culture, politics, commentary, criticism

Friday, February 29, 2008
The Bush Legacy: America is 30 percent poorer. The dollar's purchasing power against 26 other currencies has plunged by more than 30 percent (
WSJ):
On Thursday, the dollar sank to a new record low against the euro, deepening a six-year slide in which it has fallen more than 40% versus the European currency and more than 20% against a broader basket of currencies. In late trading in New York, one euro fetched about $1.52, just two days after it surged through the symbolically important level of $1.50. [...]

The dollar's weakness adds upward pressure to the prices of commodities, most of which are traded in dollars. They're now soaring in value for a number of reasons including that they've become cheaper for buyers who hold other currencies, which drives up demand. An enfeebled dollar also means the reserves of many central banks are falling in value, a dilemma that isn't easily resolved.

The graphic is taken from the WSJ article, with one addition. The red line on the left side was added to show exactly when the Republicans, the self-anointed "grownups," took control of the White House and Congress.

We must give credit for our disasters where credit is due.
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Someone please cut Tim Russert's mike. He is turning our presidential debates and national discourse into a right-wing cartoon.


Create your own presidential candidates at South Park Studios.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
A behind-the-scenes look at how our government functions. A new "position" is being called to your attention by the closet homosexual enablers at
National Review Online:
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Idaho Senator Larry Craig is currently seeking intern applications for the summer term, which runs from May to August. The application deadline is March 15, however if more time is needed for the application process, please contact Senator Craig's office for an extension.

"Interns have the chance to be an essential part of a working congressional office," said Craig. "They participate in the legislative process as well as ensure that constituent services run smoothly. For those interested in politics, it is an incredible opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at how our government functions while serving the people of Idaho."
Or perhaps for those interested in "public service" it is an incredible opportunity to get a within-the-stall look at how Republicans function.
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Texas Retardlicans. A Texas Republican email, spotted on Charles Kuffner's
Chronicle blog:
On March 4th, Texas Republicans and Independents will have an opportunity to end Hillary Clinton's (and Bill's) presidential ambitions once and for all!

Since Texas has on open primary, Republicans and Independents should sign in at their polling place and request a Democratic ballot. They should then vote for Barack Obama. Even James Carville admits that if Hillary loses Texas, "she's done!" Republicans can help make this a reality!!! Just think, no more Clintons in the White House!

Voting Democratic this one time will have NO effect on your ability to vote in the next Republican primary or obviously on your vote in November. Since John McCain has the Republican nomination locked up, voting for McCain or Huckabee at this point will have no effect on the outcome on the Republican side.

After you vote during early voting or on March 4th, you ARE NOT done! Report back to your regular polling place at 7PM on March 4th to sign the Barack Obama list for caucus delegates. In a little known Texas voting quirk, 67 delegates to the Democratic convention will be seated because of these caucuses. This is a full one-third of the total number of Texas delegates. For Hillary to lose, she has to lose the primary votes AND the caucus votes.

I urge you to vote against Hillary Clinton by voting for Barack Obama. Please forward this e-mail to all your Texas Republican and Independent friends so that we can help ensure the Clinton's defeat on March 4th!!!
The Clinton administration represented the greatest expension of jobs, general prosperity and national fiscal health in our lifetimes. Your ex-governor's administration represented the most enormous deficits in history, as well as the loss of thousands of American lives in Iraq, even while Osama bin Laden still runs free seven years after he attacked New York and Washington. The evidence speaks for itself.

Are your testicles so threatened by Hillary Clinton that you cross party lines to prove how microscopic they are? And that includes you, GOP Texas women.
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Tax the billionaires. Say what you want about Hillary, she is unafraid to speak politically dangerous truths to the powers that support her (
Investment News):
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, took swipes at hedge fund managers at campaign stops in Ohio on Feb. 19 and Wisconsin on Feb. 18 arguing that the top executives should not be immune from paying certain taxes.

Hillary Clinton has been the recipient of widespread support from some of the country’s top hedge fund managers in her 2008 bid for the White House, according to The New York Times.

Some of her biggest donors are hedge fund managers including James Simons of Renaissance Technologies LLC, Richard Perry of Perry Capital LLC, David Shaw of D.E. Shaw & Co., Glenn Dubin of Highbridge Capital Inc. and Tom Steyer of Farallon Capital Management, LLC according to the Times.

Sen. Clinton’s daughter Chelsea also works for the New York-based hedge fund Avenue Capital Group.
Why is taxing hedge fund managers an issue? Because hedge fund managers, even more than CEOs, are the kings of our twisted economy. I cannot say this loudly enough: Despite being centimillionaires, they pay no income taxes. Their compensation is considered to be "capital gains" and is taxed at the lower rate that is levied on investment returns. In other words, they don't work, they only profit.

Is one hedge fund manager really worth thousands and thousands of teachers? That is exactly what the American economy is saying, loud and clear... "Combined, the top 25 hedge fund managers last year earned $14 billion — enough to pay New York City’s 80,000 public school teachers for nearly three years." New York Times
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Friday, February 22, 2008
Dancing in a bubble. Q: What happens when an enormously unpopular president needs to get away from his country and the war he started?

A: He goes to Africa to
dance (link goes to Guardian video of Bush gyrating in Liberia).

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
The box is better than the toy. Financial prosperity is nice but it isn't everything. Perhaps America's empty-headed worship of markets, and the hard times that will result*, will give us fresh opportunities to have simple thoughts like these (
Michel Gondry in The Onion):
I truly believe that kids enjoy the box better than the car or the toy that's inside. So many times during Christmas, watching a kid, or even myself… There is excitement toward your toy, but then you put the toy on the side and something is created with the package. It's a very American thing that everything has to be a business. Americans think… I like America, or I would not be here. There are great qualities to this country. But this sense that everything has to be a business is sometimes overwhelming.
I am reminded of Craig Newmark (founder of Craigslist) who said that money is not an incentive for him. In human enterprises the challenge and the satisfaction are often, if not usually, elsewhere.

If American can wake up from its money worship and stop playing with and obsessing about its toys, then maybe the creativity lurking in the boxes will have an opportunity to see the light of day again.

*Subprime credit banking crisis, Bush-Cheney war and tax-cutting debts, record oil prices, nascent recession and secular bear market, burgeoning trade deficit, weakening dollar, shrinking manufacturing base, vanishing R&D, dwindling market share of the global capital markets — do I need to go on?
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Friday, February 15, 2008
Oops, there goes another rubber toy plant. Yesterday while I was rudely mocking Houston for its Valentine's weekend gun show, right up here in northern Illinois a graduate student was planning his own pathetic gun show.

So: sincere apologies to Houston. My implication of its backwardness was way out of line. Especially as they chose the day before Valentine's Day as the day to overturn their legal ban on
sex-toy sellers:

"This is a happy day for us," said Gino Barone, who owns Carmens Boutique and Videos, which has four Houston locations. "We found our customers want these items. Ladies, couples come to buy. The demand is so great. This law was so ridiculous. ... It's time we got the government out of their lives." [...]

Barone said he sold the sex novelties despite the legal ban. "Our stores are loaded with them," he said. "They tried to act like this was some monster. This was only a toy." [...] Barone said the days before Valentine's Day are among the busiest of the year.


'Cause they've got high hopes.
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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Valentine's weekend in Houston. For northerners Valentine's Day may be high risk because it's high calorie, but down in Houston the risks are somewhat higher. Valentine's weekend is
high caliber:


Virginia may be for lovers, but Texas is for shooters and stabbers.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Latest music discovery.
We're Late For Class.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Soon only bankers will be able to change their sex. The rest of the USA can barely get medical insurance for routine problems, but bankers are rolling in coverage (
NYT Dealbook):
Goldman Sachs bankers and traders enjoy famously big bonuses and, this year, a little extra job security thanks to their firm’s ability to steer clear of the worst effects of the subprime mortgage debacle.

Now, they can add something else to the list of reasons why life is great at Goldman: free sex-change surgery. [...]

Goldman employees can undergo the procedure, which normally costs anywhere from $5,000 to $150,000, and have it paid for entirely by their medical insurance.

Goldman isn’t the first financial firm to cover sex-change surgery for its workers. A recent survey of more than 1,000 employers conducted by the Human Rights Campaign found that many banks, law firms and other large companies have added at least partial coverage of transgender treatments to their medical plans.

Bank of America, Wachovia and Deutsche Bank are among the firms who now cover such treatments to some extent, Fortune.com said.
Goldman is obviously incredibly forward-thinking because they were among the few banks to actually profit from subprime credit by simultaneously selling it and shorting it. Talk about identity ambivalence!

Think of free sex-change surgery as a stimulus package. (No, not that kind.) Sex-change coverage will stimulate the economy because bankers will have to get whole new wardrobes and makeup. Snap, snap!
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Guilty displeasures. I admit it: one of my baddest habits is watching the Grammys. Like smokers outside an office building who won't make eye contact with you, Grammy watchers know they're only hurting themselves.

Pop music celebrity is the dirty nicotine of entertainment, even without Britney. And this year was dirtier and stinkier than usual (I'm talking to you, Kanye), resulting in even heavier doses of empty and toxic smoke. I have nothing to add to
Terry Sawyer's review, which is near-perfect in its articulation of disgust (along with a couple of strange and wonderful highlights that I also happen to agree with — Gershwin and Feist).

Sawyer: "These big top overkills prove to me conclusively that something can be both spectacular and unmoving." Far beyond the Grammys, this statement pretty much describes the awards and game and reality shows that comprise the bulk of network television.

Excuse me while I go to rehab.
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Sunday, February 10, 2008
I hate Katie Couric. I'm watching her interview Hillary Clinton on 60 Minutes, and it is clear from the line of questioning that Katie Couric is not fit to be a stringer for a women's magazine at the grocery checkout, let alone the face of CBS News. She is a marshmallow-headed featherweight who does not even deserve to get Hillary's autograph, much less an interview. The Obama interview that preceded it didn't have the moronic fake-contentious quality that seems to be her stock in trade.

Given her total lack of ability to add any insight to a serious topic, Katie Couric should not be permitted to edit a high school yearbook let alone a presidential campaign. There are plenty of disgraceful performers in American journalism, and she is among the worst.
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Saturday, February 09, 2008
Because I care. The thousands of you Googlers who arrive here searching for
"blow job classes illinois" are no doubt disappointed by my post referring to Martha Stewart's blow job — that is, the case made against Martha Stewart's stock trade being very reminiscent of the case made against another famous Democrat way back in 1998.

So let's get right to the good stuff. What you came here for is blow job classes in Illinois, specifically in Chicago, so here's exactly what you want: G Boutique's "How to Give a Great Blow Job" class.

Description: "The hummer, the yummer, the flicker, the tickler... learn these and lots more tips and techniques. Take this class and Blow him away!" You can even make it a private class with up to 20 friends. It's not clear whether Sadie Allison's Tickle His Pickle is the required textbook, whether there will be a pop quiz, or what will be on the final exam. Emission accomplished?

Good luck. While you're boning up and studying hard, think of Skimble!

You're welcome.
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Go All-American! The US primary system is such antiquated, patchwork bullshit. And even 2/3 of the Wall Street Journal's readers
agree:


In addition to neutralizing the toxic effect of Iowa and New Hampshire, we should also go to a direct proportional vote in all 50 states.

Someday ordinary American voters ought to celebrate the joy of democracy with a meaningful process, instead of just creating a sideshow to precede the purple thumbs of superdelegates.
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Friday, February 01, 2008
State of the Union in 18 seconds.



More from Joe Seigenthaler. Explanation.
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Greatest Hits · Alternatives to First Command Financial Planning · First Command, last resort, Part 3 · Part 2 · Part 1 · Stealing $50K from a widow: Wells Real Estate · Leo Wells, REITs and divine wealth · Sex-crazed Red State teenagers · What I hate: a manifesto · Spawn of Darleen Druyun · All-American high school sex party · Why is Ken Lay smiling? · Poppy's Enron birthday party · The Saudi money laundry and the president's uncle · The sentence of Enron's John Forney · The holiness of Neil Bush's marriage · The Silence of Cheney: a poem · South Park Christians · Capitalist against Bush: Warren Buffett · Fastow childen vs. Enron children · Give your prescription money to your old boss · Neil Bush, hard-working matchmaker · Republicans against fetuses and pregnant women · Emboldened Ken Lay · Faith-based jails · Please die for me so I can skip your funeral · A brief illustrated history of the Republican Party · Nancy Victory · Soldiers become accountants · Beware the Merrill Lynch mob · Darleen Druyun's $5.7 billion surprise · First responder funding · Hoovering the country · First Command fifty percent load · Ken Lay and the Atkins diet · Halliburton WMD · Leave no CEO behind · August in Crawford · Elaine Pagels · Profitable slave labor at Halliburton · Tom Hanks + Mujahideen · Sharon & Neilsie Bush · One weekend a month, or eternity · Is the US pumping Iraqi oil to Kuwait? · Cheney's war · Seth Glickenhaus: Capitalist against Bush · Martha's blow job · Mark Belnick: Tyco Catholic nut · Cheney's deferred Halliburton compensation · Jeb sucks sugar cane · Poindexter & LifeLog · American Family Association panic · Riley Bechtel and the crony economy · The Book of Sharon (Bush) · The Art of Enron · Plunder convention · Waiting in Kuwait: Jay Garner · What's an Army private worth? · Barbara Bodine, Queen of Baghdad · Sneaky bastards at Halliburton · Golf course and barbecue military strategy · Enron at large · Recent astroturf · Cracker Chic 2 · No business like war business · Big Brother · Martha Stewart vs. Thomas White · Roger Kimball, disappointed Republican poetry fan · Cheney, Lay, Afghanistan · Terry Lynn Barton, crimes of burning · Feasting at the Cheney trough · Who would Jesus indict? · Return of the Carlyle Group · Duct tape is for little people · GOP and bad medicine · Sears Tower vs Mt Rushmore · Scared Christians · Crooked playing field · John O'Neill: The man who knew · Back to the top






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