Happy Hour Roundup
* White House comm director Anita Dunn says her source for her much-discussed Mao quote was … revered GOP consultant Lee Atwater! Paging Glenn Beck…
* The Mao remark was a joke, not that it’ll make a shred of difference.
* Public option hero Tom Harkin is open to the opt-out compromise.
* CNN has now taken to calling the alleged spies placed in Congress by a Muslim group “Manchurian Interns.” Hope they coincidentally thought that one up on their own rather than swiping it from this blog.
* New Economist poll: Large majority says Obama didn’t deserve the Nobel; only one fifth say he did.
* Joe Lieberman breaks with many Dems and non-partisan observers to more or less endorse the widely-criticized AHIP study.
* Since many of you asked, here’s an explanation of how Technorati (which placed this blog in its top political blogs category) does its rankings.
* The right’s campaign to frighten members of Congress away from attending the left-leaning J-Street’s upcoming conference hits a bit of a wall.
* The National Jewish Democratic Council wades into this year’s big races, dropping mailers on behalf of Creigh Deeds in Virginia and Jon Corzine in Jersey.
* And it’s really extraordinary that the White House would attack a news channel whose on-air talent regularly compares Obama to Hugo Chavez and worse.
What did I miss? Got links?
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“* And it’s really extraordinary that the White House would attack a news channel whose on-air talent regularly compares Obama to Hugo Chavez and worse.”
Naw, Greg, it just proves that Obama is a fraking Socialist dictator who was really born in Kenya although, his parents were “barely” a couple.
“CNN has now taken to calling the alleged spies placed in Congress by a Muslim group “Manchurian Interns.” Hope they coincidentally thought that one up on their own rather than swiping it from this blog.”
Personally, I call them the “Manchurian convencience store clerks”. Just like “Clerks” but without Jay and Silent Bob.
convenience.
Here you go Greg.
GOP consultant Alex Castellanos, CNN’s very own Manchurian Commentator!
“CNN’s very own Manchurian Commentator!”
Ooo I wish I’d said that. LOL
” New Economist poll: Large majority says Obama didn’t deserve the Nobel; only one fifth say he did.”
How many of the people interviewed were Republicans?
Why can’t everyone just be glad for the country that this happened?
I think 3/4s of the books that win the Pulitzer for fiction are ****, but I don’t go around making sure everyone else thinks so. And don’t get me started on the Booker Price – whooee – the British hand prizes to some real stinkers…
As honestly, why did the Nobel Committee give the Nobel to Sigrid Unset the year Nabokov was short-listed?
And exactly how does any of that matter? You either win or you don’t and if you don’t, you don’t and all the saying you should have means nothing. And if you win it, all the saying you shouldn’t have means nothing.
You’ve won the damn thing.
Now shut up about Obama and the Nobel Prize and be happy for America, people! IT was really for all of us.
[heavyfrakinsigh]
Ponder this paradox, for a moment.
Bilgey, Admits that he does not want to be a citizen of the United States, while at the same time he claims to be upset that President Obama is being accepted as a US Citizen.
Since Bilgey, does not consider himself to be a Citzen of the USA, then he has no standing to question any one else’s citizenship.
The astonishing thing about these birther nuts is: there was a candidate in the last presidential election who was born in a foreign land, and was not a US citizen at birth.
That person was not President Obama. It was John McCain, who was born in Panama, and at the time he was born there, US law did not recognize him as being a US Citizen.
This proves that the Birthers are frauds. They are just using their birther claims as a cover for their racism.
They had no problem with John McCain being foreign born, so that exposes what really bothers them is the color of President Obama’s skin.
“It was John McCain, who was born in Panama, a”
I know. Plus, they’ve seen the same birth certificate they themselves have. WE all have certified copies of Certificates of Live Birth = at least, those of us born in the US. The originals are on file in the counties where the people were born.
A certified copy is legally the same damn thing as the original. That’s what certified means – it means the clerk got the original out of the file and made a copy of it and then used his or her stamp to stamp it to certify that it’s a legal representation of the original.
‘
Plus, every birth certificate I ever saw was titled: Certificate of Live Birth. That’s what it means, for the love of god.
But you might as well discuss this with a set of chairs.
@Tena,
I am going to watch the Yankees versus Angels game. Have a good weekend.
Peace Out Liam.
It’s early here.
Meanwhile, Michael Steele has added sound effects to his “I am the cow on the tracks” scenario.
http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=3663863&ref=fpblg
“IT was really for all of us.”
Even the neocons?
A tea party greets Obama in San Francisco as he attends fundraiser.
http://thecitysquare.blogspot.com/2009/10/tea-party-greets-obama-in-san-francisco.html
Dinner ran only $30,400, attendees also got a photograph with the president.
Greg, How long do you plan to keep digging for the dirt on the Nobel issue ? He got the award. Get over it.
“President Barack Obama on Friday urged Americans to step up and volunteer in their communities…The event was hosted by former President George H.W. Bush at Texas A&M University. Bush was the first president to create a permanent White House office dedicated to promoting volunteerism.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091016/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_community_service
“Meanwhile, Michael Steele has added sound effects to his “I am the cow on the tracks” scenario.”
O no he didn’t!
O god. LOL
“Even the neocons?”
Actually, no. The country got the Nobel via Obama for rejecting the neo-cons and electing Obama.
IF the neo-cons want to admit they have gotten everything hopelessly completely dead wrong, then ok.
Joe Lieberman breaks with many Dems and non-partisan observers to more or less endorse the widely-criticized AHIP study.
So we are to understand that Joe Lieberman is a hack?
In other news, water is wet.
IF the neo-cons want to admit they have gotten everything hopelessly completely dead wrong, then ok.
Good luck with that! The last time they acknowledge making a mistake was voting for Jimmy Carter back when they last were Democrats!
Greg, How about driving some positive narratives like President’s speech on mopping up the mess the goppers left ? Your continued focus on gotcha stoopid press moments, vile attempts to derail President’s agenda from repugs and corporates etc. is becoming tiring.
mop what gop left behind.
“The event was hosted by former President George H.W. Bush at Texas A&M University. Bush was the first president to create a permanent White House office dedicated to promoting volunteerism.””
And the president who hired Roger Ailes and started all the dirty campaigning and personalized politics he’s complaining about.
He’s the one who ran the Willie Horton ad. Poppy Bush weeping over incivility is quite the Hypocrisy Show.
“when they last were Democrats!”
Dick Cheney was never a Democrat.
No, but he’s not an original neo-conservative, either. The term came into use to describe people who once were hawkish Democrats (many of them former aides of Scoop Jackson (D-WA)) during the Vietnam era who then switched parties during the Carter administration. Now the term has expanded to refer to any Republican who is an authoritarian and passionately believes that America’s future is to be the modern version of the Roman Empire, torture and all.
Quick note as I’m watching Angels vs. Yanks, another state Dem. party puts the screws to their Senator. Delaware passes a resolution supporting a strong PO. That would be you Tom Carper (Mr. Opt Out).
“In a little-noticed move two weeks ago, the State Executive Committee of the Delaware Democratic Party unanimously passed a resolution endorsing “a robust public option similar to Medicare.” The authors of the resolution went on to call alternative proposals — including “co-ops or so-called ‘triggers’” — “inadequate in and of themselves to generate either the kind or the amount of competition needed to keep medical and insurance costs down.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/16/delaware-dems-put-pressur_n_324245.html
Richard Perle and Jeane Kirkpatrick are examples of what I’m referring to.
Poppy Bush weeping over incivility is quite the Hypocrisy Show.
Poppy only complains about incivility when it’s directed at him or at his family; otherwise, especially during a campaign, anything goes.
There was some traffic here a few days ago about charities. I ran across this site, and thought I’d share.
Its interesting to me in that they have adopted an evidence based recommendation system to evaluate effectiveness of charities (the folks who run this used to be hedge fund people – from what I’ve read the Gates Foundation folks are also quite analytical in selecting their targets).
No recommendation implied – just thought it was an interesting approach.
http://www.givewell.net/about
Freehold, if you follow the path from your link, you end up with a gift card from BC/BS. It’s not really a charity, although Give Well gives adivise on donating and what to watch out for etc. Basically you could buy an AMEX gift card and accomplish the same thing. Nice try though.
Last week Ethan, Tena and I tried to drum up some donations for Free Clinics, between the
To me when you donate to charity it should be an organization that is doing the work and needs the money to keep doing it. Maybe you can buy these gift cards and give them away anonymously to a charity such as Free Clinics or Red Cross to provide health care, I really can’t tell.
http://www.bcbs.com/news/plans/highmark-introduces-new.html
Wow, that totally disappeared on me:
Between the three of us we came up with $225.
“Between the three of us we came up with $225″
I heard last night that they’ve raised a total of over $800,000 and I think they’ve covered the cost of every clinic.
“Richard Perle and Jeane Kirkpatrick are examples of what I’m referring to.”
I’m aware. I don’t much care what they started out as.
Freehold
I checked that website again and I think I may have been wrong. Somehow I ended up at givewell.com which is the BC/BS gift card website, I think givewell.net is a legitimate site which directs you to various charities. I apologize.
Tena
I heard the same thing about the money KO and Rachel have raised. He did a repeat tonight of his hour long comment on health care, so I bet it will go up even more.
We had one of those big Free Clinics out here in CA. Had about 1,500 people they were able to see over 5 or 6 days and they don’t know how many they had to turn away.
It breaks my heart that so many are so desperate. And most of them were working but just couldn’t afford HC and made too much money for Medical or SCHIP to get their kids treated. A smaller percentage were unemployed or homeless.
Imsinca – I’m with you.
But I think we’re getting reform and I believe we’re getting public option.
@Tena
“I heard last night that they’ve raised a total of over $800,000 and I think they’ve covered the cost of every clinic.”
Firstly, when the $800k number was announced, it did NOT cover the cost of every clinic. That figure was to said to have covered the cost of about “3 clinics, and only if a venue was also donated”. At that time, no venues had been donated either.
But according to an excerpt before the repeat of KO’s special comment last night, I believe the total is up over $1 million now. I don’t know if any venues have been donated yet though.
The first clinic is already being set up though, planned in a couple weeks I think. I should hope they set up donations at the clinic. Granted, it’s a free clinic, but if 1,000 people show up and give $10-20, that’s a nice boost.
One would think those that attend the free clinic because they have no health insurance would be more prone to give. And considering a lot of these people aren’t actually poor, just “uninsurable”, you might be able to get a nice boost in donations from it.
BBQ – All I know is what Keith said night before last about it and he said the amount covered the clinics, but if not, then not.
I just read that Terry McAuliffe is saying public option won’t be in the bill. Now I know it will – when was McAuliffe every right about anything?
Hey all, Saturday post: You have to watch Obama’s attack on the insurance industry in his weekly Youtube address:
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/obama-broadens-attack-on-insurance-industry-isolating-it-in-final-stretch/
Snark from Madden at Salon…
“As a public service, Salon presents a sampling of the important headlines helping Politico become a force in D.C. — mostly through keeping very, very careful track of when lawmakers and their aides have birthdays.”
Oops…
“Blanche Lincoln working overtime”
“Steve Rothman to see Jersey Boys for birthday”
“Tom Price is enjoying a Chick-fil-A”
“Reid aide, girlfriend have joint party” (followed up days later by “GOP aide gives Reid staffer gifts”)
“Miller feted with pizza”
“Rush Holt receives baked goods”
There are some interesting findings reported in this story.
A new way of crunching test scores is turning conventional ideas in education on their head. The approach, called value added, has gained momentum in recent months as it has been embraced by the Obama administration and policymakers around the country, though it has generated strong opposition from teachers unions.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/challenging-classroom-myths.html
@Imsinca re Givewell
No problem. I haven’t dug into to those guys, but I think there is huge potential to improve non-profit efficiency and effectiveness (a lot of for profits don’t do all that well either). I think their attempt at transparency is interesting too. We need some really strong benchmarks in that area.
The people with process improvement skills are not usually attracted to non-profits, and vice-versa. That’s one of the really interesting things about the gates Foundation work – they want the biggest bang for their buck,and have the background to approach it that way.
From Bernie’s neighborhood …
The liberal Democrat from Portland, Ore. — known for his bowties, his Trek bicycle and a pragmatic brand of progressivism — embraced Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy early in 2008 and campaigned hard alongside him, steadily gaining confidence that the young senator from Illinois was the ideal liberal remedy to eight years of conservative dominance.
Now political reality has set in, testing Mr. Blumenauer’s faith that Mr. Obama’s election and big Democratic majorities in Congress would yield quick advances in the progressive agenda.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/us/politics/18liberal.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1255810130-xZeAIQm2D0UfO/bbJgsmjw
October 17, 2009: North Korea has failed to cope with the food shortage situation over the Summer. The solution was supposed to be the “150 Day Battle” program, that put hundreds of thousands of urban people on the farms, in a vain attempt to save the harvest. It failed.
Among the North Korean people, there is great fear about food shortages this Winter. Crops this year were very had, about half what they normally would be.
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/korea/articles/20091017.aspx
Freehold said: “From Bernie’s neighborhood …”
Yes. We have high standards here in the Pacific Northwest.
Hey! Who knew Groucho was a Republican?
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