What was his first clue?

ST LOUIS, Missouri (AFP) – Many Americans have lost faith in their government, US President Barack Obama admitted Wednesday, tackling a pervasive sentiment hobbling his hopes for enacting sweeping reform.

American suspicion of government was deepening, he said in a speech from the heartland state of Missouri, where he pushed his endangered health reform drive that has been branded by Republicans as a government takeover.

"People have lost faith in government -- they had lost faith in government before I ran (for president), and it has been getting worse," Obama said at a rally in St. Louis.

He quoted his political hero, US Civil War-era president Abraham Lincoln, as saying that the role of government was to do what needed to be done but could not be done by citizens themselves without help.

"That pretty much sums up my attitude," Obama said.

Lincoln was also the only President to suspend habeas corpus rights.

Of course that was during an emergancy. The Civil War.

With the Left Democrats now saying they will pass a new rule that says Congress doesn't have to pass laws... the "Slaughter Rule"........ how long will it be before Obama acts?





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Monica! Paging Monica!

On Twitter I am Lesabre1

Poker and politics

Jonathan Chait wrote this in TNR:

A few years ago, Tom Edsall wrote a great Diarist for TNR arguing, based on his years of playing poker in Washington, that Republicans are better players than Democrats:

Republicans are much less risk-averse than Democrats, and taking risks is crucial to poker.

snip

But their latest tactic is so obvious I wonder how it could possibly work. Republicans are warning Democrats that passing health care reform will make them less popular. They are alerting the House that Senators will betray any deal they make. And they are insisting that reconciliation will be a bloody, protracted fight, even signing a letter promising to invoke the "Byrd Rule" to strike out any non-budgetary measures from a reconciliation bill.

Clearly, this is mostly a bluff.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/health-care-reform-poker

True story.

Expected/predicted raise bluffs happen all the time.

Three players are in the pot.

Player A is a solid rational Player. Player C is a very loose player who raises frequently.

Player B has a hand that he would like to draw to but the pot odds are marginal.

Let’s review the previous action.

Player A has a medium pair that he doesn’t think can beat TWO players but very well can beat one.

Player A bets. Player B called in turn. Player C raised. Players A and B called.

The next card is dealt. It doesn’t help A. But it does marginally improve B’s draw.

Player A suspects that Player C has a draw with one big card but no pair. Player A bets to bluff Player B out.

Player B must now decide if the card helped Player A and/or C. That’s a 2 to 1 negative. He folds, having been bluffed by the expectation that Player C will raise.

What will player C do? Who knows? Remember. The object of A's bluff was to get Player B out of the gamne.






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It's baseball spring training!

Warning. Do not try and eat or drink while watching this video.

Hat tip to TalkLeft






On Twitter I am Lesabre1