Patterico's Pontifications

12/2/2010

(Delusional) Quote of the Day

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:16 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

Light blogging this morning, but here is a pretty amazing quote, from Matt Bai, in the New York Times:

Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat, referring to the shrinking caucus of fiscally conservative members of the party.

Funny, only a few months ago he said his opponents talk about him like a dogAnd you don’t realize, you’re the one who’s square.  Now he is talking about himself, like a dog, but of the blue variety.

This was in the context of a larger piece suggesting Obama might become a deficit hawk.  Of course, commenting over at Legal Insurrection, I predicted we would start hearing things like this:

[I] am willing to bet that they will try to make him into a deficit hawk in the next year. He will propose a slight decrease, and thus with our unbelievably biased media, he will be called a deficit hawk. I mean [I] am not saying he will EARN that title, but I do believe they will give it to him anyway.

Of course, I don’t consider that to be any great insight, but I think you can definitely see that starting to happen.

Oh, and presented without comment, the DSM-5, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, is coming out soon and its authors plan to drop narcissism as an official mental disorder.  And what is narcissism exactly?  Charles Zanor explains:

Our everyday picture of a narcissist is that of someone who is very self-involved — the conversation is always about them. While this characterization does apply to people with narcissistic personality disorder, it is too broad. There are many people who are completely self-absorbed who would not qualify for a diagnosis of N.P.D.

The central requirement for N.P.D. is a special kind of self-absorption: a grandiose sense of self, a serious miscalculation of one’s abilities and potential that is often accompanied by fantasies of greatness. It is the difference between two high school baseball players of moderate ability: one is absolutely convinced he’ll be a major-league player, the other is hoping for a college scholarship.

Of course, it would be premature to call the major-league hopeful a narcissist at such an early age, but imagine that same kind of unstoppable, unrealistic attitude 10 or 20 years later.

The second requirement for N.P.D.: since the narcissist is so convinced of his high station (most are men), he automatically expects that others will recognize his superior qualities and will tell him so. This is often referred to as “mirroring.” It’s not enough that he knows he’s great. Others must confirm it as well, and they must do so in the spirit of “vote early, and vote often.”

Finally, the narcissist, who longs for the approval and admiration of others, is often clueless about how things look from someone else’s perspective. Narcissists are very sensitive to being overlooked or slighted in the smallest fashion, but they often fail to recognize when they are doing it to others.

Most of us would agree that this is an easily recognizable profile[.]

Yep, I think I can recognize it.

Hat tip to The New Editor, and Althouse.

Update: The Daily Caller points out that Obama’s much ballyhooed (by the White House) and denounced (by the left) federal pay freeze is better characterized as a reduction in the rate of increase of federal pay.  He keeps proposing pittance savings and claiming it was a first step.  Well, great, then can we get to the second step already?

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

71 Responses to “(Delusional) Quote of the Day”

  1. Most of us would agree that this is an easily recognizable profile[.]

    Heh heh heh.

    I don’t even need to bother to link the bunch of linky links I was going to link. Y’all know them all.

    Word jumble Highlight:
    Oceans
    Planet
    Gift
    you have me
    Nobel
    scoop the poop

    Seriously, living w/ a narcissist is not fun. Not sure how Michelle does it. Unless she’s one too, but am not convinced of that.

    no one you know (325a59)

  2. NOYK

    no sh*t. It was spooky reading that part of the article. Prior to this, I wasn’t sure it was right to call obama a narcissist, but when you learn the actual definition…

    The only reluctance i would have is that there might also need to be a much more extreme degree of everything for it to count.

    the dsm is a tricky book to mess with. for instance, when it comes to LDs and ADD, too many lay people read the definitions and think they then understand the terms. but bluntly there are x factors that must be looked to that is only learned by experience. for instance, too many people think that a writing disability is merely a standard deviation of intelligence between the writing areas and everything else. but, at least in my variety, it is actually fine motor problem that can be detected with simple tests such as one where i was required to put little pegs in holes. The standard differential in IQ scores is a symptom of the disorder, but not the disorder itself.

    Btw, as for michelle, if she was a narcissist, too, wouldn’t that make things worse? i mean a self-centered person needs someone who will not also be self-centered, right?

    bah, i don’t know.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  3. Btw, as for michelle, if she was a narcissist, too, wouldn’t that make things worse? i mean a self-centered person needs someone who will not also be self-centered, right?

    bah, i don’t know.

    Comment by Aaron Worthing — 12/2/2010 @ 6:59 am

    Heh – could well be; forgot about that. Narcissists do tend to try to suck all the attention et al out of the room and Heaven help the person who gets in the way. No experience w/ more than one narcissist in the same situation but maybe if they see themselves as one awesome unit deserving of all praise, and the $300K make-work hospital jobs etc which that entails? 😉

    no one you know (325a59)

  4. Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat…

    I describe myself as Kaptain Kangaroo sometimes, but only in private. So it’s ok. Soros is gonna want his $$ back.

    Chris (6b0332)

  5. What’s the name of the disorder for people who obsess about the personalities of public figures they don’t know, or who attribute all the blame for problems in their own lives or in society to one figure, about whom they have delusional fantasies and elaborate stories that can’t be traced to reality?

    frank (bd6e5c)

  6. Comment by frank — 12/2/2010 @ 7:56 am

    Palin Derangement Syndrome…?

    no one you know (325a59)

  7. Frank

    who do you have in mind? can you name anyone?

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  8. What’s the name of the disorder for people who obsess about the personalities of public figures they don’t know…

    Democrat

    Pappy (b1f039)

  9. Chris

    They once wanted to call the show Kaptain Kangaroo Korner, but for some reason the network nixed the idea.

    [And let me point out, that is a joke. –Aaron]

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  10. [And let me point out, that is a joke. –Aaron]

    Thank you.

    Chris (6b0332)

  11. Second step – sure, lets let the tax cut expire for people making more than $1 million/year. 🙂

    aphrael (9802d6)

  12. If Obama wants to call himself a Blue Dog Democrat, I suppose he can. I saw what happened to many of the Blue Dog Democrats in 2010. The voters in their districts put many of them out of work. So Obama, you Blue Dog you–keep on woofing that way. It’s a recipe for losing your next election.

    Mike Myers (0e06a9)

  13. This guy’s in the midst of changing his self – image as often as Gore did in his failed Presidential bid.

    Dmac (498ece)

  14. The latest example, is Obama protesting that Russia, and Qatar, got the World Cop in 2018 and
    2022 respectively

    narciso (9d0688)

  15. narc

    First, i find it ironic you are commenting here, given the nickname.

    And more seriously, i would love a link if you have it.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  16. The man did write two books about himself…by his early 40’s.

    Andrew (fa9964)

  17. The latest example, is Obama protesting that Russia, and Qatar, got the World Cop in 2018 and
    2022 respectively

    Comment by narciso —

    He just can’t bother to be president, and prefers to worry about silly crap like that. It’s pretty embarrassing.

    I think Obama is quite sincere that he sees himself as moderate. In fact, I bet he thinks the entire political spectrum revolves around him. Anything to the right of him must be conservative and to the left liberal, because he is the center of it all.

    He does hate gay marriage and went to a kooky church, so perhaps he thinks this makes him a social conservative. Honestly, where he sits on the spectrum is not the most important quality he’s got. I’d take a patriotic and decisive leader who really wants to lead and work over someone who agrees with me on everything, but doesn’t really care that much about his country.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  18. All politicians to a greater or lesser extent think that they can say things that stretch incredulity and not get called on it. Its that touch of sociopath needed to be a politician.

    But Obama has this to an extent I’ve literally never seen before. He really believes that he can say anything, no matter how utterly ridiculous, and get away with it.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  19. I take it from narciso lopez, not narcissist,

    narciso (9d0688)

  20. Nice reference, Narciso.

    And your link is incredibly annoying. The President of the United States knocking sports organizations for the choices they make? It’s none of his business and just embarrassing.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  21. narc

    O…I…C…

    I was wondering what the hell your nick meant.

    And thanks for the link.

    Dustin

    > It’s none of his business

    Everything is his business, at least in his mind.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  22. Dustin

    actually in limited defense of obama, he was asked a question and answered it.

    and politicians have to pretend they care. I mean if he came out and said he hated soccer, my God, the entire latino community might vote republican in 2012. (kidding).

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  23. President Bush notes that he kinda sees himself as a RINO amid the administration’s condemnation of Nascar for not putting a track in Texas.

    Nope. Can’t see that. Of course, Bush waited until after his career ended to write his memoirs, so I guess he’s old fashioned.

    Kinda interesting that Obama’s attempt to give us more insight is just another comment about his political position. Everything is politicized with Obama… even Obama. If Bush were to give us this kind of insight, it would be that he steps away from partisanship entirely when the country needs him to, not that he’s actually at this or that point on the scale (conveniently where he needs to be to be more popular).

    Comparing Bush to Obama seems so ridiculous these days.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  24. actually in limited defense of obama, he was asked a question and answered it.

    I admit, that’s a legit point.

    From my POV, here’s a guy who is constantly going on vacations and playing golf and walking out of meetings. By now, Obama knows he’s developed a reputation for not taking his work very seriously.

    He shouldn’t have replied to that question. It was a perfect opportunity to use Obama’s trademark dismissal of questions. Just a “We need to stay focused on jobs rather than where the Olympics or World Cup are held.”

    He answered the question because he wanted to convey his opinion on that topic… he ignores so many questions about things that really matter.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  25. yeah, liberals keep screaming that the republicans are going to bring back the bush era.

    to paraphrase frank j. flemming, “yeah, cause no one wants to go back to six percent unemployment. what a nightmare.”

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  26. Yet it’s taken Holder five months since Assuange started threatening to release files, the ones that
    our happy Quellist was over the moon about. It’s like he has a negative learning curve, like when
    he pencilled in McCrystal in the middle of his
    Olympics deal.

    narciso (9d0688)

  27. It’s simple:

    1 – your predecessor has a $435 billion deficit his last full year;
    2 – you increase it to $1.42 trillion the next year;
    3 – you blame that $1.42 trillion on your predecessor; and
    4 – your next deficit is only $1.29 trillion.

    Congratulations! You are now a deficit hawk! See how easy that was?

    The Dana who understands how these things work (3e4784)

  28. “So Obama, you Blue Dog you–keep on woofing that way. It’s a recipe for losing your next election.”

    Yep. Why vote for a faux Republican when you can get a real one?

    EdWood (c2268a)

  29. e, like when
    he pencilled in McCrystal in the middle of his
    Olympics deal.

    Yeah, that was when I really lost faith in this administration. I knew the entire time they were from a completely different perspective than I am on policies and that they had a lot of sleazy bastards in their circle, but at this point I realized they don’t even give a crap about doing a good job.

    A war general takes a back seat to the Chicago bid for the Olympics, and is only getting any attention with the president at all because the president was embarrassed in Rolling Stone Magazine. That worked terribly.

    I can’t imagine Bush having Petraeus wait for him in the back of the limo while George and Laura petition Nascar to move some races to Houston.

    It was all a big show, dreamed up by political directors, to prove that Obama was the big man. It’s Michael Scott level strategy. Make your subordinate wait awkwardly and publicly and then just bust in and out clumsily like you barely care. Make the war effort seem less important because you’re so damn busy with other things.

    Only problem is that big men don’t need big shows, and Obama looked like an idiot.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  30. Not that having a real Republican in office would change anything for the better but hey 8 years of President Palin and then we could give the financial industry ANOTHER few trillion dollars in bailouts when their next “free market” ponzi scheme blows up! Whaddya say fellas?

    EdWood (c2268a)

  31. Just like he couldn’t be bothered to visit with the wounded soldiers at Rammstein AFB on his Berlin tour

    narciso (9d0688)

  32. oops, a little Financial Industry Derangement Syndrome there….

    EdWood (c2268a)

  33. What evidence in there, Ed, that Palin would support that, much less any other Republican currently.

    JD (eb5afc)

  34. How’s the remake of Plan 9 going, Ed

    narciso (9d0688)

  35. EdWood, that’s just sputtering nonsense. Come on, grow up. If you think that its the Republicans that have been catering to the financial services industry, you just haven’t been paying attention.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  36. The nine diagnostic criteria from DSM-4, with translation.

    Rampant in Hollywood and Washington DC.

    LarryD (f22286)

  37. Eddie’s got another Woody, as usual – this time for Palin.

    Dmac (498ece)

  38. The Russians, OTOH, think it’s as big a deal as the fall of the Berlin Wall.

    BTW, I don’t think Obama has NPD, at least in the clinical sense (as opposed to the vernacular sense meaning “has an overblown ego”). A person with true NPD would not be able to function successfully in politics because they have such a severe lack of empathy. They can’t even pretend to be interested in other people’s problems. Obama can at least do that.

    kishnevi (d52176)

  39. Speaking of the Russians, the spy ring wasn’t that much of a joke,

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/1/inside-the-ring-843880610/

    narciso (9d0688)

  40. SPQR You are absolutely right, that’s why all those Republicans voted to bail out the financial services industry…..and why they made sure they regulated the financial services industry during the 8 years that Prez Bush ran the white house… oh yeah, forgot, they failed to do that. Don’t take me wrong, I don’t excuse any Democrats, it’s just that all I’m hearing from the Republicans is that they learned their lesson and to prove it they are offering up the same ol’ sh*t (a tax break will fix everything!) with a side of see?!!! we are saving you from “socialism”!!!!!!

    Both parties work for Goldman Sachs now. Prez. O included of course.

    Let’s see what the Tea Party does. I have noticed that they are getting a little more careful consideration from this or that commenter.

    Whatever, this is off topic. FIDS.

    EdWood (c2268a)

  41. “they regulated the financial services industry during the 8 years that Prez Bush ran the white house… oh yeah, forgot, they failed to do that”

    I think there was regulation during the Bush era. I think there actually was a hell of a lot of it.

    , I don’t excuse any Democrats, it’s just that all I’m hearing from the Republicans is that they learned their lesson and to prove it they are offering up the same ol’ sh*t (a tax break will fix everything!) with a side of see?!!! we are saving you from “socialism”!!!!!!

    It’s not just about them learning their lesson, but about them making the cynical calculation that they must behave a certain way.

    And indeed, taxes are a big part of the solution to our problems, as are spending cuts.

    Both parties work for Goldman Sachs now. Prez. O included of course.

    We have to work on this, but it’s going to take a lot of patience.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  42. Maybe he’s that other hack movie maker, Lewis something or other, the CRA revisions, Obama’s suite against Citigroup that opened up the subprime
    spigots, HUD policy changes under Cisneros and Cuomo, (yes, that Cuomo) they don’t count in your world

    narciso (9d0688)

  43. The tea party is here to save us from pork spending and earmarks!

    ajb (9df40f)

  44. I’m not going to bother finding out, ajb, if that url is as dishonestly represented as your typical one.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  45. It seems as though William yelverton, the midget racist hilljack ukelele player who is scared of brown people that can spell, is intent on proving to the universe, every single day, that he is not only short and angry and hateful, but dishonest and stupid to boot.

    JD (d56362)

  46. It was a nationaljournal hit piece on the tea party caucus, SPQR. They are having the vapors over 52 members having requested a total of $1B in earmarks. It is the standard leftist HYPOCRITE. Argument, where screaming names takes the place of honest discussion.

    JD (822109)

  47. where screaming names takes the place of honest discussion

    irony meter went kablooey

    EricPWJohnson (4380b4)

  48. You shattered your own quite some time ago. But, it is not at all surprising to see you defending yet another leftist, you staunch and true Team R champion.

    JD (6e25b4)

  49. But of course, wee Willie Wanker, the racist hilljack skin-flute playing cat molester’s link has no details of the dates that the earmarks in question were requested; choosing instead to paint with the broad HYPOCRITE! brush…

    I mean, they did throw a bone out there by admitting that one of the members has requested no more earmarks since joining the caucus. My intuition tells me that is probably the case with many of the others. But of course neither nationaljournal nor the AP published the audit trail; ditto for the CAGW “pork book”, which only categorizes earmarks.

    And, you know, we could list O!‘s hypocrisies, but we don’t want to take up all of our gracious host’s bandwidth…

    But anyway, the dishonest rhetorical technique is par for the course, and up to the usual low standards, of the cat-molester.

    Bob Reed (5f2db5)

  50. The dirty secret about Obama is that, when he walks out of all those meetings, he’s actually going back to his office to play World of Warcraft. He plays a female elf, but the screen name is a closely guarded secret because if people found out then everyone on the server would be trying to either pound him or defend him and the Secret Service agents would all have to level up characters in order to defend him.

    Gesundheit (cfa313)

  51. Aaron,

    Your post caused me to remember the photo of that Cambridge, Massachusetts cop helping the belligerent professor Henry Louis Gates down the White House steps while Obama struts in front of them, oblivious.

    norcal (4abb98)

  52. Details here

    Records compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste and reveiewed by the National Journal, 52 members of the tea party caucus, which pledges to cut spending and reduce the size of government, requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150 during Fiscal Year 2010.

    FACT. Live with it teabagger denialist hypocrites.

    ajb (9df40f)

  53. Wee Willie Wanker, the racist hilljack skin-flute-playing cat molester, your comment at #53 PROVES that you don’t even really read the crappy links you post.

    Here’s a clue stroker, that’s the exact same piece, word for word, as the AP link from earlier; which stated in the byline that it was courtesy of nationaljournal.

    And my objections, then, still hold. They nor CAGW provide the dates of the earmark requests, although nationaljournal admits that one of the caucus members stopped requesting earmarks after joining the tea-party group. As I said before, I strongly suspect that it is the same with many others.

    But since you’re slingin’ the assertions Wee Willie, and seem to be the one getting all wee-wee’d up about “denialist tea-baggers”, I suggest you provide the definitive proof that they are all hypocrites, since nationaljournal didn’t.

    And I’ll give you a hint, a priori, you won’t be able to do it. But then, a smart guy like you will realize that, you know, if you actually read the stuff you link to…

    Bob Reed (5f2db5)

  54. Let’s hear it for team R Teabaggers!
    Earmarks in 2010

    Aderholt (R-AL) 69 $78,263,000
    Akin (R-MO) 9 $14,709,000
    Alexander (R-LA) 41 $65,395,000
    Barton (R-TX) 14 $12,269,400
    Bartlett (R-MD) 19 $43,060,650
    Bilirakis (R-FL) 14 $13,600,000
    R. Bishop (R-UT) 47 $93,980,000
    Burgess (R-TX) 15 $15,804,400
    Carter (R-TX) 26 $42,232,000
    Coble (R-NC) 19 $18,755,000
    Crenshaw (R-FL) 37 $54,424,000
    Culberson (R-TX) 22 $33,792,000
    Fleming (R-LA) 10 $31,489,000
    Franks (R-AZ) 8 $14,300,000
    Gingrey (R-GA) 19 $16,100,000
    Gohmert (R-TX) 15 $7,099,000
    S. Graves (R-MO) 11 $8,331,000
    R. Hall (R-TX) 16 $12,232,000
    Harper (R-MS) 25 $80,402,000
    Herger (R-CA) 5 $5,946,000
    Hoekstra (R-MI) 9 $6,392,000
    Jenkins (R-KS) 12 $24,628,000
    S. King (R-IA) 13 $6,650,000
    Lamborn (R-CO) 6 $16,020,000
    Gary Miller (R-CA) 15 $19,627,500
    Jerry Moran (R-KS) 22 $19,400,000
    Poe (R-TX) 12 $7,913,000
    Rehberg (R-MT) 88 $100,514,200
    Royce (R-CA) 7 $6,545,000
    Scalise (R-LA) 20 $17,388,000
    Adrian Smith (R-NE) 1 $350,000
    L. Smith (R-TX) 18 $14,078,000
    Stearns (R-FL) 17 $15,472,000
    Tiahrt (R-KS) 39 $63,400,000
    Wamp (R-TN) 14 $34,544,000
    Wilson (R-SC) 15 $23,334,000

    TOTAL 764 $1,049,783,150

    ajb (9df40f)

  55. I guess Bob Reed is right, the database I got my info from says Dems are responsible for twice as much in pork spending in 2010 as Republicans. That can’t be correct. Right Bob?

    http://www.cagw.org/reports/pig-book/2010/pork-database.html

    ajb (9df40f)

  56. ajb, why cut and paste that when JD already noted (with a justified yawn, I’m sure) that members of the tea party caucus requested about a billion in earmarks?

    You do that a lot. You act like you just won an argument when you’re not actually saying or proving anything we didn’t already know.

    Show me the hypocrisy, please. How is it hypocritical if a comgressman like Lamar Smith earmarks a mere $14 million for the Austin Texas area while calling for massive cuts in spending?

    It’s just typical alinksi preschool debate to say that if someone wants to cut spending, they must want the entire government to be unfunded.

    I guess I’ll know you’ve admitted defeat when you start screaming about incest again.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  57. Just three days after GOP senators proposed a ban on federal carve-outs, an eventually unsuccessful endeavor, Kyl locked up a $200 million earmark “to settle an Arizona Indian tribe’s water rights claim against the government.”

    While perhaps the most egregious example of immediate duplicity, six more senators who were in favor of the elimination of earmarks had been guilty of requesting millions of dollars in taxpayer money just months before. And that’s not to mention Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who eventually threw his weight behind the ban, despite having steered nearly $1 billion in pork by himself alone.

    ajb (9df40f)

  58. Bob Reed, how does your wife like the bikini porn on your blog?

    ajb (9df40f)

  59. This puts things in more context, inconvenient for
    the Music man;

    http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=46633

    narciso (9d0688)

  60. six more senators who were in favor of the elimination of earmarks had been guilty of requesting millions of dollars in taxpayer money just months before.

    So what? Millions? Oh no! Again, you fail to overcome my point: you’re acting as though someone calling for limited government must never vote to fund anything. Some of your complaint citations are for extremely small amounts of money, and some for pretty valuable projects. A few million on a project does not somehow establish guilt. You can’t accept that some of these people honestly want the government run well, which means choosing to fund certain things and choosing to cut funding for certain things. It doesn’t mean some braindead absolute policy.

    And that’s not to mention Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell,

    Well no kidding that’s not to mention him. He’s not opposed to earmarks, though. So you just bring him up because you’re rambling.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  61. 52 members of the tea party caucus, which pledges to cut spending and reduce the size of government, requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150 during Fiscal Year 2010.

    FACT. Live with it teabagger denialist hypocrites.

    Hey, ajb, I counted and it’s nowhere near 52 members. Why is it that when you’re screaming ‘fact’ really loud it’s the same time you just told a lie?

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  62. NAME EARMARKS AMOUNT

    Aderholt (R-AL) 69 $78,263,000
    Akin (R-MO) 9 $14,709,000
    Alexander (R-LA) 41 $65,395,000
    Bachmann (R-MN) 0 0
    Barton (R-TX) 14 $12,269,400
    Bartlett (R-MD) 19 $43,060,650
    Bilirakis (R-FL) 14 $13,600,000
    R. Bishop (R-UT) 47 $93,980,000
    Burgess (R-TX) 15 $15,804,400
    Broun (R-GA) 0 0
    Burton (R-IN) 0 0
    Carter (R-TX) 26 $42,232,000
    Coble (R-NC) 19 $18,755,000
    Coffman (R-CO) 0 0
    Crenshaw (R-FL) 37 $54,424,000
    Culberson (R-TX) 22 $33,792,000
    Fleming (R-LA) 10 $31,489,000
    Franks (R-AZ) 8 $14,300,000
    Gingrey (R-GA) 19 $16,100,000
    Gohmert (R-TX) 15 $7,099,000
    S. Graves (R-MO) 11 $8,331,000
    R. Hall (R-TX) 16 $12,232,000
    Harper (R-MS) 25 $80,402,000
    Herger (R-CA) 5 $5,946,000
    Hoekstra (R-MI) 9 $6,392,000
    Jenkins (R-KS) 12 $24,628,000
    S. King (R-IA) 13 $6,650,000
    Lamborn (R-CO) 6 $16,020,000
    Luetkemeyer (R-MO) 0 0
    Lummis (R-WY) 0 0
    Marchant (R-TX) 0 0
    McClintock (R-CA) 0 0
    Gary Miller (R-CA) 15 $19,627,500
    Jerry Moran (R-KS) 22 $19,400,000
    Myrick (R-NC) 0 0
    Neugebauer (R-TX) 0 0
    Pence (R-IN) 0 0
    Poe (R-TX) 12 $7,913,000
    T. Price (R-GA) 0 0
    Rehberg (R-MT) 88 $100,514,200
    Roe (R-TN) 0 0
    Royce (R-CA) 7 $6,545,000
    Scalise (R-LA) 20 $17,388,000
    P. Sessions (R-TX) 0 0
    Shadegg (R-AZ) 0 0
    Adrian Smith (R-NE) 1 $350,000
    L. Smith (R-TX) 18 $14,078,000
    Stearns (R-FL) 17 $15,472,000
    Tiahrt (R-KS) 39 $63,400,000
    Wamp (R-TN) 14 $34,544,000
    Westmoreland (R-GA) 0 0
    Wilson (R-SC) 15 $23,334,000

    Now that’s 52 members.

    Isn’t it strange that AJB claimed 52 members did something that a lot of them didn’t do at all? Why did AJB cut out all the members who didn’t do what he claimed, and then called it a fact while insisting anyone who told the truth was a ‘teabagger denialist’?

    Is it because he is so upset about politics that he can’t think clearly?

    Anyhow, it doesn’t appear anyone can point to any of these earmarks occurring after joining the caucus. IF a lot of these members were earmarking funds and then decided to join the caucus and not do so anymore, I guess that’s not anywhere near as bad as what ajb claims, right?

    At any rate, once again, ajb’s conclusion doesn’t follow from his evidence, even if that hadn’t been trumped up.

    Way to go, ajb. You just consciously sold out your integrity to shill against people trying to save our country from financial collapse. You’re a good little soldier.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  63. Hate to quadruple post, but I also want to note that earmarks have to looked at on a case by case basis anyway.

    I don’t know that Bachman and Pence (which big fat Tea Party zeros on earmark request totals) are any better than some of the people requesting a few million.

    Are these millions going to some Murtha Center for Research of Something style BS pork scam? Are they going to something we need?

    ajb doesn’t care, obviously, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care. That’s why Porkbusters is superior to CAGW.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  64. ajb’s whole point is run around the bases while pointing and laughing.

    That’s what he does.

    As many have, will and will continue to point out, earmarks are a small part of the budget. The real pain will come when Congress faces the real budget-breaking cost cuts: Social Security, Medicare and Defense and, most importantly at this point in time, Obamacare.

    Pork, though is easy. What ajb’s dance around the bases doesn’t take into consideration is we are watching.

    If Congress doesn’t rein in these stupid dibs and dabs of millions upon millions, then we will put new people in place to assure it is done.

    I don’t care what the 110th did, I’m focused on the 111th. The GOP and Tea Party members may disappoint, but if they do, they will be tossed.

    ajb’s party is still parsing tea leaves for a populist message to continue spending.

    Ag80 (e828a4)

  65. AG80, well said.

    I don’t mind if democrats intend to agitate against any Republican who spends money… that doesn’t help them get around to justifying our huge spending levels.

    If it turns out some of our tea party leadership can’t walk the walk, we’ll fix it at the ballot box. I’m sure it’ll happen several times.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  66. Willie the racist hilljack midget Yelverton – It took me all of 30 seconds to look at your link and accurately predict exactly what you would do. You did, however, do so in a more mendoucheous manner than I expected, though the teabagger BS was a given.

    JD (eb5afc)

  67. You know, i don’t particularly care what it is called, earmarks or whatever. this issue is whether the spending, whatever you call it, is justified and efficient. It is the politicians who pretend that earmarks are inherently bad, not me.

    Aaron Worthing (b8e056)

  68. _________________________________________

    He does hate gay marriage and went to a kooky church
    Comment by Dustin

    He did attend a “kooky” (ie, “Goddamn America!”) church, but I doubt whether he truly dislikes same-sex marriage. Besides, there are some not-flimsy rumors that the dude has dabbled with other dudes. After all, his former chief of staff was a ballet dancer—-which calls to mind a stereotype, but truths often do exist behind various stereotypes. So combining things like that with all the anything-goes leftism of today’s Democrat Party means the reality of the current White House being GLBT-friendly (in more ways than one) is pretty much a given.

    Mark (3e3a7c)

  69. You may be right, Frank Marshall Davis, who was a big influence in his life, had that orientation, then again the part of his life that he venerates his father, is extremely chauvinist

    narciso (9d0688)

  70. _______________________________________

    Frank Marshall Davis, who was a big influence in his life,

    Just when I think I’m being perhaps too cynical about Obama’s background, some bit of information crops up, which I was not formerly aware of (I admit to being ignorant about the person you mention), that makes me realize that, if anything, the underside of the current occupant of the White House is scroungier — way scroungier — than even I previously believed.

    telegraph.co.uk, August 2008:

    Although identified only as Frank in Mr Obama’s memoir Dreams from My Father, it has now been established that he was Frank Marshall Davis, a radical activist and journalist who had been suspected of being a member of the Communist Party in the 1950s.

    A bohemian libertine who drank heavily and loved jazz, he became friends with Stanley Dunham, Mr Obama’s maternal grandfather in the 1960s.

    While [Obama’s] mother was in Indonesia during part of his teenage years, [he] lived with his white grandparents. [Frank Davis] was first introduced to the future Democratic presidential candidate in 1970 at the age of 10.

    In his memoir, Mr Obama recounts how he visited Mr Davis on several occasions, apparently at junctures when he was grappling with racial issues, to seek his counsel. At one point in 1979 Mr Davis described university as “an advanced degree in compromise” that was designed to keep blacks in their place.

    Mr Obama quoted him as saying: “Leaving your race at the door. Leaving your people behind. Understand something, boy. You’re not going to college to get educated. You’re going there to get trained.” He added that “they’ll tank on your chain and let you know that you may be a well-trained, well-paid nigger, but you’re a nigger just the same.”

    It has also been established that Mr Davis, who divorced in 1970, was the author of a hard-core pornographic autobiography published in San Diego in 1968 by Greenleaf Classics under the pseudonym Bob Greene.

    He stated that “under certain circumstances I am bisexual” and that he was “a voyeur and an exhibitionist” who was “occasionally mildly interested in sado-masochism”, adding: “I have often wished I had two penises to enjoy simultaneously the double – but different – sensations of oral and genital copulation.”

    One chapter concerns the seduction by Mr Davis and his first wife of a 13-year-old girl called Anne. Mr Davis wrote that it was the girl who had suggested he had sex with her. “I’m not one to go in for Lolitas. Usually I’d rather not bed a babe under 20.

    “But there are exceptions. I didn’t want to disappoint the trusting child. At her still-impressionistic age, a rejection might be traumatic, could even cripple her sexually for life.”

    On other occasions, Mr Davis would cruise in Hawaii parks looking for couples or female tourists to have sex with. He derived sexual gratification from bondage, simulated rape and being flogged and urinated on.

    ^ Frank Davis makes folks in Obama’s more recent circle of friends, such as Jeremiah Wright, seem almost upright and respectable. Then I cringe as I think of the phrase: “You can always judge a person’s character by the company he keeps.”

    I wonder if historians in the future — assuming they’re not biased by bankrupt “progressive” sentiments — will look upon 2008 as the moment when America officially jumped the shark? When a majority of its voters, in effect, goddamned themselves.

    Mark (3e3a7c)


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