Bush: Bailouts only allowed for Wall Street millionaires

Predictable. Unless you are a Fortune 500 company and multi-multi-multi-millionaire, you can go Cheney yourself.

Some congressional Republicans also oppose Frank's proposal, saying it essentially forces one neighbor to pay for the mistakes of another.

"You're telling the guy who did it right that he has to help pay for the guy who did it wrong," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. "When people are struggling to pay for their mortgages, they shouldn't be forced to pay for their neighbors' mortgage.

"I think about 95 percent of America is either renting a home, they own their home outright, or they're current on their mortgage," he said. "So 95 percent of America who's doing it right is asked to help bail out 5 percent of America who probably wasn't doing it right."

OK, so explain why bailing out the richest of the rich on Wall Street was acceptable? Where the hell are the Democrats on that bailout, dammit? The Wall Street bailout is one of the worst displays of cowardice since voting for war with Iraq and Iran. The bailout was weeks ago and besides a few entertaining moments of embarrassment for O'Neil, Prince and Mozilo, the Democrats have done nothing and said nothing about this disgusting corporate welfare. They are only too happy to hide in the corner on this issue but let the poor suffer on health care, unemployment, you name it. Read More......

Da Vinci parachute succeeds

About the only thing he didn't create was the iPod, but then again, hmmmmm. What an amazing mind.

A 36-year-old Swiss amateur parachutist made a successful 650-metre (2,130-foot) drop Saturday using a replica of a parachute designed more than 500 years ago by Leonardo da Vinci.

"I came down... smack in the middle of the tarmac at Payerne military airport," said Olivier Vietti-Teppa. "A perfect jump."

Vietti-Teppa is the first person to have made it safely to the ground with the Leonardo model.

Read More......

Private Plane McCain feels your pain

I am glad Senator McCain has decided to make himself the champion of the less fortunate, calling Senator Obama "insensitive to poor people and out of touch on economic issues" because nothing says "I feel your pain" like jetting around the country on your wife's company's private plane at a fraction of its true cost. Read More......

Tell me more about the free market!

The Republicans like to look back at certain events in history and selectively remember bits and pieces. For example, even today many believe that if only we did (fill in the blank) we could have won Vietnam. Uh huh, right. Another classic theory is that the Great Depression ushered in unnecessary 'socialist' programs that block individual initiative, forcing people to rely on government handouts. Read through this link and think about just how much the likes of Mozilo, O'Neil, Prince and their kind have manipulated the US system in their favor at the expense of everyone else. Let these people play on the same level field as the rest of us and let's see how well everyone does. Here's one of the more interesting perks for America's executives:

Perhaps the most bizarre compensation a CEO receives is assistance paying their income tax on their pay and perks. A new report from The Corporate Library delves into the increasingly common practice of "grossing up".

In a nutshell that means the company picks up the income tax liabilities a CEO faces on his perks, and sometimes even his pay and bonuses. The Corporate Library, in examining 3,297 proxy statements filed between February 2007 and February 2008 found that 20% of CEOs (more than 650 individuals) receive tax gross-ups on part of their income.

Read More......

Anti-civil rights leader recruited "extremist group," San Diego Minutemen, to help put anti-civil rights measure on the ballot in Missouri

Some people will stop at nothing to push their hate agenda -- even allying with known extremist group and the KKK. That's Ward Connerly in action.

Connerly, arguably one of the leading anti-civil rights in the country, has launched a multi-state effort to place anti-civil rights initiatives on the November ballot. The ballot gathering is facing a stiff legal challenge in Colorado, coincidentally a swing state this fall. Missouri, another key swing state in the fall, is also one of his targets.

Fired Up! Missouri has been monitoring and exposing Connerly's antics.

Connerly's crew has been trying to mislead Missouri voters for months. Lately, he's had to redouble his efforts by calling for help from the Minutemen, the anti-immigrant vigilantes, who are based in San Diego. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch has been keeping an eye on the Minutemen and their ties to white supremacists. The SPLC refers to the Minutemen as "the nativist extremist group." Need we say more?

A couple weeks ago, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch blasted Connerly's effort to bring "carpetbaggers" into the state to gather signatures. All of this plays out against the deceptive tactics Connerly's crew has used to gather signatures. (And, as our friends at Think Progress pointed out in 2006, the Ku Klux Klan is a welcome ally in Connerly's efforts. Not kidding.)

The folks in Missouri who are fighting Connerly's efforts aren't backing down and are doing the work every day to expose his deception. We'll know next week if the initiative makes the ballot. But, every step Connerly takes is met with fierce resistance.

That's one reason I love the progressives in that state. They do hand-to-hand combat every day. They know how to fight. Campaigns across the country should recruit progressive political activists from Missouri. If they can win there, they can win almost anywhere. Read More......

New DNC McCain ad

Read More......

Boston Globe blasts Hillary for saying she'd nuke Iran; says she shouldn't be answering the phone at 3am

It's a story that the American media totally ignored. Our wonderful "independent" reporters collectively decided last week that it simply wasn't news that Hillary revealed she'd be nuking Iran if they attacked Israel, and that it wasn't news that she'd like to extend the US nuclear umbrella to Israel's neighbors. That means we'd be nuking Iran if they attacked Jordan, Egypt, maybe even Saudi Arabia. Show of hands: How many Americans are willing to start a nuclear war for the Saudis?

Well, it seems even the Saudis aren't too keen on the idea. They criticized Hillary this week, we learn via a Boston Globe editorial entitled "Hillary Strangelove" (the Globe is one of the few American papers to even write about this issue). They said she was as stupid as Bush:

The Saudi paper called Clinton's nuclear threat "the foreign politics of the madhouse," saying, "it demonstrates the same doltish ignorance that has distinguished Bush's foreign relations."

A British Foreign Ministry official wasn't very pleased either:

"While it is reasonable to warn Iran of the consequences of it continuing to develop nuclear weapons and what those real consequences bring to its security, it is probably not prudent in today's world to threaten to obliterate any other country and in many cases civilians resident in such a country."

The Globe says that Hillary has done real damage to the reform effort in Iran:

While Clinton has hammered Obama for supporting military strikes in Pakistan, her comments on Iran are much more far-reaching. She seems not to realize that she undermined Iranian reformists and pragmatists. The Iranian people have been more favorable to America than any other in the Gulf region or the Middle East.

A presidential candidate who lightly commits to obliterating Iran - and, presumably, all the children, parents, and grandparents in Iran - should not be answering the White House phone at any time of day or night.

Read More......

70 top Clinton donors defected to Obama in March

Joe noted yesterday that Clinton's top donors are now fleeing to Obama. There was a particular telling detail buried in the story, below - 70 of her top donors are now giving to Obama. As Chris would say, TIMBERRRRRRRRR!

More than 70 top Clinton donors wrote their first checks to Obama in March, campaign records show. Clinton's lead among superdelegates, a collection of almost 800 party leaders and elected officials, has slipped from 106 in December to 23 now, according to an Associated Press tally.

"If you have any, any kind of loyalty to the Democratic Party, perhaps you need to rethink your strategy and bow out gracefully in order to save this party from a disastrous end in November," Rep. William Lacy Clay (Mo.), an African American Obama supporter, said in an appeal to Clinton....

There are signs that the anger voiced by some African Americans is beginning to extend to the Democratic donor base. Campaign finance records released this week show that a growing number of Clinton's early supporters migrated to Obama in March, after he achieved 11 straight victories. Of those who had previously made maximum contributions to Clinton, 73 wrote their first checks to Obama in March. The reverse was not true: Of those who had made large contributions to Obama last year, none wrote checks to Clinton in March.

Hat tip, DKos diary. Read More......

$132 million, because he's worth it

To many, Angelo Mozilo is the face of failure. Under his watch he managed to build Countrywide Financial into the largest lender in the US and then almost as quickly, drive it in to the ground where Bank of America would buy it in a fire sale and reap tax benefits for years. Jobs lost, house evictions, ruined lives, it's all there courtesy of Mozilo. So just how tough are times for this failure? They're so bad that he scraped together $132 million in 2007 despite his magnificent failure.

As I've said before, these people who scream about the free market wouldn't know the free market if it bit them in the ass. In an earlier time, after the Crash of '29 for example, people such as Mozilo would be standing on a street corner begging for handouts much like the people who have lost their houses courtesy of his schemes. When I listen to Republicans talking about people needing to toughen up and quit relying on the system, well, what about Mozilo? How is it possible in this day and age to screw up so badly yet walk away so wealthy? It's easy, because this is the system that the GOP created where only the middle class and poor lose. Risk has been minimized at the top and it's everyone else who is stuck with the bill. Good work, when you can find it. Read More......

In yet another campaign finance scam, Cindy McCain gave John McCain a sweetheart deal on the use of her corporate jet.

In his first post at MyDD, our friend Josh Orton examines the latest campaign finance shenanigans from John McCain. Based on an article in today's NY Times about McCain's use of his wife's private corporate jet, Josh finds that McCain breaks two campaign pledges in one fell swoop. Nice work for the so-called champion of campaign finance reform:

Not only is [McCain] exploiting a loophole to save millions, he's actually going back on an earlier pledge. In early 2007, McCain's campaign swore off the practice of using corporate jets:

When McCain first ran for president in 2000, he defrayed some travel costs by flying on corporate jets. Under Federal Election Commission rules at the time, candidates could bill their campaign accounts the cost of a first-class ticket for a corporate flight.

But now, his campaign has said, McCain is abiding by a pledge to stay off corporate jets. In the past year, that has meant spending more than $1.1 million on charter flights, according to filings by his leadership committee.

Now McCain could claim that the problem is mitigated here because the corporation is his wife's, and technically the letter of the law was followed. I don't buy that, since one of the underlying principles of campaign finance regulation is to gain back the public's trust and reduce even the "appearance of corruption."

But even then, McCain is still going back on his word, since, as the Times story notes:

Last summer, just before starting to use his wife's plane, Mr. McCain was quoted in a newspaper report as saying that he did not plan to tap her substantial wealth to keep his bid for the Republican presidential nomination going.

"I have never thought about it," Mr. McCain was quoted by The Arizona Republic as saying at a July appearance. "I would never do such a thing, so I wouldn't know what the legalities are."

Not only did he think about it, he did it.

When McCain released his tax returns -- but not his wife's tax returns, the McCain campaign made this statement:

Note About Mrs. McCain's Financial Information:

Since the beginning of their marriage, Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain have always maintained separate finances.

That's a lie for many reasons, but tetting Senator McCain use Cindy's corporate jet isn't exactly keeping finances separate.

Josh Orton asks the right question that every one in the media should be asking (and would ask if they weren't all afraid of McCain):

Can Mrs. McCain please release her full tax returns now?

Read More......

Stewart vs Colbert

It's an online poll, so a bit suspect, but still interesting:

A new poll conducted by Harvard University's Institute of Politics gives us some answers about how the young set -- ages 18-24 -- come down on that very question....

Stewart led the way as the preference of 30 percent of those tested while Colbert checked in at 26 percent. Roughly three in ten chose neither while a shocking 16 percent said they had never heard of Colbert and Stewart....

Males tend to favor Stewart (38 percent to 31 percent) while women go narrowly for Colbert. Democrats are Stewart people (43-31) while Republicans are part of the Colbert Nation (49 percent to 21 percent). Those who say they are following the campaign closely opt for Stewart by a 46 percent to 33 percent margin; those not following the race all that closely prefer Colbert 31 percent to 25 percent.

Perhaps the most fascinating divide in preference is age. Eighteen and 19 year olds prefer Colbert solidly (41 percent to 25 percent) while those between 22 and 24 are Stewart supporters by a similar -- 43 percent to 26 percent -- margin. The swing group appears to be 20 and 21 year olds; they split relatively evenly between Stewart (33 percent) and Colbert (32 percent).

Read More......

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

The Democrats dominate the Sunday talk shows today. It's all about the Democratic primary. And, Obama goes on Fox. (It's not a real network, p.s.)

Of course, there's no need to discuss important issues facing Americans or contemplate the growing reality that Clinton's path to victory (for either 2008 or 2012) would do "irreparable" damage to the Democratic party. No, the Clinton campaign wants another debate -- so surely that is all the talking heads will be able to handle. You know how this goes. To change the subject over key issues, the Clinton camp sends out some distracting press release about a non-issue on a Saturday afternoon, timed for the Sunday shows. The pundits know it's a distraction, but the punditry will predictably play along.

Be good if some of these Democratic talking heads used some time to talk about -- and define -- John McCain. Every day, McCain proves himself to be a fraud and a pretty weak candidate. He has no power (or even moral authority) over the racist chair of the North Carolina GOP. That's says a lot about just how weak he is.

The full lineup is after the break.

No doubt, the pundits will find something to obsesss about based on this week's shows:

ABC's "This Week" , Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.; former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; Reps. Artur Davis, D-Ala., and Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas.

,,,

CBS' "Face the Nation" , David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Barack Obama; Howard Wolfson, campaign adviser for Hillary Rodham Clinton; Roger Mudd, author of a book on CBS news.

,,,

NBC's "Meet the Press" , Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

,,,

CNN's "Late Edition" , Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y; Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich.; Steve Coll, author of a book on the bin Laden family; James Rubin, a Clinton campaign adviser; Susan Rice, an Obama campaign adviser.

,,,

"Fox News Sunday" , Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.x

Have at it.

Read More......

Has it really been 22 years since Chernobyl?

Still today, people here in France avoid purchasing vegetables from the region even with the lower prices.

"The Chernobyl catastrophe became planetary and even now continues to take its toll on people's health and the environment," the health ministry said in a statement.

On April 26, 1986, reactor number 4 at Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, contaminating large parts of Europe but especially the then-Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Over 25,000 "liquidators", mostly Ukrainians, Russians and Belarussians who worked on the ruined reactor and constructed a concrete sarcophagus enclosing it, lost their lives, according to official figures.

The official UN toll in September 2005 set the number of the accident's victims in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus at 4,000, but the figure had been contested by non-governmental organisations.

Officially, Ukraine alone numbers 2.3 million people qualified as "having suffered from the catastrophe."

Read More......

Karzai escapes assassination attempt

Sounds like things may not be going very well in the real war on terror.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other dignitaries quickly scrambled toward safety when the sound of gunfire and explosions in the distance interrupted a military ceremony they were attending in Kabul Sunday morning.

The Taliban immediately claimed responsibility for the attack which happened at a Mujahideen Day ceremony, honoring those who fought against the Soviet Union after it invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Read More......