Reader J sends this effort from Professor Bainbridge, “The media is ignoring the moral equivalence between Obamajams and Christie’s bridge”:
So at worst NJ Governor Chris Christie created some traffic jams as political payback. Which has Democrats terrified of Christie’s political potential and their allies in the liberal mainstream media all worked up (in hopes of derailing his Presidential campaign). But where were the latter when Obama knowingly repeatedly flew into Los Angeles and created massive Obamajams so that he could rake in political payoffs by the billions from his liberal Hollywood groupies.
I can’t tell you how much I love that a tenured law professor at UCLA can come up with a headline that stupid. Has anyone sighted this yet in the “real media”, by which I mean any site that doesn’t advertise a t-shirt with the slogan “Good News! Obama’s proctologist just found his head”.
Anton Sirius
Maybe Bainbridge would be satisfied if Obama just didn’t travel with a security detail.
Nah, who am I kidding.
Aji
Ohferfuckssake.
I was living and working in D.C. during the earliest years of the Squatter’s Tenure of Bush the [Much] Lesser.
Ain’t no way Obama could ever compete with the sirens-screaming lights-flashing traffic-halting pants-wetting all-out stoppages of the city from those years.
Mnemosyne
He probably should have stayed with the old classic, I’m rubber and you’re glue! to get the same effect.
Elmo
Wha -?
I can’t even.
Deliberately shutting down traffic for no purpose other than political retaliation = President traveling to major city.
Does that even make sense to the person saying it?
scav
Oh, the poor dear. Somebody get him the Enya tape that seemed to work for Bridget Anne. And heaven forfend anything so minor as Fire Trucks and Ambulances responding to incidents disturb his gentle commute, let alone the hoi getting to their “jobs”. All of you interferences, Off the Roads!
RobNYNY1957
People who don’t know how to use “latter” should not try to use it.
Schlemizel
Having lived through visits that included rush hour travel for both Boy Blunder and VP Al Gore I really wonder what the hell is wrong with politicians that they do not understand the problems their movements cause. Plan your friggin visit to avoid rush hour and think about what you are doing.
In Boy Blunders case they shut down a major E-W 6 lane highway in both directions for more than 30 minutes before his clown car came through, at the height of evening rush hour. He did not get any votes out of that gem!
@Elmo: exactly!
Aji
@Elmo: No, no, no, no. You’re talking Republicans here. “Sense” doesn’t even enter into it. Feature, not bug, etc., etc.
Joel
Shit like this bugs me, because the faculty market in the sciences is extremely tight right now. Obviously, law is a different story.
Roger Moore
@Elmo:
Sure it does. Let me translate that from the original wingnut:
Emily68
Does anybody tell LA ahead of time when Obama is planning a visit? If so, there’s one big difference right there between Obamajams and Christiejams.
Roger That
Traffic jams? In Los Angeles?!? Why were we not informed if this earlier?
I’m sorry prof Bainbridge but “Obamajams” sounds like a mixtape and is not a real thing
Suzanne
The constant protest that the left is SCARED of Christie just makes me laugh every time.
We aren’t SCARED, we’re full of schadenfreude. There’s a difference.
Mnemosyne
@Emily68:
Shhh. You’re ruining his false equivalency!
(I think last time the president was here in LA, we had about a week’s forewarning, with multiple announcements on the all-news channels about what streets were closed when and when those streets had been re-opened.)
Mark S.
Law Professor Blogger
That is rapidly becoming the three scariest words in the English language.
kc
a tenured law professor at UCLA
You gotta be kidding me.
Hill Dweller
@Roger Moore:
During the absurd panel, which included Bill Kristol, on ABC’s morning show, Matthew Dowd said it’s OK if Christie imploded because HRC can’t get elected after Obama’s performance in office.
Judge Crater
Just being a Law professor these days should disqualify a person from publicly commenting on any subject whatsoever. Rarely has a profession become so over-rated. Like the financiers on Wall St., lawyers have insinuated themselves so grossly into the commercial fabric of this country that any notion of fair play and a level playing field for all has gone out the window. Gaming the system is what they do.
And their “intellectual” contributions to public discourse is, for the most part, nonexistent. Why would anyone go to law school to be lectured by 3rd rate minds such as Professor Bainbridge. It’s not surprising that the legal profession has come on such hard times (a law degree today will get you a morning at Dunkin Donuts and a lifetime of debt) when you consider the complete failure of the organizational infrastructure (Law schools) that gives it life.
scav
@Mark S.: I am rather waiting for the learned counsel to clarify “To me, the difference between jams for payback and jams for payola is trivial.” and it’s clear and damning application to the catastrophic ObamaJamaParty’13 of Los Angelees. Which is it Herr Doctor? Is this concise watertight logic and argumentation what passes for law. and scholarship chez UCLA?
Baud
Wherever they were, I’m confident they didn’t have their heads so far up their asses as this guy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I heard Obama not only tied up traffic on that trip, he got a haircut on the tarmac!
@Hill Dweller: They’re increasingly talking to themselves
Baud
Michelle’s 50th birthday party should have been called Obamajam.
Mark S.
Benghazi!
MattF
Not only were they traffic jams, they were divisive Obambi traffic jams! And they were aimed specifically at law school professors! Because!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: Clicking around twitter, it seems ABC has re-hired Kristol away from Fox, I guess to replace GWill, who went to Fox. I don’t have a lot of good things to say about poor old George Will, Grandiloquent Cloud Yeller, but he doesn’t have Dan Quayle, the Iraq War and Sarah Palin on his personal Marley- chain.
Villago Delenda Est
There are a lot of total dipshits who are tenured law professors.
Bainbridge is just another example of one.
feebog
@Mnemosyne:
There has been plenty of warning in every instance. This is beyond stupid. Simply avoid the area. If you can’t avoid the area, plan ahead and figure out alternate routes. It’s called living in Southern California.
Roger Moore
@scav:
I think the real meaning of that is that his traffic jam is obviously worse than the traffic jam on the GWB because it happened to him instead of somebody else.
dmsilev
I’m guessing the professor had a bunch of ‘jam’ strings left over from Pajamaboygate and needed to use them up before they went bad.
MattF
@feebog: In fact, the problem is that the concept of ‘President Obama’ sends Perfessor B into a blind rage. So, when this person, this ‘President Obama’ comes to LA, Bainbridge sees red. “The unacceptable person is coming here. That’s unacceptable.”
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
We were having lunch in West Hollywood on Thursday, and Michelle came flying by outside in a black Suburban. Her guard vehicle was bristling with assault weapons.
CHICAGO THUGS!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Someone in LA is blaming Obama for traffic jams? lol
Frankensteinbeck
If there were any kind of equivalence between Christie’s traffic jams and Obama that even the most brain damaged groundhog could believe, the MSM would be trumpeting it from one coast to the other.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Well, naturally.
He is the center of the universe, after all. How dare that blah guy disturb the center of the universe?
scav
@Villago Delenda Est: And that is, to many, the heart and soul of the law: keeping those others from bothering them that have.
Ruckus
I live and drive a fair amount in LA. I would get stopped in traffic jams a lot if I didn’t ride a motorcycle. I ride through them all the time. Last time I drove a 4 wheeler to work it took me 2 hr to go 40 miles. Traffic is what LA is. Still rather live here than in snow for 6-9 months of the year.
gbear
@MattF: Not to mention that Obama’s entourage spent four days lolling about and causing chaos on the freeway while they drove from the airport to the event. What a stinker.
TAPX486
Actually I think this is a rehash of when the BIG Dog Clinton shutdown LAX for a haircut. They just re-cycle the same old stories but plug in the current president.
Speaking of outrages. According to Paul Ryan, Obama is becoming a totally lawless President by ignoring the Constitution with his executive orders. However he has no plans to introduce an impeachment resolution. Now it seems to me that if the President is breaking the law and Rep. Ryan is doing nothing then maybeRyan should be impeached for non-performance!
Ruckus
@Judge Crater:
Over at LGM someone posted a story about a law school that is laying off tenured profs because they are losing money. So two things, will the crazy be the ones to go? I doubt it. And maybe more people are seeing that a law school degree is not a direct line to a lucrative career.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Contrast if you will George W. Bush heroically setting the record for the number of presidential vacation days with Obama’s abandoning the White House to frivolously play nine holes of golf. It’s clear who is the better man.
IowaOldLady
I thought Obamajam was going to be about that guy in his plaid PJs in the ACA ad.
gf120581
If anyone was “terrified” of Christie, they sure as hell aren’t now.
But speaking for myself, I was never “terrified” of Christie. Even before this, I never took him seriously as a Presidential contender, no matter how much verbal fellatio he got from Beltway types like Mark “Everything Is Good News for John McCain” Halperin. The GOP base hates him, his bullying antics were not going to play well on a nationwide scale, etc. And of course, one reason above all:
HE’S FAT.
I’m sorry, but we don’t elect fat, clearly unhealthy people President in the modern age. We don’t elect Presidents who look like they might drop dead at the Inaugural Ball if the dancing gets too strenuous.
IowaOldLady
@dmsilev: You beat me to it! I’d edit my post but I never have an edit button any more.
gf120581
@TAPX486: If we impeached for “non-performance,” then the entire Republican House and Senate caucuses would be thrown out on their asses.
TAPX486
@gf120581: That a threat or a promise!!!!
kindness
I was surprised there were only a handful of comments at Bainbridge’s site. Wonder if he cut off the comments or hasn’t deleted the ones there yet.
I don’t pity the mind of a Teavangelical. I pity their tiny shallow view of God.
Gindy51
@Ruckus: The local judge in our area gives talks at law schools around our state. He tells them they picked the wrong career big time, that there is a huge glut of lawyers, and maybe they might like to try something else and quit wasting their money. He advised my daughter not to bother with law school and try for a paralegal degree. He also said not to expect to get hired immediately, maybe try to get in at the ground floor, even file clerk, and work her way up. Luckily for her, she has no student debt and we can help her financially.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gf120581: Christie didn’t get the lap-band (paid for by the hard-working people of New Jersey with THEIR TAX DOLLARS!) out of concern for his health. I’ll say this for the mean, he admitted that’s what he did, unlike Governor Libido-bee who I believe still pretends he went on Atkins
Splitting Image
As a resident Toronto-dweller, I officially lost patience with this bullshit when Stephen Harper shut down the entire downtown core for the G-20 summit meeting, plus every highway and overpass for miles around. I was taking a walk over the Gardiner Expressway bridge on Royal York road, close to ten miles away from the summit, and a squad of cops were blocking pedestrians from using the bridge until some Very Important Person passed underneath.
The summit cost a billion dollars for security and the businesses who had to shut down for the duration lost another billion (at least) in revenue. The VIPs spent the whole summit watching the World Cup.
Mnemosyne
@Splitting Image:
Let’s put it this way: someone in Los Angeles complaining that Obama caused a traffic jam is like someone in Phoenix complaining that Obama caused it to be over 100 degrees when he visited in August. Traffic jams are what we do out here and, as far as I can tell, Obama has never caused any more traffic problems than Clinton or W did when they came to LA.
Ash Can
The butthurt is strong with this one.
Ruckus
@Splitting Image:
There is a reason a lot of the wealthy are afraid of the little people wanting to hurt them. They say it’s because of jealousy but in reality it’s because they know they stole and are continuing to steal money from all of us. They are afraid that we will catch on and get pissed off. Their timing is off. Many have already caught on, more are every day. And before burns comes on and asks what laws they have broken, burns, the laws that they paid to get passed so that they could steal legally. Just being legal doesn’t make it any less theft any more than Jim Crow laws being passed made it any less racist.
Splitting Image
@Mnemosyne:
Totally agreed. What Christie (or his flunkies) did, on the other hand, was deliberate. The guy is a mean, vindictive little punk. Reminds me a helluva lot of Harper, in fact.
Patrick
@TAPX486:
We all know what the REAL problem is. Obama is black and occupying the WH. A certain % of the US population simply can’t handle it. And they end saying stupid things like Ryan did.
Barry
@Roger Moore: “Sure it does. Let me translate that from the original wingnut:
No matter what a Republican does, Obama is worse.”
No, it’s ‘The President is a Ni-CLAAANG!’.
Geeno
Ugh. The thing is, yes, this really IS business as usual in the north eastern megopolis that runs from DC to Boston. However, federal law is also part of the playing field. If you can’t navigate it, you lose. Do what you can get away with, as soon as you can’t get away with it anymore, it looks like you f*ed up, and no one wants to know about you anymore.
If Christie had no higher ambitions, he could finish his governorship in prison rewarding his buddies, who would reward him upon release. It’s been done before. Sadly, he DID have higher ambitions, and those were dead as soon as this mess bubbled up. His problem is that he’s trying to have it both ways. Yeah this normal up here, but that shouldn’t hurt my chances nationally!
Giuliani with out the charisma, indeed. Without the smarts either. At least Giuliani knew when to stop in 2008.
Barry
@Gindy51: “. He also said not to expect to get hired immediately, maybe try to get in at the ground floor, even file clerk, and work her way up. Luckily for her, she has no student debt and we can help her financially. ”
From what’s being said on the scamblogs, law firms know about that ‘trick’. For example, a paralegal who got a JD will not be eligible for paralegal work anymore.
Barry
@Mnemosyne: “Traffic jams are what we do out here and, as far as I can tell, Obama has never caused any more traffic problems than Clinton or W did when they came to LA. ”
And I posed a comment over at Prof. Bainbridge’s site, asking him to post the comments that he made about Dubya doing that.
I’ll expect those comments to have made comparisons to criminal behavior.
kuvasz
I don’t mean to piss in your holy water, but this Friday President Obama is coming to East Lansing, MI to give a speech on technology. Unfortunately, that is the same day Mrs. Kuvasz has her Law School ABA student Counseling competition in the city. So early this morning she blasted out an email giving the 60-75 participants a heads up to get to the school early since no one knows the route of the president, (who is arriving at Lansing Airport in the northwest of the city), and security could shut down Lansing and the normal routes into the city.
We joked this morning about contacting the Secret Service in a Middle Eastern accent and asking which route the president would be taking for the visit., but neither of us want to spend anytime in jail.
Johannes
Note that the gutless worm closed comments after four incredulous sentient people wrote the equivalent of “WTF, bro?” What a wuss.
You know, there was a time when I had hoped to be a law professor, but if having to deal with WATBs like this buffoon are a part of the gig, just as well life took me in a different direction.
Mnemosyne
@kuvasz:
Well, that sucks. They’ve been doing a good job here in LA with letting people know which routes will be shut down so people can navigate around them.
ruemara
All I know is, I want an Obamajams mixtape and jammies. It sounds like it’s a cool way to spend a nice, rainy day.