What goes around comes around

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I disapprove of this kind of stuff:

Loud and rowdy supporters of Mitt Romney in Boston drowned out an attempt by President Obama campaign’s top strategist to attack the former Republican governor on his home turf.

In a morning news conference on the steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse,David Axelrod, one of Mr. Obama’s senior strategists, tried mostly in vain on Thursday to level Mr. Obama’s latest broadside on Mr. Romney’s record as governor of the state.

Instead, he was booed, heckled and chanted down by supporters of Mr. Romney who refused to let up even for a moment as Mr. Axelrod and Democratic state lawmakers sought to make their case.

With cameras rolling, the Republican hecklers yelled “We Want Mitt!” and “Broken Record!” and held signs that said “Go Back to Chicago!” Mr. Axelrod appeared bemused but rattled by them, at one point saying: “You can shout down speakers my friends, but it’s hard to Etch A Sketch away the truth.”

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Really, I do. But I disapprove of unilateral disarmament too.

Although they haven’t been the only ones doing it, this kind of disruptive behavior has been a trademark of the left since at least the Sixties. I have never liked the tactic – I believe in the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.“

But then again I never liked that “turn the other cheek” stuff. If someone smites me on one cheek, I say kick ‘em in the balls and step on their neck. (I am a liberal, not a pacifist.)

I believe that if you want civility you have to do more than just preach it, you have to practice it too.

But what do I know, I’m just a foul-mouthed petulant clown.

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UPDATE:

Mitt Romney:

“Most of the events I go to, or many of the events I go to, there are large groups of, if you will, Obama supporters there heckling me,” Romney said. “And at some point you say, ‘You know what, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.’ If they’re going to be heckling us, why we’re not going to sit back and play by very different rules. If the president is going to have his people coming to my rallies, and heckling, why, we’ll show them that, you know, we conservatives have the same kind of capacity he does.”

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Against my better judgment, I’m starting to like this guy.

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When the snake oil runs dry

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Axelrod adrift

If David Axelrod seems befuddled these days, even inadvertently making the case for “change” from the status quo (i.e., the Obama administration), it might be because all he has ever done is run races on “hope and change.” Over and over and over again.

It’s appropriate that he’s in Massachusetts today (harping on Mitt Romney’s record as governor). Axelrod ran now-Gov. Patrick Deval’s race on — you got it — “hope and change.” Deval in October 2006 proclaimed: “This election is a race between hope and fear, between division and community, between responsibility and blame, between whether we have the courage to change, to stay young forever, or whether we stay with the comfort of the status quo.” Familiar?

[...]

In short, Axelrod’s a one-trick pony. The candidates may vary but the message never does. That goes a long way toward explaining why the Obama team is off-kilter. Aside from the lack of a defensible record, all President Obama’s chief political hack knows is attack-hope-attack-attack-hope-change. Repeat. That accounts for why Obama seems so unpresidential and often speaks as if he hasn’t been president for the past few years.

You see, all the Axelrod clientele have his “change” script, but in this case, with an incumbent president, the message is comically off base. Maybe that is why Axelrod, in the midst of a thrashing from Fox News’s Chris Wallace, resorted to pleading with voters to choose “between economy that produces a growing middle class and gives people a chance to get ahead and their kids a chance to get ahead and an economy that continues down the road we are on, and everybody else is running faster and faster just to keep pace.” (You could almost see the thought bubble: “Damn, we’re the incumbent this time!”)

It was a perfect matching in 2008 — a robotic change message delivered by a new face whose election in and of itself would be historic. But it is disastrous in 2012, when “change” is the other guy’s message, and Axelrod’s candidate is now overexposed, angry and short on substance.

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David Axelrod is like a car-chasing dog that finally catches one and doesn’t know what to do with it. In that regard he is just like Barack Obama – they have both spent their lives campaigning for office but never governing.

As a state senator Obama occupied a “safe” seat belonging to the Democratic party. His constituents were African-Americans from Chicago’s South Side and upscale white latte-liberals from Hyde Park around the University of Chicago. As you might guess it was a very liberal district politically.

Once he knocked Alice Palmer off the ballot Obama never saw any significant challenger in any primary or general election. Nonetheless he repeatedly voted “present” on controversial issues rather than take stands. For most of his time in the Illinois Senate he did nothing noteworthy. His few accomplishments came in his final term when he was preparing to run for the US Senate. Those accomplishments had actually been championed by other senators but at the last minute Obama was allowed by Senate President Emil Jones to put his name on them as sponsor and claim credit.

When he ran for the U.S. Senate both of his main competitors mysteriously had dirty laundry surface during the campaign. Just like that, Obama was a U.S. Senator.

One of the first things that Obama did as a Senator was to buy a pricey new home. Luckily for him, his buddy Tony Rezko bought the adjacent lot so that Obama could afford to swing the deal. He was also fortunate that Michelle had her salary as Executive Vice President in Charge of Patient Dumping tripled by the University of Chicago Medical Center right after he was elected.

Obama also cut a deal to write his second memoir and started his own PAC to raise money, even though he wouldn’t be running for reelection until 2010. He then set out to ingratiate himself with every lobbyist on “K” Street.

After only two years in Washington and with no legislative accomplishments to his name Obama announced he was running for POTUS. With David Axelrod as his court magician and a ton of special interest money he ran a vague campaign based on Hopenchange®.

Four years ago I said that the worst thing that could happen to Obama would be for him to win the election. As usual, I was right.

What you and me call “deception” people like Axelrod call “perception management”. Even before he teamed up with Axelrod Barack Obama was pretty good at perception management. He even admitted it in “The Audacity of Hope” when he said:

“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”

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The presidency may be a “bully pulpit” but it is also theater in the round. There is no place to hide and the spotlight is always on you. You can’t say different things to different people because everyone is listening all the time.

The Obama was see today is the same one that first entered politics. He’s not a “lightworker,” he’s a light worker. He and Michelle have always had expensive tastes, no principles and a sense of entitlement. But candidate Obama could hide all of that. President Obama can’t.

Even worse for Obama – he can’t vote “present” anymore. He can sign a bill or veto it. Either way, someone will be unhappy. He has to make choices and deal with the consequences. For the first time in his life he has a record.

The presidency is not an entry-level position. It’s like the Olympics – many people want to get there but only a few actually make it and only one wins the gold. The contestants spend years training and preparing for competitions that are measured in seconds.

Obama had no executive experience, and never demonstrated any skill as a legislator. The only thing he’s ever been any good at is self-promotion. He’s only been in three genuinely contested elections, and he lost the first one and had to be dragged across the finish line in the other two. This will be the first time he has been in a contested run for reelection.

One way or the other, this will be his last election campaign.

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It’s RBC Day

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Today is the day we mourn the death of democracy in the Democratic party. On this day in 2008 the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee effectively stole the nomination from Hillary Clinton and gave it to Barack Obama.

In August 2006, the Democratic National Committee adopted a rule that only Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina would be allowed to hold primaries or caucuses before Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008). Subsequently, the duly elected representatives of the people of Michigan and Florida set their primary elections in January. So then the DNC ruled that Florida’s 185 pledged delegates and 26 superdelegates as well as Michigan’s 128 pledged delegates and 29 superdelegates would not count in the nominating contest.

At Obama’s suggestion, he and Edwards, Biden and Richardson removed their names from the Michigan ballot, then urged their supporters to vote “uncommitted.” They did this to curry favor with the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton kept her name as did Chris Dodd. All the candidates remained on the Florida ballot but agreed not to campaign in either state.

Both states held their official primaries in January 2008. Hillary won handily in both contests, getting 54.61% of the votes in Michigan and 49.77% in Florida. Barack Obama got 32.93% in Florida and no votes in Michigan. “Uncommitted” received 39.61% of the Michigan votes.

Hillary proposed that the election results stand and that both states’ delegations be seated accordingly at the DNC convention. The Obama campaign opposed that proposal because it would have cut his narrow lead in pledged delegates by more than 50%. Clinton supporters argued for re-votes in both states, but Obama supporters quietly blocked the idea.

Due to wins in traditionally red states and small caucus states as well as complex rules for the proportional awarding of delegates (where winning over 50% of the vote could result in substantially less than 50% of the delegates) Obama had taken the lead in pledged delegates. Hillary had won all the big states (except Illinois) and all of the “purple” or “swing” states that were critical to winning in November.

Despite claims by the media and the Obama campaign (but I repeat myself) that he was the inevitable winner, Hillary continued to win big victories in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania as well as several smaller states. By the end of May Obama’s lead in pledged delegates was less than the number of pledged delegates at stake in Florida and Michigan.

The Rules and Bylaws committee met on May 31, 2008 at the Marriott in Washington DC. According to the rules the RBC committee meeting was supposed to be open to the public. At a backroom meeting during the lunch break the committee made the following decision:

Half votes would be restored to the delegates from both states. Florida’s delegates would be awarded according to the election results. Obama would be awarded all of the uncommitted delegates in Michigan plus four of Hillary’s delegates.

Why is this important?

When the primaries ended a few days later on June 3rd, Obama had an official lead of 62 pledged delegates and Hillary was ahead in actual votes. If the delegates had been awarded at full voting strength according to the official results, it would have been a net gain for Hillary of over 100 pledged delegates.

Although neither candidate would have had enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination, but for the RBC decision Hillary would have finished in the lead for total votes AND pledged delegates!

Either way it was ultimately the superdelegates – members of the Democratic party establishment – that selected Barack Obama as the nominee. They did this in defiance of democratic principles and the will of the voters.

That is something we will never forgive, and never forget.

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“My momma taught me to play by the rules and respect those rules. My mother taught me, and I’m sure your mother taught you, that when you decide to change the rules, middle of the game, end of the game, that is referred to as cheating.”

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Schadenfreude

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

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Bloviating MSNBC gasbag Ed Schultz:

But it’s pretty clear to me what’s happening here. They are trying to set it up that if Mitt Romney gets elected, if Mitt Romney gets elected, there will never be a Democratic president again in the history of the United States. The future is just, this is the way it’s going to be. There’ll never be a Democratic president in our lifetime again. And when I say in our lifetime, I’m talking about long, long, long, long, long time.

This is why Wisconsin’s so important. The people of the country need to know that you can defeat it. And this in many respects is doing the country a favor, the way they’re operating, the way they’re lying, the way they’re backing up the worst candidate, the worst governor in the country, his record’s horrendous, and who he’s a puppet to.

So that’s why this is so important. They’re trying to make it so Barack Obama doesn’t get re-elected and no Democrat ever will be elected into the White House.

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Is it wrong for me to be enjoying this?

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Unlike FOX, CNN is fair and balanced

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John Sununu Spars With Soledad O’Brien Over Trump: ‘Why Is CNN So Fixated On This?’

Following a contentious opening segment on CNN’s Starting Point on Wednesday, former New Hampshire Governor and Romney surrogate John Sununu clashed with Soledad O’Brien over CNN’s Donald Trump coverage.

“Why the birther thing?” O’Brien questioned Sununu. “I don’t know,” Sununu shot back. “Why is CNN so fixated on this? Why don’t we talk about the jobs issue in this country?”

“Sure and we’ll get to that in a moment but let’s start with this,” O’Brien pressed.

“It’s CNN that wants to bring it up. I don’t want to bring it up. Mitt Romney made it clear that he believes that President Obama was born in the U.S. You had Donald Trump on last night. And now you are asking the question this morning. It’s CNN’s fixation,” Sununu responded sharply.

“You don’t think it’s a valid question of someone posing as a supporter/surrogate?” O’Brien countered. “He’s a high level big funder. He’s talking about millions of dollars he’s thinking of donating. You don’t think it’s a big deal that person talks about the fact that the President of the United States is not a citizen of the country?”

“I think it’s equivalent an issue as Bill Maher, who gave a million dollars to President Obama talking with such a foul mouth about women,” Sununu explained. “But you can’t pick your supporters in this country. The fact is that this country has a jobs problem and supporters of the President like CNN keep wanting to talk about other issues.”

O’Brien doggedly stuck to peppering Governor Sununu with questions relating to birtherism.

“Come on, let’s talk jobs,” Sununu said.

“Is that because you don’t want to talk about the fact that a major fund-raiser is a birther?” O’Brien asked.

“It’s not an issue,” Sununu argued. “There is nobody in the Romney campaign that believes that the president was not born in the United States.”

“So then how come someone doesn’t say, Donald Trump is wrong?” O’Brien pressed.

“Donald Trump is wrong,” Sununu acknowledged. “The President was born in the United States.”

“That may be the first time,” O’Brien grinned.

“No it isn’t, ma’am,” Sununu snapped. “It’s just because you don’t read enough.”

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The best part was when she brought up John McCain. Four years ago the media claimed that McCain ran a negative, racist campaign. Now he’s the gold standard for niceness.

My response would be “McCain lost.”

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Media Matters = WATB

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Media Matters:

Fox & Friends Drops The Veil, Produces Four-Minute Anti-Obama Attack Ad

While Fox & Friends has long been a home for some of the most vicious, misleading, petty, and dishonest attacks on President Obama, they crossed a new ethical line today by producing and airing what is essentially a four-minute anti-Obama attack ad.

The video – opening with the text “Fox & Friends Presents” — played lines from Obama’s past speeches mixed with commentary from unidentified speakers and graphics purporting to show that Obama has broken the promises he’s made since his 2008 campaign. The graphics were accompanied by loud, epic, scary music played over grainy video footage.

[...]

But while the video could be mistaken for a campaign ad on behalf of GOP candidate Mitt Romney, it wasn’t. It was a segment produced by a show on a network that bills itself as “fair and balanced.” The network has continued to push the limits of its outright promotion of conservative politicians and policies, and Fox & Friends has been at the forefront. The show regularly acts as the communications arm of the GOP, attacking Democrats, promoting Republicans, and broadcasting GOP talking points, sometimes word for word. Co-host Gretchen Carlson has repeatedly advised GOP candidates how to promote their ideas in order to defeat their Democrat opponents.

Fox devoted 4,644 minutes of free airtime over eight months to the GOP presidential candidates during the Republican primary, a situation that led New York Times television critic Alessandra Stanley to note: “All the networks, broadcast and cable, are closely covering the campaign, but Fox News practically owns and operates it.” Former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller recently wrote that “the Fox News Primary probably did more to nominate Mitt Romney than New Hampshire or Michigan.” Fox’s regular violations of journalistic ethics led Keller to conclude thatFox is “[Rupert] Murdoch’s most toxic legacy.”

On the morning after Mitt Romney clinched enough delegates to officially claim the Republican presidential nomination, Fox has launched its first anti-Obama attack ad of the presidential campaign.

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Well boo-fucking-hoo!

According to its website:

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.

Do you see anywhere in this article where Media Matters alleges any specific misinformation in that video?

Yeah, yeah, we all know that FOX News isn’t really fair and balanced. They are unabashedly conservative in their viewpoint. But then Media Matters is progressive in theirs. Only an idiot would get all their information from a single source.

When Media Matters started it behaved as if there was such a thing as objective truth. At least it seemed that way to me at the time. Now it’s just a propaganda outlet for the Democratic party. Many of it’s articles have nothing to do with the media, they just dish dirt on the GOP.

It’s amazing how different things look when you drop the partisan blinders.

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Bye Bye Douchebag!

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LA Times:

Julian Assange loses appeal against extradition

Julian Assange founder of Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing website, lost his appeal in the highest British Court against extradition to Sweden on rape and sexual molestation charges.

Assange, did not attend the 10-minutes judgment passed down by British Supreme Court where dozens of supporters waving placards in support for his cause stood outside the entrance.

Judge Nicholas Phillips presiding over the seven-member panel told the court the judgment “was not an easy decision to make.”

Assange’s defense argument was that the Swedish prosecutor who issued the European Arrest Warrant demanding his extradition was not a valid judicial authority.

Phillips told the court that the panel eventually gave a majority vote of five to two ruling that “the Swedish public prosecutor was a judicial authority and the request for Mr. Assange’s extradition has been lawfully made and his appeal against extradition is accordingly dismissed.”

Dinah Rose, Assange’s defense attorney, was given two weeks to consider the judgment and confer with her client and make a further application and possibly reopen the case on a legal point.

The 40-year-old Australian-born Assange is at present on house arrest in eastern England in the mansion of a supporter. He denies the charges and his fight against extradition is based on the grounds that once in Sweden he could be extradited to the U.S. to face charges for leaking State Department documents on the Internet.

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It’s been nearly a year and a half since this started. Assange isn’t quite the folk hero he was when it started. Maybe, finally, he’ll get his day in a Swedish court.

Scumbag.

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Jabberwocky

Jim Treacher:

Jay Carney explains the difference between Solyndra and Bain Capital, so try to keep up

Here he is, presumably having just given the boilerplate non-answer on Solyndra — it’s really no big deal because hey, come on, there are winners and there are losers and that’s just the way it goes — being asked to explain the difference between that and Bain Capital.

[...]

Reporter: Last thing. If that’s the argument, how is that different from Romney’s argument on Bain Capital, which is that many succeeded and a few failed?

Carney: Look, there, there, there is the… the difference in that… your overall view of what your responsibilities are as president, and what your view of the economic future is. And, and the president believes, as he’s made clear, that a president’s responsibility is not just to, uh… those who win, but those who, for an example, in a company where there have been layoffs or a company that has gone bankrupt, that, you know, we have to make sure that those folks have the means to find other employment, that they have the ability to train for other kinds of work, and that’s part of the overall responsibility the president has.

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I’m gonna miss Jay Carney. The poor schmuck is just too honest. He can’t lie convincingly. He reminds me of an attorney I know who was stuck with a real loser of a case. While we were in chambers he told the judge he wanted to file a motion to change the facts.

Sure, we all know being president isn’t like being the CEO of a company. It’s not like being a rookie senator either. Being president isn’t like anything else. How many jobs come with nuclear launch codes?

All you need to know about this election is this: Obama is the incumbent and all he wants to talk about is Mitt Romney.

Four years ago Obama didn’t have a record to run on. Now he’s got one and he’s running away from it.

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In re: Kimberlin v. Walker

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Via SooperMexican, and eyewitness report:

This morning, I attended the hearing over a protective order sought by Brett Kimberlin against Aaron Walker in Rockville, MD. There were only a few people there.
Walker, the defendant, if you will–and I apologize for getting any terminology wrong, I don’t have a lot of experience with peace orders, as my thorough pre-adoption criminal background check shows–had to represent himself. Kimberlin had an attorney present, who issued a few objections, nearly inaudible to me.
The Judge, and I haven’t confirmed this, but I believe he was former Montgomery County Chief Justice James Vaughan–a guy who retired in ’04, and still takes the odd shift when stuff gets busy or there are vacations. In an earlier matter, Judge Vaughan mentioned he lived in the Caribbean, so pretty sure that’s the guy.

It went bad for Walker pretty quickly. If you’ve followed the matter, and I know not a lot of people have, Walker, who is an attorney, acted in an advisory capacity for another blogger who had dealings with Kimberlin. Kimberlin later accused Walker of assault; those charges were null-processed; Walker wrote about things like you’ll read on Kimberlin’s wikipedia page, as well as his own dealings with Kimberlin.

Judge Vaughan had read up on the matter, knew Kimberlin’s history of felony convictions, but clearly was technically ignorant of even basic facts about what Twitter is, in one instance point saying “He Googled you 500,000 times” through the Tubes or whatever. The Judge had identified himself, earlier, as being “of the Royal Typewriter Generation,” and at another point, when confronted with the voluminous material from both sides, asked “don’t people have jobs, who reads this stuff?”

That said, Judge Vaughan did know a lot about the kind of respect a Judge is owed. He also, again, knew all about Kimberlin, saying “even a prostitute is entitled to protection.”

And Walker pissed him off. So did Kimberlin, but Walker identified himself as a Yale-trained lawyer, albeit one who was representing himself. Kimberlin made any number of allegations–essentially, everything that was said about his side–issuing death threats, harming business interests, summoning SWAT teams to the home–was said by Kimberlin to have been done by Walker’s side.

The pair went back and forth, back and forth, with Walker getting increasingly flustered, and the Judge finally asking, “what did they tell you in Yale Law School about interrupting a judge?” And later advising Walker to sit down, grip a pencil, and whenever he was tempted to speak over the Judge (or Kimberlin, but mostly over the Judge), to instead grip the pencil.

At one point, when Walker again interrupted Kimberlin, an attorney who was “advising” Walker–i.e.,. sitting in the coutroom, but not actually at Walker’s table, signaled to the plaintiff that he ought to “zip it.” This process amused Kimberlin, obviously.

For the Judge’s faults, he really did try to let Walker make his case. When Walker was able to question Kimberlin–not about everything, but merely the facts that had occurred in the last 30 days (which is all that’s relevant in a Peace Order Hearing), it became clear that Kimberlin would unravel under any kind of competent examination. The guy’s story changed 3 times in 5 minutes. First it was that Walker had issued 14k tweets against him–which the Judge assumed were to Kimberlin’s account, and by Walker. Then it was 54 pages of 10 tweets each actually by Walker. Then it was 15k tweets about Muslims or something.

Walker was also able to introduce for the record–again, Peace Order, it’s only about the last 30 days–Kimberlin’s convictions for bombings from I guess 1980, his revocation of parole in 1998, and even something where Kimberlin was convicted of perjury in 1973… ish. Then, when it came to actual convictions, there was one moment when Kimberlin came up with a defense about the judge being convicted of bribery, so he didn’t feel that those particular verdicts should be discussed, but that turned out to be an unrelated civil matter, and Judge Vaughan then insisted that the convictions remained in the record.

But, Walker didn’t press the credibility of Kimberlin enough. He was too easily sidetracked by the latter’s machinations, and every time Walker veered off, the Judge got madder.

Last portion of the trial, once the Judge decided he’d heard enough, came when Walker was asked, repeatedly, when does this all end? Judge cited his own upbringing in Brooklyn, where when guys had disagreements like these two did, somebody’d get picked up in a truck and they’d go have it out near the East River or words to that effect.

Walker at this point stated what he wanted was for Kimberlin to be tried by the State’s Attorney for perjury related to that earlier assault thing. Judge kept pressing Walker on this, stating that it’s entirely the Government’s business to decide who to punish (Libertarians might disagree), asking if the uproar could end, bringing up the concept of “Too Much Justice,” asking if Walker was aware of this–the latter indicated he was. Then the Judge and Walker swapped precedents for a little while, with the Judge… unimpressed.

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Just guessing, but I’m betting that Walker is not a trial attorney. Courtroom Rule #1 is The Judge is God. You do not interrupt or argue with a judge. They are petty tyrants ruling their courtrooms with an iron fist.

Another rule for lawyers is “When you are outside your specialty, you are not a lawyer.” Just because your uncle Bob is a personal injury attorney doesn’t mean he is qualified represent you in a divorce.

Lots of people make the mistake of thinking they don’t need a lawyer. They think that since they are innocent they can just go into court and tell the judge their side of the story and everything will be okay. Lawyers have a term for people like that: “inmates”.

That said, I can think of several explanations for what happened to Mr. Walker today:

1. He was arrested for contempt of court for interrupting the judge.

2. He was arrested on a preexisting warrant for allegedly assaulting Kimberlin.

3. He was arrested for contempt for violating the temporary restraining order.

If he was arrested on a warrant of for some criminal offense, I would expect him to have posted bail by now. On the other hand, contempt of court is not a bailable offense. He would still be allowed to make phone calls however.

I am awaiting more information.

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So what are all those paid elves up to?

Esquire:

Inside Obama HQ, a Manufactured Evolution of Our Politics Winds Its Way from Outside the Fort

The headquarters is on the third floor. To visit, guests have to surrender their driver’s licenses in exchange for a visitor’s tag at the front desk. The days of the storefront walk-in headquarters are as dead as the Whigs, and Steve was not even allowed to tell me how many local headquarters the campaign has around the country. Within the broad rooms is a very strange combination of a high-end frat house and a local Best Buy outlet. Over the field-organizing tables hang the state flags of the various regions of the country that the people beneath them are working. (The middle of the area has a very strong Big 10 feel.) Beneath the flags, young people — over 90 percent of whom are salaried to one extent or another — worked every possible mode of communication technology brought down from the mount by Messrs. Gates, Jobs, and Zuckerberg. LCD screens were hung every place somebody hadn’t hung a handmade sign cheering on the president, his wife, the country, or people who’d been aces at their jobs in one way or another the previous week. The room buzzed with a cacophony of beeps, bells, and amplified punditspeak. Actual human speech even was buried in there somewhere. It was like watching the Keebler elves working in a nuclear missile silo.

This is the way campaign are these days. This is the way politics are these days. The Obama campaign pioneered many of the new techniques in 2008, when they were able to bring a one-term senator to the presidency all the way to the White House at least in part by using the new technologies to create new kinds of communities — real and virtual — that they could activate when they most needed them. There is something insulated about it, but it is not the kind of insulation whereby something is sealed away from the world. Instead, it is more like the insulation that you find on electric wires, the kind of thing that makes sure the current stays strong and properly directed, but which also makes sure that the electricity does not erupt in ways that cannot be controlled.

That’s the most conspicuous element of the president’s re-election headquarters: the overwhelming impression of a place that serves two primary functions — to marshal power and to control it tightly. This is not a place that either engenders improvisation or anger or emotion, or seeks in anyway to turn them loose. That’s for the streets outside. If that energy can be channelled in ways the campaign can employ to what it perceives to be its policy goals — in other words, if it’s time for Joe Biden to go give another speech somewhere — so much the better.

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Lambert points out the lack of POC in that picture. Riverdaughter points out the lack of women. That place is also missing any wrinkles or grey hair, and I don’t think Botox and hair dye is the reason.

According to the story, Obama Headquarters is located on the third floor at One Prudential Plaza. But Obama For America (OFA) occupies the 36th floor of that same building. And that doesn’t count all the field offices.

So I have some questions. Exactly how many people work at Obama Headquarters? How many are men, women, POC, etc? How much do the all make? Are they all paid the same?

My biggest question is what do they all do?

This is not the DNC campaign headquarters. That is a whole separate operation. This place is all about the O. It was not set up for a 57 state primary campaign either.

One of the urban myths about Obama’s 2008 campaign was that it was a grassroots campaign. Just as the Esquire author describes it his campaign was and is tightly organized and very much top-down in orientation. So what are all those paid elves up to?

Hint: (A-s-t-r-o-t-u-r-f)

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Hypocrisy, thy name is Democrat

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Mitt Romney’s high-end fundraiser riles critics

With Democrats portraying Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch millionaire and “vulture capitalist” from his years at Bain Capital, the GOP presidential candidate may be handing opponents some ammunition when he holds a fundraiser Wednesday at a 65,000-square-foot estate that’s opulent, even for upscale Hillsborough.

[...]

Wade Randlett, a leading Obama fundraiser, calls Romney’s Hillsborough event a “Richie Rich”-style blowout. He said the choice of venue for Wednesday’s fundraiser – and endorsers who include Whitman and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina – underscore the Republican candidate’s biggest weaknesses as he hits California.

“What Romney’s business was, and what he’s promoting, is the Gordon Gekko capitalism of the 1980s,” Randlett said, referring to the fictional villain in the 1987 film “Wall Street.” “It’s ‘I make money. I’m here to dismember companies.’ “

Democrats are also raising eyebrows at a “ladies luncheon” that Ann Romney, the candidate’s wife, is hosting Wednesday at the Palo Alto home of Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers and his wife, Elaine.

I don’t recall any hue and cry from Democrats when just last week Obama held three fundraisers in 14 hours, including a $35,800 per person bash in Atherton and a $40,000 a head soiree in Palo Alto. Both of those are within spitting distance of Hillsborough.

In 2008 Obama raised about $750 million in campaign donations and this year his announced goal is $1 BILLION. That’s a lot of bread, and he ain’t gonna get it from college students and bake sales.

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It Feels Like Monday Open Thread

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It’s just a little after 6am out here in the West. Yesterday was a sloooooow news day so it’s gonna take a while for me to wake up and find something to post about.

Check back in a little while.

Klown

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Welcome Summer Open Thread

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Yeah, I know – Summer doesn’t officially start for a few more weeks. It’s not even June yet. But I always considered Memorial Day to be the beginning of Summer and Labor Day to be the end. Besides, it’s already been in the 90′s here in Big Smoggy.

I’m spending the day watching a Band of Brothers marathon and mowing the lawn during commercials. When I finish the lawn I’ll start switching back and forth between BofB and the Giants game. Later on I’m gonna BBQ some tri-tip and pork ribs at my mom’s.

Does anybody have any big plans this summer? I plan to stay sober, lose weight and get more exercise. That’s not what I want to do, but the doctor says I have to.

Whatever you do, have fun and stay safe!

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Happy Memorial Day!

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Memorial Day started out as a holiday to honor the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War. It has since been extended to honor all Americans who have died in our nation’s wars.

Today is not a day that glorifies war. Today is when we honor those who gave their lives in service of our country. Some died saving their comrades. Some died fighting. Some died in accidents or from illness. All of them are heroes.

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Last Year’s American Idol Winner

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Willie Brown says the thrill is gone:

The president’s trip to the Bay Area last week made it painfully clear that the Barack Obama re-election campaign has lost its mojo.

There was no life, no personality, no memorable line or moment and no real enthusiasm in the entire fundraising foray. In short, there was no buzz.

It was like a summer rerun of a show that wasn’t very interesting to begin with.

Worse yet, Obama sounded like he was playing catch-up to Mitt Romney. I can’t think of anything that should have him in that role, but he’s acting like the underdog.

Obama was more than a candidate last time out. He was a popular and cultural phenomenon. A rock star. But the trouble with rock stars is that they drop like a rock once fans conclude they are “over.”

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Sic transit gloria mundi.

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Sunday Morning Music Open Thread

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Election day is coming.

Hang in there.

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Remembering Anthony’s Wiener

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One year ago Weinergate erupted:

On May 27, 2011, using his public Twitter account, Weiner sent a link to a photo on yfrog of his erect penis concealed by boxer briefs to Gennette Cordova, a 21-year-old female college student from Seattle, Washington, who was “following” his posts on the social media website. Though the link was quickly removed from Weiner’s Twitter account, screen shots of Weiner’s original message and of the photo were captured by a user identified as “Dan Wolfe” on Twitter and subsequently sent to conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart who published them on his BigJournalism website the following day.

On June 1, Weiner gave a series of interviews in which he denied sending the photo and suggested that someone, perhaps a political opponent, had hacked into his accounts and published the photo. Weiner also said he could not say “with certitude” that the photo was not of him. He suggested that the image might be doctored, saying, “maybe it did start being a photo of mine and now looks something different or maybe it is from another account”. He did not ask the FBI or U.S. Capitol Police to investigate the incident but said he had retained a private security firm to look into this matter because he felt it was a prank, not a crime.

Liberal bloggers then accused Wolfe and Breitbart of planting the photo and message to defame Weiner; however, Wolfe and Breitbart were later vindicated in their claims by Weiner’s admission. Evidence later revealed that a group of self-described conservatives had been monitoring Weiner’s Twitter communications with women for at least three months. Two false identities of underage girls had been created by unknown parties to solicit communication with Weiner and the women he was contacting, one of whom Weiner followed until he was tipped off that it was a false account.

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I remember how Joe Cannon did a great job proving that Weiner was framed. Then Anthony ‘fessed up. Oops.

Anthony Weiner paid a stiff penalty for his behavior. Prior to this he was a rising star with a firm reputation as a stand-up member of Congress – a pillar of strength for the progressive movement. Afterwards he withdrew from politics and will have a hard time regaining respect.

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Fat Chance

What if they held an election and the media refused to report it?

John Wolfe Sues Arkansas Dems For Delegates Won In Primary Against Obama

Earlier this week, Breitbart News reported that Arkansas state Democrats might attempt to disenfranchise the state’s voters by refusing to award delegates to John Wolfe, a Tennessee attorney who was on the ballot challenging President Obama (Wolfe is also on the May 29 ballot in the upcoming Texas primary). Yesterday, Wolfe filed suit against the Arkansas Democrat Party in the Federal District Court in Little Rock

[...]

Tuesday night Wolfe embarrassed Obama by winning 42% of the Arkansas vote, and the rumors that he would not be awarded delegates prior to election night were obviously designed to suppress any turnout in his favor. Democrats know they can count on their media allies to pretty much dismiss a 42% showing, but had Wolfe come within a few points or actually won the state, even Obama’s Media Palace Guards would not have been able to avoid the kind of “loser” narrative that would only pile on the President’s already very bad no good week.

This, however, is what Democrats do. Whether it’s disenfranchising 68,108 of their own voters and declaring them all racist, the ends always justify the means — which is only made possible when you can count on the sycophant media to cover up or downplay your misdeeds.

[...]

I interviewed Wolfe last week. He’s a serious and thoughtful candidate, not a quack. He deserves respect from his fellow Democrats, some attention from the national media, and every single one of his delegates.

Most importantly, though, the 68,108 people who voted for Wolfe deserve to have their votes count and their voices represented at the Democrat National Convention.

This is America not Venezuela. Obama is a man, not a god.

Fat chance, dude. Next week is the fourth anniversary of the day democracy died in the Democratic party.

Hillary got more votes than Obama. Hillary earned more pledged delegates than Obama. But they still wouldn’t count her delegates at the convention.

I rode that damn donkey for over twenty years until it turned around and bit me on the ass.

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This is a disturbing development

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From the City of Brotherly Love:

Hecklers mar Romney’s visit to inner-city charter school in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA – When Mitt Romney came to an inner-city charter school here Thursday to promote his new education agenda, he received something of a history lecture about the persecution of blacks in America and the struggles of African American children to meet the academic achievements of their white counterparts.

Seeking to broaden his appeal heading into the general election, Romney was venturing for his first time in this campaign into an impoverished black neighborhood to hear the concerns of local educators and community leaders. But here in the streets of West Philadelphia, the emotion surrounding his contest with the nation’s first black president was raw, as dozens of neighborhood residents shouted, “Get out, Romney, get out!”

Romney arrived at Universal Bluford Charter School aboard his logo-emblazoned campaign bus and began his morning visit by meeting school and civic leaders at a formal roundtable session. “I come to learn, obviously, from people who are having experiences that are unique and instructive,” he said.

[...]

Outside, meanwhile, some brick row houses across from the school were boarded up. Police had cordoned off a full city block to protect Romney and his entourage. Residents, some of them organized by Obama’s campaign, stood on their porches and gathered at a sidewalk corner to shout angrily at Romney. Some held signs saying, “We are the 99%.” One man’s placard trumpeted an often-referenced Romney gaffe: “I am not concerned about the very poor.”

Madaline G. Dunn, 78, who said she has lived here for 50 years and volunteers at the school, said she is “personally offended” that Romney would visit her neighborhood.

“It’s not appreciated here,” she said. “It is absolutely denigrating for him to come in here and speak his garbage.”

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (D) addressed protesters and the media, quipping that Romney “suddenly somehow found West Philadelphia.”

“It’s nice that he decided this late in his [campaign] to see what a city like Philadelphia is about,” Nutter said. But, he added, “I don’t know that a one-day experience in the heart of West Philadelphia is enough to get you ready to run the United States of America.”

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Imagine the reaction if the residents of West Virginia objected to Barack Obama visiting their state. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.

Have you ever heard of one candidate organizing protests at the other candidate’s events? I sure haven’t. This isn’t “shadowing,” where you have your aides follow the other candidate at public events and record what they say, hoping for a news-worthy gaffe. This isn’t even peaceably demonstrating outside the other side’s events.

This is the intentional disruption of your opponent’s campaign – what they used to call “dirty tricks” back in Watergate days. I guess it’s the new civility.

You cannot claim to support freedom of speech if you don’t respect the freedom of speech of others. This applies to all civil rights. One of my problems with the Occupy movement was their attitude that their rights were superior to everyone else’s.

Mitt Romney is not a public official. He is a candidate. He has the right to campaign for votes in every neighborhood in the nation. It is bad enough that people would declare him to be persona non grata in their community, but for the mayor of a major city to organize a protest of this nature is unprecedented.

It really starts to get scary when the President of the United States encourages his supporters to disrupt the campaign of his opponent.

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TGIF Open Thread

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Well, it’s the start of another 3-day weekend. My big plans include mowing the lawn and maybe a trip to Walmart or something. Monday I’ll probably have a BBQ. I’ve been wanting to try Indonesian food and my neighbor has a couple of annoying schnauzers that look about the right size.

What’s on your schedule?

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