Brent Calloway

I work with this kids mother – we chat quite a bit and I live next to her.  If you don’t know – this kid is a 5* Outside Linebacker being heavily recruited out of Auburn and Alabama.  Well, he had comitted to Bama (and his parents are BIG Bama fans).  They had Saban over and had good times there.  Well the kid just this weekend changed to Auburn (on Saturday I believe).  She told me that basically officials from both schools were like “What do we have to do to get him to come here?”.  She said she didn’t know why he changed his mind, and they were pretty broke up over it.  She said that they got calls on phone numbers that they didn’t think anyone knew just to talk to them and get them to change their mind.  But the most important information is Cam Newton called Brent and told him that he wasn’t going to come out early and he should come to Auburn to play with him and the powerhouse for one more year.  Obviously, that is with a grain of salt – but interesting non the less.

From the left (and really from all over) we, the political pedestrians of the world, are used to seeing dirty politics practiced by our “betters.”  It is, after all, the way the game is played.  And we know that; if they want to lie down and get dirty, more power to them.  But the ubiquitous force that is the alliance of Republican establishment, conservative pundits and “grass roots” activists never ceases to amaze me with their organized Bull Shit.  I mean really, they are so good at it!  And they practice a non-stop full court press; They just won the biggest non-presidential election of their lives, and they don’t even take a breather.

The current “fact” that is being floated around is that President Barry is on a ten day vacation to South Asia, to the tune of a Quarter of a Billion Dollars a day.  This is said to cover the cost of a huge retinue, the taking over of a five star hotel at the Taj Mahal, a naval flotilla of 34 Naval vessels for security purposes, as well as other relative odds ends.  No wonder everyone from Glenn Beck to Michelle Bachmann to Jamie Allman has been so upset.  They said that the trip was unnecessary and too expensive.  And they would be right.  I mean, Holy Horse Shit, that is Billion with a capital B!

But wait, there is one small problem; the claim is total nonsense.  Let us examine some facts:

• FactCheck.org, a non-partisan project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, determined that it’s “highly doubtful” that Obama’s trip is costing as much as his foes claim.
• Andy Card, former White House chief of staff under President George W. Bush, told Anderson Cooper that the $200 million per day figure didn’t pass the smell test.
• At the Pentagon, spokesman Geoff Morrell debunked the 34 warship notion.  It’s “absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy — some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier — in support of the president’s trip to Asia,” Morrell said.  “That’s just comical.”
• This amount is more than what we are spending in a day on the War in Afghanistan, which I submit might be just a little bit bigger operation.
• As far as being unnecessary, it just seems to me that forging good relations with one of the largest, most powerful nations in the world makes good sense.  Consider that India is the worlds largest democracy, one of are largest trading partners, is clearly a Super Power waiting to happen, and would probably be one of our greatest allies if we just treated it a little better, I think it might be worth a minor investment.
• Also, these same people (or their ilk) were all a gush when President Bush went over to South Asia about a decade ago.

So, what is my point?  Maybe the machine should take a coffee break, turn down the attack frequency from daily to weekly, and make sure that they have something to base their frenzy upon.

You know… back up your lies and smears.

- AWM

Will President Barry go crazy???

So, what happens next?  Well, immediately, there will be very little new coming out of the White House, because the “do nothing” Republicans will have no interest in supporting it.  Cap and Trade, for now, is dead.  Immigration reform, for now, is dead.    Essentially, both sides are only going to deal with what they must, such as the budget, the tax cut question and any crisis issues that might pop up.

The other thing we can count on is the Republicans covering their asses with the Tea Party.  They are guaranteed to pass all kinds of wonderful bills that will be consistent with their agenda.  For example, they will clearly put forward a bill to abolish Obama Care, and they will do so knowing full well that it will never get out of the Senate alive.  They can look good without having to actually deliver this way, and they will make this the core of the next cycle’s war cry: “we tried, but…”

But putting those two things aside, how will the culture of Washington feel when they actually have to get down to brass tacks?  We, we really have two options.  The first is compromise.  You are seeing some nods to that right now.  Obama made a speech that sounded very conciliatory, and Boehner has promised to improve the tone and to work together.  Maybe there is hope for meeting in the middle.

Or perhaps it is so much “honeymoon” bullshit.

Look at the words.  President Barry was gracious, to be sure.  But he also did not “get the message,” as the Right would have wanted him to.  That is, his explanation of the results was not a “you, the American people did not like what we have been doing and I get that now” statement.  Instead, it was a “we did not communicate with you well enough; my fault” kind of thing.  I got no sense that the President feels that his course is anything but the best thing to do.  And, as far as the right is concerned, they have done well up to this point by doing nothing: the party of no.  Given that they are not stupid, I don’t think they will have a whole lot of a motivation to change course.  They surely are not interested in doing the “right thing;” only the strategic thing.

So, I would be looking for the alternative: Gridlock.  Lots of arguing; not a whole lot of anything else.

Where they can avoid each other, they will.  President Obama is going to have some things to get done, and he is going to do them through the executive branch as much as he can; I expect a huge upswing in Executive Orders.  But when he needs money, they will fight.  The Rinos will seek to stop anything they can by starvation.  They are going to try and put the brakes on his “agenda” by cutting the funding.  For example, they will try to stop Obamacare by not funding it its initial implementation.  And both sides will fight.  And fight and fight and fight.  There will be a shut down in government when the budget comes do, just like in ’95.  There will be a lot of noise.  There will be an even bigger downswing in confidence.  And we will all be left to coast.  Dark days boys and girls, dark days.

Maybe I will be proven wrong.

-          AWM