This has got to be read to be believed. I know that the Washington Post is hard up for cash, but as Politico reports:

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive “salon” at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

With the Post newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the solicitation, Weymouth said in an email to the staff that “a flier went out that was prepared by the Marketing department and was never vetted by me or by the newsroom. Had it been, the flier would have been immediately killed, because it completely misrepresented what we were trying to do.”

She’s canceling the event amid “uproar”? Hey, ya think?

Weymouth said the paper had planned a series of dinners with participation from the newsroom “but with parameters such that we did not in any way compromise our integrity.”
(snip)
She made it clear however, that The Post, which lost $19.5 million in the first quarter, sees bringing together Washington figures as a future revenue source. “We do believe that there is a viable way to expand our expertise into live conferences and events that simply enhances what we do - cover Washington for Washingtonians and those interested in Washington,” she said. “ And we will begin to do live events in ways that enhance our reputation and in no way call into question our integrity.”

What integrity do these people have left after their sycophantic coverage of the election last year? Live events? Here’s a taste at what this one might have looked like had they been able to get away with it:

The first “Salon” was to be called “Health-Care Reform: Better or Worse for Americans? The reform and funding debate.” More were anticipated, and the flier described the opportunities for participants:

“Offered at $25,000 per sponsor, per Salon. Maximum of two sponsors per Salon. Underwriters’ CEO or Executive Director participates in the discussion. Underwriters appreciatively acknowledged in printed invitations and at the dinner. Annual series sponsorship of 11 Salons offered at $250,000 … Hosts and Discussion Leaders … Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post … An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done. … A Washington Post Salon … July 21, 2009 6:30 p.m.

But in the “CYA” category, the denouncement of this event was loud and hard. You’d have to read Mssrs Allen and Calderone’s article in its entirety to really get the Herculean level of denial – and when I hear that much spinning it leads me to believe they got caught with their pants down:

Executive editor Marcus Brauchli was as adamant as Weymouth in denouncing the plan promoted in the flier. “You cannot buy access to a Washington Post journalist,” Brauchli told POLITICO. Brauchli was named on the flier as one of the salon’s “Hosts and Discussion Leaders.”

Brauchli said in an interview that he understood the business side of the Post planned on holding dinners on policy and was scheduled to attend the July 21 dinner at Weymouth’s Washington home, but he said he had not seen the material promoting it until today…
(snip)
The flier promised the dinner would be held in an intimate setting with no unseemly conflict between participants. “Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No,” it said. “The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. What is guaranteed is a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds typically on the guest list of 20 or less. …

Brauchli emphasized that the newsroom had given specific parameters to the paper’s business staff that he said were apparently not followed. He said that for newsroom staffers to participate, they would have to be able to ask questions and that he would “reserve the right to allow any information or ideas that emerge from an event to shape or inform our coverage.” That directly contradicts the solicitation to potential sponsors, which billed the dinner as “off-the-record.”

“Our mission in the news department is to serve an audience,” Brauchli said, “not serve our sponsors.”

“We do not use the Post’s name or our journalists to gain access to officials or sources for the benefit of non-news purposes,” he continued.

Uh huh. Sounds like a lot of backpedaling.

Brauchli declined to comment on whether anyone on the business side would be held responsible for the abortive plan. He said that would be a decision for either Weymouth or Stephen Hills, The Post’s president and general manager.

We’ll wait to see if someone’s head rolls over this. However:

Charles Pelton, The Post business-side employee listed as the event contact, seemed to dispute Brauchli’s version of events.

Pelton was quoted by Post ombudsman Andy Alexander in an online commentary as saying that newsroom leaders, including Brauchli, had been involved in discussions about the salons and other events. “This was well-developed with the newsroom,” Pelton told Alexander. “What was not developed was the marketing message to potential sponsors.”

According to Alexander, who called the flier a “public relations disaster,” Pelton told him: “There’s no intention to influence or peddle.” …

If POLITICO had not reported on the flier this morning, Brauchli said he expects someone would have seen it before the event and, given the obvious ethical issue, it would have been canceled.

How sure is he about that? And if no one caught it, is he implying the event would have gone forward? The above statement sort of reminds me of the kerfuffle with the E Pluribus Obama imitation presidential seal last summer. When there was a hue and cry about it, his campaign pretended it was a one time thing and they were never really trying to do it in the first place. Certainly President Obama’s administration did the same thing earlier this year when floating the idea of taxing veterans’ health coverage. The immediate outrage triggered by that notion made it evaporate very quickly.

Earlier this morning, Brauchli sent an e-mail entitled “Newsroom Independence” to his staff explaining his position.

“Colleagues,” Brauchli said. “A flier was distributed this week offering an ‘underwriting opportunity’ for a dinner on health care reform, in which the news department had been asked to participate. The language in the flier and the description of the event preclude our participation.

“We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money The Post will offer access to newsroom personnel or will refrain from confrontational questioning. Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable. There is a long tradition of news organizations hosting conferences and events, and we believe The Post, including the newsroom, can do these things in ways that are consistent with our values.”

Amazing that Brauchli would even have to make a statement like this. One would think it would be obvious. Not anymore, it seems. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about this yesterday.

“I think some people in the administration, writ large, may have been invited. I do not believe, based on what I’ve been able to check, anyone has accepted the invitations.”

Gibbs said that the White House counsel would review such invitations and that they “would likely exceed” what would be considered appropriate.

Yeah, it certainly would have gone beyond what would be considered appropriate.

It is obvious from the above that someone thought giving very expensive access to “sponsors” was a viable way of raising revenue for the paper. No matter how Weymouth or Brauchli offer up noble statements about the integrity of the Washington Post, this sort of behavior should not get a pass. I’m glad to see enough noise was made to put a stop to it. The fourth estate looks to be crumbling as it is. Let’s hope we don’t see more of the same.

* * * * *
UPDATE:

In WaPo’s Sunday edition, Katharine Weymouth writes A Letter to Our Readers. Ms. Weymouth’s first paragraph shows just how big a boo boo was made regarding the “event” that Ms. Weymouth et al had planned:

I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home. The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind. But let me be clear: The flier was not the only problem. Our mistake was to suggest that we would hold and participate in an off-the-record dinner with journalists and power brokers paid for by a sponsor. We will not organize such events. As publisher it is my job to ensure that we adhere to standards that are consistent with our integrity as a news organization. Last week, I let you, and the organization, down. The Washington Post remains committed, now and always, to the highest standards of journalistic integrity. Nothing is more important to us than that, and nothing will shake that commitment.

Uh oh. Perhaps heads may roll after all? Read the rest here.

So I imagine beyond the big denials reported in the earlier story, there was a huge need for a profound mea culpa. Wonder why?

In other words, Sarah Palin is damned if she does, and damned if she doesn’t. If she stays, and continues to deal with all of these ridiculous complaints, eating up time better spent dealing with issues facing Alaska and its citizens, she gets slammed for not doing the work of Alaskans, wasting taxpayers’ money, and on and on. If she doesn’t deal with it, then she is ethically challenged, has “abused her power,” is a poor representative of Alaska, and on and on. Her work environment has been made untenable by these ridiculous challenges, as each one has to be addressed. I can only imagine the mounting level of frustration for her. Oh, and many of those complaints have been dismissed already, further highlighting that they are being used solely to harass her.

And then’s there’s her family, and how they have been treated. Fellow NQ writer, LisaB, had an EXCELLENT article on this recently, “Andrew Sullivan’s Reckless Cruelty to “White Trash Concupiscence.” There is no need for me to re-state what LisaB already did so well, except to highlight this point regarding Palin’s daughter, Bristol, getting pregnant at 17: so did Obama’s mother. So EVERYTHING nasty you say about this young woman, you are saying about Stanley Ann Dunham.

Once again, while I do not agree with many of her policy positions, she has every right to HOLD those positions. This is a (more or less) free country, after all.

Okay, all of that being said, this is the portion of the article, Palin Links Resignation to ‘Higher Calling’, on which I want to focus. There is MUCH more in this article, so feel free to take a look. But THIS is what I wish Al Gore had done when he was being portrayed as a liar and as delusional by many Republicans (and Democrats who repeated the intentionally manipulated statements Gore did make on the internet, the Love Canal, and “Love Story”):

The abruptness of her announcement and the mystery surrounding her plans have fed widespread speculation. But Palin attorney Thomas Van Flein on Saturday warned legal action may be taken against bloggers and publications that reprint what he calls fraudulent claims.

“To the extent several websites, most notably liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, are now claiming as ‘fact’ that Governor Palin resigned because she is ‘under federal investigation’ for embezzlement or other criminal wrongdoing, we will be exploring legal options this week to address such defamation,” Van Flein said in a statement. “This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law.”

He also told the Anchorage Daily News that Palin wasn’t in any criminal legal jeopardy.

“I can say definitively I am aware of no criminal investigation whatsoever involving Sarah Palin. Zero,” he said.

The FBI reiterated that claim Saturday, telling the Los Angeles Times for a story Sunday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was not investigating Palin’s activities as governor, a former mayor or in any other capacity.

“There is absolutely no truth to those rumors that we’re investigating her or getting ready to indict her,” Special Agent Eric Gonzalez, the bureau’s Alaska spokesman, said.

Oh, SNAP!!!! See, that’s how these people SHOULD be treated. Al Gore AND Hillary Clinton could have taken some pages from these people’s playbook, though it seemed when Clinton DID try to clarify the record, they just made fun of her for it (like the whole insurance flyer thing - remember that? Obama claimed her outrage was “tactical.” It couldn’t possibly be that she was well and truly pissed off because of how he was portraying her.). Same with Gore, come to think of it - it seemed whenever he tried to point out what he ACTUALLY said, they just made fun of him even more. I think both of these folks can understand the whole “damned if they do” mentality that surrounds Palin …

If journalists, whether for MSM outlets or blogs like this one, purposely print false statements about prominent people, they should be held to account. I hasten to add, if the statements were made in good faith, and were just wrong, the opportunity should be available to print retractions (though I think we all know what happens then - people never remember the retraction, just the initial accusation). But I say, GOOD ON PALIN’S ATTORNEY for making it crystal clear that no more of these false accusations that slander the governor will be tolerated. About damn time, too, I’d say. The character assassination on her (and too many others) went over the top long ago.

It is way past time for journalists to return to FACT CHECKING their statements before making them, to stop rumor mongering (or flat out making shit up), and REPORT events. We don’t want your OPINIONS of why Palin resigned, just the news THAT she resigned. Think you can do that? If not, meet Palin’s attorney. I’m sure you’ll get to know him well (and may be then YOU can experience what it is like to try and work while dealing with a lawsuit, only in YOUR case, it will be deserved). Bottom line, right on, Mr. Van Flein!

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT–THINK BEFORE YOU DUMP THOSE COALS!

Written by: Mary Ellen

The Fourth of July weekend often conjures up wonderful memories of past barbecues, fantastic firework displays, family gatherings and a feeling that all is right with the world. For me, that’s also true, except for a few fleeting moments as I remember the nightmare which my family went through, all due to the senseless act of one person…one very lazy, irresponsible person.

Anyway, today I want to use my very small blog as a venue for a public safety announcement and if this will help even one child, I’ll be happy. John Kass, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune agreed with me when I called him four years ago as my grandchild lay in a hospital bed at the University of Chicago Children’s Hospital. I’m putting up his entire column because he, in his usual fashion, was much more eloquent than I could ever be.

So, this is my story, as told by John Kass…..

Liana is a toddler with blue eyes and light brown hair. She sat in a hospital chair, playing with two helium balloons. She didn’t grab the strings with her hands. Instead, she grabbed at the strings with her toes.

Her mother explained, telling her story about a picnic at the lake the other evening.

“It was one of those perfect nights,” said Lisa ( XXXX) of Hyde Park, a teacher.

“There were people everywhere, and children, families, we were sitting on our blanket waiting for the fireworks to begin. People were grilling their food. It was wonderful.”

On July 3, she’d put the kids and blanket and some snacks into a wagon, then pulled them to Promontory Point, on the South Side of 55th Street, a peninsula awash in cool breezes that juts into Lake Michigan.

“It was getting dark, and we were excited because the fireworks downtown were going to begin, “she said. “My son, he’s 9, and Liana were playing. Another family had some jazz music on the radio. She was dancing to the jazz, and everyone was saying, ‘What a cute little girl.’”

As her mother told their story, the toddler kept pulling at the balloon strings with her toes.

“Balloon,” the child said. “Balloon.”

During their picnic, Lisa and her children had gone for a short stroll around the point. When they returned to their blanket, they sat down, but Liana being a fidgety toddler, just had to get up and toddle around. “She was right there, she was only 10 or 15 feet away, but it was dark then, and that’s when she fell. Her hands were out in front of her on the ground.”

If you know toddlers, you can picture it, hands down, head up, trying to right herself. She’d fallen into what looked like a pile of dust. Only, dust doesn’t give off a shower of sparks when a child falls in.

It was a pile of hot charcoals.

Some thoughtless barbarian had dumped out a portable grill on the ground rather than walk the 30 feet to the large red disposal containers.

“The sparks were flying and she was screaming,” Lisa said, her breath catching. “She couldn’t move because if she did, she’d get further into them, and I ran and grabbed her, and she was screaming.

“Her wrist’s,” Lisa said, sobbing now, in the quiet of the hospital room at the University of Chicago Children’s Hospital. “Her wrists melted. And her stomach was burned.

“Most people are kind. The great majority of people are so kind,” she said, still crying, not wanting to tell this part of the story. “But then, right there, no one helped, or called an ambulance, or brought water. One woman said, ‘Oh, put some ice on it and she’ll be fine.’ I was alone and put the kids into the wagon and started pulling them, running home.”

Lisa pulled her children running through the tunnel that leads to the point, down 55th Street and past the apartments there, past Orly’s Cafe and Morry’s Deli and the train viaduct at 55th Street and Lake Park with that mural that shows people helping other people.

It’s a 15 minute walk, but she made it in in less time. Then she got her car and drove to the University of Chicago Hospital emergency room, knowing about the doctors there, and the famous burn unit.

After treatment and surgery, Liana was sitting in her hospital room with me and her mom and my young friend Ben Berg, who had the smarts to bring the balloons.

She pulled the strings with her toes because her arms were heavily bandaged. Surgeons had also taken skin from her hip and grafted it onto her burned wrists. Doctors told Lisa that her daughter will heal just fine, lucky that her face and eyes wand fingertips weren’t burned.

The mom called me with a simple request, hoping a public reminder might save another child, save their hands, faces, eyes. She doesn’t want to outlaw casual barbecue in the park. She just hopes people will use their heads.

“Its so simple,” she said. “If you’re grilling in the park, don’t dump your live coals on the ground. Deposit them in receptacles marked for that purpose. And there should be more signs so people will know where to dump their coals.”

Such thoughtlessness happens everywhere, not just in the city of Chicago. But at the point after talking with Lisa, we found 32 piles of burnt coals dumped on the ground. Many were only a few feet from red coal bins. So what burned that child was selfishness. It was just too much trouble for the barbarian to walk a few paces to take care of a fire.

When Lisa called the Park District, they told her to contact their “risk assessment” department.

“I know what that means. It means lawyers,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking about a lawsuit. I was hoping they’d listen and post more signs so it wouldn’t happen again to another baby.”

Liana played with her balloons.

“Balloon,” she said.

As I was typing this story, I still feel the same hurt, anger, and panic that I did when my daughter called us from the emergency room, sobbing as she told us what happened. We made it to the hospital in record time, trying to concentrate on the road as fear welled up in my heart. I tried to hold back the tears as we entered the hospital room and put on a brave front for our little grandchild. She didn’t have much to say, she just held up her arms and in her toddler voice said, “I got burned”, (which sounded like ‘I got booned’). The nurses said that they had already received two other children who stepped in hot coals while in the parks that day. They explained that this is a regular thing every holiday, but in my granddaughter’s case, it was the most severe case to date. And yet, there are still no public service announcements on TV or on the radio and there are no extra signs pointing to where the coals can be dumped safely.

Liana is now 6 years old but still remembers the burns and the hospital stay. Along with the scars on her wrists, stomach and arms–although faded, will always remain with my granddaughter…all because of the thoughtlessness of one person who may have not realized that his laziness has caused a lifetime of memories that no child should endure every July 4th.

1. The Declaration of Independence declares that the purpose of government is to:

A. Secure the unalienable rights of men, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
B. To ensure a minimum standard of living.
C. Promote the general welfare.
D. Take from each according to his ability and give according to his need.
_____

2. Among the most important of the long train of abuses suffered by the colonists that sparked the American Revolution was:

A. The imposition of higher tea taxes.
B. That a king was in charge of the British Empire.
C. Taxation without representation, suppression of the right to a jury trial and the dissolution of colonial legislatures.
D. The prohibition of American colonists’ attempts to settle Florida
_____

3. The Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, and its requirement that search warrants be specific, were primarily motivated by:

A. The great Boston justice scandal of 1765.
B. The Boston Tea Party.
C. The criminal investigation following the Boston Massacre.
D. England’s extensive use of “general writs of assistance” that allowed open-ended searches with no probable cause.
_____

4. Prior to the outbreak of Revolutionary War fighting, John Adams wrote that the worst of all of England’s oppressive actions against the colonies was:

A. The suppression to the right to jury trial.
B. Taxation without representation.
C. The Boston Massacre.
D. High taxes.
_____

5. The Declaration of Independence did not address slavery because:

A. Its main writer, Thomas Jefferson, supported slavery.
B. Benjamin Franklin supported slavery.
C. The 2nd Continental Congress stripped out Jefferson’s condemnation of slavery at the insistence of two southern states.
D. The cotton gin had made slavery too lucrative to abolish.
_____

6. Reflecting his belief that this right was the most important, James Madison listed the protection of this liberty first in the First Amendment:

A. Due process of law.
B. The right to bear arms.
C. Free speech.
D. The free exercise of religion.
_____

7. The Declaration of Independence declares that men:

A. Are given their rights by government.
B. Should balance their rights with obligations to their fellow man.
C. Have nothing to lose except their chains.
D. Are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
_____

8. Ben Franklin did not:

A. Write the Bill of Rights.
B. Act as a diplomat and sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
C. Invent the Franklin Stove, the lightning rod and bifocals.
D. Establish the University of Pennsylvania, public libraries and abolitionist societies.
_____

9. The Tea Act and tea tax that provoked the Boston Tea Party:

A. Decreased the actual cost of tea, but was opposed because it was taxation without representation.
B. Increased the actual cost of tea, and was opposed because of its economic burden.
C. Increased the actual cost of tea, but was opposed primarily because it was taxation without representation.
D. Was widely supported in the colonies as a way to pay their fair share for national defense.
_____

10. Patrick Henry crystallized the perspective of the American revolutionaries when he declared:

A. America’s mission was “to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
B. “I have not yet begun to fight!”
C. “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
D. “Give me liberty, or give me death!”

___________
This quiz was contributed to the Detroit Free Press by Oakland County Circuit Judge Michael Warren, author of “America’s Survival Guide, How to Stop America’s Impending Suicide by Reclaiming Our First Principles and History.” www.AmericasSurvivalGuide.comcq//amartin99 aAmazon.com

Answers

1. A.; 2. C.; 3. D.; 4. A.; 5. C.; 6. D.; 7. D.; 8. A.; 9. A.; 10. D.

9-10 correct: Strike up the Sousa — you’re an American expert.
6-8 correct: Wave that flag with vigor.
5 or less correct: Hmm. Were you asleep during American History 101?

Join me from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. ET on NoQuarter Radio for Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle. These are truly historic times in the global economy. Let’s “navigate the economic landscape” without the pandering or nonsense found elsewhere!

I am honored to have Shawn Matthews, the CEO of Cantor, Fitzgerald and Co. join me on tonight’s show to discuss the past, the present, and the future for Wall Street. Cantor, Fitzgerald has a storied history on Wall Street and this firm is aggressively redefining the Wall Street landscape.

Please share your questions and thoughts by calling in to (347) 677-0792, and also join our live chat room, which I’ll start up about 10 minutes before the show begins.

LD

Please join me Sunday evening from 8-9 p.m. ET for NoQuarter Radio’s Sense on Cents with Larry Doyle. I am honored to have Shawn Matthews, the CEO of Cantor, Fitzgerald and Co. to discuss the past, the present, and the future for Wall Street. Cantor, Fitzgerald has a storied history on Wall Street and this firm is aggressively redefining the Wall Street landscape. Bloomberg recently wrote Cantor Plans to Hire Up to 100 for European Fixed-Income Unit:

Cantor Fitzgerald plans to hire as many as 100 staff in fixed income in Europe in the coming year as it builds high-yield and distressed-debt businesses, said Chief Executive Officer Shawn Matthews.

The closely held New York-based securities firm will approach the business “from a trading perspective,” Matthews said in an interview today. As a “longer-term goal,” Cantor plans to build a “small merchant-banking operation,” he said.

Cantor, which is organized as a partnership, is seeking to take advantage of the “disarray” that has struck larger rivals such as Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG amid losses and writedowns by lenders worldwide of almost $1.5 trillion, Matthews said.

What does Shaun Matthews see on the global financial landscape and why is Cantor moving so aggressively to increase its footprint?

“Our clients say they are looking for more-relevant counterparties now that the big investment banks have reduced the level of capital and their commitment to trading,” Matthews said.

Cantor, which expects to hire at least 50 people in Europe the next 12 months, is also seeking to add 25 to 30 staff in Asia, he said. The company also plans to build structured-debt, investment-grade and rates businesses outside the U.S., Matthews said.

The default rate may go as high as 25 percent “by the time the crisis is over,” Matthews said. “The world is in a bad place.”

As we move along into the Brave New World of the Uncle Sam Economy, please join me Sunday evening for what promises to be a riveting discussion with Shawn Matthews. Please share your questions and thoughts by calling in to (347) 677-0792, and also join our live chat room, which I’ll start up about 10 minutes before the show begins. Many thanks to Larry Johnson and the rest of the team at NoQuarter for providing such a vibrant vehicle as NoQuarter Radio. I look forward to having you join me Sunday evening as we collectively navigate the economic landscape!!

LD

The Founding Fathers tried to set a precedent, and gave us words of wisdom to bear in mind to keep our country free:

But our country did not achieve its independence just because of these brave, brilliant men. No, the women were right there with them:

Lest the women get short shrift, this one focuses on three women in particular who served their country during the pursuit of our Independence:

Now, we have this amazing woman to remind us of the importance of our freedom:

Finally, take heart - even the smallest of numbers can make the greatest impact:

So, Happy Fourth Of July, everyone.

And to my big brother, Dave, Happy Birthday. I am so proud of the man you have become. You’re the best!

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms:

Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Post note: If we did it again, women would be on the team!

ORIGINAL FRIDAY POST: Yes, that is the news. According to NY Times’s Mitchell L. Blumenthal, Sarah Palin to Resign as Governor of Alaska effective July 25th:

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska announced Friday that she would step down by the end of the month and not seek a second term as governor, fueling speculation that she is seriously weighing whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.

Ms. Palin, who was Senator John McCain’s vice presidential running mate last year and solidified the support of the party’s conservative base, explained her decision at a news conference at her home in Wasilla, Alaska, accompanied by her husband, Todd, and other family members.

“We know we can effect positive change outside of government,” she said in making the announcement.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Known as Sarah Barracuda when she played basketball in high school, Ms. Palin used point guard analogy in explaining her decision, saying she knows “exactly when to pass the ball so the team can win.”

She said that she planned to hand over the reins of the state government to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who would be sworn in at the governor’s picnic in Fairbanks later this month.

“This decision came after much consideration,” Ms. Palin told reporters gathered at her home, and added, “I really don’t want to disappoint anyone with this announcement.”

There had been wide speculation that she would seek to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2012. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who is also considered to be a leading Republican candidate for president in 2012, announced last month that he would not seek re-election.

By leaving office early, Ms. Palin, a 45-year-old mother of five, will be able to travel around the country more freely and not be constrained by the duties and responsibilities of being a governor.

“Some are going to question the timing of this, and let me say this decision has been in the works for quite a while,” she said.

I cannot imagine what her thinking is here, but surely having to deal with all sorts of bogus ethics complaints, paying astronomical legal fees and fending off the non-stop media hit squad doesn’t help her in doing her job as Governor, or in caring for her family.

Whatever her motives or endgame here, I find the witch hunt against her absolutely disgusting. Ironic that prior to Sarah Palin being chosen as Senator McCain’s running mate, she commented about Hillary Clinton being on the receiving end of sexist attacks at the hands of the media. While she was very respectful of Clinton, she said at the time a woman knows she’ll be dealing with this going in, so she’s just got to be twice as good and get on with it. She intimated it would be better to just not mention it.

It is unfortunate that she has learned the hard way just what SoS Clinton has had to deal with for sixteen years.

Your thoughts, please.

UPDATE–Couple of articles with more substance on Governor Palin’s decision and motive.
Here’s what Sam Stein reports:

The head of the Republican Governor’s Association said on Friday that in emails sent to him moments before she announced her resignation as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin discussed expanding the role she played in the Republican Party.

“Part of her decision is she wants to spend more time campaigning for candidates,” Nick Ayers, the executive director of the RGA, told Fox News.

“She felt like she needed to make her colleagues around the country aware, so she had given us a brief heads up,” Ayers said of getting the emails. “We have known for a couple of days she was considering not running for re-election but it was news today that she had gone ahead and made the decision to fully step down and resign.”

My friend, John Batchelor, posted this a bit ago (the original appears at the Daily Beast):

Rather than a blow to a career, Sarah Palin’s decision to resign underlines her self-awareness, writes The Daily Beast’s John Batchelor. She is now unmatched for the 2012 primary.
The early excuse for the Republican circular firing squad of the holiday weekend is that Weekly Standard editor and party brainiac Bill Kristol claims that pugnacious McCain campaign enforcer Steve Schmidt has been caught gossiping to Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum about Sarah Palin’s rambling and incoherent vice-presidential campaign last September and October. (Now that Palin has announced her resignation from Alaska’s governorship, the late excuse for the fisticuffs will certainly be that the boys smelled a special mom baking an apple pie in the kitchen of the GOP and they got in line early with a plate and appetite.)
Purdum, writing with a polite disdain, does flatter Palin as “the sexiest and riskiest brand in the Republican Party,” before he goes on to mention unnamed McCain campaign sources who tell stories of Palin’s erratic behavior on the trail supposedly caused by her “post-partum depression.” Kristol asserts as evidence that Schmidt was the source of this defamatory rumor that Kristol knows that Schmidt has recently emailed Palin out of the blue. “Perhaps Steve was nervous someone would finger him for the Purdum piece,” Kristol proposes.
What Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade.
Firing back, Schmidt immediately emailed a reference to Bill Kristol’s distant youth when he worked for the perennial GOP chump, Vice President Dan Quayle: “I’m sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign.”
Meanwhile, the sniping continues to deteriorate, with erstwhile McCain campaign advisers like Randy Scheunemann choosing sides with Kristol (Scheunemann hates Schmidt, who tried to force him out of the campaign as a leaker and confiscated his BlackBerry), while Schmidt reveals that he had the permission of McCain and Palin to ferret out who was leaking unkind details on Palin to the media. No comment yet from the senator and the governor on their genius of a Plumbers Unit. Another campaign aide, Nicole Wallace, and her husband, Mark Wallace, are mentioned as founts of poison on Palin. “This is all news to me,” Nicole Wallace proclaims.
Is this normal after a losing presidential campaign? No. Nor is this a normal year for the Republicans. Kristol and Schmidt and their cronies all know that the Republican brand that they depend upon for a job and for money, lots of money, has been wrecked to the point of no return. They are veterans of a lost cause with one wild adventure to try before history moves on—and the adventurer’s name is Sarah Palin.
Palin’s sudden announcement that she will resign the Alaska governorship at the end of July, delivered alongside the fireworks of the 4th of July, underlines her self-awareness that she must respond to the pyrotechnics of her stature in the GOP—and must respond in an explosive fashion. Discarding the demands of an Alaska job that is at best part-time, undemanding, predictable, banal, means that she will now devote full-time to traveling the “lower 48” in order to speak, speak, speak. Wherever she goes, she is Alaska, moose-hunting, and Wasilla. As a candidate, she begins the nomination hunt with a formula that none of her rivals can match, not even Mitt Romney, not only because she gave up something in order to go for the White House but also because she reached this decision by being drafted.

What is going on right now in the Republican Party—even as the professionals scramble to react with grins and snorts to the news of Palin’s Alaska resignation—are the early scenes of the 2012 campaign for the presidency with Sarah Palin as the once and future hero. Like Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth Regina, and, skipping four centuries of quarrelsome princes, Margaret Thatcher, the Republican Party has already decided that the governor of Alaska will rescue the GOP from its ruination. What Sarah Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade—first woman, first mom, and second moose-hunter into the White House.
If you scoff at Palin for president, you are likely insufficiently cynical to work on a national campaign. Eight months after the election, the governor is as natural and gifted a presidential candidate as anyone since Huey Long. The farther she stays away from Washington and the longer she pushes away those sharpies clamoring for her to raise PAC money, to prepare gray-bearded policy positions, network at the barbecues in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina (well, maybe not South Carolina right now), the more box-office irresistible she will be to Republican primary voters. What most recommends the Palin boom is that she is now, 40 months to the election, as celebrated by the GOP right wing as she is reviled by the Democratic left wing.

I have heard that the soldier was captured while returning to quarters after standing post as a sentry. He was not out just wandering around with locals. He was grabbed from a remote, undermanned outpost. This one is on Obama. Why?

Our forces currently are shy 10,000 soldiers originally requested by General McKiernan, who was fired for having the audacity to challenge boy Barry for his refusal to approve the General’s request for more soldiers. As a result you have undermanned, thinly spread units deployed to remote areas without adequate Quick Reaction Force back up. What does that mean? If a large Taliban force manages to mass on one of these outposts the U.S. soldiers are a great risk of being overrun before help in the form of more troops, close air support or artillery can be called on to hold off attackers.

The troops are following their orders. But they are being asked to do nearly impossible missions with inadequate resources.

The Fox report had this disturbing tidbit:

Maulvi Sangin, who claims to speak for the Taliban in the province, said that the U.S. soldier was seized when he and the others were on their way to the Yousafkhel security checkpost, and took them to a secret location, according to an Afghan news Web site. Sangin claimed the abducted soldiers were drunk when captured by the Taliban.

U.S. officials could not confirm that these claims are true, and not Taliban propganda.

Based on prior experience, such as the ambush of the Navy SEAL patrol in June 2005 led by Marcus Luttrell (in which three men under his command were killed and a helicopter, with 18 would be rescuers was shot down), the Taliban are pretty accurate in their press releases on such events. If the soldier in question was intoxicated while returning from patrol that would raise a host of questions the military would, I imagine, prefer to keep quiet.

On the eve of Independence Day celebrations let us keep this soldier and his family in our thoughts and prayers. And let’s insist that Barack Obama stop second guessing on the ground troop commanders and give the soldiers what they need. If this soldier is killed by his captors then some of his blood is on the hands of Barack Obama. Obama declined to give the commander the forces he said he needed.

Yes, that is the news. According to NY Times’s Mitchell L. Blumenthal, Sarah Palin to Resign as Governor of Alaska effective July 25th:

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska announced Friday that she would step down by the end of the month and not seek a second term as governor, fueling speculation that she is seriously weighing whether to seek the Republican nomination for president in 2012.

Ms. Palin, who was Senator John McCain’s vice presidential running mate last year and solidified the support of the party’s conservative base, explained her decision at a news conference at her home in Wasilla, Alaska, accompanied by her husband, Todd, and other family members.

“We know we can effect positive change outside of government,” she said in making the announcement.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Known as Sarah Barracuda when she played basketball in high school, Ms. Palin used point guard analogy in explaining her decision, saying she knows “exactly when to pass the ball so the team can win.”

She said that she planned to hand over the reins of the state government to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, who would be sworn in at the governor’s picnic in Fairbanks later this month.

“This decision came after much consideration,” Ms. Palin told reporters gathered at her home, and added, “I really don’t want to disappoint anyone with this announcement.”

There had been wide speculation that she would seek to be the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2012. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, who is also considered to be a leading Republican candidate for president in 2012, announced last month that he would not seek re-election.

By leaving office early, Ms. Palin, a 45-year-old mother of five, will be able to travel around the country more freely and not be constrained by the duties and responsibilities of being a governor.

“Some are going to question the timing of this, and let me say this decision has been in the works for quite a while,” she said.

I cannot imagine what her thinking is here, but surely having to deal with all sorts of bogus ethics complaints, paying astronomical legal fees and fending off the non-stop media hit squad doesn’t help her in doing her job as Governor, or in caring for her family.

Whatever her motives or endgame here, I find the witch hunt against her absolutely disgusting. Ironic that prior to Sarah Palin being chosen as Senator McCain’s running mate, she commented about Hillary Clinton being on the receiving end of sexist attacks at the hands of the media. While she was very respectful of Clinton, she said at the time a woman knows she’ll be dealing with this going in, so she’s just got to be twice as good and get on with it. She intimated it would be better to just not mention it.

It is unfortunate that she has learned the hard way just what SoS Clinton has had to deal with for sixteen years.

Your thoughts, please.

UPDATE–Couple of articles with more substance on Governor Palin’s decision and motive.
Here’s what Sam Stein reports:

The head of the Republican Governor’s Association said on Friday that in emails sent to him moments before she announced her resignation as governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin discussed expanding the role she played in the Republican Party.

“Part of her decision is she wants to spend more time campaigning for candidates,” Nick Ayers, the executive director of the RGA, told Fox News.

“She felt like she needed to make her colleagues around the country aware, so she had given us a brief heads up,” Ayers said of getting the emails. “We have known for a couple of days she was considering not running for re-election but it was news today that she had gone ahead and made the decision to fully step down and resign.”

My friend, John Batchelor, posted this a bit ago (the original appears at the Daily Beast):

Rather than a blow to a career, Sarah Palin’s decision to resign underlines her self-awareness, writes The Daily Beast’s John Batchelor. She is now unmatched for the 2012 primary.
The early excuse for the Republican circular firing squad of the holiday weekend is that Weekly Standard editor and party brainiac Bill Kristol claims that pugnacious McCain campaign enforcer Steve Schmidt has been caught gossiping to Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum about Sarah Palin’s rambling and incoherent vice-presidential campaign last September and October. (Now that Palin has announced her resignation from Alaska’s governorship, the late excuse for the fisticuffs will certainly be that the boys smelled a special mom baking an apple pie in the kitchen of the GOP and they got in line early with a plate and appetite.)
Purdum, writing with a polite disdain, does flatter Palin as “the sexiest and riskiest brand in the Republican Party,” before he goes on to mention unnamed McCain campaign sources who tell stories of Palin’s erratic behavior on the trail supposedly caused by her “post-partum depression.” Kristol asserts as evidence that Schmidt was the source of this defamatory rumor that Kristol knows that Schmidt has recently emailed Palin out of the blue. “Perhaps Steve was nervous someone would finger him for the Purdum piece,” Kristol proposes.
What Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade.
Firing back, Schmidt immediately emailed a reference to Bill Kristol’s distant youth when he worked for the perennial GOP chump, Vice President Dan Quayle: “I’m sure John McCain would be president today if only Bill Kristol had been in charge of the campaign.”
Meanwhile, the sniping continues to deteriorate, with erstwhile McCain campaign advisers like Randy Scheunemann choosing sides with Kristol (Scheunemann hates Schmidt, who tried to force him out of the campaign as a leaker and confiscated his BlackBerry), while Schmidt reveals that he had the permission of McCain and Palin to ferret out who was leaking unkind details on Palin to the media. No comment yet from the senator and the governor on their genius of a Plumbers Unit. Another campaign aide, Nicole Wallace, and her husband, Mark Wallace, are mentioned as founts of poison on Palin. “This is all news to me,” Nicole Wallace proclaims.
Is this normal after a losing presidential campaign? No. Nor is this a normal year for the Republicans. Kristol and Schmidt and their cronies all know that the Republican brand that they depend upon for a job and for money, lots of money, has been wrecked to the point of no return. They are veterans of a lost cause with one wild adventure to try before history moves on—and the adventurer’s name is Sarah Palin.
Palin’s sudden announcement that she will resign the Alaska governorship at the end of July, delivered alongside the fireworks of the 4th of July, underlines her self-awareness that she must respond to the pyrotechnics of her stature in the GOP—and must respond in an explosive fashion. Discarding the demands of an Alaska job that is at best part-time, undemanding, predictable, banal, means that she will now devote full-time to traveling the “lower 48” in order to speak, speak, speak. Wherever she goes, she is Alaska, moose-hunting, and Wasilla. As a candidate, she begins the nomination hunt with a formula that none of her rivals can match, not even Mitt Romney, not only because she gave up something in order to go for the White House but also because she reached this decision by being drafted.

What is going on right now in the Republican Party—even as the professionals scramble to react with grins and snorts to the news of Palin’s Alaska resignation—are the early scenes of the 2012 campaign for the presidency with Sarah Palin as the once and future hero. Like Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth Regina, and, skipping four centuries of quarrelsome princes, Margaret Thatcher, the Republican Party has already decided that the governor of Alaska will rescue the GOP from its ruination. What Sarah Palin begins with an announcement from Wasilla is not only a campaign, it is an Iditarod of a crusade—first woman, first mom, and second moose-hunter into the White House.
If you scoff at Palin for president, you are likely insufficiently cynical to work on a national campaign. Eight months after the election, the governor is as natural and gifted a presidential candidate as anyone since Huey Long. The farther she stays away from Washington and the longer she pushes away those sharpies clamoring for her to raise PAC money, to prepare gray-bearded policy positions, network at the barbecues in Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina (well, maybe not South Carolina right now), the more box-office irresistible she will be to Republican primary voters. What most recommends the Palin boom is that she is now, 40 months to the election, as celebrated by the GOP right wing as she is reviled by the Democratic left wing.

I wonder where in the world God was when Governor Sanford was cheating on his wife with his “soul mate”?? Or how about the OTHER women with whom Governor Sanford had “dalliances“??

Seems to me that Governor Sanford has some mighty selective listening going on. I bet God is none too happy about having Sanford use Him/Her/It as an excuse to stay in office, either. At least that’s what God told ME! Ahem.

There are a few things that are issue here. Let’s start with this whole “soul mate” thing, shall we? Bear in mind that Sanford is MARRIED, and he is NOT saying this about his WIFE, but his MISTRESS. Then he has the unmitigated gall to say he is going to try and “fall back in love” with his wife? Holy smokes, what kind of moron IS he?? I’m sorry, but your wife tells you, and all the nation, that she is willing to forgive you, take you back, even though she is angry at you, and work on the marriage, and you dis her like that? Around these here parts, that will garner you a “sumabitch,” and well deserved, too. But Jenny is going with him and their four boys on a vacation to Florida. If I were her, I wouldn’t let him get in a boat by himself, but that’s just me.

Then there is the whole matter of what happens if the governor DOES resign, you know, if he misunderstood what God actually said to him(maybe there was another call coming in or something, or he hit a dead spot with his cell phone). See, here’s the problem for the people who would all move up: the Senate Pro Tempore President, Glenn McConnell, would move up to Lieutenant Governor:

If Sanford steps down and is replaced by Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, then the state’s constitution appears to call on McConnell to replace Bauer as lieutenant governor.

In effect, the Charleston Republican would be demoted from his top Senate leadership post to a part-time constitutional officer, and it’s a change he doesn’t want.

Uh, yeah, because he would give up a whole TON of power:

“I don’t think any resignation by the governor is imminent, at least based on the latest stuff I’ve heard,” McConnell said Wednesday. “It does present problems for me, there’s no question about that.”

First elected President Pro Tem in 2001, McConnell said he began looking at this question a few years ago and actually wrote a resignation letter effective upon the lieutenant governor’s position becoming vacant. He since has torn it up.

“Right now the prevalent thinking in the legal circles is that if something like that were to happen, I could refuse it,” McConnell said. “There’s some that question that.”

McConnell said he wouldn’t want to give up his Senate seat and 28-plus years of seniority, and resigning his President Pro Tem post would leave the Legislature unable to return to session this year should lawmakers have to deal with a budget crisis or another urgent matter.

“It would leave the state in the precarious situation where if we have a budget shortfall, there would be no way for the General Assembly to get back,” McConnell said. “It starts to become legally entangled.”

I guess it’s good for HIM that God is talking with Mark these days.
Besides Jenny Sanford being willing to forgive her diarrhea mouth cheating husband, Gov. Sanford had some other good news. You may recall that a whole BUNCH of folks down here were upset about the possibility of his using state money and resources for his trysts. Turns out, he didn’t:

Gov. Mark Sanford used his own cash and connections to pay for secret hook-ups with his Argentine mistress, including one New York rendezvous the night before his wife was to arrive, authorities said Thursday.

A State Law Enforcement Division review of travel records found no criminal wrongdoing or evidence to suggest that the governor misused public funds during his affair with Maria Belen Chapur, SLED Director Reggie Lloyd said.

Sanford visited his lover twice in Argentina and three times in the Big Apple, Lloyd said. Sanford used his money or private funds to pay for everything but a June 2008 trip to Argentina.

You may not know that Sanford is known for penny pinching - that was his big thing when he was a State Representative, cutting out spending (he also self-imposed a term limit). So, ya know, that says a whole lot about just how much he was jonesing to see his “soul mate.” Sigh.

Hopefully, with the First Family of SC out of the state for their vacation, Governor Sanford will get some Pepto Bismol, and SHUT UP already about his Argentine mistress, the other women with whom he had dalliances, and get more even keeled. And hopefully, Jenny Sanford won’t take any more BS from this guy, and insist he tread the straight and narrow (teehee - that’s kinda funny for ME to say). And maybe, just maybe, the next time Governor Sanford feels compelled to “share” that he can die knowing he met his soul mate (I am not making that up: Link), he’ll be talking about his WIFE, and not his lover. I imagine that’s what Jenny hopes for, too…

Sullivan seems to think he is “due” an explanation. BS. He thinks Palin should produce records, pictures or perhaps very special election 2008 episode of A Baby Story.

Palin owes this schmuck exactly bupkis. Who is Sullivan to demand “proof” of maternity? The father? No. Anyone important to Trig’s life, or any other Palin? No.

Do a search of “trig” on Andrew Sullivan’s blog at The Atlantic. You’ll get “about 421 results.” (Second time I searched, I got 536, but we’ll go with the lower number.) Given Sullivan’s obsession about Trig Palin and his birth, it’s hard to believe 421 doesn’t actually represent 421 separate articles, although I’m sure there’s a few duplicates in the list. Reading the overwrought supercilious tripe is painful in the extreme. How many articles has this loser devoted to an infant, not his own? Hard to tell without reading each one and I definitely don’t have the stomach for that. But here’s a sample of a few brief “bullets” or teasers about articles available if you search on “trig” at Andrew’s blog.

From 8/2008

Where has Bristol Palin (far right, holding Trig, with a ring on her wedding finger) been for the past year? Has she been attending high …

From 9/2008

Now all we need is confirmation from the obstetrician who delivered Sarah’s baby

From 10/2008

But for some reason, Trig Palin’s name is not among them. … So why is there no formal record of Trig’s birth? This is not an “unspeakable” …

Here’s a longer sample of Andrew’s Atlantic-worthy writing - from 10/2008:

Now, when are we going to get some record of Trig’s birth and parentage from the hospital or the doctor? It’s been over a month now and still nada. Some basic record confirming Palin’s eight-month special needs pregnancy, amiocentesis, labor and birth would be immensely easy to find and release - even off the record - to news organizations. And yet the McCainiacs refuse to even go near it and demonize anyone who dares ask for something that must be extremely well documented and easily found. They have stated on the record that Sarah Palin is Trig’s biological mother. But they refuse to provide one iota of confirming evidence.

I mean: what’s the problem here? Why is this so hard?

And no, I haven’t let the basic issue of accountability and transparency go. Never. It’s my job.

From 10/2008

… must be plenty of medical records and obstetricians and medical eye-witnesses prepared to testify to Sarah Palin’s giving birth to Trig. . .

Wait! There’s more:

Again, that was in August. It is not an answer to call bloggers “insane” because they are asking factual questions to which there must be evidentiary answers. (Yes, as Ed Morrissey notes, Biden, McCain and Obama have been bad on this as well, and this blog has criticized them for it, especially Biden where I’ve been relentless, given his aneurysm history. But only Palin has offered nothing at all. And only Palin has a core question of basic credibility at stake. Only Palin has used her medical history - her fifth child - as a campaign plank.)
————-

Why does Sarah Palin refuse to prove that her baby - the baby that has been a campaign prop for two months - is actually one she gave birth to?

From 11/2008

All she had to do was arrive at the scene with her son Trig to … So Trig was the critical presidential qualification for the theocons. …

Sullivan thinks Palin was chosen for the ticket strictly because she didn’t abort her Down-syndrome baby. Of course, if she wasn’t the mother. . . But. Oh nevermind.

From 12/2008:

Here’s the latest photograph of her “pregnant” with Trig at. … Sarah Palin still has not established, and refuses to establish, Trig Palin is her child.

Here’s more writing worthy of a job at a national publication and tv.

From 12/2008

. . . Neither [another writer who disagrees with Sullivan about Sarah being Trig's mother] nor I have baldly asserted something we cannot know for sure: that Trig Palin is Sarah Palin’s biological son. Our difference has merely been that he assumes that the Alaska governor is telling the truth and sees all the circumstantial evidence as very compelling backing for her maternity (as has almost everyone else in the MSM). For my part, I have always clearly conceded that that is perfectly possible, but that the bizarre chronology and facts in the public record raise enough questions that a simple piece of easily produced evidence should have been produced to end the issue at once. The facts of the case and the refusal to defuse it was enough to prevent me from assuming that she was the mother.. .
——–

As I said months ago, Trig is a human being as precious as any other. That he was not aborted is a noble, moral, beautiful act. Who his biological mother is, at this point, is much less important than that he has a loving and caring home, and it seems as if he has. What remains important in the larger scheme of things - and why I continued to ask pesky, awkard (sic) questions - is a press that is not afraid and not deferent (sic) to elected officials and not more worried about its own reputation than about flushing out the truth. I failed to do that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But I tried. And if the truth does definitively emerge, I will maintain my commitment to bring it to you.

Awwww. He’s just a good guy trying to do his job!!! Right?? Well, he surely doesn’t bear personal ill will, he just wants the truth for all of us. To save the country, after all.

From 12/2008

This deluded and delusional woman still doesn’t understand what happened to her; still has no self-awareness; and has never been forced to accept her obvious limitations. She cannot keep even the most trivial story straight; she repeats untruths with a ferocity and calm that is reserved only to the clinically unhinged; she has the educational level of a high school drop-out; and regards ignorance as some kind of achievement. It is excruciating to watch her - but more excruciating to watch those who feel obliged to defend her.

No, Andrew, what do you REALLY think?

Her candidacy, in short, was indefensible. It remains indefensible. Until the mainstream media, the GOP establishment, and the conservative intelligentsia acknowledge the depth of their error, this blog will keep demanding basic accountability

Don’t forget, Andrew’s blog is an irony free zone.

My point is not to persecute or hound some random person. I wish I had never heard of Sarah Palin. I wish this nightmare had never happened. I wish totally innocent by-standers, like Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston and Heather Bruce and Trig Palin, had not had their lives disrupted by this circus. It’s distressing to everyone, which is why most journalists left many aspects of this charade alone. But Palin is claiming vindication, is on every cable show, is at the National Governors Association Conference, and is touted as a future leader of the GOP. There comes a point at which you have to simply call a time out and insist that this farce cease and some basic accountability and transparency be restored to the process. Since no one else seems willing to do so, the Dish will stay on the case. So where are those medical records anyway?

Sullivan is upset Sarah Palin has the temerity to continue being the governor of Alaska and a public figure.

Yeah, I wish it were over too. But I can’t leave you with that, can I?

From 5/2009

But given this blog’s coverage of governor Palin’s various strange stories about Trig, and her continued refusal to provide any medical records to confirm …

From 06/2009

But the more her pregnancy with Trig becomes a campaign platform, … The truly bizarre circumstances surrounding Trig’s birth. …

So we come to June, 2009. Election is over now by what? Nearly 7 months. But Sullivan is still enraptured by the womb. . .

As the months have gone by since John McCain revealed his total cynicism and contempt for America’s national security by selecting one Sarah Palin to be a potential vice-president of the United States, we have learned that every single ghastly attribute we discovered in the campaign is worse than we thought at the time. The narcissism, the pathological and incessant lying, the viciousness, the delusions of grandeur, the vindictiveness, the fathomless and proud ignorance, the opportunism, the vanity, the white trash concupiscence and fraudulence in almost every respect: these are now indisputable. How an advanced democracy came that close to having this farce of a candidate running the most powerful country on earth reveals how deep the corruption of our politics and especially our media are.

Unfortunately, Sullivan promises another article on Palin at the end of the foaming-at-the-mouth rantarama above. But something about that bit catches the eye, doesn’t it?

White trash concupiscence. You know, I think THAT may be the key here. Andrew is nothing if not bothered by Palin women and their children. Maybe he only likes women safely past menopause. Either way, “white trash concupiscence” is quite telling. But not about Sarah Palin.

Luckily, others have tried to explain to Sullivan that he’s an idiot. But it didn’t take. I won’t waste time putting together another set of reasons why trig-truther Sullivan is an idiot. But someone at the New Ledger did make a few points worth noting:

Rarely in human history has a gay man been that obsessed with a married woman’s vagina.
————
Behold Andrew Sullivan, a man who contains infinite contradictions: A believer in privacy, except a woman’s medical records, who never seemed upset that his preferred horse in the race released nothing besides a one-page “All clear!” note from his doctor; an opponent of the objectification of homosexuals, who objectified at least one, and arguably two, children; a professional journalist with a boundless understanding of not only applied medicine, but also hospital protocol and the art of diagnosis by news clipping and photograph.

Sullivan reminds me of someone. Someone dogged to find and root out that which offends him personally and which he feels is an existential threat to our country. Someone with a presence and a reasonable request that someone else produce “the truth.”

Someone quite assured he’s the smartest man in the room. Someone equally smarmy. Yes, exactly right.

Luckily someone else once had an appropriate response to a self-blind yet self-aggrandizing, rationalizing schmuck overly obsessed with what he saw as other people’s wrongdoing.

Reckless cruelty. Sounds right to me.

Camp David. I’m not kidding. The chapel at Camp David. Now he has an excuse to leave DC every weekend, if he wants. So he can go to church. Now, this may come as a shock to some of you, but Washington, DC, actually HAS some churches there. Heck, they even have a big, ol’ cathedral - perhaps you’ve heard of it, the NATIONAL Cathedral? Ahem.

But you know that’s not it. To paraphrase Michael Jackson, “sometimes (he) feels like somebody’s watching (him)…”:

Now, in an unexpected move, Obama has told White House aides that instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush’s footsteps and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.

A number of factors drove the decision — financial, political, personal — but chief among them was the desire to worship without being on display. Obama was reportedly taken aback by the circus stirred up by his visit to 19th Street Baptist in January. Lines started forming three hours before the morning service, and many longtime members were literally left out in the cold as the church filled with outsiders eager to see the new President. Even at St. John’s, which is so accustomed to presidential visitors that it is known as the “Church of the Presidents,” worshippers couldn’t help themselves from snapping photos of Obama on their camera phones as they walked down the aisle past him to take communion.

And how about that - right there in Time magazine - making the comparison between Bush and Obama! Teehee!

Seriously?? He was taken aback? David Axelrove has done NOTHING but MAKE a circus around Obama. Has he already forgotten his Greek columns in Denver? His plying people with food and drink to come to rallies (which the media conveniently failed to mention - except in Germany), so he could have HUGE gatherings to fawn all over him? C’mon, give me a break. I have never seen a man who wanted sycophants around him at every second - unless they are uncomfortably close. And then we see him getting irritable (”I just want to eat my waffles, okay??” Or whatever it was he said exactly…).

Now, I’ll grant you that it is inappropriate for people to be snapping photos of the Obamas while in church. A sense of decorum and decency would be nice, but sadly, we seem to be far from those days. Still, I have no doubt other presidents have had to endure people staring at them or what have you:

The challenge of not only being part of a church community but also praying in peace has long been a problem for Presidents, according to historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony. “McKinley hated having people staring at him while he read Psalms, sang hymns, put money in the collection plate or took communion,” he writes in America’s First Families. “By the 1920s, getting a presidential family in and out of church was a production. Secret Service agents had to cordon off a clear path from the curb to the church entrance before the Coolidges arrived … [and] they were swiftly escorted to their third-row pew.”

The Clintons attended Foundry United Methodist Church on 16th Street, and were particularly active during the years before Chelsea left for college. But White House aides say that security measures required by the Secret Service have become stricter since 9/11 and would cause significant delays for parishioners — and at significant cost to taxpayers — on Sunday mornings. Given Obama’s popularity within the African-American community, the President also worried that if he chose a local black congregation, church members would find themselves competing with sightseers for space in the pews.

Oh, isn’t that SO thoughty of the president?!? He’s always worried about the little people as he has demonstrated time and time again… Hahahahaha!! I could barely even write that out…Anyway, the Obamas won’t have to deal with the hoi poloi at Camp David:

The First Family won’t have that problem at Camp David, where the 150-seat Evergreen Chapel attracts a congregation of between 50 and 70 people most Sundays. The rustic stone-and-glass octagonal structure was built nearly two decades ago through private funds; President George H.W. Bush dedicated it in 1991. At the ceremony, Christian singer Sandi Patti sang and the late Cardinal James Hickey of Washington delivered a sermon calling the chapel a “witness to our common belief that we need to seek divine guidance in the conduct of our national affairs.”

Each week, regardless of whether the President is on-site, Evergreen Chapel holds nondenominational Christian services open to the nearly 400 military personnel and staff at Camp David, as well as their families. A music director from nearby Hood College coordinates adult and children’s choirs (Clinton sang occasionally with the choir when he visited). In December, the kids in the congregation put on a Christmas pageant and the chapel holds a candlelight service on Christmas Eve. The Bush family enjoyed Christmas at Evergreen Chapel so much that they celebrated the holiday there for all eight years of Bush’s Administration.

Well, you know, poor old Obama has lost his pastor, The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, over those little kerflufles at his church. You know the ones - when Wright was preaching his vitriolic, hate mongering sermons? Thus leaving Obama wandering in the desert without his former minister. But he is making do:

(snip)But Barack Obama found himself spiritually isolated upon entering the Oval Office. He famously broke ties last year with Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, and resigned his membership at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. So, just as he followed Bush’s lead in choosing Evergreen as a church home, the President is taking a page from Clinton’s playbook on this front: Obama has a small group of pastors he contacts for prayer and spiritual support (including two men who played the same role at times for Bush).

Those two, Kirbyjon Caldwell and T.D. Jakes, are both African-American ministers from Texas. Caldwell offered a prayer at Bush’s first inauguration and in 2008 he officiated at Jenna Bush’s wedding. By that point, he was an Obama supporter, even launching the website JamesDobsonDoesntSpeakForMe.com last summer when the Focus on the Family leader accused Obama of “deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview.” Obama chose Jakes to preach the sermon at a private prayer service the morning of his inauguration and reached out to him to pray by phone on other occasions.

While the other three leaders Obama turns to are all members of his Faith Advisory Council, when he contacts them it is to talk not on a policy level but a personal one. Otis Moss Jr. is a retired Baptist pastor who once served with Martin Luther King Sr. at Ebeneezer Church. His son is the new pastor — following Jeremiah Wright — at Trinity in Chicago, but Moss is the model of a proper old-school preacher and is the father figure of Obama’s group. His fellow council member, Joel Hunter, is a white evangelical and pastor of a Florida megachurch. And Vashti McKenzie is the first female elected as a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

McKenzie isn’t surprised that Obama has reached out for prayer and guidance. “This President has not shown himself to be a person in isolation — going out on dates, spending time in the community,” she says. “You wouldn’t expect him to isolate himself spiritually. This is a man with a faith center, we’ve heard him give his testimony.” Her advice for how to build a life of faith within the White House? “Everybody needs to just back off and settle down. Let him choose where he’s comfortable, choose where he and his family are going to be spiritually fed, and then let it be his choice.” Amen. (With reporting by Elizabeth Dias)

Hold the phone - didn’t Wright say recently that Obama was like a son to him? Oh, I am pretty sure he did, as American Girl in Italy reported recently in “Reverend Wright Complicit In Murder At Holocaust Museum?“:

“Of course I voted for him; he’s my son. I’m proud of him,” Wright said. “I’ve got five biological kids. They all make mistakes and bad choices. I haven’t stopped loving any of them.

“He made mistakes. He made bad choices. I’ve got kids who listen to their friends. He listened to those around him. I did not disown him.”

Uh huh. I’ll say. But wouldn’t you LOVE to know what Reverend Wright means by that?? Anyhoo, I digress…

As for McKenzie’s claims, you have got to be kidding me. Because Obama takes his wife out on a date to New York on OUR dime, I might add, McKenzie extrapolates Obama likes to be among the people? Hogwash. He likes to be on stage, he likes the sycophants, but I (and others) have reported the numerous times Obama has gotten testy with people. Heck, I’ve never seen Hillary get testy even when men were screaming sat her, “Iron my shirt! Iron my shirt!” But Obama? Please. There was a post I saw the other day about Obama’s glares at world leaders who weren’t following the script, something his own aides pointed out. Here’s a little video of the Primaries to remind you:

Bit I digress again. The point is I think the Right Rev. McKenzie gives Obama way too much credit for wanting to be “sociable” and out with the people. Her statement is contradictory to the whole point of the article - Obama does NOT want to be around a lot of people, hence his desire to go to Camp David for church. And to get out of Washington AWAY from all of those people.

And isn’t it ironic that he has taken yet another page from the Bush playbook? Though this one won’t be destroying a bunch of lives like, say, “prolonged detention.” Perhaps Obama can pray about that while he is at Camp David…

I’ve always considered myself something of an environmentalist. I don’t remember ever hugging a tree, but I hiked and backpacked in my youth. I’ve recycled since the early 80’s. I shunned the use of chemicals and railed against deforestation, over-packaging, and junk mail. I joined Sierra club, World Wildlife and Nature Conservancy in my twenties (and have been a member ever since). But I am far from an environmental purist. Mostly I’ve just tried to enjoy our natural environment and be a thoughtful and conservation minded consumer.

So when Al Gore came out proclaiming that global warming was upon us and would bring an end to life as we know it, I believed him. And regardless of whichever side of science and popularity is currently ahead in the Global warming debate, I still believe that the our current lifestyle of mass production, mass consumption and mass waste is unsustainable.

But a funny thing happened as environmentalism became “Green.” It some how became less real.

Suddenly green thinkers were everywhere, changing their light bulbs and carrying their eco friendly bags, while driving a Hummer and anxiously awaiting their chance to purchase the latest version of the newest best thing. Yes, they bought the marketing slogan to “Think Green”, but their actions lacked the conviction of a true convert. Their hearts and heads were more invested in the idea of a carbon footprint. Then the reality of it. But that was okay. Every little bit helps, as they say. And its true, we all have to make compromises.

Then the talk turned to “Cap and Trade”, and I just couldn’t seem to get myself on the band wagon. I just couldn’t see the logic of some people, companies, industries or states making sacrifices to conserve energy and cut pollution, so others could “buy” the energy saved and use it and/or “buy” the rights to add pollution. How does that get us ahead? And how is that fair?

If I am required by law to make sacrifices, I want every one else by law to make those sacrifices as well. And if my efforts are creating a surplus energy product or pollution “right”, then why wouldn’t that surplus and those rights mine to sell? Why wouldn’t I be the one to receive compensation for my actions? Why would the government or some other entity be making the decision as to whom could buy my energy or pollution credits? And why would they receive the payments for my efforts?

No it just didn’t make sense to me and it didn’t seem right. But I didn’t realize how wrong “Cap and Trade” really was, until I read Matt Taibbi’s latest article in Rolling Stone. And would it surprise you to learn that Goldman Sachs has found a way to make money - big money on “cap-and-trade”? From Taibbi’s The Great American Bubble Machine:

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it’s everywhere. The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.

And that’s just Taibbi’s opening lines. I’ve written (here, here and here) and read about the Goldman Sachs connections to our current financial woes. But Taibbi shows that economic destruction on a massive scale is Goldman Sachs’ historical MO and even now it is actively working to set up its next round of victims and this time their funnel will be in everyones pocket. More from The Great American Bubble Machine:

…any attempt to construct a narrative around all the former Goldmanites in influential positions quickly becomes an absurd and pointless exercise, like trying to make a list of everything. What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain - an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

The bank’s unprecedented reach and power have enabled it to turn all of America into a giant pump-and-dump scam, manipulating whole economic sectors for years at a time, moving the dice game as this or that market collapses, and all the time gorging itself on the unseen costs that are breaking families everywhere - high gas prices, rising consumer-credit rates, half-eaten pension funds, mass layoffs, future taxes to pay off bailouts. All that money that you’re losing, it’s going somewhere, and in both a literal and a figurative sense, Goldman Sachs is where it’s going: The bank is a huge, highly sophisticated engine for converting the useful, deployed wealth of society into the least useful, most wasteful and insoluble substance on Earth - pure profit for rich individuals.

They achieve this using the same playbook over and over again. The formula is relatively simple: Goldman positions itself in the middle of a speculative bubble, selling investments they know are crap. Then they hoover up vast sums from the middle and lower floors of society with the aid of a crippled and corrupt state that allows it to rewrite the rules in exchange for the relative pennies the bank throws at political patronage. Finally, when it all goes bust, leaving millions of ordinary citizens broke and starving, they begin the entire process over again, riding in to rescue us all by lending us back our own money at interest, selling themselves as men above greed, just a bunch of really smart guys keeping the wheels greased. They’ve been pulling this same stunt over and over since the 1920s - and now they’re preparing to do it again, creating what may be the biggest and most audacious bubble yet.

In brutal detail, Tiabbi lays bare Goldman Sachs’ role in five bubbles that have rocked the US economy from 1929 to 2009 -

#1 - The Great Depression (of 1929)
#2 - Tech Stocks
#3 - The Housing Craze
#4 - $4 a Gallon
#5 - Rigging the Bailout

And then he goes on to explain their involvement in the bubble that’s about to start:

#6 - Global Warming

…If cap-and-trade succeeds, won’t we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe - but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax-collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it’s even collected.

If you haven’t realized it already, this is a must read of the highest order. And it should be read in its complete form to get the full effect. For me to snip and paste more would not do it justice. Warning it will leave you shocked and more than a little sick to your stomach. The complete article.. And by the way, the global warming part is at the very end, but please read through to get there.

And as a warm-up, I thought you might enjoy this clip of MSNBC’s Carlos Watson discussing Goldman Sachs with Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, Dillion Ratigan of Morning Meeting and Jean Chatzky of Today’s Money 911.

_____________________

Major h/t to “oowawa” for the link to Taibbi’s article and to “BGD” for the link to the video!

No Quarter’s American Girl in Italy has a great post including an excellent video explanation of “cap-and-trade” by the eco geek, here.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), House Financial Services Committee Chairman

As the Wall Street Journal reports in Finance Lobby Cuts Spending as Feds Targeted Wall Street:

Wall Street’s spending on efforts to influence policy making diminished at the start of this year as the image of financial institutions has suffered with lawmakers and the public. Some of the sector’s major advocate groups lost funding and staff. Their spending declined just as the administration was hammering out its proposal for the biggest reorganization of financial-market oversight since the 1930s, details of which the White House released last month.

Industry lobbyists met last week to craft a response to the White House’s draft regulatory overhaul, particularly its creation of a consumer-oriented regulator for financial products, which could force major changes in how financial instruments are created and marketed. Whether or not the industry can influence this top administration priority, now that the plan is in the hands of Congress, will be a big test of its remaining clout.

The gig is up!!

Washington and Wall Street are finally starting to appreciate that America is getting wise to their incestuous relationship. Washington and Wall street are waking up to the waste that they have made of the American economy. Washington and Wall Street now realize that the mainstream media is being overwhelmed by independent citizens with strong voices demanding to be heard.

While politicians from both sides of the aisle are enmeshed in this incestuous relationship and culpable for our current fiscal condition, in my opinion, no single politician epitomizes it more than the Congressman from Taxachusetts, Barney Frank. Can we ever forget how Barney wanted to “roll the dice” on sub-prime lending? The WSJ reports that Barney told John Courson, new president of the Mortgage Banker’s Association:

“Everybody hates you, and now they’re starting to hate me for hanging out with you.”

Starting? Perhaps Barney believes America is merely “starting” to hate him for hanging out with mortgage bankers but it runs much deeper than that.

America hates all politicians and bankers who have sold out our country.

For those who care to fully understand why and how this level of hatred has gotten to this level, please review:

Barack and Barney Look to Further Plunder Freddie and Fannie

BREAKING NEWS 7-1-09 > Barack and Barney did it as Bloomberg just reports, Fannie, Freddie to Refinance Larger Underwater Loans.

Barney Frank: Twenty Years and Hundreds of Billions Later on Private Profit/Social Loss

Don’t Be Downwind From Barney Frank

How Wall Street Bought Washington

Legalized Bribery

If after all this, the residents of Taxachusetts remain enamored with Barney Frank, on behalf of America make him your own. How so?

Now that Deval Patrick has been exposed as a political lightweight, throw him out and make Barney governor.

You’d be doing America a huge favor.

LD