Tigerhawk provides a fascinating glimpse into Democratic — and perhaps American — political life.
In the middle of Evan Thomas’ insidery campaign book, A Long Time Coming
Obama further aliented McCain on the immigration issue. McCain took great political risks on immigration, defying the GOP faithful who wanted to build a wall across the Mexican border and arrest and detain illegal immigrants. Working with Ted Kennedy and a bipartisan group, McCain came up with compromise legislation to create a guest-worker program. Obama asked to join the group. The senators agreed to hang together to vote against amendments from both the right and the left. Some very conservative senators honored the agreement, voting against conservative amendments — but Obama did not, voting in favor of a number of liberal amendments. After one meeting, Kennedy chewed Obama out for his fickleness. (Months later, asked by a colleague why he had endorsed Obama for president, Kennedy gave a one-word answer: “Caroline.”)
Without reading too much into this anecdote, on immigration, at least, Barack Obama took care of his base and John McCain did not, and his base included Caroline Kennedy. She must indeed be a little bitter about now.
The intriguing thing about this anecdote is that it illustrates the wheels-within-wheels and the sellouts-within-sellouts of political life. It recalls the last chapter of 1984, with Winston Smith sitting in a flyblown cafe, drinking Victory Gin and hearing the words go round in his head. ‘Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me.’ It also exemplifies Obama’s mastery of the art of paying for the sellout with the IOU. He double-crossed McCain, and in the process double-crossed Kennedy. But he squared the account with a check in the mail. “Caroline”. A whisper was all it took. Of course, the check bounced. And how.
Gov. Paterson rapped Caroline Kennedy at a private event the night before he tapped Kirsten Gillibrand for the Senate, telling guests Kennedy had been “nasty” to him and shown “disrespect” with how she bowed out, attendees told The Post. The governor’s attack came just hours after his office issued a statement wishing her well and disavowing quotes from a source close to him who had told The Post Kennedy had never been in true contention for the seat and was “mired” in personal issues.
The Kennedys wised up to the game, but too late. The NY Post says,
An “apoplectic” Kennedy family is seething over the rough treatment that heiress apparent Caroline got from Gov. Paterson’s office and is spoiling for revenge, several sources close to the clan have told The Post. “The governor’s going to pay for this,” said a well-placed Democrat. “Ted is furious. The family is furious. The Kennedys are now against the governor.”
But it’s doubtful that the Kennedys, their fortunes in decline, can collect from the Messiah in the Oval Office. You can almost hear the dialogue if they try.
‘But he said Caroline!’ said the Senator.
‘Caroline who?’ the voice of the chief of staff replied.
‘Caroline Kennedy dammit, don’t you know who we are?’ the Senator thundered.
‘He won,’ came the matter of fact reply, ‘get over it.’
He won indeeed, and all they can do, and maybe all John McCain can do, is bluster in the winter winds outside and watch the marquee beam its message to the nation. “The check is in the mail.”
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67 Comments
1. Willie G:The old saying is: “Payback is a Bi*ch.” We may have a front-row seat for this one. It will also be interesting to see how the new alliances form against the Winner.
Popcorn, anyone?
Jan 25, 2009 - 4:37 pm 2. trangbang68:In the local WalMart last night. Interesting the tabloids are targeting Obama now. One talked about some secret he had, the other of a supposed feud between Michelle and Oprah for his affections. They don’t have Bush to kick around any more.
Jan 25, 2009 - 4:41 pm 3. Doug:Hopefully, John Kass will continue to provide wheel within wheel accounts of the Machine that taught young Barry so well.
Jan 25, 2009 - 4:59 pm 4. Zhombre:The thought occurred to me last October, when I decided McCain was a dead duck, that the real theme of an Obama Presidency would be betrayal. Of the country, or of his hard left base, or of his former associates, or of all of these in turn.
Jan 25, 2009 - 5:25 pm 5. Blindman:One breaks a vow.
One betrays an oath.
A promise is not the same thing. A promise is linked to exigent circumstances.
The Kennedys are not new to the game. Somewhere insurance was taken out to hedge the fickle political bet.
The hubris of Emanuel is the likely Achilles heel during the first 12 months.
That is where the proverbial arrows will be aimed.
Jan 25, 2009 - 5:36 pm 6. NahnCee:How do the Clintons get along with the Kennedys?
Jan 25, 2009 - 5:47 pm 7. wildernesscalling:Lest ye all forget, Camelot was part of “0″ image of a dream that so many “Whites” from the sixties rallied around, wait the “0″ will some find that winning can be hallow and very cold!
Jan 25, 2009 - 6:01 pm 8. BO’s rubber check | BitsBlog:[...] Senate, from New York, but not pay-off New York Governor David Paterson.
Jan 25, 2009 - 6:35 pm 9. MarkJ:In my mind’s eye, I can already see Ted Kennedy calling David Paterson and delivering an “old Irish message”:
“Dave, you’re governor and we love you. But never take sides against The Family again. Ever.”
Jan 25, 2009 - 6:51 pm 10. RWE:I think that ultimately it was Gov Blago that torpedoed Caroline.
Look what we were going to see in the way of senatorial appointments as a result of the Obama victory:
One case of outright criminal activity.
One case of nepotism, since Biden’s seat will be filled by a party apparatchnik until his son can fill it.
One case of political dealmaking that results in the appointment of a political dunce distinguished only by her maiden name.
2 outa 3 may be okay for the Democratic base (most of whom applaud corruption if it is PC) but 3 outa 3 may be too much for even them.
I think it far more interesting that we have a phenomenon that I observed when I was in the DC area.
Obama’s seat was being filled by a black man and is going to be filled by a black man.
Hillary’s seat was filed by a woman and is going to be filled by a woman.
Biden’s seat was filled by a white male of liberal bent and will be filled by a white male of liberal bent.
This is a pattern for some years now. Fill an appointed position in the Federal Bureaucracy with, say, a black woman, and it is very hard to replace her with anything but the same.
Jan 25, 2009 - 7:11 pm 11. rumcrook:say what you want about obama… one thing is clear. he is a master of duplicity. and his ability to cut the ties that bind, with a sharp knife is breathtaking.
none of this should be surprising. witness what he said about his own grandmother. and the fact he didnt even attend her funeral.
Jan 25, 2009 - 7:22 pm 12. ledger:Barack Hussein Obama has a pretty big checkbook and most of his checks got cashed by his cronies.
But, then again Barack Hussein also has a big Bus which people get thrown under.
In short, Barack Hussein swings like a gate.
But, here is a humorous take on the whole Kennedy backstabbing deal:
[Iowahawk]
Ola, this is Rosa. I am blog you again today because I am look for the job. Because the pinche puta gabacha Senora Kennedy she fire me. Forgive me Guadalupe for to talk like this but I am very very angry. When I blog last time it is because Senora Kennedy, she say “Rosa! Make the blog for my Senator campaign, I have the gown fitting.” I say, “but Senora, I no know how to do this blog and have many towels to fold.” And then she is angry and say, “I no care, just do this. I am late for appointment at Sachs.”
Okay so I write the blog because I no want to make her angry. I blog you how much Senora Kennedy is make good Senator and how she is good to Rosa… When I was drag the cousin Joe out of the hallway Senora Kennedy she call me on the intercom and she say, “Rosa! You come to my office right now!” and she is sounding so angry that I have to drop cousin Joe and hit his head very hard the the marble and it is make another mess.
“Yes Senora?” I said to her. She say, “Rosa! You no make a very good blog! All the peoples are still laugh at my Senator campaign!”
…Then Senora Kennedy gets the phone call from Gobernador Paterson, and she is talking to him and she is getting more the more angry and looking at me. She say, “but why do I must pay taxes on the Rosa? She is no a citizen! Okay! Okay! I take care of it!”
Then she stops to the angry and she breathe and then she looks at me quiet. “Rosa, I am let you go.”
“Let me go where, Senora?”
“Your services are longer no required.”
I do no understand what is saying and then she say, “you are the fired.”
I am very very sad and tired from no sleep and so I am start to cry. For twelve years I work for the family. I do the clean and picking up and mop the vomits from tio Teddy and all the barracho cousins and sobrinos. I no complain, even when they wake me up and send me to the store for more gin and cough syrups. Even when cousin Joe show up with his puto friend Hugo Chavez, and he say, “Rosa! Hugo wants to liberate you! ha ha!” I just do my job and try to smile, but now she fire me…
See:
Iowahawk Guest Opinion, by Rosa Ortiz, Former Chief of Housekeeping Staff
Park Avenue Estate of Caroline Kennedy
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/01/i-am-look-for-the-job.html
Jan 25, 2009 - 7:37 pm 13. Gordon:#11–didn’t attend the funeral? I hadn’t heard that one. But then, all she did was raise him.
Or–dumping his “spiritual mentor”, the 20-year minister who married him and baptized his daughters.
Or–looking down and not singing or crossing his heart during the National Anthem, then doing it later and donning a flag pin.
We’ve elected a president in a poke.
Jan 25, 2009 - 7:37 pm 14. Walt:Guvnerman say pay to play
Jan 25, 2009 - 8:11 pm 15. Tex Lovera:Obamaman smile sweetly
Obamaman he turn away
He do so oh so neatly
Preacherman scream KKK
Obamaman smile sweetly
Obamaman no hear him say
He listen too discreetly
Professorman hate USA
Obamaman smile sweetly
Obamaman say it’s okay
He love me so completely
“Plots within plots”.
Barry is taking a page right out of the Clinton playbook: dirty, back-stabbing politics. What a “change” from Bush, who truly did try to work in a non-partisan way.
Jan 25, 2009 - 8:43 pm 16. Dave:@zhombre #4 (and others)
This is NOT good news. That bit about
the immigration bill is a hard indication
that Obama is what Lazarus Long called
a “reform politician.”
That is one who will not stay bought. A congenital con artist. Dangerous.
(Anybody here got the full passage on business politician vs reform politican in
Jan 25, 2009 - 9:58 pm 17. JDB:“Time Enough For Love”?)
As a New Yorker, I’ve been somewhat surprised at Governor Paterson’s thin skin. Early on, he objected to some journalist’s referring to him as “The Accidental Governor”. Paterson claimed the sobriquet was racist!
Later of course, his office issued a statement condemning Saturday Night Live’s (tasteless) lampooning when virtually no other politician has ever PUBLICALLY complained and some have even played along.
Now he’s saying Caroline was “nasty” and “disrespectful”? The man is too high strung and sensitive for high office.
I have no doubt that the Kennedys will use all of their clout (NY Times, etc) to make him a one term footnote by making him lose his composure and the public lose whatever confidence it has left in him.
Jan 25, 2009 - 10:01 pm 18. Dave:Who said this?
“I can unequivically say I will not be running for national office in four years. ….I am a believer in knowing what your are doing when you apply for a job, and I think that if I were to seriously consider running on a national ticket, I would essentially have to start now. ….There may be some who are comfortable with doing that, but I am not one of those people.”
Barack Obama upon being elected to the U. S. Senate in November 2004.
Reform Politican anyone?
Jan 25, 2009 - 10:05 pm 19. twobyfour:@15. Tex Lovera
0 has an advantage over Clinton(s). He is utterly devoid of any empathy and conscience. His pathological narcissism is firmly in the pathology territory. He’s more and more convinced that “nothing compares, no-thing compares. to-me”, and that bare some blind reactionaries, everyone sees it and agrees.
OTOH, this factor may be a tripwire of his downfall, as buyers’ remorse sets in and people would start waking up, seeing the sheer incompetence of the dear leader and lack of any spine.
Jan 25, 2009 - 10:14 pm 20. Alexis:What will happen when all of the folks who got double crossed by the big O start comparing notes?
Jan 25, 2009 - 10:29 pm 21. Elroy Jetson:Alexis:
Jan 26, 2009 - 12:04 am 22. Charles:Are you including the MSM in your group of “folks”?
I’m wondering when the media will turn on him also. Maybe not MSNBC or CNN, but….they are already complaining about access and their inability to ask The One questions about policy stances or his tax evading, terrorist pardoning nominees for cabinet positions.
It was phenominal how many Obama threw under the bus during the primaries and the general election and how he got away with it. The underside of that bus has gotten even more crowded since his inauguration six days ago.
The list is already huge, eh?
On Obama an immigration:
Jan 26, 2009 - 1:01 am 23. whiskey:Numbers USA is giving Obama good grades so far.
This is startling but not too startling.
I am less than impressed with Obama’s political skills.
First, while the Kennedys may not be able to collect on Obama’s promise, they have plenty of journalists on speed dial, and if rumors are correct, Pinch Sulzberger as Caroline’s extra-marital boyfriend.
So, Obama may indeed regret his casual selling out of both McCain and Caroline.
Second, no one is going to deal with him. Everyone knows the knife will be ready for the stab in the back, and that Obama lacks the stones to face down his own party lunatics to keep to a deal.
Right now, he won’t get many if any Republican votes. He’s got a rep for a backstabber and weak guy who betrays every deal he makes across party lines because he lacks the strength to stick to a deal.
There won’t be ANY Republican support for him, because people won’t trust him … a process that is rapidly spreading to Democratic circles. Nixon had that same rep.
Tricky Dick? Or Tricky Hussein?
Finally, Obama is riding high NOW. But he has no clue nor care about the serious nature of what he faces.
He is overturning Bush’s policy of States not being allowed to set their own auto emissions standards. What that means is, 50 different emissions standards, or as they say, “the kill the American Auto Industry DEAD” Executive Order.
Green trumped the economy. He does not think it’s serious. Boehner is ridiculing his spending 300 million for condoms and contraception. That will get traction. As will “No Whites Need Apply” for bailout money, and the idiocy of letting AQ people walk.
A major terrorist attack, let alone a nuked American City, Obama is toast. Economy in the toilet, and staying that way two years let alone four, he’s toast. People have far less patience than they did in the 1930’s, and won’t tolerate ten years of Depression.
Obama is making enemies without destroying him. People hate him, don’t fear him, and he does not get it. 1984 was an excellent novel, but the process there does not work without a ruthless tyrant using mass executions to get his way.
In reality, the Soviet Union post-Stalin was characterized by huge crony networks that Marcos or Pinochet or Franco would have recognized. Obama lacks the pure fear, of crossing him, and relies on the media, women, Blacks, Hispanics, allied in hatred of White Men, particularly working class White Men, to support his hand. That’s just stupid.
Jan 26, 2009 - 1:15 am 24. no mo uro:Whiskey’s comments regarding the economic sphere point to something that should be readily apparent to all.
If you could point out the MOST common attribute of white Obama voters, it would be antipathy towards the religion of the productive white guy, Christianity.
In fact, antipathy or even outright bigotry towards practitioners of all but the most exsanguinated and emasculated forms of Christianity is very nearly universal amongst white Obama voters. At this point, I’m not sure what the implications of this might be, taken in combination with Whiskey’s notion’s regarding white guys being excluded from certain economic opportunities in a type of affrimative action that could accurately be described as attempted reparations.
The anger that this will engender does not make for a better America.
Jan 26, 2009 - 5:06 am 25. Willie G:Per Jim Geraghty at National Review: “All of Barack Obama’s promises come with an expiration date. All of them.”
Jan 26, 2009 - 6:43 am 26. New Paltz Journal » Blog Archive » The check bounced:[...] Fernandez, whose best is sublime: It recalls the last chapter of 1984, with Winston Smith sitting in a flyblown cafe, drinking [...]
Jan 26, 2009 - 6:49 am 27. '08ama:has Obama lied us into an illegal war against an innocent country ? …… nope.
has Obama illegally listened in on his perceived enemie’s phone conversations while claiming he’s protecting America? … nope
Has Obama fallen asleep at the wheel and vacationed while terrorists planned and executed an attack on the Homeland ? … nope
has Obama hired cronies and industry insiders to oversight positions involving those same industries ? …. nope.
Has Obama spent time fund raising and eating cake with John MCCain while a large US city is underwater ? …. nope.
So far, so good.
But then again, Bush is not exactly a ‘tough act to follow’.
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:05 am 28. Ammo Guy:If Saddam’s Iraq was “an innocent country” then I’d hate to see a “guilty” one. Heck, Serbia was much more “innocent” than Iraq and got bombed by the last Democratic President for trying to maintain control over its own homeland as opposed to Saddam’s invasion of his “19th province.”
Some of the illiterate and uninformed postings on this website are an insult to the magnificent prose of its host.
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:30 am 29. NahnCee:08bama – your mamma must be so proud of you.
What’s that? You ate her and are now an orphan and deserving of respect?
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:30 am 30. no mo uro:no8bama-
Have the leper Messiah and his fellow travellers publicly vowed to attack and destroy major aspects of the economic, social, spiritual and political underpinnings of the U.S. and the West?
Yup.
Either you lack the intellect and observational skills to have noticed this, or you’re in with them on the fix, or both.
None speaks well of you.
You are what happens when a postmodernist creates a cartoon characterization of someone (W specifically and conservatives in general) and directs a pre-civilizational type of scapegoating hatred towards the not-so-real cartoon, in order to validate their personal narrative and explain away their own faults and mistakes. Instead of a dispassionate, intelligent, mature analysis of things, everything that goes through your head is filtered through your primitive need to assign blame for the inferior aspects of your life through your cartoon scapegoat. That way, you don’t need to do the difficult, intelligence-requiring work of thinking logically.
25 years from, you’ll stub your toe or get a hangnail, and in your mind it will be W’s fault, in order to preserve you petty little narrative. What a waste of a life.
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:45 am 31. vb:NahnCee, In answer to #6: does it matter? Churchill wasn’t exactly a good buddy of Uncle Joe, but when the latter was ditched, Adolf was in a lot of trouble. You know that old saw about politics and bedfellows. We just need to get Chris Matthews in on the game.
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:54 am 32. barry 0351:“Oh My, who to feel sorry for the most…….America that’s who.”
Jan 26, 2009 - 8:07 am 33. Richard Aubrey:P/S
You guys and gals don’t go for a ride with Ted anytime soon LOL
An awful lot of O supporters are going to be pretending to like the stuff they’re choking down before they admit they screwed themselves six ways to Sunday. Not without warning.
Jan 26, 2009 - 9:26 am 34. Herb:Sort of like the girl who marries the loser all her family and friends are telling her to dump.
I look forward to watching some acquaintances and relatives swelling up and turning blue.
NahnCee @6;
They get along about as well as a pair of scorpions.
Interesting it is that there will soon be no Kennedy in the Senate. Whatsherface was Maryland Lt Gov for a while. Left that job w/o hope.
One of them (Hugo’s bud) is still in the House and a far back bencher by all accounts. (He’s the one who took four or five tries to pass the Bar)
The In-Law cant go anywhere further and probably coudnt if eligible.
I wouldnt worry about this part of the Boston Mafia. Now the Bulgers are another level of criminal
Jan 26, 2009 - 9:38 am 35. Mark:No Mo Uro writes:
“antipathy or even outright bigotry towards practitioners of all but the most exsanguinated and emasculated forms of Christianity . . . .”
“Exsanguinated” … that’s a mighty fine word!
Jan 26, 2009 - 11:19 am 36. NahnCee:No no – I think you misunderstand. It would be kewl if the Clintons and the Kennedys were able to team up and beat on the Obamatrons. I just don’t know that the Kennedys still have enough mojo left to do that.
Jan 26, 2009 - 11:19 am 37. Citizen70:Obambi plays everyone beautifully. That is his true talent. We voters need to remember who did what to whom and hold them accountable. I will never again vote for Kennedy or Kerry, and I will work hard to make sure that Caroline does not replace Uncle Teddy here in Massachusetts.
Go, Blago, go! Nice to see someone give Obama and his cronies the finger.
Jan 26, 2009 - 12:00 pm 38. Megaera:I’m thinking Teddy better be watching for a mighty public smackdown after that presser/tantrum of his: how long do we think it will take this administration to announce that the Cape May wind farm is an Immediate GO? The One does not take kindly to sacrilege, and Ted’s bluster aside, the Kennedys are pretty low on juice. The O used ‘em for whatever they were worth, now he can toss ‘em away with impunity. Sorta sweet, if you don’t like Kennedys.
Jan 26, 2009 - 12:39 pm 39. peterike:Any smackdown of a Kennedy is fine with me. Jack was the only one worth a damn, and he was a compromised cretin in so many ways. But at least he loved his country and wanted to protect it, unlike the bilge that’s followed him.
But it’s interesting to ponder how snubs to the Kennedy’s might work their way around to getting the NY Times back into the business of investigative reporting (as opposed to merely printing classified information handed to it by traitors).
My, but it would be fun to see some page 1 NYT story all about the fundraising — eh hem — “originality” of the O campaign. Or the — eh hem — “unique” techniques team-Obama used to beat Hillary in the caucases. So much dirt, so little interest.
C’mon Pinch, you vile toad. Get on the stick and send a few of your boyz out to ask a few questions. You might even save your stupid paper that way.
Jan 26, 2009 - 1:55 pm 40. Bill R:I remember one thing almost universally stated about W was that he always honored his commitments and never forgot a betrayal. He was the adult to Clinton’s child.
Now we have Obama’s 5th grader with crossed fingers.
Jan 26, 2009 - 3:00 pm 41. JDB:Follow up on Governor Paterson: Tonight’s Syracuse TV news reports that a new poll shows Paterson leading potential Dem primary opponent Andrew Cuomo by only 2% when he had lead him by double digits last month. Mayor Guiliani, a potential GOP rival, also trails by 2 after being down double digits last month.
Uh Oh.
I can’t see the Kennedys helping the Cuomos though.
Jan 26, 2009 - 3:55 pm 42. Gaffe Prices:Yeah, the check bounced, but ‘ol Fed Kennedy is just about shovel ready as it is, and 0bamas thought while that check was still in the mail, Kennedy would help out on Inaug day. I wonder what Fed said in defiance as he postponed his appointment that almost took place right on Jan. 20.
Jan 26, 2009 - 3:56 pm 43. buddy larsen:Indulge these somehow politics 2009-meaningful lyrics –Dusty Springfield’s –i swear, wretchard, you & your post titles. they leave a body speechless sometimes.
Round
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel thats turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
Like a tunnel that you follow
To a tunnel of its own
Down a hollow to a cavern
Where the sun has never shone
Like a door that keeps revolving
In a half-forgotten dream
Or the ripples from a pebble
Someone tosses in a stream
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes of its face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
Keys that jingle in your pocket
Words that jangle in your head
Why did summer go so quickly?
Was it something that you said?
Lovers walk along a shore
And leave their footprints in the sand
Is the sound of distant drumming
Just the fingers of your hand?
Pictures hanging in a hallway
And the fragment of a song
Half-remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over
You were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the colour of her hair
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel
As the images unwind
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind.
(then there’s the windmill of the Holland
Jan 26, 2009 - 4:30 pm 44. Benj:that is sadly in this pic
and the windmill of Quixote
where the lance of truth won’t stick
and the windmill of our prairie
in a future we must lick
as to whether that is lick
as in we licked ‘em and we won
or whether that is lick
as of the boots upon the One
all depends upon the love we have
for daughter and for son.)
NICE to see you back Bud – gonna go listen to Dusty and Pets rihgt now!! What Have I/What Have I/hat I have done to deserve this…
Though I prefers Ree’s version of Son of a Preacher Man…Which may not be off point given the recent inaugural. Sorry to see Wretch is pumping up cynicism again. Invoking 1984 to talk about American politics – Utterly conteumptous of (our) democracy…
PS Ya’ll forget that PAtterson was in Clinton’s camp during the campaign? (THe only black gu;y behind on the podium in Iowa, no?) No reason for Pat to feel any particular warmth toward Carolyn. O didn’t sell her out, but she may have paid a price for supporting him. All even I’d say – cos backing him was her way backing into the public stage..
Jan 26, 2009 - 6:07 pm 45. buddy larsen:Hey, Benj –long time no see –did the new admin press office make you a job offer yet? if not, they orter –for all that trench work you did here on this site alone –guess you were right about all that support. Of course I’m seeing it all as a sort of hurricane blasting into a beautifully-wrought and highly-productive economic settlement, but what do i know.
So, in this corner Paterson and Clintons, in that corner 0 and Caroline? That sure keeps it simple, and gives me a chance to deliver a faint cheer for the 0. Given a choice between the two machines, Chicago hasn’t done anywhere near as much damage as Camelot, so, like, uh, hooray.
Jan 26, 2009 - 6:33 pm 46. outa my league:Alas, I can’t remember which were more pleasant, those threads sans Bee, or those threads short Tee.
Geitner confirmed by Senate, per jury.
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:17 pm 47. outa my league:Noble Senate, thou shouldst be most proud this eve of confirming Sir Geitner.
(Purr, jury)
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:22 pm 48. buddy larsen:well, why not? now they’ll need 100,000 more IRS enforcers, all Gmen, all Democrats.
Jan 26, 2009 - 7:24 pm 49. Benj:No j.o.b. offers Bud – virtue is its own reward? For what it’s worth 0 Learned more arguing with you and WAde and Alexis and Probus and… than with Extreme leftists who were unbable to grasp O was out to pres of USA not NAACP!!
Jan 26, 2009 - 8:52 pm 50. Benj:PS – Bud – thought of you Sat when I ws reading revo war stuff with my 5 year old in the library. One amazing fact after another – you probably knew this already but 1 in 6 soldiers in the Continental army in 1780 were black. HEll they make a big deal of Afros building the White House etc. But DAMN – they fought the Brits and THEN got BEAT bad by their own side!!
Jan 26, 2009 - 9:08 pm 51. buddy larsen:“…virtue is its own reward?” –LOL –that question mark is precisely why O ought to grab you up ASAP to help keep the tin out of the staff’s ears –”Presentation” as Schindler answered (in the film, anyway) the question of what it is that he does.
Jan 26, 2009 - 9:16 pm 52. buddy larsen:yep –it’s not like africans are newcomers to white America –somebody was bringing in the sheaves back on the plantation while the founders locked horns in Philly for a decade or two hammering out enough fine points that the Constitution so created was well-steeped and fine-seasoned before it took the show on the road. Of course you probably have a beef with the division of labor at the time but that’s just how the cookie crumbled human evolution-wise –northern peoples had winters to survive, southern peoples didn’t, so rates of change could never have been lockstep. The point for the future is, black & white America have been cheek to jowl from the national get go. People need to know that. Belmont folks know it but way too many don’t. If your side of the D vs R aisle would put the word on your teacher’s unions, maybe things would improve a little faster –dontcha think?
Jan 26, 2009 - 9:34 pm 53. buddy larsen:“…and THEN got BEAT bad by their own side”
–yep, that sucks, and always will as long as history tells a story. But here’s something else that sucks, and, unlike history, can be changed:
The USA population, north and south, black and white, in the 1860 census was thirty million, or a clean tenth of what it is today. Nearly 700,000 soldiers died in the war that commenced a few months after that census. That war, fought over the question of law and human equality, killed, in terms of percentage of the population, what would be seven million sons and brothers, fathers and husbands, men whose physical labor was needed to feed their families long before there was any other way for a family to get fed. Dead in their youth, because that’s what it took to break a power & control system that had pertained worldwide since the beginning of known human space & time, break it and reset it all anew, with everyone in the nation a citizen, and every citizen officially (which is as far as officialdom could take it, the remaining distance being a matter of nothing but the individual heart) equal before the law of the land, in a land of laws and not the strongman’s whim.
My point (finally), that is a story of a sacrifice, ok something white people directly did to mark against the slavery ledger, that needed more telling last week, and indeed last century, and indeed, tomorrow, and the years acoming. Dontcha think?
Jan 26, 2009 - 10:21 pm 54. Dave:Buenas Tardes, Senor Larsen;
I guess we shall have to hold off telling Benj about Johnny Rebs of color. Don’t wanna overload his circuits.
And of course don’t breathe a word about
Britt Johnson, let alone Deaf Smith’s brother-in-law-with-a-suntan.
Did you ever hear of Princess Catherine Caradja of Romania? (Blue-Blood but not of the family with succession to the throne.)
Fairly well-to-do I would say, since her family properties did include mineral rights in and around Ploesti.
Noted for charitable work including getting
her own hands dirty from time to time. Opposed the Romanian alliance with Germany and
then supported the Romanian war effort to the best of her patriotic ability. Oversaw orphanages, hospitals and POW camps.
Then in late 1944 with the curtain ringing down on Romania, she, her brother, other friends and family members gathered remnants
of the Romanian Air Force and other Romanian Armed Forces together. They chased off or otherwise rid themselves of some of Hitler’s “werewolves” and made their last stand delaying advance elements of the Red Army.
Why? To secure a small airstrip where B17s
could land and take 1200 American POWs home
and keep them from being “rescued” by Stalin.
One of those is a darned good friend of mine and he got me to doing research.
The Princess finally fled Romania in 1952 and
it seems that French Secret Service performed
quite well in getting her to safety. After that, she lived in comfort.
Comfort as you may know is about 20 miles East of Kerrville on the road to San Antone.
(Comfort was also to have been the retirement home of Ranald Sliddell McKenzie, the real-life Nathan Brittles. Unfortunately he fell off a wagon, landed on his head, contracted dementia and died in a sanitarium in New York.)
Once upon a schoolboy crush, I knew a nice young lady from Comfort but I shan’t tell you how long ago that was.
Back on topic; Princess Caradja was born in 1893 and died in 1993 having spent the last 3-4 years back on her native soil, courtesy of Ronald Reagan. Nicest thing the Gipper could have done for her.
Can’t you just see her in her old age watching the fall of the commies getting closer and closer? Could she hang on long enough to make it back? She did.
As Ollie would say, hers is a War Story that needs telling. Thought you would like to know.
Jan 26, 2009 - 10:48 pm 55. Dave:BTW Buddy, did you sign the thank you note at thankW.com?
Did you ever read “How The Irish Saved Civilization”? Only country that ever
just got up and said no more to involuntary servitude. Was done at the insistence of a certain Patricus, better known as St Paddy.
Faith and Begorrah and May The Saints Preserve Us!
And from Thomas Sowell: “Slavery was called the peculiar institution because it was so contrary to American principles. However, a closer examination of history shows that it was those principles which were peculiar, not slavery.”
Jan 26, 2009 - 11:34 pm 56. buddy larsen:that’s a helluva story, dave. a helluva story. yes i know Comfort well –my kids played sports against the Comfort teams back in high school –they went to Johnson City High, in Johnson City (natch), home of LBJ and just a short run south of Crawford. a short stroll from where i sit is a plateau in the last range of hills overlooking Austin, a defensible vantage point covering the approaches west, where Sam bass and his gang used to hole up after robbing a carpetbagger train somewhere off the rim down in the flats. My neighbors grandaddy used to cut ourt a calve everytime he showed up to camp on the old mans ‘back forty’. campfire rings and shooting perches still there. Somewhere around comfort, maybe in comfort proper, one of the Doolittle Raiders still lives. Unless he’s passed on just lately. Doolittle’s Raid on Tokyo, flying B-25s impossibly off the deck of Hornet a bare 6 months after Pearl Harbor, caused the EOJ to attack Midway Island (they blamed for the raid) soon thereafter, where a series of accidents and sacrifices so implausable and against such odds as to be very nearly beyond belief, gave decisive ands strategically overwhelming victory to a USN blocking force one twelfth the power of the attacking EOJ fleet. CINCPAC Admiral Chester Nimitz (RIP) is from Fredericksburg, next town to the east of Comfort. In Fredericksburg is the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War, housed (overflowing from) the old hotel young Nimitz’ family ran and in which he was raised. It has become world class as military museums go, everyday visited by elderly gents who move through the exhibits very slowly, often with one and two generations of descendants assisting them at a respectful remove, often lost in memory, often hiding tears. The ref you made to Ollie North’s ’stories that need to be told’ –some of those stories are told from there, Lt. Colonel North hails from San Antone and enjoys having as “War Stories” backdrop such displays as the EOJ midget sub that took the first shot fired in the Pacific War and was raised off the bottom of Pearl Harbor not long ago, one of the Doolittle B-25s, and assorted USA and Japanese combat vehiles & aircraft such as Dauntless, Val, Wildcat (iirc), i think a TBF Avenger, a Devastator (known to aircrew as “Vibrator”), and several others. well, just refreshing your memory, dave –i’m sure you already know everything i just said –well maybe not the Sam Bass hideout. I keep that a secret. who knows what tomorrow might bring. The durn Comanch might come riding up any day wanting their land back. Then I have to go evict some old duffer in Norway.
Jan 26, 2009 - 11:40 pm 57. buddy larsen:Dave @ #55, naw, not yet, thanks for the prompt –i will go sign it. hereabouts we are very happy to have him home, very much a sigh of relief for reasons aplenty that he’s back in Crawford amongst watchful and protective friends. once in a blue moon comes along a feller who tried so ard to do right, and for it had to take so much egregious, ebarrassingly infantile and calculated abuse and stay so well comported a gentleman and so graciously correct throughout. It won’t be forgotten, neither how he handled it nor who and why dished it out. And the worm will turn again someday. Meanwhile we in the Lone Star state are at our posts and keeping good watch.
That sowell quote is magnificent. just magnificent. I hadn’t heard it, though Sowell is among my heroes. Thanks for that.
Jan 27, 2009 - 12:03 am 58. Dave:Doolittles Raid was supposed to have been Chennault’s Raid, done from land bases inside China. Pearl Harbor changed that plan.
Once took a friend deer hunting in Harper outside Fredricksburg. My dear little Filipina wife was turned loose on the antique shops in and around the Nimitz Hotel. I calculated the price of venison to be $43.75 the half pound that year.
BTW I graduated from Schreiner (High School Department) back in 1962, and did one year of college there. One of our grads was COL Glover Johns who taught Dave Hackworth everything he knew. Another was Raymond Berry. President of school used to give the assembly the inside dope on the Colts.
Ever read T. R. Fehrenbach at mysa.com every Sunday? His books are “this KInd of War”
“Lone Star” and “Destruction of A People”.
Latter is comple rundown on how the Commanche were defeated.
I mentioned my natural father to you before. On his mother’s side, one member of her family married a Parker from Fort Parker who is guaranteed to be kin to Cynthia Ann which makes me kin to old Quanah. And one portion of the family is Celts who were evicted by Saxons who were then evicted by my Norman ancestors in the Comprehensive Land Reform Program of 1066 AD.
So let’s cut out this eviction nonsense. Don’t care who was redressing what, there ain’t a place on this planet that does not consider me the evictee.
Seriously, look up a book called “Texas C. S. A. Shows how Texas got stampeded into secession by the Knights of the Golden Circle.
When Sam Houston is ineffectual, the Devil Himself is afoot. If you absolutely cannot find a copy, I’ll loan you mine. Which testicle are you leaving as security deposit?
The author was an old cavalryman who, in the introduction fesses up to having been born a damnyankee. He then proceeds to refer to things as “The War of the Rebellion”. And it sold like hotcakes in Texas. Obviously a talented writer. And somehow as a young boy I got an autographed copy.
Er, tommorow a workday. I’ll check back on this thread in the morrow.
Jan 27, 2009 - 12:07 am 59. Unsk:Obama’s style with its mysterious, aloof. arrogant, oh so cool , I’m so hip veneer hiding his lying, simmering, coldhearted pathological rage has always made all the girls and girlie men swoon. They just go nuts for those popular, charming depraved bad boys. That haughty duplicitous charm worked wonders in the stylish political positions of little real responsibility he accumulated and got him where he is.
But now his hip style over substance con ain’t gonna cut it for long as President in a time of crisis. This time his cons have real consequences and in less than a week, people are already starting to notice. I thought he would have hid his pathological worts better; he’s so practiced at it.
I just hope he crashes and burns before he does any real lasting damage to the country.
Jan 27, 2009 - 12:21 am 60. buddy larsen:Yep. i got to get some shuteye too. listen, that book loan offer, that’s a mighty fine thing to do, esp given such rare provenance not to mention the sentimental value. as such, i would as soon be whipped with a knotted rope as take that book one centimeter out of your wherever you keep it. My luck, lightning would strike the durn thing within two steps of me taking custody and i’d be looking at a handful of cinder and wondering where on earth the Texas Rangers could never locate a fugitive. but thanks most kindly –and i’ll look for it for sure –i as usual (for what seems a century now) have a kid at the U (thank Goodness the last of the copies) and she can check the liberry. well adios for the nonce –enjoyed the repartee–
Jan 27, 2009 - 12:25 am 61. twobyfour:@ 59. Unsk
I just hope he crashes and burns before he does any real lasting damage to the country.
My hopes are more sweeping, I want him to take the whole ass party with him.
Damage, unless it is terminal, can be always reversed.
Jan 27, 2009 - 5:31 am 62. john from cinncinatti:yes there is a crowd of people under the Obama bus, enough to fill a bus depot,and it ain’t even rush hour yet. goes to show that when you hang out with cannibals you’re only good till the next meal, and being skinny doesn’t help because they might decide to eat light. its turning into a gang fight in an unlit room. whats funny is that they are all democrats.
Jan 27, 2009 - 5:54 am 63. Carolb:“Or–dumping his “spiritual mentor”, the 20-year minister who married him and baptized his daughters.”
Speaking of which, does anyone know if Rev Wright attended the inauguration and, if so, as a guest of “anyone” in particular? I know he was at Howard University in DC inaug weekend; other than that, I didn’t hear anything about him.
Jan 27, 2009 - 7:58 am 64. Jay:Buddy, I live in northwest Austin six miles from downtown. I hope that you are managing the cedar pollen attacks these last few days. I am not. I learned that I had a low grade fever yesterday when I went to my doctor to check my lungs and to get some medicine for my coughing. We have lived here since August 1982.
Jan 27, 2009 - 9:42 am 65. outa my league:For the rest of the BO readers the juniper trees in the Texas hill country are a peculiar strain of junipers. The male trees put out pollen in the winter when it gets cold and that pollen makes a lot of folks sick. I have had fever in my legs here. There have been several times when I nor my doctor could tell if I was sick from a virus or from cedar pollen.
Austin prohibits firing a weapon in the city except for self defense. The deer are protected and have lost their fear of humans. We have deer wandering around our house and neighborhood. We live in the city but west of MOPAC. I was talking with a friend who retired to NH on Spring and he told me that some moose had wandered into their neighborhood in the small town they live in. I looked out our living room window by chance and saw a buck siting on our front lawn.
We also have a cayote in our neighborhood.
Still the major risk here are the drivers in their urban trucks.
Also Buddy make sure that your daughter goes to class. Only 45% of our undergraduates at ut go to class in a regular basis. I usually get 35% and the are usually not the same from class to class.
Jay, Buddy, Dave,
I attend the U for a while in the 60’s. I proposed to my bride, while motoring with her in my red TR-4, top down, headed out of town toward the hills on Highway 2222.
I visited the Pacific War Museum in Fred’burg a few years ago, bound and determined to soak in every exhibit, display and document to the full. Of course I didn’t make it a hunnerd percent (it’s rilly hugh), but I gave it a good try.
The paperback I remember being feverishly passed around 40 years ago was “A Texan Looks at Lyndon”. Maybe I ought to read it someday…I had no interest in politics at the time.
I saw Ruby do his Dallas basement deed live on TV, while the rest of the family was sitting down to Sunday dinner.
I also saw Douglas Edwards break on the 6 o’clock news the Soviet Sputnik Spectacle. But what does that have to do with Texas?
- oml
Jan 27, 2009 - 9:10 pm 66. Dave:oml and jay: Well, we let the Union join Texas
back in 1845, so I guess we gotta look out after the lesser 49.
I hail from out in the Permian Basin, now hanging my hat in Las Vegas.
Is Hwy 2222 still there or has it been renamed? Ran from Austin towards what town?
Remember “Wonder Wart Hog” from that era?
A RED TR4!!!!!! You mean romance can flourish outside of a Ford F150? Will wonders never cease.
‘Till next thread or Gabriel Blows His Horn—
Jan 27, 2009 - 10:49 pm 67. Jay:whichever event transpires first.
Dave, We live just off 2222 and DryCreek. This area has really built up since we moved here in August 1982. Our house was built in 1967 and has 2400 square feet. The houses up the hill are over 3K sf.
Jan 28, 2009 - 3:14 amI have some inflamation in my right ankle so I gave up trying to sleep and logged on. We are supposed to have had freezing rain this evening. If there is ice on the roads I am stuck in the house until the ice melts.