Gibbs Field Dresses Santelli

The guy on Wall St is complaining about accountability? Is he serious?

Robert Gibbs gives CNBC's Rick Santelli's rant some needed perspective. Nothing in Obama's proposal to keep 9 million people in their homes would help speculators, people trying to flip houses, or those who bought a house they knew they couldn't afford. Yet another out of touch CNBC host who can only hype the nonsense on his teleprompter.

"I'm not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives," Gibbs said during the daily briefing. "But the American people are struggling every day to meet their mortgage, stay in their jobs, pay their bills to send their kids to school, and to hope that they don't get sick or somebody they care for gets sick that sends them into bankruptcy. I think we left a few months ago the adage that if it was good for a derivatives trader, that it was good for main street. I think the verdict is in on that."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Source: HuffPo

Republicans: The Fanatic, Irrational Minority

After four months of hard work, the leader of the Republican caucus in the state Senate backed a compromise measure that would have resolved the budget crisis in California. What do the Republicans do? They get rid of their leader and put in a less reasonable, more obstructionist one.

California Republicans are out to destroy the state. 1970s Republicans were paragons of bipartisanship in comparison with what we have today. They were within one vote of passing the budget, but they decided to go back to square one, almost inviting catastrophe.



The GOP fulfills it's own prophecy of failing Government being the root of problems by acting in the worst possible ways to ensure its demise. Why are we surprised? Why do we let them self-fulfill?

Source: Washington Monthly

Quote Of The Day: Bristol Palin

Abstinence does not work. Choice does.

"They thought that, like, my mom was going to make me have the baby, and it was my choice to have the baby".
-- Bristol Palin personifying the failings of "abstinence only" programs on CNN.

Oh, it was your choice to have the baby, not the State deciding for you? How nice to have that choice. But once you enjoy that choice you better hop back on the hypocritical soap box and fight against women's rights with your Mom.

Being a mother again and becoming a grandmother in the same year, Sarah Palin makes Mormons look normal!

Source: CNN

The Power Of Nightmares: Watch It

Two big thumbs up. Saw a great 3-part DVD through Netfix: The Power Of Nightmares. The films compare the rise of the Neo-Conservative movement in the United States and the radical Islamist movement, making comparisons on their origins and claiming similarities between the two.

Great insights into how politicians no longer sell dreams, but nightmares, of what the imagined future will be.

Neo-cons push for power and authority through exaggerated and distorted enemies and threats. They try to "protect" us from enemies we can't see or understand. The Bush Administration warned of sleeper cells, WMD, al Qaeda networks in 60 countries, dirty bombs and the loss of our way of life. All these are things that did not happen and will not happen.

Also came across something the neo-cons call the Precautionary Principle: Not having evidence is not a reason for not taking action.

That's a triple negative! Changes "what if" to "what is" and in the hands of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Perle and Wolfowitz it was tremendously dangerous. You can attack anyone, torture anyone, spy on anyone or pretty much do whatever you want with that specious reasoning.

Add this DVD to your queue.

Reference: The Power Of Nightmares Wiki Page

Dubai: Fake Cities Built On Fake Wealth

The article asks:"Imagine proposing to build Vegas in a place where sex and drugs and rock and roll are an anathema." Sounds like a pretty bad idea. Now build that city in the middle of a housing bubble. That is exactly what Dubai has done.

Dubai is a place for the shallow and fickle. Tabloid celebrities and worn out sports stars are sponsored by swollen faced, botox injected, perma-tanned European property developers to encourage the type of people who are impressed by fame itself, rather than what originated it, to inhabit pastiche Mediterranean villas on fake islands. Its a grotesquely leveraged version of time-share where people are sold a life in the same way as being peddled a set of steak knives. Funny shaped towers smatter empty neighborhoods, based on designs with unsubtle, eye-catching envelopes but bland floor plans and churned out by the dozen by anonymous minions in brand name architects offices and signed by the boss, unseen, as they fly through the door.

Goodbye, Dubai.



The realtor thinks the market will be back in 9 months? Maybe start selling the crack you're on for income.

Source: smashingtelly.com

Palin Not So Slick With Oil Prices Dropping

My you have a great "caught in the headlights" stare.



The days of milk and honey are over for Alaskans. Your State is losing massive revenues as oil drops in price causing a looming budget crisis and look who you have in charge to make all those tough decisions, the "drill, baby, drill" lady, Sarah Palin. How lame do those chants sound now?

With hopes of 2012 fleeting, this future one-term Governor to be should get out her George W. Bush "you know this is hard work"playbook. Start whining how difficult it is to govern when oil is not $145 a barrel. Giving out those rebates checks is easy when everyone else does the work for you.

When hard times test the mettle of a leader, that is when they either shine or come crashing back to Earth.

Prepare for impact.

Source: HuffPo

Christian Bale vs Family Guy's Peter Griffin

Christian Bale vs Family Guy's Peter Griffin. NSFW

Krugman: No Wealth Creation In America Since 2000

Something the financially-challenged "borrow and spend" Republicans and the Harvard MBA-having Bush should never forget: you don't know what you're doing. That should be the new GOP slogan, "Zero Growth". Covers so many angles: economics, ideas, policies, Middle East peace, and now personal wealth.

"Last week the Federal Reserve released the results of the latest Survey of Consumer Finances, a triennial report on the assets and liabilities of American households. The bottom line is that there has been basically no wealth creation at all since the turn of the millennium: the net worth of the average American household, adjusted for inflation, is lower now than it was in 2001."

No real wealth was created, just a housing bubble and tax cuts which just preserve the wealth that people already have. All this sideways action as the world's economies grew massively, China and Europe in particular. It was not until our housing bubble with its securitized mortgages, bad loans, bogus risk ratings and toxic derivatives were spread around the world by our banks and investment houses that the US was able to knock them down a few pegs.

"Yet until very recently Americans believed they were getting richer, because they received statements saying that their houses and stock portfolios were appreciating in value faster than their debts were increasing. And if the belief of many Americans that they could count on capital gains forever sounds naïve, it’s worth remembering just how many influential voices — notably in right-leaning publications like The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and National Review — promoted that belief, and ridiculed those who worried about low savings and high levels of debt."

And the Republicans still walk around DC as if the don't have stench of failure reeking from every pore. Your legacy of zero growth, both monetarily and intellectually, is undeniable.



Source: Paul Krugman