Spintested: 06/15/11

Robert Gates: Afghanistan Is Not 'War Without End'

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

In the US, forces are combat ready in 6 weeks.

It's been 10 years of training Afghans. By the time they're ready, by the time there are enough of them, they'll be dying of old age.

Why are we pretending about the reason we're there?

Do you remember Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG0jlZnE4Tw
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

America for Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?

We're going back to the time of the robber barons when the kings of wall street owned public utilities and transportation. This is the world Republicans like.

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It's not just Republicans; Democratic voters have mistakenly believed that Obama and Democrats want public healthcare. The DLC-controlled Democratic party gives lip service to public health care and all populist issues.

If the Bush years taught us nothing else, it's that anyone can sell anything to Americans, if you're stolid and relentless in your sales pitch & tactics. It's not that Bush and Rove were geniuses and knew something that nobody else knew; Bush and Rove were just more ruthless (clumsy and careless many political graybeards would say) in doing what politicians & the parties had gone to great lengths to hide from Americans.

Obama didn't get to be the first black president, vanquish the Clinton machine and the oldest, most experienced politicians in our nation's history (including the Rove machine) by not having mastered these skills. Nor do Democratic politicians (more incumbents than ever, in office longer) not know how to do it. How do you think Democrats managed to keep the impeachment of BushCheney off the table and have us still reelecting them, not marching on Washington with torches and pitchforks?

Obama and Democrats know how to do it -- They don't want to do it.

The trick for them has been to keep the many different populist groups believing that they really do support our issues, but that they're merely inept. And to get us to keep voting for them in spite of their failure to deliver on any of our alleged shared objectives.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

America for Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?

Being free in America also means the ability to move freely around the nation. With the privatization of roads and highways and bridges, that won't be true any longer.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Carney: Being An Obama Bundler Doesn't Disqualify You From An Administration Job

Improper or Appearance of Impropriety?

Bundler Oklahoma billionaire investor George Kaiser is one. A longtime Democratic donor, he is a big financial backer of a company that in March of 2009 won a $535 million loan guarantee from DoE for a solar plant in Silicon Valley. He had multiple visits to the White House in the months before the company was awarded the contract. Kaiser did not respond to interview requests from iWatch News.

Steven Westly, a green energy entrepreneur who raised at least $500,000 for Obama, has seen four companies in his venture firm’s portfolio receive more than $500 million in loans, grants or stimulus money from the Energy Department under the Obama administration, iWatch News reported in March.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Carney: Being An Obama Bundler Doesn't Disqualify You From An Administration Job

More than two years after Obama took office vowing to banish “special interests” from his administration, nearly 200 of his biggest donors have landed plum government jobs and advisory posts, won federal contracts worth millions of dollars for their business interests or attended numerous elite White House meetings and social events ...

Overall, 184 of 556, or about one-third of Obama bundlers or their spouses joined the administration in some role. But the percentages are much higher for the big-dollar bundlers. Nearly 80 percent of those who collected more than $500,000 for Obama took “key administration posts,” as defined by the White House. More than half the 24 ambassador nominees who were bundlers raised $500,000.

The big bundlers had broad access to the White House for meetings with top administration officials and glitzy social events. In all, campaign bundlers and their family members account for more than 3,000 White House meetings and visits. Half of them raised $200,000 or more.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Carney: Being An Obama Bundler Doesn't Disqualify You From An Administration Job

Public Citizen found in 2008 that President George W. Bush had appointed about 200 bundlers to administration posts over his eight years in office. That is roughly the same number Obama has appointed in a little more than two years, the iWatch News analysis showed.

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Carney: Being An Obama Bundler Doesn't Disqualify You From An Administration Job

I'm told that Obama and Michelle met with consultants who told them that a second term would triple what they'd be able to earn when they leave the White House.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Carney: Being An Obama Bundler Doesn't Disqualify You From An Administration Job

Blagojevich's mistake was not including cash.

Incredible.
About Campaign Finance
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Anthony Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

Former porn star Ginger Lee appeared at a press conference in New York Wednesday to discuss her relationship with embattled Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.).
"I did not sext Anthony Weiner," Lee said in a statement. "I did not send photos to him or receive photos from him. Any time he would take conversations in a sexual direction, I would not reciprocate."
“When the scandal broke and people started emailing me, I did not know what to do. So I emailed Anthony Weiner. He asked me to lie about our communication."

Another of the women talked about the predatory nature of what Weiner did. He knew things about her that he could only have known had he sleuthed beyond what was on her front FB page. It left her believing that she wasn't the first, that he was hunting for a type, not necessarily a physical type, but somehow a behavioral model, to seek out.

That, along with taking explicit photographs of your genitals and sending them to strangers isn't appropriate behavior for a member of the United States Congress. If you believe that on an ethical and integrity scale US congressmen rank somewhere between used car salesmen and carnival barkers, why would you keep supporting no action?

If you care at all about your issues, about issues that Weiner has fronted, why would you handicap yourself by keeping someone who can no longer be of any use to you? Weiner has no future in the US Congress. The Democratic Party won't have him speaking on any subject on its behalf, which brings us to your other point.

I've long written about the DLC's control of the Democratic Party and how their talk isn't their walk. Weiner's remaining in Congress lets them continue to NOT deliver on our issues.
About Anthony Weiner
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

It gets complicated to explain in this arena all of the reasons and ramifications of what Anthony Weiner did and why his resigning is the only solution.

Your solution ("Dems should respond with ads about Vitter and Ensign") isn't a viable option because it creates a new problem for Democrats that benefits Republicans. The effect of ads like those turn off independent voters, and that's who both parties are pitching to. When both parties put out ads like "Both parties do it, both are scvm", independent voters get disgusted and stay home.

You might want to take a look at this, and pay close attention to what Bob Herbert has to say
About Anthony Weiner
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

So he has a wiener; somehow I knew that. It's not like I've never seen one. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed off his wiener as well and they made him the governor. When the Republicans can stand in defense of male prostitutes and their patrons and gay porn stars such as Matt Sanchez (aka Rod Majors, aka Pierre LaBranche) who happen to be Republican, then I don't think the democratic party should be afraid of Anthony's wiener.

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I don't know why this is so difficult for some to understand. If you think that there is a certain standard that Vitter (and others) failed to uphold and he's still ensconced in office, what could the possible difference be?

Photographic evidence.

Transcript evidence of exactly what was said.

Nothing is left to the imagination.

A prostitute, male or female, saying he or she did X, Y and Z with a member of the United States Congress isn't the same thing as actually seeing and hearing it for yourself.

There's more, icing on this cake (like the predatory nature of what Weiner and coaching the women to lie), but the bottom line is that you can't send photographs of your genitals (not from a plane, not from a train, and especially not from the Congressional gym) to strange women and expect to remain in office.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthony Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

What "diaper shot"?

If there was a photograph of Vitter wearing a diaper, if there were photographic evidence of Vitter getting it on with a prostitute, he'd have been gone.

Like it or not, it's the 'art', the photos that Weiner took of his own genitals and sent to strange women and the transcripts of their actual sextual conversations that do him in.
About Anthony Weiner
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Chuck Schumer Targeted By Progressives Over Jobs, Taxes

Rallying Democrats behind a common
cause has proven to be like herding cats...

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Obama and the DLC-controlled Democrats like Schumer would love for their supporters to believe it's all the Republicans' fault.

Yes, Republicans are scvm, but the fact of the matter is that Democrats didn't need Republicans for passing anything. Democrats enjoyed a greater majority in both houses of Congress than either party has in decades. Even without 60 (but the Democratic Caucus in the Senate had 60). But one example is that Obama didn't need 60 to pass real healthcare reform. All Democrats needed was 50 plus Biden (reconciliation), which is what they did in the end anyway, but for a corporate-pork-laden bill with no cost constraints that doesn't provide affordable quality medical treatment for everyone.

But Democrats didn't do that.

Democrats also have refused to exercise the discretion that Rule 22 allows: Making Republicans actually filibuster, instead of just threatening to do it.

Rule 22 gives the SenateMajorityLeader the discretion to actually make the call. Filibustering is hard on those soft, pampered bodies. HarryReid has refused to make them do it, letting them merely threaten. He should. Americans love reality TV. 'Survivor-Washington, DC'. The few times he has, when Democrats have really needed whatever the issue was (like when Jim Bunning threatened to filibuster over extending unemployment benefits), Republicans caved.

The DLC-controlled Democrats aren't forcing filibusters, and Obama isn't taking to the bully pulpit because it might actually work to get Democratic voters' legislative agenda made into the law of the land and do good for the People. And that's not what Obama and DLC-controlled Democrats are there for. They are there to do the work of the transnational corporations, and preventing that are the liberals.

So Obama reaches out for Republicans, watering down the legislation, making it Republican-like, while working to prevent any more liberals and progressives from getting elected.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Chuck Schumer Targeted By Progressives Over Jobs, Taxes

No more tax cuts for the rich and corporate.

No more.

NO MORE.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Chuck Schumer Targeted By Progressives Over Jobs, Taxes

^ - DlCKLESS wonder
About Democrats
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthoy Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

Despite what many commenters have expressed, the media have been enormously generous to Weiner by showing the least objectionable of the photos that Weiner sent to strangers and not repeating what some of the women have said that supports the belief that his was predatory disordered behavior. One of the women that he 'friended' and followed said that Weiner knew things about her that he could only know if he'd sleuthed beyond what was readily available on her front page at FB. It led her to believe he was "creepy" and that she probably wasn't the only one, that he was experienced in stalking women online, looking for a particular "type" (not just looks but with a particular kind of biography) that attracted him.

I can understand the media not showing this photo on the air (which according to Jonathan Turley, law professor at George Washington University, may indeed be illegal), but not showing this one (or this one or this one)?

Opponents of liberal causes are already preparing ads like this for the coming campaign season. For those of us whose issues Weiner championed, his presence doesn't help us.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthoy Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

Rehab is typically anywhere from 30 to 90 days, and the real work begins when you're back at home and work, with all of the stressors, and learning how to avoid the lifelong self-destructive behaviors that have been getting you through the day for years.

Imagine an alcoholic requesting "a short leave of absence so that he can get evaluated and map out a course of treatment to make yourself well". Nothing about this is going to be "short".

Rehab's success rate is low to begin with (3 percent). Forced rehab, which this seems to be, doesn't work at all.

What seems to drive Weiner to compulsive destructive behavior (narcissistic personality disorder) is very difficult to treat in psychotherapy. The very nature of the disorder (narcissistic personality disorder) doesn't lend itself to treatment.

Weiner's looking more and more like Sandra Bullock's husband, Jesse James, and his manipulative attempt to get past media attention and get her back by going into rehab (he lasted one week). And Congress is looking more and more like the corrupt and ineffectual (for the People) know-nothings they've always been, trying to kick the can down the road until it blows up and takes a whole lot of innocents.

I'm afraid this is a stall, a punt, to try to save his job, and not for the good of his constituents or the issues he champions.

If Weiner were sincere, he'd quit Congress, no strings (it's next to impossible to deal with this kind of problem working in a job like that), and then see where he is.
About Anthony Weiner
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthoy Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

This isn't about "friendship" or "loyalty" -- This is an august body of public servants working on the very serious issues affecting 306 million of us and not a playground for them to indulge their libidos. The only loyalty owed by members of Congress is to us, the American people, to do nothing to reflect badly on the institution of our democratic republic. To do nothing that's going to get us mired down in weeks of media tabloid sensationalistic distractions instead of the substantive issues affecting us all.

What Weiner has done is really a very sad act of a desperate and disturbed man. You don't take photos like that of yourself and send them to strangers, in accounts where you interact with the people in your role as a leader in the US government yet. That's cr@zy behavior.

Weiner's destroyed his own brand and the issues of those he's championed. Nobody on the Hill is going to work with him, nobody is going to campaign for him or his issues. He and the issues he fronts are damaged goods. And if you cared about the issues you claim to, that Weiner champions, you'd want those issues not to be tainted by someone whose baggage will prevent a whole lot of people from ever signing on to them.
About Anthony Weiner
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Anthoy Weiner Resignation Could Come Within 'Days,' Democrats Hope He Will Quit Congress

Dems lose message momentum in Weiner scandal

Bob Herbert, distinguished senior fellow at Demos, talks with Rachel Maddow about the pressure on Congressman Anthony Weiner to resign and the amount of media oxygen the scandal is consuming.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/vp/43388218#43388218

This is one of the rare times that I disagree with Rachel Maddow and agree with Bob Herbert.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Rachel Maddow And Bob Herbert Argue About Anthony Weiner (VIDEO)

What is cyber-sex addiction?

In the wake of the Weiner scandal, sex addiction therapist Dr. Joe Kort joins Lawrence O'Donnell on The Last Word to shed some light on America’s newest disorder: cyber sex addiction.

O'DONNELL: Some of us have said this is a sex scandal with no sex, but is this kind of activity actually what these people regard as sex? Is it sex for someone in Anthony Weiner's position who's actually doing all the texting?

KORT: The thing about sexual addiction is it's about the chase, it's about the hunt. It's not about the catch...it is definitely sexual, absolutely.

FWIW:

Anthony Weiner Sponsored Internet Sexual Predators Legislation - The KIDS (Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators) Act of 2007:

"Sadly, the Internet is the predator's venue of choice today. We need to update our strategies and our laws to stop these offenders who are a mere click away from our children."

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

U.S. Housing Crisis Now Officially Worse Than Great Depression

Affordable to whom?

The banks aren't lending. They're sitting on trillions of dollars.
About Housing Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

U.S. Housing Crisis Now Officially Worse Than Great Depression

No, not true.

I speak from firsthand experience, as someone with a very stable financial record, no debt (a FICO score of 846). It's not just happening to me, but others who I know who are similarly situated financially.
About Housing Crisis
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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