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November 14, 2012 04:41 PM UTC

Wednesday Open Thread

  • 45 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”

–Will Rogers

Comments

45 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread

    1. It’s clearly bad for someone in that position to be having an affair like that, although I’m not sure how much of a risk it is to national security. I’ve heard that blackmail is possible, for example, although it’s clear that Broadwell isn’t some kind of foreign agent.

      Another blog mentioned the possibility that Patraeus was employing Broadwell to leak info to Rove in the hopes of hurting Obama at the polls. I haven’t seen any more on that, but that would be a clear illustration of Patraeus’ corruption. You could say that moveon.org’s shark-jumping “Betray Us” epithet from way back was actually right on target.

      Right now, I’m more interested in how Jill Kelly got the FBI involved, since they say they were NOT investigating if Patraeus was having an affair. If they believed this wasn’t a big deal, how is it that some socialite can get them to do that in the first place? THAT ought to be investigated because law enforcement must not be a tool for harassment and revenge for the well connected.

      1. I couldn’t care less whether the e-mails between the general and the socialite were proper or improper.  It’s the volume.  The excuse being offered by Allen supporters is that he was just so wonderful about always responding to everyone’s e-mails. If that’s the case and considering the volume of e-mails to this one person alone, when did the general find time to, you know, do his job?

  1. arises from folks with very, very responsible positions and careers to have earned tham, allowing wannabes to influence their behavior

    the “shirtless FBI” dude ought to be reassigned and either fired or educated about professional, ethical behavior. Sounds to me as though this should have probably never had an investigation begun. But, the guy thought he needed to favor the wealthy socialite. Going to Cantor and Reichert had nothing to do with helping a “whistle-blower” it was simply to further his own sense of self importance. Hard to believe, but Cantor and Reichert showed the most discretion in this whole thing. At least so far. Though I have no problem with where it has led. Investigations lead places

    1. Kelly, the bubble head social climbing military groupie thinks she qualifies for … you can’t make this stuff up… official diplomatic immunity because, you know, she’s a volunteer social liaison or whatever.

      TAMPA, Fla. – When news vans camped outside her stately home, a Florida socialite tied to the Gen. David Petraeus sex scandal fell back on her informal credentials as a social ambassador for Tampa society and top military brass: She asked police for diplomatic protection.

      In the phone call to authorities, Jill Kelley, a party hostess and unofficial social liaison for leaders of the U.S. military’s Central Command in Tampa, cited her status as an honorary consul general while complaining about news vans that had descended on her two-story brick home overlooking Tampa Bay.

      “You know, I don’t know if by any chance, because I’m an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property. I don’t know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well,” she told the 911 dispatcher Monday.

      Good guess the 20 thousand pages of e-mails between her and general Allen, who apparently has so much spare time on his hands he must be bored to tears, won’t reveal any sparkling wit or grasp of important issues.

      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

            1. Jill Kelley hasn’t paid her mortgage since 2009, is involved in a dozen lawsuits, ran a scam cancer charity, and was a Romney backer.

              Whats’ not to like ?  Thats just a classy sandwich.

              1. were so chummy with? and General Allen?  Doesn’t say much for their judgement. I guess it was fun to enjoy the extravagant Kelley lifestyle and the fact that it was beyond the Kelley’s means was the Kelley’s problem. That’s top brass for you, as the old better half would say.

              2. who qualifies for sainthood, and I’m really a pretty forgiving live-and-let-live kind of guy . . .

                . . . but, sorry, that being a “Romney backer,” that’s just a complete deal breaker in my book; the hussy has no shame.

  2. what if Broadwell and Petraeus had actually made it somewhat tough. Parking your love notes in ‘draft’ in a Gmail account with the username “headofcia”? Just lust, no imagination

        1. heavy weight serious biographers, was willing to  entrust this project to someone who had never written a book on anything.  And set her up in VIP housing at his base in Afghanistan to do it. Which kind of calls into question the whole the affair didn’t start until I left the military and we were back in the states story. Sounds more like he was willing to fess up but not to risk the ignominy of a court martial.

          Now there’s another general, I forget the name, who has recently been demoted from 4 star to 3 star for lavish spending.  Can’t go after Obama with conspiracy theories about this one. He’s black.

          You know who’s not surprised by any of this?  My Vietnam vet husband who always thought the top brass, with very few exceptions, were a bunch of me first, self promoting, backstabbing, jack asses who didn’t give a damn about the enlisted men or the junior officers and would gladly throw any number of them under the bus to advance or save their own hides. Since he never thought most of them scored very much above zero on the character scale in the first place he’s not exactly shocked by all this silliness.

          1. any biographer would have been set up in VIP housing. I don’t think they’d be out in the barracks with the grunts.

            Picking an unheard-of person for his biographer? That’s more eyebrow raising. It isn’t an automatic reason for suspicion, though. It sounds like she’s accomplished. (Although… wouldn’t it be interesting to learn what kind of relationship she had with her professors and various superiors. Has she always gotten ahead this way?)

            As for your husband’s observations, you could say that about almost any large corporation, or department of government, or even church. My dad was originally going to be a Catholic priest, but he quickly developed the same regard for the bishops as your husband’s for the brass. And I sure saw that when I worked for a Fortune 500 company – God only knows how bad it is at a true blue chip like Boeing or Chase.

            1. but there is very little to indicate she was selected for showing any particular genius to offset inexperience. After all, the book was co-authored by Vernon Loeb, a high-ranking Washington Post editor. Which one of the two do you think required hand holding and training wheels? Sorry, and of course it doesn’t prove anything, but besotted 60 year old general lets hot girlfriend write his sure to be very profitable biography must be considered among the more plausible working theories.

  3. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley governor does not support a petition calling for the state’s secession, his spokesman says.

    Gee, what a surprise. Guess he realizes it didn’t work out so great for his state last time.

    http://www.politico.com/news/s

    I understand the number of states with petitions is now up to 40 including states like New York, Colorado and other states that went for Obama. Guess it’s just the latest popular wacko e-mail petition drive. Give it another half a day and it will probably be up to 50.

    As with frying folks, Texas is number one with over 80 thousand signatures.  Oddly, secession no longer seems like like such a great idea to Perry. Or any other R Guvs. If this keeps up it might not seem like such a bad idea to the rest of us to just wish them good luck and bon voyage. Let’s see how all those independent Tea Partiers like living in a poor third world country which is what Texas would be detached from the union, all the federal money they get, the US military bases, etc.

    The White House will respond to every petition that collects over 25 thousand signatures. Wouldn’t it be fun to scare Texas to death with a be my guest and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out response?  Obama could tell them that if they want to stay they need to submit a petition with more signatures asking to be granted that favor.

      1. people in their states to go along. But as the types who are signing these things are probably dying off at a rate of one every few minutes or maybe even seconds….

    1. Bentley too much credit for learnin’ . . .

      Heard on NPR this morning that he’s:

      1.  Refusing to set up an Alabama health exchange.

      2.  Refusing to expand Medicaid coverage in Alabama — even though the expansion would be almost entirely funded from the federal government, and would allow in excess of 150,000 presently uncovered citizens of his state to finally have some health coverage.

  4. Which will of course be quickly politicized.

    Another in a long series of recent discoveries that some patients thought to be in a persistent vegetative state can communicate with their brain waves, measured by MRI scanning. Fascinating and positive news for science, but will presumably lead to more Schiavo-like clashes between right-to-life and right-to-die activists.  

  5. Saw Obama in action at his presser and just wow! Love the new stand tall don’t f–k with me Obama.  If we had had this Obama instead of the please be nice and meet me ten percent of the way guy in 2009, the 2010 debacle might never have happened and we might not be looking at so many districts  gerrymandered by all those R state legislatures that got elected. The Dem midterm enthusiasm might have been through the roof. Damn!

    Well, lets hope he sticks to his guns.  Loved how he came to Susan Rice’s defense and I don’t even particularly like her style and don’t particularly want her for SOS.  But I love that he ripped McCain and Graham new ones for attacking her on Benghazi for no good reason just because they thought they could and to get to Obama. That was, if I may say so with all due respect to the office, extremely hot.  

    1. about this whole leadership thing? Obama at that conference: leadership in action.

      Let’s see if Petraeus’ testimony tomorrow finally shuts that grumpy old loser from Arizona up.  

      1. except when he says something the wackos can use. They don’t like him and the Dems who used to respect him don’t anymore.  

        It would be funny hearing him question Susan Rice’s intelligence and qualifications after attempting to stick us with Sarah Palin as a VP if it wasn’t more of the same standard despicable right wing racism that we’ve been getting for the past four years. McCain’s not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer either.  

        McCain and Graham are has been losers with no influence over popular opinion. And Obama stomped them like the insects they are.  

  6. Crown Prince in waiting Bobby Jindal wasted no time dancing on Romney’s grave:

    Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal forcefully rejected Mitt Romney’s claim that he lost because of President Barack Obama’s “gifts” to minorities and young voters.

    Asked about the failed GOP nominee’s reported comments on a conference call with donors earlier Wednesday, the incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association became visibly agitated.

    “No, I think that’s absolutely wrong,” he said at a press conference that opened the RGA’s post-election meeting here. “Two points on that: One, we have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent. We need to go after every single vote.

    Paul Ryan, Rand Paul and Eric Cantor are all eager to give Bobby a run for his money.  Over 60 and still in the GOP?  Send money, and shut your mouth.

  7. if you don’t go away? . . .

    Romney Blames Loss on Obama’s ‘Gifts’ to Minorities and Young Voters

    In a conference call with fund-raisers and donors to his campaign, Mr. Romney said Wednesday afternoon that the president had followed the “old playbook” of using targeted initiatives to woo specific interest groups – “especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people.”

    “In each case, they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” Mr. Romney said, contrasting Mr. Obama’s strategy to his own of “talking about big issues for the whole country: military strategy, foreign policy, a strong economy, creating jobs and so forth.”

    ….

    “With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest was a big gift,” Mr. Romney said. “Free contraceptives were very big with young, college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.”

    ….

    “You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity – I mean, this is huge,” Mr. Romney said. “Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”

    http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes

    Same old fucking Willard . . . no need to walk back those “47%” comments anymore.

    1. Like cutting the already low, low, low taxes of himself and the Trumps another 20% isn’t a gift?  And a hell of a lot more than $10K a year!

      And mandatory health insurance is free?  In what country is that?  The Cayman Islands? Switzerland?  No, wait, Switzerland has mandatory health insurance, so I guess that’s not it.

      Mitt Rmoney deserved to lose on every moral and ethical count, not just running a shitty campaign.  

      1. but, if I remember correctly, in WillardWorld $10,000 isn’t a “gift” — it’s a trifle, it’s that pocket change you use to make a bet with another WillardWorld buddy.

        $1,000,000 horses — now there’s a appropriate gift.  If Obama had been born and raised as a real (filthy rich) American, he’d know how to give proper gifts.   Car elevators — that’s another good gift too, not everybody likes horses, but everybody that’s anybody has at least a couple of Cadillacs.  

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