Thought Docket

A friend of mine who is, shall we say, more progressive than I am, posted a link in Facebook to a post from FireDogLake titled The Three Stooges of the Apocalypse. FireDogLake.com is a blog started by Jane Hamsher. Hamsher has connections with Hollywood, the Huffington Post, and Markos Moulitsas.

The post, preserved with original links to various stories, follows.

Cut to: interior.  A poorly lit, dingy office with framed 8 x 10 photos of second-rate comedians, burlesque performers, and the occasional evangelist line the walls. The windows are smudged and dirty.  A desk is piled high with photos, audition videos, and demo tapes.  We see

the soles of a pair of shoes on one corner of the desk. A plume of cigar smoke snakes its way to the stained ceiling. A man, barely visible behind a mound of paper, barks into the telephone.

Ralphie:

Sid! It’s me. . . . Right. It’s your crazy aunt Sheila. No, you schmuck, it’s Ralphie from Bush League Talent. . . No, no you don’t owe me any money . . . Look, just shut up and listen, okay?  I have a comedy act that is guaranteed to fill the seats of movie houses every night for the next four years. . . . Yes, right, until 2012.  Good to see you can still do math. It’s a wonder your company’s in the toilet.  Listen, it’s a trio, two guys and a gal . . . no, it’s a comedy act, no nudity . . . Yeah, well let me explain the premise, okay?  There’s these three idiots — the leader, Bobby, thinks he’s smart, but he’s just got a bigger vocabulary than the other two.  The real doofus is the other guy, Mikey, whose portrayal of a black guy circa 1983 is so frickin’ on the money that you find yourself wondering why you sold your “Thriller” album on eBay. And the babe, Sarah, plays the straight man, but she’s the real brains of the group. Anyway, the fate of the country rests with these three maroons, but they’re so incompetent that they’re always getting into some sort of trouble that ends up with them poking themselves in the eye and falling on banana peels.  Real slapstick kind of stuff.  I know that sounds like it’s been done before, but never with a babelicious woman and two brown-skinned mooks.  Trust me on this, Sid. This is going to be the biggest draw out there since Katie Harris went full frontal. . . . Sid?  Sid, you still there? . . . . Ah, shit.

[Fade out.]

I like how the left are continuing to attack Republicans, nearly 4 months after Obama’s election. It makes me think there is not much good news for them to latch on to. Certainly the stock market has taken a great big Number 2 all over Obama’s stimulus package and subsequent budget proposal. Just today, there was news of another tax cheat nominated by Obama administration (trade envoy designate Ron Kirk). Maybe it would be better if the Washington Post reported as news those instances when someone joins the Obama administration who is not a tax cheat. We have Obama basically carrying out the Bush administrations Iraq policy. We have Hilary Clinton sounding pessimism over outreach to Iran. John McCain is returning to his old cranky self, blasting Obama about breaking his vow to end earmarks. I bet McCain is sorry he ever said that we had nothing to fear from Obama. Obama is taking his sweet time in shuttering GTMO for many reasons. We’re starting to learn that we had a lot of help with interrogations, much of it from the European bed-wetters that Obama wowed in July.

I could go on and on. But here is what really caught my eye in the post above.

…a babelicious woman and two brown-skinned mooks.

Do you know what a mook is? I had to look it up. I knew it wouldn’t be good. Mook: a contemptible, incompetent person. And brown-skinned? I am so proud of this past election, and proud of John McCain and the Republican party that race was not a real issue. Good for us and good for America. Well, race was not much of an issue. For whom was race an issue?

• Race was an issue for that mook from Pennsylvania, Jack Murtha, who accused Pennsylvanians of being redneck and racist. Somehow he got re-elected.
• Race was apparently an issue for some African Americans, who wondered whether Obama was “black enough”.

Race is obviously on the mind of Attorney General Eric Holder, who has called out America as cowards when it comes to discussions on race. I bet that liberals heard Holder say this and immediately thought “good, he’s calling out conservatives”. Sorry folks, but the people that are most hung up on race are liberals, who need race to be an issue to boost their success at the polls. I won’t hold my breath waiting for liberals to denounce “brown-skinned mooks”. What better evidence is there that the Obama shooting star is already starting to [Fade out].

In yesterday’s Washington Post, ahead of President Obama’s address, there was Obama Gets High Marks for 1st Month.

Large majorities of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll support his $787 billion economic stimulus package and the recently unveiled $75 billion plan to stem mortgage foreclosures. Nearly seven in 10 poll respondents said Obama is delivering on his pledge to bring needed change to Washington, and about eight in 10 said he is meeting or exceeding their expectations.

What stood out for me was the 8 in 10 figure. Since slightly more than half the electorate voted for Obama, this suggest that more than half of those that voted against Obama say he meets or exceeds their expectation. Maybe those expectations aren’t very high? What have we after a month?

• A “stimulus package” that is more of a down payment on democratic priorities than temporary, and targeted to administer a jolt to the economy and jobs. A 1,000 page package that was provided a scant eleven hours ahead of the vote. Scare tactics to whip up the populace.
• A crucial mistake of permitting Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to run with the stimulus package. If this mistake continues, I think the Republicans will be back in power sooner than most people think.
• More definitions of bipartisanship than there are for the Bush Doctrine.
• A census power grab that would make Dick Cheney blush.
• Hot and cold running tax cheats.
• Immediate set-aside of ethics reforms to permit lobbyists to come aboard.
• A major report from Geithner that was about as pointed as a nerf football. The stock market voted quickly on this one.

All of which leads me to wonder whether the 8 in 10 figure was a real sample. I mean, I’d expect an 8 in 10 figure form, say

• The ladies on The View (would have been 10 in 10 except for Elizabeth Hasselbeck).
• A will.i.am album release party.
• The 8 people arrested in connection with Michael Phelps’ baking class at University of South Carolina.

As I begin writing this, President Obama is on the big screen.

It’s not about helping banks, it’s about helping people.

In today’s Washington Post, there was an “In The Loop” article about Obama’s auto industry task force, the light-hearted takeaway being that maybe Detroit will find it difficult to get a fair shake from the task force because, ahem, few of the members, or their top aides, own cars from the Big Three. Here are the alarming details, along with my take

• Co-chair Timothy F. Geithner (”whose grandfather worked for Ford”) drives an Acura TSX. Come on Tim, you are a master of the universe, you can do better than a bottom-of-the-line Acura, especially given the money you have saved in taxes over the past several years.
• National Economic Council Director Lawrence H. Summers drives a 1995 Mazda Protege. Disgraceful. I guess Harvard does not pay their President much money.
• OMB Director Peter Orszag drives a 2008 Honda and a 2004 Volvo. Zzzzzz.
• EPA Chief Lisa Jackson drives a Prius. Mad props. Practicing what she preaches.
• Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner and Steven Chu don’t have any cars. Worrisome, if you ask me. Practically un-American.
• No car information was available for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood or Head of Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer.

And then the top aides.

• Staff Director of the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board Austan Goolsbee drives a 2004 Toyota Highlander. This better be the 4-wheel drive version. Nothing ticks me off like purchasers of SUVs that cheap-out and buy the 2-wheel drive versions.
• Chief of Staff to LaHood, Joan DeBoer drives a 2008 Lexus. Finally. A rich person that isn’t slumming it.
• Deputy Director of the White House Office of Climate Change Heather Zichal drives a Volvo. Another democrat, another Volvo. What are the odds?
• Treasury Counsel Gene Sperling drives a 2003 Lincoln. A Lincoln? No wonder he is serving in the Obama administration. Maybe a friend of Detroit?
• Senior Advisor at the Labor Department Edward B. Montgomery drives a Harley Davidson. No word on whether Edward is a member of HAMC.
• Senior Counsel at EPA Lisa Heinzerling drives a 1998 Suburu. Time for a new Suby, Lisa!
• Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Diana Farrell does not own a car. But her husband drives a 1985 Peugeot. Psychiatric counseling is in order. When I think of something that is 24 years old, and French, it’s not a Peugeot.
• Senior advisor to Chu, Dan Utech drives a 2003 Mini Cooper. Nice. I hope it is a Mini Cooper S.
• Senior advisor to the Commerce Department Rick Wade owns a 1998 Chevrolet Cavalier. Time to stimulate the economy, Rick, and maybe help out Detroit.
• Biden Chief Economist Jared Bernstein drives a 2005 Honda Odyssey. Strange, but I always thought Jared was a man’s name.

In today’s Washington Post, there is a letter to the editor from Helen Schietinger of Washington.

Regarding the Feb. 16 front-page story “4 Cases Illustrate Guantanamo Quandaries”:

The most glaring Guantanamo quandary involves President Obama’s not immediately putting an end to the abuses by U.S. personnel that led to worldwide outrage about the prison in the first place. According to defense lawyers visiting the base, nothing is different about treatment of prisoners under the new administration, and the weeks are going by.

For example, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Mohammed Khan Tumani, who was detained seven years ago at age 17 and has been cleared for release, is being kept in solitary confinement. Because he recently attempted suicide and appears to have deteriorated mentally, the CCR has requested an emergency psychiatric evaluation and an improvement in his conditions of detention, but the government has not responded. Other prisoners report that he bangs his head against the wall and smears his cell with excrement.

Instead of appointing human rights investigators or the International Committee of the Red Cross or the Justice Department to investigate prison conditions, President Obama assigned Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, head of the agency responsible for the alleged abuses, to see what’s happening and report to him in 30 days.

What do you suppose that report, due next week, will say about the treatment of prisoners? And what will the president do then? Where’s the change, Mr. President?

I wonder if Ms. Schietinger’s pique is bumping against a reality. By calling for “immediately putting an end to the abuses by U.S. personnel that led to worldwide outrage…” she suggests that the detainees at GTMO are subject to constant abuses even today. This is the left’s narrative of GTMO. I suspect, but cannot prove, that the conditions of GTMO are actually quite good. From the perspective of food, TV, exercise, cleanliness, worship, medical care, and freedom from gang and sexual violence, I suspect that GTMO is actually one of the best incarceration facilities in the world.

Does it dawn on Ms. Schietinger that maybe the reason why Obama has not put an immediate end to horrible, terrible abuses is that, in fact, there are no horrible, terrible abuses? Yes, it is true that the detainees are still detained. Yes, detainees have not been charged as though they were in violation of criminal statute. But, after all, the article that motivated Ms. Schietinger to write spoke of quandaries. Maybe there really are such things as quandaries.

Are Quandaries Real?

According to Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post, Roland Burris (D-P2P) continues

…to acknowledge gaps in his testimony to a state House panel investigating former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate Democrats beginning a preliminary ethics inquiry into his conduct.

Burris today said he had tried to raise money for the embattled Blagojevich in the run-up to his appointment by the governor to the Senate seat vacated by President Obama — the latest in a series of revelations that raised serious questions about whether he had been entirely truthful in his sworn testimony before an Illinois state House committee weighing whether to impeach Blagojevich for allegations that he sought to sell the Senate seat.

Originally Burris said he had contact with only one Blagojevich associate — Lon Monk — but over the weekend he acknowledged that he had had several conversations with the governor’s brother, who inquired about the possibility of Burris raising money for Blagojevich.

The string of revelations has prompted Senate Democrats to scramble to stop the bleeding in a situation that has already caused the party — both in the state and nationally — considerable embarrassment.

For more details about Burris’ extensive financial support of Blagojevich, refer to this post.

Burris, your 15 minutes is up. Blago, your 15 years is about to start.

15 and 15

Shortly after the inauguration, Bill Moyers Journal had two African-American women as guests on his show, Melissa Harris-Lacewell and Patricia Williams of Princeton University and Columbia University, respectively.

Now ordinarily I don’t spend much time watching Bill Moyers Journal. Actually, I should say that I don’t spend much time watching Bill Moyers Journal seriously. It is usually quite entertaining listening to a bunch of leftists pontificating and huffing and puffing.

But this particular section of the program stuck with me

BILL MOYERS: Obama himself once said he was trying to raise himself as a black man in America and, quote, “Beyond the given of my appearance, no one around seemed to know exactly what that meant.” Have you given any thought as to why he chose to be African American instead than bi-racial?

PATRICIA WILLIAMS: The word “choice” is probably a little bit overstated because I don’t think that anyone really chooses when you are apparently-”

BILL MOYERS: Right.

PATRICIA WILLIAMS: -dark skinned. And at the same time, I do think that the question of African American manhood is a very freighted cultural identity. And I don’t think it’s just somebody with his background that struggles with that. I have a 16-year-old son who was struggling to understand what growing up as an African American man means. I wouldn’t separate it from the general struggle of what it means to be, to appear to the world, in a particular way that, to which people assign, you know, extra cool or a particular way of dressing or a particular way of speaking. And I think it’s quite complicated for anybody.

MELISSA HARRIS-LACEWELL: Well, there seems to be some evidence in the first autobiography, “Dreams From My Father”, where he suggests that part of that choice has to do with angling towards being his dad, that that absent parent gave him something to which he was trying to aspire, that he’d heard lots of stories about what an enormous personality and an important man his father was. So I think part of the choice of blackness had to do with him trying to come into being like Barack, Sr.

But the real symbol that we see every moment is his choice of Michelle Obama. And in many ways, Michelle Robinson, who becomes Michelle Obama, is representative of a very particular choice on the part of Barack, that as a multi-racial, Harvard Law educated, African American man, those of us in the black community get what the choices for dating and marriage were for Barack.

And he chose a woman as tall as him, as smart as him, and black from a distance. She’s a woman who is not someone who could have ever opted out of blackness. And here he is rearing two African American daughters, on the South Side of Chicago, with a smart, tall, fabulous black wife. And it, you know, it helps me forgive a lot of policy ills for Barack when I see Michelle, only in the sense that there is for me a sense, at a core level that he sees me, that he sees my daughter, who’s seven years old, that whatever our disagreements are, there is a fundamental goodwill around his sense of the humanity of African American women. And that is, I think, a very empowering connection back with African American voters.

Then, this past weekend, on CSPAN2’s Book TV, I saw David Brooks interviewing Gwen Ifill about her new book The Break-Through: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Paraphrasing a little bit, David Brooks observed that Barrack Obama and Deval Patrick faced some of the same challenges, “most notably, were they black enough”. Ms. Ifill said that it is “always an infuriating question that keeps coming up, always from black audiences, black folks…”. She goes on to say that the question is really “are you down with the cause?” and “who are you going to represent if I put you in there?” and “are you selling out to these other people or are you going to be speaking for me?”.

And then this

For a lot of African Americans, the best thing that Barrack Obama had going for him was Michelle Obama, especially among black women. Well he married a black woman. But he didn’t have to marry a black woman. That must mean something.

Wow. If I hear one more person saying that Michelle Obama sealed the deal for them, I might possibly conclude that Obama picked Michelle to further his political career rather than, say, because he found her to be the love of his life.

I think that maybe a lot of white people that voted for Barrack Obama are hoping that his election will make these kinds of conversations much less common in the future. Though I didn’t vote for Obama, I can say that it is certainly my hope that we have heard the last of questions such as “are they black enough”.

And for all the “black audiences”, “black folks”, and “black women”, I hope that they take some of their stimulus rebate and purchase a copy of Spike Lee’s “School Daze“.

Wake Up!

Blue dog Democrat, and former Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints quarterback, Heath Shuler (D-NC) observes that, while Obama has made the effort to hear his concerns on the stimulus package, the same was not true of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. According to Shuler

I truly feel that’s where maybe House leadership and Senate leadership have really failed.

Politoco blogger Glenn Thrush reports this email response from Jim Manley, spokesman for Harry Reid.

Let me get this straight - this is coming from a guy who threw more than twice as many interceptions than touchdowns?

Maybe someone should tell congressman Shuler that under the leadership of President Obama we have put together a bipartisan bill that will create or save 3 to 4 million jobs, and that we have been more than willing to work with our republican friends. We have accepted some of their ideas and will continue to do so. But not at the expense of creating jobs, investing in our future of helping the middle class. He can stand on a stage if he wants, but senate democrats are busy trying to pass legislation that will provide essential investments designed to create and save jobs.

Shuler was one of the eleven Democrats that joined all House Republicans in a bipartisan vote against the House’s stimulus plan. Good going, Heath. But this FireDogLake blog story provides a different spin on the whole thing by suggesting

[Shuler] was ”encouraged” by the White House (whch Robert Gibbs would not deny).  It looks like Rahm Emanuel, who is in charge of managing the White House’s relationship with the press, is himself pursuing a strategy to make Reid and Pelosi look as weak as possible and once again has his hand up Shuler’s dress.

So, if this is to be believed, and I’m not sure that it is, we are to conclude that Shuler, and maybe other House Democrats that voted against the stimulus, served as proxy for the White House in a struggle against Pelosi and Reid? And that Manley’s cheap shot against Shuler is, really, Reid’s way of pushing back against Obama and the White House?

If there is anything to this, this is going to be good. Time for a trip to the snack bar.

For the record, I am not in favor of the economic stimulus plan as currently constructed. Obama takes the critics to task for complaining that the plan is a “spending” plan. Obama smugly says, “that’s the point.” But spending for the sake of spending is not the point. The point is to stimulate the economy in such a way that jobs are created or saved in large numbers, at a reasonable cost, and quickly. The point is to help stabilize the housing industry - for example by reducing foreclosures - and quickly. The point is not to repay every liberal interest group.

Obama will be addressing the nation in prime time this evening, and the stimulus bill will need to be hashed out in the House-Senate Conference. But already there is some effort to tamp down expectations. There is nobody better able to lower expectations than VP Joe Biden. Here is what Biden has to say about the plan

If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there’s still a 30 percent chance we’re going to get it wrong.

Huh? Biden is known for gaffes, social blunders. But the oxymoronic is new territory for Joe. It’s nice to know that he is branching out.

A Los Angeles Times article this past Sunday called Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool begins

The CIA’s secret prisons are being shuttered. Harsh interrogation techniques are off-limits. And Guantanamo Bay will eventually go back to being a wind-swept naval base on the southeastern corner of Cuba.

But even while dismantling these programs, President Obama left intact an equally controversial counter-terrorism tool.

Under executive orders issued by Obama recently, the CIA still has authority to carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States.

The left wing blogosphere is all abuzz with stories of how the LA Times was “punked” by Bush loyalists that have “burrowed” into the government during the transition period, waiting for the perfect time to commit “sabotage”. For example, see this article that explores the problem by using quotes from the left and looney Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. Hmm. Methinks that left-wing paranoia has returned after two weeks.

The point made by liberals progressives is that renditions are okay. It’s that dastardly Bush’s extraordinary rendition program that stinks. The extraordinary rendition program connotes torture to many, even though many or most of the countries that receive prisoners are, like the United States, signatories to United Nations Conventions Against Torture (UNCAT).

According to the Wikipedia article on extraordinary rendition, this Presidential Decision Directive gave the CIA the green light for performing rendition against suspects of terrorism. Well, you know if the CIA is involved, things can, and should, get a little dicey. Sorry, but that’s reality. The interesting thing about that PDD? It was authored by Bill Clinton in 1995. The same article quotes from Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies (pg. 143-4)

…’extraordinary renditions’ were operations to apprehend terrorists abroad, usually without the knowledge of and almost always without public acknowledgment of the host government…. The first time I proposed a snatch, in 1993, the White House Counsel, Lloyd Cutler, demanded a meeting with the President to explain how it violated international law. Clinton had seemed to be siding with Cutler until Al Gore belatedly joined the meeting, having just flown overnight from South Africa. Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides for Gore: “Lloyd says this. Dick says that.” Gore laughed and said, “That’s a no-brainer. Of course it’s a violation of international law, that’s why it’s a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.”

Chalk one up for Ozone.

Go Grab His Ass -- Al Gore

I would say that the sheen of the Obama administration and Democrats, the aura of moral and ethical superiority, is now completely gone. And not even two weeks in. Even I didn’t think it would happen this soon.

Today, the Democrats rallied around Tom Daschle, he of the $128,000 tax mistake. As Jay Rockefeller said, the “moral imperative” of national health insurance outweighs the concerns. You know, it was a serious mistake.

I wonder how Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood feel about this. You recall Zoe and Kimba…they were Bill Clinton’s first and second picks for Attorney General. Ms. Baird had hired illegal aliens as her chaffeur and nanny, and failed to pay social security taxes. Ms. Wood had hired an undocumented immigrant as a nanny but did in fact pay social security taxes. Instead, we got Janet Reno, and we know how well that worked out. That right there might be the best argument for giving Daschle a pass.

Of course, Attorney General is an important position, the top law enforcement officer. Which leads us to Eric Holder and his participation in the Marc Rich pardon. Never mind, it was a mistake.

And Timothy Geithner, who will oversee the IRS, and his tax problems. Never mind, it was a TurboTax error.

Now, Chris Dodd will refinance two homes in which he currently has mortgages with Countrywide Financial, reportedly at unusually attractive terms. What are attractive terms? Well the Countrywide VIP program waives points, lenders fees, and even borrowing rules. Dodd should be investigated, charged, and tried along with the other Friends of Angelo

• current Senator Kent Conrad
• former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson
• former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala
• former U.N. ambassador and assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke
• former Obama campaign advisor James Johnson

All these folks received similar mortgages from Countrywide. Richard Holbrooke, of course, has been tapped for a position in Obama’s administration. I wonder if Angelo Mozilo has any friends that are conservatives.

Nice Tan Angelo

Thank goodness Eric Holder is African American, and thank goodness his problems have nothing to do with finances. Otherwise, I might have concluded that the only people getting free passes were rich white men surrounded by hoards of more adoring rich white men coming to their defense when they thoughtfully divert their tax liabilities into their favorite savings account.