Archive for April, 2009
Sinfully Just Desserts
Roger Ebert, film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, has produced a deeply satisfying put down of Bill O’Reilly. It’s not that long, and very well written, so here it is in its entirety: Dear Bill: Thanks for including the Chicago Sun-Times on your exclusive list of newspapers on your “Hall of Shame.” To be in [...]
Oversight, Of The Democrats, By The Democrats (Thank Gods!)
Wonder of wonders: the Democratic Congress proposes to live up to its oversight role even though the potential oversightee is a popular Democratic President. A congressional oversight committee opened an investigation yesterday into whether the Obama administration is circumventing a law that limits lavish pay for executives at firms benefiting from the $700 billion federal [...]
Specter’s Olympic-worthy Performance
Arlen Specter apparently has no middle name. But he certainly deserves one. And judging by his performance on Howard Stern‘s radio show yesterday, he seems to have earned one. Arlen “Supple” Specter (did you know that acronymania is also known as initialism?) managed to effortlessly pull off the difficult quadruple axel toe loop of political [...]
No Change
(10/24/07): “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.” When he changed his position (after securing the nomination, of course) Obama voted for the FISA bill, but said (6/20/08): It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this [...]
Allen Stanford Defends His Honor
Apparently, there is not just honor among thieves, there’s also pride. When you’re in the multi-billion dollar fraud business, there is a pecking order of relative immorality. When your business plan is to solicit money under false pretenses — by lying about how you invest the money, and then lying about the returns you actually [...]
How The Mighty Have Fallen
It isn’t only Ponzi schemes and ASS scams that have caused people to lose billions of dollars recently. Over the past 12 months, Warren Buffett‘s wealth slipped from $62 billion to $37 billion. Billy Gates fared much better, only dropping $18 billion to fall from $58 billion to $40 billion. Bookmark on DeliciousDigg this postShare [...]
Wherever Did He Get That Idea
When Pittsburgh gun enthusiast and, oh yeah, triple cop killer Richard Poplawski friend was interviewed, he said: Poplawski feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on the way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon.” Like I said on Saturday, it’s a strange idea to have, given that Obama clearly doesn’t want anything whatsoever to [...]
Extortion, Nullification And Other Washington Games
(1) How is this not extortion? Sens. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) announced today that “they are blocking President Barack Obama’s nomination of Ashton Carter as Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.” The senators want assurances that Carter will not “change the criteria” on which the Pentagon considers a refueling [...]
Close to Home
Officers killed, wounded in Stanton Heights standoff – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (4/4/09): Three Pittsburgh police officers were killed and two others were injured after a heavily armed man began firing at them as they responded to a domestic call this morning at a home in Stanton Heights. The 22-year-old shooter, Richard “Pop” Poplawski, who told friends [...]
Makes Perfect Sense
Summers Received Hundreds Of Thousands In Speaking Fees From TARP Recipients – Huffington Post (4/3/09): Barack Obama‘s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees last year from firms that have direct financial interests before the government or are intimately involved in the White House’s bank relief programs. The [...]