Thought for Today

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What's the difference between Goldman-Sachs and Bernie Madoff?
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Besides Bernie already being behind bars, I mean.
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Flyin' Blind to Integrity

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Learning of the JPMorgan Chase purchase-in-the-works of luxury corporate jets and a hangar, the mind boggles.

Comes a point when you have to ask, are these CEOs insane? Do they not see what's going on around them? Or are they so selfish, so greedy, so avaricious, so gluttonous that they do not recognize that those of us out here in the real world think of them as pure scum. Thieves. Vampires. And we would not spit on them if they were dying of thirst in the desert.

These are not masters of the universe. These are the most morally bankrupt pack of... words fail me.

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Solidarity with Suze

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In the just-because-you-have-the-patina-of-respectability dept:

Doesn't mean yer not a bunch o'bums and grifters.

Suze Orman bluntly tells George W. Bushie it's his fault, give the money back...all of his fortune, all of his family's fortune.

Given Grandpappy Prescott, Pappy Bush and Neil's little S&L debacle, and the last 8 years of Bushie, what's not to agree with.

You go, Suze.

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Irish Wish for AIG

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St. Paddy's Day wish for AIG and the rest of the vandals and berserkers and barbarians still holding sway from the era o'Bushie...a curse still in play.
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To the vandals of AIG and their minions near and far,
May the spirit of the Irish come crap upon your car.

You destroyed the American economy and now you whine
Oooh, oooh, them bonuses must be mine.

Yet while your eyes widen and your conniving brains spin
We've people living in tents and praying for regular meals ag'in.

'Tis a good time to be Irish or living with one, too.
'cause then I can take this moment to send this wish to you...

All of you, you know who you are.
Your craven greed and recklessness and avarice runs beyond the bar

of human decency and there should be just reward.
Not bonuses and big bucks lives, but a coat of feathers, richly tarred.

Yes, on this day of St. Paddy's here is my wish for the likes of you.
An indictment from Fitzgerald and the sting of his shillelagh, too.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Four-Letter Words Downsized

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Well, you knew it had to happen. The GOP has finally downsized the four-letter word.

I started thinking about this today, driving around in the pre-blizzard on black ice, tuning in local [Fargo] talk radio for the latest road reports. A caller diverted from the topic of the local Blues giving their execs beaucoup big salary increases to repeat a FOX LIE that Veep Biden and the AFL-CIO kept the press out of a speech he gave them.

Never mind that FOX itself already debunked its own LIE. But then you can't really call it debunking if they keep on repeating it, now can you?

FOX has taken on a new meta-strategy. RAP. Oh, not the Michael Steele kinda rap. Well not exactly.

The FOX RAP is Roger's Anti-American Propaganda. 'cause make no mistake, Roger and Rush and the rest of the rogues have all decided to declare a war of words on President Obama and his policy changes and initiatives to restore some semblance of democracy and balance to the United States of America.

So the predicate for every sentence uttered from the GOP and the wired-in lapdog media who recite their spin

Howie the K's Moral Outrage

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Oh, my, Howie Kurtz is on a tear this morning. Ripping into Carville and Begala for tainting his precious CNN with their presence as guest pundits because they may have been too cozy with their ol' buddy Rahm about the matter of Drug-Rush Limbaugh.

And minutes later, reading with sarcasm dripping from his tongue, clips from newspapers that may imply that the media themselves are too cozy with the new O-crowd in DC.

I admit I was in and out a bit, so I may have missed his takedown of Roger Ailes, the head of an entire network that a whole lot of people actually think is a news channel, for saying they were going to battle against Obama until the last shot is fired.... Anybody see that? Did it happen?

That takes what one Kurtz guest called "narrowcasting"--instead of broadcasting--to a whole new level...of muck. And probably also explains the recent metamorphosis of CNBC from an obscure business network into the Santellized conservative network of GE-NBC.

Maybe Kurtz should look to his own political biases and cozy relationships and make them transparent. As Joan Walsh constructively noted at one point in the Begala Carville blather, she has no problem with them being on

It's Chinatown, Jake

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Last night, snowed under up on the northern prairies, needing a little ol' timey feelgood, we watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on TCM.

This morning I'm perusing my deadtree edition of the hometown paper, while it lasts, and a coupla thoughts occur. First, yesterday the front page featured a headline right out of the RNC Propaganda Playbook, courtesy the AP Washington bureau (yeh, I know, surprise, suuuurrrrrppprrrizzzzeee): "Is class warfare in plan?"

They don't even make a pretense of keepin' it on op-ed anymore.

And today, another teeny-tiny wee little article: Gregg aided base he invested in.

Yeh. Judd Gregg. Patron saint of santimonious flip-floppery. But, but, but, he broke no laws, he violated no Senate rules.....

That's the problem, now isn't it. And the sanctimony and hypocrisy play on.

Or as Gordonskene said over at C&L: Who ever said Politics was ethical? It's politics, fer chrissake!
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Dereliction of Duty

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Day by day, the disclosures of the what-should-be-criminal misconduct of the ideologues in the Bush Administration are being brought out of the shadows into sunshine. And it's an ugly sight.

Yesterday, a House hearing on the failure of the SEC to investigate the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheming—despite voluminous filings by Harry Markopolos, a Boston accountant. Markopolos, it seems to me, was overly generous in attributing the failure to turf wars between New York and Boston. But he went further:

In his testimony yesterday, a frustrated Markopolos said the SEC is "captive to the industry it regulates and it is afraid of bringing big cases against the largest, most powerful firms." He added, "Clearly the SEC was afraid of Mr. Madoff."

Kind of the meta-theme of the entire George Bush era. The crooks have been running the country and cowardly, quaking BushCo did nothing to stop it.

A lot of fingerpointing is going on these days, and it's not a pretty sight. But more and more the nature of the mess that we've all inherited from the worst administration ever is one of ideology and bungling over pragmatism and competence.

Dick Cheney, the magic man behind the preening President, has emerged from his disclosed McLean VA location to talk to Politico. Evidently he's decided he's found the right [in all definitions of "right"] venue to replace Meet the Press as his go-to place for spewing his scaremongering. Maybe some will quiver and shake in their brush-cutter boots, but the more Dick talks, the more the rest of us see his inner Dr. Strangelove in control.

The frustration of the American people is palpable. We voted for change, and yet we see the new President ensnared by the same ol' same ol' posturings and spin, putting party before country. Party before we, the people.

Maybe McConnell needs to spend a little time back home in ol' Kentucky helping his homies get the lights back on. And a little less time trying to tear down the progress the country needs.

Some say there should be trials for all the ideologues and warmongers and profiteers and embeds throughout the government whose mission du jour was to destroy the country to save it in their own likeness.

Surely the militaristic among 'em would recognize the phrase "dereliction of duty." Even if they don't want to understand the compelling case for applying it to the former commander-in-chief on down through his ranks. In the civilian world, it's recklessness, negligence, malpractice.

The revealing SEC hearing yesterday is like a boulder in the Stonehenge [yes, I did watch Sunrise Planet Earth this morning, why do you ask?] of evidence building up in the case against the Bush Administration.

But there's also this matter of the urgency of cleaning up the mess, getting the country back on the right track, pulling back from the abyss of financial ruin.

So I've got a proposition. We'll apply their very own standard on them. Round up every member of al BushCo suspected of being linked to the egregious dereliction of duty that led to this financial and confidencial ruin of our country. Bush, Chee-knee, Norquist, Rove, Rush, Condi, Chris Cox, Alberto Gonzales, Don Rumsfeld, Goodling....feel free to fill in your own nominees...and let's send 'em all to Gitmo.

After all, they tell us, Gitmo's a grand place. Surely they won't mind languishing there a decade or two while we tidy up the cesspool they left us. We'll keep the case files handy and well-organized. Promise.

Waterboards optional.

How's that legacy thing working out, George?
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Going Washington

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The short, unhappy nonconfirmation process of Tom Daschle was a cautionary tale. The system worked...ugly. Will the lesson take? Yet to be determined.

One thing we did discover. We know a whole lot less about those who represent us, back home here in "the sticks" than we think we do.

The disclosures that came out, not just about the unpaid taxes for the driver, but the multimillion dollar fees from the healthcare industry, make me think that for all the ugliness of Daschle's determination to stick it out until he couldn't any more, we dodged a bullet.

There's an entitlement among too many Senators and Representatives and others who sign on to work in DeeCee that after a while they lose touch with what brought them there in the first place.

[Disclaimer: I don't think the Bush ideologues who trashed the place for the past eight years ever had any other agenda than trashin' the place. But then that's me....]

But even the best of them, at their Super Bowl parties or in their caucus lunches or wherever, tell each other how the little people just don't understand how hard they're working for them. Don't appreciate just how important they are.

Oh, they probably don't put it quite that crassly....

But they posture and sometimes preen and find each other the most awesomest, wonderfullest, honestest....

And the rationalization becomes easier. And that's the slippery slope that avalanched right over Obama and his vetting team this week. Chock-full o'Daschle and the deniers and the demigods.

They become "they," not "we," "the people."

They lose touch...with their constituents, their states, their country,

...and whatever brought them to Washington in their dusty ol' cars, still married to their home state wives and their principles.

...And themselves.
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Daschle Must Man Up and Do the Richardson

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Josh notes over at Talking Points Memo the synchronicity of Obama and Daschle. That Daschle's Senate seat loss in 2004 opened a wealth of staff for the freshly elected Obama. In sum, says Josh, it'll take a lot for Obama to "pull the plug" on Daschle's nomination.

Which is exactly why Daschle should do the honorable thing himself and withdraw.

All the political capital or likability or loyalty in the world doesn't justify going forward with this nomination. Daschle is not just tainted by tax problems, he's drenched. We're supposed to be better than the Republicans. Not just as weaselly.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Daschle Downer

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Has Daschle withdrawn as HHS nominee yet?

Why not?
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UPDATE: Glenzilla puts the Daschles to the ethical standards test and finds major fail.
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Prairie's Reading: Media Scandalmongering is Back

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Atrios posted this milemarker to Media Matters deconstruction of the return of media scandalmongering. Take a moment to re-visit the '90s and the Usual Suspects of breathless bloviating, and then take a look around. They're still here.

And then give this Newsweek commentary a look. Obama has been the reformer. Those who scramble to paint him otherwise, with word or innuendo, this time, must suffer the fate of fools. And that means all of us must hold them, and ourselves, to a higher standard.

So as the bloviating ratchets up about Blagojevich's "ties" to Obama...just remember. We've been here before.

Backstabber Joe's First Test...

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Will it be Disingenuous Joe? Self-Righteous Joe? Self-Pitying Joe? Or soon-to-revert-to-old-tactics Joe? "Democrat" Joe? Or, a Joe-to-be-named-later?

Lie-berman's set to be interviewed by Katie Couric. One hopes he gets the full Sarah Palin treatment.

Joe's first test of the Obama Era begins now.

And meanwhile, the House shows the Senate how it's done....

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(crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette)

Survivor: Democratic Caucus

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Tuesday, Joe Lie-berman will make his presentation before the Democratic Caucus on why he should retain his chairmanship of the Dept. of Homeland Security. There's a Survivor quality to all this. Who are the alliances? Who will vote the opposite of what's expected? What will the final vote be?

There have been public statements on both sides airing in the media, and enormous conversation in the blogosphere. But the ultimate decision will be made behind closed doors. It's not just that we won't hear the presentation. (Yeah, I'm bettin' it'll be one of those non-apology apologies, too.) It's that we won't hear each Senator's comments. But there'll likely be much posturing and venting and "unacceptables" and "Joe's a good friend of mine..." back and forth.

But what it really comes down to is, if the cronies trump the accountability, then how can the American people ever trust you again, Senators? Because it's gone beyond whether the Democratic Caucus can trust one that they profess is really, scratch the surface campaign sins, one of their own...

While the caucus will decide, it's not for the caucus or for the ego of Joe Lie-berman or for the netroots or for the good of the Senate or for Cokie and the punditocracy or whatever that this decision will be made.

It's for the integrity of representative democracy...and whether one Senator can set himself above all the other Senators, above the voters, above his own word...whether he can play God. And in the doing, flout ethics, flout responsibility to his oath of office, flout honor and trustworthiness. Whether he can obstruct and subvert the oversight responsibilities of the chair and then blithely expect to sit in it again.

The voters have spoken on that. And now, the Democratic Caucus must speak.

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Lieberman's Nature

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A short reminder:

A scorpion wanted to cross a river but could not swim, so he asked a fox to carry him across. The fox, demurred: You'll sting me. Not I, said the scorpion, for that would mean the death of me, too. Very well, hop on, said the fox.

Halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the fox with a mortal wound. As the river sucked them both down, the fox said, you promised! Why did you sting me?

I know, said the scorpion. But it is my nature.

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Crossposted, with comments, at firedoglake's Oxdown Express.

To Be Resolved

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The ongoing saga of the Judas Senator trying to keep his cadaverous fingers tightly clutched around the Homeland Security Committee chairmanship continues this weekend, thanks to articles like the homestate Hartford Courant piece which has stirred up more ire among those who wonder why there is even any question about Joe-the-Backstabber retaining any chairmanship or seniority in the Democratic caucus. Politico and Josh both have discussion worth reading.

The collegiality of the good ol' incumbent-cy boys seems to rear its head in Dodd's comments. Sorry, Chris, not buyin' it.

And then there's the Lieberman aide attributed with the insistence that national security depends on his Senator holding on to "his" chairmanship. Yeah, 'cause he did such a great job of it already, eh?

It took a commenter in the Politico thread to remind me, though, that Lieberman didn't just fail--deliberately, some say--to perform the oversight responsibilities of Homeland Security. Lieberman didn't just run against the Democratic-endorsed candidate for US Senate in Connecticut with strong Republican help in '06. Lieberman didn't just endorse and support McCain.

Not only did Lieberman actively, aggressively, gleefully, enthusiastically, scurrilously campaign against Barack Obama for the office of President.

He also campaigned for Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman over Democratic candidate Al Franken for the Wellstone seat in the U.S. Senate. Did he campaign in other Senate races, too?

The square is complete...the four sides enclosing one politician who eagerly embraced the opposition as he broke his word and campaigned in both Presidential and Senate races against the party he now thinks should bow and scrape before his Lieberliness.

Give me a frackin' break. Now more than ever, Joe Must Go.
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(crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette).