Kristin Davis, the madam in question, went public to ABC News this week; ABC will be broadcasting her interview Friday at 10 pm. Davis says she has a list of 9,800 clients, many of whom she says New York prosecutors deliberately avoided when taking her case, even though she offered them her annotated client list.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Wall_Street_CEOs_investment_bankers_charged_0206.html
Meet Florida's state committeewoman Carol Carter, "a hard-working, loyal Republican for many years." This loyal Republican, Carol Carter, forwarded a whimsical email to her loyal Republican colleagues around Tampa Bay about the very convenient ability of many black people to travel to Washington D.C. for Obama's inauguration, despite the fact that many blacks drowned when Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans.
From: Carol Carter
Friday, January 30, 9:30 AM
Subject: FW: Amazing!I'm confused
How can 2,000,000 blacks get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn't get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?
Carol Carter
HAHAHAHAHA. Get it?! Because black people are … lazy? They like cold weather? Jesus Christ.
Carol Carter, the loyal Republican, thought she'd nipped this particular racist-GOP controversy in the bud by sending the following to clarify the first email (but was tragically fired anyway):
From: Carol Carter
January 30, 5:54 PM
Subject: Earlier e-mail
I have been asked to send this apology for my earlier e-mail. I am sorry that it was received in a negative manner. I do hope that we are going to be allowed to keep our sense of humor.
If we can't laugh at the people we used to keep as slaves and continue to torment with outrages like the "eh" response to Katrina, then what can we laugh at, right?
Later in a telephone interview, she said she regretted that the e-mail became public because she realized it "could be taken as very racial."
"I would never take something like this to the media," she said. "It's like what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."
In one fell swoop Carter blamed whoever leaked her little joke to the media, insulted everyone who saw this as the stunningly hateful and snide remark it was fully intended to be (which evidently includes people in her own inner circle), lashed out at the leaker, and used bad grammar. The word is "racist," honey, not "racial." The fact that you don't know the difference is part of the problem. You're one of those idiot white people the rest of us blush over.
Comedian Carol Carter
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h/t Rachel
Tiny orphan deer delivered by C-section: http://buburuza.net/?p=6938
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150 years ago, Charles Darwin put forth the theory of evolution based on natural selection. Layers and layers of scientific evidence have since proven many of his theories to have merit and evolution is mostly accepted as fact by the scientific community. But what about the general public? In a 2005 Gallup poll, the United States ranks second to last in public acceptance, right before Turkey ( a mostly Muslim nation.) http://www.teambio.org/2009/02/05/150-years-later-public-acceptance-of-evolution-in-us-still-struggles/
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So President Obama made a welcome return appearance at the House Democrats' retreat, where he made the the arguments that Democrats have so desperately needed to make themselves, but can't seem to find the spine to do so.
Here's the take from Politico, "At Dem retreat, a partisan love fest"
It would be hard to count the levels of stupid here. Why Democrats never get to be partisan, even when there's only Democrats around, is beyond me. But the real problem with their portrayal of the event - and most importantly Obama's remarks - as "a partisan love fest" is that all Obama did was tell the truth. It's not partisan to say that a caucus which didn't offer even one vote for the stimulus bill is playing silly political games. It's not partisan to point out that the Republicans are lying about this whole thing.
John Cole says, "I really don't understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years."
###
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Why is the media giving Octo Mom air time?
Octuplets' mother had depression, suicidal thoughts while starting a family. Nadya Suleman tells NBC's Ann Curry that she wanted a large family because she lacked 'certain connections and attachments' growing up. State documents give details of her childhood and back injury - latimes
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Loopholes allow contaminated food to go unchecked
Lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday when told that food makers and state safety inspectors are allowed to keep test results secret. That keeps federal health officials in the dark even when products have been contaminated by salmonella or other dangerous bacteria. - ap
This practice needs to stop...now.
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Food kits recently distributed as part of a disaster relief effort in Kentucky and Arkansas may contain peanut butter contaminated with salmonella linked to a nationwide outbreak, FEMA said Wednesday.
Commercial meals kits manufactured by Red Cloud Food Services inc., under the Standing Rock Label, have been provided to disaster survivors in impacted communities, and these kits may contain peanut butter which is part of the precautionary national recall underway in accordance with the USDA, FEMA said in a written statement.- cnn
Oh, wait a minute...aren't those Republican states? Republicans don't want folks inspecting food. It costs too much.
###
###Oh, the poetic justice. All that hate-mongering on Sean Hannity's part for naught. First, Barack Obama wins the election. Now, Max Blumenthal, at The Daily Beast, reports that Hannity's soulmate, Rush Limbaugh, has lost a popularity contest with their campaign scapegoats, Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers.
The morons are coming out of the woodwork on Capitol Hill. Most of them…not all of them…are GOPers, but all of them must have failed Economics 101. Here is what they would have learned in that class had they been paying attention. In an economic downturn like this one, you need to make jobs fast. The one party that can make the jobs is the government. Thus, the stimulus bill should be a jobs bill. It should build infrastructure and it should support other programs that keep people working.
"Now I listened to those tapes and I'm not going to hide my affinity for this guy. I never met him before but to me we have become such a trivial place that we will impeach a man for having sex, or lying about having sex with a woman. In California we will impeach a guy because he raises taxes on license plates, because energy gets out of control. We'll impeach a guy for saying some things on tape. But a man can take us to war and lie and we won't do a damn thing about that. That makes me so mad." D.L. Hughley, on Rod Blagojevich's impeachment Link
"As long as I'm speaker,
impeachment is off the table
...unless Obama gets out of line."
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Oh for crying out loud - what the hell kind of change is this?
President Barack Obama's choice to lead the CIA Friday retracted comments he made at a Senate confirmation hearing a day earlier when he suggested the Bush administration sent detainees to other countries knowing they would be tortured.
He says the US will continue sending detainees to other countries for interrogation and imprisonment, but only on condition that they are treated humanely. Uh huh.
And, he says the Obama administration will not prosecute CIA officers who participated torture because they were just following orders:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Panetta_No_prosecution_for_CIA_interrogators_0206.html
Mr. Panetta might want to read up on the Nuremburg Trials, where it was determined that following orders is not an excuse for evil.
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Digby: A celebration of shrill
Since it's Krugman day here at Hullabaloo, I thought I'd share this little graph which he calls "a tale of two presidencies." It illustrates perfectly for every average Joe (except Sam the plumber) why they should put their hands over their ears and start chanting "shut up, shut up, shut up" whenever they see Republicans with the chutzpah to even raise a peep about what to do about the economy: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/celebration-of-shrill-by-digby-since.html
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Obama administration settles on new rescue plan for banks that already received TARP funds and either hoarded it or used the funds to acquire other banks - and the plan doesn't require them to increase lending:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/business/economy/07bailout.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Get ready for another round of theft and corruption.
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The crew of the Sea Shepherd said they were pelted with bloody chunks of whale meat and blubber after their boat collided Friday with a Japanese whaling vessel in a dramatic Antarctic Ocean clash Japan condemned as "unforgivable." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_re_as/as_antarctic_whaling
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Sarah Palin gave an interview to Esquire magazine in which she claims that "Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie annoy me." Well, speaking on behalf of all the bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie, the feeling is mutual, Sarah.
And how's that working out for you that your husband was just found in contempt by the Alaska Senate?
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GOP lawmakers outnumber Dem lawmakers by 2 to 1 in cable news debate: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/06/senate-cable-stimulus-debate/
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As you know, Bush overpaid $78 billion for investments in the nation's largest banks and brokerages.
Ironically, the "subsidy" itself was doled out by Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the former chief executive of investment bank Goldman Sachs. According to the report, Goldman got an effective $2.5 billion subsidy from the Treasury Department.
While at Goldman, Paulson earned upwards of $10 million a year and was the richest member of the Bush Administration at the cabinet level or above.
"And we got away with it all!"
Because they got help from Paulson, Goldman was able to survive another day, and now can repay TARP early so they can avoid the pay restrictions.
It's great to hear that they are doing well now but it's also disgusting to see them attempt to move quickly to avoid the pay restrictions. It's really time to tax these people harder so instead of them pumping up revenues on hedge fund deals where everyone barely pays taxes, let them pay taxes like other businesses or individuals. The Wall Street gamblers need to be brought in check and come back down to planet earth. They're not all that because if they were, they wouldn't have had to beg for cash. Let Wall Street start refilling the coffers so that the Treasury has sufficient funds in case of emergency. Just because Wall Street wants out doesn't mean they should get out.
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If you're setting up a rogue's gallery of the biggest morons in the Senate, you ought to put Maine's so-called "Republican moderate" Senator Susan Collins right there in the mix. It was Susan Collins who proposed that the stimulus package cut $88 billion from the measure by eliminating money for elementary public school education and spending $13 billion on additional funding for Pentagon operations, facilities and procurement.
Procurement. Like this kind of procurement:
Defense contractor KBR Inc. has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
Yes, folks, that's the kind of stimulus spending Susan Collins likes -- more money for the Pentagon so they can continue to pay KBR to electrocute American soldiers.
It isn't just Susan Collins taking the scalpel to the stimulus plan. Here are some of the cuts Republicons are proposing:
Total Reductions: $80 billion
Eliminations:
Head Start, Education for the Disadvantaged, School improvement, Child Nutrition, Firefighters, Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, Prisons, COPS Hiring, Violence Against Women, NASA, NSF, Western Area Power Administration, CDC, Food Stamps
*****************************
Reductions:
Public Transit $3.4 billion, School Construction $60 billion
Because the last thing people need when they're out of work is education, nutrition for their children, transportation assistance, and freaking food stamps.
The next time someone complains about the cost of this package, tell them that. Republicans would rather let people starve than give up their tax cuts.
They're plenty happy to give more money to defense, though.
Increases:
Defense operations and procurement, STAG Grants, Brownfields, Additional transportation funding
So to sum it up:
Republicans would rather let women get abused, let people starve, and to deprive the disadvantaged of education than give up their tax cuts.
###
If you ever needed to see a microcosm of wingnut policies at work, here you go - Justice, Florida style.
###
Grover Norquist just said this:
"We are in the early stages of the Reid/Obama/Pelosi recession and nothing they are even talking about doing will help."- Grover Norquist, writing in the National Review Online, 6 February 2009, three weeks after the inauguration
These people have no shame. None.
Just so we are clear how brazen and shameless and amazing this is, the NBER has determined that the recession started in December 2007, thirteen months before the Obama inauguration.
The whole Republican barrel of apples is rotten.
###
One thing to remember when you look at the Great Depression, is that the employment statistics then were collected in an entirely different manner. It was assumed that men were the wage earners in homes. The Census Bureau went to a home and asked the man of the house, "Are you employed?". If the answer was yes, they marked him employed. Otherwise they marked him unemployed. They didn't try to figure out whether he was "marginally attached" or "not in work force" or any of the other myriad of ways they now try to kick people out of the statistics to prettify them up. They just counted employed or not employed and let the chips fall as they lay. So the correct number to compare to the numbers we have from the Great Depression is 16.5%, which includes working-age men who are not employed but are currently being counted as "not in labor force". By that number, we are in 1931, when unemployment hit 15.9%, and by the end of this year, closing in on 1932, when unemployment hit 23.6%.
In short, we are in a new Great Depression, a Depression which started in December 2007, whether anybody wants to admit it or not. And stopping the full-bore slide to the disaster of 1932 will require immediate and drastic action -- action which, alas, does not appear to be forthcoming because the Villagers, the insular media superstars who control what we see and hear in our media, are still stuck on conventional wisdom, which is that tax cuts solve all economic problems (yeah right, so why are we in this mess with eight tax cuts over the last 8 years?) and government spending is evil (except when spent on handouts to rich people, apparently). Neither of which has any relevance to handling a depression.
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Want some cheese with that whine?
Wall Street fat cats whine that they won't be able to find anybody willing to work for $500,000 per year.
Really? There are plenty of people who would just love a job that paid $500,000 a year, and who couldn't do any worse than the fat cat bankers did when they ran their banks and brokerages into the ground. Oh wait, we didn't go to the "right" schools (i.e., the same schools that you went to), so we don't qualify. Ooops! Elitist, anybody?!
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The American military helped plan and pay for a recent attack on a notorious Ugandan rebel group, but the offensive went awry, scattering fighters who carried out a wave of massacres as they fled, killing as many as 900 civilians.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/07/world/africa/07congo.html?_r=1&ref=world
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