Friday, March 22, 2013

The Artist: Rick Derringer

The venue: White House Correspondents Dinner


Posted by at

8 comments:

  1. Helen GerhardtMarch 23, 2013 at 1:58 PM

    "Death to Whistle-Blowers?"
    By FLOYD ABRAMS and YOCHAI BENKLER

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/opinion/the-impact-of-the-bradley-manning-case.html?_r=3&

    "Obama's secrecy fixation causing Sunshine Week implosion

    Even the most loyal establishment Democrats are now harshly denouncing the president for his war on transparency"

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/14/obama-transparency-podesta-sunshine-week

    "Obama should lift secrecy on drones"

    By John Podesta, Published: March 13

    John Podesta is chairman of the Center for American Progress and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University. He served as President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff from 1998 to 2001.

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  2. Bram ReichbaumMarch 23, 2013 at 3:33 PM

    I guess I can relate, Helen. Though it is up to Congress and the Courts to define legit "national security", your skills are in evidence. The President evidently makes you feel the same way certain East end State Senators make me feel.

    I am always tempted to react to such swelling of anger against Obama with Reinhold Niebhur and human nature, the demands of power and the challenges for mankind in a powerful democracy. It doesn't exonerate the guy and it doesn't suggest we can't keep criticizing, but it sure is a dynamite argument for "try and look on the bright side" when there is one. S'pretty bright.

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  3. Bram ReichbaumMarch 23, 2013 at 3:41 PM

    Indeed, the same could be said of our ex-chief, but you're right Helen that doesn't change the need to follow through on our end.

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  4. Bram ReichbaumMarch 23, 2013 at 3:54 PM

    Drones and drugs, Mr. President. The down side of crossing things off your bucket list is you've got to add things. :) That's the wisdom of term limits, I guess...

    Meanwhile, keep keeping us out of reactionary austerity, it doesn't sound fun or smart. And do what you need to do to get us to build us the next solid national economy. No worries there, but put some major political bodies on the Congressional midterms in '14! Take some of ours, we have too many.

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  5. Helen GerhardtMarch 23, 2013 at 5:50 PM

    Whoops, in the post above I managed to leave off the link to the Podesta editorial in the Washington Post:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/john-podesta-obama-should-lift-secrecy-on-drones/2013/03/13/7e98d7ca-8a9b-11e2-8d72-dc76641cb8d4_story.html

    Bram, I'd ask you to bring to bear the principles and ethics that you've so diligently and admirably worked to assert on the local level to analyze Obama's actual patterns of performance vs his rhetoric, both in terms of his fundamental attacks on the Constitution and his behind-the-camera work on enabling global and national economic travesties such as the Wall Street bailouts and the Trans-Pacific Partnership that will most probably have impacts on millions for decades, both here in the States and globally (NAFTA on steroids.)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-nashhoff/the-transpacific-partners_b_2766729.html

    Yes, there have been few more charismatic, intelligent, persuasive and comforting shepherds for leading the sheep to our shearing down to bare-skin austerity. Researching who his Wall Street campaign contributors are, it's clear how well their investments paid off in terms of total lack of accountability.

    http://billmoyers.com/2013/01/31/barack-obama-wall-street-co-conspirator/

    I'd argue that Obama has played "good cop" to the hilt.

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  6. Bram ReichbaumMarch 23, 2013 at 8:18 PM

    "Bram, I'd ask you to bring to bear the principles and ethics that you've so diligently and admirably worked to assert on the local level to analyze Obama's..."

    Although turning into Glen Greenwald sounds tempting and I certainly wouldn't want to misplace my principles and ethics, I missed the alternatives to drone strikes that were suggested for war against organized radical Islamists, the danger of a President attempting to politically accomplish a treaty through pretty standard political means eludes me, and free trade, the bailouts which kept our economy from cratering, and the ability to access vast sums of credit are all extraordinarily popular among the American center when push comes to shove and not something I feel like I would be in a position to oppose. No need for charismatic shepherds; just try and stop the sheep from bowling you over on their sprint to the slaughterhouse. I'd rather gnaw on these pwsa water authority swaptions and see if there are any connections to what happened with our Turnpike and be thankful access to basic health care is finally expanding.

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  7. Helen GerhardtMarch 23, 2013 at 9:53 PM

    I'm away from a computer and my phone thumbs aren't all that adroit, so I'll wait for a blog post to address my most crucial concerns regarding Obama Administration attacks on the Bill of Rights and enablements of systemic economic corruption.

    For Obama defenders that I'm sure have been very worthily motivated by so much of what our president has preached, I'll be starting by highlighting the criminalization of free speech even when peaceful intent was acknowledged by the Supreme Court in Holder v Humanitarian Law Project. David Cole is a great source to check out on the long range, long term impacts of the precedent, a Constitutional scholar who has argued several major cases at the Supreme Court.

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  8. Bram ReichbaumMarch 24, 2013 at 12:32 AM

    You see, Helen? The Post-Gazette is with you, you're doing fine.

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