Here's Andy Stern's call to give Ken Lewis, CEO of Bank of America, the same treatment Obama gave Wagoner - the boot.
Both Rick Wagoner and Ken Lewis sunk large public companies - putting thousands out of work and toppling the American economy - while accepting billions in taxpayer bailouts. Yet only Wagoner got a pink slip. It's time for Treasury Secretary Geithner to replace Ken Lewis as CEO and let real reform take hold at Bank of America.
Howie, makes it pretty obvious Ken Lewis needs to be ousted as well. Hint: $3.62 billion was handed out to executives - a sum equal to 36.2 percent of the $10 billion in taxpayer funds that were allocated to Merrill as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) before the bonuses were paid.
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Colbert rips apart Glenn Beck for building his career on 9/11: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/stephen-colbert-rips-apar_n_181673.html
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Prosecutors in the Bush administration bungled the Ted Stevens trial so bad his indictment will be dismissed: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/ted-stevens-conviction-to_n_181632.html
As Dick says, 'Now they don't have to fret over renaming that airport.'
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David Addington and John Yoo cancel plans to backpack across Europe: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-menaker/david-addington-and-john_b_180475.html
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h/t Dick - Strife in the Big City:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/01/business/main4909996.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_4909996
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h/t Dick: 'wouldn't it be a kick in the pants if we were disqualified based on our past record?'
The United States is seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council this year, the Obama administration announced Tuesday.
Perhaps we'd have a better chance if Obama would stop covering up for the torture-loving Bushies.
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4,263 soldiers killed in Iraq; 673 in Afghanistan where rape is now legal.
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We're expanding drone strikes in Pakistan - 12 more dead.
And, we're giving Pakistan another $2.8 billion in military aid.
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Rush Limbaugh is looking tanned and fit after basking in the sunlight of a national poll showing that his favorability rating currently stands at 19%.
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Of course, Coleman was all for wrapping the whole thing up as soon as possible as long he was in the lead. There were solemn pronouncements about serving the people of Minnesota and the damage that would be done if the contested election was drawn thin by the slow wheels of justice. Now Mr. Coleman doesn't look like he'll be satisfied until the US Supreme Court passes judgement. In fact, since he thinks God has called on him to serve, he may not be happy until God smites that Jewish comedian with a lightning bolt up the ass.
There's nothing wrong with challenging close elections – and this one was closer than most – but dragging a decision out for months on end serves no one well. Look at our experience with Bush v. Gore. An endless line of chad-snappers looked at thousands of ballots that the citizens of Florida were too mentally challenged to cast correctly. With each new court case, both sides challenged and kept right on challenging until the Supremes made what was one of the most controversial decisions in history.
With a state decision now in and with little clarity over where the appeals process legally ends, it's time for Republicans to take their own advice and GET OVER IT. God may want your man, but at least a small majority of Minnesotans and the state legal system think otherwise. Perhaps had God actually been on your side, Normie would have won in a landslide and none of this would be necessary.
God can make that happen can't He? Being omniscient and all.
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"We the People" to "King of the World": "YOU'RE FIRED!" ...a letter from Michael Moore
Nothing like it has ever happened. The President of the United States, the elected representative of the people, has just told the head of General Motors - a company that's spent more years at #1 on the Fortune 500 list than anyone else - "You're fired!" I simply can't believe it. This stunning, unprecedented action has left me speechless for the past two days. I keep saying, "Did Obama really fire the chairman of General Motors? The wealthiest and most powerful corporation of the 20th century? Can he do that? Really? Well, damn! What else can he do?!"
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I write this letter to you in memory of the hundreds of thousands of workers over the past 25+ years who have been tossed into the trash heap by General Motors. Many saw their lives ruined for good. They turned to alcohol or drugs, their marriages fell apart, some took their own lives. Most moved on, moved out, moved over, moved away. They ended up working two jobs for half the pay they were getting at GM. And they cursed the CEO of GM for bringing ruin to their lives.
Not one of them ever thought that one day they would witness the CEO receive the same treatment. Of course Chairman Wagoner will not have to sign up for food stamps or be evicted from his home or tell his kids they'll be going to the community college, not the university. Instead, he will get a $23 million golden parachute. But the slip in his hands is still pink, just like the hundreds of thousands that others received - except his was issued by us, via the Obama-man. Here's the door, buster. See ya. Don't wanna be ya.
Keep reading: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5368343
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A federal judge yesterday denied an Army contractor's motion requesting dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the mother of a soldier who was electrocuted in the shower while serving in Iraq.
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The State Department said Wednesday it has signed the Virginia-based private security firm Triple Canopy to take over protecting U.S. diplomats on the ground in Iraq from Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe.
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Inevitable April Fool jokes greet Republicon budget
For evidence the GOP is DOA, look no further than the release today — April 1 — of their "alternative budget."
"If you expected a GOP alternative to the failed policies of the past that got our country into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, then I have two words for you: April Fool's," said Kenneth Baer, OMB communications director…
Meanwhile, Austan Goolsbee, an economic adviser to the president and increasingly active administration spokesman, told MSNBC: "Well, look, I thought it was most appropriate that this thing came out on April Fools' Day because this thing is the biggest April Fools' Joke and cruelest that we have had in years…"
What were these people thinking? Like they couldn't have waited a day, or moved it up a little? It never occurred to them that April 1 could lend itself to April Fools jokes?
The Republicans have had more missteps lately than a man who just shot himself in the foot, which they basically did after they chose Michael Steele as the Republican answer to Barack Obama and elevated Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and John McCain to be the voices of attack.
How can anyone still claim that this party stands for something grounded or effective? All they have, so to speak, are tales told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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A holdover from the Bush administration that handed out 190,000 assault weapons and pistols to Iraqis that have simply disappeared, says Iran (who has no nukes) may attack Israel (who has nukes)! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/petraeus-israel-might-att_n_181867.html
If Israel does attack Iran, it will be with our money and weapons, just like every time they attack the Palestinians, Lebanese, etc....
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One of the Vatican's "solutions" for their perennial sex scandals is to start testing and screening candidates for the priesthood. Australia is even considering doing it:
Melbourne's Catholic Church has embraced a Vatican suggestion to test potential priests for sexual orientation. Those who "appear" gay will be banned.
The head of the Vatican committee that made the recommendations has made it clear celibate gays should also be banned because homosexuality is ''a type of deviation''.
I really want to know details about how these tests are going to be done.
Priests are people who are supposed to be celibate…it should hardly matter whether they are turned on by women or men or turnips, for that matter. There might even be a significant number of church leaders who are radical perverts deep down, but are in the priesthood specifically and sincerely for the whole denial of the flesh aspect. Why single out gays? Shouldn't we be more worried about priests with uncontrollable urges towards children, or even heterosexual priests who are unable to resist the women who look up to them as authority figures?
This isn't about correcting the problems of the church at all. It's more about finding another opportunity to discriminate against gays.
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At a time when Plan B can now be sold stateside to 17 year olds, and when women in the military are being raped, the medication is excluded from the list of what military dispensaries are required to stock.
Over 160,000 female Soldiers, Sailors Airmen and Marines have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East since Bush took us to war, and over 2500 of those women are known to have been sexually assaulted in 2007 alone. What can possibly justify limiting the rights of these women to prevent unwanted pregnancies as a result of being victims of a criminal assault? It's simply unconscionable.
That is, of course, a rhetorical question. It was Bush-league politics, pure and simple.
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Squandering American blood and money for and summary execution of gays in Iraq.
So this is the "freedom" that the Bush Administration has wrought in Iraq. And so far the Obama Administration's Afghanistan policy does not appear to indicate any kind of attempts to overturn the recently-passed law legalizing rape in that country.
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This is what FEMA does when a non-sociopathic president hires competent people to run it.
And just for the record: Barack Obama lost North Dakota by over eight points. The state's governor is a Republican. But when country trumps political affiliation and you have a president who believes he serves everyone, not just those who vote for him, you have Fargo, North Dakota. When the president only serves those states that are represented by people of his own party, you get New Orleans in 2005. Any questions?
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From this Times editorial today:
The Senate budget debate began this week against a backdrop of war and recession, rising unemployment and surging foreclosures, runaway health care costs and diminishing insurance coverage — to name just a few of the nation's big problems. But for Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, and Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, the most pressing issue is clear: America's wealthiest families need help. Now.
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Colin Powell: 'I don't know whether torture would be considered criminal' http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/02/powell-maddow-torture/
I'm not sure Colin Powell is qualified to determine criminal behavior.
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AP: Warning sought for burger the size of your head
Meanwhile, nearly 1 billion around the world are starving.
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