‘new phenomenon’ downed WTC 7, activists cry foul

A little food for thought!!

Seven houses? Last I read, he wasn’t sure how many he had. Did his staff count them up for him?

The slime is contagious stay away from them

Fanboys, too. From Jonathan Martin today:

In Sedona during Dem convo, McCain to film spots, take day trips
My colleague Lisa Lerer, travelling with McCain, sends word that the candidate is now at his cabin in Sedona, which he’ll make his base of operations as the spotlight focuses on Obama.

Per Lerer, McCain will film commercials and huddle with advisers in the coming days.

He’ll also surely be working on his convention speech and moving close to a veep decision (which he has not made yet).

And, as Mike Allen notes in Playbook today, maybe he can charm MoDo by hooking that elusive catfish in his ranch’s pond.

It’s a cabin… AND a ranch!

the only thing surprising about Romano is that she’s not working for The New Republic

her sterling work includes - unearthing the “missing Edwards youtubes”, concern trolling on HRC’s sexist treatment by the media - and there’s always her breathless reportage on the manufactured HRC/Patty Solis Doyle catfight

better watch your back Mr Kurtz

I believe that’s only counting the Sedona compound as a single house — there are actually FIVE dwellings on that one property. And the condo in Scottsdale is actually two condos put together into one super-duper mondo condo! Sucks to be rich married to the rich…

Vitter’s baby pic?

Cabin? You mean the “cabin” that had a featured spread in Architectural Digest in 2005? That “cabin”?

(cough)bullshit!(cough).

Bullshit that took one hell of a long time to manufacture, at that.

ducks can’t count past five, and we know McCain is a duck

spotlighted those boyz last night at one of my one, no wait 4, uuh 7, that’s right 7 ! blogs

mad props to you on both your posts last night - thank goodness I read the ADHD one first, as I couldn’t realign my jaw after seeing the numbers in your Medical Care debt post - good lord that was informative - thanks

Oh wait, sorry — that’s the story about their Phoenix abode. So easy to get confused when there are so many luxury homes…

ya know, what really comes through is the McCain’s essence of humble.

Sure hope he doesn’t chap his lips going car to cabin

That “cabin ” in the mag is in Pheonix

Did he sell the Phoenix home yet?

707!

and thought of you when I saw this widdle guy

Reporter: “Senator McCain, your residences have been described using various terms: a cabin, houses, condominiums, a mansion, a ranch, an estate, a compound, and a complex. Here’s my question: Have we left any out?”

McCain: “Get offa my lawns, you pesky kids!”

It’s sad that a wealthy man has to pretend to be a commoner in order to be elected. Bush had to do it and now so does McCain. Yes, it is sad…sad that so many people fall for the same Republic act year after year. They are not like us. They do not want to be like us. They care only about our votes.

Well, call me a deluded poopy-head, or a willing agent of the Grand Conspiracy ™, but here’s the guy who doesn’t make any sense to me:

“There are holes in this story that you can drive a truck through,” Gage added during the press conference. His group asserts that thermite, a steel cutting agent, was used to bring the building down.

There is also another huge hole in Gage’s story. Controlled demolition of a building the size of WTC7 would take days, even under emergency conditions. Someone did this in a matter of hours in a burning, collapsing building? Not a chance.

Wicked! I like that about you!! :-)

Is that kind of like eau de BS

OT, but speaking of Mike Allen, I wonder if he was one of the Politico reporters who brought Cindy flowers to celebrate that BBQ for the press they had. Did you guys know there’s a video of that event. They have that video, taken and narrated by McSame’s daugher, at TPM. Bottom line seemed to be that a good night was had by all…they even fed the help. Wasn’t that nice of them? s/

Yes, as I understand it the guest quarters would serve as a residence for most people.

In case you thought it was impossible to link McCain’s how-many-houses fumble to his capture as a POW, think again. From campaign spokesperson Brian Rogers:

“The reality is they have some investment properties and stuff. It’s not as if he lives in ten houses. That’s just not the case,” Rogers said. “The reality is they have four that actually could be considered houses they could use.”

Those four include an apartment in Arlington, a ranch in Sedona, and two condos, in California and Phoenix, he said. The others include “some investment properties and things like that.”

He also added: “This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison,” referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.

Did you even know McCain was a POW?

Christy, All McCain had to answer was that we have several properties and moved on. He sometimes gets confused these days. Anyone who thinks that less than 5 million a year is middle class, is definitely confused. Can you put together a post of all of McCain’s gaffes? We know that there is Czech Republic, Al-Qaeda in Iran, the Hillary and media gaffe in New Orleans saying that he did not say that, mixing up countries, Putin the president of Germany, taxes on social security, etc. etc, etc.

Can’t have any rethug elitists ya know

I wonder if any members of the staff at the various McCain living places are undocumented?

Did you even know McCain was a POW?

NO!!! Why, the man must be humble in extremis to keep that under wraps!

All of McCain’s gaffes? FDL might have to upgrade the servers to handle a post that large.

Heh,heh,heh,heh!

I just got off the phone with the McCain finance office. I told them me and nine of my Republican friends had a lottery going where we put in $200 each with the winner getting half for guessing the correct number of homes that McCain owns with the other half to go to McInsane’s campaign. I told him I had guessed seven and asked him to verify.

I would have to say he was flustered. Nothing like offering money to the Repuks and then taking it away.

If you build it, they will cum

True, Just while typing the comment, I was able to rattle off a few and believe me, at 59 yrs. I’m not as sharp as I was.

If you build it they will try to steal it

That’s just . . . ouch.

Ooooh. No one told me there would be party games today!

It felt so good.

It’s the new standard. You’re not really rich until you
can’t remember how many houses you own.

Anyone else remember reading somewhere that they spent $400,000 in just two years on household staff? I thought it was a high number when I read it — insanely high. But now that I know how many houses are involved, I wonder if it might be low?

Steve Schmidt is the punk Rove lackey who ran Derr Boobengrabber’s 2006 campaign

four eared cats are nothing but trouble, I can tell you that.

Here’s one for those who like Digg-ing: Architectural Digest Visits Senator and Mrs. McCain.

Good day, Christy and all of you clear-eyed lefties;

The Rovian cancer continues to spread.

It will take more than ‘operations’ and chemo to put said malady into remission, let alone eradicate this vile, vicious scourge.

Since the days of St. Ronnie, the thugs have taken perfectly good, decent and usable words, for example, and rendered them unfit for usage.

Take the word ‘right’ … one is almost ashamed to use it in every day conversation; “Ya go six blocks and turn to the … um the other way from left …” or “Fantastic, you are absolutely … um correct!”

Why one can’t even speak of the need for America, now, to have “roving ambassadors of genuine goodwill” without noticing people clutching at their pearls and and dropping like flies ri …. um, more or less, onto their fainting couches.

Ah, describing the Rovian Age, puts one in the position of trying to
explain the notion of ‘clockwise’to those raised with digital timepieces,
when it comes to suggesting that there ARE other ways of thinking and doing, rather than as Kwasiorkor Karl does, and his diseased-diciples are a plague upon us, and well-burrowed ‘in’.

Rove is an appalling affliction on the human soul, which is rather amazing considering that he is such a vile little beast, possessing nothing whatever to recommend him to decent society …

Now you and Jane be careful, Christy, out there in Denver, ‘they’ want decorum and order, and your very presence will excite controversy and, no doubt, you shall both outshine many lesser Democratic Par-tay luminaries.
So, give ‘em heaven, Christy, whether they like it or not …

;~D

Doesn’t cost that much when you hire illegals

Assuming 2 staff at each of seven houses, that works out to just over $14k per year.

I wonder if they paid all the SS and unemployment type taxes on the “staff” and if they made sure everyone working was documented?

I’ve forgotten where my house was, but never how many I had.

eau du Vitter
s’il vous plaît

For some of the staff who are compensated in part with living quarters elsewhere on the compound, I wonder if the value of that arrangement was properly accounted for, taxwise.

I am beginning to hate the term, but this is bitchslap politics. Besides the symbolism of the story, this is a good opportunity to just make McCain look bad -an old out-ot-it crabby and entitled rich fart.

I think that he certainly is that. But I saw a poll results that show almost half the country believes Obama ‘not as ready to lead’. Based on what? Nothing more than that Obama does not have that pompous old white guy in a suite and tie cred -completely empty symbolism.

So, this is handy way to get McCain to enact the political theatre of being a rich old out-of-it pampered cranky rich old old rich guy in real time.

I think Obama has passed up way to many opportunities to do this kind of thing, so I will not complain if he is starting now.

For example, Obama should not have just turned down more debates. Obama should have held long drawn out ‘negotiations’ when he had a big lead. Then make McCain run after a debate opportunity (one that was disadvantageous to McCain, not some bogus Townhall thing, or a show put on by a crooked preacher-man) like an aged arthritic dog running for a treat.

So, we need more of this, even if it is not pretty. I hope obama moves onto another one of these shows tied it into more substantive issues, while McCain is still puffing away trying to convice people he is not what he really is.

You silver tongued devil you

I seem to remember that when Trump declared bankruptcy a few years ago he needed over $300.000 a month for his “domestics” so $400.000 for a couple of years does not seem excessive.

Hmmmm (400.000 / minimum wage = 64.000 hours) that is a lot of barbeque tools to wash.

The Rovian cancer continues to spread

o/t
Now metastizing over at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights -

He probably paid the taxes if he remembered. “Remembering is such hard work.” There was the issue with back property taxes a few months ago.

It’s so hard to know what’s true with McCain.

This article says that the “McCains own four homes across the nation and employ a staff of at least four that in 2007 cost about $273,000, half of which was listed on the senator’s tax return”.

It also notes that “the disclosures from 2006 and 2007 indicate that he spent most of his own income, suggesting that Cindy McCain funds their lifestyle”. Since Cindy won’t release her returns, laughably because of the children, there’s no way to know for sure.

But don’t call him the elitist.

Cost of staff means the cost to McCains would be roughly twice what the staff were paid in income to cover the SS and other taxes. And a work year is calculated at 2080 hours per year (52 weeks @ 40 hours per week).

Ah yes, but one of those four homes is actually two condos that were combined into one palatial penthouse (Phoenix) and the Sedona “home”/”cabin” is actually a property with four or five dwellings on it…so, 4 magically becomes 7-10, depending on how you count…oh, to have those problems…/s

People may believe that Obama is not ready to lead because the Republics keep hammering that. What eveidence is there that McCain is ready to lead? Too bad that the Republics will be using Clinton assertions here.

Of course, if the Clintons would step forward and loudly proclaim “Obama is ready”, Republics could be countered. However, since it’s not about the Clintons I think they will just gleefully watch from the sidelines.

That’s only for the documented staff. You have to report just enough to avoid raising flags and triggering an audit.

yes, but customized fragranciness

Or you could make like Ted Stevens and have someone else pay the bills like people who make a killing in land swap deals.

Tula upstairs

Obama has to wait for McCain to snap and they tell him that he “needs to have a sense of humor” in a smack back to McCain.

Hoooo haw.

-G

So about 14 person years?

Part of the problem is disgraceful job media is doing. The media news celebreties are really doing a kind of logy and dowdy reality show to keep people tuned in to the next commercialm. Kind of like Lawrence Welk, with BS CW fake news instead of novelty musical acts.

You get yourelf an old white guy dressed up in a suit and tie who can stand on his hind legs and talk, you got yourself assumed responsible leadership. Maybe because I am a member of that club, it don’t work on me so good.

The media showed its corruption and incompetence during McCain’s frightening and dangerous display on incompetence and irresponsibility during the Russia-Georgia crisis. Old white guy in a suite and tie gets on his hind legs and talks tough English -there you go, instant cred and responsibility even if what he says is mad.

The chances of competent coverage in the press is close to zero, so I see why Obama is trying to bypass it. I hope we see this ‘how many houses problem’ repeated each week, with tie ins to real issues. That is only way to get some corporate media attention that is not rigged against him.

That was what I roughly calculated.

But I started from assuming 2 staff each at 7 locations divided into $200k and came up with the just over $14k per person cost.

It is not a great wage by anyone’s (other than a person worth $100M) imagination.

Teddy to qualify to be a Ranch in Arizona it has to have cattle. There are no livestock on their land. That is a legal definition for tax purposes and zoning.

His 4.4 acres ARE not a ranch it is a compound in a gated community. And a lot of the Sedona residents are not happy with all the reports running around

Um mod?

Can you delete the last two sentences of my #70, because they’re superfluous without the deleted link to the video

[Mod: sure.]

Sounds as though he is well understaffed and should be employing more people. Cheap bastard no doubt.