arrogance

Remember Chris Murphy, a jet setting Connecticut left winger last seen entertaining the crowd at the Netroots Nation Vegas bash?

Seems he's made himself scarce at public appearances in CT this summer trying to avoid a reprise of last summer's showdown at the Simsbury Stop & Shop

But not to fear. His wife is inviting folks to a birthday party for Chris. Isn't that special!!

By now I've realized what to give my husband for his birthday in an election year. No fancy gift. No romantic dinner. No family party.

With less than 100 days to go before the election, I know what Chris really wants for his birthday--your support.

So we're throwing a party for Chris next Tuesday, Aug 3, and we're using the occasion to raise some money for the upcoming campaign. I hope you can join us, and if you can't, I hope you'll make a "birthday donation" to Chris's campaign, I know he'd really appreciate it."

The long story short is the birthday celebration is at J. Timothy's Restaurant at 143 New Britian Ave, Plainville beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Cost is $37 ($1 a year that the popular pol has walked the earth)  for "friends."

J. Timothy's by the way is on Rt 372 right off Exit 33 on I- 84. I think that various people who have missed seeing Chris in person all this summer ought to make sure that rush hour traffic in Plainville sees exactly how many "friends" Chris has across Connecticut.  We probably can't elicit any weasely response to a direct question to Chris like we could at an old fashioned town hall, but I'm sure Chris needs to see all his "friends" out in force so he can properly "celebrate" his birthday. I'm sure if we don't enter the restaurant we can save the $37.

Chris needs to see his congressional district is not in Netroots Nation. Reality is better birthday gift than cash.

Once upon a time there was a Democratic politician named Chris Murphy who, before he got elected to Congress, made a point of how much time he spent walking around his district and talking to  indivdual people.  

Yep, lots of stuff about "listening to people" "crossing party lines",and "knowing about individual towns".  People tired of politicians "talking at people".

That was Chris Murphy trying to get elected. What does Murphy do while in office?

Well, he isn't crossing party lines since he supports Nancy Pelosi 99% of the time.

And he isn;t listening to people in his district anymore.  Remember last year's health care faceoff at the Simsbury Stop & Shop?

Not this summer ! He's doing "telephone town halls" so he can sit out of sight behind a screener.

And how can he listen to ordinary CT voters when he spent the weekend away from his wife and infant son to hang with the Netroots Nation at a swanky Las Vegas hotel?

Chris Murphy has decided he needs the far extreme liberal elements of the Democratic Party more than he needs the ordinary voters of Connecticut.  The Kos and Huffington caucus is now his political base, not western CT.  

Murphy isn't running for Congress anymore, he wants to pick up the torch carried by Ned Lamont  run for the Senate and be the hard-line "progressive" opponent to Joe Lieberman,

He lamented the lack of liberal arbor in the upper house at this little soiree hosted by the Kossacks

 This discussion of lessons learned in 2009 and 2010 about engaging with Congress to advance progressive policies will include emphasis on the Congressional Progressive Caucus and draw contrast with the Blue Dogs. We'll have a frank discussion of how House progressives choose issues to organize around; factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of successful organizing around an issue; the mechanics of moving policy through Congress, and where key leverage points for the Netroots are; case studies on healthcare reform and Afghanistan; House-Senate dynamics and what changes can be made to push progressive ideas more successfully onto the President's desk.

I note one of Murphy's co-panelists was Rep. Raul Grijalva, one of the leading opponents of the Arizona immigration enforcement law.  Amnesty much, Chris?

It's interesting Murphy spent the weekend hobnobbing with powerful liberals in Nevada, a state with 14% unemployment. He might have needed to go that far away to escape the 14% unemployment in Waterbury and the 12% unemployment in New Britain; issues he might care about if he deigned to commune with the commoners he claims to "represent".

The 2006 version Chris Murphy mouthed some words that matter. It is time to change the tone in Congress. It's time to elect citizen legislators who really care about their constituents, not use them as stepping stone to personal political glory.

In 1996 5th District Republican Gary Franks started his 1998 senate campaign before his House re-election. He was defeated. Same story, different year?  

A real down to earth candidate, Sam Caligiuri, wants Murphy's job. If elected, I am reasonably sure he will be spending his time in Newtown and New Fairfield, not Nevada. 

Awhile back, I posted a memo forwarded to me from a friend on Wall Street, wherein one of his firm's senior analysts saw the nation being a bunch of boiled frogs as the Obama adminstration gradually remade the nation in a socialist image.

Of course, the whole "boiled frog" plan was dependent on one thing.

The frog not seeing the thermostat getting turned up. 

Unfortunately for the wee-wees in the White House, the frog noticed.

Now the Obama team is left trying to argue:   

a) The frog really didn't see the thermostat being turned up

b) The frog shouldn't complain about the heat of the water

c) The water really isn't as hot as he thinks it is

d) The frog is a fool and listening to people who want it to freeze to death

e) Hot water is really good for the frog

  Needless to say, the frogs aren't in a buyin mood

I was going to give Chris Dodd the rest of the month off to recuperate from surgery, but, sorry, what he said today simply can't go unnoticed.

Indeed, upon reading this all I could think of was Saddam Hussein's chief flack  "Baghdad Bob", insisting that the Americans were far from the Iraqi capital getting their butts kicked in the desert.

I attach, verbatim, the Senator's statement on health care reform from the Hartford Courant's "Capital Watch" blog

 At this historic moment, faced with an urgent crisis in our health care system but blessed with an unprecedented opportunity to fix it, we cannot let politics as usual prevent us from delivering on the promise of change,'' Dodd said in a statement.

A senior member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Dodd, a Democrat, was tapped by committee Chair Sen. Edward Kennedy, to help lead the committee's healthcare effort. "The Senate HELP Committee has passed a uniquely American bill, one that cuts costs, protects patient choice, and guarantees every citizen access to affordable, quality health care.  It also includes a strong public option that has earned the support of moderates in both the House and the Senate,'' Dodd said. He acknowledged winning passage will take "hard work, careful consideration of all perspectives, and a commitment to get to the finish line no matter what obstacles are thrown in our way by the cheap politics of the status quo." But Dodd offered the following prediction: "When Congress returns in September, the misinformation and anger of a hot summer will subside - and we will continue to move forward. "In fact, we will pick up exactly where we left off.  There will be a good bill on the floor.  There will be a spirited debate with ample opportunity for all ideas and perspectives to be heard.  But we will get this done.  And we will pass comprehensive reform this year." 

Chris, about those "moderates" backing the Public Option Bill .....mind telling us who they are?

This seems to be a bit more representative of reality, Chris

When a questioner, Ray Evans, said he believed the President wants to do too much at once and asked whether Boyd would "be willing to scrap everything" and start over to do pursue reform more incrementally, the congressman responded: "I think that is an excellent idea … we may end up there."

But what do we expect from Chris Dodd? This time last year he was insisting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "fundamentally sound".  Didn't quite work out that way, did it?  

Chris, don't worry. If the Senate thing doesn't work out for you there's plenty of work out there for propaganda ministers.

There really aren't many ways to improve on Mark Steyn's take of Gates -Gate, so enjoy. 

I just thought I'd throw in the literacy "flourishes" ala Judge Sotomayor.

Now I'm sure if one of my friends got pinched for yelling at a cop --at his own house--I'd be inclined to take his side. But I'm not President of the United States and I'm not holding national news conferences. You know, sometimes what a guy says are more than "just words"

Amazingly, the President prepared for this news conference and still decided to call the Cambridge police a bunch of dunces. And this is sadly, its just Obama being Obama.

A more circumspect man might have said "I think this was a mistake" or "it seems like an overreaction". Statements which might imply honest error. Nope, despite all efforts to "calibrate" the statement the President simply decided to impugn and insult the intellect and judgment of the officers involved...with a "Fonzie" style "apology" days later.  

And maybe its just that simple--we are going to have to get used to the President  doing his "Obama being Obama" stunt as it relates to ordinary working people.

After all, we can't drive our SUV's, or keep our homes at 72 degrees. We can't "cling" to religion or guns, we're just "bitter".. We can't control our own health care, lest an unnecessary tonsillectomy occur. In the world of the "Ivy-ocracy", the rest of us are just witless drones who need to be subjected to perpetual "teachable moments" and be subjected to an agenda of behavior modification

You see, the likes of Barack Obama were too good to get on that commuter train in New Rochelle every morning and make an honest living. He had to do something more important, even if that meant that even by his mid 30's he was overdrawn on his credit cards.

The things that the President thinks are so momentous don't motivate most people.  In the midst of the worst unemployment in a generation, what seems to really focus our President is a single disorderly conduct arrest in Massachusetts.

The President wants to have the good sergeant and Professor Gates over to the White House for a beer.  That's OK.  Better than insults I suppose.

But how about the President spending more time worrying about Bill Gates than Henry Gates?  Hmm, it's not like the economy stopped being an issue, dude

(P.S. on that note. please tell Rep. McCotter to get back to work)

(P.P.S.; Any one @ 1600 worried about THIS hate crime?)

'Cuse stuns Cornell for 2nd straight lacrosse title

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) - Cody Jamieson scored his second goal of the game just 80 seconds into overtime as Syracuse rallied from a three-goal deficit in the final 3:37 of regulation to beat Cornell 10-9 on Monday and win its second straight NCAA lacrosse championship

The Big Red took a 9-6 lead with 5:31 left in the fourth before the Orange came back to win their unprecedented 11th college lacrosse title.

Two questions, Keith:

a) Are you going to declare your lax coach the "worst person in the world" for letting his team give up four unanswered goals in a national title game?

b) Did they teach the Heimlich Maneuver at the Ag school when you were there? 

Screw the Ivies! Let's Go Orange

Chris Dodd, last seen re-enacting Nixon's "limited modified hangout" over his funky mortgage deals, and taking time out of his arduous task of shovelling out trillions of dollars to the banking industry, has decided his true calling is to write what amounts to science fiction. 

Crown senior editor Sean Desmond has acquired a history of the congressional bailout of the financial markets by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd with Lary Bloom. Titled Thirteen Days: How the Financial Crisis Changed the Politics of Washington, the book will provide an intimate look at how, over the course of 13 days last September, a financial crisis led to panic and meltdown. Dodd, the chair of the Senate banking committee, will also describe how he and others acted swiftly to try to save the American economy. Crown has world rights via Esther Newberg and  will publish this June.

http://swampland.blogs.time.com:80/2009/02/12/chris-dodd-financial-savior/

Michael Scherer of Time points out that Dodd's saga will no doubt occur in some alternative universe, where I'm sure none of these things happened.

This is, of course, the same Chris Dodd who was Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee beginning in 2007, when the banks began their meltdown. He was the one who received the most campaign cash of any senator from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two companies that he defended against increased regulation that might have actually tempered some of the disaster that has followed. He was the one who spent a huge chunk of 2007 not in the Senate, but on the campaign trail, carrying out a lackluster presidential effort funded largely by the banking and insurance industries. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Dodd raised $8.3 million for his presidentical campaign; $4.3 million came from the securities and investments industry. His top contributor was Citibank. His fourth largest contributor was the now-collapsed firm, AIG, a major purveyor of the complex derivitives that helped cause the crisis. He was also the one who in 2007 went before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to praise the "history of solid regulation" in the U.S. capital markets. "Win or lose, [people] invest with a high degree of confidence that American balance sheets are accurate, that investment products like securities and derivatives are properly valued, and that the markets are well-policed against those who would commit negligent, deceptive, or fraudulent acts," he said.

I will briefly add a few other minor points, likeDodd writing toothless regulations on executive compensation into his own TARP bill   Ironically, while Dodd claims to be "infuriated" about private sector bonuses from the financial meltdown, he is happy to collect his own bonus (while a public official no less) writing about the debacle.

You know, maybe this book will be reminscent of Sybil.  You know, the whole split personality business. First Dodd took credit for writing the bailout bill. Then he essentially claimed he "pulled a Plaxico" and wrote a bad bill. Now he's apparently back to saving the world, sans cape.

I dunno Chris, maybe if you had stayed in Washington in 2007 running the Senate Banking Committee instead of moving to Iowa to run for President  , the financial world wouldn't have needed to be saved in the fall of 2008.  Showing up for work; my, what a concept.

I'm sure all of Dodd's angry constituents who have watched the economy implode since their Senator took charge of the Banking Committee will rally to the Senator's side once his side of the story comes out.(Hey, some folks think this guy shouldn't be blamed for the Titanic). Really, this whole thing makes as much sense as Blago negotiating a senate vacancy over his own office phone.

It will be interesting to see if Dodd's book deal gets the same ethical scrutiny as these dubious ventures into publishing. Then again, maybe the proceeds can be appropriated for some socially rewarding endeavors than enriching a politician with three houses; I need to check to see if CT has one of these laws on the books.

Seriously, you think Amazon will list this in their fiction category?  Why wouldn;t they? 

Podcast Show Notes

Obama calls for the prosecution of a citizen running an ad against him. (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin.)

Nancy Pelosi attacks citizens protesting the Democratic policies of high gas prices.

Howard Dean compares Republicans to Slobodan Milosevic.

Pro-Lifers attempt a record breaking witness at the Democratic Convention.

Wikipedia's Orwellian revisionism of Biden's support for McCain for Kerry's Veep in 2004.

Agriculture pork.

Government employees AWOL for more than 9000 years work since 2001. (Hat Tip: Red State.)

City workers provide sandbags for the house of a Democratic Congresswoman  while her constitents receive no assistance.  (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin.)

SEIU uses college students and doublecrosses them in the end.

A truly Mickey Mouse way to teach science.

Knowing when life begins: not above the pay grade of 93% of Americans (59% agree that life begins at conception.)  

CNN does a puff piece on cohabitation while ignoring the facts. (Hat Tip: Idaho Values Alliance.)

Click here to listen, click here to download.

This popped my eyes out:

With layers of Secret Service agents, they zipped through Amman Tuesday in a motorcade of 20 vehicles.

I now see how he gets to the 10 in:

"The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years," he said.

But a reporter had to remind his staff that he is not President yet:

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser.

This is pretty extraordinary. A candidate for the American Presidency is using flyers printed in German to turn people out for his campaign rally in Berlin on Thursday. This flyer can be found on a bilingual page on BarackObama.com advertising the event:

The German flyers bear Obama's campaign logo and say "Paid for by Obama for America."

I'm surprised at this lapse in judgment in an otherwise well-oiled and professional Obama campaign. The last time they printed up campaign paraphenalia in a foreign language, it didn't work out so hot for them.

So, this isn't just some sober, high-minded foreign policy speech, part of a foreign trip occurring under the auspices of his official Senate office. It is a campaign rally occuring on foreign soil. They are using the same tactics to turn out Germans to an event as they would to any rally right here in America. This after Obama's campaign said this:

“It is not going to be a political speech,” said a senior foreign policy adviser, who spoke to reporters on background. “When the president of the United States goes and gives a speech, it is not a political speech or a political rally.

“But he is not president of the United States,” a reporter reminded the adviser.

The sea of Germans drummed up by the Obama campaign will be used as props to tell us Americans how to vote, and the campaign isn't trying to pretend otherwise. That's breathtakingly arrogant, and par for the course for Barack Obama.