Good morning Attaturk and thanks for reading the always loathesome idiot so I don’t have to.

There is much to be dissapointed about with Obama but his acceptance speech yesterday should not be thrown in just because it came out of his mouth. And of course the general rule applies; if it comes from Cohen it is incorrect.

Cohen has descended a few steps further into well-earned obscurity and indeed, thanks for sparing me having to give him hits or actually read his drivel. Wishing to demean a calmly competent president, whose demonstrated abilities are of the highest grade, shows the nature of the village and its denizens, not Pres. O.

I don’t think what he said is any worse than what’s being said here day-in-and-day-out.

Cohen’s nipped off another one. Get the scooper.

Right there with you. Yesterday I deleted about a dozen ‘f*ck you’ replies to several of the regulars. There are more than a few commenters here that need to give that shit a rest.

Or as my spouse says about Oh Bummah! “At least I didn’t vote for Bush”

The question being not whether it’s being said *here* but by how many other persons (who’re not die-hard addicts of political news) who voted for O. At this point in time, I’d bet a pretty penny that he’s gonna be a one-term pres and there’s gonna be a lot less pols with a (D) after their names residing in deecee come 2010/12. ‘Course, given how little they seem able to accomplish with a majority everywhere except in the Supreme Court, there’s a question whether that will be a major loss. One downside that I’ll hate to see happen is the thugs gaining control of committee chairs.

I’ve refrained from making what could be described as “negative” comments about Obama to this point in time and probably seldom will in the future but right now, he ain’t gonna get my vote again.

I don’t know if that is THE question, it’s a question.

One downside that I’ll hate to see happen is the thugs gaining control of committee chairs.

Instead of pricks like Liarman and Baucus?

Pricky *they* are, indeed. Every time I think that it could have been Lamont rather than liarman in deecee, I have to choke down the bile. And the guy that took over Mr. Henry’s committee chair is pretty close to worthless.

Getting back into the executive branch appointments is a worse prospect. Cleaning house there is just beginning, and the dominance by the wingnuts is a very real threat. They hire ‘provisionally’ until they find out if you’re One of Them, have quite a stranglehold.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

Actually, hiring was merit based for the most part prior to 2001.

Merit based?

47 individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine were convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes with 33 of these occurring during the Clinton administration itself. There were in addition 61 indictments or misdemeanor charges. 14 persons were imprisoned. A key difference between the Clinton story and earlier ones was the number of criminals with whom he was associated before entering the White House.

oh, right, Clinton DID IT, I forgot.

I’m talking within executive offices, such as Depts. of Labor, Ag, HUD, etc., where the employees are hired for long terms, not appointments. and the indictment process is one that the worst administration ever used to get folks not loyal to the right wing out of office – often harrassment.

ummm… good morning?

A cursory search shows that pretty much all recent administrations play by the same rules (even my sainted Carter) however the bushies played the game with a certain ruthlessness that was not apparent in some previous corporate boards.

I wish that my keyboard spoke French.

Good morning, pups. It’s Bobo, Cohen and Krugman today. Today Bobo tells us “The Hanukkah Story,” and says Hanukkah is the most adult of holidays. Its lesson is that even the struggles that saved a people are dappled with tragic irony, complexity and unattractive choices. Mr. Cohen addresses “Obama’s Japan Headache” and says Japan is growing restive with U.S. tutelage as misunderstandings between the two countries multiply. It’s time for everyone to take a deep breath. Prof. Krugman, in “Bernanke’s Unfinished Mission,” says sustained high unemployment is a recipe for immense human suffering. The Federal Reserve must start lending a hand to job creation.

Here they are.

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got apple cranberry muffins this morning. It feels wintry enough now (it’s 38°) that I made a big pot of beef stew yesterday. I just put the heat on under it so it can simmer slowly all day and be ready for dinner this evening, after we put up the Christmas tree we got yesterday. Have a great day.

morning, Marion.

and since no on else ever says it -thank you.

As always, thanks, you spared me having to read Bobo – am engaged elsewhere in a battle over what those assets the Fed would buy would actually entail.

More no change we can‘t believe in:

The Justice Department is refusing to grant a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.

P.S. And, thank you, Marion.

Sorry, no more cranky venting from me today.

you can get through an entire day without cranky venting?

We really oughta get together sometime, so’s you can show me how to do that. *g*

have a good one.

Thank you. Forgot to say good morning.

And now back to lurking.

Good morning. Raising the subject of Cohen early in the morning certainly does get the blood pumping.

Egypt’s cutting off the underground tunnels to Gaza. Whose puppet is doing that? Couldn’t be Arabs, now could it.
Per democracynow.

About Obama’s speech. As a pacifist I have of course been disturbed at his war making. But the speech was more disturbing to me from a cultural standpoint. His appearance as an active war maker is more than ironic. It is continuing the process of conflating killing with peace. And he seized that theme to push the conflation even further.

I have sympathy for his task in framing the speech. The spirits and pride of the American people are in dire need of uplifting and the one element of our dwindling resources that claims to work efficiently is the killing machine. You have to praise what you have. He did.

Murder is the last resort of the troubled seeking peace. This is the military way. Can our nation no longer hope to find our peace in the creative?.

I’m afraid not. The military is in firm control of our country. The “volunteer” enlisted men and women would swell our ranks of the unemployed. There is no creative will to turn them into an active peace-keeping corps because that would not serve the moneychangers among us. Realizing a just democracy at home is unnecessary, we have fooled ourselves so effectively up to now.
Our president and the few honest lawmakers can only dabble around the edges of our hypocritical democracy.
I’m reading Randolph Bourne.

Orwell’s 1984: “war is peace,” “peace is war.” :US President Obama 2009

Note that the WH cancelled attending the traditional following ceremonies –still has some remnant of shame.

Yes. I do think Obama understands just what is transpiring, More proof that the Bush people succeeded into locking us into a way of life impossible to reverse in the short term. But I still can’t cease seeking and hoping for some way to turn the tide.

Thanks for at least the affirmation. It is hard to think of alternatives. But I find it impossible to stop trying to expose the truth as I see it.

There is the saying: “Living well is the best revenge.” It really is more than that. It is a way of subduing or diluting the troubling within a an individual, maybe a culture too? . As a pacifist who considers pacifism a verb I have not always shown due respect to my associates who eschew the public arena in favor of quality of life. Maybe ceasing the troubling one individual at a time is practicle?

I hope you are using bobo, a Spanish word, which means dumb, stupid, silly, and assorted synonyms – and not in the hijacked sense that the bobo used it to define a new class of yuppies, as I recall.