The Late Great Washington Post

The only reasons I go to The Wa Po any more (other than the Sunday crossword - which is usually awesome) is to mock George Will, or to find new ways to call Marc Thiessen an asshole.

James Fallows at The Atlantic has by far the best reason to tell Wa Po to pound sand.

Headline: "Where job measures go to die"
Subhead: "Another bill fails in Senate"
What actually happened: The bill got a majority in the Senate, 51-49.

But because Mitch McConnell's GOP minority has resolved to filibuster everything the Administration proposes, the measure never came to a vote on the merits. The Democrats, with "only" 53 votes (including 2 Indeps), cannot get 60 votes to break a filibuster, since the Republicans with 47 always-unified pro-filibuster votes, can stop anything they choose.

American Taliban

This jackass is a sitting judge in Texas who presides over a court that hears a lot of cases involving child abuse. His name is William Adams.

The Daily Mail has a good report.

Elizabeth Warren Heckled

Everybody gets to say what's on his mind, even if he insists on being a complete asshole about it (speaking from experience here).

Two things I really like about this:
1) Warren quiets the crowd when they start to go after him for calling her "a socialist whore".  She's a fighter and as sweet as she sounds, I'm betting she can cut you to ribbons when she feels the need, but she keeps it cool and there's nothing the guy can push back against.  Conflict resolved.
2) As is usually the case, the heckler was prob'ly a little nervous about being kinda shitty in public, so he needed to make the statement and then stride purposefully from the room - for dramatic effect.  But the door at the front is locked.  He tries the opener a couple of times, and then has to walk past the crowd to get out.  His body language is defiant and proud, but nobody's paying any attention to him, so again he has nothing to fight.  He's just some random dick callin' people names.

(hat tip: Crooks and Liars)

Random Shots

Today's pix:

Allow Me To Reiterate

Matt Taibbi has written a lot of this before, and practically nothing is being done about it.  An awful lot of the people who should be in jail are the ones who keep telling us to keep pushing forward; keep working at it; it'll take a huge effort, but we'll get there if we just keep pluggin' along.  I hate the feeling, but some of these pricks had better start gettin' some serious prison time before the OWS hippies lose out to the angry mob.

When enough people find out they have nothing left to lose, it only takes one good leader - somebody who can whip the crowd into a rich creamy lather - and then they simply come to your penthouse and take what they want.

It's a kind of social extortion that's been going on forever.  Most people don't begrudge rich people being rich.  It's being said more often in the press now, but most Americans are OK with unequal results; even when it's obvious you never worked a day in your life to earn it and you just got lucky and won the birthright lottery.  Good on you.  Fuck a super model for me.  Who knows, maybe I'll get my chance some day and we can fuck one together.  But when the game is rigged, and everybody knows it's rigged, and a bunch of Silver Spoon Legacy Pukes are out in the open about trying to make sure it gets even more rigged, then we gotta a problem, son.  The unwashed masses will sit still for a lot as long as they believe they have a legitimate shot at makin' it big someday.  The economy is Confidence-based in more than just a paper money kind of way.  Once that confidence is betrayed, everybody loses everything.

The whole game was based on one new innovation: the derivative instruments like CDOs that allowed them to take junk-rated home loans and turn them into AAA-rated instruments. It was not Barney Frank who made it possible for Goldman, Sachs to sell the home loan of an occasionally-employed janitor in Oakland or Detroit as something just as safe as, and more profitable than, a United States Treasury Bill. This was something they cooked up entirely by themselves and developed solely with the aim of making more money.

Read more: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi

Say What?

This is what it looks like when you step on your dick wearin' track shoes.



These guys need us to blame government; to blame Fannie and Freddie; they know they've screwed the pooch in a huge way, and if we don't go along with their bullshit explanations, confidence goes out of the system; and since confidence is what holds up this kind of "modern economy", the whole thing craters in on itself.

One other point: Remembering that it's never about what they say it's about, if Bloomberg is out saying shitty things about Washington, it could mean that there are some very "candid discussions" going on behind the curtains.

Some More Pix

I wish these could be real, but of course then we'd lose an important part of Show Biz and the economy would just get worse.

Some Pix

Just some random junk I found floating around the web recently.

Slick Rick

So what we really need is another drunk cowboy in the White House - but this time, instead of a drunk who doesn't drink, what we need is a drunk who does lotsa drinking?

(hat tip - John Gorman)

Let Herman Be Herman

Cain has spent some time trying to defend having 2 or 3 different stances on the abortion rights issue over the last coupla weeks. So Bob Schieffer brings him on CBS's version of the Sunday morning Wave-Your-Dick-At-America show, and plays at being a real journalist by pinning Cain down on his abortion position. And Cain nails himself to the Pro-Lifers' cross like a dutiful little Repub who feels the need to pander to the crazies, and ol' Bob just smiles and nods 'cuz that's all according to the script. But then Cain goes on to make the usual ridiculous assertions about Planned Parenthood, and about how Margaret Sanger's real intention was to launch a genocide against black people. Schieffer "challenges" him for proof, and Cain pulls the standard malarkey out of his ass - "If you look at the history..." And ol' Bob just smiles and nods - way to get tough there, Bob.


So fast forward to the question of that goofy campaign ad. Schieffer asks a coupla puffball questions, and then we get to the real meat of the story - smoking. And now ol' Bob is on the attack 'cuz suddenly it's not about some esoteric nonsense of a political party fucking half the US population out of their rights; it's all about Bob and how Bob survived a bout with a smoking-related cancer; and how Bob feels so strongly that smoking ain't cool. Jesus H Fucking Schwartz.

Anonymous - Expect Us

OWS Today

The cops really are just a lay-off or two away from joining the protesters.  The Politicos know this, of course, so it'll be interesting to see the how things begin sort themselves out.

Steve-O-Lanterns

By way of old high school buddy, and wood carver extraordinaire, Steve Pancoast at Piece Of The Wind:

Brilliant

Epidemiology Explained

Koch Bros

My main question is always something like: Why do I have to go to Al-Jazeera to get this perspective?

--or--

Where the fuck is this Left-leaning Mainstream American Media we keep hearing about?

Just In Case Ya Missed It

Noelle Nikpour is a tool of the first order.

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Climategate

Jon Stewart at the top of his game.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Thank God For Matt Taibbi

Taibbi can get pretty far off into the weeds sometimes, but just as often, he comes thru for us with a gem like this:

STUPIDITY INSURANCE. Defenders of the banks like to talk a lot about how we shouldn't feel sorry for people who've been foreclosed upon, because it's they're own fault for borrowing more than they can pay back, buying more house than they can afford, etc. And critics of OWS have assailed protesters for complaining about things like foreclosure by claiming these folks want “something for nothing.”

This is ironic because, as one of the Rolling Stone editors put it last week, “something for nothing is Wall Street’s official policy." In fact, getting bailed out for bad investment decisions has been de rigeur on Wall Street not just since 2008, but for decades.

--snip--

...When Joe Homeowner bought too much house, essentially betting that home prices would go up, and losing his bet when they dropped, he was an irresponsible putz who shouldn’t whine about being put on the street.

But when banks bet billions on a firm like AIG that was heavily invested in mortgages, they were making the same bet that Joe Homeowner made, leaving themselves hugely exposed to a sudden drop in home prices. But instead of being asked to "suck it in and cope" when that bet failed, the banks instead went straight to Washington for a bailout -- and got it.

--snip--

Millions of people have been foreclosed upon in the last three years. In most all of those foreclosures, a regional law enforcement office -- typically a sheriff's office -- was awarded fees by the court as part of the foreclosure settlement, settlements which of course were often rubber-stamped by a judge despite mountains of perjurious robosigned evidence.

That means that every single time a bank kicked someone out of his home, a local police department got a cut. Local sheriff's offices also get cuts of almost all credit card judgments, and other bank settlements. If you're wondering how it is that so many regional police departments have the money for fancy new vehicles and SWAT teams and other accoutrements, this is one of your answers.

The Modern Republican Fantasy