I’m m-e-e-l-l-t-i-i-n-n-g . . .

Imagine the pudgy face of the serial-adulterer and debater-in- chief in place of Margaret Hamilton’s iconic visage here.

Polls not looking good for Mr. “I will be the candidate”.

. . . after several days in which Romney has hammered Gingrich over his consulting work for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, the former Massachusetts governor leads the former House speaker, 40 percent to 32 percent.

The Friday night oldie that gets posted on Friday instead of Thursday

The one, the only, Patsy Cline. (Listening, I sorta picture Newt doing this about 11pm last night. The ‘you’ he’s searching for, of course, would be himself.)

From my paper this morning

Republican candidates proclaim Obama’ an economic failure, mistaking  slow growth for no growth or contraction. Or they’re just lying. Here are seven headlines from the front page of the Business section of my paper this morning:

• Spending more, laying off fewer
• Hiring and investment show companies plan to grow (National story). [boxed quote accompanying that story: "With big ticket spending rising and the labor market firming,  the economy is a lot better than some central bankers think."]
• Delayed a year, recovery is inevitable says Florida economist (Local story)
• Lakewood Ranch makes sales list: ranked number 9 on national list with 301 new home sales in 2011 (Local story)
• Survey of architects shows growth likely (Local story)
• Another call center is moving to Bay area (Local story)
• Caterpillar profit climbs 60 percent (National story)

Aren’t the candidates here in Florida? Maybe they should read the papers.

Newt’s gonna lose it after all

Andrew Sullivan surfed the interwebs tonight so we didn’t have to and gathered this damning round-up of conservative post-debate commentary. Not seeing anything but good news for Romney here:

Rod Dreher thought Romney wiped the floor with Gingrich:

Romney won this debate, and probably Florida, and so the nomination. Newt collapsed, as bullies and blowhards often do when somebody fights back. Santorum auditioned for Romney’s VP, and greatly enhanced his chances. Ron Paul shines on, that crazy diamond [great line].

Will Wilkinson seconds him:

Romney started strong, completely obliterating Newt on immigration and questions about his finances, and then stayed strong. Santorum again turned in an admirably dogged performance, but so what? Romney won the debate and the nomination.

Larison likewise expects a Romney win in Florida:

Romney held off Gingrich, and Gingrich was flailing most of the night. Unless something strange happens in the next few days, Romney should hold his lead in Florida. Santorum may have gained a little, but nowhere near enough to challenge for second place. Paul did a decent job tonight, but Florida is not a good state for him and he’s already looking to the caucus events in February.

There’s much, much more at the link. All of it worth a read if you’re interested in the Florida vote on Monday Tuesday.

Gingrich joins cast of The Office

(I should really get off my current obsession with Gingrich, but dear Elvis, there’s just so much out there!)

Ever seen that eternal TV sitcom The Office? Of course you have. And you are therefore familiar with the loathsome character Dwight Schrute, played by the definitely not loathsome Rainn Wilson, who tweets.

Here are his most recent gravatars on Twitter. Do you see it? Do you see it?

As he himself would say, “Bob Dole knows. Bob Dole remembers.”

National Review Online is going after Newt. There’s a devastating statement by former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole - and here (on the left) is the poll on their homepage. Bill Buckley, the late NR publisher, conservative deity and very definition of the elite Ivy League northeasterner of whom Newt is so contemptuous (actually I think he’s really jealous), would likely approve.

The piling on is getting serious now. Newt could yet win in Florida, but his time in the sun is running out.

From Dole’s statement:

. . . it is now time to take a stand before it is too late. If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices. Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself.

. . . Gingrich [as] nominee could result in a landslide victory for Obama and a crushing defeat for Republicans from the courthouse to the White House.

It wasn’t us (updated below. Drat.)

There are dozens of excellent sources and charts available from very credible sources that reinforce the truth of the debt. Reagan and Bush II did the dirty. Clinton and Obama were left to clean up the ‘messes’.

This chart has been graphically sexed up, but the data is right out the US Treasury Dept. (h/t friend Ed)

UPDATE: Okay, this hurts. Links in the comment thread for this post, challenge this chart. The links are to Politifact and WaPo and taken together are persuasive that this info is not entirely honest. I think it is still very fair to say Reagan and Dubya were the worst offenders . . . while the challengers both put Obama at the top based on an assumption that the growth over the next five years will stay at the same rate as the last three. That assumption is, I think, preposterous and somewhat sullies their conclusions.

Nevertheless, I am eating a bit of crow here. And as much as it hurts, I’ve acknowledged as much in the comment thread to the man who provided the links – Alan Scott. How ’bout that.

Friday oldie

(UPDATE: I have just been informed it is Thursday. Wanna make something of it?)

American TV defined this as Rock & Roll (because of the backbeat?). I loved The Platters and fell in love regularly under the spell of their songs.

Climate zones, they are a’ changin’. I think it’s Al Gore’s fault

For a long time, the US Department of Agriculture has designated different planting ‘zones’ throughout the country as a guide for growers. Their ratings are based on ‘extreme minimum temperature’. Garden books and seed packets usually say in what zone a plant can flourish and in what zones it can’t. But it’s the agricultural industry itself, the largest consumer of such data, that must pay the closest attention to these ratings to assure successful crop yields.

So with this change, the USDA now joins the Pentagon and NASA in acknowledging that global warming is real and must be part of all strategic planning. (I don’t mention any international science organizations or UN agencies because our conservative brethren know them all to be anti-American.)

My area of SW Florida has always been 9(b) – but now it’s officially a 10(a) zone. The temperature variation is not large (we go from a 5 to 10 degree variation to a 10-15 degree variation), but the USDA sees it as permanent.

. . . entire states, such as Ohio, Nebraska and Texas, are now in warmer zones . . . it reflects the new reality.

They’ve moved 18 key cities from Fairbanks to Honolulu into warmer zones.

It’s great that the Federal government is catching up with what the plants themselves have known for years now, that the globe is warming” . . .  said [a] Stanford University biologist.

This is unlikely to be the last time they will have to adjust the zones. What’s most shocking to me is the speed of the temperature change – the data they used was collected from 1976-2005. That’s stunning.

(Also, here in zone 10a, we’ve been in drought for four of the last ten years. )

Ssshh, don’t tell the kids now . . .

Here we go again – Time Magazine knows not to challenge its readers.  It’s American readers that is.

But in the House they “ARE the 9%!”

http://connect.facebook.net/rsrc.php/v1/y4/r/EjGRk6xMiVD.swf

https://www.facebook.com/dialog/oauth?api_key=79439656165&app_id=79439656165&channel_url=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df2be3ab75fe2bc8%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fmaureenholland.wordpress.com%252Ff19219e3edc260e%26relation%3Dparent.parent%26transport%3Dpostmessage&client_id=79439656165&display=none&domain=maureenholland.wordpress.com&locale=en_US&origin=1&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fs-static.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D3%23cb%3Df9e2b93c55b8d6%26origin%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fmaureenholland.wordpress.com%252Ff19219e3edc260e%26relation%3Dparent%26transport%3Dpostmessage%26frame%3Df1bf18be95e826a&response_type=token%2Csigned_request%2Ccode&sdk=joey

From here:

An overwhelming majority of Americans approved of the overall message in President Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News poll of speech watchers.

According to the poll, which was conducted online by Knowledge Networks immediately after the president’s address, 91 percent of those who watched the speech approved of the proposals Mr. Obama put forth during his remarks. Only nine percent disapproved.

Last year, 83 percent of viewers approved of Mr. Obama’s State of the Union remarks.

The American aristocracy? Royalty? Plutocracy?

We have a political aristocracy in America that is increasingly becoming hereditary as well. We scold Syria and belly laugh over North Korea, but we’re in the game too (this is my own very incomplete list, but check out Oligarch Kings for more on the subject).

Anyway, lookee:

• Senator Prescott Bush
• his son, Congressman and President GHW Bush
• his son, Governor and President GW Bush
• his brother, Governor Jeb Bush
• Governor and President Bill Clinton
• his wife, Senator and Sect’y of State Hillary Clinton
• Governor and Presidential candidate George Romney
• his son, Governor and Presidential candidate Mitt Romney
• Congressman and perennial Presidential candidate Ron Paul
• his son, Senator Rand Paul
• US Ambassador to England, Joseph P. Kennedy
• his son, Senator and President John F. Kennedy
• his brother, Attorney General and Senator and Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy
• his brother, Senator Ted Kennedy
• his son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy
• assorted other Kennedys in State offices
• NY Governor Mario Cuomo
• his son, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo (married ot RFK’s daughter)
• California Governor Pat Brown
• his son, 2-time California Governor Jerry Brown

(Of course, there were the Adamses, father and son, in the early 1800′s and the 20th Century Roosevelts - although their relationship was very distant.)

So, who am I missing?

The Chaplin adds two more 19th century names:

• President William Henry Harrison
• his grandson, President Benjamin Harrison

One of the most interesting things about these people is that many of them are interrelated, i.e., one family to another.

“Find on this page” doesn’t bring up ‘historian’. Must be something wrong with my computer.

Following up on the earlier post - when you’re hired as a strategist for a company’s top lobbyist, this is the job description.

Consultant will provide consulting and related services as requested by Freddie Mac’s Director, Public Policy in exchange for which Freddie Mac will pay Consultant $25,000 per each full calendar month during which Consultant provides Services.

Kos had a comment,

. . . there you go. That’s the whole thing. When you cut out the 14 other pages of boilerplate terms and conditions, generic stuff that is copy and pasted into every contract, that’s the actual meat of it. Wow. A whole sentence—I think I even see a comma in there.

Mitt and Newt – gettin’ it done for us all!

Anyone know how many jobs these two ‘job creator’ guys have created in the last few years?

Isn’t that why we have to protect them from taxes?

Economy and debt: How to make it all better!

Atrios explains in just a few words what Democrats can’t seem to explain at all.

 ”It looks like the LTRO is having a positive contribution. Does it solve all of the problems sustainably? Probably not,” said Andrew Bosomworth, a senior portfolio manager at Pimco.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to growth — that’s what these countries need to keep their debt sustainable.”

Everybody has been getting it backwards.
1) Cut spending
2) ??
3) Growth
When the reality is:
1) Increase spending
2) Growth
3) pay down debt

Well, that’s okay then

Newt’s 1999 contract with Freddie Mac’s chief lobbyist (the $25,000 a month contract) says:

“nothing herein is or shall be construed as an agreement to provide lobbying services of any kind or engage in lobbying activities.”

Crisp and clear, that – and not to be ‘construed’ as other than the absolute utter truth. One does wonder why they felt it necessary to includeg that phrase when contracting with a ‘historian’ or ‘strategist’?

The brief story in my paper this morning did not tell me what the contract does include. I shall go a-googling.

I’m sure FOX News can straighten them out

They don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh, so NASA actually thinks the globe is warming just like those other delusional environmentalist whackos at The Pentagon. They even say so in this article at their website.

Just look at this lying timelapse video they created - Global Warming: 1880-2011. Disgraceful.

Blind man talking

From my paper this morning, this Letter to the Editor:

I stopped subscribing to the paper over a year ago except to purchase a Sunday paper for sports/movies, as the paper has moved way too far to the left to be credible anymore.

As the country is center right, your paper has continued to move further left. Hopefully a change in direction will be made to restore the paper’s credibility and for more balanced news.

The writer so disapproves of the  20 or so  inches of daily editorial opinion (which he doesn’t have to read) that he chooses to shut out the news and close himself off from the area’s primary source of local information.

Face, meet the Nose – before it’s gone.

Also this, from my paper’s web edition this morning – on the editorial page:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there does remain the matter of those ‘liberal’ editorials. So I guess it’s all or nothing, as Rush says. Anyway,  it’s a small price to pay when you are striking blows for liberty. Or something.

Can’t toss out that red meat if there’s no one there to catch it

Ethically-challenged candidate Newt started out strong at last night’s debate, but without that audience reinforcement to which he plays, the fella’ quickly lost energy.

Maybe it’s time for him to again whine that it’s not fair!

Brian Williams – another empty suit

How's my hair look?

Why do I continue to watch these debates!

Perhaps because I am as  big a fool as Brian Williams, he who is ‘moderating’ tonight’s ‘debate’. So far, it’s the worst yet. A full 33 minutes in and Williams has yet to ask a single question of substance.

Candidates need not have any policy positions to be in Brian’s debate. They just have to be willing to be like the pundits and talk about the horse race – and about what the other candidates have said about them.

He’s also trying to tease Romney and Gingrich into a fist fight

Finally, the candidates themselves have begun answering his stupid questions with policy answers. He hasn’t yet noticed. Hard to see stuff like that when you’re transfixed by the face you see in the mirror.

What ever happened to

Tucker Carlson?

Just wondering.

I do not know if this is real . . .

. . . but it is funny.

Mr. Chutzpa*

This is from Andrew Sullivan (his headline too – paraphrasing it only weakened it) at The Daily Beast. There’s a graphic at the link that for some reason I’ve been unable to use here. Can’t save it, snip it or copy it. Well, I can, but when I try to insert it here . . . FAIL.  Don’t now what that’s about. So be it.

At the site, there’s a pix of the serial adulterer, Mr. Gingrich. It features this text:

FAMILY VALUES

Using daughters from  your first wife to convince everyone that your second wife is lying about your third wife.

David Brooks reaches. And reaches. Also, the Romneys.

Leno was funny again, so let’s start there:

“Mitt Romney, whose father was born in Mexico, is now talking up his Mexican heritage. Not to be outdone today, Newt Gingrich said he once cheated on one of his wives with a woman named Juanita.”                                             – Jay Leno

David Brooks wrote an Onion-worthy column about Mitt Romney the other day (find yer own link!). The case he made – I should say the absurdist case he made  (if I read it right) –  is that Mitt’s a man of character and persistence because his great-grandfather suffered bigotry and ridicule and poverty and had to move a lot and even had to hide two of his wives sometimes when the neighbors got restive. And that makes the descendents strong and forms their character. Unlike any of our ancestors (except for that wives part).

My favorite line:

Romney seems to share his family’s remorseless drive to rise – whether it’s trying to persuade the French to give up wine, or . . .

Seriously? Very Islamic of him.

Agreed, they are a persistent clan. No one could deny that. His own father was a Governor, ran a huge company and ran for President, just like Willard. But Romney the Elder was born in Mexico -  how could he have been considered a candidate? Anyone know?

Radical socialist president doubles US exports as promised

But that’s just to trick us, because in a second term he’s going to take them all back and give them free – with lollipops! – to everyone who isn’t rich.

So don’t believe a word of this. Especially this part:

[Obama promised to double exports - within two years - in his 2010 State of the Union]  Two years later, the administration is on track — for now — to meet its ambitious goal. Growing exports have been one of the central drivers of the recovery, accounting for about half the nation’s economic growth since the recession ended. Economists say the administration deserves credit for some of the gains. It has pressured China to increase the value of its currency and open its markets to American businesses. It has worked closely with American companies looking to sell goods and services throughout the world.

Exports are  . . . currently growing at an annual pace of about 16 percent — a percentage-point higher than necessary to double exports to $3.1 trillion by 2015.

Damn socialist.

Pet peeve: a post is not a blog

Lately, especially in media where they really ought to know better, I hear ‘blog posts’ referred to as ‘blogs’.

A post is not a blog. An article is not a newspaper. A story is not a magazine.

Please stop it.

Barry, don’t do it again

(FOX News and the rest of the GOP gasbaggery establishment were outraged when Obama didn’t support recently overthrown Arab leaders who had been our friends – even if their countrymen had not. Wonder what they’ll say now?)

Palavi ascends the Peacock Throne

In October of 1979, under political pressure, Jimmy Carter made the disastrous decision to allow the newly overthrown dictator, the Shah of Iran, to come to the US for ‘medical treatment’. That didn’t work out so well.  A month later, the US Embassy in Tehran was stormed by angry Iranians. They took 66 Americans hostage and held them until the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration in 1981.

When the Shah requested ‘medical’ asylum, US-Iranian relations were already shaky and Carter himself at first was opposed to the idea. But he allowed himself to be convinced since the Shah had been one of ‘our’ guys, pretty much installed on the Peacock Throne by the CIA.

And here we go again – sorta. I worried about this in a post last month. And now the Obama Administration is going ahead. They’ve agreed to take in President Salah of Yemen – who resigned yesterday (leaving his own people in charge)  - for ‘medical’ treatment. (Salah had already been treated in Dubai – where the care is superb.) He says he’ll return. Yup.

Certainly Yemen isn’t Iran and the recently ‘resigned’ Salah isn’t the Shah. But his authoritarian regime killed hundreds of protestors and relations between us are not particularly friendly.

Do we ever learn?

 

Memories . . . Citizens United: the early days

Was reminded of this bit of history at Hullabaloo today. (It’s from here.) Remember Alan Grayson, the one-term gajillionaire firebrand rabble-rouser Democratic FL Congressman? The one who regularly took to the floor of the House to chew up and spit out the special interests?  The one who caused thousands of lobbyists to develop gastro intestinal disease? Yeah, that one. (video below)

He was one of the first victims of an unrestricted opening of the spigots of corporate money in a congressional race. According to a Politico article late in the campaign in 2010, almost 20% of all of the independent expenditures in House races in the entire country were deployed against Alan. His district was flooded with an unrelenting radio and television smear campaign by the corporations who didn’t appreciate his hard work on behalf of consumers and workers. The average person in Orlando saw 70 negative ads against Grayson– $2 million of which was paid for by the Koch Brothers, $2 million by the health insurance industry and another million from the NRCC. The cash that flowed into the district from the Chamber of Commerce and Rove’s band of cutthroats was a direct response to Alan’s reform efforts on the House Financial Services Committee and because he was the most effective national Democratic spokesperson in Congress. The DCCC, of course, offered him no help whatsoever in defending his seat. [Dems didn't want to fool with the banksters either - who would have financed their campaigns?)

The librul media strikes again

Atrios notices:

 

 

 

Bet you didn’t know that John McCain has been on Meet the Press more than any other living politician. Because his views are so insightful.

A legend in his own mind

The Newtster is sure having him some fun and dreaming dreams of what I think is his real goal – “a series of three-hour Lincoln-Douglas style debates”. Without a moderator of course. It’s not a stretch to think he’s less interested in the Presidency than he is in 12 hours in front of the cameras with a real President.

But it’ll still be Romney. Here is why a Newt nomination is a mirage. From the last six months of national polls:

In August 2011, Gingrich had a favorability rating of 26% and an unfavorability rating of 57%.

By December 2011, he was up to 43% favorability. Big jump.

And yet? Last week, Gingrich has a favorability rating of 26% and an unfavorability rating of 60%.

Even more people don’t like him. That’s how it always goes with Gingrich.