Attack Speed, Rahmming Speed!
An article in the Telegraph reports that Rahm Emanuel intends to leave the White House within six to eight months in “frustration” over the inability of the WH to “bang heads together” to push policy through. The gist of the story is in the subhead: “Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the ‘idealism’ of Barack Obama’s inner circle.” It is straightforward enough, but its plaintext meaning is so puzzling one suspects that like many recent signals from the executive branch, the real message is written in cipher. But it is intentionally weakly enciphered because whoever leaked the story meant it to be decrypted. So let’s try a few ciphertext substitutions and examine the possibilities.
Here’s the ciphertext. “Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the ‘idealism’ of Barack Obama’s inner circle.” Now consider the following substitutions.
| Ciphertext | Substitution 1 | Substitution 2 |
| “is expected to leave his job” | “is planning to resign” | “will be blamed” |
| after growing tired of the ‘idealism’ | after discovering the incompetence | after not being able to get along |
| Barack Obama’s inner circle | Barack Obama | the pollsters looking for a scapegoat |
The key question to settle in choosing the right version is deciding who is ditching whom. Is Rahm Emanuel firing a shot across the president’s bow or is the president telling Rahm to get with the program? The internal evidence suggests that Rahm Emanuel is doing the warning because the far future date of his supposed departure would be unlikely if the message came from “Barack Obama” or “Barack Obama’s inner circle.” But there is enough ambiguity built into the message to allow for plausible deniability. Rahm is warning his boss as strongly as he possibly can without being overtly insubordinate.
The Telegraph has this cryptic elaboration on the main theme. It reads:
His abrasive style has rubbed some people the wrong way, while there has been frustration among Mr Obama’s closest advisers that he failed to deliver a smooth ride for the president’s legislative programme that his background promised.
“It might not be his fault, but the perception is there,” said the consultant, who asked not to be named. “Every vote has been tough, from health care to energy to financial reform.
“Democrats have not stood behind the president in the way Republicans did for George W Bush, and that was meant to be Rahm’s job.”
The sentences above sound like padding added by the writer from original research and followup calls. It sounds like people explaining why Emanuel might be fired or leave. But the next part of the article sounds like a pure cover story unlikely to have come from anyone except an actual source, probably Emanuel himself.
Mr Emanuel has reportedly told friends that his role as White House chief of staff was “only an eighteen month job” because of its intensity.
Regarded as the most demanding after president, it involves controlling the president’s agenda, enforcing White House message discipline as well as liaising with Congress.
His departure would regarded as another sign of how Mr Obama’s presidency has been far more troubled than expected.
Mr Emanuel has privately expressed a readiness to run for mayor of Chicago, which is also his home town though he was never part of the Obama set and did not endorse the then senator in the Democratic primary in 2008.
That would however depend on Mayor Richard Daley stepping down when he is up for re-election in 2011.
The chief obstacle to taking the White House job originally was doubts about moving his three children from Chicago. According to another former Clinton official, he has let friends know that he is “very sensitive to the idea that he is not a good father for having done this.”
This sounds like Rahm or his mouthpieces explaining his decision. Interestingly, one of those mouthpieces is “another former Clinton official,” which raises the question of whether anyone put Rahm up to it. The last part of the article reads like more padding, more background research from the journalist himself, added in to explain to British readers just who Rahm is.
One of Washington’s more colourful characters, Mr Emanuel is the son of Jewish immigrants and was an accomplished ballet dancer at school. He served as a civilian volunteer with the Israeli Defence Force in the 1991 Gulf War.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
So this is how the message might read. “Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is threatening to leave his job later this year unless Barack Obama gets real. Rahm has made a lot of personal sacrifices to join the White House. He gave up being a congressman, Chicago deep dish pizza and being a father to his children for what? To be blamed as abrasive when the midterm disaster unfolds. No way he’s taking the fall for that. But just to show the boss he’s not scared, not a rat — not until the last moment anyway — he’ll stay until the midterm disaster makes it absolutely clear that all his warnings about futzing around have come true. And just in case you think Emanuel is yellow, remember that’s he willing to take on Richard Daley. And think on this. When all you inner circlers are walking the streets in DC rattling pencil cups and looking for a job, Rahm’s going to be mayor of the Windy City.”
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I think it means Hillary has decided to run.
Wow, great translation.
I am unclear about how you can be more inner circle than the Chief of Staff?
The kind of people who work at the highest levels of the White House don’t leave their jobs voluntarily or on principle either for that matter. this is nothing but cya for the beat down BO is getting in the press and the polls and whopping the Dems are going to take in November.
It has become painfully obvious even to the most ardent partisans that this admix.
Et tu tu, Brute?
Hannity has been calling Rahm Emmanuel “deadfish” since almost day one. I don’t know what it was that got Hannity started.
5. Charles
I think that’s because Emmanuel supposedly sent a dead fish to a political enemy, Mafia-style.
I think that’s because Emmanuel supposedly sent a dead fish to a political enemy, Mafia-style.
You don’t suppose this is an analogous type of political warning, which like dead fish, often comes wrapped in newspaper?
Deadfish mishandled the gulf mess – ironically enough!
Deadfish has been straddling the Israel issue since day one, I presume he is a “peace now” type who wants Israel to cave to the Palis. After his recent trip to Israel, he can no longer rationalize his own actions.
Obama could use a fall guy at this point, and Deadfish is just that dedicated.
Deadfish was on tv this morning, sounding like just what Obama needs, and has been leaning on heavily. Yet, I’m sure Obama gives him no credit, public or private. Maybe Deadfish is getting tired of being Obama’s dhimmi.
The devil breaks his tools when he is done with them.
7. wretchard
Maybe; I hadn’t thought of that.
What I was thinking is that the mere fact that we have to decode news stories like this is reminiscent of the old Soviet Union.
He gave up…Chicago deep dish pizza…for what?
Ahhh, among other things, Wretchard has deciphered the soul of all true Chicagoans. Sauce on the top, cheese on the bottom, as God intended. And Rahm Emmanuel is nothing if not a Chicago archetype.
If the knives are out, I’d bet on Mr. Emmanuel being the sticker and not the stickee. President Obama always has his eye on the next rung of the ladder, but Mr. Emmanuel always has his eye on the Achilles tendon of the next guy up.
“That would however depend on Mayor Richard Daley stepping down when he is up for re-election in 2011.”
Or being indicted.
In the novel, the fish was wrapped in Luca’s bullet proof vest. Has any one else remarked on the heavily blurred image of Mrs. Clinton being used by Hot Air ?
The press accounts I’ve seen are clearly coming from the Rahm camp. Amazingly he’s uncritically reported as a “pragmatist” and a torn family man afraid of the shock from uprooting his kids from their home in Chicago and moving them to Washington. Such explanations redefine the term pragmatist, and Chicago has been his vacation home, his technical home for years. He’s a Washington creature thru and thru.
Looks like a legacy or currency preservation move. He must be looking at horrific numbers he’s trying to distance himself from. Rahm doesn’t abandon high numbers, he presses the advantage of high numbers. He doesn’t know how to operate without having “the squeeze”. Low numbers sap his power. He can only ride the tall waves.
Fat Man wins the thread!
Was this a coded message to President Obama? Or was it a message from Obama to the Daly brothers? Alternate plaintext:
“Mayor Daly, you’ve had a good long turn at the wheel, but my boy Rahm is going to need a job soon and I’ve got the DA on a short leash. You know what to do.”
Perhaps this three-ring circus includes Blago’s corruption trial? Rahm was subpoenaed by Blago’s defense team at the beginning of June. “While he was a U.S. representative from Chicago, Emanuel was recorded in conversations with Blagojevich about Obama’s vacant Senate seat. Blagojevich is accused of offering the seat to the highest bidder.
Emanuel was also an alleged victim of a Blagojevich extortion attempt over a state grant to a school.”
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/06/rahm-emanuel-rod-blagojevich-barack-obama-federal-court-trial.html
Poor poor Rahm has had his day
His style now out of fashion
Bought by The One then thrown away
To a convenient trash bin
Rahm may claim that it’s his call
But all of us know better
With gun to head he’ll take the fall
By resignation letter
It’s all his fault it’s come apart
This hope and changey promise
Just fizzled out right from the start
Another lefty bomb miss
And so somebody has to pay
For screwing up Obama
And Rahm’s the guy sent on his way
Back home to kids and momma
Also, while our attention has been elsewhere (thank you, MSM), Afghanistan is about to hit the fan.
Good time for rats to boogie.
I rather expect that the Israelis took Rahm to the woodshed with a backchannel reality check.
Things like, “Whatever happened to the Capos?”
Rahm might be worried that the Sampson option does not necessarily dictate Arab capitals — it might include back-stabbing ‘allies.’
You must know by now that the 6th fleet is becoming the 5th fleet.
—–
And BP and ‘bamster are still waiting for Godot.
The Golf Warrior puts again!
I buy the rat jumping sinking ship…
As someone often seemingly incapable of putting together complete sentences and coherent, unhedged opinions, as someone devoted to dropping and mixing cliches and vulgarities, Rahm strikes me as someone who thinks that being the guy speaking is more important than anything one might say. Translation: he’s always grasping for whatever narrative will draw attention… He’s not so much attempting to write the future as to be sure he gets a good role in the story being written.
#10 Neil.
Thanks for the tip on Chicago-style deep-dish pizza, I had no idea the sauce was on top, cheese on bottom.
This is far more important than Rahm Emanuel leaving the sinking ship.
Chicago has given its name to a number of everday objects. There’s Chicago Deep Dish Pizza; back in the day there was the Chicago Piano, which sometimes referred to a Thompson submachinegun but which was also applied to various kinds of multibarrelled anti-aircraft guns in World War 2. I also remember an article of stationery called Chicago Screws, better known in other parts of the English speaking world as a postbinder. That’s about the extent of my own personal stock of “Chicago” words. And although there is nothing abnormal or sinister about them they have an edge which adds a certain atmosphere to expression.
American English has a certain background tone unique to itself as do other Englishes. There’s nothing like looking for a “drugstore” or going shopping for “Chicago screws” to get people wondering.
–wondering about that “idealism” word. The inner circle net of Rahm is ‘too idealistic’ –? Meaning, Rahm wants the WH to be ‘more practical’?
By golly, he may be trying to move the admin to the center-far-left! He’s trying to stop them from rushing the Winter Palace –because, he keeps trying to tell them, they’re IN the Winter Palace.
Go Rahmbo, go! Maybe it’s simpler than we think, perhaps he’s thinking,”Boss is an idiot…must find new job, before all the wheels come off this thing. And getting heckled in Israel was NO FUN.”
“When all you inner circlers are walking the streets in DC rattling pencil cups and looking for a job, Rahm’s going to be mayor of the Windy City.”
In a nutshell, this is the problem with our government today. There is a class of people in this country who have made politics their profession. They have never built anything, never managed anything (like a company or some sort of industry, that has actually made something), and worst of all, have never had to take responsibility for their decisions. Obama is a classic example of this, a career politician that has no concept of what it’s like in the real world, only having experience as a politician. If a CEO makes a bad decision, the worst that can happen is a company goes bust. If a major politician makes a bad decision, it could wreck the lives of millions of people.
Yet slugs like Rahm never see that. All they care about is their next job, their next election, their next candidate and what his or her election will mean to them. They are a bunch of social leaches who hang on to a candidate in hopes that it will enhance their future in this stupid profession. I’d hate to see how long a guy like this would last if he had to find a real job, one where he actually had to get results by selling a useful product. The only “products” Rahm sells is the next political candidate. Just like Obama, the candidate is packaged and sold to the fools in the general public who buy that junk, just like they buy a soda or a set of tires based on a TV commercial. The phonyness of it all is enough to make you sick.
That’s why we desperately need term limits and do everything in our power to find people who only want to go into politics for a brief period of time, and then return to their real lives in the private sector. A citizen politician, one that would serve for only a few years and then leave, instead of perpetuating this endless stream of political hacks that need to drift from election to election in order to make a living.
The founding fathers never thought our government should be an industry with its own life-long technocrats making it their living. In fact, they wanted robust debate in Congress, because they thought much debate would prevent Congress from passing too many laws, thereby maintaining a small and less intrusive Federal government. But now we have career politicians that live and die by the number of laws they pass, just so they can justify their existence on their resume. They can then use this padded resume to either get another job in government, or become a lobbyist who leaches off of the Federal government. Either way, they keep making their living off politics and our government, and that’s just plain wrong.
Perhaps people have had enough of this. Perhaps the Tea Party activists are the shot across the bow of all career politicians that feed off of a bloated government. We’ll see. I hope it is, because having to support people like Rahm and his ilk for the rest of our days will only plunge this country deeper and deeper into trouble, and debt, because we can’t afford what these people are “selling” anymore.
Great Comments!
Irony is a terrible thing to waste:
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel says BP CEO Tony Hayward has made another gaffe by going to a yacht race in England while oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico, the Associated Press reports.
Emanuel, speaking to ABC’s “This Week,” said Hayward had “got his life back.”
“I think we can all conclude that Tony Hayward is not going to have a second career in PR consulting,” Emanuel told ABC in an interview taped Saturday.
—
It was the first break Hayward has taken since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers, BP spokesman Robert Wine said in the story.
“He’s spending a few hours with his family at a weekend. I’m sure that everyone would understand that,” Wine told the AP Saturday. “He will be back to deal with the response. It doesn’t detract from that at all.”
President Obama has also been criticized for partaking in fun activities during the spill. A recent ad by the Republican National Committee showed Obama golfing, singing a Beatles tune, and raising money in Washington while oil continues to gush.
This is clearly Obama taking names and kicking ass. No one is safe from his wrath now.
Beware tax collectors.
Just as soon as Obama has plugged the hole in the bay of rigs the man is going to tear down the walls of Congress and throw every last one of them out in the street.
Where’s Hillary..?
Tell her I said to get in here now!
I almost feel sorry for poor ol’ Rahm.
When Obama was elected – his followers really believed that stuff like “the seas will fall, the world will heal, everyone will get free medical care and cats and dogs will live together and sing “Kumbaya”. It really didn’t occur to these people that it would take a plan for legislative action, a broad based coalition and compromise with the interests of other people to begin the process of enacting legislation that would point in the general direction of Obama’s campaign promises. It didn’t occur to his followers that Obama was proposing things of rather dubious constitutionality and that he would need the support of people who would like to be reelected. People really did believe that the will of “The One” would bring these things to pass with a wave of his mighty hand.
Obama is like the Ricardo Montaban character from The Wrath of Kahn (“Star Trek” both movie and TV show – any one old enough to get this obscure reference?) Obama, in quiet tones, tells us all of his “superior intellect”. He then expects the world to bow to his will and is genuinely surprised and confused when we do not. Rahm – on the other hand – is the poor aid who is charged with actually getting things done in the face of mind numbing megalomania. Rham has to make deals on behalf of someone who thinks he should simply be obeyed – not just because he is president, but because he is the smartest person to ever live and he knows what is best for us. I do not envy Rahm his job.
Don’t get me wrong – I am glad to see Rahm go. He is just another Chicago style thug politician. He is, however, one of the Obama administration’s last links to reality.
I doubt if Dunham has the intelligence or autonomy to say such a thing. Moreover, if he did, he would soon discover that “going to the mattresses” has nothing to do with what he expects after buying Michelle a Wagyu steak dinner.
Daley isn’t going anywhere; Obama can’t touch him without being touched back, hard. Black Bart (#1) is correct, Hillary has decided to run. Rahm will join her campaign as will the MSM that is busily preparing to toss President Tarballs under the bus.
Postscript to #30:
Just think of the dirt on Obama that Rahm could bring to Hillary’s table!
Look for Hillary to be going away soon. With the mess the “o” has made, she will soon have her opportunity to be the new democrat presidential contender. Could Rahmbo be jumping ship to her ? Time will tell. Look for the “0″ to be on the receiving end of guff from the MSM real soon. . . .
Hilary has not been aging well. Looks like she’s been hitting the bottle.
GET @ 28: Obama as Khan… Brilliant!!
The White House is already responding that the story is nonsense. As it is next to impossible to believe anything coming from the administration at face value, we’ll just have to see how it plays out.
If, however, the Telegraph’s report is even partially true, it reveals something about the President that many conspiracy nuts like my father and I have suspected: Obama isn’t the President. He is simply a mouthpiece for one or more hidden or not so hidden individuals. We always thought Rahm was really calling the shots, but (as an earlier comment noted) if the Chief of Staff is at odds with the INNER CIRCLE… Who the HELL is in the Inner Sanctum… Pardon me, circle.
Here’s something I find funny. Those on the edges, both left and right, knew Obama was a die hard believer, who said simply what he needed to to get elected but never believed a word of it. The hilarity ensues when those on the left seem to have forgotten all the centrist talk of Obama the Candidate, and are shocked, SHOCKED, that so many are opposed to his agenda, and by extension the obstacles in Congress. It is a weakness of the left that the right has difficulty exploiting. I’ve always been able to argue the liberal position better than any liberal I’ve encountered, but not one of them has come close understanding the basics of any argument I make. It flies miles over their heads.
Chicago Dog:
Steamed or fried all beef wiener, on a steamed bun, mustard, onion, wedge of dill pickle, tomato slices, bright green Chicago relish, Italian sport pepper, celery salt.
In that order.
I sell these, they are incredible.
Disillusionment{reality} has set in. Rahmbo realized that the seas won’t recede, and everything else promised will not come to pass. He lost the fight with Axelrod for control of the Obamabot, lost with Pelosi and Reid for rational legislation that is affordable in the real world. He has realized that the WH won’t have full reign, and will likely run the ship of state aground on the rocks of the electorate they have so aroused. In other words, he’s bailing out.
I am afraid that the brand Hillary is selling will still have that sour aftertaste in 2012. She’d be fighting an uphill battle, against an incumbent, and against the wrath of the voter fed up with being ignored and disdained. Double whammy. Plus, she’s not aging well, and is no Maggie Thatcher in personality. IMO
tom
Like ALL conservatives, my fantasy is the Donks getting slaughtered this November (133 days). Rahm will want to be as far from that event as possible. Right now it is looking like the House goes Republican by a bit. Best case for the Dems is losing 40 seats, which would almost do it. Worst case is 60+ seats, which would make the Alamo look like a win. Senate is looking to end up 49/49 with 2 indies caucusing with the Donks.
A big part of the problem the 4th worlders have is that Civics isn’t taught in primary school anymore. So the left (4th worlders) are entirely clueless about how the Federal government actually functions. With the Left’s natural inclination to prefer tyrants and despots, they tend to place more blame and credit on the executive branch then is warranted.
Congress actually runs America. The executive branch is charged with carrying out the programs created by Congress. FDR, as a Socialist dictator looking for a country to rule, tried to change that. Some of his attempts still linger.
The Chief of Staff is a “new” position, or at least a new title;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Chief_of_Staff
I’m not sure if it is considered a cabinet level position and subject to Senate confirmation. I don’t think so.
The Constitution leaves the make-up of the executive to Congress.
Anyway, if the Donks lose Congress, somebody will have to shoulder the blame. If Rahm is gone, he has a chance of avoiding that. Of course, that will leave da Fuhrer in the headlights doing his deer impersonation. So Rahm has a powerful tool to use against POTUS. Berry isn’t the sharpest blade in the drawer, but he is sharp enough to know that one of the Chief of Staff’s jobs is taking political bullets for POTUS.
So when the far, far, far left comes looking for a scapegoat with blood in their eye, Rahm gets tossed off the sleigh. Unless he jumps now, in which case Berry has to face the wolves alone. So it makes sense that Rahm is looking for a buy out. 50 mill or so to tide him over while he recovers? Sorros is good for it.
If CoS does require Senate confirmation, then having no control of the Senate will be a problem for POTUS, not that any POTUS ever has real control. Senators are not noted for being biddable. At best they can be manipulated (Clinton) or intimidated (Johnson). Bush II mostly bribed them, which is why the budget got so out of control.
He doesn’t want to be around for the impeachment hearings.
He doesn’t want to be around when Obama officially tosses his support to the new Iran-Turkey axis against Israel.
He’s tired of David Axelrod’s moustache.
He is preparing the groundwork for Hilary.
Or he may just leave politics. That’s actually possible, if unlikely.
Re Hillary, best not to forget that her efforts to distance herself from Bambam will, in the end, be overwhelmed by the fact that she’s just like him: an empty pantsuit.
The argument that she’s done nothing except postured for the media will be strong in 2012, especially against someone who’s run a state and/or actually accomplished something, like salvaged an Olympics. The country will be hungering for a stodgy, old fashioned white male to run things by then. If there is a then, of course.
It’s all about work to rule.
Does President Obama think Rahm is failing? After all, he got a health care bill through. And he still might get cap ‘n trade through, which is something that will unite powerful interest groups behind the Obama Democrats. In a way, these carbon credits are like creating hundreds of billions of dollars that can be spread around like the world’s biggest money haul. Does Rahm think that it will pass (and he will go back into private business for a bit — hauling money) or that it won’t, and he’ll get tagged with failure?
The Federal Response to the Oil Spill in the Gulf reminds me of “Work to Rule.” Work to Rule is used by activist as a way of slowing things down in order to gum up production and make the costs of doing business soar. You do not suspend the “Jones Act” when you are doing Work to Rule, because you need those rules to be enforced to gum up production. It is how the “Multilateral, Multicultural, Pro-immigrant Administration” keeps foreigners from helping out.
Under Work to Rule you do look for the proper life vests on “oil sucking barges” as a way of shutting them down. Under work to rule you do say, “We are going to put our boots on the throats of those responsible” because then those leading the response effort will not stick their necks out. So you know that all the meetings will be held, all the studies done, all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. You know that oil containment booms will be months getting certified (unless their is a media storm to speed it up a bit). Call the strategy a “Top Kill” for the response — and on this occasion the Top Kill worked. And who would be the Top Killer in the Admin?
Why did the Administration “Top Kill” the response? Well, at first they thought the well was leaking 5,000 barrels a day and that BP would get it plugged in a matter of weeks, not months. Suppose there was an effective containment of the spill? Suppose 80 percent of the oil is sucked up on site and the rest just disappears in the gulf? Suppose the visuals are of the successful mitigation of a “worst case scenario.” Suppose the oil soak Pelicans never appear? How does that help the narrative? How does that help convince Americans to give up hydrocarbons and do Cap ‘n Trade?
Hence the need to “Top Kill” the response — to impose “Work to Rule” on the response effort.
It kind of reminds me of that movie “Ace in the Hole.” A guy is trapped by a cave in, but the Kirk Douglas “journalist” character drags out the rescue to create a story that will benefit himself (and the top guys in the rescue effort). But in the end, the journalist can no longer control the story because he cannot control reality, and the story does in the Journalist, just as reality does in the man to be rescued.
So Rahm’s BP Lobbyists friends assured him the hole would be plugged within six weeks. Instead of expediting the clean up, he had his leftist “environmentalist” network in the bureaucracy slow it down — Work to Rule. Except he could not control reality, the leak goes on for months, and the 5,000 barrels a day turns into 50,000. Someone will need to take the fall for the inept response.
They thought the Gulf Oil blowout would be their Ace in the Hole, but it has turned into a Hole in their Ace. When he leaves I’m sure we’ll hear that he should have “speeded the response” in the gulf.
But passing Cap and Trade is the real “Work to Rule.” Once that piece of work is passed, their rule will be permanent.
Libertyship46 @ 25: “That’s why we desperately need term limits”
Well, Rahm is threatening to term-limit himself. That’s a start. But we don’t need term limits; we simply need to recognize that anyone in an elected position already has volunteered for a full time job and does not have time to campaign for any other elected position. Currently elected officials should be disqualified from running for ANY elected office, including the one they currently hold.
Back on topic — Why did this article appear in a newspaper in far-off Blighty, given that the Washington media is an active player in Democrat politics? And a “far right” London publication at that! The Washington press would not touch it? Or there are even more wheels within wheels?
#35 Mark B.
Oh, do I miss a good Chicago hotdog! I went to school in Chicago, I used to go to a place called Flukies. Wouldn’t you think we’d have good hot dogs in Israel? Not a shot, hot dogs here are terrible, so are bagels. And, as in the comment above, pizza here is truely awful. Now who cares about a jerk like Rahm Emanuel? A good Chicago hot dog, now that’s important.
Great exegeses. Wretchard’s reading makes sense to me. Rahm’s power has a sell-by date. So he is looking for bids and is building his next stepping-stone to wherever career thugs go. If O and O’s backers pay him enough, he may stay (a while); but maybe Hillary has got a better offer. Who else might want him, I don’t know. But he has so much dirt on so many people, he’s probably like J Edgar Hoover: hated greatly, but feared even more.
Why did this article appear in a newspaper in far-off Blighty, given that the Washington media is an active player in Democrat politics?
This was the obvious question, with too little hard evidence to suggest an answer. But you could speculate as follows. Since a leak only works when it can be denied, it follows that using a US publication would risk a traceback. So you leak it in London where the arm of the Democratic Party isn’t as sinewy. Plus leaking it through the Telegraph suggests payback from the Tories who probably wish to convey that they Old British lion may be toothless, but still able to occasionally rent dentures. Yet all of this would be unsupported, except by one’s own suspicions.
‘Welcome To Obama’s Jewish America’
IT’S IN OUR FACES NOW. With no sign of diffidence, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently published the feature article, “Welcome To Obama’s Jewish America.”
Celebrating the first-ever Jewish America Heritage Month event at the White House on May 27, 2010, Obama let it be known that Jews have “immeasurably enriched our national culture” and that “Jewish Americans have maintained their own unique identity.”
Obama is certainly correct in his latter remark that American Jews have “maintained their unique identity.” For in their refusal to enter the great “American Melting Pot, ” (a concept which Jews themselves advanced so as to dilute a Gentile racial face in America), American Jewry remains distinctly pitted against the only force that could ever oppose their “unique identity” agenda, a White Christian power bloc.
http://www.realzionistnews.com/?p=506
I’ve been trying to decode this myself and think you’ve done a great job at it.
Obama the idealist: politically, he’s from Chicago, well-known hotbed of idealism; he won his first election by getting his opponent thrown off the ballot; he won his senate election when his opponent’s divorce papers appeared in the Tribune.
Top Ten Midterm Election Blowouts:
President/ Mid-term/ Senate/ House
Cleveland( D ) 1894 -5 -116
Grant ( R ) 1874 -8 -96
Harrison( R ) 1890 0 -85
Harding( R ) 1922 -8 -75
FDR( D ) 1938 -6 -71
Wilson( D ) 1914 +5 -59
Taft( R ) 1910 -10 -57
Truman( D ) 1946 -12 -55
Clinton( D ) 1994 -9 -54
So midterm slaughters are more frequent than the MSM wants you to know. Let’s hope for a repeat of 1894 in the House and 1946 in the Senate.
hdgreene…great relate to the “Ace in the Hole ” movie. Sadly, I think you’re right. Otherwise we have to believe in monumental incompetence…(OK maybe that’s true too)
There are subtle differences between Rahmbo and Buraq that are splitting them apart. Rahmbo is an ideologue, but he is really about the power; getting it and preserving it. Just like Hilary. Buraq is a true believer who wants most of all to destroy America, Britain and Israel; the power is secondary.
Can you see Buraq recruiting conservative Democrats for Congress like Rahmbo did in 2006? No way! Rahmbo can be practical, works hard and has studied his opponents intensely. Buraq has never worked a hard day in his life. Rahmbo probably doesn’t want Israel destroyed either. It’s like many marriages where both partners believed going in that they could bend the other to their will, and Rahmbo failed and he knows it. But the straw that broke the camel’s back is that Rahmbo has seen the handwriting on the wall about Obama’s political demise; it’s time to jump ship to run future campaigns!
Libertyship #25: “If a CEO makes a bad decision, the worst that can happen is a company goes bust. If a major politician makes a bad decision, it could wreck the lives of millions of people.”
Brilliant! This is going in my archive of simple yet profound quotations with the likes of Hoffer, Prager, and C.S. Lewis. Now, if only the left had any common sense they would see how…oh wait, they WANT to wreck the lives of millions of people.
Libertyship46 @ 25: “That’s why we desperately need term limits”
One thing which would work towards limiting terms and electing Congressmen who respond to the views of all their constituents, is to deal with gerrymandering. Congressional districts are fixed for safe seats. Do away with the gerrymandered districts, and seats will not be as safe as they once were.
Gerrymandering is not limited to Democrats.
well, let’s see if he actually goes, then we can continue the analysis
Mihail is correct. Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod have served their primary function. That was in giving Obama cover with traditional Jewish Democratic voters. The decision appears to have been made to drop the incremental mask and move to a policy of open hostility to Israel.
For almost three years now any cricism of Obama ran up against “But look at Rahm and others, you can’t say they would hurt Israel. Even if you disagree that would be nuts.”
I don’t care why Rahm the Malevolent is leaving. I just hope he goes. And I pray to God daily that by January, 2013, they will all be gone.
Time to cash out at the top while the Hope and Change show still has last one in suckers.
Rahm is only worth 10 mil or so, poor thing. This is his chance to get Al Gore, Bill and Hill Clinton rich.
Why can’t it just be that he sees how crazy they are and/or what their ultimate plans entail and doesn’t want to go there?
54. Lifeofthemind
Don’t know if you want to agree with Mihail -
his link is to anti-Semitic website.
slightly O/T
Obama and the War against Israel
http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=Nzk5MWI5M2YzYzZlM2ZkNzdiZDYzOWUxMDk5MjczZjk=
Top Ten Midterm Election Blowouts:
President/ Mid-term/ Senate/ House
Cleveland( D ) 1894 -5 -116
Grant ( R ) 1874 -8 -96
Harrison( R ) 1890 0 -85
Harding( R ) 1922 -8 -75
FDR( D ) 1938 -6 -71
Wilson( D ) 1914 +5 -59
Taft( R ) 1910 -10 -57
Truman( D ) 1946 -12 -55
Clinton( D ) 1994 -9 -54
You will observe that the House totals have continually declined, while the Senate numbers are all over the place.
Gerrymandering for incumbents?
Don’t forget White Castle. Those disgusting, stomach churning, GERD inducing, pasty little squares they refer to as hamburgers. I ate there once prior to a fight form Chicago to home. I as sick the entire flight. As for pizza, well, some of you may know my stance on that wonder of culinary concoctions.
Here is Susan Estrich on Rahm and the blowout in the gulf.
Imagine if the president, in the first days after the spill, had established a command center in the Gulf, complete with Rahm Emanuel in charge. Like him or hate him, if he’s good enough to run the White House, why not put your top guy in charge of your biggest disaster?
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/The-politics-of-disaster-96670684.html
The point I would make is that he was in charge: of “top killing” an effective response. Which he did through “Work to Rule.” They are also using the disaster to shut down oil drilling offshore — pretty much permanently because no one is spending billions to explore if the Democrats will just shut them down before the pay-off.
They are going to pass Cap and Trade over the objections of the American People. They will need to use a lot of intimidation to do it. That is what Rahm is in charge of. Beating down the big boys shows no one is safe. Don’t let Rahm say “Yeah, when I announced I was leaving, they thought Cap and Trade was through.” We need to put the precautionary principle to work on this one and drive a stake through its heart.
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the ‘idealism’ of Barack Obama’s inner circle.
Idealist get a good press because the press is full of idealists writing about idealist. But I read a novel by Upton Sinclair where an SS commander described himself as an idealist. And idealists carried out the mass collectivization of agriculture in the Soviet Union and even the terror famine in the Ukraine.
Personally, if I wanted an effective response in the Gulf I would put Dick Cheney in charge. After all, he helped organize the conquest of three separate countries in military campaigns that lasted about a month. Now there is a guy who can get things done.
Paybacks are a bitch. I think more of this type of story will evolve from Europian presses. Barky Obama has snubbed many of our allies, it’s payback time. As pressure mounts on the boy king the narcissist, paranoia will set in. He will not trust those around him, this article in the Telegraph is ment to set this in motion. It could very well be completely false.
What ever this administration touches it turn to poop.
If he leaves, who will take his place?…like we have a voice in that process…
This administration is completely out of touch with daily life.
However!!!…first I will have to see him go…talk is cheap..”words just words”..
Maybe he is jockeying for attention, power etc..
40. hdgreene a “work to rule” effort is going on now, and has been in Ireland for months, in their immigration department. If it’s not written in their job description, like ‘responsible for answering the phone’ they won’t do it. Phones have actually been TAPED so you can’t pick up the receiver by union officers (if that’s what you call them). Irish citizens can’t get their visas (passports) for holiday or work because of this. LONG lines of people camping for days are the result. Socialist government, you have to love it.
second that on the Kirk Douglas movie –his editor in the film was a big archetype too –the essence of sober serious reliability, in control of a thing –a newspaper –so ripe for manipulation that the ‘managing editor’ position was almost a holy calling. And then here comes ace reporter KD –what to do, what to do –let him run while you look the other way, and get the sales? Or forget the sales and curb human nature? Or try to educate human nature and hope for the best?
‘Work to rule’ –good gravy, how fantastical can a term be –is it ‘work to take command’ or is it merely ‘work to rulebook’? ha, ambiguous ain’t it –solves the problem of rules –of which, the gov’t holds, the more rigid the better for thee, but limitless discretion for me.
It’s like getting up off the couch. If you’re Chinese, you just get up. If you’re sitting in the avatar of freedom USA, you better read the applicable rulebook first, unless the agency inspector has been ass-kissed to neutrality.
I don’t get why the internal apparatchnik power struggles of the Obama regime should be of interest to a kulak like me. What difference whether it be Rahm-slavemaster or some other vicious hard left thug slavemaster at the controls? The issue and the only issue is to drive them all from power.
Maybe obama is not going to run.
Hil is an alinsky acolyte just like obama and would also be controlled by soros Center for Amerian marxism and podesta. Hil burned bridges this month with her south American tour, saying we need to be more like brazil with taxes and redistribution. really dumb, the poverty in brazil is bone crunching and 20%.
Internicine warfare. More please.
Does anyone else remember Carter asking for the resignation of his entire cabinet right after the mid-term elections? Then spending the next month letting them twist in the wind while he decided who to keep.
Do you think that the Democrats will object to Rahm being a quitter when he runs for his next office?
Two theories are bubbling on this thread.
Theory #1 expressed by #30 Talnik and #32 RickGreenvilleSC among others. This is a move by Rahm to start the Hillary for President campaign.
Theory #2, expressed in part by #11 Fatman, #14 Neil, #15 PAcat, and #41 Kinuaechdrach among others. That is that there is a triple bank shot in the political billiard game. Rahm tells Obama and Daley that he wants to be Mayor of Chicago, in turn for which he will keep quiet in the Blago trial and not interfere with Obama’s primary run in 2012; and Obama will lean on Daley to get him to accommodate or else he will sic Fitz on him.
But my question is, “Who is the ventriloquist and who is the puppet?” Is Obama the puppet or the ventriloquist? Or is Rahm? Or is Soros? Any ideas anyone?
66 RICPIC -(KULAK)
Hilarious comment. And correct.
We are already living OF gossip about the nomenklatura of the Supreme Party, like in the USSR.
Send them all home in November, forget their names, remember just their continuous attacks against America and Freedom !
So ROM M-N-U-L has expressed a readiness to stand for Imperator of Chicago??? Guess that means a case of aspirin tablets is sitting in a storage locker with Daley’s name on it. Or maybe less expensively and more emphatically, the totally accidental discharge of a shockingly promiscuous firearm is somehow approaching a probability of 1.
Poor Richard… (“Daley,” that is.)
We hardly knew ye.
(Prolly means St. Hillary needs to have her crew check all the brake lines on her vehicles prior to each excursion. I’m sure she remembers Ron Brown…)
22. wretchard
Chicago has given its name to a number of everday objects.
Wretchard:
You forgot the Chicago Manual of Style:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
If Wretchard’s translation is correct, has anyone given thought that Rahm may be trying to get himself fired before he can be scapegoated? He’s been subtle enough to avoid the charge of outright betrayal of his boss, but direct enough to be fired outright by the boss.
He can’t resign early, or he’s a Hillary turncoat, or something else, and thus little future in the party. And so he wants to be fired before the midterm disaster can be pinned on himself…and still have some future?
The crisis is upon us. Let’s waste Rahm.
Great News! No more budget deficits!
Lefty pundits can and will point to a year or two where the pressures of business ended the hope of a formal budget.
The president’s pals in the press will be hard-pressed, though, to find any years in which the effort wasn’t even begun, and there is no example of a year wherein a deficit like the one the country faces today went unaddressed by a national budget plan.
They cannot find such a parallel because we have quite unprecedented deficits –soaring, arching, never-seen-before gushers of red ink dwarfing Bush’s 2007 deficit of $160 billion by nine or 10 or even more times that amount. We cannot know for certain how high the tower of borrowed money will even approximately rise because, well, there is no budget.
The new cliche is that such magical budgeting practices are “unsustainable.” They are sadly much more sustainable when everyone in power agrees to pretend that they aren’t there.
Thus do the Democrats steel themselves to face a furious electorate: “What deficit? We don’t have no stinking deficit. We haven’t even passed a budget yet.”
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Obama-is-in-over-his-head-96764199.html#ixzz0rVbB6tNM
Burak is turning our efforts in the M.E. to excrement.
Speaks volumes of the effectiveness of corruption Chicago style, that his legacy will be Afghaniscam.
The guy is making a profitable political career of sitting on his own thumbs while worlds crumble around him.
Genius.
Let’s see… Nobel AND an Oscar for that lying piece of garbage Gore.
Pathetic Loser Obama just needs to direct a film, and the score will be even.
No, wait. For them to be even, either he needs to have an election “stolen” from him, or Gore needs to be President.
What a predicament!
This is a BS shell game… obamo amd rahm are on the same page.. with the same goals and means of achivement. Its a move to make the radical communist obamo look more ‘centered’ to voters.
If he does quit… it would be so obamo could proclaim ‘well folks… we fixed that problem… so now we’ll be more in touch with our fellow Americans’… HE HAS NO ‘FELLOW’ AMERICANS!!!!!!!!!!!
Or he may just leave politics. That’s actually possible, if unlikely.
Chicago has a ballet company, right? He could head that up.
Is James Carville looking for a job?
Duke/78; it WOULD be nice if he’d pay back that scholarship that Accidental College gave him as an Indonesian citizen in their Fulbright program dedicated to such purpose. Not to sound all tailgunner joe, but senator Fulbright, a notorious pro-USSR security leaker on several critical national security senate committees (look it up, LBJ had a whole spy unit set up ad hoc to monitor what Fulbright was sending to Kremlin) also sponsored the Bill Clinton career launch –and Oxy has been the KGB’s American Oil Company since Armand Hammer & fishin’ pal Vlad Lenin’s salad daze. Yes, i know, Fulbright is dead and so is Armand Hammer –but those types leave it on autopilot –founding colleges and scholarships & Gore families & stuff –
Surest way to know a ship is sinking is the departure of rats.
#70 Batman
I’m probably just babbling here, but here is my take on what’s going on. Essentially as regards to all the possibilities you mention: none are mutually exclusive. It could be “all of the above.”
Its really IMHO all about political decay. Although there will always be personal ties and obligations in politics a government can only be effective when the bottom line revolves around issues. In such cases competing interests generally come to a state which resembles an equilibrium. It is possible to respond to changing circumstances and function.
But it is far different when the bottom line revolves around status and interlacing political debts and obligations, which is where I think we are now. Issues are secondary. When it is necessary for political survival most modern politicians don’t mind morphing overnight into that which their earlier incarnation spent all its life fighting. Public ideology for them is like a set of clothes. They can change them within minutes.
With few exceptions they are all puppets but no one holds all the strings that manipulates them. X may hold the string to Y’s left arm, and Y may hold the string to Z’s right leg, who in turn may hold the string to X’s jaw. The more complex the web of strings is the harder and longer it takes to come to an equilibrium (political consensus). When a change in one variable results in the change in the value of one or more others of the variables in the equation the loop of computer code that is attempting to resolve the problem may take a very long time to run, or may never exit the loop at all.
In such situations the only fast consensus that the political actors can reach are ones which involve taking power away from the non-political in a way that won’t disturb their relative power in regards with the other political actors. But oftentimes even that creates fights.
We the sheep should be grateful that, for the moment, the wolves are too busy fighting over who should get the privilege of eating the choicer cuts of us to actually be eating us. But time is not on our side.
the lefties always point the finger and take the position of victim. if Rahm is chief of staff all this mess is his, so when the blame game commences he will just cry out they are just trying to get me in trouble. this is all just a teflon coating for him. it will slide off and stick to the one who is less oily.
#83 Tcobb — I don’t disagree with the thrust of your post but I do hold that this administration does have bottom line issues. Those are the further centralization of the United States and its economy, and the reduction or elimination of American exceptionalism such that the US is merely one among the nations. They may have infighting about power and disputes about methods and speed of the transformations they desire, but they are united — at least in the White House — on these two key issues.
Anybody here ever have a Chicago pizza pot pie? http://www.chicagopizzaandovengrinder.com/menu.htm
And Ashen, you can only eat White Castle “sliders” when you’re blind drunk, or they won’t digest properly. It has been said that, eaten correctly, they bind with the toxins in the alcohol and will help your body eliminate them the next morning, in a variety of interesting ways. White Castle was also America’s first fast-food franchise:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle_%28restaurant%29
And #82, maybe it’s as simple as you say.
#85. Batman
True, but then again the centralization of the US and its economy is something that enhances the power of the political class. And as far as American exceptionalism and destroying it goes there are dimensions to this:
(1)(conjectural) It has been suspected that a great deal of the money from Obama’s Presidential campaign came in from overseas. One of the puppet masters may have his string attached to Obama’s testicles. Do as I say or I’ll reveal the source of all that money.
(2) As it is now for the most part the US can tell the rest of the world to go to Hell if they make demands upon us. If we are brought down to the level where we can be hurt by, or the public incorrectly perceives that we can be hurt by, international sanctions against us it gives our betters in the White House and Congress the ability to say that no matter how unpopular it is with the American people, they had no choice except to accede to the wishes of the international community. And when have the wishes of the International community in modern times been anything other than increasing the power of government and the ruling classes (except for the pariah governments like Israel)?
I don’t disagree with your post either Batman, as I submit that our views are not necessarily inconsistent at all.
there is no shortage of evil idiots to replace him with.
Is it not illegal for a US citizen to fight for another country such as the IDF?
Somewhat OT but is this how the fall elections will be run? If you can’t win an election then we will make sure you do no matter what it takes! Everyone is a winner no losers let’s make everyone happy???? Maybe we can let all the candiates running for President win then they can take turns being president for while seems so fair.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/18/AR2010061803766.html
How can this be legal? Someone please explain this.
Jonathan…
FDR ran into that with the Flying Tigers…
He simply okayed it himself and then folded the AVG into the War Department after the Japanese attacked us.
Otherwise, you’ve got Logan Act issues, and perhaps more.
Soros has most likely decided to replace Barry with Hillary. Barry will probably be in the mid to low 30s by 2012 and his usefulness to Soros will be limited.Barry will have served his purpose of pushing unpopular legislation through, at the cost of his popularity. Hillary would be good at making sure not to much of the legislation would be repealed. Carville is the opening act and Rahm will join him after the mid terms.
f47,
Thank you, as I said reduced to my Bberry I am flying blind. Rahm does represent an endangered species, left wing Orthodox Jews.
89. Jonathan
‘But doesn’t serving in the Israeli army (or, for that matter, any foreign army) result in automatic loss of US citizenship?’
http://www.richw.org/dualcit/faq.html#forarmy
No. As explained above, essentially nothing causes automatic loss of US citizenship any more. If you join a foreign army, you can lose your US citizenship if you acted with the intent of giving it up. Otherwise, you can still keep it.
Current US law says that foreign military service will result in loss of US citizenship if the person served as an officer (commissioned or non-commissioned) or the foreign military force is engaged in hostilities against the US; the service was voluntary; and (most importantly) the person intended to give up his US citizenship.
Current US policy goes further. Unless a dual citizen is serving in a “policy level position” in a foreign government, commits treason against the US (e.g., by fighting the US voluntarily during wartime), or acts in a manner considered totally inconsistent with any possible intent to keep US citizenship, the State Department is unlikely to take any action. Further, the current policy statement on foreign military service recognizes that dual citizens sometimes find themselves legally obligated to participate in the military forces of their other country of citizenship, and can do so in such situations without endangering their US status.
93. Lifeofthemind
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/05/rahm-emanuel-takes-family-to-fine-restaurant-in-eilat-israel-sticks-israel-with-the-bill/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel
Emanuel’s wife, Amy Rule, converted to Judaism shortly before their wedding.[16] They are members of Anshe Sholom B’nai Israel, a Modern Orthodox congregation in Chicago.[10] They have a son and two daughters.
He is NOT orthodox nor does he really give a tinkers damn about anybody but himself.
Thousands of people of people come to Israel every year to share the privilege of wearing an IDF uniform – even for a short time.
Just like the old Levys Rye Bread commercials used to say, ” You don’t have to be Jewish … “.
http://www.sar-el.org/
I thought Rahm did not actually serve in the Israeli army, but as a civilian auxiliary of some sort.
If Soros decides to replace Obummer with Hildabeast, well, I’m all for it. I wasn’t clear which was better or worse in 2008, well, now I know.
Ex-head of Shell on Hannity today points out that side effects of the BP spill and Obummers’ mismanagement will probably mean gas over $4/gallon in 2012.
My thought is that if Obummer wanted to raise the price of oil over $100/barrel again, and have all the money go to our friends the Saudis and their buddy Hugo Chavez, he’s going about it just the right way.
Bullseye!
President Obama’s relationship with America, like many a young marriage, is growing sour.
On the other side stands Obama — solid and sober, rooted in the belief that his way is the right way and in no need of alteration.
He’s the emotionally maimed type who lights up when he’s stroked and adored but shuts down in the face of acrimony. Other people’s anxieties are dismissed as irrational and unworthy of engagement or empathy.
He seems quite comfortable with this aspect of his personality, even if few others are, and shows little desire to change it.
It’s the height of irony:
the presumed transformative president is stymied by his own unwillingness to be transformed.
He would rather sacrifice the relationship than be altered by it.
Rahm Emanuel did not serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. It is important to slap that lie down every time it shows up. He cleaned brake pads for a few days when he was stuck in the country waiting for a flight out during the ’93 Gulf War. That does not qualify as even rear echelon military service.
wretchard, I enjoyed your last paragraph. My own contribution to this Kremlinology was rendered superfluous by the very first comment, by Black Bart.
buddy (#23):
An educated way of saying it’s tough (and nonsensical) to fight the Man when you are the Man.
And now I’m reminded of this song. (I continue loving Reed’s look at 1:03.)
GDT (#28): “‘Star Trek’ both movie and TV show – any one old enough to get this obscure reference?”
Of course! The movie wasn’t that long ago. Man, that Chris Pine is hawt! But I wasn’t aware that JJ Abrams was planning on doing a TV version of it. I hope he manages to successfully make the transition to the small screen.
ahem (#33): “Hilary has not been aging well. Looks like she’s been hitting the bottle.”
Wouldn’t you?
hdgreene (#40): ["Work to Rule"]
Another example of why the Belmont Club is one of the few blogs whose comment section I peruse.
Kinuachdrach (#41): “we don’t need term limits; we simply need to recognize that anyone in an elected position already has volunteered for a full time job and does not have time to campaign for any other elected position. Currently elected officials should be disqualified from running for ANY elected office, including the one they currently hold.”
Amen.
Gringo (#52): “Do away with the gerrymandered districts”
You racist!
Lifeofthemind (#54): “Mihail is correct”
Well, partly correct. You see, what we are seeing is a clash between two wings of International Jewry: the Zionists and the Transnationalists. The first are represented in the US by the neocons who have taken over the GOP, and the second control the Dems. We are all but pawns in the tentacles of these forces engaged in a shadowy worldwide titanic struggle. (I’ll bet that even here, some readers are nodding in agreement.)
99. Bob
‘We are all but pawns in the tentacles of these forces engaged in a shadowy worldwide titanic struggle. (I’ll bet that even here, some readers are nodding in agreement.)’
Where does this old SP4['67-'69] get my medals and retirement?
It’s the great JOOO conspiracy of course.
#97. Doug
I agree with you with you but I would go one step further. I don’t think the man is all there. Once his popularity and power drops beneath a certain level I fear that, in essence, not only will he be fiddling while Rome burns, he will be setting fires to make sure that it continues to do so. I suspect that his attitude will be that those who reject teh Won and His wisdom DESERVE to burn, and he will try to make this so.
I truly, truly, hope I’m wrong but I suspect we’ve elected the equivalent of the Rev. Jim Jones as President. He is leading us to the Third World economically just as Jim Jones did for his flock geographically. And when things get bad for him and there seems to be no way out in what form will the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid come for the rest of us?
59. Aristide provides a fascinating think outside the box query with the intriguing top ten list. Most readers are pretty well versed on the Clinton reversal. But what do these other historical events say about our current upcomming?
The Truman event (’46) came on the heels of early post-WWII reorganization – it was more about the millions of servicemen pouring back into a rebuilt (For & by War) American economy creaking and clanking as it transformed back into a peacetime.
Anyone whose read jist a bit of Amity Shales (And a growing list of Scholars who have tackled the holy writ of New Deal hagography) could dismiss much current relevance to what FDR experienced in ’38 – even as tempting as it may be to compare Obama’s attempts at autocratic rule with the modern patron saint of the Dems. Suffice it to say that a simplistic synops of what folks like Shales prove through their New Deal analysis is that the terrible recession/unemployment visited on the American public in 1938 was the result of failures of everything from the National Recovery Act to FDR’s blundering attempt to Pack the Supreme Court – and he paid dearly. It was only after 12/7/41 and the War that the economy recovered from the New Deal and it’s assault on capitalism and markets.
Harding (’22) & Grant (’74) were political cycles that seem to share a pervasive theme of poltical corruption – Grant’s brother (and eventually his father as well) being a central figure in the ongoing financial panics that plauged his admin – and Harding’s Tea Pot Dome – a wide ranging pay to play drama that was one part WATERGATE & Two parts Jack Abramoff. Again – not a whole lot in common arguably with what is ailing americans at this precise moment.
The Wilson (’14) result is the strangest – a modest pickup in the Senate AT THE SAME TIME that you suffer a substantial loss in the house? But I’ll leave off by recommending Jona Goldbergs excellent LIBERAL FASCISM – The chapter WOODROW WILSON AND THE BIRTH OF LIBERAL FASCISM covers it pretty well. As far as dominat political zeitgist goes it was more about reacting to what was happening on the eve of WWI – and a fairly popular prez who ran AS AN ANTI-WAR isolationist acting errily like Obama the lecturer in chief – about 180 degree the other way than as advertised.
Which leaves Cleveland (’94) & Harrison (’90). What was happening during this decade that led to such dramatic outcomes in such a short period?
Pick up a little Richard Hofestader (I recommend THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION) to go along with Goldberg. It’s pretty revealing when trying to make some sense of what is happening politically at the moment.
For one, all during this prior era there were regional flare ups by way of populist movements – movements that better reflect the Tea Party today than any analysis I’ve yet encountered. Fiat currency and inflationary practices by congress – esspecially by a then appointed rather than elected senators – were often at the center of such reactionary movements, just as they have been with folks fond of Paul Rand and Ross Peroit before him.
That era had many issues – such as the fight over Gold or Silver as the basis for our currency – price supports for farmers – Debt and Debt forgiveness – that never coalesced into a signature issue.
If one could attempt to define one – it would be the Civil Service – much like the power wielded by public government unions today in states like Californial, New York, Illinois. How the famous machines like Tammany Hall & Boss Tweed in New York had become a modle for goverance during the Guilded Age.
If you’ve attended (as I have) a few Tea Party rallies, there are striking similarities between what Hofstader and Goldberg write about concerning this prior period. Today when people talke about the 10th ammendment and states rights this is the driving force – that they have seen their lives upended by our current era of professional politicians usurping their pursit of happiness resplendant in their pursuit of capitalism.
While oppertunistic clucks like Jon Avalon try and pigeonhole ‘the wingnuts’ (quite profitable for him as well) – and more established journalists like Halperin marginalize the movement overall as some diffuse enigma – we will get the final answer come this Nov – and likewise in 2012.
Given 10% unemployment, the roiling and divisive ‘debate’ over immigration, and the ongoing bumbling amatures
f47 (#100): “It’s the great JOOO conspiracy of course.”
Of course.
Obama: Jooo conspiracy.
Bush: Jooo conspiracy.
Ron Paul: mother of all Jooo conspiracies.
And if you’ll take a close look at the picture near the top of this page, wouldn’t you say that our host’s nose is quite suspicious? Wouldn’t joo?
Hewitt says Rham getting out before Blago Trial.
Not sure how that computes.
…but I am not a lawyer.
22. wretchard and #73 Don Rodrigo
Chicago has given its name to a number of everyday objects.
A little humorous musical interlude (we need one)– lest we forget those everyday objects and lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs. From Steve Goodman’s “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request”:
Do they still play the blues in Chicago
When baseball season rolls around?
When the snow melts away,
Do the Cubbies still play
In their ivy-covered burial ground?
When I was a boy, they were my pride and joy,
But now they just bring fatigue
To the home of the brave, the land of the free,
And the doormat of the National League.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xBxZGQ1dJk
Note to buddy larsen: Steve could actually sing– you won’t need the ice pick treatment on this one. Sadly, Steve died of leukemia at the early age of 36– so as the song says toward the end, he’s “got season tickets to watch the Angels now, And that’s just what I’m gonna do. But for you the living– you’re stuck here with the Cubs, So it’s me who feels sorry for you.”
Some of us are thinking the Cubs are under a fourth curse (after the billy goat, Ron Santo’s black cat, and Bartman’s Ball)– namely, the White Sox fan in the WH. Perhaps Rahm is leaving because he’s a closet Cubs fan.
Tcobb:
A Jim Jones Presidency!
What an unspeakable nightmare.
Brought to us by another seductive public speaker.
Thinking about it, anyone named Rahm deserves more than one rhyme.
The Chief of Staff
He makes me laugh
He bullies, threatens, curses
He pulls the strings
On many things
To fill Obama’s purses
The Blago tape
Leaves no escape
From favors he disburses
And all dead foes
That goodness knows
Whose bodies he disperses
But now he says
Goodbye to Prez
And what is even worse is
That up his sleeves
Before he leaves
He’ll roll out all the hearses
Jones herded Black Sheep.
Obama, Whites.
Symmetry will have been achieved at a massively assymetrical scale.
1) The article that serves as the focus of this blog post is one that I had already read before Wretchard posted his analysis. This happens frequently. Every time it does I am astounded at how much more meaning he extracts from the article than I do. It’s one of the reasons I’ve read and donated to this blog regularly for six years now: I’m getting educated.
2) After re-reading the article and Wretchard’s analysis, the only additional insight I have to offer is that it seems there is both oil and blood in the water these days.
“I am astounded at how much more meaning he extracts from the article than I do.”
I console myself by saying I’m just too busy to spend as much time on it as he does!
My wife gets concerned when I start muttering it out loud istead of to myself.
PAC/105; –like, Rahm to Flowbama: “Say it ain’t so, Joe!” –?
Doug/104; News Flash: There’s emails –Fox just said–Rahm to Blago, influence peddling stark and lurid.
Tcobb/101; My deepest worry –in a position to do something about overpopulation, and being thrown out of power forever, the human-appearing beings imbedded in this movement that has captured the WH remind me of nothing so much as the Nazi echelons who carried out the Wannsee directive. Rev Jones of Guyana –who, if you look, was definitely a product of California Crazy politics of the time –same people –they’re always the same people –Bernadine Dorhn working with nazi-created (and mein Kampf promoting to this day) Muz brohood, all ythe same, always the same –it reached High Culture in the ‘Gotterdamerung’ of Richard Wagner, where a consuming romance finally logically consumes all –the only appropriate, sustainable end, doncha know.
Mark Twain, asked during a European grand tour what he thought of Wagner’s music, quipped “I’m sure it’s a lot better than it sounds” –thus Huck Finn on the moving Mississippi allowing the tomorrow that the Gotterdammerungers say doesn’t deserve to come.
***
reminds, what is the question, if the answer is “9W” ?
Give up? okay:
“Do you spell your name with a “V”, Herr Wagner?”
(of course it works better ‘told’ than ‘writ’, cuz you get to say “Vagner” –oh never mind
101. Tcobb:
“And when things get bad for him and there seems to be no way out in what form will the cyanide-laced Kool-Aid come for the rest of us?”
“Barack Obama – Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. – 8/13/2008″
“It is important to understand that the use of violence must be ego-syntonic. It must accord with the self-image of the narcissist. It must abet and sustain his grandiose fantasies and feed his sense of entitlement. It must conform with the narcissistic narrative.
Thus, a narcissist who regards himself as the benefactor of the poor, a member of the common folk, the representative of the disenfranchised, the champion of the dispossessed against the corrupt elite – is highly unlikely to use violence at first.
The pacific mask crumbles when the narcissist has become convinced that the very people he purported to speak for, his constituency, his grassroots fans, the prime sources of his narcissistic supply – have turned against him. At first, in a desperate effort to maintain the fiction underlying his chaotic personality, the narcissist strives to explain away the sudden reversal of sentiment. “The people are being duped by (the media, big industry, the military, the elite, etc.)”, “they don’t really know what they are doing”, “following a rude awakening, they will revert to form”, etc.
When these flimsy attempts to patch a tattered personal mythology fail – the narcissist is injured. Narcissistic injury inevitably leads to narcissistic rage and to a terrifying display of unbridled aggression. The pent-up frustration and hurt translate into devaluation. That which was previously idealized – is now discarded with contempt and hatred.”
http://www.globalpolitician.com/25109-barack-obama-elections
Another Chicago characterization is a refrain from some song that I cannot recall exactly: “… I play trombone – Chicago Style ! “.
And each time he roams, Chicago is,
Callin’ Rahm home, Chicago is,
One town that sure loves a clown;
It’s Rahm’s kind of town.
#111 buddy larsen
Yeah–I think the political cancer of our times can all be boiled down to that there are people who have power, political, cultural, or whatever, who believe that they have the One Unified Universal Answer, no matter what the question may be. Its certainly much easier than thinking. In point of fact it makes thinking unnecessary. To people who can’t think this is very, very, important and valuable.
To me that’s insanity. Others view it under the category of orthodoxy. But when it comes to the notice of the true Gods, that being the great God Murphy whose laws cannot be broken and the great Goddess Reality who will punish you violently for ignoring her, such people have not a clue. They are blasphemers, and a great and holy vengeance shall come against them. It might even be so bad that their summer homes in Martha’s Vineyard might be taken away from them forever, or that they will be turned into pillars of low sodium salt substitutes.
Beware the wrath of the gods.
113. Sam W
http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/c/chicagostyle.shtml
CHICAGO STYLE
From the film “Road To Bali” (1952)
(Johnny Burke / Jimmy Van Heusen)
Bob Hope & Bing Crosby – 1952
…
Who’s that comin’ down the thoroughfare
The sunshine flashin’ on his ring
Bowin’ left and right and here and there
That’s Chester, the trombone king
He gets his shirts straight from Paris
Cigarettes from the Nile
He tallks like a ‘eyebrow’, but he plays Chicago style
…
can’t tell if it’s about obama or rahm
#111 buddy larsen
As long as we’re on music–been thinking of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ signature song from the ’50s–
Chicago, Chicago–that toddlin’ town.
Chicago, Chicago–I will show you around. I love it.
Bet your bottom dollar you’ll lose the blues in Chicago, Chicago.
The town that Billy Sunday couldn’t shut down.
On State Street, that great street, I’d just want to say -
They do things they don’t do on Broadway.
They have the time, the time of their life.
I saw a man, he danced with his wife.
In Chicago, Chicago, my home town.
Now Chicago exports the blues to the rest of the country– and the man who danced with his wife must be Teh Won on a date night with Michelle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoKn7vkSMBc
maz2 reminds that the people who promoted that nice young man from somewhere, all the way to the top of one of our two political parties, from whence the machinery took over and won, as it may have won in 2008 with a ham sandwich at the top of the ticket, are “celebrity” –in this case famous for being famously wealthy or award-winningly smart, and that since celebrity is a role, and the role they play is ‘the American intelligentsia’, we’ve let them extend the theater, theater in the round fer sher, to jam “performance” into a place it just can’t by law of nature rightly go.
To be ‘and’ not to be, that can’t be a real question –tho words, being only symbols, can ask it, but only in a ‘performance’.
the word ‘perform’ points to the problem –and to Orwell’s passage about how a word is needed for the thought to form –if a real person doing a real job is ‘performing’, then what is an actor playing a role doing? performng, too, right? but there needs to be a word, another word, that doesn’t exist, to totally break apart the two meanings.
Kirk Douglas’s character in “Ace in the Hole” will run for president, but who is needed as president is his managing editor, who is ‘real’ and not ‘per form’. the title of the film can refer to the Kirk Douglas character, or to the fact that he got found out just in time, by free inquiry of morally ethical individuals –the country’s ‘ace in the hole’.
PS, or to the film itself, rather the ability to make the film, the media ‘framing’ power which can leave unframed whatever it might be (we’ll never know), is a third possible meaning for ‘ace in the hole’.
So what?
they are both evil.
Well, if you insist in bringing up Chicago wrt Rahm’s rumored departure:
As to “The key question to settle in choosing the right version is deciding who is ditching whom”, all together now:
And upon Imagining this, I assume most readers are saying “Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes”.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/escalating-chicago-violence-erupts-bloody-fathers-day-weekend/story?id=10974613
Father’s Day in a Chicago housing project erupted into gunfire, leaving five shot, including a one-year old girl and her father. The shooting was one of at least 40 reported during a violent and bloody weekend in Chicago that left seven people dead.
It’s Bush’s fault.
112. maz2 writes:
When these flimsy attempts to patch a tattered personal mythology fail – the narcissist is injured. Narcissistic injury inevitably leads to narcissistic rage and to a terrifying display of unbridled aggression. The pent-up frustration and hurt translate into devaluation. That which was previously idealized – is now discarded with contempt and hatred.”
Yes. Teh Won already hates a significant portion of the American people. The question is what will he do if, for example, it looks like he can’t even win the primary elections for running for a second term? In the beginning I thought him to be merely incompetent, but not dangerous. I still hold to the first belief, but I am not so sure about the latter anymore.
If he knows he will be thrown out of power what might he do in vengeance to the country who dared to reject him before he is replaced?
That worries me greatly.
And from perhaps the worst Chicago song ever written — and sorry to plop the song back into the heads of those who had mercifully forgotten it — let us not forget that 70s horror, “The Night Chicago Died” by — trivia answer! — Paper Lace.
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night it really was
Brother what a fight it really was
Glory be
The night Chicago died
Brother what a night the people saw
Brother what a fight the people saw
Yes indeed
Yes indeed, indeed. Perhaps they are all just going to consume one another in their blind avarice and ambition. We can only hope.
Another factor in the 3-way billiard equation is the presidential pardon power, which obama certainly feels empowered to use (unlike Bush). Whether it might be Rahm on tape trading with Blago, or Daley funding “the Combine”, obams has a get out of jail free card.
The FBI currently has more agents working on political corruption in its Chicago office than any other office. And that includes some pretty stiff competition.
jayb/125; And that includes some pretty stiff competition –especially after rigor mortis sets in.
Ironic it is, sez I -
Narcissus bulbs are poison to eat.
Don’t need any cyanide-laced Flavorade, thanks.
Given John Kyls’ report that Obama explicitly stated he WILL NOT secure the border with Mexico without amnesty (even as American police officers are threatened with Mexinarco snipers within the US!) plus reports from NumbersUSA of a possible Executive Order granting amnesty-I’d say the narcissist in chief is already working on his revenge.
Rahm won’t be able to do much for Obama if he’s in front of Darryl Issa’s subcommittee all the time recounting every conversation he had with Blagojevich before Obama’s inauguration. There’s no executive privilege for the period before Obama took office.
“Is it not illegal for a US citizen to fight for another country such as the IDF?”
Yes, but…… AFAIK, nobody has ever been prosecuted for it.
As far as the AVG goes, IIRC, it didn’t get started fighting until AFTER Pearl Harbor;
http://www.flyingtigersavg.com/tiger1.htm
{snipped}
“The Third A.V.G. squadron moved to Rangoon on December 12, 1941, to join the R.A.F. in the defense of Rangoon. The First and Second squadrons flew from Toungoo to Kunming on the afternoon of the 18th. The first combat for the A.V.G. occurred over southern Yunnan Province on December 20, 1941. In their first combat, a combination of the First and Second Squadrons, shot down nine out of ten Japanese bombers with a loss of one A.V.G. aircraft.”
AS far as the pilots and technicians, They all had Presidential authority to go to China in Early ’41.
Not sure what the response would be if a Sheriff in Arizona deputized a bunch of Armed Citizens (Militia) and started hunting down Wetbacks. I have been told by a former Texas Lawman that hot pursuit into Mexico is allowed but only for a short time. Sort of ‘If you’re still there when the Mexican police show up, you have a problem’.
If I was a rancher on the border, I would have ads offering hunting trips for 1,000 $US. I would make bales of money, at least as long as the wetbacks lasted. I think it would be legal so long as I put up a sign in Mexican saying trespassers will be shot dead. Not sure if there is a hunting season on beaners. Or a bag limit.
130. Rosinante
If you have the time or inclination you might want to order “Taming the Nueces Strip the Story of McNelly’s Rangers.” Its a very good book. It was written in the 1930′s about events that happened many years before that. The perspective it gives about how it was back in 1880 or so can teach us a lot about the dynamics that still persist to this day.
And, for those who don’t know, the “Nueces Strip” refers to an area of Texas, and the Rangers were of course, “Texas Rangers.”
A couple months ago, Valerie Jarrett said that Obama was so scary smart that all his previous jobs (US Senator, IL Senator, Con Law adjunct, community organizer, attorney) had bored him.
Valerie is a smart woman. At the time, it struck me that for her to say something so embarrassingly (to a normal person but not to Obama) sycophanti-ish, and simultaneously to insult so many people whose jobs Obama must look down on (like, all of Congress and its staff, all state legislators and their staffs, all law professors, all community organizers and activists, all practicing attorneys) could only mean there was an internal struggle for Obama’s favor, and she was upping the brown-nosing ante on someone else in the inner circle–Rahm, perhaps, or Axelrod or Gibbs, maybe Orszag but I didn’t think he was quite THAT tight.
Well, maybe now we know… at least, narrowed it down?
O/T and late, but I have a question. Has anyoone considered that the Deep Water Horizon calamity was caused by sabotage?
Considering it is the first disaster of its type in what…50 years? Wondering is all…just saw a very interesting and potentially related (probably in my mind only) presentation on Beck.
Fort Clark –anchoring the inland end of the Nueces Strip, never really settled down until the 1930s, when the 5th cavalry garrisoned there. It held German POWs during the WWII, and was shuttered in late 1940s, and later sold off to private parties. The buildings are still there, by and large. Here’s a great colorful well-writ website with oodles of rare pictures, including officer’s wives staging The Mikado in 1887, and the stories of the Negro-Seminole scouts whose horsemanship seemed often to be the difference in a close fight or narrow escape with either or both Banditos and any of four Indian tribes whose territories all abutted there in the strip –Kickapoo and Lipan Apache from the south, and Comanche and Kiowa from the north.
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/forts/clark/battles.html
***
M/132; Orszag resigned this day –late news –
***
SD/133; Beck is starting to unpeel it –yes, a lot of people are asking major questions –
“106. Doug
Tcobb:
A Jim Jones Presidency!
What an unspeakable nightmare.”
The Jim Jones Fix – Perhaps a vertical launch of about 10 ICBMs with trajectory zero ought to do it.
The Jim Jones solution to Kool Aid refusal.
They wouldn’t even have to be targeted.
“Hey! It could happen!” – Judy Tenuta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8YTXQgYaX8
Cute little flower, no?
Thank God for two man rule.
SD @133,
It seems unthinkable. But then there are so many curious coincidences emerging.
I remember that only a week or two before the incident, The Usurper gave a speech in which he lifted his objections to offshore deep drilling and said that deep drilling in the Gulf would be permitted. The coincidence seems inexplicable and uncanny. Then we have heard ill-defined reports/rumors that shortly before the explosion new workers arrived on the rig as rotation for some of the regular crew. Then there is the visit of senior BP officials on the rig; and all accounts say that they were overruling decisions by rig officials about some decisions, specifically including substitution of seawater for mud in the drilling shaft. Who were they, what did they do, and why? It certainly appears that a catastrophic decision was taken. Why and by whom? As you point out, similar rigs have had an enviable safety record for many years.. Then when the explosion and fire happened, help from the Coast Guard was slow in arriving. Now we are learning that 28 offers of help from foreign countries were rejected. And also that there had been mounting troubles with this particular bore site since February. Meanwhile FEMA, EPA, USCG and other agencies have done their bureaucratic best to interfere, block, and stall all independent efforts by sates and private citizens to take any emergency action. It sure seems as if they are determined to maximize this disaster. Cui bono? One possible suggestion is that someone wants to maximize this crisis and create such a memorable horror that we will never ever again drill for oil, offshore or anywhere. Though BP is an oil driller, they have been very ambivalent about it, promoting themselves as “Beyond Petroleum”, and trying to promote other forms of energy, such as their solar power and wind units. A conspiracies might well suggest that someone at BP wanted a small spill and contrived to have a small incident as an environmental lesson. But then nature turned and gave them much more than they expected. Once the catastrophe has happened, those who might have tried for a “little leak” would naturally STFU or at least find an “innocent” alibi. The person(s) who did the deed, might even be among the dead.
This cannot be proven, but it would not be the first time analogous incidents went awry. Just before the Russo-Japanese War broke out, Interior Minister Durnovo recommended to the Tsar that Russia could benefit from a “small, victorious war” against a small backward power like Japan. And I am certain that Gavrilo Princip and Dragutin Dimitrijevic never dreamed that whacking the Austrian Duke would lead to WWI. And the genesis of the Three Mile Island incident has never been adequately elucidated, though it came conveniently close on the heels of the opening of “The China Syndrome” to much publicity. Are any of these suspicions valid? I don’t know, and will be surprised if we ever learn the details. But a regime which speaks of transparency and then tries to rule by indirection and manipulation (see Financial crisis) is bound to be suspect.
Government-Approved Illegals !
Speaking of illegals, the government hasn’t built the fence high enough to keep out the un-American criminals who want to take away our freedoms.
Yes, the government hasn’t built the White House fence high enough to keep out the un-American criminals who somehow got into the White House and who are now working hard to take away the religious, social, and economic freedoms of true American patriots!
Here are two slogans that Obama would rather not think about: “Unborn babies should have the right to keep and bear arms – and legs and ears and eyes, etc.!” and “Unborn babies should have the same right to be born alive that abortionists had!”
If Obama should ever happen to Google “Dangerous Radicals of the Religious Right,” do you think he would feel guilty merely walking in the hallowed halls of that House where true Americans walked?
Is it safe to assume that Mecca Wafers are Obama’s favorite candy? And is barack-coli a vegetable or a disease?
(Neither Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi nor any other DemocRAT approved of this message! BTW, for more info on Obama in Washingdumb, Google “Obama Supports Public Depravity” and “Obama Avoids Bible Verses.”)