WWTBAM Bored

New Obama Treasury Secretary Geithner's chief of staff, Mark Patterson, was a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs until April 2008.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18047.html

Technically, Obama's new fangled ethics reforms don't prohibit him from being appointed, but he can't work on matters directly and substantially related to his former employer, and it's difficult to see how the Number Two person in the Treasury department wouldn't be working on matters that were substantially related to Goldman Sachs. Of course, if the heat gets too high, we can see another of those convenient "waivers" forthcoming.

Here's the language of the ethics document appointees are supposed to shign:

2. Revolving Door Ban ‑‑ All Appointees Entering Government. I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.

"3. Revolving Door Ban ‑‑ Lobbyists Entering Government. If I was a registered lobbyist within the 2 years before the date of my appointment, in addition to abiding by the limitations of paragraph 2, I will not for a period of 2 years after the date of my appointment:

(a) participate in any particular matter on which I lobbied within the 2 years before the date of my appointment;

(b) participate in the specific issue area in which that particular matter falls; or

(c) seek or accept employment with any executive agency that I lobbied within the 2 years before the date of my appointment.

I'm curious how a lobbyist for Goldman Sachs didn't lobby the Treasury Department. Or how he won't participate in the specific subject matter of anything he lobbied about.

It's gonna be a looooooooooooooooooooong four years for some people around here. I suggest doubling up on the blood pressure meds.

BarackInTexas wrote:It's gonna be a looooooooooooooooooooong four years for some people around here. I suggest doubling up on the blood pressure meds.

JFTR, this is not one of my MMs.

BarackInTexas wrote:It's gonna be a looooooooooooooooooooong four years for some people around here. I suggest doubling up on the blood pressure meds.

SSS doesn't raise my blood pressure, just my gall.

Bob Juch wrote:

BarackInTexas wrote:It's gonna be a looooooooooooooooooooong four years for some people around here. I suggest doubling up on the blood pressure meds.

SSS doesn't raise my blood pressure, just my gall.

Why?

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
"The point isn't that the new dress code is X or Y -- it's that the rules are relaxed and what is stressed is intelligence, objectivity and productivity."

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/po ... .html?_r=1

Could this be the same Barack Obama who said last May that,

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say "OK"... That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
"The point isn't that the new dress code is X or Y -- it's that the rules are relaxed and what is stressed is intelligence, objectivity and productivity."

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/po ... .html?_r=1

Could this be the same Barack Obama who said last May that,

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say "OK"... That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."

So is he supposed to care what other countries think, or not care? I'm getting mixed messages in these threads........

minimetoo26 wrote:So is he supposed to care what other countries think, or not care? I'm getting mixed messages in these threads........

This is an ancilliary point, mini.

The main point is, Obama was telling us to do things that (in this one case, at least) he is apparently unwilling to do himself.

Jeemie wrote:

minimetoo26 wrote:So is he supposed to care what other countries think, or not care? I'm getting mixed messages in these threads........

This is an ancilliary point, mini.

The main point is, Obama was telling us to do things that (in this one case, at least) he is apparently unwilling to do himself.

I know it's an ancillary point! I was just ribbing. It's not like his reasoning was Global Warming or something (which tmitsss wouldn't have brought up anyway), but what others would think. Which was the big sticking point in another thread.

Anyway, he said WE couldn't do it, not HE couldn't do it. That's another distinction.

I've noticed a bunch of posters pay less attention to what is said and more to who is saying it before they decide if they agree or not. If ghost told you the sky was blue, you'd argue that with her.

Assume I'm teasing 98% of the time. Because I am.

minimetoo26 wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
"The point isn't that the new dress code is X or Y -- it's that the rules are relaxed and what is stressed is intelligence, objectivity and productivity."

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/po ... .html?_r=1

Could this be the same Barack Obama who said last May that,

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say "OK"... That's not leadership. That's not going to happen."

So is he supposed to care what other countries think, or not care? I'm getting mixed messages in these threads........

I will give him a pass on this one. His quote ( if it is truly is one) said "keep our homes on 72 degrees AT ALL TIMES". Guess if it is set at 78 it is not at 72.

kusch wrote:

minimetoo26 wrote:

themanintheseersuckersuit wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/po ... .html?_r=1

So is he supposed to care what other countries think, or not care? I'm getting mixed messages in these threads........

I will give him a pass on this one. His quote ( if it is truly is one) said "keep our homes on 72 degrees AT ALL TIMES". Guess if it is set at 78 it is not at 72.

See! YOU get it!

minimetoo26 wrote:I've noticed a bunch of posters pay less attention to what is said and more to who is saying it before they decide if they agree or not. If ghost told you the sky was blue, you'd argue that with her.

I know what you mean. And I'm not truly grousing about Obama. I see him for what he is- another slick politician and not someone who's going to truly bring "the change we need"...and so my posts are intended solely to highlight this, not to show genuine anger towards him or anything.

And I'd only be arguing with ghost because she'd find something in the sky being blue to complain about!!!

Jeemie wrote:

minimetoo26 wrote:I've noticed a bunch of posters pay less attention to what is said and more to who is saying it before they decide if they agree or not. If ghost told you the sky was blue, you'd argue that with her.

I know what you mean. And I'm not truly grousing about Obama. I see him for what he is- another slick politician and not someone who's going to truly bring "the change we need"...and so my posts are intended solely to highlight this, not to show genuine anger towards him or anything.

And I'd only be arguing with ghost because she'd find something in the sky being blue to complain about!!!

All politicians end up being the same. Because if not, they'd be like dictators. Sometimes, you just have to do what you can and not everything you want. But the nitpicking over every frickin' word one guy says while glossing over huge failures of another just because he's Their Guy is pretty annoying. Obama pulls a Katrina Response, and it's game over for me. But for others, it's "Obama didn't wash his hands after he blew his nose, so he's not perfect"..

minimetoo26 wrote:All politicians end up being the same. Because if not, they'd be like dictators. Sometimes, you just have to do what you can and not everything you want. But the nitpicking over every frickin' word one guy says while glossing over huge failures of another just because he's Their Guy is pretty annoying. Obama pulls a Katrina Response, and it's game over for me. But for others, it's "Obama didn't wash his hands after he blew his nose, so he's not perfect"..

You way is no fun...

Jeemie wrote:

minimetoo26 wrote:All politicians end up being the same. Because if not, they'd be like dictators. Sometimes, you just have to do what you can and not everything you want. But the nitpicking over every frickin' word one guy says while glossing over huge failures of another just because he's Their Guy is pretty annoying. Obama pulls a Katrina Response, and it's game over for me. But for others, it's "Obama didn't wash his hands after he blew his nose, so he's not perfect"..

You way is no fun...

That's why God created Merry Men!

Did Obama really not wash his hands after blowing his nose? Maybe he should hook up with OCDer.

ulysses5019 wrote:Did Obama really not wash his hands after blowing his nose? Maybe he should hook up with OCDer.

Do I even HAVE a nose?

minimetoo26 wrote: Sometimes, you just have to do what you can and not everything you want. But the nitpicking over every frickin' word one guy says while glossing over huge failures of another just because he's Their Guy is pretty annoying. Obama pulls a Katrina Response, and it's game over for me. But for others, it's "Obama didn't wash his hands after he blew his nose, so he's not perfect"..

I understand that changing world events and political necessity require politicians to change their plans while in office. I realize that Obama's foreign policy will be shaped by the actions and reactions of other world leaders and his domestic policies are subject to changing economic fortunes and political realities.

But the temperature in the White House and the people he appoints to top level positions are completely within his power. The White House temperature is trivial; deputy defense secretaries and Treasury chiefs of staff are not. Obama is still talking about all the change he's bringing to Washington (and his Obamatons and the press are lapping it up), but it's taken less than one week after his new fangled ethics rules for two top level appointees to run afoul of them.

That's worse than business as usual. I'd have no problem with Obama appointing those people based on their competency. It's business as usual after making a big show that business would no longer be conducted as usual. If Obama's word means that little about his highly touted ethics reform, what will it mean when push comes to crunch on the economy or Iraq or the other major issues we have to deal with.

silverscreenselect wrote:

minimetoo26 wrote: Sometimes, you just have to do what you can and not everything you want. But the nitpicking over every frickin' word one guy says while glossing over huge failures of another just because he's Their Guy is pretty annoying. Obama pulls a Katrina Response, and it's game over for me. But for others, it's "Obama didn't wash his hands after he blew his nose, so he's not perfect"..

I understand that changing world events and political necessity require politicians to change their plans while in office. I realize that Obama's foreign policy will be shaped by the actions and reactions of other world leaders and his domestic policies are subject to changing economic fortunes and political realities.

But the temperature in the White House and the people he appoints to top level positions are completely within his power. The White House temperature is trivial; deputy defense secretaries and Treasury chiefs of staff are not. Obama is still talking about all the change he's bringing to Washington (and his Obamatons and the press are lapping it up), but it's taken less than one week after his new fangled ethics rules for two top level appointees to run afoul of them.

That's worse than business as usual. I'd have no problem with Obama appointing those people based on their competency. It's business as usual after making a big show that business would no longer be conducted as usual. If Obama's word means that little about his highly touted ethics reform, what will it mean when push comes to crunch on the economy or Iraq or the other major issues we have to deal with.

Maybe it's hard to find competent people in governemnt who aren't currently under indictment or investigation. Seems like it lately!

Anyway, it's been like what, two weeks? I'll wait for results, or lack thereof, before seeing if his way works. And he may have to change "his way" to make it work. But failure isn't the best option, despite what some idiots say.

Headline spotted on web

Honeymoon goes from "Get a Room" to "Holding Hands"