This presidency is over. How can Iran and Russia and North Korea and all the Hitlers of the world take us seriously now that the Olympic committee has laughed in the president’s face?
The bipartisan thing would be for Obama to resign now.
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[…] at Balloon Juice makes the good point that the bipartisan thing now would be for Obama simply to resign. Commenters further add that he […]
Prattlehorn
Well, obviously the IOC is racist.
Rey
No big whoop. Most Chicagoans apparently did not want the games in their city anyway, or something. I hope Rio gets the the nod. It will be the first time South America will be a host. That’s a good thing no?
Keith
I expect(ed) this to be a major point of attack from Mitt Romney. “Well, when *I* was a *governer*, *I* was able to bring the Olympics to the Greatest Country in the World.”
GregB
Yes, Drudge is very concerned.
Because world opinion means everything now that a Democrat is in the White House.
Shouldn’t this be considred a victory that the world body of leaders- (the one that was just mocked during the UN sessions as chock full of despots, tryants, dictators, socialists, communists and malcontents) -has just declared America not worthy?
ITime to resume dashing my head on the keyboard.
-G
Surreal American
No, the bipartisan thing at this point is to help the GOP gain majorities in the House and Senate so they can start impeachment proceedings. Since the wingnuts are so outrageously outraged, resignation would be an inadequate means to satisfy their ire.
eric
Obama is not such an imposing presence without ACORN at his back.
Comrade Jake
Another catastrophe averted thanks to Hannity and Beck! /BOB
Brick Oven Bill
Today, October 2nd, 2009, is a day that will live in Infamy. Barack Obama was told no for the first time in his life.
1. The over/under date for the first image of President Obama smoking a cigarette, making the Internet, is November 12th.
2. The over/under date for the Administration formally proposing Internet restrictions is fifty-six days following the date of the cigarette image making the Drudge Report.
3. Don’t mess with Glenn Beck. His book cover was a poor decision however, as was the title. He needs to promote a more distinguished image, a more Presidential image.
Napoleon
As driving in this morn and hearing on the radio that South America has never had it made me realize that the likely hood of the US getting it was nearly zero. After all these years of holding Olympics its hard to justify it never being held in South America.
kid bitzer
whew. that saves us a coupla billion dollars down the drain, then.
go over to athens and ask them how much it would have saved them if they’d been rejected a few years ago.
i realize there’s a civic pride issue. but from an economic perspective, this would have been the biggest dead weight loss and destruction since the great fire of 1871. good riddance.
Comrade Jake
Fucking perfect timing.
r€nato
Resign? Fuck that. He should be impeached over this. Wasn’t it Neville Chamberlain’s failed bid to win the Olympics for London, that encouraged Hitler to continue his campaign of European aggression?
I’m pretty sure it was.
4tehlulz
@Rey: Not if you live in Rio’s slums…
On the other hand, Brazil’s death squads will have steady work until 2016, so there’s that.
Apsaras
Weep, eagle, weep!
eric
Well, he aint no Hitler. Hitler got the Games. Pussy.
Cerberus
we danes are so mean :( Nice for trying though.
smiley
Right on cue, Beck is celebrating an American loss. Claiming it’s the world rejecting the president personally. Just like B.O.B.
Strawmanmunny
How long until we hear about how the IOC is one(only?) of the right’s favorite international organizations and how they stood up to the scary black man?
You win some, you lose some.
r€nato
@smiley:
didn’t see that one coming from miles away, did we?
Violet
Impeach! He didn’t just fail, he went out in the first round. Real Americans don’t lose in the first round. This proves he’s Kenyan.
scav
I’m sure we’re about to hear that you know you else was turned down for an Olympics? Hitler. Plus what r€nato said.
r€nato
@scav:
um, I’m pretty sure Hitler wasn’t turned down for the Olympics. Berlin 1936 you know.
Persia
@smiley: Have they ever been seen in the same place at the same time?
Lyle4
@scav: 1936?
This is one of the few instances where Obama is not the same as Hitler. Hitler was better, obviously.
Surreal American
Not only has that ship sailed, it is passing the Cape of Good Hope as we speak.
Joel
I blame the French.
R-Jud
@kid bitzer:
Word. We are planning to move back next year, and I am pleased that there will be some cash left to keep the El running, rather than getting siphoned off to build stadiums and swimming pools.
Oh, and BOB? You got yer Chicagoans mixed up: Richard Daley is the one who’s never been told no. I have to admit it’s kinda fun to think of the steam that must be pouring out his ears right now.
SpotWeld
I wonder if anyone has considered the fact that the US has a little bit of a reputation to overcome.
The last time we hosted the Olympics there was a terrorists bombing… which makes Obama’s attempt to give the bid a little more “oomph” all the more sensical.
And now, in the midst of the tea parties and other rather scary sessionists sentiment.. the IOC has picked another site.
Now the final decision probably had a lot more to do with giving S. America it’s first shot at hosting.
Eh, in all honesty the drama over the costs of setting the venue in Chicago was probably more poltical drama that I would have cared to hear about. Too bad for Chicago though.
Shinobi
I am sad about this because this means we will continue to have no jobs here.
On the other hand. Fuck the Olympics, who wants a bunch of athletic people hanging around making us feel bad about ourselves. I’m going to greek town for lunch.
Apsaras
To be fair, Chicago wouldn’t be fair to the athletes. I doubt they’d be able to maintain their well-trained figures when you’re in the same city as Giordanno’s pizzeria.
wasabi gasp
The dial on the big blue pressure cooker doesn’t even go to 2016. The joke’s on them.
The Grand Panjandrum
I guess this dashes one of the conspiracy theorists memes that Obama was going to Copenhagen because he had the fix in to get the bid for Chicago.
I dreaming of a girl from Ipanema.
slag
The only thing that bothers me about the Olympics nonsense is that it has forced me to actually agree with the #dickwhisperer on something:
Or to quote the West Wing:
Yeah. Pretty much.
R-Jud
@Apsaras:
Hot Doug’s. Usain Bolt would be forever ruined.
Lyle4
@wasabi gasp: I literally just spit out my water. Thanks.
Sasha
Bummer. Well, there’s always the World Cup.
Of course, the possibility that Bush and his administration may have long ago poisoned the well by almost single-handedly transforming America into an amalgamation of every possible negative stereotype would never cross his mind.
El Cid
I don’t have great stats, but typically studies of subsidized sporting stadiums and events show very little net economic benefit for ordinary folks and often net and particularly long-range costs, so I’m not exactly sure this is a loss, except on the ego comparison brigades.
Olly McPherson
Thank goodness.
ericblair
@SpotWeld: And now, in the midst of the tea parties and other rather scary sessionists sentiment.. the IOC has picked another site.
I kind of doubt it was anything to do with that, considering Rio’s security situation to be a hell of a lot worse. Probably was due to a relatively lot of Olympics held in the US, plus whatever managed to find its way into the IOC delegates’ pockets from the respective organizers. I’m expecting Rio on this one, being in the Southern hemisphere and all.
I’m not particularly upset that the US lost the games: the whole dog-and-pony show drives everyone nuts for years and distorts all sorts of priorities, and after the games you’ve got a bunch of venues that probably won’t get used very well. See Beijing.
Zifnab
In before “This is Good News for Hillary Clinton / John McCain”.
@The Grand Panjandrum:
Oh please, I’m sure he was just using this whole thing as a cover while organizing the black helicopters to come in and take everyone’s guns.
Conspiracy theories never fail. They only get more conspiratorialial.
Brick Oven Bill
The Liberal Arts had their origins long before the Catholic Church gained power in Europe. Consider this passage from 360 BC. This is fifteen generations before the birth of Christ.
You are aware that students of geometry, arithmetic, and the kindred sciences assume the odd and the even and the figures and three kinds of angles and the like in their several branches of science; these are their hypotheses, which they and everybody are supposed to know, and therefore they do not deign to give any account of them either to themselves or others; but they begin with them, and go on until they arrive at last, and in a consistent manner, at their conclusion?
Yes, he said, I know.
Here, the Ancients describe the Scientific Method. Through this process, we can use our God-given senses of sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell to discern the state of our world.
This is how I have come to the conclusion that President Obama’s trip to Copenhagen is political payback for those whose powers come from the Artificial, from wealth and birth, who have made speculative investments in Chicago real estate, and to whom Obama’s Presidency is owed.
It is impossible for me to believe that the President of the United States would go to an event that was not in the bag, were he his own man. Last place baby.
General Winfield Stuck
I am so depressed, I think I’ll end the misery with multiple chocolate ice cream cones.
tofubo
and we lost in the mondioring world championships too
http://mondioring2009.fr.gd/RESULTATS-_-RESULTS-_-ERGEBNISSE.htm
i get to pick up the person who placed #11th from the airport next week, better luck next year
ksmiami
okay that’s it BOB is a spoof – he has to be??
El Cid
No one is interested in what it is or is not possible for BOB to believe. In fact, he regularly believes several impossibly uninteresting things before breakfast, and in the forest it makes no sound, and this is not necessarily because his thoughts have an inherent silence to their nature, nay, moderation in all things.
Midnight Marauder
@Brick Oven Bill:
I don’t think there are enough drugs in this world for me to ever really understand what the fuck you keep trying to say in your posts.
kay
@Sasha:
Losing always
personal, initially anyway, so I sympathize with the President and Michelle Obama.
Conservatives don’t know this, and so won’t have any sympathy, because they never, ever lose. To hear them tell it, anyway.
Minionero
@BOB: WTF?
Tropical Fats
I can’t believe ACORN didn’t rig the vote, what with all their terrifying superpowers and whatnot.
Brick Oven Ann
Obviously Barrack is a sitter and not a pointer. The Danes understood that. Glen Beck is a pointer. He urinates proudly standing up for his country. The Brazilians are pointers too, but mulatto, like Barrack. Their Olympics will fail, just as they would in Chicago, where there have been 2012 shootings on the South Side this week.
4tehlulz
>Last place baby.
Spoken like a true patriot.
General Winfield Stuck
@ksmiami:
Of course he’s a spoof, he’s also a racist, sexist, wingnut, and assassin of sanity.
SiubhanDuinne
@Brick Oven Bill: Bill: Please take your trivium and shove it up your quadrivium.
Thank you very much.
Strawmanmunny
Really, BOB, isn’t it about time for a vacation? I mean, I know you’re a spoof, but it’s getting tiresome reading all your stuff.
You know, it’s only funny the first 500 times you do it…you need to get a better act.
I couldn’t care less whether the US got the Olympics or not and I’m pretty sure that many, if not all, of the people rejoicing today that “Obama lost” couldn’t have cared less either if Obama wasn’t involved somehow.
The case of whiplash that must be endured from the quick turnaround from not saying anything bad about America/President to now rejoicing when Merica’ loses and disrespecting the President is sure to drive up their insurance costs.
wasabi gasp
@Brick Oven Bill: Odd and obtuse.
Don’t stretch out that new hat, man.
scav
You’re not getting it. When did reality enter winger condemnations. Logical consistency doesn’t either, which is why I immediately cited r€nato. Also.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Zifnab: True. Conspiracy theories are not like “old soldiers”: not only don’t they die, they don’t fade away.
Lyle4
@Brick Oven Bill: What kind of shrooms are you on? Do you see rainbows and unicorns while you type your gibberish?
Brandon
There is a lunatic in here.
Perry Como
The Olympic planning committee didn’t want to have to deal with TSA at the airport.
Nellcote
I wonder what Rio will do with their mountain of slums.
Brachiator
@kid bitzer:
The 1984 Los Angeles games made a net profit of $200 million. It ain’t written in stone that the Games have to be a financial drain.
kay
@General Winfield Stuck:
Oh, everyone hates to lose. Those two are extremely competitive people. I feel for them.
Conservatives are responding like the small and nasty malcontents they are, but that’s no different than any other day, so the Obamas will survive.
The Dangerman
It played out the only way it could; it will go to Rio and has been going there for a while.
So, Obama went and lost…
…but can you imagine if Obama had NOT gone and then lost? Impeachment!
Shinobi
@R-Jud: Lou Malnati’s is way better. (and more deadly, even their salads are fattening. Plus, 4 words Chocalate Chip Cookie Pizza.)
Lyle4
@Nellcote: Can’t they do what China did and just like paint over all of it with pretty murals?
Warren Terra
No – Hitler not only had an Olympics, he had one so awesome that it obviated the need for the next two Olympics. Now that‘s a good Olympics.
You know what this means, right? Obama is now worse than Hitler!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Sasha:
Or that foreign visitors have to purchase thousands of dollars of temporary health insurance just to visit the US for a few weeks or else risk getting sick without coverage in our paradise of privatized medicine (and hope that a pandemic of something like H1N1 doesn’t break out during their visit to a nation that refuses to provide health care to a fair fraction of its citizenry), are treated like terrorists upon arriving at our shores, navigate a country where people can carry guns into bars, and then once at the actual Olympics have to cope with a bunch of screaming xenophonbic loons armed with giant foam fingers (and who know what else) shouting ‘USA! USA!’ at the drop of a hat, etc.
If I wasn’t a US citizen and didn’t already live here but instead lived in some other 1st World country, I wouldn’t even consider coming here to visit, ever, under any circumstances. You couldn’t pay me to do it, actually. Americans have completely lost the capacity to see ourselves through the eyes of somebody else from a civilized nation. The picture ain’t pretty.
gnomedad
@smiley:
I would love to see Obama slip in a sound byte along the lines of “You know, Glenn Beck and others have a right not to like me; it’s just too bad they want bad things to happens to our country in the hope that it’ll hurt me.”
Midnight Marauder
@Brick Oven Ann:
No. No, no, no, no, no, no. No.
Enough is enough. Now there are fourth-rate spinoffs of second-rate spoofs? Why? One is certainly more than enough.
Where ever this brick oven is, we need to find it and destroy it before more morans emerge from its dark lair.
Edit: And “Barrack”? Really? Can we either get some quality trolls or just shut them all for a while? Please? This is just getting too painful to look at.
SpotWeld
Who do we lobby to get better quality spoofers?
Brachiator
@4tehlulz:
They could always have Brazilian Death Squads as a Demonstration Sport at the 2016 games.
Flugelhorn
Make fun all you like, but it does say something. That the Head of State makes a personal plea for the first time in the history of this country and his chosen city comes in dead last is a pretty poor showing.
This is actually a good thing for Chicago in my opinion. London is $8 Billion over Budget. Vancouver had to borrow mass amounts because they are way over budget. These host cities will never see a return on their investment. The modern Olympics is a boondoggle. At the very least, Chicagoans no longer have to worry about traffic being snarled for years.
This country could not possibly pay for an over-budget Olympics AND healthcare reform. : )
Lyle4
Holy hyperbole.
Stooleo
Could B.O.B. be Glen Beck? The unhingedness seems strikingly similar.
Mister Papercut
@Brick Oven Bill: I really question the asylum’s decision to give Internet access to the inpatients. Try not to impale yourself on your keyboard. Also.
Ann B. Nonymous
@Midnight Marauder:
It’s really hard to get in the stream of Brick Oven consciousness. Whoever BOB is — Chuck Todd? — he’s remarkable at it.
gnomedad
@Midnight Marauder:
Aw, c’mon, I thought BOA was a pretty good sendup of BOB.
I think BOB missed his calling as a perpetual motion researcher or ambassador to aliens or something.
R-Jud
Eh, I don’t know about that. Lots of the Brits and Australians I talk to express a desire to see the Grand Canyon or New York. I also hear this from French and Italian folks– but most of the ones I know are under 25. They tend to separate our government and policies from our people. I suppose they COULD just be humoring me, as an American, but a lot of them say “What are you doing here when you could be living in America?” and seem to mean it.
Also, travel health insurance policies are actually quite cheap. I think we paid £150 to cover the whole family for the year. Finally, while the TSA does suck, they didn’t make us taste the baby’s milk at the security checkpoint. The Brits did.
kay
@gnomedad:
I can all but guarantee conservatives will crow too long and loud and overplay their hand, based on their behavior right out of the gate, if that’s any comfort.
They lack discipline, in my opinion. They never, ever pass up a cheap shot. You can’t take every one.
Midnight Marauder
@gnomedad:
Dubious claim.
Comrade Dread
You joke, but I’ve made the rounds at the conservo-blogs today and I’ve seen about 25 posts on this ‘failure’ and absolutely 0 posts on the ‘appeasement’ of the Iranians and their subsequent defying act of agreeing to give the international community exactly what it was asking for.
tripletee
@Brick Oven Ann:
Not bad, and I like the way you worked in a reference to 2012. You really can’t compare with the real thing until you pen some creepy lyrics celebrating the virtues of date rape, though.
Ann B. Nonymous
@Midnight Marauder: Try it. It’s harder than it looks. You have to turn off a lot of the higher neural pathways.
Third Eye Open
Hey, BOB:
How does it feel to wake up every morning and realize you’re simply entertainment? I bet God thinks you’re funny.
OTOH, there is a distinct possibility that God hates you. You see, Jesus and his Pops (plus that freeloader the Holy Ghost) were all hanging at my place last night, drinking a few brews and playing some poker. You came up in conversation, and while I won’t divulge all our banter, Jesus was pretty sure that the chinchilla your mom got you when you were eight, wasn’t intended to be used as a masturbatory device. But on the up side, he did tell me that your rash is scheduled to go away next week, but unfortunately the clap is between you, your doctor and that mail-order bride you had sent from Ukraine.
SGEW
[Reposting formal request for the permanent banning of Brick Oven Bill for self-admitted racism, misogyny, homophobia, and sexual harassment here.]
Lyle4
@Comrade Dread: Iran doesn’t matter anymore. The possibility of blowing them up drastically decreased, so why should be care anymore?
wasabi gasp
I so want to blow tubes of BOB’s doobage. I kinda wish he lived around the corner. I don’t have kids, so it’s cool. I can run fast, too.
Lola
@smiley:
Funny how when the world rejects Bush for reals, this is a sign of Bush’s strength, but when the world “rejects” Chicago for the Olympics, the world is suddenly right. Gawd, the people that believe every word Beck and Limbaugh say are deserving of pity.
smiley
It’s Rio.
kay
@Comrade Dread:
Obama failing in his bid to get the Olympics is a huge win for them.
But, everything is a huge win for them, according to them, so put it in context. They give each other the winner’s cup every day, just pass it around, so it’s all but meaningless.
Whatever the hell happens in Iran, US conservatives “won” and were “right”. That’s a given, at this point.
General Winfield Stuck
@smiley:
Poor Madrid. Blame it on Rio.
Brachiator
@Flugelhorn:
The Los Angeles Games turned a profit. And traffic was not snarled.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_Summer_Olympics
Even Atlanta 1996 did modestly well, and used the Games as a springboard to improve infrastructure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Summer_Olympics
Facts are stubborn things. Worse, the InterTubes makes it harder to blurt fact-free opinion, except of course for dedicated wingnuts.
Midnight Marauder
@Ann B. Nonymous:
Oh, I don’t doubt that at all. The level of mind altering substances you would have to ingest to reach that level of semi-coherrent babbling is frightening to think about it. That said, I have no desire to recreate or dublicate that crazy bastard’s nonsensical screeds in even the slightest manner ever.
There ain’t no comin’ back from that kind of place.
Brick Oven Bill
When you brought me up on the Sullenberger thread last night, I mistook that for flirting SGEW. I apologize for making a polite pass and will never suggest snuggling again. I respect you as a strong woman.
You really don’t need drugs wasabi gasp. Try living in the Obama Economy without TV.
smiley
@smiley: No surprise but any organization that has an anthem takes itself a little too seriously. I know that first hand because I once interviewed for a position with the U.S. Olympic Committee. What a bunch of smug, arrogant assholes. I’m glad I wasn’t offered the job and I’m glad I didn’t have to take it if it was. Oh, and the position was eliminated 2 years later.
General Winfield Stuck
@kay:
Obama does something they complain. Obama doesn’t do something they complain. This comes from deep despair that tells them we are fucked no matter, so might as well sink the whole ship and start over. They are assuming a permanent step child syndrome hoping against hope a terrorist attacks us or a video emerges with Obama running nekked thru the Rose Garden, or something along those lines.
Robertdsc-iphone
A little disappointing, but nothing to knock the President & First Lady for.
Punchy
@Brachiator: Uh….when your examples are 1) 26 years old, and 2) 14 years old, methinks you’re not so up to date.
Athens took a bath. London’s getting crushed. No one knows about China, b/c they’re about as open as a mormon-run brothel. I’m glad my hometown missed this boondoggle.
Strawmanmunny
Obama lost the Olympics, Bush lost Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obviously, the Olympics were more “stunning”.
Flugelhorn
@Brachiator: Hey Ass-Hat. Did I say anything about LA (25 YEARS AGO) and Atlanta (13 YEARS AGO)? No. I was speaking of London and Vancouver. Beijing is also WAY in the hole. So much so that noone even knows exactly how much. They still have building loans from Chinese banks that are still not on the books because of the way it will devastate the bottom line.
Get your shine box and go look those up, Fact Boy, and report back to me.
wasabi gasp
You lie!
bob
@SGEW:
Seconded
General Winfield Stuck
It’s not like Obama puked in the lap of the Japanese Prime Minister or anything, or couldn’t find the right door to exit after an Asian presser. Or gave Angela Merkel an uninvited and unwanted back rub with the cameras rolling.
Brachiator
@Punchy:
Here is the claim about the modern Olympics from the other post.
The claim about the financial unsoundness of the games is factually incorrect.
And since the games are held every four years, it’s odd to suggest that 14 years ago is ancient history. Your logic is so tortured that Amnesty International might come after you.
Olly McPherson
@Brachiator:
Not a chance Chicago would have turned a profit. Check out any Ben Jovarsky articles in the Chicago Reader to get a glimpse of the corruption, graft and cost overruns.
camchuck
I blame Bartman.
SGEW
Btw, I find it interesting that our resident troll has made an assumption about my gender, as he has no actual information to base this on – I have made a point to never specify the gender identity of this particular pseudonym. Yet he assumes that I’m female, and even sexually harassed me (in an extraordinarily creepy way).
Strange thing, this internet.
eemom
@General Winfield Stuck:
or had to duck shoes being thrown at him.
gocart mozart
@Brick Oven Bill:
Heh!
JasonF
@Flugelhorn:
You’ve obviously never driven in Chicago.
Brick Oven Bill
Men rarely bitch.
freelancer
This is Obama’s Waterloo.
Brachiator
@Flugelhorn:
This is what you wrote.
You didn’t qualify it in any way. At first I thought you were just ignorant, i.e., you did not know the facts. Now it appears that you are willfully obtuse.
Or do you think that modern Olympics means anytime after the year 2000?
JMY
Why is this a lost for Obama? I’m from Chicago, I wanted the Olympics here. When it comes to the economic and financial factors, people act as though the games were being held in 2010. I think it would have brought some much needed spirit to this city and could possibly had an economic benefit. As a taxpayer would I have been excited about higher taxes? No. But that’s something I was willing to sacrifice and I understand others would not agree with that.
I wish people would stop with the “oh he can go over to Europe for this, but he won’t talk about health care or the environment as passionate as he did for the Olympics.” That’s BS. He’s our President and he represents us. Why not have our biggest representative speak on our behalf? The effort for health-care reform isn’t going anywhere because he takes a trip to Denmark for a day.
John S.
The ‘Obama Economy’, eh?
So the threshold for a President ‘owning’ a situation is six months?
Were things as rough during the years of ‘Bush Terrorism’ that resulted in 9/11?
Were things as rough during the ‘Reagan Economy’ of the early 80s?
I am ever so curious.
gwangung
No doubt; big projects have a tendency to be more expensive than planned. However, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking corruption and graft are not a large factor in Spain, Brasil and China, as well…
celticdragon
This a real problem. I just read the article. An IOC rep from Pakistan pointedly asked about how visitors to the US would be treated on arrival at Customs. He said the traveling to the US can be “a harrowing experience”.
The question is valid. We have actually made it very difficult and time consuming for foreign visitors to come here, and companies like Microsoft are moving major operations to Canada because it is easier to get people in and out of Canada!
The IOC may have been thinking of this nasty little incident that caused real diplomatic damage with Iceland…
An Icelandic woman who came to the US as a tourist was arrested and held without charge or a phone call for two days at the border because she had overstayed a US visa more than a decade ago. She was held in shackles, denied food, and then deported from the US back to Iceland.
She contended she was interrogated at JFK airport for two days, during which she was not allowed to call relatives. She said she was denied food and drink for part of the time, and was photographed and fingerprinted.
On Monday, Lillendahl claimed, her hands and feet were chained and she was moved to a prison in New Jersey, where she was kept in a cell, interrogated further and denied access to a phone.
In Brazil, they’ve instituted fingerprinting at the border — but only for Americans, because the US fingerprints Brazilians who visit America. What goes around, comes around. When US border personnel treat foreigners badly, they create a climate in which American travellers meet similar treatment abroad.
http://boingboing.net/2007/12/16/icelandic-tourist-to.html
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/Americas/May-June-08/Italian-Traveler-Detained-in-Virginia.html
Third Eye Open
@Brick Oven Bill:
You bitch all the time, BOB, although the logic you use falls flat on its face. So, to split the difference, we can assume you’re an animated Ken doll, living in Barbie’s pool house, watching re-runs of Ab-Fab while making notes on the manifesto you will release before you throw yourself under a heat-lamp somewhere.
Or, you’re just a contrarian with a bland sense of humor.
JMY
I find it funny that for the past 2 years (I assume b/c Obama is a Chicagoan), a lot of people think Chicago is the only major city in the U.S. and for that matter, the world, that has corruption and inner-city crime. And because of those factors, they try to make it a reflection of Obama. It’s everywhere, not just my city. I’m tired of the crime and corruption as well, but I’m also tired of people thinking that it only exists in Chicago. If crime and corruption were a major factor, Rio wouldn’t have won, and China DEFINITELY wouldn’t have won.
Brachiator
@gwangung:
Yeah, but I think the idea is that opponents only care about the potential costs (ignoring all potential benefits) to Chicago.
Of course, it will also be more expensive for US athletes to travel to Brazil than to Chicago. Or maybe the US can just outsource all the US competitors.
OTOH, it’s becoming mind-numbing predictable that the old wingnut whine, “Why is Obama trying to cripple the US economy by bringing the Olympics to Chicago?” is now being replaced by the new wingnut whine, “Obama proves he is incompetent as a leader by failing to win the Olympics for the US.”
John S.
I wonder how many days into the 2016 games until we see news reports of tourists accosted by roving gangs of children.
slag
@JMY:
Not the point. The trip was a sign of commitment (short-live, as it inherently was). People who support Obama’s agenda (I am one) want to see more signs of commitment along these lines. I don’t think many truly begrudge this little foray as much as they begrudge a lack of similar forays into other areas of interest to us. Just saying you support a public option or climate change legislation is different from fighting for it in both meaningful and symbolic ways.
wasabi gasp
Olopo says recriminations are coming. She would know, huh? As she fingers her chin hair in the mirror.
Olly McPherson
@JMY:
Chicago’s corruption is legendary and amply documented. Read any Ben Jovarsky article or John Kass column. Look at the recent parking meter fiasco, Midway concessions, the Children’s Museum move, or the little bribes and favors that dictate zoning decisions. Daley and his cronies have elevated graft and sponging to a higher plane.
Re: Rio and China, well maybe people just expect more from the U.S. Of course, the IOC doesn’t have any room to talk when it comes to corruption and clout.
I do agree that it’s silly to tie Obama to Chicago-style politics, as he largely sidestepped it.
Brachiator
Serious celebrating in Rio on getting the Games. I think this must be the pre- pre- opening ceremonies.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1217595/Rio-Janeiro-awarded-2016-Olympics.html
Shinobi
Jon Henke On Twitter:
I tried to point out that it isn’t just the DEMOCRATS in Il that are corrupt. I think he tried to agree with me without admiting that he was wrong.
Origuy
@celticdragon: I’ve been involved in a bid to host the Junior World Orienteering Championships in California. The issue of visas and border control is a real concern. JWOC is miniature compared to the Olympics, but the problem is the same. Athletes and coaches qualify to host these things fairly close to the event. The State Dept. takes its own sweet time issuing visas and can be very arbitrary, particularly when the country isn’t being nice to us.
It was always a problem, from what I’ve seen, but it got worse starting in 2001.
Joel
@Flugelhorn: I agree that it says something, but not necessarily about the current head of state. Put another way, the US doesn’t have a lot of “political capital” with the world right now, particularly the European part of it.
slag
Wasn’t it Yglesias who put up the chart of state representatives busted for corruption and found that all of the data points primarily congregated in the south? Or was that someone else?
Shell
This is good news for John McCain.
grouchygardens
I have to admit that I would have taken a perverse pleasure in seeing Chicago try to host the Games, considering that large events tend to degrade into clusterf**ks around here.
It would have caused me no shortage of inconvenience, but would have at least provided a few laughs.
ksmiami
Poor SGEW – Glad I am not in your shoes. Just use brain bleach to get the image out of your mind… Funny, I think you are a guy by your language…
Third Eye Dude – I am seeing the real McCoy at a concert tonight in FLL. I like the new album/cd/downloadable tunes…
BOB – you are starting to scare us all.
Will
Though I live in New Jersey, I voted for him for the sole purpose of getting the Olympics to Chicago, as did most of us here. Now that Obama has failed in this singular goal, he should either resign or be impeached.
Adrienne
@Olly McPherson: ,
HAHA. Zoning was SET UP as a form of legal bribery. I’d hate to see what you’d say about Philly! About 90% of any zoning system is set up to make money for a City. PERIOD.
JMY
@Olly McPherson:
I’m from Chicago, I know about the history of corruption in this city. I have an issue with how it’s being portrayed by the media as if we are the only major city that has this problem. I have the same issue with the crime in the city. I live 5 minutes away from the school of recently murdered high school student Derrion Albert. Inner-city crime is definitely a problem, but from what I’ve seen and read, you would think it was Afghanistan. Immediately when the video was plastered all over television and YouTube, the sentiment was whether Chicago was deserving of the Games given the crime in the city. That’s BS because crime is everywhere, hell someone was murdered during the 08 Olympics. Then with a Chicagoan as President they try to reflect the crime and corruption on him – that’s my biggest concern. We’ve had these issues for decades and I’ve never ever seen such an interest in the crime and corruption in our city until Obama became a prominent political figure. So I’m not upset that corruption and crime is being exposed b/c it should, but again I’ve never seen such a focus on the city like this until Obama, so I guess that’s a downside to him being President. Not all Chicago natives or politicians in this city are criminals or corrupt. There are good people in this city who are not highlighted enough.
JK
@celticdragon:
Great post. I wasn’t aware of the incident involving the woman from Iceland. Love your screen name.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Yep. IIRC, there was a lot of whining from the athletes at the LA Olympics because they did things like not build a special Olympic Village and instead put people up in the dormitories and apartments at USC. Which made perfect sense since USC is directly across the street from the Coliseum and USC built a brand-new swim stadium for the Olympics, so they saved a lot of money on transportation since the athletes could just walk over.
This is why USC still has a cafeteria called Cafe 84 — it was used for the Olympics and named for them.
Brachiator
@JMY:
And God knows there is no crime in Rio.
Good post. Chicago is one of my favorite cities. Last time I visited, someone who knew the city well took me to a couple of blues clubs. At one, we stayed for a set after the tourists had gone and more locals had come in. The energy and appreciation — amazing.
Great food. Great times.
By the way, 2 great (and sad) films about the hard life in Brazil.
City of God (2002)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/
Pixote (1981)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082912/
Olly McPherson
@JMY:
Well, I live here too. And I agree with you on crime and Obama. With corruption, though, I believe Mayor Daley’s imperial attitude has finally blown up in his face, as people don’t trust anything he or the City Council have to say about these games.
Flugelhorn
@Brachiator: Every 2 years Fact Boy. Not 4. Look it up on your Wiki-peen.
I was refering directly to the most recent, MODERN Olympics. Specifically the ones I actually mentioned that you conveniently left out of your quote and took out of context.
Go, Go FACT BOY! WOOP!
Pugnant
“Country First” indeed…
Flugelhorn
@Brachiator: I in fact DID qualify it. Read the preceding sentences where I specifically talk about Vancouver and London. Fool.
Not too clear on your facts now, are you Fact Boy?
Brachiator
@JK:
By the way, did you see this recent news story about the compromise worked out between YouTube and Warners?
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-youtube30-2009sep30,0,6515678.story
R-Jud
@JMY:
For example, noted educator Bill Ayers, who– oh, shit.
Seriously, though, I agree with your post completely.
Calouste
Not surpised that Rio got the Olympics and Chicago did not. The Atlanta Olympics were not particularly well received by the IOC, as they were unimpressed with the American organization, to the point that the IOC president left out the traditional “these were the best Games ever” line from his closing speech.
Mnemosyne
@Flugelhorn:
Wait, you’re complaining about an Olympic games that hasn’t even taken place yet? One that hasn’t turned any kind of profit because it doesn’t happen for another two years?
Dude. Seriously. When you have to project into the future to get your desired result, you’ve lost the argument.
Mike in NC
This is also how realignments happen!
hal
See folks: it is completely acceptable to cheer the defeat of America when the President is not a white, Republican, conservative. Where are the Dixie Chicks now? They would be heroes to the right.
BTW, I find it hilarious that people are actually citing crime as a reason Chicago lost. Being that Rio is a Utopian city and all. (At least within a few blacks radius of the beach hotels.)
Mike in NC
Which book cover? All of them tend to feature a pale, fat, sweaty potato-faced clown. At least he wasn’t sticking out his tongue as on the TIME cover.
licensed to kill time
I got here late, as usual, and this has probably been noted already, but
via Steve Benen
Brachiator
@Flugelhorn:
Sloppy writing that matched your sloppy thinking. You began with two examples and then went on to make a general statement about the modern Olympics which is factually wrong.
Why do you bother? The more you try to justify your lame-ass opinion, the more foolish you look.
There are a lot of valid criticisms that can be leveled at the Olympics movement. But you really don’t appear to be capable of making them.
Common Sense
Could probably mention somewhere in this that Rio had by far the most expensive bid and Chicago the lowest.
Chicago already had most of the athletic and transportation infrastructure in place. If a profitable games were the issue, Chicago made far more sense and was infinitely more achievable than the alternatives.
Mark S.
Jesus, you can set your watch to these guys.
JK
@Brachiator:
No, I hadn’t seen that story. Thanks for passing it on. I hope it’s the first step to breaking the logjam of copyright hell.
drillfork
@Mnemosyne:
Interesting NYT article (from August) on the ’84 Games and Peter Ueberroth. I’ve always thought Ueberroth was kind of a fraud and I don’t agree with everything Vecsey says in this piece, but it points out the advantages Los Angeles had — namely, being able to sell the TV rights — that no longer exist.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/sports/05vecsey.html
So, considering that, and the fact that Chicago was committed to using public money to pay for everything, it would have been a massive boondoggle. The IOC IMHO did Chicagoans a huge favor…
Olly McPherson
@Brachiator:
The criticism here is simple. London and Vancouver made cost projections for justifying the Olympics. Those projections have been overrun, to the tune of billions of dollars. Because of that, it’s plausible to doubt the benefits of the Olympics or claims that the Olympics will benefit the city hosting them.
Common Sense
In other words, maybe part of the reason the Olympics cost so much is they choose cities that are poorly equipped to host them based on cosmetics like “it’s never happened in this continent ” or “let’s hold them in the city that invented them whether it has a functional government or not.”
Olly McPherson
@Common Sense:
Not true, at least for the South Side, where they wanted to hold much of the games. Unless you figured millions of tourists were going to wait for intermittent city buses to come rumbling by.
JK
h/t http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/02/conservatives-revel-in-ob_n_307794.html
Common Sense
@Olly McPherson: ”Have you seen Rio’s bus system? Maybe we could just arm the athletes and put them in Taxis.
Tokyo, maybe (although the cost of building everything else in Tokyo would have been exhorbitant.
Brachiator
@hal:
I think Freud has a slip for you. Or that was a seriously witty pun.
Great post, again emphasizing the right wing strategy of criticizing Obama even when he does practically the same thing that Bush or another Republican did.
Olly McPherson
@Common Sense:
No, I haven’t! I just think that while Chicago does have a pretty good public transit system, the area where they wanted to host the Olympics is underserved.
(Indeed, that was one of the arguments the boosters tried to put forth to get people to back the Olympics–that it would lead to public-transit spending on the South Side. The response: “Can we get that without the Olympics, please?”)
dmsilev
@Olly McPherson: It’s not that bad. The proposed site for the main stadium was about a block from an El station (the Garfield stop on the Green line). Run express trains from downtown, and shuttle buses that run up 55th street between the Metra stop, the stadium, the Green line, and the Red line, and that would take care of quite a few people.
-dms, Hyde Park resident
Olly McPherson
@dmsilev:
Maybe I’m overstating transit concerns for the Olympics, then. For day-to-day living, though, I don’t think the area is as well-served as the rest of the city (particularly the north side).
Common Sense
@Olly McPherson: \
My point is that Chicago has already spent more than the competing cities did and built a larger portion of necessary venues, whether the Olympics came or not. Thus, the building that was projected was smaller scale and targeted, and more likely to be paid for by the increased tourism that results for one month. Massive citywide renovations at the scale of Athens, Rio, and Beijing are not necessary in Chicago. Further, If the IOC wanted to turn a profitable Olympics, choosing a city like Rio makes zero sense. Chicago would be the logical choice if a manageable Olympics were the goal.
Max
Funny thought…
While the GOP is laughing about the United States losing the Olympics to Rio, I like to think that Obama is going to enjoy spending a little time in Rio relaxing and checking out the sights, as he finishes up his last year as President in 2016.
SiubhanDuinne
@General Winfield Stuck: Shorter you (Southern version): Obama can’t win for losin’.
kay
@JK:
No discipline. No restraint. They immediately go completely over the top, and right to the easiest cheap shot, every single day.
I don’t know: people admire this “movement” and want to be part of it? Why? It’s so completely cynical and nasty. Why sign up to join that? What’s the personal benefit to aligning yourself with that bile?
JK
@kay:
Erik Erickson is the same mutant who called David Souter a goat fucker.
licensed to kill time
@Brachiator:
Thanks, late to the party but wanted to once again note that characteristic. I just wonder if they are even aware of it or does the compartmentalizing mind simply not see the cognitive dissonance? If they do then they are just venal power hungry hypocrites; if they don’t they are just purely dumb.
Olly McPherson
@Common Sense:
They haven’t built much. Indeed, they would have had to tear down some existing facilities to build new ones.
I didn’t believe that. And a lot of other Chicagoans didn’t either, especially those who’ve seen Block 37, and Millenium Park, and the Chicago River extension, and other contractor-boosting boondoggles.
I’m sure Rio will have problems. Better them than us!
licensed to kill time
@licensed to kill time:
(Of course, you probably meant Benen’s post was great – I agree!)
Makewi
@Sasha:
It’s nice that you will always have that Bush hate to lean on.
Makewi
@Max:
Weak presidents don’t get second terms, and so far Obama is as weak as they come. A shame really.
DougJ
It’s nice that you will always have that Bush hate to lean on.
You know, you don’t have to hate Bush to believe that the rest of the world (outside the US) hated him. In fact, that’s almost more a conservative talking point than a liberal one
DougJ
Weak presidents don’t get second terms, and so far Obama is as weak as they come. A shame really.
Too spoofy sounding.
Ed Drone
Does it seem to anyone else that, with its off-the-radar snippets of off-topic facts, combined with routine right-whinge attacks on reality, BOB may well be the world’s longest-lasting Turing Test?
It just looks that way to me.
Ed
HRA
celticdragon: I am sure the story of the woman from Iceland has been distributed world wide. According to a friend from the UK, there is definitely an agreement among her family and acquaintances to bypass traveling to the US since the new rules were initiated. It’s really sad. She enjoyed coming here for her holidays.
Thanks for posting the story.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
One day you morons are whining about Obama is somehow so powerful and clever as to turn the country into a soshulist haven for all time, the next you say he’s weak. The right wing in this country, reminds me everyday of a jailed prisoner who thinks by repeatably running headlong into his cell bars, that someone will feel sorry for their plight and open the door. They end up just giving themselves a bad headache for their trouble.
licensed to kill time
@Ed Drone:
BoB sez, “I afraid I can’t let you say that, Ed Drone”
(How the heck do you do the strike-through? Wanted to strike-through do and I failed!)
John S.
Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…nobody knows but Jesus…
Brachiator
@Olly McPherson:
“Plausibility” is not the same thing as a factual certainty, especially when people are pulling out their crystal balls and predicting the future with respect to the Olympics.
One of the reasons that the 1984 Summer games were successful is that the US Olympic Committee did not do business the way that previous organizers had done, and this also meant that they brushed off some of the more corrupt and aristocratic demands of the IOC, which pissed these folks off no end.
As to whether the Olympics provide a benefit. Hmm. Jimmy Carter declared a boycott and lots of people went nuts. I don’t know what would happen if someone said, “The US will no longer participate in the Games,” but I doubt that the results would be pretty.
Also, I live in the Los Angeles area, and few things are as entertaining as hearing callers to sports talk radio moaning about how the Olympics are an foolish extravagance and then — with the same mouths — demanding that some city float bonds and make tax concessions so that the NFL can bless the city with a football franchise.
kay
@Makewi:
No restraint, no self-discipline. The brain trust on the Right couldn’t resist comparing the President to a pimp?
Admirable. That’s a “movement” i want to be associated with?
No thanks. It’s not at all appealing, really on any level.
Makewi
@DougJ:
No, I mean Obama claimed that his brand of diplomacy would pay dividends in the way that Bush’s did not. Only, it hasn’t quite worked out that way. Which leaves true believers to either re-examine the idea that Obama’s brand of foreign policy is less effective than he sold it as, or blame it on Bush.
For the give him time crowd, he’s over the 20% mark on his term, so time’s up.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
Are you basing this absurd observation on not getting the Olympics. If not, wtf are you wanking about Scarlett?
licensed to kill time
@licensed to kill time:
And now I’m in moderation. Tried to edit my comment twice, is that bad? I swear, I’m still in fear of the edit button; every time I use it I get a bad outcome!
And the line is from 2001: A Space Odyssey for the scifi challenged among us. Because, yes – it is hard to tell if BoB is human or a computer who wouldn’t open the pod door for us if he felt threatened.
Pete
On the upside, now that they’ve decided on South America, Mark Sanford will have a good excuse to head back down there.
Makewi
@DougJ:
Nah, just a prediction. Unemployment still up, and looking increasingly like their are going to be more boots dropping on that front; The “must win war”, the one he told us was the real fight, in Afghanistan becoming an increasingly bigger problem; failures in the diplomacy front in Russia, Iran, and now the IOC; failures to even give a nod to democratic movements in Iran and Honduras; and finally failures on major health care and environmental domestic policies.
All of this while the party he was elected under controls both houses of Congress and the executive.
Darkrose
@JMY:
Wow–that’s my old neighborhood. My mom always threatened to pull me out of St. Ignatius and send me to Fenger if my grades weren’t good.
Recently I was back, and I got the impression that Roseland was getting a little better. I’m sorry to hear that it’s not.
kay
@Makewi:
Cheer up. Maybe you’ll get shock and awe after all. The President’s simply asking for you to cool down and wait for a little bit before bombing Iran.
Not that you’re capable of really any measure of “restraint”, as you-all so amply illustrated today, as every day, which is part of the reason you lost.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
Utter bullshit on every single count.
Makewi
@General Winfield Stuck:
I can only speak for myself. He isn’t powerful, he’s weak. As for his policy initiatives, I disagree that his methods will bring about the expected result in some cases, and in others I disagree with the intended result.
Olly McPherson
@Brachiator:
Agreed, but it’s enough to make an informed decision about not wanting the Olympics. Others may hold a different viewpoint.
Daley wouldn’t give them the brush-off. He would double down with corrupt and aristocratic demands from his cronies.
I wouldn’t support that either.
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
Well, that’s a relief. For a minute there, I thought you could be speaking for someone not an imbecile.
Makewi
@General Winfield Stuck:
OK champ, explain them as successes.
@kay:
You are unable to communicate without using caricatures as stand ins, which is sad because you sometimes have good thoughts. It would be nice if you just addressed what I said, rather than trying to attribute to me the worst aspects of every cartoon character right winger you have in your mind.
Because making a claim that I’m just upset we are not bombing Iran sooner just makes you a bit of a petulant childish jerk.
Brachiator
@drillfork:
But the key point here is that the US Olympic Committee was tough-minded and innovative when they planned the Games. This only suggests that future planners have to use some brain power, especially with the global economy still down.
One other thing about the 1984 Olympics. In addition to selling all kinds of licensing and using existing venues, the organizers also brought other, complementary events to Los Angeles, such as the Olympics Arts festival, bringing theater and film and performance to an area already known for as an entertaiment mecca. This in turn, not only brought in visitors who hung around for the Games, but also let the organizers leverage Olympics related-sponsorships.
By the way, the Olympics Arts Festival introduced Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson and other performers to the US, or at least let them become more widely known.
Makewi
@General Winfield Stuck:
I wonder if you are even capable of examining issues in a non assholish rabidly partisan cheer leading way. When you are not obsessing over fecal matter that is. I suspect not. I’ve certainly never seen any evidence of it.
kay
@General Winfield Stuck:
If Obama succeeds on his initiatives, it’s a failure, because they disagree with the objective.
If he fails, it’s of course a failure.
Limbaugh laid it out in March for them.
Success=failure, and failure = failure.
You see where this inevitably goes, right? Conservatives win either way. That’s how they never “lose”. They set it up so they “win” and are “right” whatever the result. They’re like a pee wee soccer team.
“Awards for everyone! “
licensed to kill time
@kay:
Pithy. Succinct. Correct!
kay
@Makewi:
You never admit a mistake. You make sweeping predictions, I call you on them, and you move to the next sweeping prediction.
Health care reform was supposed to dead by now, under your reckoning, because you were reading a poll in such a way as to verify your foregone conclusion, that the tea parties had been a smashing success. But that was bullshit, and I called you on it, and you just blithely moved on the the next “failure”. Health care reform is not at all dead, and the tea parties were a summer cable ratings booster.
I’m not going to play this stupid game where you set it up that whatever the hell happens, you’re somehow vindicated. It’s a waste of time.
IMO, you celebrate too soon, and that, to me, shows a lack of discipline. I think you should wait until you actually, factually win one before breaking out the champagne. But do whatever. I don’t care all that much.
licensed to kill time
Every comment I have made since 3:47pm is in moderation. I’m crushed, I tell you, crushed!
(oops – just realized I put an extra space in my handle. crap.)
(and now they have all disappeared. Oh well, you’ll all have to just imagine the brilliance :)
wrb
@Makewi:
You say this on the day we get this?
Amazing
General Winfield Stuck
@Makewi:
They are works in process. He canceled the stupid anti-missile deployment on Russia’s front door and will put them on ships where they can MAYBE be affective on Iran’s medium range missiles. And by every account, Iran is on the defensive and agreeing to inspections of their newly discovered nuke facility, with both China and Russia softening some their resistance to tough sanctions if Iran doesn’t comply.
As far as Honduras is concerned, it was the DULY elected government that was ousted by a right wing coup, because they didn’t use the democratic institutions to deal with Zelaya’s antics. And now Sen. Demint and maybe M. Mcconnell are planning a trip to buck up the coup government that we and others don’t officially recognize as legitimate, undermining their own government and likely violating the Logan Act in the process.
And if Obama and the US had took sides with Iran’s protesters, it would have given the Iran Mullah’s legitimacy to claim US interference in the country’s politics, again, and likely would have gotten a whole lot more people killed.
Medrawt
This only suggests that future planners have to use some brain power, especially with the global economy still down.
I point out in passing that Chicago/Daley recently leased the operation of its parking meters in order to try and get a short-term cash infusion, and is generally considered to have seriously botched the implementation of the new system.
kay
@wrb:
Forget it.
US conservatives defeated the city of Chicago, so it’s a big win in the their column.
Because Chicago was the enemy. Or something. Next they’ll march to Manhattan, or San Francisco, and defeat those…..places, I guess.
At some point someone will remind them Chicago is in this country, but not anytime soon, because that might hurt their feelings.
slag
@kay:
This is why I like pie so much.
Brachiator
@Olly McPherson:
RE: “Plausibility” is not the same thing as a factual certainty, especially when people are pulling out their crystal balls and predicting the future with respect to the Olympics.
No. It’s not.
You might be able to get closer by looking at an actual proposal, with numbers, for the 2016 games, but anything more is just pleasant online conversation.
The Los Angeles City Council and County Board of Supervisors can’t walk and talk at the same time. However, they weren’t in charge of the 1984 Olympics. None of us knows how Chicago might have been organized, but the issue is now moot, so it really doesn’t much matter.
Makewi
@kay:
I admit error when I make one. Unlike you, who is incapable of even addressing the specifics of any of my arguments, deciding instead to rail against straw men. If that’s what it takes to win, you can have it.
Health care reform is not a done deal. So it’s really hard to say my “predictions” have proven wrong. What is factual, is that Obama set a deadline for passing the legislation which has come and gone. What is factual is that the protesters and town hall opinion voice’s have had an impact on the process.
Makewi
@kay:
Deep fantasy. Seriously, you should try to get some help for this.
kay
@Makewi:
Read what you wrote. If Obama succeeds, he loses, because you don’t agree with the objective. If he fails, he loses, too. Get it yet? He loses either way, the way you’ve set it up.
I, like the rest of the country, heard this nonsense first from Rush Limbaugh, and not from you, but no matter.
I’m not stupid enough to play this game, and I’m not all that smart. The entire country got it when they heard it from the source, which was Limabugh. You’re still trying to figure it out?
Midnight Marauder
@kay:
I honestly don’t know why you are wasting your time on this clown.
Makewi
Where exactly did I write this, or anything like it. Be specific.
kay
@Midnight Marauder:
I’m done and I apologize for going on so long. I’ll put him on the BOB ignore list.
live
It’s worth remembering that Chicago’s Millennium Park came in four years late and cost three times as much as projected. As the Olympics don’t have the option of coming in late, God only knows how much cost overrun we’d have been looking at.