CAT 5

a good illustration of how compromising with crazy people will kill us all.

and here we sit like crows on a wire...

Subject: Economic tsunami
Text: Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job.

When I first saw this title in Open Mics, I thought it was going to be a discussion about computer cables. D'oh!

that would be two of us.

Career Advancement Scholarship

BPW (Business and Professional Women) Foundation will not be providing scholarships for the 2009-2010 cycle.

[snip]

The BPW Foundation established the Career Advancement Scholarship Program in 1969 to provide financial assistance to disadvantaged women seeking to further their education. Scholarships are provided to women who wish to advance in their careers, or are soon to enter or re-enter the workforce. The Foundation has awarded more than $6 million in scholarships, grants, and loans to over 8,000 women seeking to improve their lives.

(Used to be 200 scholarships a year...)

new to me anyway.

I don't have anything to say about our current state of fucked upedness.

I agree with Krugman and that Democrats are grabbing ankles needlessly on the Stimulus bill. Bribing Colling / Specter with $85B seems criminal. These people need to be shamed or exiled.

ethernet cable. more precisely (wiki):

Category 5 cable, commonly known as Cat 5, is a twisted pair (4 pairs) cable type designed for high signal integrity. Many such cables are unshielded but some are shielded. Category 5 has been superseded by the Category 5e specification. This type of cable is often used in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet, and is also used to carry many other signals such as basic voice services, token ring, and ATM (at up to 155 Mbit/s, over short distances).

- Independent

I'm sure this is cause for his impeachment from the reigh.

You know the wingnuts are in a tailspin when the Chamber of Commerce endorses the stimulus plan and a Republican "sellout" has to read it to them on the floor of the Senate.

this too: "The National Association of Manufacturers has also weighed in, telling Republicans that votes on the bill “including potential procedural motions” may be considered for designation as key votes in NAM’s scoring of their legislative record."

via Balloon Juice

"this machine kills fascists"

installs should be shot. (maybe that was sammy's point.)

Cat5e will carry 1 gig and Cat6 will carry 10gig ethernet. Using either will help build an infrastructure that will support the future technologies that are quickly becoming standard. Skimping and using antiquated materials, might save a little now, but will quickly become a costly mistake as your new network becomes unusable with the changing technologies....

...personally, I would go with fiber. :)

I was told this was a new thread...now I find out it was all a ruse to trick me into visiting Sam's open mic?
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Frist! :)

Does anyone else see the stripping out of State funding from the Stim as a continuation of the neocon agenda?

I wonder how long it be before Schwarzenegger is forced to declare a state of emergency and declare Marshal Law.....

Now he tells me...

Fuddy Duddy Luddite Chew

Submitted by SEDER on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 9:14am.
I'd rather err on the side of caution, thank god I don't live on a river town with "centrists"...
------
I am amused albeit dismayed when I hear someone state that the previous money that was allocated to the credit crisis was a failure.

The meeting was held over a weekend because there was concern that the markets might crash in the coming week. Whether the markets would have crashed, or not, without the announcement of the allocated money will forever be unknown.

And the mounting evidence that some of the money was (and is) being misused is not as salient as whether a significant shift in perception (market psychology) resulted or did not result from the mere announcement of the availability of government funds.

The markets are influenced more by collective optimism or pessimism than by any other factor. It is impossible for the naysayers to know if a market meltdown has already been prevented by government action, so it is also impossible for the naysayers to know that government action has been a failure.

that's how I took it anyway. I don't think Sam knows what an RJ11 looks like.

..and I knew what he was referring to, but it is just so rarely I get to use one of my business sales pitches as a political metaphor that I just couldn't resist. ;)

"The 25 lines edited out of the court papers contained details of how Mr Mohamed's genitals were sliced with a scalpel and other torture methods so extreme that waterboarding, the controversial technique of simulated drowning, 'is very far down the list of things they did,' the official said," Tim Shipman and Melissa Kite, report for The Telegraph. - Raw

The truth shall set ye free. THIS WAS DONE IN MY NAME. GOD DAMN YOU GEORGE BUSH.

I bet he doesn't call his phone line that either.

Just as long as the fittings are snug. ;)

Thanks,mb.
That explains some inside baseball that was going on with his debut merger show. He kept laughing whenever he mentioned that he was sure past "technical difficulties" wouldn't happen today. I didn't understand the laughing, I just thought he was bowling-up.

Pro Bowl not much of a game, but for me, any football or sex -- "good or bad"-- is just fine.
Damn no arena football!

Michele
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 10:30am.

"I was even thinking about our water here. For awhile I'd fill a glass from the tap and saw little bubbles in the water. I don't think that's normal, do you?"

Air in your tap water is perfectly normal and should be there as oxygenated water tastes better and is better for you.

Bottled water is usually a Big Waste Of Money because the health standards for it are the same as tap water. All municipal water systems are required to under go frequent testing for a large assortment of contaminates, pathogens and bacteria. The main problem with most tap water is that chlorine is used as a disinfectant in the water supply which is good because it will disinfect almost everything that is biologically bad for you but it is also bad because drinking minut amounts of chlorine over time is bad for you.

You can obtain copies of your cities water reports from city hall. You want to look in particular for metal types and so forth.

You can get rid of the dissolved chlorine gas by letting an open jug of water sit out for 4 to 5 hours. Then shake it up real good every time you are going to use it to re-oxygenate it.

Another way to remove the chlorine is by using a simple granular carbon filter like Brita's or similar ones. Just make sure you replace it when it is exhausted because it will be ineffective at that point.

A much better carbon filter is one that is made of solid pressed carbon called a solid carbon block filter. These will also mechanically filter down to less than a micron.

One of the best all around water filters that doesn't require buying replacement filters frequently and works by gravity is the Berkey filter. It uses cleanable coated ceramic elements(which will eventually have to be replaced after a long period). Depending on how much water you need you can use 1, 2, 3 or 4 elements to gravity filter your water. These type of units come in food grade plastic or stainless steel.

This last method probably is not needed in the vast majority of water systems:
But if you do happen to have close to the danger level of metal contaminants in your water the best way to deal with those is by using a reverse osmosis filter then depending on what else is in there possibly using another filter after that.

---

Personally my water isn't bad but I do let a almost full clear water jug sit open for at least 4 hours and usually over night. It always tastes much better and is healthier once you let all the chlorine dissapate.

If I was going to buy a filter I would get a small Berkey gravity filter with a couple of elements.

Michael Steele

“You and I know that in the history of mankind and womankind, government—federal, state or local—has never created one job,”

I still can't get over this jackass statement.

Swimmer Phelps' punishment way out of proportion

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/399253_Joel09.html?source=mypi

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

A box of Kellogg's cereal sits in my Dumpster, part of a vow not to patronize the cereal maker's products after it dumped Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps as a product endorser.

Phelps has gotten a raw deal for doing what more than 90 million Americans, including President Barack Obama, have done. He apparently took a puff of marijuana at a party, as reported in Star Magazine.

The dumping by Kellogg, and the three-month suspension of Phelps by USA Swimming, is -- to borrow the title of a 1930s movie -- a case of Reefer Madness.

Olympic athletes are young. They follow, over a period of years, an incredibly disciplined workout regimen.

"It's you against yourself," speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, once a mischief-making Seattle-area teenager, said of a workout trail at the base of Colorado's Pikes Peak, which gains 2,000 vertical feet in a mile.

Phelps cut loose in a kind of post-Olympic victory lap. At a University of South Carolina house party, he fell victim to a cell phone containing a camera. The rodent who snapped the picture scored a pile of cash from a British tabloid.

"I guarantee, even with that one bong hit, Phelps is 100 percent healthier than the average human being," Canadian Olympic gold medal snowboarder Ross Rebagliati told The Vancouver (B.C.) Sun.

Rebagliati, of Whistler, B.C., was briefly stripped of his gold medal after the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He got it back because the drug was not then a forbidden Olympic substance.

A crowd of thousands welcomed him home to Whistler, with a sweet smell hanging over the celebration. (Rebagliati denied lighting up, saying he likely inhaled marijuana as secondhand smoke at a Whistler party.)

Writing of Phelps' punishment for the Reason Foundation, Nick Gillespie opined: "The only regrettable behavior and bad judgment the incident highlights is the stupidity of the ongoing war on drugs, which criminalizes a plant that almost half of Americans 12 years and older have tried at one point or another in their lives."

Let's dwell on that point.

In 1992, we elected a president who confessed to smoking cannabis, although Bill Clinton added the famous qualification: "I didn't inhale." Vice President (and Nobel laureate) Al Gore fessed up to lighting up for several years in the 1970s while writing for the Nashville Tennessean.

Obama has written about smoking marijuana while a student at Honolulu's prestigious Punahoe School.

On the Republican side of the fence, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman pungently recalled her experience with the forbidden weed: "I turned on. I tuned in. And I threw up."

Rebagliati told The Sun that it is a "shame" to see the media focus on one photo taken months ago at a private college party, adding: "It would be a different situation if Phelps were smoking a bong at Disneyland in front of children, or promoting it out in public: That is not what happened."

The severity of Phelps' punishment raises question as well.

Thrice-divorced, pill-popping public moralist Rush Limbaugh was charged with "doctor shopping," obtaining painkillers from physicians who were not aware he was getting the drugs from other physicians.

Limbaugh had advocated sending drug offenders "up the river." He got off with no punishment other than voluntarily entering treatment -- a diversion described by a Palm Beach County, Fla., prosecutor as "a diversion specifically for first-time offenders with no prior criminal history or arrest."

Rush stayed on the air.

Bank brass, whose greed and bad judgment depleted ordinary Americans' retirement accounts, remain in their office suites. The prince of Ponzi schemes, Bernie Madoff, is confined to his penthouse awaiting trial.

An honest marijuana smoker gets no such breaks.

I know a part-time park ranger, an Eagle Scout with two masters' degrees and extensive experience and training in mountain rescue. Seeking a full-time National Park Service job, he was required to take a firearms course up at Skagit Valley College.

The guy acknowledged taking a puff of the forbidden weed at a party back in 2005. An act of honesty derailed his career path. He was told that he could not take the course for a year.

Phelps has apologized for setting a bad example. He should have understood that winning eight gold medals, and 14 Olympic medals in total, automatically makes you a role model.

A stuffy statement from Battle Creek, Mich., said that Phelps' behavior "was not consistent with the image of Kellogg."

Well, it IS consistent with the behavior of millions of young Americans. After concentrating to meet a challenge, and meeting it, the urge is to party -- however briefly -- and even take a puff.

Michael Phelps has never failed a drug test in his career, as the Los Angeles Times pointed out, and volunteered to undergo more testing to dispel any suspicions he might have used performance-enhancing drugs.

Here's hoping he'll be back in the pool soon and will take a lesson from baby boomers elders: Get beyond the bong and become a wine snob.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Save the Solis Nomination
John Nichols

The tax bills Daschle and Geithner were avoiding added up to more than tens of millions of American families earn in a year. These men move in worlds far removed from the grassroots experience of the citizens they purport to serve.

With Solis, it's the opposite. The daughter of immigrants from Nicaragua and Mexico, she was the first member of her family to go to college (and got in as part of a program to aid low-income students), and when she got out she went to work helping disadvantaged kids finish high school and get into community colleges. As a state legislator and a member of the US House of Representatives, Solis has represented working-class neighborhoods and immersed herself in the sort of immigration, labor and small business issues that mark her as a uniquely well qualified nominee for Labor Secretary. She has, as well, remained far more linked than most of Obama's cabinet picks to people who get their hands dirty working--including her husband.

Where Daschle was in trouble for failing to pay taxes on the estimated value of two years of luxury car services that were equivalent to income totaling $255,256, Solis's husband runs Sam's Foreign and Domestic Auto Center, a car-repair shop in the anything-but-elite community of Irwindale, California--home of several rock quarries and the Irwindale Speedway.

Sam Sayyad owned Los Angeles County $6,468 in back taxes, which he paid when the issue of his liens arose last week. According to Anthony Yakimowich, the chief deputy treasurer and tax collector for the county, there was no indication that Sayyad was trying to avoid paying taxes.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090223/nichols?rel=hp_picks

This is one of the few progressives Obama choose and we have keep her in the fight to restore unions.

3 women try to deport jezebel from Whatcom County

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_odd_vigilante_border_agent...

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELLINGHAM, Wash. -- Three women believed a 28-year-old Lynden woman was having an affair with one of their boyfriends and came up with a plan to get rid of her by having her deported.

A Bellingham police spokesman, Lt. Steve Felmley, says two of the women shoved the victim in a car Friday and took her to a Border Patrol station.

A Border Patrol agent, Michael Bermudez, said Monday they took no one into custody and called police to deal with the women.

The police spokesman says they don't ask crime victims whether they are in the country legally, so the 28-year-old is free.

Meanwhile, the three women are being investigated for unlawful imprisonment.

Felmley says, "I don't think this plan is working out the way they thought it would."

(with information from Bellingham Herald)
*************************

"Our continuing Jezebel coverage"

It's hard to understand the stupidity-- beyond the hypocrisy-- of Kellogs. When pot is legalized ever food producer will be on the ground floor of a short economic explosion.

Dave Zirin was on fire this weekend about this horseshit.

ever price those rj-45 connection crimpers?

20 bucks or better for a glorified pair of pliers!!!
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

If you leave water in an open container without some cover over the top It can be contaminated. The water has to be boiled and filtered before drinking.Some people leave water in a glass container in the sun light, and some scientists put water under ultra-violet light like some hospitals use to deal with hospital infections(from wrong use of antibiotics.) boil water whenever possible. avoid plastic containers. Shower filters are a must in NYC. So much clorine gasses out from the steam of hot water and is a big cause of lung problems .

A Promise of War
By Jackson Diehl
Monday, February 9, 2009; Page A17

The past four Israeli elections have been won by a candidate who promised to end Israel's conflict with the Palestinians. Tomorrow, for the first time in decades, Israelis may choose a prime minister who is promising to wage war.

"We must smash the Hamas power in Gaza," Likud party leader Binyamin ("Bibi") Netanyahu said at one rally last week. "There will be no escape from toppling the Hamas regime," he said at a security conference the next day. "I'm sorry to say we haven't gotten the job done," he said of Israel's recent Gaza offensive in a radio interview. "The next government will have no choice but to finish the job and uproot . . . the Iranian terror base."

Perhaps Netanyahu won't win -- he's only narrowly ahead of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is promising to continue peace talks. Maybe he won't act on his words; campaign rhetoric is campaign rhetoric. But the Obama administration faces the very real prospect of having to manage the most volatile and contentious relationship with Israel since a decade ago, when Israel's prime minister was. . . . Bibi Netanyahu.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/08/AR200902...

Thanks for the good thoughts. You are missed too!

These republicans are trying a power grab and I sincerely hope it backfires big time.

What doesn't help are the news shows cable and non cable! They need a house cleaning also.

Very cute. ;)

Did the "posited author" intend a double entendre with his use of "Cat 5"?

If Sam answers, does that settle the issue or would that be an intentional fallacy?

they have them even cheaper than that on line...

Here's a good online place to shop for cabling components...

http://www.deepsurplus.com/

I have a pair of those crimpers. The cable installer left them at my house several years ago and never came back for them.

isn't that another term for Representative Government? ;)

>>Here's a good online place to shop for cabling components...

they do have good prices. you do see them cheaper online, but usually when the average guy wants crimpers he's only going to use them once or twice and doesn't want to wait a week for them to arrive.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

in the house. I am through with them. I sent them an email, telling them so. Kellogg's cereal totally sucks compared to Post cereal, anyhow. Post makes a cereal called Honey Bunches Of Oats with REAL Peaches. It has freeze dried peaches in it. Once I got ahold of that stuff, Kellogg's was finished here before the Phelps thing ever happened.

El Salvador pulls out from Iraq
The last 200 Salvadoran soldiers deployed to Iraq as part of US-led coalition have returned home, ending the Latin American country's five-and-a-half-year presence there.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/02/2009280851819849.ht...

You don't need to boil common municipal tap water for drinking. That is only for contaminated water like from outdoors, shallow wells and such. Besides, unless you are going to use the water for cooking or for tea, it will make it taste flat & hot.

The chlorine in municipal tap water disinfects any harmful bacteria or pathogens that might ever find its way into the water but for drinking water you should let it leave the water.

The small opening on a jug of water sitting in a home for 4 hrs or overnight will not contaminate the water at all unless you plan on peeing or pooping in it. ;)

Letting the chlorine dissapate is the easiest & best thing you can do for your tap drinking water.

Pick up a copy of your cities water report and then if any levels are up there anywhere neat the limit then buy either a Berkey gravity filter or a solid carbon block(used with house pressure water lines) or in the rare case that you have contaminates that require a reverse osmosis filter. By the way, R.O. filters do eliminate most of the beneficial minerals in water and bad tasting distilled water elimates all of them.

Ok, now we can hydrate!

was just on the Sanchez show on CNN. She's a porn star that is running against Vitter and it seems she is getting support!

They must really hate Vitter!

No, they just really love porn stars... :)

Did she or didn't she? Questions over woman hailed as first to swim Atlantic

Doubts raised over endurance athlete's 24-day ocean crossing claimed as a world record

The Guardian says that the endurance athlete took 24 days to make the crossing from the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa to Trinidad, propelling herself across 2,000 miles of ocean. A quick calculation shows that Figge would have had to swim 80 miles a day at least to cover the distance in the reported length of time.

But her business manager, David Higden has admitted that there were about five days where Figge did not even get into the water since the sea was so stormy and remained aboard the catamaran which accompanied her journey.

The AP story goes on to say that Figge woke up most days around 7am and assessed whether the weather was fit for swimming. Her longest stint in the water was about eight hours while her shortest was 21 minutes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/feb/09/swimming

She was very attractive and not in a trashy way either.

Senate procedural vote to be at 5:30 PM today. Re MSNBC

MvS is choppy today. Can't really listen because it keeps cutting out.

I thought Cat 5 hurricane, too....

Yes, but then it's spelled slightly differently.

(We go to blog with the language we have....)

Add: Oops, you already went there. :}

Not a big Mary Daley reader, I see. ;)

(Not really sure that was hers.)

A suicide car bomber targeted an American patrol in the New Mosul neighborhood (west Mosul) around 12:40 p.m. Three people were wounded included two policemen who were at a check point at the scène, Iraqi police said. The multi national corps in Iraq confirmed the incident.” Three U.S. Coalition Soldiers were killed, and another Soldier later died of wounds when a suicide vehicle borne improvised explosive device detonated near their vehicle in Mosul, Iraq Feb.9. One interpreter was also injured in the attack and later died of wounds”, the public affairs of the multi national corps in Iraq reported
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/212/story/61803.html

(widespread violence today)

....But as disappointing as Dean's failure to make Barack Obama's cabinet is for Dean's loyal legions, many felt a more stinging slap in Dean's glaring absence from the changing of the DNC guard ceremony in Washington. When Virginia governor Tim Kaine assumed control of the party apparatus last month, Dean was traveling. No request was made by the White House that he reschedule to attend the event. The Beltway press was soon frantically reading tea leaves for an answer to the question: Was Dean's lack of an invitation an intentional slam by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanual, with whom Dean has famously clashed over tactics and strategy for electing more Democrats? Or was it just a scheduling conflict, no biggie, as Dean diplomatically maintains?........
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/125926/is_howard_dean_getting_screwed_...

>>Is Howard Dean Getting Screwed and Why?

I think you are reading too much into this.

Howard Dean probably has sex for the same reasons everyone else does.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay has been credentialed to attend Obama's press conference at the White House tonight
John Aravosis (DC) · 2/09/2009 01:09:00 PM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It! · facebook

I hear he's going to ask about boxers vs. briefs.

Seriously, it should be interesting. I think Joe was a bit surprised to receive the credentials (he requested them this weekend). The first blogger to ever be credentialed at a White House press conference was our friend Garrett Graff, in 2005 (CORRECTION, and NSFW link: Garrett was the first blogger not working as a male hooker (as far as we know), though a lot of the WH press corps... oh never mind.) But Joe might be the first blogger of this administration, depending on who else was credentialed for tonight. In any case, on the chance that President Obama is intrigued by the notion of a blogger sitting in the East Room, and calls on Joe, feel free to suggest your questions for Joe to pose to Obama in the comments to this post.

UPDATE: I stand corrected. Our favorite MW Jeff Gannon did not start blogging until after his 15 minutes were long since over.

http://www.americablog.com/2009/02/americablogs-joe-sudbay-has-been.html

On handling the stimulus: 67% approval vs. 31% approval
Joe Sudbay (DC) · 2/09/2009 09:46:00 AM ET · Link
Make a comment · reddit · FARK · Digg It! · Stumble It! · facebook

The talking heads in D.C. are all agog over the Hill Republicans these days, summed up by a front page story in today's Washington Post noting "the glimmers of rebirth" seen by the Hill Republicans because of their insurgent tactics and the continued domination of Republican members of Congress on cable news. Just shows how far out of touch the corporate political media is, because the American people don't see it that way. Not even close:
The American public gives President Barack Obama a strong 67% approval rating for the way in which he is handling the government's efforts to pass an economic stimulus bill, while the Democrats and, in particular, the Republicans in Congress receive much lower approval ratings of 48% and 31%, respectively.

That's 67% for Obama. 31% for the Congressional Republicans

http://www.americablog.com/2009/02/on-handling-stimulus-67-approval-vs-3...

Stocks flatline as Wall Street waits for President Obama's press conference on economy and Treasury's bank rescue plan. More soon. -

They just thought it was funny using words like "messiah".

I hear he's going to ask about boxers vs. briefs.

Beachgoers: Beware of Myrtle Beach's 'Thong Ordinance'
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/61836.html

>>That's 67% for Obama. 31% for the Congressional Republicans

but you would never know it from the airtime given to Republicans over the Democrats on the TV news.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Coleman Says 'God Wants Me to Serve'

While Al Franken remains fairly elusive, Norm Coleman is keeping a high profile these days as his court challenge of the Minnesota U.S. Senate recount plods along.

Coleman is adept, somewhat too adept, his critics might say, at skillfully tailoring his message to his audience, and that skill set was on full display Friday.

On Friday, Coleman made the media rounds with radio interviews that included conservative nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mike Gallagher. Gallagher, an unyielding fiscal and religious conservative, who hosts one of the Top 10 rated talk shows in the country, has been an outspoken critic of the Congressional stimulus legislation. When Gallagher asked Coleman what he thought of the stimulus bill, Coleman replied that he would not sign it. Coleman did not, however, offer any thoughts as to whether a stimulus bill of some kind would be a good thing for the country and the state of Minnesota (no doubt because Gallagher, and perhaps a large share of his 4 million weekly listeners, is opposed to any sort of government ‘bailout’ - of industries or state governments).

When asked about the recount and how it is affecting him personally, Coleman said he starts every day with a prayer and that he knows “God wants me to serve.” Coleman did later temper those rather immodest remarks by adding that he “is not indispensable” and that others can serve as well. Coleman closed the interview with an appeal to Gallagher’s listeners for contributions to his campaign website.

Also on Friday, Coleman talked to Tom Crann at Minnesota Public Radio, and tweaked his message for a listening audience that is decidedly more liberal than that of Gallagher's. First, Coleman discussed his desire to serve without mention of God’s will. With more humble prose he stated, “I’ve been blessed to serve. I want to continue to serve.”

With regards to the bailout, Coleman reiterated his opposition to the current legislation: “I do not support the package in its present form.” But when asked if he could vote for a stimulus package, Coleman admitted, “I agree there needs to be one.”

Coleman also stated to MPR that the court in his recount challenge was being “very fair” and it that he has a “great deal of confidence” in the panel. He also acknowledged that if the absentee ballot and double-counting of ballots issues are addressed, and Franken has more votes at the end of the process, then Franken will be the Senator. On Gallagher’s show, however, Coleman made no mention of the possibility that Franken could emerge as the ultimate victor and did not contradict Gallagher's characterization that the election process to date in Minnesota has been a 'joke.'

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2009/02/coleman_says_god_want...

that's right, chubby - all the rethug airtime - makes me ill

It's got electrolytes

Care for medically uninsured in short supply
By Mike Wereschagin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, February 9, 2009

[snip]
Charities are bracing for a rapid increase in demand for services, probably starting this summer, said Diane Redington, administrator of the Catholic Charities Free Health Care Center. Downtown's only completely free clinic served about 5,200 last year and could see 7,000 or more patients this year.

[snip]

Gov. Ed Rendell last week proposed increasing state health care spending by $800 million in the 2009-10 budget to $26.9 billion. The portion for adultBasic [state plan] would allow the state to subsidize insurance for 90,000 people, about one-third of the number projected to be on the waiting list when the budget takes effect.

Covering them all could cost $1 billion.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleyindependent/teenscene/s_610801.htm...

Medicare deficit looming
Funds shortfall could hit as early as this year
By Mal Leary
Capitol News Service

http://www.bangornews.com/detail/99072.html

AUGUSTA, Maine — Most Maine seniors depend on the federal Medicare program to pay for part of their health care. Former Gov. Angus King, who served as vice-chairman of a national commission that studied the program, says Congress needs to shore up the program that could run short of funding as early as this year.

“Medicare is part of the Social Security system,” King said in an interview. “A huge expansion was passed five years ago, the prescription drug benefit, without a dime of funding. Medicare goes cash negative in the next year or so — in other words it will be spending more than it takes in from its underlying tax. That’s where the big problem is going to be, and that’s what no one is paying much attention to right now.”

What fucking liars:
Obama Returns to the Trail in a Weakened State - Rick Klein, ABC News
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/02/the-note-2909-t.html

At the end of this miserable screed its obvious O should just resign now.

And yet mysteriously:

President Obama's Job Approval: CNN at 76%, Pew Research at 64%

Ironic cut: NY healthcare reform program to get ax

By VALERIE BAUMAN | Associated Press Writer
February 8, 2009

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny-xgr--healthathom...

ALBANY, N.Y. - The trend of moving more patients from hospitals and nursing homes into less expensive, more effective home care treatment faces potential budget cuts in New York despite its potential to save governments millions of Medicaid dollars.

Gov. David Paterson's budget proposal shows the extent of the fiscal crisis, where cuts are made even to a program that saves money and provides better care for poorer New Yorkers. The state Health Department, which would have to carry out the governor's order, sees the frustration.

Submitted by ghettodefender on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 4:29pm.
What fucking liars:
Obama Returns to the Trail in a Weakened State
-----
Maybe the weakened state is Indiana?

(Okay. Maybe not.)

Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: Great God, grant that twice two be not four. -Ivan Turgenev, novelist and playwright (1818-1883)

Fatalism. Got to watch out for that shit.

Those are the reasons why. Now here's how you can help:

* The most excellent people at FireDogLake have put up a petition that you can sign. The more, the better! Signatures will be delivered to Senator Max Baucus, whose committee is responsible for moving the nomination forward to the full Senate.
* Join the Dean for HHS Facebook group. With 5,000 members already and more joining every day, it's becoming a hub for organizing around this idea.
* Visit the brand-new Dean for HHS website to get more information and figure out other ways you can help.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/9/151958/5929/335/695311

excellent observation. It's amazing how much we just assume while reading or listening.

Better than The Thirst Mutilator?
On tap
Morning Joe

Like a normal being."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFqQlEcuUtc

It's mainly about that phenom we were talking about the other eve--but that one line can definitely be applied to Rethugs.

ghettodefender,

I read the article you linked prior to posting my quip. I do not believe that the "weakened state" is Indiana but I believe that it is lousy writing to use "weakened state" to describe a president during his visit to a weakened state to rally support for a stimulus bill designed to address the weakened state of the economy.

Intentional puns are wonderful things. Unintentional puns indicate a lack of proofreading for clarity.

Ambiguous communication isn't exactly my idea of skillful journalism.

“I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. …

...I’m saying an example of how you go about (it) is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.”

Rep. Pete Sessions of Dallas, leader of the GOP’s House campaign arm, compared the party to the terrorist-supporting Afghan group in an interview with the Hotline, a Washington political newsletter. He was trying to describe the Republicans’ strategy for the 2010 midterm elections.

“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” Sessions said. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes.”

which is why Chomskey is such an outstanding political analyst.

ghettodefender,

I'm coming to the defense of Rick Klein who authored the article. There is no ambiguity unless a line or phrase is taken out of context, which I did because it made it easy to pick on the author and crack wise.

These are back-to-back paragraphs:
----
That audience is in battered Elkhart, Ind., on Monday -- then national television Monday night at 8 pm ET, for his first presidential press conference. In between, a test vote is likely on the stimulus in the Senate -- an early maker (and it’s still early, even in this process) of his political success.

Obama comes to it in a weakened state, missteps and political realities revealing him to be human -- but now he’s using the biggest weapon at his disposal.
----

how many years went by where bush refused to have anything to do with the kyoto treaty and global warming?

now consider that in an entirely unrelated item that back in november at the g20 conference, bush agreed to not pursue protectionist measures thus tying the hands of obama and the dems who want to see more buy american efforts.

US eyeing private bailout funds
White House will ask private sector to help bail out the financial system.

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_may_seek_private_funds_for_banki_0209200...

Leahy proposes 'truth commission' probe of Bush era
David Edwards and Stephen C. Webster

In a Monday forum at Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown University, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed the Congress form a "truth and reconciliation commission" to seek out alleged Bush administration "misdeeds."

"There are some who resist any effort to investigate the misdeeds of the recent past," Leahy said in a report by Huffington Post. "Indeed, during the nomination hearing of Eric Holder, some of my fellow Senators on the other side of the aisle tried to extract a devil's bargain from him in exchange for the votes -- a commitment that he would not make... That is a pledge no prosecutor should give and Eric Holder did not give it. But because he did not it accounts for some of the votes against him."

"We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past," the Vermont Democrat said. "Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuing of what happened."

"The truth commission should have subpoena power and witnesses would not face charges except if they commit perjury," reported the Wall St. Journal.

"Leahy said he wanted to find a 'middle ground to find the truth' and thus positioned himself in the center of the ongoing debate among Democrats about whether to investigate the Bush administration’s decisions," reported CQ Politics. "President Obama has signaled he doesn’t necessarily want to delve into the actions of his predecessor while Leahy’s counterpart in the House, John Conyers Jr. , D-Mich., has introduced legislation (HR 104) to create a more narrowly focused commission to examine presidential war powers and civil liberties that could lead to prosecutions."

"Sen. Patrick Leahy said Monday the commission's primary goal would be to learn the truth rather than prosecute former officials," reported the Associated Press.

"Leahy said the commission could be modeled after a similar panel that investigated apartheid in South Africa."

Leahy said he had not yet discussed his proposed commission with President Obama.

This video is from CNN.com, broadcast Feb 9, 2009.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Leahy_proposes_truth_commission_to_probe_0...

Bishop who denied Holocaust ousted

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/world/europe/10pope.html?ref=europe&pa...

Yes, MSM Public Enemy #1
Submitted by ghettodefender on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 4:29pm

--------------------------------
The State Of The State
Submitted by Crank Bait on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 4:55pm.
Ambiguous communication isn't exactly my idea of skillful journalism.

_______________________________________

We are all socialists now!

Haven't you read the latest from Newsweek?

The hybrid center-right socialists! [Hack-tacular Writing!]

Soon America will be like France!

p.s. Looking forward to the French-like health care system (which will save us money and provide better coverage for more people). Looking forward to stronger unions and better wages for more people. Then we can celebrate with French champagne -- while wearing our berets (of course, on the far-leftist side).

____________

Recommended post by digby on the topic:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/backing-into-shock-therapy-by-dig...

The Democrats were able to get 61 Senators to vote to end the debate.

Final vote still due, probably tomorrow.

Then the Stimulus package goes back to the House

Per CNN

SEC chief resigns

AP reports that Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Linda Thomsen is leaving the agency less than a week after receiving an angry dressing-down before Congress over the agency’s failure to detect the $50 billion Ponzi scheme allegedly run by money manager Bernard Madoff.

The SEC said Thomsen is leaving to pursue opportunities in the private sector, but did not provide further details.

Thomsen was front and center at a Feb. 4 hearing by a House subcommittee investigating the Madoff affair and the enforcement breakdown at the SEC. She was put on the defensive by lawmakers and forced to defend the SEC's position that she and other officials couldn't publicly discuss details of the matter because of an ongoing investigation by the agency's inspector general.

Thomsen, who was the first woman to hold the chief enforcement job at the SEC, had been deputy enforcement director before taking the top spot.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2009/02/ap-reports-that.html?loc=in...

She and her commission didn't do the job. Let's see who hires her. You rise to the level of your own incompetence!

Obama reaching out to Native Americans
45 minutes ago · WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama intends to add a senior policy adviser for Native American affairs to his White House staff shortly, first lady Michelle Obama revealed Monday.

http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/09/obama-reaching-out-to-native-ame...

Retail gas prices are at their highest levels in several weeks. The national average price of gas topped $1.92 a gallon Saturday, marking an increase of nearly $0.30 a gallon (or 18%) from the $1.62 a gallon multiyear low price set on December 30, 2008 and the first time the national average has crossed the $1.90 a gallon level since November 24, 2008. Looking back to this date in 2008 the national average price of gas was $2.97 a gallon. For the fourth consecutive week, most people have seen prices at the pump increase, while demand and crude oil prices continue to remain down. Crude oil closed the week at $40.17 a barrel, compared to prices of $89 per barrel a year ago.

Gasoline production has declined, below last year’s levels for the seventh time in eight weeks. Several refineries have announced fuel production cuts because of weak profits stemming from soft demand. Consumer demand for gas is running almost 3% below last year levels.

. . .

“It’s no wonder people are raising their eyebrows at gas prices. The economy is contracting, oil prices are low and motorists have been driving less. These factors would typically lead to a decrease in gas prices, but refineries are trimming production, and that’s propping up prices” said Catherine L. Rossi, Manager of Public and Government Affairs, AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Escalating gas prices are hardly justified right now. Refineries have cut production to pump up their profits. It’s unfortunate for consumers already battered by the economy. ”

February will be an interesting month for gasoline watchers because this is the time of year when the industry on the west coast begins depleting its inventory of winter fuels for the introduction of warmer weather blends. Prices should retreat before a slight seasonal increase in prices which normally happens in early spring. If this decline does not occur, then consumers may find themselves facing another spring season of aggravatingly higher gasoline prices even as the price for crude oil remains low.

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2009/02/09/business/doc49905238861c81...

Star Vox,

So the modern day McCarthy's are trotting-out that old French socialism canard again, are they?

I am shocked, SHOCKED that France would adopt a red, white and blue-blooded American idea and flaunt it as their own:
----
Shares in French car makers Renault (RENA.PA) and PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) rise 1.6 percent and 4.2 percent respectively on news that France will unveil details of a plan to support its ailing car industry, to be announced around midday on Monday.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketMovers/idUKL943060120090209
----
How dare they? We Capitalists thought of it first!

Scientists are to hold an emergency summit to warn the world's politicians that they are being too timid in their response to global warming.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/09/scientists-summit-clim...

The Army says it has suspended research at its flagship biological weapons defense laboratory in Maryland while it inventories pathogens.

The lab was the workplace of Bruce Ivins, who killed himself in July after learning he would be charged in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people.

A memo obtained by The Associated Press says workers are examining the contents of all refrigerators and freezers at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick.

Institute commander Col. John Skvorak wrote that he believes some vials of pathogens and toxins are likely not listed in a laboratory database.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/09/national/a08...

Shares of French Toast gained 8% today on news that some idiots are still calling it Freedom Toast.

Congressman Hoekstra takes heat from blogosphere for Twitter updates in Iraq

Rep. Pete Hoekstra this weekend provided the blogosphere with two ingredients it could stir up trouble with -- Twitter and the chance to beat up on a politician.

The Congressional Quarterly reported Friday the Holland Republican (twitter.com/petehoekstra) had breached security by Twittering about his delegation arrival and movements in Iraq.

Hoekstra spokesman Dave Yonkman told The Grand Rapids Press that the eight-term congressman would never put himself or anyone at risk.

"We never agreed to anything as far as not discussing it (beforehand) or during," Yonkman said. "Congressman Hoekstra believes in giving people in West Michigan as much information as possible."

This isn't the first time Hoekstra grabbed attention for his Tweets. He shared his thoughts in real-time via Twitter DURING a closed-door meeting with President Obama.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/02/hoekstra_slamme...

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Even before Benjamin Netanyahu finds out whether he will be Israel’s next prime minister, he is sending a message to President Barack Obama that he won’t be pushed around.

Netanyahu, the Likud party candidate who narrowly leads Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni ahead of elections tomorrow, last week took reporters to Arab parts of Jerusalem, where he helped establish Jewish footholds when he was previously prime minister. No pressure, he said, would make him cede those neighborhoods “to our enemies.”

Just as he confounded former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, Netanyahu probably will resist if Obama pushes too hard to extract Israeli concessions for peace in the Middle East.

“He’s extremely effective politically, unbelievably smart and relentlessly suspicious when it comes to the Arabs and the Americans,” says former U.S. negotiator Aaron David Miller, author of “The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601104&sid=aeKTFmR61kD0&refer=m...

Is the Army missing some nerve gas?

Pentagon auditors concede that is a remote possibility because of discrepancies in records between how much chemical weapons agent was initially stored and how much of it was later destroyed at Utah's Deseret Chemical Depot and other bases nationwide.

But officials believe all the nerve agent in question was destroyed, according to a partially censored U.S. Army Audit Agency report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Auditors list in it several reasons that could have caused apparent-but-unreal variances in those records.

But auditors concluded, "The (Army Chemical Materials) Agency didn't have complete assurance that amounts recorded in the system were accurate, which increased its chances for heightened levels of program scrutiny by federal, state and international organizations that have a vested interest in the elimination of chemical weapons."

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705283634,00.html

Leahy proposes 'truth
Submitted by toniD on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 5:41pm.
Leahy proposes 'truth commission' probe of Bush era
*******

( Typical Weak Ass Democrat Idea..What a Bad Joke ! Only in Government Can You Break The Law Without Any Repercussions ! A Weak & Pathetic Idea Senator Leahy !
Is That How You Uphold The Law ? Is That How You Uphold The Constitution ? )

The Sad part is that's probably all we are going to get from these Losers..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

The government safety net designed to protect laid-off workers from financial catastrophe is falling short, leaving nearly half the 11.6 million jobless Americans without unemployment benefits.

The shortcomings are fueling the recession as an increasing number of workers fall through the cracks and curtail spending. The trend highlights what economists say is a growing need for a 21st century makeover of a program started in the depths of the Great Depression.

Among the key problem areas:
* There are many more part-time workers now than in 1935, but the program only covers those looking for full-time work.
* Many eligible jobless Americans are shut out because states use an outdated system for calculating their income, making it more difficult to meet requirements.
* Unemployment spells increasingly last longer than the usual 26-week jobless benefits program.

Jobless benefits are essentially mini-financial stimulus packages for struggling American families. Helping laid-off breadwinners continue to purchase goods and services until they find new jobs ultimately bolsters the economy and makes further layoffs less likely.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29084715

I ran into a lady at the mall today who I haven't seen in about five years.

She told me that I am more handsome than ever.

I commented to her how well she is walking out in public,

given her blindness, and all.

I have yet to speak to ONE person who knows about the British court documents showing that the CIA sliced the balls off of Binyam Mohamed into slices as an interrogation method.

NOBODY KNOWS! WTH!!!! This should be front page news on every service.

Obama Reclaims Outsider Status
Greg Sargent points out an interesting dynamic: "The yawning gap between what the pundits say about who's winning the stimulus war and what the polls say the public thinks has created an opening for the Obama team to reclaim Obama's campaign outsider mantle, which had slipped away during the transition to governing."

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/obama-aides-rip-cable...

By JENNIFER LOVEN - AP

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama pushed for his emergency economic stimulus with an urgent one-two punch Monday, addressing the nation in the first prime-time news conference of his presidency after taking his campaign directly to recession victims in hard-hit Indiana. "Doing nothing is not an option," Obama warned during a town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind., where unemployment has passed 15 percent.

Speedy passage of legislation to pump federal money into the crippled economy, once seemingly assured with bipartisan support, has become a much heavier lift and a major test of Obama's young presidency.

On the day that an $838 billion version of the legislation cleared a crucial test vote in the Senate, Obama warned darkly of the consequences he contended would result from inaction. By a 61-36 margin, the package was advanced toward a vote on final Senate passage Tuesday — with all but three Republican senators opposing it.

"Our nation will sink into a crisis that at some point we may be unable to reverse," he said. Officials have frequently suggested the current recession, which has catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent and erased 3.6 million jobs, is the worst U.S. economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. But no one has been suggesting the economic downturn could be permanent.

Con't

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

om mani padme hum

Quote of the Day
"Kennedy reporting for duty."

-- Sen. Ted Kennedy, quoted by CQ Politics, to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), upon his return to Washington, D.C. to vote for the economic stimulus package.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000003027390

today. He has a theory that things are going to become OK in the country again because....wait for this....pipe is again being laid in the White House. According to Ned...and these are his very words...."Bush is a notorious fag. Has been for years. He hasn't banged that old lady of his in over ten years and that's a fact. They had less sex in the White House than the Nixons and they had NONE."

Ned thinks that the Big O is into regular plowing of his lady and that fact alone will make for a more mellow country.

om mani padme hum

The deeper...the better.

Good for the Big O.

I know one thing I would agree with. I'll bet Laura wasn't getting any head. There was more Jeff Gannon action going on in that building.

Submitted by Regnad Kcin on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 6:40pm.
She told me that I am more handsome than ever.
--------
Did she mention that your name is sdrawkcab?

Obama to Meet the Press Tonight
President Obama holds his first prime time news conference tonight at 8 pm ET. He's expected to make an 8- to 10-minute opening statement then take 40 to 45 minutes of questions from reporters.

In anticipation, Walter Shapiro went back and looked at President John F. Kennedy's first three press conferences. For Kennedy, the live presidential news conference was "an art form that he and press secretary Pierre Salinger invented."

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=16e94133-85c9-4d4f-aa37-6c9a40...

She was using braille on me but I'm modest and it was a public place.

om mani padme hum

makes perfect sense. Who wouldn't say the same thing?

The only issue is the respect thing. It probably isn't politically correct to speak of knocking the bottom out of it before pushing a Stimulus package.

are you better now?

1st question to Helen Thomas

I agree Nando. And, I loved the enthusiastic way old Ned put it. Things are looking UP in America....so to speak.

The Blue Meanies have been booted.

all we really need is a hood with a zipper to shut those idiots up.

The economy is contracting, oil prices are low and motorists have been driving less. These factors would typically lead to a decrease in gas prices, but refineries are trimming production, and that’s propping up prices”
--------------
I've been expecting this.

Cut yourself some slack, Nick...

Attractiveness is not limited to one's appearance...

...and vision is not limited to one's sight.... ;)

And....not that goofy right wing missionary position airport stall knock tap kind of sex. The dirty kind.

Nope....real unbridled whoop it up anything goes and let's have a toke while we're doing it sex.

Over 700 girls got knocked up at Woodstock and I was NOT responsible for any of them.

"Laying pipe."

Tsk, tsk. It doesn't seem like a euphemism worthy of the presidency.

Perhaps a more appropriate expression would be "negotiating with both sides of the aisle."

HHHHHMMMMMMM......now THAT is an interesting phrase.

George W. Bush was president.

I wonder if we could come up with some worthy euphemisms for him?

Swondering.

is anyone else bouncing off the walls anticipating the press conference?

I'm zoning out on hearing a president that can get through a complete sentence without spitting up on people and making up words. I know... sounds unimaginable.

I'm better now concerning that but still weak.

Just made some chicken rice soup for myself. The doctor's directions were broth, crackers, rice, bananas. And Gatorade.

So far so good. I've got medicine for nausea also.

with fresh sliced banana garnish spritzed with lime is fantastic. imo

to get out there and do some walking. Spring is not too far away and you'll be able to stretch out on your new joint.

on a leash today. I am still chuckling about it. Cats are the coolest and hippest animals on the planet. And, they can be really funny.

and we can actually see the ground. Snow is melting quickly. It's going to be in the 60s tomorrow! Looking forward to spring.

I'd love to take a long walk. Have to build up to it so I can walk around the pond. A lady from my building said that 3 times around the pond is a mile. I'll be happy to get around once right now.

Has anyone ever heard of these "diaper cakes" before? Listing itself had no info, just "custom diaper cakes." Sounded like a euphemism.

Maybe familiar if you read women's mags and stuff.

http://charlottesville.craigslist.org/bab/1025812005.html

How was your day? Anything interesting happen?

"diaper cakes"? I think that was the madame's nickname for Vitter...either that or his login @ Redstate

"this machine kills fascists"

Another listing for an outlying town, so probably not the same person.

"U.Va. diaper cake"

http://charlottesville.craigslist.org/bab/1025687987.html

Barnes: The Case For Global Warming Is Falling Apart -- Because I Said So
In a new Weekly Standard column, Fred Barnes asserts that the case for man-made global warming is falling apart. Asked by TPMmuckraker to defend his claim, Barnes first said there had been a "cooling spell" in recent years, and then claimed he had sources -- but "I'm not going to do your research for you."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/barnes_global_warming_...

The site below tracks the movement of a dollar bill. Does that make it a tracking scheme?

- http://www.wheresgeorge.com/

The Big Punt?
Not long ago it seemed a given that the Obama bank rescue plan would be on the 'bad bank' model -- i.e., you and I as taxpayers create what might more aptly be called a 'suicide bank' where you go to all the other banks and buy their poor investments at prices those banks wish they were still worth. Then, when that just seemed too silly it was going to be a plan to insure the banks against excessive loses on these bad investments. Sort of the slo-mo version of the bad bank. But CNBC is now reporting that the 'bad bank' is out. And they add these details ...

The Obama administration's wide-ranging plan to stabilize the financial system no longer includes creating a "bad bank" but will still contain measures to buy up toxic assets from financial institutions, according to a source familiar with the plan.
In addition, funding for the bank-rescue plan is unlikely to exceed the $350 billion currently available under the TARP, this source said.

So the 'bad bank' is out. There's some vague talk of buying back 'toxic debts'. But if I'm reading that right they're not going to be asking for any more money.

As the same source tells CNBC, "They have to have enough to calm the markets, but there might not be as many details as previously thought." I'd say that's an understatement.

Obviously, we'll know more details tomorrow with Geithner's speech (or maybe not). And I'll be very curious to see what others make of this. But this sure sounds to me like they've decided to punt. No big new plan. And no more money.

I wonder if what's happening here is that they realize that none of these TARP-like workarounds are going to work. So no point asking for a politically and perhaps fiscally debilitating amount of money on something they'll have to abandon in six months. But they also don't have their ducks in a row yet, or haven't come to grips yet, with something more like the Swedish model -- which is to say, letting failed banks actually fail, government takes them over like has been happening to little banks, government runs the bank for a while and then sells it to private investors. Regardless, at least from CNBC's discussion it looks like a big punt.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/02/the_big_punt.php

Surreal -- And Must-See
TPM Reader JC sent me to this interview with Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb on CNBC. Here's what JC wrote: "In this clip, Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb are still being treated as a circus sideshow by CNBC... They're predicting the end of finance, and offering the only clear path out of this mess that I've seen offered (with the knowledge to back it up), and CNBC keeps asking them for stock tips. It's ludicrous. Wall Street media -- CNBC at least -- doesn't realize how bad this is yet. They're stuck in a bubble where they think everything will go back to normal in a few months...."

He hits it spot on. These two guys are talking about a deep structural crisis in the world economy. And these CNBC yahoos can't stop asking for stock tips. Really surreal.

I'm watching it again now. This is a seminal piece of video. You have to see it. I'm not sure I've seen anything that captures -- albeit unintentionally -- the vast disconnect over what is happening today in the US economy.

--Josh Marshall

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1027496846&play=1

I have no idea what to do with them...

That is, I have ideas, but no technical know-how to execute them.

Any ideas on where to look to build a webpage?

GoDaddy.com (where I registered the names) wants a bunch more dough, for them to do it.

Breaking the Back of the Elites
How do you wrest control of the banking industry away from the vested elites who got us in this mess? Former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson makes the fascinating point that breaking the back of the elites is a critical stage in crisis resolution in developing and post-communist countries -- a stage we have yet to go through in confronting our own crisis:

The elites who run the US banking industry have had a great run of economic good fortune. They used this wealth to further strengthen their political power, both through donations to politicians of almost all stripes and more broadly through taking positions of formal and informal influence throughout the executive and legislative branches.
Our unsustainable debt-fueled boom, in other words, produced both the conditions for a major global financial disaster, and a political strengthening of the people who benefited most from the risk-taking and associated compensation packages that made this disaster possible. Ending the financial crisis is relatively straightforward - a forced recapitalization and change of ownership/management in the banking system - although this will not immediately lead to an economic recovery ... But seen in deeper political terms, decisive action to restructure large banks is almost impossible. Such action would require overcoming perhaps the single strongest interest group in the United States today.

How can you do it? The answer must be by splitting this powerful interest group into competing factions, and taking them on one by one. Can this be done? Definitely, yes. In particular, bank recapitalization - if implemented right - can use private equity interests against the powerful large bank insiders. Then you need to force the new private equity owners of banks to break them up so they are no longer too big to fail.

I'm preparing to do one of our video interviews with Johnson later today, and I'm eager to explore the political economics of the bank bailout with him. I should add that Johnson is not optimistic that the plan Geithner is set to roll out tomorrow is the back-breaking proposal we need.

--David Kurtz

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/08/geithner_v_the_american_...

who screwed up worse? Geithner or A-Rod?

consider buying a high level language synthesizer to build your page.

I know html but use Microsofts' Expressions/Front Page. There are a lot of better packages though.

Then go through the training on how to connect the software to the server.

After that it works like word or power point.

PC or Mac?

If PC there are tons of web building apps, many are free, just Google to find 'em.

Mac's come with a webpage building program that works fine for most users.

Your other alternative is to get a book on XHTML and roll your own.

Just depends on what you want to do.

My webhost has a free page building tool doesn't Godaddy?

aka Skinny Kid from Illinois. ;-)

Goooooooooooooooooooo Helen!

OMG

Y'gotta slow down, though, for me.

Sara's bringing home her work laptop, she says it has MS Publisher installed?

One of her co-workers is their web-designer; so I may just end up asking him.

Porn star to challenge Vitter for U.S. Senate.»
CNN reports that adult film star Stormy Daniels may be considering a Senate run against Sen. David Vitter (R-LA). Vitter, who was involved in the D.C. Madam prostitution ring, prides himself as being conservative on social issues. When asked about a possible senate run against Vitter, Daniels took a swipe at Vitter:

“I don’t see how I can possibly embarrass him more than he already embarrassed himself…Honestly, I’m not sure I’m willing to take the pay cut that comes with being a senator.”

This year, an ad appeared on Craigslist seeking “a female in some aspect of the adult-entertainment industry” to run against Vitter, reports Max Blumenthal.

- Michael Wilson

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/09/stormy-daniels-vitter/

Limbaugh Opposes Health IT Provisions, Fears His Medical Records Might Become Public»
As the Senate prepares to vote on its paired down version of the recovery package, Rush Limbaugh is still inventing reasons to oppose its passage. Today on his radio show, Limbaugh zeroed in on a $20 billion portion of the bill devoted to increasing the use of health care IT. Limbaugh warned, “Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system” and declared that this and similar health care provisions have “nothing to do with stimulus but have everything to do with advancing the liberal agenda”:

LIMBAUGH: Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Now there are arguments back and forth about whether or not this is a good thing. The opportunity for the loss of privacy is huge here by digitizing and making everybody’s health care records computerized. Especially having a major federal database where everybody’s health records are.

To illustrate his flawed argument about the “loss of privacy,” Limbaugh noted today’s revelations that Alex Rodriquez used performance enhancing drugs in the early part of this decade. “[A]sk Alex Rodriguez about privacy,” he remarked. Watch it: at link

Limbaugh can rest assured that his drug records (that have already been disclosed) and Americans’ health care records will be protected by “stringent privacy and security controls” even if they are digitized. In fact, President Bush’s former Coordinator for Health IT, Dr. David Brailer, explained that he is even concerned that “the House bill [goes] so overboard on privacy that it may inhibit the flow of information.”

In addition, Limbaugh is wrong to suggest that the recovery package would create a “major federal database” of every citizen’s health records. Rather, most summaries of the legislation explain that physicians will be offered financial incentives in the form of direct grants and increased Medicare reimbursement rates for adopting “certified electronic health records” and proving that they utilize them “effectively.” Indeed, while the government will be subsidizing the creation of this “nationwide system to exchange health data electronically” — it will not be running it.

Finally, Limbaugh’s claim that investment in health care has “nothing to do with stimulus” — a common right-wing canard — is false. The funding related to health care IT alone is projected to create over 200,000 jobs. As Igor Volsky recently noted, “Investing in Health IT not only saves money, creates jobs and reduces medical errors, but it also helps primary care physicians afford the infrastructure for expansion.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/09/rush-heath-it/

listening?

what a horseshit q

I didn't see one at GoDaddy; or if they did have a free one, it was very limited.

Tweety sez he can't communicate if he's not reading it off the TelePrompTer?!?!?

...minds incapable of critical thinking wanna know!

Breaking Down Media Spin on Obama and Stimulus

by Joe Brewer

The stage has been set. Editorial pages are starting to fill with opinion articles by members of the Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, and hundreds of other conservative think tanks. Talking heads in the cable news parrot memes crafted and disseminated through a consolidated, and largely conservative owned, media apparatus.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/09-4

History shouldn't be a mystery
The Public Enemy

taking no bull

Barack Obama is articulate.

but he just got spanked

Looks you right in the eye, tells you like it is, why it is, how it got there, where it's going and what to do about it.

GOP Leaders Taking Cues From Malkin On Stimulus, Call It ‘Generational Theft’»
In early January, when President Obama first proposed his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin balked at the proposal’s name, writing that it should be called “The Generational Theft Act of 2009.” Malkin has been pushing her attempted re-branding ever since, repeating it over and over and over again.

Malkin’s views are apparently beginning to hold sway with Republicans in Congress. On January 29, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said of the proposed stimulus package, “This bill is a generational theft bill.” In a blog post yesterday for AmericaSpeakOn.org, a new conservative 501(c)4 group, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) used Malkin’s language as well:

The hundreds of billions of dollars Washington is borrowing to finance this pork-barrel monstrosity will come from our children and grandchildren. This is not “stimulus” – it’s generational theft.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has become a top critic of the recovery package in the Senate, also referred to it as “generational theft” on CBS’ Face The Nation yesterday. Watch it: at link

Malkin isn’t the only far right conservative pundit influencing the GOP these days. As ThinkProgress noted yesterday, congressional Republicans are embracing right-wing talker Rush Limbaugh as their “unofficial leader.” Some Republicans, like Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), are following Limbaugh’s lead by referring to the stimulus as the “porkulus” bill.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/09/malkin-mccain-boehner/

-

Barack Obama Too Academic

.

"m'kay" after every answer.

Oh. She is smart

for a Republican.

good old

www.bartcop.com

Scroll down..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Fuck it's amazing the little people in Elkhart asked better Qs.

Oh, o Helen

"so-called" you go girl

...not true.

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Does Obama appear Presidential and in command of the questions?

[ ] Yes

[ ] No

Oh crap..I was a hoping..What's her IQ maggiesboy ?

I'll take it down.. :(

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

splunge

A knowledgeable U.S. President with a
clear understanding of the basics,
and is able to speak about the issues
in an intelligent manner.

Like an Adult.

Long overdue

Yepers,MB !

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Box o' rocks.

Sounds Correct !

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

you besmirch the rock.

Obama’s Unscreened Town Hall Audience Is Clean Break From Bush’s Supporters-Only Public Events»
Today, President Obama hosted a town hall meeting in Elkhart, IN — which faces the nation’s fastest-rising unemployment rate — to promote his recovery and reinvestment plan. As the Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin notes, Obama traveled to relatively unfriendly territory: Obama lost the county to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 44 percent to 56 percent. Despite that fact, the White House did not screen its audience, who had the chance to ask the president questions:

In a dramatic contrast to former President Bush’s town-hall meetings — which were held almost exclusively in party strongholds, with tickets distributed primarily to supporters — it was first-come, first-served in Elkhart on Saturday [when tickets were distributed]. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs explained on Friday: “I’ve watched the President do town halls from 2004 through 2008, and the audience has never been hand-picked, and neither have the questions. And we’re not going to start any of that on Monday.”

What’s more, Obama invited two critics of his package along for the Air Force One ride to Indiana: Rep. Brad Ellsworth (D-IN) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who both voted against the bill.

The town hall is just the latest way Obama is signaling a clean break from George Bush, who aggressively screened his audience members, even requiring volunteer service or loyalty oaths before being allowed to attend his events. A few of the most notorious examples:

– In April 2005, Bush’s security detail threw out three people from an event in Colorado, citing a bumper sticker on their care that read “No More Blood For Oil.” White House spokesman Trent Duffy said that if there’s any evidence people might “disrupt the president,” they “have the right to exclude those people from those events.”

– In early 2005, North Dakota residents were refused entry to a Bush event after their names appeared on a “blacklist” of people banned from the event.

– In March 2005, people seeking tickets to a Social Security event were quizzed about their support of Bush and his Social Security plan ahead of time.

Bush even screened the assembled group of soldiers he would meet in Iraq during a 2003 Thanksgiving visit: Soldiers had to fill out a questionnaire asking whether they supported Bush.

Froomkin noted that Obama will travel to another lion’s den tomorrow, when he takes his road show to Fort Myers, FL, a county McCain won by an 11-point margin.

Update In a post titled "More From The Department Of Not-Bush," Time's Michael Scherer noted that Obama, adviser David Axlerod, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs all spoke on the record with the press during the Air Force One flight.

Update Obama underscored the openness of his events today at the town hall: "Here's the deal on questions: First of all, we didn't screen anybody, so there's some people who like me in the audience, some people that don't, some people agree with me, some people who don't. It doesn't matter. We want to take questions from everybody."

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/09/obama-townhall-break-from-bush/

Link

Excerpt:
If new Attorney General Eric Holder really means what he said in his oath – that he will “support and defend
the Constitution of the United States” – then he must give serious consideration to prosecuting crimes committed
by the Bush administration, including its torturing of detainees.

And Holder might be advised to begin the process at his own agency, the Department of Justice.
To paraphrase Shakespeare, Holder might start by first jailing all of George W. Bush’s lawyers.

The logic of targeting former Justice Department lawyers – the likes of John Yoo and Jay Bybee – is that they
were the linchpin for justifying acts that were clearly illegal; they provided the paper cover for both the interrogators
in the field and the senior officials back in Washington.

**
Bush hired his friends so they'd give him the legal cover to kidnap, rape, torture and murder.
That way, when asked why he's breaking the law and ignoring the Constitution, Bush could say,
"All of this has been approved by the Justice Department."

Yes, for those crimes they should go to jail then rot in Hell.
But since there is no Hell, we'll have to settle for life in prison.

If Holder doesn't do his job, future GOP presidential criminals will follow Bush's lead.

www.bartcop.com

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

"Ben Nelson Shoots Back at Paul Krugman, Nonsensically (Video)"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/09/ben-nelson-responds-to-pa_n_165...

Which is good, cause that's my prerogative. (Kidding, kidding...[probably]);) :O

The preznit's gots chops! Laid that shit out bare.

"this machine kills fascists"

C-Klan callers? OMG!

And then there is this.....The White House has just announced that President Obama will be campaigning for the stimulus plan tomorrow in Fort Myers, Florida -- where he'll be introduced by Republican Governor Charlie Crist.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/9/13511/65310/376/695262

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

No. couldn't do it tonight. i'm in a good mood. O did outstanding today. and i didn't want to spoil it

"Independent" woman caller suggests jobs program where the unemployed are put to work identifying and turning in "illegal aliens."

Actually most have been pretty reasonable, if mainly dumb.

He did a great job and I'm so happy we don't have the comedian in cheif with his moronic answers anymore!

just now on Maddow...

"We wanted to take the folks in the news media on a field trip...to see what's going on outside Washington where people are scratching their heads and sayin "how about getting something done!?"

Axelrod's gift is his casual gravitas...

"this machine kills fascists"

Maybe that should be stapled onto McConnell's office door.

Or is it Nelsen. Anyway, he's more centrist right than any Dem should be. Talk about a Blue Dog!!

Ahhh! It's Nelson. They just flashed his name on Rachel's show.

that's pretty tame. i listened constantly during the primaries. my favs were deliverance types that called in, and then started reading Bible verses that "proved" O was the anti-Christ. i force myself to listen to two hours of every Sunday morning. It's an eye-opener. I always wonder how some of the callers manage to actually call.

"Maybe that should be stapled onto McConnell's office door."

McConnell is on c-span now lying like a rug!

Just remember who will be running DHS, and how her state has been handling the issue....

I'm just sayin'....

Basically agreeing with Obama...

Nicely Done, Mr. President
By Matthew Cooper - February 9, 2009, 9:02PM
Well, there's a reason he's president and not Hillary Clinton or John McCain.

Barack Obama handled himself with great aplomb, using his opening statement to lay out the problem and what his answers are. And with each question--and none of the questions were total boners, so score one for the press--the president managed to show a command of the issues and an analytic mind. Wisely, he kept coming back to the point that doing nothing is not really an answer and that tax cuts alone are not enough.

Of course, the contrast with George W. Bush couldn't have been more striking. Obama was comfortable with the long answer and the long question. There was no bristling over the Biden question but a good-natured response that seemed at once to put his Number Two to stop mouthing off so much but also an explanation of how they're trying to get it right.

I thought the tone towards Republicans was probably just right. Some on the left will probably wish he was a little more Republican bashing but that's not his style and he got his jabs in without becoming overly partisan.

For liberals who thought Obama had lost his way, that he'd conceded too much in the name of bipartisanship, that he'd been outflanked by Mitch McConnell, that he'd lost all the momentum, tonight should have been reassuring, a reminder of the power of the presidency to reset the debate and also to the enduring skills of Barack Obama.

Now comes more road show--Peoria, Florida. Those events won't command the audience that tonight's press conference did. But each visit outside of Washington illustrating the plight of the economy and going over the heads of the press and politicians should help Obama guide the debate in this final week.

Beyond that, a week from today, we're likely to be on the verge of passed stimulus package and then we'll be into health care and budget season and, of course, trying to see if any of this is working. Tonight, Obama was able to mention at a couple of junctures that he inherited this mess. True enough. But he'll need to start showing results. Hopefully tomorrow's Treasury program announcement will be soothing to the roiled markets. We'll see.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/nicely-done-mr-president.php

Submitted by toniD on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 7:18pm.
I've got medicine for nausea also.
-----
I recommend a couple of tumblers filled with bourbon. It's just as effective as ipecac and you won't care when you have your head in the stool.

Big O knows that over time this strategy will prevail and pay long term dividends. The more he does it, the wackier the right gets. The wackier the right gets the more peeps walk to the light.

Speaking of wacky, the Repubs have put Steele, Palin and Rush at the top of their roster.

Now I ask you, is that a winning team?

a rug from Graham. This better pass tomorrow, because if Netenyou wins tomorrow the world is gunna turn upside down. Thank god, Bush is out.

McConnell: We Won't Make Stimulus Passage Harder for Dems
By Elana Schor - February 9, 2009, 4:29PM
The Senate is poised to approve its $827 billion version of the stimulus bill tomorrow after a procedural test vote tonight, with three GOP senators putting the legislation over the 60-vote mark needed for passage.

Republicans had forced the stimulus vote to be pushed until today in order to examine the $100-billion-plus package of cuts negotiated by a group of centrist senators last week.

The question facing Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) now is whether he'll have to work around similar delays from Republicans once stimulus talks with the House are completed -- ideally by Friday. If the GOP wanted to be a thorn in Reid's side, it could delay a final vote on the recovery bill until a week from today, imperiling President Obama's deadline for passage.

But Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters today that he doesn't expect further delays will happen this week. The timeline for final passage of the stimulus, he said, "depends on how quickly the conference functions and resolves the differences among the majority in the House and the majority in the Senate."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/mcconnell-we-wont-make-stimul...

Articulate and clear...
Submitted by maggiesboy on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 8:30pm.
Looks you right in the eye, tells you like it is, why it is, how it got there, where it's going and what to do about it.
------
He reminds me of me, except for the part about explaining the past and providing a plan for the future.

I got the looking-you-in-the-eye thingy down pat, though. That's why people erroneously conclude that I have a clue.

Coleman Lawyer Still Pulling For Forgers
By Eric Kleefeld - February 9, 2009, 3:58PM
No matter how many times you tell Norm Coleman's legal team that it's generally illegal to sign somebody else's name on a legal document, they're just not giving up on it.

Coleman lawyer Joe Friedberg is going over rejected ballots one by one with Dakota County elections manager Kevin Boyle. And again we've come to the matter of a fake signature on an absentee ballot application -- though at least this time the person signing the name was admitting it up front.

A voter's mother signed his name to the absentee application, writing "mother" right next to it in parentheses. Thus the signature on the ballot envelope itself -- possibly the voter's -- didn't match the one of the application. Friedberg couldn't let it go:

Friedberg: Now, is it your position that if somebody signs the application with the permission of the voter, that does not make it a lawful application, or it does make it a lawful application?

Boyle: In the case of the regular absentee ballot applications, we would need the mark or the signature of the applicant, not the applicant's mother.

Friedberg: Is that because you would need it to compare to the voter's signature on the ballot, on the envelope?

Boyle: That's one of the reasons.
At this point Friedberg quietly moved on to the next ballot in his stack.

It could have been worse. A while ago, Friedberg was declaring that he didn't care about the rules forbidding this.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/coleman-lawyer-still-pulling-...

Steele is perfect.

An overconfident moron with diarrhea of the mouth.

He made a fool out of himself today.

Just Say 'Yes,' For the Love of Pete!
By Elana Schor - February 9, 2009, 3:26PM
From Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's appearance today on Fox News:

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, you know, it wasn't too long ago that you were in the House as a Republican. All of your colleagues last week voted against this. Would you have voted for it?

LAHOOD: Well, look, I'm -- I am not in the House anymore. I didn't get elected to anything last November and I'm a part of the President Obama team.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/just-say-yes-for-the-love-of-...

Steele gov never created a single job

Palin i can see russia

Rush I want America to collapse

When things get wacky, the wacky turn right.

"What we saw tonight in President Obama was a man who, flailing about for words and faiing to form cohesive sentences and responses, turned in a stumbling, meandering performance worthy of the most extreme caricature of George W. Bush."

courtesy of someone not quite in command of their faculties

They'll never get it!

"this machine kills fascists"

Obama to Congress: Stop
playing 'usual political games'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
President Barack Obama, pressuring lawmakers to urgently approve a massive economic recovery bill, criticized Republicans who have balked at the legislation Monday night and said, "I can't afford to see Congress play the usual political games."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama

GM, Chrysler prepare
for operating bankruptcy

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC may have to be forced into bankruptcy by the U.S. government to assure repayment of $17.4 billion in federal bailout loans

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ad_m06A_gtLk&refer=h...

Where Dick Lugar failed, Charlie Crist (apparently) will not.

"this machine kills fascists"

Are you referring to the national employer verification system? Yeah, that's evil b/c it's too much of a surveillance society thing and too much room for errors with grave consequences.

But harsh employer sanctions are a good idea, IMO, for future enforcement, after an amnesty for people who have established lives here and/or who really , seriously need to stay economically.

(But the latter becomes more and more of a moot point every day.)

hilarious

finally happened.

I don't know about you folks but

watching 25k jobs a day go down the drain is pretty depressing. Cloture gave me the same feeling I get after a prolonged constipation ending. Now to negotiate with the House.

Submitted by 60th Street on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 10:06pm.
They'll never get it!
--------
I was amused by the complaint from poster RyanOHIO who mentioned Obama's "long-winded answers." Following is a scene I quickly imagined, starring Ryan.

Doc: "I have your MRI results here which I will explain in a moment. The treatment protocol is---

Ryan: "Just cut to the chase, Doc."

Doc: "You have a brain tumor and you owe me $160."

he was doin' a stand in in a Droopy Cartoon

It's the fact that Arizona has the some of the harshest immigration enforcement policies in the country, from top to bottom. Now I know that is not all her doing, but she was in charge for a long time and most of the crackdown came under her watch as either Attorney General or Governor.

Just google: arizona crackdown on illegal aliens and you should get enough reading on the matter for a week.

My point is, I will not be surprised if National policy enforcement begins to look a little more like Arizona and that cspan caller's suggestion might not be as far fetched a right wing wet dream as it seems.

first I hear that refers to the guy discussed at the Telegraph UK

all he said was "cuts to his genitals".
No mention of scalpels.

ChannelWeb - 2 hours ago
By Damon Poeter, ChannelWeb Advanced Micro Devices, stepping up its offensive against Intel, on Monday released five AM3-socket Phenom II desktop microprocessors ahead of the chip maker's anticipated schedule for the transition to DDR3 memory ...
----------
If you understand the paragraph above, you're probably a nerd. (I'm talkin' to YOU, Fernando.)

Despite the criticism of the government's stance, intelligence sources have revealed that there was a second, legitimate, reason for doing as the US government asked in restricting the material published: MI5 is more dependent than ever on the CIA for help in monitoring the 2,000 terrorist suspects in the UK.

The US has stepped up intelligence gathering in the UK to such an extent over the last 18 months that one in four CIA operations designed to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks on the US homeland is now conducted against targets in the UK. - TelegraphUK

Getting very tired now.

Later

sleep well.

Dean Gets HHS Endorsement From Patrick Leahy

February 9, 2009 02:28 PM

Chalk up another endorsement for Howard Dean taking over the reins of the Department of Health and Human Services.

On Monday, Sen. Patrick Leahy said that the former DNC header and fellow Vermont Democrat would be the ideal candidate to take the spot of recently withdrawn HHS nominee, Tom Daschle.

"I think Howard Dean would do a great job," Leahy told the Huffington Post at an event at Georgetown University. "He is a physician. As governor he had to deal with everything that went right with HHS and with everything that went wrong. He can tell us that these are the things that a governor has to face, Medicare especially and other things, he is very knowledgeable. He would be very good ... And he is obviously a tireless worker."

In coming out in support of Dean -- who has been mum on the HHS rumors -- Leahy joins a group of elected officials, including two fellow Vermonters. Last week, Sens. Tim Harkin (D-IA) and Bernie Sanders, as well as Reps. Peter Welch and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), all offered endorsements of sorts for the former Vermont Governor. And yet, Dean chances at ascending to the post seem clouded by his choppy relationship with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The major names now rumored for the HHS nod are Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/09/dean-gets-hhs-...

om mani padme hum

Phooman read that and thought it must be an Emo Band.

Ragtime would be more applicable.

Emo 5 is washed up.

Michigan J's combo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1vH2rjUshk

Get a Sigg bottle and hit the tap.
Submitted by maggiesboy on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 12:44pm.
I use Brita just for the cleansing effect cuz it makes my coffee taste a lot better. I can justify the cost based on that alone. I know it doesn't get all the crap out but my city water is good and everyone's should be now Bush is gone but it may take a while.

===========================================

When I had a water filter set-up (osmosis with extra fine filter which also got out some other things (like giarda etc.), I was always creeped out when I changed the filter -- it was so full of goo. Then I got to wondering -- is the quality of my filtered water consistent; that is, does it go downhill as that filter holds more goo? Like, is a glass of water straight from the tap really dirtier than the glass of filtered water I end up with during the end of the filter's life -- after the water has passed through all that goo. I could NOT find any studies to ease my mind. So now I've switched to bottled distilled water. (I'd get a water distiller if I could find a decent consumer review on them....).

Anyway, I commiserate with all about the water quality situation. It is a dilemma. It's pretty hard to have the expertise to completely understand a water quality report from my local water treatment agency, and there's usually an issue whether the standards are too low to begin with; but it's clear that they don't get out all the bugs and stuff and an additional cleaning step is worth a try.

leave it to this place to find a way to laugh at calamity.

on now. Weird.

Here is a great free audiobook blog :)

http://audiobooks-download.blogspot.com/

Why does the President use the word "entitlement"? Doesn't he realize it is Gingrich jargon that serves as an epithet? Is it really necessary for Obama to speak the language of The Far Right?

And then that no-brainer about whether to continue censoring the Press regarding the photos of returned dead troops: What's so hard about rolling back THAT Bush insult to the guarantee of a Free Press???

He used the word "9/11", or something close to it, to justify being in Afghanistan. [I'm havin' a kind of uncontrolled hysterical laughter attack just remembering it. Surely by now the intelligence insiders have briefed him that 9/11 was an inside job of untouchable rogue elements (funded by the Black Budget) in the depths of our own government.... Ha-ha-haha-ha-haha! I can no longer be made to be that afraid; only hysterical with giddy disbelief!]

And this was the cherry on the sundae: He said that healthcare costs are high because (be sure you're sitting down) our treatment records are not thoroughly computerized. UNBELIEVABLE! Like, how much DID that corporate campaign contributor give him so that their pet funding prize -- computerization (and the atttending LOSS OF OUR PRIVACY) -- is the leading priority in the overhaul of the nation's healthcare delivery??? Has Obama forgotten all the real problems like high drug costs, pre-existing condition classification, redundant administrative costs, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera??? Sheesh.

Again tonight we saw another exercise in respectful disagreement
Submitted by maggiesboy on Mon, 02/09/2009 - 9:54pm.
Big O knows that over time this strategy will prevail and pay long term dividends. The more he does it, the wackier the right gets. The wackier the right gets the more peeps walk to the light.

Speaking of wacky, the Repubs have put Steele, Palin and Rush at the top of their roster.

Now I ask you, is that a winning team?

===========================================

This IS the winning aspect of Obama, I must admit!

(And it was so great hearing an intelligent person answer questions with just some dodging, instead of that Dodge-Every-Question-With-a-Wink-Or-Smirk-Bush technique.)

And,for all the Audio Books links you've given us.. :)

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Someones filling in for him ?

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

Yeah. The substitutes caan't come close to filling their microphones.

I hope things are back to normal soon.

That should fix everything.

was out because of being sick..

He was sick most of last week but,hung in there..O'well..

Is Randi sick too ? I haven't listened to her in a couple weeks..She's gotten on my nerves..
Too much,I did this,I did that..The me,me thang..

"Hello to our friends and fans in domestic surveillance."

>>He used the word "9/11", or something close to it, to justify being in Afghanistan. [I'm havin' a kind of uncontrolled hysterical laughter attack just remembering it. Surely by now the intelligence insiders have briefed him that 9/11 was an inside job of untouchable rogue elements (funded by the Black Budget) in the depths of our own government.... Ha-ha-haha-ha-haha! I can no longer be made to be that afraid; only hysterical with giddy disbelief!]

even if what you say is true, why the fuck would they tell Obama about it?
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Very good diary (by buhdydharma) addressing this. And one blogger says if Obama were going to prosecute, why would this be needed....good question.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/9/17620/73749/286/695360

Hugh's List of Bush Scandals -- how can some of these NEVER be prosecuted? It is unthinkable that we are so ethically/morally bankrupt that we can't hold these Elites to an equal standard of Justice.

http://www.netrootsmass.net/hughs-bush-scandals-list/

FBI raids Ga. plant at center of salmonella scare

WASHINGTON – Federal agents on Monday raided a Georgia peanut processing plant linked to the nationwide salmonella outbreak that has prompted one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.

The FBI executed search warrants at both the plant in Blakely, Ga., and at Peanut Corp. of America's headquarters in Lynchburg, Va., according to a senior congressional aide with knowledge of the raids. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The plant has been identified as the source of the salmonella that has sickened hundreds and killed as many as eight people.

Atlanta television station WSB's cameras captured FBI agents entering the plant and leaving with boxes and other material.

Earlier Monday, Agent Gregory Jones in Atlanta said the FBI had joined the investigation into the outbreak. The FBI didn't immediately return a message left seeking further comment on the raid Monday night.

The House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee, which also is investigating how tainted peanuts got into the food supply, has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday. The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., has called a meeting on Tuesday to issue a subpoena for company president Stewart Parnell, who has indicated he will not otherwise appear at Wednesday's hearing, the congressional source said.

Monday's searches come three days after Food and Drug Administration investigators said Peanut Corp. knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products from its Georgia plant after tests showed the products were contaminated. Federal law forbids producing or shipping foods under conditions that could make it harmful to consumers' health.

The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation and more than 1,550 products have been recalled.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090210/ap_on_bi_ge/salmonella_outbreak_inve...

>>RE: Leahy's 'Truth Commission'

I have to admit my first reaction to this is was disappointment. but I was pleased that Obama clarified that prosecutions would be possible.

This unraveling a HUGE criminal conspiracy thing is not an easy undertaking. In order to connect the top players, Bush, Cheney, etc. to the ones that actually committed the crimes. This is made doubly hard because like in any other gang, anyone who actually knows anything has already committed some pretty considerable crimes just to earn the trust that will earn them a position where they'll be privy to information.

To do this, deals will have to be made to get the little guys to testify against the big guys. I think the key player to get would be Rove. He was central to everything (In my belief). If people flip on Rove, I believe Rove will do anything to avoid prosecution.

Most of Bush's top echelon, Rummy, Wolfie, etc. are pretty tough. They'll fall on their swords for Bush, knowing they will be taken care of for life since they are `made-men'. I'm not sure about Rice, but she seems like one tough cookie...

But Rove is a punk. If the thinks he is looking at life in prison, he'll squeal like a pig, pee his pants and spill the beans.

I don't know about you, but I think I could hold my nose and cut a deal with Rove even though he deserves life in prison for his part in the enterprise.

*************************
the big question is: Would Rove live long enough to testify, or would he have an airplane accident or something?

"Members of Congress should wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers so we could identify their corporate sponsors." - Author Unknown

Hey Toni, how are you feeling?

I hope you had a good nap and your symptoms are going away.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 1:57am.
...
even if what you say is true, why the fuck would they tell Obama about it?
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===================================

The WHOLE government is not part of the bad stuff; the players in 9/11 were just the rogue part who have sequestered their funding and projects. I consider that the majority of folks in the defense and intelligence agencies' bureaucracy were outside the loop on the 9/11 smoke and mirrors. I would not expect the rogue elements to come forward and tell Obama anything, but cerain others in the bureaucracy who've been outside the loop, but who may have picked up clues of the inside job anyway, I think they might include their finding in a rundown report to a new President.

Have you ever seen the movie "7 Days in May"? A good flick; and I hate to give away the plot. But I'll just say, even when there is a military coup, it doesn't necessarily involve the whole military. Likewise, when there are shadow government projects, I think only a core 'shadow' group would ever know the full extent/meaning of what's going on. But, they DID share Northwoods with John Kennedy, and he refused to give his approval to government-controlled terrorist events, so that is a time when a president was aware. (The rogue element in government changed their ways with Lyndon Johnson it seems, because it appears they may have fooled him with the Gulf of Tonkin smoke and mirrors, inducing him to attack N.Vietnam over the faked incident.)

In regards to 9/11 issues, there were occurences of would-be whistleblowers who were brushed aside as if they were no more than miniscule gnats:

o Remember translator Sibel Edmonds who not only said translation and routing of documents was not being handled properly, but that there were parties (apparently moles) in her department who attempted to recruit her into some kind of an interior elite group. (There was a segment on 60 Minutes about her and some of her concerns.)

o Then there were a number of FBI agents who tried to go by the book with their concerns about the guys (the patsies) taking flying lessons and stuff, and these FBI agents kept getting disregarded by their superiors (moles who were protecting the patsies).

It's all about COMPARTMENTALIZATION. Just because someone plays a role (however small or even important) in the 'event' does not mean they even know there is an 'event'.

The above are just instances where awareness of something being amiss have gotten out to the public. But, perhaps, there is a wealth of information, equally compartmentalized, being collected to track the signs of the rogue elements. This is the sort of thing I believe Obama would have access to on becoming President of the United States.

Then, again, maybe you are correct, and noone would tell Obama anything. But I think his position IS like a CEO and the government bureaucracy (the huge population of government that is NOT elected) might make an overture to the new nominal head of the government bureaucracy.

My view is much rosier than the author I've been reading and quoting here lately. At least in his book, Webster Griffin Tarpley indicates there's a strange phenomenon that occurs with the bureaucracy after a 'successful' event/show of power/force:

[excerpt]

"Before we leave the moles, we must makes one further important methodological point. Before the [government sponsored] terrorist action occurs, the moles appear as embedded in the government bureaucracy which is resisting the new course which they wish to impose. After the fact, providing that the terrorist action has gone off successfully, the entire government seems to be made up exclusively of moles. Now the moles no longer appear isolated. In fact, the entire government is speaking the language which before the terror attack seemed to be the factional distinction of the moles, to the extent that they said anything.

The government bureaucracy can be thought of as a gigantic freight train. With the successful terrorist act, a switch is turned, and the entire train goes rumbling in a new direction. The transformation achieved by a successful act of spectacular terrorism goes beyond what can be achieved by mere directives emanating from the office of the president or some cabinet secretary. Public opinion is shocked and stunned; the Congress is stampeded; the entire bureaucracy senses that the terrorist controllers have proven that it is they who are the strongest. After all, in Byzantine and neocon theory, law is an act of the will of the stronger over the weaker. The neocons regard a successful act of force as a valid act of legislation in that sense. The bureaucracy therefor inclines to the side of the plotters.

Once the new policy has been institutionalized, every bureaucrat will attempt to defend it as a matter of self-preservation. Bureaucratic inertia will now adapt itself to the new party line. This is why, in retrospect, it looks as if the entire government is composed of nothing but moles. But this impression is misleading...."

[Excerpt from Webster Griffin Tarpley's book "9/11 Synthetic Terror", pg. 91]

Let Netanyahu Win

By Gideon Levy

February 09, 2009 "Haaretz" - -Benjamin Netanyahu will apparently be Israel's next prime minister. There is, however, something encouraging about that fact. Netanyahu's election will free Israel from the burden of deception: If he can establish a right-wing government, the veil will be lifted and the nation's true face revealed to its citizens and the rest of the world, including Arab countries. Together with the world, we will see which direction we are facing and who we really are. The masquerade that has gone on for several years will finally come to an end.

Netanyahu's election is likely to bring the curtain down on the great fraud - the best show in town - the lie of "negotiations" and the injustice of the "peace process." Israel consistently claimed these acts proved the nation was focused on peace and the end of the occupation. All the while, it did everything it could to further entrench the occupation and distance any chance of a potential agreement.

For 16 years, we have been enamored with the peace process. We talk and talk, babble and prattle, and generally feel great about ourselves; meanwhile the settlements expand endlessly and Israel turns to the use of force at every possible opportunity, aside from a unilateral disengagement which did nothing to advance the cause of peace.

With the election of a prime ministerial candidate who speaks of "economic peace," the naked truth will finally emerge. If, however, Tzipi Livni or Ehud Barak are elected, the self-delusion will simply continue. Livni herself is enamored with futile, useless and cowardly negotiations, and Barak has long abandoned the brave efforts he made in the past. The election of either will only perpetuate the vacuum. The world, including Washington, will breathe a sigh of relief that for once, Israel has elected a leadership that will pursue peace. But there is no chance of that happening.

The record of each of these candidates, and the positions they have championed until now, proves that what has been will continue to be. Livni and Barak will rush to every photo opportunity with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan. The Americans and Europeans will be pleased, but nothing will come out of it other than the sowing of a few more illusions. We will move from war to war, uprising to uprising, settlement to settlement, and the world will continue to delude itself into thinking an agreement is within reach. Hamas will grow stronger, Abbas weaker and the last chance for peace will be irretrievably lost.

Netanyahu would offer something else. First, he is a faithful representative of an authentic "Israeli" view - an almost complete distrust of Arabs and the chance of reaching peace with them, mixed with condescension and dehumanization. Second, he will finally arouse the world's rage towards us, including that of the new U.S. administration. Sadly, this may be the only chance for the kind of dramatic change that is needed.

The Palestinian Authority, another mendacious facade, will finally collapse, and Israel will face the non-partner it has wanted and sought all these years. The world may not rush to embrace Netanyahu as it would the "moderates" - Livni or Barak, who have led Israel to more unnecessary wars than Netanyahu, the "extremist" - while the real difference between them is almost non-existent.

Lifting the veil will lead to a crisis situation, which unfortunately is the only one that can bring about change. We must hope that both Kadima and Labor do not join a Netanyahu government (regrettably, another futile hope), as Israel's exposure will then be that much starker. A government composed of Netanyahu, Shas and Avigdor Lieberman will not, of course, have to deal with an opposition of Netanyahu, Shas and Avigdor Lieberman, and may therefore behave differently once in power than one might expect. Have we mentioned Menachem Begin?

But even if Netanyahu is the same old Netanyahu, this will be an opportunity to place the right's policies under the microscope. Let's see him stand before Barack Obama and speak of the grotesque idea of "economic peace," or wage foreign or security policies according to his stated positions. Let's see him answer just what exactly his vision is for 20 to 30 years down the road.

In due course, his anticipated failure may just hasten an alternative route, on condition that Kadima and Labor do not join the government and bring us another year of fraud. The lemons may yet yield lemonade - maybe the establishment of a right-wing government will remove all of the masks for good. The alternative, known and expected by all, is far more ambiguous, dangerous and threatening.

So let Netanyahu win. There is no alternative at this point anyway

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article21937.htm

Nora, I see your point but I really wonder if anyone outside of the Bush crime family would be able to give any verifiable information. They may have lots of suspicion and theories, but nothing that would stand up in court.

Leahy's plan may work, they may be able to get enough information from the little guys if those little guys think they can speak freely without fear of prosecutions. Why they would choose to tell, I don't know. but it is always possible that when enough people testify, someone will slip up and implicate someone. If they start point fingers at each other, all sorts of stuff might come out.
*************************

but if even 1/2 of what we think happened actually happened, there HAS to be prosecutions.

Feeling a bit better but I'm still sleeping alot. But, like you said, it's in 2-3 hour naps.

I'm glad you aren't as sick as you were a couple days ago. One time I had asthmatic bronchitis bordering on pneumonia. I spent a few days where I slept very lightly. I guess the fever kept waking me up? I'd only wake up for a few minutes at a time...I had the tv on the history channel and I was never sure just how long I'd been asleep...it seemed like the tv shows just ran together...like one big muddle of random history.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

I think Obama is handing off the investigations to the House and the Senate right now, on purpose. It looks as if he is uninvolved and is giving the perpetrators a false sense that they are okay.

Obama really has to concentrate on our economy right now and the unstable Mid East. Thus the delegation to the Congress of the investigations of the Bush admin.

And this is my surmise, that Obama wants to win the respect of the military so that they will tell of what they know about the Bush admin. It will eventually come out.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. The more they think he won't do anything, the more brazen they will get. Look what Cheney is trying to do. He's comfortable enough to make crazy statements and now is beginning to look like what he is.

Dear Member:

This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by NFL Properties LLC claiming that this material is infringing:

Brett Farve is Sacked...: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWuMLJ2w6k8

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.
© 2009 YouTube, LLC
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

.

.

.

.

.

I just hope we go from fact finding to prosecutions reasonably soon, like less than a year. Prosecutions will take a bunch of time and I'd like to see the bastards in jail by the end of Obama's 3rd year. If it takes much longer than that, I doubt if anything much will come of it.
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"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

what the Feakin' Hell's going on with all my double posts? I don't remember posting them or, especially, understand how they could be reposted out of order...

time to delete the extras...
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

One of the most important recommendations by John Conyers in his 487 page recent report "Reining In The Imperial Presidency" was to extend the statute of limitations on the crimes of Bush and Cheney, to allow a fair opportunity for them to be actually investigated by a real prosecutor. Of course the Justice Department was entirely derelict in enforcing the law as to them while they were still in office. To fully preserve and protect the rule of law, the statute of limitations must be extended now.

And sure enough, just the other day Cheney was out there gloating about how the statute of limitations was expiring on some of their most egregious offenses. For example, the midnight putsch to institute a regime of illegal wiretapping occurred in early March of 2004, not quite 5 years ago. We certainly did not expect Alberto Gonzales, who conspired in all of this, to enforce the law when he was attorney general, did we?

Extend Statute of Limitations Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum933.php

And while we're on the subject of Dick Cheney shooting off his unwelcome mouth again, we never expected you to "make nice with terrorists", Dick, as you so contemptuously smear any alternative to a policy of slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians in foreign countries and destroying their cities. No, Dick, we expected you to NOT stoop to beneath their level, which has made us all decidely less safe for the future.

In truth, if we count all our senseless casualties in Iraq, Dick, more died on your watch since than died on 9/11, which you dismally failed to protect us from in the first place in your arrogant insolence. Or was it deliberate treason, so you could justify your war to seize Iraq's oil fields? No, Dick, we were never expecting everyone in the world to "love" us, but we sure could do without a couple extra generations of millions of people bent on mortal revenge.

By the way, did anyone else catch the story of Cheney throwing out his back moving his OWN boxes? What is a former vice president doing playing his own moving man, unless all those boxes contained incriminating evidence he would not allow anyone else to even touch? Must have been a lot of such evidence to throw his back out like that.

Extend Statute of Limitations Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum933.php

And on the same return page from the action page above, you can also find the new local county prosecutor lookup, which we are using to call, write and email local district attorneys, asking them to bring murder charges against George Bush and Dick Cheney as urged by Vince Bugliosi. If any resident of your county was killed a war based on false pretenses, Bugliosi says that district attorney has grounds to bring murder charges. At the top of all these pages, there is a link to a terrific YouTube video you can watch on this of Bugliosi's House testimony.

The local prosecutor initiative is an important long term back up action, intended to keep the heat on at the same time for a special prosecutor at the federal level.

IMPORTANT NOTE: We are not asking anyone to file a "formal" criminal complaint yourself. Common sense tells us that a state prosecutor will only act, in the exercise of their OWN discretion, if they believe there is a non-frivolous case to bring. But by speaking out, we can let them know there is community support for them to do so.

Submitted by Chubby Bubba on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 4:13am.

Insanity. If this trend continues, the internet will be as "free" as America itself in ten years.

"If I had even a QUARTER of Dick Clark's money I would quit TODAY, and I would do NOTHING."
-Maron.
www.sigzone.blogspot.com

to take your point.

It better not happen that way.

I have to admit I am perplexed as to how a few 30 second videos are a threat to the NFL...

how is that really any different that taking pictures at a game?

It isn't like I posted anything from a broadcast.
*************************

"The Once and Future Rajah of Bhong."

I think illegal immigrants will return home since the job pool is drying up. at least some of them?

But how good would an economy based on turning people in to the police be?

It certainly isn't sustainable...they'd be a `bounty bubble'...

and it could be way more expensive than it is worth, with people turning in anyone they suspect...

hell, I imagine some coyotes would turn new illegals over to the feds as soon as they got over the border.

Who wouldn't want to be paid twice?
*************************

Time for me to turn in. Sweet dreams all!

... ;) and on that note I will go BREW more Tea ... ;)

The Chess Master
By BOB HERBERT
It was just a week ago that the bad-mouthing of Barack Obama seemed to be reaching a fever pitch.

The president was taking heat for the tax problems of Tom Daschle, Timothy Geithner and other appointees and nominees. Liberal supporters of the president were upset that he was making such a high-profile effort to get Republicans to climb aboard his stimulus package bandwagon.

Self-styled middle-of-the-roaders were snarling that Mr. Obama was not doing enough bipartisan outreach, even as Republicans on Capitol Hill were attacking his economic package with the kind of venom usually reserved for the handiwork of Satan.

Mr. Obama was called a hypocrite, dismissed as both craven and politically naïve and taken to task for being too much in the public eye.

The president was even accused — oh, my goodness — of working in the Oval Office without his suit jacket on. And what was Mr. Obama doing as this chaos and tension and criticism swirled about him? Not surprisingly, keeping a level head.

Mr. Daschle, who was supposed to be the administration’s point person on health care reform, withdrew his nomination as secretary of health and human services, and Mr. Obama promptly took the blame for the foul-up. “I’ve got to own up to my mistake,” he said.

Polls showed that this went over very well with the public.

After making every effort — and failing — to generate significant G.O.P. support for the stimulus package, the president ratcheted up his rhetoric, pointing to the stunning job losses in January and sharply criticizing the Republicans’ obstructionist tactics. On Friday, a weakened but still enormous stimulus bill was agreed upon in the Senate, a crucial advance for Mr. Obama.

On Monday, he was on the road, making the case for his stimulus bill in Elkhart, Ind., which is enduring Depression-levels of joblessness and is desperate for federal assistance. Speaking to a crowded town-hall-style meeting, Mr. Obama said: “Endless delay or paralysis in Washington in the face of this crisis will only bring deepening disaster. I can tell you that doing nothing is not an option.”

The crowd cheered and supported him enthusiastically throughout his appearance.

There is always a tendency to underestimate Barack Obama. We are inclined in the news media to hyperventilate over every political or policy setback, no matter how silly or insignificant, while Mr. Obama has shown again and again that he takes a longer view.

There was no way, for example, that the Daschle flap was going to derail the forward march of a man who had survived the Rev. Jeremiah Wright fiasco. It’s early, but there are signs that Mr. Obama may be the kind of president who is incomprehensible to the cynics among us — one who is responsible and mature, who is concerned not just with the short-term political realities but also the long-term policy implications.

He has certainly handled himself much better than some of the clowns carrying leadership banners for the G.O.P. Michael Steele, the new Republican Party chairman, could barely contain his glee over the fact that no Republicans voted for the stimulus package in the House. “The goose egg that you laid on the president’s desk was just beautiful,” he said.

“This bill stinks,” said Lindsey Graham of South Carolina during the Senate debate on the package.

Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, made it clear that his party was committed to the low road when he talked about picking up pointers from the Taliban.

I’m not joking. “Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” said Mr. Sessions, in an interview with Hotline, which is part of NationalJournal.com.

The simple truth is that most Republican politicians would like Mr. Obama to fail because that is their ticket to a quick return to power. I think the president is a more formidable opponent than they realize.

Mr. Obama is like a championship chess player, always several moves ahead of friend and foe alike. He’s smart, deft, elegant and subtle. While Lindsey Graham was behaving like a 6-year-old on the Senate floor and Pete Sessions was studying passages in his Taliban handbook, Mr. Obama and his aides were assessing what’s achievable in terms of stimulus legislation and how best to get there.

I’d personally like to see a more robust stimulus package, with increased infrastructure spending and fewer tax cuts. But the reality is that Mr. Obama needs at least a handful of Republican votes in the Senate to get anything at all done, and he can’t afford to lose this first crucial legislative fight of his presidency.

The Democrats may succeed in bolstering their package somewhat in conference, but I think Mr. Obama would have been satisfied all along to start his presidency off with an $800 billion-plus stimulus program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/opinion/10herbert.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th...

I listen. I comment. I get banned from every forum or group from here to eternity.

What am I doing wrong?

The sign says Image Captcha... but there is no Image Captcha. What am I doing wrong?

I vote for Al Gore... Bush wins. I vote for John Kerry... Bush wins. I vote for Hillary Clinton... Obama wins. What am I doing wrong?

I love women. I love everything about women. I am the hopeless romantic. The consummate gentleman. But still they leave me. Still they break my heart in two.

What am I doing wrong?

Please tell me... What am I doing wrong?

I used to come to this forum when it was Seder and Garofalo. When it was nobody but Nobody and me. When we thought that Bush could be voted out of office. I thought that the idea of an African American president was the stuff of Hollywood. I used to scream at night for the kids, no more than children, dying in the sun and foriegn sand. I used to cry at night for the families drowning in the flood on weakened roofs waiting for helicopters that were regrettably somewhere in the middle east. I used to try to be the best me I could be, because I had no power over all of the them's that controlled my reality. I used to believe that only a hand full of Americans truly got it. But I watched my president give his first address tonight followed by a press conference and I thought I would start to cry again. Again I say because I spent election night crying. I spent election week weeping on and off. That blond chippy from the view started to cry and I lost it. Oprah and Reverend Jackson started crying on video tape and I started crying. I used to truly firmly believe that this country would end, America would cease to be before a man who looked like me, who talked like me, as flawed as me and as hopeful as me was elevated to the highest office. I used to come to this forum when it was Seder and Garofalo. When it was nobody but Nobody and me. When we thought that bush could be voted out of office. But now I can't stop crying and I can't stop smiling. and I want to thank everyone who can read my words for reaffirming my faith in America and humanity and flowers and puppies and kittens and regardless of what my nickname says, my name is Mel and I love each and every one of you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Goodnight.

what a refreshing change to hear a press conference where the speaker was articulate and intelligent.

HHS Candidate Draws Fire, Fights Back
By LAURA MECKLER

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123422196804465411.html?mod=googlenews_w...

WASHINGTON – Health-care advocates are actively campaigning to persuade Barack Obama to cross a leading candidate off his short-list for secretary of Health and Human Services: Tennessee Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen. And, in an unusual move for an official under consideration, the governor is fighting back publicly.

"Anybody who's got some real scars and experience is going to have their detractors," the governor said Monday in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "People at the White House are smart enough to be able to assess that." And he took a swipe at his opponents, saying that "advocacy groups don't matter nearly as much as the pharmaceutical groups, the hospitals, the doctors' groups. There's a lot of very powerful interest groups that will play in this thing."

[_nice_...snip]

Another candidate under consideration for the HHS slot is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, an early Obama supporter, according to people familiar with the matter. She is likely to draw far less controversy and is seen as the most likely choice.

One question has been whether she would take the job, having apparently passed up earlier opportunities to join the Obama cabinet. But one health-care advocate, Ron Pollack, president of the consumer group Families USA, said he spoke with her and she told him that she would be willing to take the job if offered

[Nope. MM-mm. If you're not spoiling for this fight you don't need to do anyone any favors]

Articulate, intelligent, answering the questions, not belittling the reporters. and not inappropriately laughing at the pain of others. My god... these things really shouldn't be so surprising from our president but after 8 years of abuse... I feel like dancing.

Something isn't right
new
Submitted by ImpeachObama on Tue, 02/10/2009 - 5:59am.

***

...and how many "hearts" have you broken? How many tears have you caused? Do you even know?
;);(

...it is SOOO nice to have someone of intelligence as President. And I have pure glee upon hearing the word PRESIDENT, instead of being sickened. Again, I am Proud To Be An American.
;)

...and I was damed by most here, and got banned from only other blog I would frequent ATT {first time - kinda kewl - in a weird way ;}
...thus that is why I just *fly by* here.

...and how many "hearts" have you broken? How many tears have you caused? Do you even know?
;);(

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

I don't. I don't know. But I would hold every heart in my hands and press the halves together firmly. Not too hard. Press them together until I could stop the bleeding, until the two halves fused together and what was once broken was whole again. I would hold every woman, every man, every person's heart that I may have broken in my arms and hug them. squeeze them, and heal them if I could but I don't know. For some reason when my heart is broken I want to tell everyone and I want to feel all the sympathy and all the pity the world has to offer but she... she never lets me know that she felt as I did. She hides her scars behind a sneer and smile that I can't read through my tears. And her tears... I never see a drop.

...are enchanting. How is a woman to answer? Did you ever tell "her"/"them" because ............?

;)

I don't mind that we have a black president or that it's Barack. I just knew that Hillary as president would have pissed off every republican from Maine to Miami from Hartford to Hollywood. And she had paid her dues and she was due. She deserved the big chair. The Democratic candidate was a shoe in and I had watched them bad mouth Hillary for years. I witnessed the papers always finding the worse pictures of her to show and I wanted them all to eat their pages and their words. Don't get me wrong... I was wrong. Obama is a better choice. And there might have been a little racism in my allegiance but I knew Hillary would make Hannity's head explode. O'Reily's heart give out and Rush Limbaugh commit sepuku on his living room floor. But that was just a dream. I jumped up and down in front of my television screaming "Call it! Call it!" with each state that went for Obama I was screaming. "Call it! It's over!" and then they called it. Obama wins the election. and I fell on my couch and I weeped. I'm crying now just typing this. Amazing. I had a nightmare that night that all of these people were forcing their way into my apartment and I could do nothing about it. A nightmare where no one would listen to me. They just wouldn't leave. Then I thought to myself why the fuck are they here? And it occurred to me that they had come because Obama was president... and I got excited and I woke up. He had only been President-elect for a few hours and already he had chased away my nightmares.

I kid you not.

Biden was Pure SELFISH Strategy, IMHO. I just do not like being "played", unless I want to be played. And then there is "coal & coal ash".
However, I was for this second in time, happy with a man I can proudly call President -- since I NEVER called bush that.
;)

I remember you from when I first came here. I remember lots of vitriol. Good to see where you have come. As the Catholics say, "confession is good for the soul"...

Why the impeach Obama nic though.....

om mani padme hum

My last love told me that she could become addicted to the way I treated her. She said it in this whimsical ecstatic way like I was doing something really right. The next morning she broke up with me. And I don't know what I'm doing wrong. My first girlfriend told me that I loved women too much. I still don't understand that? Truly I don't understand the concept. She was leaving and telling me that I loved women too much was the reason. I don't know what I'm doing wrong? Every girl I meet tells me it's not me it's the last girl up until the day they leave me as well. I guess it's me. I write poetry and songs and sonnets. I paint portraits and take photos and buy the perfect gifts. I had one girl tell me she couldn't compete with me romantically. And that going out with me was like being a lesbian. So I dated a guy after that. At least I tried to. Tried making out. Mistake. I'm not gay. Didn't feel right. But I think I broke the guys heart. I gave it the old college try but like Diane said I love women too much.

...not President Obama's, alone.
;)

Charming. The right girl will find you. Bon Chance.
Tea Cheers.
;)

Why the impeach Obama nic though.....

om mani padme hum

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

I couldn't think of anything and I couldn't log in with my old nic because I couldn't see the Captcha pic. I was trying to be ironic or interesting. If you have read my comments in the past. I want to apologise because most of the time I was just trying to entertain myself. I am not like other posters. I don't press post unless what I wrote makes the hair on my arms stand on end or unless I know that after I click post I will regret it or what ever else floats my boat or keeps me awake at the time. There are a couple of old regulars who know how to push my buttons and bring a foul-language laden tirade from my keyboard but most of the time I'm just being weird and entertaining myself and I want to apologise if you thought I was being serious. I was just accused of being a douchebag on another forum before being banned. That pretty much sums it up though. I'm a douchebag.

I've given up, Ms An. I have convinced myself that I will be alone for the duration... the rest of this wild ride, and I have to find a way to deal with that. I am not capable of a relationship with anyone and I'm not going to cry about it. I am just going to continue being me and avoid people like the plague. Including online. I am socially inept. So much so that they want me to take pills. I say no pills, no people, no problem. And with that I will say goodbye. Because the longer I stick around the more chance of me acting like an asshole.

this is my e-mail address nbandr at gmail dot com.

N B and R being my three favourite fiction writers last initials

Nabokov
Bukowski
Robbins

I'm such a dweeb.

I was wondering about you a few days ago. I hope things are going well for you now.

I think that if you log in using the log in area on the right hand column of the blog, you will not have to use the Captcha. Then you should be able use your old nic if you remember your PW unless someone got you banned. You have to be logged out to see that option.

Geithner Said to Have Prevailed on the Bailout

Article Tools Sponsored By
By STEPHEN LABATON and EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: February 9, 2009

WASHINGTON— The Obama administration’s new plan to bail out the nation’s banks was fashioned after a spirited internal debate that pitted the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, against some of the president’s top political hands.

In the end, Mr. Geithner largely prevailed in opposing tougher conditions on financial institutions that were sought by presidential aides, including David Axelrod, a senior adviser to the president, according to administration and Congressional officials.

Mr. Geithner, who will announce the broad outlines of the plan on Tuesday, successfully fought against more severe limits on executive pay for companies receiving government aid.

He resisted those who wanted to dictate how banks would spend their rescue money. And he prevailed over top administration aides who wanted to replace bank executives and wipe out shareholders at institutions receiving aid.

Because of the internal debate, some of the most contentious issues remain unresolved.

On Monday evening, new details emerged after lawmakers were briefed on the plan.

It intends to call for the creation of a joint Treasury and Federal Reserve program, at an initial cost of $250 billion to $500 billion, to encourage investors to acquire soured mortgage-related assets from banks.

The Fed will use its balance sheet to provide the financing, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation might provide guarantees to investors who participate in the program, which some people might call a “bad bank.”

A second component of the plan would broadly expand, to $500 billion to $1 trillion, an existing $200 billion program run by the Federal Reserve to try to unfreeze the market for commercial, student, auto and credit card loans. A third component would involve a review of the capital levels of all banks, including projections of future losses, to determine how much additional capital each bank should receive.

The capital injections would come out of the remaining $350 billion in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

A separate $50 billion initiative to enable millions of homeowners facing imminent foreclosure to renegotiate the terms of their mortgages is to be announced next week.

Some of President Obama’s advisers had advocated tighter restrictions on aid recipients, arguing that rising joblessness, populist outrage over Wall Street bonuses and expensive perks, and the poor management of last year’s bailouts could feed a potent political reaction if the administration did not demand enough sacrifices from the companies that receive federal money.

They also worry that any reaction could make it difficult to win Congressional approval for more bank rescue money, which the administration could need in coming months.

For his part, Mr. Geithner will blame corporate executives for much of the economic crisis, according to officials. He will announce rules that require all banks receiving capital from the government to submit plans that describe how they intend to strengthen their lending programs and generally restrict them from using the money to acquire other banks until the government money is repaid.

But officials said Mr. Geithner worried that the plan would not work — and could become more expensive for taxpayers — if there were too much government involvement in the affairs of the companies.

Mr. Geithner also expressed concern that too many government controls would discourage private investors from participating.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Geithner, Stephanie Cutter, had no comment.

In an interview on Monday Mr. Axelrod did not deny that there were differences of opinion as the policy was being crafted or that he had taken a harder line on issues such as executive pay restrictions, as other participants to the discussions recalled. But he said he was ultimately satisfied with the final product put forward by Mr. Geithner.“We had a great and productive discussion and as a result we came up with a good set of guidelines and rules,” he said. “I didn’t come away disappointed in any way.”

The White House is hoping that its rescue plan will be perceived as a more coherent rescue effort than the Bush administration’s, and one whose breadth and scope are so vast that it begins to restore financial confidence in the battered markets and entices private investors to come off the sidelines.

The plan is calibrated to work on multiple fronts, with promises to invest billions of dollars in scores of ailing banks and creation of a new institution to relieve bank balance sheets of their most troubled assets.

It will also renew a legislative proposal giving bankruptcy judges greater authority to modify mortgages on more favorable terms to lenders and over the objections of banks.

Officials say that new rules encouraging transparency and limiting lobbying are intended to begin to restore political confidence in a program that has faced withering criticism in Congress, an effort that they view as essential because they expect to return to Congress for more money later this year.

But as intended largely by Mr. Geithner, the plan stops short of intruding too significantly into bankers’ affairs even as they come onto the public dole.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/business/economy/10bailout.html?partne...

om mani padme hum

I worry when she is not following her regular pattern.

om mani padme hum

"how does giving people health care
stimulate the economy..."

[mistake looking at faux news...
later
~`~`~`~`~`~
Jamesbennett

I know what you mean ... I have an elder friend who is 80 sumptin that I must have updates...
...yet truly I wonder, but for whom??? teehee

A Bukowski fan would appreciate this...

Oh Yes

there are worse things than
being alone
but it often takes decades
to realize this
and most often
when you do
it's too late
and there's nothing worse
than
too late. -

Fare thee well IO.

i might be wrong about this, but i think a sizeable portion of the stimulus plan is also restoring the safety net that the conservatives have shredded with their survive or die philosophy. if thats true, giving people health care is more about making sure that in 21st century america people have access to healthcare without regard for their financial condition.

now along the way, if government provides healthcare instead of business, that's more money that business has to use for what it is they do (granted their tax bill should increase to help pay for their share of healthcare). in addition, if the money is used to expand the number of healthcare providers, voila, more jobs.

seems like whenever you check in, its a new adventure.

She was up pretty late/very early after her nap last night, Michele. Her last post was at about 5:30.

Her sleep patterns are probably all screwed up. Hopefully, she is resting....

but impeachobamasoundslikeadouchebag

judging from the nic

Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.
- Samuel Johnson

used to be around here on and off when he was going through some pretty tough times. Occasionally he got a little cantankerous but I always enjoyed his participation. Maybe if he continues to come here he can be judged on the quality of his posts and not the nickname or snap judgments.

Long time no see in here. Last time I remember you in here venting, you were strung out and pissed off. You reminded me of -B but on good meds. Glad to see you are still happening.

I'm up again from another nap.

Thanks for worrying Michele :)

Mel, good to see you again.

Try signing in on the right sidebar. I think it's right above the open mics but you have to sign out first.

sounds like the geithner plan is bad news

what do you wanna bet the republicans are gonna be happy to vote for it - everything that favors banking corporate and wealthy interests with no government interference (other than the disgorging upwards of public monies) it is bound to give them a hardon - oops sorry i meant they'll find it very stimulative

why? what would you do different?

===

what i read was that he prevailed over other administration officials who were pushing some of the more populist notions.

anybody has got to be better than paulson and bush. they made jesse james look like an amateur.

Here's another....

"RAMMING SPEED!!!" - Daniel Simpson Day ;)

animal house trumps all

NO ACCOUNTABILITY

the plan stops short of intruding too significantly into bankers’ affairs even as they come onto the public dole.

Mr. Geithner worried that the plan would not work — and could become more expensive for taxpayers — if there were too much government involvement in the affairs of the companies

Mr. Geithner also expressed concern that too many government controls would discourage private investors from participating.

BAD BANK (a bad idea imo)

It intends to call for the creation of a joint Treasury and Federal Reserve program, at an initial cost of $250 billion to $500 billion, to encourage investors to acquire soured mortgage-related assets from banks.

The Fed will use its balance sheet to provide the financing, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation might provide guarantees to investors who participate in the program, which some people might call a “bad bank.”

ETC ETC, but you're free to like it Dan

It sets a fine example. He doesn't have get all goofy and start hitching rides to events but going first class should be at the flyers expense not mine.

BTW is anyone interested in a slightly used Bush era station wagon?

Oh, and Hi Mel. I'm glad you posted your name because that nic is odious. I hope you get great gratification out of it because I find it offensive. I'm not clear what it is about being single that you don't find awesome.

turns out they're talking about axelrod that for some reason ispires more confidence to me than a wall street tax dodger insider possibly less lackey than the bush people but on a par with the clintonite whores, sorry i don't like this geithner guy - they needed to have a Stieglitz there

"God wants me to serve" - Norm Coleman
John Aravosis (DC) · 2/10/2009 09:52:00 AM ET · Link

I talk to God regularly, and she thinks you're kind of creepy.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/02/09/bonus_quote_of_the_day.html

the Geithner plan now.

Heh, maybe he should get a job as a waiter...Coleman...pfft...whatta putz...

More Koala updates from Australian heat wave
John Aravosis (DC) · 2/09/2009 11:55:00 PM ET · Link

I finally read Chris' post yesterday about the Koalas in Australia that are approaching humans out of desperation after suffering through four days of temperatures in the 100s (40C). Here are a few more articles (here and here and here), and above is another cute photo, this time the koala approached some people biking on a highway - it was apparently desperate for water.

As for the stoats (ermine) in the UK, they're a wee bit happier with the snow. (Many mor links at main link)

http://www.americablog.com/2009/02/more-koala-updates-from-australian-he...

and the sense i got was the geithner was trying to find a balance between the highway robbery that was paulson and nationalization.

as for liking it, that would be going too far. i do recognize that we need to do something sooner rather than later.

i wouldn't object to nationalization or letting them fail because i don't understand why a new bank without the toxic debt won't rise from the ashes. now of course that means that some very wealthy people would lose everything they have but maybe its time to turn the sediment over and see what happens.

is terribly over-rated, especially considering how most airlines have put the seats closer together and made the width smaller.

i'm surprised that he doesn't have secret service protection which would mandate private jet.

waiter, there's a fly in my soup

last night and here is his report from the presser:

http://www.americablog.com/2009/02/report-from-press-conference.html

He even got to talk to Helen Thomas.

He has interesting things to say about the reporter at the presser. The reporters were saying that Obama was fillibustering last night.

Read it.

F.D.A. Finds ‘Natural’ Diet Pills Laced With Drugs

By NATASHA SINGER
Published: February 9, 2009

Grady Jackson, a defensive tackle with the Atlanta Falcons, said he used the weight-loss capsules. Kathie Lee Gifford was enthusiastic about them on the “Today” show. Retailers like GNC and the Vitamin Shoppe sold them, no prescription required.

But the Food and Drug Administration now says those weight-loss capsules, called StarCaps and promoted as natural dietary supplements using papaya, could be hazardous to your health. In violation of the law, the agency has found, the capsules also contained a potent pharmaceutical drug called bumetanide which can have serious side effects.

And StarCaps are not the only culprits. In a continuing investigation that has prompted consumer warnings and recalls by some distributors, the F.D.A. has determined that dozens of weight-loss supplements, most of them imported from China, contain hidden and potentially harmful drugs. In the coming weeks, the agency plans to issue a longer list of brands to avoid that are spiked with drugs, an F.D.A. spokeswoman said.

[...]

NYT

I hope Sammy or Marc are not taking these because of that bet....