Dr. Fiancee and I are still watching Lost – Season 2
Needless to say, if you’re not current on your Lost episode-watching, stay away. Since these are re-caps, it’s Spoiler City.
Updates from February, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
National Journal: Grifters, fraudsters, and thieves go virtual.
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Jehuda
Steve Mason has the figures and analysis.
He’s Not That Into You beat Taken for the #1 spot.
Maybe I should just write a chick flick next time…
UPDATE: Dr. Fiancee reminds me I’m Not That Into Chick Flicks. Which is true. Maybe it’s time I get started…
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Jehuda
And Nate Silver says there are lessons for Obama there.
Meanwhile, Dem pollsters say Stimulus opposition is ‘sketchy‘.
Can you believe either one? Keep in mind they are not quite talking about exactly the same thing, although there is some overlap in their analysis. But just remember that Silver is an Obama supporter and a statistics whiz. Dem pollsters are – well – pollsters working for the Democratic party.
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Jehuda
It’s pilot season, and the networks are thinking of sticking to the traditional for next Fall.
Plus, Know Your Fall TV Pilots.
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Jehuda
Obama in his radio address today insisted that his Stimu-pork bill should be passed ASAP and “scolded Republicans with a pointed reminder that Democrats, not Republicans, were victorious in November.”
So much for post-partisanship. There he goes again putting politics above everything.
The “I won” argument is getting tiresome and a little pathetic. Who won is irrelevant to the issue of whether the bill is a waste of money or of help to the economy. If that is the only way the President can justify why the bill should become law, the bill can’t be that good.
Rich Lowry couldn’t have said it better:
As far as political arguments go, “I won” has its power—provided it’s made on behalf of an agenda ratified by the American electorate.
In this case, most of the American electorate is not giving its backing to this particular item on Obama’s agenda.
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Jehuda
Obama’s “Inner Eastwood”? I doubt Obama harbors one.
Via Instapundit.
UPDATE: If anything, Obama is proving to be possesed of – as the McCain campaign aptly reminded us last year – an “Inner Paris Hilton” – all style, little substance.
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Jehuda
Biden figures there’s a 30 % chance of Dems messing up things while running the country’s affairs, even if they “do everything right”.
Scary? Perhaps, but I wish! I think the chances are more like 90%. And odds are more and more people will agree with me as they become acquainted with the awful Stimu-pork bill and the administration’s Mr. Magoo approach to government.
Via Drudge.
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Jehuda
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Jehuda
Obama walking into a window was just the beginning: 17 days in office and too many stumbles to count.
Yup: “They’ve saturated the screw up radar”.
Why is the press not covering for Obama anymore? It can’t be for lack of trying (the Katrina-like dimensions of Kentucky’s awful weather come to mind).
Think about it: if the press had ignored the screw ups, they would have had precious little to report about Dear Leader’s inaugural fortnight. That’s how many stumbles we’re talking about. But the press’s fawning adoration – like a magnifying glass on a jewel – will unavoidably enhance many a wart and blemish.
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Jehuda
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Hope for Coleman: once-missing ballots found in one county. Could there be more?
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Politico: Obama is losing the stimulus message war.
Two weeks ago the man was here to save us and now he can’t get his message out.
Funny how the tables turned, but credibility is a fragile thing. And after the disastrous tax scofflaw parade of the last two weeks and Pelosi’s zany legislative antics, Obama’s must be a little a strained.
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Jehuda
Washington Post: Rep. Hilda Solis, her husband, and 16 years of tax liens.
Bad vetting or warped standards? I would really prefer the former.
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Jehuda
Culper Ring: 90,000 sex offenders kicked off.
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Jehuda
Already? Obama embraces fear as rhetorical device in Washington Post editorial. That’s pretty lame coming from The One.
Old news by now, but today was mom’s last day in town. Haven’t been near a computer much.
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Jehuda
Are Republicans smelling “ethics” blood in the water?
It’s a strange world, politics. Who knew the most popular Democratic president since Bill Clinton – perhaps one of the most popular of all time – could actually end up making Democrats vulnerable on their very own “culture of corruption” issue?
Just in time for 2010, too. Remember: there are no permanent victories in politics.
Via Instapundit.
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Jehuda
So said Obama as he outlined a measure to curb executive pay at bailed out financial firms.
Funny, I remember plenty of disparaging of a certain presidential candidate’s real estate wealth…
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Jehuda
WSJ: “Republicans are exercising increasing influence over President Barack Obama’s economic-stimulus plan in the Senate”.
So much for all that “irrelevant” and “out in the wilderness” talk regarding the GOP. In fact, Michael Barone has concluded that “Republicans’ prospects are not as dismal as they seemed in the weeks after the November election.”
Hillary must be grinning that knowing grin of hers…
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Jehuda
STRATFOR:
Obama came into office promising changes in the way the United States combats terrorism. One of these changes was a new emphasis on legal processes and a shift away from controversial methods of treating terrorist suspects, like rendition, harsh interrogation techniques and secret prisons. The Obama administration can and will roll back some of these tactics, as demonstrated by the president’s Jan. 22 order to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. But some will continue.
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Jehuda
Michael Hirsh of Newsweek says it’s the GOP’s fault. (H/T: Instapundit)
Really? If the bungling, unpopular, minority in Congress can throw Obama off his game without so much as a straight “no” vote on one bill, Obama is way in over his head.
But Hirsh is definitely right on at least one point: Obama has lost control of the relevant debate. This is easy to conclude given that he is warning of “catastrophe” and the American people are still shaking their heads about the “Stimulus”. [UPDATE: link was wrong before. Just fixed it. Sorry about that!]
If his astounding level of popularity can’t be translated into the ability to drive the agenda, does that mean that he was elected more for his personality than for his agenda? If so, we have a serious “informed electorate” problem in this country.
It’s that old “style over substance” thing. I think it will – regrettably – become the defining aspect of his administration.
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Jehuda
Hmm…Did DCI nominee Leon Panetta get to share in the TARP bank bailout bonanza? Plus, a link to national security agencies that looks like could be a conflict of interest.
Talk about change. Two weeks in office and more questionable conduct from nominees than I can recall in my lifetime.
At least he doesn’t have “tax issues”, but that’s not good enough. How about no issues at all?
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Jehuda
The whole recount mess is far from over, though.
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She must be losing sleep over how much support the “Stimulus” has lost recently. At the least, it’s a good excuse for saying something as insanely out of whack as this:
I know, I know. I’m being generous. I just don’t think she’s that dumb. And although she often speaks as if most Americans were idiots, I really don’t think that she believes we are collectively that stupid.
Via Drudge.
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Jehuda
CNN: Daschle withdrawal stuns Democrats. Stuns?
Does that mean they don’t see what’s the big deal about his particular failure to pay taxes? Just look at John Kerry’s reaction to Daschle’s decision:
Sen. John Kerry said the former Senate Majority Leader was disqualified on a technicality. “We’re getting silly here, and I think people ought to step back and measure these things against the larger picture,” he said. “He’s made his decision, I respect his decision and we go on from there.”
The big picture is one where an administration that preaches responsibility, shared sacrifice, transparency, and “spreading the wealth” already has Tim Geithner – who failed to pay his taxes – running the U.S. Treasury. That’s the federal agency that collects taxes.
And Mr. Kerry thinks it’s silly to knock on Daschle, a champion of high taxes, for his “tax issues”?
Just to think Kerry could have been president. This whole thing is just another one of those instances which reminds me that the standards to which we hold public servants have seriously eroded.
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Jehuda
“I thought once Obama was President everyone was going to like us.”
Instead, it’s more like everyone is giving us the finger: first Iran, then North Korea, and now Russia? Heck, it’s “Welcome Back, Carter” all of a sudden. I just hope Obama doesn’t do like Carter with the Panama Canal and give Texas back to Mexico or something.
From India and Europe the tone is also not entirely friendly. But I don’t blame them. They are just responding to Obama’s overreaching, which in due course I suppose the American people will do as well.
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Jehuda
Obama spokesman: “The bar that we set is the highest that any administration in the country has ever set.”
Yes. Now how about trying to live up to its standards? If you were really serious about it, Geithner would be looking for work right now instead of overseeing federal tax collection.
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Jehuda
Drudge reports that Daschle has withdrawn from being nominated to HHS. Not sure whether he will maintain his role as a special advisor to the President on health care reform. I think he might.
UPDATE: Story here.
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Jehuda
We should be so lucky: Obama’s Commerce Nominee Voted to Kill Commerce Department Before He Agreed to Lead It.
Either that or the Obama administration is really out to lunch when it comes to running government. I guess some executive experience would have been good after all!
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Jehuda
Another nominee with a tax problem? Unfortunately the answer is “yes”. By the nominee’s own admission, she has a tax “issue” that makes her nomination problematic.
I guess this is where “Hope” comes in: let’s just hope this White House takes its job – and the American people – seriously.
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Jehuda
It’s an emergency! Almost half a million are enduring it without electricity. And yet neither FEMA, Obama or the media seem to notice. It’s almost like Katrina never happened!
Maybe Ashton Kutcher and friends will come to the rescue. They did pledge to serve. Any chance they could pick up the slack?…”Fill up the void” is more like it.
They’re probably packing their winter gear this very moment…
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Jehuda
I’ve been thinking: maybe Obama’s bi-partisanship is not so much about rising above politics as it is about pissing off the right and left in roughly equal measure.
Cases in point: that awful so-called “stimulus” bill and nominating tax cheats to his cabinet. Now Obama pushing for that piece of garbage to become law certainly more than gets on my Right wing nerves. And learning that someone who likes to lecture others on paying taxes is a tax cheat and has been nominated to a cabinet post is enough to make my head spin.
And as for the Left…well, it sure hasn’t been without its share of disappointments when it comes to Obama. And the hits just keep on coming: don’t-ask/don’t-tell and renditions aren’t going anywhere.
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Jehuda
I know the day is almost over, but the Rhetori-mom is in town and I’ve been busy.
No, I don’t know Mr. Breitbart; but I respect what he does, especially him creating BigHollywood.com.
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Jehuda
37 F-bombs in a matter of minutes!
Compare with Joe Pesci in Casino
(over the length of the whole movie).
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Jehuda
Another shoe-throwing incident: this time against the Chinese Premier.
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Jehuda
Could the GOP Senators actually be ready to vote against the current, useless version of the bill? I hope so. There might even be enough votes to kill it. Who knows?
If Congress – with a Democrat majority to boot – doesn’t give Obama a stimulus bill soon, he’s going to come across as one weak President; one that in a time of “crisis” can’t even get a cornerstone of his agenda passed, not for lack of popularity, but for lack of leadership.
He’s letting Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid call the shots on this bill 100%. Can’t he exert some influence to make sure a good, bi-partisan, true stimulus bill comes out of the Hill?
Yes he can. He’s just not doing it.
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Jehuda
Is Obama’s post-partisan politics dead on arrival?
Maybe it never even existed. At least not substantively. I’m not sure post-partisanship is a very serious aim of Obama’s.
He certainly has made the effort to get some face time with congressional Republicans – and that’s nice from him – but in the end, face time is more about words than action. And that’s something I think we can expect to see more of from this administration: style over substance.
Ultimately, post-partisanship is – or should be – about political leadership rising above politics. And at times it almost seems as if that’s what Obama is about. But unfortunately some can already discern in last week’s Capitol Hill goings-on the contours of what will become the administration’s tone. And I’m afraid they may be right: politics above everything, nothing above politics.
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Jehuda
Yup. I think Obama has enough “political capital” to take the hit that will result from Daschle’s succesful nomination, but we all know Senate Republicans don’t have the political capital to take the hit that will result from giving Daschle a pass.
Who cares if he’s a former colleague? He’s a former colleague for whom you don’t want to stand up. Giving Geithner a pass was bad enough. How about showing some principle here since the administration won’t?
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Jehuda
Steve Mason: TAKEN finishes with $24.6M for Super Bowl weekend.
