... White, right-wing Christian evangelical rage against America is understandable, respectable, and noble. Liberal black Christian anger towards America is scary, subversive, and despicable.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Double standards ...
Greenwald:
A thousand words ...
On the economy:
Update:
Perspective:
Great thanks to PoliticalCat for the pic.
Update:
Perspective:
... It cost JP Morgan less money to purchase Bear Stearns than it would have cost them to purchase Alex Rodriguez’s contract from the New York Yankees.
...
On a related note, aren’t you glad now that Bush didn’t succeed in privatizing Social Security?
...
The Rise of American Incompetence
Slate
A lot of our economic woes are caused by arrogance of the we're-smart-and-you're-not our-shit-don't-stink sort.
For the rest of the economic story, greed and incompetence are the major points of Bush policy.
We used to be the world's most skillful entrepreneurs and managers. Now we're laughingstocks. What happened?
The dollar plunged to new lows against foreign currencies this week. There are plenty of reasons for its plunge, but at the most basic level, the dollar's weakness reflects the world's collective, two-thumbs-down verdict about the ability of the United States—businesses, individuals, the government, the Federal Reserve—to manage the global financial system and the world's largest economy. [...]
But now, thanks to widespread incompetence, American management is on its way to becoming an international laughingstock. Faith in American financial sobriety has been widely undermined by the subprime mess. The very mention of the strong-dollar policy now elicits raucous bouts of knee-slapping in even the most sober Swiss banks. (How do you say schadenfreude in German?) Earlier this month, as oil hovered near $100 a barrel, President Bush complained to OPEC about high oil prices. OPEC President Chakib Khelil responded acidly that crude's remarkable run had nothing to do with the reluctance of Persian Gulf nations to pump oil, and everything to do with the "mismanagement of the U.S. economy." Since Bush's plea, oil has gushed to $110 per barrel. (How do you say schadenfreude in Arabic?)
A lot of our economic woes are caused by arrogance of the we're-smart-and-you're-not our-shit-don't-stink sort.
For the rest of the economic story, greed and incompetence are the major points of Bush policy.
Call the metaphor police!
Krugman
Heh. Now there's a metaphor I can get behind!
I’ve been worried for a while about the fact that, according to financial reporters, the freezing up of the credit markets is causing a financial meltdown. The world is ending in ice and fire, simultaneously. But this is true cause for alarm:
“The self-feeding downturn now in place shows signs of becoming deeply entrenched,” economists at Citigroup wrote Friday.
Uh oh. we’ve got a downturn that can feed itself and, at the same time, dig trenches.
The fascist octopus will sing its swan song any day now.
Heh. Now there's a metaphor I can get behind!
Cheney Sneaks Into Iraq
AFP
The fuckers missed him. They gotta work on their aim.
A series of bomb blasts greeted Cheney's high-security and secrecy-shrouded arrival, underscoring the deadly violence that still grips the nation five years after US bombs began dropping on Baghdad to topple Saddam Hussein.
The fuckers missed him. They gotta work on their aim.
Oh, the irony...
Ironic Times
Housing Slump Spreads ⇒
Extraterrestrials are beginning to feel the pinch.
Brits Mull Pledge of Allegiance
It would read: “I pledge allegiance to the Queen, her besotted husband and all the randy members of her family, one nation, inbred, under fog, with boiled beef and warm ale for all.”
Everybody in New York Steps Down Due to Various Mistakes
They don’t want to be a distraction.
REMINDER
Get there early if there's a run on the banks.
Bush, Kissinger Confer
Compare war crimes.
CORRECTION
Last week we referred to the U.S. government having a surplus in the billions of dollars. We meant the Iraqi government. The U.S. deficit is approximately $265 billion. We apologize for the error.
Happy fucking Monday ...
As I watch the dollar lose more value*, the Fed seems to want to head down that inflationary road:
I'm not one for government bailouts of any industry. Chrysler should have been allowed to go under, so should the airlines after September 11th. If Bear Stearns is circling the bowl, many others are about to follow. Are we gonna bail all of them out too?
I'm tired of all these big companies taking undue risk, reaping big profits when the getting is good, and then leaving the public holding the bag. It's bad enough my taxes are supporting an illegal war in Iraq, I sure as Hell don't want them going to bail out some obscenely rich motherfuckers who are afraid of losing their mansions in the Hamptons or on Long Island's Gold Coast.
The half-assed package they put through to help homeowners losing their houses thanks to 'subprime' mortgages helps very few in reality (the people who really could use it, though I have reservations about a homeowner bailout too), and took an act of Congress to accomplish. Seems they can move fast enough, without the need for legislation, when one of their cronies is in danger of going tits-up.
The only good thing I can see coming out of the economy going to shit now as opposed to this time next year, is that Bush and the Republican Party will be splattered with it (and the rich should still get more tax cuts, says Mr. McCain). They own this mess and they can't hang it on the Dems, though they'll try; just watch.
Listen to me. The Republicans have no idea how to run a country, they just know how to rape it. They talk a good line but whenever they have control, they run the country into a hole it takes years to dig out of. The Dems might not be choirboys, but at least they make the best attempt at running the government for the people, not the corporate giants the Rethugs are so beholden to.
Off to the shop ...
Update:
My neighbor Blondie has more to say (and some good links) on the subject.
Now I'm outta here ...
...
So Mr. Bernanke and his colleagues have been doing the usual thing: printing up green paper and using it to buy bonds. Unfortunately, the policy isn’t having much effect on the things that matter. Interest rates on government bonds are down — but financial chaos has made banks unwilling to take risks, and it’s getting harder, not easier, for businesses to borrow money.
...
Officially, the Fed won’t be buying mortgage-backed securities outright: it’s only accepting them as collateral in return for loans. But it’s definitely taking on some mortgage risk. Is this, to some extent, a bailout for banks? Yes.
Still, that’s not what has me worried. I’m more concerned that despite the extraordinary scale of Mr. Bernanke’s action — to my knowledge, no advanced-country’s central bank has ever exposed itself to this much market risk — the Fed still won’t manage to get a grip on the economy. You see, $400 billion sounds like a lot, but it’s still small compared with the problem.
...
I used to think that the major issues facing the next president would be how to get out of Iraq and what to do about health care. At this point, however, I suspect that the biggest problem for the next administration will be figuring out which parts of the financial system to bail out, how to pay the cleanup bills and how to explain what it’s doing to an angry public.
I'm not one for government bailouts of any industry. Chrysler should have been allowed to go under, so should the airlines after September 11th. If Bear Stearns is circling the bowl, many others are about to follow. Are we gonna bail all of them out too?
I'm tired of all these big companies taking undue risk, reaping big profits when the getting is good, and then leaving the public holding the bag. It's bad enough my taxes are supporting an illegal war in Iraq, I sure as Hell don't want them going to bail out some obscenely rich motherfuckers who are afraid of losing their mansions in the Hamptons or on Long Island's Gold Coast.
The half-assed package they put through to help homeowners losing their houses thanks to 'subprime' mortgages helps very few in reality (the people who really could use it, though I have reservations about a homeowner bailout too), and took an act of Congress to accomplish. Seems they can move fast enough, without the need for legislation, when one of their cronies is in danger of going tits-up.
The only good thing I can see coming out of the economy going to shit now as opposed to this time next year, is that Bush and the Republican Party will be splattered with it (and the rich should still get more tax cuts, says Mr. McCain). They own this mess and they can't hang it on the Dems, though they'll try; just watch.
Listen to me. The Republicans have no idea how to run a country, they just know how to rape it. They talk a good line but whenever they have control, they run the country into a hole it takes years to dig out of. The Dems might not be choirboys, but at least they make the best attempt at running the government for the people, not the corporate giants the Rethugs are so beholden to.
Off to the shop ...
Update:
My neighbor Blondie has more to say (and some good links) on the subject.
Now I'm outta here ...
*Talk about an investment. I have about a thousand Euro left over from our Germany trip a couple months back. I was gonna turn them back into dollars but decided to hold onto them for our Amsterdam trip this September. Over the last quarter, they've returned more than any of my other investments and all they're doing is sitting in an envelope in a drawer. Heh ...
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Sunday Crazy Redneck TexMex Music & Comestibles Blogging
I love country music. I don't much care which country, neither. I hereby present the legendary Texas Tornados to a montage of another of my favorite subjects. Caution: Munchie Alert!
Go Ahead And Die!
Yesterday, while me 'n Mrs. G were out on our weekly shoppingpalooza, I heard a good song by the Austin Lounge Lizards. When I got home I YouTubed 'em up. I didn't find the song I was looking for, but I found this one. Enjoy.
GOP Meltdown
Here's a 'good news' piece in the WaPo:
Good. Now cut it into little pieces and bury it deep in widely spaced undisclosed locations.
"It's no mystery," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.). "You have a very unhappy electorate, which is no surprise, with oil at $108 a barrel, stocks down a few thousand points, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a president who is still very, very unpopular. He's just killed the Republican brand."
Good. Now cut it into little pieces and bury it deep in widely spaced undisclosed locations.
Guess who's paying ...
For McCain's campaign stop 'fact-finding' tour of Baghdad?
Congrats America, the ménage à lame is traveling on your dime.
...
Quote of the Week
"Ferraro decided the hole she was in wasn't deep enough and so she put in a basement."
Ruben Navarrette in his article "Politics of gender, race and Ferraro have no place in Democratic contest"
Nice ...
We're one step closer to Third World status:
...
Besides the relative strength of the yen and the continuing strength of the euro, another world currency has made a remarkable climb against the greenback over the past few weeks. As of Friday, a Swiss franc now trades for slightly more than a dollar. It had been holding steady in the 89 to 93 cent range for many months, but the recent bad news for the American economy made the franc soar. Unlike the yen being equal to a penny, this is new territory for the Swiss currency, which has never been at equity with the dollar before. Back in the 1940s through 1960s, the Swiss franc traded at between 20 to 25 cents. [my em]
...
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Loose Shoes
Here's a philosophical number about the important things in life! Two can play at this big band shit...
Reasons ...
When you see your family killed, some people withdraw, others vow revenge:
I might not use the same methods, but if you kill a member of my family, I would take my revenge as well:
As we sit back in our relatively comfortable world, do we even consider the consequences of our actions? Does anyone here understand what it takes to drive someone to willingly strap explosives to their body to exact their pound of flesh? 20 years from now, people here will wonder what we ever did to make these people hate us so, just like most Americans do today; sitting around, scratching their heads saying "these people hate us for our freedoms".
Horseshit. They hate us because we treated them like nameless, faceless people in the past, ever since we realized they have more of the precious liquid we so desperately need than anyone else. We still do, as we kill them indiscriminately in the name of "freedom and democracy". We have destroyed any chance of "winning these people's hearts and minds" and it's time to leave before we do even more damage. The blowback from Iraq will haunt us for the next 50 years.
Um Saad, a middle-aged woman living in the Sunni district of Khadra in west Baghdad, blames the Americans for the death of her husband and two of her sons and threatens revenge.
"They are monsters and devils wearing human clothes," she exclaims vehemently. "One day I will put on an explosive belt under my clothes and then blow myself up among the Americans. I will get revenge against them for my husband and sons and I will go to paradise."
...
I might not use the same methods, but if you kill a member of my family, I would take my revenge as well:
...
Her eldest son, Saad, wanted to enter the military academy just like his father. Um Saad said she did not want to lose him and instead he went to the police academy and had graduated as a police lieutenant when Saddam Hussein was overthrown in April 2003. She wanted him to resign. "After the fall of Iraq the police were the second target [of Sunni guerrillas] after the Americans."
Saad equivocated over resigning since he held the Americans responsible for killing his father, but the family needed his salary. He finally decided to leave the police, but before he could do so, on 25 October 2003, his police station at Khadra was hit by a large car bomb. He was uninjured by the blast but, as he ran with his pistol drawn to help a friend, American soldiers at the scene thought he was attacking them. "They shot him dead with six bullets in the head and many more in the body," says his mother.
...
As we sit back in our relatively comfortable world, do we even consider the consequences of our actions? Does anyone here understand what it takes to drive someone to willingly strap explosives to their body to exact their pound of flesh? 20 years from now, people here will wonder what we ever did to make these people hate us so, just like most Americans do today; sitting around, scratching their heads saying "these people hate us for our freedoms".
Horseshit. They hate us because we treated them like nameless, faceless people in the past, ever since we realized they have more of the precious liquid we so desperately need than anyone else. We still do, as we kill them indiscriminately in the name of "freedom and democracy". We have destroyed any chance of "winning these people's hearts and minds" and it's time to leave before we do even more damage. The blowback from Iraq will haunt us for the next 50 years.
Blast from the past ...
I got an appreciation of Big Band music aboard a Holland America cruise a few years back, courtesy of our friend Loretta and the Nick Ross Orchestra. 16 days aboard Noordam on a Big Band-themed cruise with a bunch of 'Greatest Generation' folks and the bug bit me.
Speaking of cruising, we'll be leaving a week from Monday on vacation. Light blogging this weekend because I got a buncha shit to do to prepare.
The Glenn Miller Orchestra - American Patrol
Speaking of cruising, we'll be leaving a week from Monday on vacation. Light blogging this weekend because I got a buncha shit to do to prepare.
Saturday whorage
The next chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press.
Let us know what's going on at your place. Leave your links in comments.
Let us know what's going on at your place. Leave your links in comments.
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