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Frank Schnittger:
Valerie Jarrett is that she's an old friend of Obama's from Chicago who is now a senior advisor and part of his kitchen cabinet

Is that not consistent with your quotes?  I have no doubt she is, and has been for a long time, a member of Obama's inner circle, but at the moment, particularly with health care centre stage, Rahm's position is more pivotal within the administration, and I am not surprised he is getting more airtime both on blogs and in the MSM.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 07:42:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Valerie Jarrett is that she's an old friend of Obama's from Chicago

This description is an inadequate answer to the question, Who is Valerie Jarrett? This person is a life quite apart from Mr Obama. And one's examination of that person's life history, modus operandi and political achievements, precedes any characterization construed from "friendship" with Mr Obama or her familiarity with "his kitchen" appliances.

So. Beside a fifth-degree connection, I selected and read those articles to which the pull-quotes are linked in order to entice readings from ET subscribers. Have you read? Are you the least curious to learn more about who is Valerie Jarrett?

I should think so, if you care to substantiate this claim: "Rahm's position is more pivotal within the administration" than Valerie Jarrett, sous chef.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 08:25:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I read the quotes, and they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.  Perhaps I undersold my prior knowledge, but I think you are also misconstruing the intent of my comments.  I was simply responding to the apparent implication in the Diary (which the diarist has since clarified) that Rahm's prominence in the "Anger Left" blogosphere was due to anti-Semitism rather than an objective analysis of the importance of his role.  With the health care debate currently so centre stage, I do not find it surprising even if there may be some undercurrents of anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories or type casting in their somewhere.  

If you feel Valerie's role deserves greater prominence and exposition, please write a diary about her and I will be happy to read it.  I only wish more USians would display a similar sympathetic curiosity about Irish or other politics around the world.

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 08:55:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You read the quotes.

But I asked you a simple question. Did you read the stories to which the pull-quotes are linked? There is detailed, factual information in the stories which obviate any need for my "exposition" of Ms Jarrett's biography, persona, or appointed rôle, director, Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, in a "diary".

I resurrected the ET search results in response to this statement.

The actually powerful figures who surround the President, such as Valerie Jarret, are ignored - not surprising that a black woman disappears from view.

I'll not read for you. I'll not package an opinion. That is your responsibility and judgement.

And don't group me with "USians". I click through all the links provided by innerboobz writers including yours.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 09:59:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Cat:

I resurrected the ET search results in response to this statement.

The actually powerful figures who surround the President, such as Valerie Jarret, are ignored - not surprising that a black woman disappears from view.

I didn't make the comment you reference, and don't know if the authors contention - that there may be sexist/racist implications behind her omission is correct.  I don't read the World Socialist Website.  Perhaps you may wish to scold me for that as well?

notes from no w here

by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 10:29:05 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I don't think this subthread is going in a productive direction.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 10:37:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Incorrect. Message received.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 11:23:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I understand you have a point you're trying to communicate, but when it gets to the point of
I'll not read for you. I'll not package an opinion. That is your responsibility and judgement.

And don't group me with "USians". I click through all the links provided by innerboobz writers including yours.

answered by
I don't read the World Socialist Website.  Perhaps you may wish to scold me for that as well?
as well as the parallel replies to this maybe it's best to argue another day.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 11:31:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]
otay.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 03:09:55 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Is being part of a presidents kitchen cabinet an insult?

I assume Frank referred to:

Kitchen Cabinet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In colloquial use, "kitchen cabinet" refers to any group of trusted friends and associates, particularly in reference to a President's or presidential candidate's closest unofficial advisers. Clark Clifford was considered a member of the kitchen cabinet for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson before he was appointed Secretary of Defense. Robert Kennedy was uniquely considered to be a kitchen cabinet member as well as a Cabinet member while he was his brother's Attorney General.

And not:

Kitchen cabinet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kitchen cabinets are the built-in furniture installed in many kitchens for storage of food, cooking equipment, and often silverware and dishes for table service. Appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, and ovens are often integrated into kitchen cabinetry. There are plenty of options for cabinets today.[1]

Because the latter would not make any sense.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 09:19:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
In Ireland the term "Kitchen Cabinet" is used synonymously with "inner circle" and denotes people who are very close to and influential with the Prime Minister/President but who are not part of the formal Cabinet of Government Ministers.  It does not have any derogatory or sexist connotations.  I presume Cat knew this and was just trying to be provocative.  In any case I do not find this approach "entices" me to read his sources further or continue this conversation.

notes from no w here
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 10:43:08 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Ms Jarrett is an employee of the US government, a public servant. Let us not dismiss that fact. Whether her status ("prominence") or her functions, regardless of the advice and consent of the senate or the "pleasure of the president" condemns the trust vest in the office that she attends is question provoked by rootless2's observation --indictment, I'd say-- of  so-called left bank political analyses:

The actually powerful figures who surround the President, such as Valerie Jarret, are ignored - not surprising that a black woman disappears from view....

If you look at the articles, you'll see it's worse than that - although to be fair, Hilda Solis might be ignored because she's in the Department of Labor not because she's a latina.



Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 11:36:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Because the latter would not make any sense.

Oh, it does, when speaking metaphorically of the functionality of certains persons engaged informally to act as the president's agents, ex post or <ex ante</i> and during ... meals.

Clifford is a funny (peculiar) example, a Cuisine art "food processor" perhaps.

The Nation called Truman "inept" and Walter Lippman declared Churchill's speech and Truman's obvious approval of it --the president applauded several times during its delivery-- were an "almost catastrophic blunder." Although Truman bobbed and weaved through these volleys of criticism in a style FDR would have approved, he was reassured by the polls of what American people were thinking about the Soviet Union. ....

In 1948 Henry Wallace ran for president as the candidate of the Progressive Party.

By '44 Boss Kelly, FDR appliance sine qua non, had concluded Wallace was a liability no matter how much praise the Nation and New Republic heaped on his anti-isolationist rhetoric and spectacular fights with Jesse Jones, corporate rustler. Truman was more suave.

His chief plank was a call for reconcilliation with Russia. In the campaign, all Wallace's flaws and past failures returned to haunt him. The Hearst newspapers got their hand on the Roerich letters and had them authenticated by a handwriting expert. Unable to call them foregeries, Wallace simply refused to discuss them, dismaying even his supporters in the press. He defended the Soviet seizure of Czechoslovakia in early 1948 and sent an open letter to Stalin with a six-point program for peace that the Soviet dictator accepted, all but smacking his lips over such an easy propaganda victory. ...Even his original sponsor, Eleanor Roosevelt, deserted him and declared for Truman. On election day, Wallace got 1,157,140 votes --2.37 percent of the national total-- and failed to prevent Truman's victory, the real purpose of his bizarre campaign. [Fleming, 554-555]

Clifford was in the kitch for the MIC, I think, history has concluded.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Wed Dec 16th, 2009 at 11:07:44 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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