President Obama puts his toe on the scale as Trip Director Marvin Nicholson weighs himself in the volleyball locker room at the University of Texas in Austin, Aug. 9, 2010 (Pete Souza)
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Morning everyone - or afternoon/evening/night.
It’s another one of those Sundays, a bit busy-ish with work, but I’ll be dropping in and out through the day and will update later. So, chat away ;-)
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PS From the archives (thanks Cluny!)
White House.gov
forward!!!
Mooooooorning 44, mooooorning everyone.
Thank you Chips for this picture! It is one of my favorites!!!! Good morning everyone!
Who’s the guy in the photo with PBO?
GM
Morning! Congrats, 44!
GM folks
Despite the fact he only got 10% of the white vote in Mississippi, that’s impressive.
sure is!!
Oh, Mississippi, you white folks in Mississippi. . . . only 1 out of 10 of you are thinking and growing.
I am so sorry about that.. What was the percentage of white folks in North Carolina [where I live]? . . .
tell me it was higher than that . .
That’s pretty damn good.
In Chuck Todd speak, that is some enthusiasm gap. LOL
PBO got 43% in Mississippi? That shocking! Not bad for a Democratic contender.
Five!
WTG 4more! This picture never fails to bring a resounding laugh, well done Chips! Start the day off with a roar! :lol:
Cracks me up too Pamela! Poor Marvin :-)
Marvin looks as if he has no idea either, which adds to the fun… What I think is also very cool, the way the mirrors all around show all sides of the silliness, even the very attractive SS guy (known on the blog as The Silver Fox) is laughing, and that is something we seldom see! :lol: (right Carolyn and HZ?) :lol:
This was Pete Souza’s line on the photo:
“We were walking through a locker room at the University of Texas when White House Trip Director Marvin Nicholson stopped to weigh himself on a scale. Unbeknownst to him, the President was stepping on the back of the scale, as Marvin continued to slide the scale lever. Everyone but Marvin was in on the joke.”
Hilarious! Just perfect in so many ways! PBO, the life of any gathering he is involved in! Was ever a President loved more than this man? Will there ever be? (no) :lol:
Can’t count the amount of times I’ve seen this picture and this is the first time I’ve noticed the Secret Service guy smiling. He never smiles, so he must have felt safe there. He has a nice smile.
Right! The silver fox has grayed over the last four years like the President has, and they both are even more attractive…..I like grayhaired men! My own husband grayed early, and women have always thought he is handsome. As I still do. A great picture for the morning, thanks Chips!
GM chips and everyone. The SS guy is also laughing in this shot. This is one of my favorite photos. Everyone look so happy. :)
Moooooorning COS! And usually the SS guys look so serious (well, naturally) - so funny to see him cracking up!
Good Morning Pamela and my TOD Family. Yes, that gave me laughter deep within as well. I love our president and those around him. The fun that he has with his team is so refreshing. Marvin is a special one as well.
Oh, yes Pamela, our SS known as ‘The Silver Fox’ is causing the blood pressure to rise just looking at his smile. Thanks Chips for this wake up call. All those fine men in one room with our POTUS, a lady can have all of this. Just saying.
Have a beautiful day everyone. It is really lovely here on the westcoast.HZ
:) :) :)
This is an embarrassment for Romney.
Suck it up, Myth. That is my final word on that stupid fool, and his stupid foolish wife and family.
Pamela : There with you. Add to that the morons on television. Nobody gave a damn about them. The voters used their brains and hearts. The racists and Trumpsters never would have voted BHO anyway. I know my opinion is not prevalent in blogs rod, but I never freaked about memes and narratives and the like. The minority population likewise did not attend to this beltway crap, and they, and white supporters like me and my peeps put BHO back where he belongs. Bush of all people was inadvertantly prescient - we would not be “fooled again” and CSI Miami. Also.
:)
Ouch, Mittens!!
“Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”. Just saying.
The President’s percentages in Mississippi and Georgia were even much larger than Romney’s 38% in California, the state he was planning to make his western WH like Reagan.
The president did not sign that ban on the EU emissions bill. He had ten days, environmentalists did not want him to.
It’s public information and I have not seen anything about it.
Anyone?
The day after the election, Obama went to campaign headquarters in Chicago to thank Messina and his staff and volunteers. In a rare show of emotion, Obama teared up reminiscing about his own early days as a community organizer. The 43-year-old Messina describes it as one of the most amazing moments of the entire campaign.
“And I remember being an undergraduate here at UM, and not knowing my place in the world, and being a young community organizer, organizing mobile home parks in Missoula, and wanting to just be part of something bigger than me. And you know, I got to do that, the president got to do that – lots of people here in Missoula are going to get to do that, because of a good education, because they’re going to work hard, and because of the opportunity this country offers. And that was a reminder to everyone that this is still the greatest country on Earth, and we can still make it if we try.”
Messina is waking up in a giddy mood these days (despite the pain of watching the Cats beat the Griz) and enjoying a well-earned vacation. He says he wants to continue to serve the president, but he’s not sure in what capacity.
He has said that serving as Obama’s campaign manager was the most important thing he would do in his life. I’m guessing that’s the only recent prediction he’s wrong about.
Nice ending there, don’t you think ?
very nice. off to read the rest of the article - thanks! :-)
Very nice piece. Worth every minute of the read.
Thanks for bringing this back Amk. This is my hometown newspaper. I remember when he was here and working on Kemmis campaign.
“Citizens Unitedly f**ked citizens united.”
Love it!!!!!!
Chips, this piece deserves some attention.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-face-unexpected-challenges-in-coastal-south-amid-shrinking-white-vote/2012/11/23/02cbda58-336a-11e2-bb9b-288a310849ee_story.html
Thanks Amk, I’ll post again later and include it - loved this too:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/how-fighting-income-inequality-became-obamas-driving-force/2012/11/23/ab375434-3256-11e2-9cfa-e41bac906cc9_story.html
A great read.
That sensitivity to inequality has stuck with Obama throughout his rise in politics, from Chicago’s South Side all the way to the White House. He remains largely a pragmatist in his approach to governing. But beneath his tactical maneuvering lies a consistent and unifying principle: to use the powers of his office to shrink the growing gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else.
If presidents set missions for themselves that are greater than winning the partisan battle of the moment, then this is Obama’s. Viewed through this lens, the imminent debate over the “fiscal cliff” is not simply a war over taxes, spending and how to tame the nation’s mushrooming debt. As Obama did in legislative fights during his first term, he also will be striving to reduce a three-decades-long wave of rising income inequality that has meant that fewer Americans have prospered while more struggle to get by.
Ezra Klein Slams Boehner for Pretending They Can Still Repeal Obamacare
By Heather
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Ezra Klein took a shot at John Boehner and the Republicans for pretending that they can still repeal Obamacare through the congressional oversight process. As ridiculous as that assertion is, that doesn’t mean they’re not going to do their best to still attempt to chip away at it where possible, but at this point, pretending that they can use the oversight process to somehow repeal the law, is just ludicrous.
.
.
And as Klein noted, Boehner is up against the insurers and pharmaceutical companies who are now working with liberal advocacy groups, who both want to see as many Americans insured as possible for varying reasons. One wants more customers and the other wants to see as many people as possible have access to affordable health care.
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http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/ezra-klein-slams-boehner-pretending-they-c
I haven’t heard from
ourMY cutie potatie, stef cutter. Any one ?Hopefully she’s lying on a Caribbean beach!
which beach ?
:lol: Wisely, an undisclosed location!!!
Off to sleuthing.
She would make a great WH press sec, don’t you think ? Jay has already done his two years and it’s time for some wimmin.
Stalking. There. Fixed it!
:lol: You’re not wrong, DF!
I know! We know our amk…..
Who, me ? (innocent eyes)
Innocent eyes, my dying ass:) amk for stalking….
I do agree that she’s be great in any capacity though….she was always a wonderful surrogate
Super smarts with structure and a smile. What’s not to love? :D
While you’re waiting for her return ….
With Ted in 2002:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/us/politics/stephanie-cutter-is-a-messenger-who-does-the-shooting-for-obama.html?pagewanted=all
you torturer in chief. I miss that smile by miles.
She should be easy to find Amk, here’s a map to help you:
meanie… proving my point below.
She’d be a great choice. I wonder if Jay plans on staying on? Haven’t read anything about that.
She’d be a great choice. I wonder if Jay plans on staying on? Haven’t read anything about that.
You don’t have to pile on. Jeez.
This whole discussion brings home how deep with talent the President’s bench is. And also how many are women, and how this is not a novelty, or tokenism, just how things are on the Obama team.
Absolutely Mary, the deepest of benches. And you’re so right about the number of amazing women on the team, one more impressive than the other.
Stunning when you contrast it with the lack of ability on the Republican side. I don’t give much credit to those studies saying that liberals are smarter than conservatives, but I do think that being more open to new ideas from different sources gives the Democrats strength and flexibility the other side doesn’t have. I do believe studies that say breakthroughs and solutions come from ‘cross-pollination’ of ideas from different areas of expertise. ( Of course you have the fire-baggers, who act more like extreme Republicans than Democrats. Thankfully we have not allowed our party to become controlled by them).
No. That’s not where you put Stephanie Cutter. You put her as an advisor who puts forward policy and goes around the country advocating the policy. She was fantastic during the roll out of ObamaCare especially the roll out of the benefits that particularly enhance women’s lives and she was able to book copious amounts of TV time advocating the contraception policy, free mammograms, free pap smears, pre-existing condition covered, women no longer being forced to pay more than men etc.
If she’s made press secretary, she’s going to be confined to a roomful of ignorant jackals and it doesn’t make the best use of her genius talents TV wise and persuasion. She was bloody amazing in the first term fighting for policies that affect women, the middle-class, and going around the country advocating Pres. Obama’s agenda. Plus, Jay Carney is doing a fantastic job as Press Sec.
Good point. A roving messager in chief. I like that.
p.s. If Jay were to ever leave, (hopefully he doesn’t) then the next best choice for Press Sec would be Jen Psaki. She was in the communications department of the WH during the first term, she was the 2012 campaign press sec and she was hands down kick ass amazing.
She knows how to handle the jackasses and get Pres. Obama’s message across. So definitely her. When one watches her on political TV shows, she never ever fails or falls for the other side’s BS.
Psaki has announced she is leaving.
Some beach in beautiful Virgin Gorda…..or Magen’s Bay on St. Thomas…..any one of them would be fine:)
And Jen Psaki? Word is Stef Cutter us going to the Private sector, and Jen is becoming the WH press SEC.
Oh noez. Damn you jovie.
Amk, you are so special. I have laughed through this entire conversation. Now, I will tell you something that is so out of this world. I was retiring for bed last evening, and out of the blue, Stephanie Cutter just popped into my mind, like “Where is Stephine Cutter?”
So we hope that there is something so very special waiting in the wings for her. She is such an intelligent, beautiful young lady. I hope she will stay and be in a great position in the administration. However, wherever she chooses to serve, she will be a total successful gift to the world. Such a fireball of energy, compassion, and stays on message. And she will even feels no pain when the pundits go off message in her presence. I love her so much, and I wish her the very best.
We love you Stephanie, but Amk really, really, loves you. We are watching him. He is trying to take a trip to some island to soak up some sun, I hear. However, we will keep your secret Stephanie.
((((((((( Lots of hugs to you, Amk.))))))))))))HZ
It was Jen Psaki that announced she was leaving. I saw her interviewed on that. I haven’t heard any future plans for Cutter.
UT Austin: the BEST college EVER. Bleeding orange and voting blue.
Hook em Horns! You bet!!! It has surely been good to my daughter … two master’s and now a Ph.D. candidate. People really, really, wondered about us 3 years (I think that is right) ago when we played Texas for the national championship : our vehicles have both University of Alabama and Texas Longhorn stickers on them. Plus I have “Keep Austin Weird” stickers on mine!
Good morning Chips and the TOD family. I hope everyone have a wonderful after-Thanksgiving Sunday. >3
Morning RanMan, have a beautiful Sunday!
Why is your heart symbol upside down? You trying to tell us something? :D It’s supposed to be like this: <3
You are right. Maybe every time I visit this wonderful place I get discombobulated <3
At least you can still spell discombobulated. There’s that. <3
A couple get stranded in a desolate island. Then the wife spots a bottle with genie in it. On letting him out, the grateful genie grants them each a wish.
The man, who always regretted marrying a woman who was one year older than him, wishes for a younger wife.
Poof, he is turned into a 70-year old man.
Moral 1 - Be specific when you wish for something.
Moral 2 - Men are idjits.
Oh, you ask what the wife wished for ? Well, she wished she were back home.
Moral 3 - Women are smarter (and mean).
Fixed that for you:
Moral 3 – Women are smarter
:lol:
Aaaand ?
Hello all. One from the vault - adorable! You can see why those girls are so smart - their parents wisely didn’t do the baby talk.
http://www.zimbio.com/watch/mpdKCbVxe2l/Video+Flashback+Sasha+Malia+Obama+Four+Years/Entertainment+Tonight
Cutest thing ever Cluny, LOVED it! Thank you!
Awww, cute!!
Cute. Chips ? Get on to it.
As in download, convert, YouTube-ize it? You’re very demanding, Mr Amk. Okay, doing it right now. :-)
Thanks Cluny!
Excellent.
Lovely video of our lovely First Family.
They talked to the girls like grown-ups and took all their questions seriously. Hence the delightful, intelligent, well-mannered girls we see today.
good morning chips and tods and especially cluny! thanks for this delightful film of the first family! aloha oe~
Freaking waste of space. http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/mccain-obamas-problem-not-ambassador-rice
He just carries on embarrassing himself, his bitterness is comical. Shut up and go away, McCain, you worthless fool.
So true. Why is this man still MY senator? I’m embarrassed, yet again, by the voters in AZ…..what a waste of a senate seat.
Honestly, his only agenda now is self-obsessed rage and bitterness - why would any state want that representing them in the Senate??
From edwina’s link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/25/michael-tomasky-on-how-john-mccain-humiliated-himself-on-susan-rice.html
Well, live by the moral sword, die by it. In the same way conservatives couldn’t see that Mitt Romney was going to lose because they believed only themselves and their own self-reinforcing propaganda, I think McCain probably isn’t aware right now of what a joke he’s becoming. He probably only goes to constituent meetings where they cheer on his desperate antics. I notice from cruising the Arizona papers that they’re not really laying into him yet—just a few guarded criticisms and expressions of disappointment in the letter columns and such. Most importantly of all, establishment Washington has adored him. As long as those shields are there, he can ignore people like me and the MSNBC crowd.
The papers and other “news” outlets here are all in the bag for him….this place is as corrupt and inept as the day is long. It permeates
every bit of govt here….ALEC runs rampant and the “journalists” are lazy…so the majority of people are ignorant and uninformed. It takes actual WORK to get to the truth. They can’t handle the truth, and much prefer to pretend this moron is a sliver of what he used to be.
Why is anyone taking a man who chose Palin as his VP seriously?
We’re not next to the bottom in education for nothing, you know! There is a method to their madness..
I say let the impotent rage on. His own party doesn’t give a s*** about him.
No they don’t…but the voter’s obviously only think of him as a war hero, regardless of the true incompetence of this man. They have NO clue as to what he’s really about. Lazy voters.
Morning Ms Chips! Morning everyone… so great to wake up every day and remember that WE WON!!!
Moooooooooooooorning Andogriff! Four more years!!!!!
YES!!!! It’s a good day, Ms Chips, thanks again for this most excellent blog!!
I’m still adding “WE WON!” to my emails - did it again this morning!
yes!!
https://twitter.com/NJedwina/status/272720247147094017
Thanks, edwina. Good article that goes directly to what I was saying in the above conversation.. AZ voters are lazy and have an equally lazy media here that NEVER question this man! Round and round we go……….
I love Tomasky. He is spot on. McCain is irrelevant to everyone but himself. I love the montage on Rachel’s show, showing his incompetency.
great article edwina!
It won’t be the last!
Good West Coast morning Chipsticks!
MooooooOOOOOooooooOOOOooooooOOOooooooorning GGail!!!!!!
I’m preparing my stomach to watch MTP so I can see Rev Al at the Round Table segment. Thankfully Sen. Carl Levin is the first guest of Idiot Gregory.
I recorded it so I could just float through the others to get to Rev. Al. Will watch later - need to eat, first!
re UT’s “jackals” and “jackasses” characterization of the WH pool, reminds me of this comedy skit that includes “PBO” taking questions from the WH pool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnNghQl2Jcw
THIS IS AWESOME!!! Kid ask MTV head why they dont play music videos anymore……
You’ve got an hour or three to waste? Try this website. Elon James tweeted this out and it’s mind boggling. :D
http://www.theuselessweb.com
If you only have 10 minutes to waste
that was a good one!
thx I thought it was great figured there were a few people that grew up on Dallas or have childhood memories of there parents watching. BTW did you know that he was a greenie? He bought so many solar panels for his home that he produced enough electricity for the grid that he sold his extra capacity back to the electric company and used it to power a couple hundred low-income families where he lived in CA and this was like 10 years ago.
That is really interesting. It’s good to see people doing things for others without calling a lot of attention to it.
You know why his power bill went from $37,000 to $13 istead of zero, the thirteen was charges for billing statements!
Too funny!
TY. That’s a half hour of my life I’ll never get back.
Good morning folks ;)
Wow - David Gregory re-appeared as a human being on today’s MTP! His questions were not “hair on fire” and the guests gave fair and balanced answers. I’m in SHOCK that I watched and enjoyed the whole program!!! :shock:
What exactly were asked by that toll and what were the answers. I have not watched MTP that much. So watching it when repeated on MSNBC is encouraged by GG? I must confess that here at TOD and HP Sunday rundown with Jason are where I get what the Sunday shows are up to. Jason on HP is off today. So your input will be greatly appreciated. Thank you GG.
Nena, I am very poor at reciting. :-( However, it would do you no harm to watch MTP this time. You WILL be impressed and greatly surprised that it’s David Gregory. Plus the panel, was fair and balanced.
Where’s UT or jovie? They are much better at re-telling than I am!
this is completely adorable and full of awwww
https://twitter.com/NJedwina/status/272749875144302592
Thanks, that is hilarious, the cat seemed to be OK with it.
Good morning TOD family. This should be a interesting week coming up.
Good Morning, Todville and chips.
I almost fell over when I read that old goat McCain said he’s open to talking to UN Ambassador Susan Rice . Now he wants to talk????? McCain actually thought his bitter, witch hunt justified him going after President Obama through Susan Rice. What a whimsical, old goat he is . It must be that short term memory lost. It was just yesterday he said he would do anything to block her.
But those others Senators Graham and Lieberman; Ugggh, just won’t back down. The meme is now that she should have taken responsibility.
Rep. Peter King - chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and another Republican who has sharply criticized Rice - said the U.N. ambassador should have gathered her own research before appearing on Sunday morning shows to discuss the Benghazi attack.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/25/mccain-says-hes-open-to-changing-his-mind-on-susan-rice/comment-page-1/#comment-4568529
So let them write all the murder stories they want. It only shows the nation and world what they really are; a bunch of zoo animals in a cage trying to get power and attention when it is nothing there for them to get!!!
4morefor44 congrats you got 1st.
Lieberman…..not a senator that I defend, was not on the Witch Hunt to thwart Amb Rice’s SoS confirmation. Graham, Ayotte and the 97 House members were.
Agree. But Lieberman was on every other McFuddyDuddy witch hunt for years. He’ll be falling off the stage in disgrace, soon.
They’ll all fall off the stage, just like Gary Bauer in ’00 (sorry - this oldie still makes me laugh):
I recall that Amb. Rice offered to speak with McFuddyDuddy. He’ll probably take the credit, but she got there first, since she’s not afraid of the likes of him. Plus, if she were, the President has her back BIG TIME.
Did Condi Rice gather her own facts before she came before the world and lied?
Exactly. And had Susan Rice gathered her own facts, she would still have had to have them vetted by the security agencies -> same result. But this is not about logic - it’s about these guys trying to save face.
awesome!
I do take exception with Ezra’s claim that candidate Obama promised universal healthcare on the trail. My memory of it was that he promised healthcare reform.
I believe your memory is correct. The far left heard what they wanted to hear; still do. I believe candidate Obama said he believed in universal healthcare but realized it wasn’t going to happen overnight (paraphrased, obviously).
Yes I think Hillary and John Edwards were far more toward universal care.
correct.
The ad’s pretty awesome; especially with that Morgan Freeman *chills* voice.
Hey forus50 just wondering thats Ted Williams right? also some good articles in Sunday Review http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sunday/is-this-the-end.html?smid=tw-share
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A8aptCHCAAAWyqx.png:large
Yeah I am of the opinion (based on what I’ve read) that it’s too late now to reverse climate change. I guess on the plus side it won’t be a mystery how we’ll die. Seriously, this is just incredible that the GOP has almost single-handily destroyed not just the US but the planet by making climate change a political football for the past 20 years and getting NOTHING done to fix the problem.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121017102943.htm
A book you might want to pick up: “An Optimist’s Tour of the Future.” Call me a pollyanna, but I think we might pull all of it out after all.
I’ll get that for Christmas as most have pretty damn dire warnings. Looking forward to reading another perspective that isn’t GOP garbage.
Thanks for that LL. The men in my life (my brother, my husband) are are all of the global catastrophe ilk and sometimes I feel despondent when i look at my nephews, nieces who are beginning their own lives with new babies what will happen to that generation? I’ll look this up.
Or… just create an unlimited amount of methane for energy by breaking down algae in biodigesters, convert the remaining digested biomass to charcoal, and put it all back in the soil — locking up as many millions of tons of carbon as you please, while supercharging the entire global economy (including the lives of the extremely poor).
But then again, I can hardly get anyone to read the article that puts all this out there for free. So yes, I guess you’re all going to die. =)
Too bad, but was reading an *entire* article really worth the effort? You don’t want to live *that* much do you? Of course not. =)
http://futureimperative.blogspot.com/2011/07/amazon-introduction-to-future.html
Ralph,
Ok, I bit because as a former Catholic the guilt stays so you guilted me into reading it. :) Very, very interesting.
Please understand I do not have a science background so my comments may be entirely out of place or invalid. But as a layperson if the goal is to make people aware of options for correcting climate change and it looks like you are somewhat frustrated that you can’t get people interested to read an *entire* article then I would helpfully suggest a couple of things;
1) Make the content easier for the average person to read 2) Make the title more interesting - “Amazon introduction to future” isn’t too eye catching and 3) tweet about it regularly in a positive way with a link to the article. ( You might have one that is for the science crowd and another article that is something shorter and bullet-point for the rest of us). 5) People read this but then can’t translate it into action that they can take. Is this something that needs congressional approval or funding or just public awareness…? What can the average person do to help make this a reality?
Thanks again for your more than fabulous idea for a better world.
Hey, no problem, forus50. There’s a ton of alt-energy/environmental articles out there — I’m just surprised that something like this can go into the public domain a year-and-a-half ago and make barely a blip.
To sum up: Yes, I have boiled it down to tweets, and to a 10-sentence summary I put at the beginning of some emails I sent out a while back. One PhD actually told me it was a little too long to grasp — ironic, given that it started with that 10-sentence summation.
As to the title, the writing style — I was working on a book when this whole concept came to me in a rush during the debt-ceiling debate. Given that a default would have potentially obliterated the entire world economy, I put everything together in a rush and published it.
Though occasionally someone will read the article if I’m particularly loud about it, I just haven’t seen any real interest. Yet there’s no shortage of people complaining about global warming and superstorm Sandy.
Ironic, don’t ya know? ;)
Hang in there and keep pushing it. It will happen. I’m a manager at my company and I always have to remember when me or others don’t get things done or right the first or second or third time the fact that babies fall down on average 200 times before learning to walk. If only adults had that much patience…
I would read the *entire* article but you just exhausted me w/ your post…. you have forced me to go back to random .gif’s
Dang! Just about perfect.
gee i was hoping for something that cost 300 mil, did nothing, and was butt ugly too! :)
kapow! lights out kiddies! :-)
Since the Fox News is displaying banners touting doomsday for 12.21.12, I’m wondering if their viewers are Christmas shopping? I’m just sayin’.
Fox is now contradicting their propaganda. So by showing the Maya 12-21-12 prediction…..Fox is now disavowing the Holy Book? The Maya Civilization or life on earth was not in the Bible.
So Fox uses Fear but probably without any explanation?
And not to be a pedant, but there is NO Mayan doomsday prediction. It’s just the end of a cycle in their calendar. That’s it. New Agers have latched onto it as a way to make money. A great website is http://www.2012hoax.org. I know no one here believes the world will end in a month, but it’s disgusting how networks like History Channel are stoking this fear of doomsday.
LL….I appreciate your post. I was trying to mock Fox…..I failed to show that with my post. I will be visiting the site that you have linked. Thank you.
Oh, I know you were mocking Fox! LOL. But it is a great website, and reading it just makes you angry that 2012 hoaxers are stoking real fears among a large segment of people.
hey, if a librarian can’t be a pedant, then there is nobody who can! thanks for knowing stuff, liblib!
Thoughtful of them to give their ‘viewers’ a bit more than 3 weeks to get their stupid asses ready, come what may! ;)
Some of them have been “preparing” for whatever for years … they went from stockpiling gold to stockpiling silver. That oughta be enough, eh?
And I laugh.
Does anyone else believe that if the GOP re-elects Reince Priebus, that they are signalling that they have no intention of changing course?
Here’s your answer. They will never change…still holding hostages and trying desperately to take away the safety net for millions..
“I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), in an interview on ABC News, on his willingness to break his pledge not to raise taxes.
They need to quit using the word “entitlements”…last time I looked at my paycheck, I’M PAYING FOR THOSE!
5 Words And Phrases Democrats Should Never Say Again
By Jill W Klausen
—————————————-
1. Never say Entitlements.
–Instead, say Earned Benefits.
While the word “entitlement” was originally coined by Democrats as a way to illustrate that the receiver of the attached benefits was entitled to them by having worked to earn them, or having been taxed to support them, it has been re-defined by the right as akin to a spoiled child who acts as if they’re “entitled” even though they are not.
“Earned benefits,” on the other hand, cannot be twisted or misconstrued to mean anything other than what what they are: something the recipient has actually earned, as opposed to something they are being given. Social Security and Medicare are paid into through taxes deducted from employees’ paychecks, or the paychecks of one’s spouse or parent. No one who hasn’t either personally paid into these programs, or been the spouse or child of someone who has paid into these programs, or, in the case of Medicare Part B, paid a monthly premium in order to receive them, can extract benefits from these programs.
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More good suggestions here……
http://crooksandliars.com/jill-w-klausen/5-words-and-phrases-democrats-shoul
Someone should pass this good info to the Dems in Congress. I have read this before, but definitely worth sharing and posting again. Thanks, Ladyhawke.
I’ll only do the right thing if you do what i want….Nope. Didn’t change
He needs to be careful what he wishes for: reform can mean a whole whole lot of things the GOP hates.
I hope they re-elect him
So do I.
Seems that way to me.
THE MAN WHO MADE THE RECKLESS DECISION TO APPOINT SARAH PALIN AS VP IS STILL ANGRY AND
———-BITTER ABOUT HIS LOSS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA AND IS PERPETUALLY WRONG ABOUT
—————-EVERYTHING AND CONTINUES TO BE BOOKED ON THE SUNDAY SHOWS.
======================================================
Rachel Maddow exposes the baselessness of the ridiculous hectoring by Senator John McCain of the U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice and wonders why someone who is so FREQUENTLY WRONG on Sunday morning talk shows is so frequently rebooked for Sunday morning talk shows.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#49925566
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#49925652
NOTE: Re-posting from yesterday because the more eyeballs that see this brilliant segment from The Rachel Maddow Show the better. John McCain is a media created phenomenon. This segment should be required viewing for the lazy media stenographers who have fluffed him up and given him deference he does not deserve. How can someone who has been so frequently wrong have any credibility at all?
Hello Chips, I got a new laptop. Having problems signing-in. Can you allow me to post. Thanks!!
This is a quote from a really interesting article on collective intelligence — a group’s ability to solve problems, learn things, adapt, and get things done. Note the point about the effect of including women… up to the point of groups that are 100% women.
Oddly, this article made me think of The Obama Diary. =)
—-
http://edge.org/conversation/collective-intelligence
We found that, just as with individuals, there is a single statistical factor that predicts how well a given group will do on a very wide range of different tasks.
Interestingly, when we did this work, we thought that there might be such a factor, but that it would really just be essentially the intelligence of the individual people in the group. What we found was that the average and the maximum intelligence of the individual group members was correlated, but only moderately correlated, with the collective intelligence of the group as a whole.
If it’s not just putting a bunch of smart people in a group that makes the group smart, what is it? We looked at bunch of factors you might have thought would affect it: things like the psychological safety of the group, the personality of the group members, et cetera. Most of the things we thought might have affected it turned out not to have any significant effect. But we did find three factors that were significantly correlated with the collective intelligence of the group.
The first was the average social perceptiveness of the group members. We measured social perceptiveness in this case using a test developed essentially to measure autism. It’s called the “Reading the Mind and the Eyes Test”. It works by letting people look at pictures of other people’s eyes and try to guess what emotions those people are feeling. People who are good at that work well in groups. When you have a group with a bunch of people like that, the group as a whole is more intelligent.
The second factor we found was the evenness of conversational turn taking. In other words, groups where one person dominated the conversation were, on average, less intelligent than groups where the speaking was more evenly distributed among the different group members.
Finally, and most surprisingly to us, we found that the collective intelligence of the group was significantly correlated with the percentage of women in the group. More women were correlated with a more intelligent group. Interestingly, this last result is not just a diversity result. It’s not just saying that you need groups with some men and some women. It looks like that it’s a more or less linear trend. That is, more women are better all the way up to all women. It is also important to realize that this gender effect is largely statistically mediated by the social perceptiveness effect. In other words, it was known before we did our work that women on average scored higher on this measure of social perceptiveness than men.
This is the interpretation I personally prefer: it may be that what’s needed to have an intelligent group is just to have a bunch of people in the group who are high on this social perceptiveness measure, whether those people are men or women. In any case, we think it’s an interesting finding, one that we hope to understand better and one that already has some very intriguing implications for how we create groups in many cases in the real world.
Thanks a million, Ralph. Not surprising that you thought of TOD!
Very helpful in my work…Tweeted.
Know Malone’s work, well. Fundamental to much of the ‘why’ and ‘what’ we are building the systems we will be bringing to market in the years ahead.
#FORWARD
And, Ralph, seen through the lens of Malone’s perspective, it is indeed no surprise TOD functions as well as it does :)
Thank you for posting it!!
#TrustBarack
Sounds intriguing Bob!
Thanks, Ralph….I can see how this reminded you of TOD:) Wait until amk wakes up and reads this! Wimmin rule…he’s gonna love it!
:D :D
Though, seriously, I think amk would score quite high on the ‘social perceptiveness’ measure.
I’m teasing:) You must not have caught the conversation he had earlier with Chips….I think that you’re spot on about his high score in that regard:)
I know you’re teasing df, thus the :D :D
#FORWARD
i know that you know:) Silly, Bob:)
Oh, and I’d add that at the level of forums, I think *effective* moderation help enormously. I’ve seen way too many places incapacitated by angry trolls tearing everyone down — but at a subtler level, the ability to move beyond conflict for the sake of conflict, rigid ideology, or simply going endlessly in the exact same circles is incredibly important if your online discussions are going to have any real great value.
Otherwise, you have a place to vent, or a still-life photo of an unchanging set of views, but little more.
There’s a great phrase from artificial-intelligence (AI) research: “A dog that can run in circles a million times faster is still just a dog.”
IMPORTANT MUST READ from Booman….we’ll need to get our rears in gear for this one!
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/11/25/124035/06?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+boomantribune%2FSvpw+%28Booman+Tribune%29
If you thought ALEC was defeated …
It’s certainly a topic of great interest to the young and extends to all persons on the planet, not merely to American citizens and thus would leverage the fact that many of PBO’s twitter followers are citizens of other Nations.
#FORWARD
Thank you, warrior…your hard work is never taken for granted here…and never done.
THE WINNING WORDS PROJECT - THE MORAL LANGUAGE NEEDED IN OUR POLITICAL DISCOURSE
(An excellent website to explore & bookmark for future reference.)
==================================================================
Who We Are
Posted by The Winning Words Project · July 07, 2025 4:43 PM · 1 reaction
The Winning Words Project was created as a resource to bring Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, and even moderates together, to learn, discuss, formulate, and share the moral language that is needed in our political discourse, in telling our story of how we envision tackling the issues facing working families in America today and into the future.
We are a group of people who have a variety of expertise in politics, history, medicine, marketing, and business; who have extensively studied the work of professional linguist and distinguished professor, Dr. George Lakoff; esteemed professor of psychology, Jonathan Haidt; Neuroscientist and Emory Professor, Dr. Drew Westen; as well as “The Wizards of Madison Avenue” — the real “Mad Men” (Bill Bernbach, George Lois, Ed McCabe, Mary Wells, Marion Harper, Julian Koenig, Steve Frankfurt, etc.) who gave us many of the memorable ads that have shaped our world.
Meet the people behind the project …
==================================
http://www.winningwordsproject.com/about_our_team
I read how Melissa Harris Perry was criticizing the president for the turkey pardon saying how he didn’t pardon enough actual humans. God I can’t stand that woman and wish she would just shut her mouth. Ahh well sorry for saying anything about it but I was hoping that Melissa changed her attitude but I guess I’ve been wrong.
I don’t dislike her that much but then again I don’t watch her - I just click on links to good stuff she says and try to ignore the rest. But what I found interesting about the whole pardon thing is that she assumes that President Obama was not pardoning people that he should have. How would she even know that those individuals were not worthy of being pardoned? In fact that’s probably the case, as President Obama is all about helping those who have been wronged. She just assumed that since he had pardoned so few that he had failed.
I saw the clip of her segment on the pardon and it wasn’t mean or nasty but seemed to be simply expressing an opinion. I’ve seen several people question why PBO doesn’t use the pardon more but I’ve never heard his official answer. Here is the clip:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/melissa-harris-perry-uses-pardoned-turkey-to-criticize-president-obamas-clemency-stinginess/
For fans of Parks and Recreation, this is hilarious.
http://www.drunkronswanson.com
Chat away ;-)
http://theobamadiary.com/2012/11/25/chat-away-82/