Evan Bayh (and a few others) Needs to be Bitch-Slapped (literally)

Xmastime:

Evan Bayh has been a Senator since 1999. Which means that he spent many years having the GOP run roughshod over him, doing whatever they wanted. Hell, Bush even came out and said after his re-election that he had a "mandate" to do whatever the fuck he wanted.

And now, after all those years, Bayh is a member of the party that controls the House, the Senate, AND the White House. So Bayh has decided that instead of using this advantage to move along legislation that could actually be representative of his and his party's ideology, he should probably step back and make doing these things as difficult as possible, what with his Blue Dog "moderate coalition" nonsense.

I guess it's important to him to be able to help the party that the American people voted OUT of power and since has come up with absolutely nothing remotely resembling the direction that himself, his political party or, based on every poll I've seen, the American people would like to be going in.

The President is having a rough enough time as it is without these "Conservadems" mucking shit up and making things even more difficult.

Flashback: How We Partied in 1999

''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota.

"Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Congress had ''seemed determined to unlearn the lessons from our past mistakes.''

"The opponents of the measure gloomily predicted that by unshackling banks and enabling them to move more freely into new kinds of financial activities, the new law could lead to an economic crisis down the road when the marketplace is no longer growing briskly."

- Congress Passes Wide-Ranging Bill Easing Bank Laws, NY Times, Sept, 5th, 1999

Hooray! (fingers crossed)

NY Daily News:

The multi-billion Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn is dead, according to one who should know: the "starchitect" who was going to build it.

Asked by a trade paper about "unrealized commissions" he most wishes had been built, famed 80-year-old architect Frank Gehry brought up Atlantic Yards.

"I don't think it's going to happen," he told the Architect's Newspaper in an interview published online.

The comment suggests the troubled relationship between Gehry and developer Bruce Ratner is over.

"While Ratner's project is a big question mark, it appears to be clear that his star architect - a key selling point for the project, its sponsors and Barclays bank - is no longer working on the project," said Daniel Goldstein, a member of the anti-Yards group Develop Don't Destroy.

Ratner's controversial $4.2 billion project has been stalled because the bad economy has dried up financing.

Gehry's Los Angeles-based design firm laid off all two dozen employees working on the Atlantic Yards project in November.

The sprawling project included a NBA basketball arena and five soaring Lego-like towers. A second phase of 11 towers, affordable housing and public space was also planned but never finalized.

Mayor Bloomberg this week suggested the project may still get built - but on a smaller scale and without Gehry.

"It would be sad if Atlantic Yards gets built without the Gehry design, which would've been phenomenal for this city," Bloomberg said. "I gather at this point it looks like that the only ways Ratner's going to get that done is to do it at a lower cost and not to do everything at the same time."

Add Burnett to the List, X

Fellow blogger Xmastime has a few posts on female wingnuts he wouldn't mind getting to know in a biblical way, so to speak. As a horny hetero dog myself, I'd like to add one more.

Now, CNBC's Erin Burnett is not a certified wingnut. But her equally repulsive pronouncements qualify her for membership in this highly infamous club. Like her take on criticism of China for exporting toys with lead, and other fuckups, on Hardball with Chris Matthews in 2007:

"You know, if China were to revalue its currency or China is to start making, say, toys that don't have lead in them or food that isn't poisonous, their costs of production are going to go up, and that means prices at Wal-Mart here in the United States are going to go up, too. So I would say China is our greatest friend right now."

Not too fond of kids, or poison-free food, are we? How about dudes with a regular income? Apparently not, since she once told Men's Health that "hiring a personal chef...for the few nights a week" she is home and "round-trip business-class tickets to Australia and New Zealand" for her folks--among other expensive gifts--is the way to her heart. Aww, I'm in lust with a gold-digger.

Talk about being defined by your job.

That Old Cliché

So, both the House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman are at odds with President Obama's toxic-asset purchasing plan (which has been well-received by investors, as demonstrated with the stock market bump in the wake of the announcement).

You know what that means: if a ranking conservative congressman and a noteworthy, progressive economist both disagree with this administration on this particular economic move, than President Obama and co. must be doing something right.

Or at least, I hope so.

The Double Standard

- Bernie Madoff not only got to stay at his $7m Manhattan penthouse while awaiting trial for bilking $50 billion dollars, but once he's actually in jail has the balls to have his lawyer petition his return to house arrest, due to the "harsh" conditions of his incarceration.

- AIG CEO Edward Liddy, with a straight face, defends the sanctity of contracts that promised bonuses to the white collar incompetents who got the company in this mess, and dragged the taxpayer along for the ride. Yet Liddy failed to honor the sanctity of the contracts AllState had with victims of Hurricane Katrina it had insured, when he was that company's CEO.

- CNBC's Rick Santelli calls foreclosed homeowners losers but has no biting adjectives for the Wall St. types who took people's money on a video game-like joyride and lost it all on bullshit schemes.

- Conservative talk show hosts like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin, and others come to the defense of those who have bonuses paid to them with taxpayer-funded bailout money, but turn into vicious attack dogs when it comes to displaced union workers.


It's obvious that the working man and woman are worthless to these people; that fat cats are to be protected and coddled, while the working masses are nothing more than whining losers and leeches, who deserve nothing more than to bust their asses and to grin and bear it when taken advantage of; that those who lack power or connections are unworthy of justice or safeguards against corporate greed and plunder, not during nor after the fact.

Right now, I'm thinking of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android", especially the line "when I am king / you will be first against the wall". Who should we start with, Mr. Yorke? 'Cause it just seems to me there's not enough bullets for the over abundance of candidates for the firing squad.

Failing Upwards On Our Dime

AIG just doled out $165 m in bonuses after getting $170 billion of our money in a bailout. Now, the company says these were contractual bonuses and that they have no way to rescind them. Fine. Let's assume that is the case. But this is the part that baffles me:

If a company is in such dire financial shape that it needs a huge government hand out, it indicates that its performance has been sub par at the very least, and consequently, those who bear the responsibility to achieve its goals have clearly faltered. SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE BONUSES BASED ON?! Showing up? Jeez...

If there's one thing Jim Cramer mentioned in his showdown with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last week that I agree with, is that people need to be indicted and going to jail over the greed and negligence that brought on the Wall St. meltdown. Instead, under-performing employees are getting bonuses from our money. Again.

To paraphrase Denzel Washington's character in Philadelphia, can someone explain this to me, like I'm a six-year old?

About Fuckin' Time!

Someone Give This Woman a Show Now!

Fox Noise needs to hire former SNLer and washed up has-been Victoria Jackson immediately. Just watch her and you'll see why:

Cheney May Have Run Covert Assassination Squad - No One Surprised

According to a claim by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, and reported on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, former Vice-President Dick Cheney ran the Joint Special Operations Command, which was ostensibly an assissination ring with no Congressonal oversight. Crooks and Liars has video and more.

Cramer vs Stewart Showdown

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart welcomed finance expert and CNBC's host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer last night, after days of an on-air pseudo feud had erupted between the two TV personalities.

Stewart was hard-hitting but professional--aside from a few curse words here and there--in the longer than usual segment, which had to be trimmed in length for broadcast. (He also let on how personal the current Wall St. debacle was for him, by hinting at his 75 year-old mom losing money in this mess.) If you missed it, Comedy Central has the entire uncensored interview here.

Favorite Quote of the Week: Cramer vs Kramer

"...more people trust [Jon] Stewart’s insight than [Jim] Cramer’s shitty financial advice. I’d let Kramer from Seinfeld handle my 401(k) before this asshole."

- The JB Random Report

The Rock Obama

Rush Hour

The "Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the GOP" meme has snowballed and just won't go away, to the consternation of Republicans everywhere. This is a mess for them: they don't want to be portrayed as being in such disarray that their top dog is a loud mouth, radio talk show host. And just like their obstructionist, just-say-no approach to the Obama administration's policies doesn't jibe with independents, neither does their bowing to Limbaugh, which has become a sad spectacle.

It gets more complicated when Limbaugh's huge conservative audience is taken into account. The GOP really doesn't want to alienate these folks: the true red-state, God and Guns, Fox Nuisance-loving, Obama-is-a-socialist/communist, anti-New York Times crowd, whose votes they count on. We've all seen recent proof of this in the subsequent apology and genuflection from prominent Republicans who, after disagreeing with or chastising Limbaugh in public for his infamous "I want [Obama] to fail" statement, have meekly changed their tune.

And yes, Limbaugh has greatly benefited from all of this: the leadership vacuum of the Republicans has put him front and center, while the exposure will surely bring increased revenue for his show. But you know the newly-minted King of the Conservatives has let all of this attention go to that fat head of his when he challenges the President of the United States to a debate. I guess Limbaugh is not aware of:

a) how busy President Obama is, both cleaning up the economic mess and managing the two wars he inherited from Rush's immensely inept and corrupt peeps;

and

b) he is not in Obama's league to debate; POTUS vs a talk show host? On what planet?

But what is even more dumbfounding is how adrift the Republicans are right now. They are trying to persuade the country that the GOP has the solutions to the current crisis, but offer none, only obstacles and disengenuous rhetoric. They want the folks to believe Republicans have the answers to their problems, when in fact everyone is acutely aware of how the last eight years of their rule is what got us here in the first place. And, on top of it, they have no one to convincingly sell any of it for them: Bobby Jindal's big turn in the national spolight backfired; Sarah Palin is laying low; and the less said about John McCain, and the rest of them in Congress, the better.

So, with no real party leadership to speak of, they are left with the aforementioned Rush Limbaugh: a polarizing blowhard who privately they loathe, but have to kneel before in order to not put distance between the hardcore wingnuts who follow him on the radio and Republican electoral aspirations.

Makes me wanna cackle like The Joker. Sorry.

Simple White House Math

How many more non-properly vetted nominees with tax problems will it take before the President screams bloody murder? Huh, Rahm?

Simple McDonald's Math

A post by fellow blogger Xmastime gave me a great idea: if the financial whiz kids on Wall St are losing millions by the minute and McDonald's just posted another profitable quarter, then Ronald and co. should be handling the economy and those Wall St. assholes should be flipping burgers.

Seriously.

[X had the basic premise; I just added the flipping burgers part.]

Simple Madoff Math

If I cheat someone out of of $5000, a friend or loved one is going to have to bail me out of Rikers.

Meanwhile, Bernie Madoff not only bilked people and charitable institutions to the tune of $50 billion and gets house arrest, but now he also wants to keep close to $70m in personal assets and his $7m penthouse.

WHY THE FUCK IS HE NOT BEHIND BARS? SEND HIM TO JAIL, NOW!

IS THERE NO FUCKING SENSE OF JUSTICE IN THIS COUNTRY ANYMORE?!

Simple McCain Math

How long does it take for a failed presidential candidate to bring out the knives and attack his former opponent's policies, without offering any constructive solutions or alternatives, just for some airtime/a chance at the spotlight?

Simple "Plumber" Math

How many of the infamous Joe the Scumbag's 15 minutes are left?