Why Republicans are taking a pass on 2012.

There’s already a Republican in the WH?

Good morning all.

Happy 25th anniversary of Chernobyl. democracynow is doing a segment on it.

This is great.

Good morning bt, econ and eCAHN. Lots a wackadoodle in them there links this morning. And, we’ve got strong crazy gusty winds threatening to rip the roof of the house this morning. Always puts me in a worse mood to read the news.
Other than that, how’s everyone doing today?
Oh, and btw, eCAHN, big congrats on the front page posting. Beeeeautiful.

Thanks demi.

Haley Barbour is not running. Wonder if that makes him “smart”?

Supposed to get into the 70s today. Snoopy dance.

Mornin’, BT, pups

Rep West also neglected to mention that Spartan women were viewed as the incubators of future warriors and caretakers of the home and hearth, nothing more. Until the fact that women carried eggs like any other female creature became common knowledge it was believed that male sperm was the “seed” that produced children. Planted in a woman the same as a seed is planted in the ground. The Old Testament is replete with the concept. Methinks some Regressives still hold this belief.

Well, I hope we can finally relegate Haley Barbour to the dustbin of history. Good riddance.

I think that just makes him fat.

Prolly the “smartest” thing he’s ever done.

300 was on the TV machine sometime over the weekend. Worst movie evah.

I like the one where Christy thinks he could win. That’s really funny.
Like me saying Oh yeah, I could afford one of those neat hydrogen cars, but I just don’t want to save the planet.

We went camping in San Diego last weekend. It was gorgeous. Lot of people walking or biking around in sleeveless shirts and shorts. And, lots of young ladies in bikinis.

Big welcome back dear…..Hope you had a good weekend.

Hoping to do a short bicycle ride today to test out my knee. Also some reading outside.

Now that’s a stimulus program I could support.

Nothing like self congratulatory arrogance. Barbour assumes that he’d be able to win a second term.

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield is a great novel and look into Spartan life.

I don’t know about worst movie ever but pretty damned weak, yep.

There was an Easter Egg hunt which was fun to watch. A live band that was not too awful. And, a karaoke deal. I got up and sang Ariel’s song from the Little Mermaid. (And, I hadn’t even been drinking. Ha)

I predict that the bagger caucus is going to do a whole lotta shrinking in the next cycle. Allen West will certainly be out.

Sounds great…a good time to be off the threads….quite a bit of religion snark, or worse….Glad you’re back.

Eight o’clock in the morning, they were all in the bathrooms blow drying their hair and putting on make up with shovels.
Me? Sun glasses and a scarf works. :)
There was lots of young hunky female stimulus too!

It’s wiki is interesting, though. I didn’t know this

It was filmed mostly with a super-imposition chroma key technique, to help replicate the imagery of the original comic book.

Thanks. Will check it out later.

LOL.

Religious snark? Here? Get out. Ha. But, I couldn’t even get through the whole Graham interview with LOD. Oh, that Franklyn. He knows not what he says.

Well it’s been 20 years since I lived in San Diego but I never really thought of it as a camping destination.

Next segment on democracynow on Honeywell’s guilty please on storing radioactive mud which leaked into a river. Getting rid of steelworkers union which told on them.

On edit: Honeywell was largest contributor to Ds in 2008 ($3.8 million) and CEO is BFF of O.

Poor Graham…obviously per W, Trump…can be really hard to have that very successful dad….

“But there’s other things. When the anti-Christ comes, we talk about the number of the anti-Christ, that he’ll have an economic mark that will be on your forehand — or, on your right hand or your forehead. And that economic mark, you can’t buy, sell, or trade unless you have that number.”

Franklin Graham

Unbelievable. Just plain silly.

This is from the “This Week” transcript. Christiane Amanpour discussed religion in government with Graham, Al Sharpton and a 3rd religious type. Get it? Fair and balanced. I’d guess nobody said God has no place in government, and neither does the Easter Bunny. However, I did not read the entire transcript.

Furthermore, John McCain was a surprise mystery guest on Sunday on NBC and CNN.

What is with that shit? There was a guy at the lunch table a couple of weeks ago spewing similar philosophy. I just stood up and took my tray to the counter and asked for a to go box. Prolly not a good thing for me to punch a fellow volunteer, don’t ya think?

A pastor who doesn’t know whether his congregation is christian.

Who did Honeywell please? ;)

Clearly proof positive that he is not a racist.

Good morning all. Thanks for the post BT.

I think Franklin is just pissed that Obama picked another bigoted asshole to deliver the benediction. I’m sure Graham assumed he would be the heir apparent to whisper sweet nothings into the president’s ear and instead it’s Rick Warren.

I please guilty, your honor.

A very good choice…wonder what you may have said?

Are you sure? You know his heart? Good Morning….

Prolly not a good thing for me to punch a fellow volunteer, don’t ya think?

No, probably the better part of valor to walk away.

Ha, LOL: And you please me;)

It’s not what I really consider camping, per se. But, we did pitch a tent and cook over a fire pit. Mostly it’s just getting away and being around lots of other families who are just out having fun. Wifi and electricity at the sites. Cafes, pools, the bay where you can rent paddle boats and kayaks. Just something different and yet affordable.
I did think of you when we passed Pendelton. Something else reminded me of you, but I forget what that was.

I know he never got above three percent in polling. Barbour is spewing bullshit when he talks about not being prepared to spend the next ten years of his life running for and being president. He’s not running for the same reason Palin won’t: He can’t win.

Oh dear, that’s quite a typo that I didn’t notice and now it’s too late to change. “plea” not “please”

I suck at multitasking, so listening to dn & typing at same time doesn’t work well for me. Don’t know how ew does liveblogging.

Getting away for an affordable break is good. I was never at Pendelton though. I was at NAS Miramar.

Allen West: Liberal Women Are ‘Neutering American Men’

Dumbass.

Morning BT & Pups of Fire.

Slippery Slope…

Now that might make for a fun diary.

Next democracynow segment: wikileaks on Gitmo.

Ah ha. Thanks for the correction. (singing) Getting to know all about you.

I agree. But Palin could increase her net worth by running as an independent (or Reform candidate) against both parties. Unless there’s more to the story about Trigger, as TBogg calls him.

Speaking of emptywheel, she hosted the Bradley Manning Webinar last night. Interesting. Went well for the first one.

Good morning, everyone. Warmer here but more rain. eCAHN, I envy your plan to bike ride. I’m gonna start building an ark.

Did you learn much new? Glad it went well.

Is there anybody on the right who is as smart as you? If there isn’t, why is the right so successful?

Good to hear that. What did you learn?

Hey Firepups:

Where’s Ms. Hamsher?

That would appeal to the Regressive Party. She could pull all the Tea Party nutjobs away from an establishment Regressive candidate.

They’re crooks.

I’m glad that This Modern World has forsaken Salon. Now if only we could temp Glenn Greenwald away. I think he could be very successful here.

Love the cartoon….hate having to go to Kos to read it.

why is the right so successful?

Because they own and control the major media outlets? Just a SWAG…

Financially, Palin is much better off if Obama wins a second term — rather than an establishment R.

I may join the next one. I couldn’t RSVP when I got the email cause I didn’t know what I was going to be doing at the time. Alas, it turned out I was free after all.

T’would be nice if we could get Tom & Glenn over here…

Nobody on the right is as smart as you and nobody on the right is as virtuous as you. Is that what you’re saying? The left has a monopoly on both brains and virtue but can’t get it done?

Yep. I hate giving Joan Walsh traffic. For any reason.

Hey Rev: Did you happen to catch this? Rushie got a pretty good ass-kickin’…

I apologize for the idiot commercial. Totally out of my control…

Not a whole lot new. He’s at the Joint Regional Correctional Facility. Coombs is still his attorney. Others have offered to help but he thinks he can do it himself. I don’t think that’s such a great plan but…

Somebody asked about care packages for Brad. I’m trying to find out how to get mail to him. Had to send a question to DOD cuz all the Army “Contact Us” links are for how to get in the Army, etc, no actual way to send a question. Should get a response in a couple days.

Pretty much, yes.

Scroll.

There are a few folks on dKos that I read. They have a few DDays.

Scroll.

No…thanks. I’ll check it out….couldn’t happen to a bigger jerk….Hope there’s a pile on;)

“Why Republicans are taking a pass on 2012.”

It’s an Art of War thing–never interrupt your opponent while he is making a mistake.

Hypomania

Good…let us know. I have wondered that as well.

The left has monopolies on both brains and virtue but the right beat it to the punch and controls the media? So the left flails about, talking to itself? Correct?

Speaking of calling the enemy, I left a message on CIA public affairs phone yesterday. I’m trying to find relative sizes of economies of countries per capita in 1930, and think their library prolly has it, as their publications with economic data are pretty good. I’ll be curious if I get a return phone call today.

I think Franklin is just pissed that Obama picked another bigoted asshole to deliver the benediction.

LOL

Anybody wonder what happened to ghostof911? Hasn’t really been around since the whole HAARP thing.

good morn,i loved it when O Donell read Jesus to Franklin asking him to give up EVERYTHING for his faith….hahahaha…would that be his shinning private JET he lent to Ms.Palin?

I’d much rather give them traffic than Walsh to be honest. At least I’m not assaulted with intrusive pop up ads.

NPR going to do a piece on DOMA and law firm that withdrew….

I’ll bet Jesus couldn’t pry Limbaugh’s Viagra away from him…

Having a good laugh this morning at your least favorite troll. It seems to me that s/he must be from one of those not so bright families wherein conflict is the only form of intamcy and nobody is smart enough to break the cycle of destruction.

Would Jesus use Viagra?

I would feel sorry for Barbour but that is such a liberal & progressive thing to do. Feeling sorry for whomever. Feeling sorry for people too dim to register to vote, for example.

I’m kinda surprised that nobody at FDL has claimed responsibility for Barbour quitting the race. You know, driven from the race by the superior brains and virtue of the left.

Why didn’t the corporate media do a better job of promoting Barbour? Criminy, if there was anybody who was a corporate friendly candidate, it was Barbour.

theOXYCON, ill bet the Viagra no longer works on his pencil

Reminds me of macaquerman in a way.

No way to know….but Jesus was very kind to the woman at the well. It’s quite a conundrum to envision how kind, yet challenging, Jesus may be to Rush….That’s the part that’s really a challenge.

Thanks, SD.

*scrolling* as usual … highly recommended response …

M: I appreciated your notes Last Night about a break from the thread…I have shared many of your concerns….Good to see you back.

Haley Bop is scamming Haiti now,with Ashbritt ,just as they scammed Nola…SHOCK DOCTRINE at its best….wouldnt want to shine the great wurlitzer on their grift

Coyote, who is both smarter and more virtuous than Roadrunner, says Roadrunner is a crook and controls the media. Hence Roadrunner’s success.

“Haley Bop”

7077777777777!

Yeah. The same kind of ideological bullying.

There was incredible link yesterday to (I think) NewStatesman about the corruption in NOLA police dept….no secret. But Federal Judge is taking it over, iirc. Many horror stories of standard practice.

Thanks. It gets old, ya know?

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Afghanistan: 1,551

US KIA Irak: 4,450

Iraki, Afghan and Pakistani casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

US MBS 2011: 14,260 and counting

Wooden Ships

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things

Namaste

No war but class war

Never. Give. Up.

I’m hoping there are some vigorous prosecutions. There’s almost nothing worse than a cop who abuses his/her authority imo.

Have a good day SD.

I appreciated those notes too. You noticed I said we had wifi at the camp. And, my son had his ‘puter, but you didn’t see ME using it. Aren’t you proud of me?

Yep…I think I just heard we’re going to high 90s today…O my.

Barbors gang

Katrina Redux: New Disaster, Same Contractors in Haiti
Written by Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)
Thursday, 17 June 2010 12:26
Source: Haiti Relief and Reconstruction Watch

Ben Fox of the AP reported earlier this week on foreign firms going to Haiti to try and capitalize on the long and expensive reconstruction process. One contractor, which we have written about previously is Ashbritt. Fox writes:

Pompano Beach, Florida-based AshBritt Inc. so far has invested $25 million in its Haitian reconstruction operation covering a soccer field.

Now all Perkins [the CEO of Ashbritt] needs is a government contract to make his investment pay off.
Fox notes that Ashbritt received some $900 million for debris removal following Hurricane Katrina, but does not point to the controversy that surrounded Ashbritt. As we wrote in early February:

AshBritt found itself involved in controversy after Hurricane Katrina, when “some questioned whether AshBritt’s political donations or lobbyists paved the way for its fat federal contracts.” The Miami Herald reports that these questions led to Congressional hearings which:

[A]ired objections that local contractors were passed over in favor of AshBritt. A 2006 congressional report examining federal contract waste and abuse noted AshBritt used multiple layers of subcontractors, each of whom got paid while passing on the actual work to others.

An August 2006 House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform investigation revealed that:

Ashbritt Inc., one of the prime contractors hired by the Corps, testified in Congress that it received approximately $23 per cubic yard for debris removal in Mississippi.38 In contrast, a local contractor testified at the same hearing that it could have removed the debris for just $12.90 per cubic yard, a savings of 44% for the taxpayer.39
The removal of debris in Haiti has been a major impediment to relief efforts. As Ashbritt has made investments and cultivated high-level political connections to try and gain an upper hand in the contracting, it is certainly worth pointing out their past waste in undertaking nearly the exact same task.
Although Fox notes that no “major reconstruction contract has been awarded”, many of the same contractors who were implicated in the controversy after Hurricane Katrina have already received US government contracts, and stand to receive many more. After Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came under the most scrutiny.

A Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report from 2008 states:

The urgent need for housing pressured FEMA to act quickly. No-bid contracts were awarded to Fluor Enterprises, Inc. (Fluor), Shaw Group (Shaw), CH2M Hill Constructors, Inc. (Hill), and Bechtel National, Inc. (Bechtel).
The contracts were awarded under the Individual Assistance – Technical Assistance Contract (IA-TAC), which allows FEMA to quickly allocate funding to approved contractors. The IG report states that:

the combination of deficiencies in acquisition planning and contract oversight led to waste of government funds and questioned costs of $45.9 million…
The contracts originally had a ceiling of $100 million each, however when all was said and done, the combined contracts totaled $3.2 billion. These were the largest FEMA contracts in the aftermath of Katrina, and represented 30 percent of total spending by FEMA.

Good for you…I just had less tolerance for a number of things, also, I guess. But we missed you, as you likely saw.

the corruption is deep and petrified…who can blast clean it up?

There’s nobody on the right who is a smart as you?

That sounds like self-congratulatory arrogance, IMHO. There’s a lot of that going around.

I am proud of you. I was wondering where you had gone off to though. Glad you got a break and had some fun.

See ya later, toots.

O wow…and that’s the “smart” guy, right. Im thinking he would not much like much more financial disclosure…

scrolling

Yeah, with so many involved there’s never been much of an effort. That piece is really powerful.

Wish you could have heard me singing, “Strong young women, sick of swimmin’, ready to stand.”
If I ever get too fed up with the paradigm here, I would give you the courtesy of a personal email, friend. :)

New post up! Good news about Elizabeth Warren ~ I love that woman!!!!

Didn’t see. Didn’t go back and read what I missed. But, I thank you, sister, for the kind words and encouragement. Means a lot.

Thanks and I would do the same for you. I have a whole lotta FDL emails and they would all hear from me of I chose to be or was forced to be absent for an extended period.

I had to go look up the comment and the ensuing discussion. It captures my feelings exactly. And (as I have ranted before) there seems to be here a requirement that (I will use Rachel Maddow as an example) a pundit cover exactly the topics a person wants, with exactly the slant the person expects, or the pundit (Maddow) is “trash” or “a shill.”

Every time it comes up I rant — there are some Firepups who do it constantly and it gets very tiresome. I tend to think those people are trolls, too. Purity trolls, maybe?

Purity hacks. Gotta cover the issues they want covered, nothing else.

Goddamn BP!!!

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/26/potential-for-blast-after-bp-oil-refinery-in-texas-loses-power/

Margaret,

Please take a look at my comment to you on an earlier thread. (Link provided, but it’s comment @ 20 just in case the link doesn’t take you to the right place.) It’s an effort toward an explanation and an apology. I should also thank you for intentionally or unintentionally making me think about some of my comments at FDL in terms content trolling. I’ll try to be more aware of it in the future. Thank you!

Looks like we bored the kid….Thanks

Yes we can! I could feel everybody working hard at it this morning ~ we all did good. We can make it a habit.

‘Morning!

I’m going to respond to that here because I missed it yesterday:

I’m going to venture a guess that you’re caricaturing me and my positions on Obama and the Democratic Party with this comment.

No. It’s not just you but certainly my experience with you was the straw that’s caused me to interact less. I had thought we were friends until you went on your purity tirade against me. That hurt me. A lot.

There are real reasons to be intensely disappointed in these failed Democratic supposed leaders.

(Your bolding)
It seems to me that you are deliberately ignoring all of the times I have expressed my own disappointment with Onama and the Democrats, (I did coin the term “Vichycrats” for example), or imagining times that I have been a supporter of the establishment. Please find examples of this. While you’re looking, maybe you’ll find out that you have me confused with somebody else.

Turning our attention to Republicans when Democrats have done so much to make so many of us so intensely disappointed doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I can walk and chew gum at the same time. Similarly, I can disparage or applaud more than one person/group at the same time. Disparaging Republicans doesn’t equal cheering for Democrats. I’ve never been a member of either party and it doesn’t seem I’m ever likely to be. Similarly, calling out content trolling doesn’t equal defending anything or anybody. It’s just calling out content trolling. While voting against one major party almost always equals rewarding the other, things in real life are never as black and white. Only conservatives believe that. (No, I’m not calling you “conservative”)
This isn’t your blog. If you don’t like the content of a thread, then why even go onto it to register your disapproval if not just to stir up trouble? There are plenty of subjects, (and one writer), on this site that I avoid but the operative word is “avoid”. Though I have in the past done the same thing as you and gone out of my way to make certain everybody is aware of my objections, I have since quit that behavior. It boots nothing except causing more rancor among us. It never changes the content in question. Also personal attacks are not an effective way to persuade me or I suspect anybody else to someone’s point of view.
If you don’t read this on this thread then I will similarly direct you to it as you did for me the next time I see you. For my part, I don’t consider you a “troll” but again, I was very hurt and more than a bit surprised by your accusations and (very baseless), assumptions about who or what I support. For my part, I would like to be friends with you again. I think you have a lot of good things to say but I refuse to preface every one of my comments with how much I think Obama and the Vichycrats suck, nor am I going to automatically agree with you just to appease your outrage. That’s not what a friendship is based on. That’s what a co-dependent relationship is based on.
Thanks for the response.

I’ve read your comment once and just want to let you know that I got it. I need to read it a few more times and digest it before responding, though I think my response would amount to thanking you for making me recognize a flaw in my approach that did lead to the problem, apologizing for hurting you (it was unintentional, though that doesn’t excuse it), agreeing with you about the basis for a real friendship, and letting you know that I’d like for both of us to move forward in the most positive and productive way possible. (Ok, I guess I’ve responded in part already.)

…and letting you know that I’d like for both of us to move forward in the most positive and productive way possible.

I’d like that too. Apology accepted. :)

By way of full disclosure and to be honest with myself and everyone else:
A coupla years ago, I was doing some content/purity trolling myself with Jane and Teddy when they would link to Americablog. Teddy very patiently pointed out the folly of it to me, (for which I am immensely grateful), and so I quit. I haven’t changed the way I feel about Americablog or it’s owner by one jot but now if he’s mentioned or linked to, I just avoid that thread. Trust me, it’s still an act of will to refrain from commenting but I’ve been good.
So I’m not good and innocent or as pure as the driven snow myself and nobody should make that assumption. But I have changed my ways and I’m a better and happier person for it. So here’s also a shout out to Teddy Partridge. Thanks Teddy for helping me see the error of my ways. :)