For a guy who campaigned as an outsider, some of those who work for him are awfully in:

Barack Obama campaigned on a pledge to change Washington, vowing to upend the K Street lobbying culture he encountered when he joined the U.S. Senate.

But more than a dozen members of President-elect Obama’s fast-growing transition team have worked as federally registered lobbyists within the past four years. They include former lobbyists for the nation’s trial lawyers association, mortgage giant Fannie Mae, drug companies such as Amgen, high-tech firms such as Microsoft, labor unions and the liberal advocacy group Center for American Progress.

Mark Gitenstein, one of the 12 transition board members who will play a significant role in shaping the Obama administration, worked on million-dollar lobbying contracts with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and promoted legislation for giant defense contractors Boeing and General Dynamics. Until this fall, he was registered to petition Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission on behalf of AT&T, Merrill Lynch, KPMG, Ernst & Young and others.

Gitenstein has blue-chip credentials for the volunteer role on the Obama team. He was chief Democratic counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee during confirmation hearings for controversial Supreme Court nominee Robert H. Bork; was a close adviser to Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s White House bid; and served as counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

And just how much Change will be in store for these guys? Perhaps not as much as Obama promised:

Obama’s formal policy during the campaign indicated that there may be some role for lobbyists in his administration, though his rhetoric did not always convey that. In a 2007 speech, he said he was “running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won’t work in my White House.”

A few days later, he changed the phrasing to say that lobbyists “are not going to dominate my White House.”

Among the first acts of Obama’s transition effort was the release of a formal policy on lobbyists, which Podesta described as “the strictest and most far-reaching . . . of any transition in history.”

The rules ban lobbyists from donating to the transition effort and lobbying during the transition period. Once Obama is sworn in, his advisers must wait a year before attempting to lobby the administration on any transition issues they handled.

The code also says that “if someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.”

That one could be tricky for at least two transition team members. Gitenstein lobbied Congress on a broad spectrum of subjects such as “legal reform” during the past year, according to disclosure reports. As a senior advisory board member, his work could touch on a range of topics that would pose problems for him.

Another senior staff member, Patrick Gaspard, recently de-registered as a lobbyist on health-care issues for the Service Employees International Union. He is the transition team’s associate personnel director.

Candidates love to talk about how they’ll end the influence of lobbyists. Once they get elected, however, they can’t seem to get away from them, including the One.

November 16, 2008 06:09 AM

The world’s biggest #2—Bono—has an open letter to Barack Obama that proves that his understanding of economics is slightly worse than his mastery of the english language.  I’ll start out by rewriting it into comprehensible prose, then fisk it in italics.

Mr. President, Barack,

Mr. President:

Every room I have ever been in with you was a much easier room for your presence.

It’s rare to meet a person like you, where intellect and intuition make such a perfect rhyme.

Your very presence lightens the mood in a room.  It is rare to meet a person who is such a perfect match of intellect and intution.

[Just a second, have to vomit.]

Your intuition tells you that the well-being of the American people, spiritually as well as physically, is connected with America’s role in the world.  I know you know that the prosperity of your fellow Americans, though hard fought, is less fulfilling knowing there is so much more that can be done to alleviate poverty and suffering in the developing world.  You know that less than 1 percent of government income as a contribution from the world’s richest economy to the world’s poorest is not a fair tithe — even in times like these — which is why you have promised to double foreign assistance.  As with our own personal sojourn, so it is with country and community -– we discover who we are in service to others.

Surely you know that America’s well-being is related to her role in the world—that Americans’ prosperity means all the more to them when it can ameliorate poverty and suffering.  American contributes less than 1% of its GDP to the rest of the world, an amount you know must increase.

[Of course, government doesn’t have income—it takes income from others.  And Americans give vastly more to private charity than anyone else in the world.  By far.  And it’s not even close.  But, to Bono, if it’s not government, it’s crap!]

I know your intellect — fashioned in the halls of Harvard and on the floor of the United States Senate — has weighed up the evidence on how effective American tax dollars are, when converted into smart, targeted, focused aid.  Putting children into school where they can think freely of freedom.  Giving farmers on the parched land seed varieties that double the size of their crop yields.  Giving mothers 20 cent immunizations to protect their newborns from the deadly viruses that they pass on through childbirth.  I know your intellect has taken in the data and seen the analysis on the transformative power of effective aid in places where the United States flag is currently not one smiled at.  I know you know how much cheaper it is to make friends of potential enemies than to defend yourself at a later date.  I know you know all this stuff.

As an educated man, you know how effective American foreign aid can be.  It can educate children, help farmers increase their yields and vaccinate mothers from passing diseases to their children.  American aide could improve the nation’s image in all parts of the world.  In the long run, this would make friends instead of enemies and prevent expensive wars.

[Yes.  Giving lots of money to corrupt governments has done so much good.  And maybe, Bono, you could start campaigning to allow the GM crops that would insulate farmers from drought and increase yields.  Or maybe you could fight against price controls on prescription drugs that will stifle innovation and prevent cheap medicine that can cure disease.  Or maybe you can start lining up every Marxist, racist and Islamist you can and put a bullet in their head.]

My prayer for you is that your instinct and intellect stay in harmony in the difficult months and triumphant years ahead.

Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

----

Seriously, how can this bozo be taken seriously?

(PS - I realize, of course, that this could be a fake.  So be it.  It’s so stupid it might as well have been written by Bono.)

November 16, 2008 04:24 AM

Ennui sets in - There's a reason my blog traffic is way off and it's reflected in the non-election snooze-fest being prepared for the Sunday morning talkshows. It's time for a vacation, guys.

by Eric (noreply@blogger.com) on November 16, 2008 03:42 AM

The Big Dig strikes again - Boston Globe "Turnpike OK's hefty toll hikes": "Daily commuters from the western suburbs would be forced to spend $250 to $500 more a year to help pay off Big Dig maintenance and debt under a set of steep toll increases approved yesterday by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority." Ouch.

by Eric (noreply@blogger.com) on November 16, 2008 03:36 AM

It's a shopping channel now, right? - I like the snarky title of this Boston Globe photo gallery of classic music videos: "Back when MTV had videos"

by Eric (noreply@blogger.com) on November 16, 2008 03:35 AM

President-elect Barack Obama will have limited authority to overturn federal regulations approved in the waning months of the Bush administration.

November 15, 2008 04:39 PM

CHICAGO (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday urged Congress to get moving next week on an economic rescue plan that would extend jobless benefits among other actions.

November 15, 2008 04:39 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- World leaders edged closer to an agreement Saturday that would flag risky investing and regulatory weak spots, with President George W. Bush welcoming the progress at an emergency economic summit.

November 15, 2008 04:39 PM

By Michael Reagan -- There are a lot of meetings going on among some Republicans trying to figure out what went wrong on Election Day.

November 15, 2008 04:10 PM

By Michael Barone -- Barack Obama has noted, carefully and correctly, that we have only one president at a time.

November 15, 2008 04:10 PM

By Dick Morris -- Hopefully, it's just a rumor started by the Clintonistas, but is Barack Obama seriously considering appointing Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State? If he pulls the trigger on that appointment, he will deserve what he gets! Obama would do well to remember the history of Harry Truman and Jimmy Byrnes in 1944.

November 15, 2008 04:10 PM

By David Limbaugh -- God bless Sarah Palin, and shame on elitists from both sides of the aisle who have denigrated, demonized and dissed her.

November 15, 2008 04:10 PM

By Cliff Kincaid -- Now that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has essentially admitted that his Wall Street bailout plan isn't working.

November 15, 2008 04:10 PM

By Michelle Malkin -- Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson finally confirmed what lonely bailout opponents tried to tell the American public all along: The man doesn't know what he's doing.

November 15, 2008 04:00 PM

BOSTON (AP) -- Tagg Romney was in his office the other day when the door opened and in popped his father, Mitt Romney, dropping off the family dog.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) -- Russian threats to position missiles near Poland to counter a U.S. missile defense plan in Europe are misguided, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday, suggesting that Moscow's latest aggressive rhetoric harkens back to the old Cold War era.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Democrat Al Franken, locked in a tight Senate race headed to a statewide recount, sued Thursday for access to data on voters.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

CHICAGO (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama's White House chief of staff apologized to the Arab-American community on Thursday for remarks his father made to an Israeli newspaper.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees last week told the White House to preserve all records produced by the Bush administration and expressed "particular concerns" whether Vice President Dick Cheney's office will comply with the law.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The fate of scores of new coal-burning power plants is now in limbo over whether to regulate heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

CHICAGO (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is among the candidates that President-elect Barack Obama is considering for secretary of state.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

NEW YORK (AP) -- President George W. Bush fervently defended U.S.-style free enterprise Thursday as the cure for the world's financial chaos, not the cause.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Just as Sen. Ted Stevens appeared set to return to Congress, felony conviction and all, his re-election bid has faltered. If he loses, it also closes a possible door into the Senate anytime soon for Gov. Sarah Palin.

November 15, 2008 03:57 PM

And the Religious Right’s perpetual slide into lunacy continues.

A South Carolina Roman Catholic priest has told his parishioners that they should refrain from receiving Holy Communion if they voted for Barack Obama because the Democratic president-elect supports abortion, and supporting him “constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.”

The Rev. Jay Scott Newman said in a letter distributed Sunday to parishioners at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville that they are putting their souls at risk if they take Holy Communion before doing penance for their vote.

“Our nation has chosen for its chief executive the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president,” Newman wrote, referring to Obama by his full name, including his middle name of Hussein.

These people are doing more to ensure a more or less permanent Democratic majority than Nancy Pelosi could have ever dreamed of. Just keep digging yourselves into that hole...seriously, if this guy had just been saying this as his own opinion, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal with me. But this guy is threatening the sincere beliefs of the faithful and giving them a spiritual crisis over who they voted for. This is why the fundietards are destroying conservatism.

Update by Lee: I fucking love this.  Obama is “the most radical pro-abortion politician ever to serve in the United States Senate or to run for president.” And, top top it off, his middle name is a scary and Muslim-sounding!  As if being the most pro-abortion president ever isn’t bad enough for Catholics.

Wasn’t Jeebus all about forgiving and not judging and stuff like that?

November 15, 2008 03:48 PM

ATLANTA (AP) -- Republican John McCain implored Georgia voters Thursday to back Sen. Saxby Chambliss in next month's runoff, warning that Democrats will increase taxes and cut defense spending and the GOP needs to strengthen its ranks.

November 15, 2008 02:46 PM

Show your support for Sarah by signing this petition.

Dear Governor Palin:

We the undersigned thank you for your service to our country and your service to the cause of freedom.

Huh?  Service to the cause of freedom?  What the fuck has she done in service to the cause of freedom?  Did she somehow win a Congressional Medal of Honor that none of us know about?

The American people have been searching for new leaders who share our hopes and values and who have the courage to stand up for what is right. In you, we have found such a leader.

Uh, no.  While the American people were indeed “searching for new leaders who share our hopes and values and who have the courage to stand up for what is right” they found that new leader in Obama.  If they’d found that leader in Palin, y’know, she might have gotten elected. 

By your eloquence and your example, you have inspired us to keep fighting for a better future for our nation, for our children, and for the children of the world.

Huh?  What example?  Fighting for the children of the world? She can’t even point to the rest of the world on a map.

We urge you to continue the struggle on behalf of working people and small business people – of regular Americans who are excluded from the privileged elite – and of all those who, come January, will be largely unrepresented in the halls of power.

Ah, the “privileged elite.” In other words, the college educated.  Seriously, what the fuck is the privileged elite?  And why is it a bad thing to be a part of the elite?  If you need an organ transplant do you look for the most qualified, experienced, elite doctor you can?  Or do you look for Dr. Nick Riviera? 

Honestly, Palin supporters, please describe for me exactly who the privileged elite consists of.  See, I’ve always had this wacky, kooky notion that being part of the elite was a part of the American Dream.  You know, you leave the third world shithole you were born in, come to America, work hard, send your kids to college, and in one generation you become part of the middle class.  After your grandchildren are born in America, an they use the family’s newfound wealth to better themselves, they become privileged, and thus part of the elite.  You know, that whole idea of “accumulating wealth to improve your family’s lives” idea.

Apparently now this is a bad thing.  Educated?  Bah, you’re part of the elite!  Why get financial advice from the elite when you can get it from this guy?

After all, he’s definitely not one of the “privileged elite.”

As you stand with us, we will stand with you.

To quote Yoda, “This is why you fail.”

Look, we’ve all been noting for the past year or so the cult of personality that the “liberal elite” has been engaging in towards Obama.  “He’ll align the planets, end all war and suffering, eradicate poverty, pay all our bills, and wipe away our tears when we’re sad.” Well, this EXACT SAME THING is happening on the right.  The difference is that, regardless of politics, Obama is qualified to be president, whereas this bimbo isn’t qualified to disinfect bowling shoes at an all-night bowling alley.

November 15, 2008 02:46 PM

Why they hate Sarah







(Irrelevant comment: Wotta babe!)



If it is generational change the electorate wants, some American conservatives are pinning their hopes on Sarah Palin. Unlike the recent crop of successful conservative leaders around the world, Palin is a bonfire lighter. She sparks a visceral hatred among her ideological opponents, more malign and more extreme than was the case even for Hillary Clinton, the previously most vilified politician since Margaret Thatcher. Note they are all women.



While race may no longer be an issue in post-partisan times, sexism is alive and well, but perpetrated most nakedly by the Aunty Alices of the media firmament. These are women who seek to ingratiate themselves with the dominant power group, even if it means trashing their own kind. They are to women what Uncle Tom was to black people.



And why? Mostly because of abortion, because as the American political analyst Michael Barone said this week, Palin did not abort her disabled baby. Barone later claimed he was joking, after being booed by journalists during a speech in Chicago when he reportedly said: "The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby. They wanted her to kill that child." Palin represents so radical a disruption of the cultural order that she just has to be smashed. The amount of mud being thrown at her now is a measure of how seriously the threat of a Palin presidential campaign in 2012 is taken.



Source. Non-editorializing report of her recent press conference here



***********************



All's Fair with the Left



Media ignore how unfair liberal plans really are.



Fair's fair, right? Not always - especially in the new America that dawns January 20. That's when the Obama administration takes over and they have bold plans for making America a fairer place to be. The Democratic platform Obama supports has 30 separate references to fairness in some form or another. Obama wants a "fair economy," "fair trade," women to get "fair pay," to make "sure that workers get their fair share," and to restore "fairness to our tax code." These items have nothing at all to do with being fair. They are Orwellian doublespeak like: "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." They are the antithesis of what those terms are supposed to mean.



And America's sycophantic media refuse to call any of it into question. They even embrace some of it, like supposedly "fair trade." But what is fair or what makes up a "fair economy?" Is it one where everyone has the opportunity to succeed or the mandate for equality?



The Democratic platform makes it clear that the left wants government to do everything for us but tuck us in at night. "We Democrats want - and we hereby pledge - a government led by Barack Obama that looks out for families in the new economy with health care, retirement security, and help, especially in bad times. Investment in our country - in energy, education, infrastructure, science." That's their model of a "fair economy." They also plan to take a fair amount of money from hard-working taxpayers.



Look at fair trade. Liberals opposed to Western nations benefiting from globalization endorse the idea of "fair trade" over actual market freedom. The Fair Trade Federation calls the idea "a holistic approach to trade and development that aims to alter the ways in which commerce is conducted, so that trade can empower the poorest of the poor." It's so touchy-feeling you can almost feel it hug you. But it has nothing to do with business. Running a company means creating the best products for you customers and making the most money for your owners or investors. It does not mean sending love notes to the third world.



Yet the mainstream media love it. For Mother's Day 2007, CBS did a flattering story on an Ecuadorian florist embracing the "big color" green as part of "fair trade." In a coffee story, "Today" Food Editor Phil Lempert said "fair trade is very important" because "farmers are actually paid a fair wage." No one even questioned his use of the loaded term.



Then there are taxes. Obama is already famous for his ridiculous tax answer to ABC's Gibson Gibson during the primary debates. When told by Gibson that cuts to capital gains taxes produce more revenue than increases, Obama still favored hikes - because they are what he calls "fair." "I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness," he explained. He then described the current tax structure as "not fair." Liberals don't grasp that their interpretation of "fair" is un. One of the most obvious examples of this is their attempt to restore the misnamed "Fairness Doctrine," designed to silence critics in talk radio.



It's not a Fairness Doctrine. It's a Censorship Doctrine. Its rules are designed to force conservative talkers into submission by mandating equal time for liberal voices. As if those same voices aren't already dominant in every other form of media. Still several prominent Democrats have pushed for this regulation of free speech as a "fair" way to neutralize their opponents. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., was only the most recent to promote this anti-1st Amendment regulation. In a Fox News interview he commented, "I think we should all be fair and balanced, don't you?" Other top Democrats who fear opposition voices have made a similar push from Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to Senate Rules Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.



So far, the new president is not agreeing. Back in June, Broadcasting & Cable magazine reported then-candidate Obama opposed that kind of "fairness." "`Sen. Obama does not support reimposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters,' press secretary Michael Ortiz said in an e-mail to B&C late Wednesday," it reported. But that was when he was running for election and before he was openly complaining about Fox News and the Drudge Report or bumping reporters off the plane after their newspapers endorsed his opponent.



A newly empowered and prickly POTUS could decide he likes having the press as lapdogs instead of watchdogs. By going after talk radio, he gets rid of critics and ingratiates himself to media allies who despise talk radio. Conservatives need to fight this fight today and make sure Obama's "fairness" doesn't destroy our already limited voice. It's time we said fair enough.



Source



*************************



ELSEWHERE



Wow! First we had a phony birth certificate for Obama now we have a phony selective service registration. Is there anything about this guy that is legit?



Next Up for Nationalization: the Internet: "Following the nationalization of investment banks, Fannie and Freddie, consumer banks, and private insurance companies, taxpayers are likely asking: What's left for the federal government to nationalize? How about the Internet? Network neutrality, or net neutrality, is the beneficent-sounding name for sweeping new government regulatory power that would prohibit Internet service providers from innovating in their own networks. This could lead to much less broadband investment by private companies, and could potentially force government subsidization, control, and outright nationalization of the Internet. The implications of this are chilling"



One reason why Detroit is broke: "Detroit is trying to clean up its image. In efforts to do so, the city council wants to give a $200,000 contract to a non-profit organization dedicated to the reforestation of the city. It's being called The Greening of Detroit. The group made up of volunteers would plant 2,000 saplings in neighborhoods that have been plagued by some invasive species. Enter the local union: AFSCME Local 542. This union has now stalled the City Council from authorizing this agreement for The Greening of Detroit. Why? Because the local union sees this as competition for the city's 50 forestry workers and they believe that the city is outsourcing THEIR jobs by allowing this non-profit organization to plant trees. Instead, this union would rather the government spend the $200,000 on trees and then pay the union workers to do the labor on top of that ... rather than allowing these volunteers to plant the trees for free."



For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena



List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here



****************************



The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)



****************************

by JR (noreply@blogger.com) on November 15, 2008 12:35 PM

The Republicans may have written off the educated big time:

Republicans have lost an enormous amount of support among upscale voters, basically just breaking even among those with household incomes above $50,000 a year, a traditional GOP stronghold. Similarly, McCain’s losing to Obama among college graduates and voters who have attended some college underscores how much the GOP franchise is in trouble. My hunch is that the Republican Party’s focus on social, cultural, and religious issues—most notably, fights over embryonic-stem-cell research and Terri Schiavo—cost its candidates dearly among upscale voters.

The problem isn’t necessarily anti-intellectualism. There’s always been a streak of that running through conservatism, and the GOP. The problem is that they made heroes and spokespeople out of Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber at the expense of what is now this country’s fastest-growing voting bloc-the urban (or suburban) college-educated. Their view of who represents the educated classes in our society and what their attitudes are is out of date. The educated are no longer a group of the privelaged few-they are the regular folk that the Republicans used to be able to appeal to. As such, they gone from sounding anti-elitist to anti-education in general. And that’s what will kill them in future elections unless they start catching up to where the rest of society is.

November 15, 2008 08:34 AM

Should anyone have ever taken this guy seriously?

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, who launched a high-profile campaign to reduce oil imports to the U.S., is being forced to delay a huge planned wind-farm project, according to published reports.

Over the past two days, Boone spoke at events where he said that the wind project is having trouble getting financing because of the credit crunch.

He was also quoted saying that falling prices of natural gas, used in power plants, are making his wind project less economical.

In other words, he was done in by the Invisible Hand. And there are other factors at work against him:

Contrary to Pickens’ demagoguery, “wealth transfer” is a term generally used in the context of estate planning, where money is simply “gifted” to heirs.

Our purchases of foreign oil, in contrast, are more reasonably known as “trade” — and trade is good.

Americans are not simply petro-junkies who mainline crude oil for the masochistic high of watching gas pump numbers spin faster. We produce goods and services with imported oil more than any other people on this planet.

Look, I’m all for alternative energy sources, and for depending less on foreign oil. But as long as we’re part of a global economy we will never totally get off of the stuff. Pickens is a populist without a political campaign. The free market is already doing its thing in providing incentive for investing in alternative energy. It doesn’t need forcing from the likes of Pickens.

November 15, 2008 06:26 AM

And with this ATM, you never have to pay the money back.

It’s fuzzy ‘cuz it’s true.

November 15, 2008 06:10 AM

Hillary for Secretary of State?

President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said.

Sorry, but I’m calling BS. And I’m not the only one:

The speculation is not because Senator Clinton wants the job, but because her people so desperately want to muddy the waters and throw up a roadblock to either New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson or Massachusetts Senator John Kerry - two of the leading contenders - serving in the post, whom they consider turncoats for having endorsed Obama vs. Clinton earlier this year.

At any rate, I think Hillary is biding her time and waiting for Obama to screw up so she can run for the nomination in 2012. These people wll stop at nothing to regain influence and should be avoided at all costs.

November 15, 2008 06:09 AM

Radio Daze - The Consumerist notes that the XM and (less-so) Sirius changed programming after their merger with little advance warning to subscribers. This explains why my old disco channel (yeah, that's right) is now something called "The Foxxhole" which is mostly "comedians" yelling into a microphone. I seem to recall another time when a radio station changed formats on the fly. That didn't

by Eric (noreply@blogger.com) on November 15, 2008 03:44 AM

Congratulations, Dale! NY Times: "Obama hires Jarrett for senior role" I was worried he wouldn't be able to find work after leaving the UPS Team.

by Eric (noreply@blogger.com) on November 15, 2008 03:17 AM

Shocking, I know - The Boston Globe advocates for a tax increase: "The Commonwealth has broad transportation problems that require a broad solution. Meanwhile, the state's gasoline tax is 7.5 cents below the national average. Each extra penny would yield about $25 million a year. Hint, hint." Wrote the editors who don't commute 50 miles a day.

by Eric (noreply@blogger.com) on November 15, 2008 03:16 AM

By Linda Chavez -- Democratic politicians like to see themselves as champions of public education; but when it comes to picking schools for their own children to attend, their support disappears.

November 15, 2008 01:30 AM

I have to agree with Cato that the most important battle the GOP is going to fight is the one against health care “reform:

Why? Norman Markowitz, a contributing editor at PoliticalAffairs.net (motto: “Marxist Thought Online”), makes an interesting point about how making citizens dependent on the government for their medical care can change the fates of political parties:

A “single payer” national health system – known as “socialized medicine” in the rest of the developed world – should be an essential part of the change that the core constituencies which elected Obama desperately need. Britain serves as an important political lesson for strategists. After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party…

I’m no student of British history, but that sounds about right. Markowitz continues:

The best way to win over the the portion of the working class in the South or the West that supported McCain and the Republicans is to create important new public programs and improve the social safety net. National health care [and other measures] will bring reluctant voters into the Obama coalition. That is how progress works.

The Democrats have constantly drummed up votes among seniors by saying Republicans were going to take away their Social Security.  Just imagine what will happen when the can tell the entire nation that the Republicans will take their health care.  Just imagine what will happen when the debate is no longer over socializing medicine, but over who will spend the most.

That’s the recipe for a long exile.  If the GOP can’t scuttle these plans, they are dead.

November 14, 2008 11:25 PM

Okay, I know a number of you just think Sarah Palin is the cat’s ass.  Here’s something she said at the governor’s conference. 

Sitting here in these chairs that I’m going to be proposing but in working with these governors who again on the front lines are forced to and it’s our privileged obligation to find solutions to the challenges facing our own states every day being held accountable, not being just one of many just casting votes or voting present every once in a while, we don’t get away with that. We have to balance budgets and we’re dealing with multibillion dollar budgets and tens of thousands of employees in our organizations.

Her intellect must be far above mine because I can’t divine the genius that must be plainly evident in her words.  Please, those of you who admire her and view her as a potential leader, do this pour soul a favor and dumb this down for me so I can understand it.  Just leave a quick two sentence summary in the comments explaining what she was saying, because I’m clearly too stupid to get it.

November 14, 2008 09:05 PM

When I’m right I’m right, but when I’m wrong I’m wrong.  From November 2002:

Pelosi is a typical dyed-in-the-wool leftist. She exemplifies the positions rejected yesterday by the American electorate. The Democrats should learn from their ass-whipping and try to find a leader whose values more closely match those of the people who voted yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s not in their interest to do so. Swing voters don’t write checks to either party, and the only people who write them to the Democrats are billionaire liberals and hard-core left-wingers. The Green Party is making inroads into that kernel of left-wingers, so the Democrats can’t afford to alienate them any more than they have thus far. So, appointing a leftie like Pelosi would be just the type of thing I would expect them to do. And as a Republican, I sure hope they do. After Bush as taken care of Iraq, repaired the economy with more tax cuts and other incentives, and implemented much of the rest of his stated agenda, having a typical idea-less liberal dunce like Nancy Pelosi running things in the House would be just the ticket to ensure Republican control of that house for years to come.

You want to know what this blog is?  Documentary evidence of one man’s quest to repeatedly discover just how wrong he is about things.

November 14, 2008 08:46 PM

MIAMI (AP) -- Sarah Palin called on fellow Republican governors to keep the new president and his strengthened Democratic majority in check on issues from taxes to health care as she signaled she'll take a leadership role in a party searching for a new standard-bearer.

November 14, 2008 03:01 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- All aboard, there may be another bailout train leaving the station on Capitol Hill.

November 14, 2008 03:01 PM

Holy shit, you need to watch this:

What amazes me about financial “experts” is the almost sportcaster-like arrogance with which they present their views.  The guys mocking and laughing at Shiff were not only wrong—it was quite clear that they were wrong at the time.

If you’ve ever read The Wisdom of Crowds (and if you haven’t, you should), that clip is a perfect example of an information cascade.

November 14, 2008 02:59 PM

By Oliver North -- For the past seven years, according to Rep. Jim Moran, "We have been guided by a Republican administration who believes in the simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it."

November 14, 2008 02:09 PM

MIAMI (AP) -- Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who clearly is looking ahead to her political prospects in 2012, said Wednesday that a woman would be good for the Republican presidential ticket in four years.

November 14, 2008 01:54 PM

Hate By Any Other Name



The LA Times covers the mass protests against the passage of Proposition 8, which amends the California constitution and clarifies that marriage is restricted to one man and one woman. Set aside the fact that African Americans were the most overwhelmingly pro-Prop 8 voters, or that some may have supported the measure simply because they were offended at gay marriage being imposed through a one-vote margin by California Supreme Court judicial fiat.



What's worth noting is that since the proposition passed, some of its opponents have behaved in a way that would be universally condemned if, say, conservatives had behaved in the same manner about Obama's victory. Most appalling, here is video of a cross being ripped out of an elderly woman's hand and being trampled upon.



Just asking: Where is the ACLU, and where are all the hate crimes advocates? Surely if a Christian had stomped on a symbol of gay pride, there would be you-know-what to pay. What makes it all right for gay activists to stamp on the most sacred symbol of the Christian faith?



It strikes me that different standards of behavior are expected from Americans depending on their political persuasion. Acts that would be characterized as unacceptable and hateful if employed by conservatives are treated as an acceptable expression of legitimate grievance when committed by the left.



Source



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Hank Paulson, Naked Emperor



The urgent necessity of a few weeks ago is now useless, we hear



Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson finally confirmed what lonely bailout opponents tried to tell the American public all along: The man doesn't know what the hell he's doing.



Paulson held a bazooka to taxpayers' heads. He groveled on his knees in front of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He lured leaders from both political parties into linking arms in a panicked Chicken Little line dance for the beleaguered mortgage industry. Paulson demanded an unprecedented $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for the good of the country. For the health of the housing market. For the survival of the economy. No time for deliberation. No time to review the failures of such interventionist approaches around the world. Now, now, now!



And now? The pulled-out-of-the-posterior "$700 billion" price tag has ballooned into the trillions. The "mortgage industry rescue" has expanded to banks, insurance companies, automakers, credit card companies and possibly the entire national volume of consumer lending. Oh, and that vaunted "TARP" component, Paulson admitted this week, is nothing but a four-letter word that rhymes with TRAP.



In September, Paulson offered his lofty pledge: "The ultimate taxpayer protection will be the stability this troubled asset relief program provides to our financial system, even as it will involve a significant investment of taxpayer dollars. I am convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative -- a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion."



Two months later, Paulson's conviction melted faster than microwaved butter. "Our assessment at this time is that this is not the most effective way to use TARP funds," he sheepishly told the nation Wednesday.....



Wielding his enormous authority, Paulson is desperately throwing our money at banks in a futile attempt to convince them to lend. Instead, those banks are either hoarding the cash or acquiring more assets. In other words: Paulson is helping the banks that were "too big to fail" grow even bigger with taxpayer backing. Swell.



Hank Paulson is not to be trusted. I repeat: This is the man who proclaimed the subprime crisis "largely contained" in April 2007; "near the bottom" in May 2007; and "largely contained" again in August 2007. This is the man who pledged that he had "no interest in bailing out lenders or property speculators" in October 2007 and couldn't "think of any situation where the backdrop of the global economy was as healthy as it is today."



This is the man who patted himself on the back for refusing to "put taxpayer money on the line" to rescue Lehman Brothers on Sept. 15 -- and then turned around the next day and engineered the $85 billion taxpayer-funded bailout of AIG. This is the man who vowed he had "no plans to insert money" into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and then turned around and committed $200 billion in capital and credit lines to those corrupt, bloated, crumbling institutions.



Emperor Paulson's bipartisan courtiers in Congress berated anyone who dared challenge his wisdom. Minority Leader John Boehner sniffed: "This is no time for ideological purity." Well, ideological pollution begat this mess. It's time for a fiscal-conservative counterinsurgency to disrobe and disarm the charlatans before they do more harm.



More here



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Brookes News Update



Obama's New Deal v. the US economy: Just as I predicted, the US economy is in another recession. And what does Team Obama intend to do about it? The same things that Roosevelt did. And informed people know just how well that worked. The man will be an economic disaster if he implements his economic program

Why Keynes is not the answer to the financial crisis: We find it extraordinary to suggest that Keynes' ideas are now coming back to save the world. Keynesian ideas have never left the rooms of government and central bank decision makers. The essence of the thinking of the most influential economists was and still is Keynesian

Recession is already here - and has been for months: The economy started to slide into recession months ago. Yet the economic commentariat is still blaming the financial crisis. So what really happened and how is it to be dealt with?

Obama's wheelbarrow economics: Obama's primitive economics. The Messiah is seriously considering creating millions of new jobs by destroying capital, despite the fact that it is capital that raises real wages. That anyone about to occupy the Oval Office should give this garbage more than a moment's thought should beggar belief

The tide is finally turning against global warming cultists: All over the western world, the penny is dropping. People are coming to realise that "global warming" is a phony crisis. More slowly they are learning that the misguided policies being promoted to change future climate will create real crises in energy and food supplies and costs

Obama to shut down talkback radio? The right To remain silent: Obama's thugocracy is already moving to destroy conservative talkback radio. No doubt they will have the full support of America's viciously corrupt 'mainstream media', not to mention a horde of leftwing foreign 'journalists'

Miracles of the Obamaic faith: What Obama says does not make sense. His speeches, when not totally devoid of content, unceremoniously contradict themselves - and that is exactly why they work so well. Their content has no importance at all



For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena



List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. Email me here (Hotmail address). My Home Pages are here or here or here



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The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)



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by JR (noreply@blogger.com) on November 14, 2008 12:38 PM

It may be political partisanship, but at least somebody wants them to be held accountable:

Democrats from the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees last week sent a letter to the White House demanding that it preserve all records produced by the Bush administration. The letter expressed particular concern that the office of Vice President Cheney would not comply with the law.

The letter, sent by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Sen. John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, asks White House counsel Fred Fielding to detail steps being taken to preserve White House documents and hand them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

Now that he won’t be in power for much longer, Cheney may become target number one:

If you go after Cheney--seriously, I’m talking now about a serious investigation by an international tribunal, and charges brought against him in the international court, so that he would be subject to arrest, and trial, just as Milosevic and some of the people involved in these behaviors in the Balkans were--that that would force Cheney, in his defense, to disclose the degree to which the president, George W. Bush, was culpable in any of this, if culpable at all.

I really found this documentary, Torturing Democracy, very, very disturbing. And I guess the reason that heretofore I have not been such an easy mark on the matter of this kind of charge is that I don’t think I ever saw an organized, systematized review of what we did, and how we did it, as well presented as it was in this documentary. And it grieves me to say, as an American citizen, that I believe the leadership of our country is responsible for crimes against humanity. But, you know, we can’t be trumpeting about the behavior of others, like Milosevic, and others, if we do not expect ourselves to be held to a similar high standard.

If you need to be reminded of what it was that Bush and Cheney presided over, it’s this.

Many of the prisoners were sold into captivity and subjected to brutal treatment in U.S. prison camps in Afghanistan. Once in Guantanamo, prisoners were denied access to civilian courts to challenge the legality of their detention. Almost two-thirds of the former detainees interviewed reported having psychological problems since leaving Guantanamo.

...............

Over half of the study respondents who discussed their interrogation sessions at Guantanamo (31 of 55) characterized them as “abusive.” Detainees reported being subjected to short shackling, stress positions, prolonged solitary confinement, and exposure to extreme temperatures, loud music, and

strobe lights for extended periods-often simultaneously. The authors conclude that the cumulative impact of these methods, especially over time, constitutes cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and, in some cases, rises to the level of torture.

But just keep telling yourselves that we were the good guys and that Obama is a durn librul for wanting Gitmo closed. That might help it go down easier.

November 14, 2008 07:17 AM

Sarah Palin apparently isn’t a big hit with her fellow GOP governors:

Some Republican governors tell CNN they were not particularly happy with the way the Republican Governors Association press conference was executed Thursday, saying that they agreed to go as a show of GOP governors’ unity — but they ended up feeling like silent Palin supporters, since it was clearly a press conference called for her.

The GOP governors spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity.

One called it awkward: “I’m sure you could see it on some of our faces.”

Another Republican governor eyeing a presidential run in 2012 told CNN the event was “odd” and “weird,” and said it “unfortunately sent a message that she was the de facto leader of the party.”

There has been palpable tension among some GOP governors gathered in Miami that Palin has been sucking up all the media oxygen.

But hey, she’s the one shooting little starbursts out of her eyes! Obviously they don’t get her appeal with the Base.

November 14, 2008 06:52 AM

Could Obama be done in by market mathematics?

The host predicted that President Obama would have a miserable term and face a challenge from within his own party in 2012, likely from Hillary Clinton. “You watch,” he said. “In a year, the Clintons will orchestrate a campaign to declare this a failed Presidency.”

Another guest, a trader and market strategist who had voted for Ralph Nader, agreed about 2012, but according to a different logic. He expounded on a belief he held regarding the cycles of history and the markets. It was based, he said, on the formula for the circumference of a circle—the idea that 2πr might apply to the financial cycle—and, in combination with various Fibonacci fractal techniques, it had made him a lot of money.

....

According to pi-cycle theory, after a failed attempt at a rally between now and next spring, the market will not hit bottom until June, 2011, so Obama may be doomed to muddle through a deepening recession and the unpopularity that comes with it, and whoever succeeds him in 2012, should he lose, will then have the chance to ride the recovery—to be, in the public’s untrained eye, the transformative F.D.R. or Ronald Reagan that people dearly want Obama to be now. Unless, of course, one adheres to the Venn-diagram view of history, in which case November 4, 2008, could feasibly be Day One in another pi cycle.

It all sounds a bit esoteric, but I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if the Clintons came riding in on their white horse as the paragons of “Experience” and tried to wrestle the nomination away from Obama. And then you could have a choice between Palin and Hillary, god help us all.

November 14, 2008 06:43 AM

I was a reluctant supporter of the bailout.  Probably the worst aspect of it—and one I knew was coming—is that now, everyone is demanding money from Washington, including the most fiscally mismanaged state in the union:

Not that many people outside of California care, but according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state faces a nearly $25 billion budget deficit.

As the rich man that he is, the former movie star favors everybody else helping out by making his state’s sales tax the No. 1 biggest, averaging 9.5%.

According to the nonpartisan legislative analyst, Mac Taylor, the state’s deficit will actually be closer to $28 billion in the next 20 months. That’s a lot of money, even at California prices; more money even than Barack Obama raised to get elected president.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, has drawn up a partial solution anyway: Federal money.

Use some of those Wall Street taxpayer $700 billion bailout bucks on California!

Bass has urged the federal government to hand over the money to states—well, her state anyway—as well as those rich Wall Street banks in another coastal state. Why should New York get it all?

With federal money it won’t really cost anything, see? And she won’t have to explain voting for more taxes back home come next election. It’s the least Americans can do for the sunshiney state they love to hate.

“We think that with the state of California about to go over a cliff,” Bass says, “we ought to be part of the bailout as well. Can we have $5 billion or $10 billion?”

Handing out that much federal money to the most populous state that can’t balance its own budget is probably O.K. with the rest of the country, don’t you think? How could anyone possibly object in any of those other puny places?

Of course, the problem is that we don’t have $700 billion to bail out Wall Street—we’re borrowing it.  But the pigs smell slops and now they’re all at the trough.  Car companies.  States.  Banks.  Investment companies.  Everyone who is failing is demanding money from those who aren’t.  That’s the legacy of eight years of “free markets”.

I know it’s a silly fantasy, but wouldn’t it be just great if one of our politicians stood up and said the following:  “No.  Fuck all of you.  It was a questionable idea to bail out the banks.  Now you’re trying to persuade us that two wrongs make a right—that if we screwed up by bailing out the banks, we should screw up more by bailing out everyone else.  What good is bailout money going to be if inflation destroys its value?  Who is going to bail out the federal government when it can’t pay it’s bills?  Buckle down and man up, you pussies.  You can figure out to cut costs.  Don’t come crying to us because you can’t or won’t make tough decisions.”

I’ve become more sympathetic to the idea that our bailouts need to be conditional on firing the CEO and half the board of whoever is getting the money (I think this is how Europe does it; but I can’t find a reference).  There needs to be a huge disincentive to this sort of crapola.  Best part?  For California to get a dime of federal money, they’d have to shitcan half their legislature and their worthless Governator.

November 14, 2008 04:07 AM

The engine of doom - Michael Lewis of "Liar's Poker" has a must-read article (long, some salty language) on the subprime mortgage mess. If you want to know why Wall Street imploded, here's a good place to start: "In Bakersfield, California, a Mexican strawberry picker with an income of $14,000 and no English was lent every penny he needed to buy a house for $720,000."

by Eric (noreply@blogger.com) on November 14, 2008 03:55 AM

Jesus:

For all the fury over Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion emergency economic relief fund, it seems downright puny when compared to the running total of the government’s response to the credit crisis.

According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system.

Think about it this way.  If all these default, you would have to give up half your salary just to cover the losses.  What the fuck have we done to this country?

November 14, 2008 12:39 AM