Archive for March, 2009

Obama Overexposed?

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Barack, Media

Unless you’re living in a cave, it’s hard not to notice how many places our president is showing up, from prime-time speeches to late-night talk shows to magazines to YouTube. He’s everywhere. But is he risking overexposure? Part of the dignity of the Oval Office comes from a sense of distance, says Robert Thompson, founding [...]

March 20th, 2009 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

MSNBC Falling Further Down The Partisan Slope

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Media

I think it’s been well established by now that Fox News is unabashedly right wing, and now it’s obvious that MSNBC is more than willing to become a purely left wing answer to them. Case in point…popular partisan talker Ed Schultz is being considered for a talk show on the net. From New York Observer: [...]

March 20th, 2009 | Permalink| 9 Comments »

Projections: $9.3 Trillion Budget Deficit In Next Decade

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Barack, Economy, Money

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has their raw numbers on Obama’s budget items and they’re much bigger than the administration’s. Now, to the best of my knowledge, these numbers don’t include the cost savings that would come as a result of his multiple agendas, but nonetheless… From NY Times: The office’s estimates of deficits in [...]

March 20th, 2009 | Permalink| No Comments »

Does Congress Have The Authority To Take Back The AIG Bonuses

By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in Constitution, Politics

Since Nick raised the issue of the Constitutionality of Congresses efforts to recoup the bonuses paid to AIG executives, I figured it would be worthwhile to share this post I wrote yesterday on my personal blog: The hyperbolic rage against the AIG bonuses has finally transformed itself into legislation: While American International Group Inc.’s chief [...]

March 20th, 2009 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Someone needs to tell Congress that Bills of Attainder are unconstitutional

By Nick Ragone | Related entries in News

Let me see if I have this correct:  The administration knew about the AIG bonuses weeks ago and chose to do nothing about it for fear of legal challenges from AIG.  Legal challenges.  From a company that the government owns. In fact, Tim Geithner was so afraid of lawsuits that he made Senator Chris Dodd [...]

March 20th, 2009 | Permalink| 11 Comments »

Papal Prophylactic

By donar | Related entries in Africa, AIDS, Cartoons, HIV, Homosexuality, Political Graffiti, Sexuality

From a NY Times Article…

March 19th, 2009 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

House Passes Measure to Tax Bonuses

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Bailouts, House

Given all the press the AIG bonuses have garnered, you’d think our only economic problem was a few nearsighted/greedy execs at one insurance firm. Today, the House took AIG backlash to the next level by passing a bill which would levy heavy taxes on such bonuses. Specifically: The bill would levy a 90 percent tax [...]

March 19th, 2009 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Charlie Rose Talks To Former AIG CEO

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Economy, History, Video

Looks like the London branch is mostly responsible for the mismanagement, and Hank Greenberg explains in detail what happened that led to this disaster. Here’s the thing…if most of these bonuses are going to Londoners who we can’t afford to lose because they’re the only people who can wind down all of these accounts, then [...]

March 19th, 2009 | Permalink| No Comments »

“Ditch The Dollar” Meme Gains Steam?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Money, The World

What would happen if the dollar wasn’t the world’s reserve currency? Well, we may just find out if an U.N. panel has its way. From Reuters: Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, [...]

March 19th, 2009 | Permalink| 12 Comments »

Treasury Knew About Bonuses, But Geithner Didn’t?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Bailouts, Barack, Money

The AIG bonus plot thickens, but only slightly. Because while it appears that people in the Treasury department knew about the bonuses, they didn’t think it was necessary to inform their new boss about them? From TIME: “Treasury staff was informed about the new bonuses in a Feb. 28 memo that the March 15 [bonus-payment] [...]

March 19th, 2009 | Permalink| 5 Comments »