Change!

Officials from good government groups Tuesday criticized President Obama for engaging in fundraising-related activities on the grounds of the White House, though they did so noting that the president is joining a long tradition of presidents who have done so.

On March 7, President Obama met with more than two dozen financial leaders and executives, in the Blue Room of the White House. The event was organized by the Democratic National Committee, and all but one of the individuals appear to be campaign contributors to the president.

More recently, the president taped a video in the residence of the White House, as part of a fundraising “raffle” for donors, offering a dinner with him as a prize.

...“It looks bad,” said Mary Boyle, vice president of communications for Common Cause. “It’s disappointing that a president who has gone further than most others in terms of putting up firewalls between the White House and special interests, would host in the White House a meeting with past or current donors.”

Boyle said the meeting “conveys that it’s business as usual, and whether he is or not, it appears he’s selling access. Given the way he campaigned and to some extent has governed, it makes us wonder why he didn’t hold this meeting somewhere else.”

Funny but I don't recall this being an issue during either Bush term. I'm not saying they didn't happen but I'm pretty sure the left would have made a really big stink about it.

Of course, Bush didn't run against the evil of money in politics, lie about taking campaign matching funds, game online credit card donation forms to accept illegal foreign contributions and have a fawning media claim his campaign was funded by small donors when it wasn't.

Speaking of Obama's "small donors"..that's a nice Hope and Change talking point. But big dollar bundlers? Hello!

Campaign officials are working to broaden Obama’s network of “bundlers,” the well-connected rainmakers tasked with soliciting big checks from wealthy donors, while seeking to preserve the aura of a grass-roots movement by luring back the kind of small Internet donations that helped shatter fundraising records four years ago.

...The push comes as ObamaÂ’s campaign has roared to life in recent weeks and strategists prepare for a summer of staff hirings and field office openings across key battleground states.

It is an unusually early move to establish the ground-level infrastructure that past campaigns typically put in place in the final months before an election.

A key player in the closed-door donor recruitment is White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley, a former banking executive who has huddled in recent weeks over breakfasts and dinners with business leaders and Wall Street financiers in Chicago, New York and Washington — seeking to ease tensions over new financial regulations and other administration policies.

Out: Hope and Change

In: The Chicago Way

Posted by: DrewM at 10:09 AM | Comments (66)
Post contains 495 words, total size 4 kb.

So, um, that last open thread is getting a little long in the tooth.

Posted by: DrewM at 09:32 AM | Comments (237)
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

The French Revolution is of Christian origin. The newspaper is of Christian origin. The anarchists are of Christian origin. Physical science is of Christian origin. The attack on Christianity is of Christian origin. There is one thing, and one thing only, in existence at the present day which can in any sense accurately be said to be of pagan origin, and that is Christianity.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:52 AM | Comments (540)
Post contains 72 words, total size 1 kb.

(Shamelessly Ripped from the Sidebar - Thank You Truman North)

We had two Depressions in the 20th Century.. Almost like a test - the Govt. dealt with each Depression in diametrically opposite ways. How'd that work out?

more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:34 AM | Comments (64)
Post contains 807 words, total size 5 kb.

Andy Levy and JohnnyE and other people were asking me about what the good episodes are.

So I guess I'll put together a guide for them -- which ones to watch, which to skip.

I haven't watched them all, but I've watched all the ones that were recommended to me, plus a bunch I just watched.

There are two types of episodes you have to watch for the show: the episodes that are really good, and the episodes that contain important mythology elements (character introductions, character send-offs, etc.) Sometimes these are even the same episodes.

I'm listing all the gotta-watch shows. Obviously, if you see one that interests you (like, you want to see the Doctor meet Shakespeare in The Shakespeare Code), obviously, watch that one.

So, if you want to give this show a try and be like TV's Andy Levy, try these episodes. All should be on Netflix right now. more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:48 PM | Comments (90)
Post contains 2073 words, total size 12 kb.

You Know The Warning - But Do you Know Who Miranda Was?

Well mainly a career criminal and pervy rapist:

[In 1963] an 18-year-old Phoenix woman reported to police that she was kidnapped, taken to the desert and raped. The woman was able to provide details about the car her kidnapper drove; those details took police to Ernesto Miranda. Though the woman couldnÂ’t identify him in a lineup, police took him into custody and performed an interrogation anyway. The grilling resulted in a Miranda-signed confession.

Miranda later said he was forced into confessing because he was never made aware of his constitutional right to say nothing. His case wound up in front of the Supreme Court in 1966; they ruled that nothing Miranda “confessed” to could be used to try him because he was improperly educated on his rights. Almost immediately following the trial, the Miranda warning became a mandatory part of arrests.

Which is why pretty much anyone who's ever watched TV cop shows can recite the following:

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense.”

So what happened to Miranda? Well he was re-tried minus the confession in 1967 and convicted. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was released in 1972 after only five. [Gotta love that 1970's lenient justice] And after bouncing in and out of jail for minor offenses he was stabbed to death in 1974 during a bar fight in Phoenix. Ironically the main suspect in his stabbing was read his Miranda rights and used them effectively:

A suspect was arrested, but he chose to exercise his right to remain silent after being read his Miranda rights. The suspect was released and supposedly fled to Mexico. The Miranda murder case was closed without ever apprehending the murderer.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 09:42 PM | Comments (507)
Post contains 873 words, total size 7 kb.

Horrifying. They even add a Guns n Roses cover of "Live and Let Die" to add "drama" to the viciousness. more...

Posted by: Ace at 07:50 PM | Comments (65)
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.

Ah, I'm just fuckin' with you. It blows shit up.

Another test of the HTV-2 prototype — a dart-like glider that would launch aboard rocket boosters, zoom through the upper atmosphere and careen into target at speeds exceeding Mach 5 — is slated for August. That is to be followed up by a more complex flight test in fiscal 2012, according to defense sources.

The purpose of such weapons is mostly defensive and/or preventative. You don't need such fast response time to destroy a city. A city can't exactly pack up and move in a five hours.

It's specifically for things like nuclear missiles being fueled.

Or, I suppose, a sighting of fleeting, high-value target. But that's nearly a defensive, or at least life-sparing, use itself -- it's a lot better for everyone to kill one guy and his entourage than grind up tens of thousands in his army.

Posted by: Ace at 07:11 PM | Comments (65)
Post contains 187 words, total size 1 kb.

And I have previously headlined a post "Delta: Innocent?," but didn't make it clear: I think this story is false, too.

I should have my head examined for ever giving something credence that came originally from World Net Daily.

Posted by: Ace at 05:58 PM | Comments (50)
Post contains 57 words, total size 1 kb.

Vid at bottom of post. If you want to imagine it without watching, picture a adapted-for-the-stage middle-school production of Melrose Place.

Mostly they just babble. They're Democrats because they're... I don't know. All I know is that if you're doing a video with a backdrop you need to stand a couple of feet ahead of it so you don't cast distracting shadows on it.

I haven't seen this much pale Gothic skin and amateurish lighting since ScyFy ran a 44 hour Dark Shadows marathon hosted by Barnabas Collins' entertainment lawyer.

Gotta give them props, these look like my kind of people. I'd love to sit down with them in a bar whose throwback-ironic jukebox contains an eclectic mix of Sinatra and Zep and even the Butthole Surfers, plunk down my buck for Dollar a Draft PBR, and talk about the latest issue of Dwell with any of these fine, upstanding, privately-educated kids.

I'm pretty sure I see three Art History majors here, five Communications & Media majors, three Poli Sci majors, and a couple of other majors that strongly indicate "Look, I'm gonna work for my dad when I graduate, he doesn't give a shit if I know accounting or not."

I'm sure they mean well. I'm also sure they attended a party commemorating Frasier's last episode.

Top Ten Things Almost As White As The College Democrats' New Ad

10. All dues-paying members of the William H. Macy Fan Club

9. Moby Dick's pale underbelly, and, fyi, Moby Dick just scored five choice front-row tickets to a VH-1's Storytellers With Kenny Loggins, and, sidenote, Moby Dick just got hired as a social media consultant by Keith Olbermann

8. Every single fucking college "rockapella" group in the known fucking universe (N.B.: Asians may sometimes be white for these purposes)

7. Chris Matthews's milky, fetid coinslot

6. The Hazzard County Police Department

5. That guy who just crossed the street because his Urban Marauder Danger Alert System lit up like a Christmas tree, and oh look, it's Bryant and Greg Gumble heading into Barney's for their annual one-day sale on spats

4. TIE: People who write Salon: also, people who read Salon

3. People at parties who say "Oh I just talked to that guy over there" and you say "Which guy?" and they say "Oh the guy in the blue shirt" and you say "There are at least five guys here wearing a blue shirt" and they say "The guy wearing casual slacks" and you say "That doesn't super-help me" and they say "Oh you know that guy, that guy over there, about average height and weight for his age" and you say "Look, spit it out, are you trying to tell me you just spoke to the black guy by the guacamole bread-bowl?" and they say "I'm not comfortable seeing him that way" and then you say "Yeah, apparently you're not"

2. People who know more than half the lyrics to We Didn't Start The Fire and/or Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

...and the Number One thing Almost as White as the new College Democrats ad...

1. You know Dr. Smith from Lost in Space? Yeah, the guy he just curb-stomped for being such an up-tight narrow-ass honky more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:12 PM | Comments (439)
Post contains 592 words, total size 4 kb.