Cacacaphony.

Hammer of the Krauts, guide our ships to a new land…

…a naked powergrab by socialist demagogues which, if successful, will destroy the world economy conclusively and forever…

As a revolution, its not exactly storming the Winter Palace and putting the Romanovs against the wall, is it.

All pretty dull really.

The Feudal Four – keeping America safe for aristocracy.

I have always been impressed by conservatives’ staunch commitment to the Constitution, to the laws of our land, and to the sacred rights of employment contract

Attainder? I haven’t even met her!

“Any populist objection to executive bonuses is a cynical ploy, yadda yadda…” Geez…I guess Chuck Grassle didn’t get the memo.

The fact is, stop the classwar. It won’t play in Peoria.

Ah, right wing wankers. Salt of the earth, or salt in the wound? You decide…

With Caterpillar laying off another 2400 people this month alone, in Peoria. I think class warfare will go over just fine thank you very much.

Puking Pundits like Krauthammer, Goldberg, Steyn and George Will have been screaming that GM should be allowed to go bankrupt so all so those “ultra-lavish” labor contracts can be unraveled. I don’t recall any of these pricks calling for bankruptcy for AIG for the same reasons. Quelle surprise.

I love watching conservatvies cringe over this.

On the one hand, they have to defend bonuses paid to people with taxpayer money…you know, the kind of spending that, if it went to poor people, they’d be Katie-bar-the-door attacking.

On the other hand, they have to defend tax cuts by saying that investment bankers need a break!

“AIG debt manipulators who may be the only ones who know how to defuse the bomb they themselves built”

Improvised Investment Devices (IID)

What makes these people different than terrorists? Al-Queda tries to bring down the economy-Guantanamo

Executives bring down the economy-Gstaad

POOP!

I love all the caterwauling over the “unconstitutionality” of these tax increases. If any of these pundits had actually, you know, looked into the constitutionality of retroactive tax increases, they’d know that there’s almost a 100 year history in this country of these types of increases (some of them were even signed by…Ronald Reagan) and that they have been repeatedly upheld by the courts.

How do I know? I researched it before writing to Barney Frank and a number of others back in January after the Merrill Lynch bonus looting, suggesting just such a tax provision. Of course, I suggested that the bonuses be taxed at 100%, but I’m willing to accept the 90% rate as a compromise.

What makes these people different than terrorists?
AIG execs are not scary brown people who talk funny ya big silly!

I tell you what: right now, I would take a million dollars and pay 90% on it happily. what kind of dickwad would turn down 100K? Gary Ruppert wouldn’t certainly.

I’m starting to think Republicans really do want to make the rest of the country angry enough to kill them…

Tut tut, Jennifer. “Research” and case law is irrelevant when Chris Matthews affirmatively declares that House Members who voted for the tax have violated their oath to defend the constitution, because he remembers 9th grade civics.

yeah, if Chris Matthews is what passes for a constitutional scholar these days, we really are doomed.

Did Adam ever come back and impart his wisdom re ex post facto legislation and bills of attainder, and contract remedies?

Woodrowfan-

What about Citi? Some brown people are not as scary as others. Some brown peoples mothers are scarier than other peoples mothers.

Adam took a vowel of silence.

There’s just something really, really creepy about Krauthammer. He gives me the willies.

they want them to honour their employment contracts, pay retention bonuses to keep talent on board and basically continue to run a business? wow you guys are right, that’s NUTS!

I AM VERY CONCERNED, LIBERALS

PLEASE LET ME TELL YOU HOW CONCERNED I AM ABOUT THESE THINGS YOU ARE DOING THEY ARE VERY CONCERNING.

“Free” trade is a first class scam.

the repubbies appear to be committing ritual suicide. i love it, it’s very fun to watch.

I would like to inject a few appropriate quotes from a leading writer on economics into this discussion:

Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.

The proposal of any new law or regulation which comes from [businessmen], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.

So just who is this commie socialist slimeball, you ask? Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations (first book, chapter 11, last section).

Half the GOPers in the House voted for what Boner called a “joke,” including Eric Cantor. I can’t wait to hear what Party Leader Limbaugh has to say about dear old Eric and the other GOPer tax traitors who just voted for a 90% tax increase on the wealthy.

they want them to honour their employment contracts, pay retention bonuses to keep talent on board and basically continue to run a business? wow you guys are right, that’s NUTS!

Yeah, actually, it is, considering that they suddenly don’t have enough money of their own to honour the contracts, so they have to go hat in hand to the government to attempt to do it, in which case, circumstances have changed and it’s time to do what they made GM do, which is renegotiate (a thing which, as a contractor, has happened to me on a scarily regular basis, but I’m not a mook in a suit, so I guess an ex post facto reevaluation of my contracts doesn’t do anything to their putative sanctity*); it’s also totally nuts to pay “retention bonuses” to a bunch of people who were running a criminal enterprise (see http://www.newsweek.com/id/189917) and should have been pink-slipped and then stomped on years ago; and it’s also completely nuts to let these same jamooks keep on doing what they’re doing (since they’re apparently all up to their eyebrows in white-collar crime, don’t have a shred of ethics between them, and have managed to trash the world’s economy because of their malfeasance. Yeah.

You know, if I ran my business into the ground, caused a massive ripple effect that disrupted the economies of just about every developed country in the world, put hundreds of thousands of people out of work and their homes, I’d deserve to have my ass kicked from here to Chile, regardless of what my contract said; I certainly wouldn’t be insisting that the citizens of my home country pick up the tab to give me yet more millions of dollars I didn’t actually earn by, you know, being good at my job or something.

Then again, I’m not an entitled SOB with so much wealth money is meaningless except as a status symbol, so…

* Who “sanctifies” a contract, anyway? The First Church of Mammon?

The Republican talking points are completely out of touch with the experiences of 99% of the country. For almost everyone, bonuses are very rare — you might get one for doing something really, really great at work, and you might get one at Christmas. But I think there are a lot of folks who don’t get bonuses at all — I’m pretty sure it’s been a decade since I worked anywhere that gave bonuses.

And bonuses are usually pretty small. If you’re lucky, it might be a hundred bucks extra in your paycheck. At once place I worked for, our Christmas bonus was a coupon for a ham.

So for 99% of the country, the idea of giving someone a multimillion-dollar bonus for destroying the business is completely insane. They certainly have zero sympathy for AIG in a time when almost everyone else is living with money troubles. But the GOP somehow thinks this is gonna be their ticket back to the White House. It’s only a matter of time now before a major politician or pundit pops off a “Let them eat cake” moment.

I thought the Republicans were kicking up a big stink on AIG, blaming it on the spendthrift ways of the Democrats. Mind you they’d never consider taxing anything from the rich.

I tell you what: right now, I would take a million dollars and pay 90% on it happily.

I had a management professor back during the Reagan years and one night, the topic of managing a company’s taxes came up, and he made a point that stuck with me ever since, similar to the one you made.

“You shouldn’t evade taxes, ever. They mean you’re making real money.”

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said,

Adam took a vowel of silence.

Please put your pens down, ladies and gents, we have a winner.

Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.

The trouble with America over these past thirty years is that civil government has become a tool of the rich to take from the poor, so much so that we need a few decades of Robin Hooding to set things right again.

There’s just something really, really creepy about Krauthammer. He gives me the willies.

That’s cuz he’s the love child of Quasimodo and Dr. Strangelove (who was indeed into some strange loving).

But…but…The president said, “Special Olympics.”

Krugman’s take:

I’ll leave to others the question of who knew or should have known that the bonus firestorm was coming; but it’s part of a pattern. At every stage, Geithner et al have made it clear that they still have faith in the people who created the financial crisis — that they believe that all we have is a liquidity crisis that can be undone with a bit of financial engineering, that “governments do a bad job of running banks” (as opposed, presumably, to the wonderful job the private bankers have done), that financial bailouts and guarantees should come with no strings attached.

Let me single out the part that grinds my gears:
they still have faith in the people who created the financial crisis

These are the dirty motherfuckers who played the game to the tune of thirty to one leveraging on 120% loan to value mortgages. They are masters of sticking their dicks into the rulebook, of playing jiggery-pokey with every loophole that exists, and making some new ones when that ain’t enough – of figuring out the exact sorts of behaviors that are the cause of all this mess.

Fuck those fuckers.

GOP-er logic 101 Lesson of the Day.

GOP-er minds at work:

“I am sick and tired of politically correct liberals whining every time they take offense to something being said about one of their pressure groups!”

Obama said retard! Stop the sexist attacks on Sarah Palin! Plantation Demsocrats are attacking Michael Steele! Any criticism of Michelle Malkin is raaaaaacist!

-GSD

Interesting that the conservatives and the libertarians now suddenly have a case of the vapors concerning something being constitutional or not. I don’t seem to recall this happening in the last eight years.

I’m starting to think Republicans really do want to make the rest of the country angry enough to kill them…

I wonder. I think 30 years of “Reagan Revolution” have softened their heads – there are a ton of American adults who have never known any culture other than the Gordon Gekko bullshit that now passes for conventional wisdom. These execs have no idea how offensive their antics are, nor that the remedies now being discussed, and which they find unacceptable, are the alternative to their having their gated communities stormed.

Or maybe not. It’s hard to imagine a crowd of present-day Americans storming anything, but it wouldn’t take too big a punch to fuck things up mightily. I mean, look how many people utterly lost their shit after 9/11 and never recovered.

DKW,

I dunno. I mean, there’s plenty of reason to blame the bankers and I hate the idea that they’d be left in charge of the same henhouse they just munched their way through.

But I think the problem goes even deeper, right down to the core of capitalism and to the core of American democracy: the need to reward dazzling short-term performance at the risk of long term health.

We see it in athletes who take steroids or in the markets, and we see it in plenty of other places, including, I’m sorry to say, that percentage of people who took out mortgages secure in the “knowledge” that housing prices can only go up.

We see it in people who charge automobiles to their charge cards, thus paying them off over thirty or forty years, or pay their credit cards with home equity lines of credit (encouraged, of course, by the same taxing authority who’s doing the bailouts of those self-same homes right now).

Our anger is focused on the bankers and again, rightly so, but there’s enough blame to go around for creating an environment where shit like this has to happen.

Emphasis on the “has to” part.

But I think the problem goes even deeper, right down to the core of capitalism and to the core of American democracy: the need to reward dazzling short-term performance at the risk of long term health.

I agree. In this case the galling bit is the lavish reward for short- and long-term failure. It’s become clear the rewards are not for performance but are a really, really expensive version of “Everybody Gets a Trophy Day.”

Xecky,

Now just think of how obscenely short-term success is rewarded and really get pissed off.

Interesting that the conservatives and the libertarians now suddenly have a case of the vapors concerning something being constitutional or not. I don’t seem to recall this happening in the last eight years.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that this recent 90% tax hike doesn’t violate the prohibition on Bills of Attainder. We’ve had eight years of a President who felt free to violate the Constitution in the name of what he personally thought was the right thing to do.

I want the money back, too, but I want it back under the rule of law, not something that’s of doubtful constitutionality that’s enacted to assuage everyone’s anger, however righteous that anger may be.

(I know retroactive taxes have been found constitutional; Bill of Attainder is another issue entirely).

Wasn’t Naked Powergrab a short-lived collaboration between KMFDM and The Lords of Acid?

Now just think of how obscenely short-term success is rewarded and really get pissed off.

Oh yes. I’ve been livid about it for a decade.

Not all the time, though. I take breaks to sleep and stuff.

Consuming too much Krauthammer gives me Galtstones, I think.

For a real palate cleanser, I always compare what’s on Memeorandum compared to what’s on Google News. Looking at Memorandum, you’d think Obama’s poor taste remark about “Special Olympics” was the biggest news since the Lindbergh kidnapping. On Google News, it doesn’t even make the cut, except for being buried in the stories about the Leno appearance.

The wingnuts are barking, but only the net geeks actually hear them.

when you reach a certain level of success, yeah, rules are bent to make sure you are compensated. hence aig. that’s the way the world works, boys and girls. deal with it.

JD,

I don’t think the interpretation of “bill of attainder” fits this, however. The Congress isn’t punishing anyone, they’re not seizing an asset on the assumption of guilt.

What they are doing is putting conditions on an arrangement made with the employer that the funds used to keep the business afloat be applied towards that purpose and not wasted on non-business applications. True, these conditions probably needed to be conditions of the original bailout, done by the Federal Reserve (twice) under Bush, but things moved way too fast for that to happen.

The parallel I see is when AIG was about to hold that godawful Vegas conference that they ended up cancelling after enormous pressure from media exposure. True, it didn’t require legislation, on the other hand, I wouldn’t have minded so much if the Congress did ban it. It’s our money and AIG is more accountable to the American people now than to its brokers.

Joe Max,

Memeorandum gives a breakdown of stories based on how many links (and what weight those links have) to a particular story.

Given the right wing’s Obama Derangement Syndrome, this was an easy pick for “story of the day” on Memeo.

what if bush had gone on a talk show and made a similar comment about retards? how outraged would you all be libs?

@actor212: I understand your point, and I agree someone should have pointed this out before we sent AIG a pile of money, but weren’t these bonuses contractual obligations incurred pre-bailout? Unwise, to be sure, but legal all the same? If so, then I’d respectfully disagree with the characterization of them as “non-business uses.” If it’s a legally valid contract, however unwise, then it’s as much a business expense as the light bill. Now if they’d taken the company into bankruptcy, all debts are on the table. But this seems to be a jury-rigged system to go after one group of people everyone’s mad at.

One alternative might have been to reduce any upcoming bailout payments by the amount of the bonuses, Or, as stated above, let the government take AIG into Chapter 11 and reform the contracts that way.

I think it would take a lot for average Americans to work up a storm-the-gates mentality. They’re all too scared, and used to a safe, gentle existence.

The Partner just texted me that Principal has just given its employees wage cuts from 2% – 10%, depending on level of compensation. I asked what the reaction was, and he said there are a lot of worried faces and people saying, “At least I still have a job.” Things will have to get a lot worse before these people get geared up to do any tar-and-feathering.

what if bush had gone on a talk show and made a similar comment about retards? how outraged would you all be libs?

Your concern for the “retards” (not the word Obama used, BTW) is touching.

But if it will make you happy: it was a boneheaded thing for President Obama to say. Now can we get back to the subject at hand?

but weren’t these bonuses contractual obligations incurred pre-bailout?

I’ll put it to you this way: would AIG be contractually obligated, and able, more important, to pay those bonuses had it been bankrupt?

Answer to both: no. The contract would have been converted by the courts to an unsecured liability, which means the brokers would have had to get in line with the landlords, the guys who service the copy machines and so on, and get maybe ten cents on the dollar, if the courts agreed they were entitled.

Since for all intents and purposes, AIG WAS bankrupt, the government can make the case that its bailout money should be used as it sees fit.

Personally, I thought Obama’s joke was pretty funny. It made me think of that Vince Vaughan movie…was it “The Ringer”?

Anyway, yes, it was offensive and he probably should have said “the Girl Scouts”.

And the worst of it? Obama is a timid corporate centrist who has no intention of rocking the boat if he can help it. “Withholding bonuses?” Oh, boo fucking hoo. We should be seeing mass arrests right now, crooks being held accountable for their actions, assests being seized, the existing laws being enforced (they haven’t all been abolished over the past 30 years), charges brought up, lengthy prison terms handed out to the perpertrators, genuine reform…At the very least, fire the bastards.

And these cringing propagandist right wing fucktards are sobbing about “socialism” here. Give me a break.

Brooks, Steyn, the Pantload and all the rest of the scum should be thanking their lucky stars that their corporate masters aren’t swinging from the nearest lamppost right now…and them along with the fuckers. But it may well get to that point if our supposed “leaders” keep shirking their duty and refuse to do what they were elected for.

John D,

Just curious: What laws have been broken in the AIG thing?

@actor212: I agree, bankruptcy would have allowed the contracts to be reformed, and they need to be reformed…so why not force AIG into Chapter 11 bankruptcy rather than say “well, this is sort of like bankruptcy”.? There’s already a legal way to do this, why improvise something that’s, as I say, constitutionally dubious at best?

what if bush had gone on a talk show and made a similar comment about retards? how outraged would you all be libs?

I’ll admit I was pretty angry when Bush was having them executed in Texas, but Obama’s remark doesn’t really rise to that standard.

What laws have been broken in the AIG thing?

I know you didn’t ask me, but if they sold these CDS’s at a time when they knew the things were rotten at their core, there’s a strong potential for a fraud prosecution. But we don’t know that, yet. Wasn’t Andrew Cuomo subpoenaing everyone in this?

President Obama’s socialist economic policies are destroying the very foundation of our Republic. Free Market Capitalism is the very foundation of liberty, just look at the failed socialist states in Eastern Europe, they collapsed.

Since embracing socialism, Western Europe is now in a self-induced spiral of destruction. White Europeans have birth rates below replacement levels, while the muslim interloopers the socialist traitors have allowed into their nations are breeding like rats.

Socialism is the cause of Europe’s destruction. By having governments provide cradle to grave care and services, Europeans no longer fell they need to provide for themselves. Thus the low birth rates.

Face it libs, anyone who imposes socialism is trying to destroy Western Civilization from within.

JD, John, I have no doubt that when the dust settles, a few AIG folks are going to be behind bars. I just wasn’t aware that anything had been uncovered yet.

To the question about AIG’s bankruptcy…here’s the problem with that: the other part of AIG’s business is insuring insurers, like the guys who cover your house or your car.

Let AIG go bankrupt and those firms are going to go bankrupt as well. The next car accident you have then could end up with you going bankrupt.

Again, this all goes right to the core of American capitalism and democracy.

Free Market Capitalism is the very foundation of liberty

Too bad we’ve never had either of those, huh?

muslim interloopers

Heh.

By the way, JeffRep, while I think your analysis is deeply flawed, let me just state for the record that I appreciate very much your endorsement of lewd and lascivious sexing by Americans.

I didn’t know conservatives enjoyed sex!

The behavior of folks at AIG certainly (arguably) rises to the level of securities fraud. I’d say that artificially inflating the value of the company to the detriment of shareholders and the public qualifies them for matieral misrepresentations and omissions under Rule 10b-5 of the 1934 Exchange Act. I don’t think the SEC would have a hard time prosecuting for a number of securities violations. It won’t of course. The SEC is to busy with Mark Cuban.

Niggers niggers sand niggers and brown people.

Mallet of the Cabbages, pound us some coleslaw. Do something useful for a change.

But I do agree that bribing people to defuse the explosive devices they themselves built is an excellent precedent to set. We’ll call it “incentivising the creation of aggressive financial instruments” instead of “dealing with terrorists.”

Congress should outlaw all cash bonuses. Period. Just give everyone who deserves one a fruitcake.

Just give everyone who deserves one a fruitcake.

Look, eevn Ann Coulter has her limits about how many people can have her…

the subject at hand is that our president seems to have the mentality of a rude little teenaged boy and, like all rude little boys, he is wearing out his welcome fast.

Actor, I admit I’m jumping the gun out of sheer anger here (though J.D. Rhoades answered your question rather nicely, I thought), and I take your comments in good faith. I understand there are reprecussions to letting AIG going bankrupt. But the company can still exist and the corrupt group of con artists and grifters at the top can still be fired. (And subsequently brought up on whatever criminal charges are appropriate.) Can’t they? Maybe I’m being naive, but I don’t see that as a mutually exclusive proposition.

“President Obama’s socialist economic policies are destroying the very foundation of our Republic. Free Market Capitalism is the very foundation of liberty, just look at the failed socialist states in Eastern Europe, they collapsed.”

Man, it’s all but impossible to tell the parody trolls from the real thing these days…

“Look, eevn Ann Coulter has her limits about how many people can have her”

Oh, I don’t know about that. There’s plenty of her books in the remainder bin over at Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller’s, to keep the conservative capitalists happy, and educated, for years.

the subject at hand is that our president seems to have the mentality of a rude little teenaged boy

You mean like calling his Chief of Staff “Turdblossom” and molesting the German Chancellor and doing a two-step on the White House carport waiting for the fucking GOP candidate last year?

I think you’re a few years late, son.

“the subject at hand is that our president seems to have the mentality of a rude little teenaged boy and, like all rude little boys, he is wearing out his welcome fast.”

Now watch this drive.

John,

Abso-fucking-lutely, and Barney Frank said that is one thing he plans on looking into if they prevail and keep the bonuses.

As he said, they may be contractually obligated to bonuses, but they are not contractually obligated to the jobs.

When an Executive does it, it’s not a crime!

It’s called Patriotic Capitalism!

Compare:

Bush unconstitutionality = torture, illegal wiretaps, pre-emptive war, outing intelligence officers and politicizing the justice department for electoral gain.

Congress of 2009 unconstitutionality = attempting to retrieve taxpayer’s money unwittingly given to reckless, destructive bankers.

On whose side would the angels come down?

Did ya bring the money, troll?

I got a briefcase full of vowels right here.

Oh, is Jef-Rep back? what “ghetto” was he driving around in this morning? Did he see any “hep-cats” “zoot-suiters” or “gangstahs” today?

“the subject at hand is that our president seems to have the mentality of a rude little teenaged boy and, like all rude little boys, he is wearing out his welcome fast.”

Written totally without irony by a troll.

Wins the thread!

Yes, I’m abosolutely sure the former Harvard Law Society kahuna is going to cornhole the Constitution before he’s been in power for so much as three months, LOL!

Fuck me gently with a chainsaw, I’m not even a Yank & even MY feeble sinuses can smell the unique high-note of Eau De Merde wafting from the Waaaaahlelujah Chorus being sung by all of these mewling neocon titty-babies.

If the tax isn’t retroactive, it’s fair game, whether you think it IS fair or not … & I think that since the Feds basically own AIG now, they ought to make every single one of these reality-challenged schmeebs come to the Capitol to pick up their lolly during business hours on a set date, on the front steps, in person – you don’t show, you lose the dough … perhaps some time between having to show up with their coats over their heads like convicted pedophiles & praying nobody followed them home while they’re scraping the rotten egg off their Armani clown-suits afterwards, they MAY clue in as to just how piss-poor a move they made by stamping their little cloven hooves & petulantly insisting on their Free-Lunch Bonus.

what if bush had gone on a talk show and made a similar comment about retards?

You’re right, Bush would never do this. He’d only use a woman’s clothing for a towel.

On whose side would the angels come down?

I don’t believe in angels, nor do I care what they think.

Jim,

Check this out

I like how the PC sensibilities of the left aren’t offended when one of their own violates the speech code.

Abosolutely?

My apologies to any Australian indigenous people who may have been offended by my typo above.

“the subject at hand is that our president seems to have the mentality of a rude little teenaged boy and, like all rude little boys, he is wearing out his welcome fast.”

This comment, made now, after 8 years of the sociopathic shitstain we’ve had to endure in the White House until very recently, just beggars the imagination. Even when you examine him purely on the basis of manners and personal style, Bush was a crass, pig-ignorant, unpleasant, mean spirited, mincing little creep. I know this is a humor site, but: holy shit. I’m no Obama fanboy, but at least the man can speak in coherent sentences.

And it’s not “the subject at hand” if you’ll even bother to glance at the story this thread is posted underneath. You fucking cretin.

“the subject at hand is that our president seems to have the mentality of a rude little teenaged boy and, like all rude little boys, he is wearing out his welcome fast.”

Said by a troll. The stupid – it burns!

I know this is a humor site, but: holy shit. I’m no Obama fanboy, but at least the man can speak in coherent sentences.

As long as uh….you know…uh…he has his…uh…um..teleprompter.

while they’re scraping the rotten egg off their Armani clown-suits

Things to do today: take 4 eggs from fridge, put them in garden shed.

Good afternoon Mr.Jeffersonian Republican. Medication time. Medication time.

Blar har har TELEPROMPTER Snerk snerg snicker snicker

Hmmm, this one seems to be about as effective as, well, everything else they’ve tried to use against him. People like him. So suck it.

35% of Americans strongly approve of Obama, 31% strongly dissapprove.

I don’t think that’s a ringing endorsement.

His numbers are also lower than Bush’s at this point in 2001.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

ZOMG teh teleprompter!!!

Adam, when are you going to tell us about bills of attainder, ex post facto legislation, and contractual remedies? That’s what this thread is about, by the way. Hey, Adam, what’s up with Eric Cantor voting to increase taxes by 90% on a select group of wealthy people? I thought GOPers didn’t believe in such socialism. When will you demand that he apologize to Party Leader Limbaugh?

Did Adam ever come back and impart his wisdom re ex post facto legislation and bills of attainder, and contract remedies?

What was so wise about Adam? He managed to get his ass kicked out of Eden and doom us all to toil and suffering. Plus he left us guys short one rib.

“Hey, Adam, what’s up with Eric Cantor”

Eric Cantor is a neocon turd, fuck him.

I guess BO would call him a “retard”.

George Allen got raked over the coals for his violation of the PC speech code, and BO is given a free pass. How typical.

Y’know, that’s odd, because I watched Obama speak for at least 15 minutes yesterday & there was no teleprompter in sight (& unlike St. Ronnie he didn’t have to have a stack of 8X10s to “help” him, either) – sure, he fumbled once or twice, but overall it was one sweet speech.

That teleprompter bullshit is deader than Elvis. Thanks for failing.

So, do you demand that he apologize for betraying GOPer values, Adam?

“So, do you demand that he apologize for betraying GOPer values, Adam?”

Not only that but he should apologize for being an Israeli stooge.

Ah, so you’re an anti-semite too, Adam. Better not let Party Leader Limbaugh and Secretary Malkin hear you talk like that!

that teleprompter thing is a real kneeslapper. Yuk yuk!

very witty.

“Ah, so you’re an anti-semite too, Adam.”

Since when is criticism of Israel anti-semitic?

“Better not let Party Leader Limbaugh and Secretary Malkin hear you talk like that!”

For the millionth time, I’m more of a Pat Buchanan Paleoconservative.

I don’t believe in angels, nor do I care what they think.

Oh, you took the bait.

Do you care about the difference between gratuitous criminality and remedial financial rectitude?

I’m glad it’s friday and I can start drinking. Another SN thread derailed by a troll. Off to 3Bulls.

Who’s using the word “retard” here? Hmmmmm…….hint: it’s not Obama.

I think people should be able to say “retard” and make jokes about the Special Olympics all they want. What BO said was funny.

It’s the double standard that the left displays that is outrageous. When a conservative does something like that, he’s a (racist/homophobe/misogynist/ableist/mentalist/blah blah blah) when a liberal makes the same statement, he just botched a joke.

I think I have a compromise all of us can enjoy.

The AIG fraudsters get their ALL of the ‘bonus’ money they’ve earned and the American people get a fabulous new ‘survivor’ series.

3 Bonus recipients each week will run a gauntlet of Pits, Razor wire, and Flamethrowers. Plus a new surprise each week.

Reach the end and there’s the check!

But just ONE check…

Investment Banker Death-Matches are how we solve this Constitutional Crisis!!

There’s just something really, really creepy about Krauthammer. He gives me the willies.

Damn you to hell for linking Krauthammer and willies in my mind. AGIHAGIAGHHG

The President uses a Teleprompter?! The revelation that he uses shoelaces to tie his shoes can’t be too far behind.

The obvious differences being (a) Barack didn’t use the word “retard’; and (b) he apologized for referencing the Special Olympics.

When wingnuts call John Edwards a “faggot,” or Meghan McCain a “plus sixed model,” or Barack a “Magic Negro,” or make fun of Michelle Obama’s bodacious curves, or make fun of Chelsea Clinton’s appearance, or Hillary’s thighs, or mock Michael J. Fox’s illness, or express shock that black people can order properly in restaurants, etc. they express no shame or remorse, take no responsbility, and blame the LIEbrul media. When wingnuts reveal when they really are – fucking assholes – it’s everyone else’s fault for not being able to take a joke.

“The revelation that he uses shoelaces to tie his shoes can’t be too far behind.”

I understand he can’t move more than 5 or 10 miles without some sort of mechanical conveyance device.

Wasn’t Naked Powergrab a short-lived collaboration between KMFDM and The Lords of Acid?

Naked Powergrab led to the Broken Penis Orchestra

George Allen got raked over the coals for his violation of the PC speech code, and BO is given a free pass. How typical.

Quite right! Start drawing up articles of impeachment immediately!

Joe the Plumber is still milking his 15 minutes of fame.

I don’t know what’s more pathetic – the fact that the Right has elevated this guy to celebrity or the fact that he seems to be stealing the thunder from such stalwart Conservative heros as G. Gordon Liddy.

I meant6 to say, For the millionth time, I’m more of a Paleolithic Pat Buchanan.

For the millionth time, I’m more of a Pat Buchanan Paleoconservative.

For milion and one-th time, no one gives a flyin’ fuck.

I eat my own turds!

I like Poopie Pie!

Adam, stomp on this picture of Ronald Reagan.

UPDATE: I just saw the actual clip of Obama’s comments. Much as I don’t like the man, I don’t see the big deal. I’d been led to believe it was really offensive, but it was just a silly, throwaway comment. I say and hear worse ten times before lunch most days.

caco ergo sum

“God, all this love and everything in the room — I’m horny,” declared Joe.

Getting too much like work is it Joe?

Clever way of keeping the money.

How’s Joe’s book doing, anyway?

Or his album. When’s that coming out?

btw, I ran across a very interesting proposal some while back that I’ll mention here. If only there was some way to find out who originally I’d post a link or something.

Basic idea is a progressive capital gains tax based on time the asset was held. Less than one year, tax it at say, 40%. One to two years, 30%. two to four years 20%. More thsan four years make it 10%. I just made up those numbers and time frames so they may be totally unrealistic. None the less, I see real merit to the idea of (sorry) disincentivizing sfocus on short term returns while rewarding a long term view of investing.

We must outsource brassica bludgeoning or we’ll never get ahead.

did someone mention brussels sprouts?

Please don’t AIG on the trolls, folks.

As long as uh….you know…uh…he has his…uh…um..teleprompter.

Yeah, ’cause like, in the debates?, ‘n stuff, Obama sure got his, ya know, clock cleaned by that old dude.

Right?

Have y’all seen Dilbert today?

I suppose it could just be a coincidence. I mean, Pie IS good…

mikey

How’s Joe’s book doing, anyway?

Never mind that stuff. When is he going to buy that plumbing business—you know, the one that was going to make him so rich that he bitched to Obama about all the taxes he’d have to pay?

what if bush had gone on a talk show and made a similar comment about retards?

My irony meter would have broken.

Bush never admitted any shortcomings. Too bad you’ve been in a coma for eight years.

I used to be liberal. I even voted for Obama. But he is dead to me now, since he implied on the Jay Leno show that the competition in the Special Olympics isn’t just like the competition in the regular Olympics.

The commentators talk about contracts as if they are sancrosanct, but of course contracts are broken all the time. A contract is not a guarantee of performance – it simply defines the bargain and the rights of the parties if the performance is not completed as bargained for.

AIG should simply breach the contracts. Then each person who believes him or herself entitled to a bonus can file suit to enforce the contract. A judge will determine if the contract terms have been satisfied or if there are equitable reasons to support the decision not to pay.

So, if I understand correctly:

Warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention of American citizens, suspension of habeas corpus = Oh, it’s not that bad, we live in extraordinary times, we need new tools to deal with our current situation.

Not paying a bunch of incompetent fucks bonuses using tax dollars = OH MY GOD! THE CONSTITUTION HAS COLLAPSED! WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE IN OBAMA’S SIBERIAN LABOR CAMPS! AAAAAAHGGGG!!!!

Is that how that works?

Is it too much to ask that the Republicans come up with just one argument (Not even about the AIG bonuses, about anything) that doesn’t contradict everything they’ve been saying for the last eight years?

The fact is, Obama insulted retards and uses a teleprompter. Plus, the country hates him, it says so right here.

Is it too much to ask that the Republicans come up with just one argument (Not even about the AIG bonuses, about anything) that doesn’t contradict everything they’ve been saying for the last eight years?

Yes. This has been another episode of simple answers to simple questions.

“Bush never admitted any shortcomings.”

Remember this?

Q: After 9-11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have you learned from it?

BUSH: I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time, so I could plan for it… You know, I just — I’m sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn’t yet… I hope I — I don’t want to sound like I’ve made no mistakes. I’m confident I have. I just haven’t — you just put me under the spot here, and maybe I’m not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with one.

Oh, the hours Bush must spend in sober self-reflection.

When a conservative does something like that, he’s a (racist/homophobe/misogynist/ableist/mentalist/blah blah blah) when a liberal makes the same statement, he just botched a joke.

You know, Adam has a point here.

It’s our fault that Republicans have a recent history of hatred towards minorities, while liberals poke fun at stereotypes.

Basic idea is a progressive capital gains tax based on time the asset was held. Less than one year, tax it at say, 40%. One to two years, 30%. two to four years 20%. More thsan four years make it 10%.

Well, that’s sort of how it goes now. Hold something less than a year, and you’re taxed as ordinary income. Hold it more than a year and the rate drops to 15%.

I think people should be able to say “retard” and make jokes about the Special Olympics all they want. What BO said was funny.

Sure, Adam!

My brother is developmentally disabled. Call them “retards” one more time, and I’ll exercise my Second Amendment rights on your sorry ass, mmmmmmmmK?

How do you like being politically correct now, fatboy?

Basic idea is a progressive capital gains tax based on time the asset was held. Less than one year, tax it at say, 40%. One to two years, 30%. two to four years 20%. More thsan four years make it 10%. I just made up those numbers and time frames so they may be totally unrealistic. None the less, I see real merit to the idea of (sorry) disincentivizing sfocus on short term returns while rewarding a long term view of investing.

Several years ago, I suggested the same to someone much more conversant with economic theory and tax policy than I am. The person shot it down with an argument that I couldn’t understand at the time and don’t even remember now. I think it had something to do with “credit flows” and “asset classes”. Of course, at the time I was probably confused about whether the thing in my hand was my third post-breakfast doobie or my first pre-lunch doobie.

The bowling champion from the Special Olympics has challenged Barack Obama.

This is one step up from the retard who challenged Obama to a debate. Who was that again?

For my OT of the morning,

Some of the regulars here might wish I had posted this yesterday but I didn’t know about it yesterday. You can watch any NCAA game at CBS. Live, free, online. I’m not a hoops fan (I’m a Penn State guy – we can’t even spell basketball) but I know there’s at least a few hanging out ’round here.

This is one step up from the retard who challenged Obama to a debate. Who was that again?
actor that’s no way to talk about the secretary of state. why are liberals such misogynists these days?

Aslo, I just heard that Obama said he was going to invite the SO bowlers to the WH to kick his ass on the lanes there. Cool.

You know, if Obama accepts that challenge, the Galloping Galtorinos will rake him over the coals for “wasting time” during a crisis.

Absolutely right Lawyer.

Also, Bush never “made fun of retards” only because he was not good at self-deprecating humor.

I hate myself for wondering this, but how long before teh GOP trots out the special olympics bowling champ as the new face of the party?

Now watch this drive! Heh heh heh.

gocart mozart said,

Also, Bush never “made fun of retards” only because he was not good at self-deprecating humor.

Synchronicity! I was just over at the Anchoressthang where the word teleprompter is featured in every other sentence and saw this:

President Bush was no cool cat, but he was a master of self-deprecating humor.

My esprit d’escalier for the morning: The Chancress.

They already tax long-term gains at a lower rate than short-term gains: one year at regular income rate, anything longer at a lower rate. I like the stepped idea, and the idea of taxing stcg at a rate higher than regular income, but it could get complicated very quickly, so maybe under one year at some punitive rate above regular income, anything longer at regular income.

Legalize said,
March 20, 2009 at 20:16
“I hate myself for wondering this, but how long before teh GOP trots out the special olympics bowling champ as the new face of the party?”

Better yet go for the trifecta, a 14 year old developmentally disabled fake plumber.

“As a tiger sinks its teeth into the world’s neck, we focus on the dust bunnies under the bed and the floorboards that need replacing on the deck.”

This is a mixed metaphor the way mothballs in acetone is a mixed drink. Way to go, Babbling Brooks!

If the anchoress disagrees with me ergo, ipso facto I am right. Also, Q.E.D

I never used note cards, cue cards, or even one o’ them newfangled Teleprompters when I was President. That’s because I had a memory like a steel trap!

Except for that whole Nicaragua thing.

Bush only made fun of the blind.

I hate myself for wondering this, but how long before teh GOP trots out the special olympics bowling champ as the new face of the party?

Well, he is African American…

“As a tiger sinks its teeth into the world’s neck, we focus on the dust bunnies under the bed and the floorboards that need replacing on the deck.”

What part of the world is “the neck”? Does he mean “my neck of the woods”?

Has David Brooks ever tried to dust a floorboard with a bunny? Well I have and let me tell you, it sure aint easy.

Seriously, who has caused more lasting harm to this country — every terrorist ever, or the criminals and fools who ran Enron, Bear Sterns, AIG, etc.?

Oh, and someone please give “Adam” a memo for KrapHammer, et al. : when the Congress changes this year’s tax code, that’s (by definition) NOT retroactive. A tax which applies to a specific class of income earners is NOT a Bill of Attainder, either.

tensor said,

March 20, 2009 at 20:52

Seriously, who has caused more lasting harm to this country — every terrorist ever, or the criminals and fools who ran Enron, Bear Sterns, AIG, etc.?

Oh, and someone please give “Adam” a memo for KrapHammer, et al. : when the Congress changes this year’s tax code, that’s (by definition) NOT retroactive. A tax which applies to a specific class of income earners is NOT a Bill of Attainder, either.

ftfy

“As a tiger sinks its teeth into the world’s neck, we focus on the dust bunnies under the bed and the floorboards that need replacing on the deck.”

Which is the bigger outrage: criminal clown princes at AIG getting paid taxpayer money for screwing up royally, or David Brooks getting paid anything by anyone for ‘writing’ that ‘sentence’?

It’s the first day of Spring. Don’t the trolls have to crawl back under their rocks until winter returns?

“I’m starting to think Republicans really do want to make the rest of the country angry enough to kill them…”

Just think of all the extra Social Security money we’d have !

Which is the bigger outrage: criminal clown princes at AIG getting paid taxpayer money for screwing up royally, or David Brooks getting paid anything by anyone for ‘writing’ that ’sentence’?

Close call, but I’m going to have to go with AIG, because I can drink myself silly and when I sober up, Brooks’ sentence will have been replaced on the OpEd page.

The fact is, taxing away the bonuses is illegal and imoral. It is also biased, toward the left wing. Liberals should not be concerned about a few hundred million going to people who worked hard, instead worry about billions going to reward loosers who made bad mortgage choices and are minorites or illegals.

The fact is, taxing away the bonuses is illegal and imoral.

That’s not a fact. That’s an opinion. You have to try harder fauxPpert.

I’ll admit, even though I don’t like Obama, his comments about the special “olympics” were pretty damn funny.

They’re retards for crying out loud, not real athletes. Political Correctness is running rampant in this country, pretty soon it’ll be like Great Britain where you can get arrested for making racist comments.

Just because you don’t approve of someone elses speech, doesn’t mean the government has a right to silence them. The First Amendment lefties, ever heard of it?

JeffRep,

When has the government ever tried to stifle free speech?

Except, you know, when Bush was President?

billions going to reward loosers

Finally Gay Puppert makes a good point. Those loosing the million dollar rewards upon mid-level execs are the ones who are themselves getting the billion dollar rewards.

As a tiger sinks its teeth into the world’s neck, we focus on the dust bunnies under the bed and the floorboards that need replacing on the deck.

But we should really worry about triple mixed metaphors.

Just because you don’t approve of someone elses speech, doesn’t mean the government has a right to silence them. The First Amendment lefties, ever heard of it?

Yah, I’ve heard of the 1st Amendment. I know it well. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing in it about fist smashing your face.

Has David Brooks ever tried to dust a floorboard with a bunny? Well I have and let me tell you, it sure aint easy.

Try a dead one. The live ones squirm too much.

er, my fist… ot even fistss.

I blame it on Bobo’s immiscible metaphors.

Change just the right word, and we can redirect the troll back to the topic of this post:

They’re retards for crying out loud, not real athletes writers.

Jeez, I’m like the Special Olympics of typing today….

A newspaper columnist (business writer, not a generalized moron like the “Feudal Four”) has a slightly different view.

For decades, the wealthy have been held up as people to be admired, victors in the Darwinian economic struggle by virtue of their personal ingenuity and hard work.

Americans consistently supported fiscal policies that undermined middle- and working-class interests partially because they saw themselves as rich-people-in-waiting: Given time, toil and the magic of compound interest, anyone could retire a millionaire.

That mind-set has all but been eradicated by the damage sustained by the average worker’s nest egg, combined with the spectacle of bankers and financial engineers maintaining their lifestyles with multimillion-dollar bonuses while the submerged 99% struggle for oxygen.

(The price of admission to the top 1% income-earning club last year was roughly $400,000.) That may account for the near-total absence of public outcry over President Obama’s proposal to raise tax rates on the wealthiest Americans — except of course from the wealthiest Americans.

The likelihood of Murkins getting off their lard-asses & doing anything (compared to, say, the Frogs) is pretty low, but maybe there’s hope.

“What laws have been broken in the AIG thing?”

I know you didn’t ask me, but if they sold these CDS’s at a time when they knew the things were rotten at their core, there’s a strong potential for a fraud prosecution. But we don’t know that, yet. Wasn’t Andrew Cuomo subpoenaing everyone in this?

AIG is a fiduciary. At the very least, their actions reflected a lack of prudence and care expected of fiduciaries. Even if a case couldn’t be made for fraud–scienter is a difficult standard to meet in the investment context, their actions at least rise to the level of malfeasance, and possibly criminal negligence.

Yes, trolls, what Obama said was offensive and said out of an able-bodied privilege. He was called on it and he has apologized. The SO bowling champ revealed his privilege, Obama not being a conservative will not respond in anger, but instead learn from the experience, which is the whole point of the “political correctness” idea. You can say or be anything you want, but when ignorant of privilege, you’ll be called on it and it’s up to you to decide what to do with it.

On AIG, retroactive taxes are fairly old, but I can already tell we’re in for the same battle as during the First Depression. Back then the Republicans also defended stupid gains and FDR found himself under constant battle to save capitalists from themselves while constantly having his most effective reforms ruled unconstitutional. He even entertained stacking the courts.

I imagine the same will happen now. Obama will try various moderate reforms to prevent having to rip up the system and start anew and legal issues and the sheer greed and stupidity of the main offenders will dog him each step of the way.

On the plus side, I’m actually heartened by this mess, cause as bad as it is and as unsuccessful as it’s been, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to everyone that nationalization is the only answer. I mean, everyone is asking, don’t we own AIG already? Few would complain if we made it fully formal and started cracking it open with the Justice Department and SEC (assuming the Republicans ever allow any department to become fully staffed).

Next up (hopefully) the return of trust-busting with the friendly aid of “too big to fail” and “why can’t we let AIG collapse again?”

The his in the third sentence refers to Obama’s by the way.

One o’you smart folks needs to help me out here.

I’m at a complete loss to understand why short-term investment income is to be discouraged by higher tax rates, or, contrariwise, why LONG term investment income is to be ENCOURAGED with lower rates.

Is there some specific benefit to society when people buy stocks but don’t sell them to somebody else? ‘Cause I’m not seeing it.

It’s either all capitalism or all gambling…

mikey

Please don’t holler at me for “supporting” evil behavior. If it IS evil I’d likely be against it too. I just don’t honestly see the difference…

That mind-set has all but been eradicated by the damage sustained by the average worker’s nest egg, combined with the spectacle of bankers and financial engineers maintaining their lifestyles with multimillion-dollar bonuses while the submerged 99% struggle for oxygen.

This is the fact that the conservatives are forgetting. As long as everyone was barely scraping a bit of wealth together, however false it was, they could make this bullshit argument and get away with it.

But it’s been stripped to the absolute bare bones: the rich made mucho dinero off the backs of the working and middle classes, who now have nothing to show for it, not even the prospect of a comfortable retirement.

I’ll tell you a story actor. About a month ago I was in a local coffee shop having a conversation with a friend. My friend and I are both gunowners, and we were talking about the guns we own and how private gunownership is very important in a free society.

The topic then turned to the subject of illegal immigration. I made a joking comment about how “landmines should be deployed along the southern border, that way when the little fuckers try and cross the border they’ll be blown to kingdom come.” Those were my exact words.

Now it was a nice day out so I didn’t drive, I walked to the coffee shop, and as I was walking home I was stopped by four police cruisers. The officers told me that someone overheard my conversation and got very frightened. The police frisked me and put me in the back of the cruiser. The police sergent told me that I wasn’t going to be charged with a crime, because I broke no law. However he told me that I had to go to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.

I was pissed. What about free speech I told him. He replied, that he won’t be able to sleep at night unless I get a evaluation.

The doctor who was assigned to give me my evaluation refused to give it to me. He said I had broken no law, and that everything I said was free speech. So he let me go.

But that just goes to show you how in our postmodern liberal age, free speech is under attack like never before. I never would’ve been stopped by the police for this had this been the nineteen fifies.

Freedom of speech is one of the main reasons why I’m a conservative.

Mikey, it’s not about the shares of stock that you and I can buy. While that’s not peanuts in this economy, it’s not the bulk of capital. And while we would like to encourage long term ownership of even that (because money chasing around the markets for the next quarter’s hot investment encourages short term thinking on the part of managers), there are other forms of capital investment.

The capital gains we’re talking about is direct investment in a company that’s not publicly traded, for example, or owning a building for investment purposes. Things that directly impact the economic well-being of a company or community.

So let me get this straight, JeffRep…you were called to account for mouthing your stupid opinions, but somehow your right to say those in the first place was somehow governmentally restricted?

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

too bad you didn’t get that evaluation. It might have helped you.

There’s always the distinct possibility that JeffRep is a lying sack of shit and made up the whole story. That story sounds like a letter to some wingnut porno magazine. There’s spluge all over it.

Such behavior on the part of the Fascist coppers, who revert back to being proud defenders of my homeland when they shoot Mexicans, would only have been acceptable if we were Ay-rabs and had been talking in our goddam unAmerican ramalamadingdong speak.

“George Allen got raked over the coals for his violation of the PC speech code, and BO is given a free pass. How typical.”

Because everyone KNOWS that hypenated-Americans can’t be prejudiced! Didn’t these trolls learn anything at Bible college?

Well, yeah. But he probably could have used the head-shrinking anyway.

Actor, this sort of thing would’ve never happened in the nineteen fifties before the age of political correctness. Government is not necessarily restricting free speech through lawmaking, however the defacto law of political correctness is affecting free speech.

Political correctness may not be federal law, but our socialist government sure acts like it is.

Both of these amounts are bucket-drops in the multi-trillion dollar scheme of things, but let’s hear some OUTRAGE about this:

And at a hearing early Thursday, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said that a House subcommittee inquiry had revealed that 13 firms that received federal assistance owed more than $220 million in unpaid taxes. Firms that participated in the government bailout program were required last fall to certify that they did not owe back taxes.

Which is worse? Huh? $220 million in unpaid taxes to companies that were at least required to certify they were paid up, or a completely legal adjustment in the tax code?

Funny thing is, JeffRep could probably go back to that same bar…pardon me, coffee shop…sit down with the same patron and have the same conversation, and yet somehow he’s been legally enjoined from ever talking that way again….

Our trolls don’t try nearly hard enough. If that ridiculous anecdote by JefRep is real, I’ll eat my hat and every hat of every gun owner in this country.

C’mon, you can do better than that.

And may I emphasize: “Last fall.”

BUSH BUSH BUSH!!!

Why does the Party of Personal Responsibility seem to have decided the completely made-up concept of Political Correctness is always to blame, instead of the possibility that they’re just saying really stupid things?

Why do the cops hate white people so much?

That sort of thing never should’ve happened in the first place. It is the responsibility of all American Citizens to know the First Amendment. That idiot never should’ve called the police on me, if he/she/it knew what the first amendment said he/she/it probably would not have called the police on me and my buddy.

The doctor who refused to give me an evaluation, even said to me that someone owes me an apology for this.

After hearing of JeffRep’s ordeal, we realize we have not truly suffered NEARLY the cruel oppression at the hands of police as he has. We apologize for being whiny pussies, and will offer our condolences personally the next time he drives through The Ghetto.

Actor, this sort of thing would’ve never happened in the nineteen fifties before the age of political correctness.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Have you ever read about Joseph McCarthy? The HUAC? The Army-McCarthy hearings?

The likelihood of Murkins getting off their lard-asses & doing anything (compared to, say, the Frogs) is pretty low, but maybe there’s hope.

We Murkins have so long been in thrall to the Reaganites that I believe electing a Democrat is considered doing something.

Maybe it is. If not, that’ll become clear soon, and perhaps then things will change.

Or maybe not. I’m constantly amazed at the American appetite for apathy.

That idiot never should’ve called the police on me, if he/she/it knew what the first amendment said he/she/it probably would not have called the police on me and my buddy.

Oh really?

So, let’s change your scenario a little, and let’s say your name is “Osama” and instead of Messicans, you talked about putting bombs in The Statue Of Liberty….only you said it in code, so that it came out “Mexicans, border, land mines”

The guy doesn’t call it in.

You kill a thousand Americans.

Jeffrep comes out here and screams bloody murder about the asshole who didn’t turn in the suspicious conversation.

Actor, espionage and freedom of speech are two different issues entirely.

If you’re going to encourage long term investment, revision of construction financing would be an excellent addition to the reform.

Post WW2, the environment morphed, rewarding short term payouts, directly and indirectly encouraging building lifespan to be tied into mortgage lifespan.

The result of this is cheaper and cheaper buildings, until today we have the crap you see along strips, designed to last ten years at teh outside, then be pushed over and landfilled. This, of course, has an impact on energy drain and environmental degradation.

Used to be a company would build a building because it became a long term asset, not part of cash flow. So when things were built, they were built with longevity in mind, adding value to the built enviroment as well as becoming corporate symbols. Now they’re just assets to be disposed.

There’s something to be said for encouraging long term thinking, at least in this aspect; I am not an economist, but it seems to me that looking for profits from the churning of stock is counterproductive to actually, you know, investing in a company with the hope of a mutually beneficial, moderate gain to be realized in a longer time frame.

I know, I’m crazy.

M. Bouf,

I heard that on the radio this morning, and my first reaction was, “didn’t anyone check with the IRS?”

Troll, please.

First, it is the responsibility of every patriotic American to turn in anyone they suspect of terrorist activity.

Second, BULLSHIT!!

A police officer with the authority to send someone to the psych ward? A doctor who’s also a First Amendment expert? Huh. Yeah, I totally believe that whole story.

Actor, espionage and freedom of speech are two different issues entirely.

You’ll notice that the only evidence your eavesdropper had was your conversation. How was he supposed to be certain, in this day and age when Republicans have conditioned us to terror attacks, that you were kidding.

Bottom Line, JeffRep: your rights weren’t violated, someone who might have had a grudge on you misused the cops to intimidate you, and your free to go and spew your hate still.

I’m still not seeing how the government has infringed on your free speech rights. Would you say the same thing again?

That depends on whether you’ve learned to keep a civil tongue in your head or not, I guess, but it has nothing to do with the government.

That idiot never should’ve called the police on me, if he/she/it knew what the first amendment said he/she/it probably would not have called the police on me and my buddy.

Said just after shouting “Fire!!” in a crowded theater.

Nothing could be better than wingnuts supporting bonuses (crafted from tax money) for rich executives who caused 5.5 million Americans to be on unemployment benefits with no hope of finding a job any time soon; and countless numbers to be destitute and without homes and pension plans.

The unseemly blather will go over extremely well with US working stiffs who vote (never again) for their kind.

I can’t decide whether I am:

annoyed that someone would go to such a length as making up that bullshit anectode (a wingnut at a coffee shop – please! there are only lattes and commies in coffee shops) or

impressed that a person would take the time and effort to explain the delusion in long form rather than short form wingnutese (stoopid PC libz arr!).

I think I’ll go with: blart.

Post WW2, the environment morphed, rewarding short term payouts, directly and indirectly encouraging building lifespan to be tied into mortgage lifespan.

The result of this is cheaper and cheaper buildings, until today we have the crap you see along strips, designed to last ten years at teh outside, then be pushed over and landfilled. This, of course, has an impact on energy drain and environmental degradation.

I blame Reagan.

No. Seriously.

Under his Omnibus tax bill, the depreciation of a tangible asset like a building was sped up (called MACRS, which I won’t bore you with a description). What this effectively means is companies could write off buildings faster, meaning that they could build more buildings faster, taking the tax write off yet again.

So buildings became made cheaper, because they were going to be knocked down sooner anyway in order to get the tax incentive back.

What happened to me was completely uncalled for and should never happen to any lawabiding citizen in a free society. I get nervous every time I see a police cruiser now. It should not be this way. The people should not fear their government.

We are THERE MASTERS, not the other way around.

JeffRep might have placed those mines in, like, AN HOUR. So naturally, we had to torture him.
Hannity, that better be a microphone you’re rubbing against me.

What happened to me was completely uncalled for and should never happen to any lawabiding citizen in a free society.

So when protestors stood up and heckled Bush, they shouldn’t have been arrested?

yep, actor, that’s what I’m talking about.

About a month ago I was in a local coffee shop having a conversation with a friend. My friend and I are both gunowners, and we were talking about the guns we own and how private gunownership is very important in a free society.

The topic then turned to the subject of illegal immigration. I made a joking comment about how “landmines should be deployed along the southern border, that way when the little fuckers try and cross the border they’ll be blown to kingdom come.” Those were my exact words.

So, 7.5 years of hearing TERRA TERRA TERRA TERRA from Preznit G(lobal) W(arren) Terra has negative effects, like having people panic when we overhear a couple of racist gun nuts publicly “joking” about killing people with explosives? Is that what you’re trying to say? You’d better hope President Barack HUSSEIN Obama has shut down all of the illegal surveillance regimes we had going, or a future visit from the cops might get you rendited to some foreign hellhole, sans your precious popguns.

Of course, while Codpiece McFlightsuit was strutting around like a tough guy, the real destroyers of America, greedhead Masters of the Universe, were running around unregulated, with consequences we’re now enduring. But any problem which involves (a) holding the rich to account for their actions, or (b) cannot be solved by posturing with pellet guns, is beyond any winger’s capacity anyhow.

Hannity, that better be a microphone you’re rubbing against me.

That’s a good one for a Friday.

What happened to me was completely uncalled for and should never happen to any lawabiding citizen in a free society.

If it makes you feel any better, IT DIDN’T.

Jesus Christ, you’re a tiresome load.

Oh dear. Poor Jeffy. Poor, poor little Jeffy. So cruelly mistreated by his civil-servant slaves he lost all sense of possessive pronouns.

Btw, experts of the shortenings, how do these wingnuts reconcile supporting executives receiving bonuses from bailout cash, with their repeated vehement teabaggy opposition to bailouts. I’m not understanding.

JeffRep,

Were formal charges ever filed? Were you fingerprinted? Thrown in a cell?

Did you appear before a judge?

Do you have a criminal record because of this? Even a misdemeanor?

Can I answer this for you?

No.

Ergo, you were never arrested. Detained, perhaps (and that’s assuming I believe even a third of your story), but arrested?

Never.

Wow, they call us liberals “pantywaists”…here’s a conservative crying because a cop stuck him in a squad car and took him down to the station!

Zombie,

That’s the same part of the tax code that caused, in large part, the 1987 market collapse.

And this one, as well, to a degree.

I get nervous every time I see a police cruiser now.

Did you almost cut your hair?

The people should not fear their government.

Now you’re catching on. But don’t worry, the Big Bad Negro won’t hurt you.

That idiot never should’ve called the police on me, if he/she/it knew what the first amendment said he/she/it probably would not have called the police on me and my buddy.

Because he/she/it then turned into Congress and passed a law forcing him/her/it to call the police, thus abridging your freedom of speech.

Seriously, you haven’t read that Amendment you keep screeching about. It doesn’t say that your hate speech doesn’t have consequences.

I get nervous every time I see a police cruiser now.

Well then quit sitting around “coffee shops” braying like a jackass about your penile extenders and how you’d like to blow people up, dickwad.

Wow, they call us liberals “pantywaists”

Let me just say that a 1st- and 2nd-Amendment purist, in a jail cell, visibly wearing panties and surrounded by people pulled form the ghetto is an image I’ll be chuckling over as I drink tonight.

Just the other day I was in my favorite locally owned coffee shop, which serves Stumptown fair trade organic brew, chatting with a friend.

I made a joking comment about how “landmines should be deployed along Wall Street, that way when the little fuckers try and enter their criminal lairs they’ll be blown to kingdom come.” Those were my exact words.

The entire patronage all started chipping in to buy the mines.

Actor, I’d like to think that if we could rescind that part of the tax code, we might see a decline in the rampant greenfield suburban development, as well as the resource wasteful McMansions being built in exchange for more thoughtful, well designed and constructed buildings that help contribute to the public realm as well as the private.

If, that is, we ever build anything again.

I get nervous every time I see a police cruiser now.

Yeah, sure. The only coffee shop you’d be hanging in would be Dunkin Donutz. Everyone knows not to go there because the parking lots are paclked with police cruisers.

ergo, FAIL.

landmines should be deployed along Wall Street

Reminds me of:

Jump! You fuckers!

And just becuase it can’t be said too often, tongue jack my shitbox JeffRep.

Also, PENIS.

“I’m actually heartened by this mess, cause as bad as it is and as unsuccessful as it’s been, it’s becoming increasingly obvious to everyone that nationalization is the only answer. I mean, everyone is asking, don’t we own AIG already? Few would complain if we made it fully formal and started cracking it open with the Justice Department and SEC (assuming the Republicans ever allow any department to become fully staffed).”

I respectfully disagree. Most of the basic goals of the plan make sense: In brief, the government loans these institutions money; they pay it all back with interest. It worked back in the early ’80’s with the Chrysler bailout. (And if Chrysler had read the writing on the wall and created a sports sedan six years ago that got exceptional gas mileage instead of trying to compete in the luxury SUV/mommobile market, they’d still be viable today.)

The problem with TARP is the general lack of oversight coupled with the fact that the same clowns who got us into this mess are still running the circus. If the government is going to be the banker of choice for big business, we have to present them with the same terms they would present to US–the “little people,” whose industrious slaving to pay mortgages and credit card debt helped AIG et al hide their f*ck-ups for years–i.e.: if the payment is late, we dun you; if you make any changes we don’t approve of in your business method, we raise your rate to 25% annually; if you piss us off in a major way, we repossess your business and sell it off in pieces.

Wow. I didn’t know police officers could order psychiatric evaluations and that the psychiatrist doing the evaluation for the police department could just decide that one wasn’t needed for legal reasons, and order the police officer to release you. And never a judge in sight. I would have thought that the first order of business would have been fingerprinting you, checking the system for your record and trying for a search warrant on your car and house.

But hey, I just watch Law and Order. What do I know?

I get nervous every time I see a police cruiser now.

I get nervous every time I encounter a gun loving wingnut dimbulb, and feel comforted knowing I can call the cops if such a person gets out of control.

OT, but Pitt better figure this thing out. They look terrible.

I figured out that the reason SadlyNo doesn’t denounce Obama’s Special Olympics insult is because

a) Obama can do no wrong in the glassy eyes of his sycophants

b) the “joke” is the same level of 7th-grade humor practiced at this site

You’re welcome.

Also, PENIS, also.

As a rule, I denounce any and all denouncements.

We wanna be trolls when we grow up.

Some of you will be trolls, some of you will turn out all right, some of you will go through an unfortunate goth phase. Regardless – you’re going to get your ass kicked when you get up here to high school.

I figured out that the reason SadlyNo doesn’t denounce Obama’s Special Olympics insult is because

(c) We understand that humans sometimes make mistakes, and we accept apologies

No, we’re not surprised that answer did not occur to you, it being reality-based and all…

Remember when Rush was all making fun of that Michael J. Fox dude, and he was like twitching and flopping around? That was hilarious!

Let’s see . . . . Mr. Jeffersonian Republican . . . .

Yup! You’re on my list now! Congratulations!

Hey! That reminds me. Now that Spring is here, is there any way to get on the No-Blackfly List?

wingnutty: I figured out that the reason SadlyNo doesn’t denounce Obama is because they are poopyheads

comment above: Yes, trolls, what Obama said was offensive and said out of an able-bodied privilege. He was called on it and he has apologized.

Insert joke about remedial reading.

Once I referred to George W. Bush as “Chimpy” in a coffee shop, and the next thing I knew I was on my belly on the floor, being handcuffed while 1,000 cops pointed guns at my head. They were going to hang me for treason, but I convinced the police psychiatrist that I was insane by singing the lyrics to the national anthem to the tune of “Crazy.” Eventually they let me out and here I am. This story is 100% true and totally not made up.

is there any way to get on the No-Blackfly List?

Wear cologne that makes you smell like a windshield.

There masters don’t worry me. Here masters — now they worry me.

I figured out that the reason SadlyNo doesn’t denounce Obama’s Special Olympics insult is because

You know the really interesting thing about this whole kerfluffle? Obama apologized. What’s more, he apologized to the head of Special Olympics from Air Force One before the show was even aired. It doesn’t matter it was an off-the-cuff remark made in a self-depreicating manner said at the loose, easy-going end of an otherwise long, issues-filled interview (more or less, this is Leno, after all). It doesn’t matter that the conservatives yowling about this have absolutely no credibility when it comes to morals or ethics or what’s polite or what’s properly sensitive or anything like that. I mean, let’s face it, any group that let’s assholes like Rush Limbaugh call their shots can’t talk down their nose at anyone, but it still doesn’t really matter.

The president apologized. He made a mistake and said something stupid and hurtful because he wasn’t thinking…and he said he was sorry. After the last eight years, that’s just fucking beautiful, man. I don’t agree with much of Obama’s polices and I can’t say I’m totally pleased with his first couple months in office, but I got to say…any man that’s big enough to say “I’m sorry” is someone I think I can trust.

Did Bush ever apologize for the “Where’s those darn WMD’s? Under the couch?” skit he did? Has Cheney ever admitted he fucked up? President’s big enough to apologize. Amazing.

Obama’s Special Olympics insult

his comments about the special “olympics” were pretty damn funny

No, moran [sic], he didn’t “insult” the Special Olympics, or “comment” about them. He made fun of himself, not w/ the best choice of words, but in no way did he insult anyone but himself.

I figured out that the reason SadlyNo doesn’t denounce Obama’s Special Olympics insult is because

argument from silence = FAIL

One time, at band camp, during my unfortunate goth phase I was doing an acapella version of NWA’s “Fuck Tha Police” as reimagined by Robert Smith when I was attacked by a flock of free range Starbuck’s baristas. Since then I can’t get the taste of Frappucino out of my mind.

Beryllium.

And not just beryllium; pissed off, insulted beryllium.

I was taking a taxi to a dinner party hosted by my liberal friends last night, and the talkative immigrant cab driver launched into an unprovoked 3000-word diatribe about the importance of gun ownership, the dangers of unchecked immigration, and how we need to get rid of the capital gains tax. I felt my eyes welling up with tears of joy… this is the spirit that continues to make America great!

I arrived at the dinner party and regaled my friends with this inspiring tale, but they all shouted obscenities and threw silverware at me. This incident has forever changed my opinion of liberals, despite the fact that I have been employed by a major metropolitan newspaper for the last 20 years.

J-R, the police will tell you almost anything when your mom Baker Acts you.

plus, landmines on Wall Street opens up all kinds of new architecture and construction opportunities to demonstrate our new tax structure and sustainable buildings. It’s all good.

He made fun of himself, not w/ the best choice of words, but in no way did he insult anyone but himself.

See, I disagree with that. If he’d said he was “gay” we’d be justifiably hacked off, wouldn’t we, and indicating that he’s an object of humorous scorn because comparing one to Special Olympics kids is “obviously” an insult is the same fucking bullshit. Or like calling Ann Coulter a transvestite is supposed to be an insult yet actual transvestites aren’t allowed to feel hurt by the comparison. Obama may’ve not meant to insult anyone but himself but that don’t mean he gets a pass from those that might be. You (the Universal You, that is) treat everyone with the same dignity You demand or You shut Your fucking hole, and that’s especially true for the President of the Goddamn United States.

But he knew that. He knew he said something that, as likely as not, hurt people who’ve got enough to deal with just getting through their day. And he apologized. It’s astounding, an actual grown-up in the White House.

I’m concerned that the Kennedys (who are behind this evil Special Olympics plot to fill our country w/ ‘tards who’ll vote Democratic, or something) are now going to destroy Obama w/ their bootleg liquor money, after he insulted & commented on their spazz fest.

Disemvowel them all. Let God sort them out.

About a month ago I was in a local coffee shop having a conversation with a friend. My friend and I are both muslim, and we were talking about the guns we own and how private gunownership is very important in a free society.

The topic then turned to the subject of Jewish settlements in Palestine. I made a joking comment about how “landmines should be deployed along the southern border, that way when the little fuckers try and cross the border they’ll be blown to kingdom come.” Those were my exact words.

Ever since then I have been stuck in Gitmo with no constitutional rights whatsoever. I have also been waterboarded. I guess if it makes one wingnut feel less scared, I shouldn’t complain.

Is my fake story more plausable than Little Jeffy Repuke’s fake story.

Is my fake story more plausable than Little Jeffy Repuke’s fake story.

Yes, but don’t flatter yourself, kid. EVERYBODY’s fake story, etc.

Matt, you’re probably right, but I won’t admit it.

Especially right as the SO bowling champ rolls about a 200 or so, & B. O. only got to 149. Also just read that B. O. called the Special Olympics & apologized even before the show aired.

Now I’m waiting for hoops exhibition between W. H. staff & Olympians.

#

Disemvowel them all. Let God sort them out.

I believe that would be G-d sorting them out, just like at Redstate.

Come to think of it, didn’t Jose Padilla get in a bit of trouble for making an offhand comment about blowing people up?

The other part about the fake coffe shop story I love is that wingnuts just adore the “personal anecdote=irrefutable evidence” argument.

“This bad thing concerning (insert wingnut worry of the day here) happened to me this one time, and that proves America is becoming (insert wingnut end-times fantasy here).”

M Bouf, that’s the read I got. Obama knew he’d goofed, as soon as the words were out of his mouth. We’ve all had that experience, but the words are said and you got to sack up, now. Which he did.

of course, our trollers and the Rightwing have never had that experience, since they are prone to running their mouth before their brain has even woken up, let alone gotten into gear. Then, they can’t imagine how anyone could have taken offense, cuz it was just a joke, right? The lack of empathy is strong in the right, grasshopper….

I believe that would be G-d sorting them out, just like at Redstate.

How about like this:

G✡d

Or for all our Christian friends who’ve discovered the wonderful Jewish tradition of not speaking or printing H✖s name but sure as Hell don’t want to be perceived as actually being Jewish:
G✝D

“Then, they can’t imagine how anyone could have taken offense, cuz it was just a joke, right?”

Spot on, ZRM.

Several posters have doubted the veracity of Jeffersonian Republican’s coffee shop incident. But a careful reading of his own words reveals that the account is 100% true!
Think!
A trained law-enforcement officer, after getting a good gander of the subject concludes that he is dealing with a nutjob.

I rest my case.

Was you ever stung by a dead bee?

Hard to dispute, NVM

If his story was a ‘wingnut top’ fabrication, the “glorified G” he was initially yammering about would have solved the “help! I’m bein’ repressed” portion of the story. So, it’s a ‘wingnut bottom’ story, in which he gets his rocks off by whining about his fears.

wingnut bottom

This would be a great name for a band.

Was you ever stung by a dead bee?

Why yes. Self inflicted. It’s not called the “Poor Man’s Botox” for nothin.

I always look for A Can of Bees….

Did I ever tell you now I came to be known as “Honest John”?

Well, this fellow used to come into the bar, and he had a glass eye. And while he was drinking he’d take the glass eye out and put it in a shot glass. Well, one night he has a few too many and he forgets the glass eye. Left it right there on the bar in front of me.

So he comes in a few nights later and I returned it to him. Ever since then, they call me “Honest John”.

Even in our evil liberal PC police state, JeffRep can probably avoid future detentions and psychiatric evaluations if he remembers not to go to coffee shops naked from the waist down.

But that would spoil his fun.

It was only a matter of time before the Republican Party’s aristocratic and populist wings found themselves at an inevitable crossroads.

And what is the response of “salt of the earth” types like Joe The Plumber have to say during these times? How about “I’m horny.”

This is your brain on conservatism.

wingnutty said: “I figured out that the reason SadlyNo doesn’t denounce Obama’s Special Olympics insult blah blah blart blart”

A few of today’s Sadly, No! comments on Obama’s Leno Show gaffe:

@17:33: Obama’s poor taste remark about “Special Olympics”

@17:49: It was a boneheaded thing for President Obama to say.

@17:51: yes, it was offensive

@19:03: he apologized for referencing the Special Olympics.

@20:14: I just heard that Obama said he was going to invite the SO bowlers to the WH to kick his ass on the lanes there.

@21:20: what Obama said was offensive and said out of an able-bodied privilege. He was called on it and he has apologized.

Not sufficient denouncement, wingnutty? Oh well. Piss off.

Funny all of this fake outrage about Obama’s Special Olympics quip. It’s not like he killed their funding or anything.

Oh, of course it’s not sufficient. Anything short of all liberals everywhere wringing their hands, falling to their knees, and declaring Obamagaffeolympicspromptergate to be their Clarence Thomas/September 11 yoostabee moment is insufficient.

“the subject at hand is that our president seems to have the mentality of a rude little teenaged boy and, like all rude little boys, he is wearing out his welcome fast.”

Riiiiiight.

In an interview the following year with a conservative journalist, Bush mocked Tucker’s plea for mercy with shocking cruelty, subsequently related in Talk magazine:

The journalistic principle demands acknowledging the president-to-be’s denial of the remark, but the denial is a self-evident lie. That story briefly threatened to punch a hole in Bush’s presidential campaign positioning as a “compassionate conservative,” and especially of having somberly reviewed the myriad death warrants he signed. But the matter vanished harmlessly.
At the end, for the relentless churn of the news cycle, Karla Faye Tucker was a passing shadow. What was left — this day, and a decade after — was an intensely personal story, rich with those timeless and unfathomable mysteries of the human experience cast by the executioner into such sharp relief.

http://www.executedtoday.com/2008/02/03/1998-karla-faye-tucker/

Naked Powergrab led to the Broken Penis Orchestra

Peej, I had about all I could handle about broken penises (penii?) yesterday.

I broke mine yesterday. It’ll be in the shop ’til next wknd.

One can never have enough of penises/penii/willies/wizzers/cocks/wangs/dongs/boners/pork swords/one-eyed yogurt chuckers/pricks/dicks/peckers/peters/tallywhackers/wieners/mancranks (menscranks?)/bishops/knobs or puds. Broken or no.

That’s my opinion.

Did Bush ever apologize for the “Where’s those darn WMD’s? Under the couch?” skit he did?

Shit, did he ever apologize for the goddam war he was joking about?

…and when did “gun ownership” become a single word?

pole
Johnson
dipstick
Santa’s little helper
wee wee
pocket rocket
man piece
trouser trout
tube steak
schlong
sceptre
ramrod
boystick
bratwurst
goo gun
sausage
love muscle
kielbasa
dingus
slim jim
spunk hose
bumcleaver
mayo pump
trouser snake
salami
winkie
cod
middle leg
bumrod
pedro
blue-veined custard chucker
baloney poney
gigglestick
John Thomas
lap taffy

I guess penises are meant to be broken.

wang
cock
dick
phallus

Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Priapus_Church

By the way, peej, thanks for the NCAA link. I am now watching one game on my computer and a totally different one on the teevee.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Not entirely OT, Corzine says (in slightly different words) nationalize the banks. Before he was Governor of New Jersey, Jon Corzine was CEO at Goldman Sachs. Just before Paulson, as I recall.

Or for all our Christian friends who’ve discovered the wonderful Jewish tradition of not speaking or printing H?s name but sure as Hell don’t want to be perceived as actually being Jewish:

Actually, that is why we call him God in the first place. That is NOT his name, but his title, along with “Lord”, “our Father”, etc. His name is Jehovah, or more properly in the original Hebrew, YHWH (Yahweh).

I’m happy to see that St. Priapus bit. I’ve been worshiping there for a long, long time though I never joined. Way back in the 70’s I said we fagulas should start a church of Homo and push our radical homosexual agenda under the guise of freedom of religion.

What the fuck is wrong with me?

Oh please.

He said Jehovah!

[lobs stones]

Well, the wife is out partying so I guess I can justify not having a life.

The Special Olympians and the Girl Scouts can whip Obama’s ass bowling.

Sick of JR’s fiction and AIG: Could we start a disemvowelling session early?

I have a (true) story of coffee-shop police repression! Many years ago I was in a Village Inn in Tulsa shortly after the bars closed (by government mandate) at 2 AM. All the drunken two-steppers were there in their boots and ridiculous hats. My friend and I had just finished work and were getting a late-night breakfast.

Even though my friend and I merely walked in and got a table, causing offense to nobody (full disclosure: we probably smelled like weed), one of the goat-ropers told the manager that he’d seen a gun on my person. The manager flips out thinking I’m going to start shooting up the place and calls the cops. They come and drag me from my table in the middle of the crowded restaurant and give me a thorough search. (Fortunately, I’d left the weed in the car.) Then the cops apologized and the manager comped our meal.

I could probably have sued the restaurant, but I’d sustained no damage (except public embarassment) and I’m not into frivilous litigation. That’s not how I roll.

Concerning AIG, they should set up Eliot Spitzer as a special prosecutor.

I envision an office with stripper-poles, staffed by high-end escorts adversely affected by the economic downturn. As a former AIG employee, I’d work pro-bonerbono in such an office.

Then the cops apologized and the manager comped our meal.

Wait, wait: how does your anecdote illustrate how ‘private gunownership [sic] is very important in a free society’?

Oh…

Big Bad Bald Bastard said,

March 21, 2009 at 2:16

Concerning AIG, they should set up Eliot Spitzer as a special prosecutor.

I envision an office with stripper-poles, staffed by high-end escorts adversely affected by the economic downturn. As a former AIG employee, I’d work pro-bonerbono in such an office.

I’d sign on as well. And I’ve even traded derivatives on Wall St. before, and such as.

Concerning AIG, they should set up Eliot Spitzer as a special prosecutor.

Maher had a good one Friday:

“[Bernie Madoff] lost 63 billion dollars of people’s money, never invested a dime in anything. He put all of it in one Chase Manhattan Bank account. You know what I don’t understand, how come the FBI didn’t notice this but somehow they found Eliot Spitzer’s hooker money.”

My usual line about Spitzer is, “I voted for a bulldog, I got a goat.”

My other Spitzer joke is:

Q: Why did Spitzer have to pay hookers a grand an hour?
A: He made them dress up as Joe Bruno.

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Hairdivider, Hair-Splitter, Hambone, Hammer, Hampton Wick, Handstaff, Hanging Johnny, Hermit, Hoe-Handle, Hog, Holy Poker, Honey-Pot Cleaver, Honker, Hootchee, Horn, Hose, Hotrod, Hunk Of Meat, Husbandman Of Nature, Impudence, Instrument, Intromittent Organ, Irish Root, It, Jack, Jack-In-The-Box, Jack Robinson, Jacob, Jacque’s Jammy, Jang, Jaques, Jargonelle, Jemmison, Jemson, Jerking Iron, Jezebel, Jig, Jigger, Jigglingbone, Jing-Jang, Jock, Jockam, Jockum, Jocky, Jocum, John, Johnnie, Johnson, John Thomas, John Willie, Joint, Jones, Joy Knob, Joy Prong, Joy-Stick, J.T., Julius Caesar, Junior, Justum, Key, Kidney-Scraper, Kidney-Wiper, King-Member, Knob, Knock, Knocker, Kori, Koro, Kosher Pickle, Labourer Of Nature, Ladies’ Delight, Ladies’ Lollipop, Ladies’ Treasure, Lamp Of Life, Lance, Lance Of Love, Langolee, Larydoodle, Licorice Stick, Life-Preserver, Little Brother, Little Davy, Little Finger, Litle Willie, Live Rabbit, Liverturner, Live Sausage, Lizard, Lob, Lob-Cock, Lobster, Lollypop, Long John, Long Tom, Love-Dart, Love Muscle, Love Pump, Love Sausage, Love’s Picklock, Lovesteak, Lucy, Lullaby, Lung-Disturber, Machine, Mad Mick, Magic Wand, Male Genital Organ, Male Member, Male Pudendum, Man-Root, Man Thomas, Marrow-Bone, Marrow-Bone-And-Cleaver, Marrow-Pudding, Masculine Part, Master John Thursday, Master Member, Master Of Ceremonies, Matrimonial Peacemaker, Maypole, Meat, Meat Whistle, Member, Member For The Cockshire, Membrum, Membrum Virile, Mentula, Mentule, Merrymaker, Mickey, Middle Finger, Middle Leg, Middle Stump, Milkman, Mister Tom, Modigger, Mouse, Mowdiewart, Muscle Of Love, Mutton Dagger, My Body’s Captain, My Man Thomas, Nag, Natural Member, Nature’s Scythe, Nebuchadnezzar, Needle, Needle Dick, Nervous-Cane, Nimrod, Nine-Inch Knocker, Nippy, Nooney, Nose, Nudinnudo, Ol’ Damocles, Old Blind Bob, Old Hornington, Old Horny, Old Man, Old Slimy, One-Eyed Brother, One-Eyed Milkman, One-Eyed Monster, One-Eyed Pants Mouse, One-Eyed Trouser Snake, One-Eyed Wonder, One-Eyed Worm, One-Eyed Zipper Snake, Organ, Paper Tiger, Pat And Mick, Pax-Wax, Peacemaker, Pecker, Pecnoster, Peenie, Pee-Wee, Peezel, Pego, Pen, Pencil, Pencil Dick, Pendulum, Penis Dependens, Perce, Perch, Percy, Pestle, Peter, Piccolo, Picklock, Pike, Pikestaff, Pile-Driver, Pilgrim’s Staff, Pillicock, Pimple, Pin, Pinga, Pink Oboe, Pinky, Pintle, Pioneer Of Nature, Pipe, Pisser, Pistol, Piston, Piston Rod, Pizell, Pizzle, Placket Racket, Plaything, Plenipo, Plonker, Plowshare, Plug, Plugtail, Plum-Tree, Plunger, P-Maker, Point, Pointer, Poker, Pole, Poll-Axe, Polyphemus, Pondsnipe, Pony, Poontanger, Poperine Pear, Pork, Pork-Sword, Post, Potato-Finger, Potent Regiment, Power, Priapus, Prick, Prickle, Pride And Joy, Princock, Privy Member, Probe, Prong, Pud, Pudding, Pulse, Pump, Pump-Handle, Pup, Putz, Quartermaster, Quickening-Peg, Quim-Stake, Quim-Wedge, Radish, Ralph, Ram, Rammer, Ramrod, Ranger, Raw Meat, Reamer, Rector Of The Females, Redcap, Red-Hot Pocker, Rhubarb, Rod, Rod Of Love, Roger, Rogerry, Rollingpin, Roly-Poly, Rooster, Root, Roto Rooter, Rubigo, Rudder, Ruffian, Rumpleforeskin, Rump-Splitter, Rupert, Saint Peter, Sceptre, Schlange, Schlong, Schmock, Schmuck, Schvance, Schvontz, Schween, Screwdriver, Sensitive Plant, Sensitive-Truncheon, Serpent, Sexing-Piece, Shaft Of Cupid, Shaker, She, Short-Arm, Short-Arm Trail, Shove-Devil, Shove-Straight, Silent Flute, Sir Martin Wagstaff, Skin Flute, Skyscraper, Slug, Small Arm, Smell-Smock, Snake, Snake In The Grass, Snapper, Solicitor-General, Spar, Spigot, Spike-Faggot, Spindle, Spit, Split-Arse Mechanic, Split-Ye Mutton, Split-Rump, Sponge, Spout, Staff, Stallion, Star-Gazer, Stemmer, Stern-Post, Stick, Sting, Stormy Dick, Strap, Stretcher, Strunt, Stuff, Stump, Sucker, Sugar-Stick, Sweet-Meat, Swipe, Swiver, Swizzle-Stick, Sword, Tacket, Tackle, Tadger, Tail, Tail-Pike, Tail-Pin, Tail-Pipe, Tail-Tackle, Tail-Tree, Tally-Whacker, Tantrum, Tarse, Tassel, Teapot, Tenant-In-Tail, The Old Adam, The Old Root, Thing, Thingambob, Thingamy, Thingummy, Third Leg, Thistle, Thomas, Thorn, Thorn-In-The-Flesh, Thumb Of Love, Tickle-Gizzard, Tickler, Tickletail, Timothy, Tommy, Tonge, Tool, Torch Of Cupid, Tosh, Tosselberry, Touch-Trap, Toy, Trap-Stick, Trifle, Trigger, Trouble-Giblets, Tube, Tubesteak, Tubesteakoflove, Tugmutton, Tummy Banana, Uncle Dick, Unit, Unruly Member, Verge, Vestry-Man, Virga, Virile Member, Vomer, Wag, Wand, Wang, Water-Sprout, Wazoo, Weapon, Wedge, Weenie, Whacker, Whang-Bone, Whanger, What, Whip, Whisky Dick, Whistle, Whorepipe, Wick, Wigga-Wagga, Willie, Wimwinkle, Winkle, Wire, Wong, Worm, Wriggling-Pole, Wurst, Yang, Yard Measure, Ying-Yang, Yosh, Yum-Yum, Zubrick.

Also, PENIS

Jeez, PeeJ and commie atheist – you guys have a seriously unhealthy obsession over PENIS. Grow up already.

PENIS.

Bald-Headed Hermit, Bald-Headed Mouse

Big Bad Bald-Headed Bastard?

Wow. But you’re unhealthy obsession don’t hold a cabdle to that wall of PENIS text. Holy crapola, “Trouble-Giblets”? Zow!

Lap Taffy?

mikey

My usual line about Spitzer is, “I voted for a bulldog, I got a goat.”

Don’t tell Kaus.

Lap Taffy?

It stretches. Or used to.

That’s more than just a bag of dicks, right there.

And what is the response of “salt of the earth” types like Joe The Plumber have to say during these times? How about “I’m horny.”

Oh, Joe The Plumber. Please be the voice of Mainstream Conservativism for as long as you can, you crazy nut.

And what is the response of “salt of the earth” types like Joe The Plumber have to say during these times? How about “I’m horny.”

Even Joe wants some PENIS.

I am impressed with your diligence, SPP. None the less, I have the impression you don’t have a ellipsis shall we say, intimate feeling for the subject.

Also, poop.

“What happened to me was completely uncalled for and should never happen to any lawabiding citizen in a free society. I get nervous every time I see a police cruiser now.”
I never thought I’d see the day when the troll would feel empathy for people of color.

In the interests of equality:

VAGINA.

Percy?

Plum Tree?

Here’s something for everybody!

Nortel executives win approval for $7.3-million in bonuses

Eight top executives of Nortel Networks Corp. will be eligible for up to $7.3-million (U.S.) in bonus payments under a retention plan approved Friday by court judges at parallel hearings in Canada and the United States.

The approvals came despite objections from a Toronto lawyer representing about 60 of the 1,100 Canadian workers laid off last year from Nortel and denied their severances after the telecommunications giant filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

So much for the hippies, leftists, and union members being the big threat to the economy, heh.

Sarah Palin opens her yap.

Big Bad Bald-Headed Bastard?

A fair description of both of us. How about Purple Prowed Piercer?

Don’t tell Kaus.

I GOT a goat, I did not HAVE a goat. Kaus needn’t hate me.

Sarah Palin opens her yap.

“Yap”? Is that what the kids are calling it now?

LOLDONGS: I am shocked that in this of all threads, SPP left out “business”!

Btw, experts of the shortenings, how do these wingnuts reconcile supporting executives receiving bonuses from bailout cash, with their repeated vehement teabaggy opposition to bailouts. I’m not understanding.

First you need to use the product that all wingnuts are required to use in order to grasp the deeper complexities of their unique approach to logic. Perhaps you’ve seen the ads for it already:

“THE HAMMER – apply directly to forehead!”

It’s the “first day of spring” but it’s below freezing outside! Stupid fat Al Gore and his fearmongering.

meh

I don’t claim my list is complete. No slang dictionary is ever complete. I do like “lap taffy” – the more you pull taffy, the stiffer it gets, or so I’ve heard.

Heh, he said ‘dictionary’….

SadlyNo could probably find some use for this image in future wingnut pictorials.

Nortel executives win approval for $7.3-million in bonuses

And the motherfuckers wonder why they’re getting death threats.

Oh, snap. Go read TBogg right now, if you haven’t already:

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2009/03/20/the-old-man-and-the-semen/

Hey, look! Iggy has an outie!

Thanks, Lesley.

The old man and the semen? And it’s not even about Larry Craig.

What’s next? The dirty Senator and the stinky diaper?

Hokay, lemme get this straight.

Canada welcomes George Bush but denies a visa to George Galloway because he is a “Threat to National Security”. Of course.

When did they hire Dick Cheney up yonder?

mikey

They got a jr. Nazi running things up there at the moment.

Canada welcomes George Bush but denies a visa to George Galloway because he is a “Threat to National Security”. Of course.

I think a private citizen of the United States, Norm Coleman, can tell you what a threat MP Galloway can be to another elected official’s job security. Perhaps it was a typo, eh?

Hey Sadlys,

Did you read Mat’s AIG chronology? http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

(Apologies in advance for the length!) Let me hit you with in my opinion the money-quote (and its context):

On the weekend of September 13th, AIG’s senior leaders were summoned to the offices of the New York Federal Reserve. Regulators from Dinallo’s insurance office were there, as was Geithner, then chief of the New York Fed. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, who spent most of the weekend preoccupied with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, came in and out. Also present, for reasons that would emerge later, was Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs. The only relevant government office that wasn’t represented was the regulator that should have been there all along: the OTS.

“We sat down with Paulson, Geithner and Dinallo,” says a person present at the negotiations. “I didn’t see the OTS even once.”

On September 14th, according to another person present, Treasury officials presented Blankfein and other bankers in attendance with an absurd proposal: “They basically asked them to spend a day and check to see if they could raise the money privately.” The laughably short time span to complete the mammoth task made the answer a foregone conclusion. At the end of the day, the bankers came back and told the government officials, gee, we checked, but we can’t raise that much. And the bailout was on.

[…]

So that’s the first step in wall street’s power grab: making up things like credit-default swaps and collateralized-debt obligations, financial products so complex and inscrutable that ordinary American dumb people — to say nothing of federal regulators and even the CEOs of major corporations like AIG — are too intimidated to even try to understand them. That, combined with wise political investments, enabled the nation’s top bankers to effectively scrap any meaningful oversight of the financial industry. In 1997 and 1998, the years leading up to the passage of Phil Gramm’s fateful act that gutted Glass-Steagall, the banking, brokerage and insurance industries spent $350 million on political contributions and lobbying. Gramm alone — then the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee — collected $2.6 million in only five years. The law passed 90-8 in the Senate, with the support of 38 Democrats, including some names that might surprise you: Joe Biden, John Kerry, Tom Daschle, Dick Durbin, even John Edwards.

The act helped create the too-big-to-fail financial behemoths like Citigroup, AIG and Bank of America — and in turn helped those companies slowly crush their smaller competitors, leaving the major Wall Street firms with even more money and power to lobby for further deregulatory measures. “We’re moving to an oligopolistic situation,” Kenneth Guenther, a top executive with the Independent Community Bankers of America, lamented after the Gramm measure was passed.

The situation worsened in 2004, in an extraordinary move toward deregulation that never even got to a vote. At the time, the European Union was threatening to more strictly regulate the foreign operations of America’s big investment banks if the U.S. didn’t strengthen its own oversight. So the top five investment banks got together on April 28th of that year and — with the helpful assistance of then-Goldman Sachs chief and future Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson — made a pitch to George Bush’s SEC chief at the time, William Donaldson, himself a former investment banker. The banks generously volunteered to submit to new rules restricting them from engaging in excessively risky activity. In exchange, they asked to be released from any lending restrictions. The discussion about the new rules lasted just 55 minutes, and there was not a single representative of a major media outlet there to record the fateful decision.

Donaldson OK’d the proposal, and the new rules were enough to get the EU to drop its threat to regulate the five firms. The only catch was, neither Donaldson nor his successor, Christopher Cox, actually did any regulating of the banks. They named a commission of seven people to oversee the five companies, whose combined assets came to total more than $4 trillion. But in the last year and a half of Cox’s tenure, the group had no director and did not complete a single inspection. Great deal for the banks, which originally complained about being regulated by both Europe and the SEC, and ended up being regulated by no one.

Once the capital requirements were gone, those top five banks went hog-wild, jumping ass-first into the then-raging housing bubble. One of those was Bear Stearns, which used its freedom to drown itself in bad mortgage loans. In the short period between the 2004 change and Bear’s collapse, the firm’s debt-to-equity ratio soared from 12-1 to an insane 33-1. Another culprit was Goldman Sachs, which also had the good fortune, around then, to see its CEO, a bald-headed Frankensteinian goon named Hank Paulson (who received an estimated $200 million tax deferral by joining the government), ascend to Treasury secretary.

Freed from all capital restraints, sitting pretty with its man running the Treasury, Goldman jumped into the housing craze just like everyone else on Wall Street. Although it famously scored an $11 billion coup in 2007 when one of its trading units smartly shorted the housing market, the move didn’t tell the whole story. In truth, Goldman still had a huge exposure come that fateful summer of 2008 — to none other than Joe Cassano.

Goldman Sachs, it turns out, was Cassano’s biggest customer, with $20 billion of exposure in Cassano’s CDS book. Which might explain why Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein was in the room with ex-Goldmanite Hank Paulson that weekend of September 13th, when the federal government was supposedly bailing out AIG.

When asked why Blankfein was there, one of the government officials who was in the meeting shrugs. “One might say that it’s because Goldman had so much exposure to AIGFP’s portfolio,” he says. “You’ll never prove that, but one might suppose.”

Market analyst Eric Salzman is more blunt. “If AIG went down,” he says, “there was a good chance Goldman would not be able to collect.” The AIG bailout, in effect, was Goldman bailing out Goldman.

Emphasis my own… Sheesh! Also, ‘Heh, indeed. Read the whole thing.’ and so on.

Hey everyone,

Wow, upon seeing that wall of text, I could have trimmed a lot more out and still gotten the effect.

Anyhow, secondary to my point: Geithner is a huge fucking douche; and this ‘bad bank’ idea is sort of happening secretly behind the scenes with these alphabet soup “Facilities” that are soaking up $trillions. Big lols all around.

Ahhh, just emerged from a hot bath… spent the day sowing many seeds in my Pyrrhic victory garden: a large sub-suburban plot from which over half of our yearly sustenance springs. Such salt-of-the-earth activity might still be derided as “elitist” from certain quarters, especially since I planted an extra row of arugula in obeisance to the zeitgeist.

Bookmark this, liberals:

Aaron’s Rod, Abraham, Affair, Almond, Almond Rock, Angle, Arbor Vitae, Arm, Arseopener, Arse-Wedge, Athenaeum, Auld Hornie, Baby-Maker, Bald-Headed Hermit, Bald-Headed Mouse, Baloney, Baloney-Pony, Banana, Bat, Batteringpiece, Bauble, Bayonet, Bazooka, Beak, Bean, Bean-Tosser, Beef, Beef Bayonet, Bell-Rope, Belly, Bellyruffian, Best Leg Of Three, Bicho, Bingy, Bird, Bishop, Blacksnake, Blade, Blow-Torch, Bludgeon, Blueskin, Bob Tail, Bodkin, Bone, Bonfire, Bow, Bowsprit, Bracmard, Broom-Handle, Broomstick, Bug-Fucker, Bum-Tickler, Burrito, Bush-Beater, Bushwhacker, Busk, Butter-Knife, Button-Hole Worker, Cadulix, Callibistris, Candle, Cane, Cark, Carnal Stump, Carrot, Catso, Chanticleer, Cherry…

I am interested in you idea and would like to subscribe to your quarterly.

“Bookmark this, liberals:

Aaron’s Rod, Abraham, Affair, Almond, Almond Rock, Angle, Arbor Vitae, Arm, Arseopener, Arse-Wedge, Athenaeum, Auld Hornie, Baby-Maker, Bald-Headed Hermit…

…rupert…”

Interesting.

Oh man, the comments on that AIG security story are brilliant:

Avoid lighting cigars with one hundred dollar bills in public.

“Use raincoats to hide the giant asshole that is us.”

“Lie about where you work. Trust us on this one.”

????