The Occasional Observer

but you might want give this one a read.   If you're so lazy that you can't bother to read one stinking blog post, here's the crackerjack finale:

Spain has illustrated the true nature of the EU Crisis in just one week. Specifically… 

1.  Both governments and banks are lying about the real risks to their balance sheets (Bankia passed the EU’s stress tests). 

2.  We have reached the point at which Governments can no longer bailout their own        failing banks as the Governments themselves are bankrupt (see Catalonia and Spain as a whole).

To recap… Spain has only €5 billion left in its own bailout fund… at a time when its largest bank needs €19 billion (at the least)… and its regional government have begun asking for bailouts too.

Oh, and the Spanish banking system needs to write off another €270 billion…  if Spain cannot cobble together €19 billion, where on earth will it get the money needed to support its collapsing banking system which is on the verge of having to write down hundreds of billions of Euros?

This is the state of affairs in Europe: bankrupt nations trying to bailout bankrupt banks or looking for bailouts from funds that are backed by other bankrupt nations.

What could go wrong?

Per an alleged insider who leaks to a "front page poster" at Race 4 2012, the veep list has been narrowed to 7 and the "door is now shut" on further possibles.  Additionally, the insider states they have now moved to phase 2 of the vet--the interviews.  Here's the list, if it is to be believed:

• Senator of Florida – Marco Rubio
• Senator of Ohio – Rob Portman
• Senator of New Hampshire – Kelly Ayotte
• Governor of New Jersey – Chris Christie
• Governor of Minnesota – Tim Pawlenty
• House of Representative of Washington State – Cathy McMorris Rodgers
• Governor of Louisiana – Bobby Jindal

If this is the list, I'd be surprised if Ayotte, Christie, or Rodgers get the pick (though either Ayotte or Rodgers will "allegedly" make the final cut for appearances).  Any of the others seem possible.

If we were veepstaking today, I'd probably have Portman as my most likely, followed closely by Jindal, Rubio,  and T-Paw.

chuckles

Tropical Storm Brl is storming Florida.  Lots of drr ll get wet.

To all those who served or are serving. To all of America, except the d-bag flavor of the month over at msnbc, Chris Hayes. In case you hadn't heard, he indicated that he had a problem referring to fallen American soldiers as 'heroes.' Fortunately, we have Ann Coulter on our side. I haven't laughed out loud reading politically commentary in a while. Here's her response: Meanwhile, Ann Coulter took to Twitter to give her assessment of the MSNBC host’s comment. “Chris Hayes ‘Uncomfortable’ Calling Fallen Military ‘Heroes’ — Marines respond by protecting his right to menstruate,” she tweeted.

Because we've had our first outbreak:

Miami police have not confirmed the details of what happened next, but sources close to the investigation told CBS4 News that officers found one man gnawing on the face of another, in what one police source called the most gruesome thing he’d ever seen. 

The fight was taking place at the causeway exit near the Miami Herald building, and amazed officers tried to stop it, ordering the man making a meal out of the other man to stop. Sources told CBS4 that the man refused to obey, and continued his attack. 

Investigators sharing limited details about the confrontation, saying only that the two men were fighting and the officers felt they had no choice but to take deadly force. “During this confrontation an officer did discharge his weapon striking one of the individuals, said Det. Willie Moreno, spokesperson for Miami Police.

..."refused to obey"....

 Naturally.

..."officer did discharge his weapon striking one of the individuals..."

 Notice how they left out, "in the head"?

I loved it when you flipped off the Jedi here and got paid.

Happy 35th !
Sincerely,
Watto

"Pro-Choice" Americans at Record-Low 41%

Found a good taxidermist for the mounts from this year's hunting take.

How is putting your own petty so-called accomplishments on other President's bios not just like graffiti?  Obama just keeps reaching new heights of jackassery.

It can be found at

loveandlunchmeat.wordpress.com

If you scroll to the bottom-right of the page, you will see a field to enter your email address and "follow" the blog.   If any of you are so inclined, I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

Deer (firearms): 11/26 - 12/8 (our hunt: 11/26 - 12/1)

Guess which one works out better?

So many choices, such a classic flick.

Of course they are. d-bags.

OK, so that's a bit of hyperbole.  But this was then Sen. Ted Stevens, who was chair of the committee overseeing the debate on net neutrality, describing the nature of the internet.  

I think I could've done a better job on live national TV, in boxer-briefs, after a liter of Jack Daniels.  

Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got… an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

[…] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck.It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Maybe it's just me, but I could also see Caribou Sr. describing the internet in similar terms. Can you see it? Right after the "I got it yesterday," just imagine the dismissive hand wave and the look out of the corner of his eyes, lips pursed. Kindred spirits, those two.

Sometimes he seems like a bit of a relic, but when Will cranks up the insults, he can leave his mark looking, well, just plain silly.

Here he is eviscerating Obama:


ht: Fox News

No one took Portman. We could easily get punked on that one.

Fredo: McDonnell (July 1 or after)
ManBeast: McDonnell (June 30 or earlier)
D.C.: Field (6/20 or earlier)
Beetz: Field (8/5 or after)
Raekwon: Field (6/21-8/4)
Michelangelo: Rubio (7/17 or earlier)
Caribou: Rubio (7/18 or after)
SHK: Martinez

A couple days late, but condolences to the family and friends of Adam Yauch, aka MCA from the Beastie Boys.  Seems to me that most of our generation (Gen X) has at least some good memories that involved the Beasties' music playing in the background.  We have MCA to thank for that.

One thing I wasn't aware of was his affinity for Buddhism.  It led him to question some of his earlier antics.

"I didn't realize how much harm I was doing back then and I think a lot of rap artists probably don't realize it now... 

I said a lot of stuff fooling around back then, and I saw it do a lot of harm. I had kids coming up to me and saying, 'Yo, I listen to your records while I'm smoking dust, man.' And I'd say, 'Hey, man, we're just kidding. I don't smoke dust.' People need to be more aware of how they're affecting people."

Who's next?

Let's start with the obvious:  kudos to the President and his administration for taking out bin Laden.

Now onto the next point:  why are we still "spiking the football"?  It's been a year.  Everyone's still glad he's dead.   But how is that the basis for the argument to reelect?  Does anyone really believe that Obama's administration brought some brand new skill set to terrorist hunting, that our professional intelligence services didn't have right along?    Does anyone believe another President, after being asked for the order to take out OBL, would have said, "F*ck no!  The man hasn't even been arraigned yet!"  Why are we even talking about this, from a political angle?

That's not to say we shouldn't be talking about it at all.  It's worth recalling for several reasons:  most importantly, justice for OBL's victims and their families; next, for national healing; next, as deterrence;  and finally, as a validation that our intelligence apparatus and military can execute an incredibly difficult and dangerous mission.

For the President to be taking credit, beyond a quick bow, is absurd and lacking in dignity.  He couldn't have done anything about OBL without the institutional groundwork being laid in place long before he (and long before W) came into office.  Or without intelligence gathering on OBL that went back as far as the Clinton administration.  Or without the massive global search for OBL that began in Afghanistan, almost succeeded at Tora Bora, and continued throughout Bush 43 and Obama's terms.

This is obvious on its face and shouldn't even really need to be argued.  But in the instance you feel the need to get the details behind the ongoing effort to get OBL, which clearly pre-dated Obama, and how that effort can be directly tied to the killing of OBL, check out this op-ed in today's WaPo.

The only thing Obama can really claim credit for here is not effing it up.  He could have pulled the plug on the search for OBL, or completely caved at the moment of truth.  That he did neither of those things speaks to fact that he's neither a complete coward, nor so politically myopic that he loses sight of essential goals.  While I don't view hurdling that low bar as much to crow about it, it's probably also true that there might be some politicians that could still manage to trip right over it.