Patrick.net

Mr Patrick Goes To Washington

By Patrick   Follow   Wed, 4 Apr 2012, 9:06am   9,168 views   54 comments
In Menlo Park CA 94025   Watch (2)   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike  

Dear readers, I'm in Washington DC this week for spring break with the family, seeing the sights. My internet access is spotty, so not sure I'll be able to do the newslinks. You can always view and vote on the latest unfiltered links here:

http://patrick.net/?new

Tomorrow morning we have a White House tour. If I run across Obama I'll ask him how he could possibly have signed the NDAA.

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1. Auntiegrav Follow Befriend (5) 7 threads 228 comments Belgium, WI Premium

   15   12:35pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   If you're in town on Sunday, make sure you hit the Dupont Circle Farmer's market. Say hello to Heinz at Next Step Produce and pick up something tasty.

2. erik Follow Befriend 2 comments Charlottesville, VA

   16   12:45pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Bob H; Pretty tiresome repeating that lame birther BS...

3. DaveM_Renter Follow Befriend 7 threads 37 comments San Clemente, CA

   17   1:15pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   BobH says Nice car is it for sale? Yes, it is - but you got to move quickly, there's multiple offers above asking already!

4. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,181 threads 6,153 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA Premium

   18   1:36pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   BobH says Explain to him, that it has nothing to do with where he was born and everything to do with the United States Constitution. Tell him that in constitutional law regarding the requirement to be a Natural Born Citizen. From a previous conversation with him, I think Bob H mistakenly believes that where your father was born or your father's citizenship is somehow relevant to "natural born citizen". I'm pretty certain that "natural born citizen" means only that you were born in US territory. Parents are completely irrelevant.

5. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,181 threads 6,153 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA Premium

   19   1:39pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   BTW comment about people bowing to Obama and Obama bowing to Saudis was voted back into moderation, and I did delete it after that because no one actually bows to Obama nor have I seen any indication of him bowing to Saudis. Now Bush on the other hand, is very well documented as both holding hands with and kissing Saudi princes on the lips. Just do a search. Those may simply be Saudi customs that we find very strange, but it really looks bad. Actually I just remembered that when travelling in Turkey in college, I saw men holding hands with each other and supposedly that meant nothing but friendship.

6. freak80 Follow Befriend (4) 52 threads 4,416 comments Corning, NY Premium

   20   1:50pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   If Obama was bowing to the Saudi's, it's only because the Saudi's have us by the you-know-whats. The same reason Bush was bowing to the Saudi's. Again, I'm no die-hard fan of Obama. I'm pretty indifferent toward his presidency. But I really don't understand the far-right nuttiness toward him. Is it because he's black and his middle name is Hussein?

7. troutman Follow Befriend 8 comments

   21   1:50pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   museum of history

8. bgamall4 Follow Befriend (14) 744 threads 2,571 comments 63 male Las Vegas, NV bgamall4's website Premium

   22   3:21pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   BobH says Patrick, After you get the answer you are looking for in regard to, NDAA, please ask him to explain why he thinks he qualifies to be President when he is NOT A Natural Born Citizen. Considering Mitt Romney, a guy who strapped his dog to the roof of his car is from Mars, I don't think Obama has a problem with your issue.

9. justme Follow Befriend (2) 33 threads 3,456 comments

   23   6:24pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   bgamall4 says Considering Mitt Romney, a guy who strapped his dog to the roof of his car is from Mars, I don't think Obama has a problem with your issue. Mitt Romney is already bad enough, but we should be precise and say that he strapped a CARRIER (BOX) that was CONTAINING his dog to the roof of his car, for a trip to Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_(dog) Let us be careful not to stoop to the level of the Republi-con liars and propagandists, even accidentally.

10. justme Follow Befriend (2) 33 threads 3,456 comments

    24   6:56pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   Patrick, it would be beyond cool if POTUS Obama was a closet reader of Patrick. Net. I bet SOMEONE in the white house reads Patrick.Net. Wear a T-Shirt that says "I'm Patrick from Patrick.Net" and see what happens!!

11. bgamall4 Follow Befriend (14) 744 threads 2,571 comments 63 male Las Vegas, NV bgamall4's website Premium

    25   7:27pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   justme says CONTAINING his dog to the roof of his car, for a trip to Canada. I agree about being accurate, but it was considered torture and cruelty to animals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seamus_%28dog%29

12. thunderlips11 Follow Befriend (13) 49 threads 2,625 comments Premium

    26   7:30pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   justme says I bet SOMEONE in the white house reads Patrick.Net. Wear a T-Shirt that says "I'm Patrick from Patrick.Net" and see what happens!! +1

13. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,181 threads 6,153 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA Premium

    27   8:21pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (4)   Dislike   This is me in front of the Federal Reserve today. I wanted to get closer, but the guys with submachine guns would not allow that. They seem quite sensitive to who is on the grounds. Very different from the real public buildings, which have no fee and welcome you. One of the guys with the submachine guns is just over my right shoulder, on the left in the picture. Like a little satanic angel.

14. bg Follow Befriend (12) 40 threads 310 comments Pacifica, CA Premium

    28   9:43pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Did you see the Norman Rockwell drawings near the press room? I always thought those were striking. I am not generally a big fan of his, but I like those drawings.

15. elliemae Follow Befriend (25) 413 threads 6,976 comments Saint George, UT elliemae's website

    29   10:42pm Wed 4 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (3)   Dislike   Is it just me, or does Patrick look suspiciously older than his icon photo these days? Have we aged him?

16. clambo Follow Befriend (5) 1,070 comments Santa Cruz, CA

    30   1:17am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Natural born citizen would have implied born to American parents at the time of the Constitution. I doubt they would intend the child of a foreigner on a student visa to qualify, but I also doubt the founders would have imagined it, since there was no such thing as a student visa then either. Nor would the founders approve of a 17 year old mother but this of course is another minor nitpick.

17. clambo Follow Befriend (5) 1,070 comments Santa Cruz, CA

    31   1:20am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike (1)   Bowing to Hu Jintao, and Akihito also isn't American presidential custom as far as I know. I saw the photos where McArthur sat and made Hirohito stand in his presence. Mentioning Bush is instructive. If you see him in the White House tell him to stop being a sissy with the Saudis for me too. I may hold my girlfriends hand, and I may also kiss her. I hugged guys in Mexico as was the custom. However, I have never bowed down to anyone in my life. I hope never to see another American president bow and kowtow ever again.

18. citizen jpp Follow Befriend 30 comments Wallingford, PA

    32   3:14am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Also, "The Phillips Collection" -- http://phillipscollection.org/ -- is just a block away; it is one of the nicest and most manageable art museums I have visited. Auntiegrav says If you're in town on Sunday, make sure you hit the Dupont Circle Farmer's market. Say hello to Heinz at Next Step Produce and pick up something tasty.

19. sbourg Follow Befriend (2) 83 comments Ellicott City, MD

    33   4:39am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Maybe you can read up about the Schecter Poultry case where SCOTUS overturned the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933. That case, in 1934 or '35 proves Obama was a liar the other day. The NIRA sent business owners to jail for selling their products at levels they wanted. Henry Ford said, correctly, it was a law straight out of Stalin's Russia. But FDR's Ivy League advisors all admired the new economics being practiced in Russia!!

20. freak80 Follow Befriend (4) 52 threads 4,416 comments Corning, NY Premium

    34   6:35am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   elliemae says Is it just me, or does Patrick look suspiciously older than his icon photo these days? Have we aged him? But I think he's wearing the same shirt. ;)

21. bgamall4 Follow Befriend (14) 744 threads 2,571 comments 63 male Las Vegas, NV bgamall4's website Premium

    35   7:54am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   Patrick says One of the guys with the submachine guns is just over my right shoulder, on the left in the picture. Like a little satanic angel. How appropriate that the largest private mafia in the world has submachine guns.

22. bgamall4 Follow Befriend (14) 744 threads 2,571 comments 63 male Las Vegas, NV bgamall4's website Premium

    36   7:55am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   sbourg says But FDR's Ivy League advisors all admired the new economics being practiced in Russia!! Ask the people who lived during the age. FDR was a hero. He thought big. Libertarians think small. Both hated the banks for what they did. FDR produced Glass-Steagall. The libertarians think that is socialism. What do they know? Nothing.

23. mdovell Follow Befriend (4) 28 threads 776 comments

    37   8:41am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Eh..depends on how you look at it. Due to FDR they had to pass the Hatch act which dramatically limited how politically active people that work for the federal government could be. FDR might have thought big but that really wasn't the point. Putting taffifs on goods isn't exactly going to get the economy going. More importantly it was mostly world war two that got us out of the great depression and that killed tens of millions of people.

24. jgebis Follow Befriend 9 comments

    38   10:27am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   elliemae says Is it just me, or does Patrick look suspiciously older than his icon photo these days? Have we aged him? You're right, something seems suspicious. Patrick, I demand to see your long-form birth certificate!

25. K Dub Follow Befriend 3 comments

    39   10:41am Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   bgamall4 says How appropriate that the largest private mafia in the world has submachine guns. Same thing happened during Obama's inauguration at the Pentagon. Then again, I'm guessing that's expected. Patrick, you're missing all the other financial/political action. Swing by the World Bank and K Street. Oh, and DO NOT go to Chinatown to eat. It's a joke compared to San Francisco.

26. Vicente Follow Befriend (8) 203 threads 4,403 comments Davis, CA

    40   12:10pm Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (2)   Dislike   I think you should have handed out some bumper stickers in front of the Federal Reserve. I'm sure those folks appreciate anti-debt commentary!

27. freak80 Follow Befriend (4) 52 threads 4,416 comments Corning, NY Premium

    41   12:19pm Thu 5 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   Vicente says J think you should have handed out some bumper stickers in front of the Federal Reserve. I'm sure those folks appreciate anti-debt commentary! That's why there's the guy with the machine gun.

28. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,181 threads 6,153 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA Premium

    42   4:42pm Sun 8 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I am definitely aged lately, but still wearing that red shirt! The White House tour was somewhat disappointing, just a stream of people shuffled through the one floor of dining rooms etc and out the other side. No oval office. My father in law did see Obama's dog though. White House is much smaller than you might think. Tour of Congress was similarly mass-produced and uninformative, no viewing of either the House or the Senate, just the Rotunda and a few rooms near it. They should make that clear before you start.

29. justme Follow Befriend (2) 33 threads 3,456 comments

    43   5:57am Mon 9 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (3)   Dislike   Patrick, if you had a lobbyist's badge you would get to see more.

30. FortWayne Follow Befriend (13) 102 threads 3,759 comments

    44   9:03am Mon 9 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   bgamall4 says sbourg says But FDR's Ivy League advisors all admired the new economics being practiced in Russia!! Ask the people who lived during the age. FDR was a hero. He thought big. Libertarians think small. Both hated the banks for what they did. FDR produced Glass-Steagall. The libertarians think that is socialism. What do they know? Nothing. Gary Anderson strategicdefaultbooks.com As a Libertarian I did not think Glass-Steagall was socialism. Maximum freedom and limited government does not mean no government.

31. FortWayne Follow Befriend (13) 102 threads 3,759 comments

    45   9:07am Mon 9 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   justme says Patrick, if you had a lobbyist's badge you would get to see more. Maybe American people can hire Patrick to be our lobbyist in Washington. This way we the people can compete with special interests for representation out there.

32. zzyzzx Follow Befriend (9) 410 threads 4,107 comments Baltimore, MD

    46   9:21am Mon 9 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Patrick says White House is much smaller than you might think. It probably seems small with that many people in it and when you figure that you are not seeing the whole thing.

33. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,181 threads 6,153 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA Premium

    47   10:46am Mon 9 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   FortWayne says Maybe American people can hire Patrick to be our lobbyist in Washington. Being a lobbyist to fight lobbying seems contradictory though. I'd rather have some distributed internet freeware that tracks issues and organizes people against the corporate interests. Maybe there should be a forum about each member of Congress and each bill. That wouldn't be all that hard to do if I had the time. If it were based on bittorent, then it would be pretty much uncensorable too.

34. justme Follow Befriend (2) 33 threads 3,456 comments

    48   1:19pm Mon 9 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Patrick says I'd rather have some distributed internet freeware that tracks issues and organizes people against the corporate interests. Scouring each proposed assembly or senate bill line-by-line looking for Trojan Horses is a lot of work. Can be done, but is a lot of work. Then there is the problem of liars and propagandists injecting themselves in to the system. But worth a try. I'd sure like to see an example of a bill color-coded into good/bad or green/red and annotated with an explanation of why each paragraph is good or bad.

35. justme Follow Befriend (2) 33 threads 3,456 comments

    49   7:47pm Thu 12 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Speaking of Trojan Horses: I assume that many people have by now heard about the ALEC lobbying group that pushes corporate and right-wing "model legislation" upon our elected representatives? The "stand your ground" Florida so-called self-defense law is said to be a product of ALEC. http://alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

36. HousingWatcher Follow Befriend 285 threads 1,760 comments

    50   6:06pm Sun 15 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Patrick says This is me in front of the Federal Reserve today. I wanted to get closer, but the guys with submachine guns would not allow that. You should have told them you were with Goldman Sachs. They would have let your right in and given you coffee.

37. Michinaga Follow Befriend (2) 3 threads 283 comments

    51   6:19am Mon 16 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   I'm pretty certain that "natural born citizen" means only that you were born in US territory. Parents are completely irrelevant. Somewhat off topic, but Patrick, you can still be a natural-born citizen if you were born abroad to American parents. If I'm outside the US and I register my child's birth with the embassy, that child gets US citizenship at birth and is thus a natural-born citizen.

38. Michinaga Follow Befriend (2) 3 threads 283 comments

    52   7:18am Mon 16 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like (1)   Dislike   zzyzzx says This is hilarious... with my very limited ability to read the Arabic alphabet, I'm looking at "Kenya" and wondering why it's called "Yawah" in Arabic... until I got the joke. (Hint: the person who made this photoshop must not have known what direction Arabic is written in... or figured that getting it wrong would only make it funnier!)

39. Patrick Follow Befriend (54) 5,181 threads 6,153 comments 46 male Menlo Park, CA Premium

    53   4:03pm Mon 16 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Michinaga says Somewhat off topic, but Patrick, you can still be a natural-born citizen if you were born abroad to American parents. If I'm outside the US and I register my child's birth with the embassy, that child gets US citizenship at birth and is thus a natural-born citizen. Yes, I think John McCain was born outside the US (Panama?) and got US citizenship because his parents were citizens and registered him. But if you're born on US soil, then it doesn't matter who your parents are at all.

40. Dan8267 Follow Befriend (16) 760 threads 7,667 comments Boca Raton, FL Premium

    54   5:52pm Mon 16 Apr 2012   Share   Quote   Permalink   Like   Dislike   Patrick says Yes, I think John McCain was born outside the US (Panama?) and got US citizenship because his parents were citizens and registered him. And why isn't the Tea Party protesting about that? Oh yeah, hypocrisy.

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