No matter what side of the fence you stand on when it comes to Washington, you have to know this is shitty:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/president-ob-15.html
Considering my family's own investment in children with special needs, and my post from just two weeks ago, this turned my stomach.
All the things he could have said, and he likens his skills to the Special Olympics.
How truly sensitive of him.
And you effing hell know that if this were a Republican, people would be screaming until their lungs bled.
Shameful.
Of course, this is a grain of sand on the beach of a government that truly seems to spinning out of control. For the first time since all this bailout stuff went down, I felt pretty hopeless today. The hole that they are willy-nilly digging this country is outragous.
I think most people accepted the stimulus bill out of fear and insecurity over a "crisis." When you are told by your leader that your country is on the verge of collapse, you freak, you trust, you believe. Were there a few things in there that will give the economy a boost? Sure. But were there a shitload more of things that in no way, shape, or form be considered "Emergency?" Absoltely.
And that's an important difference - the bill was an "emergency" spending bill turned lets-use-this-crisis-to-our-own-advantage-bill.
And now - infusing one trillion dollars into the economy - just printed up like the pages of my dissertation - is asking for a collapse. I'll fully admit that I am no economist, but this can't possibly be a good thing.
I mean, doesn't anyone in Washington think that maybe there was a REASON we have never done this much spending in the history of this country? Did they just assume that all previous governments were stingy?
Seems to me that it was never done becuase the consequences down the road are far too extreme. And while yes, we are in a recession - it is not the worst ever seen, and the country has pulled itself out before, without these extreme measures.
And I simply don't feel there is anyone up there that seems to give a shit, who can actually - with true honesty - say that they are "working for the people." Both sides of that fense are getting what they want so Fuck the people, right?
And for the record, this isn't a Left v Right thing - they are all part of it, they are all responsible for not slowing down this train. And we as Americans are responsible for buying Washington's bullshit.
I mean, millions of people showed up for the historical inaugeration- why can't millions of Americans need to now band together and stand in front of Congress and say, "WTF?!?!"
You know, people cried FOUL (and still are) that Bush used fear and lies to engage us in war - with echos of impeachment throughout his presidency.
What do you think Washington - and our President - is doing now? And with your money? With your future? With your children's future? Using a tough economic time to push through their own agenda - An agenda that has the potential to devestate our economy, change the basic strucutre of our country, and even violate constitutional law to do it.
All of this - this whole thing - just feel so shitty right now.
UPDATE:
I just pulled this off of an updated version of the same story:
"Obama made his comments at the show's taping, and it was unclear whether all of them would actually air later in the evening."
Of course.
I mean, seriously. Why fucking bother anymore?
13 comments:
Don Imus calls women's basketball team "nappy headed hos," and is labeled a racist. Loses job.
Attorney General Eric Holder can call Americans cowards - and basically saying that white people are evil. He is hailed as someone opening the conversation borders.
People can wear shirts comparing Bush to Hitler. That's free speech, it's fine. It's OK. People mean it as a joke... RIGHT?!
ANYONE could say sexist things about Hilary Clinton and Sarah Palin. I'm sure you've heard/read the list of them.
But it's OK - they're just women. They're inferior, right?
Do you see the double standard?
We should be used to it by now. Some people are fair game.
Others are immune.
When you are the Savior of the World, you are immune.
Those who run their mouths and scream for free speech are usually the ones who should be thinking the most before opening their mouths to provide us with this "free speech."
So much for "fairness."
I wonder if this article put "Bush" in there instead of "Obama," would people be up in arms? "What a stupid white redneck!" they'd be shouting.
As an aside, perhaps Obama should have been doing Presidential stuff instead of spending 40 minutes on the Tonight Show?
Just a thought.
So I guess that's why no other president did the late night talk show circuit while in office.
People definitely have to be more selective of who they put their trust, faith and support in, as well as who they forgive so easily.
Where are our principles anymore?
Whoopsie, Mr. President had a GWB moment. I would actually forgive GWB for making that comment because he's stupid. Mr. O on the other hand, eh, not so much.
I did give Mr. Prez credit for laying the smackdown on AIG and their fucked up bonuses. Then come to find out that Geithner knew about this shit all along. (Why Geithner's tax evading ass is even the Treasury Secretary is beyond me) Do they communicate with each other in the White House at all? Why wait for public outcry to intervene and do the 'ethical' thing? Were they hoping that we'd all sit back and watch them play patti-cake with our hard earned dollars? I just don't get it and don't know who to trust anymore and as a result, I say, fuck em all!
What he said was wrong. It can't be argued otherwise.
What is frustrating about it though is that I want to be open and forgiving about it. People make mistakes, especially in front of the camera. But let's suppose everybody was forgiving about it! Would that happen again for other, less popular politicians?
No!
We basically will never learn! Those that support Obama and assume the positive about him will not use this an example of how to treat other politicians that they disagree with. And those that have supported W and assumed the positive about him will not remember when the treatment was unfair and use that example of how NOT to treat Obama.
We will never learn!
N- the joke is that EVERYONE should have known about it - it was in the stimulus.
the same stimulus that we had to rush right through so fast that no one could have been bothered to read.
I mean, how does one get in front of a coutnry, tout the importance of passing this thing ASAP, and then say, "well we didn't know" when the actual details start to leak out. I mean, the stimulus was on the Internet - WE could have read it, but our own representatives didn't. They chose not to.
And now they are all looking at each other with the bullshit outrage like "AIG is soooo bad!!" It's THEIR FAULT!
And I am sure there is going to be a comment from someone about how the first bailout was done under Bush. But even with that one, Geithner was still responsible - it's shoddy job that was rushed, and the fine details couldn't be bothered to be considered.
And frankly, the government needs to be a bit more concerned about the trillion dollars it just made appear out of thin air then the "grain of sand" millions in bonuses they let slip through in the first place.
Jumper - I agree. People make mistakes - it happens. I mean, let the first among us who hasn't made a slip like that throw the first stone.
But as a told another blogger - it's not this came from the mouth of a neighbor working on his chevy in the backyard. This came from the President - the highest and most respected figure of our country.
We do and SHOULD hold him to a higher standard. He is the head of the most powerful country in the world - and yet there is just so much casualness about it all now.
Imagine if that were another Republican - Bush or McCain. It would be EVERYWHERE. Half the news outlets aren't even reporting it.
I just read that Pres. Obama was informed of his gaffe when he left the taping of the show. Pres. Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics and profusely apologized before the airing of the show. Pres. Obama's gaffe did air but was so fleeting I had to listen to it twice to catch it. Still, shame on Obama.
see it here. http://news.aol.com/article/obama-special-olympics-gaffe/390803
Just to play devil's advocate here on the whole bonus thing ...
AIG, as a company, held legally binding contracts to pay those bonuses if the personnel remained on staff as of a particular date. They were retention bonuses, not performance bonuses. The only way for an organization to legally get out of that contract is to go through bankruptcy protection and restructuring. Otherwise, any failure to uphold the contract (in this case, pay the bonuses) would be breach and they could be held liable for not only the value of the bonuses, but also damages (basically interest payments).
While the payouts obviously look terrible and more prudence likely should have been heeded by AIG's executives, the bonuses amounted to less than 1/10th of 1% of the bailout money they received. It looks really bad on the surface, but it's only a very small drop in the bucket to a group of individuals that the government should legitimately want to hang on to now that they are 80% owners of the firm.
hey CC - not devil's advocate at all - I agree with what you said becuase it's right. That's why my beef was never really about the bonuses to begin with.
do they look bad? sure. could AIG handled it better? probably.
but in the big picture, all that hooting and hollering about it just seemed like a diversion from what else was happening. watching these congressmen berate and name-call and ridicule the sitaution made me feel embarressed for them.
I mean - they're sqwabling over a couple million, when in the bigger picture, they just signed off on TRILLIONS.
Trillions.
I have gone my whole life only having heard that word a handful of times, and now its bounced around like its no big deal.
the other intersting thing is that we just dumped billions into a company that we now need to SUCCEED in order to recover some of that money back. but yet we make a national mockery of them - what impact to they think that will have on the publics willingness to do business with them?
So basically we just invested in a company we spent the last week tearing down.
Again - not an economist, but I am not sure how that makes sense.
Part of me thinks that the reason this is coming out is now is to shame AIG into giving the money back. I'm sure AIG would have kept the bonuses if the there wasn't such a public backlash.
But I am confused about the timeline of all of this. My understanding is AIG requested this money in their original bailout request - so BOTH administrations knew about this for awhile. It sounds like no one thought they'd have the audacity to use it though. And it sounds like the stimulus package had language that protected it.
I am disturbed about people's reactions to this though. I realize that this is beyond f'up, but death threats? Really? Also, while these bonuses are completely shady, I think it's a little scary that we might recoup this money by taxing this bonus by 90%. That's pretty shady to me as well.
I think we need to just learn from this an move on. Sign me up as someone who's suffering from bailout fatigue.
Interesting discussion. I think it's in AIG's best interest to give the money back to save face. AIG is done for, but they still need to show profitability so they can sell off their parts and we can get some (if not all) of our money back. The TARP money is suppose to be a loan, remember?
I watched it on nbc's website and I think a couple of seconds after he said it, he did realize he made a mistake, if you look at his body language.
Or maybe he just had gas.
Either way, he was uncomfortable and that's what matters.
Thank you! You are a woman after my own heart...
yeah, don't mess with the MESSIAH for pete's sake! (We cringe daily at the papers/TV)
Post a Comment