Absolute Corruption

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” – Lord Acton

Solyndra may very well turn out to be a case where an administration worshiping at the altar of green jobs gave a questionable company money and loan guarantees. What’s becoming even likelier is that a Chicago politician gave a sweet deal to a campaign contributor under the cover of investment.

Right now, I know a few disturbing things. The technology that Solyndra was developing had already been made cheaper and better by competitors without government help and some employees knew it. Also, Solyndra had gotten other loans at favorable rates by not making the government the first creditor paid in the event of bankruptcy. That should not have even been allowed, especially since parts of the deal were red flagged by other agencies.

This is the logical result of giving a corrupt politician the power of a president. Not only does he have the presidency, but the Democratic Party has shown little interest in doing anything but give him a rubber stamp until the very recent present. Jackass may have been palling around with terrorists, but it’s not the bombs that were causing the damage. Many of these people either see politics as a way to bankrupt the government to feed a social agenda or as a funnel to enrich themselves.

Barack Obama’s Rezko ties, Michelle Obama’s hospital council position, the William Ayers connection and the Chicago political machine were all signs of money and political advancement possible by supporting the rich and well-connected. Jackass received hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions and an impressive portion of the stimulus went to paying back those donors.

This president isn’t a good man who does bad things. He’s apparently an amoral man whose flaws are amplified by the power of his office. The people who think he’s a corporatist or a socialist are both off the mark. He’s a crony with the biggest job in the world. His donors are socialist and corporatist and he’s trying to serve too masters at once.

Tell us something we didn’t already know

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Via Hot Air:

Book: Women in Obama White House felt excluded and ignored

A new book claims that the Obama White House is a boys’ club marred by rampant infighting that has hindered the administration’s economic policy and left top female advisers feeling excluded from key conversations.

[...]

In an excerpt obtained by The Post, a female senior aide to President Obama called the White House a hostile environment for women.

“This place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” former White House communications director Anita Dunn is quoted as saying. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

[...]

“I felt like a piece of meat,” Christina Romer, former head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said of one meeting in which Suskind writes she was “boxed out” by Summers.

Dunn told Suskind that the problems began during the 2008 campaign. At one point she was viewing a television ad with other campaign officials and was shocked to see no women in the spot.

“There isn’t a single woman in this ad,” Dunn said. “I was dumbfounded. It wasn’t like they were being deliberately sexist. It’s just there was no one offering a female perspective.”

[...]

“The president has a real woman problem,” an unnamed high-ranking female official told Suskind. “ The idea of the boys’ club being just Larry and Rahm isn’t really fair. He [Obama] was just as responsible himself.”

[...]

According to the book, female staffers, like Dunn and Romer, felt sidelined. In November 2009, female aides complained to the president about being left out of meetings, or ignored.

[...]

Obama, according to the book published by Harper Collins, failed to call on Romer after asking her male colleagues for their opinions. The snub prompted Romer to pass a note to Summers where she threatened to walk out of the dinner, according to the book.

The Obama White House has long been dogged by similar claims of exclusivity — his golf outings have been typically all-male affairs, though Melody Barnes, who heads the Domestic Policy Council was invited on at least one round of golf in October 2009 after much grumbling about Obama’s choice of golf buddies.

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Wow, what a shock! Who could have ever seen that coming?

But more importantly, did you hear Sarah Palin had sex with a black guy 20 years ago?

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Koolaid is a helluva drug

This is your brain on Koolaid

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Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog:

LARGE PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO THINK THEY WOULD HAVE PREFERRED A HILLARY PRESIDENCY PROBABLY WOULD HAVE HATED A HILLARY PRESIDENCY

[...]

Republicans and teabaggers think she would have done a better job. But if she’d actually become president and done a better job — that is, if she’d managed the economic crisis better — it would have been by doing things they absolutely despise, like stimulating the economy more effectively, fighting for more mortgage relief (hear Rick Santelli howl!), and reining in Wall Streeters. Which means they’d hate her now. (Of course, it’s really hard to imagine Republicans and Blue Dogs allowing her to do much in this direction.)

Or, needless to say, the wife of the master triangulator might have deferred to the resurgent right, wholly or partly. Which means we’d have about the level of neo-Hooverism we have now, or (and I’m not ruling this out) a lot more. Which, popularity-wise, would have made her either just like Barack Obama or just like Scott Walker.

So she’s popular only because it’s a fantasy. The reality would have been very different.

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Denial isn’t a river in Egypt.

It’s hard enough for Obots to admit they were wrong about Obama, but it’s even harder for them to admit they were wrong about Hillary too.

They like to claim “No one could have foreseen” but they are WRONG. We did. We told them so.

Just out of curiosity I thought I find out what Steve M had to say back in the day:

2/29/08:

Hillary Clinton suggesting that Al-Qaeda was more likely to attack if Obama is president? Bill Clinton describing Obama’s assertion that he’s consistently opposed the Iraq War as a “fairytale” and comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson? Surrogates attacking Obama’s youthful drug use? Campaign staffers circulating madrassa e-mails? A speaker at a Clinton campaign appearance calling Obama supporters “latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies”?

You can say the Clinton campaign got nasty or you can say that politics ain’t beanbag and Obama can’t complain if the going got rough. But Nagourney is actually arguing that the going didn’t get rough — that Obama has been treated with kid gloves. That’s absurd.

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I hope they sue his ass

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Via Legal Insurrection:

Protester Who Attacked WI Lawmaker Unrepentant: “He Deserved to Be Assaulted Like That”

Miles Kristan, the Madison protester ticketed for disorderly conduct after he allegedly poured beer on the heads of Republican lawmakers, refused to say during an interview with NBC’s Milwaukee affiliate whether he is, in fact, the person who did the deed.

“Are you the one responsible for the beer attack?” a reporter asked Kristan.

“Not answering those questions,” he replied.

But in a video posted on the YouTube account “TheBlueCheddar,” Kristan brags about pouring a beer on the heads of three Republican assemblymen. “I went to the Best Western last night and bought myself a Miller High Life, sat next to Represenatiave John Nygren, Robin Vos, Scott Suder. And had a friend come in who was filiming. And the bartender told him to stop filiming, and I see the security guy coming to kick me out. So I got up and went with the beer and–[Kristan mimics pouring beer]–all three Republicans”

“I would never use physical force, but he deserved to be assaulted like that,” Kristan said.

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A guy threw a beer on me once because I was ejecting his buddy from a dance. His buddy went home. He went to jail.

If one of the lawmakers Kristan assaulted had punched him in the nose, he would be calling them thugs.

Hey Kristan, try throwing beer on some bikers or cops. I double dog dare you.

You can see his video confession here.

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Cannon fire

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The one-and-only Joseph Cannon (and Bella the Hellhound):

The progressive blogosphere was, in short, being run by latecomers to the left, by brie-and-chablis poseurs who decided that they would represent the working class. Their shock troops were affluent, arrogant college kids whose conception of all pre-Dubya history amounted to mere rumor, yet who had the gall to tell me what to do. Perhaps not surprisingly, these fetuses spent much of 2008 repeating many of the more outrageous right-wing fabrications about the Evil Clinton Conspiracy – or, to use the preferred Kossack terminology, the Bush-Clinton Crime Family. All of the reactionary right’s favorite boogeymen – Vince Foster’s “murder,” Whitewater, the Clinton body count, Bill the cocaine king – sprang back to life. These de-staked vampires invaded the left side of the graveyard, draining the blood out of every blog that didn’t adopt the garlic necklace of strict comment moderation.

Moulitsas and company knew full well that they were printing accusations every bit as nonsensical as the tea party absurdities which they would later deplore. The Obots concocted lies, defended lies, luxuriated in lies, traded brightly-wrapped packages of lies as if they were Christmas presents. Meanwhile, the defenders of Hillary Clinton were granted no mouth. In 1888, Pope Leo XIII proclaimed that error had no rights; 120 years later, Pope Moulitsas proclaimed that truth had no rights.

Lifelong Democrats who did not favor Obama were ordered to leave the party. “We can win without them” became something of a mantra on Daily Kos and Democratic Underground. The party’s new leadership convinced the young and the naïve that anyone who did not bear witness to the salvific radiance of Barack Obama must be the spiritual descendant of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Though my blog received little attention, the Obots felt compelled to assail me with accusations of racism – not just every day, but every hour of every day. Never mind the fact that I had voted for a black mayor in my first election, back in the 1970s. Never mind that I had cast a vote for a black presidential candidate (Jesse Jackson) in 1988, when most of the political geniuses who sought to educate me still wore diapers. Never mind the fact that I would have been, still would be, overjoyed to vote for Carol Moseley Braun. None of that mattered. No other black person in all of human history mattered: Only, only Obama – He, glorious He.

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There is a thin line between genius and madness. Joseph walks the line, looking for interesting articles and debunking TFH conspiracies.

Seriously – I’ve never seen anyone in my life so immune to peer pressure.

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So much for that strategery

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Via Hot Air:

White House works to quell Dem dissent

Senior administration officials met with Senate Democrats for an hour and a half on Thursday to answer their complaints about President Obama’s jobs bill.

Democratic lawmakers voiced objections to several of the president’s proposals to pay for the $447 billion stimulus package, including an elimination of tax breaks for the oil-and-gas industry.

David Plouffe, a senior adviser to the president, acknowledged after a marathon meeting in the Senate’s Mansfield Room that not all Democrats are sold on the plan.

Plouffe said officials hope to “convince the American people this is the right way to go to create jobs [and] convince as many Democrats here as we can.”

[...]

Obama’s plans to pay for the jobs bill, which he unveiled this week, met a cool reception from some Senate Democrats.

[...]

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday morning that Obama should abandon his jobs plan, given bipartisan opposition.

“The White House probably expected stronger support from Democrats than it’s gotten so far,” McConnell said. “After all, this bill’s top selling point, according to the president, was both parties should like it. Yet, so far, the only thing both parties in Congress seem to agree on is that there’s got to be a better way.

“It seemed like the only Democrats who were even willing to talk about it here on Capitol Hill were tearing it apart,” he said.

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The real plan was to propose a bunch of stuff that sounded good but that Republicans would never vote for. That way Obama could run for reelection blaming them for obstructing a recovery.

Looks like Democrats are realizing those aren’t coat-tails attached to Obama, they’re anchor chains.

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The Norma Desmond Presidency

I am the one you've been waiting for!

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If you think he’s gonna quit you better think again:

Obama: Election Odds Better in 2012 Than 2008

At a campaign fundraiser Thursday night in Washington, D.C., President Obama said he believes his chances of being reelected in 2012 are “much higher” than they were in 2008.

“Over the last couple of months there have been Democrats who voiced concerns and nervousness about, well, in this kind of economy, isn’t this just — aren’t these just huge headwinds in terms of your reelection?” Obama said.

“And I just have to remind people that, here’s one thing I know for certain: the odds of me being reelected are much higher than the odds of me being elected in the first place.”

Obama made the remarks before a gathering of 50 donors to his reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee who each paid $35,800 to attend.

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This is what happens when you start drinking your own Koolaid.

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And that’s when Timmy got thrown in the well, right?

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Book: Treasury Secretary ignored Obama directive

A new book offering an insider’s account of the White House’s response to the financial crisis says that U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ignored an order from President Barack Obama calling for reconstruction of major banks.

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Suskind, the incident is just one of several in which Obama struggled with a divided group of advisers, some of whom he didn’t initially consider for their high-profile roles.

Suskind interviewed more than 200 people, including Obama, Geithner and other top officials for “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and The Education of A President,” which will be released Sept. 20. The Associated Press purchased a copy on Thursday.

The book states Geithner and the Treasury Department ignored a March 2009 order to consider dissolving banking giant Citigroup while continuing stress tests on banks, which were burdened with toxic mortgage assets.

In the book, Obama does not deny Suskind’s account, but does not reveal what he told Geithner when he found out. “Agitated may be too strong a word,” Suskind quotes Obama as saying. Obama says later in the book that he was trying to be decisive but “the speed with which the bureaucracy could exercise my decision was slower than I wanted.”

Geithner says in the book that he did not recall that Obama was mad at him about the Citigroup decision and rejected allegations contained in White House documents that his department had been slow to enact the president’s plans.

“I don’t slow walk the president on anything,” Geithner told Suskind.

“The Citbank incident, and others like it, reflected a more pernicious and personal dilemma emerging from inside the administration: that the young president’s authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers,” Suskind writes.

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Every place I ever worked if you don’t follow orders you get fired.

Except the army – they’ll shoot you for that.

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Remember when his main appeal was that he wasn’t Hillary?

Bloomberg:

Clinton Popularity Prompts Buyer’s Remorse

The most popular national political figure in America today is one who was rejected by her own party three years ago: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans hold a favorable view of her and one-third are suffering a form of buyer’s remorse, saying the U.S. would be better off now if she had become president in 2008 instead of Barack Obama.

The finding in the latest Bloomberg National Poll shows a higher level of wishful thinking about a Hillary Clinton presidency than when a similar question was asked in July 2010. Then, a quarter of Americans held such a view.

“Looking back, I wonder if she would have been a stronger leader, knowing the games and the politics and all that goes on,” said Susan Dunlop, 50, a homemaker in New Port Richey, Florida. “I don’t think she would have bent as much.”

Clinton, 63, a former first lady and U.S. senator from New York, fought with Obama for the Democratic nomination until June 2008, in what was often a combative primary that included her questioning his presidential readiness.

While 34 percent say things would be better under a Clinton administration, almost half — 47 percent — say things would be about the same and 13 percent say worse.

“Some of her appeal is that she is not Barack Obama,” said J. Ann Selzer, president of Des Moines, Iowa-based Selzer & Co., which conducted the Sept. 9-12 poll.

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How much you want to bet those 13 percent are hardcore Obots?

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Dems slam President Obama for going ‘AWOL’ on mortgage crisis

Leading House Democrats are accusing the Obama administration of ignoring the lingering mortgage crisis and threatening tens-of-millions of Americans with foreclosure in the process.

The lawmakers – encouraged by Obama’s mention of mortgage-relief in his address to Congress last week – were quickly deflated just days later when their efforts to learn the details of the White House plan proved unsuccessful.

“The administration has been AWOL on this issue,” charged Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), “and the American people are suffering because of the mismanagement.”

“In my entire political career, I’ve never seen anything this irresponsible,” he added.

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Hey dumbass, remember back in May 2008 when you switched your endorsement from Hillary to Obama?

I do.

So fuck off, and take Obama with you.

(Cardoza is my Congressman)

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Like things were going so well before

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The wheels on the bus go round and round:

Bill Daley struggles to fix Barack Obama’s slump

Bill Daley is off to a very rocky start.

The 63-year-old scion of Chicago political royalty was brought in as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff to provide fresh blood, corporate-world experience and adult supervision to a young, free-wheeling White House staff. But critics inside and outside the West Wing are questioning whether he is the tough, competent manager needed to shake up the operation and propel Obama into the 2012 election year.

To some extent, Daley has been a victim of the increasingly difficult political circumstances Obama has had to confront this year. But he’s also been hampered, paradoxically, by his own inexperience, and particularly by the fact that he lacks the deep Capitol Hill connections of his predecessor, Rahm Emanuel.

As a banker and former secretary of commerce, Daley’s ability to soothe relations with Republicans was a major justification for bringing him from Chicago — much to the disgust of many Democrats who wanted Obama to take a more combative approach after the 2010 elections. But Daley’s failure to achieve any negotiating successes has only intensified the chorus of criticism from Democrats that Obama is too willing to compromise.

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Well *somebody* has to take the blame and it won’t be you-know-who.

Hillary Clinton spent eight years in the White House and then another eight years in the Senate. Sixteen years of insider experience. Not only that but she came with an unofficial advisor who knew how to get things done.

I’m not saying that Hillary could have fixed all our problems – in fact she probably couldn’t. But then again FDR didn’t make the Great Depression disappear overnight either.

Hillary exudes competence. With her in charge people could be confident that the nation was in good hands and that she was doing everything possible to fix the problems we’re facing. She would have crafted a better stimulus bill, pouring the money in at the bottom instead of the top. She wouldn’t have wasted so much time and political capital on health care reform that wasn’t reform.

Hillary wouldn’t be running around the country giving speeches and Potemkin townhalls. She wouldn’t be fiddling around at dinner parties while Rome burned. She would be wonking in the Oval Office, not hanging out with the rich and shameless.

If Hillary had been the nominee she would have offered Obama the VP job, making him the heir apparent. That wouldn’t have repaired his character flaws but at least he would have had eight years of training and experience before taking on the hardest job in the world.

Bill Clinton came to Washington DC with a lot more experience than Obama had, and he struggled at first in a time far less critical. But he worked long hours and he learned fast, improving his job performance as he went along. Obama has improved his golf game.

Bill and Hillary both wanted to be president so they could use the power of the office to make this country a better place. Obama wanted to be president so he could enjoy the perks of power.

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