Archive for May, 2009
It’s Funny Because It’s True
Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents Dinner: ”Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. That’s like saying, ‘I hope America fails.’ Or that ‘I dont care if people are losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.’ He just wants the country to fail. To me, that’s treason. He’s not saying anything differently [...]
We Should Be So Lucky
So now that Joe the Plumber has decided to leave the Republican Party, are his 15,000 minutes of fame finally over? I’m betting that he knows which side his bread is buttered, and knows better than to bite the hand that feeds him. Regardless of what he said to Time, I doubt he actually ends [...]
Chris Cox’s Dysfunctional SEC
The Government Accountability Office issued a report yesterday which boils down to a scathing criticism of the SEC under Christopher Cox (who headed the agency from August 2005 to January 2009). Under former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, the agency instituted policies that slowed cases and led enforcement-unit lawyers to conclude commissioners opposed fining companies, the [...]
Blackwater Rides Again
Blackwater’s rebranding doesn’t seem to have helped them very much. Not only do they still manage to look as thoroughly dishonest and unethical as they used to before, but a 575-word AP story calls them Blackwater throughout except for one solitary reference to their new name in para 5. Some names — and images — [...]
Conflicts Of Interest, Tra La La …
The notion of conflict of interest seems to be going out of style. For starters, neither the New York Times nor former Attorney General John Ashcroft care very much about the concept: You can say one thing for John Ashcroft: he’s not short on chutzpah. In an op-ed in today’s New York Times, the former [...]
Priorities
Matt already blogged last night about Senate Democrats signaling to Arlen Specter that he can vote against key Democratic positions as early and as often as he likes, but he can’t expect to usurp their privileges. Here’s a tidbit from Politico that adds the perfect footnote to Matt’s post: A Democratic aide said Tuesday night [...]
Department of WTF?
U.S. Says Bank of America Needs $33.9 Billion Cushion – New York Times (5/6/09): The government has told Bank of America it needs $33.9 billion in capital to withstand any worsening of the economic downturn, according to an executive at the bank. The government’s determination that Bank of America doesn’t need as much capital as [...]
Hallowed Senate Tradition > Actual Democracy
Last week I linked to an article about Senior Senate Democrats getting their panties in a twist over Arlen Specter being allowed to keep his Senate seniority: Several Democrats are furious with Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) for agreeing to let Specter (Pa.) keep his seniority, accrued over more than 28 years as a GOP senator. That [...]
It’s OK Because He’s Your Douchebag, Right?
Arlen Specter is Barack Obama‘s kind of Democrat Jake Tapper: To follow-up on a couple of issues; one, regarding the Pennsylvania primary, President Obama has said he will commit to Senator Arlen Specter. Today Congressman Sestak of Pennsylvania said he’s “inclined” to challenge Specter in the primary. Given the fact that Specter, his very first [...]
When The Untruth Is Found To Be Lies
Since the party of no truth opposes the Employee Free Choice Act (the so-called card check bill), it has been busy spreading various untruths about the bill. One of these was the canard that the card check provision does away with secret ballots. Since the party of no truth has well-developed institutional expertise in the [...]