Highlights from Dem Convention Day 1

Michelle Obama:



Bernie Sanders:



Elizabeth Warren:



Cory Booker:




Official YouTube site:

link

Maybe There is Hope for Bill Clinton After All

According to that reliable source the Daily Mail, despite the truce between the Clintons and the Obamas following the messy and brutal 2008 campaign, both sides hate each others' guts. Actually, it isn't so much the Mail making that claim as it is paraphrasing a new book that's come out about it.

Considering Obama was the Manchurian candidate for the neolibs deciding they needed to pollute the Democratic Party to destroy it and make it an imitation of the GOP, only with a little more benign exterior, I can't blame the Clintons if true.

Unfortunately, Bill Clinton was often a tool of the same people only he did hold some traditional Democratic Party principles. However, his screwing over the poor on "welfare reform," his signing ruinous trade agreements, his signing of the Glass-Steagall repeal, and his being in bed with Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan make my choosing sides in this "feud" complicated. Both sides cancel each other out.

I don't want the Clintons anywhere near the White House anymore. They need to retire from public life.

We don't need any more neoliberals, or "neos" of any kind. We need real Democrats who believe in traditional Democratic Party principles and who believe in democracy, not in privatizing the public sector.

Given the author is one who has trashed both sides before, it probably isn't a reliable book, no matter how much I wish it to be true. The kicker is Klein many years ago was a legitimate journalist who worked for Newsweek, but at some point he found there was a lot more money carrying water for right-wing interests.

The fact it is published by the infamous Regnery publishing house makes it even less reliable, not to mention there was a split between Klein and HarperCollins a couple of months ago over the reliability of this reporter:

Two publishing sources blamed the contract termination on Klein’s reporting, which has been called into question in the past by his subjects and the political press. Klein’s agent and publisher would not comment on the reasons for the split. Both said their author left HarperCollins’s William Morrow imprint by choice.

But the feud is an early sign of the new challenges facing an unsteady conservative book business — and of the stakes accompanying a reborn anti-Clinton industry.

However, thanks to bulk purchases, despite this era of renting books via Kindle, it'll probably be a bestseller.

Anyway, back to the "feud":

The Clintons have become convinced that Obama will not back Hillary for 2016 and that he is seeking to endorse Joe Biden or a new, young politician, just like he was.

'He’s convinced himself he’s been a brilliant president, and wants to clone himself — to find his Mini-Me,' says Bill Clinton according to Klein.

'He’s hunting for someone to succeed him, and he believes the American people don’t want to vote for someone who’s been around for a long time. He thinks that your mother and I are what he calls ‘so 20th century.’ He’s looking for ­another Barack Obama.'

If Obama really thinks he's been a "brilliant president," he needs a goddamned shrink, not be a king maker. I can just see him promoting a candidate like Cory Booker who is even a bigger fraud than he is.

Besides, Obama's presidency has been a train wreck from start to finish.

So Much for Remembering the Life and Times of Nelson Mandela

These photos are what are being talked about:





One can explain away the First Lady's facial expressions by saying she was tired from the jet lag and it was a funeral, but that doesn't explain the seat switching with her husband.

It's always possible those pictures weren't taken in order.

Campaign 2012

Michelle Obama celebrates her 20th wedding anniversary by being in Reno.

Not for a divorce but for a campaign stop on behalf of her husband. As the world knows, he is prepping for tonight's debate with Mitt Romney.

I wish I was down in Reno this campaign season because I would attend all of the events and share observations and photos on this blog. Oregon is simply not in play and probably never will be again in my lifetime. Forty years ago, politicians of note used to campaign in Oregon for the primary, but now it is so late in the year, the nominations have been decided long beforehand.

If I ever get any money again, perhaps I will travel down to Nevada, assuming it remains a battleground state, in 2016. That's assuming I am still alive by then.

Dem Convention: It Helps to Be an Ivy League-Trainer Lawyer

or any kind of lawyer, and that's why Michelle Obama does so well in public speaking. She looked good and gave a good speech tonight trying to humanize her neoliberal husband. She almost persuaded me he was a Democrat.

I did NOT like her mentioning those teachers in Pennsylvania who "volunteered" to work for free in that one school district that was so underfunded it couldn't make payroll. That is NOT admirable on the part of the teachers but typical of the doormat personality of far too many educators. The Obamas, Rahm Emmanuel, and Cory Booker have NO credibility on the subject of education.

Aside from that, the speech was good:

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Speaking of Booker, I missed his speech, and that is a good thing. What is a bad thing is that the man is a complete and total fraud who got his start in politics being bankrolled by the Harry and Linde Bradley Foundation in its hopes he would divide blacks and unions, two of the strongest constituents of the Democratic Party, in peddling anti-public school propaganda. He's a real Manchurian, even more than Obama. Watch the media start peddling this faker as a candidate for 2016. I will end my registration with the Democratic Party if he gets the nomination if he decides to run. Maybe someday I will listen to his shit here:

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Julian Castro got lots of commentary tonight. I look for him to have a future on the national stage in 2016 or 2020, but I don't trust him any more than any of the others. He gave a good speech, but he was no Mario Cuomo.

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They are going to have to embrace REAL Democratic principles. I watched C-SPAN's rebroadcast of Democratic convention acceptance speeches, and watching Truman, for example, showed me how far the Democratic Party has strayed from its principles. You can thank the infiltration of neoliberalism into the party for this dismal state of affairs. More speeches are here. I finally came across Deval Patrick's speech. His was better than Castro's, but he has better oratory skills than Castro. He may be jockeying himself for a 2016 bid:

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I apologize for the lack of paragraph breaks. The NBC links are really quirky.

News

A homeless man was reunited with his cat after an earlier story ran about the cat having disappeared:

Samantha, the pug-nosed cat, and Daniel Harlan, a homeless man who owned her, were reunited Tuesday.

Harlan wept when Tom Neville, who had the missing cat for weeks, gave Samantha back.

"I thought I'd lost her for good," Harlan said.

The cat and Harlan got together again after The Chronicle ran a story Tuesday, along with a picture, about the cat's disappearance. Neville saw it and recognized Samantha as the animal he rescued from life on the streets.

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I wish Michelle Obama would quit swallowing the nonsense from the health food nuts who want to tell us what to put in our mouths and raid our refrigerators, if necessary.

She needs to talk to Paul Campos about the nonsense "obesity epidemic":

PETA Strikes Again

and strikes out by using First Lady Michelle Obama's image in an anti-fur ad without the White House's permission.

It's just a small blip in its crusade against animal domestication. People better wake up and smell the coffee about this group, HSUS, and other outfits calling themselves "animal rights."

Since Our Media Have Little Better to Do

than to write gossip passing as news, then I suppose it is natural to speculate on the nature of the Obamas' marriage.

The media did this with the Clintons' marriage. The difference here is Michelle has a far lower profile than Hillary Clinton ever did.

I believe this is by design. I don't think Michelle Obama is terribly comfortable being in the limelight, and I also think some of the things she was quoted as saying ("For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am proud of my country," etc.) really mortified her when her words were being used out of context.

She's kept a very low profile ever since. This despite silly articles like this one trying to speculate on the state of the Obama's marriage.

The Right to Bare Arms

Another article writer wonders whether "buff" arms on women are not just an assault on the eyes but also on the notion of "femininity." The writer questions such assumptions.

With regard to Michelle Obama, her arms look fine, and she looks great sleeveless. Madonna's arms, however, look hideous and she should never run around sleeveless. Madonna has overexercised and has too little body fat to look like a normal female of a certain age.

This guy agrees with me:

The idea of how much muscle is too much is entirely subjective, and people often have a visceral reaction to what they do or don't like. In the Obama-Madonna equation, it's not surprising that few are in the Madonna camp, considering her well-defined build and low body fat, coupled with her age -- few 50-year-old women look like that.

Says personal trainer Ramona Braganza, a member of Gold's Gym Fitness Institute, "She's burning so many calories constantly and her metabolism's sky-high. I'm not being hard on how she looks, but sometimes it's nice to have a little body fat as you get older. It's just healthier looking, and people almost look younger when they do that."

I think Madonna has some of exercise addiction. I used to be that way to a degree, although I never looked freakish like her. And yes, I could use some upper body exercise, but I would NEVER look hideous like the pop singer.

Update: I uploaded a couple of pictures of the singer. Her arms wouldn't look good on a man, let alone a woman.

Discouraged Republicans

have nothing better to do than pick on Michelle Obama, insisting any meetings she attends regarding policy be announced in advance and made public.

This is an attack on Michelle Obama, pure and simple. Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton went through similar shit by these morons who think presidential wives should be seen and not heard.

Where was all of this call for "transparency" when the secretive George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were in the White House?

In truth, Michelle Obama has been very much under the radar since moving into the White House.

Is Talk About Michelle Obama's Arms

racist?

It's more sexist than racist to reduce women solely to their appearance. But political wives aren't the only ones who suffer from this skin-deep nonsense.

Society Nonsense

Beltway Slut-in-Chief Sally Quinn ponders what church the Obamas will attend in Washington. And no, I am not going to make any crack about Louis Farrakhan or Jeremiah Wright holding prayer breakfasts in the White House.

We will have to wait and see whether the Obamas get the seal of approval from Quinn, or whether Michelle, like Hillary Clinton before her, does something to piss her off.

So far, in the eyes of the Beltway Mob, the Obamas have passed muster. They enrolled their daughters at Sidwell Friends, the same school Chelsea Clinton attended. Before reading the article I suspected their reasoning is similar to the Clintons' reasoning that the media won't be able to freely access the school and the girls will get some privacy.

I thought about Michelle Obama's rather obvious status-seeking, but the security argument was the real reason. The article mentions it:

Lelyveld declined to elaborate on the reasons, but it is believed that Sidwell's experience with handling the security and privacy of the children of government leaders played a role. President Richard Nixon's daughter Tricia went to Sidwell. Vice President Al Gore's son, Albert Gore III, graduated from there. Three granddaughters of Vice President-elect Joe Biden currently attend the school: Maisy, 8; Finnegan, 10; and Naomi, 14.

The daughters also like Biden's grandkids, students at the school, and that was a factor.

Political Foot-in-Mouth

Obama has been around Joe Biden too much.





Barack wasn't the only who made a mistake; his wife created a fashion faux pas when she wore this hideous dress to her husband's acceptance speech.

Campaign Follies

Yeah, I have heard of the "interview" with Michelle Obama, which is said to be bogus, at least by the Obama campaign.

Her remarks have to do with her husband's citizenship and eligibility to run for president, I think.

I always thought that was the story, that Barack was born in Hawaii and his stepfather adopted him when his mother remarried. I suppose the big thing is the fact Michelle is alleged to have said the same thing. I don't see any problem with the citizenship; after all, he was born in this country. End of story.

At least that part of it. But why should the Obama campaign deny there was an interview? If the recordings come out, then it will have egg on its face.

Campaign Filth

Just who in the hell is Vera Baker, and what was her relationship with the Messiah from Hyde Park?

The Mail on Sunday located the woman in the Caribbean, where she now works. She denied that Mrs Obama had raised any objections to her job on the 2004 campaign.

‘No,’ she said. ‘Nothing happened. I just left ... at the end of the campaign.’

Asked about the claim that Mrs Obama accused her of having a close friendship with the Senator, she said: ‘I have no comment on anything.

‘I switched careers. That’s it. I’m a Democrat and I support Senator Obama ... I don’t have anything to say.’

She added that she emigrated to the Caribbean from the US after falling in love with the man with whom she now lives.

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Rumors are a fact of life, and candidates need to deal with them.
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Speaking of rumors or whatever, Bristol Palin's fiance, Levi Johnston, describes how it feels to be in the public eye.

Campaign Notes

Michelle Obama has an almost impossible task, I believe:

“More people think of Michelle Obama as an elitist than Hillary, which is funny to me,” Ms. Moore added. “I think it’d be the other way around.”

She is. In August of 2007 when she was in Reno, Michelle Obama constantly talked about her and her husband's Ivy League connections, that both of them went to the "best" schools, and, because Barack was president of Harvard's law review (though he didn't write a damned thing for it), he was "the best of the best."

That's elitism, and I wrote about this way back she had to be careful. People outside the eastern part of the U.S. don't give a shit what school people go to. Hillary Clinton knows this and NEVER talked about the fact she went to elite schools.

Political Dirt

As if right on cue, we are now looking at Republicans going ahead and investigating family members of the Democratic Party ticket, specifically Michelle Obama.

The GOP got its ringer for the general election, and it's going to be a bloodbath.

Democrats will be lucky if they get Delaware and Illinois when this is over.

Democratic Convention IV

Michelle Obama, contrary to vicious rumors on the internet, didn't announce she was pregnant. She did, however, say she loves her country and said "God bless America" at the end of her speech.

Campaign Outrages

Despite reports "Obama's" fundraising numbers are down, he still managed to raise an obscene $52 million in June.
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Speaking of the presumptuous nominee, it is the right wing who is at fault for his wife's constantly putting her foot in her mouth, not her fault. She's reportedly staying home while he's traipsing around overseas.

The interview is here for the record.
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According to the National Review, "Obama" may have thrown out his legislative records, his medical records consist of a one-page summary, his list of law clients is unavailable, he won't release legal or billing records on the alleged five hours he worked on behalf of Rezko, and there's no paperwork for grants between 1997-2000. link

"Obama" gave out lots of cash when he was elected to the Illinois legislature.
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More Miscellaneous News

The search for Steve Fossett will continue tomorrow in rugged terrain on the California-Nevada border.

Bridgeport, California, is on 395 South towards Yosemite National Park and Mono Lake.
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Instead of kicking off, 80-year-old Tempest Storm is still taking it off:

She was Annie Blanche Banks then. The 22-year-old sharecropper's daughter had fled sexual abuse, two loveless marriages and poverty in small-town Georgia, she said.

She was working as a cocktail waitress but wanted to be a showgirl. First, she needed her teeth fixed.

"Do you think my bust is too big for this business?" she asked Hunt at her audition.

Hunt put her in the chorus line, told her not to gain a pound and called a dentist.

In Storm's telling, she didn't stay long in the background. She got a new name. ("I really don't feel like a Sunny Day.") She took to the spotlight quickly. Then and now, she blossomed to the chorus of hoots and cheers.

The trick is having a warm presence, an inviting smile, she said.

When she takes the stage, she lets her mind float back to "Georgie." She imagines herself as a little girl, in her best dress, running down the road to meet her daddy coming home from work.

Obviously she isn't as fast as she used to be.
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I can't wait to get my copy of the next New Yorker.

The article, by Ryan Lizza, is about Obama's early years in Chicago politics before anybody paid a bit of attention to him. It's not at all flattering.