C'mon Arianna

Arianna Huffington, the ultimate opportunist, is all hot and bothered by an Obama campaign ad that questioned Mitt Romney's ability to make a decision like Obama did  in going into OBL's hiding place and then taking him out. Madame Huff found the ad "despicable." She compared its despicability to that of Hillary's 3 a.m phone call commercial, which also was not despicable.  Fitting that she's backing Romney, since  they are both renownedflip-floppers.  In fact, this reminds me of the time when she called for Bill Clinton to resign during the Lewinsky affair.  That's when Ms. Stassinopoulos was married to right-wing Republican Michael Huffington.. She should stay behind the scenes.

Nightmare

The Knicks got burned by the Miami Heat today.  Badly burned.  Burned to a crisp.  Reduced to ashes New Fork fans left to blow on the ashes, hoping for the flicker of a flame

Vote for Me, I'm Boring

"A Web video released this week by American Crossroads, a Republican “super PAC,” made the case that the president’s focus on image had preoccupied him from more important issues, mocking his mingling with the stars, including his “slow-jamming the news” with Jimmy Fallon on “Late Night” this week.       

        

"The Romney team amplified the message on Friday in a memorandum from the campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, arguing that Mr. Obama was counting on “his winning TV persona” for re-election. “This election will be decided by adults casting their ballots in their precincts, not teenagers texting votes from in front of their television sets,” Mr. Rhoades wrote. “That apparently frightens the president and his advisers.”   (The New York Times)

I think this means, "Obama is too cool for the room and is having way too much fun," so vote for our guy 'cause he's serious, not cool and definitely not fun."  

Noo Yawk Jock Night

So tonight in New York City, we had the Rangers fending off the pesky Ottawa Senators to move on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs; the Knicks won a meaningless game against the hapless Charlotte Bobcats (owned by our old pal MJ); and the NFL held the first round of their annual college draft, which seemed to hold only minor surprises, including the Giants pick, but apparently Big Blue never makes a mistake.   Now the Rangers take on the Washington Capitals, the Knicks go up against LeBron and the Miami Heat, and the NFL proceeds with many more rounds.

No politics tonight, except to note that Newt Gingrich's campaign is almost certainly in its last week.    

Oh I said, it's Arizona

Since the Feds don't want to press the racial profiling aspect of the Arizona Law, and it looks like a split decision, I don't care that much about breaking down the supreme blather, except for noting the preening question from the esteemed Justice Antonin Scalia which seemed to imply that a state can do whatever it fucking well pleases to keep improperly documented immigrants on the other side of the border. If he wants to hold his papist, jesuitical, tea party views, fine. But don't tell me it has to do with justice, the law or the United States Constitution, that estimable document produced by a bunch of illegals.

Ragged Dick

Mitt Romney reintroduced himself on his Big Primary Night, and said:

---

“Hold on a little longer, a better America begins tonight.”

Mr. Romney described his father as growing up poor and failing to graduate from college before becoming a car executive and governor.

“You might have heard that I was successful in business. And that rumor is true.” Coy.

Mitt's embracing the Horatio Alger version of the American dream.  So he says, " Poverty will be defeated, not with a government check, but with respect and achievement that is taught by parents, learned in school and practiced in the workplace.”

That indeed is the storyline of Alger's teenage classic "ragged Dick".  Of course, Dick started out as a bootblack and bootblack has almost disappeared as a favored bottom rung for urchins. Also,  Mitt had a few advantages as he pursued fame and fortune (like fame and fortune, for examp

Mitt's speechwriter did have one good line:  It’s still about the economy — and we’re not stupid.”

But some of this other standard Republican boilerplate doesn't sound like it has a natural constituency:

“I have a very different vision for America, and of our future. It is an America driven by freedom, where free people, pursuing happiness in their own unique ways, create free enterprises that employ more and more Americans. Because there are so many enterprises that are succeeding, the competition for hard-working, educated and skilled employees is intense, and so wages and salaries rise.” Magic.

 

Searching for Mr. Romney

The Obama Re-election team has decided to jettison the Romney as flip-flopper approach in favor of characterizing Mitt as an extreme right winger.  Unfortunately, neither line works.  Voters know that Romney is not a "severe conservative".  They fully expect him to govern as a moderate.  He beat the guys to his right who accurately painted him as a Massachusetts moderate.  And the Tea Party lost.  The zealots will all swallow hard and vote for candidate Mitt.  As for flip-flopping, the voters think that's par for the course.  The electorate has become sufficiently cynical to accept a cynical politician. And there is no  politician more cynical than Willard Mitt Romney.

The state of the economy will dictate the outcome.  Romney will run as a businessman.  If the economy is really bad, he'll win.  But if there are signs of hope, I think you run as a populist against a rich guy who is prepared to screw everybody on behalf of the rich, a new-style robber baron, the proof of which is plain to see in his record at Bain Capital.  A lot of solid oppo research is needed to establish this image of the republican challenger.  Then he will give you plenty of soundbite ammunition.  Because it is what he is.

Sarko Second

The Times for some reason seems to think that socialist Francois Holland will have a tough time taking the second round of France's presidential election after Hollande beat Nicolas Sarkozy by two points in today's first round.  French polls, on the other hand, see Hollande with a fairly easy road to the Elysee Palace on May 6th.  Hollande will immediately become a major thorn in the side of Germany's redoubtable chancellor, Angela Merkel, with whose unyielding austerity policies the French socialist disagrees. The U.S., which might otherwise be sympathetic to Sarkozy, also has big issues with Frau Merkel.  How this plays out could have an influence on the European economic crisis, and thus on the  American presidential election.  Nous verrons.

Bits and Pieces

-- The prosecution may have a tough time pinning a murder rap, or any rap, on George Zimmerman, since they say they have no evidence as to who started the fight.

-- Leon Panetta is mad at the LA Times for publishing pictures of his soldiers posing with enemy body parts.  Would the Pentagon even have disciplined these jerks if the paper hadn't published their photos?  Will they get punished now for behavior Panetta characterizes as "foolish?"  For that matter, what's going on with the process against the staff sergeant who massacred 17 Afghan civilians, including nine women aand children?  Will he get any more time than My Lai's William Calley, or no time at all, like Calley's colleagues.  Has anything been done to the guys who burned the Koran?  How about the ones who pissed all over native corpses?  The U.S. track record on our own war crimes is awful.  Think of Abu Ghraib.  Just call it PTSD and sweep it under the carpet.

-- For the life of me, I can't understand why the  head of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, has not been sacked.  This was not just a couple of guys.  This was eleven guys.  Supervisors have been ousted.  They presumably were not shaccking up with the hookers, so their departures smell of scapegoating. Will we ever get the whole story?

-- Tom Friedman has lost his mind. I'm not sure when this process began, but it surely peaked the other day when he endorsed the idea of Mike Bloomberg running for President.  In today's column, Friedman makes a typically obvious case -- backed by the writings of a few noted bloviators -- against the Washington "vetocracy"  (Tom has always been great at neologisms), then suggests breaking the gridlock by a budget-writing super-committee "like those that handle military base closings" (!) that would somehow be insulated from lobbyists. Friedman sees this as a return to democracy.  Fantasy Man.  Just like the globalist dream that made him rich.

-- It was really stupid for Jay Carney to attack Sarah Palin for "politicizing the Secret Service.  She had a legitimate gripe.

-- I congratulate Phil Humber for his perfect game.  I hate that he was drafted by the Mets.  I do know he was in a trade for Johan Santana and that that's the way it is.

Hill's Time?

When crack NYTimes columnist Bill Keller brought it up a couple months ago, I pooh-poohed it. But then I tend to pooh pooh anything Bill Keller says.

Chris Cilizza, aka The Fix, in the WaPo, likens the idea of a Biden-Clinton swap to a hail mary pass.  But a hail mary pass may be just what will be called for.  The economy is never going to be good enough to assure an Obama win.  Hillary's performance at State offers national security/foreign policy cachet.  More important, she  spells competence, a quality The Businessman might otherwise be able to claim.

The Beat Goes On

My uncle, Joe O'Brien, was a DJ on the radio in New York, and I remember the spinners of the '50s during the birth of Rock 'n' Roll.  Murray the K, Alan Freed, Harry Harrison, Don Imus.  They were all straight guys, even Imus in his way.  And on TV,  Dick Clark, who was even straighter.  It's interesting that Clark fell into the Bandstand job when his predecessor got into a DUI. He went on from that accidental start to become one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world.  He was also one of the pioneers of television, with Jackie Gleason,  Clark's idol Arthur Godfrey,  Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan, Dave Garroway, Arlene Francis, Hugh Downs,  Ed Murrow, Jack Paar. Mike Wallace.  A little later, Johnny Carson

They were all straight types, mostly from radio, shot by big lumbering cameras in black and white. Everything they did is still being done, usually not as well.

Ball

Couldn't find one damn story I cared about.  There's a China story The Times is really flogging.  I'll try to figure it out tomorrow. Might be big.

Meanwhile, the Knicks beat the Celtics, which I find significant.  Carmelo Anthony had a triple-double, but the story was JR Smith and, especially the great hero of Knicks fans, Steve Novak, the league's best 3-point shooter.  The Celtics always come from behind in the fourth quarter and beat us.  They did come from behind.  But they didn't beat us.  Cool.  Very cool.

Newt Nicked

By a penguin!

There were other stories that intrigued me.  Like Mitt's overheard remarks behind closed doors to some of his wealthy donors, complete with his promise to eliminate the mortgage deduction for wealthy second home owners, to get rid of HUD, and to shrink the Education department; then there was former Executive Editor and present Times columnist Bill Keller's "impassioned" call for President Obama to move to the center based on a poll done by an organization whose whole goal is to move politics to the center;  and I was very moved by Mama Romney's recollection, in an interview with Diane Sawyer, of Seamus the Dog going "crazy" whenever he saw his crate being mounted on the family van.

But no, the irresistible item to top them all was one I missed over the weekend.  Candidate Gingrich, an animal lover, was in St. Louis for the NRA convention.  I don't know what Newt said to the gun toters, but it probably didn't make for a comfortable match with animal loving.  Yet Gingrich is a zoo aficionado, so he was treated to a behind the scenes visit at the Forest Park Zoo.  There the animal-loving candidate was introduced to a couple of Magellanic penguins.  It's a very cute breed that happens to threatened by oil spills and has been forced to wander far from its nests due to climate change.  Maybe that's why one of the St. Louis penguins took a tiny bite out of Speaker Gingrich's finger.  If not revenge, at least poetic justice.

Tax Day

So I read somewhere I was going to have to pay around 12 hundred dollars a year more Income Tax next year.  I'm retired and a medical situation forces me to pay huge rent on a fixed income.  The rent, like my taxes, will only go up.

So, I should become a Republican,  right?  They'll cut my taxes, right?  Wrong.

If the GOP tries supply side, trickle down government in the middle of a slow recovery, the ship of state will meet the same fate as that great ship did a hundred years ago.  And, once again, there won't be enough lifeboaats.

Down at the Secret Service Hotel

I don't know about you, but this story about the Secret Service agents and the Columbian hookers kind of bothers me.  Maybe I've read too many thrillers where prostitutes are connected to blackmail or spying, or terrorism, or all three, and maybe I'm too quick to see a connection between Cartagena, Columbia, and the narcotraficantes, but this really doesn't sound like just some horny gringos getting their jollies after a hard day preparing to guard the goddamn Presidente de Los Estados Unidos.

And it wasn't just one guy.  It was the whole bloody detail of eleven agents.  Secret Service Agents!  You know, those guys with close-cropped hair, dark suits with lapel buttons, ties, white shirts and earphones talking to them in code -- like "Renegade" for Barack Obama. Renegades indeed.

You gotta believe that Secret Service agents are super straight, and are accustomed to really watching their asses.  And, excuse me, I'm not so sure they can afford the creme de la creme of Cartagena's working girls.  And how did all eleven of them go off the reservation at the same time? And what about these other five "military servicemen" who were "involved," but might or might not have been doing the hookers?

Excuse my paranoia, but I find this all to be muy sospechoso. 

Hot Stuff

Think of it this way:  You could be a North Korean nuclear scientist.

____________________________________________________________________

I always kind of liked Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark NJ, although I don't know that much about him.  I know he's a premier crime fighter, a big promoter of greening his city, and an effective educational leader.  Now yesterday,  he runs into a burning building and rescues a neighbor, saving her life at the risk of his own.  His police bodyguard tried to talk him out of it, but the mayor said, "If I     don't go in there, this lady is going to die."

Of course, most big city mayors don't live in a neighborhood where the house next door is likely to go up in flames.  For years, Mayor  Booker, who grew up in affluent neighborhood, went to Stanford -- where he was a tight end on the Cardinal football team -- was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and attended Yale Law, lived in Newark's public housing projects before moving into his current low-income neighborhood.  After  yesterday's heroics, the mayor tweeted (something he does often):  "I will be ok."  He will be.

Hot Stuff.  The stuff of legend.

Lady Ann

According to the wires, Hilary Rosen is either a "Democratic strategist" or a "Democratic consultant".  If those monikers apply, be assured that Ms. Rosen will be doing no more strategizing or consulting after remarks about the wife of the virtual Republican candidate that were both insensitive and unpleasant, mostly stupid. According to Rosen herself, she is best described as a "pundit," that so often mispronounced word that sometimes appears to describe half the adult population.  Somehow, I think Hilary Rosen will likewise not be "pundinting" anymore.

The real official Democrats, including the Boss, ran not walked to disassociate themselves from Rosen's soundbites.

Of course the Republicans made a huge deal out of it, and Mrs. Romney scooted on to Fox to defend her "career choice," and the struggles of taking care of five troublesome boys.

Ann Romney is a breast cancer survivor and has MS, so her life has certainly not been a walk in the park.  On the other hand, she has also been able to afford top-flight health care and, for that matter has had access to high quality child care.  And "choice" may not be the best word to describe her extremely wealthy lifestyle. At least it's a choice millions of women would have no trouble making. In any case,  Mrs. Romney comes across as a very nice woman, and she is certainly a major asset to her husband's pursuit of the presidency.  Hilary Rosen should have left her alone, instead of betraying herself as a hopeless amateur.  Whatever she is.

The Guardian

America has a new hero.  Angela B. Corey, Florida state attorney of Jacksonville forecefully and passionately spoke of justice for 17-year old Trayvon Martin as she charged the boy's killer with murder in the second degree and asserted she would fight any attempt by George Zimmerman to invoke Florida's controversial Stand Your Ground law that permits someone to use force against a person he believes to be a threat, without any obligation to back off.

Now of course we must see what Angela Corey has.  She certainly thinks she has evidence that Zimmerman acted with "depraved mind regardless of human life."  That should take care of him standing his ground.

She indicated she didn't want cameras in the courtroom, but Florida law allows them, which probably means they'll be there.

MSNBC got off on the right foot by treating Al Sharpton as a guest on his own show.  He even landed on CNN.  It would behoove the NBC cable channel to keep off Politics Nation for the duration of the Zimmerman proceedings.

Three Stooges

1.  Rick Santorum -- graceless to the end, he won't mention's his party's putative standardbearer. But then,Saint Rick is no longer really a republican.  He is now the self-proclaimed leader of the God party, the party of miracles as he proclaimed today.  Once again shamelessly exploiting his daughter's catastrophic illness.

2. George Zimmerman -- fires his hapless lawyers, sets up a fundraising website, calls Sean Hannity  A tragic story well on the way to becoming cable news farce.  Rev. Al, in his element, is going totally bananas.

3. Ozzie Guillen -- Ay caramba, your new stadium is in Little Havana.  You must have heard of Elian Gonzales  You may be famous for your big mouth, but expressing your admiration for Fidel when you've just taken the helm of a promising young Miami baseball team?  Gusano rage will probably drive you out of town pendejo.

Amazin' Start

Well I'll be damned.  The New York Mets -- my New York Mets -- are now 4 and 1 at the beginning of the baseball season.  Tonight they beat the Washington Nationals,  managed by still popular ex-Mets manager Davey Johnson, when a kid named Murphy from Whitestone NY made a terrific play in the top of the ninth, then got the game winning hit in the bottom of the inning.  Another Irishman from Queens (moi) liked this very much.  Hey, ya never know. In sports at least, miracles happen.

Big Shots

Bubba and Melo

NICE

Speaking of God...

 The Ten Commandments is on TV, so it must be that time of year again.  Time for foolishness like this from Timesman Nick Kristof

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/opinion/sunday/kristof-learning-to-respect-religion.html

Sorry Mr. K., you can't have it both ways.  I love you for being such a resolute do-gooder, and I don't at all mind you hanging out with nuns and priests, but atheism, new and old, is the same as all other -isms:self-deception.  In the end, you is the only you you got.

Then, for real drivel, Ross Douthat in the same paper

:http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/opinion/sunday/douthat-in-2012-no-religious-center-is-holding.html

I have no idea what this guy is talking about.  I think he means it's better to believe because otherwise you're screwed.  Which i do not believe.

EXODUS

I don't know much about the Jewish High Holy Days, but I do like the stories.  Passover is a feast of Liberation.  The liberation of a people, a people that would not accept oppression. I know Moses was nothing like Charlton Heston, but I believe he was a real man.

So, I think, was Jesus, who was also probably a liberator.  But the resurrection myth made Christianity triumphalist, which I find much less appealing, especially as it is institutionalized in Rome.  Papism, far from being liberationist, suffocates the soul, destroys humanity, distorts reality.  The Reformation churches are not so bad, but they have served mostly to certify capitalism.

I do have some distant fond memories of Holy Week, but I stay away.  I will celebrate Easter with friends who were kind enough to invite me, but my feet will stay on the ground.

For the incredibly huge number of people who are being daily screwed over, tortured and killed, I will say, with as little hypocrisy as I can muster;  Let My People Go. 

Mitt's Moolah

The Mets won.  The Knicks won.  A perfect day.  Okay, so the Mets looked dreadful at the plate.  Okay, the Magic were roiled by an internal soap opera involving their coach and their superstar.  No matter.  Both of my teams won.  Everything's good.

Meanwhile, The WaPo has a long, thorough, piece on how Mitt Romney legally hides his investments in Bain Capital.  Good article, worth a read.  But somehow it leaves one feeling that it's old beer. A lot of it is, in fact, new, but  it leaves me thinking I've heard it before.

But stop.  Say those two words again.  Bain.  Capital.  Now say another word.  Albatross.

Mr. Romney wants us to think of him as a Business Man.  But Mitt is not a Business Man.  He's a Buyout King.  And Buyout Kings make lots of money.  In fact that's all they make.  And they also do unsavory  things, like bankrupting established companies and getting tons of people laid off.  In fact, that's pretty much how much so-called business men of Mitt's type make all that money.  Which they then conceal with confidentiality agreements.

There will be many many articles like this, and many many magazine pieces, and many many TV items.  And they will all involve Bain Capital.  And eventually Mitt Romney will be seen as the perfect icon of his time, of all that went into the Great Fall. He will be revealed as The Problem.

Romney will try to talk his way out of this.  He should be warned that the big bird became trouble only when the mariner shot him out of the sky.  Until that point, the albatross had been considered good luck. It was the dead bird that the sailor was forced to wear around his neck.

Opening Day

Kyle Lohse pitched a great game, ruining the Marlins first game in their tricked out new ballpark.  It really hurt  seeing Jose-Jose getting a couple of hits dressed in that Art Deco uniform and bereft of his Mets dreads.

I've decided how I'm going to get through the baseball season.  I'm going to pretend I'm in Chicago.  I know impersonal CitiField is nowhere near as romantic as Wrigley Field and the old Shea parking lot does not conjure up Wrigleyville, but if I can just think of the Mets as if they were the Cubbies, perhaps I could summon up rabid loyalty to a lousy team.  It's been done.

Oh, and, speaking of opening day, what's Mitt Romney trying to do by pitting hide-and-seek against Etch a Sketch.  This guy will never learn to stop setting himself up.  No, Mitt, it's not the other guy who's "out of touch."

The Romney Home Stretch

I can see why Newt Gingrich will stay in it to the end.  He's got books to sell, his and Callista's; movies to push; speaker fees to jack up. Plus Gingrich will resume his lobbying career.

But what's Rick Santorum's game?  The obvious goal would be 2016, but that would imply that Santorum is rooting for Romney to lose.  But could he be cheering for Obama?.  Not likely

You've got to remember that Mr. Santorum's only job is running for president.  Once he leaves the race, he's unemployed.

I see Santorum starting a movement, a Liberty Campaign.  Then he can run in '16 or '20 as a Right-wing populist, either Republican or third party.  A scary prospect.

Tonight Mitt made clear he's running as Business Man against a "government-centered" incumbent.

That means that, once again as always, it's the economy stupid.  Obama made clear today why he believes the business-centered, supply side model has not and will not work.  That negative campaign will work only if the economy is healthy.  Which, honesty dictates, no one can say it will be.  There may be some signs of improvement, but the overall picture will undoubtedly still be very bad. 

Truth be told, it may be Romney's to lose.  Of course, he may well take advantage of that opportunity.

All In for O.

It's not just the Supreme Court, although SCOTUS is enough to make the case.

Mitt Romney, who will cinch if not clinch, the Republican nomination tomorrow, is a right-wing candidate.  It is too late for him to etch a new sketch.  He is Paul Ryan.

It is time for those who oppose Barack Obama from his left to stop.  Stop completely.  Yes, the president has been disappointing on the environment, on Afghanistan, on anti-terrorism, on financial regulation.  Focus your energy about those issues on the next term.  Or there will be no next term.

Romney-Ryan-Rubio should be easy to beat.  Their views are Neanderthal.  They are not popular.  They want to target Social Security, they are anti-women, they favor the super-rich.  But it is not enough to oppose the now-extreme GOP; it is imperative to support Obama, firmly and singlemindedly.

The battle cry is: We have brought the country back from the disaster to which the Republicans led us; we are winning; let us finish the job.

Batter Up

 Stateside Opening Day is Wednesday in Miami's new stadium between the Miami Marlins and the St. Louis Cardinals.  A lot of money has been spent on the new park and on the Marlins' roster, including on the former Mets protean shortstop Jose Reyes.

Most years, I'd be pretty worked up about baseball by this point, but not this year.  My Mets have a team that would be hard pressed to have a winning season in Triple-A.  The owner just managed to avoid a financial clobbering in court over his dealings with Bernie Madoff, so he may have some money to spend on the team one of these days, but probably not soon.  The Mets have some strong pitching prospects in the Minors.  So maybe next year.  But what do I do this year?  It's a sad day in spring.