You knew Michael Moore would be making a movie about the financial crisis, didn't you? Well here's his promotional video--but like Michael it's very special and very funny. Won't you take a minute to watch it and give some help to the neediest victims of the economic downturn?
Have a serene Sunday, everyone :-)
AIG Gets It Wrong Again
What is it with AIG? First it got a whopping $173 billion of American taxpayer money during the Wall Street meltdown last fall. Then it proceeded to spend part of that money on swanky corporate junkets and $35 billion in bonuses for the very executives who had run the company into the ditch.The public outcry was so great that Congress got into the act and hauled top execs in front of an investigative committee. Eventually, the boys gave back their bonuses and we thought AIG had learned its lesson.
Well, here we go again, folks. If you had a look at today's New York Times, you saw that AIG made the front page of the Business Section and it wasn't a good thing. Seems that AIG insured the US Airways jet that bellyflopped in the Hudson River on January 15th and they are not going to pay up.
Evidently airllne insurance doesn't work like homeowners or automobile insurance, AIG is only required to pay if the crash resulted from the airline's negligence. Since it was a flock of geese and not pilot error that caused the plane to go down, AIG is playing hardball and refusing to honor survivors' claims. To its credit, US Airways has already handed out a $5,000 check to each passenger, though it had no legal obligation to do so.
The cruelty and inhumaneness of this kind of corp-think takes my breath away, but I suppose I should not be surprised. Welcome to the wonderful world of American free market capitalism. They must be going nuts over in the corporate relations department of AIG today. I'm hoping that once again Congress will get involved on behalf of all of us American taxpayer shareholders and force AIG to do the right thing.
Sometimes the spirit of the law is more important than the letter, and this is one of those time. Shame on you, AIG. You got it wrong again.
source: New York Times
God Guns and Right Wing Crazies
Why is it that American right wing crazies carry guns and think they are doing God's work when they murder people? The last few weeks have been pretty hairy here in the land of the free and the home of the brave. The American Taliban is trying to force its nut-job notions down the throats of the rest of us once again and unfortunately they have the Constituional right to bear arms.First we were shocked by the murder of Dr. George Tiller, who was gunned down in church by an extreme right wing, pro life, activist with a history of mental instability. Scott Roeder thought he was protecting the unborn by committing murder. How very illogical and how very sad. He doesn't seem to have cared much about the rights of the already born.
Dr. Tiller was one of the few doctors in the country performing late term abortions and while I have my own issues with late term abortion, I at least know what it is. A late term abortion is done at 20 to 23 weeks of an ordinary 40 week pregnancy. Nobody does abortions on a baby that is viable outside the womb( that's 27 weeks folks). Ironically, Dr. Tiller's murder has made him a martyr and has exposed the extremism of the right wing of the pro life movement.
Then, just yesterday, an 87 year old Neo Nazi walked into the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC carrying a gun in his hand and hate in his heart and started shooting up the place. James W. Von Brunn killed one security guard and critically wounded two others before being shot himself. He is currently in critical condition in a DC hospital.
This guy too is clearly one sandwich short of a picnic. He's a white supremicist who hates black people and Jews. Guess who he scapegoats for all the world's problems. You got it: blacks and Jews. He had a website and a whole history of angry paranoid rants not to mention an ex-wife in Florida who claims to have divorced him years ago because he was " a racist, abusive, alcoholic." In 1981 Von Brunn broke into a meeting of the Federal Reserve and tried to kidnap a member of the board of governors. You'd think that somebody like that wouldn't be allowed to own a gun, wouldn't you ? But no. Not a problem. He probably owned a whole arsenal.
Two politically motivated murders in less than three weeks. Quite a record for the right wing isn't it? These people would be pathetic if they weren't so dangerous. Myself, I think that if Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and Dick Cheney would just shut up and stop telling everyone the sky is falling it might cut down on the murder rate and alleviate the fear based hatred that is running rampant these days.
I wish our American right wing crazies didn't carry guns.
Obama Hits Another Home Run in Cairo
President Obama was speaking in Cairo at 6 am EDT this morning, so I didn't watch the speech live. I was still asleep. By the time I was sipping my first cup of coffee at around 7:30 am though, the speech was over and the President's crack communications team had posted it on the internet in several places and translated it into a dozen languages.I could tell watching videos and TV talking heads, as I let caffeine revive my sleep- soaked brain, that Obama had knocked it out of the park once again. It was another home run for my President. Thank God we have a man like this at the helm right now.
This was more than a great speech. It was a rhetorical tour de force that will be remembered and talked about for generations. Where it stacks up for the rest of the world, I don't know, but for me, as an American, it ranks right up there with the Gettysburg Address or JFK's innaugural speech or MLK's" I have a dream speech
This was a speech that really moved people. It did not mince words or prevaricate or minimize very real, perhaps insoluable, political problems. It defined a moment in time with honesty, passion, and an intelligent understanding of the issues confronting both the West and the Muslim world. It did not patronize or threaten. It simply stated what is. A speech isn't going to solve all the problems. But this speech totally changed the nature of the engagement. It was a tipping point. Now we will at least talk to each other instead of shouting at one another and swaggering about Texas style.
The really important thing that Obama did in this speech was what he, as a multicultural person who has so often felt ouside the mainstream personally, does so well. He emphasized the humanity we all share, the similarity of what we all desire for ourselves and our children, the common roots our religions have and the respect we owe one another. Bravo Obama.
Sometimes the pen really is mighter than the sword and this morning was definitely one of those times.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Racism Republicans and Sonia Sotomayor
The Republicans have done it again. After proclaiming themselves an inclusive "big tent" and reminding us all endlessly that they are the party of Lincoln, the Republicans have let Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gigrich open their mouths on the subject of President Obama's Supreme Court pick, Sonia Sotomayor. Rush has been calling Sotomayor a " reverse racist" (whatever that is.) Seems to me one can be a racist or not a racist, but not a reverse racist. In fact to even use the term "reverse racist" infers a racist mentality on the part of the speaker. But then our Rush was never the most cerebral Neanderthal on the block. His heart trumps his brain every time.
Newt has been comparing Judge Sotomayor to Harriet Miers and making all sorts of silly noise, in spite of the fact that Sotomayor's educational and legal credentials are flawless and she is far from an avid lefty. She was even appointed to her current job on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals by a Republican President.
All this right wing whining is not going to go down very well with either hispanic or women voters and is not going to do the GOP any good at all. President Obama is no fool. He made a very astute strategic choice and over at the White House they must be laughing their heads off at Rush and Newt. These guys are not only tearing up the Republican Party, they are making idiots of themselves. Why don't they just shut up?
Call me crazy, but it looks to me like over at the GOP, the inmates are running the asylum.
Memorial Day Musings
Memorial Day in America...an official holiday that always falls on the last Monday in May. It's a three day holiday week-end that most of us associate with parades,picnics and trips to the beach It marks the official start of the summer vacation season.But it isn't the start of summer that we are memorializing. It is the end of a bloody civil war and the coming together of a divided nation that we celebrate as well as the sacrifice made by those who died on both sides.
Originally called Decoration Day, the first official observance of the holiday was in 1868 when flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetary. By 1890 the holiday was well established in both the North and South and was celebrated on May 30th. After World War I, the name was changed to Memorial day and the holiday was expanded to include remembrance of all fallen American soldiers. In the 1970's Memorial Day became a movable feast. The date was changed from May 30th to the last Monday in May so that everybody could get a long week-end. I'm not sure that was such a good idea. It surely changed the emphasis of the holiday from soldiers to summer.
In the small town where I live there will be a traditional Memorial Day parade, complete with a wreath laying at the WWII monument near the town hall. There will be flags and bands and in the two local cemetaries small American flags will have been placed on the graves of Veterans. I like that. I like that at least in one small American town, we remember that Memorial Day is about more than the beach. It's about war and peace and the respect we owe to all those who have died in battle, both victor and vanquished.
Happy Memorial Day everyone.
Obama Wows the Washington Press
If President Obama ever wants to make a career change, he has a great future ahead of him as a stand up comedian. He wowed em in Washington at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner last night. Thank you MSNBC for broadcasting the whole thing live. I had a ball.The prez was a hoot, throwing out zingers and one liners like a Las Vegas pro. His timing was perfect. My favorite line was about Dick Cheney's memoirs being tentatively titled " How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People. " I also loved the part about Rahm Emanuel having a hard time with Mothers Day because " he isn't used to saying the word day after the word mother". Is that clever, sophisticated material or what?
President Obama was polished, pointed and funny, but never stepped over the line into slapstick or bad taste. He even managed to make fun of himself with grace and style. What a guy!
It says something about the state of the media that the New York Times, for the third year in a row, refused to attend the event out of journalistic scrupulousness, while the twitterati were live blogging every real-time detail from their iphones(#nerdprom).
For those of you who didn't catch President Obama's comic debut last night, here's the video from Youtube-- all nine and a half minutes of it. Enjoy!
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