Morning in America: Butthurt Achieved

[J. Walter Weatherman]

This whole Petraeus business just keeps throwing us fresh twists...

WASHINGTON—A federal agent who launched the investigation that ultimately led to the resignation of Central Intelligence Agency chief David Petraeus was barred from taking part in the case over the summer due to superiors' concerns that he had become personally involved in the case, according to officials familiar with the probe.

...

The FBI agent who started the case was a friend of Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who received harassing, anonymous emails that led to the probe, according to officials. Ms. Kelley, a volunteer who organizes social events for military personnel in the Tampa area, complained in May about the emails to a friend who is an FBI agent. That agent referred it to a cyber crimes unit, which opened an investigation.

However, supervisors soon became concerned that the initial agent might have grown obsessed with the matter, and prohibited him from any role in the investigation, according to the officials.

The FBI officials found that he had sent shirtless pictures of himself to Ms. Kelley, according to the people familiar with the probe.

And yet another twist...

Even as the FBI prepared a timeline for Congress about the investigation that brought to light Petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed that the Pentagon had begun an internal investigation into emails from Gen. John Allen to a Florida woman involved in the case.

...

It was Broadwell's threatening emails to Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who is a Petraeus family friend, that led to the FBI's discovery of communications between Broadwell and Petraeus indicating they were having an affair. Petraeus acknowledged the affair when he resigned from the CIA post on Friday.

In the latest revelations, a Pentagon official traveling with Panetta to Australia said "inappropriate communications" — 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen's communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 — are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

...

The decision by the FBI to hand off the Allen information to the military seems to indicate the issue is not one involving the handling of classified information, but rather some other issue.

Apparently dudes are universally losing their shit for a taste of Ms. Kelley's goods.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

Jimmy Carter IV drops another recording.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/

These are less hilarious butthurt, more plain old disappointment.

No, Fork.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/11/1160263/-Mourning-in-America

By now, most of you have probably seen the Tumblr page entirely dedicated to pictures of white people mourning the Republican defeat last Tuesday.

I realize how easy it is to make fun of those people (our those people), but for me the images posted there call up -- somewhat to my surprise -- decidedly mixed emotions. Spite and sympathy, it seems, can co-exist, and even lay the groundwork for something that begins to resemble empathy.

It's an involuntary reflex, to be sure, after the bile, racism, and sheer deranged hatred those people have flung at us these past four years -- not to mention their cocksure arrogance (up until about 10:00 pm Tuesday night) that "real" Americans were going to rise as one and send the Kenyan usurper packing.

But looking at those woeful faces -- hopes smashed, the awful truth finally revealed -- it's hard not to remember election night 2004, when it became clear that lies and war crimes notwithstanding, President Cheney and his sidekick were going to be reelected despite our best efforts.

It's devastating to believe that your country has looked evil full in the face and decided to embrace it, and feel completely helpless to stop it. And if even one-twentieth of the things those people believe about President Obama, and about us, were true, they would be right to despair, just as we did eight years ago.

In the end, though, what really makes it hard for me to dine with gusto at the schadenfreude buffet is that the grieving faces on the other side of the partisan divide aren't those people, they're my people -- the middle-class neighbors of my Southern childhood, the kids I went to school with, my redneck uncles and cousins, my own mother and father.

...

[J. Walter Weatherman]

QPD.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/11/13/jill_kelley_is_an_honorary_consul_of_south_korea

Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite connected to ISAF Commander John Allen and former CIA Director David Petraeus, is an "honorary consul" of South Korea, a diplomatic official with direct knowledge of the arrangement told The Cable.

"She is an 'honorary consul' of the Republic of Korea," the official said. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network."

The position of honorary consul is symbolic and has no official responsibilities, the official said.

...

Kelley does drive a Mercedes sedan with license plates that say "Honorary Consul," and she invoked her honorary diplomatic status in a Nov. 11 911 call when she was complaining about trespassers on her private property.

"I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property," she told the 911 operator. "I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that's against the law to cross my property because, you know, it's inviolable."

"Ok, no problem, I'll let the officer know," the 911 operator responded.

[flannj]

QPD.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/11/13/jill_kelley_is_an_honorary_consul_of_south_korea

Jill Kelley, the Tampa socialite connected to ISAF Commander John Allen and former CIA Director David Petraeus, is an "honorary consul" of South Korea, a diplomatic official with direct knowledge of the arrangement told The Cable.

"She is an 'honorary consul' of the Republic of Korea," the official said. "She assumed this position last August thanks to her good connections and network."

The position of honorary consul is symbolic and has no official responsibilities, the official said.

...

Kelley does drive a Mercedes sedan with license plates that say "Honorary Consul," and she invoked her honorary diplomatic status in a Nov. 11 911 call when she was complaining about trespassers on her private property.

"I'm an honorary consul general, so I have inviolability, so they should not be able to cross my property," she told the 911 operator. "I don't know if you want to get diplomatic protection involved as well, because that's against the law to cross my property because, you know, it's inviolable."

"Ok, no problem, I'll let the officer know," the 911 operator responded.

Full Metal Wackjob.


And apparently so is her twin sister...

Kelley's powerful military connections surfaced in another court matter when she sought help for her twin sister, Natalie Khawam, in a bitter child custody fight.

General John Allen and former CIA Director and retired General David Petraeus signed letters to the court that bear four-star-general emblems and are dated five-and-a-half weeks ago.

"Natalie clearly dotes on her son," wrote Petraeus. "It is unfortunate, in my view, that her interaction with her son has been so limited by the custody settlement."

General Allen says the toddler shouldn't be penalized by "limiting his expectations to experience the love, mentorship, and guidance of his mother."

The judge in the case had a different view. He expressed "profound concerns about Ms. Khawam's "extreme distortions" and "severe psychological deficits." He called Khawam a "psychologically unstable person" with an "unsteady moral and ethical compass."

[ChuckD]

This whole Petraeus business just keeps throwing us fresh twists...

WASHINGTON—A federal agent who launched the investigation that ultimately led to the resignation of Central Intelligence Agency chief David Petraeus was barred from taking part in the case over the summer due to superiors' concerns that he had become personally involved in the case, according to officials familiar with the probe.

...

The FBI agent who started the case was a friend of Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who received harassing, anonymous emails that led to the probe, according to officials. Ms. Kelley, a volunteer who organizes social events for military personnel in the Tampa area, complained in May about the emails to a friend who is an FBI agent. That agent referred it to a cyber crimes unit, which opened an investigation.

However, supervisors soon became concerned that the initial agent might have grown obsessed with the matter, and prohibited him from any role in the investigation, according to the officials.

The FBI officials found that he had sent shirtless pictures of himself to Ms. Kelley, according to the people familiar with the probe.

And yet another twist...

Even as the FBI prepared a timeline for Congress about the investigation that brought to light Petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed that the Pentagon had begun an internal investigation into emails from Gen. John Allen to a Florida woman involved in the case.

...

It was Broadwell's threatening emails to Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who is a Petraeus family friend, that led to the FBI's discovery of communications between Broadwell and Petraeus indicating they were having an affair. Petraeus acknowledged the affair when he resigned from the CIA post on Friday.

In the latest revelations, a Pentagon official traveling with Panetta to Australia said "inappropriate communications" — 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen's communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 — are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

...

The decision by the FBI to hand off the Allen information to the military seems to indicate the issue is not one involving the handling of classified information, but rather some other issue.

Apparently dudes are universally losing their shit for a taste of Ms. Kelley's goods.

That's a pretty solid Wineroll.

[Tonker]

This whole Petraeus business just keeps throwing us fresh twists...

WASHINGTON—A federal agent who launched the investigation that ultimately led to the resignation of Central Intelligence Agency chief David Petraeus was barred from taking part in the case over the summer due to superiors' concerns that he had become personally involved in the case, according to officials familiar with the probe.

...

The FBI agent who started the case was a friend of Jill Kelley, the Tampa woman who received harassing, anonymous emails that led to the probe, according to officials. Ms. Kelley, a volunteer who organizes social events for military personnel in the Tampa area, complained in May about the emails to a friend who is an FBI agent. That agent referred it to a cyber crimes unit, which opened an investigation.

However, supervisors soon became concerned that the initial agent might have grown obsessed with the matter, and prohibited him from any role in the investigation, according to the officials.

The FBI officials found that he had sent shirtless pictures of himself to Ms. Kelley, according to the people familiar with the probe.

And yet another twist...

Even as the FBI prepared a timeline for Congress about the investigation that brought to light Petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed that the Pentagon had begun an internal investigation into emails from Gen. John Allen to a Florida woman involved in the case.

...

It was Broadwell's threatening emails to Jill Kelley, a Florida woman who is a Petraeus family friend, that led to the FBI's discovery of communications between Broadwell and Petraeus indicating they were having an affair. Petraeus acknowledged the affair when he resigned from the CIA post on Friday.

In the latest revelations, a Pentagon official traveling with Panetta to Australia said "inappropriate communications" — 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other documents from Allen's communications with Kelley between 2010 and 2012 — are under review. He would not say whether they involved sexual matters or whether they are thought to include unauthorized disclosures of classified information. He said he did not know whether Petraeus is mentioned in the emails.

...

The decision by the FBI to hand off the Allen information to the military seems to indicate the issue is not one involving the handling of classified information, but rather some other issue.

Apparently dudes are universally losing their shit for a taste of Ms. Kelley's goods.

That's a pretty solid Wineroll.

She's a little too thick round the middle to be Amy, even when she was alive.  I can only assume that Kelley gives the World's greatest blowjob.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/

These are less hilarious butthurt, more plain old disappointment.

No, Fork.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/11/1160263/-Mourning-in-America

By now, most of you have probably seen the Tumblr page entirely dedicated to pictures of white people mourning the Republican defeat last Tuesday.

I realize how easy it is to make fun of those people (our those people), but for me the images posted there call up -- somewhat to my surprise -- decidedly mixed emotions. Spite and sympathy, it seems, can co-exist, and even lay the groundwork for something that begins to resemble empathy.

It's an involuntary reflex, to be sure, after the bile, racism, and sheer deranged hatred those people have flung at us these past four years -- not to mention their cocksure arrogance (up until about 10:00 pm Tuesday night) that "real" Americans were going to rise as one and send the Kenyan usurper packing.

But looking at those woeful faces -- hopes smashed, the awful truth finally revealed -- it's hard not to remember election night 2004, when it became clear that lies and war crimes notwithstanding, President Cheney and his sidekick were going to be reelected despite our best efforts.

It's devastating to believe that your country has looked evil full in the face and decided to embrace it, and feel completely helpless to stop it. And if even one-twentieth of the things those people believe about President Obama, and about us, were true, they would be right to despair, just as we did eight years ago.

In the end, though, what really makes it hard for me to dine with gusto at the schadenfreude buffet is that the grieving faces on the other side of the partisan divide aren't those people, they're my people -- the middle-class neighbors of my Southern childhood, the kids I went to school with, my redneck uncles and cousins, my own mother and father.

...

I'll confess that on the morning after the 2004 Election, I woke up and told my wife we should take our money out of the bank.  By the end of the week, though, I had calmed down.  The asshurt and despair by many of the Republicans over this election, however, has had impressive staying power.

[Quality Start Machine]

http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/

These are less hilarious butthurt, more plain old disappointment.

No, Fork.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/11/1160263/-Mourning-in-America

By now, most of you have probably seen the Tumblr page entirely dedicated to pictures of white people mourning the Republican defeat last Tuesday.

I realize how easy it is to make fun of those people (our those people), but for me the images posted there call up -- somewhat to my surprise -- decidedly mixed emotions. Spite and sympathy, it seems, can co-exist, and even lay the groundwork for something that begins to resemble empathy.

It's an involuntary reflex, to be sure, after the bile, racism, and sheer deranged hatred those people have flung at us these past four years -- not to mention their cocksure arrogance (up until about 10:00 pm Tuesday night) that "real" Americans were going to rise as one and send the Kenyan usurper packing.

But looking at those woeful faces -- hopes smashed, the awful truth finally revealed -- it's hard not to remember election night 2004, when it became clear that lies and war crimes notwithstanding, President Cheney and his sidekick were going to be reelected despite our best efforts.

It's devastating to believe that your country has looked evil full in the face and decided to embrace it, and feel completely helpless to stop it. And if even one-twentieth of the things those people believe about President Obama, and about us, were true, they would be right to despair, just as we did eight years ago.

In the end, though, what really makes it hard for me to dine with gusto at the schadenfreude buffet is that the grieving faces on the other side of the partisan divide aren't those people, they're my people -- the middle-class neighbors of my Southern childhood, the kids I went to school with, my redneck uncles and cousins, my own mother and father.

...

The oddest thing about the schadenfreude is that suddenly people are honestly believing that the one person who was the firewall between life and death for America was a mediocre politician who proved that in 6 years of campaigning for the Presidency he was incapable of deciding whether to eat, shit or go blind.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/

These are less hilarious butthurt, more plain old disappointment.

No, Fork.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/11/1160263/-Mourning-in-America

By now, most of you have probably seen the Tumblr page entirely dedicated to pictures of white people mourning the Republican defeat last Tuesday.

I realize how easy it is to make fun of those people (our those people), but for me the images posted there call up -- somewhat to my surprise -- decidedly mixed emotions. Spite and sympathy, it seems, can co-exist, and even lay the groundwork for something that begins to resemble empathy.

It's an involuntary reflex, to be sure, after the bile, racism, and sheer deranged hatred those people have flung at us these past four years -- not to mention their cocksure arrogance (up until about 10:00 pm Tuesday night) that "real" Americans were going to rise as one and send the Kenyan usurper packing.

But looking at those woeful faces -- hopes smashed, the awful truth finally revealed -- it's hard not to remember election night 2004, when it became clear that lies and war crimes notwithstanding, President Cheney and his sidekick were going to be reelected despite our best efforts.

It's devastating to believe that your country has looked evil full in the face and decided to embrace it, and feel completely helpless to stop it. And if even one-twentieth of the things those people believe about President Obama, and about us, were true, they would be right to despair, just as we did eight years ago.

In the end, though, what really makes it hard for me to dine with gusto at the schadenfreude buffet is that the grieving faces on the other side of the partisan divide aren't those people, they're my people -- the middle-class neighbors of my Southern childhood, the kids I went to school with, my redneck uncles and cousins, my own mother and father.

...

I'll confess that on the morning after the 2004 Election, I woke up and told my wife we should take our money out of the bank.  By the end of the week, though, I had calmed down.  The asshurt and despair by many of the Republicans over this election, however, has had impressive staying power.

Your butthurt barely lasted 7 days, whereas their butthurt is going on 8.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

http://punditshaming.tumblr.com/

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/

These are less hilarious butthurt, more plain old disappointment.

No, Fork.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/11/1160263/-Mourning-in-America

By now, most of you have probably seen the Tumblr page entirely dedicated to pictures of white people mourning the Republican defeat last Tuesday.

I realize how easy it is to make fun of those people (our those people), but for me the images posted there call up -- somewhat to my surprise -- decidedly mixed emotions. Spite and sympathy, it seems, can co-exist, and even lay the groundwork for something that begins to resemble empathy.

It's an involuntary reflex, to be sure, after the bile, racism, and sheer deranged hatred those people have flung at us these past four years -- not to mention their cocksure arrogance (up until about 10:00 pm Tuesday night) that "real" Americans were going to rise as one and send the Kenyan usurper packing.

But looking at those woeful faces -- hopes smashed, the awful truth finally revealed -- it's hard not to remember election night 2004, when it became clear that lies and war crimes notwithstanding, President Cheney and his sidekick were going to be reelected despite our best efforts.

It's devastating to believe that your country has looked evil full in the face and decided to embrace it, and feel completely helpless to stop it. And if even one-twentieth of the things those people believe about President Obama, and about us, were true, they would be right to despair, just as we did eight years ago.

In the end, though, what really makes it hard for me to dine with gusto at the schadenfreude buffet is that the grieving faces on the other side of the partisan divide aren't those people, they're my people -- the middle-class neighbors of my Southern childhood, the kids I went to school with, my redneck uncles and cousins, my own mother and father.

...

I'll confess that on the morning after the 2004 Election, I woke up and told my wife we should take our money out of the bank.  By the end of the week, though, I had calmed down.  The asshurt and despair by many of the Republicans over this election, however, has had impressive staying power.

Your butthurt barely lasted 7 days, whereas their butthurt is going on 8.

End of the week = Friday, Saturday Sunday.

3-5 days.

[PenPho]

http://punditshaming.tumblr.com/

I hope every one of these hacks and their producers sees this and remembers it before next election (and frankly, every day in between.)

These people have no accountability and represent so much of what is wrong.

[Slaky]

http://punditshaming.tumblr.com/

I hope every one of these hacks and their producers sees this and remembers it before next election (and frankly, every day in between.)

These people have no accountability and represent so much of what is wrong.

They certainly ignored the numbers and went with their gut giving a lot of false hope to good people who didn't deserve to be misled. It's too bad.

[CBStew]

What delights me is the number of people who are trying to get their states to secede from the union.  The only other time in history when this happened on this magnitude was in 1860, and we know how that ended.   Most of these states are "under water" in that they receive more from the Federal government than they contribute.  If they left us it would be a great help in bringing down the deficit.