blah blah

Paterson, one t, come on Ellizza.

Go Dartmouth! Gillibrand, Katyal, etc., it's been a good week...

None of this has anything to do with ASSLOBSTERS.

also third

what part of this post is about ASSLOBSTERS in SOMBREROS??!!!

MUSTACHIOED SOMBRERO WEARING ASSLOBSTER

Day laborers who dress like day laborers are racist.

I watched about ten pro-lifers chow down at Fuddruckers last night outside the Verizon Center.

One word - hypocrites. I hope your fatted calf tasted great, cause you're going to burn in hell for it.

Does anybody have confirmation on supposed Cahill layoffs?

10, are you serious? Both the law and the Bible proscribe murder, but neither proscribes eating animals (in general). There are notable inconsistencies in the pro-life position, but this is not one of them.

SkaddenDC

Patrons of Fuddruckers = racist GULCers

SO glad Caroline KEnnedy isn't the new senator. That would have been retarded. This woman might turn out to be a decent choice actually.

- semi-liberal New Yorker.

14 - It was pre-GTown-WV debacle...so probably. A march for life followed by a big juicy burger.

Cows aren't alive. At least this one wasn't...anymore.

fuddruckers is racist because the staff of minorities dress up like americans. i'm deeply offended by their insensitivity. pictures of this travesty will be emailed to elie and i expect a full post

15, WRONG. A woman is never the right choice for any real job. They get all emotional and shit and don't make good decisions. Stay home, bake pies, make babies.

12 - Something about hoofed beasts in there somewhere.

14 - It was pre- Gtown v WV debacle. So probably.

Cows aren't alive. At least this one wasn't....anymore.

Seriously 12 - you don't see the irony in eating a burger in front of an "I choose life" sign?

19, there is no irony here, cows aren't people. It is perfectly natural and moral to kill an animal for food, it is how we are made. Killing your young is an act reserved for beasts.

19, there is an implied reference to human life. Obviously they have to eat at least vegetables, which usually involves killing the vegetables (which are not alive anymore).

12 - So if eating animals is ok under the Bible and the pro-life position... and unborn fetuses are people... and people are animals... would it then be ok for a Pro-Lifer to eat a fetus? And how much would you pay to see this broadcast live?

"Life" used in this context always refers to human life. Cows are just big sacks of meat.

After all, if they hadn't eaten at Fudruckers, wouldn't those bastards have eaten formerly-living plants who had their lives taken away from them?

Pro-lifers are dumb sheep that do what their told because some guy tells them the bible talks about abortion (it does not). Please stop obscuring their stupidity with your own.

Go Dartmouth!

I would love to know how Gillibrand whose bio never mentions law review or even honors at UCLA Law was able to clerk on the second circuit immediately after school. There are plenty of law review students t-10 schools who only clerk at the district level or even magistrate level.

25-

And I'd like to know how a moron who bankrupted three companies and practically failed out of Yale became elected governor of Texas and later President of the United States.

23 - I fail to see the difference between a cow and a human.

22, wrong. Eating animals is ok under the bible, killing people is not ok, there fore killing and eating a fetus is not ok.

19, the reference to hoofed beasts is Deuteronomy 14:8 or Leviticus 11:7 (I think) and they proscribe the eating of unclean beasts, which are defined as hoofed beasts that do not chew their cud. This is why Jews do not eat pig (at least this is the textual explaination). Cows do chew their cud and are thus not considered unclean in the old testement.

27 - Then you're probably married to a cow!

(To answer your question: consciousness)

27, the difference is a soul.

28 - People are animals. Mammals, primates, Homo Sapiens. No different from a cow or a pig or a sheep. I fail to see how you can justify killing and eating a pig or a cow and say that eating humans is somehow wrong.

26, a majority of Texans voted for him (per the Texas constitution), and later a majority of the electoral college voted for him twice (per the US constitution).
You'll learn about how elections work in the US once you start middle school.

But the constitution doesn't tell us how a mediocre UCLA graduate became a second circuit clerk.

26, notice the key word, "elected". This isn't about Bush it is about Gillibrand. Non-law review people without excellent grades from UCLA don't clerk on the 2nd Circuit and especially not as their first and only clerkship.

Something is suspicious. Perhaps she was a staff law clerk since her bio does not mention a particular judge.

Fuddruckers is made out of PEoPLE!

31 - see 29, 30, the bible, philosophy, law, civil society and science.

As Dennis Leary said to the cow...you're a baseball glove. To the otter...you're free to go.

32, 33--the point is that he was put on the ballot because his daddy was a rich and powerful man. Without his daddy pushing him in Republican circles he'd never have had the opportunity to be elected.

31, people are living organisms. No different from a carrot. I fail to see how you can justify eating carrots and say that eating humans is somehow wrong. Or do you eat both carrots and humans?

Princeton Review has a great logics course which you should take.

37, he was on the ballot because he was elected in the primaries. People voted for him, like it or not.
But we don't know how a mediocre UCLA grad because a circuit clerk.

Btw, Bush is no longer president, get over it now.

Uh, peeps, as someone who lives in Gillibrand's (former) district, I'll volunteer the following possibly relevant info:

(1) Gillibrand was a staff clerk at the 2d Circuit.

(2) She's a scion of one of the most prominent political families in upstate NY, which certainly helped with her initial job, with her acceptance to Dartmouth, and with her nomination in 2006 (and subsequent election).

Ever seen a cow or a barn or a slaughterhouse...unclean.

And if you fail to see the inconsistency in the logic of a prolifer munching down on meat...go back to bible study, law school can't help you.

People PEOPLE please be careful! You are almost having a real discussion on here! That is just not allowed anymore in these parts

40 is obviously right. Rich kids from both sides get a leg up on the rest of us. Stop pretending like this isn't obvious and stop pretending like it only affects the Republicans or the Democrats. Bush and McCain were two worthless daddy's boys for the first 30+ years of their lives, screwing everything up until daddy gave them the right position to start their success.

Gillibrand obviously had help from her family along the way. Stop questioning the way the world works when you know how it works.

41, the "life" in pro-life is all human life. Not all life. It's a shorthand. Just like the "choice" in pro-choice is abortion choice, not all possible choices ever. Pro-choice people don't necessarily support "school choice."

40 here -- My (1) was wrong. Someone here knew Gillibrand at Boies Schiller. She worked for Davis Polk directly out of law school -- probably thanks in large part to her family connections -- then clerked for Roger Miner in Albany -- again, likely connected to her political connections -- after a year at DPW.

HTH (sorry for jumping the gun earlier)

39 - Stop pretending like Bush never existed.

Bush demonstrated that Conservatives CANNOT be trusted to run the government. They fill it with incompetent political hacks.

We will not allow people to forget that.

41, in case you were wondering the law makes a pretty clear distinction between people and animals. I'd say that abortion is much closer to murder than slaughtering a cow. SCOTUS has said as much in recognizing that the state has a legitimate interest in protecting potential human life.

46, we know you will never let us forget it. You are going to blame all of Obama's screw up for the next 4 years on the situtation Bush left him regardless of the bad/stupid choices BHO makes.

44 - Their signs said "I choose life" implying a choice exists. So what exactly were they protesting (before the burger)? That the choice exists?

Their logic is faulty on soooo many levels.

And how do you make that choice 47? Have you killed an animal with your own hands?

46, who said Bush never existed?

At least you now learned how the US primary and general elections work.

48 - Yup. That's exactly how the world has always worked. Thanks for growing up and realizing that.

Why do you guys respond to this animal rights flame?

Anyone who can't see the difference between eating a burger and killing a fetus is obviously retarded.

49, Yes, I have killed an animal myself. No, I didn't beat it to death with my bare fists. Yes, I ate it. And I wasn't saying that I made the choice, I was saying that society, and the law make a distinction between animals and human life. This is why I am not in jail for killing a deer but I would be in jail if I killed a person.

- 47

50-

I've always known. Let me teach you something. It ain't easy to just "get on the ballot," jerkoff. You don't just go sign up and then people vote for you. To be placed on a ballot you either:

1) Be very successful on your own; or
2) Be a total failure at everything you try on your own but be fortunate enough to be the scion of a political dynasty and have daddy introduce you to all of his friends and have them place you on the ballot.

Unfortunately, the latter mold appears to be the new Republican model for presidential candidates. Say what you will about Barack, at least he's a self-made man.

33 - she's from a politically connected family with both her parents being lawyers and living/working in albany. if she had no law review/etc. then it is obvious from where her clerkship came from.

as they say its not what you know but who you know.

53 - I get the distinction...I just see a certain irony to it.

And yes, I eat meat and got a nine pointer last year.

I try to kill at least one animal a day.

54, how many people do you know that did obtain very good grades from Occidental that were able to transfer to Columbia? How many people at Columbia that do not graduate with honors do you know that get into Harvard Law School? As for self-made man, Obama went to the most prestigious private school in Hawaii.

38 - You misunderstand me. Cows are animals. People are animals. Carrots aren't animals, but they are alive. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat cows or carrots, just saying that it's ok to eat people. Wouldn't you pay at least, I don't know, $1000 to watch a pay-per-view broadcast of a guy eating an aborted fetus?

Murder is wrong, whether it's a human or a cow. But once they're dead, they're fair game... and delicious (from what I hear). That is Snowden's secret.

54, what are the successes of Hillary Clinton (D-NY) before she was elected Senator? Barack Obama told me she didn't do anything.

60 - Extremely succesful litigator and national health care advocate.

And to follow up on 58, how many people who have had zero scholarly publications in their entire life receive tenure offers from University of Chicago?

61, wouldn't the "national health care advocate" count as a "total failure" under the rubric of 54's insightful analysis?

I'm sitting on a gold Barack Obama dildo right now. It fills my insides with hope.

63 - depends. Did she get into her schools on her own?

Anyone who thinks Obama/Hillary's early-life accomplishments are comparable to Bush/McCain is either joking completely or still thinks McCain lost the election because he ran a bad campaign.

65, so whether HillaryCare was a total failure or not depends on whether Hillary several decades ago got into her schools on merit? Ok gotcha.

Between Bush-the-cokehead/non-reporter-to-military-service and McCain-the-should-have-been-courtmarshalled-crasher-of-airplanes you have two guys that would've been rotting in jail but for their daddy's.

To compare that to two people who came from modest means, created themselves, then got a push from their friends is a sad joke.

66 -- McCain did lose because he ran a bad campaign. See, he ran as a Republican. Huge mistake.

BITCH SPREAD DEM BUTT CHEEKS SO I OBAMA CAN FILL YOUR JUICY INSIDES UP WITH HOPE AND WHIMSY!

67 - Are you the douche that was complaining about how someone got a clerkship? At the age she got the clerkship, Bush was still a drunken cokehead.

COKE on a FRIDAY, BITCHES!!!

ZING

I am finding the pro-cannibalism guy quite funny. Stick around for awhile, pro-cannibalism guy. We could use some new topics for flame wars/ hissy fits around here.

46: That Kool Aid looks delicious! You mean incompetents like a Treas. Sec. that can't even figure out how to use Turbo Tax? Or how about a CIA director that never worked in the intelligence area, civilian or military. Poltical hacks? You mean like hiring nothing but Clinton retreads?

You're right though, repubs have the corner on this market.

They're both corrupt. As soon as you stop jerking off to pics of Obama Mama, you'll realize that.

If a cannibal eats a gay man, does the cannibal's soul burn in eternal hellfire?

75: depends. Which parts?

75, yes. Just like the gay's.

Gay is as Gay does, homo.

71-Your comparison is misleading. Neither Bush nor McCain claimed to be great students. Both in fact joked about their academic shortcomings. However, Senator Gillibrand is implying by her bio that she was not just a good law student but a very good law student.

As to some of the kool-aid drinkers other claims: There is no proof that Bush did coke. Bush had a higher SAT score than Bill Bradley. None of Bush's sibilings got into Yale so he must have done something right. If it was just legacy, why was his brother going to Tulane?

McCain accomplished more in his early life than Clinton or Obama. He suffered for six years in a POW camp and when offered a chance to leave, he refused. I don't think anyone credible would claim that Obama's bio or service to his country was more impressive than McCain's. Your 2004 campaign was premised that Kerry who accomplished nothing in the Senate was qualified to be President because of a few months spent in Vietnam and now you won't give McCain his due. Unbelievable.

74 - You argue that they may be unqualified. You submit no evidence that they are incompetent.

Moreover, incompetent is far better than incompetent and corrupt. Remember when Paulson asked for almost a TRILLION dollars of our money to give to his friends in the banking industry? What was it for again? Oh, so they could continue to lend it to maintain liquidity in the markets. And did he REQUIRE that they lend the money? Of course not. Would it have been hard to require that they lend the money? No. Britain required bailout funds be used for lending.

Bush and his Conservative cronies were such incredible, thieving, screwups it's going to be very, very difficult for Obama to match him.

I wonder how big Kash's ASSLOBSTER is? Pinch, pinch.

80- I'M drinking the Kool-Aid?

Just so we're clear, you're defending one of the most unpopular Presidents in the history of the United States and a guy that got his ass handed to him by the electorate.

What are YOU drinking?

75 - Do you mean like that German guy who videotaped himself consensually killing and eating another dude? No, I don't think he'll burn in hell -- but he certainly should go back to culinary school, because everyone knows you have WHITE WINE with human flesh, not red.

81 - If you eat Kash's Ass Lobster, is that cannibalism?

80: Try learning some reasoning skills. Treas Sec, can't figure out how to file taxes or even use Turbo Tax = gigantic incompetent. Or maybe he knew exactly what he was doing.

Corrupt? Are you kidding me? If the new taxman isn't incompetent, he's a tax cheat, thus corrupt. Bill Richardson, Rahm Emanuel, Eric Holder?

Bush and his appointees were corrupt and incompetent. Obama and his appointees are corrupt and incompetent. This is the status quo I've been waiting for all my life.

Lunch time, time for some KASSHLOBSTER!

Did her!

80, have you been following the news even at all this week? Those British banks sure seem to be doing great these days!

Banks needed the money as a capital cushion, because they made too many loans. Without the bailout, they would have had to reduce their outstanding loans in order to maintain capital ratios. The whole point is defeated if banks turned around and made more loans. Loans are liquid if people know the principal amount can be maintained and not be called (or at refinancing).

Liberal arts majors should not be allowed to comment on anything that uses more numbers than a Jane Austen book.

KASSHLOBSTER!

Now that is something you can really sink your teeth into.

88 - Paulson specifically argued to Congress that the TARP funds were to be used for additional lending.

Did he lie or didn't he?

Your second paragraph, which uses a justification completely different from the one Paulson used, implies that he WAS lying, then?

74 - You mean the soon to be CIA Director who was WH CoS and received intelligence briefings on a multiple times per day basis? As opposed to the experienced CIA Director who handed W the memo that said "Al Queda Wants to Attack the US" a month before they did and the non-reporting for National Guard duty incompetent President did nothing about it? Are you referring to him? Cause I'd say he's a bit more qualified than the experienced guy.

Touche Douche.

Are KASSHLOBSTERS kosher?

Schlomo Groinberg

88 - Or are you simply arguing that Paulson was a liberal arts major that didn't understand the banks' economics?

In your attempt to show what a smartass you are you have merely demonstrated that you fail to even read a newspaper. Perhaps your argument concerning capital ratios is correct. Since Paulson specifically argued the contrary, you're either calling him an incompetent, a liar, or you're talking about something that YOU know nothing about because you didn't bother to learn Paulson's arguments to Congress.

Which is it, 88?

I vote that you're just a douche who doesn't read newspapers.

Maybe its just my Hofstra education, but I don't get the Lobster thing.

90, here is the wikipedia explanation for liberal arts majors:
"Another important goal of TARP is to encourage banks to resume lending again at levels seen before the crisis, both to each other and to consumers and businesses. If TARP can stabilize bank capital ratios, it should theoretically allow them to increase lending instead of hoarding cash to cushion against future, unforeseen losses from troubled assets."

For simplicity:
Lending in 2007: 10
Lending in 2008: 8
Expected lending in 2009 due to need to maintain capital ratios: 4
Lending in 2009 after TARP: 7.5-8
Liberals: waaah, Paulson lied and lending did not increase!
Reality is a little bit more complicated.

91: There's a difference between reviewing intelligence and collecting intelligence. I've done both, and can tell you they take two distinct sets of skills.

The fact that he read briefings, presented in a digestable format for politicians, does not mean that he knows how to gather intel. Probably anyone on this board could read and understand intel briefings. Employees at CIA are trained on writing briefings directed at the target audience - - pres., NSA, etc.

You're reasoning is akin to that of Palin's. "I know all about foregin affairs I can see Russia from my porch."

Just because you've read about spies, doesn't mean you are one or can competently be in charge of spies.

But you already know you've lost this debate. That's why instead or presenting an argument as to why this guy is copetent and experienced, you attack the previous director. Thank you for conceding.

nothing's "suspicious" about a UCLA Law grad clerking for a Second Circuit judge, you a-holes. Btw, she clerked for Judge Miner. See http://www.observer.com/2009/gillibrand-was-political-track

UCLA places plenty of its students in Circuit clerkships -- mostly in the Ninth Circuit but also in other Circuits, including the Second.

90, loans come due after a period of time. Refinancing them instead of calling them in is considered additional lending, a good thing, which is what TARP allowed banks to do, even if the overall total levels of loans do not increase, which is what liberals with no financial knowledge are complaining about.

97, and how many of them aren't on law review and how many don't clerk for a lower court judge first? And how many clerk in the second circuit where UCLA has very little name recognition as a law school? Did I mention that the second circuit is usually considered the hardest circuit to get a clerkship with.

97, and how many of them aren't on law review and how many don't clerk for a lower court judge first? And how many clerk in the second circuit where UCLA has very little name recognition as a law school? Did I mention that the second circuit is usually considered the hardest circuit to get a clerkship with.

97, and the judge, who works near Albany, coincidentally right where she grew up and where her family was influential, selected her instead of hundreds of other candidates purely out of merit?

95 - Did you bill some poor client for the time you spent posting Wikipedia articles on AboveTheLaw?

You're a real loser.

99-101, do you know that she wasn't on law review for sure? You make an interesting point about her ties to Miner's location. You're probably right that it played some role -- how much, we can't know.

Regarding UCLA placing Second Circuit clerks who don't get a district court clerkship first: currently there is a UCLA Law grad clerking in the Second Circuit (for Calabresi, I think) who went straight to the clerkship after graduating.

FYI, from Genesis 1:29: "And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food."

No mention of eating animals there . . ..

103, I am sure the Calabresi clerk was law review and order of the coif with exceptional credentionals. The point is not to bash UCLA. The point is that even from Harvard or Yale you would need outstanding law school grades to get that clerkship. Even people with outstanding grades from CLS and NYU including those that are order of the coif, don't normally get second circuit clerkships right after school. Perhaps Gillibrand was order of the coif and law review but don't you think she would have mentioned that on her bio where she mentions she was magna cum laude at Dartmouth? I am inclined to say so.

FINAL WORD

You're both right. The primary statutory purpose of TARP is to prevent the banks from declaring bankruptcy. Why would it be bad for the banks to declare bankruptcy, you ask? Because it would have screwed over the rich, who own stock in these banks.

Thus, TARP was largely packaged and sold to the American people as a way to increase liquidity in lending so that EVERYONE can have a nice piece of the pie! Just as 95 points out, the dream that the TARP money would lead to new lending was pie in the sky, and of course, it has not.

Ironlically, the fastest way to achieve new lending would be for the banks to declare bankruptcy, completely screwing their rich stockholders and creditors, and then for the government to give the restructured corporations capital directly for new lending, OR for a nationalization of the banks, complete with a bad bank, etc.

Paulson/Bush would not go for either of these scenarios, however, as they both would screw their rich friends. Now, with several hundred billion already in the hole, it seems like we're moving towards the innevitable.

As a side-note, Citi and several other banks are now pushing the creation of a bad bank for troubled assets WITHOUT nationalization. This would essentially amount to American taxpayers overpaying for troubled assets (as they are impossible to value), which is essentially another form of wellfare for the rich banks.

I apologize for couching this all in terms of class warefare--I just think that it's been obvious to all from the start that the appropriate thing to do would be to throw out those that caused these problems on their asses.

What's class warefare? And what does any of this have to do with the alleged Cahill layoffs?

96 - When was the last time you saw the Director "gather intelligence"? I'm pretty sure that's what covert ops does, analysts analyze, and the Director decides what to present to the WH (which is what Panetta was seeing)...so his experience is relevant.

I'll take your concession now.

104 - I think you just got what is called "Game, Set, Match"...stupid cow eating pro-lifers.

I want to open up a restaurant that sells ABORTED FETUS BURGERS. We could compete with Fuddruckers for the pro-life crowd. Who's with me?

First to say Sen Designee KG is HOTNESS!

#110 to 190!

104, 109, selective quotation doesn't work when it's over the Internet.

Genesis 1:28 and God said unto [mankind], Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

105, well put. Point taken.

113 - That doesn't say anything about eating them. And even if it did,since people also moveth upon the earth, we should be able to eat them too.

Which you can after the grand opening of the ABORTED FETUS BURGER SHOP coming soon to Times Square.

115 - I'll take one dead baby with grease and a stem cell slurpee to go.

108: Right, but how can he use any of his assets if he has no idea what they do, and has never collected or worked with intelligence himself? How does he know what intelligence is relevant? How does he give the OK for operations, methods, etc.?

In response, when's the last time you saw a partner doing document review? You're a dick.

Stop being a partisan hack.

117 - He was a Congressman. He has been on at least two sides of the intelligence equation (making the laws and executing them)...he decides what is relevant the same way the rest of us do. With his experience and his brain.

You don't have to grow up in the agency to run the agency. Elaine Chao showed us that. As did Mineta (just to be a bi-partisan hack).

118: Yeah, you're right. Labor, CIA, same thing.

"Mineta served as chairman of the House Public Works and Transportation Committee between 1992 and 1994." What does that have to do with Transportation? Oh yeah!

Panetta was a congressman that never worked with intelligence. Let's see:

Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget
Chairman of the Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition
Chairman of the Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Personnel and Police
Chairman of the Task Force on Domestic Hunger created by the U.S. House Select Committee on Hunger
Vice Chairman of the Caucus of Vietnam-Era Veterans in Congress
Member of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.

He's certainly well suited for nutrition and farming issues, I'll give you that. And if we need to figure out how to deal with terrorist hunger issues, he's our guy. He never served on intelligence, defense, etc.

Just face it, this guy was part of the Clinton package deal.

Finally, I agree. Bush sucked. Many of his people were awful. So WTF does that have to do with whether or not Panetta is qualified or competent. Your argument seems to be, well, retard Bush did it, so why isn't it OK. Because it would be dumb if he did.

Besides, you can't spew hatred of Bush, and then copy his playbook. That just makes you a hypocrite.