Motley Moose – Archive

Game on: as the Romney campaign shifts gears from the battering and often baffling GOP primaries to a kinder and more moderate friendly (lulz) general election campaign, I’ve been beginning to pay more attention. While watching a candidate who’s held more positions than the unabridged Kama Sutra try to move toward some semblance of sanity is the height of political entertainment for me, I’ve got to say this ‘bracket and prebuttal‘ strategy they’re employing gives me a robust chuckle.

To beat a sitting president, you first have to chase him around the country.

At least that’s the operating theory at Mitt Romney’s campaign headquarters, where aides are unleashing a new strategy to combat President Obama at his campaign stops and to even adopt Obama’s itinerary as their own.

With the general election campaign in full swing, the presumptive Republican nominee plans to stage “prebuttal” and “rebuttal” speeches to Obama designed to try to force the president on the defensive.

Prebuttal? SRSLY?

When Romney’s staff moved out of its office in Iowa after a virtual tie in the caucuses in January, the Obama campaign opened an office in Romney’s vacant headquarters.

Now, that’s how you prebut. Welcome to the Big Leagues, Mitt.

I’ve been too busy to develop any meaningful resolutions. Not that I’m particularly good at sticking to them anyway. So this year, I’m going to steal some from Woody Guthrie’s New Years Rulin’s.

Many of these seem doable (reprint after the jump).  What are your New Year’s resolutions, and if you don’t play that game let us know what you think the most important news story of the year was? Arab Spring? Japanese earthquake/tsunami? Debt ceiling fiasco? Lots to choose from. Or how about the most under covered story of the year?

In other words, North Korea’s Kim Jong-il has died. Dead. Bought farm, bit dust, cashed in, shuffled coil, croaked, given up the ghost, dirt nap, big sleep, teats up, sleeping with fishes, joined the choir invisible, pushing daisies, belly up, departed, boarded death’s little black train, danced last dance, worm food dead.

…and the world just got a little bit better for it. Is the heir equally as squirrel-turd nutty as Dear Leader? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.  Jump the flip for some lulz trivia about Kim Jong-il.  Otherwise, it’s an OPEN THREAD, so knock yourself out.

Who is Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford?

A well-known Washington lobbying firm with links to the financial industry has proposed an $850,000 plan to take on Occupy Wall Street and politicians who might express sympathy for the protests, according to a memo obtained by the MSNBC program Up w/ Chris Hayes.

The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to one of CLGC’s clients, the American Bankers Association. CLGC’s memo (PDF) proposes that the ABA pay CLGC $850,000 to conduct “opposition research” on Occupy Wall Street in order to construct “negative narratives” about the protests and allied politicians.

The memo also asserts that Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.

File that last graf under No Shit, Sherlock. For their part, the American Bankers Association claims that the GLGC proposal was unsolicited, and they have chosen not to act on it. Sure, ok, maybe the American Bankers Association won’t ‘act on it’. Riiiiight, whatever y’all say. I mean, come on, we know what angle is anyway, so nothing surprising there. It’s GLGC I’m interested in.

For teh lulz, let’s see who and what makes up the lobbying firm of Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford, shall we? Per the MSNBC piece:

Two of the memo’s authors, partners Sam Geduldig and Jay Cranford, previously worked for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Geduldig joined CLGC before Boehner became speaker;  Cranford joined CLGC this year after serving as the speaker’s assistant for policy. A third partner, Steve Clark, is reportedly “tight” with Boehner, according to a story by Roll Call that CLGC features on its website.

{snip}

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel declined to comment on the memo. But he responded to its characterization of Republicans as defenders of Wall Street by saying, “My understanding is that President Obama is the single largest recipient of donations from Wall Street.”

I took the day off from work today.  I went to a baseball game with a co-worker and another colleague. Had a great time: took the train, watched the game, talked to each other, talked to strangers. It was nice, you know? A break from routine. Anyhoo, upon rolling home (and showering my three year old with souvenirs), I popped open the Moose to give Jsfox’s front-paged post a thorough read. I’d spied it earlier today, trying to peek occasionally via the smart phone, but you know how it is – I was at a ballgame for gad’s sake. So I finally read it once I was settled at home tonight.

Now that I’ve digested it, I’m going to share some of my disjointed thoughts. Freestyle. Actually, I’m likely to rant a bit. If you’re not down with that, don’t click though.

At 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific), President Obama will address a joint session of Congress to deliver his plan to create jobs and grow the economy. Senior Advisor, David Plouffe, who has been a key figure in crafting the strategy, says we can expect to hear the President detail a plan that will rebuild our economy, and further, issue a challenge to Congress to meet their responsibilities. All indications are that the address will be part policy, and part politics:

Barack Obama is to throw down the gauntlet to Republicans, demanding they back his $300 billion jobs plan or face the wrath of voters blaming them for refusing to help revive the American economy.

The stakes are high, and so are expectations. This just might be the President’s last, best chance to jumpstart the economy and bring some semblance of balance to the debate in Washington, where The H2tN (Hell to the NO!) Party have been dry-humping the agenda since the midterms. The challenges are immense: Can he appeal to D.C.-weary independents? Appease liberals? We’ll find out soon enough.

Or on the rock, as the case may be. I’ve been busy the last few days with work, so I haven’t been as plugged in to the 24/7 freak out festivus as I would have otherwise been. I have to say it’s been nice to not have the extra stress, the extra worry.

I thought maybe some of you could use a quick break from the the blogo-spazz out. Why not step outside with me, and take a look at some of the things have that have kept my mind off the pros and cons of the worst best probably not as bad as some would have you believe debt deal legislation. At a minimum, click though to see what I mean by the title and the opening line.

Recently, another battle in the war on science was lost when the State of Utah summarily fired nearly all of their state archaeologists to comply with ‘budget cuts’:

The Utah Department of Community and Culture on Tuesday laid off the state archaeologist and two assistants, leaving the Antiquities section with just two employees: those responsible for maintaining a database necessary for development of roads, railways, buildings and other projects.

Department acting Director Mike Hansen said he was simply carrying out budget cuts ordered by the Legislature to eliminate programs that receive state funds and that do not carry out requirements of state or federal law.

Coincidentally [!!], the firings come just as Utah legislators have ordered the Department of Community and Culture to ‘restructure’ or get this, eliminate itself. Wayne Harper, both a Republican State Representative and a developer, has introduced H.B. 287, a law that requires the agency to improve efficiency, reduce the cost of government, and “better focus the state and its employees.” Naturally, some wonder if the terminations are more politically motivated than driven by budgetary concerns.

Dear Ms. Orly Taitz,

I am Barrister Lee H. Fogiv  a member of Kenya Bar Association (KBA).Your contact reached me through the World PUMA Encyclopaedia.Hence,I made up my mind to introduce this business to you in confidence for the mutual benefit of both of us.

The sum of USD48M (Forty eight Million United States) and a Certificate of Live burf for Muslin babby with name Barrie Hussien O’Bama was lodged into one of the leading private Bank here in the Country by the late Head of State (E.A. Presley) this money was lodged in security vaults / boxes.

[Orginally published Mon Aug 10, 2009 at 14:39:22 PM PDT]

As a Federal employee, I was paying pretty close attention to the looming shutdown of the Federal government. Don’t get me wrong, I love free time as much as the next lazy ‘gubmint Delta Bravo‘, but my family can’t really afford to go without my meager paycheck, dig?

Fortunately for me (for others not so much), an 11th hour deal was struck to ensure that I have the ability to continue to provide for my kiddies — at least for the time being. Was the deal a bad one?