59 Comments

1. DanM:

How can we expect a man coming up through the “Chicago Machine” to differentiate between honest graft and dishonest graft? That would be unfair….

Jan 4, 2009 - 8:45 pm 2. DanM:

I’m becoming a Plunkitt fanatic.. “Now, havin’ qualified as an expert, as the lawyers say, I am goin’ to give advice free to the young men who are goin’ to cast their first votes, and who are lookin’ forward to political glory and lots of cash.” – George Plunkitt of Tammany Hall fame.

Jan 4, 2009 - 8:54 pm 3. DanM:

There is a method to my madness…

It’s been long told that we are awash in corruption in our political system. Now it seems that the so-called pamphleteers (our penultimate media) have gone over to the other side… They have been the instrument of this mess and should be punished. They need to go down in a whirlwind of shame, never to be resurrected. This will create a vacancy that can be taken up by the new media. The ad dollars will go where the readership goes. The hard news research needed to bolster the new media can be done by the hard news reporters. All others need not apply.

Jan 4, 2009 - 9:04 pm 4. DanM:

Sorry Wretchard, you hit my hot button on this one… You can now tune me out…

Jan 4, 2009 - 9:07 pm 5. Dave:

Richardson has always impressed me as a fairly sensible Democrat, no more than a normal wheeler-dealer and thus fairly clean.

In fact the allegations aired so far do not appear to be all that serious.

So there may be more to this than meets the eye. If I had to hazard a guess I would guess that there is a veritable firestorm brewing
and Richardson decided to get out while the getting was good.

I emphasize however that this is ONLY a guess.

Jan 4, 2009 - 9:20 pm 6. wretchard:

It occurred to me that Richardson could have been strung along and promised the cabinet post even though the Transition Team knew or suspected he would never make the cut. One way of making promises you can’t keep is to know you can’t keep them. There are now news stories suggesting Hillary may be linked to some scandal in New York State. It that happens, the Obama administration will hold the record for the greatest number of ex-future cabinet members. Think of it as being similar to overbooking theater seats. Someone’s bound to cancel.

Jan 4, 2009 - 9:30 pm 7. Lifeofthemind:

This will be the first inauguration where all contracts have to be written Cash In Front. The administration will have a lower credit rating than the mortgage market. Bizarrely this may have a side benefit. Third World thugs may have to postpone mayhem until they know who will picking up the phone in Washington when they apply for a payoff. The one institution that will keep functioning will by the Department of Defense. That could change in a year as the Democrats get a grip on power.

Jan 4, 2009 - 9:46 pm 8. E. Nigma:

I think that this is the first indication of a knife fight within the Democrat party. There is a wing that supports Obama. There is/was a wing that supported HRC. Richardson was supposed to be with HRC, but changed sides. It would be clearer if the names were Barzini and Tartaglia, but something like this is going on to get at the levers of power, and, of course, the money.
I think that Richardson was compromised by someone inside the Democrat party, and that someone is an HRC loyalist. Someone may also be preparing to drop one on HRC. So sad, it all is.
I actually feel kinda sorry for BHO, because the party underneath him is totally fractured with infighting and corruption. The main news organs (the networks, NYT, WaPo, etc.) will never look into this, but I would guess this is happening BIG TIME and just under the surface.

Jan 4, 2009 - 9:50 pm 9. Lifeofthemind:

Tempting as it is to comment on this by saying “Popcorn” the fact is that the United States needs a government and that the serious Constitutional issues brought up by BHO, his unconfirmed eligibility, the foreign money, the gross fraud at the voting rolls, need to be addressed. Now we have the possibility that the incoming President could be facing an indictment and he can’t offer a qualified Cabinet. How does President Biden grab you? The Senate is caught in a legal tangle over Blagos appointment of Burris which will probably be dealt with by fiat and bluster rather than a sober consideration of the Constitutional issues. On January 20th George Bush will cease to be the President, everything else is up in the air. We need to amend the Constitution to create permanent structures with additional checks that ensure that we do not face another crisis. My favorite idea builds on what we have by making the Electoral College a persistent and defined body ready to act for given purposes as needed.

Jan 4, 2009 - 10:19 pm 10. Eggplant:

Lifeofthemind said:

“My favorite idea builds on what we have by making the Electoral College a persistent and defined body ready to act for given purposes as needed.”

All you’ve done is reinvent the Westminster System where the Parliament or in this case the Electoral College could remove the Prime Minister / President through a Motion of No Confidence. If the Democrat Party had this political tool at their disposal, they would have removed President Bush from office at the worst possible moment during the Iraq War.

One of the advantages of our political system is the President does not require continual approval of the Congress for every executive decision (Separation of Powers). The obvious big weakness is the assumption that the President is competent and always acting in the nation’s best interests (I’m skeptical that this is true in the case of Obama).

The next four years with Obama as President are going to be “interesting”.

Jan 4, 2009 - 10:46 pm 11. NahnCee:

Richardson evidently lost a page of the questionnaire form he was supposed to fill out before he was named.

If there was a scandal about HIllary out there, why hasn’t it surfaced before now, like for example when it was really really needed for Obama to clinch the nomination?

Jan 4, 2009 - 10:50 pm 12. Lifeofthemind:

@Eggplant,
I said nothing like that at all. Removals are handled by the Impeachment process. Some standing body separate from the POTUS and not a “Special Prosecutor” should have the power to investigate the Administration. Interestingly the Confederate Constitution had some creative thought on this matter. They gave Cabinet officers seats in the legislature so they could be regularly questioned. May not be the answer but it showed thought that stopped over a hundred years ago.

The E.C. serves to fill vacancies. In addition I could see giving it some power of Judicial Review for Constitutional questions. Leaving that power in the SCOTUS has proven problematic. Germany has separated the question of Constitutional review from the appeals process. The key thing to me is to distribute these powers and the need to respond to serious issues among bodies. That minimizes the risk of catastrophic failure. In addition I would have states submit a list of candidates to the President of the Senate who would deliver them to the Chief Justice, give the SCOTUS an opportunity to review and declare someone ineligible if there is a question.

In my conception the each state would have three ex officio members of the Electoral College, being the heads of their three branches. That is the Governor, Chief of their highest Court and the Speaker of the most numerous branch of the Legislature. Other members if authorized in a state delegation would be appointed for long terms of seven years, staggered as Senate seats are. The E.C. should not be the current meaningless collection of party hacks and retired school teachers. No person who is an employee of the Federal government, except for members of the militia called to active duty, should be eligible for the E.C. Each state could draw up a list of up to 5 candidates for submission to the President of the Senate with appropriate documentation for certification of eligibility. When the approved list comes back from the SCOTUS then the Electors would get to vote. Citizens would vote for their state legislatures and for Congress. In an emergency the E.C. could act more expeditiously.

That is closer to what the Founders intended than what we have now and I have heard no argument that the current disaster is an improvement.

Jan 4, 2009 - 11:18 pm 13. Charles:

that piece from the maltese falcon is one of the genius pieces of american film making.
so many of the characters in that movie look like the dems.

remember however, however cockeyed, if in the next four years — the incoming admin makes substantial progress towards getting the US off foreign oil dependence — and keeps the country from cracking up — then they will have served

Jan 4, 2009 - 11:43 pm 14. bob:

makes substantial progress towards getting the US off foreign oil dependence

I’d agree, Charles, but how they gonna do it? Some of the coastal areas have been opened to drilling, over their objections mostly, but, no nukes, no Alaska. Windmills and solar won’t serve, not in four years, and maybe never. I think energy is Obama’s Achilles Heel.

Jan 5, 2009 - 12:03 am 15. bob:

Pump up the tires, that’s it, forgot that.

Jan 5, 2009 - 12:07 am 16. wildernesscalling:

The sad fact here is your blowing wind at the MSM and the folks that voted for “0” they don’t care and won’t ether almost no matter what “0”’s men may have done, unless of course you can catch the “0” himself wearing the leather gloves, otherwise “0” wears the new and improved Teflon that the o’l Gipper never got! (a product of the MSM) Happy New Year! Ladies and gentlemen please stay in a straight line, the train is loading and will soon depart, 15 days and counting….

Jan 5, 2009 - 1:51 am 17. ledger:

“So there may be more to this than meets the eye.” –Dave

That could very well be.

The Sec. of Commerce can be, as they say, a very “lucrative” position to occupy.

My guess that Obama is so completely befuddled by the complexities of “Beltway politics” he has turned over all control to the more experienced Clinton Crime Syndicate.

I think Bill Clinton did not like Richardson much – if any – and he found him to be less “squishy” than he appears. Thus, Bill Clinton vetoed his appointment (probably hoping for someone for “flexible” and someone more easily intimidated).

We shall have to see what becomes of Bill Richardson and his legal problems. And, I am sure Richardson does not want or need a hole in the head.

Jan 5, 2009 - 3:46 am 18. New Paltz Journal » Blog Archive » The Bill Richardson mystery:

[...] Fernandez concludes that Obama missed the high sign from Bill Clinton. Of course, if you hire a Clinton for your top cabinet post, why would you be wary of a mere [...]

Jan 5, 2009 - 5:33 am 19. Wadeusaf:

Okay, so Bogart stands with bird in hand as the lift descends before him, asked about the nature of the heavy object of the scam, he answers…,”Its the stuff dreams are made of!”

enough said.

Jan 5, 2009 - 6:15 am 20. Don51:

Let’s see, two former New Mexico Treasurers (NM-Name that Party) serving time in federal prison for kickback schemes. The former state Senate President (NM-Name that Party) convicted of ‘takes’ in federal construction work in Albuquerque. The transition team didn’t understand that while Illinois may have the ‘Chicago’ way, New Mexico has the ‘PRI’ way. PRI is the base corrupt party that ruled Mexico unchallenged for decades and made today’s Mexico what it is instead of what it could have achieved.

Jan 5, 2009 - 6:25 am 21. OhioDude:

Poster Don51 gets it. Dave is clueless.

Billy Gordito was a flop as UN Ambassador, becoming the Hero of Pyongyang as he arraigned BILLIONS in cash, food, fuel oil, and nuke fuel / tech on the promise from the NORKs they’d play nice. Chump One. Then as SecDOE, he saw to it that the dude who’d ferreted out the spies within the US National Lab system ( patriot named Notra Trulock) was PROSECUTED for his actions. WenHo-Ho-Ho Lee ! Chumpy Two. He’s taken the state half a billion into the red with his pet projects including a … ready ? … Spaceport ! Yep ! Here in New LaRazaville, we get de Governors toy for de spacerides ! Es muy bueno, si ?

Clue up Dave and you lib apologists

Jan 5, 2009 - 8:09 am 22. Peter Boston:

Lucius Sergius Catilina (108 BC–62 BC) would fit right into the current and recently past administration, perhaps even as The Man himself who finally figured out how to get it right after 2,000 years of practice.

Although no person could possibly be as corrupt as Cicero and later historians have characterized Catalina, it does appear true that Catalina went after high public office by bribery and by promising absolutely everything to absolute everybody – from the public treasury, of course. Perhaps not uncoincidentally this happened in the waning days of the Republic when all the sharks could smell the blood of dying Liberty.

Our war, the people’s war, is not with Democrats, and neither is it between Democrats and Republicans. We the people are at war for our liberty with today’s patricians who buy ghetto votes with public money and do whatever they have to make the middle class poor and stupid.

We should never elect to public office – anywhere – any person who has ever attended Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Columbia. The only way to keep the patricians out of State and Treasury is to break the pathway of their appointments.

Jan 5, 2009 - 8:25 am 23. DanM:

Peter,

It’s as if once you’ve read “The Prince”, you are tainted forever – “Many men have imagined republics and principalities that never really existed at all. Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation; for a man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good.”

Jan 5, 2009 - 9:29 am 24. Tony:

Here’s the story on Hillary’s latest “scandal” from yesterday’s NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/washington/04clinton.html?ref=politics

WASHINGTON — An upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton’s foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman’s mall project.

Humble prediction – this is not going to make a dent, she’s a Clinton. Bill Clinton most certainly sold us out to the Chicomms, as evidenced by dozens of guilty pleas, fleeing donors, record fines. Even Loral and Hughes paid record fines for transferring controlled technology to the Chicomms. Witnesses testified that “the White House is like the subway turnstile, you put in your money and you go through.” To enable this, Bill Clinton transferred control of missile re-entry technology (yep, MIRV know-how) to Commerce, and away from State. Bernie Schwartz, Loral Chairman, was the single largest contributor to the DNC. Looks like Clinton was guilty as could be, right? Janet Reno swept the whole thing under the rug, nothing there worth prosecuting….

Hillary will be unscathed by this latest, obvious scandal. Now, if she were a a Republican, this would be considered irrefutable evidence of a Culture of Corruption.

Jan 5, 2009 - 10:14 am 25. Peter Boston:

In addition to The Prince Machiavelli also wrote extensively on the first 10 books of Livy, i.e. the Roman Republic. Here’s the link. Discourses

John Adams also wrote extensively about republics in Defence of the Constitution

It is somewhere between unfortunate and criminal that the brief history of republican government is not taught in our public schools. Public education does a great disservice to our children by not teaching how difficult and how historically rare it is for them to live in a republican democracy.

Jan 5, 2009 - 10:17 am 26. 49erDweet:

Concur with OhioDude #21.
Re: last paragraph from E. Nigma #8, it would not surprise me to see BHO nominated for the Captain Edward John Smith life-time achievement award before 2009 slips through the cracks. Like Smith’s Titanic, our ship of state is running pell-mell into deadly iceberg fields and the captain-elect seems clueless.

Jan 5, 2009 - 10:27 am 27. 49erDweet:

Concur with OhioDude #21.
Re: last paragraph from E. Nigma #8, it would not surprise me to see BHO nominated for the Captain Edward John Smith life-time achievement award before 2009 slips through the cracks. Like Smith’s Titanic, our ship of state is running pell-mell into deadly iceberg fields and the captain-elect seems clueless.

Jan 5, 2009 - 10:28 am 28. Peter Boston:

Wretchard:

Why are my comments “awaiting moderation”?

Jan 5, 2009 - 10:38 am 29. Roderick Reilly:

“”"”"”"”"20. Don51:

. . . . The transition team didn’t understand that while Illinois may have the ‘Chicago’ way, New Mexico has the ‘PRI’ way. PRI is the base corrupt party that ruled Mexico unchallenged for decades and made today’s Mexico what it is instead of what it could have achieved.”"”"”"”

I have read that New Mexico has had its own brand of corruption for decades, and — despite the whining about minority status — it is heavily Hispanic in its roots (I mean the corruption, even though the state is heavily Hispanic). At one point, I read, the late Sen. Montoya and his family pretty much ran the state.

Jan 5, 2009 - 10:47 am 30. Eggplant:

Bob said:

“I think energy is Obama’s Achilles Heel.”

Obama sold himself through the MSM as the Messiah (big mistake). To meet expectations, Obama is obligated to do fish-and-loaves while walking on water. As of today, the economy is hosed. As the Messiah, Obama is expected to lay hands on the economy, say the magic words and “poof!”, all will be well. Add to that, Obama through his majestic presence is supposed to keep the Islamic fascists from being savage animals.

For a few months the MSM will cover for Obama but eventually Obama will have to perform. After the MSM starts feeling embarassed, they’ll turn on Obama like the rabid hyenas that they are.

Jan 5, 2009 - 12:37 pm 31. programmer:

Eggplant concludes:

For a few months the MSM will cover for Obama but eventually Obama will have to perform. After the MSM starts feeling embarassed, they’ll turn on Obama like the rabid hyenas that they are.

programmer theorizes:

Probably not! I believe the MSM (not the loony left, et al, just the MSM) is under contract until at least 2020.

Jan 5, 2009 - 1:15 pm 32. Eggplant:

I earlier said:

“After the MSM starts feeling embarassed, they’ll turn on Obama like the rabid hyenas that they are.”

Programmer replied:

“I believe the MSM is under contract until at least 2020.”

I guess it boils down to shame versus legal obligations. The MSM is pretty short on shame but then again they’re not too good about meeting their obligations…

Jan 5, 2009 - 2:42 pm 33. Mark:

Wrichard writes: “‘Isn’t two Cabinet posts enough?’Why should it be? In the fascinating world of the political double-cross, there’s only one rule: be the last man standing.”

To fully understand the relationship of Obama and Richardson we perhaps need to attend not merely to the culture of corruption in New Mexico and Chicago but to the deep psychology that is no doubt involved. Perhaps one can glean some insight by referring back to Freud’s cookbook, and in particular the entry for “Binswanger’s Double-Cross Buns” —-

“What did cause the break with Jung? The passing years have given enough occasions, if not the leisure, for analyzing my relations with Jung. One by one I have gone through our differences—in age, in religion, in background, in temperament and ideas. But as much bound us together as separated us. Only by applying the psychoanalytic method, going back over the case history itself, incident by incident, did I come to find the true culprit: it was Ludwig Binswanger’s buns, baked for me, and not for Jung, on that fateful Whitsun weekend in 912 when I came to Switzerland—to Kreuzlingen to see him and not to Kusnacht to see Jung . . . . Could he not have made more buns had he made them smaller? But most important of all, why were only Jung an I estranged after this episode and not Binswanger, too?”

Are not the analogies to Obama and Richardson obvious to anyone willing to plumb these depths?

(I think the quotation is from “Freud’s Cookbook” by James Hillman, p. 119)

Jan 5, 2009 - 3:44 pm 34. Eggplant:

Peter Boston wrote:

“Public education does a great disservice to our children by not teaching how difficult and how historically rare it is for them to live in a republican democracy.”

A bigger quarrel that I have with our public education system is the near complete failure to educate against demagogues and propaganda. A case in point is Adolf Hitler. Hitler is almost always portrayed in grainy black-and-white movies as this funny looking man with a weird mustache dressed in a miltary uniform with spit flying in every direction while he screams and rants in incomprehensible German. This was Hitler the tyrant after he had achieved rock star status as the victorious dictator of Germany. Earlier in his career, Hitler came across as the folksy Grandpa Walton or the innocuous Uncle Fritz. He spoke with a very pleasing Austrian accent that was seductive. School children need to understand that the demagogue who’ll end up killing or enslaving them is someone who is young, handsome, intelligent, thoroughly modern (cool/hip) and extremely well spoken.

Jan 5, 2009 - 4:30 pm 35. RWE:

Eggplant:

Shoirtly after 9/11/01 there was a discussion going on about the impact of religion in the world. One little American girl (10 years old or so) was quoted as saying “Religion is a problem. World War Two was caused by people who wanted to be Jewish.”

At a resturant up in SC several months ago, two people in the next booth were having a chuckle about the ignorance of the modern community college student. One said “You should have seen their faces when I pointed out that Hitler was a popularly elected leader!”

I never thought about it, but I guess the current common image of Hitler is of him riding into power behind a column of Tiger Tanks. The fact that they would have never had Tiger tanks if they had not elected Hitler does not come across.

And fewer people still realize that as Hitler was coming to power his No.1 enemy was the professional German military, who proposed a coup to GB, FR and Beligium – who were horrified. And his No.2 enemy was the professional Western military, which proposed asassinating him. But the popular image is military professionals = Hitler, when the fact is the other way around, ignorant democratic voters = Hitler.

Jan 5, 2009 - 5:36 pm 36. presbypoet:

Us Calvinists have an advantage. We don’t think men are good. That “utter depravity” thing reminds us when someone says “trust me”, put your hand over your wallet.
The trick is to avoid the slough of cynicism, where those who have stopped trusting find themselves trapped.

Message for today. History shows us that up to now, God has been looking after the United States. Our most feared futures usually don’t happen. If I had suggested in October 2001 that there would be no more major terrorist attacks on American soil for over seven years after 2001, you would have called me a hopeless fool.

My take on Obama is that he is a salesman with no idea what he is selling. Who is providing his wares?

Jan 5, 2009 - 6:27 pm 37. bob:

“From the beginning, philosophers and other students of language, including Plato and Aristotle, have pointed to the immense force that oratorical rhetoric can exert either for good or evil, depending on who is in charge of it. In the metonymic period it was assumed that “good” rhetoric was, as Aristotle put it, the antistrophos or answering chorus of dialectic, as in the sermon that expounded true doctrine or the courtroom defense that was on the side of justice…..

In our day the appearance of oratorical rhetoric in a genuine form seems to be confined to very exceptional circumstances of social crisis, as in the Gettyburg Address of Lincoln or the 1940 speeches of Churchill. For the most part oratorical figures in our day are a feature of advertising and propaganda. Third phase writing, we said, is centrally concerned with distinguishing reality from illusion; advertising and propaganca are designed deliberately to create an illusion, hence they constitute a kind of anti-language, especially in the speeches by so-called charismatic leaders that set up a form of mass hypnosis. When such oratory pretends to be, or thinks it is, rational, it adopts a highly characteristic shuffle derived from a desire to reach certain conclusions in advance, whatever the evidence suggests. There is a good deal of this kind of anti-language in religious writing also, where it takes the tone that Hegel call edifying, emotional resonance without content.”

from “The Great Code: The Bible and Literature” Northrop Frye

Some of Obama’s ’speeches’ sure fit the propaganda, advertising, anti-language bill in my mind.

Jan 5, 2009 - 7:05 pm 38. Eggplant:

Presbypoet asked:

“My take on Obama is that he is a salesman with no idea what he is selling. Who is providing his wares?”

Maybe the failure of Hillary’s campaign was due to her incompetence.

Maybe the MSM’s ridiculous bias towards Obama was due to his skin color.

Maybe it was pure chance that it rained money on Obama so he could steam roller McCain with television and Internet advertising.

However, if Obama did NOT crawl out of the woodwork on his own then one must wonder about who was providing the money and orchestrating the MSM.

The obvious flaw with this line of speculation is the money trail should be traceable. Of course, the watchdogs might be sleeping or know but don’t care …

Jan 5, 2009 - 7:14 pm 39. History - Cross Eyed:

Good One OhioDude……

Billy Gordito was a flop as UN Ambassador, becoming the Hero of Pyongyang as he arraigned BILLIONS in cash, food, fuel oil, and nuke fuel / tech on the promise from the NORKs they’d play nice. Chump One……

Please allow me to add my pet peeve, having faced the criminal thugs across the DMZ. Mr Bill played accidental tourist taking a tour of the USS Pueblo. For you young’uns this was a US Navy ship that the Norks seized. They tortured our sailors. It was a shame and embarassment. Yes, just the thing for a US politician to commemorate.

He’s a c&*( weasel of the first order. Ewwww “he lost a cabinet position” – well good.

Jan 5, 2009 - 7:22 pm 40. NahnCee:

Of course the money trail is traceable. But the watchdogs aren’t sleeping and not caring is an oxymoron when they are appointed just because of previously demonstrated ability to avoid following a paper trail.

As far as Hillary having hinky donations, what ever happened to that Chinese dude Hsu or Chsu or whatever his name was that funneled hundreds of thousands into her campaign? Nothing came of that, other then one ex-Chinaman enjoying the hospitality of the American prison system, so why on earth would anyone think something involving less money now would matter?

Jan 5, 2009 - 8:00 pm 41. Dave:

To Whom It May Concern: I did not and do not approve of what Bill Clinton sent Bill Richardson to North Korea to do. I will however say that Richardson carried out his orders as well as could be done and that our
situation vis-a-vis North Korea could have been made worse.

Having observed Richardson both at the UN and
at DoE, I saw no reason to condemn his performance(s). And I do recall his giving the cold shoulder to some international gun-grabbers.

Having grown up in West Texas close to the New Mexico border, I was very familar with
the systemic dysfunctionalism of the Land of Enchantment. It has seemed to me that Bill Richardson has made some significant efforts in correcting same.

The PRI by the way is in Old Mexico, not New Mexico. Its strength is in southern Mexico, PAN is strong in Northern Mexico.

En Mejico Norte, son vaqueros y vaquerso son caballeros. Caballeros no campesinos. Entiende?

In New Mexico, it is Democrats and Republicans and both have held office from time to time.

In my experience, phrases like “Billy Gordito”, “Jorge Bush”, “La Razaville” and the like indicate that somebody does not know the difference between Mejicano and Tejano.
If you are not savvy enough to know that, then
no sabe nada.

Now then, let us keep our minds open about what is happening. We may learn something.

Jan 5, 2009 - 10:58 pm 42. whiskey:

As far as the politics and factions of the Obama Administration, it appears that Leon Panetta is to be the new CIA Director, with the express brief of shutting down any and all interrogation programs, rendition, and so on.

It’s open season on the US by terrorists.

This does not surprise me at all. Obama has throughout his career expressed support for terrorists killing Americans.

It looks like the doors are being pushed wide open, to allow Iran and AQ to attack the US at will, with Obama offering “concessions” to them to get them to stop: controls on speech, Sharia in the US, and so on.

I mean, what else can you expect from a man raised as a Muslim?

Jan 5, 2009 - 11:37 pm 43. Lifeofthemind:

@Mark
The Gold Standard for a meeting of public intellectuals was the Marburg Colloquy. The highlight was Luther writing in chalk ‘hoc est corpus meum’ on the table and by the end they had had this charming passage:

LUTHER: I call upon you as before: your basic contentions are shaky. Give way, and give glory to God’

ZWINGLI: And we call upon you to give glory to God and to quit begging the question! The issue at stake is this: Where is the proof of your position? I am willing to consider your words carefully-no harm meant! You’re trying to outwit me. I stand by this passage in the sixth chapter of John, verse 63 and shall not be shaken from it. You’ll have to sing another tune.

LUTHER: You re being obnoxious.

ZWINGLI (excitedly): Don’t you believe that Christ was attempting in John 6 to help those who did nor understand ?

LUTHER: You’re trying to dominate things! You insist on passing judgment! Leave that to someone else! . . . it is your point that must be proved, not mine. But let us stop this sort of thing. It serves no purpose.

ZWINGLI: It certainly does! It is for you to prove that the passage in John 6 speaks of a physical repast.

LUTHER: You express yourself poorly and make about as much progress as a cane standing in a corner. You’re going nowhere.

ZWINGLI: No, no, no! This is the passage that will break your neck!

LUTHER: Don’t be so sure of yourself. Necks don’t break this way. You’re in Hesse, not Switzerland….

I defy anyone to show me that our current debates are on weightier matters or are being conducted in a more civilized manner.

Jan 5, 2009 - 11:42 pm 44. twobyfour:

Dunno, Lifeofthemind, it may be a charming sophistry, but still a sophistry. A battle of wits for its own sake, the bone of contention being just the point of agreement where to take off for dizzying [sarc] ripostes. I know, games people play and scoring points often is more important than the substance.

Color me a redneck, preferring much clearer, older material, when the substance and form were one, twobyfourish in attitude and expression: “Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? Quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia?”

It is almost as a engineer would say it!

Jan 6, 2009 - 1:34 am 45. bob:

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. King James

John 6:48 I am that bread of life.

6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.

6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

6:52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

6:55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

6:56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

6:58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. King James

Jan 6, 2009 - 1:42 am 46. twobyfour:

Wuz ‘possed to be “an engineer”, of course. These laptops are not designed for my extremities, I have to say, causing more misspellings and omissions that I’d accept.

Lifeofthemind, I hope you’d appreciate how I turned the tack in my reply from your tangent back to topic!

Jan 6, 2009 - 1:49 am 47. twobyfour:

Bob, thanks, but many of us have our Bibles handy (even if in the agnostic camp). You probably wanted to say something important, I presume? The utraquists resolved the matter in sufficient manner, I’d say.
The segments you posted is about a substitution, which is not only the understood method of partaking in relationship with God in Jewish tradition, but it is also a thread that connects all the deeds and events connected to Yahoshua.

Jan 6, 2009 - 1:58 am 48. twobyfour:

connected = related.

LOL! I have to do something about my constant errata!

Jan 6, 2009 - 2:00 am 49. twobyfour:

Back to topic…

1. I remember Obamalini (he is less Marx than Musolini, I’d submit upon some pondering) saying something along lines: “I know how to surround myself with competent people”, as reflected in selection of his staff–it does say two things: 0 is certain that he is unable to do the job on his own; he is a tool, a puppet, and someone behind the curtain is pulling the strings.

2. The selection of people is interesting. For it seems that many of them are tainted, and not in a degree that may be negligible. Hard to tell, there is not a trend apparent, but if you see a blow out of one nominee, and replacement by another nominee that may be tainted, and that repeating and rinsing (or rinsing and repeating), then I’d say that would constitute a trend and the final goal would be to nominate eventually people that are not tainted (in the eyes of public) but fairly unknown. Let that process spread over 2 years so it comes as natural. After all said and done, only people you (the puppeteer) can trust have all the levers of power.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory, d’nit? The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they take decades, even centuries to unfold and come to fruition. Which, due to the fact that events have a way to conspire against conspiracy theories (or precepts and goals of them thereof), they have zippo chance to come to fruition (someone may argue that the ancient Egypt dynasties were a typical example of conspiracies being successful and I’d grant I’ll be in the corner, but that was then and far easier to pull wool over eyes and this is now).
So, make a decent conspiracy plan to be executed within 10-12 years, with some contingency planning, and it is now very possible to pull that off. You can even feed off the unsuccessful previous conspiracies that paved some rough spots on the road to NO (New Order, you leave hallucinations about NWO to those that don’t want to be successful).

Yea, well… Whose might be da puppeteer, that is the question.

Jan 6, 2009 - 2:36 am 50. lc:

isn’t it rich?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvzUdM29_uA

Jan 6, 2009 - 5:46 am 51. Don51:

“Having observed Richardson both at the UN and
at DoE, I saw no reason to condemn his performance(s).”

The Wen Ho Lee episode says otherwise. Mr. Lee was an early participant in the ‘under the bus’ act during DoEs witch hunt for Chinese spies on Secty Richardson’s tenure. What Mr. Lee was guilty of was mishandling classified information, which upon investigation and subsequent events at Los Alamos has shown was a wide spread institutional behavior among the staff and administration. It took a serious threat of having their contract pulled pressed by others in the government and not Mr. Richardson that got reform even moving. The federal judge in Mr. Lee’s case, from the bench personally apologized to Mr. Lee for many of the actions of the government in the process.

Jan 6, 2009 - 5:47 am 52. programmer:

Dave firmly states:

Now then, let us keep our minds open about what is happening. We may learn something.

programmer applauds (with appropriate fanfare):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIh_J8CB_x4&feature=related

Jan 6, 2009 - 7:27 am 53. Lifeofthemind:

@twobyfour,
I give Luther and Zwingli the courtesy of thinking that they sincerely believed that they were talking about the salvation of immortal souls. Always a potentially far bloodier prospect than a struggle for purely temporal power. Politicians and their followers also fall into two categories, the purely venial such as Cataline and Octavian or Blago are an infestation that need to be controlled but they threaten the common welfare less than visionaries such as Casca and Brutus whointend to kill their host. They are in PJ O’Rourke’s brilliant simile sincterely interested in people in the same way that fleas are sincerely interested in dogs. Far more dangerous are the millenarian ideologues who BHO has travelled with. They are willing to kill millions to purify the land in blood. Ayers has been unusually open about his goals but others have been better at blending in.

Jan 6, 2009 - 8:54 am 54. Dave:

@Don51; I did not say that I could find no reason to criticize Richardson’s performance.
I said I could find no reason to condemn.

His predecessor at Energy, Hazel O’Leary was a different story.

The Wen Ho Lee case is typical of how the bureaucracy handles matter. It goes from being deliberately oblivious to a panic-stricken CYA.

Remember all the sleazy wheeling-dealing Clinton had with various and sundry representatives of the Peoples Republic of China? The subsequent CYA landed on Wen Ho Lee. He got all the government he was paying for.

Jan 6, 2009 - 9:09 am 55. Dave:

@Lifeofthemind #53: Excellent point about millenarian ideologues.

twobyfour: any conspiracy has to have a defineable life span. Fairly short I would say. As time goes on, new players have to be brought in, old security measures violated,
operational aspects abruptly altered and so forth and so on.

So anything alleging multi-century is prima facie hogwash. Multi-decade almost assuredly the same.

Single decade as you describe? Think it over. I have to go to work now.

Jan 6, 2009 - 9:21 am 56. twobyfour:

@ 55. Dave

Well, as general rules, that works out. With one notable exception. One conspiracy that spans centuries, 14 of them. Kicked off by one Khadija, which overturned a belief of her husband that he was possessed by evil spirits. That started the whole thing. He was and there are millions of souls, over 300 million, that bear witness. The whole thing almost died off, were it not for the newly found fuel.

Cherche la femme.

Jan 6, 2009 - 12:00 pm 57. twobyfour:

@ 53. Lifeofthemind

“Always a potentially far bloodier prospect than a struggle for purely temporal power.”

Would love to say the answer is 42, but in this case it’s 56!

“They are willing to kill millions to purify the land in blood.”

Millions? How about billions?
Bernardine wants to trump Khadija!

Jan 6, 2009 - 12:12 pm 58. tanarg:

It remains to be seen if Obama is even inaugurated. After all, he hasn’t provided documentary evidence that he meets the constitutional requirements for being president, including being a natural born citizen. Obama has no legal right to be president, or to act as president, even after he’s inaugurated, because he has not produced the evidence that he meets the constitutional requirements. Until he does so, he is not legally president. That’s the truth.

Massive civil disobedience of a *federal law* in the event Obama is illegitimately inaugurated would help bring this matter to the public’s attention.

Jan 7, 2009 - 3:17 am 59. Doug:

One of Richardson’s problems is that Obama himself also received large donations from the same source Richardson is said to have engaged with in an unethical fashion.
Mustn’t allow anything to attract attention to the faultless one.

Jan 7, 2009 - 3:45 am

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