Contractors snooped in Obama's passport file

Three contractors at the State Department have been disciplined for looking at Barack Obama's passport file without permission, according to a State Department spokesman. [CNN]

[HT: Ted]

Comments

[The Phantom]

BTW, Oprah Winfrey used to go to this church. She stopped attending, years ago. Wonder why.

[Uncle Kvetch]

That's why I declared this election last night.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers that last year you were repeatedly "declaring" the Republican primary for Giuliani at this very website, with the same unwarranted smugness. You'll understand if not everyone is in awe of your powers of prognostication.

BTW, Oprah Winfrey used to go to this church. She stopped attending, years ago. Wonder why.

Don't be coy now, Phantom: you're not "wondering," you know! And you're refusing to share your mad mind-reading skills with us, which is totally unfair! So come on now: What's Oprah really thinking, right this very second?

The "Soup Nazi" has been closed for years, by the way; I work around the corner from where it once stood.

[Uncle Kvetch]

Shit. Out, damn tag.

[The Phantom]

I bought from one of his "Soup Man"franchisees, near Hanover Square. Good. Not great.

They gave out an apple with the soup/sandwich and the goddamned thing had a bruise on it. No soup for you.

--

OK, so I lost on Rudy.

But I won on Joltin' Joe Lieberman. God, that was good.

[The Phantom]

tag does this fix?

[The Phantom]

how about this

[Uncle Kvetch]

Didn't know the original Soup Nazi had franchisees. Are there others? Do they all go by "Soup Man"?

(The original store on W 55th St had signs in the window promising the "return of the Soup Nazi" for several years, as did the website, which was really cruel.)

[The Phantom]

Yes, see Soup Man website...there are locations not far from you.

[Margalis]

"I'm sure I'm not the only one who remembers that last year you were repeatedly "declaring" the Republican primary for Giuliani at this very website, with the same unwarranted smugness. You'll understand if not everyone is in awe of your powers of prognostication."

Ha.

Well in his defense Giuliani did great. Truly superb, came right down to the wire, missed it by *that* much. And by "that" I mean "beating Tancredo."

[TB]

[ and they drag me back in... ], yes, yes The Phantom, we're dragging you back in. Oh please, thrill us with your acumen.

And what's this " ... lost on Rudy. But I won on Joltin' Joe Lieberman," crap?

You don't actually back those baboons?

What a knob ...

[B-Money]

Phantom, once I again, I do not see this Wright thing as the issue you do. I am in the midwest, in Obama's home base and his support has never been stronger. You East Coast isolationist and elitist tendencies are your downfall. Wake up! Not everyone thinks like East Coasters! There are others of us in this country you know. I know many a folk who were once like me, conservative, following the party line, being spoon fed the kool aid of Republicanism, but no more. Obama's link to Wright is a red herring in thie election. Informed voters know to look past it and focus on the facts. Not be sucked in by the RNC hate machine and the venom it spews.

[Dock Miles]

As I say -- bigot. Didn't take much to unleash the bloodthirsty hound.

[The Phantom]

B-Money

Well, there is a reason for this...and forthis

You're entitled to your own opinion, but you're not entitled to your own facts. Obama has been terribly wounded by this.

Ignoring what has happened before your own eyes does not help him one bit.

Thinking it is an "East Coast Isolationist" reaction is insane.

[The Phantom]

TB

Rudy Giuliani was the best mayor my city has had in the past 50 years, or more

Joe Lieberman is much beloved by the voters in Connecticut. He will be in the US Senate as long as he chooses to be there.

The Democratic Party used to be stacked with people of Lieberman's stature. Now, not so much.

Now, your final two for Presidency is a President's relative and a blank slate with questionable associations ( not just Wright either. Look up William Ayers.)

Is this the best you can do?

True, I was absolutely dead wrong on Rudy getting the nomination. I made a couple of small bets on that, and have paid them off. But my consolation prize will be a President McCain. I'll be quite happy with that--I voted for Senator McCain in the 2000 Republican Primary in NY.

What can you look forward to? An Obama or Hillary who loses by over five points an election that you should win by 15 points.

Prepare to gnash teeth and stamp feet, boys and girls. Dust off the ole bullshit about "voter supression" and "stolen elections" . Because modern Dems never, ever lose on the merits. It's always stolen from you, isn't it? The problem is never within.

[B-Money]

Phantom, these are the same types of polls that had Guiliani winning in a walk and Clinton winning the Dem nomination 6 months ago! So I guess they are reliable huh???

As for your bias, it is there. Maybe it is not East Coast related. Maybe it is what Dick Miles points out? I do not know. But you are clearly biased against Obama and your ranting on this Wright issue wherever you can proves it.

[B-Money]

BTW, here's another poll...

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/

They're just like experts in a trial, for every opinion one way, I can find another saying the complete opposite!

[The Phantom]

B-Money

I never said that I was voting for the guy. I was fascinated with him and by the reaction he was generating for a time. My position changed a lot when I heard of the 20 year association with the Racist Rev and by the William Ayers connection.

Especially when one is viewing someone whose record is as scant as this guy's, one must look really hard at who his allies and influences are.

If you think Reverend Jeremiah Wright is a fine guy, and that William Ayers is an respectable person, then fine-- Obama's your man!!

I've seen the reaction, from a few who have voted for him. There's a sense of hurt, of betryal. You guys can say "its not true, he's not been hurt", or "they're all racists clutching their pearls"....but both responses are very untrue.

The polls are usually right, which is why pollsters make a lot of money. They can change--sure they can.

But Hillary Clinton is correct in that until very recently, Obmaa was never vetted or challenged in any way. He was a blank slate, subject to only adoration in the press as he said vague platitudes.

Now we can see if he can take a punch. He could give Bill Clinton slickness lessons --and that's saying something-- so he may ride it out.

But I don't think so.

[TB]

OK, so I'm saying for The Phantom it was either concussion or some sort of blunt force trauma to the head.

[The Phantom]

How about a little blowback, scarecrow?

Apologies may be delivered on line or in person.

[cfrost]

Re: the passport files. Let’s assume no one in the anti-Obama camp would ever stoop to anything as base as rifling through another person’s private affairs, much less breaking any federal statutes to do so. Let’s further assume that these were partisan Obama enthusiasts who were willing to break the law to find stuff with which to guild the Obama lily. It might not be entirely unwise to figure out just what the truth is. It might not be entirely unreasonable to determine what lapses in protocol permitted these Obama fans access to supposedly protected files, which they might just as well have used to smear McCain.

Re: Phantom’s thread hijacking. Yes, Phantom, you’re right, McCain will be elected, and the GOP won’t even have to send their apparatchiks to Florida to stop any vote counts. There are four reasons why:

1 – If Hillary C. gets the nomination, every Clinton hater from the Point Barrow to Key West will crawl out from the swamps and from under their rocks to descend like locusts on the polls. The Clintons are not only fervidly loathed by 99.999 % of Republicans, but there is a significant fraction of them that would pay good money to watch the whole Clinton family, Hillary, Bill, Chelsea, and any and sundry pets publicly garroted.

2 – The Supreme Court’s verdict on D.C.’s gun laws will be out months before the election. Any decision that does not interpret the second amendment as carte blanche for totally unrestricted firearms possession irrespective of caliber, load, rate of fire, dimensions, magazine capacity, etc., will be seized upon by the NRA to boost membership, collect donations, and get the true believers out of the swamps and under their rocks to the polls.

3 – I’ve been spending the last few weeks doing field work out in the sticks, which means cheap hotels with cheap cable subscriptions, where I can study FOX news. (FOX has the same sort of fascination for me as a media consumer as spectacularly grotesque parasites have for me as a biologist.) During the last couple weeks FOX has had nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, on it’s plate but the Rev. Wright hoo-hah. They’ve been flogging that horse 24/7 till its hide’s been stripped off down to the hooves. If Obama gets the nomination we’ll be hearing about Rev. Wright non-stop from FOX and from folks like Phantom until two seconds before the last polls close in Guam.

Does it matter whether Obama actually agrees with, or endorses Wright’s stupider claims? No. Neither FOX nor any of their “conservative” partisan allies are the least bit interested in what Obama actually believes nor what his actual policies as president might be with respect to idiotic notions like the U.S. government spreading AIDS or selling narcotics. Do they actually bother to ask him? No. Will they? No. They are however very, very interested in squeezing every last drop out of guilt by association with Wright. It’s a political fight and both sides use the same tactic, but FOX et al. pretend that there is a strict racial equivalent here, that attending Wright’s sermons makes Obama a dusky mirror image of George Wallace and Lester “axe handle” Maddox.

Will Obama, for instance, as president listen to the epidemiologists at the Center for Disease Control and the general medical consensus regarding AIDS? Or will he willfully, and deliberately ignore science to pursue the black urban legend of the white government spreading STDs, which is no more stupid than the Bush admin’s crazy equivalent of adopting the Christian fundie fantasy that worldwide sexual abstinence will cure AIDS? Will FOX bother to ask? No. Whatever, it makes no difference; the right, with FOX in the leading phalanx will do whatever it takes to keep the White House. The stakes are much higher than any “fair and balanced”, “no spin zone” FOX bullshit hype.

4 – No matter what they say to pollsters, in their heart of hearts, 51% of American voters will never be comfortable with a woman as president, much less a black man who is not an over-the-top house Negro.

Phantom – Lieberman and “stature” in the same sentence? Oh–kay...

[The Phantom]

--4 – No matter what they say to pollsters, in their heart of hearts, 51% of American voters will never be comfortable with a woman as president, much less a black man who is not an over-the-top house Negro.--

Then you must not have been watching the ascent of the Obama campaign, pre-Wright ( and in my case, pre-Ayers, which I find to be even worse )

If a white candidate had attended the services of an equivalent freakshow/preacher for twenty years, he/she would have paid the same price.

There will be a woman president, but you won't like her one bit, as she will be more akin to a Margaret Thatcher than anyone in the Democratic Party.

There will indeed be a black president, and up until two weeks ago, Obama was likely to be that first black man. Most of us will see it come to pass, but the first black, like the first woman, will likely be a Republican.

[cfrost]

Regarding Fox news having the same bloody-freeway-wreck fascination as grotesque parasites, Cymothoa exigua comes to mind as apt metaphor.

Phantom, you’re absolutely right. If and when a woman or non-white is ever elected POTUS (not likely anytime soon) she/he will be in the mold of M. Thatcher and Clarence Thomas. And no, I won’t like it at all: perpetual war, no health care, decaying infrastructure, bible thumpers, police/national security state mentality, etc., etc. Just what we’re going to get with the coming McCain regime. God willing, I’ll find an escape hatch.

[Cass]

"I was away and caught only a brief sample of Rev. Wright's sermons. My first reaction was that he would make a great VP. But then I remembered that speaking the truth was the surest way to lose an election. Maybe it doesn't matter. Since, from Iraq to Wall Street, everything is falling apart before our very eyes, looks like the truth don't need any spokesperson for awhile. Its what's neat about being kicked in the ass: you don't need to be told about it."

Bernard Chazelle at www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/002160.html

That's my take too. Under normal circumstances Obama would indeed be sunk by the onslaughts you mention, but under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even have gotten to this point. The best case scenario for anyone outside the White House now is a major recession, and the D-word, I noticed this week, is even creeping into the mainstream media. The bill for "the War on Terror", the housing bubble and countless other indulgences we put on credit appears to be coming due. And there, of course, to protect us from the threat of a collapsing dollar, gas lines, runaway inflation and a general repeat of what Argentina went through a few years ago is Alfred E. Neuman.
Nothing concentrates the minds of voters more wonderfully than an economic crisis. I'm scared to death for the financial future of myself and the country, but for the moment at least, I can be cautiously optimistic about the November election.

"If and when a woman or non-white is ever elected POTUS (not likely anytime soon) she/he will be in the mold of M. Thatcher and Clarence Thomas."

There's always the hope Alan Keyes will grace us with another run in four years. (If we're worthy.)

[Uncle Kvetch]

The "blank slate" thing is really funny, in a creepy and tragic kind of way. Obama is young for a presidential candidate, but it's not as if he's been coy about his political beliefs and positions. He has a voting record based on his time in the Senate, and one from his stint in the Illinois state Senate before that, not to mention his well-documented backstory as a community organizer in Chicago. He's published an autobiography that fleshes out more details about his life and his politics. And his speeches in this campaign, as well as his website and campaign literature, are chock full of specifics. And it all adds up to the very model of a moderate-to-liberal Democrat, one who's not all that far from his opponent for the Dem nomination.

But all that can be waved away--there must be something more there, something far more sinister and nefarious lurking under the surface. He can't be what he appears to be. (Why not? Not sure on that one--Phantom might be able to help us.)

So, it turns out he attends a church whose pastor has made some intemperate remarks--some of which are debatable, some of which are undeniably true but expressed a little too flamboyantly for the good serious people of the Beltway, and a handful of which are quite wacky. The blank-slaters have hit paydirt! Yeah, so what if Obama distanced himself quite explicitly from those remarks, and did so with poise and dignity--not good enough! This is just the beginning! If we just turn enough rocks over, we're going to find out what this Farrakhan in a nice suit clothing really believes, and then we'll know what kinds of horrors he's prepared to unleash upon an unsuspecting citizenry!

What kinds of horrors? Well, as cfrost so helpfully pointed out, it gets sketchy again at this point. What are the Phantoms really afraid this "blank slate" might do? Create a cabinet-level Department of Whitey-Hating, to be presided over by Secretary Al Sharpton? Appoint Ludacris as the Secretary of Education? Outlaw music, kite-flying, and lipstick? Like I said, it would all be quite funny if it weren't so unspeakably tragic.

But this is the tragedy of American politics today, and I fear cfrost (and the Phantom, in his own way) may well be correct. We're a young nation, we're not that far removed from the years in which African-Americans were bona fide second-class citizens, and we may still be a long, long way from a black President who isn't entirely beholden to the wealthy and powerful. Time will tell.

And, as if the tragedy needed to compounded: John Hagee? Rod Parsley? Never heard of 'em. Nah, there's no double standard there.

[cfrost]

We're a young nation, we're not that far removed from the years in which African-Americans were bona fide second-class citizens

I was born in 1952, two years before Brown vs. board of education, thirteen years before the voting rights act passed, fifteen years before Loving vs. Virginia, and 89 years after the emancipation proclamation. My life and those of millions of others overlapped those of people whose manumission required a civil war and another century of Jim Crow de facto slavery. Even if the playing field were now even, or tipped the other way with “reverse discrimination” as the right alleges, that shit will not just be water under the bridge. Not for at least another few generations.