Fred Sanders
Fred Sanders's JournalWill President Christie be as careful selecting his closest aides and advisors in the White House...
who will also rat fuck entire communities, cities and nations for political revenge and not tell the President?
Did Christie accidentally fire the staffer who tells him when to end a press conference? —
daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 9, 2014
Gonna be some brutal all nighter for somebody to write that "traffic study" NOW…. — Richard
Yeselson (@yeselson) January 9, 2014
Republicans searching for Obama's real birth certificate now on search for the real traffic study?
THAT is what Christie is pinning his hopes on, that there was some kind of traffic study that shut down lanes to study......that shutting down lanes causes congestion?
Christie Deploys "The Jesus/Nixon Defence"......
"For my aides loved ME so much they did this evil crime on my behalf, and did not tell ME to protect me from their great love of......ME".
It never works. Me, Me, Me.
Chris Christie's officials lied about GWB scandal. Did the governor?: NJ Star-Ledger Editorial Board
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gov_chris_christies_officials.html"These emails show beyond a doubt that Christie's deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, was directly involved in the planning of this massive gridlock and got periodic updates. And she knew his executives at the Port Authority were ignoring the mayor's frantic efforts to get a reason behind the lane closures, as emergency responders and school buses full of children got ensnared in the mess.
Wildstein has been called to testify about these emails, supplied in response to a subpoena, before a panel of state lawmakers tomorrow. And given their explosive content, we'll need subpoenas to hear Kelly's testimony, as well as that of Christie's chief of staff at the time, Kevin O'Dowd.
The most damning evidence against Christie's officials is their utter indifference to the consequences of this prank."
Meanwhile Christie has gone all turtle mode and is reviewing his series of lies in order to come out with his usual bluster or pretend to be all concerned and start firing the underlings in order to feed the media fires just now raging.
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Politicians, Leaders React: explosive emails linking top Christie aide to GWB closure scandal
• U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez issued the following statement:
“The reports about the released Port Authority emails regarding the ongoing investigation into last fall’s traffic jams at the George Washington Bridge are troubling and disturbing.
“The closing of local lanes to the bridge during the height of the morning rush hour made school children late for classes and interfered with first responders making their way to emergencies. We are very fortunate that no one was seriously injured.
“I will be reviewing testimony from the N.J. State Assembly Transportation Committee’s investigation and monitoring the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s inquiry into these matters so that it can be ultimately determined whether people were unnecessarily inconvenienced or put in harm’s way.”
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• John Currie, chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee, said:
“These emails demonstrate that under Governor Christie, vindictive political motivations were allowed to trump any regard for public safety.
“As hearings into this matter continue, Governor Christie owes us an explanation for why his core team appears to have such disdain for the public trust and how they could seriously abuse the power of the governor's office right under his nose.
"This time, I suggest that the governor try a new approach when answering questions: honesty."
• Matthew Hale, an associate professor at Seton Hall University, said:
“The smoking gun is not quite in the Governor’s hand, but these e-mails show that it is awfully close to it. These e-mails show an unbelievable level of arrogance, not to mention stupidity, among top-level Christie loyalists. They must not know or maybe just didn’t care that the ‘e’ in e-mail can stand for ‘evidence.’”
“I expect that additional resignations are going to come soon. This is not going away, in part because the e-mail documents reported on by the media contained redacted sections. The obvious next question is what or who needs to be redacted? Governor Christie has spent an enormous amount of effort trying to get away from the narrative that he is a bully. These e-mail destroy all of that effort in a single day.”
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And this, among much for the mass media to feed on:
"In 2011, Mr. Christie held a news conference where he accused State Senator Richard J. Codey of being “combative and difficult” in blocking two nominees. Mr. Codey, a Democrat who had served as governor following the resignation of James E. McGreevey, responded that he had not only signed off on the nominations, but had held a meeting to try to hurry them along.
Three days later, Mr. Codey was walking out of an event in Newark when he got a call from the state police superintendent informing him that he would no longer be afforded the trooper who accompanied him to occasional public events — a courtesy granted all former governors. That same day, his cousin, who had been appointed by Mr. McGreevey to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was fired, as was a close friend and former deputy chief of staff who was then working in the state Office of Consumer Affairs."
Populism Scares The Red Pants Off Republicans, GOP Identification Falls to Historic Lows
The so called class warfare that Fox and Corporate America has been waging and winning is about to be brought to them and they are scared as hell the poor and working poor coming out to vote and overwhelming their preferred method of buying votes and democracy with cash.....but it is already too late I think:
A new Gallup poll finds 42% of Americans, on average, identified as political independents in 2013, the highest measured in 25 years. Meanwhile, Republican identification fell to 25%, the lowest over that time span. At 31%, Democratic identification is unchanged from the last four years but down from 36% in 2008.
The percentage of Americans identifying as independents grew over the course of 2013, surging to 46% in the fourth quarter. That coincided with the partial government shutdown in October and the problematic rollout of major provisions of the healthcare law, commonly known as "Obamacare."
http://www.gallup.com/poll/166763/record-high-americans-identify-independents.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=All%20Gallup%20Headlines%20-%20Politics
Sun Dogs Barking In Chicago - scroll down half a page.
http://blog.chicagoweathercenter.com/Thailand: Lessons From A Vacation/Business Month In Socialist North West Lanna Kingdom
Having posted my thoughts mainly on the recently unattractive Huffington Post, America edition, I hesitated to post one here, but finally I came up with this, my first substantial one at DU, a hopefully interesting and topical observation of Thailand's current political schism as I saw it in a month of a long stay vacating through eyes and ears of the Thai people of Chiang Mia and surrounding territory, from taxi drivers, beverage managers, to farang businessmen of several foreign nationalities, to young up and comer farangs who see business opportunities in an expanding economy with low inflation, low cost of living and high work and family moral standards.
Where to begin? Thailand is complicated and familiar at the same time. Cultural discussions are common place and complex, so I choose to begin with the business and foreign immigration side of things, less complicated, more my angle.
There are massive business opportunities in Thailand, particularly the burgeoning economy around the capital city of the ancient Lanna Kingdom, Chiang Mia.
Lanna or Lanna thai is the given name of a prosperous self ruling kingdom, once the power base of the whole of Northern Thailand as well as parts of present day Burma (Myanmar) & Laos. The title means "Land of a million rice fields'.
The rich culture and history owe much to the influence of Burma and, to a certain extent Laos. Still found in northern temples is the script of Lanna, which is probably the original Thai script and thought to be based on Mon. A similar script is still in use today by the Shan people.
Lanna is completely different from other provinces of Thailand in cuisine, culture and custom. It is generally acknowledged, throughout Thailand, that the Northern women are the most beautiful and people friendliest and politest in the country. The charm and gentleness of the Northerners seldom fail to impress even the most demanding of visitors.
The North West area of Thailand is geographically and culturally linked to Burma in ways that are reflected in their political and business norms also being decidedly different than the capitalist ruled and under populated southern Thailand.
Business opportunities abound in relation to services not being met for the flood of foreigners arriving to take advantage of the cultural uniqueness and low cost of living, including housing, food, labor costs and medical care.
An Italian business man looking to expand his 3 hotel empire in Italy with a boutique hotel on the shores of the Mekong River near the lone border crossing, the Dubai businessman selling Kashmir hand knotted silk carpets to the Bangkok nouveau rich who escape the turmoil and heat in the south for a round of golf and cultural exploration in the cooler, cooler in all ways, north, to the Seattle 30-something scouting around in advance of setting up a computer English language business service for foreigners traveling in the area, there is a lot going on.
Political issues also abound and there is the contrast between the Lanna Kingdom and its socialist roots and high voter turnout, and the essentially capitalist dominated south, geographically penned in by oceans and demographically disadvantaged in federal elections for federal political positions. Though the southern rich businessmen and their government official partners do own the mass media in the south and for all of Thailand, just that the mass media is not that massive there, an rich understanding of history informs of current events well enough.
The real interesting current political part about Thailand though is how the King of Thailand is revered, or there is a an appearance of reverence, that is universal, though the King is in his 80's and ailing in a wheelchair and seems not able to make a rational intervention. Interesting situation, that health thing, a King with power unable to use it.
The military, usually on the side of the South, is unable to move against the the PM without the Kings wink approval, which has not been forthcoming. The South politicians will not accept the recent resignation of the entire federal cabinet and PM and new federal elections because they know they will just lose again to the population of the northern socialist minded provinces.
The problem with this divide is that is it based on half truths from both sides. The north believes that the south is a corrupt stew of political favors and government corruption, while the south sees the north as backward farmers and pheasants who are being blackmailed by money from the federal government for their votes with free health care, a minimum wage, housing and food subsides, etc.
Sound familiar?
Lessons learned?
There is nothing new under the sun, even under a Lanna Kingdom sun.
Pope Smacks Down Tpots
You have to believe that Pope Francis and President Obama are going to meet very soon and it will mark the time when conservative ideology is finally assigned to the dustbin of history at last:
In an interview with Italy's La Stampa newspaper, Pope Francis defended his remarks: "Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don't feel offended." He added, "There is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church."
The Pope expanded on his critique of "trickle-down" economics, noting that "The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefitting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor."
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