Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Blues Moan Wednesday
A classic blues singer Victoria Spivey. The video has a montage of images from the musical film "Hallelujah"
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Rachel Maddow is a well mannered lady
She can call you a damned dirty, hypocritical ape by name on national TV and she always has a smile on her face.
Sadly the Republicans have no shame and the Democrats aren't paying attention.
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Sadly the Republicans have no shame and the Democrats aren't paying attention.
Your Two Minute Ed
Tonight Ed learns that the Toyota recall is the last hurrah of Bushovik regulation.
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I would find another route
Canadiens love hockey
Even more than they love donuts and somehow McClatchy thinks this is news. If you are one who doesn't know this, read the McClatchy report on a game played by people who can skate multiple rings around you in the time it takes you to fall on your ass. Hockey Night in Canada has lasted since 1931 in part because CBC still uses intelligent announcers who know the game. And when you hear this theme, its time to open a beer and bring out the pretzels, eh!
It trickles down in good times
But when the bad times come, the flood gates open and the shit pours on those at the bottom. Bob Herbert looks at some of the statistics for unemployment and income. What he found was if you made lots of money before, you were probably still working and doing well. If your income was low before you have a 1 in 3 chance of having none now.
A true labor market depression faced those in the bottom two deciles of the income distribution; a deep labor market recession prevailed among those in the middle of the distribution, and close to a full employment environment prevailed at the top.This may explain why the GOP steadfastly opposes any stimulus or jobs program, none of their people are hurting.
Sen. Richard "dick" Shelby R-Earmark gives up
The report in the Huffington Post doesn't have any inside details, but Dick "dick" Shelby has removed his holds on Obama's nominees. The results are good but it sure would be nice to know who squeezed his nuts.
Update: The dick still has holds on three military appointments related to his Airbus earmark.
* Terry Yonkers, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment, and Logistics (Nominated August 4, 2009)
* Frank Kendall, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (PDUSD) for Acquisition and Technology (Nominated August 6, 2009)
* Erin Conaton, Under Secretary of the Air Force (Nominated November 10, 2009)
Update: The dick still has holds on three military appointments related to his Airbus earmark.
* Terry Yonkers, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Environment, and Logistics (Nominated August 4, 2009)
* Frank Kendall, Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (PDUSD) for Acquisition and Technology (Nominated August 6, 2009)
* Erin Conaton, Under Secretary of the Air Force (Nominated November 10, 2009)
A source of understandable confusion
While the numbers show there were only 218 Republicans in Congress up to now, it is quite understandable if people thought there were many more. Their ability to show two faces publicly and without shame is truly extraordinary. Nowhere was this more evident than in their near unanimous opposition followed by their unanimous appearance, hat in hand, at the various disbursement agencies.
Sen. Christopher S. Bond regularly railed against President Obama's economic stimulus plan as irresponsible spending that would drive up the national debt. But behind the scenes, the Missouri Republican quietly sought more than $50 million from a federal agency for two projects in his state.And the list goes on. Everyone of them will take credit for all the good it has done in their states and proclaim to the cameras that it did no good at all. IOKIYAR.
Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina Republican who became famous after yelling, "You lie," during Mr. Obama's addresses to Congress in September, voted against the stimulus. Nonetheless, Mr. Wilson elbowed his way into the rush for federal stimulus cash in a letter he sent to Mr. Vilsack on behalf of a foundation seeking funding.
"We know their endeavor will provide jobs and investment in one of the poorer sections of the Congressional District," he wrote to Mr. Vilsack in the Aug. 26, 2009, letter.
Ranked among the most conservative members of the House by the American Conservative Union (ACU), Rep. John Linder, Georgia Republican, posted a blog item on his Web site on Oct. 21, stating that recent unemployment figures "only reinforce the fact that the $787 billion 'stimulus' signed into law eight months ago has done nothing for job growth in this country."
Two weeks earlier, Mr. Linder had sent a letter to Mr. Vilsack backing an application for stimulus money by the Elauwit Community Foundation, records show. With unemployment in Georgia topping 10 percent, "the employment opportunities created by this program would be quickly utilized," Mr. Linder wrote.
O Happy Day
Drinking beer is good for you.
If you downed one too many while watching the Super Bowl, here's at least one reason to hold your head high: Drinking beer can be good for your health.And even better, light beers are the least useful.
But seriously, a new analysis of 100 commercial beers shows the hoppy beverage is a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for bone health.
Though past research has suggested beer is chockfull of silicon, little was known about how silicon levels varied with the type of beer and malting process used. So a pair of researchers took one for the team and ran chemical analyses on beer's raw ingredients. They also picked up 100 commercial beers from the grocery store and measured the silicon content.
The silicon content of the beers ranged from 6.4 mg/L to 56.5 mg/L, with an average of 30 mg/L. Two beers are the equivalent of just under a half liter, so a person could get 30 mg of the nutrient from two beers. And while there is no official recommendation for daily silicon uptake, the researchers say, in the United States, individuals consume between 20 and 50 mg of silicon each day.
Fool me once....uh, we won't get fooled again
The Republican Party has responded to President Obama's call for them to bring forth their ideas on health care. Their letter to Rahmbo makes it quite clear they will only show up if the President capitulates to all their demands before they even say hello. Perhaps because calling for Republican ideas is similar to that mournful cry in plague stricken medieval cities, "Bring out your dead".
Colbert nails Mooselini
And shows off Rush The Talking Pig for what he is.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter | ||||
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Monday, February 08, 2010
A Tale of Hard Love
Elizabeth Warren has some ideas for the Banksters
Writing in the Wall St Urinal of all places, The eminent Harvard Professor and TARP watchdog has some ideas on how the Banksters can make amends of a sort for raping and pillaging the savings of America.
The piece, titled "Wall Street's Race to the Bottom," explains how bankers can reclaim that trust: by supporting a strong consumer protection agency designed to root out the kinds of abuses that helped lead to the financial crisis. Long supported by Warren, this new agency would protect borrowers from abusive lenders by policing mortgages, credit cards and personal loans.I love Dr Warren and the way she cuts through bullshit like a hot knife through butter and makes the most abstruse stuff understandable, but even she must have known in writing this that the Banksters would answer in one way only.
Bankster kingpin: Does this add to my bonus?Most Americans understand what she says, but we are only voters. We don't have enough money to be noticed by our Senators.
No?
Fuhgeddaboutit!
Your Two Minute Ed
Wherein Ed gets Spitzer to deny he's running for the Senate.
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Is the Chicago Mob hurting Obama
And I should apologize to the Windy City wise guys because they got things done. Steve Clemons looks at an FT article that surveys what Obama's Chicago Three + 1 have done for him in DC and it is not pretty.
But this Luce piece is unavoidably, accurately hard-hitting, and while many of the nation's top news anchors and editors are sending emails back and forth (I have been sent three such emails in confidence) on what a spot-on piece Luce wrought on the administration, they fear that the "four horsepersons of the Obama White House" will shut down and cut off access to those who give the essay 'legs.'To cut to the chase, what Luce and Clemons see as the problem is that the Chicago 3 + 1 are a tactical group that is muscling out the policy people and determining Obama's strategy for him. And Obama is letting them do so. Read the Clemons post first then go on to the Luce, it is eye opening.
But in the too regularly vapid chatter about DC's political scene, serious critiques of the internal game around Obama not only deserve review on their own merits but have to be read -- because Obama is not winning. He is failing and people need to consider why.
Mike Lupica knows Sarah Palin very well.
And after watching her this weekend he has written an in depth analysis of the lady and her politics.
The very best news of the weekend? It's now official that she can fit her entire political philosophy in the palm of her hand.In all it is way deeper than the Quitta from Wasilla will ever be.
Ron Paul is getting primaried
By teabaggers, no less. Reader, have some sympathy for Mr. Paul. As Shakespeare so well said it,
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!
Gee whiz! I wonder why
Why is it that, as the McClatchy headline points out, "No one complains about bank bonuses in Greenwich, Conn.". With the majority of the country still being lashed by the Bush Depression and the Conservative members of Congress determined to halt any efforts to turn it around, the good feelings in Greenwich might seem strange unless you are familiar with the town.
Caterers' cell phones are ringing again. Luxury car dealers are sending the Porsches out for test drives. An architect is booking multimillion-dollar jobs for his "masters of the universe" clients, titans of Wall Street who've made this leafy Connecticut suburb of New York one of the wealthiest towns in the country.This is how the "bon temps roule" in Fat City, CT. And in another month or so, the yacht captains will receive orders to bring their vessels back north from Leyford Cay & Miami and other winter harbors.
When the financial industry tumbled, Greenwich's fortunes fell with it. Now, as the federal bailout has helped lift investment banks to surprisingly robust profits, the news that major financial firms will dole out billions of dollars in salaries and bonuses this year came as welcome relief here, even though the rest of the country is still grappling with 10 percent unemployment.
Discreetly, Greenwich is starting to spend money again, and spending here — where the median household earns $126,549, almost two-and-a-half times the national median, based on 2008 census estimates — isn't quite like spending anywhere else.
At the Ferrari dealership, a handful of middle-aged men in sweaters and jeans milled about the showroom on a recent Saturday, running their palms over sports cars so select that the prices weren't listed. However, a new 458 Italia tops out at 202 mph and north of $300,000.
Along Greenwich Avenue, a half-mile strip of upscale shops that's been dubbed the Rodeo Drive of the East, signs in the windows of real estate agencies announced homes that sold recently for as much as $5 million. Thirty-three houses in Greenwich sold last month, compared with seven in January 2009.
Why is the Senate like 18th century Poland?
As Dr. Krugman explains, both allowed any single legislator to stop government business completely.
We’ve always known that America’s reign as the world’s greatest nation would eventually end. But most of us imagined that our downfall, when it came, would be something grand and tragic.The Republicans are quite happy about making the United States a third world country. It is time for the country to stop being happy with Republican sponsored anarchy.
What we’re getting instead is less a tragedy than a deadly farce. Instead of fraying under the strain of imperial overstretch, we’re paralyzed by procedure. Instead of re-enacting the decline and fall of Rome, we’re re-enacting the dissolution of 18th-century Poland.
A brief history lesson: In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Polish legislature, the Sejm, operated on the unanimity principle: any member could nullify legislation by shouting “I do not allow!” This made the nation largely ungovernable, and neighboring regimes began hacking off pieces of its territory. By 1795 Poland had disappeared, not to re-emerge for more than a century.
Today, the U.S. Senate seems determined to make the Sejm look good by comparison.
Health insurance Borg seeks more consolidation
Because their current control over Congress and the 50 states is pretty good but not yet complete. A few well placed mergers and the whole world will have top deal with companies bigger than the US government.
With Congress’ sweeping overhaul of the health system stalled, industry will seek its own answers to a push by government and the private sector to rein in costs, said Curtis Lane, senior managing director at MTS Health Partners, a New York-based equity fund. An aging U.S. population will spur demand for services and, at the same time, boost pressure to control spending, he said.When the Borg speaks of costs, they are not referring to the cost to the consumer, but the expenses that come between the Borg and the profits promised to Wall St. Doctors may see tougher negotiation on price, but the main effort will be to preclude expensive customers from the benefits promised when they took the customers money. Silly people, don't they know benefits are for executives.
One solution will be increased consolidation, with companies led by WellPoint Inc., the biggest U.S. insurer by enrollment, and Community Health Systems Inc., the largest publicly traded hospital chain, scooping up rivals unable to “spread rising costs across fewer customers,” said Paul Keckley, of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.
The health-care market “certainly seems to favor bigger, innovative, scalable companies,” said Keckley, executive director of the Washington-based center, in a phone interview. Drugmakers facing the loss of patent protection on top-selling medicines “were looking at decelerating revenues, with or without reform,” he said.
If you take away our hate, you destroy our beliefs
This squalid line of reasoning is the basis of a lawsuit by the American Family Association of Michigan to block hate crime laws and allow the continued attacks, verbal and physical, on homosexuals by this "Christian" group. Boy O boy, when that Rapture comes, are these people going to be surprised!
Andrea Mitchell calls out Mooselini on Palmprompter
And Chuck Todd tries to pooh-pooh it.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Monday Music Blogging
Papa Bach and one of his most recognizable pieces for the organ. With an original and easy to follow score that is entertaining in its own right.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Quote of the Day
If it wasn’t for Fox News you would be irrelevent. That’s right. You have become a party that owes its entire existence to a cable news channel owned by an Aussie.Helen Philpot, explaining the many failures of the Republican Party including its central failing.
Tom Toles Today
MoDo interviews Helicopter Harold Ford
And from it we learn that H.H. likes white omelets, is slick as K-Y jelly and he loves every part of New York he has visited including Staten Island, Manhattan and that borough named after gay people. Underlying all is the feeling that he thinks New Yorkers are dumber than Tennessee voters who knew better than to elect him to the Senate.
Sarah Palin and her Third World Vision
Sarah Palin says that if President Barack Obama "played the war card," he could improve his chances of being re-elected.Mooselini, displaying her best imitation of a tin pot dictator says that people will get out and vote for Obama if he will just go and blow up another country to keep the masses happy. Perhaps, if she could read a newspaper, she could see how well that turned out the first two times it was tried. As she said it on Fox, she must have had Bloody Billy Kristol grinning from ear to ear.
Palin says that declaring war on Iran or showing stronger support for Israel might convince voters that Obama is tougher than they think on national security and doing all he can to protect the U.S.
PS. Caribou Barbie is cool with Rush The Talking Pig throwing around the word retard. She thinks he is funny when he says it. Perhaps they can get together at Rush's place and play "Skid the Trig" on his fresh waxed kitchen floor.
Bonnie Raitt doing what she does best
It only took 69 years
But the Japanese Army has finally landed on the beaches of California.
pitting up sand and seawater, the pair of gray naval air-cushioned landing craft zoomed onto the beach and released its cargo: Platoons of armed troops and their armored vehicles who worked their way across the beach battling an opposing force of fighters.Oh where is John Belushi when we need him?
But it wasn’t U.S. Marines who assaulted Red Beach. It was Japanese soldiers.
More than 100 soldiers with the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force did something that few Marines have done in recent years: An amphibious landing.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
Evangelical hate group uses fraudulent flyer to stop gay adoption
In a truly sickening ploy, the Florida Family Policy Council attempted to stop the permanant adoption of a 1 year old boy by a lesbian couple that has had custody of the child since birth (1 woman is related to the child). Even though the judge in making her ruling stated, "The only testimony elicited today was that [the 1-year-old] is loved by these parents more than they even thought that someone could be loved.", those who claim Jesus as their main man would not be stopped in their outpouring of hate.
Fake Real
Is it any wonder that by its own admission "The Family Policy Council says the child is being used as "a political pawn." . They are affiliated with Focus on the Family.
So now those who profit from division are pouncing.
They aren't the people who have cared for this little boy, who have nursed his wounds and tucked him in at night. In fact, they haven't done a thing for him.
They haven't consulted the experts — everyone from a child psychologist to a Guardian ad Litem — who say the parents provide precisely the loving environment that this child needs.
All these critics know is that they don't want gay people to have the same rights as straight people.
So they want him separated from the parents who love him.
"Arrogant judicial activism" was how the finger-waggers at Orlando's Florida Family Policy Council described the ruling in an alert it sent out to its members last week.
And to make their point about just how frightening this ruling was, the Policy Council included a photograph of the couple — a strange and androgynous-looking duo, one with bleached skin and both with mullet haircuts. The couple look so odd (you literally can't tell whether they are male or female) that one might wonder how any judge could place a young child with such a disturbing-looking duo.
Except the judge didn't.
The abnormal-looking couple that the Policy Council chose to illustrate this story is not the same couple granted the right to adopt the child.
Is it any wonder that by its own admission "The Family Policy Council says the child is being used as "a political pawn." . They are affiliated with Focus on the Family.
Quote of the Day
It's important for me to stand there and receive that. It's what you sign up for when you become a public official.Rep. Eric Massa NY-29, on receiving brickbats and bouquets from his constitutents after his 79th town hall meeting in his district.
Your Two Minute Ed
Tonight Ed bemoans the lack of sacks.
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Anthony Weiner on The Dail SHow
And showing Democrats how to behave in public.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Anthony Weiner | ||||
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Mitch The Chin takes one on the McConnell from VoteVets
Real cow tipping
People probably can't tip cows, but a cow tipped a person in Knoxville. Then it stepped on him. An ambulance was called to the University of Tennessee agriculture campus Friday morning. Fire Department Capt. D.J. Corcoran told The Knoxville News Sentinel first responders found a 40 to 50-year-old man who said he was working with cattle in a pen when one knocked him down and stepped on his chest.Perhaps, if he had eaten more chikin, because cows know.
Gail Collins considers the state of the Senate
And in addition to calling for an end to the filibusters such as the one begun by Sen. Shelby on the Presidents nominations, she finds a strangely compelling quote from Sen. Shelby.
“Far too many of the president’s nominees were never afforded an up or down vote because several Democrats chose to block the process for political gain,” complained — um — Richard Shelby.But Sen Shelby is keenly aware of the Prime Directive in DC politics, IOKIYAR, even if you are shilling for a foreign company at the expense of American workers.
They eat their own
And when the main course is main stream Conservatives, that is good for the country. The latest entree is Newt Gingrich himself, target of a counterattack from the Club for Anarchy Growth responding to his attack on the Club for Anarchy Growth in defense of Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah.
Several Republicans are challenging Bennett from his right flank as he seeks a fourth term, largely because of his vote in favor of the Wall Street bailout in 2008. While the Club has said they will oppose Bennett, they haven't said which candidate they will support instead.Hard to believe there could be anybody to the right of a Utah Senator. They are there and they are demanding of all candidates a perfection in their own image. Right on, dudes!
But Bennett has the backing of the National Republican Senatorial Committee - which as a rule supports Republican incumbents - and on Wednesday Gingrich showed up in Salt Lake City to lend a hand.
"I wish the Club for Growth would spend as much time and energy to defeat liberal Democrats as they do dividing Republicans," Gingrich told a crowd at Bennett's formal campaign launch, according to the Deseret News. "I try to defeat liberal Democrats. I don't spend much time trying to defeat Republicans."
Construction workers getting hammered by Bush Depression
And the reality is no joke to the thousands of workers who have seen available projects disappear as funding has dried up as quickly as desert rain.
Nationally, unemployment fell to 9.7% in January, but in construction it jumped to 24.7% from 18.7% in October. In many regions, union officials report 30% of their members are unemployed or "riding the bench." "In the previous 14 years, I had not been out of work for more than one week," says Pat O'Connor, 57, a Connecticut carpenter. With no work since July, O'Connor says, "It is a bad dream turning into a nightmare. Is construction dead? It's just horrible right now. No one expected this. It's a depression."No doubt many are working off books for family and friends, but that is a life for single guy with a pickup and a dog. It doesn't do much if you have a family and a mortgage. And with overbuilding a part of the problem in many areas, it will be a long time before prosperity returns to these workers.
Do you know what JSOC is doing in your name?
Not too many people do know, certainly not the Congress who have been spared oversight responsibility for this covert action group. To put it simply, they are part of the "black operations" elements in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Jeremy Scahill, writing in The Nation, gives us more detail on what they do and how they differ from the "white operations" that do qualify for oversight.
In military parlance, these above-board US "training" forces operating under an unclassified mandate are "white" forces, while operatives working for the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) would be classified as working on "black" operations, sometimes referred to as Special Mission Units. Since 2006, JSOC teams have operated in Pakistan in pursuit of "high-value" targets.And this expansion of what we thought we were in is making us safer, how? As with past efforts, we will have to wait and see how it ends to find out.
"What we're seeing is the expansion of 'white' Special Operations Forces into Pakistan," says a former member of CENTCOM and US Special Forces with extensive experience in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater. "As Vietnam, Somalia and the Balkans taught us, that is almost always a precursor to expanded military operations." The former CENTCOM employee spoke to The Nation on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the Pakistan operations. He characterized the US military's role with the Pakistani Frontier Corps as "training in offensive operations," but rejected the idea that at this stage these US trainers would cross the line to engage in direct combat against Taliban forces. That does not mean, he says, that US military forces are not fighting in Pakistan. "Any firefights in Pakistan would be between JSOC forces versus whoever they were chasing," he said. "I would bet my life on that."
Friday, February 05, 2010
Another title for Helicopter Harold Ford
In addition to being a Carpetbagger, DINO and All Around Douchebag, according to latest reports HH has has won the title of "Merrill Lynch/Bank of America Bonus Baby"
Senator Gillibrand went on the attack this morning, breathing new life into old allegations that possible-senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr. received a taxpayer-funded bonus during his time at Merrill Lynch.You just know the answer to Senator Gillibrands questions is Yes. The only unknown is "How much?".
"Did [Ford] receive a bonus?" Gillibrand asked at a press conference with Public Advocate Bill de Blasio. "Is it a taxpayer-backed bonus? I think it's essential that he disclose this information and I think it's only fair that New Yorkers have a right to know."
DC would be perfect for him
According to Foreign Policy by way of Wonkette, there is a Pakistani diplomat by the name of Akbar Zib. Pakistan has attempted to post him to three different Arabic countries, all have rejected his posting.
A high level Pakistani diplomat has been rejected as Ambassador of Saudi Arabia because his name, Akbar Zib, equates to "Biggest Dick" in Arabic. Saudi officials, apparently overwhelmed by the idea of the name, put their foot down and gave the idea of his being posted there, the kibosh.The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were the other two countries. Washington would be a good place for him because our biggest dicks are not currently in a position to refuse him. And nobody in this country speaks Arabic anyway.
Michael Steele, Man of the People
If you hang out with folks enjoying 7+ figure incomes. If you are like most Americans who have to work their ass off to make ends meet, assuming you have a job, you were probably not amused by Mike's latest pearl of wisdom.
Trust me, after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money,I doubt that Michael Steele knows who Marie Antoinette was, despite doing such a great job of channeling her spirit.
GOP hopes for NY
There is a sizable segment of the party that is hoping they can get a Connecticut coke head to run against Schumer. While the coke, like the inside of his nose, may be a memory for Larry Kudlow, I wonder if he can control the juice use during the campaign.
And what is it with New York that one Senator faces a primary from a Tennessee carpet bagger and the other faces a challenge from a Connecticut Tea and Carpet bagger, both of whom carry lots of their own baggage.
And what is it with New York that one Senator faces a primary from a Tennessee carpet bagger and the other faces a challenge from a Connecticut Tea and Carpet bagger, both of whom carry lots of their own baggage.
In praise of Willie
Is the deficit the new bin-Laden?
As Paul Krugman sees it, the deficit is the latest GOP fearmongering tool designed to drive the American sheep away from what will work best for them and worst for the GOP.
To me — and I’m not alone in this — the sudden outbreak of deficit hysteria brings back memories of the groupthink that took hold during the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, as then, dubious allegations, not backed by hard evidence, are being reported as if they have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now, as then, much of the political and media establishments have bought into the notion that we must take drastic action quickly, even though there hasn’t been any new information to justify this sudden urgency. Now, as then, those who challenge the prevailing narrative, no matter how strong their case and no matter how solid their background, are being marginalized.You don't believe it, you say. Let Dr Krugman put it in simple words for you to understand.
The main difference between last summer, when we were mostly (and appropriately) taking deficits in stride, and the current sense of panic is that deficit fear-mongering has become a key part of Republican political strategy, doing double duty: it damages President Obama’s image even as it cripples his policy agenda. And if the hypocrisy is breathtaking — politicians who voted for budget-busting tax cuts posing as apostles of fiscal rectitude, politicians demonizing attempts to rein in Medicare costs one day (death panels!), then denouncing excessive government spending the next — well, what else is new?So if you hate America, go out and support the GOP, rail against the deficit and stop America's recovery in its tracks.
Will they find Jimmy Hoffa?
Wrecking crews took the first chunks out of Giants Stadium on Thursday as demolition of the stadium got underway.I don't remember which end zone he is in.
Sen, Shelby holds country hostage for foreign corporation
Sen. Richard Shelby R-Asshole and noted Democratic turncoat, has placed a hold on all of President Obama's nominations until the administration throws a $40 Billion contract to the European Airbus cartel.
- A $40 billion contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers. From CongressDaily: "Northrop/EADS team would build the planes in Mobile, Ala., but has threatened to pull out of the competition unless the Air Force makes changes to a draft request for proposals." Federal Times offers more details on the tanker deal, and also confirms its connection to the hold.Regarding the tanker contract, Northrups involvement is minimal, the bulk of the taxpayer dollars will be shipped overseas. And given the new rules approved by the Supreme Court, we can expect a sizable amount will return foe Sen. Shelby's benefit and enjoyment.
- An improvised explosive device testing lab for the FBI. From CongressDaily: "[Shelby] is frustrated that the Obama administration won't build" the center, which Shelby earmarked $45 million for in 2008. The center is due to be based "at the Army's Redstone Arsenal."
Obama makes Ted Nugent sick
"I wanna throw up," Nugent said.When asked to reply, President Obama paused a moment and asked, "Ted who?".
US flag not good enough for Teabaggers
As the first day of their "convention" progressed, it became clear that two items were prominently missing from the 1st Annual Teabaggers Roundup, the US flag and black people. Remarks by organizers made it clear that neither was good enough for true blue teabaggers.
As the Washington Post reports, "The convention's first day lacked the orchestrated staging of most modern political events. The convention host delivered a meandering welcome speech without notes, saying he misplaced them. Former congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) offered a fiery defense of Judeo-Christian faith and traditional American values, but there was no prayer or Pledge of Allegiance to open the convention -- nor was there an American flag in the convention hall."No wonder the GOP is rushing to embrace the Teabaggers, they share the same values.
The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a "literacy test" to protect America from presidents like Obama -- a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting.
In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Johnson-era civil rights laws.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
An old favorite redone
Bumper Sticker for 2010
Republicans say Fuck You Main St
We are going to Wall St. Thanks to our previous regulatory policies, Wall St has all the money and you don't, so we will promise to continue supporting their criminal activities in return for huge pots of money from them.
Republicans are stepping up their campaign to win donations from Wall Street, trying to capitalize on an increasing sense of regret among executives at big financial institutions for backing Democrats in 2008.And now there are no limits to their corporate giving.
In discussions with Wall Street executives, Republicans are striving to make the case that they are banks' best hope of preventing President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats from cracking down on Wall Street.
GOP strategists hope to benefit from the reaction to the White House's populist rhetoric and proposals, which range from sharp critiques of bonuses to a tax on big Wall Street banks, caps on executive pay and curbs on business practices deemed too risky.
Pat Oliphant gets the joke
Red Dog radicals using liberal ideas to spread their poison
It was only a matter of time before radical conservatives would borrow successful ideas from liberals and progressive groups to counteract their efforts to improve the United States.
A group of prominent Republicans is forming an organization to develop and market conservative ideas, copying a successful Democratic model and hoping to capitalize on the fund-raising and electioneering possibilities opened up by a recent Supreme Court ruling.Notice the number of hard core radicals whose disdain for American democracy has been palpable of late. Really though, what kind of an organization do you need to teach people to say No.
The organizers, including former Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the senior policy adviser to Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign, describe their emerging American Action Network as a center-right version of the Center for American Progress, the six-year-old group for progressive policies that was founded by John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and an informal adviser to President Obama.
Republicans who are donors, board members or both include Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi; Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida; Ed Gillespie, like Mr. Barbour a former chairman of the Republican Party; Fred Malek, an investor and official in the Nixon and first Bush administrations; Robert K. Steele, a former executive of Wachovia and Goldman Sachs who was a Treasury official in the second Bush administration, and Kenneth G. Langone, a founder of Home Depot and a former director of the New York Stock Exchange.
I choose to ignore your flaming decrepitude
One again the Daily Show digs deep to the heart of the matter and skewers it perfectly.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| A Few Gay Men & Women | ||||
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And speaking of money laundering...
It is not yet illegal because so many of the powerful do so, but the shifting of money to hide disclosure for campaign purposes is morally and ethically in the same boat. Raw Story has a look at how money is transferred to organizations that do not have to disclose where the money comes from.
Campaign finance experts confirmed that though disclosure rules remained intact in the new Supreme Court decision, there are effective methods to circumvent them.True it doesn't always take a rocket scientist to guess where the money is coming from, but you can't prove it and that lets the corporations piously sniff, "Who me". One only has to look at the health insurance reform efforts this year to get some idea of what goes on.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an attorney and campaign finance expert at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, said corporations already effectively end-run campaign finance law by shuffling money through trade associations.
“One of their favorites right now is spending through trade associations,” Torres-Spelliscy said.
Trade associations are considered tax-exempt non-profit organizations under US law. While they must report contributions received from other corporations to the Internal Revenue Service, the document itself remains confidential and is not made available to the public.
Money talks
And through the good offices of the 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, it is telling a very telling tale. Despite all the various money laundering laws and restrictions, many supposedly beefed up after September 11, 2001, dirty money flows like lifeblood through out the economic veins of this country. And don't you know that the biggest banks are part of that pipeline.Both the NY Times and Mother Jones have reports on this and it isn't pretty.
The 325-page report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which will conduct a hearing on Thursday, sheds new light on how banks like Citigroup, Wachovia and Bank of America unwittingly shifted hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of African politicians, their relatives and associates.I worked for a big bank that made all the employees take anti money laundering training, but it was designed to stop the little guys, the $5K, $10K or $20K mugs and pugs. When the silk suited agent comes in and wants to arrange multi million dollar transfers into the bank, you risk you job if you ask too many questions. And what for, your boss will probably get an OK from above in less time than it takes to clean out your desk. And there is only one way to stop it. When the guy at the top takes the fall for it along with those approving the deals, then you would see due diligence. But I am just dreaming again.
The banks ended up closing or restricting the accounts and cooperated with the subcommittee, offering comments on individual transactions.
In all cases, the Senate report says, the banks ignored controls intended to prevent money laundering and related screens on PEP, meaning politically exposed persons — high-risk clients from corrupt countries.
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