Disqus - Latest Comments for lamh

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:28:12 -0000

A little evening cool down ya'll. Bill withers: Use Me

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:20:45 -0000

PPP has a striking new poll out regarding Olympia Snowe's popularity with Maine voters:

46% of Republicans now disapprove of Snowe’s job performance with only 40% approving. Her overall approval remains at a relatively solid 51/36 spread thanks to good numbers from Democrats (60% giving her good marks) and independents (51%)....

59% of respondents who identified themselves as Republican primary voters said they would prefer to vote for a more conservative challenger then while only 31% said they would go for Snowe. She may find that her clearest path to reelection is as an independent. While she wins the support of Republican liberals and moderates, conservatives make up two thirds of the party base and she trails with them 75-18.

Yes, of course, a generic candidate like the one polled lacks the political warts that any flesh-and-blood challenger would inevitably bear. But if I'm the tea-party-friendly mayor of Anytown, Maine--or a successful businessman, a la Doug Hoffman--I still might look at those numbers and think, why not? There's clearly a strong appetite among Maine Republicans for an alternative to Snowe, and any challenger who managed to get even a little bit of traction would be poised to become the conservative celebrity and litmus test du jour.

If she or (more likely) he lost to Snowe, he'd be the latest glorious conservative martyr; if he won, sure, he'd get crushed in general, but he'd still be the heroic RINO-slayer who put the fear of God into weak-willed GOP squishes across the land. That's the no-lose proposition of the insurgent right: They love you win or lose. The former feeds their sense that they're on the rise; the latter, their feelings of grievance and victimhood. In either case, it'd be a significant step up from anonymity in Anytown.

Under normal circumstances, this is the kind of insurgent candidacy that would quickly be squelched by the party establishment in the name of holding onto a GOP seat in inhospitable terrain. And perhaps that's still what would happen. But the establishment's clout contra the conservative insurgents is at a historic low, and it wouldn't take much--a Palin endorsement here, a Beck crusade there--to scramble the usual political assumptions.

The real question, of course, is what Olympia Snowe thinks when she sees this poll: that she's probably finished with today's GOP and should keep her independent streak alive by voting for health care reform (or, at least, cloture); or that she badly needs to shore up her right flank by voting against?

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:24:15 -0000

The Best Speech Obama's Given Since...Maybe Ever

Today, at Ft. Hood. I guarantee: they'll be teaching this one in rhetoric classes. It was that good. My gloss won't do it justice. Yes, I'm having a Chris Matthews-chill-running-up-my-leg moment, but sometimes, the man, the moment and the words come together and meet the challenge. Obama had to lead a nation's grieving; he had to try and address the thorny issues of Islam and terrorism; to be firm; to express the spirit of America, using familiar, comforting tropes in a way that didn't sound trite

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:12:52 -0000

ABC broke away from "All My Children" or "General Hospital" (they all run together for me) when the President spoke.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:11:14 -0000

Shooting at mall in Portland, what the hell is going on??? Why do people seem to believe that shooting people is the way to solve their problems.

Re: President Obama Speaking at Fort Hood Memorial

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:09:37 -0000

The Best Speech Obama's Given Since...Maybe Ever

Today, at Ft. Hood. I guarantee: they'll be teaching this one in rhetoric classes. It was that good. My gloss won't do it justice. Yes, I'm having a Chris Matthews-chill-running-up-my-leg moment, but sometimes, the man, the moment and the words come together and meet the challenge. Obama had to lead a nation's grieving; he had to try and address the thorny issues of Islam and terrorism; to be firm; to express the spirit of America, using familiar, comforting tropes in a way that didn't sound trite

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:47:29 -0000

ABC seems to not be covering the memorial. The only network not doing it. They are showing the soaps, unless they plan to interrupt when the President speaks

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:43:37 -0000

For those who can't wait, President Obama's Prepared Remarks

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:30:03 -0000

And...I'm done with CNN's coverage.

They have some former speech writer of George Bush who just said, that "Bill Clinton and GWB wore their hearts on their sleeves, but that is not "this President's style". He that the President needs to "show more heart" today.

Much respect to the fallen, but that speechwriter can in the words of former VP Cheney "go F*&k himself"!

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:18:06 -0000

CNN showing a baby with a camouflage bib that says "My dad is my HERO" it's adorable and in this situation heartwrenching. Also, I heard that one of the victims was pregnant!!!

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:14:46 -0000

Obama's modest proposal: A Lieberman swap

A source at the White House for the president's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reports that Obama ended the event with a modest proposal for the domestic politics of both men.

At the meeting's conclusion, the two leaders walked out to the adjoining room where the Israeli and American delegations were talking.

“So," Obama announced, according to the source in the room, "we’ve decided that we are going to trade our Lieberman for their Lieberman," referring to the independent American senator and the hard-line Israeli foreign minister.

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:05:09 -0000

Barbara Starr, CNN's Pentagon Correspondent said on CNN, that this is not just a memorial for the victims of Fort Hood, but all Americans who have lost loved one in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars who didn't have a "public" memorial, but private memorials and they get to hear their C-I-C, speak to not only the Fort Hood family pain, but their pain as well.

Re: Fort Hood Memorial Service Open Thread

lamh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:38:15 -0000

i just heard that the President when he speaks will mention eache victim by name.

Re: Evening Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:07:27 -0000

Westboro Baptist Church Protests Outside Obama Girls' School

Westboro Baptist Church, the fringe-of-the-fringe anti-gay group famous for protesting at military funerals and claiming that God is punishing the country for its tolerance of homosexuality, was spotted this morning protesting outside Sidwell Friends, the school attended by Sasha and Malia Obama.

Protesters were carrying signs with anti-gay, anti-abortion and anti-Obama slogans, slowing down traffic all along Wisconsin Avenue this morning.

Re: Evening Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:51:37 -0000

Debating the Health Care Bill

I had a friend visiting me this weekend who had fervently backed Barack Obama for President (against the “devil-woman” Hillary), but who now thinks Obama has betrayed his followers – most recently by agreeing to disastrous compromises in the health insurance bill. We argued the point on Sunday morning, while reading reports of the passage of the House bill.

I told my friend that some of the most important features of bill were overlooked because they were so obvious – for instance, the ban on insurance companies denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. My friend, who has insurance with his job, responded, “Does that really happen?” I told him that it does indeed -- that our youngest and perfectly healthy daughter, when she had gotten too old for our insurance policy, had been denied coverage by an insurer in San Francisco because she had taken an anti-depressant drug six months before.

And in discussing the House leadership’s concession on abortion, I pointed my friend, who compares Obama unfavorably to Franklin Roosevelt, to what actually happened to the Social Security Act of 1935. That act, when it passed, was a bare shell of what it became in the 1950s after amendment. Benefits were nugatory. And most important, coverage was denied to wide swaths of the workforce, including farm laborers.

Why farm laborers? Well, because Franklin Roosevelt and liberal Democrats needed the vote of racist Southern Democrats who wanted to deny benefits to blacks, most of whom were farm laborers. Yes, the anti-abortion provision in the House bill is very bad (subjecting the poor, but not the rest of us, to the strictures of conservative Catholics and Southern Baptists), but it will at some point (one hopes) be removed. In fact, the bill that the House passed last Saturday is considerably more robust that the original Social Security bill. But don’t tell my friend that.

Re: CBS: 40,000 Troops to Afghanistan

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:38:40 -0000

WH denies Afghan decision made, as tensions flare with Pentagon

Washington (CNN) - White House National Security Adviser Retired Gen. Jim Jones issued a rare public statement Monday vehemently denying media reports suggesting President Obama has privately decided to send close to 40,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, as tensions between the White House and Pentagon appear to be flaring up over exactly what the president will announce.

"Reports that President Obama has made a decision about Afghanistan are absolutely false," Jones, who generally keeps a low public profile, said in a prepared statement Monday night. "He has not received final options for his consideration, he has not reviewed those options with his national security team, and he has not made any decisions about resources. Any reports to the contrary are completely untrue and come from uninformed sources."

The statement was issued shortly after CBS News' veteran Pentagon Correspondent David Martin reported that Obama has "tentatively decided" to send four more combat brigades to Afghanistan and several thousand more support troops starting early next year. That would bring the total number of new troops to close to the 40,000 figure originally requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Two other senior administration officials flatly told CNN that the CBS report and other similar speculation is false. The Associated Press reported Monday that Obama is "nearing a decision to add tens of thousands more forces to Afghanistan, though not quite the 40,000 sought [by] his top general there."

The two senior administration officials suggested the information is being leaked by Pentagon sources who are trying to box Obama in by setting public expectations that he will send close to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as McChrystal requested.

"People at the Pentagon are trying to force a certain outcome," one of the senior administration officials told CNN.

Both senior administration officials insisted Obama has not made any decision on troop levels in Afghanistan, noting the President has another meeting with his national security team on Wednesday to receive a final set of recommendations from the Pentagon brass. The senior officials said the president could not possibly make a decision on troop levels before even receiving the Pentagon's final recommendations.

Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday it's "doubtful" Obama will announce a troop decision before he leaves for a trip to Asia on Thursday. It's considered unlikely Obama will make such an announcement during his trip to Asia, which is largely focused on economic matters and separate diplomatic issues like North Korea's nuclear program.

Obama is scheduled to return from Asia on Friday November 20 after stops in Japan, Singapore, China, and South Korea. Officials have suggested the President could announce a troop decision sometime shortly before or after Thanksgiving, though Gibbs has vaguely said the decision will be revealed in "coming weeks" so as not to be pinned down.

Re: Evening Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:30:58 -0000

Transcript: Clinton on Charlie Rose

Charlie Rose:
Is part of this, from what you just said to me, part of the way you thought about losing the presidency, losing the nomination, and losing [unintelligible]? What you had to deal with?

Hillary Clinton:
Of course. You know, I am a, you know, a true believer in the American political system. And I think that it's rooted in who I am and how I was raised and my sense of patriotism and all these wonderful passions but very important values that I hold. So, I did the best I could, I fought as hard as I could, I made my share of mistakes, I did better in some areas than I thought I would, I was very gratified by the support that I had, but it came to an end. And I wanted to support at that time Senator Obama because he and I were much more in line on our world view, and what we wanted to see happen domestically, than the other party was, and so I threw myself in to helping to elect him. And nobody was more surprised than I when after the election, he called and asked me to consider taking this position.

Charlie Rose:
Is that the first time he'd mentioned it?

Hillary Clinton:
Absolutely.

Charlie Rose:
You'd never thought about it. I know—because he now says that he'd been thinking about it, for a while, he saw in you qualities that he wanted in a secretary of state. And he looked at all the other possibilities, and he said--

Hillary Clinton:
Yeah. Well—

Charlie Rose:
But he didn't bring it up to you until after the election?

Hillary Clinton:
Not at all. And when I started--

Charlie Rose:
Not the nomination, but the election.

Hillary Clinton:
The election? Absolutely. I mean, first of all, it wouldn't have been appropriate, and you know, I would have been incredulous.

Charlie Rose:
Well, there are some people who thought you promised it to him, my dear--

Hillary Clinton:
Well, that's—that's, I don't know anything about that, but what I do know is that after the election, when stories start coming out, I thought that it was absurd. Unbelievable.

Charlie Rose:
Why?

Hillary Clinton:
Oh, for a million reasons. But I--

Charlie Rose:
Well, name one. Why is that absurd because, I mean, he read team of rivals, he believed in the idea, it may have been overblown.

Hillary Clinton:
Well, I think I was very much happy about going back to representing New York.

Charlie Rose:
And playing a part in health care reform.

Hillary Clinton:
Absolutely.

Charlie Rose:
The passion of your life.

Hillary Clinton:
Passion of my life. And I'm thrilled by what happened in the House.

Charlie Rose:
And think it will pass in the Senate, and the president will sign it before 2010, you think?

Hillary Clinton:
Well, let's hope, as we're going to work for it. You know, as soon as the vote was final in the House, I called the president, I called the Speaker, I mean, I was thrilled at the, what has been such a long journey, and now the attention turns to the Senate.

Charlie Rose:
Okay, so you're now the Secretary, you acknowledge—you decided to accept it, because?

Hillary Clinton:
Because, when your president asks you to serve your country, I think you should say yes, if you can. And I also thought that--

Charlie Rose:
But you had moments in which you said, I said this is not my best interest, I'm the best person, whatever you thought.

Hillary Clinton:
I said all of that. Never again. I can't say, well how about so and so, don't you think so?

Charlie Rose:
Exactly, and I have a great life, in the Senate--

Hillary Clinton:
Absolutely.

Charlie Rose:
You could have Senate Majority Leader, perhaps?

Hillary Clinton:
I want to return to the Senate and I want to catch up on my sleep, all of those things. But I also thought --

Charlie Rose:
You were wrong about that.

Hillary Clinton:
I was very wrong about that -- that if the shoe had been on the other foot, and I had been asking him, I would have hoped that he would have said yes. And so how could I be standoffish and say, “Well, you know, I'd rather be a Senator, and you know, I want my life back,” and all these things that were certainly going through my mind.

Charlie Rose:
Someone watching the campaign, the Democratic campaign, might have said there's some space between how you view the world and he views the world, you being more hawkish, more something.
[laughter]

Hillary Clinton:
Well, look, I am very pleased at the relationship that the president and I have.

Charlie Rose:
What are you pleased about?

Hillary Clinton:
That it is very -- it's very collegial. It is personally, very positive. We see each other all the time, and we work very well together, and I think that we probably had people in both of our camps who were surprised by that and somewhat skeptical, but both of us understood what it is we had to do and do together given the array of problems we faced. So I am -- you know, look, I'm very committed to doing everything I can on behalf of my country and the president and the agenda we've set forth.

Charlie Rose:
There's no sharp disagreements between the way you two see the world?

Hillary Clinton:
Well, if there are, I wouldn't tell you.
[laughter]

Charlie Rose:
That suggests there are some.

Hillary Clinton:
No, no, no. No, it doesn't.

Charlie Rose:
But in the end it's his --

Hillary Clinton:
Look, he's the president, but what I really appreciate is we have a very robust process where everybody is heard, and there is quite a good back and forth, testing assumptions, you know, coming up with ideas. And on a couple of occasions I was kind of in a somewhat solitary position vis-à-vis the rest of the NSC.

Charlie Rose:
Look, just give me one example of that.

Hillary Clinton:
I can't, but I --

Charlie Rose:
Oh, just one.

Hillary Clinton:
Someday, Charlie, someday. You know, in about 10 years, we'll do this interview. But I went to the president and said, you know, “this is really what I would like you to think about, and here are the reasons for it,” and on one very important matter, you know, he agreed with me. And so, it's not just that you have, you know, discussions between the two of us, which we do, where we look at things from different angles, where we try to come up with an approach, but it's the larger team. Sometimes, you know, both the president and I are pushing the people on our teams to think differently and more creatively.

Charlie Rose:
All right, you have said you'll never run for president again.

Hillary Clinton:
Yes, I said that.
[laughter]

Charlie Rose:
Any other things you've said you'll never do again?

Hillary Clinton:
Oh well, yes, I'm sure there are, but at the moment I can't think of them.

Charlie Rose:
Thank you for this time. It's a pleasure to have this opportunity to talk to you.

Hillary Clinton:
Thank you, Charlie.

Charlie Rose:
From Berlin, Germany, a conversation with the secretary of state. This is, as we record this, November 9, 20 years after the wall came tearing down with momentous consequences, as the secretary has said, for Europe, for Russia, for the United States, and for the world. Thank you for joining us. See you next time.

Re: Evening Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:47:38 -0000

Bill Clinton heads for the Hill: Ex-president to address Dems

As President Obama’s plans to overhaul the health care system hinge on the Senate, former President Bill Clinton is headed to the Hill.

Clinton, the last Democratic president to attempt health care reform, will address Senate Democrats at their weekly caucus meeting Tuesday at 1:45 p.m, a senior Democratic aide said.

The aide did not know if Clinton will speak specifically on health care, but it is hard to imagine the topic would not come up given his legendary, failed, effort to reform the system in 1994 and the top spot the issue occupies on the Senate’s agenda.

Last month Clinton’s wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressed the caucus’ weekly lunch to discuss foreign policy issues.

UPDATE: Clinton will be talking to the Democrats about health care, a source close to the former president said. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked Clinton to address the caucus, the source said.

Re: Evening Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:43:51 -0000

A new mayor in Charlotte

Charlotte Observer's Mary Newsom writes:

Amid the bloviation-fest following Tuesday's election, Charlotte's mayoral election seems to have kept on flying under the national political radar. Odd.

Think about it: A young African-American Democrat, raised by a single mom and his grandparents, now a successful lawyer, aims for a seat that's been Republicans for years. He mobilizes young and African-American voters and wins in a strong showing. Sound familiar?

If that isn't a good enough political story, consider that the last Democratic mayor in this Southern banking citadel was Harvey Gantt, the African-American architect who won fame for trying, twice, to unseat arch-conservative U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. Here, I restrain myself from the phrases about kudzu and NASCAR that national political analysts would use, if they had noticed this story....

Democrat Anthony Foxx's win over Republican John Lassiter is not an insignificant anthill on the political landscape. The largest city in the nation's 10th largest state elected its first Democratic mayor in 22 years, an African-American in a majority-white Southern city, a progressive mass transit supporter and an environmentalist.

Foxx's biography ads (above), perhaps not incidentally, were made by AKPD, David Axelrod's old firm.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:01:12 -0000

BREAKING: Obama announces he is against the Stupak amendment!

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:32:40 -0000

The claim is that he was actually a guest, but after seeing that mugshot, the first thing I thought was "is katt williams on that sh*&?"

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:31:05 -0000

The War Within: DNC Gets Boycotted Over Gay Rights

John Aravosis and Joe Subday of AMERICAblog, two bloggers who frequently cover gay rights issues, have announced that they and a handful of other gay activists and liberal bloggers are organizing a boycott of the Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America (what has become of Obama's campaign apparatus, now led by the DNC) until President Obama puts his political weight behind moving their key issues through Congress--namely, repeals of "don't ask, don't tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act, and passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.

The boycott's "cosponsors," as Aravosis and Subday put it, are Daily Kos, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, Paul Sousa, Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler, Bil Browning, and Jane Hamsher.

I know this will send a message, but I don't think it's gonna work. Yes OFA was a political arm of the Obama campaign, but right now, it's mostly just the dedicated few who are engaged. Withholding funds, won't really affect Prez Obama, he's still gonna be President, and he's still gonna be in office for the next 3 years.

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:27:54 -0000

"The boycott's "cosponsors," as Aravosis and Subday put it, are Daily Kos, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, Paul Sousa, Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler, Bil Browning, and Jane Hamsher."
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/11/dnc_get...

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:59:26 -0000

'K ya'll,

WTF: Katt Williams Arrested for BURG

Re: Afternoon Open Thread

lamh — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:57:24 -0000

Okay,

There goes my black card again.

WTF: wTF: Steven Tyler Quites Aerosmith!!!!

Pleae Bono, don't leave U2!