June 22, 2010 archive

  Senator Durbin stood in front of the Senate this morning and tried his best to whip up support for an unemployment extension bill during his nine minute speech.

  When his speech finished the Senate immediately went back to discussing what it considered more important: nominations and the border patrol.

 1.2 million people will lose their last financial lifeline just this month, and the Senate couldn’t find more than nine minutes of their time to address it.

  Yesterday the Senate was in session for 5.5 hours and it didn’t address the unemployment problem even once.

The very tip-top of the New York Times’ front page today is occupied by this flaming headline…

McChrystal Is Summoned to Washington Over Remarks

An angry President Obama summoned his top commander in Afghanistan to Washington on Tuesday after a magazine article portrayed the general and his staff as openly contemptuous of some senior members of the Obama administration.

The author of the article — Michael Hastings, a freelance journalist — appears to have been granted intimate access to General McChrystal’s inner circle. Most of the comments seem to have been uttered during unguarded moments, in places like bars and restaurants where the general and his aides gathered to unwind.

A McChrystal aide is quoted saying of Mr. Holbrooke: “The Boss says he’s like a wounded animal. Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he’s going to be fired, so that makes him dangerous.”

The article also describes a conversation in which General McChrystal and an aide talk about Mr. Biden. “Are you asking about Vice President Biden?” General McChrystal jokes.

“Biden?” suggests a top adviser. “Did you say ‘Bite me?’ ”

In a parallel universe, where Planet Earth is inhabited by intelligent life-forms, Obama would say…

“Soldiers have been grousing about higher-ups for at least 5000 years, and only a shit-head of a reporter like Michael Hastings would repeat what soldiers say among themselves off-duty in a bar, and only a shitty “life-style” magazine like Rolling Stone would print it.”

But on our stupid branch of the multi-universe, on Planet Stupid, where shit-heads rule…

This story is a very big deal.

(And if you think I’m a cheerleader for McChrystal, read this.)

General Stanley McChrystal, who runs things in Afghanistan for the US Military,  gave a rather candid and heartfelt interview to Rolling Stone magazine.

“The Runaway General” has a few issues with some of his civilian colleagues….  like the Ambassador Eikenberry.

So far his special assistant Duncan Boothby has submitted his resignation (aka “fired”) and McChrystal has been summoned to a meeting tommorrow at the White House.

And he’s apologized.  McChrystal:  “It was a mistake reflecting poor judgement and should never have happened.”

President Hamid Karzai is praising him, saying he’s the best general ever,  and his spokesperson is saying he hopes he stays.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…

This week’s development comes as criminal investigators are said to be examining allegations that Afghan security firms have been extorting as much as $4 million a week from contractors paid with U.S. tax dollars and then funneling the spoils to warlords and the Taliban, according to a U.S. military document. The payments are intended to ensure safe passage through dangerous areas they control.

The payments reportedly end up in insurgent hands through a $2.1 billion Pentagon contract to transport food, water, fuel and ammunition to American troops stationed at bases across Afghanistan.

While we’ve all been busy watching the “oil spill live cam”, a similar uncontrolled discharge has been taking place in Washington, DC

In this case, however, it’s lobbyists that are spilling all over the landscape as the House and Senate attempt to merge their two visions of financial reform.

They’re trying desperately to influence the outcome of the conference in which House and Senate negotiators have been engaged; this to craft the exact language of the reconciled legislation.

There’s an additional element of drama hovering over the events as eight House members, including one of the most vocal of the Republican negotiators, face ethics questions related to this very bill.

The best part: if you’re enough of a political geek, you can actually watch the events unfold, unedited and unfiltered, from the comfort of your very own computer.

So far, it’s been amazing political theater, and if you follow along I’ll tell you how you can get in on the fun, too.

The Reaganomics, working as forecast, not by supporters of!

Why isn’t the economy moving, watch or read this clip report from last night. A simple explanation of how and who controls what, as the repub or conservative meme’s coming from the top to their herds about how their ideology on capitalism and the economy will cause prosperity, especially the continuing saying it will help small businesses develop and grow, for everyone, ‘Trickle Down’. There is very little private capital, their grease for the economic machine, being invested into small businesses as we talk and hear about billions between corporations and wall street and multi millions into the pockets of the corporate execs with ever growing tax write off corporate perks to go along with their huge tax cuts!