And first, they came for him...

This is a political post.

Obama is staring down the field at what is gonna be a long moment in his legacy.

And it's happening in the Gulf.

Not the Arabian Gulf, where we all expected. End the war, troops coming home all that, campaign rah rah rah. No, in the Gulf of Mexico.

The one nobody was looking at until last month.

The Army Corp of Engineers is on the case and I'm waiting to see which Republican is suddenly going to turn against the "troops" now. It's funny how they support the troops but hate the government...basically the same folks. And since short of nukes, there isn't anything the government can do that BP isn't already trying in an effort to cap that hole a mile below the waves, other than it just magically be fixed, what else do they expect the President to do? There is a lot of money...er, oil.. flowing out of that hole and everyday costs BP a few million they could have been doing something else, and in this vengeful political climate, they want to cut their losses as quickly as possible. How much oil, what exactly it's doing to the ocean, how long this is gonna be an issue in the Gulf all need to be explored, then explained. In detail. Truthfully. They might want to get Morgan Freeman or James Earl to narrate the DVD.

And then, at the next phase, the Justice Department needs to, on behalf of the citizens, bring a massive public nuisance case against BP. One of the great folly's of the free market is that you're free to sue to recoup losses, but as most of the people who would sue don't have the pockets deep enough for a lengthy...possibly decades long ...legal battle, BP will pay out little or nothing comparatively in restitution. An iffy class action situation would only enrich the attorneys. Which is in my opinion, not good. The age of accountability needs to start here, and now. We won't even discuss how the free market corrupted the administrative agency handling its oversight, which contributed greatly to the basis of this mess. We can discuss the pluses and minuses of the system later.

I watched part of Obama's press conference, I do have chickens to pluck after all, and looking at him, unless he got the questions in advance...and maybe he did, I don't know...he answered the question in an informed, though long winded, but very informed manner. I mean long freaking winded, mentioning names (I swear he kept saying Fat Allen, not Thad), giving fix ideas that had been thrown up and discarded, talking like someone who was actively involved. He even, as is becoming his trademark, tried to personalize it by saying even his kids had checked him on it.

When the reporter questioned him if they were really doing everything they could, giving examples of international help we hadn't accepted, Obama explained the whole process, in effect saying that much like crowding 50 people around to dig a six foot grave, sometimes everybody doesn't need to show up at once. He owned up to his statements from before this happened about oil drilling, and admitted he was wrong - something our former President couldn't do - about some of his beliefs. He answered some terrorist and immigration issue questions out of left field without blinking. Then he said in the end, the whole thing is his responsibility, and pretty much nobody would be happy until it was fixed. And he did it for thirty minutes or more without a teleprompter! (they were in retract mode, check the tape!)

Not a horrible press conference, but then you really don't want to have to even hold these. And they did it in one of the big rooms of the White House proper, not in that little press room off the West Wing, so you know it was important.

Now, and this is the important part. Bush found this out and Obama is about to as well. If you're going to tell the story, make sure the facts back you up. As Bush found out, a great tale doesn't work if the "facts are biased against the chosen reality".

Oh yeah, and I think he's coloring his hair. Where did the grey go?

They got room for one more?

Ramblings Post #70
I've been Joe Social. I've been to more house parties and social events than I can count. I've kicked at mansions and at little hovels, with models and with people grandmas, eaten the finger food and gotten a plate, but even I never figured that if they were throwin' a party at the White House, I could just go. Even if the President is black.

At president Obama's first state dinner, two people put on some nice clothes, showed up at the White House and not only got in, but got up close and personal with the most protected man on the planet. I mean like hug me close.

As a person who has on more than one occasion shown up at a party dressed appropriately with no idea whose home it is and been welcomed. And eaten and drank heartily. And have been mistaken for the host (it's a aura I give off). And occasionally received a gift bag for coming. Well, let's just say I can understand where they're coming from.

Then today I read they are convening a panel in the House of Representatives to look into what happened.

Why?

Did we elect security specialists to the House? Do house reps understand security zones, checkpoint layout, all access passes and dignitary indigence? Has even one of these reps "worked" the door at an event? Worked as a roadie? Then this is just about a useless exercise. I understand bringing this to light and all, but you can take this two ways. One, you can fire everyone involved and make an example out of them, or Two, you can look into procedures, make some adjustments and keep the people who let the couple in on staff because I guarantee you that they'll never make that mistake again. And since the reps aren't in charge of hiring and firing, why are they involved? They need to keep this brief.

Then I read that the wife, Michaele Salahi, is a Reality TV hopeful.

Which brings me to the point of my post.


Do you see, television? Do you see what you've done to us? The infection that is The Hills, Real Housewifes of wherever we can find some suckers, Rock of Love and STDs, Jon and Kate plus his girlfriend and whoever else has spread to a National Security issue. It was bad enough when the balloon boy's parents sucked in the national media trying to get famous enough to get recognized at the Shoney's, now to get famous for doing nothing, people are doing something! And that something is risk prison time, threaten national security. Somewhere in Hollywood a producer was trying to track down the guy who shot four cops in Seattle and ....

..you know what, that's one's just too tasteless to even tell.

I admit it, I'd like to famous too. But I like to believe it's because I have a skill or talent that makes me different, and use that skill to get some notoriety. But famous for audacity...or in this case, sheer bravado? Famous for being famous. How long before someone does something really stupid just to get on television. Wait, somebody just did. How long before someone does something ridiculously stupid...and accidentally destructive...to get on television? I'm a little scared to find out.

We banned cigarette ads from television. We just lifted the ban on Liquor ads. I think there is precedent. What we need is a ban on Reality Television.

And I won't miss any of it. How could I? I stopped watching TV when I went to law school!

Barkeep. Vodka with pineapple and cranberry.

Democratic Stalemates and Chicago Presidents..

This is a political post. Well, part political post, part political fantasy. Man I'm getting old, I used to dream I played football.

A little while ago, holding a bulletproof majority in the Senate and a drunken reprobate margin in the House, the Democratic Party managed to shoot itself in the foot and not get passed any reform at all, with or without the public option, or really do anything when you think about it.

First, so there is no confusion, the public option is basically a government insurance company. It's not a take over or anything like it, unless you realize that once a player with no profit motive enters the field, a whole lot of insurance companies will have some explaining to do. I think one firm had an 89% profit increase, while only increasing the customer base 24%? Oh, and their profits will drop. Although profiting off of people's health feels unseemingly if you don't have a medical degree of some kind.

So, why does the party with all the chips seem to be dancing with themselves? Well, probably because the Democrats are the party of inclusion, which means everybody can join. Unlike the seemingly Borg cloned Republican party, the party currently in charge of America is so diverse it can't agree on soup and salad vs. salad and soup.

Obama was a constitutional law professor before the senate and his current job, and as I've taken constitutional law (or rather am currently taking) I can understand his methodology to some degree. The President isn't supposed to make laws. Which is why he didn't go to Congress with a pre-written INSURANCE reform bill (it's not really a "health care" issue) and tell them to pass this, much like Clinton tried. He knew he could set the agenda, but it was up Congress to work out the nuts and bolts. Forgive him for trying to work the system.

Add in that this is the first time the Democrats have been in power in almost twenty years and that it takes a special kind of person to even run for a job in Congress and what you get are little power mad "my way" rogue agents with a made gleam in their eyes and their own private agendas, looking for a leg up or a high sign. The Blue Dog Democrats, the Gang of Three, and whoever else where it wasn't negotiation but three to ten individual people holding the nation hostage.

His own people are raining on his parade.

Obama isn't one for drama, so let's be glad I'm not President. Dramatic statement would be the course of the day. Even Fox "News" would pick up the feed. I'd be the "damned" Chicago President. I'd show up on Capitol Hill one morning with my Secret Service Team in tow, and bum rush Congress. I'd start at Nancy Pelosi's office and basically ask her if she was with me or against me on Health Care. She can have her own opinions on other things, but for this it's cut and dried. Thirty seconds. And if she joined up, I'd make her tag along while I hit the next office with the same line. Until I was walking around with 20 or 25 senators. And then when I get to the holdouts, it would be browbeat time. With me or you can go home now, because whatever you put up, the Republicans will vote down and the folks behind will too, for the rest of the time I'm in office. Maybe its a bluff, maybe not.

By like 3pm, Health care, er...Insurance reform would pass.

Sometimes, with people used to being coddled and begged, you have to knock them out of their comfort zone.

Supposedly Pete Rozelle, when he met an impasse trying to merge the then established NFL and the upstart AFL into the single behemoth we know today, told the team owners that nobody was leaving the room until they figured it out how to balance everything up. The owners, rich powerful men used to having people jump when they called, all laughed and went ahead to argue for hours. Then around 4pm, guys with cots and pillows showed up. Dinner was brought in. Everybody stopped laughing. They got it done in less than 48 hours.

Somebody call the White House. I know where Obama can get a deal on 435 cots. For cheap.

Scandol...Scandolous

In the face of a looming scandal about whether the Department of Justice acted properly or improperly" in firing the eight U.S. attorneys who were forced to resign last year, White House counsel Fred Fielding said Karl Rove and Harriet Miers could testify, but only in private, not under oath, and without a transcript.

Um...what would be the point of that?

If they can pretty much say what they want without threat of perjury, then the whole point of testifying is moot.

Wasn't this the administration that was supposed to restore integrity to office? My question would be why would these bastions of moral turpitude and good character not WANT to be sworn in? Do they have something to hide?

Although a liar before congress who is not sworn in, and I understand it's up to the individual committee, can be prosecuted for "making false statements" (is that really a charge?) we in the public know that you go to JAIL for perjury. I mean technically in the eyes of the law, Karl Rove and Lil Kim should be the same person. The concept that some people would not have to be sworn in harkens back to the Animal Farm Orwellian thought that "some animals are more equal than others."

I wish I could say I was neutral in this, that I approached it from neutrality and merely want a fair and honest hearing on the matter, but I am biased because it appears to me that this whole administration believes itself above the law, rules or even in some cases reality.

Closed door meetings on the Energy Policy.
Falsified data to justify war.
Improper use of goverment powers with the Patriot Act.
The VP shooting a man and reporting it days later.
Outing undercover agents for political purposes.
and now this...

The last guy, all he did was get a blowjob. Um...integrity?

Bartender....water. I need to stay sober for this.