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PoliGAF 2014 |OT| Kay Hagan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad News

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R

RustyNails

Member
On the second morning of the closures, Sokolich apparently sent a text to Baroni: "Presently we have four very busy traffic lanes merging into only one toll booth. ... The bigger problem is getting kids to school. Help please. It's maddening."

Seeing that text, a person whose name has been redacted from the e-mails and text messages writes to Wildstein: "Is it wrong that I am smiling?"

"No," Wildstein responds
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.
 
I

ivysaur12

Banned
Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi Bridgeghazi
 
P

Piecake

Member
So, any way for the government to get a non-redacted copy? Or can they hide under some privilege or state security/whatever?
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Aww. While I definitely am happy with the recent news about Bridgeghazi, I hope we can still save some of our ridicule for the brainchild behind trickle down economics:

Arthur Laffer said:
“[T]he minimum wage makes no sense whatsoever to me. I mean, honestly, it’s just the teenage – black teenage unemployment act and this is the very groups that we need to have jobs, not be put out of work because of the minimum wage.

“So I’m really very much in favor of at least for teenagers getting rid of the minimum wage so we can bring them back into the labor force, get them the skills they need to continue being productive members of our society for years and years. I mean, that’s the way I’d go on minimum wage.”
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V

Vahagn

Member
RustyNails said:
People hate wolves in sheep's clothing more than wolves.
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That ain't it, it's Christie.


They hate him because of Sandy/Obama, and they really believe a "True Conservative" is their best bet. After Bush/McCain/Romney they're going to do everything they can to tear down Christie to ensure a "True Conservative" wins - they know who their core audience is.


If this was Paul Ryan or Paul Walker that did this, the coverage wouldn't nearly be the same.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
Oblivion said:
Aww. While I definitely am happy with the recent news about Bridgeghazi, I hope we can still save some of our ridicule for the brainchild behind trickle down economics:
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Wasn't their argument the other day that its only teenagers who get minimum wage?

And lol at his attempt to make himself the one who really cares about minorities
 
S

Sibylus

Banned
If it's wrong to savour the best-laid plans of assholes turning awry and fucking them...

jamesinclair said:
Seriously how the fuck is redaction legal
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Because once you strip out 99% of the political ass-covering there's legitimately useful things it exists for the sake of, like Groom Lake's (to use one place of doubtless many) catalogue of bleeding edge aeronautics technology. See the Abottabad raid for one example of what sort of material advantage that secrecy can lend.
 
A

Aaron Strife

Banned
What's the matter with Kansas?

Well I don't really know but their Democratic nominee for governor, Paul Davis is kicking ass in fundraising:

Today, Paul Davis filed his first campaign finance report since announcing his bid for Kansas governor. In an unprecedented outpouring of support, the Davis / Docking ticket raised $1,002,389 in just over four months. Davis is beginning the election year with more money raised than any gubernatorial challenger in Kansas history.
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Polling has been light here but the last poll done in October by SurveyUSA had Davis leading incumbent gov Sam Brownback 48-44. Kansas is of course a red state but had a Dem governor as recently as 2010 (Sebelius' Lt gov) and Brownback's approval ratings are shit.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
Gates’s problem with the president is less about strategy or substance than about heart. “I myself, our commanders, and our troops had expected more commitment to the cause and more passion for it from him,” Gates writes. He compares Obama unfavorably with Bush, who “had no second thoughts about Iraq, including our decision to invade.”
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Really, Bob? Really?
 
P

Piecake

Member
Aaron Strife said:
What's the matter with Kansas?

Well I don't really know but their Democratic nominee for governor, Paul Davis is kicking ass in fundraising:


Polling has been light here but the last poll done in October by SurveyUSA had Davis leading incumbent gov Sam Brownback 48-44. Kansas is of course a red state but had a Dem governor as recently as 2010 (Sebelius' Lt gov) and Brownback's approval ratings are shit.
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Well, they definitely need a democrat to put a plug on their idiocy

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/opinion/whats-the-matter-with-kansas-schools.html

I mean, good god.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama will announce five "Promise Zones" this week as part of his effort to focus on income inequality in the lead-up to his State of the Union address.

San Antonio is one of those designated promise zones.

Promise Zones are areas where the federal government provides tax incentives and grants to help communities tackle poverty. Obama first announced the initiative during last year's State of the Union speech.

On Thursday, Obama will announce the first Promise Zone locations. They're in San Antonio, Texas; Philadelphia; Los Angeles; southeastern Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Obama is proposing to invest more than $750 million in the communities, to provide a tax incentive for private investments that will provide for new jobs and homes, according to a press release.

The White House says Obama believes investing in and rebuilding economically challenged communities is crucial to helping children have a chance at success.

The Obama administration plans to expand the support to at least 20 communities by 2018.

San Antonio is also home to a Choice Neighborhood and a Promise Neighborhood on the city's east side. These investment programs will be leveraged by the Promise Zone initiative.
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http://www.kens5.com/home/Obama-to-...nt-in-San-Antonio-Promise-Zone-239276671.html

hmmm
 
P

pigeon

Banned
Oblivion said:
Really, Bob? Really?
Click to expand...

Gatesgate is an excellent illustration of the fundamental cancer underlying our military culture. Gates judges Obama for thinking that Afghanistan was a quagmire that should be abandoned. But not only did Obama turn out to be correct about this, Gates even comes around and says that Obama was correct! So his criticisms have nothing to do with Obama's judgement. Gates would rather have a President who wholeheartedly does the wrong thing because his generals tell him to than a President who correctly observes that they're wrong and forestalls their desire for further engagement in a hopeless conflict.

This is the attitude of a person of high office to which individual soldiers and individual lives have long since stopped being visible and only the politics of interdepartmental power remain.
 
S

speculawyer

Member
Aaron Strife said:
Polling has been light here but the last poll done in October by SurveyUSA had Davis leading incumbent gov Sam Brownback 48-44. Kansas is of course a red state but had a Dem governor as recently as 2010 (Sebelius' Lt gov) and Brownback's approval ratings are shit.
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Brownback? I remember that guy. Damn . . . I can't believe they elected that theocrat to office. Well . . . it seems that states that get these loons like Bob McDonnell, Brownback, Rick Scott, etc. elected eventually learn to regret it.
 
A

Aaron Strife

Banned
pigeon said:
Gatesgate is an excellent illustration of the fundamental cancer underlying our military culture. Gates judges Obama for thinking that Afghanistan was a quagmire that should be abandoned. But not only did Obama turn out to be correct about this, Gates even comes around and says that Obama was correct! So his criticisms have nothing to do with Obama's judgement. Gates would rather have a President who wholeheartedly does the wrong thing because his generals tell him to than a President who correctly observes that they're wrong and forestalls their desire for further engagement in a hopeless conflict.

This is the attitude of a person of high office to which individual soldiers and individual lives have long since stopped being visible and only the politics of interdepartmental power remain.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the Perry supporters Romney put in a focus group. "It takes balls to execute an innocent man!"

Republicans don't want someone with brains, they want someone with balls.
 
F

Fenderputty

Banned
Oblivion said:
Aww. While I definitely am happy with the recent news about Bridgeghazi, I hope we can still save some of our ridicule for the brainchild behind trickle down economics:
Click to expand...

But corporations would never go back to the days of child labor. At least that's what I was told when someone was arguing why unions are worthless ...
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
pigeon said:
Gatesgate is an excellent illustration of the fundamental cancer underlying our military culture. Gates judges Obama for thinking that Afghanistan was a quagmire that should be abandoned. But not only did Obama turn out to be correct about this, Gates even comes around and says that Obama was correct! So his criticisms have nothing to do with Obama's judgement. Gates would rather have a President who wholeheartedly does the wrong thing because his generals tell him to than a President who correctly observes that they're wrong and forestalls their desire for further engagement in a hopeless conflict.

This is the attitude of a person of high office to which individual soldiers and individual lives have long since stopped being visible and only the politics of interdepartmental power remain.
Click to expand...

Yup. And it's a good thing presidents occasionally don't listen to their generals, like with MacArthur and the guys who were advising JFK.

Fenderputty said:
But corporations would never go back to the days of child labor. At least that's what I was told when someone was arguing why unions are worthless ...
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Speaking of child labor:

Gov. Paul LePage told attendees of the 73rd annual Maine Agricultural Trades Show on Tuesday that 12-year-olds should be allowed to work in Maine.

LePage said Maine is not using one of its most valuable resources – its youth.
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http://www.pressherald.com/politics/LePage_says_children_should_have_work_option.html
 
S

Sibylus

Banned
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/01/07/nsa-insiders-reveal-what-went-wrong/

January 7, 2014

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Former NSA Senior Executives/Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: Input for Your Decisions on NSA

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Official Washington – from Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein to NSA Director Keith Alexander to former Vice President Dick Cheney to former FBI Director Robert Mueller – has been speaking from the same set of NSA talking points acquired recently via a Freedom of Information request. It is an artful list, much of it designed to mislead. Take this one, for example:

– NSA AND ITS PARTNERS MUST MAKE SURE WE CONNECT THE DOTS SO THAT THE NATION IS NEVER ATTACKED AGAIN LIKE IT WAS ON 9/11nationalsecurityagency

At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 2, Senator Feinstein showed her hand when she said: “I will do everything I can to prevent this [NSA’s bulk] program from being canceled.” Declaring that 9/11 “can never be allowed to happen in the United States of America again,” Feinstein claimed that intelligence officials did not have enough information to prevent the terrorist attacks.

Mr. President, we trust you are aware that the lack-of-enough-intelligence argument is dead wrong. Feinstein’s next dubious premise – that bulk collection is needed to prevent another 9/11 – is unproven and highly unlikely (not to mention its implications for the privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment).

Given the closed circle surrounding you, we are allowing for the possibility that the smell from these rotting red herrings has not yet reached you – even though your own Review Group has found, for example, that NSA’s bulk collection has thwarted exactly zero terrorist plots.

The sadder reality, Mr. President, is that NSA itself had enough information to prevent 9/11, but chose to sit on it rather than share it with the FBI or CIA. We know; we were there. We were witness to the many bureaucratic indignities that made NSA at least as culpable for pre-9/11 failures as are other U.S. intelligence agencies.

We prepared this Memorandum in an effort to ensure that you have a fuller picture as you grapple with what to do about NSA. What follows is just the tip of an iceberg of essential background information – much of it hidden until now – that goes to the core of serious issues now front and center.

The drafting process sparked lively discussion of the relative merits of your Review Group’s recommendations. We have developed very specific comments on those recommendations. We look forward to an opportunity to bring them to your attention.
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Bottom Line

It should now be clear, for those who can handle the truth, that the problems at NSA run deep – in terms of effectiveness, integrity and respect for the Constitution. By withholding information and exploiting secrecy, NSA’s leaders past and present have pulled off an unparalleled coup in concealing the sad reality that NSA could have prevented 9/11 and didn’t. And Schadenfreude chortling by leaders at the top regarding the demonstrated bureaucratic advantages and success of such dishonesty has a tendency to be heard down through the ranks, corrupting even dedicated workers.

As you ponder more recent abuses, we hope you will address the deficiencies of NSA management past and present – those who have been in charge of tens of thousands of patriotic workers doing their best in an agency whose mission is critical to our national security. And we suggest that you might wish to avoid repeating the dodgy rhetoric aimed at “proving” to us all that tragedies like 9/11 cannot be prevented unless we collect every bit and byte of signals intelligence we can.

We are in a position to know that collecting everything makes very little sense from a technical point of view. And, as citizens, we are offended by the callous disregard of the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution we all swore a solemn oath to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Signed/

William Binney, former Technical Director, World Geopolitical & Military Analysis; Co-founder of the SIGINT Automation Research Center.

Thomas Drake, former Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, NSA

Edward Loomis, former Chief, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA

J. Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA

PREPARED UNDER AUSPICES OF AD HOC STEERING GROUP, VETERAN INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONALS FOR SANITY

Ray McGovern, CIA analyst/Presidential Briefer, (ret.)

Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Near East (ret.)

Coleen Rowley, Minneapolis Legal Counsel & Special Agent, FBI (ret.)

Daniel Ellsberg, Former State Dept. & Defense Dept. Official (VIPS Associate)
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It's an involved read (from cover-ass to thinthread, contractor woes, revisionist history of 9/11 and beyond), but more than worthwhile. Such vast capability brought so low by the most timeless and familiar of human foibles: the gut's recoil from culpability. Whatever you happen to think of Snowden, he's handed the United States the best opportunity in over a decade to finally listen to dissent and make this right.
 
S

Sibylus

Banned
Gates Was Offended Obama Thought He’d Write a Memoir - He writes in his memoir (Time)

I was put off by the way the president closed the meeting. To his very closest advisers, he said, “For the record, and for those of you writing your memoirs, I am not making any decisions about Israel or Iran. Joe you be my witness.” I was offended by his suspicion that any of us would ever write about such sensitive matters.
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Does Robert Gates possess the self-awareness of a mossed brick?
 
B

Black Mamba

Member
Meanwhile, in California:

A robust 2013 dropped billions of unanticipated dollars into California's coffers, putting the state on the best financial footing it's had in a decade, according to a spending plan for the 2014-15 year that Gov. Jerry Brown will ask lawmakers to adopt.

The $107 billion general fund plan provides billions of dollars more to K-12 schools and the state's public colleges and universities and includes a whopping $11 billion to pay down a $25 billion headache that officials at the Capitol call the "Wall of Debt" - money owed to schools, special state funds and Medi-Cal that was withheld during the recent budget crisis.

Brown also proposes a constitutional amendment to ensure a rainy-day fund for the state in future years when California may again see a crisis. He proposes putting aside $1.6 billion in the next fiscal year.

"The budget proposes a multiyear plan that is balanced, pays off budgetary debt from past years, saves for a rainy day, and makes wise investments in education, the environment, public safety, infrastructure and California's extensive safety net," the governor's proposal says.

Spending highlights
The plan proposes spending $9 billion more than the current year's $98 billion budget. Some of the major parts of the spending plan are:

-- $10 billion in new spending for K-12 schools, raising the total to $61.6 billion. This means per pupil spending in California would rise to $9,194 in 2014-15 from $8,469 this year.

-- $2.9 billion each to the California State University and University of California systems to keep their tuitions from rising.

-- $670 million increase in funds for Medi-Cal benefit expansion.

-- $815 million for deferred maintenance for state parks, highways, schools, community colleges, courts, prisons and hospitals.

-- $11 billion toward a $25 billion debt the state accumulated from loans taken from special funds, unpaid costs to schools and deferred payments to state worker pensions and Medi-Cal. This would also pay off the remainder of a controversial $15 billion loan taken out during the Schwarzenegger administration to help maintain spending levels.

The budget was helped by $4 billion in unanticipated capital gains taxes, according to the plan.
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http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jerry-Brown-s-107B-spending-plan-leaked-5126303.php

More education spending and medi-cal spending and infrastructure? Yes and yes.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
J

JesseEwiak

Member
Two things.

If Jerry Brown was ten years younger, Hillary might be in real trouble.

Second, Brown would probably win an election naming him Governor for Life with 55% of the vote in November.
 
Metaphoreus

Metaphoreus

This is semantics, and nothing more
I'd like to see more discussion of the article linked to by thcsquad, because the response so far has been lacking. I'll start by responding to a couple of Piecake's posts, even though they predate my original post on this topic.

Piecake said:
Probably because the top 20% has seen an increase in wealth while everyone else is poorer. That author also defines the middle class as people who are making 25-75k, which is ridiculous because below 25k is basically abject poverty for a family of 4. Pretty easy to see an increase in the upper class when you define the middle class as barely above the poverty line
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Piecake said:
and 60% of Americans are poorer. I am not sure how thats a good thing, even if some in the middle class moved into the upper middle class
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The chart you posted isn't responsive to the argument linked to by thcsquad. That argument concerned changes in income distribution, not wealth distribution. The fact that gains in proportionate net worth over a 30-year period accrued exclusively to the top two quintiles doesn't tell us anything about changes in household income. Moreover, the chart you posted doesn't show that 60% of Americans are poorer; it only shows that that 60% now control a smaller proportion of all wealth than they did in 1983. But if total wealth has increased in the intervening years, then it's possible that every quintile is now richer than it was thirty years ago. Your chart simply lacks the data that would enable us to make that judgment one way or the other.

Also, I've taken the data from the Excel spreadsheets I linked to earlier and created some charts of my own. Anyone interested should take a gander. The first sheet is the source data. The second uses one of the income groupings used by the fellow thcsquad linked to. The third uses all of the income groupings used by the Census Bureau. The final one looks at changes over five-year terms and over the whole term. (The formatting may be a bit wonky, but it's late and I can't be bothered to fix it.)
 
D

Drakeon

Member
JesseEwiak said:
Two things.

If Jerry Brown was ten years younger, Hillary might be in real trouble.

Second, Brown would probably win an election naming him Governor for Life with 55% of the vote in November.
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I'm so glad Brown is focused on California. Something that plagued him in his earlier stint for Governor was always looking ahead to the presidency. Also, keep your hands off him, we want to keep him as long as possible.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
This press conference is showing how much I over estimated Christie.

This is only the first thing. Imagine a whole campaign.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
APKmetsfan said:
This press conference is showing how much I over estimated Christie.

This is only the first thing. Imagine a whole campaign.
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He's handling it masterfully right now. Either he's lying or telling the truth, we'll know soon enough. The fact that he's still talking tells me he's either confident as fuck or a Clintonian liar (or both). If he's lying he sure is digging a deep grave.
 
N

NYCmetsfan

Banned
PhoenixDark said:
He's handling it masterfully right now. Either he's lying or telling the truth, we'll know soon enough. The fact that he's still talking tells me he's either confident as fuck or a Clintonian liar (or both). If he's lying he sure is digging a deep grave.
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He's already changing the stories and making firm statements when there will be hundreds of people digging.

That and its all about him. Has he apologized to the people? This is all about him being betrayed not the fact, if you believe his story, his office went rouge and screwed up a lot of peoples lives. Unless you're telling the truth you keep trucking and say investigations are on going.
 
P

PhoenixDark

Banned
APKmetsfan said:
He's already changing the stories and making firm statements when there will be hundreds of people digging.
.
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For instance he said he barely remembers what the mayor involved looks like and never pursued his endorsement. If that's not true, said mayor won't have any trouble disproving it. Whether it's an email or a phone call. The fact that he's so direct tells me he's confident that he's innocent, or that he can successfully cover everything up.

edit: he's also thrown Kelly under the bus so much that if she isn't loyal, she could easily take him down. So yea, he's confident.
 
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