Oh my, a sensible political attack coming from an elected Republican? That's one of the signs of the End Times, right?

House Minority Leader John Boehner...

“Two weeks ago, the President's spokesman said that they were confident that they knew how every dime was being spent at AIG. Well clearly, they didn't know what they were talking about. I think this is outrageous and I think the American people are rightly outraged that their tax money is going to pay bonuses to the very people that got this company in trouble.”

How about a little video of Gibby saying they are on top of everything compared with the bonus payouts. Then simply ask, 'were they lying then or are they simply incompetent to perform oversight?"

Naturally, with these SOBs it's not a clear either/or choice.

UPDATE: Whoops! The political music has stopped and Chris Dodd suddenly finds himself without a chair.

While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

Also, Sen. Dodd was AIGÂ’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

Dodd is hurriedly trying to repeal his own handiwork.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:33 AM | Comments (2)
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OK Morons, enough of this political BS and on to something much more important, HOT CHICKS in skimpy clothes. Ranger Up sells kick ass shirts and gear including the ever popular I (club) Hippies and the Blackfive logo shirt. But they are properly best known for smokin' hot chicks modeling their gear. Well it is time for some fresh sweetness and they are conducting a contest to pick several new RU models. If any of you know prospective honeys feel free to point them at the contest (chicks you are stalking do not count). As a personal favor to the moron nation I present the first entrant sponsored by B5 for your delectation, the lovely Raime. If y'all behave I will post more pics of her as the contest progresses and with your help we can elevate her to the ranks of RU hottie.

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 06:21 AM | Add Comment
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And yet the fractured, factionalist right wing has been accused of coordinating messages for years.

Projection isn't just a river in Egypt.

Last April, criticism of ABC’s handling of a Democratic presidential debate took shape on JList before morphing into an open letter to the network, signed by more than 40 journalists and academics — many of whom are JList members.

...

One byproduct of that secrecy: For all its high-profile membership — which includes Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman; staffers from Newsweek, POLITICO, Huffington Post, The New Republic, The Nation and The New Yorker; policy wonks, academics and bloggers such as Klein and Matthew Yglesias — JList itself has received almost no attention from the media.

...

Several members volunteered that JList is unlike listservs such as Townhouse, the private, activist-oriented group formed by liberal blogger Matt Stoller.

“No one’s pushing an agenda,” said Toobin.

No one's pushing an agenda. They just happen to all be left-wingers, some of whom in the MSM, who compose hostile letters to ABCNews for its supposed unfairness (to left-wing candidates).

Posted by: Ace at 05:56 AM | Add Comment
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The current disgraceful talk by President Obama and his administration has pushed COB6 from This ain't Hell as far as he is willing to go. He calls for accountability at the top

COB6 served under Gen. Shinseki as an officer in the 1st Cavalry Division and had a decent opinion of him as a soldier's officer but the efforts to throw our troops under Obama's bus have forced him to make this call.

President Obama wants to charge combat wounded veterans for care to
save $500 million while simultaneously GRANTING $900 million to
terrorist in Palestine to recover from the beat down that they sorely
deserved.

I know whose side I am on, do you?

To General Shinseki I say RESIGN NOW. This is the
only possible way to preserve your integrity as a soldierÂ’s soldier. To
do anything less is to slap the face of every wounded warrior and leave
yourself as nothing more than a liar and pathetic political hack.

I donÂ’t call for you resignation because of any malfeasance that you
did but as a principled position against this atrocity and solidarity
with the soldiers that you once commanded.

Please Sir, You Must RESIGN, RIGHT NOW!

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 05:07 AM | Comments (2)
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Posted by: Slublog at 04:30 AM | Add Comment
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Is this The Day?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:15 AM | Comments (1)
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Don't think for a second that this is a good thing:

Hired guards stood watch outside the suburban Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products, the division whose exotic derivatives brought the insurance giant to the brink of collapse last year. Inside, death threats and angry letters flooded e-mail inboxes. Irate callers lit up the phone lines. Senior managers submitted their resignations. Some employees didn't show up at all.

"It's a mob effect," one senior executive said. "It's putting people's lives in danger."

Anger is fine. It might mean we won't be bailing out AIG for the fifth time and it might put the brakes on the rest of the Washington bailout brigade. However, burning down a bank the taxpayer owns 80% of doesn't sound like a very good idea to me.

Who is stoking this mob? The President and Democrats, sure. Also every populist and fairweather-populist. And Republicans like Sen. Chuck Grassley who said that corporate executives should "resign or go commit suicide."

Let's be real, here, for a minute. We (the taxpayer) shouldn't own AIG. But now that we do, and can't get rid of it since no one would be stupid enough to buy it, we should probably take good care of it.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:51 PM | Add Comment
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Sale Sale Sale! Going out of business sale! Everything must go! Only two days left! Prices have been slashed! Editorials and Opinion going for half price! All articles must be liquidated! No reasonable offer will be refused! Sale Sale Sale!

But for you? IÂ’m prepared to make you a special offer. If you provide a comment in tonightÂ’s open thread you will receive a special gift from us at no extra charge! These bargains wonÂ’t last forever, so hurry on down to the store before itÂ’s too late!

(Note: Content below is a mixture of the Seattle Times article linked above and this article from t.v. station KOMO, Seattle)

”SEATTLE (AP) - The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which has chronicled the news of the city since logs slid down its steep streets to the harbor and miners caroused in its bars before heading north to Alaska's gold fields, will print its final edition Tuesday.”

“Tonight will be the final run, so let's do it right," publisher Roger Oglesby told the newsroom.”

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:59 PM | Add Comment
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When the idea that the government might go after the private insurance companies for money spent treating vets for service related treatments started popping up on milblogs I didn't pay it much attention. I figured it was something some idiot bureaucrat came up with when the administration said, 'how can we cut costs?'. I figured once it reached higher levels, sanity would assert itself and this idea would be discarded as stupid, immoral and political suicide.

Well, that's the last time I give this bunch of ass clowns the benefit of any doubt. Officially, the administration says it's an idea under consideration but one interested party has spoken with the President and seems to think it will happen

“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”

I've been leery of wondering aloud what impact an Obama administration would have on military recruitment because I think most Americans who volunteer do so out of a deep calling and sense of patriotism. The kind of reasons that go beyond any one President. While I still think that's true, this is a despicable case of breaking the faith with those who have served that can't but lead to questions if one wants to serve under such a commander.

If Obama is stupid enough to go through with this, I eagerly await the well deserved ass kicking it will get in Congress.

One last thought...Hey John McCain, do you still think Obama is a 'decent person'?

Posted by: DrewM at 02:30 PM | Comments (2)
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Fading, but not really falling precipitously, dropping from 64% in February to 59% now. With disapproval rising from 17% to 26%.

Incidentally, lefty poll analyst Nate Silver claims that this is all perfectly predictable... which to some extent it is. Of course Obama was going to lose Republican support. And maybe some independent support too.

But if this was so perfectly predictable, why did Nate Silver predict the opposite, that Obama's poll numbers would vault to 70%?

It is true that some of this was to be expected. And if Obama can keep his numbers at 55% or better, he'll be fine. But I don't believe that's the bottom. And for all the claims of the pubic that they're willing to give Obama a year or more to fix the financial mess, they won't. They may sincerely believe they'll suffer through a year or two of deep recession or depression without expecting the president to perform, but they won't.

Six months. Tops.

That doesn't mean his number falls to the lows George Bush saw. But a president who drops to around 50% approval is a president in trouble.

Posted by: Ace at 12:04 PM | Add Comment
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