Policia de Catalunya

On the oil spill, pundits say, they can offer Obama little comfort.
A profound pronouncement? And a circular one at that? You bet.
But it's no better than Obama's forgettable quote on Friday:
"My job right now is just to make sure everybody in the Gulf understands: This is what I wake up to in the morning, and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about. The spill."(Sorry, but the "spill"? The "spill"?!? And his primary job is to make sure we understand he's thinking about it? Axe, are you on vacation or something? Axe . . . ?)
More reassuring was Big P's priceless quote from its stunningly empathic CEO: "I would like my life back." (So would we all, my friend, so would we all. And the livelihoods of Louisianans, while you're at it.)
Seriously though, I think I've found someone who can help Spock Obama. Someone he can model himself after, during this unfolding nightmare.
Now, the fellow I have in mind is no super model, I'll grant you that. Obama would crush him in a pick-up game, in two minutes flat.
But if you're looking for a "bullhorn" man, may I present the rotund, frank, and clearly feeling Billy Nungesser of Louisiana's Plaquemines ("plack-a-means") Parish.

This ADD fellow -- who gets things done, by the way -- is a man after my own heart, and my country's.
By way of example, here's a snippet from a recent New York Times profile of wild-marsh Bill:
How did Mr. Nungesser come to own an elk ranch in the parish?
The elk, he said late Thursday night over a 10-minute dinner of Sun Chips and soda, were bought from a man in Nebraska with the money he got from selling his house to his sister when he went to live in a shipping container.A few minutes later, he added:
"I had a Jacuzzi," he clarified. "It was nice."
See why I love this guy, nonsequiturs and all?
Because he's real. He's there. And he cares.
"The buck stops with me," said the president. "And the muck does, too," said I. And Billy.

Labels: Billy Nungesser, Marshes, Obama, Oil Spill, Plaquemines Parish

Here's the AP clip on Harry Reid praising Obama as an electable candidate, electable because Obama is "light skinned and has no Negro dialect unless he wants one."

And then came the inevitable comparisons to Trent Lott's remarks at Strom Thurmond's 100-year old birthday party.

Not one to be outdone, Rod Blagovich joined the party.
"I'm blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived," Blagojevich said. "I saw it all growing up," Blagojevich told Esquire magazine.
But then he elegantly backtracked. "It's not appropriate for me, a white person, to stand out somehow and claim to be a black person, that's just wrong."
Conservative columnist George Will stepped into the fray and defended Harry.
GEORGE WILL: I don't think there's a scintilla of racism in what Harry Reid said. At long last, Harry Reid has said something that no one can disagree with, and he gets in trouble for it.
CHENEY: George, give me a break. I mean, talking about the color of the president's skin...
WILL: Did he get it wrong?
CHENEY: ... and the candidate's...
WILL: Did he say anything false?
CHENEY: ... it's -- these are clearly racist comments, George.
WILL: Oh, my, no.Well, Reid may not have been racist but his remark was certainly elitist, elitist and offensive to voters. Harry Reid, you see, doesn't think the great unwashed masses, us "stinky Washington tourists," are smart enough to recognize and vote for the best candidate, black or white.
Once again, we see the liberocratic oath in action: first, let them do themselves no harm.
But maybe Reid was right about the electorate after all, if Bill Clinton represents a large part of it.
Clinton reportedly belittled Obama when he was seeking Ted Kennedy's endorsement for Hillary, telling Teddy. "Just a few years ago, this guy would be getting us coffee." Nice.
These recent stories, about who's racist and who's not, haven't just grown legs. They've turned into a thundering herd of elephants.
The hoopla from both sides, I suspect, is really being driven by the health care debate.
The Dems need Reid to get health care passed. And perhaps they need these distractions.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Negro Dialect, Obama, Racism, Reid

Greetings, Sports Fans. Welcome to this weekend's bipolar Star Trek flashback.
When I see this:
(Photo credit: AFP.)
and . . . this:
I think of this:
and remember . . . this:

One tiny roar.
One effete mandarin collar.
R.I.P., oh mighty O.

Labels: Afpec Conference, Dukakis, Embarrassing, Good Grief, Holy Shit, Mandarin Collar, Obama, Star Trek Get-Up, Tank, Wtf

Last night, the NAACP condemned and denounced the Tea Party's racism. The resolution was motivated mainly by the Congressional Black Caucus's claims that one or more Tea Party folks called John Lewis and others the "N" word and spit upon them, when caucus members showed up at a Tea Party rally back in March of this year.
From what I've seen, the video clips of this Tea Party rally show no evidence that any such thing occurred. And there were an awful lot of videos taken that day that would presumably have captured this reprehensible conduct.
Which is not to say the claims aren't true. Indeed, Andrew Breitbart offered to donate $10,000.00 to the United Negro College Fund if anyone had any evidence that anyone said the "N" word. And, if they don't have it on video, that's fine, too. He'll donate the same $10,000.00 if anyone who heard the "N" word being hurled will take and pass a polygraph.
So far, no one has come forward.
Hillary Clinton's supporters have a documentary out called "We Will Not be Silenced." It's about alleged voting fraud in the 2008 presidential primaries. I'm starting to feel silenced, too. That if I dare to disagree with anything Obama says or does, the NAACP or Hollywood or someone will brand me racist.
Remember back in 2009, when high-profile actress Janeane Garafalo claimed that any person who opposed Obama was a racist?
Now that her hopes for Obama have turned to disappointment, maybe she'll be more tolerant of dissenting views. ("I have to say I was surprised how disappointing the Obama administration has turned out to be. That did take me by surprise," she said in June of 2010).
Umm, Janeane, you kind of sound like the people who weren't "the ones we've been waiting for," . . . (you know -- the racist rednecks who didn't vote for him).
But maybe Janeane has come around. Perhaps Ms. Garafalo now realizes that non-racist people can have principled disagreements with Obama's love for Keynesian economic policies (e.g., "borrow and spend and tax our way out of a recession") and "income equality for all." Truth be told, this Keynesian stuff strikes a lot of people -- even liberal people -- as just plain dumb.
So, umm, would it be okay, NAACP, if I, uh, vehemently disagreed with Obama's economic policies? No? Okay. Could it be meekly, then?
A prominent leader in the Dallas Tea Party movement, an African American woman named Katrina Pierson, says the NAACP has gone too far with its charges of racism. She makes an impassioned and persuasive case against the NAACP, and she does not mince words.

Said Ms. Pierson, in response to the NAACP's Tea Party "renunciation,"
"The existence of the NAACP, and others like it, are threatened by the existence of the Tea Party. The reality is that we colored people no longer require the assistance from other Negros for advancement in 2010. These groups run to the rescue of distressed brown people only when the media deems it newsworthy. Meanwhile, there are inner city black children who continue to grow up fatherless while sharing a neighborhood with stray bullets, drugs and a plethora of liquor stores on every corner.* * *
The NAACP has been completely ineffective in my lifetime, and the lack of leadership in the black community has contributed to the ability of these groups to speak on behalf of the rest of us.
* * *
They are Democrats who bow to a Democrat master today as they once did two hundred years ago. Once this is realized by the forgotten society, race in this country will be as irrelevant as those who thrive off of it."(emph. added).
Powerful stuff.
But I can't say I blame her.
After watching the video clip below, of New Black Panther Samir Shabazz, I have to ask:
Has the NAACP denounced the racism irrefutably in evidence in the New Black Panther Party?

I'm just sayin' askin'.

Labels: Denunciation, John Lewis, Katrina Pierson, Keynes, Naacp, National Black Caucus, New Black Panther Party, Obama, Obamacare, Renunciation, Samir Shabazz, Tea Party

In August, the American people who voted on CNN gave Obama a C+. Back in August, though, his approval ratings were significantly higher.
Obama gives himself a higher grade. Just a few weeks ago, in his Oprah-softball interview, he said he'd earned a "solid B+" in his first year as president.
Karl Rove's take? Scathing.
From the Wall Street Journal, Rove's "The President is No B+":Barack Obama has won a place in history with the worst ratings of any president at the end of his first year: 49% approve and 46% disapprove of his job performance in the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll.
There are many factors that explain it, including weakness abroad, an unprecedented spending binge at home, and making a perfectly awful health-care plan his signature domestic initiative. But something else is happening.
Mr. Obama has not governed as the centrist, deficit-fighting, bipartisan consensus builder he promised to be. And his promise to embody a new kind of politics�free of finger-pointing, pettiness and spin�was a mirage. He has cheapened his office with needless attacks on his predecessor.
Consider Mr. Obama's comment in his interview this past Sunday on CBS's "60 Minutes" that the Bush administration made a mistake in speaking in "a triumphant sense about war."
This was a slap at every president who rallied the nation in dark moments, including Franklin D. Roosevelt ("With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph"); Woodrow Wilson ("Right is more precious than peace and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts"); and John F. Kennedy ("Any hostile move anywhere in the world against the safety and freedom of peoples to whom we are committed . . . will be met by whatever action is needed").
This kind of attack gives Mr. Obama's words a slippery quality. For example, he voted for the bank rescue plan in September 2008 and praised it during the campaign. Yet on Dec. 8 at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Obama called it "flawed" and blamed "the last administration" for launching it "hastily."
Really? Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner designed it. If it was "flawed," why did Mr. Obama later nominate Mr. Bernanke to a second term as Fed chairman and make Mr. Geithner his Treasury secretary?
Mr. Obama also claimed at Brookings that he prevented "a second Great Depression" by confronting the financial crisis "largely without the help" of Republicans. Yet his own Treasury secretary suggests otherwise. In a Dec. 9 letter, Mr. Geithner admitted that since taking office, the Obama administration had "committed about $7 billion to banks, much of which went to small institutions." That compares to $240 billion the Bush administration lent banks. Does Mr. Obama really believe his additional $7 billion forestalled "the potential collapse of our financial system"?
Mr. Obama continued distorting the record in his "60 Minutes" interview Sunday when he blamed bankers for the financial crisis. They "caused the problem," he insisted before complaining, "I haven't seen a lot of shame on their part" and pledging to put "a regulatory system in place that prevents them from putting us in this kind of pickle again."
But as a freshman senator, Mr. Obama supported a threatened 2005 filibuster of a bill regulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. He doesn't show "a lot of shame" that he and other Fannie and Freddie defenders blocked "a regulatory system" that might have kept America from getting in such a bad pickle in the first place.
The president's rhetorical tricks don't end there. Mr. Obama also claimed his $787 billion stimulus package "helped us [stem] the panic and get the economy growing again." But 1.5 million more people are unemployed than he said there would be if nothing were done.
And as of yesterday, only $244 billion of the stimulus had been spent. Why was $787 billion needed when less than a third of that figure supposedly got the job done?
Mr. Obama also alleged on "60 Minutes" that health-care reform "will actually bring down the deficit" (which people clearly know it will not). He said his reform reduces "costs and premiums for American families and businesses" (though they will be higher than they would otherwise be). And he claimed 30 million more people will get coverage through "an exchange that allows individuals and small businesses" to purchase insurance (though 15 million of them are covered by being dumped into Medicaid and don't get private insurance).
Mr. Obama may actually believe it when he says, "I think that's a pretty darned good outcome" and congratulates himself that he could succeed where "seven presidents have tried . . . [and] seven presidents have failed."
But voters seem to have a different definition of success. And they are tiring of the president's blame shifting and distortions.
Mr. Obama may believe, as he told Oprah Winfrey in a recent interview, that he deserves a "solid B+" for his first year in office, but the American people beg to differ. A presidency that started with so much promise is receiving unprecedentedly low grades from the country that elected him. He's earned them.Ouch!

Labels: B+, Obama, Rove

Thanks for popping in while I blog-rob from Althouse, and take a look at some of the ornaments displayed on Obama's and our country's Christmas tree.
No, they didn't come from an SNL skit. They weren't lifted from the Daily Show -- oh would that I were witty enough to dream this stuff up.
No, they came from the White House Blue Room, courtesy of the "Big Government" blog. Below, I quote the post in full:
Why let a holiday season come between the White House and making some political statements? The White House pegged controversial designer Simon Doonan to oversee the Christmas decorations for the White House. Mr. Doonan, who is creative director of Barney�s New York has often caused a stir with his design choices. Like his naughty yuletide window display of Margaret Thatcher as a dowdy dominatrix and Dan Quayle as a ventriloquist�s dummy. For this year�s White House, he didn�t disappoint.
These photos of ornaments on the White House Christmas tree in the Blue Room were taken just days ago. Of course, Mao has his place in the White House.And, of course, it wouldn�t be Christmas without an ornament of legendary transvestite Hedda Lettuce.

* * *And, so soon after collecting the Nobel Peace Prize, why wouldn�t the White House have an ornament super-imposing President Obama onto Mt. Rushmore:
All around, a very Barry Christmas!A Mao ornament on our nation's Christmas tree? Tut tut. Pfft smfft. I've already extolled the virtues of exhorting Maoists.
Hells bells, folks, it's Christmas. Can't we lighten up? Even "Silent Night" has a new and special meaning this year in our blessed democracy. So let us all be quiet and just give thanks.
Because putting taste aside (for which there's no accounting) when you look at what we shelled out to buy our Senators, these ornaments are downright cheap.

Labels: Cheap, Healthcare, Obama, Votes For Sale, White House Tree Ornaments

So Joe Sestak says, unequivocally, that the White House offered him a job if he'd stay out of the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania so Specter would win. Which, if true, would be federal crime.
The White House says . . . umm, essentially nothing.

Is anyone else bothered by this?

What happened to "Transparency will be our touchstone"?

Labels: Bribe, Gibbs, Joe Sestak, Obama, White House

The game of blame is mainly played by the loser.

Labels: Bill Clinton, Blame, Bush, Fault, Game, Obama, Recession

On October 10, 2010, Obama said, "I will end 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' That's my commitment to you."

But on October 12, 2010, Obama's administration said it would appeal a judge's ruling that held a ban on gay marriage (the "Defense of Marriage Act" or DOMA) is unconstitutional.
In yet another case, Obama 's Justice Department defended the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy ("DADT") and asked the judge to uphold it. Now that the judge has ruled DADT unconstitutional and unenforceable, the Obama administration is expected to appeal that ruling, as well.
But in the above video clip of a speech he gave just three days ago, Obama was clearly against DADT and all for gay rights.
And here's a snippet from his 2008 campaign website, in which he addresses DOMA and DADT, and says he wants to repeal them both:
But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples � whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage. Unlike Senator Clinton, I support the complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) � a position I have held since before arriving in the U.S. Senate. While some say we should repeal only part of the law, I believe we should get rid of that statute altogether. Federal law should not discriminate in any way against gay and lesbian couples, which is precisely what DOMA does. I have also called for us to repeal Don�t Ask, Don�t Tell, and I have worked to improve the Uniting American Families Act so we can afford same-sex couples the same rights and obligations as married couples in our immigration system. (emph. added)
So . . . . what happened? I'm thoroughly confused.

Labels: DonT Ask, DonT Tell, Gay Rights, Military, Obama, Read My Lips, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

"Why Dems are Going Down in November," is far and away, the best explanation I've seen yet, for why so many people are red-hot mad. It's a must-read.
Here are a few snippets:
* The health care bill. The absolute epitome of ideological, public-be-damned arrogance. A horrendous compendium of bribes, exploding bureaucracy, runaway costs, written in secret and unread by those who passed it. It includes a mandate, likely un-Constitutional, forcing people to buy health insurance or pay a fine. The same administration which originally claimed the commerce clause of the Constitution made such a fine possible is now saying that the federal government's "power to tax" justifies it. Irrelevant. 60% of Americans want this monstrosity repealed, ASAP.
* A hopelessly compromised media. Air America tanked, CNN is tanking, and ABC, NBC and CBS news programs have been shedding viewers at historically unprecedented rates-even as Fox and the Wall Street Journal prosper. Americans don't mind people in the media expressing their opinions, as long as they're characterized as opinions, but they seethe when such opinions are portrayed as "hard news." They get even angrier when certain stories are "omitted" by those same organizations, especially when Americans recognize such omissions are calculated to protect the progressive agenda. I wonder if it occurs to either Democrats or their media water-carriers that a majority [of] Americans may savor whacking both groups in November. Depressed looks on the faces of Nancy Pelosi and Katie Couric? In theater circles, that's known as a "two-fer."
* The complete disconnect between the First Family and ordinary Americans. The golfing, the soirees, and the high-priced vacations have created the perception that we are living through another "let them eat cake" moment in history. On Tuesday, the president called the public schools in Washington, D.C. a "'struggling' system that doesn't measure up to the needs of first daughters, Sasha and Malia." Those would be the same public schools Congressional Democrats tossed 3,300 low-income kids back into when they killed funding for vouchers that had freed those kids from D.C.'s educational ghetto. The First Lady is hectoring Americans to eat healthier. Perhaps more Americans would if they could afford to: the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated in their Producer Price Index that the price of food increased 2.4% for March 2010. That's the biggest increase in almost 30 years.
* "Unexceptional" America. Progressive contempt for the values and traditions which make this the greatest country on earth can no longer be disguised. An American president who "believe(s) in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism" has made it plain that this is not a great nation which needs tweaking, but a fundamentally flawed one needing a complete progressive make-over. Once one understands this basic premise, everything this administration and Democratically-controlled Congress does makes sense. All of it centers around the ridiculous premise that America owes the world an apology for any number of shortcomings, many of which can only be alleviated by government-mandated "social justice." That would be the same social justice which demanded-and still demands-that Americans manifestly unqualified to own homes be given mortgages, regardless. Unknown to the majority of Americans, this precise mindset was part of the financial "reform" bill which also requires banks to lend a certain percentage of capital to minority-owned businesses, even if it means lowering their lending standards. Apparently progressives won't be satisfied with their odious social-engineering schemes until every sector of the American economy bears a striking resemblance to the housing sector. So far, Americans support financial reform because it's been framed as "Main Street versus "Wall Street." It's not. Like every other initiative undertaken by this Congress and this administration, it's the elevation of irresponsible and dishonest Americans over those willing to accept the consequences of their own behavior.Read the entire article here.

Labels: Arnold Ahlert, Democrats, Disconnect, Health Care, Obama, Ruling Class, Why The Dems Are Going Down In November

After one of my own oil spills, a kind reader remarked, "my heart breaks for your obvious distress" or words to that effect. At the time, it seemed a tad dramatic.
Now? Not so much.
This disaster is truly too huge to fathom. Every oil-laden wave strikes a blow to our country's psyche.
So to get a handle on how big this really is, let's gently put the oil-drenched pelicans aside for a moment, and follow the money.
Moody's Investor Service says the oil catastrophe could be worse than the global recession. Chew on that for a while.
In another onerous development, the prices for credit-default swap contracts for BP (how much it costs a BP creditor to insure against BP's default on a loan) have skyrocketed.
Now it will cost BP a pile of pounds to borrow money. The headlines say it all: "Credit Markets Treat BP as if it were Rated Junk." Sickening news indeed.
Credit Suisse is a shade more optimistic, tagging BP's exposure at $37 billion. It arrived at this number based on ultra-conservative estimates of exactly how many barrels of oil are gushing into the gulf each day.
Matt Simmons (who, you should know, has a dog in this hunt) says there is a lake of oil sitting on the sea bed. This "lake," he claims, is over 100 miles wide, and 400 to 500 feet in depth.
You can paint the coastal towns black, he says, if a hurricane picks up this under-water plume.
One recent news report lends anecdotal support to Simmons's claim that our long national nightmare has yet to be realized, while the oil lurks and lingers beneath the gulf's surface.

On a brighter note, the delta dawned on Obama. His administration announced Sunday that the President understands we have an immense, immeasurable crisis on our hands.
Phew!
The crisis is so dire in fact, that Obama will be addressing our nation in a few short days, live from his Churchill-shorn Oval Office.
Downplaying Explaining the President's upcoming address, David Axelrod said the oil "saga" has reached "an inflection point." (Which is better than a "tipping" one, don't you think?)
Now then. Let us raise our voices in perfect pitch, shall we?
But never genuflecting, Axe continued on in his unaffected baritone, seeking to reassure: BP has "the prospect of continuing."
Oh, David! Think again.
Obama wants BP to escrow billions to cover estimated damages. But this cannot be done.
With $12 billion in cash on hand and about $236 billion in total assets, BP is inarguably big. Still, "BP" does not stand for "bottomless pit."
So look for Obama -- as he's done with everything else -- to call BP's escrow a "down payment." This disingenuous wiggle-room phrase must poll well, given its ubiquity.
Where the rest of the money will come from is anyone's guess.
As is how much will be the grand total, or the time it will take to tally. Because it will take years to assess the damage. Years.
The fines imposed by the Clear Clean Water Act are but one example. Under this act, BP will owe the U.S. government more than $9 billion -- assuming 40,000 barrels are spilling into the gulf every day, as many experts believe.
In a related note, government-assembled experts want to send equipment down to better measure the flow, when BP switches the "caps" yet again. To date, BP hasn't responded to this request.
Small wonder BP keeps stalling and low-balling the barrels-per-day estimates.
No less comforting, BP estimates its clean-up costs at around $6 billion.
So now then. What might be the losses to Floridians? Early estimates predict the state will lose 195,000 jobs and $11 billion dollars in tourism income.
In northern Florida, at least one legislator is considering an immediate lowering of property values to give affected owners instant relief.
But such a measure would dramatically lower tax receipts, leading to drastic cuts in city services, "tax seepage" into inland counties, decapitating muni-bond ratings.
Tourism between Mississippi and the Florida panhandle accounts for nearly 4 billion dollars annually. Some estimates show tourism revenue in this area is already down some fifty percent. Hotel cancellations are at a fever pitch and extend well into the foreseeable future.
Who will get paid and when? By the time Captiva is inked in black oil, I'm afraid BP will be long gone.
The real estate horror in Florida was already hemorrhaging red; foreclosures before this crisis were unthinkably bad. But now? The state we call Florida will soon be Floriclosure.
Throw Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi into the mix, and short-sighted calls for BP boycotts (which only hurt American franchisees), coupled with Obama's crisp and grammatical, "whose-ass-to-kick"?
Shhhhh (whisper, whisper) but bankruptcy may be the only viable option for this self-insured company.
Indeed, Texaco v. Pennzoil provides an awfully enticing model for BP. Cast off the offending limb and proceed anew in a different body, is basically how it works.
So, President Obama? Could you please dial down the down-with-BP, I'd-have-already-fired-Hayward nonsense?
Why cut off our noses to spite our fate? Like Chris Matthews said, "This is more important than a presidency."
But oh, gentle readers, lest you truly despair, fret not. Admiral Watson is from the government and he's here to help.
On Friday, he boldly wrote BP, to wit:
"I am concerned that your current plans do not provide for maximum mobilization of resources to provide the needed collection capacity consistent with the revised flow estimates. Recognizing the complexity of the challenge, every effort must be expended to speed up the process."Even I was moved by his direct and to the pointedness.
Now, the press is calling the admiral's missive an ultimatum. Umm, okay. Whatever it is, it has no teeth. "BP, you've got until Sunday to come up with a better plan or . . . or . . . "
If I were Obama, I'd take "incompetent" over "impotent" any minute of the day, any day of the week.

Say, ever wonder how our government can claim BP is sucking up half of the leaking oil when it has no idea whatsoever what the total amount leaking is? I have to ask, are we just throwing darts here?
Alrighty then.
Is there a silver lining to be found in all of this? Any good news to report at all?
Well, err, yes, actually. Coastal properties in Spain are getting a nice little bump.

Labels: Axelrod, Bankkruptcy, Bp, Down Payment, Florida, Foreclosure, Inflection Point, MoodyS, Obama, Oil Spill, Pennzoil, Texaco

Ruh-roh.
Per Richard Wolffe, a frequent guest on the Keith Olbermann show, Obama has known since Day One that this oil "spill" was super, super-duper bad. Armageddon bad. End-of-the-Ocean-As-We-Know-It bad. A 10.0 on the Richter Scale.
Yet the golfing . . .

and fundraising . . . .

and miscellaneous hobnobbing . . .


and Marv Alpert baseball interviews continued. Unabashedly. Unabated.

All this, when Obama knew the entire time that this was the worst environmental crisis ever to have occurred in our country's history.
Good God Almighty.
And for my detractors, this footnote: "The Daily Show" makes up much of my source.
The clip shown below, mind you, was broadcast long before we discovered that Obama has known the magnitude of this utter and as-yet unmitigated, planet-wide disaster since it began.
I'll say it again: this is not a good headline.
Here's the John Stewart clip:
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cThe Spilling Fieldswww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorTea Party
And to those of you who would say I'm being unfair or partisan, I give you this, printed and published over and over and over and over again, by the press:
They showed no mercy then. And we owe them none now.
Frankly, I wouldn't be quite so damned mad if Obama hadn't suckled at the teat of BP and given them the benefit of the doubt when this underwater geyser first spouted.
What would I have done differently? Deploy supertankers immediately, to suck up everything in sight; all available military troops within our country's border would have hit the beaches that night. And all that still undeployed boom resting idle on the shores of Louisiana? The Coast Guard would have ordered into action.
And that's just for starters.
Sure it's easy to Monday-morning quarterback this disaster. Except that these calls don't require hindsight. Or a Presidential office. They're intuitive.
Especially when Obama knew, from Day One of the well blowing, that he had an enormous crisis on his hands.
Perhaps Obama was distracted by the Turkish flotilla that came late this week, loaded (by all estimable reports) with terrorists trying to enter Gaza. Israelis entered the flotilla with paint ball guns, only to be forced into battle and subsequently scorned, unfairly, with international outrage.
Now we know what happened. Israel was right. But did Obama stand with Israel? Hell no. He still needs to gather more facts, you see.
Please.
We all know Israel's intelligence is exceptional. If Israel, which merely required a quick inspection (which this flotilla stubbornly refused) says there were bad guys on board, that's good enough for me.
The rational world is growing weary and leery of Obama's international apologies and "fact- gathering" delays, be they oil-related or otherwise. And so am I.
*Updated 6/5/2010 @6:57 p.m. to correct a typo
* Updated again to add link to supertanker solution.

Labels: Animals Dying, Bp, Closed Beaches, Obama, Oil Spill

Once Brown surged ahead in Massachusetts, his campaign sent out an "all hands on deck" email asking for attorney volunteers to serve as poll-watchers. So I, along with hundreds of other lawyers, agreed to help out. We flew up to Massachusetts on Monday morning.
Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5:00 a.m., hopped on vans at 6:10 a.m., and shipped out to various polling locations throughout the state, where we stayed for 13+ hours. (Massachusetts polls are open from 7AM until 8PM).
The next morning, we caught flights out of Boston to go home, and I've been sleeping ever since.
I'll be back with a full post tomorrow or Saturday, with stories from the ground.
Like the Coakley poll-watcher who thought Brown poll-watchers were there to torture small animals. By the end of the night, though, we were friends.
And then there was the precinct where two ballots were given to a single voter, on three separate occasions . . .
Oh, and the absentee ballot on which the voter had voted for two different candidates (the machine rejected it as being "over-filled") but the warden nonetheless said she was "calling" it a vote for Coakley.
The drama of challenging a vote. Oy vey.
But in the end, it didn't matter. The margin was too wide.
Best of all was shaking hands with Scott Brown -- and that poor man's hand was surely sore.

Oh, and last but not least, the story of when I stumbled blindly, wildly, with toothpicks holding my eyes open, into Norah O'Donnell, at the airport ticket kiosk. She kindly helped me find my gate, as I was blind in my old glasses.
These stories and more, coming up on Blogger Minutes.
In the meantime, I'm off to catch a few more ZZZZZZZs.

Labels: Martha Coakley, Obama, Poll Watching, Scott Brown