Yesterday I waxed wroth about some unsourced quote in which a White House staffer allegedly said that Team Obama was "most worried" about his "brand" becoming tarnished.

Even if this was never said, I have no trouble believing it is accurate.

Timothy 3, also, a well-placed quote from Blade Runner is always good to lift the spirits. Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

What you say is true; however, I would still agree with the description of Obama as weak, because he knows what the right thing to do is, but he just won't do it.

He knows what the right thing to do is, because he told us he was going to do it when he was running for president--transparency, adhering to the rule of law, upholding the constitution, supporting gay rights, etc.

He's like Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman:

I always knew what the right path was. Without exception, I knew, but I never took it. You know why? It was too damn hard.

When you combine that kind of weakness with Obama's apparent desire to be seen as a Great Statesmen Who, Through His Power of Persuasion and Noble Intentions, Can Reconcile Opposing Ideologies (at least, that is the narrative he is feeding the media), you have an absolutely craven coward in the White House.

I am always surprised that people who are able to clearly see the manipulations and opportunism and outright self-serving lies in the political realm cannot put themselves in the same outsider position when considering what they hear from Big Pharma concerning vaccines. As a dog owner, I have done quite a bit of research on vaccines, and I would like to suggest that you all do the same before simply dismissing any concerns or suspicions about them. You see, because of dogs' shorter life spans, the problems with vaccines have become more apparent in a shorter period of time than they have with humans. Vaccines are often dangerous. And they have contributed to the sharp increase in cancer deaths among pets: cancer is now the leading cause of death among them.

Just one of the problems with vaccines is the fact that Big Pharma has never bothered to do DOIs (duration of immunity tests) for any of the pet vaccines; nevertheless, they have managed to shape the laws so that our pets must be vaccinated, at least for rabies, every 1 or 3 years, depending on the state. I have done several antibody titers on my dog over time, and I can tell you that her levels of antibodies for rabies, parvo, and distemper have not changed one bit over the years, so the boosters would have been completely unnecessary, and I refuse to booster my dog. And the combo shots that vets give our pets are an absolute assault on the immune system, and can have all kinds of horrific side effects such as neurological problems.

I could go on and on about this, because there are many many more reasons to worry about over-vaccinating pets, as evidence implicating vaccines in triggering immune-mediated and other chronic disorders is overwhelming, but suffice it to say that there are many well-meaning vets and researchers out there who are trying to change the laws concerning pet vaccines, and some inroads have been made in states that are changing the laws about booster shots in the case where the booster might harm the animal. Jean Dodds, for example, is a vet and a vaccine researcher in California who is raising money to do both a five-year and a seven-year challenge on the rabies vaccine (that is, she wants to test the DOI).

Sorry about this OT comment, but I think that it behooves us all to remember that when our medical system is a for-profit one, we must be suspicious of the propaganda that comes out of that system. When it comes to vaccines, the medical community is using the same tactics that it is using to prevent health care reform. After all, their bottom line is this: they want to sell vaccines, and they also want to be free from any liability arising from them.

I was reading the letters section for Krugman's article about Obama losing the trust of progressives (and a large majority agreed with Krugman, btw), and I saw a very charming letter.

Someone took Krugman to task because, as this writer said, Obama knew exactly what he was doing when he sent those smoke signals out about dropping the public option. It wasn't because he planned on dropping it all along. Oh no! It was because he deliberately wanted to stir up his base of progressives and wanted them to make so much noise that they would drown out the din of the astroturf protesters. You see, Obama is in total control of the situation and he wants what is best for all of us and he is playing the progressives like a piano to get them to push hard on their representatives!

Damn. Now why couldn't we all have figured that out?

Obama's a genius, the rest of us are idiots, he has a plan, we fumble about in darkness, the strategery is obvious, but we morons don't see it, etc. etc.

It's all too damn religulous for me.

Kevin, that is weird that HBO is going berserk about the video. Clips from Real Time have been available on youtube forever. Why are they singling out this clip?

...stupidity on the order of "Beavis and Butt-head"...

You do an injury to Beavis and Butthead. At least they knew when they needed TP for their bungholes.