* Bumped Up *

Folks, if you believe that today’s news conference to trumpet the arrest of an Iranian American and the alleged disruption of an Iranian terror plot was a legit announcement then I have a bridge in Brooklyn for you. In fact, the timing of this news conference was deliberately orchestrated to shift attention from the pending Congressional subpoena of Eric Holder for his past lies about what he knew about Fast and Furious. The aspiring terrorist, Manssor Arbabsiar, was arrested on 29 September. Yet, Holder and company waited until today to trumpet the success.

You don’t have to take my word for it, let’s go through what was said and implied at the press conference and compare that with the actual complaint. For starters, this was not an “FBI” investigation. This was a DEA investigation that the FBI is crowding in to take credit for. The Confidential Source (aka CS-1) was working for DEA as part of an operation to penetrate the ZETA drug operation.

This was not a terror plot planned and organized by the Government of Iran. I’m no Iran lover nor am I claiming they had no desire to kill the Saudi Ambassador, but if you read the complaint you are left with no conclusion other than the fact that Iran apparently has no “in-house” ability to carry out a terrorist attack in the United States and is relying on rank amateurs to gin up hair-brained schemes.

Go here to read the complaint for yourself: Read the rest

Tonight’s GOP debate is aired on Bloomberg Television at 8″00 p.m. ET. If you’re like me and don’t get Bloomberg, watch online at either Bloomberg’s site or The Washington Post’s PostPolitics.com. This debate’s format is different and it’s topical: “The candidates will outline their economic and job creation proposals while seated side-by-side at a round table facing the hosts and surrounded by audience members.”

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– Word is that New Jersey governor Chris Christie is traveling to the campus of Dartmouth College, where tonight’s debate is being held, and will endorse Mitt Romney for president. (At 19:00, one hour before it begins, I’m posting a note about the debate and how to watch.)

– Fast and furiously, AG Eric Holder is hosting a news conference any moment now on a gigantic terror plot that he and his department triumphantly stopped.

– NBC News (surprise, surprise) is trumpeting its allegation that Obama asked Romney’s people for advice on how to create the health care plan. NBC News is always happy to mess with the GOP.

– Baby Lisa is still missing. (Sorry, I have a twisted sense of humor, but it kind of gets to me that all the news networks are busting their asses to report about one missing baby when — and I looked this up at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children — the U.S. alone had 797,500 missing children in the year 2010. It helps that she is cute … in fact, that’s actually a requirement in order for her to qualify for extensive news coverage.)

– A patriotic clerk, Gilbert Ortez, makes sure that Pueblo County’s ballots are sent to overseas troops, even though Colorado’s Secretary of State had instructed all county clerks not to send ballots to overseas military personnel deemed “inactive.” Read the rest

On my Monday night show (podcast), I spoke with Emily Ramshaw, Texas Tribune, and Taegan Goddard, Political Wire, re the flap over the last days when a pastor in a Dallas megachurch, Robert Jeffress, used the introduction to Rick Perry at the Values Voters Summit in DC to declare that Mormonism is a cult and not Christian.

Perry’s camp (not Perry on stage) swiftly backed away from the Jeffrees remark, declaring that Mormonism is not a cult and that Perry “is not in the business of judging people,” rather that is “God’s job.”

Taegan Goddard measured that the Perry campaign had achieved both a denunciation of Mormonism as not Christian and a demonstration that Perry is not intolerant. We spoke of the way Bill Clinton stage-managed the Sister Souljah episode in 1992, by criticizing the rough, divisive language of pop culture in order to illustrate that he was a centrist in the Democratic spectrum. A two-for-one anecdote to appeal to both sides of the argument.

Perry can retain the evangelical loyalties won in ten years of the governorship and much participation in prayer circles (such as the Prayerapalooza of early August, 20011) and also demonstrate the sort of broadmindedness necessary to campaign in the North and West of the country. Read the rest

Put those assholes on the list too. So they want to support the “Occupy Wall Street” mob? Seriously?

We, the Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, compelled by our personal convictions and our Company’s mission and values, wish to express our deepest admiration to all of you who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity. The issues raised are of fundamental importance to all of us. These include:

The inequity that exists between classes in our country is simply immoral.
We are in an unemployment crisis. Almost 14 million people are unemployed. Nearly 20% of African American men are unemployed. Over 25% of our nation’s youth are unemployed.
Many workers who have jobs have to work 2 or 3 of them just to scrape by.
Higher education is almost impossible to obtain without going deeply in debt.
Corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people.

We know the media will either ignore you or frame the issue as to who may be getting pepper sprayed rather than addressing the despair and hardships borne by so many, or accurately conveying what this movement is about. All this goes on while corporate profits continue to soar and millionaires whine about paying a bit more in taxes. And we have not even mentioned the environment.

Guess what stock is traded on Wall Street? Ben and Jerry’s are owned by UNILEVER for Christ’s sake! Read the rest

Obama’s given up the ghost, er post. This is not just depressing — it is outrageous. He should return his salary to the Treasury. (Besides, it all seems to go to Michelle’s retinue of stylists and expensive purchases that may be even beyond the means of a millionaire.) Obama is happy “only on the campaign trail, where the adoration of the crowd lifts his spirits.” Via the New York Post:

The reports are not good, disturbing even. I have heard basically the same story four times in the last 10 days, and the people doing the talking are in New York and Washington and are spread across the political spectrum.
The gist is this: President Obama has become a lone wolf, a stranger to his own government. He talks mostly, and sometimes only, to friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett and to David Axelrod, his political strategist.

Everybody else, including members of his Cabinet, have little face time with him except for brief meetings that serve as photo ops. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner both have complained, according to people who have talked to them, that they are shut out of important decisions.

The president’s workdays are said to end early, often at 4 p.m. He usually has dinner in the family residence with his wife and daughters, then retreats to a private office. One person said he takes a stack of briefing books. Others aren’t sure what he does.

If the reports are accurate, and I believe they are, they paint a picture of an isolated man trapped in a collapsing presidency. Read the rest

Celebrity Geraldo Rivera and his sturdy, middle-aged camera crew planted themselves at the edge of the Occupy Wall Street festival on Sunday 9 October and apparently were surprised to meet with disdain from the routinely youthful and hip crowd of college age protesters. “The Fox News Lies” chanting proved not useful background for the on-air performances.

My stroll across Wall Street and to Bowling Green and the Battery was warm, pleasant and not especially political. There was a casual demo following a drum up Broadway, accompanied by careful NYPD presence and photographed by at least one hundred IPhones. The signs were handmade on cardboard with uneven printing were entertaining and often obvious, good for the camera and not much use for the audience.

The more intriguing aspect of the OWS is that it now spreads to college towns across the country, such as Ann Arbor and Sante Fe and Portland. My sentimental link to the Bowling Green marchers is my memory to the Moratorium demo in Washington DC on October 15, 1969. Read the rest

Yes, it is time for the “F” Bomb and sent exclusively to the New York Times. What a disgrace. New York Times editors have no problem enabling, encouraging and promoting the Occupy Wall Street nihilist anarchists, who are parading around the fecal festooned, trashed park near Wall Street. But they become hysterical when it comes to dealing with mainstream Americans who comprise the Tea Party. The Times declares Tea Party folks “terrorists.”

What drug addled Alice in Wonderland world have we fallen into? (And, by way of protest, I refuse to link to the NY Times)

Today’s NY Times editorial gets all moist over the “Occupiers:”

As the Occupy Wall Street protests spread from Lower Manhattan to Washington and other cities, the chattering classes keep complaining that the marchers lack a clear message and specific policy prescriptions. The message — and the solutions — should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention since the economy went into a recession that continues to sock the middle class while the rich have recovered and prospered. The problem is that no one in Washington has been listening…

No wonder then that Occupy Wall Street has become a magnet for discontent. There are plenty of policy goals to address the grievances of the protesters — including lasting foreclosure relief, a financial transactions tax, greater legal protection for workers’ rights, and more progressive taxation. The country needs a shift in the emphasis of public policy from protecting the banks to fostering full employment, including public spending for job creation and development of a strong, long-term strategy to increase domestic manufacturing.

So, let’s go back in the time machine to August 2011. What did a NY Times blessed columnist have to say about the Tea Party? Read the rest

Editor’s Note: Tonight, Larry Johnson joins Sunday’s experts panel on John Batchelor’s Show at 10:30 p.m. ET. Listen via iTunes or NYC anchor station WABC (scroll to “Listen Live“). Batchelor’s radio show airs nightly, 9 p.m.-1:00 a.m. ET.

Spoke David Weidner, WSJ, re the #Occupy WallStreet events in Lower Manhattan. and we agreed that there is no single focus, no special written demand. There is youth and frustration with the Great Recession. The simple question from a 19 year-old community college graduate to Weidner was, “Where are the jobs?”

The White House and the Democrats look to fashion a message that can welcome the protesters into supporting POTUS as well as the jobs act and the Congressional electioneering for ’12. It is not certain yet that the Dems will be successful: it is a big twist to take the president and the Senate and turn them into college students sleeping out in pocket parks. Read the rest

Are you watching the “Occupy Wall Street” protests/camp out? I think that situation has traveled long beyond its initial point – whatever that was. OWS is now an event in and of itself, where the issues have been buried. It’s about the people involved now and what they’ll do.

Fine. That was bound to happen given the nature and organization of this protest.

But what about those issues? Greed on Wall Street? Granted – some of the most greedy bastards on the planet can be found there. Tea partiers fingered government and politicians – also some of the most greedy bastards on the planet.

But a recent Vanity Fair article by Michael Lewis lays out other actors – public servants and the rest of us.

Do you remember Meredith Whitney? She famously worried about municipal bonds (snore) and the debt towns and cities were piling up.

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CNN’s AC360 invited Amy Kremer of Tea Party Express to describe what the Tea Party is all about and how it differs from the Wall Street demonstrations. Amy was convincing and articulate. I tried to find the video at CNN but could not. However, the transcript is up. By the way, Dr. Cornel West follows Amy Kremer — and here’s an interesting tidbit about that fascinating man. When she was in graduate school, our Reverend Amy took West’s classes, and got to know him quite well. (Also: CNN’s transcript is full of typos, some of which I cleaned up, but you’ll likely spot more.)

ANDERSON COOPER: Joining us now, co-chair to tea party’s express Amy Kremer, thanks very much for being with us.

AMY KREMER, TEA PARTY EXPRESS: Thanks for having me.

COOPER: Do you think it is fair to make comparisons between, say, the early tea party movement and the occupy Wall Street protests?

KREMER: You know, it was an organic movement, I don’t know if this is organic or not, but the tea party movement was certainly organic and we started by having rallies. We evolved into something else. You can make that comparison. I think that we’re both mad as heck about the bailouts of the banks, but other than that, I don’t see a lot of comparisons.

We’re trying to rein in the spending in Washington, the answer to what we believe to Washington’s problems are, less government, smaller government, they want more government, bigger government. So I don’t see that there’s a lot of comparison. Read the rest

Mitt Romney’s succinct foreign policy speech at Citadel, delivered in a cheerful and less than dramatic, stentorian style than POTUS Obama can manage with his smoke-deepened baritone, speaks clearly to the theory of American Exceptionalism. The question of if or if not America is unique on the planet — “citty on a hill” — is likely to become the major campaign philosophical debate.

The policy stuff of the banks, the markets, the regulators, all will be argued about by panels of thinkers, but the big picture of America as world leader is for the candidates to resolve in debate and in video. Exceptionalism 2012 is a peculiar turn for the long confident and strident American population, but here it is, at the end of the Boomer run (Romney likely the last Boomer POTUS, if he makes it).

My reading of American history is that for more than one hundred years, American strength has supported success in the other continents. POTUS Obama is an unusual c-in-c in that he uses American drone power yet talks as if he is in partnership with our allies. Clever pretense. Talk softly and deny the stick in your hand. Romney sounds to be back to big stick and big talk. Read the rest

What do you expect from a “community organizer” who has never really held a private sector job of any consequence? Competence? Puh-leaze!
Mr. Class Warfare himself is stirring the pot about those dastardly millionaires but, as the AP reports, there is not basis what-so-ever for his bullshit:

The AP gives a pretty solid rundown: Read the rest

Remember back when the Dems tried desperately to portray the Tea Party as a bunch of Ku Klux Klan robe wearing, nigga hating racists? Problem was there was no video or audio evidence to support that contention. However, the Tea Party was largely white. Right? Unlike the rainbow diversity and genteel nature of those occupying Wall Street. Right?

Whoops. Those goddamned Jews. You know them. They control the money. Did I mention “money grubbing” Jews? Read the rest

This post is not an endorsement of Gary Johnson by me or anyone at No Quarter.

This post is about the American people’s right to be the deciders.  It is also about a candidates equal opportunity to be heard.  And it is about the absurdity of the entertainment (MSM) industry running our debates and doing a grave disservice to the nation by interjecting their need for profits and placing their goals for providing entertainment above the American people’s need to debate ideas and choose the direction of their country, and their right to select a president.

I’m an Independent, not a Republican.  But with only “The One” corporatist candidate being offered from the Democratic party so far (hint, hint), I’m left to watch the Republican Presidential line up with more than a passing interest.  That is the reality of a two party political system.

The wealth of Republican choices (hint again to the Dems) is to be applauded.  So too is its representational diversity – a woman, an African American, a Mormon, a Texan …

As the media spotlight made the rounds over the last few months highlighting and vetting the declared (Perry, Romney, Bachmann, Gingrich, Paul, Cain, Huntsman, Santorum, McCotter) and undeclared (Christy, Giuliani and Palin) Republican candidates, I watched and waited for them to get around to Gary Johnson former governor of New Mexico (1995-2003). Read the rest