Rahm Emanuel Defense Shield.
At the routine, glum media conference in Chicago to announce the new Education Secretary, the President-Elect Barack
Obama (or PEBO) took a second question that was aimed at the still mute Rahm Emanuel. PEBO cut off the inquirer with easy rhetoric, and there was no follow-up. Again, PEBO was obliged to point to the release of the results of the Obama team internal review of all contacts with Blago and his office re the Obama Senate seat since November 4, 2008. Before? And what is the definition of contacts? And will it include lists of emails or tweets or Ims? And what about contact between Obama team members re Blago and the now departed Chief of Staff John Harris? Unknown. Live blogging from the Wall Street Journal Washington Wire (all times Eastern Time Zone):
11:55: Second question on whether Obama supports a special election for his U.S. Senate seat, also asked about Rahm Emanuel's contacts with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's office. Obama cuts him off, notes that he will release his office contacts next week. On the special election, "I've said I don't think the governor can serve effectively in his office," he said, noting that he will defer to the legislature.
Certainly Blago's new superlawyer, Ed "Devil's Advocate" Genson will explore all possible combinations of contacts before and after Election Day, November 4. News arrives that Ed
Genson will begin his exploration in public when he appears tomorrow before the Illinois legislature's just convened impeachment panel in Springfield. In the chill Chicago air, let the leaking begin. There is opportunity for endless mischief and game-playing with the Obama team internal review. All eyes on the release date of December 22. If it is released. If other defense attorneys do not get involved and seek to protect their clients. If PEBO gets out of Chicago for Hawaii, leaving a shell team to release the review. If Chief of Staff and Congressman Rahm Emanuel, 5th Illinois (D), is ever again available to the media. If.
What caught my eye was the nomination of Arne Duncan for Education Secretary. While I do not yet know much about the man, I know that the Department he is slated to head has been deeply involved in outsourcing its responsibilities (transportation and school lunches).
The idea behind outsourcing is to allow an organization to concentrate on its core business while relinquishing ancillary functions to specialists in appropriate fields. When, however, the DOE decides to outsource tutoring, correcting papers, score tests, etc. to entities off-shore (as has been reported), it becomes clear that DOE has no core business to speak of (aside, perhaps, from disseminating political propaganda and teaching students how to put condoms on over-ripe bananas).
Well, I'm not going to touch that... But I would like to say something off-topic about the show the other night, and sharia financing. I was put off buy the way it was dealt with. To consider sharia finance as inherently flawed is surely the pot calling the kettle black-( I do see legitimate concerns as to where the money goes, seeing as how part of sharia is to require donations to charity- nothing wrong with that in itself, but as always there is potential for abuse.) There is a larger point I'm trying to get at here, and it is an open question to anyone willing to bite,... that is, in sharia finance (islamic banking) by law, the bank must retain assets = to your deposits. Now, as we know in america and most of the world that is not the case. A generalization, but it would seem to me that islamic law would not allow for much growth, but what growth occured would be rock solid. In Fractional reserve banking, growth (as we have seen lately) can run amok and then crash unceremoniously. Great opportunities for growth, but are they reliable?
Now, do we have a seemingly untenable situation in reconciling the two forms of banking? And to what degree is this conflict between money systems shaping current events?
senator - Our financial system has worked very well for a long time now. It has catapulted our nation to the head of the food chain. It was brought down by willful and deliberate government interference in the housing market. Your question suggests that it was unwise to build the World Trade Towers so high; that in the fullness of time these buildings would have come down anyway.
As for the subject (referred to above) which you (and others) refuse to "touch": Somebody better start investigating to let American home owners know just how exactly the bulk of their property taxes is being spent.
I think we'd be better off keeping religion and government out of the economy...
I have to wonder if Biden has a secret wish. :) Of course he wants full disclose from all involved. :)
Peter, I was referring to the banana.
Secondly, I'm not saying our system of money works or doesn't work. They all work, it's a question of how well- and to that end I am interested in the friction between islamic banking and western fractional reserve banking. I'm not as interested in making value judgements about how well they work- as I am interested in asking how can these systems coexist? Can they?
I wonder just how ugly it will get when the press tires of Obama's towering arogance and turns on him. He appears to be a man who does not handle conflict well. His instinct seems to be to command and "rule". That is going to clash severely with the media's need to be an equal branch of government. I have visions of Jimmy Carter Obama in the White House for months at a time during the hostage crisis.
All these people are sleazes... they are falling over themselves. Read the body language. They know they stink to high heaven.
But, they're smarter than everyone else... right? And you can bet your soon to be last worthless dollar that they are snickering and cajoling amongst themselves about all of this. They know they have to continue to try and dull the senses of the dogs on the trail.
Pepper spray the way, ford the stream, suck air through a reed while submerged in the river. All the tricks that are passed on to those eager to learn. Sessions in private? Look behind the picture hanging on the wall for a mic. Check the A/C ducts for a camera, too. Live paranoid as hell for as long as suspicion reigns supreme. Peek through the blinds and don't forget that everyday someone is watching and listening.\\??// What did you say??
What is INTEGRITY? Someone answer this! Whatever it is, it seems a trait long lost in today's politic and public life. Or is it just sleazes make the news.
Therein lies the danger. Conflict and the ability to contend with it and make substantive deductions of the situations coming one after another without relief.
"Mark my words" a test is at every turn of the head. Withdraw? Confront? Subdue? Relent? Delegate? Escape?
What would you do
If someone threw
A shoe at you?
senator - Good question. They can and they do (coexist). The result is what you presently see (at least before the roof fell in): us leaping far ahead and the Islamic countries trailing way behind (economically). The friction is not between them and us. It is within their own sphere where some are lured to accept the western model while the rest sit and pray five times a day while dreaming up vicious ways of keeping the former in the fold.
Troopergate. Whitewater. The criminal aggression against Serbia. Back when Bill Clinton was Secretor-in-Chief I spent eight years in a state of high dudgeon about those and a dozen oher scandals, each one a grubby reminder that we abide in--to use Robinson Jeffers' phrase--a perishing republic.
As for the horror called the Bush Administration, I won't even discuss it. The memory is still too fresh.
And now I find that my capacity to feel outrage has been permanently and mercifully dulled, much the way a garbageman loses his sense of smell.
A President-Elect's cronies tainted by scandal? A seat in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body for sale? Unbelievable.
The next thing you know a Hollywood actor will be caught stepping out on his wife or some Major League player will test positive for steroids...
Bush has INTEGRITY... he has been held hostage by nemeses who have faltered and failed the people by their construction of legislative agenda that was inferior to his ideal. They have placed a war footing as secondary to their cynical interests and force fed those interests on an administration at war in exchange for some form of a tacit support of the war (which, by the way, lest anyone forget, was also forced on US)
The sad thing is, they are the ones who have undermined our so called standing in the world and, in the long run, their lack of resolve and hint of defeatism is more deleterious than any setback suffered in country. They should be ashamed for their antics... but, they are not and will never be, unless the people humiliate them.
Granted, everywhere we find corruption and the weak at heart. Integrity and commitment are rare. I am thankful for any President who knows this.
Kenneth - Re “the horror called the Bush Administration" which you won't discuss. Well, I will! Bush was crippled by Democrats, and Republicans who jumped over to their side; by the press; by academe; by every self-loathing pervert hiding in some bureaucratic storm drain who was quite willing to give up his boss for a brief mention in the despicable New York Times; by every foul-mouthed late-night talk show host who sold out his country for the price of a cheap laugh; and by all those who laughed.
We all wonder why in the later years he (Bush) went over to the dark side. If there’s anything he must have learned during his two-term reign it’s that any proposal he was apt to advance, the Democrats would automatically mobilize against it and take the exact opposite track. On Israel, for instance (see “Fundamentally Freund: Bush’s December Surprise” by Michael Freund in today’s Jerusalem Post on line), could it not be that he’s finally figured out that only he (Bush) is the issue; that they’re all against him? By supporting a “Security Council resolution forcing Israel to proceed with a suicidal “peace” agreement with the Palestinians”, he clears the way for Obama to do the right thing by giving him the political cover to do it. Whether or not Obama takes the bait remains yet to be seen. The same argument could be made for Bush’s bizarre position regarding bailouts.
I've maintained up until very recently that Bush's strong suit is his integrity. But I question it now in light of his support of the bailout. He's stood for laissez-faire capitalism his whole life; now, when it most matters to stand by those beliefs and let the rotting banks and poorly-managed auto companies collapse under their own weight, he says "Wait! Just kidding! Here's $700B - you guys are too big to fail." In short, when the chips were down, he became just another Democrat.
If you want to see integrity, look at the Republicans in the California Assembly for an example. They are willing to let the State go bankrupt in February rather than capitulate on their promise not to raise taxes. Their own governor, Benedict Arnold Schwarzenegger, has betrayed them and is hammering out a deal with the Dems as we speak. But they are standing firm. That's integrity.
I read a news story today about a 68-year-old Anaheim lady whose automobile stalled in front of an oncoming train. Rather than get out of the car she died trying to phone 911.
Conservatives who hope for anything good to come out of the Republican Party are no smarter than that woman.
I would say the same thing about people who try to draw some deep, hidden meaning from random traffic accidents.
There was nothing random about what happened to that woman. Character is destiny.
Nevertheless, the Republicans in the California Assembly continue to do the right thing. Don't take my word for it if you don't believe me; go read about it for yourself. They should serve as a prototype for the phoenix to rise from the 2008 conservative ashes. In fact, perhaps they are the embodiment of the phoenix. I don't think the rest of the country has any idea what trouble we're in here in California. Take Detroit and multiply it by 10 and that's what you have.