Why is Larry trying to fix his resume now does he have a book deal in the works? Or maybe he wants another job at Harvard?

Anyone buying Larry’s fantasy that they didn’t have 51 votes in the Senate?

Trick question? Short answer: NO.

And, btw, I note that today’s post is about a Democratic appointee. Just saying…

Thanks, BT. Good post about the typically tawdry but boringly predictable lies of Obamaco.

A puff piece to the Times smells of Rahm I guess the Times is the uncritical believing anything easy girl for who ever is in the WH.

Summers did his dirty work. Now he’s deserting the sinking ship.

Why bother? If we didn’t prosecute John Yoo and Karl Rove and Darth Cheney, what makes him think he has to cover anything?

They didn’t fight as hard as they could, they got pretty much what they wanted.

On so many things. The epitaph for this administration.
The journalistic standards of the Times remain obsequious, but hell, they at least attributed a quote to someone named.

Question for BT. Is everyone in Texas an asswipe like this guy who apologizes for getting in the way of Cheney’s bullet?

“My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week.”

I don’t think Summers is gonna be happy as a tenured professor at Harvard, the reason he’s given for leaving the administration. He’s liable to get more flack from his students than he ever got in the WH. Sorta like John Yoo.

I see Yoo is on both our lists. *g* Son-of-a-bitch should be kicked to the curb and disbarred.

Gee, it looks like Harvard employed economists have a bigger problem with facts than women ever have had learning math and science.

For the record, Cheney never offered one word of apology to Whittington for almost killing him.

When O campaigned, he was articulate, bold and progressive. Once he became President he became inarticulate, timid, cowardly and corporate. He surrounded himself with wall street corporate zionist banking pigs, and he copied the bush regime and most all of that gangster regime’s vile policies. Heck of a failure, Barack.

Obama wants to be a Republican when he grows up.

O. just loves to surrender to corporations and Republicans. Some battlefield general he would make, always raising the white flag of surrender. His idea of negotiating is to give his Republican opponents most whatever they want.

Actually, O’s secret plan to destroy the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate is right on track…

Larry Summers IS an ASS plain and simple. A pawn of the MOTU who bought him.

Summers like the entire Obama WH bent over and grabbed their ankles every time the bankers looked at them funny. The man now wants to change history so he can get rewarded with a better job apparently he was to public with his bending over to now get a real prestigious job as a payoff for bending over.

Yoo was put on the staff at Berkeley as an in-your-face gesture to the left for the antiwar activities on the campus during the Vietnam clusterfuck.

Hard to have a list of despicable people without including John Yoo.

And he wonders why we don’t follow his lead:)

Be careful. You’re on shaky ground with the second half of your comment.

Question for ghostof9/11: If you try harder, do you think you can by any more offensive? I’d like to know what state you live in and why it is that you aren’t responsible for the wingnuts in your state but people like me are responsible for every right wing Texan ever spawned.

The context is correct. Larry Summers said that women have problems learning math and science.

Anyone buying Larry’s fantasy that they didn’t have 51 votes in the Senate?

Wait: I thought they needed, like, 9,000 votes to get anything through. I stand corrected.

That will go over big when he sets foot on campus in Cambridge.

9000 and a round tuit.

Summers’ job at Harvard is still there, that’s where he’s returning. Hiatus or some such.

Yoo gets flack from his students?

And given Larry’s record with Harvard managing their fund and in the WH with the economy I wish we had a Mom with a budget and a weekly shopping list rather than believer in Ponzi schemes at both jobs.

The brick in the heavily snarked comment was heaved at Dick Cheney.

He didn’t say that women have trouble learning math and science. At a roundtable discussion he pointed out (correctly) that women are underrepresented in those fields. He did go on to SPECULATE (my emphasis) on possible reasons why that was the case.

Poor Harvard the place where establishment hacks like Larry and Kissenger go to save their reputations.

Thank you for understanding the point and explaining it to the snark impaired.

He made the claim when he was President of Harvard so they’re well aware of his stupidity already.

Maybe there’s something intrinsic about Larry Summers that causes him to fuck up everything he touches.

Larry bailed on Harvard as the school’s fund was loosing money, larry bailed or was forced out of the WH as unemployment went up. I’m wondering if Larry ever taught Sarah Palin at college?

It’s possible. She attended most of them.

Most people with a full brain would have had more sense than to “speculate” along the lines he did (unless that was something he actually believed which his actions in ignoring female economists like Romer tend to give some credence to)

So my best guess, to provoke you, of what’s behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon, by far, is the general clash between people’s legitimate family desires and employers’ current desire for high power and high intensity, that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination. I would like nothing better than to be proved wrong, because I would like nothing better than for these problems to be addressable simply by everybody understanding what they are, and working very hard to address them

Larry Summers 2005
Care to defend him further?

And yet you managed to badmouth everybody in the state….

A Bush effect? Name one thing Bush did his whole term that was not a disaster No child left behind? Aid for Africa to fight AIDs and the coincidental appearance of anti gay group Fundy church groups? Afghanistan, Iraq, the Housing bubble, Katrina, Terri Schiavo.
Larry has the Bush effect yes but Bush is patient ZERO.

I saw that dude like 2 months after Cheney shot him. Did not look good.

Name one thing Bush did his whole term that was not a disaster.

Leave Texas for 8 years.

So Larry is saying women because of Family they not Men have kids never mind the divorce rate and the number of women forced to work long hours to support their kids at low wage jobs can’t handle long hours in smart high paying jobs?

OK, so Austan Goolsby sounds reasonable, a better frontman for the elites, but certainly no less a Straussian than Summers, or for that matter all the members of this Administration as well as most in Congress.

Fine I’ll give you that but the rest of the country suffered so Texas could get a break:(

Any photos that could lead a post? or does Darth have him in an indisclosed location?

Look at the part I bolded. He is saying that those social pressures increase an already intrinsic lack of aptitude for science and engineering in women. It wasn’t the social discussion that annoyed people, it was the cavalier statement that women intrinsically lack the same abilities to do science and engineering that men have.

Texas is part of the rest of the country though and don’t forget, he was governor for five more years too. We had to put up with him more than half again as long as everybody else.

Sorry your right Larry is saying Women can’t do the job because they are women.

Actually, Perry’s much worse than Bush, so I’d have to take that back, anyway.

Why would anyone expect anything different from someone who worked in the Reagan administration and that includes Krugman?

Goolsby=Skull and Bones same as the old boss.

MUCH worse! :(

heh – made me laugh; thanks for some humor even if on the bitter side. Unfortunately, Texas’s gain was the planet’s loss.

Maybe you didn’t realize that good old Larry’s been hired and fired and hired by Harvard within the past 20 years.

Exactly: amongst many other crimes, Summers is a flaming mysoginistic chauvanistic cretin. But that was considered a ringing endorsement by Obamaco, who embraced Summers’ chauvism with open arms and copied it.

Indeed. Hotbed of the CIA, good ole Skull ‘n Bones, plus many other national shenanigans. Crooks one and all.

Larry also had to quit his job with Bubba’s administration for improvident remarks about poor people.

Yep. Typical neocon/lib. If you want to be taken seriously, you’d better have a penis and that penis better be white and well funded.

What did he say it sounds like Larry is a serial insulter as well as loser.

Graduates of Poison Ivy Colleges should be barred from running for, or serving in office, even if that means occasionally sacrificing a decent one Like Liz Warren. Should be a Litmus test for Democratic Voters.

Sorry, I went back to the Economist and saw my timeline was wrong. He got in trouble before joining the Clinton administration while he was working for the World Bank. Part of a paper he wrote on trade liberalization indicated that third world countries could profit from rich countries dumping their toxic waste there. The implication was that poor people don’t count when it comes to health and safety concerns of western elites.

Still quite bad

Yeah. It’s been my experience of 60 years that just having the plumbing isn’t sufficient when it comes to geting into the big game.

The plumbing won’t get you into the big game maybe but it will damn sure keep you out of it.

What about JFK??

He was a good teacher in the day; used to sit around with the students in the lounge at Littauer. Had great articles on a fairly wide range of topics through the mid-1990s, or until he was called in Rubin. That plus the Presidency of Harvard went to his head (which was never small to begin with). He’ll do fine at Harvard. It’s full of swell-heads. He won’t even be noticed in the crowd.

As to the substance of the post, Summers made a judgment call, and it turned out wrong. That could be said of a lot of economists. Christy was right, as was Krugman. Obama was in no business to evaluate her proposal except at the cost of giving her time to defend it to him in person. He had to rely on someone he trusted, and he trusted Summers. There’s no conspiracy here, just bad judgment on Summer’s part compounded by bad luck on Obama’s part.

I think the more basic point is the one someone told me last year: The White House (i.e. Rahm) evaluated the growing Depression as a political problem, and this no doubt includes Summer who in consequence of his having held the post of Secretary of the Treasury was probably more tuned to the political side than he would have been had he stayed in straight economics. Christy Romer presented the issue as a substantive one in economics. That’s her job description. Politics overruled science, as it so often does, and with predictable results. This is a tragedy that could have been avoided, but when you sort through the dynamics, it was hard to avoid.

Don’t worry folks….short of death this bastard would be around the next time there is another Dem in the WH to eff things up again for ordinary Americans.

This guy is a major league shill for corporations…unless we get rid of the whole core of these faux populist in the Democratic part(HReid,MBaccus,Derbin,DFeinstein,Steny Hoyer,Clyburn) we are doomed.It must be a clean break.

I have repeatedly said that those Dems in the senate who voted to kill the drug importation bill doesn’t deserve your vote…It doesn’t matter if the GOP takes over…as it stands now there is not significant improvement in the quality of our livelihood on the horizon anyway.Why re-elect people who don’t give a damn about ya.Patty Murray in Washington state shouldn’t be re-elected.

Huh. I seem to recall him spending a good portion of that 8 years in Crawford. He didn’t really do any favors for anybody. /obvious

Yeah,the only thing is Summers has a habit of being almost wrong every time.
This is not a game,peoples lives are being destroyed by these creeps policies.
Even crony capitalist BClinton said he(Clinton) was wrong to listen to Summers & Rubin.

Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, and lower Taxes for the wealthy…

Well, it’s not just he made the wrong call. He made the wrong call and now is pretending he didn’t make the wrong call.

Vietnam got started under Ike when we refused to go along with the elections called for under the Geneva Settlement; Bay of Pigs coordinated by Richard Nixon and CIA under Ike with a helping hand from a couple of ships provided by George H. W. Bush, Kennedy refused to go along with a situation that the CIA made sure was going to require US forces; lower taxes, with the revenue that would be lost offset by ending the depletion allowance on oil companies.

JFK was no angel by a long shot but let’s put the blame where it belongs.

mattcarmody @ 71

“In today’s economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction even if it temporarily enlarges the federal deficit – why reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues.”

Our tax system still siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power and reduces the incentive for risk, investment and effort – thereby aborting our recoveries and stifling our national growth rate.”

Is that you, Republican Party?

JFK loved the CIA, LBJ was the one that despised them.

There’s a book amongst many worth while checking out:

Rethinking Camelot
JFK, the Vietnam War, and US Political Culture.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ENqiQY5V4ooC&printsec=frontcover&dq=jfk+vietnam+chomsky&source=bl&ots=cqYeEGAy_D&sig=rEEYaWDNE8pRGW0LTV_Nf9K0V9k&hl=en&ei=G3K3TOnTNImisAOthJGICQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

I don’t think Summers is gonna be happy as a tenured professor at Harvard, the reason he’s given for leaving the administration.

I loved how Summers was portrayed in The Social Network: pompous, rude, out-of-touch.

In short, spot on.

You’re about 4 years late and $$$$$ short.

This was widely covered [Summers' piggish remarks] when he was president of Harvard.

Vietnam getting “started” had nothing to do with the 1954 Geneva accords which did call for free “nationwide” elections in 1956. US was not a party to the 1954 Geneva accords. Vietnam got “started” when the US supported the French in retaking Vietnam immediately following the conclusion of WWII in 1945.

Actually, O’s secret plan to destroy the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate is right on track…

Actually, I am starting to suspect the same thing. If not destroy it, then transform it into a New Democratic Party which is pretty much the saner version of the Republcian party, ala 1990′s, but still corporate teat sucking, wealth stroking, assholes.

Heck of a job, Barry.

Just have to fix a few of your typos!

When O campaigned, he was articulate when using a teleprompter, prepared speech, and The Stump Speech. He was bold when he thought he might not win in a particular area of the country and progressive when he needed to fool the voters into believing he was progressive. Once he became President he became inarticulate, timid, cowardly and corporate. He surrounded himself with wall street corporate (have to strike the “zioninst” thing; not worthy to be with the rest of your otherwise good post) banking pigs, and he copied the bush regime and most all of that gangster regime’s vile policies. Heck of a failure, Barack.

Obama actually had a lot of tells that he was going to be sucking up to Repubs (he told a Pittsburgh newspaper editorial board he thought most of the best ideas had come from Republicans from 1992 or 93 through 2008. Oh, reeeeeally, Barry? BushBoy? Really?

He nearly choked during one of the later primary debates when he was forced to answer whether or not he thought health care was right. After being pushed at least twice, maybe three times, he gave a barely audible Yes as his answer. His body language screamed No.

He told a private fundraiser outside Philadelphia, just before the PA primary, that he knew he wasn’t going to be able to do all the things he had talked about on the campaign trail.

And can any liberal ever forget his use of the Harry and Louise ads to attack Hillary Clinton’s health care plan?

The guy’s legislative history was one of beginning with a loud and proud liberal pronouncement, then, after meeting with the corporate parties to an issue, walking his stands back…and back…and back…until it never was brought to a vote or was Republican in nature. (Exelon comes to mind; nice that they let tritium get into people’s groundwater — and Obama? Didn’t do much after meeting with the executives. Who did support him for president with nice donations….)

The MCM (Maintream Corporate Media) did a terrible job of actually explaing Obama’s actual legislative history. Yes, the articles were written about what he did, but they were not easy to find and no major reporters made it their mission to let the electorate know what they getting in this tyro pol.

Epic FAIL, yes.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE” BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST”. IF DAVID HALBERSTRAM WERE ALIVE TODAY, HE WOULD CERTAINLY AUTHOR ANOTHER BOOK AND PERHAPS TITLE IT, “THE ARROGANTS AND THE ASSHOLES”.

THE WHITE[PUP

[Mod Note: Please use your "inside" voice (all caps is considered yelling and not needed)]

After WWII we supported the French reasserting their authority in Vietnam. But after 1954 and the partition of VN, Eisenhower made the decision not to permit the election for reunification to take place because he knew that Ho Chi Minh would be elected overwhelmingly. (Source, Eisenhower’s memoirs: Mandate for Change (1963) and Waging Peace (1965)) All our time spent in Vietnam was to prevent democracy.

I doubt that JFK loved the CIA. He went against them on Cuba, and they sheep dipped LHO.
Later the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded there was a conspiracy to assassinate the president. This would be NOT Love.
Heres the book you linked for free online.
Rethinking Camelot by Chomsky. (BTW, mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ is a disinfo agent)

“BTW, mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ is a disinfo agent”

Our government is a disinfo mill.
The conclusions of any Governmental Committees, I think you might agree, are not very reliable sources of discerning the truth from the spin.

The best I recollect JFK elevated the importance of the CIA director to levels on par with that of his cabinet.

We helped the French return to Vietnam in ’45 because we and the rest of the western world didn’t want to give legitimacy to self-determination movements. We had plenty to do with the Geneva Accords in ’54. In addition to paying the largest share of France’s Vietnamese expenditures, we spread the false rumors that if the communists came south there would be a bloodbath. We encouraged catholics to leave the north, Chennault and his Flying Tigers helped in the air lift while also assisting the remnant of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang Army in northern Burma act as guerilla fighters against the Chinese Communists, all the while ferrying opium throughout the region. ANy doubts you might have about that, I suggest you read Bernard Fall’s “Analysis of a Crisis,” Al McCoy’s “Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972 edition),” Fall again, “Hell in a Very Small Place,” and New York Times microfilms from the period which can be accessed at SUNY libraries or certain public libraries.

As far as the CIA goes, JFK was very distrustful of them after they tried forcing his hand during the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The CIA never had cabinet status under JFK, that was only a cabinet position for a short time under Bubba Clinton. As a matter of fact, JFK kept his own counsel on most matters discussing things with his brother and a couple of other advisors. Most of them were kept out of the loop.

Sorry dude, but that snippet you have me saying at the beginning of your reply to me isn’t from me and is absolutely nowhere near my thinking on economics. My degrees are in political science and my graduate concentration was heavily influenced by Marxist economists, so tax cuts aren’t really my cup of tea nor is the rest of the Democratic/Republican Party bullshit line.

Your claim that the US did not want to give support to Southeast Asia “self determination” is not correct. In fact Roosevelt directly supported self-determination for Vietnam and had proposed a trusteeship for Vietnam. It is also likely that if JFK had not been killed, in his second term he would have tried to turn the whole issue over to the UN.

But Roosevelt died in office and Kennedy died in office and they were the only two presidents from 45-75 who had any idea of what to properly do in Nam.