The Beginning Of The End For Bush Torturers

Justice, both home and overseas, is closing in on the Bush Torturers:

A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday.

Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to send it on to prosecutors to decide whether it had merit, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers who brought the charges, told The Associated Press.

The ex-Bush officials are Gonzales; former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington; Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee; and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes.

The lawyers are the beginning. Bush and Cheney are - and must be - the ultimate targets. They belong in jail. And there are no statutes of limitations on war crimes.

Source: AP

Obama's Weekly YouTube Address

Obama is on it:

The President addresses the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota as they face down disastrous flooding. He speaks of what the government is doing, but also stresses that times of crisis like this are reminders of the need and opportunity Americans have to keep their dedication to service.

CNBC Had A Good Moment This Week

Too bad Dylan Ratigan quit this week. He has a good grasp on how effed up this bail-out is. Why is it so hard for a finance channel like CNBC to explain this mess? Why are they not asking why the US taxpayer is giving Goldman Sachs and European banks 100 cents on the dollar for these obviously bad deals.

Via AmericaBlog:

"This is a really important exchange because it cuts to the heart of what is wrong both on Wall Street and in US politics. The US is being fleeced by Goldman (and AIG) who are getting an amazingly good deal for the trash that they had insured by AIG. No matter how you slice it, paying our $50 billion for absolute trash is only good for Goldman. Cuomo should not be the only one chasing this and if we had a real leader at Treasury, this would not be happening. If Obama wants to help the country move past this debacle, Geithner and Summers have to go now. There's no reason why taxpayers should cover full payments for this and let the likes of Goldman walk away unscathed for their past actions."

Source: AmericaBlog

"Excess Is Out Of Fashion"

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon commenting yesterday on his own bubble-making "we don't really make anything" short-term minded industry:

"One of the main root causes [of the crisis], and this has been going on for a long time, was the huge trade and global financing imbalances which fueled very low rates and excess consumption, and over a long period of time I do not believe you can run those kind of trade deficits..."

Here is what Talking Points Memo has to say about a country that loses its industrial base despite an insatiable unsustainable desire for perpetual growth:

"Dimon was getting at one of the root structural causes of the current crisis -- America takes, the world (China especially) makes, an unsustainable situation sustained above all by an increasingly usurous financial services industry. As the CEO of PNC Financial Services just pointed out, banking is the biggest sector of the American economy -- and it's been to the detriment of everything else.

...it was precisely Wall Street and corporate America that relentlessly lobbied the government over that very long period of time to enable those gaping imbalances to gape ever wider. What both Barack Obama and Jamie Dimon implicitly understand is that publicly traded corporations are not engineered to look out for their long-term interests. By allowing the financial sector to bloat "too big to fail", the country lost the kind of industries that are too vital to fail -- which is to say, manufacturing."

I hope we can establish more long-term answers instead of getting caught up in the short-term madness of news cycles and faux rage memes. Dimon's own call to reign in his own industry is a good start.

Source: TPM

Imagine "Bush The Vacation President" In Charge Now

Obama is taking on every crisis there is: banking, finance, autos, foreign policy, health care. You name it, the Obama Administration is trying to address the situation, as well as, fix all the massive problems Bush and Cheney left behind.

The best the conservatives can say is Obama is trying to do too much. Really?

The pace and competency that Obama has brought to the office is amazing. It just makes your head spin how much is happening.

Now compare that to the first months of Bush:

Prior to September 11, 2001, George W. Bush was on vacation for 96 days -- Given that he’d taken office on January 20th of 2001, that means that as of September 11th, he’d been ‘on the job’ for 234 days. If 96 of those were vacation days, he was on vacation 41% of the time.

Granted the times are different, thanks to 8 years of Bush mailing it in, but I could not imagine how W would have handled these past few months. Maybe fetal position, sucking on a pretzel?

The ranch in Crawford, TX is such the symbol for Bush's legacy. The little boy playing with his toys, away from the adults. When the hard works comes up, he runs away to hide. How we put up with the obvious games is something I'll never forget. No amount of GOP white wash will ever change that. You can't cover up the complete failure that is George Bush.

DNC Web Ad

"The Number Zero, Brought To You By The Party Of N-O"

The GØP, know as the party of "no", is also the party of "no detail" regarding their "budget".

Dylan Ratigan Quits CNBC

Dylan Ratigan quits CNBC. The one guy I liked! Sources say Ratigan's contract expires Wednesday and he's talked to other networks. No doubt he will pop up somewhere else.



Source: NY Post

Krugman Dreaming Of A Modest Banking World

Paul Krugman falls a hair short of asking Obama to completely re-invent America.

"As you can guess, I don’t share that vision. I don’t think this is just a financial panic; I believe that it represents the failure of a whole model of banking, of an overgrown financial sector that did more harm than good. I don’t think the Obama administration can bring securitization back to life, and I don’t believe it should try."

There are dream scenarios and then there is reality. Yes, the wizards on Wall St were frauds and the Big Bank's magic securitization was just a stage trick. Small community banks who kept their traditional business model did well through all this. The small guys were slow and steady investments, but they were not sexy. [Ironically it is the small banks being asked now to help out the big banks.]

Paul, you are a smart guy, with many leather bound books in your library that smell of rich mahogany, do you think America is ready for more humble, less sexy investments?

I hope America is ready for that. I hope the rules make it hard for risky schemes and regulation encourages playing by the rules. It seems it is in the best interest of the business world to keep the game going, rather than completely destroying it in the name of greed.

Source: NYT

Derivatives: The Orwellian Risk Reducers

The Gambling Age of Banking: Derivatives

The U.S. banking industry had its first loss in derivatives trading last year, driven by a fourth- quarter $9 billion rout in credit markets.

U.S. commercial banks lost $836 million in 2008 from trading over-the-counter cash and derivatives contracts, compared with a $5.5 billion gain in 2007, the Office for the Comptroller of the Currency said in a report released today.

“The poor results in 2008 reflect continued turmoil in financial markets, particularly from credit instruments,” according to the report.

The MIT brainboxes came up with these algorithms that the big banks bet the house on. Reducing risk actually raised the risk. Doublespeak in action.

Did you know the top five banks [JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC Corp] accounted for 96 percent of the $200 trillion in derivatives contracts held by U.S. banks, according to the OCC report?

These contracts are effected somewhat counter to what the Government intervention is trying to do. By supporting the banking industry, the value of what banks had to pay to trading partners increased, causing losses to mount.

"The amount the banks would be owed if all derivatives contracts were liquidated, known as the net current credit exposure, soared 84 percent from the third quarter to a record $800 billion, largely because of a drop in interest rates that increased the value of swaps protecting against rate fluctuations. Interest rate derivatives make up 82 percent of all contracts."

Trillions in derivatives are out there that are just bets on the interest rates going up or down. Unregulated. Scary. Reducing risk by betting on it. Orwell predicted the future pretty well.

Source: Bloomberg

Dodd's Moment Of Truth

Now is Sen. Chris Dodd's moment of truth. Head of the Banking Committee, it is his job to re-write the banking rules.

The walking contradiction that is Dodd has been the both friends of big business and a populist reformer:

That intensity is building in Chris Dodd. What worries the financial industry is that the senator has become a wounded bear, one who will go out of his way to protect his reputation as a defender of the people and maul the banks in the process. And he has the power to do it.

In the grand and urgent project of restarting the nation's banking machinery, it is Chris Dodd in the Senate who will have the final say, as much as Barney Frank in the House, Tim Geithner at Treasury, or Larry Summers in the White House. Which is why, all things considered, Dodd chose the banking role rather than presiding over, say, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a chairmanship that was his for the taking when Joe Biden gave it up in January. Despite Dodd's bumpy road so far, his old friend Ted Kennedy predicted in a statement to Fortune that his colleague will prevail: "I respect him now more than ever."

Will he over-compensate the public tensions and punish the banks? Or is the lifelong politician "with extraordinary political skills" going to save the day? We're all watching, Chris.

Source: Fortune/CNN

Infallibly Wrong

Follow the Catholic logic:

Newt Gingrich, a thrice-divorced philanderer, is welcomed into the Catholic church as a convert.

Barack Obama, a family man, who as President ended the torture era in American government, cannot give the commencement speech at Notre Dame.

Source: Christopher Buckley

The Real Republican Road To Recovery

The real "bluprint" put forth by the GOP apparently lacked any charts. In their absence, Nate Silver at 538.com has a flow chart best describing the Republican road to recovery as rolled out today by John Boehner. It's chock full of great ideas and real leadership not afraid to make tough decisions addressing our Nation's real problems.



Source: 538.com

The Gaffe That Never Was

The Obama teleprompter gaffe from his St. Patrick's Day reception, one of the weakest distractions you could ever imagine, turned out to be made up.



That didn't stop the Right Wing from running with the fake story. Will Drudge or Hannity admit their mistakes? Um, never.

Summary: Conservative media figures uncritically highlighted a SkyNews.com report that a "teleprompt blunder has led to Barack Obama thanking himself in a speech at the White House in a St Patrick's Day celebration." In fact, a pool report of the event released at the time indicates Obama was, in the words of the Telegraph's Toby Harnden, making "a good-natured and well-received joke" at the expense of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who earlier in the event had mistakenly read from the teleprompter displaying Obama's speech.

Conservatives have looked the other way for 8 years of Bush butchering the English language, now they chose this to poke fun at Obama? For his speech? It's the ol' Karl Rove tactic of attacking the strength of your opponent.

What's next distraction from the GOP brain trust, Obama ties his shoelaces funny?

Source: MediaMatters

Geithner: New Rules Of The Game

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner lays it down:

"Over the past 18 months, we have faced the most severe global financial crisis in generations," Geithner said in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. "To address this will require comprehensive reform. Not modest repairs at the margin, but new rules of the game."

A game. That is what it was. It was all just a game, using other people's money. In order to get out of this mess of a game, we have to fix what got us into it:

The administration's proposal, which will require congressional approval, would represent a major expansion of federal authority over the financial system. It would impose tougher standards on financial institutions judged to be so big that their failure would represent a risk to the entire system.

It also would extend federal regulations for the first time to all trading in financial derivatives, exotic financial instruments such as credit default swaps that were blamed for much of the damage in the meltdown.

The administration also wants larger hedge funds to be required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

People will argue over more rules or better rules, but one thing is clear, we have to enforce the rules and have real penalties for breaking them.

Source: HuffPo

Obama's Online Town Meeting

Change you can sehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife. Transparency you can feel. A new kind of press. Watch this live feed for one minute and imagine McCain, Palin or Bush leading this meeting.

You can watch Obama's interactive Town Meeting right now.

UPDATE: Watched this for an hour. Totally impressed me the scope of issues they covered. Makes you feel hopeful, which is a true gift. He thanked the crowd for paying attention to the issues which is something we have lacked for a bit. Real issues, with real debate, to find real solutions.



Source: WhiteHouse.gov

Wall Street's Zero Leadership Problem

All this focus on the economy, getting the credit and banking institutions back on track. Changing rules and adding more oversight.

What about the geniuses who who got us into all this. The robbers on Wall St who gamed the system, gambled the money, used unregulated ratings agencies, created the schemes and lost it all. We are not hearing too much on how they plan on changing their bad ways.

There is a $26 trillion credit derivatives market out there. This is their casino. Do you think there gamblers are just going to have a group intervention and wise up?

Zero leadership on Wall St should not be tolerated. They are not going to change. The fox can no longer guard the hen house. We have to bring the change to them.

Restore the Glass-Steagal Act? It may be as simple as that.

The Line Is Thinning Between Real And Fake News

As is the trend, and as I have been writing about, the fake news is challenging the real news in relevancy. No, not "real fake" news like Fox, they have that segment down. I'm talking Jon Stewert and Stephen Colbert getting more fact checking and better interviews than the major networks. CNBC being skewered by Comedy Central?

More evidence of the fake news growing in stature? ex-CNN anchor Bobbi Battista is now an anchor at The Onion.


Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

Source: Oliver Willis

Barack Obama's Teleprompter's Blog

With the lame critiques of the President from the conservatives getter weaker and weaker, a bright spot: Barack Obama's teleprompter has its own blog.

Maybe now the GOP can find a home for all that rage they seem to have about Obama's usage. Good topic to be focused on amid the major crisises out there.

Source: http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: In the end, the whole teleprompter gaffe was made up:

Summary: Conservative media figures uncritically highlighted a SkyNews.com report that a "teleprompt blunder has led to Barack Obama thanking himself in a speech at the White House in a St Patrick's Day celebration." In fact, a pool report of the event released at the time indicates Obama was, in the words of the Telegraph's Toby Harnden, making "a good-natured and well-received joke" at the expense of Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who earlier in the event had mistakenly read from the teleprompter displaying Obama's speech.

Volcano Monitors Spot On

Somewhere in his GOP playpen Wee Bobby Jindal is enjoying a nice hot mug of STFU:

A month after Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal complained about wasteful spending in President Obama's economic stimulus package, including money for "something called 'volcano monitoring,'" Alaska pilots were grateful for such expenditures.

The Alaska Volcano Observatory was ready with warnings to flight officials when Alaska's Mount Redoubt blew five times Sunday night and Monday morning, sending potentially deadly ash clouds north of Anchorage.

The volcano, about 100 miles southwest of Alaska's largest city, blew at night and even after sunrise was socked in by clouds, obscuring dangerous ash that can clog jet engines and knock aircraft from the sky.

However, readings from seismometers and atmospheric pressure sensors alerted scientists that an eruption had occurred. Weather radar confirmed the presence of an ash cloud that ascended more than 11 miles above sea level.

"Without instruments in the ground, we would not have been able to tell you this was coming," said John Power, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Source: AP

Step In The Right Direction

More good economic news for the Obama Administration via Bloomberg:

The collapse in U.S. inventories indicates the economy is laying the foundation for a return to growth this year.

Stockpiles of long-lasting factory goods declined 0.9 percent in February after falling 1.1 percent in January, the biggest two-month slide since 2003, the Commerce Department reported today in Washington. The decrease brought the ratio of inventories to sales down for the first time in seven months.

“There is hope,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut, said in a note to clients. “This is exactly the progression that needs to happen, so today’s data represents an important step on the road to recovery.”

Step in the right direction? Stocks up? Bottoming of prices? New home sales spiked? Rise in mortgage applications? Do you hear any of this in the media?

Source: Bloomberg

Change You Can See

Last night was Obama's second prime time press conference. By comparison, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each had four over eight years.

Truth Becomes Sarcasm Become Truth

When fake news is better than the real news, truthiness is better than the truth, and sarcasm is the best way to deal with the crazy off-the-wall oddballs on the Right.

A new poll released Wednesday by Rasmussen Reports found that about one-third of Americans under the age of 40 believe that shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are replacing "traditional" news outlets.

According to the poll, nearly 39 percent of adults say shows like Stewart's and Colbert's are helping Americans stay informed about current events, and around 21 percent say the shows are "at least somewhat influential in shaping their political opinions."

They are desperate to make this a young person's trend. My mom watches both these shows and loves them.

And look at how Jon Stewart interviewed Jim Cramer. Is Comedy Central the only network with video libraries in broadcast media? It's a amazing when you can hold people accountable for what they say via video clips.

Quite telling when you watch Stewart and Colbert for news and Morning Joe and Fox for laughs. Would Comedy Central have followed a white bronco for hours?

Having just watched 1984 on Netflix last night, this is exactly what "newspeak" and "memory hole" was all about.

Source: HuffPo

Factory Orders Up

The ADD "foie gras generation" will like this:

"In a glimmer of surprisingly upbeat economic data, manufacturing orders for goods like metals, machines and military equipment rose last month for the first time after six months of declines, the government reported on Wednesday."

It's just one month, but we are starting to see the signs of Obama cleaning up the Bush mess.

Source: NYT

The Press Gets A Backbone 8 Years Too Late

All this talk about CNN's Ed Henry asking tough questions regarding the timing of Obama going public about the AIG bonuses. I think it's a lot of nothing. The outrage is all about nothing. I know people are mad about a lot of things, but let's keep it in perspective.

I hope last night's press conference dispels this conservative myth that the press is in love with Obama. He was asked a lot of tough questions, as is his duty, and always seems to get these guys like gutless Ed Henry who all of a sudden get the balls to ask things they never did before.

Try to recall one tough question Ed had for Bush. Or anyone asking Bush tough questions. The press tries to deny the fact that asking Bush tough questions would have maybe helped us not be in such a tough situation. They fiddled while Bush burned down the place.

And then Henry positioning Obama's daughters in the question, trying to pigeonhole him? He would get a slap if I were President.

Watch the video below:

Cheney War Crimes Probe Would Be Shortest In History

The Presidential smackdown of Cheney via 60 Minutes:

If Obama would step out of the way and allow prosecutors to look at evidence of alleged Bush administration war crimes, "it would be the shortest investigation in history," Jonathan Turley said on a Monday episode of MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show.

Obama is waiting for a convenient moment to turn up the heat on ol' Dicky Boy.

Source: MSNBC

Super Chameleon Ad

Cool Super Chameleon ad for Ray Ban. Music by YUKSEK - 'Eat My Bear'

Obama's Op-Ed

President Obama has an op-ed appearing today in more than 30 papers around the world.

"My message is clear: The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose. Much good work has been done, but much more remains."

Obama lays out a 3-point plan to coincide with the upcoming G-20 summit in London. Not to sidestep the issue, our pragmatic leader notes:

"I know that America bears our share of responsibility for the mess that we all face. But I also know that we need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy. That is a false choice that will not serve our people or any people."

Humble yet bold. A great message to unite the world even if it is a call to save our ass from Bush's carnage. Somewhere in Dallas, a fried bologna and mayo on Wonder bread eating ex-President's ears are burning as the world curses his name.

Source: HuffPo

Tammy Bruce Needs Free Eats At The Whoop-Ass Buffet

I'm reminded of the Family Guy "Laura Bush killed a man" bit.

Tammy Bruce, guest host for Laura Ingram’s radio show, had some harsh words for First Lady Michelle Obama:

“That’s what he’s married to,” Bruce said. “…You know what we’ve got? We’ve got trash in the White House. Trash is a thing that is colorblind, it can cross all eco-socionomic…categories. You can work on Wall Street, or you can work at the Wal-Mart. Trash, are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others, who consider you bitter and clingy…”

Tammy, I think people that pose with guns for press photos are trash.

So trash is patronizing? So all those hicks at Wal-Mart and NASCAR events are condescending? Sarah Palin's drop-out kids are bitter and clingy?

And what prompted these remarks? Michelle Obama went to a DC school encouraging black children to reach for the stars and make the best grades regardless of how other students may tease them.

Not offended yet? Bruce claimed the FLOTUS had a “weird, fake accent.”

Source:

Geithner's 500 Point Rally

Obi Wan and Yoda. Obama and Geithner. The Jedis are using the force. Obama-ites are sensing their power:

[Geithner] spoke without television cameras present, and attracted a group of policy-wonk reporters who seemed far more interested in the details of the plan than they were in the cable news chatter over Geithner’s woes. As a result, Geithner was not asked a single question about the controversy surrounding his handling of the AIG bonus mess, or the speculation over his future in the Obama cabinet.

So the market was up 500 points today after Geithner's announcement. The market seemed to approve. Will the woeful brain-dead pundit class let him keep his job one more day? Or do they have the "we have absolutely no principles" GOP outrage they want to report on? Can they find a soundbyte from a Republican from Alabama who says he lacks confidence? Those are always so meaningful and filled with insights and examples to back up their positions. Or not.

The Dark Side will eventually learn that the Force is stronger.

Source: Yahoo

The Most Unpopular Guy In The Most Unpopular Party

I guess when you come out of your bunker and bad-mouth the sitting President who is trying to amend the spectrum of all of your failed policies, you should remember to STFU.

Congressional Republicans are telling Dick Cheney to go back to his undisclosed location and leave them alone to rebuild the Republican Party without his input.

Displeased with the former vice-president's recent media appearances, Republican lawmakers say he's hurting GOP efforts to reinvent itself after back-to-back electoral drubbings.

Go back to his undisclosed location? You can't make this shit up. What an amazing mass of evil passing for a human being.

Source: The Hill

But Can You Do The NYT Crossword On A Kindle?

Not that this would happen [because of the lost ad revenue], but here's a slant on the dying paper newspaper circulation:

It costs the NY Times about twice as much money to print and deliver the newspaper over a year as it would cost to send each of its subscribers a brand new Amazon Kindle instead.

But not everyone is a Kindle fan. You can't do the crossword on them.

Also, the electronic only-idea completely misses the "badge" marketing value of the NY Times being physically seen in airports, hotels, convenience stores, offices, trains, driveways, etc. Pictures don't look so hot on the Kindle, either.

Lastly, how will you ever line the bird cage or house train your dog with a Kindle?

Source: Business Insider

New URL: liberalsarecool.com

I am now found at www.liberalsarecool.com

The old "liberalsarecool.blogspot.com" URL will re-direct. You may want to adjust your bookmarks, or may I be so bold as to suggest you should bookmark this site. Thanks.

Or join my twitter, tumblr or RSS networks. Whatever works for you.

Source: liberalsarecool.com

The Growing Obama Generation

via Taegan Goddard:

The Republican Party is "growing more and more irrelevant to America's young people. In marked contrast, young people's support for the President has expanded beyond the 66 percent support they gave him last November."

"Republicans struggle among young people for a very specific reason. At a time when young people are paying close attention to politics and when so many are struggling economically, even more so than older generations, the Republicans simply do not speak to the reality of their lives or to the issues important to them. This perception stands in marked contrast to their reaction to Barack Obama."

Any young person who has grown up during 9/11, the Iraq War and Katrina can see the Republicans are hardly a winning brand. No one likes losers and the party of "no" have a massive record to contend with.

9/11 showed us all they had no idea about defending the United States and subsequently had no need for the Constitution in making decisions regarding our freedoms. They said no to all our civil liberties and wire-tapped and data-mined the enire country.

The Iraq War showed they had no planning or mission and had no respect for the civilians of the Middle East. They said no to the Rule of Law, the Geneva Conventions and Habeas Corpus. It also showed they had no way to pay for the war so they hid it from the annual budgets.

Kartina showed they had no remorse for letting a city go through hellish times and had no intention of helping the citizens of the Gulf coast after the destruction. They sad no to hiring qualified people to run Government Agencies like FEMA.

So after 8 years of no clue and no success, the current GOP continues to have no ideas whatsoever and just says "no" to everything the other side has to offer, sight unseen. They have been reduced to one syllable for this next generation to remember them by. That's branding!

The Republicans are on the precipice of becoming irrelevant and do I care: no.

Source: Democracy Corps

Palin's Poor Treatment Of Special Needs Kids

Here's a timeline to remember:
1. Obama joked on Jay Leno that he bowled like a special Olympian.
2. Soon after, Obama apologized for the joke.
3. The next day, Sarah Palin said she was "shocked" at Obama's poor attempt at humor.
4. That same day day, Palin turned down nearly $40 million in Federal funding for programs catering to special education kids.

If Palin had looked further than her talking points, she would have seen the recovery package passed by Congress and signed into law by the president would have directed around $36 million to Alaska in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act money, including funding for the same Americans who participate in the Special Olympics.

Palin said she was shocked by Obama's comments. What about being shocked by your own actions? Actions do speak louder than words, you betcha.

And this is the same lady who doles out $1200 oil subsidy checks to all Alaskans calling the recovery package "bribes".

Source: The Plum Line

Matt Taibbi: Wall St's Gang Rape Of The American Dream

Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone is not happy:

"It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire."

Great article on how Wall St is using the crisis to expand power. That power, and the "too big to fail" mentality, has put our government is the position to save the deranged and abusive financial world. We are in a marriage of greed and stupidity where

"we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream."

To that predicament, Taibbi notes about the Wall St types we are to save:

"valueswise they're on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests."

Psychopaths and sexual deviants? Sounds like the ruling class in a nutshell.

Source: Rolling Stone