Hillary Nails It

Clinton says world "exhaling" with Obama at top

True. But then you can only hold your breath for so long. Time to suck down another ration of air and get my head back under the covers, because just like everyone else, no one in the whole freaking world has any idea what this Johnny-come-lately, become cultural phenom, become cult classic is actually going to do. Or if he ends up doing anything right.

Comments

[jharp]

Rest easy.

The chances of us having the two worst Presidents in U.S. history are nearly zero. And though Bush was an incompetent boob it was republican conservative policy that ruined things. We could have had Joe The Plumber as President and done no worse.

But relax. Liberals are now in charge. And history will repeat. Conservative republicans muck things up. Liberal democrats fix things. Same old story.

[Lala]

Eric Holder and "The Wall"

"A fellow 9/11 family member emailed today and wrote:

What makes it all relevant today is the obsessive concern for the rules which are aimed at protecting the civil rights of criminal defendants. That’s what the ‘Wall’ was. All this talk about “fighting the war on terror while retaining our core values” … like we’re giving up our souls if we don’t protect the rights of terrorists and, in the case of the ‘Wall’, they were wrong. They weren’t protecting anybody’s “core values” — they were risk averse, career-protecting, turf-protecting, know-it-all lawyers, and their vanity about being morally superior for protecting the so-called rights of defendants helped get 3,000 people killed. I don’t know that Holder is any more responsible than Gorelick, or even as much as her; she wrote the 1995 memo."

http://www.911familiesforamerica.org/?p=1141

[mark l.]

i believe there is, indeed, a release of gas...

just not from the lungs.

[ET]

You're right, Dan. We don't know exactly how Obama will act. There are a lot of contradictions so far. He will obviously stay in Iraq according to the timetable set by the Bush admin, and he was right to keep Gates at defense. But he sounded weak in his arab interview...right after he bomb, bomb, bombed pakistan. The dumbocrats are loading up the "stimulus plan" with pork and ignoring other options like suspending the mark-to-market rules. Obie's determination to spend our way out of the economic slowdown is a blatant power grab.

He promised to rise above petty politics and put the people's priorities first. So far, he gets a C+ from me...not yet failing, but more effort is required to get a superior grade. He could go either way at this point.

[Lala]

Mark,

It's too bad we can't post photos on here as I saw a great one involving a cow.

[mark l.]

I love our new admin:

they will break us of our dependency of foreign oil,
they'll simply increase our dependency on foreign debt.

maybe instead of borrowing money, they can just borrow oil.

[mark l.]

"The contraception [initiative] will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government," she said. "No apologies," she stressed when pressed by Stephanopoulos. "This is a, to stimulate the economy, is an economic recovery package and as we put it forth we have to deal with the consequences of the downturn in our economy."

nancy pelosi.

I caught the story about the husband who killed himself, his wife, and five kids today...

good first steps in the 'pelosi stimulus' plan.

[WBestPresidentEver]

I caught the story about the husband who killed himself, his wife, and five kids today...
good first steps in the 'pelosi stimulus' plan.
Posted by: mark l. | Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 08:05 PM
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IT'S REALLY OBAMA'S FAULT !
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Liberals are now in charge.
Posted by: jharp | Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at 06:00 PM
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GOD HELP US ALL.
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And what about the poor 93 year old man that frooze to death in his own house ?
That's Obama's fault,too ! It happened on his watch you know.

He was too obcessed talking about Rush Limbaugh to even notice. You already have blood on your hands OBAMA MAMA !

[checkers]

Hillary exhaling with Obama on top is not a picture I care to dwell upon.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Another Lobbyist Headed Into Obama Administration
Despite President Barack Obama's pledge to limit the influence of lobbyists in his administration, a recent lobbyist for investment banking giant Goldman Sachs is in line to serve as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Mark Patterson was a registered lobbyist for Goldman until April 11, 2008, according to public filings.
Patterson first began lobbying for Goldman Sachs in 2005, after working as policy director for then-Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. According to publicly filed lobbying disclosure records, he worked on issues related to the banking committee, climate change and carbon trading and immigration reform, among others.
Patterson's lobbying was first noted by National Journal magazine.
Patterson is one of over a dozen recent lobbyists in line for important posts in the Obama administration, despite a presidential order severely restricting the role of lobbyists in his administration, the magazine reported.
The Obama administration's limitation on lobbyists isn't a direct ban. Lobbyists are still allowed to be a part of the administration working on areas that they have not lobbied on. But the potential appointment of Patterson and others raise questions about just how much the Obama administration will be able to move away from the revolving door model of business that has become so common inside the Beltway.
"Considering that Goldman was an early and large recipient of our TARP funding, being pulled out of that really does effect his ability to be an effective chief of staff for the treasury secretary," said Steve Ellis, president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Patterson has spent most of his career in Congress. He served as special assistant to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan from 1985-88. And following law school at Catholic University, he worked as an attorney in private pratice for several years before rejoined Moynihan's staff as legislative director. He then served as chief counsel to the Senate Finance Committee and later served as policy director for Daschle.
Chief of Staff Operates Behind Closed Doors, Hard for Outsiders to Monitor, Watchdog Says
But even if he recuses himself from matters related to Goldman, there is little outside oversight. The position of chief of staff is appointed by the secretary of treasury and does not require Senate approval. And with Geithner's confirmation by the Senate Monday, Patterson's appointment is all but completed. What's more is much of how the chief of staff operates is behind closed doors, Ellis noted, and it's difficult for outsiders to monitor.
A White House spokesperson declined to comment on "speculation" that Patterson would be tapped, as several outlets have reported. A Goldman spokesperson declined to comment and directed calls to the administration. Patterson could not be reached for comment.
Criticism has also erupted over Obama's choice of William J. Lynn, a government relations executive for defense contracting giant Raytheon, to be Deputy Secretary of Defense.
The White House waived ethics restrictions that would have barred Lynn from working on issues that could affect Raytheon. According to the Pentagon, Lynn would still need approval from the Pentagon general counsel or Secretary Robert Gates to do so.
These questions, said Craig Hollman of Public Citizen, show that there should be a more transparent screening process in the Obama adminstration. "This is a brand new ethics policy, so I think there are kinks."

(Yeah right....kinks. LOL~HOW BOUT CROOKS.
Geeze........why not just have the fox guard the hen house. The man running the Treasury didn't pay his taxes until he was vetted for the job......now a former financial lobbyist as treasury chief of staff. We in BIG trouble now. Financial geniuses have destroyed our economy. It is quite possible that the US will loose out as the as leader of the free world brought on by pure greed.)

[mark l.]

"Financial geniuses have destroyed our economy."

it was inevitable. The thought of cleaning house on the financials mitigates a lot of the downturn.

The media really missed out on the story-

Wouldn't you have liked to be a fly on the wall when then financial institutions figured out that they were broke?

lehman, merrill, citi, aig-

does anyone think that their ceo(s) said,

"It's not my fault. Bush did this to us." They would have been laughed out of the room. The basic flaws in the paper were there for inspection, but there was a willful blindness to their real value. The only reason we haven't heard the tales of victimhood from the disgraced CEOs is becuase they are too busy with their lawyers trying to figure out how criminally culpable they are.

"destroyed"? a 2 to 3 year setback for us. Apocalpyse for Europe. The lesson that the media has been shy about reporting is that the nationalization of many eu banks has left them helpless. Their very size and involvement in the banking system has put all their eggs in one basket, that is now infected with samonella. If we do continue towards nationalization of our banks, the next crisis, and there will be a 'next', will completely 'destroy' us.

[Effra]

When the Obama administration crashes, the Clintons -- to distance themselves -- will then have to deny ever exhaling OR inhaling.

[Heywood Jablowmi]

jharp: Conservative republicans muck things up. Liberal democrats fix things. Same old story.

You must be some little 20-something gadfly. You obviously don't remember Carter. Or Johnson. Or Wilson. Or Buchanan.

What a silly little troll you are.

[Fred Beloit]

Speaking of mucking things up, this Chicago prosecutor seems to muck up everything he touches. From LegalInsurection blog, evidence against Blago so far seems weak:

"Any fair-minded person would be moving towards the conclusion that the Senate Rules, which do not allow Blagojevich or the Senators to challenge the evidence selected by Fitzgerald, are resulting in a trial which in fact is unfair. But there don't seem to be many fair-minded people around when it comes to Blagojevich's Senate trial.
Posted by William A. Jacobson at 6:40 AM "