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Sunday Roundup

Posted: 06/12/11 12:00 AM ET

Commitment and discipline -- specifically the decided lack thereof -- were front and center this week, thanks to the teary press conference crescendo of Weinergate and the sudden departure of Newt Gingrich's top campaign advisers. Team Gingrich was frustrated by their candidate's unwillingness to commit to an all-out effort in the early primary states, and the nonstop fundraising a presidential run requires. Newt's commitment issues were brought home when, just as his opponents were focusing on Iowa and New Hampshire, he took off on a two-week cruise in Greece. For Gingrich, the problem was being too out of touch; for Weiner, it was being way, way too in touch. Meanwhile, outgoing defense secretary Gates put a rhetorical fig leaf on the lack of commitment to the troop drawdown in Afghanistan, set to begin next month, saying "we've got to keep the pressure on" and "there will be no rush to the exits." Getting out of Afghanistan is a commitment the president ought to unequivocally keep.

 
 
 

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unpaidpundit
Expertise in politics and pop culture
10:09 PM on 06/12/2011
I understand that we want to leave Afghanistan reasonably stable, but we have already doubled that country's GDP. How much more can we do? We should get our troops out of Afghanistan except for a token force, if practicable. We can continue to help influence Afghanistan's development with foreign aid.
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Erinaleks
Architectural Artisan, Free Thinker
09:06 PM on 06/12/2011
Anthony Weiner did it
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tonyg10
07:22 PM on 06/12/2011
What I don't understand is why you spent all those words on Newt to say he was out of touch, but with Weiner the statement was," he was way, way too in touch" and that was it. Is that any indication of how you look at the importance of their circumstances?
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JayDDrew
Facts are neither conservative or liberal.
08:43 PM on 06/12/2011
This isn't bias, it's a matter of importance. One is a potential Republican frontrunner for president of the United States. That's political. The other is simply a titillating scandal that belongs more on TMZ than continued front page on political pages. Wiener may or may not have broken the law, but in the scheme of things, his situation is much less important than the possibility of a Gingrich presidency, no matter your political leanings.
06:14 PM on 06/12/2011
How many countries have had their treasuries busted by Afghanistan? The silly Afghans think it's their country.

In 2007, 11 October was prospectively, on the Huffington Post, predicted as the nominal peak for the Wilshire.

It is not difficult to predict a decline in the Wilshire over this summer with the end of QE 2's purchase of 50 billion dollars of US long term debt a month and so many other culminating forces of trading houses' leveraged debt; federal, state, and citizen accumulated debt, asset oversupply, asset overvaluation with underwater mortgages, and faltering job numbers in a macroeconomy composed of the preceding elements.

But the patterned nature of the Wilshire's devaluation and its severity will identify a new macroeconomic science. And this new science will serve as a basis for a new fundamental understanding of how the macroeconomy really operates.

QE 3,4,5,6, and 7 are coming and with them a stimulus package to employ 15 million unemployed Americans at the minimum wage and at a nominal cost of 150-200 billion a year -pretty trivial (and a good investment to contain social unrest) as compared to the 20 trillion in hand-outs and guarantees given to the rentier elite class.

Expect a gapped lower low for the European and Wilshire equity markets on Monday June 13, 2011 forming the end of an 11 day base decay fractal :: y/2.5y/2.5y - a daily rerun of 1929.
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xnicholasz
live & let live
06:00 PM on 06/12/2011
ARIANNA, WE'LL SEE A MUCH RAPID ''EXODUS'', RIGHT AFTER THE ELECTION OF 2012.OUR TROOPS,MOSTLY RESERVES, WILL BE PART OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES, WHICH AS WE ALL KNOW IS A ''POLITICALLY INCORRECT'' MOVE.

NICK ''X''.
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rysagr
whip me beat me just don't bore me to death
08:42 PM on 06/12/2011
interesting thought
05:25 PM on 06/12/2011
Was Gingrich in Greece to study their economy works, or better yet how it doesn't work. Newt has never been one to speak softly.. Extremity intelligent people always seen to think the general public is brutish and that they are going to save us. I will take a person with wisdom , over intelligence any day. Give me a Warren Buffet any day of the week.
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Quinxy von Besiex
My micro-bio is empty. :(
04:10 PM on 06/12/2011
A reminder to all the republicans/conservatives outraged by Weiner... Do the names David Vitter, Larry Craig, Ted Foely, Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggart, Newt Gingrich ring any bells? Weiner wasn't out there trying to protect the sanctity of marriage from gay people while seeing prostitutes on the side, or leading calls for Clinton's impeachment while cheating on his own wife, or condemning homosexuals publicly while engaging in gay sex privately. I'm no fan of Weiner's actions, nor necessarily of him, but his is a human failing, not a political one. And at least he wsn't defining hypocritically defining himself as a spokesperson for Family Values.
07:15 PM on 06/12/2011
This isn't D vs R. Whenever an elected official squanders the public trust invested in them, they need to go. Period.
08:36 PM on 06/12/2011
I agree 100%. I don't understand people that compare the R pervs to the D pervs. The way I see it, the public deserves more. Vitter shouldn't be there. Nor should Foley, Ensign, (add republican name here). None of that has anything to do with Weiner. He is a liability and therefore, should go. Let's put it this way, ask any republican whether they want him ton stay or go. They want him to stay because he will be in every ad next November.

The other thing that mak no sense is comparing Weiner's actions to the feelings you have about Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld. I get the sex-sex analogies, but I don't understand how you compare policies versus conduct.
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rysagr
whip me beat me just don't bore me to death
08:42 PM on 06/12/2011
yep
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TheRoosterman
Crazy Texan
07:27 PM on 06/12/2011
I believe that was Congressman Mark Foley, from Florida. Not Ted Foely. (I could be wrong, just saying...)
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James I Kirkland
State Paleontologist Utah
03:58 PM on 06/12/2011
Tony, Tony, Tony; It's between you, your wife, and your constituents. Type A, testosterone driven personalities on both sides of the aisle are something we are going to live with until we put a eunuch clause in the constitution for are elected officials.
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03:56 PM on 06/12/2011
End our crusades in Iraq and Afghanistan now.
05:27 PM on 06/12/2011
Mike , don't forget Libra an Yemen, and any other country that did not attack us.
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Holymolly
Emotionally intellingent
05:29 PM on 06/12/2011
Get out of the middle ages, it's a new world, bud.
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Warren Mart
Why can't we be friends
07:32 PM on 06/12/2011
everything old is new again
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AndKoolaidForAll
'Change' is the nature of OUR Universe
03:19 PM on 06/12/2011
I'd like to suggest a series of national level surveys or polls concerning the choice of continuing these current massive occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan - versus both long-term survival funding for Medicare and an infrastructure jobs program having just 15% or 20% the cost of those occupations.

My guess is nobody's asking the voters these questions on a large scale because most media doesn't want to show just how out-of-touch with OUR country Washington, D.C., and therefore also they themselves - actually are.
05:28 PM on 06/12/2011
Use the war funds to finance Medicare and Social security.
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tonyg10
07:38 PM on 06/12/2011
If all the wars we are engaged in now were to suddenly end tommorow at say 7AM EST and the money became available immediately by 12 noon EST the politicians would have evey penny spent.
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Erinaleks
Architectural Artisan, Free Thinker
03:07 PM on 06/12/2011
This sex obsessed country. It's ok to drop 2000 pound bombs on Libya. But for gawds sake don't send dirty texts over the Internet. What a country
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alex61
03:17 PM on 06/12/2011
Dropping bombs on the dictator and his military in order to help the people who want freedom is a good thing.
Trying to have and maintain some standards of decency in our country is also a good thing.
Ergo--America good.
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Channa
Everyone is entitled to my opinion.
04:48 PM on 06/12/2011
Stay in your happy zone.
03:00 PM on 06/12/2011
From the perspective that US is part of planet Earth, current political dynamics are no different than current news in Western Europe: Britain, Italy, France, to name a few; South Africa; Middle East; Asia. So this is the nature of whole world & has been for decades. This is nothing new!
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Holymolly
Emotionally intellingent
05:33 PM on 06/12/2011
The current news, trends and advances of Europe are always follow closely behind the US. They are all falling over one another on who can be more like the US. Do you realize that disco is still big there? Don't make me laugh!
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01:17 PM on 06/12/2011
The biggest story, of not only of the week, but of the last thirty years is that corporations have been granted personhood. With that, one would think that loyalty to the nation would be a requirement.
Not so, corporations have gained rights without the attendant responsibilities.

Large private business enterprises have provided themselves with the option of being American or international, depending on what suits them at a given time; thereby demonstrating no particular steadfast allegiance to the US. These entities claim to be American, but maneuver in ways that clearly show no inclination to unequivocal support of the US public interest. They come to the public trough with sham patriotic fervor seeking protection from foreign governments, ask for financial risk underwriting and subsidies, beg for bailouts and other special privileges; in return, they provide unemployment and humiliation to the American public who unwittingly support their financial gluttony.

Corporations are man-made entities not members of any species and, certainly, they should not have the same constitutional protections as American human beings.
01:31 PM on 06/12/2011
And where does the media send their profits too? The media creates nothing except news when there is no news to report.
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rysagr
whip me beat me just don't bore me to death
08:45 PM on 06/12/2011
wasn't that a james bond movie?
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Channa
Everyone is entitled to my opinion.
04:51 PM on 06/12/2011
Don't remember when I heard that explained better. Total BS call by the Supremes.
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Dreamking
When the music hits me, I feel no pain at all...
01:02 PM on 06/12/2011
Actually, I hope Obama goes soft and remains in Afghanistan.

Perhaps a lie that BIG will get people seriously fired up about a 3rd party candidate.
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Channa
Everyone is entitled to my opinion.
04:53 PM on 06/12/2011
A realistic third party would be a total game changer. I am an independent planning to vote for Obama in spite of differences because the alternative is too friggin scary.
12:14 PM on 06/12/2011
GOOD MORNING!!! MY FELLOW HOMO SAPIENS WHICH MEANS THE SPECIES WHO IS WISE.
During the last 30 years the American people have had less and less say and influence over what their government does or doesn't do because of the increasing influence of the Robber Barons and their Stooges and during the Bush and Cheney reign the people lost their Republic because of 5 Supremes and corrupt corporate bribe money.
Anyone in America who still believes America is still a Republic is living in that Orwellian World of liars, swindlers and deceivers and doesn't have a clue as to what a Republic is!!!
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Holymolly
Emotionally intellingent
10:03 PM on 06/12/2011
My fellow who? I beg your pardon not!