God help us all today, the day on which the Lieberman-Kyl amendment passed, a "dangerous effort to put us on the record for the use of military force in Iran."
A group working to combat childhood obesity is using — of all things — Sen. Larry Craig’s (R., Idaho) men’s room incident to raise awareness on how campaign contributions by big agricultural interests affects kids’ health. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit advocacy group, will introduce a television ad Wednesday — the same day Craig is expected in a Minneapolis court in an attempt to withdraw his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from a sex sting at the Minneapolis airport.
It’s a bit of a leap. The “Dirty Little Secret” ad is a takeoff on Craig’s incident: a faceless senator enters a men’s room, taps his foot and grabs thick bundles of cash handed to him under a stall divider. [...]
So what’s the Craig connection? There’s isn’t one, Chaitowitz acknowledges. “We just thought it was a good opportunity to draw attention to an issue that is dry and boring.”
It's a bit of a stretch, but at least it's a funny stretch. Watch the ad here.
President Bush could be court-martialed for abuse of power as Commander-in-Chief. Vice President Cheney could probably be court-martialed for his performance as Acting Commander-in-Chief in the White House bunker the morning of September 11, 2001 .
We in the U.S. military would never consider a military coup, removing an elected president and installing one of our own. But following our oath of office, obeying the Nuremberg Principles, and preventing a rogue president from committing a war crime is not a military coup. If it requires the detention of executive branch officials, we will not impose a military dictatorship. We will let the Constitutional succession take place. This is what we are sworn to. This is protecting the Constitution, our highest obligation. In 2007, this is what is meant by “Duty, Honor, Country.”
"If Jenna got married in the White House, it would be a tremendous boost to (President Bush's) popularity," says Doug Wead, former special assistant to the first President Bush and author of "All the Presidents' Children."
"Nixon received a lot of goodwill because of Tricia's wedding. I've said before that President Bush's best chance to come out of his term well is if they capture Osama bin Laden and one of the twins gets married."
Of course, there are less cynical reasons a couple might choose a White House wedding. The place already has a no-fly zone, protecting the betrothed from the chopperazzi attacks that plague other celebrity couples.
Nothing distracts Americans from our quagmires and the blood on our hands quite like a big White House wedding.
But now Wells Real Estate Investment Trust, the public, nontraded REIT with about $5 billion in assets across the country (mostly class A office buildings) has changed its name to Piedmont Office Realty Trust Inc.
"The name change is a natural progression in our strategy of differentiating ourselves as a unique, self-managed REIT," said Donald A. Miller, CFA, Piedmont's president and CEO.
Yeah, right. My guess is it's a preemptive marketing strategy to stave off the ungodly taint of Leo Wells and the $161 million he stole from shareholders through the help of his folksy Christian manner. The disappearance of $161 million into the pocket of your Christian CEO not the kind of thing Jesus would want your investors to know about — so you change the name of the fund.
Interestingly, one of the Board of Directors of the newly renamed fund, Michael R. Buchanan, sports facial hair. This is the kind of crime, along with atheism and casual wear, for which previous Wells employees were fired.
When even Forbes and the Wall Street Journal perceive you as a Christian wackjob, it's time to change your name!
Investors, beware. $161 million is not chump change. Jesus might not trick you but the hypocrite Wells, hiding behind Jesus, certainly would.
A Wells REIT by any another name would still stink to high heaven.
The financial sector cut 35,752 jobs in August — the highest one-month total for the field in 14 years — as mortgage and subprime lenders collapsed this summer.
Overall U.S. job cuts increased 85% between July and August, with nearly half of the those layoffs coming from financial firms, a study from Challenger Gray & Christmas Inc. found. [...] Eighty-six percent of these came from the mortgage/ subprime area.
At 102,758 layoffs this year, the field is well on its way to beat its annual record of 116,515 cuts in 2001. [...]
“We have not seen such a rapid descent since the airlines shed thousands of workers in the wake of Sept. 11.”
Whoops.
Will our subprime lenders be pursued as vigorously as bin Laden has been pursued?
The answer is "probably" because bin Laden is still at large. In six years, most of the architects of the subprime credit attack on the US will also be walking free in Connecticut or wherever they keep their spider holes.
