This is how the "free market" worked in 2008

Only the Republicans could properly destroy the very meaning of "free market" like this. For years the GOP has believed in helping the strongest get stronger and leaving the idea of competition in the past. It's no wonder they can't understand that we're in a recession and think we need more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. From the AFL-CIO blog:

Even as the U.S. economy went into a tailspin, the median salary for CEOs of 200 large corporations increased by 4.5 percent to $1.08 million. On top of that, these corporations keep plying executives with generous freebies, despite the public outcry over private jets and other executive perks.

The 2009 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch site, which launches today, points out that the perks for executives rose on average by 12.5 percent in 2008 to $336,248—or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker. Even more appalling is the practice of rewarding executives who drive their companies into the ground.

For example, the site reports that in 2007—the year the financial crisis began to unfold—the top 10 recipients of the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) collectively paid their CEOs a combined $242 million in total annual compensation. That averages nearly $25 million per CEO to run companies that might have gone bankrupt if not for billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance.

It pays to be a loser in their world. Too bad it doesn't work that way for everyone. Read the rest of this post...

Former Bush officials can no longer travel abroad, for fear of being extradited under torture charges

Funny as hell. And just one more indication of what the Republicans have done to our national image.

Read the rest of this post...

McCain disses Palin on Leno

McCain knows he made a mistake. Not just in picking Palin, but in pretending he was someone he wasn't (a far-right, mindless, Paline-esque conservative) in order to win an election. And now he's too old to run again. That has to leave anyone a little bitter. And finally, after months of Palin mouthing off about not even wanting to pray with McCain aides, the big guy is biting back. From CNN:

Did John McCain snub Sarah Palin during an appearance Monday on NBC's The Tonight Show?

That's what some pro-Palin bloggers and other political observers claim after the former GOP presidential candidate left out his former running mate when naming five governors who he thought were in position to lead the Republican Party.

"We have, I'm happy to say, a lot of voices out there," McCain told host Jay Leno before listing Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Utah Gov. Jim Huntsman, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist....

McCain then quickly joked, "I've left out somebody's name and I'm going to hear about it."

There are pro-Palin bloggers? That's just sad. Read the rest of this post...

Next on the gay marriage docket: New York and Maine

Okay, Vermont is done. Iowa is done. The New Hampshire House passed a marriage bill in March, but may get "tangled up" in the NH Senate.

Up next, New York and Maine.

Towleroad reports that New York Governor Paterson will introduce his marriage bill on Thursday:

Paterson said in radio interviews last Thursday that he wants public debate on the issue: "I’m going to put the bill out and just let people fight it out. If it loses, it loses. And let the parties on both sides have their say. Inevitably, the inertia is that the public will accept this."

Maine's bill, LD 1020, has over 60 co-sponsors. The hearing on the bill will be held on April 22nd. It won't be at the State House. No, because of the expected crowds, the hearing will be held at the Augusta Civic Center. The right-wingers are apoplectic in Maine. I hear they're doing lots of direct mail and even planning robo-calls. Our side is running an aggressive field operation. This is going to be a battle.

Equality Maine is leading the charge in Maine. The group produced this video:

We'll be watching Maine and New York (and New Hampshire.) Read the rest of this post...

Maybe Obama should send a Nazi sympathizer to the Vatican

UPDATE: The Vatican is "denying" the story. Kind of. Read their denial. It's something that, as a lawyer myself, I'd have written if I were guiltily parsing my words:

A Vatican spokesman dismissed reports that the Holy See has rejected several candidates for U.S. ambassador to the Vatican because of their support for legal abortion.

"No proposals about the new ambassador of the United States to the Holy See have reached the Vatican, and therefore it is not true that they have been rejected. The rumors circulating about this topic are not reliable," the spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi...

"Reached the Vatican." Uh huh. Sure, they embrace Nazi-sympathizers and enable pedophiles, but why should anyone suspect them of lying?

UPDATE: Someone is suggesting that Obama just appoint Demjanjuk. Gets him out of the country and satisfies the Vatican's taste in men.

The Vatican has reportedly vetoed three of Obama's proposed ambassadors, including Caroline Kennedy, because they're pro-choice. Which is funny, since the Vatican isn't nearly as discerning about welcoming Holocaust-deniers into its ranks. Speaking of which, when does the Pope plan on doing something about the Nazi-sympathizer he's now embracing, even though he knew the man is a Holocaust denier? The Pope told him to recant or else. No recant. And nothing from the Vatican, as if we'll all just forget that the German-born Pope, who was a member of the Hitler Youth, welcomed a Holocaust-denialist into the Vatican. Fat chance. Read the rest of this post...

Mini-Paulson, out at TARP

Paulson's choice of Neel Kashkari to run TARP was classic Wall Street, more of the same. Yet another Goldman alum in charge of a government agency related to Wall Street is something we've all become familiar with in recent years. Kashkari always seemed over his head with this important job but Geithner has had his own struggles between getting in the door, attempting to step up to the role and then hiring a team. The new choice is a familiar name due to his role since September at Fannie Mae. As much as I wouldn't mind seeing new faces, there is benefit in hiring someone who is a respected elder on Wall Street who already knows the way around that area. MarketWatch:

President Barack Obama is expected to pick Fannie Mae Chief Executive Herb Allison to head the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Monday.

The newspaper cited unnamed sources as saying the administration is turning to Allison as an experienced manager "at a time when it is having trouble filling key finance posts."

Allison, 65, is the former chairman of investment company TIAA-CREF and was a Merrill Lynch & Co. executive. He took the reins at Fannie Mae in September, after the government seized it and its sister firm Freddie Mac.

Read the rest of this post...

OMG they're all the same camera! Except they're not.

Conservative bloggers, acting on a tip from an anonymous viral email (seriously), have been running with a story accusing President Obama of "staging" his raucous meetings with US troops in Iraq. According to the chain email, and the bloggers, the troops' overwhelming support for their commander-in-chief was faked. You see, the Obama people hand-picked troops who only voted for Obama, the story goes, and then they gave them all very expensive $200 and $300 cameras in order to "take photos" of Obama, in a brilliantly coordinated stunt worthy of Capricorn One.

The proof? All the cameras in the photos of Obama with the troops are the same!

Except, of course, they're not.

I grabbed a photo off the White House Web site, counted around 30 cameras in the shot, and then took a look to see if they were all the same. I counted 15 different cameras, at least, among the 30 (including one guy with a pink one - Lindsey, is that you?). You can click on the photo above to get a larger copy, and count the cameras with me. Now, a lot of the cameras look like Canon cameras, but that's not a surprise since everyone I know has a Canon digital camera. Also, you have to wonder where the White House would get $200 and $300 cameras to give the troops, without anybody knowing. Why wouldn't they just buy disposable cameras and hand them out?

Because it's all a lie.

I don't write much about the conservative blogosphere because I don't enjoy the he-said-she-said nastiness that goes on between the right and left online. Also, I don't report on them because I don't find them newsworthy. But, when conservative blogs are pushing a smear against Obama - and a smear of our own troops - based on an anonymous chain email, it deserves a response.

But in all fairness to the conservative blogs, I understand they had a hard time translating the email from the original Nigerian.

PS I understand that John McCain was there too, with his favorite camera. Read the rest of this post...

Video of my CNN debate with Dennis Prager about the media coverage of the gay marriage issue

Thanks to John Amato over at Crooks & Liars, we finally have footage of my CNN appearance on Sunday with conservative radio host Dennis Prager. Prager and I were debating whether the media is too darned liberal and that's why FOX News, among others, didn't give much coverage to all the gay marriage victories (yes, I know). Anyway, Prager went off, repeatedly, about how gay marriage was a more important issue than the economy (thus the look of consternation on my face, above). I disagreed. I suspect most of "real" America did too. Read the rest of this post...

Conservatives prepare to "unload their teabags" - seriously

This is a real action alert someone just forwarded me. It's about the Teabagging Parties that conservative activists are holding tomorrow to oppose the stimulus spending. It's not a parody.

Read the rest of this post...

Retail sales drop, surprise the market

Two months of increases were a good start and three would have been even better. To a degree it should not come as a surprise that the previous increases would falter. It's not a healthy economy so it's to be expected. Before the celebrations start, the economy has to have consistency and predictability, neither of which should be expected in the first half of the year and probably not in the second half either. There is no quick fix though the "I must have resolution and recovery today" crowd in the media doesn't always get it. Today's report is not the end of the world but it's anyone's guess how the markets will respond. Reuters:

Sales at U.S. retailers unexpectedly fell in March, snapping two months of increases, as motor vehicle and electronic good purchases declined, according to a government report on Tuesday that indicated subdued consumer spending amid rising unemployment.

The Commerce Department said total retail sales dropped 1.1 percent after rising by a revised 0.3 percent in February, previously reported as a 0.1 percent fall.

Read the rest of this post...

Dr. Laura says gay couples are a "beautiful thing and a healthy thing"

Oh.

My.

God.

Who is that woman on the TV screen? Conservative radio talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger went on Larry King a few days ago and dodged and weaved and avoided every gay-related question she got. But not entirely. She did let it be known that she thinks its a "a beautiful thing and a healthy thing" when gay couples fall in love.



This is a huge deal.

First off, let me say, kudos to Dr. Laura. She's changed. Friends and I ran the campaign against her then-new TV show nine years ago. It was called StopDrLaura.com. We launched the campaign because, at the time, Dr. Laura was anything but reticent about gay issues. She called homosexuality "a biological error." She made comments about gay men being prone to pedophilia. It was nasty.

And today, she's not only avoiding gay questions, on gay marriage specifically she said: "I don't have much of an opinion on it."

Something has happened in our society over the past decade. And over the past few months as well. When Rick Warren and Dr. Laura are both on TV in the same week, and both are visibly distancing themselves from their anti-gay past, something significantly has changed in our culture.

And let me add one final thought. When I launch online campaigns on this or that issue, I usually hear from some people, on our side, who think the protest is frivolous and silly. Who think it doesn't matter, or won't accomplish anything. The fact that one of the top conservative radio hosts in America, with millions of listeners, has changed her tune on gay issues by 179.99 degrees is simply huge. Never say that it isn't worth it. It always is. Read the rest of this post...

When Teabagging meets 2M4M

Our friend Andy Cobb has another video. This time it's about the lead groups of the religious right coming together and launching a million dollar campaign against gay marriage called "Two Million for Marriage," or 2M4M. Too bad that M4M is already taken. It's the call-sign for gay sex chat rooms.

More from Andy:

I'm assuming here that 2m4m actually refers to a gay three-way. It seems implied, if "m4m" is "man looking for a man, "2m4m" is "two men looking for a man." It could, however, also refer to a man looking for another man twice. Or two men times four men. It's hard to know exactly how freaky the NOM equation could get.

Let's hope for the best of all possible outcomes from this dumbass marketing campaign: a dramatic uptick in people getting together for group sex. You only go around once, people.

And here's Andy's previous video, the prequel to this one. It's about the conservatives giving their tax protests the unfortunate name "Teabagging Protests."

Read the rest of this post...

The latest from the Wasilla Hillbillies

Via Ben Smith:

A Palmer grand jury has indicted Diana Palin on burglary, theft and trespass charges related to three break-ins at a Wasilla home.

Palin, 35, is the half-sister of Todd Palin, Gov. Sarah Palin's husband....

Police say she broke into a home on West Mill Site Circle owned by Theodore Turcott to steal cash. Turcott told investigators he'd lost nearly $2,600 in two prior burglaries, so when he saw an unfamiliar car pull into his driveway, he waited in a bathroom for Palin and confronted her after she headed straight for a cabinet where he kept his money, according to a police affidavit filed by Officer Jentry Crain. Palin's 4-year-old daughter came into the home as her mother was being detained by Turcott, who was armed, police and prosecutors say.

Read the rest of this post...

Bank of America may be facing SEC investigation

Bank of America, led by Ken Lewis, has been lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act -- even while receiving taxpayer bailout money. Bank of America doesn't want "increased spending power of lower income consumers." Nice.

Meanwhile, Bank of America wasn't tending to its own core business -- and may not have actually following the law. The SEC is looking at the bank (and this is the new Obama SEC, not the old Bush SEC). From Reuters (which got the story from the Financial Times):

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing if Bank of America Corp violated federal securities law by failing to disclose to shareholders Merrill Lynch's plan to pay $3.62 billion in bonuses before they voted for the merger of the banks, the Financial Times said.

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the SEC, wrote in a letter to a Democratic congressman that the regulator was "carefully reviewing the Bank of America disclosure" and had not yet expressed a view on whether the bonus plan should have been revealed, the paper said.

Last week, Congressman Dennis Kucinich said in a letter to the SEC that there were "significant questions" surrounding Bank of America's failure to disclose bonus details before shareholders voted on the bank's acquisition of Merrill.

Ken Lewis probably thinks taxpayers will cover paying the bank's legal fees and any penalties, too. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

One more day til teabagging day. The "talent" at FOX and all of their right wing allies must be getting really, really excited. This is probably a first for many of them. There is a great big "ick" factor associated with the teabaggers -- on several levels.

Obama is delivering a major speech on the economy today. Most of us know we're in an economic crisis. That excludes the Party of NO who just don't think it's real.

One other thing: I'm glad the Obamas finally got their dog, but he's not the best dog in DC. The best dog is Petey, who is from the DC shelter on New York Avenue:
Read the rest of this post...

Facebook causing problems, again

It's all very shocking to believe that college students who are glued to Facebook get worse grades. These kids need to get out more...a lot more.

Facebook users have lower overall grades than non-users, according to a survey of college students who also ironically said the social networking site does not interfere with studying.

That disconnect between perception and reality does not necessarily mean that Facebook leads to less studying and worse grades -- the grades association could be caused by something else. However, it does raise more questions about how students spend their time outside class on activities such as Facebook, part-time jobs and extracurricular activities.

Read the rest of this post...

Economy impacting retirement, over-45', minority men and new graduates

But besides that, everything is fine as the GOP tells us. The fact remains that everyone can hear about someone they know who is being impacted whether it's themselves, their kid who is graduating from college to pre-retirees and retirees. What bubble are Republicans living in this time? Bush was infamous for his own bubble but it seems to have overtaken the entire party who thinks it's going well. Republicans have never bothered to care about minorities - anyone other than white, male and straight is one too many for them - so it's hardly a surprise that minority males are suffering during this recession. Many never recovered from the last one.

Because of our over-reliance on Wall Street for our retirement programs, retirees have been clobbered without the chance for most to recover quickly or easily. Those workers who are starting to close in on retirement age are now struggling to find work if they have been a casualty in this recession.

Workers ages 45 and over form a disproportionate share of the hard-luck recession category, the long-term unemployed — those who have been out of work for six months or longer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

On average, laid-off workers in this age group were out of work 22.2 weeks in 2008, compared with 16.2 weeks for younger workers. Even when they finally land jobs, they typically experience a much steeper drop in earnings than their younger counterparts.

Who are Republicans talking with out there that say "all is well" because it's not? Read the rest of this post...

Now the Mormons are upset about.... Brigadoon

This little tidbit from Vernal, Utah was sent to me a few weeks ago by my friend David, but it's still topical, and worth a chuckle. Brigadoon? Read the rest of this post...