(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
Some potential midweek entertainment, per Robert Costa:
After weeks of tightly managed public appearances, embattled New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will revive his extemporaneous side on Thursday, holding a town hall meeting in Middletown, N.J. But the public forum, Christie’s first such event since several of his advisers were implicated in a bridge-closing scandal, will probably be a low-key affair, with less of the swagger and made-for-YouTube confrontations that were once his political trademark.
The videos touting Christie’s accomplishments and Garden State grit, which have opened past town hall meetings, have been shelved by his advance team. So have the banners advertising the Republican governor’s slogans of the week. Happily tangling with teachers and Democratic critics, a favorite pastime for him during his first term, also isn’t part of the plan.
Instead, the thrust of the meeting will focus on the state’s recovery from Hurricane Sandy, the 2012 storm that severely damaged the state’s coastline. Christie will open his presentation by discussing the latest $1.4 billion installment of federal rebuilding funds, surrounded by members of his Cabinet who will manage those dollars…
You can’t buy love, according to the polls, but maybe Christie can negotiate some affection by pointing out how much he’s done for Jersey voters, those ingrates…
***********
And here’s another story about Tom Steyer, this time from the Washington Post:
Climate activist and billionaire Tom Steyer, who hopes to funnel as much as $100 million into the 2014 elections, will tell Senate Democrats on Wednesday night that they can use opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline to bring voters over to their side this fall, according to one of his advisers.
Steyer is hosting a “Blue Green Council Dinner” fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee at his San Francisco home Wednesday.
He will share data from a poll he commissioned that shows Americans care whether the oil shipped through the pipeline will remain in the United States and the extent to which Chinese investors stand to gain from the project’s construction…
A slew of influential Senate Democrats will attend the session, including Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.) and Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.), according to a copy of the invitation obtained by The Washington Post. Three others who are up for reelection this year — Mark Udall (Colo.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Jeff Merkley (Ore.) — will also be there, the invitation says…
**********
What else is on the agenda for the day?
raven
It’s almost 60 already!
MomSense
Time to go dig the cars out but where are we going to put all this new snow?
Mustang Bobby
We’ve had perfect weather all week; last weekend was one that makes the Miami-Dade County Chamber of Commerce cream their jeans with clear skies and temps in the 70’s. So this coming weekend when I have two antique car shows back to back, what does the forecast say? 80% chance of thundershowers.
I guess that’s what they call car-ma.
Schlemizel
I wish Mr. Steyer a lot of luck but he is fighting an uphill battle.Last time I was there every Congressional office had at least one TV on at all times (CNN for the Dems, FAUX for the GOP). So he will have a couple hours of their time to present facts and figures to counter 12-14 hours a day of hair on fire breathless bullshit about how the Dems are in trouble and ‘America luvs it sum XL pipe’.
If we really want better government we would outlaw TVs in all government buildings.
OzarkHillbilly
They say money can’t buy love, but just try getting some love with out it. Same principle applies to votes.
Chyron HR
Now this rich asshole is trying to get Senate Democrats to oppose to the Keystone XL pipeline?! That hedge-fund running motherfucker. I hope a true progressive blows his Citizens Uniting head off, only then will we have true reform.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemizel: “If we really want better government we would outlaw TVs.”
FTFY
Schlemizel
@OzarkHillbilly:
Too true!
OzarkHillbilly
@Chyron HR: Why don’t you stop beating around the bush and tell us how you really feel?
NotMax
Acceptance that no expression of regret or contrition from the Food Goddess shall be forthcoming for her totally unwarranted and vituperative description of my mother as a bitch.
Ben Cisco
@Chyron HR: I found this to be woefully understated.
WereBear
@NotMax: You said something crafted to upset people already defensive about their feelings over losing a beloved pet.
I’d say you got what you wanted and can quit whining.
NotMax
@WereBear
Last word from me about it:
It most decidedly was not crafted to upset people. That ain’t my style. (And thanks to Mr. Cole for taking it in that vein and expressing that it was not particularly bothersome.) It was an honest reaction to something found offputting in the original venue (a something which was since expanded upon by its author as being a bit of harmless fancy and not an abject belief, which is a perfectly fine method of game playing and coping).
Don’t give a hoot what people call me, but leave Mom out of it.
No further responses shall be forthcoming, so fire at will.
OzarkHillbilly
Today’s installment in the Department of “Awwwwwww…”:
Ohio driver rescues kitten found frozen to road
NotMax
Court finds NSA has a thin skin regarding First Amendment.
Jeremy
@Chyron HR: Is this a joke ? Not every rich person is an asshole. This guy is fighting for a good cause so what’s the big deal.
raven
@NotMax: Damn, it wasn’t that big of a deal. (your comment)
Cassidy
@Chyron HR: Yo dude, only true progressives can fight for causes after showing sufficient purity and deference to Greenwald.
raven
I tell people that the Bohdi was sent to save Raven because there was a chain of events that began with him that led to the cancer diagnoses. That doesn’t mean I believe it, it makes a good story.
danielx
Celebrating the temperature going to forty today (Jesus: FORTY DEGREES), which naturally will turn all this into water, which will turn into floods…of course. But there’s hope! More snow this weekend, followed by an Arctic plunge in temperatures next week will have things back to normal in a hurry.
Other than that, keeping track of Chris Christie jokes overheard recently – sample: Q – what’s a one word description of Chris Christie? A – toast.
Thank you very much, we’ll be here all month. Try the veal…
Chyron HR
@Jeremy:
If you’d read Tuesday morning’s thread on the subject you’d know it’s a big deal because “CITIZENS UNIIIIIIIIITED BAAAAW” and also “Why would a hedge fund manager want to live on a planet that has an average surface temperature under 100 degrees?”
slippytoad
Republicans often have stated the perverse notion that Democracy is doomed because the legislature will bribe us with tax money to re-elect them.
It appears that they simply don’t comprehend the notion of the representative spending what is actually our money, for our benefit. The IDEA of doing something for your voters because that is your job seems to be so foreign to them and so scary that they have consistently tried to demonize the very notion of a public servant serving the public, and make it somehow sinister to be deciding what to do with your own damn tax dollars.
C.V. Danes
He might want to share data, too, on how extracting, refining, and burning the oil trapped in the Alberta tar sands will pretty much lock in atmospheric CO2 concentration at something north of 400 ppm for a thousand years or so, ensuring a sea level rise of 70 feet, mass extinction of half the planet’s species, etc., etc.
The State Department may assume that the oil will be extracted anyway, but let the above be on Canada’s hands, and not ours.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Awwww! Hopefully the kitty recovers and finds a home that will keep it warm.
danielx
@slippytoad:
Whereas the idea of legislators being bribed by corporate interests to pass legislation dear to corporate hearts (hey, corporations are people too!) is perfectly okay. They don’t have any problem with bribery of public officials or elected representatives as a concept, it’s more a question of who gets bribed and for what.
Always with the projection.
MrSnrub
Waiting to hear about yesterday’s interview.
Today my wife finishes her treatment for thyroid cancer. It turns out that thyroid cancer is mostly just a PITA, rarely fatal, easily treated. She has to take a dose of radioactive iodine (which will be absorbed by any remaining thyroid cells), and will be too “hot” to stay in our tiny, one bathroom house. She’ll be staying at her brother’s place, with a guest bathroom and bedroom all to her own. My son and I will be on our own for about 10 days.
In one important way, the timing of the layoff is fortuitous.
NotMax
File under “Say what?”
Baud
@C.V. Danes:
It’s already on our hands. The tar sands products are currently being shipped to the US, last I heard.
Cassidy
@NotMax: Grifters gonna grift.
C.V. Danes
@Cassidy:
The liberal autocracy!
C.V. Danes
@Schlemizel:
What he will find out is what most of us already know: facts are irrelevant to them. They don’t care. They’re just looking for a payday.
Linda Featheringill
@MrSnrub:
Best wishes to your wife. May she recover and be left with nothing but a scar and a wicked glint in her eye.
:-)
Re: the layoff. Life is funny sometimes, ain’t it?
C.V. Danes
@Baud:
Gotta feed all those SUVs, you know :-)
Linda Featheringill
Ah, Christie. I used to look at New Jersey from afar and wonder at the corruption that was talked about. I wondered if it was real or just sort of a “tough guy” persona that the whole state adopted. Kind of exotic in a Soprano sort of way.
Then I moved next door and have changed my mind. The stuff is real, and is a lot dirtier than I imagined in my younger days. Oy.
bemused
Predominate on my mind is researching ranges. This time we want a gas range. My preference is gas top/electric oven. Friends with two ovens seem to like them. This is a difficult purchase decision. In a perfect world, we would be able to out various ranges for a couple of weeks to be confident of choosing the just right range.
NotMax
@Baud – @C.V. Danes
There’s a reason the endpoint of the proposed pipeline is in the vicinity of deep water ports, and that is not for providing the U.S. consumer market.
Linda Featheringill
OT: Class differences.
I lived in poor urban neighborhoods for most of my adult life and now have been transplanted to a spiffy suburban spot, thanks to daughter’s beloved.
I have discovered a new phenomenon. Pain medications are easier to get when you live here. In the old hood, I would occasionally get some of the good stuff by prescription but limited to about 15 pills with no refills. Here, I have a bottle of 100 with 3 refills! That seems to be common in these parts, regardless of who your doctor is.
Wow.
Cacti
Three British Justices have held that the Heathrow detention of Glenn Greenwald’s favorite document mule, David Miranda, was both legal and justified under UK statute.
In a move no one expected, Greenwald responded by getting huffy and calling names.
Omnes Omnibus
@C.V. Danes: I sure hope you are working hard to foment a revolution. Otherwise, your rhetoric could easily come off as cheap cynicism and an excuse to do nothing but bitch from the sidelines.
Belafon
@C.V. Danes: That’s not really going to work as an argument if the extraction is going to happen anyway. The Canadian government isn’t stopping it, and a huge portion of it will go through the US one way or another.
Cassidy
@Cacti: I’ve got a six pack on that being Cole’s first breathless post this evening. And somehow OBAMA!
Belafon
@NotMax: Soon, you’ll be able to get an action figure made of yourself for relatively cheap.
Cervantes
@Chyron HR: Manifesto intriguing, strategy invisible.
A cunning plan.
Belafon
@Cassidy: Not really. That one doesn’t have much to do with the US. If John were going to write one, it would be about the this article: Snowden Documents Reveal Covert Surveillance and Pressure Tactics Aimed at WikiLeaks and Its Supporters (Link to Greenwald’s new employer, First Look). The tell will be whether he makes it to this paragraph:
Charles Johnson loves catching these paragraphs. I think it’s what he lives for these days – ok, that and Javascript.
Cassidy
@Belafon: I don’t know. Gay guy stopped, searched, and imprisoned by pawn of the US Gov’t is great for the red meat fix. Did I mention he was gay and someone used fanboy so now we all hate homosexuals or argle bargle?
Cervantes
@C.V. Danes: Who is your “them” and “they”?
Frankensteinbeck
@Belafon:
Since WikiLeaks is – proudly – an espionage agency hostile to the US government, I’m not surprised they threw around ideas about using muscle against them.
@Cacti:
That would be because it was both legal and justified under UK statue. The guy was known to be carrying stolen secret government documents. They were going to stop him and seize them. Even assuming you believe he was battling for justice, would any government in the world not do that?
jake the snake
As much as I am repelled my pouring more money into politics, I am always in favor of bringing the sharpest razor you can to the razor-fight. I have no doubt that Steyer has some skeletons in his closet and worms under his rocks. He may be a corrupt plutocrat, he is our corrupt plutocrat. You campaign with the progressives you have, not the one you wish you had.
C.V. Danes
@Cervantes: Our illustrious representatives :-)
C.V. Danes
@jake the snake:
Exactly.
Cassidy
@jake the snake: Get ready for a lecture. I’m sure our resident purity progs will tell you how you’re wrong. Somehow it ends with Rand Paul, the only Greenwald approved candidate standing up against the NSA. Have fun.
C.V. Danes
@Belafon:
So, basically, doom the planet because it is doomed anyway? Except, the planet is only doomed because we are dooming it. So, doom the planet because we are dooming it since we are doomed to doom it.
Sounds like a good argument to me :-)
some guy
shorter Cassidy and Cacti: Our dreams are full of Rand Paul and Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald. Someone please make these horrible dreams that obsess us go away.
Pro Tip for Cassidy and Cacti: take off your tinfoil helmets BEFORE you go to sleep.
RSR
Yeah, the Sandy relief/recovery is apparently a cesspool as well,
Christie admin abruptly cut ties with at least two companies spearheading the efforts.
Even everybody’s f̶a̶v̶o̶r̶i̶t̶e̶ ̶t̶w̶e̶e̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶o̶r̶ media darling centrist third-wayesque new Senator Booker seems to have ties to some questionable Sandy relief spending.
http://newbrunswicktoday.com/article/breaking-48m-sandy-relief-money-went-fund-luxury-apartment-tower-new-brunswick
As for Christie’s new demeanor, that’s what happens when you hit the bully where it hurts.
Cacti
@Frankensteinbeck:
The only part that surprised me was when UK authorities released him to return to Brazil and didn’t arrest and charge him.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
My co-worker deliver my Cookie Crack (Girl Scout Cookies) bright and early this morning :)
Cassidy
@some guy: Speaking of being obsessive, shouldn’t you be busy searching the archives to selectively cut and paste someone’s comments from months ago?
Cacti
@some guy:
So, you’re a pro at wearing tinfoil helmets?
schrodinger's cat
Thinking of going for a walk in the afternoon since it has finally stopped snowing. Ceiling Cat, finally heard my prayers.
C.V. Danes
@Omnes Omnibus: A healthy sense of cynicism is good for the soul.
And I would prefer to work within the system as much as possible, since all revolutions tend to accomplish is merely replacing one master with another. As a matter if fact, the system is not the problem: its the people running it.
Is it cheap cynicism to suggest our elected “leaders” are behaving collectively like a group of cheap crooks looking for a payday? Maybe. But hopefully the American people will wake up and start taking charge before we devolve into Syria or the Ukraine.
And, yes, it can absolutely happen here.
libarbarian
One less Tea Bagger in the world today
D58826
From Kos – ted nugent
He is campaigning for the GOP in Texas and is quite a draw .
We have been told repeatedly that the GOP/tea party opposition to Obama is not racially motivated.
If you believe that I have a bridge for sale (sorry the Fort Lee lanes cost extra).
Cervantes
@Frankensteinbeck:
Using the same sources, the New York Times and other newspapers have published some of the same material that WikiLeaks does. Is each one of them — “proudly” — an “espionage agency”?
Here’s a report by Sari Horwitz (WP, November 25, 2013):
So then, would you be surprised to hear the NSA “threw around ideas about using muscle against” U.S. news organizations and journalists?
ellie
Did anyone talk about this:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html
Apologies if I missed the discussion.
C.V. Danes
@NotMax:
All oil is sold on the global market, which we purchase from like everyone else. U.S. “energy independence” cannot exist if we are merely consumers of the global market. If we ramp up production, all we are doing is making oil cheaper for everyone.
some guy
@Cacti:
I always get you two confused. Which one is Tweedledum and which one is Tweedledumber?
Cervantes
@some guy:
Yes.
A Humble Lurker
@some guy:
It’s not like they’re completely wrong…just really really bitchy about it.
Cassidy
@Cacti: Heh, just wait until ChickenShit and Mandalay show up. Cervantes and some guy can’t jerk themselves off, you know.
Cacti
@some guy:
How many years did you have to practice before you could make professional quality tinfoil helmets?
Do you have a favorite folding technique?
some guy
@Cassidy:
so you’re going for the Tweedledumber role. good on you.
MomSense
@Belafon:
I seem to remember the detention being a big deal here also too the plane being diverted but the whole thing is a sort of a blur now. It’s going to be a long time before this issue shakes out and we find out what actually happened.
It’s funny because I lived through the Bush warrantless wiretapping as I was personally sucked up into it because of involvement with some peace and justice groups so much of what is now being discussed is pretty anticlimactic. That I am not super worked up about it makes me an authoritarian apparently so it is a strange experience. In the Bush years I was so subversive that the survival of the state depended on surveilling me and a bunch of mostly septuagenarian hippies. Now I’m not sufficiently exercised by this so I am totes an authoritarian. Oh well. Life goes on.
Cassidy
@Cervantes: Oh, how we’ve been blessed by the faux intellectual with his middle school level, coffee house musings.
Cassidy
@Cacti: I’m going to assume that his favorite technique starts with “MOOOOOOMMMMM! COME DOWN TO THE BASEMENT PLEASE.”
Cervantes
@Jeremy:
Not only that, Steyer is aware of the problem:
That’s from the NYT article discussed here yesterday.
No need to take Steyer at his word, of course — but why not let him put his money where his mouth is?
Cervantes
@C.V. Danes: Sure. And as you’ve already said you’re going with “cheap cynicism,” let me just get out of your way.
Interrobang
As a Canadian, let me say that iit genuinely hurts that my country is going to be instrumental in climate change catastrophe because our first-past-the-post political system failed to stop the guy currently residing at Sussex Drive. Global apocalypse seems like a steep price to pay for electing a malignant troll in one small country, but there you go.
NotMax
@ellie
Really, what ‘s to discuss? It’s Heathers writ large.
That a cabal of self-anointed panjandrums engage in silly ritual as a justification of perceived status and stature through the exploitation or demeaning of those on the outside and seek to obscure those machinations is commonplace throughout history.
Doesn’t make it right, doesn’t make it just, but does make it predictable and far from a revelation.
Sondra
@slippytoad:
Bravo. We attended 2 large meetings with our State and Federal Dem. Representatives this month.
They all asked us for in-put as to what we wanted them to work on and gave us updates on the bills they are already working on.
The idea that they are, in fact, doing what we elected them to do was the key to both meetings. Both events were large, with more than 200 people making the effort to participate in our Democratic process…and yet, that is a very small percent of the voters in West Palm Beach.
In effect, we few are speaking for everyone else in our communities and influencing our politicians’ agendas. If people don’t like what’s being done on their behalf, they need to get over feeling unhappy and participate with more than their votes: although many people probably don’t even do that little bit. We all know that turn-out for off year elections is too low.
And another Bravo to a billionaire working for our team. It still doesn’t give us parity with the Kochs et al., but it helps.
NotMax
@C.V. Danes
“Energy independence” is a myth. The second largest export of the U.S. in recent years has been petroleum/refined product (and I include natural gas under that umbrella category).
C.V. Danes
@Sondra:
What I think is interesting is the mufti-layered aspect this brings to representative government. In a “pure” democracy, government works directly for the people. In representative government, we elect representatives to do that for us. What you describe is a group of self-appointed “citizen” representatives keeping tabs on, and focusing the attention of, the elected representatives.
The elected representatives are merely doing what the citizen representatives want them to do. If you don’t like it, as you said, pick up the torch and become a citizen representative.
C.V. Danes
@NotMax: My point exactly :-)
The whole purpose of the “energy independence” meme is to justify pumping more carbon from the ground.
C.V. Danes
@Cervantes: Oh, you don’t have to get out of my way. I actually enjoy spirited discussion :-)
And you’re not going to hurt my fee fees if you call me a cheap cynic, which is probably a character fault of mine. Doing so both keeps me honest, and from spiraling into despair :-)
Cervantes
@C.V. Danes: I didn’t call you a cheap cynic. You did (more or less).
aimai
@bemused: I researched the hell out of ranges about 8 years ago when we were renovating our house. I still can’t say I made the right choice. I chose something that was so dumb, such a muscle gas range, that I thought nothing could go wrong with it (a Bluestar six burner plus grill, one and a half ovens, gas range). I love it for looks and I’ve cooked a million fine meals on it but it has broken down in some interesting and unexpected ways, given that Bluestar is the old Garland stove manufactured for home use so you’d think they’d have ironed out all the kinks.
If I had to do it over again I don’t know-I don’t have room for wall ovens and I didn’t want electric even though its better for baking. But probably I’d take a drop in gas six burner top (no grill, that never really works and is just a waste of space) over electric ovens because they heat up faster than my gas.
Cervantes
@ellie: Did something in the article surprise you? At this point (certainly post-2008, most certainly post-Romney) I should think these people are a known quantity. Wealthy, mostly nouveau riche with all the boorishness that implies. Not so divorced from reality any more that they don’t know to hide their sociopathy. I haven’t seen it reported anywhere but I think Chris Christie’s brother is a member. Need I say more?
C.V. Danes
@Cervantes: Hmmm. I guess I am! Something I need to work on :-)
danielx
@C.V. Danes:
No. When you look at the likes of Billy Tauzin, Evan Bayh or that paragon of Republican righteousness Chris Christie, it’s hard to draw any other conclusion.
Because god forbid that they should go back to Cedar Rapids or Muncie or wherever and practice law or something. And really, how can one blame them? How you gonna keep them down on the farm when they’ve seen Potomac?
slippytoad
@Linda Featheringill:
You’re just learning that the rules are different if you are whiter or look like you have more money. I can demonstrate profiling in a quick test by getting my (usually kind of long) hair cut. I am not going gray apparently ever, so if I let my hair grow out I apparently look like I’m 25 behind the wheel of my car.
When I get it cut, of course, I’m respectable again. I know this because I can do the same thing over and over again in traffic and never get even a funny look, but if I let my hair out I get pulled over CONSTANTLY.
It’s just the same bifrucation of responsibility and accountability that goes on everywhere in racist-land. When you’re part of the “tribe” you can do no wrong. Seriously. If you’re not, you can do no right.