Sen. Elizabeth Warren Schools CNBC Hosts

Image from source, Talking Points Memo

I love this woman. She's made of awesome, smart, calm, collected. . .and is a Democrat that can work with John McCain? This is presidential timber we're dealing with.

[Excerpt]

Ouch, Better CNBC Anchors Might Be Required
If you’re an Elizabeth Warren fan or really if you’re just into facts, you gotta watch this . . .

Source: Talking Points Memo

Are We Better Off Than We Were Four Years Ago?

If we're not better off, this guy might be part of the
reason! Image from source, NY Times.

On Sunday, I performed my usual masochistic ritual: I watched some of the Sunday political talk shows, specifically, Meet the Press, FOX "News" Sunday and This Week. On each show--and this is a little suspicious, wouldn't you say?--the host asked a Democratic spokesperson the old Reagan line, "Are we better off than we were four years ago?"

It's a trap question, and also kind of a lazy one. If the answer is "no," it's the immediate talking point, and would be in an instant Romney ad: "Obama strategist declares we're worse off." If the answer is "yes," then they would be just as quick to package the quote as proof that "Obama is out of touch, says America better off despite recession."

It's lazy, because it lacks context, much like the assertion that gasoline was so cheap four years ago (when in truth, the price had cratered temporarily after historic highs). Four years ago right this minute, we hadn't fallen off the financial cliff yet. So any comparison to early September 2008* is very, very dicy. Obviously, if we were about to go off the cliff, we were in terrible shape. But, we didn't know it yet. If you start the clock at November 6 (election day), then yes, absolutely we're better off. As I've seen elsewhere, you're better off after the house fire is put out than you were when it was on fire. But the house is still a burnt mess.

Don't be surprised if the answer to this question becomes
a theme at the DNC this week. Image from The Guardian.

It would be one thing if the arguments being made by the Romney camp were based on concrete facts. There is still an argument you could make to advocate "changing horses" in the presidential race. But they're not using facts. The use the gas prices thing, and the are you better off thing, both devoid of context. They point to debt racked up in the last four years without mentioning the wars being put on the books, or Congressional obstruction. They claim the stimulus failed (which is debatable) without mentioning that it was not the stimulus the President wanted, having been watered down and larded with tax cuts by Congress. They misrepresent the facts on Obama's welfare and Medicare policies. They blame the President for things that didn't even happen within his term.

Don't believe me that they're hanging the whole Romney/Ryan campaign on dishonesty and lies? How about the "We Built That" theme of the whole damned convention? That was based on a blatant, willful disregard for the context of a quote. If the entire Democratic National Convention is based on the theme of "I Like Firing People" and Joe Biden and President Obama seed their speeches with big whopping lies, maybe I'll concern myself with the Obama campaign's lack of coordination on the "are we better off" question. Until then, I just don't care.

Finally, as for the personal answer to the question, "am I better off than I was four years ago?" In some ways, yes. It put the fear of financial security into me. We've put a lot more effort as a household to shore up our reserves, and on that front, we are much better off. We replaced both of our aging vehicles in the last two years. We've made home improvements, and are less stressed than we were in the waning days of 2008, early 2009. Except for the housing market--which I do not see as Obama's fault--we (my household) are better off.

[Excerpt]

G.O.P. Seizes on a Question: Are You Better Off Than You Were 4 Years Ago?

Representative Paul D. Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, slammed President Obama’s handling of the economy on Monday, seizing on hesitant responses by Mr. Obama’s top strategists when asked whether the country was better off than it was four years ago. . . 

Read more at: New York Times

* I'd also like to note that my full-time job was reduced in hours beginning in September 2008. We cut back hours and staffing, and are still at 2008 levels. In that we're not better we're the same. But it is worth noting that we got here under the Republicans, and that their promised policies seem to echo those that got us here.  And even though things have gotten better, businesses have learned to do more with less staff, and less time. It's dubious that they're going to give up this new-found "efficiency" quickly or easily.

Democrats Call GOP Bluff: All-Night Threat Yields Financial Reform Discussion

Image from source, TPM Muckraker

So, was it "internal pressure," or as Rachel Maddow suggests, fear of the dreaded cots?

[Excerpt]

Bowing To Internal Pressure, GOP Allows Debate On Financial Reform

Without a single objection, Republicans tonight dropped their three day filibuster of financial reform legislation, agreeing unanimously to debate the Democrats' bill on the Senate floor.

Though clearly a big defeat for the Republicans, their line tonight is that they endured this week's political maelstrom for a substantive reason: to allow Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) to extract as many concessions out of Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd as he could. When Dodd said no more, they relented. . .

Read more at: TPM Muckraker

The Shitty Deal Heard 'Round the World

Because if it's in the Congressional Record and aired live on C-SPAN, I don't need to spell shitty "sh**ty."  Right?

Republicans (and One Democrat) Block Financial Reform Debate

Image from source, Huffington Post

No! No! No! A bajillion times no! We won't even discuss it!  And you know what? If the Democrats manage to break the filibuster (or for once make them actually stand there and DO it), they should shut them completely out of the discussion, and vote the damned thing in. If they've voted that it need not be discussed, why should they have a seat at the table? Just sayin'. . .

[Excerpt]

GOP, Ben Nelson Block Debate On Financial Reform Bill

Undaunted by a Senate setback, Democrats appeared increasingly confident Monday they will be able to take advantage of Americans' anger at Wall Street and push through the most sweeping new controls on financial institutions since the Great Depression. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Sen. Scott Brown is Sort of Confused

Image from source, Huffinton Post

Politicians, like newscasters, can sometimes rise to prominence on little more than a pretty face.  It doesn't always work (witness the smart and pretty Scott Kleeb), but sometimes it does. And one-time Cosmopolitan model, Scott Brown (R-Mass.) seems to be between a rock an a hard place. Or rather, between Massachusetts voters and the tea baggers.  It has to be something of a political mine field for poor Brown, trying to please the tea baggers while also trying to. . .you know. . .make sense.

[Excerpt]

Scott Brown Struggles To Explain His Position On Wall Street Reform


Share Comments 2,388 I gather that Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) thought that this legislative game was going to be easy? Just straight up drive his pickup truck to Washington and set about casting the 41st vote and all would be well? And then he took a moment to think like a guy who might want to be re-elected to the Senate from Massachusetts, and cast a vote for a jobs bill, and watched as his supporters lost their ever-loving minds on his Facebook wall. Now he doesn't seem to know if he's coming or going -- and having difficulty explaining things to reporters. Nobody said that there would be "explaining"! . . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Consumer Financial Protection Spokesperson: Heidi Montag?

You've got to hand it to Funny or Die. They've been masterful at using the frivolous and fluffy for important messages. . .

Heidi Montag Says No to Plastic from Heidi Montag

Rush Limbaugh Mocks the Recession

Photo from source, Think Progress

Rush Limbaugh has made a career of getting his listeners to vote against their best interests. There are, I'm sure, some financially well-off people in Limbaugh's audience, but it is surely not his bread and butter. After all, his salt-of-the-earth "base" is the "flyover" country, not the liberal elite havens of the coasts, right? So, Limbaugh has a tough game to play, making his audience believe he's one of them. Or that someday, somehow, they might be one of him, a rich guy.

There are little clues that he's playing them, of course. The big mansion. The expensive cigars. That douchey "solid gold microphone." And then, there's this. . .

[Excerpt]

Limbaugh Mocks Recession During Speech To Wealthy Right-Wing Donors

LIMBAUGH: But during all this growth I haven’t lost any audience. I’ve never had financially a down year. There’s supposedly a recession, but we’ve got - what is this May? Back in February we already had 102% of 2008 overbooked for 2009. [applause] So I always believed that if we’re going to have a recession, just don’t participate. [laughter]

Read more at: Think Progress

Credit Cards and the Fine Print

Before this hugely horrible financial crisis (do we have a name for it yet?), The Other Half and I used to average five or six "pre-approved" credit card applications in the mail per week. It was an obscene amount of paper and postage, and makes you wonder how it could possibly have been cost effective.

Lately, the flood of these mailers has slowed to a trickle, but we still get a couple a week. Usually, we do what we always do, tear them into bits, and throw them away (or run them through the shredder). But I decided to read some of the materials in one of them, from First Premier Bank.

The offer was for a MasterCard, with a 9.9% APR ("one of the lowest rates available"). They don't promise a credit limit any higher than $250, which doesn't exactly wow me. And some of the fees are quite confusing, or at least sound unreasonable. For instance, if your credit limit is raised, they charge you $25. Paying through the Internet costs $7 per transaction. $11 if you pay through an autodraft service they provide. And a "monthly servicing fee" of $84 billed at $7 per month. What?

To make matters worse, unless I'm reading this thing wrong (see the graphic for confirmation), if you sign up for this whopping $250 card, you will instantly owe $179, and have a credit limit of $71! Again, I could be wrong, but this doesn't sound like a compelling offer to me. Into the shredder with you!

UPDATE: In a stunning coincidence, I just received an email from--you guessed it--First Premiere Bank, offerening me a MasterCard! Sorry, but even if I didn't think there was something fishy about all these fees, I'd never sign up for a credit card from an unsolicited email. Begone with you!

UPDATE THE SECOND: I've never really paid attention before to the innumerable solicitations I get in my email box, or who they're from. But since I wrote this post (not more than 45 minutes ago), I have gotten--counting the one in the first update--nine credit card solicitations, including two more from First Premiere! I guess I see why they're not sending so many by snail mail anymore.

Crazy Sen. Michelle Bachmann Strikes Again

Photo from source, Think Progress

It's interesting how widespread the use of the phrase "batshit crazy" comes up when Googling Michelle Bachmann's name. She has replaced Katherine Harris as the first Congressperson that comes to mind with that phrase. It might have something to do with the fact that every time her name pops up in the press she has said something. . .well. . .batshit crazy.

Two separate things have come up in this category. One has to do with some fantasy she has about a "one world currency" to replace the dollar. I don't think it's unreasonable to wonder if she's a Tim LaHaye/Jerry B. Jenkins Left Behind believer, as that is one of the main portents of Armageddon.

The other crazy item is that Bachmann talked to Sean Hannity. Not that she just talked to him--that would just be stupid--but what she said to him on his radio show. She's actually calling for revolution. "Orderly" revolution, whatever that means. Considering she's talked about people taking up arms, one has to wonder if her craziness has crossed over into incitement to violence.

[Excerpt the First]

Touting Her Currency Conspiracy, Bachmann Insists: ‘This Is Not Michele Bachmann Being A Kook’

Earlier this week, right-wing fanatic Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) started peddling false conspiracy theories that the world was moving toward a unified global currency — and that the U.S. might join in as early as next week’s G-20 conference. The myth was started when China’s central bank governor suggested replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Though the suggestion has nothing to do with a unified global currency, Fox News’ Major Garrett decided to ask President Obama whether he supported the fictional prospect of such a move. (Obama, for the record, does not.) . . .

Read more at: Think Progress

[Excerpt the Second]

Bachmann Blasts Obama's "Economic Marxism," Calls For "Orderly Revolution" To Save Freedom

Wow. Just plain wow. This past Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared on Sean Hannity's radio show, and sharply reiterated her calls for revolution in America, warning against the imminent dangers of tyranny under Barack Obama. . .




Read more at: TPM

South Park Shows Us How Treasury is Run

Trey Parker and Matt Stone aren't your typical political comedy writers. You can't peg them as right or left wing. They're as likely to make fun of liberals as conservatives, and just as likely to support one or the other--or both--in the same episode. And they always manage to view any current event from an angle nobody else ever thought of.

Sure, one of us might be able to come up with a concept of a the Treasury throwing darts at a board with various solutions on it. Office Space had a "jump to conclusions" mat. But the method of picking random solutions here is gross, funny and inspired.

"Republican Road to Recovery" Temporarily Closed

When is a plan not a plan? The current Republican Party has earned a reputation as the "party of 'no'" and this press conference does nothing to allay that. The conference was called to introduce the "Republican Road to Recovery," but instead merely blasted the President some more, while promising details "next Wednesday." See you next Wednesday.

House Republicans fail to deliver on promise to offer budget alternative at press conference



Source: DailyKos

Matt Taibbi's Scary Piece on the Financial Meltdown

Photo from Media Bistro

If you've been mostly "going with the flow" during this financial crisis, just hoping it will all work out, you probably don't want to read this piece. Matt Taibbi, one of my favorite journalists, has a handle on the whole thing, but it isn't a pretty read. Hold on to your hat (and your wallet).

[Excerpt]

The Big Takeover

It's over — we're officially, royally f**ked. No empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire. . .

Read more at: Rolling Stone

Nobody Could've Predicted The Financial Meltdown?

Except that somebody did. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N. Dak.) predicted nearly perfectly what could happen way back in 1999. It's too bad we don't have a Wayback Machine, isn't it?

President Obama's Second Press Conference

I did my duty as an American and watched President Barack Obama's press conference tonight. Well, watched would be stretching the term, since my eyes did find themselves closed on occasion. This economy stuff--while important--isn't exciting stuff.

Obama is a better speaker than George W. Bush of course, though that bar is quite low. I didn't feel like grabbing the remote and hurling at the screen, as I so often did in the last eight years. But I hope as he gets more seasoned in the job, that he truncates his answers a bit, and realizes that he doesn't have to fill every second with his voice. Rather than draw out "aaaaaand" or "thennnnnnnnn" he could just pause. Other than that, he was pretty good, and clearly thoughtful and engaged. I think if I had a better grasp on all of the economic issued, I would have been more engaged myself.

If you missed it, here's the entire conference.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on Bankers

It's been a while since there has been a "Special Comment" on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. I say it's long overdue. There's always something to be outraged about, right? , Olbermann's commentaries are always entertaining, usually with a bunch of "hell, yeah!" moments. Let's see what he's on about, now. . .

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Rush Limbaugh Defends AIG. . .wait. . .What?

Image from Salon

There are few people in this country less popular than the folks at AIG. So how low do you have to go to find someone willing to defend them? Pretty low. First, Dana Perino of the similarly unpopular Bush Administration, felt sorry for these poor "middle class" millionaires. And now, Rush Limbaugh (and his army of imitators and also-rans) is leaping (bouncing?) to AIG's defense.

Limbaugh (et al) often works very hard to convince his audience of things they'd ordinarily reject. For example, he gets them to rail against the "death tax," even though most of his listeners would never have to pay it. And now, he's trying to get ordinary Americans to feel sympathy for the poor, beleagered multi-millionaire AIG bonus recipients.

[Excerpt]

Limbaugh joined by other conservatives standing up for AIG against "mob rule"

In the wake of Rush Limbaugh's defense of American International Group (AIG) on his March 16 and March 17 broadcasts, several conservative media figures -- including Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck and Fox News contributor and syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin -- have joined him in condemning criticism of the company's employee retention bonuses. In a March 18 post to his Washington Post Co. blog, Greg Sargent cited Limbaugh's and Hannity's comments in reporting that while "GOP Congressional leaders have roundly condemned AIG and its executives, as part of a strategy to position themselves as heroic defenders of the taxpayers and to paint the Obama administration as weak and ineffectual ... increasingly, leading conservative media figures are moving in a different direction: Defending AIG. . ."

Read more at: MediaMatters

Movement in California Assembly to Legalize Pot

Image from source, SF Weekly

If it's a pot story, you know it was brought to my attention by Stupid Monkey Planet. This is a good idea, and I hope it gets passed in California, then all across the country. A lot of problems would be solved with this one great idea.

[Excerpt]

Get Up, Stand Up: Ammiano Introduces Marijuana Legalization Bill to the Press

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's press conference this morning announcing his marijuana-legalization bill started punctually and stayed relentlessly on-point -- thereby denying a barb to every journalist present. . .

Read more at: SF Weekly

Dana Perino and the Millionaire Middle Class

Can there be any question now, that members of the former Bush Administration are out of touch? Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino is apparently unaware that people who get million dollar-plus bonuses in a contract are something other than middle class!

[Excerpt]

Perino Defends AIG Bonuses: They Are ‘Middle Class People’ Who ‘Are Expecting To Get This Bonus’



Source: Think Progress

Punctuation: Latest Victim of the "Recession?"

I wonder how much the colon, quotation marks, question mark and this series of commas is gonna cost me?

Watch Hardly Working: Punctuation Recession and more funny videos on CollegeHumor