CodePink ruins Larry Summers' day at The Economic Club (via LOLFed).

Why does CodePink hate Obama's administration?   Read more…

He's so cool, he doesn't even watch the news:

"“When you hear he likes ‘Entourage,’ you have to go, ‘That figures,’” said Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University. “Anything Obama does is cool by definition. He’s the Internet president, he’s the BlackBerry president, and now, I suppose, he could be called the HBO president.” Obama likes “Entourage” so much he even rearranged his campaign schedule not to miss an episode."

Via BTD at Talkleft.

Personally, I think Blackberries suck, But I have no strong feelings about Obama's tv habits*.

Hint: it has nothing to do with extraordinary rendition and you can find out here:

"That is because the captive insurance scam was systemic. “This was not an isolated case … AIG did that a lot,” a former insurance regulator said, speaking under condition of anonymity. “AIG helped companies set up offshore captive reinsurance companies. AIG would then overcharge on insurance and pay reinsurance premiums to the captives, giving the captive owners tax-free offshore income.”"

Awesome catch at LOLFed:

"The latest in the mainstreaming of financial fail: Topps is including a “World’s Biggest Hoaxes, Hoodwinks and Bamboozles” series in its 2009 Allen & Ginter’s cards: (link)

Continued.

"Word has it Madoff has been demoted to a common, and will be tucked into

So over at Talkleft, Big Tent Democrat finds issue with an insinuation at (where else) Kos that Chris Dodd carried AIG's water on the bonus issue due to his being the largest* recipient of their campaign contributions. It was true he was carrying water, but it was Obama and Geithner's.

"Lessig promulgates a false implication - that Senator Chris Dodd acted as he did because of AIG contributions. It is clear now that in fact Dodd acted as he did at the behest of the Obama administration. In fact, in last week's issue of The Economist (p. 29) (before the AIG bonus scandal broke), the following was written:

Macro Man has a great suggestion of how this should be (or have been) handled.

"So to put things right, he has a compromise, market-based solution. Don't seize the bonuses via a one-off excise tax. Instead, pay them in the amounts contractually-mandated, and use normal tax treatment. But pay them in stock, and allocate shares on the basis of the average AIG share price in 2008: $27.57.

Huffington Post clearly drinks the Blue Dog and Republican koolaid that there is a Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid "Crisis", and that Obama's "Fiscal Summit" is there to "fix" it. No evidence is cited (none being available), but to quote: "The entitlement programs face eventual bankruptcy, although experts differ on how urgently each is threatened.". Heh. Indeed.

Daily Howler has a typically devastating slapdown on this exact kind of moronic, lazy, D+ reporting (his example: Ceci Connally) that teabags bi-partisan (ergo Republican) talking points on the so-called SS crisis.

As discussed below, and especially considering Lambert's comment here regarding "hooked noses".

How about this recent one from Switzerland?

From Macro-Man (Feb. 4th):
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Regarding this:

Jon Keller is right:

"I don't think it's even a close call - this vile New York Post cartoon is racist and deplorable, as is the fact that the Post's alleged editors thought it was OK to print and are defending that decision instead of abjectly apologizing."

Just remove the "I don't think" qualifier; IOW of course it was racist. It isn't by any stretch a close call.   Read more…

What's your hurry? Can't you wait another year?

H/T Talkleft. Another group of naifs, insufficiently sophisticated to understand why Gitmo will take a year to close.

Or maybe they are also part of:

"the thankfully dwindling tribe of Rabid Hillarians, (who) see Obama as BAD BAD BAD and seek to punish him for everything he does regardless of value or correctness. (Whose) aim is the same as that of Rush Limbaugh, to undermine Obama and destroy him."

From this local account, entitled Middle Class meets the Pawnbroker come some gems like this:

""We are seeing higher-end stuff, nationwide, across the board," said Dave Adelman, president of the National Pawnbrokers Association.
Burnsville-based Pawn America [it has a certain ring to it, doncha think?] has handled an original Picasso painting, a 1950s Fender Stratocaster guitar worth $40,000, and a 26-foot pleasure boat. "We see ourselves as recyclers," said Brad Rixmann, owner of the 20-store chain.
"

Seventeen that can be released immediately.

Please read the letter attachment. Apparently, there are 17 "guests" there which all parties (even the Bush admin) agree should be released.

Arthur Silber's cats need food. Won't you please help?

You don't have to do it because he is one of the most unique, indispensible and human voices on the interwebs and needs help in the form of donations to stay alive for at least a few more months. Nope, you don't have to do it for that reason, because that is a little too heavy and who wants to be a downer?

Just do it for the kitties.

The folks at Propublica made this nifty Obama Promise Clock.

"While some candidates on the presidential campaign trail treat paint (sic) promises in glittering generalities, President Obama was often quite specific about what policies he’d implement as president, with exhaustive lists of promised policy plans [1] on his much-ballyhooed website.

As part of our ongoing “Promises Clock” feature, we’ve chosen five of these promises to keep an eye on.

In its entirety:

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:

For those (few) not taking part in the current mad, frenzied humping leading up to the explosive Obamagasm (could someone please get this dog off my leg?), that will historically change history for all of history, take heart that Arthur Silber feels your pain.

Is there an Obama Coronation Festivus?
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This snapshot will focus on wind, which I am most familiar with and where most of the action is currently happening anyway.

From the Jan. 15 edition of Electric Power Monthly, a publication of the Department of Energy, came the preceding pie chart showing combined "alternative" energy sources at 3.2% of total power generation as of Oct. 2008 (latest available data).   Read more…

No AP content was harmed in the making of this story.

With 5 days to go, there is still plenty of time for yet another Bush fuck up and opportunity to disgrace us all.

Case in point:

"Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a telephone call he made to U.S. President George W. Bush last week forced Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to abstain in a U.N. vote on the Gaza war, leaving her "shamed."

Pouring on political bravado in a speech late Monday, Olmert said he demanded to talk to Bush with only 10 minutes to spare before a U.N. Security Council vote Thursday on a resolution opposed by Israel calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Due to my long expressed goal of being the one vote that puts Al Franken up over one of the slimiest Senators in Minnesota history, I'm following this story as closely as a Twins pennant race.

The upshot is that no answer will come before the new Congress is sworn in, and it doesn't look like an interim senator will be appointed immediately. That means the senate will start with 99 voting members.

"The state Canvassing Board on Tuesday scheduled a Jan. 5 meeting and its chairman said the panel's work could spill into Jan. 6 — the day the next Congress convenes.

This is excellent news! Although I was hoping for a close Franken victory for purely personal reasons, I would be even more satisfied with a wider margin....

Coverage of this marathon recount (which if performed this way in Florida in 2000 would likely have given us Gore, rather than Bush and we never would have fallen asleep for this long national nightmare, but I digress) is handled comprehensively here.

Why am I flogging this dead horse?   Read more…

Says Meyers: Take Favreau to the woodshed. Myers, 31 years old when she was put in a high-powered White House position, admits she had to "grow up" to live up to the responsibility. Then again, as a female she was probably the equivalent of 54 62 in "Favreau Years" (where two male years only equal one female year). Here she is definitely risking her passport privileges to Versailles:

Some (small) time ago I posted on the confusing logic of the government arranged shotgun marriage between Wachovia and Citigroup, which was going to be both government sponsored, AND at a price multiples lower than a subsequent cash offer put in by Wells Fargo.

Lambert's Great Meltdown book spurred me to follow-up, which lead me to this post at Bronte Capital providing detail I didn't know (no links though, grrr), and posted several weeks ago (presciently):

"The best hypothesis I came to is that Citigroup is going down and that Sheila Bair is trying to save it.

Anybody who grew up in greater Chicagoland and is around 47 years old *cough* like myself watched Ray Rayner and Garfield Goose on WGN.   Read more…

On Nov. 4 I had a dream that my vote would be the one vote that put Al Franken over the top, beating the odious Norm Coleman.

My dream is closer to reality than I could have hoped for:

"The Franken campaign reached yet another conclusion -- Franken ahead by four votes -- by including a projection on 6,655 ballots challenged by both campaigns."

It makes my shrivelled little black heart swell, just the tinniest of bits.