or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
February 02, 2011
Power!
I'd been wondering what Samantha Power had been up to in the bowels of the White House—apart from making up excuses to herself about why it's fine for her to stay in an administration that has failed to recognize the Armenian genocide, even though Power herself explicitly promised Armenian Americans that Obama would 'cause he's so honest.
But it turns out she's on the job!
White House officials sent an e-mail to more than a dozen foreign policy experts in Washington, asking them to come in for a meeting on Monday morning. “Apologies for the short notice in light of a very fluid situation,” the e-mail said.The Roosevelt Room meeting, led by Benjamin Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, and two other National Security Council officials, Daniel Shapiro and Samantha Power, examined unrest in the region, and the potential for the protests to spread, according to several attendees.
Among the people invited was noted expert/criminal Elliot Abrams. Here's Abrams' mother-in-law Midge Decter being admirably honest in 2004:
"We're not in the Middle East to bring sweetness and light to the world. We're there to get something we and our friends in Europe depend on. Namely, oil."
Lucky Egyptians.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at February 2, 2011 12:53 PMI just assumed she was busy writing papers on benevolent military intervention or something. But isn't she married to odious twit, and enemy of free people everywhere; Cass Sunstien? If true then they're probably making more little imperial academics. Start knitting those baby booties. Blegh!
Posted by: demize! at February 2, 2011 02:07 PMThe funny thing is we didn't get the oil in the end. Also Iran will have a greater influence in Iraq than our heros in the White House. I guess they miscalculated so eat that miss snotty mother in law, Queen of light and sweetness.
Posted by: rob payne at February 2, 2011 11:36 PMfrom the NYT article:
Forwardlooking: “What is clear, and what I indicated tonight to President Mubarak, is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.”
Edgar Bergen's instructions to Charlie McCarthy: watch and see if Obama's lips move a little bit...
Posted by: Dean Taylor at February 3, 2011 12:32 AMre: NYT's commentary on Frank "What's In It For Me" Wisner--
from Vijay Prashad, CounterPunch, 2 February 2011, "The Empire's Bagman"
"I first wrote about Wisner in 1997 when he joined the board of directors of Enron Corporation. Where Wisner had been, to Manila and New Delhi, Enron followed. As one of his staffers said, 'if anybody asked the CIA to help promote US business in India, it was probably Frank.' Without the CIA and the muscle of the US government, it is unlikely that the Subic Bay power station deal or the Dabhol deal would have gone to Enron. Here Wisner followed James Baker, who was hired by Enron to help it gain access to the Shuaiba power plant in Kuwait. Nor is he different from Holbrooke, who was in the upper circle of Credit Suisse First Boston, Lehman Brothers, Perseus and the American International Group. They used the full power of the US state to push the private interests of their firms, and then made money for themselves. This is the close nexus of Capital and Empire, and Wisner is the hinge between them" [Prashad; stress added].
http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad02022011.html
Posted by: Dean Taylor at February 3, 2011 12:40 AM
