Rahming things through
John Batchelor at the Daily Beast talks about how Rahm Emmanuel keeps things in line. It’s politics at its finest.
The victims are everywhere, and the Republicans know best how brilliantly brutal Emanuel’s methods can be. “Rahm puts people on a string,” a cautious Republican told me. “He did it to Dennis [Hastert, former speaker of the House]. We always knew Rahm had something on him. Maybe it was earmarks. Maybe it was something like classic car-flipping. Dennis never went after Rahm and never allowed us to go after him.”
Emanuel’s methods in the House are now writ large throughout the government. Not one of the House Democrats is suicidal enough to push back in public against what amounts to his extortion and protection racket for each successive piece of partisan legislation—witness the 219 beaten-up votes for cap and trade in the House, or the pummeled Blue Dogs during the health-care brouhaha during recess. One Democratic wag comments that Rahm Emanuel is to the Blue Dogs what Michael Vick was to pit bulls. In the beginning he feeds them steak, then they get torn apart.
They’ll stay in line until the instinct for self-preservation impels them to grow a spine. But it will be an induced, not a natural phenomenon. Wheeling and dealing can be stressful. Breitbart reports that President Obama is looking for a break from his vacation.
On Wednesday, the president will head off to his official Camp David retreat in Maryland for a four-day break — seeking the quiet that evaded him in the millionaires playground on the US east coast. “He is looking to get a break from his vacation,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. “I don’t think you can replicate such a terrific place as Martha’s Vineyard, but I do think that he’s looking to get some more rest and relaxation when he goes up there,” Burton said. The Camp David trip, over the Labor Day weekend, had been tentatively planned before Obama headed on vacation.
It’s a strange business.
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This is an article I read last week … its title is “How Rahm Is Reviving the GOP”
I do however, think the Republicans are clueless …
Rahm is not reviving the GOP, he is reviving citizen involvement, especially as the Tea Party movement.
However, the Tea Party Movement is probably more of a threat to Republicans than to Democrats, at this point.
Therefore, the reality is, that Rahm is splitting up the Republican Coalition…
Regarding the second comment on Obama taking a vacation from a vaction.
First thought: lol.
Second thought: Obama is Trapped in the Dimension of the Presidency …
Can’t even take a vacation & relax properly from it …
And he really does need a vacation, (1) the Presidency will wear anyone & everyone out, (2) Obama has some very important decisions to make as to the direction he takes the country as President … I hope he gets the rest he needs to make good decisions …
No one can handle such a stressfull job.
Azides has a great talk on What is a leader?
It has some advice that Obama has to follow … no one can handle it all … no Prime Minister … no President … etc.
I like how the talk by Azides ends, the goal of a Prime Minister or a President is to buld “Mutual Trust & Respect” in a country. May Obama succeed in this, this is why the American people got excited in him from his 1994 speech at the Democratic convention, and a lot of what he ran his campaign for President on.
This is why America trusted him with the Presidency …
I hope he returns to this theme of his & starts to govern that way.
Hopefully a vacation can give him the prespective he needs.
What does “classic car-flipping” mean?
The great American Odd Couple. Obama is an artificial projection of his follower’s dreams who concealed every fact about his past and who has almost never done anything that could be called work. Emmanuel from the little we know of him is also a self reinvention. The former ballet major, with a physical defect (he lost part of his finger), according to the wiki both his first and last names were chosen to honor members of fringe terror groups from Israel’s War of Independence. At the same time he has put forth a story of having served as a civilian volunteer with the IDF, which grossly overstates a few days cleaning truck brakes while he was stuck in Israel during the first Gulf War.
There is something about Emanuel that comes across as infuriatingly wrong. To me it is his assuming the cloak of jewish orthodoxy and ethics while confronting the world with unremitting hostility and abuse. For good ends it is necessary for a man to sometimes use force, not just physical but emotional force. Arguments have to be won, people need to get fired, decisions have to be made. The purpose behind socialization, the familial, communal, educational and religious processes we have discussed on other threads, is to ensure that force, even emotional force, when used is done proportionately and is tempered with a constant appreciation of the fragile nature of the structures (social human or physical, all are God’s work) that are being changed. Rahm Emanuel is a caricature, a human pit bull. He will destroy more then he creates or preserve. As Grandma would have said, “Bad for the Jews.”
Since his energy is so untempered by apparent mature reflection on the results of his deeds he is subject to manipulation. He is focused on process, on winning battles without regard to how the world will be after after the war, He has to surrender his critical judgement to someone because his world otherwise becomes one of random disconnected confrontations without a purpose. Emanuel has linked himself to Bill Clinton, David Axelrod and Barack Obama. All three are possibly sociopathic manipulators who treat humans as objects. Emanuel is a classic case of the ideologue that a skilled intelligence agent could flip into an asset, without any use of torture. He is a weapon that can be picked up and used by anyone who knows how.
Rahm Emmanuel is Barack Obama’s “Cardinal Richlieu”!
Guy on Bennet show says BHO (Rham) got Big Pharma to spend 160 Million on pro Obamacare advertising.
A cheap lay behind closed doors.
More transparency from the Change Agent.
Tollhouse:
I have a vague memory of Hastert making Hillary Cow Futures type profits on Old Tyme Clasic Car Trades.
Speaking of Blue Dogs being co-opted, has anyone heard a peep from Jim Webb? I might be naive, but I actually saw his victory over George Allen as a net positive for the country. He might be prone to Huckabee-ish economic populism (not to mention indulging in the moral vanity of Bacevich-like W.-hating) but having a patriot among the deeply feminized Dems struck me as a partial counter to the MoveOn.org’s internal coup.
Neither Webb or Bacevich is an idiot–or a coward–and they’ve both seen this movie before. What can they be thinking now?
It’s like Amateur Opera Hour in Democrat Controlled Washington. They’re trying to hit the high notes but failing badly. The fine crystal is safe and full of Chablis but our ears are splitting. The hard hitting low notes have punch, and did shatter a large crock of BS that filled the China shop. “Be Not Afraid!” say the Critics at the NYT. They love it. As they see it, all the half-witted pleas and full throated arias are there — full of lies, deceit, betrayals and unrequited love. In this Grand Opera story the grand plans are all part of The Grand Plot.
But mostly, the DC Opera Company is like real opera in that it seeks to answer the following question: How do you create a nation of small fortune through grand political opera? Simple. Begin with a nation whose grandparents bequeathed the current generation a grand fortune. Then sink succeeding generations under debt.
This results from trying to rebuild the Chicago Opera House in Washington. Soon, the entire country will sing “Pagliacci.”
One Democratic wag comments that Rahm Emanuel is to the Blue Dogs what Michael Vick was to pit bulls.
Last I heard, Vick went to prison and many of his dogs are happy, in new homes.
And you know what else? I’ve received more alarmed e-mail on the “the president can take over the internet” story than on anything else in the last month. Plus, I’ve noticed the story especially alarms the younger crowd — the ones driving Web 2.0.
Wouldn’t it be sweet if The One has managed to lose the trust of the old (over health care) and the young at the same time?
Emanual, as we know, means “God with us”. A funny name for a political bully trying to command the sun to stand still in service to the god of the modernists, The Most High State, (bless its holy name). Unfortunately Nemesis is on the way. All the cheap tin gods of ideology can’t stop it. Pride comes before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction.
Salt Lick,
Just tell the yutes that BHO is like the rents and he wants to spy on their bedroom. When I told my students that the Stasi had bugged Katarina Witt’s bed their eyes grew wide and they froze momentarily.
wretchard BTW “Emanuel” with one m.
LOTM, I must have missed the information from your posts…
Whatchoo teach?
That is, what is your area of expertise that you pass on to the students you mentioned?
Chatted about this over the week end at a family get together here.
rham’s problem will be the blue dogs on the health care bill. they have been told in no uncertain terms that they will be out of office if they touch that bill.
so what can rham offer as a counter inducement?
he can’t actually threaten the blue dogs with penalties under such circumstances. why not? because none of the penalties mean anything if the blue dog gets voted out of office.
what about benefits?
the benefits have to be flowing hard to the constituents by this time next year for the benefits to be meaningful –ie for constituents to see that their rep brought home the bacon in time for the election.
the health care bill is even now months away from voting. how can that not delay the delay the delivery of goodies to an already slow federal delivery system. In short, rham can’t provide constituent inducements in time to effect the 2010 election cycle.
that’s the argument.
what we don’t know is whether rham saw this coming in January and larded up the federal pipeline with goodies to the blue dogs– so that now he could make the counter argument….that if the blue dogs didn’t go along — they would be cut off –at the last minute –from federal largess e.
that way the choice would be between–voting for health care and getting the bennies…in which case the voters will hate you and vote you out–but the local power brokers will love you.
Or you vote against health care and the voters will hate you LESS and the local money/power brokers don’t like you at all.
hmm. as I said I don’t know anyway how much pork is in the pipeline right now for the blue dogs.
Rahm wobbled and nearly toppled over right at the start line with the revelation that he was speaking with Blagojevich. Rahm went on “vacation.” The media tried hard to avoid asking questions and eventually the controversy disappeared from sight. This disappearance was a sure harbinger of the media airbrushing of all inconvenient Democratic faux-pas that followed. Obama and Emmanuel can exercise this legerdemain consistently for now.
But some people (Blago, for example, and Fitzgerald, and probably a lot of folks in Rezko-land) know things. When Obama tries to replace Fitzgerald, that will be the sign of seismic unrest in the Obama-sphere.
Some dog out there is going to hunt. And there are others that will want to join the pack. I suspect that if need be, Obama will try to keep the dogs on the Emmanuel scent and away from the Obama scent. But Rahm has too many interconnected dealings to go down without taking many others down with him.
Oh the goodies will get to the right districts in time, you can count on that, and at a level never seen before. That is why they are holding it back now. And If they do not the Blue Dogs wil get “consulting positions”, etc. They will threaten their families, reputations, etc. if it comes to that. It is absurd to depend on the Blue Dogs. Obama stands a good chance of getting his socialized medicine, even if he has to do it incrementally. It is do or die time for Obama, Rahm, et al. They are between a rock and a hard place. All other programs fail if this does, and then it is just the steady trickle of news and analysis of the corruption and the power grabs leaking out.
We should not be complacent nor imagine that a big Democrat loss is necessarily in the offing for nextyear. They HAVE to have anticipated this. They know just what happened in 1994.
It boils down to some simple things:
1) As I often say, the deciding factor will be our collective character and morality. The electorate has to put the Republic above “goodies”; they have to see the real threat to liberty. In the end it will all depend on this. Nothing else, short of armed revolution, can change this. It is quite literally the crux of the matter.
2) The whole Democrat power structure must be threatened at all levels: Federal,regional,state, county and municipal. Only then will they blink; then will we be able to cull votes from the herd. It is all about money and prosecution. A solid GOP minority means that this time around, there will be Democrat’s going to jail.
3) There will be a lot of GOP skeletons come out of the closet next year. It will be worse than anything that we have ever seen. Brace yourselves for the dirtiest election in our history.
4) They will openly try to corrupt the election, Those who try to stop them will be attacked by any means possible , including arrests and physician assaults. bank on that.
So we are in for a rough time, and outcomes are far from certain.
We all need to get onvolved at some level–poll watchers, GOTV. etc.
It’s a strange business.
He’s a strange president.
These are strange times.
And as HST says, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
And now, get elected Caliph.
7 hdgreene
Maybe the DC Opera Company is aiming at a production of Götterdämmerung.
I find the idea of physician assaults an interesting one, Mongoose, but I’m unclear about what it means. Is that assaults of physicians by their patients and others? Or maybe marauding bands of assaultive physicians? Men with white coats, stethoscopes, and billy clubs outside of polls in Philly?
Must be Rahm’s brother, Dr Death, going on the attack.
Boys and girls, can you say “Reaper Curve”?
Katerina Witt –mercy sakes –best ad EVER for Warsaw Pact –not her fault –just her architecture
:-0
Rahm: el diablo
Witt: ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Such contrasts in one post.
I also believe the tea parties are more dangerous to the R’s than the Dems. If the right had a competent GOP there would be no need for the Tea parties. Just the existance of the parties shows how much the GOP have fallen.
As for Rahm, Obama and their supposed machiavellian politics. I say Occam’s razor: Stupidity and arrogance explain much of what is coming out of the WH…hell, all of DC in general.
Rahm and Axelrod are part of the Daley Jr. Chicago corrupt machine. They are using Obama and he is using them. Obama is an anti-Jew and the two boychicks are practicing Jews.
Most Congresscreatures are corrupt – not all but most. Murta and Polosi are extremely corrupt.
The US economy is worse than the media and the business press wants us to believe. The Austin Statesman wanna be NYT refuses to write out the commercial real estate crisis. We do not get that rag and I do not watch tv. Even lawyers are getting laid off.
Watch commodities go up. Even though the Japanese central bank is running a zero interest policy while the Japanese GDP decreases the Yen is appreciating against the US$. The Chinese bubble economy is improving.
Bernenke is a typical arrogant Ivy League economist whose empirical papers are poor. I do not understand how he got promoted at Princeton on merit. I guess that the thug Krugman likes him.
It’s just a matter of time before whatever monster they manage to create throws the little girl in the pond and ends up getting chased by the townspeople with torches.
As for the Jewish two-fer, my impression is that a lot of people who were raised in the Jewish faith are these days less Jews than they are Democrats.
Blogging from the Bberry so I can’t link. Armenia and Turkey agree to establish diplomatic telations? Sounds good but maybe not. Armenia is close to Moscow and has a Russian army base. This may increase the pressure on Georgia.
Ousted Ill. governor explains himself in new book
Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says in a new book that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel wanted his help in arranging to leave the Obama administration after two years to reclaim his seat in Congress.
Blagojevich writes in “The Governor” that Emanuel spoke with him about whether it was possible to appoint a “placeholder” to the congressional seat Emanuel was giving up so that he could win back the seat in 2010 and continue his efforts to become speaker some day.
“As we have done for many months, we will continue to decline comment,” Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Feinberg said in an e-mail Monday.
Blagojevich also admits that he wanted something in exchange for appointing President Barack Obama’s replacement in the Senate, but it wasn’t the deal described in federal corruption charges against him.
I saw a poll that suggests that 57% of voters would like to see the House and Senate replaced 100%.
I have no clue on the accuracy of that poll but I feel that way and get a sense that those numbers may not be too far off.
Unfortunately, gerrymandering has chopped Congressional districts into disjointed jigsaw puzzles almost guaranteed to produce a certain outcome, and Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act gives the Feds veto power on State attempts to square away bad voting practices.
The game is already heavily rigged in favor incumbents so it probably doesn’t matter what 57% or 77% or whatever of voters really want.
It seems that Rahm cannot be satisfied with
intimidating people to vote his way in the House and Senate.
It looks like to me, he (or someone) is also twisting arms to get officeholders to insult
all those everyday folks who do not like his program.
Harry Reid for one. He cannot open his mouth
without alienating more Nevada voters than before. And he is not so dense as to do so
continuously without some kind of pressure being applied.
How does Rahm get away with it? Think
“Liberty Valence”.
The problem with Emmanuel is that you can’t threaten a movement with unsightly revelations of personal misbehavior. It just doesn’t scale.
So the grass-roots reaction is very bad for him. It threatens to erupt in a wildfire, taking not just the Blue Dogs down but other solidly Dem safe seats, and potentially all their allies, lobbyists, media friendlies, and others. Since what Emmanuel DOES is easily copied, and hard to retaliate against if it comes from not hundreds, not thousands, but potentially millions of angry voters.
Publicizing every rotten deal, crooked agreeement, family featherbedding, family scandal, involving not JUST officeholders but lobbyists, backers, friends, and so on.
Rahm’s and Obama’s problem is that the opposition CAN scale that in a way that the Obama-ites cannot answer without concentration camps. Which means a massive fight, a real one not political, and one they’ll likely lose. Bill Ayers fantasized about concentration camps for the White Middle Class, any actual attempt will be fought on the streets.
Obama can spread all the dirt he wants about Arlen Specter, or Orrin Hatch, or GWB. All are irrelevant and have no connection to the grass-roots movement.
Re: Jim Webb. He is as deeply feminized and robotically SWPL Obama worshipping as the rest. He in his heart believes that a good round of groveling and kumbayah and throwing Jews worldwide (here in this country, not just Israel) to Muslim slaughter will make “Muslims love us.” He is as rotten as Emmanuel or Barney Frank.
But wait everyone, we’re having foreign policy success. Everyone loves us again, or maybe not:
: 08/31/2009 SAUDI ARABIA – $2 BILLION RUSSIAN ARMS DEAL IN THE WORKS (AUG 31/AFP) AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — Saudi Arabia is close to finalizing a $2 billion arms deal with Russia, according to a defense source cited by Agence France-Presse. Up to 150 helicopters — 30 Mi-35 attack helicopters and as many as 120 Mi-17 transport helicopters — more than 150 T-90S tanks, around 250 BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and “several dozen” air defense systems are expected to be purchased, the source told Interfax. “For many of these contracts, all the technical and financial details have practically been agreed, for others work is still ongoing,” he added. The contracts for the tanks and helicopters could be signed before the end of this year, according to the source.
Dick Cheney vs. Rham Emmanuel. I’m betting on Cheney.
(Isn’t Rham Jewish? You’d think that infamous American Jewish Lobby would do something about reining him in … unless they approve of all the bullshit that Obama is engaged in.)
Steeple @31…
Are you sure that’s not from the Onion?
////
It sounds like a protection racket payoff to Putin & Co.
Or is this a cover deal that permits Russian nuclear experts to travel the magic kingdom?
How does Rahm get away with it? Think
“Liberty Valence”.
Sure, Dave. That’s exactly what I’m thinking. (Listen to what Shatner says at the very end.)
sorry. Try this one.
29 Dave
And he is not so dense as to do so
continuously without some kind of pressure being applied.
Well, Bush was still President when Dingy Harry made his infamous comment about the smell of tourists visiting DC in the summer:
“[Reid] said: ‘In the summertime, because (of) the high humidity and how hot it gets here, you could literally smell the tourists coming into the Capitol.’
As the crowd laughed, Reid said, ‘And that may be descriptive but it’s true. Well, that is no longer going to be necessary.’”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/02/reid-capitol-visitor-center-minimie-smell-tourists/
Of course, Reid’s density may well increase under pressure.
steeple/31; well that’s about the worst news i can imagine. In a one or two day period, Japan elects for the first time post ww2 what we will soon see is an anti-American party, and American ally Merkel loses badly in the regionals, NATO southern line makes pro-Russian deal with Armenia (hugely important re azerbaijan’s world-major oil terminus at Baku, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Caucasus in general, the entire Caspian Basin and the pipelines to Europe and the proposed southern route toward Israel), and now, the only counterbalance to the Caspian Axis’ control of oil allocation –that is, OPEC swing-producer Saudi Arabia, is by a military purchase throwing in with the powers they alone have been balancing ? And we need –what –a Constitutional Amendment to drill Alaska and the OCS –which we’d never get anywhere NEAR in time now, anyway ? All in the same time period that Brazil has moved to nationalize Petrobras’ ops and within a week of Chavez’ seizure of communications.
–man alive USA is turning turtle FAST –folks who’ve been railing against the oil industry are getting their wish –next they’re gonna learn that that KSA and China are not under their Dollar-reserves’ control after all.
Once it becomes clear the extent of the devaluation of the American project that the election of an American communist party verifies, the Dollar holders need not wait around for their losses to be entered into the accounting books –if the loss is already real the Dollar holders are already free of any need to support the USA.
Find a place to raise a few goats and plant some taters, folks.
31, 33, 37
Gerard at American Digest just posted some photos for comparison of Vladimir P., Barry O., and their respective fan clubs under the heading of “The Strong Horse vs. My Little Pony.”
Interesting that the British press thinks the photos of Putin are teh ghey.
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/iwar/the_strong_horse_vs_the_p.php
“”"” Publicizing every rotten deal, crooked agreeement, family featherbedding, family scandal, involving not JUST officeholders but lobbyists, backers, friends, and so on. “”"”
I like that. It’s my view that Americans will forgive the political class many things, but old-fashioned graft that is indictable, and over-the-top bad behavior is crossing the line to most Americans.
“”"” Bill Ayers fantasized about concentration camps for the White Middle Class, any actual attempt will be fought on the streets. “”"”
Well actually, he and his cohorts fantasized about doing in rednecks, not the WMC. But the results you assume would be as you stated. Whatever made a bunch of dysfunctional college titty-babies think they could round up Redneck Nation without every last one of the Weatherfairies getting blown away in the bargain must have had to do with what they were smoking at the time.
“”"” Re: Jim Webb. He is as deeply feminized and robotically SWPL Obama worshipping as the rest. “”"”
I don’t know. I don’t agree with his switch to the Democrats, etc., but I still think he’s one of only three real men left in the Democratic Party — the other two being Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton.
39
he’s one of only three real men left in the Democratic Party — the other two being Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton.
What about Zell Miller?
Obviously PA Cat BHO is a short sale.
What’s amazing is that Russia’s military age male population is crashing. Her Devil-went-down-to-Georgia play displayed a sodden, beer-bellied assault force staggering ahead on thirty year old machines with forty-five year old designs.
That makes Russia a pony…
And BHO a toy horse!
buddy
It doesn’t take long for the loose ends to unravel when nobody is holding the string. Either everybody figures Obama for a weak fool or he’s in cahoots with our enemies. Same result either way.
41 blert
Have you seen this article (yeah, I know it’s from the New Yorker) on the impact of AIDS and drug addiction on Russia’s demographics? The figures are from 2004 (as is the article) but I doubt there’s been a turnaround in the last few years. It helps to explain the crash in Russia’s military-age pool.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/10/11/041011fa_fact1?currentPage=all
PA Cat: Zell is now retired. “Democrat Emiritus”.
Harry’s previous gaffe is not what I had in mind. Lately, he publicly said that the Las Vegas Review Journal (which people actually read) should go out of business except for selling ads to support the Las Vegas Sun (which goes unread).
Harry used to sometimes go on conservative talk radio and have a cordial conversation with the host(s). His latest comments about hosts, medium and listeners would grace huffpo if not the daily cuss.
Got other examples from around the country. All of which are commensurate with some master intimidator pulling strings.
Got to be other explanations, but they elude me at the moment.
Dave–
I knew about his comment to the Las Vegas newspaper. I just think he’s been drifting in that direction for some time.
Salt Lick: Got no audio right now, so Shatner’s undoubtedly pungent comment eludes me.
But the one I like: Everybody says to get the Doctor.
The Doctor comes; Orders “Whiskey!”
(Takes a pull.) “Dead”.
And don’t forget; the lawyer missed. Duke didn’t.
Putin’s economics resemble Louis XV.
He’s a milker. Taken as a whole, his crew owe the West more money than the USG owes him — by a long shot.
His internal economy is dollarized — the shame.
His one trick pony, oil exports, is fading in the stretch. Like all oil-play despots he can’t bother with reinvesting in the very industry that sustains his crew.
Economically Putin is all hat and no cattle.
////
The best policy is to play for time and let Putin bleed his nation white. Nothing should be done to encourage Russian adventurism nor rebuild their economy.
////
China figures to follow in the footsteps of America (circa 1930-1939) and Japan (circa 1989-2009) although with much less grace and civility.
Her lack of property rights — especially intellectual property rights — means that China can NEVER be a leading power in the fullness of its meaning.
Creativity is the keystone of progress and leadership. When it’s unprotected and unrewarded then the whole of society suffers. Hence it’s very hard to see how CCP political culture as we have known it can take China to the head of the class.
That purchase of 150 T-90 tanks is astounding since IIRC this sale will be the first significant export order.
The T-90 is so expensive the Russian Army can scarcely order them!
Further the KSA already have M1A1 tanks. It sounds like the kingdom is going to equip either the National Guard or the Army from opposing poles of the cold war. All too weird.
LB@37: Luddy, now the Albertans are saying it is us or the Chinese when it comes to the oil sands -use it or lose it.
Rahm started young, as with most guys
By pulling wings off little flies
It made him feel real good and strong and tough
He graduated then to girls
By pulling on their shiny curls
Until they screamed and cried out loud Enough!
In college he was quite the scream
The evil presence in the dream
Of everyone who came into his view
He organized a lefty crowd
And dared the rest to say out loud
That he and his were both a scurvy crew
He says that’s just Chicago’s way
And everyone just has to play
The game that is the only game in town
He plays it tough, he plays it cool
He knows the game’s a deadly duel
And winner gets acclaimed to great renown
In politics, the Rahm would smile
The gap is but a quarter mile
Between the guys like him and guys like us
And when he does his dirty stuff
But finds that someone’s called his bluff
He smiles and says it’s okay what’s the fuss
But if it’s difference you seek
Between the Rahm and brother Zeke
You only need to see what they propose
Rahm is looking after Rahm
While Zeke is looking for the calm
He gets by picking old folks to dispose
I say that Rahm is looking after Rahm
While Zeke is looking for the balm
That comes from putting old folks in repose
#49. That choice is easy: the Left will not tolerate America developing vast oil reserves. Very high gas prices will destroy the remaining last vestiges of middle class independence. The enslavement of the middle class will be complete. Tar sands oil will go to China.
#37. I’m surprised that the Saudis have not done this sooner. Why in the world depend upon a country that will stab you in the back once its internal Left has turned on you? I’m sure that the Saudis are well aware of Dr. Bernard Lewis’s pronouncement that “America is harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.”
#30 Whiskey–I’ll follow your “bro’s before ho’s” materialism a little ways (Agrippina would make a great poster child, no doubt) but it’s a stretch to call Webb “feminized”…I mean, just remember the firestorm his remarks caused at the Naval Academy regarding the (literal) fitness of women for the military. You could make a case, of course, that he’s been brought to heel, but while a “Born Fighting” self-identified (not to mention self-mythologized) Ulster Scot might have a cultural antipathy toward Jews, the animosity toward Obama’s race-baiting entourage has to be off the scale. As for Muslims, while there has been a segment of the West, especially during the Enlightenment (think Edward Gibbon) with a marked affinity for what appeared the more “rational” (!) culture, I can’t help but think that Webb’s warrior mystique would find the average jihadi beyond the Pale.
In short, I think Webb would see and raise you your 20-carrier-group “real” stimulus plan…the question is why one of the saviors of the 1970′s “hollow force” seems unable to see what’s going to happen to the military once the printing presses at the Treasury are spinning at warp speed.
Rahm, like any other man who steps on a land mine, will have a bad day.
Webb is an enigma. I bought his fairly useless book just to see if I could glean anything about its purported author.
And I couldn’t. Webb as a Dem? The myth of the Blue Dog? Or naked political ambition as the warrior-moderate (Didn’t really work for McCain).
Either Webb is a Dem only to advance his career, or he ignorantly and blindly aligns himself with men who despise everything he holds dear. Neither speaks well for Webb.
But I’m pretty sure anyone who called Webb “feminized” would get his or her asss kicked by the effeminate man himself.
The Democrats are being offered Grape KoolAide by their dear leader and a third of them are disappointed BO hasn’t offered them a bigger glass. The hard Left wants the revolution now but of course without compulsory military service or any appreciable change to their lifestyle.
Right now the Blue Dogs have to be shell shocked. The string Rahm and Barack have them on is the threat to destroy the party if they don’t toe the line. These moderate Dems are looking at the flames at their back versus the 90 floor drop to the street asking themselves how could this happen? Where did these lunatics come from.
Meanwhile the Right is just as discombobuated as the Left though of course it isn’t quite as apparent when all the attention is focusd elsewhere. What we are seeing is Poitical realignment,
blert @ 47,
I’m not sure IP rights are that crucial. The Austrian economists have a whole lot of debate going on at mises.org regarding IP rights.
Besides, there’s been ample example of the lack of IP rights leading to rapid innovation and development, spurring creativity instead of stifling it. The IT development of Taiwan is a case in point.
I guess China may just settle the debate once and for all.
Whiskey @ 30:
I would imagine Ayers will be protected by The 0bamanation. The system is being put into place to confound Patriots efforts to maintain the free nature of The Republic, should events lead us to that. If The pResident does not get his political re-org through the Congress and remake the nation as his handlers would like then look to see other measures implemented. What I wonder is what tail will wag what dog.
blert @ 47:
Something here, the lack of IPR in China matters not one whit. They can and will steal whatever they need. The stupidest thing I EVER heard was Intel building a full meal deal 300mm factory in the PRC. The gov’t went in next door, built the same building and is preparing to march. All of the primary equipment vendors will lose their IP for the latest tools. The PRC guys may not be the smartest BUT they have all the proverbial monkeys that can bang on proverbial typewriters all day long. Shit, we did this one to ourselves for a few pieces of silver. There is history in the PRC of companies who bitch about their IP being stolen and the next thing they know, they are enemies and run out of the country leaving all behind. Just stupid.
Skookumchuk @ 49:
Um, it turns out that a US company out of Utah has a technology that no one else does that makes the recovery of the bitumin from the oil sands feasible at around $38 per barrel oil price. Can reclaim the land as they go to boot. So, I am not so sure that I would worry too much UNLESS the Chi-Coms have stolen or purchased that tech. Hmm? Have to ask the guy I know.
Joe Hill @ 55:
In what way, Joe? My take is that 11/4/08 was the coup. The CPUSA, International ANSWER and the hard Left of the DNC put their useful idiots in place. Is 0bama a player? Nope, he is a tool = useful frontman. Rahmbo is one of the Capos. Soros and others are the powers behind the throne. What will come out of this is anyone’s guess but it will not be the US we know. Let me know what you think the realignment looks like.
Judging by the ruminations at Hot Air the blue dogs have been read the riot act by their constituents and rham doesn’t currently have the blue dogs by the short hairs.
New Democratic plan: Delay public option until 2013?
Leaders say their strategy is to convince members that nothing is set in stone and that they are more than open to negotiations. And they’re engaging in a softer sell, prioritizing health insurance reforms while pitching the public option as something that’s way, way down the road.
“We’re going to ask, ‘Where are you now? Is there something we need to add to get [you] to vote for this?’” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is charged with ensuring that the party’s most vulnerable members are reelected in 2010…
I have a picture of a Emanuel as a baseball pitcher on the mound, stop action just after he rears back all the way and just before he starts his forward motion to “deliver the strike.”
But I don’t see a ball in his hand…I see the almost 1,000 FBI files grabed by the Clintons way back when.
That equates to a lot of dead fish – for both parties – and a lot of soldiers, in ranks.
Re China, at least they seem to be confident in their Big Man strategy as to simply spell it out. At least the plausible deniability of doubt is erased for those who think hope is a trading strategy. And Blert, this isn’t from The Onion either:
BEIJING, Aug 31 (Reuters) – A weekend report that Chinese state-owned companies will be allowed to default on commodity derivative contracts provoked anger and dismay among investment banks on Monday as they feared a damaging precedent.
China’s SOE regulator, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), has told six foreign banks that SOEs reserved the right to default on contracts, Caijing magazine quoted an unnamed industry source as saying in an article published on Saturday. [ID:nLT454907]
A SASAC media official said he was waiting for the “relevant department’s” official comment before he can clarify to media.
Chicago political strategies = Chinese contract law sanctity. It works long enough as you have enough mullets to sign up to play. So far, there still appears to be plenty of those waiting for their turn. But having the soon-to-be second largest economy in the world giving contract law the finger isn’t really anything that helps me sleep better at night (although that’s not why I’m up at 3AM).
Great thread.
Keep asking the deeper question of why.
What drives these people.
RE: China. Sooner or later all of these problems will lead to war if we continue down the path which the Democrats and the international elites are taking us. China is jockeying for the High Ridge regionally. They are not “thinking in the long term” as common wisdom likes to have it. That is why they behave as they do. This expectation seems to be the background for almost all we are seeing in the world today in terms of international politics, diplomacy, technology and commerce.
Obama may have already erased us as a super power, which is his primary task, the secondary being to destroy the wealth of the middle class.
It will take great shocks to turn this around, Merely electing a GOP POTUS, or a thin majority of GOP congressman and Senators will not suffice to turn the tide.
On the side of the reasonable and decent, there seems to be one recourse with several aspects:
1) Radically reduce the non-defense aspect of all levels of government. All of the New Deal Extravagances/Departments and their accretions have to go, as do the State/Big city level organizations which were set up to ape them.
2) Dramatically reduce entitlements. This along with #1 above is the only honest way out of the debt. (This, along with #1 above, means destroying the either national political machine of the Democrat Party and finding meaningful employ for all supported by it.)
3) Rebuild the arms forces and rebuilt the native (High and Low) manufacturing, R&D and Technology, and staging and logistics sectors which support the armed services.
4) Settle, once and for all, this teetering flip flopping to the Left very 8 to 12 years. Otherwise our coalitions will not hold.
5) Radically commit to a strong and independent Middle class, where “Middle Class” does not mean a particular income level, as it the term has been perverted to mean, but small and medium sized business ownershup, and this ownership should be skewed to businesses on the manufacturing and technology supply/value chains and should be “dual use” so as to support # 3 above. (This implies some revisiting of outsourcing, taxation and regulation etc. Moreover, this entails a firm rejection of the One Worlders and all that comes with them. It also means reforming or destroying their institution, including all the NGO’s and the Academy. It also means formally rejecting Leftism in all it forms.
6) Develop a broad consensus of just what we want out of “Globalization”, have that definition serve much more than the elites and make it a core part of our diplomacy and policy. Let us stop pretending that what we term “Globalism” today is some sort of historical inevitability or even a natural or normative condition and see it for what it is: The construct of international, One Worlder elites.
All of this implies some sort of long term, cross-generational commitment by the American people at large which has to be carried to the center of all important political parties.
On the side of the irrational and indecent, there seems to be more or less one of three choices:
1) Go to war (and it will be a nuclear one, for a major competitor has to be wiped out for this path to succeed).
2) Repudiate debt (this includes debasing the currency)
3) Become a third world country along the lines of Mexico or Brazil. This is, of course, the outcome which the international elites and their American coreligionists are seeking.
One struggles to see how my first alternative will happen, but then again it looked pretty bad in the Carter years too–a turn around. I will say, however, that I have an eerie feeling that we are today much like the UK was right after WW2 when the first spate of economic problems hit and the chickens started coming home to roost. Like them we have been primed for decline by a group of treason, collectivist “intellectuals”,Union bosses and Media poltroons , and like them we have a feckless, morally degraded segment of the population completely in the thrall of these vipers.
On other matter:
Empires and great powers existed long before IP, property rights, etc. These are part of the modern world and a legacy of the rise of European Civilization chiefly from the Renaissance forward. The primary means of power prior was raw, brute conquest, subjugation, rape and plunder.
This is the mistake made by those that would peer into the future. They imagine that the form of the 19th and 20th centuries will obtain, that all will be the continuation and a development of it. It is just as possible that the West will fall, and that we will devolve back to an Asiatic beehive with non-asian vassals on the periphery of that beehive, and thet technology will stagnant along wuth liberty (including property rights) and commerce. Such a periond could last for centuries.
This is why it is crucial that (traditional) America prevail and somehow revive the West. It is a tall order. Our enemies think that they have a way around this: The New World Order. This amounts to the successful power seekers of the world and their Wealthy supporters and clients getting together and creating a permanent aristocracy in an interlocking technical, political and commercial solidarity. The “International Socialist/Corpartist” welfare aspect is more or less a guise, or at best a “first stage”. It is really more of a new Aristocracy presiding over an global commercial system, and they hope to arrive there under the false banner of socialism. Not that they believe in it–it is merely and useful way to defeat systematically the very material and spiritual foundations of freedom. Once that is achieved we may yet revert backward and the powerful could really care less. Better to rule in Hell.
This may be why liberty, technology and commerce has historically often floundered and have remained stunted and secondary forces for civilization though much of history. They get in the way of elites. It account for the slow progress of Mankind. It may be that the growth of these things in the last few centruies were due in great part to the great liberty of European politcal development from the 18th century onward. But this progress and these rights are by no means an historical givens or norms. Quite the contrary.
That is why is it not hyperbole to say that the fate of man hangs on the fate of the West. We are at crossroads. Are we up to it? It is a struggle for me, at least, to hold out great hope. We are very close to the moment of the greatest danger.
But this progress and these rights are by no means an historical givens or norms=
But this progress and these rights are by no means historical givens or norms
PB: That was a very porblematic poll. It seems that there are a substatial number of people in it that would like to vote people out of congress, provided that they keep their own represettives. Given the Democrat waighting on it, it could be read to mean that voters merely want to dump their Party’s opposition. So it is hard to interpret this poll. Aspects of it seem politically and ideologically neutral.
So it can be read as a pretty ambigious sentiment.
Moreover, one imagines at a great many point in our history that the sentiment of dumping the whole lot of the rascals was common in the majority. When folks get behind the curtains, this rarely happens, or if it does, ultimate results are little different. I think the sentiment in and of itself is hardly revelatory.
When we hear people say that they want to “replace congress” we should not take this to mean that the Left has been repudiated. It does not mean this; the sentiment is politically neutral.
It may be the case that we have let the tea parties of the summer take on a more powerful meaning than they may actually have, and this is understandable given the despair of last spring. We have certainly not rounded any corner here–it is a beginning and nothing more. We do not know its legs or if we have the collective will and courage to sustain it. The Left will go all out to squash this movement.
The events of the summer are wonderful and as these movements go forward they deserve our support, commitment and involvement, but we have not turned the tide. We have an opportunity to finally prove what we have been saying for all these years, and to move some of the muddle. We can at least clear the air. But let us not forget that the Left has much power and they have not even started their push back yet, not really. Their movers and shakers are all just getting back from vacation, for Pete’s sake. There is a long and dangerous struggle ahead, a personally dangerous struggle for many a patriot.
We have not but engaged in the very first skirmish of the very first battle yet, so far as this administration goes.
Late to the thread, but there are a couple of points I would like to comment on.
#69 Steeple
BEIJING, Aug 31 (Reuters) – A weekend report that Chinese state-owned companies will be allowed to default on commodity derivative contracts provoked anger and dismay among investment banks on Monday as they feared a damaging precedent.
I had missed that, and it is a crucial piece of information. In a private email with an acquaintance who does the investment thing [I would not touch this market with a 10-foot Pole or an 11 foot Czech, if I had any money.] the interesting fable that China was going to lead the world out of recession was part of the topic. Here is part of what I said:
One of the many reasons that I distrust the reports of Chinese economic growth is that I know how unbelievably corrupt the Party is. If the government is handing out money, it will be diverted by Party members and their families as the first priority. And when you consider that most of the Chinese stock exchange consists of enterprises that are dummies for stealing state funds and that the banks in China are used as the conduit for those funds by giving “loans” to them that are never going to be repaid; they have a bubble that makes AIG, Goldman Sachs, and Citibank look like paragons of fiscal virtue. I do not know if this is the moment, but it may be that the organic waste is impacting the rotating airfoil.
I note that the second order effects of a Chinese economic collapse are not going to be restricted to economic dominos falling in the West.
The first refuge of a totalitarian state in domestic trouble is foreign adventures.
China has an appalling demographic imbalance in the male/female ratios. A horrendous chunk of their male population at the age where families are normally formed are never going to have a chance to do so. That age matches military age, and historically if such occurs in a society, they go to war.
For the last couple of years the spikes in oil prices have been driven by a actual scarcity, not evil corporate manipulations. Both oil and cash are basically fungible. [although there are variations in the trust in the cash and the ease of refining of the oil] A couple of years ago, China passed us as the world’s greatest oil importer. It was that, and our shortage of refining capacity that really drove the oil price spikes of a year or two ago. China needs oil, because their economy has become dependent on it. In a time of domestic economic crisis, they need to try to maintain the standard of living to help maintain order, which means they will need to keep up with oil imports that they can no longer pay for.
They have the same choices the Empire of Japan had after we froze Japanese oil imports in October 1941; get it from outside or collapse. That procurement may not involve conflict, but it well may. Either way, the results will surely be against our interests.
In this time of crisis, our response will be determined by Buraq Hussein Obama; the winner of last years “American Mahdi” contest on TV, [word redacted here out of respect for Wretchard's House] Be Upon Him. We all know what he has done to our economy to destroy it already.
This is not going to end well.
By the way, I do have a few ideas on what China could trade for oil. I also note, in passing, that the recent Russian arms deal for tanks with the Saudis may signal the beginning of a shift from the parasitic relationship of OPEC with us to a more directly predatory stance.
Further, given that the rule of law has been abandoned in the commercial affairs of the largest economy in the world [us] and replaced with the rule of men and connections [Guanxi], the formal abandonment of them by the same means in the ‘soon to be second largest economy in the world’ does not bode well.
# 62 Mongoose
It will take great shocks to turn this around, Merely electing a GOP POTUS, or a thin majority of GOP congressman and Senators will not suffice to turn the tide.
The interesting thing is that our esteemed colleague Mongoose [No, that was sincere and not snark. Figured I'd better clarify because text messages do not reveal nuance.] is the flaming optimist in this scenario.
I have mentioned, and it is ioncreasingly being noted by other commentators in other places, that the Democrats’ actions can only be explained if they have no fear of ever facing the voters in an honest election again. Forever.
The Republicans’ actions can be explained by either the Cthulu-theory, or by a level of insensitivity to political reality akin to that of the French ‘Nobility of the Sword’ in 1789.
The crisis may come even sooner than November 2010, albeit that is a plausible extreme parameter for the end of the Sitzkrieg we are in. Consider, soon the regime will gather its minions once again in the Federal District. They will be away from the influence of the Kulaks and counter-revolutionary elements of the Petit Bourgeoisie and peasantry. They will be offered power and eternal safety by the regime [who will be hiding that bus that people get thrown under]. Mark Twain was dead on in one thing. “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” (Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar).
Rahm Emmanual will offer money, positions, men, women, girls, boys, and kinky combinations thereof that would shock Krafft-Ebbing; and they stand a good chance of being accepted by almost all. So they will force through ObamaMengeleCare, and since ‘in for a penny, in for a $Trillion’; Cap and Tax and Speech Codes, along with anything else they can think of to impose ‘Rope and Chains’ in lieu of the promised ‘Hope and Change’.
And they will brag about their defiance, up until say about January 2010. Then they will realize that they have really befouled their own messkits.
Protests, some violent, may have broken out by then. In any case, they will be facing the prospect of a) having their nether regions handed to them in numerous discreet chunks by the voters whose BS detectors will be in DefCon 5, and b) maybe having to live under the laws they have passed, in the midst of those who they have imposed them on.
They will not retract what they have just done, and in any case the regime will have them by the short hairs if they try. There will be no question what they are, only the price. Therefore, the best option, and the only one that will be in their self interest, will be either a cancellation or blatant falsification of the elections. Either of which will meet with the adulatory approval of the official media.
And at that point our dance card is going to be rather full.
To pull together a couple of recent threads; those on interrogation techniques, and politics, there is a psychological barrier that must be breached.
When dealing with interrogations, even the most fearful subject has a psychological barrier that defends him. Everyone has a part of their ego that assumes that “They really won’t hurt me!”. That is broken, usually, when the interrogation team first strikes the subject or otherwise proves the assumption false. Then the real decision to resist or not, and with what strength comes to the fore.
When dealing with a military coup d’ etat one of the problems that the government forces have is that in the critical period there is an inertia, a sense of disbelief that such is really happening; and that hampers the response exactly at the moment when action is critical.
When a totalitarian regime is imposed on a previously relatively free country; the citizens are loathe to believe what is in front of their eyes. After all, the political system that has operated [sometimes for generations] does not have such. Their thoughts are blinkered by the assumption of both legitimacy, and belief in the essential humanity, of those in power. In such cases, both assumptions are almost 100% false historically. And evidence of their eyes is not accepted by the citizens until it is far too late. Indeed, in the case of the peoples and classes marked for absolute destruction by both the Stalinist regime and that of the Third Reich; even after years of bitter experience and direct observation of what was happening, they did not accept the truth of the situation until they had entered the gates of whatever hell the regime had prepared for them. And sometimes afterwards.
So, what do we do after the hyenas reform their packs in DC? What do we do after they step across their legislative Rubicon [Albeit, most of them would not have full comprehension of the nature of that act or its historical precedent; being both dumber than rocks, and more ignorant than stones.]?
I do not know, and indeed nobody does. And that is the problem. Any usurpation of power is going to be accompanied by energetic actions to suppress resistance. And we right now do not meet any of Sun Tzu’s preconditions for victory.
We hope for the loyalty of the military to their Oath, and such may be the best outcome we can conceive. But hope is not an operational plan. In yet another recent thread, the concept of alternate communications networks, as a beginning, was explored. I offer along that line this article from the blog CLASSICAL VALUES. I commend especially the comments to your attention. I think that you will be able to figure out which comments are most on point.
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2009/08/tentative_thoug.html#comments
Subotai Bahadur
f(second amendment rights X tyranny) = super-volcano.
America really is unique.
///
“DefCon 5″
Me thinks you mean DefCon’1′….
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‘The Republicans’ actions can be explained by either the Cthulu-theory, or by a level of insensitivity to political reality akin to that of the French ‘Nobility of the Sword’ in 1789.’
I’d say the Republicans are in a Grand Mal Political Seizure….
One aspect of which is that the victim loses even the memory of the event and everything immediately precedent.
#66 blert
Me thinks you mean DefCon’1′….
Agreed, with a mea culpa. Further agreed that I should not write until after my 3rd pot of coffee.
re: explaining the Republican party. No problem with that, but I note that all 3 explanations are not in any way mutually exclusive. I have never seen such a collection of politically suicidal lop-eared duds in my life.
Subotai Bahadur