Entertainment Overnight -- America

Blues. With the incomparable Keb Mo.  Backstage at the White House.


America, the beautiful.

In case you've never been to the White House

I know I haven't (been). A new way to see the White House art:

Quote of the day

“The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists—they are too damn greedy.” --Herbert Hoover, 31st president (1874-1964) (With thanks and a hat tip to Veracity Stew).

The humanity

A friend, today, on the Republican Party

"How can you gain followers being anti-gay, anti-black, anti-Latino, anti-abortion, anti-progress, anti-infrastructure, anti-regulation and anti- compromise, and expect to go into the 21st century?"

Good news/bad news on the Republican presidential trail

The good news? Rick Perry dropped out of the Republican pursuit for the presidency.

More good news--he endorsed Newt Gingrich in his concession speech, God love him. The bad news? There are still officially four candidates in the hunt. No, wait. That's still good news. The longer they tear each other down, the better. It just gives yet more fodder for the candidate on the "other side." Link: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/perry-to-end-bid-for-presidency/

Ron Paul's latest ad, knocking Newt

In case anyone out there thinks Newt Gingrich is an "outsider" when it comes to Washington, the Federal Government and politics.

You're a mean one...

"The Onion" as prophet

Days before George W. Bush took office, "The Onion" predicted a massive increase in defense spending, a Gulf war, a recession brought on by substantial tax cuts, deregulation of industry, defunding of social-service programs, and a return to deficit spending. Who would have thought great humor could be that cynical but, ultimately, correct? See the original "The Onion" post here: http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-our-long-national-nightmare-of-peace-and-pros,464/

Rick Perry: That's some scary stuff

Tough day for President O.

Headlines out this afternoon: Chamber of Commerce slams Obama's oil release; Joint Chiefs chairman calls Obama plan risky. You know the old saying, "Sometime you eat the bears and sometime the bears eat you." It's going to be a rough road to November, 2012, for sure. Links: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Chamber-of-Commerce-slams-cnnm-131070236.html;_ylt=Ap301qVcQyPYTWSyjcaQXIS7YWsA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1NXNndTBtBHBvcwM0BHNlYwN0b3BTdG9yaWVzBHNsawNjaGFtYmVyb2Zjb20-?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=1&asset=&ccode= http://beta.news.yahoo.com/joint-chiefs-chairman-calls-obama-plan-risky-142239966.html

President Newt Gingrich?

I mean, anyone who's followed his career--and quotes--has got to know that, as Republican moderate and columnist David Brooks so famously said, Newt Gingrich shouldn't "...run a 7-Eleven, let alone a country."


Here are some more Newt Gingrich quotes, so I can prove myself here, before I go on to this point based on news out today:

“In Washington DC 800 babies are left in dumpsters a year.”  (The number was actually 4).


“Up to 25% of the White House, when they first came in, had used drugs within the past 4 or 5 years.”


“On Inauguration Day, they’re breaking the law and doing drugs. Two days later, they’re in the White House. This must be the most disciplined set of addicts in the world...”


“I have enormous personal ambition. I want to shift the entire planet. And I’m doing it. I am now a famous person. I represent real power.”


"A mere forty years ago, beach volleyball was just beginning. No bureaucrat would have invented it, and that's what freedom is all about."


"I'm not a natural leader. I'm too intellectual; I'm too abstract; I think too much."

We doubt that last one, Newt.

Anyway, for anyone who has followed Newt lately, we know two more things that should disqualify him from being in the White House.

First, Tiffany's, in New York, gave him an interest-free, sweetheart loan of from $250,000 to $500,000.00.

Nice, huh?  YOU try getting such a deal.

Second, in the last week, his entire campaign staff walked out on him and his campaign to become our next president.

If the people who were closest to him walk out, what does that tell you about how we should support him, eh?

And if all of that isn't enough--what we know from his past, to date--there's this news out today:

Newt Gingrich's charity paid $220,000 to his business

Seriously, shouldn't that be the final nail in Newt's "campaign coffin"?

Don't go away mad, Newt.  Just go away.

John Edwards' song, for the foreseeable future

John Edwards indicted over affair cover-up

There he goes again, being all smart and eloquent and statesmanlike and forward-thinking and stuff

Obama lays out new vision for Middle East

Those other parties hates when he does that.

This administration looks like the last here

Freedom of the press being a hallmark of our nation, this kind of treatment should be inexcusable and not allowed:

White House shuts out Herald scribe - BostonHerald.com

By Hillary Chabot
Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama’s Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper’s front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news “fairly.”

This shouldn't be tolerated any longer by the American public, certainly, absolutely and finally.  We saw this kind of treatment from the last administration and we all thought poorly of it.  

We voted this president in, wanting and expecting better in virtually all ways.  This is one of the most important ways in which we expect this president and administration to take a far higher road.

Since President Obama is in the midst of his re-election bid, he shouldn't do this anyway, but granting favor or disfavor to the press by what they write should never be allowed or tolerated again.

It's censorship of some of the worst kind.

Paul Krugman on President Obama and his negotiating skills

"At some point — and sooner rather than later — the president has to draw a line. Otherwise, he might as well move out of the White House, and hand the keys over to the Tea Party."  --Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize-winning Economist, author and Columnist for The New York Times

Link to original post:  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/16-2:

Matt Taibbi gets it right yet again

From the latest Rolling Stone Magazine:

The People vs. Goldman Sachs

A Senate committee has laid out the evidence. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges

By Matt Taibbi,  May 11, 2011

They weren't murderers or anything; they had merely stolen more money than most people can rationally conceive of, from their own customers, in a few blinks of an eye. But then they went one step further. They came to Washington, took an oath before Congress, and lied about it.

Thanks to an extraordinary investigative effort by a Senate subcommittee that unilaterally decided to take up the burden the criminal justice system has repeatedly refused to shoulder, we now know exactly what Goldman Sachs executives like Lloyd Blankfein and Daniel Sparks lied about. We know exactly how they and other top Goldman executives, including David Viniar and Thomas Montag, defrauded their clients. America has been waiting for a case to bring against Wall Street. Here it is, and the evidence has been gift-wrapped and left at the doorstep of federal prosecutors, evidence that doesn't leave much doubt: Goldman Sachs should stand trial.

Then, additionally, there's this story about dirty Goldman Sachs, from a completely different source, showing still more at least questionable tactics, if not illegal, in an entirely different arena:

New Disclosures on Currency Swaps with Goldman to Hide Greek Debt; Tip of the Iceberg says Former Bond Trader "Dr. Evil"

Let's go get 'em, for pity's sake.


If even half of what Matt Taibbi documents is true--and it certainly looks as though it is--we should go after them, both because of what they did illegally, but also to ensure it isn't repeated.

Then, if we're lucky at all, it will get and keep G Sachs and all the people and companies like them out of the inner workings of the White House.

Let's hope.

And hope big.

Links: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/photos/how-goldman-execs-screwed-their-clients-and-lied-to-congress-20110511
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wall-streets-bailout-hustle-20100217

President Obama, the alien

"Don't feel bad.  They don't believe in me, either."  

--David W., number 2 runner-up on a caption contest at About.com's Political Humor page.

Link:  http://politicalhumor.about.com/

Holy cow, I do believe they're serious

Sadly, it's serious.  They mean this.  It's not satire.

I fear for this country.

(Except I will say this--there is a good possibility, statistically-speaking, that the people singing this don't regularly, reliably vote.  Hopefully they won't, still, should "the Quitter" run for the presidency.  Here's hoping.)

You realize, too, right? that this "church", wherever and whosever it is, should have their tax-exempt status revoked, too, don't you?

The President and First Lady at the White House