And he was not a happy camper.
Jon Stewart was brutal, but Taibbi was outraged.
I’d like to see a way to combine the two.
Category: Wanker
Gee, We’re Caught Lying About Syria
It turns out that the allegation that Russians were selling attack helos to Syria made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were false.
Syria has owned the copters in question for years:
When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Russia on Tuesday of shipping attack helicopters to Syria that would “escalate the conflict quite dramatically,” it was the Obama administration’s sharpest criticism yet of Russia’s support for the Syrian government.
What Mrs. Clinton did not say, however, was whether the aircraft were new shipments or, as administration officials say is more likely, helicopters that Syria had sent to Russia a few months ago for routine repairs and refurbishing, and which were now about to be returned.
“She put a little spin on it to put the Russians in a difficult position,” said one senior Defense Department official.
This is called lying like a rug.
We are going to bomb Syria. This is exactly the same sort of crap what we saw with build up Iraq, Libya, etc.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
Shorter Sally Quinn
Sally Quinn’s writes an article complaining about how she can no longer throw, or go to, dinner parties with the movers and shakers in Washington, DC.
Fortunately, Jonathan Chait read the article so you don’t have to, and reaponds with “Sally Quinn Forced to Dine With Non-Fake Friends.”
While the title is good, the last ‘graph is even better:
Once Washington was a happy place where a girl and her mother could be groped simultaneously in good fun by a white supremacist. Sadly, it has all been ruined by Kim Kardashian and Ezra Klein.
This is a classic example of the snark genre.
Go read.
The USA Is Going to Invade Norway
The Chairman of the JCS has said that if the automatic budget cuts kick in for the pentagon, we will see more war:
The nation’s top military officer warned Wednesday that automatic defense cuts agreed to in last year’s bipartisan debt limit deal could lead to more war.
At a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Pentagon has gone along with recent targeted cuts to limited targeted cuts, but argued that the the sweeping across-the-board cuts in the so-called sequestration would weaken the country’s ability to deter adversaries and therefore lead to more war.
“Sequestration is absolutely certain to upend this balance. It would lead to further end-strength reductions, the potential cancellation of major weapons systems and the disruption of global operations,” Dempsey said. “We can’t yet say precisely how bad the damage would be, but it is clear that sequestration would risk hollowing out our force and reducing its military options available to the nation. We would go from being unquestionably powerful everywhere to being less visible globally and presenting less of an overmatch to our adversaries, and that would translate into a different deterrent calculus, and potentially, therefore, increase the likelihood of conflict.”
Who the hell are we going to war with?
We have troops and/or mercenaries in:
- Afghanistan.
- Iraq.
- Iran (if it’s Thursday, but it’s a secret)
- Bosnia
- Kosovo
- Germany
- The UK
- Poland
- Korea
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Pakistan
- Belgium
- Italy
- Panama
- Kuwait
- Saudi Arabia
- Bahrain
- San Diego
- etc.
Seriously, there isn’t anyone left for us to invade who has any oil but the Norwegians.
What a Whiny Bitch, Part MMMMMMMDCCXXXIV
John McCain says that the real problem with Barack Obama is that he snubbed him after the election:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said this week that President Obama never made a sincere effort to reach out to him after the 2008 election.
McCain was once seen as a potential ally of Obama. But far from becoming a partner — as the left hoped for and the right feared — McCain has turned into one of Obama’s thorniest adversaries.
“Let’s get real here,” McCain told The Hill. “There was never any outreach from President Obama or anyone in his administration to me.”
McCain disputes the notion that he has rejected entreaties to cooperate with the White House because he is bitter from his defeat four years ago.
Of course he does, but he did exactly the same thing when George W. bush kicked his ass in the 2000 Republican primaries.
This is a guy whose parents had to put him in a tub of ice cold water when he was a kid to stop his tantrums.
Juvenile tantrums and petulance are an integral part of who he is.
He Would Have Liked to Help, But He Had to Wash His Hair
That’s the reason that Obama gave for doing absolutely nothing with regard with the Scot Walker recall:
President Obama suggested Monday that he was too busy to campaign in Wisconsin ahead of the recall election that targeted Republican Gov. Scott Walker, whose victory last week has raised questions about whether there are broader implications for the president in the fall.
In his first public comments about the election, Obama responded to a question about his decision not to appear in the state to support the Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, by explaining that he has “a lot of responsibilities” as president.
Obama had limited himself to sending a message on his Twitter account expressing support for Barrett on June 4, a day before voters went to the polls.
“I was supportive of Tom and have been supportive of Tom. Obviously, I would have loved to see a different result,” the president said in an interview with WBAY, an ABC TV affiliate in Green Bay, Wis.
Some political analysts concluded that Obama was hesitant to spend time in Wisconsin because he wanted to avoid being tainted by an embarrassing defeat if Barrett lost.
Seriously, does anyone in the Obama administration besides Hillary have any balls at all?
Mikel Kinzly disseze Ezruh Kleyn Haz It
Michael Kinsley has made a career of intellectually bankrupt and mindless contrarianism.
Basically, you come up with an indefensible and silly argument, and through rhetorical tricks, you make it sound reasonable. Stupid people read it, and think that you are wise.
Well, Ezra Klein at the Washington Post has signed on to this bit of professional hypocrisy. (No link, he is clearly click whoring, and I won’t reward it) He is now arguing that the Mitt Romney winning the election might be better for the economy because Republicans won’t try to block everything:
Even if you disagree with every one of Mitt Romney’s policies, there’s a chance he’s still the best candidate to lift the economy in 2013.
That’s not because he has business experience. For all his bluster about the lessons taught by the private sector, his agenda is indistinguishable from that of career politician Paul Ryan. Nor is it because he’s demonstrated some special knowledge of what it takes to create jobs. Job growth in Massachusetts was notably slow under Romney’s tenure. It’s because if Romney is elected, Republicans won’t choose to crash the economy in 2013.
This ignores the recent history, which is that Republicans crashed the economy through their attempts to implement their ideology from 2001-2007.
Note that the above argument ignores the fact that he is essentially advocating giving into terrorists.
This is pathetic.
H/t Unfogged.
Why Democrats Lose Elections
Because our so-called leaders are cowardly incompetents:
The chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee said Friday that if Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett (D) doesn’t prevail over Gov. Scott Walker (R) in next month’s Wisconsin recall election, there won’t be any ramifications for Democrats nationally.
“I think, honestly, there aren’t going to be any repercussions,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said in a broad-ranging interview on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.”
“It’s an election that’s based in Wisconsin. It’s an election that I think is important nationally because Scott Walker is an example of how extreme the tea party has been when it comes to the policies that they have pushed the Republicans to adopt,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But I think it’ll be, at the end of the day, a Wisconsin-based election, and like I said, across the rest of the country and including in Wisconsin, President Obama is ahead.”
Timidity to the point of paralysis.
You have a major election, near on a make or break issue, for organized labor, and the DNC is afraid to expend any resources, because it’s not a slam dunk.
It is no wonder that George “If you not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time” McClellan was a Democratic presidential nominee.
Yes, the folks that they are disappointing won’t vote for Mitt, but I think that they won’t canvass or stuff envelopes for you either.
Eschaton: An Enormous Mustache
I really cannot add anything to it:
H/t Atrios.
The National Review: America’s Source for Crappy Journalism
They had a scoop that Elizabeth Warren, founder of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Senate Candidate had plagiarized another book.
The problem was that they missed the fact that Warren’s book was published first:
The National Review says Elizabeth Warren is guilty of the gravest crime a writer can commit: Plagiarism. Katrina Trinko compares passages from “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Money Lifetime Plan,” Warren’s book with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, with passages from “Getting on the Money Track,” a book by Rob Black. The passages line up perfectly. The wording and even the punctuation are identical. It’s plagiarism all right. Except it looks very much like Warren is actually the victim.
The National Review headline says “Plagiarism in Elizabeth Warren’s 2006 book.” The body refers to Warren publishing the book “in 2006″ and Black’s book coming out in 2005. That’s true! Except that in 2006 the paperback of Warren’s book was published. The hardcover came out in March of 2005. Black’s book seems to have come out, if Amazon is correct, October 14 2005. (Or, according to Barnes and Noble, July 2005?) Months after Warren’s book. Unless there was an earlier published hardcover version that I can’t find on Amazon, it seems like Black most likely plagiarized Warren.
The National review has since retracted the story.
They Own Us
Too hot for TED
When someone gives a TED talk suggesting that lower taxes on the very wealthy actually makes out economy worse off, because the middle class is the real engine of job growth.
The response of TED was to refuse to release the video of the talk:
TED, the nonprofit organization that organizes and promotes wonky web videos on varying issues known as “TED talks,” has reportedly decided not to publish a video on income inequality in which venture capitalist Nick Hanauer declares, “Rich businesspeople like me don’t create jobs.” TED organizers deemed the talk too “politically controversial,” and in an email obtained by the National Journal, TED curator Chris Anderson told Hanauer that “we couldn’t release it, because it would be unquestionably regarded as out and out political. We’re in the middle of an election year in the US. Your argument comes down firmly on the side of one party.
It’s the super-rich’s world, they just allow us to rent a space in their attic.
BTW, the “Curator” of TED posted his his response online. The phrase, “Whiner” comes to mind. (Be sure to read the comments, they realy cut him a new one)
Basically, this was cut because the thesis makes the moneybags who back TED feel bad. The “Masters of the Universe” really think that they are different and special.
Thus they cannot abide being described as an effect rather than a cause.
Something We Can All Agree on Regarding Israel
That Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA) should have nothing to do with any initiative involving Israel, nor, for that matter, should he be allowed to cut his own meat:
It seems that Congressman Joe Pitts (R-PA) is a tad out of the loop on matters of Middle East peace. If it were up to him, Israelis and Palestinians would restart peace talks under the guidance of their respective leaders, Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat.
His advice does not seem to take into account the fact that Arafat died in 2004 and Sharon has been in a coma since 2006.
“With the global war against terrorism, it is now incumbent on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Yasir Arafat to clamp down on Palestinian extremists that have perpetuated violence and to restart a peace process that has collapsed,” wrote Pitts in a recent, rather outdated response letter to a constituent.
Perhaps Pitts should try to address some other burning issues from the 1990s, like making Newt Gingrich shut the f%$# up.
Hmmmm …… Things haven’t changed as much over the past 15 years as I’ve thought.
Why Not to Give to the Democratic Establishment
The biggest political contest in the United States in the next month is the Scott Walker recall, and the Democratic National Committee is refusing to supply resources for the all critical GOTV effort:
Top Wisconsin Democrats are furious with the national party — and the Democratic National Committee in particular — for refusing their request for a major investment in the battle to recall Scott Walker, I’m told
The failure to put up the money Wisconsin Dems need to execute their recall plan comes at a time when the national Republican Party is sinking big money into defending Walker, raising fears that the DNC’s reluctance could help tip the race his way.
………
According to the Wisconsin Dem, the party has asked the DNC for $500,000 to help with its massive field operation. While the DNC has made generally supportive noises, the money has not been forthcoming, the official says — with less than a month until the June 5th recall election. The DNC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
………
“Scott Walker has made this a national election,” the Wisconsin Dem tells me. “If he wins, he will turn his victory into a national referendum on his ideas about the middle class. It will hurt Democrats nationally. The fact that [national Dems] are sitting on their hands now is so frustrating. The whole ticket stands to lose
******************************************
UPDATE: Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Mike Tate goes on record about the dispute in a statement:
“Having received absolute support from the Democratic Governors Association, we also are in conversation with the Democratic National Committee to help in this battle against Scott Walker, a right-wing diva who has the full backing of the national corporate Tea Party movement.”
UPDATE II: Wisconsin Dems say the problem isn’t with the Democratic Governors Association, which has already committed more to the recall fight than they’ve ever committed to a Wisconsin gubernatorial election in recent history. Still no comment from the DNC.
I’m thinking that the DNC is having a hissy fit because labor is not interested in funding their national convention in a right-to-work state, but stupidity and evil are nearly as valid explanations.
JP Morgan Chase Goes Wile E. Coyote
So, JP Morgan Chase just lost at least $2 billion in ill conceived derivatives trades:
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said the firm suffered a $2 billion trading loss after an “egregious” failure in a unit managing risks, jeopardizing Wall Street banks’ efforts to loosen a federal ban on bets with their own money.
The firm’s chief investment office, run by Ina Drew, 55, took flawed positions on synthetic credit securities that remain volatile and may cost an additional $1 billion this quarter or next, Dimon told analysts yesterday. Losses mounted as JPMorgan tried to mitigate transactions designed to hedge credit exposure.
“There were many errors, sloppiness and bad judgment,” Dimon said as the company’s stock fell in extended trading. “These were egregious mistakes, they were self-inflicted.”
The chief investment office was thrust into the debate over U.S. efforts to ban proprietary trading when Bloomberg News reported last month that the unit had taken bets so big that JPMorgan, the largest and most profitable U.S. bank, probably couldn’t unwind them without losing money or roiling financial markets. Dimon, 56, had transformed the unit in recent years to make bigger and riskier speculative trades with the bank’s money, five former employees said.
Just so you know, the “Synthetic credit securities” mentioned means that this is basically pure gambling. There is no ownership or insurance interest in the underlying investment.
It’s not surprising that the SEC has decided to look at this.
As a result of this blowup, Fitch’s and S&P have downgraded the bank.
Henry Blodgett accurately obaserves that, “It’s Just Kids Playing With Dynamite“.
Rather unsurprisingly, advocates of more regulation of the financial industry, are calling for an aggressive implimentation of the Volker rule.
Of course, Jamie Dimon does not think that this shows a need for more regulations, because, “Just because we’re stupid doesn’t mean everybody else was.”
No, actually, you’re all stupid f%$3s, and you blew up our economy 4 years ago, and the taxpayer dumped more money into you keeping you afloat than we spent on the WW II.
Why no senior banksters have been indicted is beyond me.
I’m Not the Only One Who Thinks Google’s Upgrades Suck
John Aravosis of Americablog has seen the new blogger update, and it has him planning to move the whole blog to WordPress:
Welcome to my own personal hell. Welcome to the new Blogger content management system, created by Google, that is incompatible with iPhones or iPads, and whose iphone app is a complete and utter disaster.
They’ve gotten similar responses about their changes to Gmail (here’s a hint, go with the high contrast theme to make it bearable)
I’m beginning to wonder if they are intentionally screwing the pooch.
Nice Golden Egg, Bird. See the Farmer With the Axe?
In a development that should surprise no-one following Comcast’s purchase by NBC, Hulu will start requiring a cable account for access:
Viewers who stream network TV shows may soon discover the free ride is not so free.
Hulu, which attracted 31 million unique users in March under a free-for-all model, is taking its first steps to change to a model where viewers will have to prove they are a pay-TV customer to watch their favorite shows, sources tell The Post.
In fact, the move by Hulu toward the new model — called authentication because viewers would have to log in with their cable or satellite TV account number — was behind the move last week by Providence Equity Partners to cash out of Hulu after five years, these sources said.
And it’s not just Hulu making it tougher for cable-cutters to stream shows and other content.
Fox, owned by News Corp., which also owns The Post, is expected to begin talks soon with Comcast on a TV Everywhere deal that will require authentication. Plus, Philadelphia-based Comcast is expected to switch to an authentication model for this summer’s Olympic Games (see story at right).
The move toward authentication is fueled by cable companies and networks looking to protect and profit from their content.
Their content?
With all due respect to the fine gentlemen at Comcast, about the only work of convincing fiction that they produce are their own advertisements.
It also appears to be a violation of their agreement that the FCC required for the NBC/Comcast merger:
“The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was asked to include as a condition of Comcast’s takeover of NBCU that subscription to a pay-TV service not be required for access to Hulu,” said Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn. “It is a shame the Commission declined to do so.”
Free Press saw it differently. “This sudden move to big cable’s preferred business model raises serious questions about whether Comcast is violating the conditions of its merger with NBCUniversal,” said the group, “a deal that gave the company a large ownership stake in Hulu.” As a condition for approval of the merger, the cable giant agreed to relinquish any right “to influence, control or participate in the governance or management of Hulu.”
“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood, “or at least a compelling reason to investigate. Under the terms of its acquisition of NBCUniversal, Comcast is forbidden from influencing Hulu’s operations. Today’s announcement looks an awful lot like an example of such influence.”
what is going on here is that they are killing the business in order to maintain control.
In the short run, it may make sense, since this allows them to maintain their monopoly rents on their subscribers, for a while at least.
One of thei early investors, however, bailed out on Hulu:
Hulu.com owners Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Comcast Corp. and News Corp. (NWSA) are close to buying out Providence Equity Partners Inc.’s stake at a price valuing the company at about $2 billion, said two people with knowledge of the matter.
Providence is selling its 10 percent share in Los Angeles- based Hulu for about $200 million after investing $100 million when the venture began in 2007, according to the people, who weren’t authorized to talk publicly.
“This would be the optimal outcome,” David Bank, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York, said in an interview. “The real value of Hulu will be discovered on a longer time frame than what’s likely optimal for Providence.”
It ain’t the time frame, it’s that their interest is in the success of Hulu, and not of the cable companies, and they realized that the management is the cable companies’ moles.
Truth be told, except for the wonderful Alec Baldwin brain sucker ads, this does not really effect me, but it’s seriously galling.
Nino is F%$#ing Nuts
I mean, of course, Antonin Scalia, who just compared Arizona’s “Papers Please” law to the FBI investigating bank robberies:
The debate surrounding Arizona’s immigration law is a heated one — and on Wednesday, Justice Antonin Scalia added to the strong sentiments swirling in the case. Questioning U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Scalia asked what’s wrong with states enforcing federal law, adding, “There is a federal law against robbing federal banks. Can it be made a state crime to rob those banks?”
Charlie pierce has concluded that fat Tony is phoning it in, (See also here.) and that he has realized that he’ll never be chief justice, and he’s bored with the court, and he’s just f%$#ing with use.
I’m inclined to agree.
Because they are Whiny Babies
Brad Delong wonders why Wall Street dislikes Barack Obama so much:
A worker bee at a mainline investment bank told me last fall:
Back in 2008 Wall Street was split 40-60 Obama-McCain. Now it is split 10-90 Obama-Romney.
Why? It is not as though Wall Street has done badly under Obama. Stock prices are up and interest rates are down, so leveraged financial institutions long assets–as Wall Street inevitably is–have done very, very well indeed. The standard bargain that the Democrats offer Wall Street has held. It is:
We will try to tax you (and, given the power of your lobbying operation in Congress, probably fail to do so), but we will give you competent economic management in striking contrast to that offered by the ideologically-blinded wingnuts who are the Republicans.
That has been the bargain that the Democrats have offered Wall Street from the days of Hoover to Bush II, and when Wall Street has had a sense of its own long-run interests, it has taken the Democrats up on it. And it has been happy.
But not this time.Why not? What is going on? What is there about 50% real increases in equity values over less than 3 1/2 years that is not to like?
For the past 30+ years, these guys have been surrounded by people who treat them like they were Pashas, both in their social circles on Wall Street as well both sides of the partisan divide in Washington, DC, so when Barack Obama calls them “Wall Street Fat Cats”, their heads explode.
This is despite the fact he, and his sidekick Timmy Geithner, bail them out, and quash prosecutions.
One wonders just how insecure these guys are about their value to society.
Hmm…come to think of it, this answer was a bit more involved than I intended.
Here’s a hint: You are all worthless parasites.
The Manchin-Lieberman Axis In The Senate
So called Democrat Joe Manchin is refusing to endorse Barack Obama for president, and rather unsurprisingly, so is Joe Lieberman.
Actually, it is a bit of a surprise. I would have expected Lieberman to endorse the Republican again.
But the West Virginia Senate election is a big priority of the DSCC, which is why I won’t give to the DSCC.
Whatever money I have to contribute goes to real Democrats.
The Silly Season is Upon Us
The Cookie Monster? Seriously?
The general election campaign is on, and really, really stupid
The Democratic Party of Pennsylvania has decided to make an issue of Mitt’s characterizing cookies from a beloved Pittsburgh bakery as 7-11 cookies.
Seriously?
Seriously?
Mitt is a guy who has signed onto of the right wing’s war on women, and you break out the f%$#ing cookie monster?
Gawd, their heads are so far up their asses that they resemble a Klein Bottle.