We aren’t paying for any of this with real money.
Breaking Broken News: "When you come to somewhere like Libya, you expect lies and deceit from the dictatorship here. You don't expect it from the other journalists." Two things: these were Fox employees, not correspondents, and we actually do expect lies and deceit from Fox. We just don't expect them to be quite so blatant about it.
Crooking the Books: David Stevens has a new job, as head of the Mortgage Bankers Association. And he didn't have to give up his day job either – as Assistant Secretary for Housing in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and as the Commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration – where his job was is to regulate mortgage bankers.
Leading By Example: Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav has been sentenced to seven years in prison for multiple counts of rape and molestation during his term as president from 2000 to 2007. Wonder what an ex-president would get for war crimes?
Whistling/Graveyard: “Global markets are signaling that sustained economic growth will more than make up for Japan’s worst disaster since World War II, rising commodity prices and uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa.” When the next pandemic erupts, go long caskets!
Sorry: The US Army has apologized for letting its killers take pictures of their trophies.
Reliability: OPEC says that it is “perfectly happy” with $120 oil and that the price will not impair economic growth around the world. They said the same thing a couple of weeks ago at $100 a barrel and back in 2008 when it was $145 barrel.
Takes One to Know One: As chair of the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) promised to “give government contracting a hard look -- and root out waste, management[sic], and fraud.” Starting with herself. She has admitted she “improperly billed taxpayers” $88,000 and “failed to pay “287,000” in property taxes.
Queen For A Day: Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) share today's 'Clueless' award for their proposal to eliminate pensions for new federal employees and to renege as much as possible on previous pension commitments. The bill would not correct the alleged underfunded liabilities that do not currently exist.
Teamwork: Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Sleepy Thomas, has gone to work at a conservative website. It is thought her salary will be reportable.
Gospel:Citing a lack of utility and social value, scientists say that religion is headed for extinction in Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.
Q&A: Crime rates around the country are plummeting, and no one knows why. Obviously, it's because there is so much less to steal these days.
Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin: The right insists that the 'Special Issue' Treasury bonds that represent Social Security surpluses dating back 25 years are hollow promises that will never be honored. Possibly true. But if so, that makes the Reagan/Greenspan Social Security reform nothing but a cynical tax ripoff of the poorest of society's workers. It would be almost worth it to accept the neocons' view of the bonds if they'd just agree to call Reagan and Greenspan frauds, guilty of knowing theft.
Buckle Down: Barclays says that people must worker longer hours for more years for half the pay and nearly none of the social benefits they've grown accustomed to. And shut up and like it, too.
9 comments:
"Obviously, it's because there is so much less to steal these days."
....unless you're a banker, the Koch brothers, or Governor Walker.
"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."
-Sen. Barack Obama, Dec 20, 2007
"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."
-Sen. Barack Obama, Dec 20, 2007
There is a threat to America's oil prices. That alone is enough for a full scale invasion.
RE: Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin:
"Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."
RBM
Sorry:
Saw trophy shots of North Korean sappers back in the late '70s.
Saw trophy shots of Hondurans, El Salvadorians and Nicaraguans in the early '80s.
Saw Trophy shots of Los Angeleans in the '90s
Saw Trophy shots of Iraqis an Afghans in the '00s.
George Washington wouldn't let Robert Rogers join the Continental Army for his child killing, scalp taking and kidnapping ways during the 7 years war.
Taking scalps vs. taking pictures...
The more it changes the more it stays the same.
RBM
RBM - You skipped Viet Nam, but the trophy hunters did not. Pictures, sure. And strings of ears...
Wow...still clueless after all these years. Run an article about how Krugman was right, toss in some of your own smart-aleck comments about how Republicans are wrong....then surround that article with all manner of articles contradicting yourself.
Housing continues collapse...price inflation...coming attractions like $120 oil....
You really are lost at sea. And this is far from over. It will end badly for us thanks to Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Bernanke. But you will blame it on the Japan earthquake, bankers and Republicans.
You will never learn that we cannot escape debt with trickery.
CK:
I didn't skip it. My "acquaintances" were stationed on the DMZ in the late '70s. I'm sure that had I been a little older I would have included pictures of the NVA.
RBM
Ventu: Well, the only thing I have to offer here are my “smart-alack comments” and if you enjoy getting upset by them, then I'm serving my public.
As for responses to the Recent Discomfiture, I know (by looking around at the “contradicting” articles) that we have not escaped. But there is a good argument that the US did not really try a Keynesian solution but a weak, watered down version – except for Wall Street where the money poured onto the bonfire has certainly warmed the hearts and wallets of the banks and brokers. Too bad more of the money didn't go into jobs – real jobs, makework jobs, any jobs at all would be better than 15 million un/underemployed with no purchasing power.
Noting in Keynes or Krugman pretended to be a cure for the housing blunder. Blaming imaginary money spent on some imaginary Keynesian jobs program for the price inflation caused by actual shortages (food, oil) and the run-up in stock prices due to TARP or QE I & II is simply deceitful.
Nothing in JMK nor PK suggests that deficits forever are a workable solution – no mater what Reagan, Greenspan and 30 years of Republican don't tax but keep spending have pretended. Run deficits to get people back to work and back to the stores, driving the economy, then throttle back and run surpluses. Remember surplusses? Like we had under Clinton before Young George gave all the money to the rich?
Wow...still clueless after all these years. Run an article about how Krugman was right, toss in some of your own smart-aleck comments about how Republicans are wrong....then surround that article with all manner of articles contradicting yourself. But there I go again, blaming the Republicans. Blaming the guilty.
And being a smart-alack about it, too.
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