A Real Helicopter Mom

Turns out there really IS such a thing as a helicopter mom. And all along I thought I was being joshed.

From a blog I found, Kenneth writes about how this one is so obsessed she actually used one:

Mommie Dearest Racist

On a later episode she's even seen threatening to "kill" her son after she observes him from a helicopter making out in a hot tub with one of the black women.

Here I was thinking Helicopter Mom* is a metaphor. And to top it all off, she gets to be on television about it, some new stupid reality show. ha!


*Blackhawk Mom is what they actually call me. I guess that means spying from afar because I stay in tune with the goings on by these interweb thingies.

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Shannyn Moore commenting on Palin's turkey pardon fiasco:

I like Shannyn because she gives us the 'real feel' from the frozen north. Sarah Palin really is a piece of work alright. But after working with Highway Safety and seeing some of the horrible accidents that happen, this other part of her post really got me. Any chance WEC was insured by AIG?

In his final hours, Governor Murkowski granted an executive pardon to a company convicted of criminally negligent homicide. Whitewater Engineering Corporation pleaded no contest in 2001 to the charge in connection with the 1999 death of one of its employees. They knowingly forced backhoe operator Gary Stone to traverse dangerous snow conditions. He was killed.

Whitewater’s pardon was granted on November 30, 2006. Mr. Stone’s family first learned of it from the Anchorage Daily News. No one from the Murkowski Administration notified the victim’s family of the request for clemency or that the pardon had been granted. It was a vulgar display of the corporate protectionism Frank Murkowski was known for.

I worked in highway construction for the state approving subcontractors, and fully 1/3 of the construction companies approved to work for the state were insured by AIG. The insurance company would have been making the death settlement.

Another curious fact: Elliot Spitzer was onto AIG when he was NY Attorney General. Now his downfall is being rehashed on some sleezy ‘entertainment’ show by glorifying the hooker who took him down.

We are all Democrats Now

A little helo-ing on the GoP tells me there's someone there who realizes how Paulson's up to no good... and a good many liberals have known this too all along. Only we called it Corporate Welfare--reverse socialism, but socialism non-the-less. (are you used to it yet?) While the govt takes over housing, banks, and now GM? hmmm... you've definitely got an Ism going on...

http://ideas.rebuildtheparty.com/

This post about how to change the Republican party tells me they're not all dumbo's after all. It came from a site looking for ideas for change.

remove the plank from their own eye

Conservatives who accuse Obama and the Dems of being socialists need to first remove the plank from their own eye. Under the GoP the Federal Govt has increased in size, power, and scope more than any other recent president. That is socialism. 9/11 changed many things, but NOT the fact that limited government is a good idea. There are ways of fighting terrorism without drastically increasing the size of government or terrorizing ourselves, as Michael Sheehan explains in his 2008 book 'Crush the Cell'.

Further, Bush's bailout of Wall St. is example of reverse socialism for the rich. Govt-mandated wealth transfer in any direction is destructive to the national free market and our economy. There are ways to solve this problem that minimize the cost to taxpayers and put first losses on stock and bondholders of struggling financial companies, which is the way capitalism is *supposed* work. Google 'Genesis Plan', 'Zingales's Plan B', and 'Janet Tavakoli' for several good examples.

Of course, Bush's Treasury Secretary Hank Pauslon made over half a billion dollars as CEO of Goldman Sachs prior to becoming Secretary in 2006. GS was one of the firms instrumental in creating this crisis. Paulson made that money *while* GS was creating the problem, failed to see it coming or understand it, still can't figure out what to do about it, and is blocking any effort to force investors in GS and other Wall Street firms to take first losses, favoring spending likely over a trillion taxpayer $ to bail them all out instead. That is *not* capitalism. That is an extraordinary conflict of interest. That is how banana republics and communist countries are run. Where is the accountability that is supposedly an important part of Conservatism???

All but the most partisan Constitutional lawyers and observant citizens are critical of Bush's guardianship of the Constitution and civil liberties. He has sacrificed a lot for expedience in the war on terror, and as president during the 9/11 attack I can't say I blame him, as a second attack could have been ruinous to the country and his administration. However, it is possible, likely, that he overdid it. It is now time for the GoP to take the lead in reviewing and re-evaluating PATRIOT I & II, the MCA, and other laws passed, and modifying parts of them where necessary to restore curtailed Constitutional rights and civil liberties. Again, Michael Sheehan provides a guide for striking the right balance between security, rights, and openess in his book 'Crush the Cell'.

thread sugguestions

...likely that he committed some crimes along the way, and they can enjoy their time in Gtmo.

We are all Democrats Now

Obama's Entourage

Back to the WH for Rahm Emanuel, Congressman from Chicago (Obama's hometown)
www.house.gov/emanuel/

This will be the guy who runs the show.

I've never watched The West Wing, but Rahm's character is in it, I understand. But if there's one HBO show I do know, it's Entourage. (the other is Big Love) T-Rev would make me watch it when he was home on college breaks. And come to find out, the character Ari Gold is based on Rahm Emanuel's (D-IL) real life little brother, Ariel. Someone who knows how to make a Midnight Run. ;)

His brother Ari is the model for Ari Gold of Entourage

his brother, Ari, is a talent agent in Los Angeles who inspired Jeremy Piven's character Ari Gold on the HBO series Entourage.

Brothers: Rahm Emanuel and His Family

Rahm, Zeke, and Ari Emanuel have become very successful in different fields—politics, medicine, and Hollywood. But it’s hard not to notice the similarities among the brothers. They’re all intense, pugnacious, and in perpetual motion.
...
Ariel, or Ari, the youngest at 47, has held up his end. He broke off from International Creative Management to start the Endeavor Agency in Beverly Hills and has turned it into one of Hollywood’s most successful talent agencies. Ari’s clients include Larry David, Aaron Sorkin, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Martin Scorsese. He called on Hollywood to blacklist Mel Gibson after the actor’s drunken, anti-Semitic tirade in 2006. He denounced Disney chief Michael Eisner after the mogul tried to prevent distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11, made by Ari’s client Michael Moore.

“It’s not what you’re supposed to do as an agent,” says Rahm, suggesting that his brother has more soul than the TV character based on him.
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3 brothers (from a 1997 NYTs article):

Today, Rahm Emanuel is, at 37, one of the most powerful people at the White House. He is also the middle brother of two similar tank commanders: Ariel Emanuel, 36, a relentless Hollwyood television agent who left International Creative Management under cover of darkness to create a rival firm, and Ezekiel Emanuel, 39, an oncologist (with a doctorate in political theory) who is a nationally known medical ethicist at Harvard and a leading opponent of assisted suicide.

''We were cloned, full grown,'' says Ezekiel.

Of the three brothers, Rahm is the most famous, Ari is the richest and Zeke, over time, will probably be the most important. Zeke is also, according to his brothers, the smartest. Rahm, naturally, gets the most press attention. Last term he managed the President's campaigns to pass the crime bill and the North American Free Trade Agreement, but this term he has taken over the job and close-to-the-Oval-Office cubbyhole of his friend Stephanopoulos. Now chief promoter of Clinton's small-bore issues like stopping teen-age smoking and requiring trigger locks on guns, Rahm has been singled out in recent profiles as the centrist, hyperactive counterreaction to the Stephanopoulos liberal cool. The articles are more colorful than is typical of the genre (the dead fish helps), but Rahm is more interesting, and reflective of his time, in the context of his brothers.

Together, Emanuel Freres are a triumvirate for the 90's. All are rising stars in three of America's most high-profile and combative professions. All understand and enjoy power, and know how using it behind the scenes can change the way people think, live and die. All have been called obnoxious, arrogant, aggressive, passionate and committed. All three get up before dawn. All are the sons of an Israeli father, now a 70-year-old Chicago pediatrician, who passed secret codes for Menachem Begin's underground. Iregun, and an American Jewish mother, who worked in the civil rights movement and owned, briefly, a Chicago rock-and-roll club. All three also worry about a less successful Emanuel: Shoshana, 23, their adoptive siser, who crash-landed into the family at the age of 8 days, when the brothers were in their teens.

Interesting, especially Zeke's Ph.D. in Political Theory. But Rahm is sharp and also studied ballet. Wanna dance?

Next: Kiko movie review will be The Year of Living Dangerously, Mel's breakthrough into serious roles after the Mad Max thrill-a-thons. This movie is set in Jakarta, during the same era when Barack Obama lived there as a child.

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

Directed by Peter Weir. With Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt. A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia ... www.imdb.com/title/tt0086617

Dean and Duncan, National Press Club talk

This was good humored and informative. Nice to see Howard get his sweet revenge.



RNC, DNC Chairs Clash Over Whether Media Aided Obama in Election

WE DID IT!

I have no words, only tears of joy and this... from my good friend in AZ:

Gotta Love Bob

Even when he's poking fun at Democrats. From the 1951 movie, The Lemon Drop Kid:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWpU8sX10_4

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Yea, John. What is the deal with that Straight Talk Express?

FOX's Neil Cavuto tells John McCain why he is losing. WTF? Is this a trick?

The rats at Faux are jumping ship? The rest of us read Orwell and have seen this all along. Straight Talk = we'll tell you whatever we want, then do whatever we want because we're Maverick's and nothing will ever be as it seems, or what we said.