Oink Oink (Updated with audio)

David Axelrod

This is how you surrender the moral high ground:

When Axelrod was asked if he had weighed in on the Obama family’s dog choice, “the Rasputin in this kingdom” (as Sagal jokingly refered to him) sassed back, “I was only called in for the final three, and one was Miss California.”

Whodathunk that in a little over a year the Democratic party would turn the GOP into the defenders of women? From the comments at Hot Air:

The sexist overtones are just part and parcel of the Obama boys club, where a robust lack of respect for women goes back to the Dem primaries. They needed to develop a culture of antipathy for Clinton, so they reached for the most readily available tropes. Fast forward a few months and you’ve got speech writers groping cutouts of Clinton. A few months after that, and Ax is calling Prejean a dog. The sexist tropes are *reflexive* for these tools.

Or as my grandma used to say, “Pigs like to wallow in shit”

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I don’t know what show he was on but the NPR audience loved his “joke”

The next “can’t miss” blockbuster

I sense this movie will restart the careers of both Lorenzo Lamas AND Debbie Gibson.

In case anyone was wondering, the only news I can find so far about Merced’s biggest day ever is this story:

On the day when First Lady Michelle Obama came to town to speak to the first graduating class at the University of California Merced, the city recorded its first homicide victim of the year.

There is no indication that the two events are connected.

This is an open thread – what’s on your mind

The Dignity of “No.”

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to leave alone.”
Henry David Thoreau – Walden

“When you take a person’s life, you take the most precious thing that person possesses”, according to Harry, Dexter’s father, in the television series “Dexter”, which is about a serial killer who solely targets serial killers. Murder, in this sense, is theft of the life of another or others.

Societies strongly sanction against the murder of their members, as a general rule, except for specific socially sanctioned cases.

It is important to not confuse being “alive” with having “a life.” We require the former to accomplish the latter, but existence, in and of itself, seems to be an inadequate foundation for providing a reason to exist.

Not long ago, others wiser than I offered the following account of our raison d’etre:

“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.”

Accordingly, to have “a life” is to be free to pursue happiness. To foreshadow, if a person or group steals the freedom or means of others to pursue their happiness, is it a form of murder?

Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence

Everybody hates Nancy?

In fairness to her, Nancy Pelosi had nothing to do the Bush’s torture policies. She didn’t make the design them, didn’t make the decision to implement them, and wasn’t among those who were running from camera to camera to defend them. Why is she suddenly front and center in the torture debate?

CIA Chief Rebuts Pelosi’s Charges

CIA Director Leon Panetta yesterday rejected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s charge that the agency misled her about its use of coercive interrogation methods, escalating a controversy that has dogged the speaker for weeks and intensifying a debate over Bush administration policies that the Obama administration has tried to avoid.

Gibbs dodges Pelosi question

Not long after CIA Director Leon Panetta put out a statement sticking by his agency, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs dodged a question about whether Pelosi was right in questioning the CIA.

Nancy Pelosi backpedals on CIA claims

Rebuffed by the Democratic head of the CIA and left hanging by a Democratic White House, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backpedaled Friday on her claims that the CIA lied to her about water-boarding.

What Ms. Pelosi Knew

It’s a good question, but not the only important one in this torture debate.

Some Leadership

Are Democrats already looking for excuses? I’m starting to feel that we could have 100 Dems in the Senate and it still won’t be enough. What a useless bunch!

Democrats: Al Franken isn’t enough

A series of setbacks in the Senate has Democratic leaders warning their supporters that they won’t be able to accomplish everything they set out to do this year — even if Al Franken joins them as a 60th vote.
[…]
Democrats watched helplessly this week as Republicans blocked the confirmation of one of Barack Obama’s top Interior Department nominees.

They also struggled with the confirmation of one of Obama’s Justice Department picks, witnessed the adoption of an amendment allowing guns inside national parks and suffered major pushback against Obama’s plans to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

GOP plans 450 climate bill changes

Republicans in the House Energy and Commerce committee are considering introducing about 450 amendments during the mark-up of climate change legislation next week, according to a working list obtained by POLITICO. Many of the potential amendments would lower the environmental standards set forth in the bill, or could make it more difficult for Democrats to vote to support it.

Sigh!

Economic woes

Economic Recovery Still Months Away: Roubini, Rogoff

Nouriel Roubini, co-founder and chairman at RGE Monitor, also known as Dr. Doom, and Kenneth Rogoff, professor at Harvard University’s Department of Economics, both said the economy still faces serious challenges.

Larry says we’ve already hit rock bottom.
U.S. Economy Is No Longer in ‘Freefall,’ Summers Says

G.M. Tells 1,100 Dealers It Plans to Drop Them

General Motors told more than 1,100 dealers Friday that their franchises would not be renewed next year, bringing the total for the week to nearly 2,000 car dealers that learned they were no longer wanted.

Credit Card Defaults Reach Record Highs in April

U.S. credit card defaults rose in April to record highs, with Citigroup and Wells Fargo posting double digit loss rates, as the recession slashed more than 2 million jobs since the beginning of the year.

What Does Your Credit-Card Company Know About You?

What financial crisis?
Top-paid CEOs in the US for 2008

Middle Eastern headaches

Martin van Creveld, professor of military history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the author of many works on military history and strategy has some advice for President Obama.
Do Like Jimmy Carter

The president who did most for Israel was Jimmy Carter — the same Carter who has sometimes been described as an Israel-hater. In numerous appearances around the world, he has never shrunk from criticizing Israel for its faults, real and imaginary; the dislike is mutual.

Binyamin Netanyahu’s delicate balancing act with Barack Obama

Netanyahu to Meet Obama as U.S. Priorities Shift

Obama, Netanyahu to Seek Consensus

Iraq War Claims Its Oldest Combat Fatality

Iraq Stability May Stall as U.S. Removes Troops, Haass Says

Obama vs his Liberal base

Was Hillary Clinton a sucker for not going out of her way to lie to Liberals during the campaign? She was repeatedly called a “war monger”, a “Republican”, a “cancer in the Democratic Party” for any position that was not aligned with Liberal’s pipe dreams. Obama was the candidate who was supposed to be the anti Hillary in foreign policy and the great “liberal” hope. What happened?

Obama risks wrath of his liberal base

Barack Obama finds that priorities clash with election promises

Obama After Bush: Leading by Second Thought

Cinephiles of the world, have at it!

The 50 Biggest Movies of 2009
What do you think about the list? Was anything wrongfully left off? Any movie that doesn’t belong? Give us of your thoughts.