Comments on: Better than Clearing Brush … Getting HELP from Kennedy?

By: klynn

klynn — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:01:22 +0000

And if I were Obama, I might take that opportunity to pivot. To adopt Kennedy’s bill, to ride the rising anger of the Democratic base and Kennedy’s legacy to pass real health care reform.

Nicely done EW. Thank you.

By: Leen

Leen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:49:41 +0000

oh yeah ew kicks some ass

“If I were Kennedy, I wouldn’t let Obama set foot in my house unless he promised to ditch the Rahm/Messina plan to follow the Baucus plan. If I were Kennedy, I’d use this opportunity to kick Obama’s ass for embracing that fraudulent kabuki after all the things Kennedy has done to help Obama.

And if I were Obama, I might take that opportunity to pivot. To adopt Kennedy’s bill, to ride the rising anger of the Democratic base and Kennedy’s legacy to pass real health care reform.”

On your bus which means the people’s bus

By: LabDancer

LabDancer — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:02:52 +0000

It appears just about nothing could ‘off topic’ in a thread like this, what with foo’ball spreads & blatant fauxconcern trolls. So is this a good time to suggest fearless leader could use an esprit de corps motto that rolls off the tongue as well as the phrase the national debt management office adopted from the old wooden-toothed wordsmith hisownself, Geo. Washington [’93–that is, 1793]:

“No pecuniary consideration is more urgent than the regular redemption and discharge of the public debt.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08.....=1&hp

Get Gonsalo Rubalcaba to set those words to a snappy melody & maybe we can spare the membership of the One-Hit Pop Crooners’ Union some embarrassment & at the same time finally kiss off GR’s forebear’s effort [in Jose, Can You See?].

By: JimWhite

JimWhite — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:28:16 +0000

That article didn’t break nearly as much new ground as their preview suggested. Besides those tail numbers, I don’t really see anything that wasn’t in the preview or previously known…

By: MadDog

MadDog — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:28:03 +0000

OT - As we all know too well here, the mostly supine “journalists” in our TradMed still don’t quite “get it”. From the mostly vacuous David Johnston at the NYT:

…All civilian employees of the government, including those at the C.I.A., were required to comply with guidelines for interrogations detailed in a series of legal opinions written by the Justice Department. Those opinions, since abandoned by the Obama administration, were the central focus of the Justice Department’s internal inquiry…

It’s apparent from that paragraph, Davy is inherently unable to connect any dots. Even those right in front of his eyes.

Davy fails to understand that all those “civilian employees of the government” that he writes about who were “were required to comply with guidelines for interrogations” never even saw those highly classified and close-held “legal opinions written by the Justice Department”, but good old Davy insists it was their duty to unknowingly obey.

I could understand it if Davy wrote that “good sense” or even a normal moral compass would demand that “civilian employees of the government” not torture, but Davy, in his readily apparent ignorance, states as fact that they should obey what they’ve never seen.

A remarkable feat of journalism, and his editors deserve their due as well. The Old Gray Lady is still fookin’ clueless and damn proud of it!

By: prostratedragon

prostratedragon — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:42:07 +0000

Something from the above on the rendition flights [my emphases]:

According to the informant, some of the flights were provided by two other companies Prince owned, Presidential Airways and Aviation Worldwide, which were given special clearance in 2003 by the US Defense Department to conduct such flights. Source B even knew the tail numbers of the aircraft that were allegedly involved: N962BW, N964BW and N968BW.

The flights also involved Satelles Solutions, another Prince subsidiary, which operates a training and recruitment camp in the Philippines designed to accommodate about 1,000 soldiers.

By: prostratedragon

prostratedragon — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:29:10 +0000

Just out: Der Spiegel Blackwater article.

By: researcher

researcher — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:27:39 +0000

america is in for another 4 years of carter type administration

the jr senator does not have the courage to be leader and the senate still treats him as a jr senator

he has both against him

to top that off the demos have not been known for courage for a very long time

time for demos to change voter reg to independents.

as a life long demo it felt so good years ago to switch to independent

demos lack courage ok the better term for them is spineless.

obama is living up to the spineless part

the repubs may be war mongers and lack anything that looks like compassion but they got guts.

ok I know they also lie and they are owned by corp america but hey cant have everything in a politican.

at least in a capitalist society they know how to make money from the corps give them that

and look how many americans follow them down that road to national destruction.

the decline has begun actually it began during the reagan years with the trickle down that trickled up.

By: Patri

Patri — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 05:01:44 +0000

I have lost all faith in Obama. He is the biggest political disappointment in all my 66 years on this planet. I strongly doubt he will visit with Kennedy. Obama would betray ANYONE for his own political ambitions. Witness:
THE ECONOMY: He is throwing billions at the banks in his own version of corporate welfare. Geithner and Summers are his front men–Obama is the consummate capitalist.
BUSH’S WARS, TORTURE, HOMELAND SPYING, and THE EVER POPULAR CIA. Obama’s mantra here is “we need to look forward not back.” Yes, move forward with more wars, continue rendition a la Clinton/Bush,turn you head when torture rears its ugly head, don’t investigate any spying that has occurred or will occur, and do not investigate the CIA and its crimes.
HEALTH CARE REFORM. Remove single payer immediately, be two-faced and misleading about a public option a la Rahm/Messina, make back room deals with PhRMA and insurance companies, play footsies with Grassley, Baucus and the gang of six.
I could go on, but this is enough to convince ME that my support for Obama has turned to HOPE(less) and CHANGE(less). He is a shameful capitalist who doesn’t give a fig about the people who put him in office. His BFFs are the corporate, PhRMA, and Insurance moguls who don’t pittances like $3,000. Who needs those cheap donors. Obama was the millions he gets from the Wall Street power brokers.
No, Obama will not visit with Kennedy. Kennedy is useless to him now. Obama will find other impressive figures to pal around with. When he accepted Kennedy’s support, Obama had no idea Kennedy will become ill. But now that Kennedy cannot give Obama all the things he wants, Teddy doesn’t count anymore. Despicable, disgraceful, but no longer surprising. That’s our Obama, Obama, Obama–remember that? For me, in 2012, it will be Nobama!!!!!

By: fatster

fatster — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:54:20 +0000

And here’s this before I hit that pillow.

New Unit to Question Key Terror Suspects
Move Shifts Interrogation Oversight From the CIA to the White House
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 24, 2009

“President Obama has approved the creation of an elite team of interrogators to question key terrorism suspects, part of a broader effort to revamp U.S. policy on detention and interrogation, senior administration officials said Sunday.”

More.