Thom's Word...

Kari's Full Disclosure Problem

2012-01-20T18:43:00.000-08:00

[Full Disclosure: Kari Chisholm banned me from BlueOregon during the Merkley/Novick campaign because of his personal dislike for me and the truthiness of some of my comments. He continues to ban me because he's a big fat bully.]

Stop Bitching about High Taxes

2010-11-27T10:23:00.000-08:00

2010-11-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

Teabaggers Against Everything

2010-01-19T07:16:00.000-08:00

Joe "the Pharmacist" (Joseph Emanuele) came trolling in the Yes on 66/77 FB group. His hobbies include the P90X bodybuilding infomercial, yo-yo tricks and insulting his customers at Walgreens in the Salem-Keizer area.

"I dispence [sic] drugs to people who do not and never have taken care of themselves."

Oleg Taitz

2010-01-12T15:49:00.000-08:00

Oleg Atbashian -

Alley Twat

2009-08-28T14:46:00.001-07:00

Please tell me this is a joke...

Terrorism hitting the Homeland?

2009-06-18T17:31:00.000-07:00

Explosion, Bomb Scare Force Salem Evacuation

Last Update: 5:03 pm

Print Story | Share this Story

SALEM, Ore. - Last night, a Salem resident reportedly blew his hand apart after a home-made device exploded.
Today, police found another device in a car parked at the same home. Wednesday afternoon, they evacuated homes on both sides of Norway, between Capitol and the railroad tracks, and on McCoy between Shipping and Jefferson streets.

A police robot detonated that "improvised explosive device", but the evacuation continued - required, say officers, during the removal of "extremely dangerous explosive chemicals" in the vicinity. [More...]

You're fired!

2009-06-10T12:34:00.001-07:00

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Carrie Prejean has been dethroned as Miss California USA for "contract violations," including missing official pageant events, state pageant spokesman Roger Neal said Wednesday.

Prejean, 22, retained her title last month despite a controversy over topless photos and her statements against same-sex marriage.

Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump was involved in the decision to fire Prejean, Neal said. [More...]

It does me unfortunate

2009-06-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

Cologne-Bein?

2009-03-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Too subtle?

Victims died with 'pens in their hands'

WINNENDEN, Germany (CNN) -- A gunman dressed in military gear killed 15 people Wednesday in a shooting spree in Germany, police said. Tim Kretschmer, 17, began his rampage at a school where he used to be a student in Winnenden, a small town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Stuttgart. [More...]

When trees strike back

2009-03-03T23:34:00.000-08:00

(Portland) "A tree being cut down in the 3800 block of Southeast 114th Avenue fell onto a power meter, driving a live wire into the ground. That electrified plumbing, melting solder in household pipes and flooding a home." [Oh, there's gotta be more...]

Wall-Mart employee not laid off, kills self

2009-02-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

Wal-Mart worker burns self to death in parking lot

(Chicago Tribune) - A 58-year-old Wal-Mart employee who said he "couldn't take it anymore" lit himself on fire outside the Bloomingdale store where he worked late Thursday night and was later pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said this morning. The Carol Stream man, who worked the overnight shift, was in a parking lot of an adjacent sporting goods store in the west suburban strip mall when he set himself on fire with lighter fluid around 10 p.m., said Randy Sater, a watch commander with the Bloomingdale Police Department. [...] A store manager, who identified himself only as Erwin, had no explanation for the suicide. he said the man had not been laid off. [More...]

You can't put a price on love

2009-02-27T07:29:00.000-08:00

But I'll sell you these two kids for $2000.

Woman answers ad for bird by offering kids as payment

(CNN) -- Trading two children for a bird landed three people in jail in Louisiana, authorities say. [...] Greenwell proposed selling two of the couple's children to the Romeros for $2,000, saying that her job as a truck driver made it hard to take care of the children, said Capt. Keith Dupre of the Evangeline Parrish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana. The parties allegedly negotiated a trade involving the two kids, the bird and $175. [More...]

Celsi Dinner 2009

2009-02-20T23:46:00.000-08:00

Carl Wolfson waits in the wings

The "Celsi Dinner" is an annual benefit in support for the Multnomah County Democrats which recognizes citizen activist and very active Democrat Dick Celsi as well this year's award recipient in his honor, John Vandermosten.

3rd District Congressman, Earl Blumenauer took the stage of the Melody Ballroom to welcome the roomful of who's whos and who's thats. Reveling in recent Democratic victories, he also spoke of the challenges to come.

Progressive activist/writer Karol Collymore gave a rousing call for Democrats to complete decades of unfinished business.

Former US Senate candidate Steve Novick demonstrated his wonkish wit as he played auctioneer. Offsetting high carbon footprint auction items with large contributions seemed like a good idea. Just what is an endangered species worth to you?

Aside from the live auction, a silent auction was held which included loads of political memorabilia.

Oregon's US Sentors Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley addressed the gathering.

State senator Jackie Dingfelder was also recognized with the McCoy Award.

The keynote speech was delivered by KPOJ's Carl Wolfson. On the radio he combines his comedy shtick with his political acumen giving the audience (which reaches far beyond Portland) some of the best progressive talk radio currently on the dial. Tonight though, apart from his mirthful warm-up with but a few familial anecdotes, we saw Carl's serious side and i began to understand the political journey of this comedian. One of the high points of the evening for me was the tale of Rep. Carl Elliott (D-AL), the father of the bookmobile. Unlike so many Dems in the Old South, Elliott was at home in a Democratic party which promoted racial justice.

He was defeated in a 1964 special election required to reduce the size of Alabama's Congressional delegation. He would later cash in his Congressional pension to run for Governor, losing to the wife of George C. Wallace who himself was term-limited. After his defeat, he resumed practicing law and writing and was vindicated only later in life when he became the first recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 1990.

Oregon Attorney General John Kroger was also a featured speaker. For giggles, I'm giving the silver to Steve Novick. But when it comes to comedy gold, the Oscar goes to John Kroger. Who knew the AG could be so funny? But soon enough Kroger got to the serious topic of supporting the Party. It's not only boots on the ground which keeps Oregon blue, it's hands on the wallet.

The Celsi dinner is the most significant fundraiser for the Multnomah County Democrats. Thanks to all who gave their support.

John Vandermosten, House District 50 leader, and one of the founding members of East Suburban Democrats was honored by the Multnomah County Democratic Central Committee with the Dick Celsi award.

"MC" (Carla) Hanson

I got to sit at the "cool kids' table" (at least for local political wonkery) thanks to my friend Stephanie (seated across from me). She's about the sweetest Greek-American (who doesn't eat eggplant) you'll ever want to meet, and one of the most generous folks i know. Efcharisto!

Her hubby Mike shares a passion for political buttons with our keynote speaker. Although seated elsewhere (or perhaps standing?), the Wolf man eventually made his way to ours. I suspect he was trying to trace down the high bidder of some button collections he had his eye on. (ok, i scored one of those myself, but i did give the first bid on it!) I was actually seated next to AG Kroger. I had met him first at the 2008 Rebooting Democracy conference. Except for a few pleasantries, i let him eat. When he wasn't on the stage, he was for the most part on the floor and was one of the more sought out personalities of the evening. He was also pretty successful getting several donors for a new HQ for the MultCo D's. Good work, John! (But the next time i see you, i'd like to bend your ear about these pesky phone solicitations i keep getting. I think it's a credit scam...)

Kamberg discovers his Jew-Tile

2009-02-19T20:48:00.000-08:00

Question: Would it surprise you to learn that I am 1/8 mighty Choctaw?

Oy-weh!

I guess Preemptive's Kevin had to come up with some explanation why he intermittently claims to be Jewish presumably in an attempt to lend authority to his auspicious comments when he waxes on Israel or Palestine

Willamette Week
I am an American Jew and I am a long-time harsh critic of Likud and the IDF's strategy with all of Israel's neighbors. I've been called an anti-semite by more Jews than I cared to keep track of for daring to point out the self-evident fact that BOTH sides have very bloody hands.
4/22/08

Blue Oregon
1. Josh Marshall is spot on - the ongoing expansion of Jewish settlements is a core issue that's not going to go away no matter how many Palestinians the IDF kills.
2. Not that it should matter but... I am Jewish.
1/5/09

Oregonian, Mapes Blog
I'm a liberal Jewish American who also gave more financial support to Merkley than to any other candidate (ever, in fact). I have also written copiously and very critically of Israel's recent micro-war against Gaza and against it's race-based policies towards Palestinians in general, both inside and outside of Israel, on my blog.
2/6/09

I just thought it odd since he didn't grow up Jewish and describes himself as "Christian" on his blog Preemptive Karma and "Theist" on Facebook. When i inquired, Kevin got all nasty (probably since he misses posting as navvoter).

But now, woven into an artful narrative is Kevin's story of being an "American Jew."

The Gentile, the Jew and the Astronomer
I've mentioned before that I am Jewish. But it wasn't always so. Which is to say that I didn't know about my Jewish heritage when I was growing up. And since 2009 is also the International Year of Astronomy I thought I'd address my connection to both issues in one post.

I don't remember the exact year but I think it was either 1998 or 1999 when I received a phone call from my mother informing me that she'd just been informed by my maternal grandmother that her mother (my maternal great-grandmother) was a Jew. [Ed. Major snippage of how Great-gramma met Great-grampa...]

So, I am a Jew who once thought he was a Gentile. And as you can see I have the all-important maternal line which is how Jews recon these things.
Posted by Kevin at February 18, 2009 11:10 AM

It was a touching story, especially Gramma Jessie's "psychic breakdown." I cried. I laughed.

Kevin, please don't describe yourself as a "Jewish American" in order to boost your credibility. It's Meshugana.

Why media sucks

2009-02-18T09:52:00.000-08:00

I like to keep my pulse on what passes for "news" for the masses who even follow the news, so i have CNN.com bookmarked on my computer and frequently follow the inner links (and often link to its stories from this forum). Sometimes i swear reporters don't watch or read the news.

In the aftermath of the Connecticut chimpanzee attack, this headline on CNN's front page caught my eye:

Time: Why good chimps go bad

It was a bit of a bait and switch. This was the actual headline on the target page:

Why the Stamford Chimp Attacked
By Bryan Walsh

I thought we already knew what made the chimp go ape, but i read on for any late breaking details.

"The ferocious attack by a chimpanzee of a woman in Stamford, Conn., on Feb. 16 wasn't a question of if, but when," begins the article.

The 200-lb. chimp named Travis, whose owner, Sandra Herold, 70, raised as part of her own family, had no history of violence — aside from one incident in 2003 when he escaped and stopped traffic in Stamford for hours. But when Charla Nash, 55, a friend of Herold's, came to visit on Monday afternoon, Travis suddenly lashed out at her. The 14-year-old chimpanzee latched onto Nash's face and tore it apart.

Maybe i'm picking nits, but Ms. Nash wasn't dropping in to visit. She was called by the pet's owner because "Travis" had escaped and she was unable to control him by herself. (We also learned later that Travis had been given Xanax, the side effects of which can include "decreased inhibitions, no fear of danger (increased risk taking behavior), rage and hostility.")

Herold had called Nash over to her house to help get Travis back inside after he used a key to free himself from the house. [CNN: Feb. 16]

After delving into the gruesome details, the Time/CNN article by Bryan Walsh gets back to its premise as to why this particular attack occurred.

But even as investigators try to figure out exactly what triggered Travis's attack (he had been suffering from Lyme disease, which in rare cases is linked to psychotic behavior), the reality is that a chimpanzee living among people is simply a ticking time bomb. No matter how many years it has lived peacefully as a pet, a chimpanzee is not a domesticated animal and can snap without warning.

Walsh may in fact be correct in his assertion that every chimpanzee is a "ticking time bomb" but he chose a poor example. Travis didn't "snap" because of his inherently aggressive ape nature. He was schizo and on drugs. I wouldn't be surprised to see the same situation in the greatest of apes given similar circumstances.

I also thought the article's embedded links rather odd and perhaps computer generated:

The 14-year-old chimpanzee latched onto Nash's face and tore it apart. (See pictures of animals facing extinction.)
"They are not pets. This is tragic, but it's not surprising." (See pictures of animals in space.)
"An adult male chimpanzee is a formidable animal. I would not want to be standing next to one." (See pictures of animals with prosthetic limbs.)
The former NASCAR driver St. James Davis, who raised a chimpanzee as a pet, was attacked by escaped chimps at an animal sanctuary in 2005; he was left with injuries and disfigurement so severe that doctors kept him in a medically induced coma for three months. (See pictures of the 50th running of the Daytona 500.)
In Travis's case, his owner was forced to call 911, then attack and repeatedly stab him — a cherished pet she had reared for years — with a butcher knife in a desperate attempt to save her friend.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
See the Cartoons of the Week.

Now this was an example the so-called main stream media simple being sloppy.

When the cartoon below appeared in the New York Post today, we witnessed the Fourth Estate being racist, bordering on sedition.
The Post is owned by Australian born, media oligarch billionaire, Rupert Murdoch.

Jobs created and "saved"

2009-02-17T16:45:00.000-08:00

Jeff Mapes of the Oregonian zeroes in on some interesting wiggle room in the language being used to measure to success anticipated with the passage of the President's stimulus package.

This just out from the White House: a state-by-state listing of the jobs the Obama administration expects to "create or save" as a result of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. [...] Of course, "created or saved" is kind of a nebulous term. How do you define a "saved" job?

Mapes identifies one reason the debate will never end as to whether the stimulus "worked" or not, as if it existed in a vacuum, and as if the answer were a simple binary "yes" or "no."

Part of the argument is so obvious as to be academic. If Project X doesn't get funded but for the stimulus package and it requires Y number of positions over the course of a year and costs Z dollars, one can rightfully add Y to the total number of jobs created.

Where it gets more abstract is to calculate how many jobs were created (or might well have been cut) on account of the tax cuts. This, if you believe in the trickle down theory that if you give rich people more money, they hire more people, (presumably even more than would be hired spending the money on some infrastructure project).

Slightly less intangible is the real trickle down effect present when the people [Y above] sink their wages back into the economy. How does one calculate the number of jobs created or saved in other sectors (eateries and other merchants) because these road builders, educators, etc have disposable income as opposed to being unemployed.

Fun math. Speaking of which. I am curious how they arrived at the number 44,000 jobs for Oregon, other than simply using a calculator. Which is what I did. 3.5 million total jobs X 1.25%* (Oregon population relative to US proper)

= 43,982 jobs for Oregon

So we know from the get go that depending on what the stimulus is being spent on, Project X costing Z will yield Y jobs (see above). But not every outlay in the stimulus package will be equally effective.

I know that Mapes was asking about a definition, and I swerved into mathematics. But once we get a real breakdown of how much money is going for what in Oregon, we won't even begin to be able to speculate on how many jobs will be created (or saved!)

*I used 2008 population estimates from Wikipedia.
	305,986,357	: US + territories
	3,954,037	: Puerto Rico
	173,456	: Guam
	108,448	: US Virgin Islands
	84,546	: Northern Marian Is.
Oregon pop.	57,291	: American Samoa
3,790,060	301,608,597	: TOTAL US proper
	1.2566	% Oregon

Phelps walks (swims?) for lack of evidence

2009-02-16T15:17:00.000-08:00

I'm assuming said evidence has long since gone up in smoke. Move along! Nothing to see, smell or smoke here...

CNN - Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps will not face criminal charges in connection with a party at which he was photographed using a bong, a South Carolina sheriff said today. "We do not believe we have enough evidence to prosecute anyone" who was at the party, Sheriff Leon Lott said, adding that authorities are ending their investigation into Phelps. full story

Happy Birthday Oregon

2009-02-14T12:18:00.000-08:00

Oregon's top pols surround a wax figure of state senate President Peter Courtney and a 400 pound, 7-tier birthday cake in celebration of Oregon's sesquicentennial.

(Photo h/t Jeff Mapes blog)

Judd Gregg Dropss

2009-02-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

Praise god and pass the stimulus... the President's Right Wing nominee for Commerce Secretary, Judd Gregg (who once supported abolishing the Department of Commerce) prefers being an obstructionist Senator to serving in the Obama administration. And i couldn't be more pleased.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican Sen. Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination as President Barack Obama's commerce secretary Thursday, citing "irresolvable conflicts" over the administration's stimulus bill and the upcoming 2010 census.[More...]

I'll have what he's having

2009-02-11T06:36:00.000-08:00

I think this is hysterical. Whether or not it is ethical is another question, but leave it to the Christian Science Monitor to harsh the buzz.

‘David After Dentist’ is viral video gold, but at what price?
By Andrew Heining, Christian Science Monitor

Could that stack of camcorder videos contain the next YouTube hit waiting to happen?
A few recent clips have raised the question – and eyebrows. Take “David After Dentist.” The video of a 7 year-old reacting to the effects of a dental procedure has been viewed just under 6.5 million times since it was posted a little over a week ago. [More...]

Reincarnation of Bat Boy!

Is it "Assassination" if they're out of office?

2009-02-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

Call it the first trial of George the II, South Africa temporarily declared war criminal George W. Bush dead. 'Twas not the case though.

BBC - For three seconds ETV News ran a moving banner headline across the screen saying "George Bush is dead".[More...]

Just a case of turn about and fair play and what not...

From the time capsule:

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Bush kills Mandela
Just when you thought Bush had done everything possible to demonstrate the depths of his stupidity, the Decider held a press conference today and declared that anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela (who currently lives in Johannesburg) was dead! [More...]

Intimidation is bad karma

2009-02-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

When i started this blog it wasn't with the intent on manufacturing a persona or for that matter, being anyone. It simply was to be a forum representing the nexus between my former occupation and my main avocation, language. I have always liked to write. I just hated having to write.

This began as and remains a hobby. A hobby for which i have all too much time since leaving my last paying job. Thom's Word is a pleasant diversion from the battles of the day. (I've been "working" as an activist, ya know.)

There's a difference between being anonymous and writing a pseudonymical blog. That said, the identities behind pseudonyms are can be common knowledge. Some M.bots (e.g. lestatdelc / "Mitch Gore") routinely connect their real name to his nom de keypad.

There was the curious case of Bradley Dunn who in the same cluster of forums morphed his nickname from bradley dunn to bradley to bradleydiscofeet to bdunn (and then complained when people would refer to him as "Brad" or "Bradley"... goofy).

I recall Taoiseach who intended to keep his real ID on the QT but loose lips sank that shit when it turned out that this goto blog for anti-Novick hackery was run by a legislative aide to one of Novick's vocal accusers. Given the paid relationships involved between Tom Powers and Rep. Mitch Greenlick and Kari Chisholm and then Rep. Jeff Merkley (Novick's primary challenger) it was both righteous and newsworthy to expose the troll behind the throne.

Others seem to have interchangeable, known semi-pseudos such as Kevin Kamberg of Preemptive Karma who goes by kevin kamberg, preemptive karma, kevin, karmaman (and some say, when he's sockpuppeting, navvoter).

So when it comes to the "outing" bloggers or commenters or otherwise naming names online, the ethics of the act really depend on who and why. When i connected the dolts between karmaman and navvoter, i found that he was using dual handles to tag team comment, classic sockpuppetry.

Kamberg doesn't use pseudonyms to protect his privacy. Rather, his multiple noms de plume serve to perpetrate a sort of intelectual fraud. Whether he's freeping the results on reddit or klaiming kweer kred, Kamberg is a consumate suck up. Like his patron, Senator Merkley, Kevin betrayed his shallow peace roots with his Blue0 exclusive, A Marching We Will Go..., the heartwarming tale of his first peace demonstration.

He's like a modern day Saint Paul. This self described SDA-raised Christian, is a gentile to Gentiles and jew-ish to Jews. He is also a loathsome putz. No, not because he down-rates and deletes my comments. Not because he (like several other M.bots) refers to me by my real name as opposed to my blogging nic. But what's the point of dragging my family into thier flame wars?

Posted by karmaman on 02/06/09 at 2:01PM

[...] I'm a liberal Jewish American who also gave more financial support to Merkley than to any other candidate (ever, in fact). I have also written copiously and very critically of Israel's recent micro-war against Gaza and against it's race-based policies towards Palestinians in general, both inside and outside of Israel, on my blog.
---------------------------------------------------------

Posted by EastBankThom on 02/06/09 at 3:30PM

K-man, I thought you were raised Christian? No matter... Have we seen the last of "Navvoter"? His reddit karma just tanked.
---------------------------------------------------------

Posted by karmaman on 02/08/09 at 12:09PM

I dunno, Hans. Maybe you should ask Rob...

Face it Kev. You're busted (again). I suppose you and yours think it's intimidating. And to a certain degree it is. I'll take what lumps come to me, but Rob's got nothing to do with this.

That is all.

See also: Carla breaks out the claws!

Obama Presser

2009-02-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

Merkley: "We're gonna have a dificult couple years" ... "maybe a difficult decade"

Teen terrorist?

2009-02-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

CNN asks the bold question:
Teenage terrorist or confused kid?
-- Gitmo's youngest prisoner [More at CNN.com...]

Several facts seem to be in dispute. Here is what is known.

Omar Khadr is a Canadian.
He had nothing to to do with 9/11.
In the Spring of 2002 after having fled the UN invasion to take down the Taliban government, then 15 year old Omar returned to Afghanistan with his father's blessing to work as a translator.
In July of 2002, Omar was severely wounded and an American soldier was mortally wounded after a firefight broke out between Omar's employers and US troops.
Omar is being held as a war criminal.
A month after his 16th birthday, Omar was transferred to Guantanamo where he remains 6 and a half years later.

Turning the corner, an American soldier shot the lone surviving gunman and then spied the young Canadian teenager with his back to the noise, kneeling in pain against a shrub. Raising his rifle, he fired two shots into Omar's back. [More...]

It is quite possible that Omar was a terrorist in training. It's even more probable he was just a pawn. It's certain that the United States looks more like the old Soviet Union with its present gulag in Guantanamo.

A teenage Omar Khadr sobs uncontrollably as Canadian spy agents question him at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a brief video excerpt released via the internet

Star Trek

2009-02-07T16:52:00.000-08:00

One of the best... episodes... evar!!!

Going Bale-istic!

2009-02-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

Listen to this rant from the former titleholder of Hollywood's "Hottest men under 30."

British born Christian Charles Philip Bale seems a little limited in his English.

I'm beginning to think that his portrayal in American Psycho wasn't so much an exercise in acting as it was selectively edited outtakes. What a f***ing a**hole.

Truth4Gold

2009-01-31T19:05:00.000-08:00

If you're just on broadcast TV like our household, you've seen these commercials ad vomitum.

I was already skeptical about sending valuables to strangers per the USPS. After reading these accounts, I wouldn't send Cash4Gold my wooden nickels...

Cash4Gold Will Offer One-Third of the Actual Value for your Gold

Cash4Gold operates in a manner similar to GoldKit. They send you an envelope, you send your gold to them in it. They determine the value and cut a check for that amount. If the amount meets your expectations, you cash it. If not, you have 15 days to return the check and get your gold back. Your satisfaction is guaranteed.

He also noticed that Cash4Gold offers a "fast cash" scheme to forego the paper check and deposit their payment directly into your checking account within 24 hours. This setup would be faster, but gold sellers would give up their chance to examine and renegotiate their offer. And that, it turns out, would be a huge mistake for anyone selling gold to Cash4Gold. [More...]

Former employee exposing the scams of Cash4Gold

I am a former employee of Cash 4 Gold. I did not know much about the company before being hired. On my first day of being hired, I was taught the "Cash 4 Gold Scam" from beginning to end.

1. The "refiner's pack" that is used for you to put your jewelry is "insured for UP TO 100 dollars, " according to how much they determine from a description from you, the worth of your items to be, NOT an actual fully researched appraisal.

2. We receive your "Refiner's Pack" within 3-4 days, BUT we are instructed to tell you that it takes "7-10 business days, for us to receive your pack, ALTHOUGH many times, your package has already arrived. [More...]

Cash 4 Gold would like to melt down and recast their reputation
by Cockeyed.com: Citizen

On October 6th, [my] article was featured on Consumerist.com (http://consumerist.com/5059452/how-to-avoid-getting-ripped-off-by-cash4gold). Consumerist is so popular that thousands of people read the article, and the high Consumerist pagerank meant that the Cockeyed article would take its place at the tippy-top of Google results on searches for "Cash 4 Gold". Anyone searching for "Cash4Gold" had a very good chance at this new insight: Their cash offers for gold are measly.

I guess someone at Cash 4 Gold noticed, because a week later, I got an email from Joe Laratro: [...] How about that? A polite letter, with a clear goal: Bury the "Cash 4 Gold" name in my article so that it doesn't scare off every would-be gold seller with an internet connection. [More...]

Update: And it seems millions of us tomorrow will be watching Ed McMahon, who has one foot in the grave and the other precariously perched between a bar of soap and bankruptcy, as his pimps the bling of Cash4Gold during the Super Bowl.

I wonder if he's going to get paid as much as this gal? (Well, i suppose even a blogger's got to make a living. But do you have to work for such creeps?)

Sockpuppetry is Bad Karma II

2009-01-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

Definitions: sock puppet
noun

A simple puppet made from a sock placed over the hand of the puppeteer.
(internet) In an online community, a second account created by a user who already has an account, this second account being set up by that user so as to seem to be for a different user.

I have noted previously Mandate Media's online echo chamber and their seemingly successful staff of sock puppets. By all appearances, the king of the trolls is "navvoter" who has been previously identified as Preemptive Karma's Kevin Kamberg.

Posted by steveforsen on 02/27/08 at 12:29AM

I believe "navvoter" is the same user as karmaman, Kevin Kamberg of Preemptive Karma, who has used the stiff left hook and effusive phraseology the same way in other places to refer to Novick's endorsement. He is on a crusade to counteract the positive reaction to Novick's statement on Obama, particularly at Daily Kos and Huffington Post, where--beyond Kamberg and two or three other regular Merkley supporters appearing in such places to douse enthusiasm for Novick--literally hundreds of completely uninvolved readers from around the country gave it their approval.

See for yourself here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/25/155910/884

and here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-novick/why-ill-be-voting-for-ba_b_88324.html

Sockpuppetry to present the illusion of broader support is a tactic betraying weakness, IMO.

It's no big deal that Kevin has chosen a cute new handle midstream. What does cross the line however for this budding blogger cum journalist is that he continues to comment on OregonLive as "karmaman," indeed sometimes in the same post. Such use of multiple personalities is classic sock puppetry.

Upon further search, it turns out that karmaman/navvoter have been busy gaming the reddit website too. (Both personas have a penchant for recommending posts on Kamberg's Preemptive Karma.)

Update: A request for comment from "navvoter" remains unanswered as both his and "karmaman's" reddit karma seems to be tanking.

Feb. 3 / Feb. 5

Dammit, Daschle!

2009-01-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

Why is it so hard to find rich folk who haven't cheated on their taxes!

Daschle's tax records under fire

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate Finance committee will meet Monday to review the tax records of former Sen. Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services who, according to sources, didn't pay taxes on a car and driver he had been loaned. [More...]

Opinions are like... pcolfan

2009-01-28T22:02:00.000-08:00

Gawd, it's getting so that a brother can't get an opinion in edgewise these days without some blog hog getting his knickers in a twist. Such was it today when i ventured to make (an admittedly ill-postulated) point on Jeff Mapes' politics blog regarding spoilers and Oregon's recent race for the US Senate.

Posted by jeffmapes on 01/27/09 at 1:56PM

You raise an interesting point, harneycounty. Dave Brownlow of the Constitution Party did indeed receive more votes - 92,565 - than Jeff Merkley's victory margin of about 59,000 votes. Moore, however, doubts that Brownlow's candidacy cost Smith the race.

To which i responded:

Posted by EastBankThom on 01/27/09 at 3:36PM

Whereas i by no mean fault her for her candidacy (I gave her money, but Steve Novick earned my vote) i think that Candy Neville played the greater roll in unseating Senator Smith.

[Editor's note: what i should have said, and indeed intended to convey, was that Candy Neville's presence in the primary arguably affected its outcome, where as i agree with Moore that there was no Brownlow effect.]

If Merkley had been an honest broker for Neville's constituency, i would begin to accept the consolation of "no harm, no foul." But even she recognized that Merkley's anti-war cred was supported by a hollow army and she quit his campaign after her highlt publicized recruitment.
http://thomsword.blogspot.com/2008/08/neville-still-fighting.html

I wouldn't be mentioning this again now, but the facts were deleted last weekend from a forum run by Merkley surrogates. Jeff Merkley lied about his "anti-war" cred during the campaign.
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You can stamp your feet all you want, Ms. Axtman, Senator Merkley did lie (on various occasions) when he claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this."
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/04/from_the_vault_merkleys_antiwa.html#931312

Just compare these quotes/lies to the "floor speach" [sic] he actually gave in an attempt to explain his vote
http://www.blueoregon.com/2007/08/merkley-news-ro.html#c78325290

A vote to "acknowledge the courage of George W. Bush."
http://thomsword.blogspot.com/2007/08/house-resolution-2.html

Which drew a long response from one "pcolfan":

Posted by pcolfan on 01/27/09 at 8:30PM

EBT, I know both Steve and Jeff--actually have known Steve longer.

Steve lost my vote by making an obscure 2003 vote a central point of his campaign--someone who never had to cast a tough vote as an elected official criticizing a tough vote by an elected official. As the campaign wore on, it sounded more and more as if Steve only wanted the votes of those who said "Jeff should be ashamed of himself and his speech on that 2003 resolution, and if you don't agree with that, Steve does not want your vote".

I saw (via Internet video) the Sunriver speech where Steve first brought up that issue. Other parts of the speech got applause but not that section. Are you saying Steve only wanted the votes of those who thought that part of the speech was good---and not the votes of those who thought it would have been a better speech without that section?

I did not volunteer in the US Senate race this year, and was not on a political payroll for anyone. I was working in child care in the spring of 2008 when most of this debate was going on. I thought much of the debate on Blue Oregon was childish---there were 5 Democrats who voted against the resolution, Jeff should have been the 6th, and because he wasn't, no one should vote for him for US Senate? There were no other issues???

The reason Gordon Smith was in the US Senate in the first place was because of the large 3rd party vote in 1996. Steve worked for the Democratic nominee that year, but didn't brag about that much in 2008. Perhaps because of comments like those of a friend who decided to vote for the 1996 Dem. nominee and said to when I mentioned supporting Brent Thompson, "Oh, you're saying you refuse to choose between the slick one and the chinless one?".

Bruggere ran a clueless campaign in 1996, but all good Democrats were supposed to vote for him? Why, because money is all that matters and only professionals know how the game is played?

Apparently Steve took that attitude with him (he worked for Bruggere's campaign) and thought he could win a 2008 primary by telling people what to think. It didn't work. Merkley was more appealing to downstate voters, partly because they actually saw him without having to go to the home of a supporter--Merkley had a good ground organization and appeared in public venues.

Steve is very bright, but he has a lot to learn about elective politics. I have he runs for office in Multnomah County and wins--that was a county he carried. Then he would learn about being an elected official. Some of his most vociferous supporters thought an Oregon legislator can abstain---which is not how the legislature runs. A person must vote yes or no --or if off the floor will be marked either excused, excused for legislative business or whatever. And had Steve Novick made as much of a stink about that vote in 2003 as he made in 2008, he might have been more believeable.

There are 33 counties in Oregon not named Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington. Voters in those counties also matter, but Steve didn't have ground operations or many public appearances in those downstate counties.

I saw Steve after the primary and he was just absolutely sure he'd have won had there been more money. But with enough money, ground organization and what people say to their friends and neighbors doesn't matter? Elections are decided in Portland anyway, so downstate voters don't matter?

If Jeff had released his entire floor speech to the public, and said publicly in one of the debates, "Yes, Steve, I said everything you say I said", but then asked about any of Steve's public stands or why the "beer commercial" was supposed to win over Oregon voters, would you have been happier, EBT?

Do you really think having the "pants on fire" video on the front page of the Novick website but hiding the excellent poverty video on an inside issues page really helped the Novick campaign?

My next door neighbor said she didn't see what opening a beer bottle had to do with running for US Senate. My friend who used to work in a substance abuse program was offended by the beer commercial. But that wouldn't have mattered if only Jeff had satisfied people like you over the obscure 2003 resolution?

Were there people who voted Obama/Smith ? Or would looking into that take too much work?

Steve and I had email exchanges about this. I think he made rookie mistakes in his statewide campaign. In the end I voted legislators over non-office holders for US Senate and AG because I decided experience was important. In a free country I do have that right to decide my vote using my own criteria, even though some Novick supporters thought they were helping the Novick campaign by attacking anyone on a blog who disagreed with them.

I heard Merkley in a Marion County town hall meeting answer specific questions in a public venue (not just someone's home). I never saw Steve do that.

I understand how angry some people were about this issue, esp. TJ and Stephanie and Miles on Blue Oregon. But did that anger help or hurt the Novick for Senate campaign?

EBT, there is a whole wide state of Oregon which doesn't live in Portland and might just put issues aside from how the Iraq War started at the top of their priority list when deciding how to vote for US Senate. And there are people who value good manners and what they see as common sense when they decide how to vote.

I'd love to see Bob Moore put every comment on this topic on his liberal-->conservative political spectrum.

There was a lot there, and to be honest, my eyes glazed over a wee bit. But there seemed some room for discourse. So i posted back:

Posted by EastBankThom on 01/28/09 at 10:00AM

pcolfan,
your response was long and considered. Where our opinions differ, i think thoughtful people can indeed disagree. But just to correct the record...

Steve lost my vote by making an obscure 2003 vote a central point of his campaign--someone who never had to cast a tough vote as an elected official criticizing a tough vote by an elected official.

I don't think it ever was a central part of the campaign. As for when Merkley's vote in support of Bush and the invasion first surfaced as a campaign issue, it happened a while before the Sun River event you allude to.

Posted by: Jake Weigler - Novick for Senate | Aug 3, 2007 11:56:36 AM

I just wanted to clarify Steve's comments on this Iraq War resolution as it appears there may have been some confusion.

The state GOP put out this attack and a reporter asked Steve - who had never heard of the resolution before - how he would have voted. Steve provided an honest answer:

"It's a resolution that quote 'acknowledges the courage of President George W Bush.' You would not have found me saying that the war in Iraq is a reflection of the courage of President George W Bush."

The Novick campaign did not introduce this argument or attempt to "use" it

I submit that it was the Merkley campaign who then went into overdrive and using its main internet media surrogate (BlueOregon), initiated and sustained the "negative Novick" meme, a characterization of the former candidate with which i disagree.

there were 5 Democrats who voted against the resolution, Jeff should have been the 6th, and because he wasn't, no one should vote for him for US Senate? There were no other issues???

Ending the costly Occupation of Iraq and holding the Bush administration accountable were my top issues. It's not that Merkley was AWOL when it came to what mattered to me the most... It's that he went on to lie about it.

He claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this."

Your main argument seems to be against the truth. Sen. Merkley didn't say in his HRes2 floor speech what he later (on multiple occasions) claimed he said. The links are above, including Merkley being busted on the claim of having "published" an anti-war article before the invasion.

I heard Merkley in a Marion County town hall meeting answer specific questions in a public venue (not just someone's home). I never saw Steve do that.

I first heard Steve at the WashCo Dems (open to the public). Later, I saw him at EastSide Dems (open to the public). You seem to be quibbling here, and again your experience doesn't seem to fit the facts.

I really don't understand why you got so riled up. The conversation (including Mapes, the post author) touched on the topic of "spoilers." I merely offered my opinion that Neville more likely affected the outcome as opposed to Brownlow.

Oregon's peace and justice votes (which come from all across the State) were split between Novick and Neville. You give seeming anecdotal evidence that Democrats for whom Iraq was not a major issue were more likely to support Merkley.

Update: Ugh... Here come the M.bots. It seems that Jeff Merkley remains a delicate flower. Do not criticize him or else be faced with the wrath of his surrogates.

Posted by verasoie on 01/27/09 at 8:33PM

Poor EBT, still searching for some solace and significance in the face of an election that rendered him irrelevant.

So how exactly did Bonbon Chamberlain play a more significant role than Brownlow? Yeah, you didn't exactly elaborate that, did you, preferring to hijack the thread with more of your pitiful rants.

Yikes! And it looks like "pcolfan" is going off the deep end now:

Posted by pcolfan on 01/28/09 at 10:57AM

EBT, you make my point. YOU see things from your point of view. Had the voters of Oregon seen things from your point of view, Novick might have been the nominee. Apparently there were voters who thought other issues were important.

I see things from the point of view of this Jeff Mapes blog item.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2007/10/novick_jabs_at_merkley_on_iraq.html

I also didn't see why the beer ad made Novick the more qualified candidate. And why it wasn't wise to support the primary candidate with the best developed statewide grass roots effort.

"Oregon's peace and justice votes (which come from all across the State) were split between Novick and Neville. "

How involved in the campaign were you, EBT, to know that ?

In a variety of downstate counties, Novick +Neville did not = Merkley's vote.

There was an attitude among some Novickians that they had the revealed truth and all good people would support their guy, after all, he has a hard left hook--what else do we need to know?
As I said before, had Steve been outspoken on the 2003 speech in 2003, that would have been a different matter.

EBT, you are angry that Jeff gave a speech you didn't like. Did you express your outrage in 2003?
Or was it just when Steve was running for office that you became outraged at the speech?

In 3 decades as a political volunteer, "Vote for my candidate because the opponent made a speech years ago I find offensive" was never a reason I voted for anyone.

Certainly there are better topics to discuss in Jan. 2009.

Obviously "pcolfan" was an ardent support of Jeff Merkley for Senate. Seriously, at this point it's like arguing with a Fundamentalist.

Posted by EastBankThom on 01/28/09 at 11:14AM

pcolfan, if you're going to willfully ignore my responses, then there really is no point. It's not the speech that irks me so, it's the lies he told after it. (Links in my first comment.)

As a matter of fact, my initial response when i heard about his vote to "acknowledge the courage of George W. Bush" was to give him a break.

Posted by: East Bank Thom | Aug 4, 2007 12:44:20 PM

... I'm with those right now saying let this pass.

And speaking of fundamentalists, ist looks like Merkely surrogate Kevin Kamberg of Preemptive Karma (and one time extra in a Merkley for Senate campaign ad) wants to pile on too. Sheesh... And as it turns out, "pcolfan is just a sock puppet for "LT" - one of the most curmudgeony of Blue0's devotees. And for good measure, Mitch Gore - the spooky "lestatdelc" who also trolls BO also piped in. The rest of the chatter, for your bemusement.

Posted by navvoter on 01/28/09 at 2:22PM

EBT's claim that he was merely offering Ms. Neville as a "spoiler" relevant to Jeff's post is belied by the fact that EBT squandered less pixels on that offering then he did on trying to reargue the merits of a thoroughly beaten-to-death issue.

Posted by pcolfan on 01/28/09 at 8:54PM

Thank you for your comments NAV voter--if Democrats are all supposed to think like EBT, I should become NAV---all I ever did was 3 decades as a volunteer, once a member of State Central Comm., once a national convention delegate. But I am one of those "radicals" who thinks for myself, therefore some people see me as subversive.

If that means I'm not real Democrat (not the first time I've been told that) because we were all supposed to be good little boys and girls and view the world through the eyes of Novick and Neville and shun Merkley, the Portland Democrats (Does DPO stand for Democratic Portland Organization) can have their party--they don't want me.

I also wonder how many campaigns EBT worked on (staff or volunteer) prior to the 2008 primary.

I looked up the counties Merkley won in Nov. other than Lane and Mult.
Here they are, with the margins. Only about a third of the margin between Gordon and Jeff..
6978 Benton
856 Clatsop
487 Columbia
975 Hood River
2633 Lincoln
5253 Washington

But as people have been saying for years, Mult., Clackamas, and Washington are major counties one needs to win. And for a Democrat to win 2 coastal counties and Hood River county is doing pretty well.

I suspect I know what the problem is----EBT wanted a candidate who sounded like Bernie Sanders, but that is not who the voters chose in the primary. They chose someone who sounds a lot more like Hatfield. Gordon wanted to be seen as Hatfield's successor, but he wasn't even close.

And I suspect many Oregonians see the fight over whether Merkley lied or was merely "not always on message with the truth" (wonderful line from former college student body president who later became a political consultant), who gave what speech when, who was polite or rude about the whole issue, why people were more publicly outraged about a 2003 speech in 2008 than in 2003, and other such debates as just so much inside baseball.

Steve is a very bright guy who should have a future in politics if he learns lessons from the 2008 primary. But if he thinks enough money to run the beer ad every day when some people were offended by it, or making fun of an opponent, or demanding that people agree with him is more helpful in winning votes than speaking out on poverty, or that ads which create buzz can substitute for a ground operation, he is likely to lose if he tries again.

I'm old enough to have had friends fight in the Vietnam War--one was a casualty. I never saw statements like "he was wrong on the war" to be helpful. When a friend worked as a young man in Wayne Morse's office his last year in the US Senate, I think that did more to advance the anti-war cause than attending rallies or speaking out the way Steve spoke out.

How long after the invasion was the HR 2 vote--less than 72 hours? Or was it weeks afterwards? What good would it have done with the great middle of the population to say that soon after an invasion that W was an SOB? Because Steve's friends wanted that? I don't recall Steve being that outspoken in 2003.
And a search of Blue Oregon showed some Novick supporters understanding Merkley's reason for his vote.

There was a quote in Jeff's speech,

"Today I rise to praise our young men and women serving our nation at great personal risk. Today we are not Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal; we are Americans concerned about the safety and support of our troops. "

There were people in the middle of the political spectrum who were going to decide the Nov. election. They included friends/family of those serving in Iraq. Did those folks really object to such language, or would they have found it comforting?

I know an Iraq vet who is an active Democrat. He spoke to a local Democratic audience in maybe 2004. Some people in that audience lambasted him for not coming back from Iraq and immediately joining an anti-war group. I thought that was bad manners and told a friend so--leading to a debate.

Friends, "Thank you for your service but if you come back from combat and join a political movement we don't agree with, you're not worthy of being treated with courtesy and good manners because all the good people agree with us" is what extremists do. It is what some people did to WWI veterans, much less any vet in an subsequent war. It is what the Bushies did to Gore, Cleland, Kerry. Democrats doing that to their own who were Guard, Reserve, or regular military because they didn't think like certain local Democrats is unbecoming behavior IMO.

I noticed Steve wasn't outspoken on veterans issues---for too long the subject of veterans was just a short paragraph on his website under the topic Defense.

Merkley had active support from veterans. But good people were not supposed to support him because EBT or TJ, Miles, Steph. V. on Blue Oregon supported Novick?

I spent too much of my life crusading as a volunteer for better treatment of veterans to say Merkley was a bad person because of what he said in that speech.
EBT doesn't like that, but then I would think twice in the future about supporting a primary candidate EBT supports unless there were other reasons to do so.

And if you don't like that, EBT, that is the way the Oreo disintigrates.

A friend of mine who had been involved in Oregon politics since the early 1970s (but wasn't big on using computers or blogging) called me up last spring. He said the Novick supporters on BO had no clue how to win statewide elections.

Turned out he was right--his % was wrong but he was correct in the geographic distribution of votes.

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Posted by EastBankThom on 01/29/09 at 8:08AM

I get it, pcolfan. You really, really like Merkley. Were you in his campaign commercials too like "Navvoter?

http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/02/merkley_novick_throw_a_few_elb.html#748721
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/03/will_smith_merkley_refight_the.html#847341

Pcol, Merkley gave a nice floor speech in defense of his vote to "acknowledge the courage of George W. Bush." It's a shame he went on to lie about the content of that speech.
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/04/from_the_vault_merkleys_antiwa.html#931312

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Posted by pcolfan on 01/29/09 at 1:27PM

You don't get it, do you EBT?

Even if every Merkley supporter and Jeff Merkley himself had said "You're right, that was a lie about the 2003 speech", Steve lost my vote in so many other ways that I would have left the ballot line blank before I would have voted for Steve. In a free country, voters do have that right.

I WAS genuinely undecided at the beginning of the primary. But because that meant I wasn't a devoted Novickian, Novick supporters attacked me for saying things as bland as "I like both Novick and Merkley, but on this issue, I think Merkley makes more sense when he says...".

No, I was not in any ad. Some of my friends were, like the one who read BO and said the bloggers for Steve had no clue how to win statewide elections. Were you in any Novick ad? Were you a volunteer or a staffer?

Once too often Novick supporters were really condescending or sarcastic---if I didn't think the beer ad helped the campaign, therefore I was a "Merkleyite". So I decided to get a Merkley bumper sticker. If that means that for the rest of your life you will look down on me, not my problem.

Politicians have to EARN votes. I registered NAV in 1996 because I was offended by Bruggere, but I was supposed to vote for Bruggere employee Novick that many years later because some people were preoccupied by a 2003 vote and later statements about it, so nothing else mattered? What world do you live in? A world where you wish I had remained NAV and could thus not have voted for Obama in the presidential primary and would have been excluded from the US Senate primary?

You keep dredging up old arguments as if peer pressure is an effective political tool. Steve should have learned from the Bruggere campaign that peer pressure alone doesn't win elections.

But right now I am more interested in state and national stimulus packages
http://www.blueoregon.com/2009/01/oregon-senate-passes-stimulus-package-on-to-the-house.html

If you are more interested in refighting the 2008 primary, not my problem.

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Posted by EastBankThom on 01/29/09 at 1:46PM

OMG! It is you, LT!
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2008/03/merkley_and_the_media.html#762514

Now i understand why it doesn't matter to you that Merkley lied about his anti-war cred.

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Posted by lestatdelc on 01/30/09 at 2:24PM

The problem with this polling is that it relies on self-labeling and identification as opposed wot what their views are on the issues.

If you look at polling on major issues, the overwhelming majority consistently favors positions which are labeled "liberal" even when those same voted self-identity as moderate, or even conservative.

Given the decades long PR campaign by the GOP and movement conservatives to make "liberal" the scarlet letter in politics, and akin to calling someone a commie back in the day, of course you will get voters rejecting that label even though their views on issues remains (and in some cases such as Universal Health Care, etc. become more) "liberal".

I see Hans (aka EBT) is still his whacked out, howling at the moon, self even after the election. Seek help.

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Posted by EastBankThom on 01/30/09 at 7:13PM

Lestat, are you like stalking me?
http://www.wweek.com/popup/comment.php?story=20608#c84583

On the other hand, LOL.

Life. Death and Kaiser

2009-01-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

In a horrific case of multiple murder/suicide, an LA father of 5 took the lives of his children and wife before killing himself. The parents had both lost their jobs at Kaiser Permanente.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A man apparently despondent about losing his job killed his wife and five children before turning the gun on himself, officials said Tuesday. The bodies of five children and two adults -- the children's mother and father -- were found Tuesday in a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington. Among the dead, authorities said, were an 8-year-old girl and two sets of twins -- 5-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys. [More...]

Meanwhile, another California Kaiser hospital was welcoming octuplets.

(CNN) -- California octuplets believed to be the nation's second live-born set were "doing very well" one day after their birth, and aside from some oxygen assistance, all the babies were breathing on their own, doctors said Tuesday...

During the delivery Monday, doctors were taking the babies out one by one, naming them for a letter of the alphabet and giving them to an assigned nurse, she said. After "G," the team thought they had all the babies, but "I said, 'Well, now we have H, everyone,'" she recalled.

"The G nurse became the H nurse, and took it over to the F doctor ... it just went seamlessly."

Multiple ultrasounds only found seven fetuses, she said. Asked how the eighth was missed, she said, "It is just a matter of positioning. The space is rather limited..."

The hospital has not answered questions about whether the mother had fertility treatments. [More...]

I find both of these stories disturbing...

Blacklisting is Bad Karma

2009-01-26T16:15:00.000-08:00

Back it 2007 i noted the emergence of the M.bots, a cadre of keyboard bullies who predictably went to bat for then Senate candidate Jeff Merkley. Merkley engaged the services of Kari and Carrie's Mandate Media who constructed what turned out to be at times a competent echo chamber which both recycled positive news regarding their clients and did its best to gin up scandal and outrage against the opponents of those paying Mandate.

Some blogs were created for the soul purpose of sockpuppetry. Not long after Merkley's recruitment to run for Senate, one of his interns, Jamal Raad created Forward Oregon along with the very verbose volunteer for Merkley, Bradley Dunn.

"We created this joint venture between, jraad and bdunn to examine the 2008 Oregon Senate Race, Oregon politics, and public policy. But Why? With three thesis to write, internships to complete, and an election to win why have we started ForwardOregon?"

Another example would be the blog Beaver Boundary from the pseudonymical "Taoiseach." No sooner had he lauched his new blog than he was getting front page recognition from Mandate's Blue Oregon. He ceased opperations after his cover was blown. The "Tao of smear" turned out to be Tom Powers, an aide to Rep. Mitch Greenlick. (It was Greenlick who lent his name to attacks from the Merkley camp appearing on Blue Oregon.)

A few exisiting blogs were already FOKers (friend of Kari). Other "reliable sources" promoting Mandate's Merkley message included the now defunct Witigonen as well as Kevin Kamberg's Preemptive Karma. (Kevin BTW prides himself on his role in a Merkley campaign commercial.) Just to finish the dots surrounding the incest which is Kari Chisholm and Oregon's left-leaning web media, it should be noted that Witigonen was founded by Michael Richardson, an employee of Mandate and Ben Dupree who was a Merkley media staffer. Dupree later joined Kamberg's PK. An original PK contributor, Carla Axtman, left the pro-Novick blog Loaded Orygun to work on the Merkley campaign, but quit before the endo fot he Primary. She was soon hired on as junior journalist at Mandate's Blue Oregon.

The point of recounting this revolving door history is simply to set the stage. I was reading an interesting piece on PK yesterday by Ben DuPree regarding the fallout of the Sam Adams scandal. [Editors note: Kari Chisholm iswas also on Adams' payroll.]

The Media Issue
by ben

According to Alex Blaze at the Bilerico Project, we have to think about this "scandal" as a media issue.

He cites Just Out's puzzling call for resignation. And he talks of former Senator Gordon Smith:

Gordon Smith, the former Republican Senator from the state of Oregon, lied in a series of campaign ads this past summer saying that his opponent, Jeff Merkley, voted against a bill to increase the statute of limitations for rape. [More...]

I thought that DuPree's basic premise had merit. I only quibbled with his example. But you won't find my response on Preemptive Karma any more. Kamberg, the alpha poodle of PK deleted it and banned me from further comment on his blog.

So for the record (with banned words in red)...

Whereas you make a valid point as to the capricious nature of the media when choosing which lies are worthy of headlines, i think you choose a poor example to illustrate your point.

Didn't Jeff Merkley lie when he claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this"?

I think better examples of the media turning a blind eye to significant lies are those of Eric Holder who lied about his involvement in the Marc Rich "pardon for dollars" scandal who is now Obama's Attorney General designate and US Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner who lied about his taxes.
East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 1:50 pm | #

Didn't Jeff Merkley lie when he claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this"?

No, Merkley didn't lie.

We've been over and over and over this, Hans. Enough is enough.
carla | 01.25.09 - 4:06 pm | #

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EBT isn't concerned about Holder being involved in the Marc Rich pardon, he's concerned that Holder will prosecute war crimes.
And so is Senator Cornyn.
And so should be all the war criminals.
Mac McFadden | 01.25.09 - 5:35 pm | #

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EBT isn't concerned about Holder being involved in the Marc Rich pardon

Mac, you fail at mind reading.
East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 8:30 pm | #

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No, Merkley didn't lie.

Hey Carla "axe to grind" man, you fail at truth.

You're not still on Merkley's payroll, are you? (Though i suppose as a new employee of Mandate, the revolving door still has its dues to pay.)
East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 9:02 pm | #

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Your comment contains too many links and will not be added

Preemptive Karma

LOL! P.S.

You can stamp your feet all you want, Ms. Axtman, Senator Merkley did lie (on various occasions) when he claimed he gave an "anti-war speech" on the floor of the house two days into the invasion which spoke "against the use of force" calling it a "terrible way to approach this." (These have all been previously sourced.)

Just compare these quotes/lies to the "floor speach" [sic] he actually gave in an attempt to explain his vote to "acknowledge the courage of George W. Bush."
East Bank Thom | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 9:05 pm | #

---------------------------------------------------------------------

East Bank Thom has been banned for his infantile cyber-bully tactics in the above comment.

I don't much care if he chooses to black out his own face on his blog and use a pseudonym. Some folks place a higher value on privacy than others and that's fine by me. But such a person crosses the line in attempting to bully other commenters by photoshopping their real faces and mocking them by their real names from behind the veil of privacy. It's actually something he has a long history of doing.

Edited By Siteowner
Kevin | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 9:55 pm | #

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Man Thom get a hobby man.
Ben | Homepage | 01.25.09 - 11:04 pm | #

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Hans:

If you really want to get down to getting personal, I suppose we could do that. But frankly, if you're not willing to allow your own name and information to be put out there--its skeezy of you to attempt to do it to others.
carla | 01.26.09 - 9:45 am | #

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Gawd, this seems strangely familiar...

Update: And speaking of Sockpuppetry...

Et tu, Blumenauer?

2009-01-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

I had spent well over a year actively criticizing my US Rep Earl Blumenauer for not sticking to his guns and holding Bush, Cheney & Co. accountable (Blumenauer faithfully followed House Speaker Nanci Pelosi who took Impeachment "off the table.") But with his minority opposition to the bank bailout, the looming prospect of Bush getting off scott free for his war crimes and a stab wound which still festers, i gave up activism as such (or so i told myself).

But this just in from Jeff Mape as the Oregonian:

I talked to Blumenauer a few hours ago and he said members regarded Thursday's action as a "free vote" against an unpopular bailout bill. The bailout's public standing hasn't been helped by the fact that in the four months since it was first approved, banks and other big financial institutions have received billions of dollars in taxpayer money - and the economy continues to tank. But Blumenauer said he decided to go the other way with his symbolic vote. He said he did not want to rhetorically punish Obama for what he saw as the sins of the Bush administration. [More...]

In a response that really stinks of the old Nixonian excuse "When we do it, it's ok" (paraphrased), Rep. Earl Blumenauer falls back into the column of quintessential hypocrite. There is nothing "symbolic" about selling out your responsibility to engage in oversight as a co-equal branch of government. Blumenauer to his credit was willing to vote against such blank checks back in September. But like his new Democratic colleague in the Senate, Jeff Merkely, it's Party politics as usual.

Hold your horses, Sam!

2009-01-21T10:07:00.000-08:00

Whoh, boy!
Already the calls are coming for Portland Mayor Sam Adams to resign, but what exactly for?

To read the news, it ought to be obvious why.

But when it comes down to the question, "Who did Sam do and when did he do him?" the truth may be far less scandalous than the salacious headlines. For the record, both Adams and his erstwhile boy toy Beau Breedlove, insist that the protegé in question was 18 at the time of their summer lovin' sexual encounter. Adams is adamant he did not break the law.

Without knowing more of the facts (and i don't think i want to know any more) who are we to condemn the intimate relationship between an 18 and a 42 year old. If we're saying that it's wrong then why don't be ban it outright. If you think Sam ought to resign then perhaps you ought to champion a law that would criminalize sex where the difference in age is more that 20 years.

But what would Hugh Hefner have to say about this? After all, the 82 year old entrepreneur is currently dating 19 year old twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon. Maybe you would just want to forbid the middle aged and elderly from fornicating with young adults half their age. But what would Hugh Hefner have to say about this? After all, he's more that twice age of both his girlfriends combined. (And notice, i didn't refer to the twins as "teens"!)

Perhaps Americans should been banned from having sex until they're 21? (But what would Hugh Hefner have to say about this?) Such a law wouldn't sit well with friends of Bush in Saudi Arabia, where their sort of Pope announced recently that it's a sin not to marry off girls once they hit 10. I'm just glad the the self-righteous sex brigade of modern American Christians has evolved beyond their biblical roots. After being spared the brimstone of Sodom, Lot fled to the hills where he sexed up his virgin daughters (on successive evenings). Nevertheless, the New Testament Christians revered him as "righteous." But by God, Sam must burn!

Maybe we're not all hypocrites. It's not the age thing (creepy as it might be - suit yourself) but "Sam took advantage of a subordinate." Well as it turns out, Sam lied about being Breedlove's "mantor." That was just a cover to explain why the abundance of cell phone records and text messages between the two. [U R sooo hot!] It turns out they were dating and that in typical fashion, one thing led to another and they wound up having sex. So, contrary to the bogus comparison drawn by Portland police union boss, Scott Westerman, then Councilman Adams was not engaging in a relationship with a subordinate.

"[Chief Foxworth] didn't even lie about his relationship but was deemed by the mayor and City Council not to be worthy to lead any longer," - WWeek [More...]

So, we may not like it if older adults pursue relationships with younger adults but that doesn't mean that we ought to go around throwing stones at chicken hawks and cougars. And now it seems the kernel of self-righteous indignation has been crystalized down to the undeniable, indeed admitted fact that Sam Adams had sex with an 18 year old guy. Sam lied!

It sounds trite to write, but if we required 100% truthfulness of all our elected officials then there would be a completely different political landscape out there. When a person's version of the truth doesn't quite match reality it merits investigating both the magnitude and mitigating circumstances of the lie. Was having sex with an 18 year old a big lie? That's a matter of opinion. But was it appropriate for Sam Adams, an elected official and potential political candidate, to lie in this instance? I guess i have to admit that i struggle with my answer to this. What i am more certain about is how i would have reacted had i been in Sam's eventual unenviable position.

Remember that the charge at the time of Sam's denial was not merely that of the embarrassing revelation of a single summer romp with a barely legal hunk of love. Bob Ball, himself homosexual and an aspirant to public office had been actively rumor mongering with the added twist that Sam was actually a pedophile and had had under aged sex with a 17 year old boy. In order to fend off the greater lie being bantered about by Ball, Adams - who was himself gearing up for his own Mayoral bid - opted for the counter lie. It's not a "white lie" as such, as the reason doesn't really stem from altruism.

I can't be sure, but i'm pretty sure i would have lied too. So as mad as i am with Sam, i don't want him to resign... at least not yet.

If it turns out that Sam broke the law, then there is a crime for which a just punishment ought to be dealt by a real judge (not the mobs, the press or irrelevant unscientific polls). I'm also more than curious about the hiring by Adams of Mercury journalist Amy Ruiz for the newly created and well paid position (55K/year) of "planning and sustainability policy adviser."

"Ruiz stopped reporting the story in late spring 2008 after she hit a dead end. On Oct. 27, Adams advertised the position, saying he "strongly preferred" applicants with two years' experience in urban planning or a related field.

Ruiz, 28, has a bachelor's degree in communications from Seattle University. She sent in her application Nov. 3 and interviewed for the position twice with Adams' staff, including once with Miller. Miller said he told Adams he wanted to hire Ruiz. Adams' response, according to Miller: "Great. Do what you do." - OregonLive [More...]

I'm just a bit more than uncomfortable with this whole rush to judgment. Certainly there are greater candidates for criticism? Or better put... Criticize him but don't can him.

(At least give him the benefit of a recall. That way we all get a vote - at least those who are interested come July).

Farewell. I mean, F*%# @ff

2009-01-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

Juvenile? Perhaps. I thought of throwing a shoe, but it might have actually hit the television and done some damage.

I spent most of the morning holed up by myself watching the Inauguration coverage. A friend emailed asking if i were in DC. I replied back, "No, i'm in my PJ's."

Reflections...

Bush: You got off scott free. I think you should swing for your crimes, just like Saddam. And give back the money your family and your Saudi friends stole.
Cheney: You just creep me out. You've been compared before to the evil Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. Thanks for completing the picture. Did you hurt your back shredding documents? Lift with your legs, dumbass! I think you deserve life in Gitmo. You're going to have to cough up all the cash you and your fellow war profiteers at Halliburton ripped off. But you might get a stipend for your future work as a guinea pig for "enhanced interrogation techniques."
Kuccinich: Nice seat. And thanks again for mine at the convention.
Warren: We don't all worship your gods. Your invocation was an offensive performance.
Aretha: My dad would have loved seeing you today.
Biden and Stevens: Palpable happiness.
Roberts: What was up with that "oaf of office"? Just because Obama didn't vote for you (and i'm sure verse-visa), that's no reason to flub your part.
Obama: Quinessential, cool.
Poem: Meh...
Benediction: Oh no you din't!

"We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right." - Rev. Joseph Lowery (full text)

My big brother came just before the playing of the national anthem. We stood together and then flew the colors. Then i took him out for a pint at the Hedge House. (Cheap pints on Tuesdays!)

We were back in time for the split screen of the Obama motorcade and the Adams public flogging. I was surprised he gave up his Inauguration plans (i'm sure they would have included nice seats and and a couple big balls) and kind of wish he had put this off a day.

Inauguration Day of a lifetime!

2009-01-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

All I can say, is "Wow!"

And now it's official!
www.whitehouse.gov

(CNN) -- In keeping with the theme that swept President Obama into the Oval Office, change has come to the official White House Web site. Almost at the instant Obama was sworn in, www.whitehouse.gov relaunched with a redesign to signal a new era in government. Gone was the staid site of the Bush White House, replaced by a dynamic new site reflective of his tech-savvy successor. [More...]

My new President!

Don't ask, don't broadcast

2009-01-19T11:47:00.000-08:00

Gay Bishop Gene Robinson Left Out Of HBO Concert Coverage
Jason Linkins, HuffingtonPost.com

Sunday's big Lincoln Memorial show was billed as the "We Are One" concert, intended to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama with a spirit of unity. But for those of us watching at home, one participant was excluded -- Gene Robinson, the "first openly gay, non-celibate priest to be ordained a bishop in a major Christian denomination." Robinson was on hand to deliver an opening prayer to the event, but this prayer went unseen by anyone watching on HBO, who provided and sponsored the coverage. [HuffPo: More...]

And so it's with mixed emotions that a I truly look forward to tomorrow.

Say it ain't so, Sam

2009-01-19T09:40:00.000-08:00

"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
George W. Bush

As it turns out, he was wrong about that too.

When Bill Clinton wagged his finger and insisted he "did not have sex... with that woman," I believed him. Fool me once. For the record, i believe that the Congressional rebuke, impeachment, was appropriate - not for the non-crime of sewing wild oats in the White House, but for lying about it under oath.

When then candidate for Portland Mayor Sam Adams in turn vociferously denied any sexual relationship with his intern, I believed him too - and sent him a campaign contribution to spite his detractors. Dammit, Sam, you fooled me again!

Here's what you claimed when the scandal first broke:

An Open Letter to Portlanders

By Sam Adams

Dear Portlander,

As you have probably seen in the media, I have been the target of a nasty smear by a would-be political opponent. I will not dignify the substance of this smear by repeating it - if you read the accounts you will see there is no foundation to it. The reason is simple: it is untrue.

This kind of ugly politicking may be commonplace in other cities and at the national level, but Portland and Oregon largely has been blessedly free of it. It saddens me that it has been introduced here, and I have faith that Portlanders' rejection of it will mean that this incident is an anomaly.

About this attempted smear, here is what I want to say.

I have in the past, and I will in the future, respond to people who reach out to me for help and advice. This is especially true when it comes to young people.

Growing up in Newport and Eugene, Oregon I remember when I was a teenager and I had nobody who I felt I could talk to at a time I desperately needed someone to give me advice and perspective about coming to terms with being gay. I came through it. Not everyone does.

Gay youth suicide rates, homelessness and depression are still too high. And adequate services have been lacking: Reasons why I co-founded Portland's Q Center, served on the Boards of Cascade AIDS Project, Basic Right Oregon and lobbied the state legislature in support of statewide non-discrimination laws.

I didn't get into public life to allow my instinct to help others to be snuffed out by fear of sleazy misrepresentations or political manipulation. I understand the need for good judgment, and I keep within the bounds of propriety -- as I did in this case.

I'm glad that people consider me as a person they could come to for help, understanding and support. I work at it. And I hope that you do too. Local programs needing mentors have long waiting lists.

About my political future: this attempted smear will not deter me from serving Portland in the best way I know how. Soon I will be with sharing with you my future political plans.

With warm regards,

Sam

No doubt, the erstwhile mayoral candidate, Bob Ball, who first publicized the affair (and went so far as to accuse Adams of statutory rape) is and remains a scumbag. But this post is not about him. For as it turns out, Sam did have sex... with that man.

What a fool.

A dream achieved?

2009-01-19T07:19:00.000-08:00

Maybe not the full dream, but as Mary Poppins said, "Begun is half done."

Thank you, Dr. King.

Kremer vs. Kari

2009-01-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

Little did i know when i decided to take in a bit of KXL's Kremer Komedy Hour last Saturday, that this little pundit that could out of Oregon's Right field would prove to provide even more amusement.

In a scathing post directed at the DPO's media megaphone, Kari Chisholm, Kremer takes the mean man from Mandate to task for blatant plagiarism. He points to a recent quote by Chisholm: "In Republican circles, there ain't nothing that succeeds like total, epic failure" and responded with the following admonition:

Hey! Kari! Write your own stuff!

Anyone who knows me has heard me say the same exact thing as a motto for Oregon. I've said it many times on the air, and a simple search of my blog shows the times I have written it down here.

I did search Kremer's blog and sure enough, he's been blogging the line "Portland: Where nothing succeeds like failure" since January, 2008!

The problem is, it's a cliché. (Does Rob Kremer think he invented blogging, too?) Or perhaps he should expand his wordsmith witchhunt to include Daniel Pipes of the Jerusalem Post, who entitled an article in February 2001:

Nothing succeeds like failure

This was clearly a pre-emptive copyright infringement!

In defense of Kari Chisholm, he's less likely to take credit for somebody else's words than to try and hide his own authorship when he's using Blue0 to shill for his clients. He got busted for this right around the time Willy Week nominated him as Rogue of the Week "for excessive use of bullshit in his mud-slinging."

After getting caught with his and in the internet cookie jar, he managed this excuse:

Posted by: Kari Chisholm | Aug 28, 2007 11:02:59 AM

actually, Kari DID post this entry.

Um, folks... Yes, I did write this entry. I didn't say that I didn't. You'll note that I post a version of the "please don't assume" comment every single time that someone suggests that I wrote a particular post. I've done it dozens of times over the last year.

I write many of the posts. I don't write all of them. When I'm posting my opinions, I do it over my own name. When it's in the "Voice of BlueOregon", it's much more neutral. (That is neutral/progressive - not neutral/neutral.)

Then he went ahead and fiddled with his blog so as to further disguise the "neutral" voice of BO. (But he forgot to tell his co-editors... oops!)

Worst President EVAR!

2009-01-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

Over 70% respond "Stinky" but 1 out of 5 still like Bush. (All hail the American Taliban!)

(CBS) President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent... Mr. Bush's final approval rating is the lowest final rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70 years ago. [More...]

Kremer vs. Kremer vs. Truth

2009-01-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

Trust me, you can't afford Rob Kremer's brand of "fiscal conservatism."

Would you buy a used car from this guy?

One of Rob Kremer's day jobs is that of political fundraiser for Oregon's con- Right. In mid-February of last year he founded the "Con - Majority Project" PAC. He writes the following there:
(What? Me worry about facts?)

Rob Kremer is Founder and President of the Oregon Education Coalition, which has been active in the school policy debate since 1998. In the 1999 Legislative Session, Rob led the effort to pass Oregon’s charter school law. Since then, he has directly involved [sic] in helping start more than three dozen charter schools, including the four Arthur Academy Charter Schools, of which he is co-founder.

Indeed, rarely is the question asked, "Is our right wingnuts proofreading?" Him speak pretty some day.*

Rob also writes a blog where the front page shines insight into his paranoia regarding / obsession with "socialism." From the anti-Socialist himself:

Portland, Oregon is occupied territory. It was invaded years ago by a non-native species of political animal from back east who took over our political and cultural institutions in order to try out their utopian socialist dreams on our great state. This blog will chronicle the insurgency that is trying to free Oregon from the occupiers' grip by shining a bright light on their most egregious schemes.

It sounds scary, but to read his blog, it's mostly funny (pages)... and a little bit sad.

And completing his trifectic strangle-hold on Socialism, Rob Kremer has his own Hannity & Colmesesque radio show on KXL, Kremer & Abrams. (And not that Marc Abrams is anything like that soggy milquetoast Alan Colmes used to be!) Today, former US Senate candidate Steve Novick was sitting in for Abrams (who was visiting his fiancé in California) so i tuned in for a bit.

The bones of 4228 US service personnel to pick...

In an old twist on tired attempts to justify George W. Bush's war crime, Kremer (a self described fiscal conservative) threw out some pretty outlandish numbers in order to assert that despite the money pit of a fiasco which is the Iraq debacle, it still pencils out to be cheaper than the pre-invasion monitoring protocols carried out against the Saddam regime since George H. W. Bush suckered the Butcher from Baghdad into invading Kuwait back in 1990 and the Great Coalition kicked the Iraqis back out the following year.

According to Kremer, a decade of simply monitoring Iraq as we had been doing (successfully as it turned out) would have cost us $700 Billion. Yes, this is a huge exaggeration. Nevertheless, Mr. Kremer, the champion of education who demonstrates questionable verbal skills (see above) also fails at math.

The Dick Cheney administration (a subsidary of Halliburton) had already conned a feckless Congress into authorizing a half trillion dollars by the 5th anniversary of Shock and Awe. With a present "burn rate" of $10-14 Billion a month, the direct costs to the US taxpayers will hit one Trillion dollars by the end of this year.

In case you need help with the arithmetic, Rob, that's $300 Billion more than your fiscally conservative solution. Even for Republican fat cats, that's an an Obama sized chunk of change.

As i mentioned before, Rob Kremer exaggerates the cost of containment when it came to Saddam, the paper lion. As near as i can tell, he derives his fanciful financial figure from a February 2006 study done by Steven J. Davis, et. al. The authors admit that the actual annual "cost of containment" had been $14.5 Billion per year. Based upon a series of dire assumptions (including another successful terrorist attack inside the US) they calculated that the cost of mere monitoring (along with the occasional air strike) might range from $350-700 Billion.

"We model the possibility that an effective containment policy might require the mounting of costly threats and might lead to a limited war or a full-scale regime-changing war against Iraq at a later date. We also consider the possibility that the survival of a hostile Iraqi regime raises the probability of a major terrorist attack on the United States."

In other words, they added to the real cost of containment the probability that the US would invade Iraq regardless (evidently adopting the Donald Rumsfeld Invasion Lite™ numbers), and they added in a doomsday scenario to boot. Naturally, Kremer only quoted the upper end figure. (By the way, higher end estimates for the total cost of the Iraq war exceed $3 Trillion. ("The government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years." - HuffPo, May 11, 2008. More...)

What's more, the authors of the $700 Billion containment theory published a follow up in March, 2008. In it, they revise their numbers and refute Rob Kremer:

"The Iraq intervention has proved to be much costlier for the United States than our baseline estimate for the cost of containment (roughly 300 billon 2003 dollars) and at least as costly as the most pessimistic containment scenario we considered..." [More: pdf]

Perhaps these scholars weren't even the source for Kremer's right wing talking point. (But i prefer not to think that he just pulled the $700 figure out of his imagination.) In the end his math, his logic (and of course, his politics) fail.

Near the end of the show Kremer claimed that person for person, public transit is costlier than private means of transportation. I can't wait to learn how he's cooking up these numbers. Mmmmm... Hot pot of Republican bullshit, comin' right up!

*[Disclaimer: Even though i am not paid to publish this blog, i accept any and all pot/kettle accusations for the multitude of typos and out right spelling errors in my own writing. In my defense, i believe i am experiencing adult onset dyslexia.]

Obama opposes gay marriage, says he likes Bush

2009-01-16T22:27:00.001-08:00

Either President-elect Obama is faking Right, or we're about to let another corrupt Republican President get off scott free.

BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio (CNN) -- After two years of traveling around the country and criticizing President Bush, President-elect Barack Obama said Friday that he "always thought [Bush] was a good guy." [More...]

A trillion here, a trillion there...

2009-01-15T23:22:00.000-08:00

So the US House has fleshed out the Senate's "sense" that the government ought to "create jobs, restore economic growth, and strengthen America's middle class." The "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009" was introduced today as H.R. __ (as in House Resolution "Fill in the Blank). It's 258 pages long, so hit the link and start delving into the devilish details.

It's going to take a team of readers exercising a bit of common sense to separate the recovery parts from the pork, but at first glazed eyed glance, there seems to be a lot in terms of investment for infrastructure, education and energy. Unlike the bank bailout which gave away billions in a faith based bid to stave off economic collapse, this new bill explicitly creates jobs. Yes, Martha, that's a good thing.

Update: ReadTheStimulus.org has put together a useful spreadsheet.

Shut up and go home

2009-01-15T17:14:00.000-08:00

And get a good lawyer.

Prosecute.

Convict.

Execute.

Voting Merkally

2009-01-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

Jeff Merkley ran for the US Senate as a populist. But lacking deep grassroots support, he ran on Chuck Schumer's dime, and today we witnessed the first payback.

In the course of the campaign, Merkley repeatedly assailed his opponent Sen. Gordon Smith for canceling out the votes of Oregon's "senior" Senator, Ron Wyden. But when it came to one of the most important votes in his new career as a DC politician, Sen. Merkley did not vote with his Democratic colleague. He didn't even vote his conscience.

When then candidate Merkley went on the record regarding the Reid-Pelosi-Bush $700 Billion bank bailout, he to the opportunity to slam Smith and while lauding Wyden.

"I commend Ron Wyden for standing up for taxpayers and doing what is necessary to restore accountability on Wall Street. The easy thing to do would have been to vote yes on this bill. I have dedicated much of my life to advocating for consumers and I believe it is just wrong to spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to bailout the very Wall Street financiers who created this crisis. This bill will allow those same executives to walk away with golden parachutes, while doing nothing to end the abuses of oversight that caused this mess or help working families who need their own economic rescue. This proposal is badly flawed and adding a number of important unrelated items, no matter how worthy, does not fix the problems with this bailout."

The first $350 Billion vanished into air thick with golden parachutes in the planning. And today when the new Democratic super Senate was called on to exercise some oversight with respect to the last half of the bailout money, they bailed. Jeff Merkley cast his vote with Schumer and against Wyden and and sold out the US Taxpayer when he endorsed this second $350 Billion blank check.

Update: And it didn't take the Treasury long before they began pissing it away. (Couldn't we at least wait for Obama's cronies to get their hands on the loot?)

Big loss at Bank of America as feds give it $20 billion more
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — With a new round of turmoil gripping the financial markets, the Bush administration late Thursday night rushed $20 billion in emergency funding for Bank of America. [More...]

Tim the tax cheat

2009-01-14T18:14:00.000-08:00

Timothy Geithner, failed to pay taxes
Carl Mortished, World Business Editor

The man chosen by President-elect Obama to run the US Treasury failed to pay $34,000 in taxes over several years in the first half of the decade. [More...]

So what will Geitner's excuse be? "Ooops"? "I couldn't figure out my tax forms"? And this is the guy who is supposed to decide how to give out the rest of the bailout money ($350 Billion) much less rescue the economy? The barbarians have already broken down the gates and are now plunding house to house.

Saudi Grand Mufti likes pre-teen muff

2009-01-14T17:49:00.001-08:00

The Bush crime family has been in bed with the Saudis for decades. For the life of me, i will never understand how George II became and remains the paragon of virtue for evangelical Christians.

Bandar Bush and Condi Rice look on as Kings George and Abdullah kiss.

It's an injustice to NOT marry girls aged 10, says Saudi cleric
By Daily Mail Reporter

Ten-year-old girls are ready for marriage, according to Saudi Arabia's most senior cleric.

Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al Sheikh, the country's grand mufti, told Al Hayat newspaper that those saying ten or 12-year-old girls are too young to marry are being 'unfair' to them. [More...]

Goodbye Gitmo

2009-01-13T17:41:00.000-08:00

Finally, some good news to report. After beginning to waver on his commitment to close the American concentration camp in Occupied Cuba, President-elect Barack Obama said today he would call for the immediate closure of the site where war crimes were perpetrated on the orders of Vice President Dick Cheney.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama plans to order the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay as early as his first week in office to show a break from the Bush administration's approach to the war on terror, according to two officials close to the transition. (More...)

Dick Cheney, himself a war criminal/profiteer, achieved a generous payback for the company he oversaw as CEO before George W. Bush tapped him to be his runningmate/babysitter. In one of the most agregious examples of scandalous quid pro quo, Cheney continued to rake in of $200,000 a year from Halliburton, even as he lied to Americans that he no longer had a financial interest in company he ran in between his most stints in government.

“Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush's vice president, I've severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest," the Vice President said. "I have no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind and haven't had, now, for over three years.” (RawStory: More...)

In return, Halliburton has been awarded over $21 Billion in government contracts, including including the gulag in Gitmo.

Sarah hates us

2009-01-13T10:47:00.000-08:00

Alaska Governor and Republican standard bearer Sarah Palin continued her rant against the media today and broadened her attacks to include bloggers. (Presumably because they insist on talking about inconvenient truths such as her own premarital sex, her daughter's baby born out of holy wedlock, her expensive taste in clothes and her incredible lack of knowledge)

(CNN) — Sarah Palin fired a new salvo in her war on the media, unloading in a new interview on her home state paper and “bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie.”

The Alaska governor, who has granted a steady stream of interviews since Election Day, also told an Esquire reporter that she wishes she had told McCain campaign advisors she’d be “callin’ some of the shots.”

"Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie annoy me….

I'll tell you, yesterday the Anchorage Daily News, they called again to ask — double-, triple-, quadruple-check — who is Trig's real mom,” she said, in an interview to be published in the magazine’s March issue.

“And I said, Come on, are you kidding me? We're gonna answer this? Do you not believe me or my doctor? And they said, No." [More...]

Queer pro quo

2009-01-12T20:27:00.000-08:00

President-Elect Barack Obama, seeking to quell nearly 4 weeks of criticism from pro-choice groups as well as the gay community for selecting the mega-church evangelical superstar Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation for January 20th's swearing in ceremony, has thrown the GLBT community a bone by inviting Bishop Gene Robinson to deliver the invocation at the kickoff of Obama's inauguration this Sunday before the Lincoln Memorial.

(CNN) — The Rev. Gene Robinson, Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire, has accepted an invitation issued by the Obama team prior to the announcement of the Rev. Rick Warren’s selection to deliver the invocation at the president-elect’s swearing-in, Politico reported Monday.

Robinson had been a critic of Warren’s role, calling his inclusion in the event “really, really unfortunate” because of the California minister's support for California's Prop. 8, which barred same-sex marriage. [More...]

Joe the Reporter

2009-01-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

Grimly reaping the rewards of his 15 minutes of infamy, Samuel Wurzelbacher - the Republican plant who tried and failed to extract a macaca moment from Barack Obama - is now on the dole of the conservative media outlet, Pajamas Media (pjtv.com). He's been sent on a ten-day tour to the Holy Land to report on the conflict in Gaza.

True to his fascist instincts, his personal preference would be to ban journalists from war zones.

“I think media should be abolished from, you know, reporting,” Wurzelbacher said. “You know, war is hell. And if you’re gonna sit there and say, ‘well, look at this atrocity,’ well you don’t know the whole story behind it half the time, so I think the media should have no business in it.”

He shared with his fellow journalists several other nuggets of nonsense and hypocrisy...

“[I'm a] peace-loving man,” but "when someone hits me, I'm going to unload on the boy.”

God bless Joe the vigilante. “I’m in the bunker, I’m sitting there angry, outright furious, that I’m letting this terrorist dictate what I’m going to do because they’re firing missiles,” Wurzelbacher said. “It was fear at first, then outright anger, and then me wanting some kind of retribution. I’m not a person that runs from things, but when it’s a missile, you run.” (CNN: more...)

What is it with these right wing nuts who hate government, the media and education and in turn lie and cheat their way into office and create their own media empires which seek to rule us rather than inform?

Obama picks Dick

2009-01-09T11:46:00.000-08:00

President-elect Barack Obama announced his pick today of Megachurch pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation January 20th . The selection of Warren while controversial is nonetheless not surprising. It was convenient for Obama's Republican detractors when he was named the "most liberal Senator of 2007," but his votes in favor of FISA and the bank bailout as well as his opposition to gay marriage leave many progressives scratching their collective heads.

Warren's outspoken support for California's gay marriage ban, Prop 8 as well as his garden of Eden variety of fundamentalist evangelicalism (he preaches that domestic abuse is not a biblically valid reason for divorce) has already led to some criticism.

“In honoring Mr. Warren, the president-elect confers legitimacy on attitudes that are deeply contrary to the all-inclusive love of God,” said Episcopal Bishop John Chane of Washington. “He is courting the powerful at the expense of the marginalized, and in doing so, he stands the gospel on its head.” [More...]

Don't cry for me Alaskatina

2009-01-08T12:04:00.000-08:00

Palin had tough words for Tina Fey and Katie Couric.

(CNN) — Sarah Palin is credited with making Tina Fey a world-wide star and boosting Katie Couric's ratings at CBS.

But in a recent interview with conservative John Ziegler, Palin said both "exploited" her twelve-week candidacy — a fact, she said, that "says a great deal about our society.” [More...]

From TARP to ARRA?

2009-01-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

George Bush and the Democrats gave us TARP (the Troubled Asset Relief Program), essentially a a Trillion dollar tarp to cover the fat asses of the Wall Street fat cats.

The US Senate (presumably on the direction of President-Elect Obama) has now introduced what should be a truly Democratic economic recovery package as opposed to the Republican billionaire bailout bill. (I think?) It's the American Recovery and Investment Act. I say i think the package will represent Democrat ideals because the devil's in the details, and Senate Bill 1 seems a little short on them.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Placed on Calendar in Senate)

S 1 PCS

Calendar No. 1 111th CONGRESS 1st Session

S. 1

To create jobs, restore economic growth, and strengthen America's middle class through measures that modernize the nation's infrastructure, enhance America's energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

January 6, 2009

Mr. REID (for himself, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. KERRY, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. BEGICH, Mrs. BOXER, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. BINGAMAN, Mr. CASEY, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Ms. STABENOW, Mrs. MCCASKILL, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, Mrs. CLINTON, Mr. SCHUMER, and Mr. BROWN) introduced the following bill; which was read the first time

January 7, 2009

Read the second time and placed on the calendar

A BILL

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009'.

SEC. 2. JOB CREATION, ECONOMIC GROWTH, AND A STRONG MIDDLE CLASS.

It is the sense of Congress that Congress should enact, and the President should sign, legislation to create jobs, restore economic growth, and strengthen America's middle class through measures that--

(1) modernize the nation's infrastructure;

(2) enhance America's energy independence;

(3) expand educational opportunities;

(4) preserve and improve affordable health care;

(5) provide tax relief; and

(6) protect those in greatest need.

Ok? Sounds nice. But where are the details?!? I read the entire TARP and knew it was trash.

Blagojevich: F***ing golden!

2008-12-09T14:02:00.000-08:00

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich got caught with his hand in the cookie jar trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

CHICAGO — Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was roused from bed and arrested Tuesday after prosecutors said he was caught on wiretaps audaciously scheming to sell Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for cash or a plum job for himself in the new administration.

"I've got this thing and it's (expletive) golden," the 51-year-old Democrat said of his authority to appoint Obama's replacement, "and I'm just not giving it up for (expletive) nothing. I'm not gonna do it." [HuffPost: More...]

Gov. Blagojevich should pull a Spitzer, swallow his pride and resign from office. Barring that, Illinois legislature should act promptly to impeach the Governor and the state senate should effect his removal from office (unless of course the FBI mistakenly wiretrapped the wrong public servants).

Geithner for Pirate Captain

2008-11-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

Word is out that President-elect Barack Obama will nominate Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy J. Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury. With stocks rising nearly 500 points, Wall Street seems to be welcoming the news. So color me suspicious.

Geithner was a deputy under Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, a right-wing deregulationist. Geithner himself has been at the heart of the big bank bailout, engineering the rescue of Bear Sterns for which the US taxpayers are out $29 Billion.

Three Blind Mice
By KAREN TUMULTY AND MASSIMO CALABRESI

The largest government bailout in U.S. history was born before dawn on Sept. 17, when Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke woke up at 6 a.m., checked his BlackBerry and saw the very thing he had dreaded: the futures market in free fall. Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and New York Fed president Timothy Geithner had spent the past year staving off one disaster after another, for the most part working behind the scenes. Earlier in the month, they had let investment bank Lehman Brothers slide into oblivion and then ushered another, Merrill Lynch, into the arms of Bank of America. Just the night before, the trio had wrapped up a deal to rescue insurance giant American International Group and gone to bed praying it would halt the panic and worrying it wouldn't. It didn't. [Time: More...]

This is not the change I was hoping for...

Hold off on Holder

2008-11-18T23:41:00.000-08:00

Word is out today that President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Clinton era Deputy AG Eric Holder to the top spot in the Justice Department. This is not the change we were looking for.

Holder, the highest ranking Africa-American in the DOJ, served admirably under Bill Clinton. But he sullied his legacy with his involvement in Clinton's midnight pardon of white-collar corporate crook, Marc Rich, whose wife had bribed the Democratic Party in order to secure the pardon (which came just hours before George W. Bush assumed office in the stolen election of 2000.

Eric Holder lied* before Congress when he testified that he had first heard of the plan to pardon Rich (who was a fugitive at the time) late in November 2000. Email has since come to light which indicate Eric Holder was approached for the quid pro quo pardon eas early as February 2000.

[Holder] contends he knew little about the Rich case, and would have opposed a pardon application if it had come across his desk.But former White House Counsel Beth Nolan, as well as Clinton, have said that Holder leaned in favor of the pardon. Nolan and the rest of Clinton's legal team opposed it. Also, Justice's pardon attorney Roger Adams has testified that Holder knew that Rich was a fugitive before he did, and yet Holder didn't tell Adams. (WorldNetDaily: More...)

Now more than ever, America needs a leader in the Department of Justice free of the taint of corruption.

*I'm not a lawyer, and i don't pretend to play one on this blog. So i suppose i should include this disclaimer that these are mere my opinions that Marc Holder is lying. It could be he's simply incompetent (although i doubt that... Seems like he came through for this one big spender).

Goldman Sachs Golden Boy

2008-10-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

Two years ago, he was a VP at Goldman Sachs. Then his old boss, the former GS CEO, brought him to DC. Now Neel Kashkari (as in "cash and carry") is the big kahuna in charge of doling out Bush's bailout. Priceless.

Obey me.	On Tuesday Neel Kashkari, 35, an assistant secretary of the Treasury, was named interim head of the Office of Financial Stability by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The office will run the $700 billion financial bailout program signed into law Friday. [More...]

MBA kills family, self as stocks tumble

2008-10-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

Even his gated community wasn't able to shelter this unemployed financial advisor. Previously of PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sony Pictures, he had been out of work for months. He shot to death his mother-in-law, his wife and their three children (ages, 7, 12 and 19) before killing himself in the McMansion development of Sorrento Pointe. [More...]

The Dow dropped below 10,000 for the first time in four years.
But losses are pared in half after Dow drop reaches 800 points on credit crisis.

By Alexandra Twin, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: October 6, 2008: 4:13 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks plunged Monday, with the Dow down as much as 800 points during the session, as the $700 billion bank bailout plan and European government attempts to prop up faltering banks failed to comfort panicky investors. [More...]

US to produce propaganda for Iraqi TV

2008-10-03T14:35:00.001-07:00

While Congress was distracted handing over $700 Billion to former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson, this mere million dollar waste went unnoticed.

U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media

By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 3, 2008; Page A01

The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government. [More...]

Market tanks as rescue plan passes

2008-10-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Wall Street ended its worst week in seven years with another tumble on Friday on fears that the $700 billion financial rescue package may not unblock credit markets and stave off a U.S. recession. [more...]

Blum and Gloom LXIII

2008-10-02T14:44:00.000-07:00

[Week 62 / Week 63 / Week 64]

[video h/t Joe Anybody]

Hank wants to pay off your credit card

2008-09-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Well... not really.

You still have to pay up or face the repo man. But for those poor credit card companies that took a chance on you and kept loaning you money, Bush's Treasury Secretary (and former Goldman Sachs CEO) wants to use your tax dollars to pay off the debt.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (OR-04) reported how he and others objected to this provision in the Democratic caucus and it was stripped. But by the time the billionaire bailout bill came up for a vote, Paulson and his cronies had inserted this language (which Pelosi and Reid must have been comfortable with.)

(9) TROUBLED ASSETS.—The term “troubled assets” means—
(A) residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before March 14, 2008, the purchase of which the Secretary determines promotes financial market stability; and
(B) any other financial instrument that the Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, determines the purchase of which is necessary

In other words, if Hank thinks it's necessary to bail out credit card companies, it would have been alright by the Democratic Congress.

For the sake of Saint Peter, BLANK VOTE every spineless pol who is willing to let Bush ride out his presidency while the country collapses.

Market tanks as bailout sinks

2008-09-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

QUICK! PANIC!!!

The "compromise version of the bailout was rejected today 228 to 205* with Republicans killing it.

Democrats: 140 voted "yea" and 95 voted "nay"

Republicans: 65 voted "yea" and 133 voted "nay"

*The vote was held open in an attempt to arm twist a few more "yea" votes, but instead Representatives began switching their votes to "nay" at which point the gavel came down and the New York Stock Exchange dropped 700 points.

The main enforcer for the Republicans, John Boehner, House Minority leader (and jerk from Ohio) failed to get a majority of his caucus on board and so he came out to blame Nancy Pelosi, who sold most of her Democrats this illiquid bill of goods. Rep Roy Blunt (MO-07) is Boehner's lieutenant but as Minority Whip for Republicans, he preferred to blame "Jewish holidays" for his failure.

Some young attack poodle representing the GOP (Eric Cantor, VA-07) waved Nancy Pelosi's floor speech and he too blamed her for the bill's failure. Evidently there were originally enough Republican votes to pass the bailout, but so many got their feelings hurt by Nancy that they stamped their feet and refused to play along.

According to Speaker Pelosi, both parties were responsible for corraling votes from half of their respective caucuses. She did her part to sell out taxpayers. It was the Republican leadership that didn't live up to the back room bargain.

I for one am glad this bill failed. Despite what you're being told, it still allows for golden parachutes, it still means an American taxpayer bailout for foreign owned banks and it still allows the Secretary of Treasury to rewards his friends on Wall Street by buying "toxic" financial instruments (ie. junk) at 100% of their origin purchase price (even though they're currently worthless).

So thank you, petulant Republicans for putting your own pride first and scuttling this bad bill at the last moment. Thanks also to Peter DeFazio (OR-04), the Dean of the Oregon delegation to Congress who opposed the bill from the start for the right reasons and amazingly kudos to my Representative, Earl Blumenauer (OR-03) who broke with his leader in the House and voted, no.

I appreciate the gentleman's [Barney Frank's] courtesy, as I credit his mastery for bringing this bill before us today. Thanks to his leadership, the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, the cooperation of the Republicans, it is a far better bill. But unfortunately this is not likely to be the end of the bubbles. ...

We cannot continue to bail out with borrowed money. No bill should be enacted without a payback from the financial services sector. Not a hint of a promise to pay back in five years. And at the core, we are ignoring the fundamental question about the size and scale of the financial services industry that is in trouble not just because of a lack of regulation, but because we had too many people pursuing unsustainable business practices.

We have seen an irresponsible bill change into a responsible bill. It's not as good as it should be and sadly may be beside the point. I will vote no reluctantly hoping I am wrong but fearing that I am right.

Barney Frank (D), whose committee was responsible for the compromise plan and who worked hard for its passage took to the microphone to castigate the Republican leadership for not meeting its target number of votes and then he lit into the 12 Republicans who changed their minds at the end and scuttled the bill after Nancy Pelosi's floor speech. He then said he's taking tomorrow off for Rosh Hashannah.

Members first saw the bill yesterday afternoon according to Speaker Pelosi. You would think given the difficulty of getting majority support from either party that Congress would cancel their holidays until the crisis is averted.

As soon as John McCain figures out what his stance should be, he'll chime in. Barack Obama is already addressing the failed bailout while out on the hustings.

UPDATE: 2:10 PDT
John McCain addresses the bailout.

(Just kidding... he's still napping...)

Paulson still too powerful under "compromise" bill

2008-09-29T08:46:00.000-07:00

The crazy ass fox is still guarding the hen house under the Democrat-improved and soon to be bi partisan approved bank bailout bill. Treasury Secretary Henry "Hank" Paulson is already earning his golden parachute from from Goldman Sachs.

Treasury Gets Broad Power in Bailout Bill to Hire Contractors
By Rebecca Christie

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will have broad authority to hire financial managers quickly to help manage a $700 billion asset-purchase plan, according to the draft legislation under consideration.

Bush's original 3 page proposal gave Paulson unlimited authority to spend the $700 Billion. The current bill still gives him plenty of wiggle room to have a free hand to enrich his buddies.

If the plan is enacted, the Treasury likely will need a lot of Wall Street expertise to manage the assets it acquires, said Tim Ryan, head of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association. Ryan also is former director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, which oversaw the Resolution Trust Corp., the agency that liquidated failed thrifts after the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s.

``What we learned through the RTC process is, if we're going to throw this type of assignment at the government -- any government, state, federal, U.S., anywhere -- they're not staffed to deal with this issue,'' Ryan said in an interview last week.

Treasury's potential hiring of contractors to run the program will help because ``they'll just do a better job and they'll get it done faster, and ultimately it'll be cheaper,'' Ryan said.

Color me skeptical. We're spending $10-12 Billion a month in Iraq because we have outsourced the Occupation. I see another boondoggle here.

Paulson has already recruited from Wall Street to help manage the current financial crisis, the worst since the Great Depression. He hired Morgan Stanley on a $95,000 contract awarded under emergency procedures to help assess options for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage companies that ultimately ended up in government conservatorship.

Goldman Sachs

Paulson also last week hired former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. colleague Edward C. Forst, now executive vice president at Harvard University, on a $5,000 contract to help with the plan.

I know, I know... It's just chicken feed. The golden egg will be stolen with the help of these Wall Street pirates. Aaargh!