Bush On The Record, Was Warned [Again]

Like 9/11 and Katrina, Bush had the facts, he just choose to ignore them over ideology.

Today, the Associated Press offered more evidence of Bush’s failure, reporting that his administration “ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown,” and “backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed.”

This was 2005!

In 2005, banking regulators proposed a series of regulations that “reads like a list of what-ifs“:

- Regulators told bankers exotic mortgages were often inappropriate for buyers with bad credit.

- Banks would have been required to increase efforts to verify that buyers actually had jobs and could afford houses.

- Regulators proposed a cap on risky mortgages so a string of defaults wouldn’t be crippling.

- Banks that bundled and sold mortgages were told to be sure investors knew exactly what they were buying.

- Regulators urged banks to help buyers make responsible decisions and clearly advise them that interest rates might skyrocket and huge payments might be due sooner than expected.

Thanks to Bush's indifference, incompetence, or perhaps malice, millions of people will wind up losing their jobs and suffering dire consequences.

Source: The Wonk Room

The Bush Faux Mea Culpa

From the Bush interview today:

"I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."

Different that Hussein really did build weapons? Different that al Qaeda was really in Iraq? Why would he wish that? I think he means he wished he listened to what was really happening.

The fact is that the US intelligence community was telling Bush and Cheney that:

* it was more likely than not that Iraq had no usable weapons of mass destruction;

* that Iraq likely lacked the ability to create them;

* that Iraq lacked the means to deliver any such weapons against US targets;

* that Iraq had no operational links to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups of global reach capable of attacking the US with such weapons;

* and that Iraq was unlikely to attack the US in any case since it stood to gain nothing from doing so.

And of course by the time of the 2003 invasion, the UN weapons inspectors like Hans Blix had pretty much confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction or the means to make them, which is of course why Bush pushed to invade before the inspectors could conclude their work.

Meanwhile Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and other principals of the Bush administration were busily and loudly telling deliberate, elaborate, repeated, sickening lies to the American people, the US Congress, the United Nations Security Council and the entire world about what they knew at the time to be nonexistent "Iraqi WMD" and nonexistent "links between Saddam and Al Qaeda", with Cheney proclaiming that Iraq had "reconstituted nuclear weapons" and Rice warning about "mushroom clouds".

But Bush is not a total idiot. He's more dangerous than that. Dumb enough to be led by others whose intentions are not pure, but smart enough to know how to really sell the shinola he's been told to sell.

Worst. President. Ever.

Source: Washington Monthly Comments

Knock-Out Breasts, For Real

Women's breasts are pretty powerful, I didn't realize they were this strong.

Uganda's police warned male bar-goers to keep their noses clean after a probe found a gang of robbers had been using women with chloroform smeared on their chests to knock their victims unconscious.

"You find the person stripped totally naked and everything is taken from him," he said. "And the victim doesn't remember anything. He just remembers being in the act of romancing."

Classic. Insert Spitzer joke here.

Source: Yahoo UK

UK Gives Credit Card Co's 2 Weeks To Cut Rates

The UK has the right approach. Big Business and Banks do not always win like in America. As all this cheap money is being poured into the US economy and banks are being propped up on taxpayer money, why would rates be allowed to go up?

Credit card giants have been given two weeks to agree to stop charging exorbitant rates to borrowers or risk losing their operating licences.

Ministers said they were giving Britain's major lenders one last chance to prove they were not profiteering from the downturn. The ultimatum was delivered at a four-hour Whitehall summit called after The Independent disclosed some credit card and store card providers had raised interest rates – in some cases to 30 per cent – even though the cost of borrowing had fallen.

The credit card companies agreed last night to give borrowers who run into trouble paying their bills a "breathing space" of up to two months before they face action. They also pledged to draw up a clear "statement of principles" over their rates by 9 December. It will commit them to give clear information to borrowers, not alter rates constantly and charge "proportionate" levels of interest.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, and Gareth Thomas, the Consumer Affairs minister, told leaders of the industry that they were alarmed by lenders increasing their rates overnight without justification.

Does Paulson have the balls to do this here? Would Bush ever suggest such a plan? You know the answers.

Source: The Independent

Mumbai Attacks: Piecing Together the Story

There's a lot more to the Mumbai attacks than CNN and the New York Times have been reporting. Here's an alternative guide to the story.

ExiledOnline reported:

"That's why this talk about whether security at the hotels was adequate is ridiculous. Hotel security is aimed at stopping sneak attacks, bomb-planters. To stop the sort of heavily-armed suicide squads that hit these hotels, you'd need a full platoon of infantry. So what you see here is something economists would understand as well or better than traditional military analysts. I hate to sound cold-blooded, putting it this way, but what happened is that Pakistan's islamists had a surplus of raw labor, and thought of a way to get it to a place where it maximized its global value in terms of pure blood and destruction."

The comments are just as good:

The whole US (and British?) hierarchy: Political, official, diplomatic, "intelligence" (!), never mind military, operates from a lowbrow, parochial, bigoted and above all IGNORANT starting point in any dealings with people who are different.

When your religion tells you that you already KNOW that "these people" are sinners, - never mind when it tells you that "armageddon" is desirable (!) - any hope of a rational approach is but a faint one.

Source: AlterNet

Recession Started In December 2007

Conservatives will somehow blame this on Obama, or even better, Bill Clinton.

The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research said it made the determination during a conference call on Friday.

The US economy has been in recession since December 2007, a panel of economists charged with the official designation of business cycles said Monday. The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research said it made the determination during a conference call on Friday.

Although a recession is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of declining activity, the panel has its own criteria for determining a downturn. “A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in production, employment, real income and other indicators,” the panel said. “A recession begins when the economy reaches a peak of activity and ends when the economy reaches its trough. Between trough and peak, the economy is in an expansion.” The committee said it “identified December 2007 as the peak month, after determining that the subsequent decline in economic activity was large enough to qualify as a recession.”

According to government data, the US economy contracted at a 0.2 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2007 but grew 0.8 percent in the first quarter and 2.8 percent in the second quarter of 2008. It then contracted 0.5 percent in the third quarter, based on a provisional estimate.

The NBER is a nonprofit organization of economists from research firms, universities and other organizations.

Source: Yahoo

California Priest Claims Voting For Obama Is A Mortal Sin

In "Holier Than Thou, Except We Rape Kids" news:

A Roman Catholic priest has told parishioners they should confess if they voted for Barack Obama because the president-elect supports abortion.

The Rev. Joseph Illo says his parishioners at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Modesto shouldn't risk losing their "state of grace" by receiving communion sacrilegiously. He delivered the message in a Nov. 21 letter and during mass.

In an interview this week with the Modesto Bee, Illo says he sent the letter because Catholic teaching requires that people go to confession when they commit a mortal sin.

Not a venial sin, but a mortal sin? And choice is not abortion. It's a person's right to privacy that covers 1000s of situations, not just abortion.

How about you stick to your job of hoodwinking the faithful and leave politics out of your sermons.

Source: SF Chronicle

Gift Idea For The Pro-Torture Fan

How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains, Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq

A book by an interrogator who rejected torture in favor of "showing cultural understanding and using good old-fashioned brainpower to tease out information," and managed to bag the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in the process.

Apparently, some members of the military command are not only unconvinced by the arguments against torture; they don't even want the public to hear them.

Alexander, a pseudonymous air force officer, was trained in the post-Abu Ghraib interrogation techniques that replace "fear and control" with "respect, rapport, hope, cunning and deception." I guess will be waiting a long time for the Lynndie England book to come out.

This is more about this interrogator in the Washington Post here.

Source: Amazon.com

War Crimes: Let's Start That Conversation

Andrew Sullivan piece from over the weekend in a UK paper. When will the War Crimes question cross the pond?

"The evidence we now have, undisputed evidence, proves already that war crimes were indeed committed – by the president and vice-president on down. I mean: why else Guantanamo Bay and secret black sites if the president believed he was obeying domestic American law?

There is, in the end, a simple and sobering truth: these people have to be brought to justice if the rule of law is to survive in America. In his constitutional soul, Obama knows this."

Seems Andrew is dreaming of the chance to prosecute these villains, and why not. I hope these charges dog Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld to their dying days.

Source: The Sunday Times

50 Days Until Obama Inauguration

That's it, just a friendly reminder.

Bush: "I Was Unprepared For War"

So this begs the question, what were you prepared for?

Bush's interview highlights his complete lack awareness and overuse of the phrase "in other words":

“I think I was unprepared for war,” Bush told ABC News’ Charlie Gibson in an interview airing today on “World News.” “In other words, I didn’t campaign and say, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack,’” he said. “In other words, I didn’t anticipate war. Presidents — one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.”

Yeah, the unexpected is a modern phenomena.

Inarticulate, as usual. No remorse. No candid statements. No apologies. Conservative icon.

This is Bush's attempt at re-writing his history, make himself out to be a good guy who has a few unlucky breaks. Well, too bad. History will be most brutal toward W.

Even when Bush was told by advisers that an attack was imminent, he did not prepare for the probables. And then once an attack happened, who could forget his catatonic state while reading "My Pet Goat" to little kids.



Let’s see if I can run this down:
He wasn’t prepared for college (Yale or Harvard)
He wasn’t prepared for the Texas Air National Guard
He wasn’t prepared to run Arbusto Energy
He wasn’t prepared to run the Texas Rangers
He wasn’t prepared to be Governor of Texas
He wasn’t prepared to be the War Presnit
He wasn’t prepared for the chewing and swallowing of a pretzel

Source: ABC News

Video: Wal-Mart Stampede Victim's Senseless Death

The AP interviews the family of Jdimytai Damour, the 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee who died in a stampede of customers Nov. 28. He was stepped on 100s of times. WTF?

"[people] act like animals just to save $5"

Get the CCTV and convict. Would love to cross reference those guilty with what they bought.

Weis Era Should End At Notre Dame

In sports we expect so much more production and results than in politics. "What have you done for me lately?" in the mantra. We expect coaches to explain every decision they make, defend every mistake that transpired, all the while giving praise to those who deserve it, even the other team. I expect, and get delivered, so much more by Yankee's manager Joe Girardi that I do by George Bush. Easily.

But when a coach no longer has his control or a record to fall back on, it's time to part ways. With the expectations so massive in high profile sports, you only have a few bad weeks or games before they want to run you out of town.

So that brings us to Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, my team. First ND coach to ever to lose 15 games over 2 seasons. ESPN makes the case to let him go. I concur.

"There can be no other justification for keeping him. Not now, as his winning percentage dips to sub-Ty Willingham levels and his offense sinks to new lows.

It's very simple. If Willingham had to go after three seasons, Weis has to go with a worse record after four. Or the explanation for keeping him had better be brilliant."

There is no explanation for keeping the underachieving Weis aside from money. That is an economic decision the University has to make. Does all the lost revenue in crappy Weis teams year after year outweigh just buying out his $20 million contract?

Source: ESPN

Generals Promoting War Inc.

via The Washington Monthly:

Today, NYT write David Barstow has yet another blockbuster, directing his focus to one of the more prominent retired generals: Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general, military analyst for NBC News, and highly-paid consultant to defense contractors. [NBC owned by General electric, owner of massive government military contracts]

It's really worth reading the whole piece, but firedoglake.com's Spencer Ackerman's take was spot-on.

If this mammoth New York Times piece is wrong, Barry McCaffrey really ought to sue, because if it isn't, he has no reputation for integrity left. [...]



[T]he scope of McCaffrey's hustle is really breathtaking. Barstow demonstrates that many, if not most, of the pronouncements he made on TV about the wars benefited one or another defense contractor who employed him. That's the way the scheme worked: Company hires retired general to use his connections to its benefit. Retired general accepts special grants of access from the office of the secretary of defense that benefit both his TV career and his consulting career. Retired general proclaims on TV things that benefit both the secretary and the company -- or, when circumstances necessitate, the company at the expense of the secretary. TV viewer, looking for informed analysis of confusing wars, is unaware of any of this. Welcome to the new military-media-industrial complex.

It's that bad. As Barstow explained, "On NBC and in other public forums, General McCaffrey has consistently advocated wartime policies and spending priorities that are in line with his corporate interests. But those interests are not described to NBC's viewers. He is held out as a dispassionate expert, not someone who helps companies win contracts related to the wars he discusses on television."

When retired Generals come on as consultants they should be forced to talk like info-mercial celeb, and decibally-challenged, Billy Mays hawking some citrus cleaner. Make the selling that much more obvious.

Source: Steve Benen

X-mas Cards For Bloggers

More here: Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Acorn Mystery: No Nuts

I will have to check this out in NYC. Seems there is a mysterious lack of acorns, not ACORN, but the thing that falls from oak trees.

The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.

Then calls started coming in about crazy squirrels. Starving, skinny squirrels eating garbage, inhaling bird feed, greedily demolishing pumpkins. Squirrels boldly scampering into the road. And a lot more calls about squirrel roadkill.

But Simmons really got spooked when he was teaching a class on identifying oak and hickory trees late last month. For 2 1/2 miles, Simmons and other naturalists hiked through Northern Virginia oak and hickory forests. They sifted through leaves on the ground, dug in the dirt and peered into the tree canopies. Nothing.

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe," he said. "But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

I did notice the pumpkin dental demolition a few times across the city. Will have to look out for my furry friends.

Source: WaPo

10 Republicans Who Should Go Away

They have compiled a lost of "10 Republicans Who Should Go Away". I'm sure the list could have gone on much longer. Not to nitpick, but I'd also add: Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Ann Coulter, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Pat Robertson, Michael Steele, Mike Huckabee, Chuck Norris, Ben Stein and Curt Shilling.

Source: The Daily Banter

Here's a challenge for you, find 10 republicans that SHOULDN'T go away.