that picture.
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US President Barack Obama came to office promising hope and change. But on climate change, he has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor George W. Bush. Now, should the climate summit in Copenhagen fail, the blame will lie squarely with Obama.
The folder labeled "climate change" that George W. Bush left behind for his successor on the desk of the Oval Office in January likely wasn't a thick one. Although Bush once said that America is overly-dependent on oil, he never got beyond that insight. He was too busy waging war on Iraq and searching for a legal basis for extraordinary renditions to pay much attention to the real threat facing humanity. "Forget the climate" seems to have been Bush's unofficial motto.
I love the smell of schadenfreude in the late afternoon:
Residents of the C Street Christian fellowship house will no longer benefit from a loophole that had allowed the house's owners to avoid paying property taxes.
Previously, the house -- despite being home to numerous lawmakers -- had been tax exempt, because it was classified as a church. That arrangement had allowed the building's owner, the secretive international Christian organization The Family, to charge significantly below market rents to its residents. In recent year, Senators John Ensign (R-NV), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jim DeMint (R-SC), and Reps. Zach Wamp (R-TN), Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) have all reportedly called C Street home.
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A Little Test
OK, class. Let's see if you've been paying attention. How does this -
Just two days before the New York Fed paid A.I.G.'s partners 100 cents on the dollar to tear up their contracts with the insurance giant, one bank volunteered to take a modest haircut — but it never got the chance.
UBS, of Switzerland, alone offered to give a break to the New York Fed in the negotiations last November over how to keep A.I.G. from toppling and taking other banks down with it. It would have accepted 98 cents on the dollar.
But UBS's good-faith gesture was quickly drowned out by Goldman Sachs and the top French bank regulator. They argued, with others, that it would be improper and perhaps even criminal to force A.I.G.'s trading partners to bear losses outside of bankruptcy court.
The banks and the regulator were confident that the New York Fed was not willing to push A.I.G. into bankruptcy, because earlier in the fall the New York Fed had stepped in with $85 billion to prop up the insurer.
The New York Fed, led then by Timothy F. Geithner, who is now the Treasury secretary, therefore had little leverage in the negotiations, according to a post-mortem of what has emerged as the most inflammatory episode in the rescue of A.I.G.
- connect to this?
GMAC Financial Services, the former lending arm of General Motors, replaced its chief executive on Monday as it negotiates for another round of bailout financing from the federal government.
The company's directors appointed Michael A. Carpenter, a former Citigroup executive and current GMAC director, to succeed Alvaro de Molina, who had run the company since April 2008. Mr. Carpenter said the board believed that he would be more appropriate as chief executive than Mr. de Molina, who resigned at the board's request.
(emphasis added as a hint)
Extra points if you can predict the effect of either set of facts.
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An insubstantial 'truth': http://griperblade.blogspot.com/2009/11/insubstantial-truth.html
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Jesus' General has reviewed Going Rouge by Sarah Palin on Amazon. Please consider Giving it a "helpful" vote so that he can continue his string of writing the "Most Helpful Favorable Review[s]" for some of conservatism's greatest authors.
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Perspective
From Joan Walsh:
So while I'm not worried about President Palin, I remain worried about President Obama. I'm particularly concerned that his increasingly triangulating, anti-deficit administration will do the wrong thing, morally and politically, and move to the right, without understanding that some right-wing rage could be rechanneled by acknowledging its roots: That the economic system seems rigged for the have-a-lots v. the have-a-littles, and despite their promises, the Democrats haven't done enough to change that. Palin can't change any of that, but Obama can. There's still time for him to do so, but the clock is ticking.
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Verizon customers take note
You might be paying more in services soon. Verizon needs to make some cash...quick.
Jury awards $12M in Verizon toxic waste lawsuit
Two men who became seriously ill after working at a Hicksville magazine distributor located atop a former nuclear fuel plant have been awarded $12 million in a federal negligence lawsuit against Verizon.
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More than 14,700 U.S. taxpayers came forward to disclose billions in offshore bank accounts in 70 countries under a voluntary Internal Revenue Service program allowing most to avoid criminal prosecution as long as they pay what they owe, IRS officials said Tuesday.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/17/offshore-bank-accounts-re_n_361136.html
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Obama to do interview with Fox.
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About that debt
I'm sure there will be lots of wailing and beating of the breasts about the National Debt, which just topped 12 trillion (and make no mistake, that is a disaster), from the usual suspects on the right. Since the last eight years didn't happen, and they are free to pretend that Obama spent all 12 trillion in the last nine months propping up ACORN and SEIU union thugs, I'm sure the commentary will be quite interesting at the Corner and elsewhere in wingnuttia.
I would love to hear how the Republican plan for slashing the deficit and tackling the debt will work. I'm interested in how capital gains tax cuts, making the Bush cuts permanent, ending the "death tax," continuing the prescription drug plan while ignoring the rising costs of health care, permanent war in the middle east and privatizing social security are going to bring our books back into the black.
I'm all ears, guys.
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Hell must have frozen over for this to have happened. I guess Joe Lieberman couldn't figure out a way to stab somebody in the back over it:
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Democrats have broken a Republican filibuster on a federal appellate court nomination President Barack Obama made in March.Remember all of that GOP outrage about giving judicial nominees an "up or down vote"? They were so adamant about that for all of the time that the Tsar of the Baboons was in office. Funny how that "up or down vote" crap is no longer operative.
"The Tehreek-e-Taliban are not responsible for the bombings, but Blackwater and Pakistan's spy agency are behind them," said Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq, according to a translation from Al Jazeera English:
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/taliban-blackwater-blame-pakistan-attacks/
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Obama admitted that Gitmo is not going to close by January. This makes keeping his promise to close Gitmo by January a considerably tenuous one. Washington Post
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Between fraud and anything having to do with Recovery.gov and cleverer types of fraud, the federal government managed to accidentally overpay $98 billion dollars last fiscal year. CNN
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"I saw the Mayor of New York said today, "We're tough. We can do it." Well, Mayor, how are you going to feel when it's your daughter that's kidnapped at school by a terrorist? How are you going to feel when it's some clerk -- some innocent clerk of the court -- whose daughter or son is kidnapped? Or the jailer's little brother or little sister? This is political correctness run amok."
FYI: Bloomberg's youngest daughter is 26. And John Shadegg is an idiot.
Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzLTs7lFY1c&feature=player_embedded
