This has been a bad week for politics

The massive financial bailout and the scary shit surrounding it aside, can you believe this shit:

National Review's Mark Krikorian notes that (1) Washington Mutual became the largest bank to fail in American history yesterday and (2) its last press release touted the fact that it was named one of America's most diverse employers...

...

While juxtaposing these two facts -- (1) WaMu has a racially and ethnically diverse workforce and (2) WaMu collapsed yesterday -- the National Review writer headlined his post: "Cause and Effect?" He apparently believes that the reason Washington Mutual failed may be because it employed and was too accommodating to large numbers of Hispanics, African-Americans and gays.

I think this is a good time for a Friday Fuck You. Sometimes it really is the most accurate response.

Fuck you, Mark Krikorian.



... it's obvious to everyone that the reason WaMu failed was not a bazillion small errors caused by bad employees, but gross mismanagement at the upper management level (that also happened to occur at lots of other companies who didn't follow WaMu's lead on this), and that its hiring practices, therefore, had nothing to do with it, and thus the reason I am so pissed is that not only is this racism and heterosexism, but it's so obviously wrong on the merits, right? Krikorian is making shit up in order to justify an incredibly prejudiced set of beliefs: That people of color and non-heteros can't work at a bank. What the fuck?

Preznit takin your turkee

When I said this:

This is also, in a way, the continuation of one way of reading neoliberalism: The privatization of profit and the publicization of risk. Only in this case, it's being done in the open - the risk is being publicized (that is, the bill is being footed by taxpayers) after things went bad.

I didn't think it would be taken so literally:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Saturday formally proposed to Congress what could become the largest financial bailout in United States history, requesting unfettered authority for the Treasury Department to buy up to $700 billion in mortgage-related assets.

...

A $700 billion expenditure on distressed mortgage-related assets would be roughly what the country has spent so far in direct costs on the Iraq war and more than the Pentagon’s total yearly budget appropriation. Divided across the population, it would amount to more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

All those political philosophy classes I took seem more relevant than ever right about now. Sadly, this is depressing, not exciting.

So I'll say to Bush what I refrained from saying to Hering yesterday: Fuck you.

... if the Dems fold/cave/go along on this one, there's no doubt I'm fucking voting for McKinney. This is insane.


Also, Atrios retains his ability to spell it out like no one else can:

Again, the problem is that lots of bad loans were made, lots of people made highly leveraged investments in those bad loans, and still more people bet on those loans by insuring them. The loans are bad. The mortgages are not going to be repaid in full. Housing prices are not going to magically shoot up 50% over the next 6 months. People gambled and lost and now the Democrats are racing to bail them all out.

In case that I'm not being clear enough, what's happening is that the US government just proposed giving $700 billion to a bunch of companies that knowingly made bad deals. Crony capitalism doesn't even begin to describe it.

UPDATE: Atrios finds this bit in the text of the act submitted to Congress authorizing the spending:

Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Why anyone in their right mind is going to do anything but kick the ass of the folks who submitted this is beyond me. Nevertheless, I predict that Democrats will take this 'bill' seriously.

The Washington Post, explained

Brutal.

Here's the thing, though:

"You have criticized the Post, but you have not understood our burden. Each time someone says something negative about Republicans, it tips the Great Scales. To ensure the Great Scales remain balanced, we must say something equally bad about Democrats. You see, Republicans and Democrats are morally equal in every way. They are equally right and equally wrong – on all things. This truth is woven into the fabric of the universe. To ignore it would cause the universe to unravel – "

This view actually seems to be held by a disturbingly large number of people, including many people who appear on the television. It explains a lot.

Paging Doctor Crazy

LTE in the DH:

A matter of evolution

I, and other scientists who have studied many living creatures over the years, have discovered that there is more to the evolutionary process than that which controls life on this planet.

Mutations occur constantly. Those that enhance the ability of the organism to better survive in its environment are passed on; while the others of lesser value die off.

The dominant theme in all forms of life is perpetuation of their species. To do this, in most species, the females give off a pheromone (hormone) designed to attract males. It is also suspected that this occurs with humans. Unfortunately human mores run contrary to this evolutionary thrust by creating laws regulating sexual activity within the bounds of marriage and fidelity.

Also, unfortunately, scientists have not yet developed a hormone, nor do they intend to, that counteracts this essence generated subconsciously by females. One cannot justify rape, but scientists can understand male behavior being influenced by this secretion.

Our society must legalize prostitution but place it under strict medical control. I have no doubt that this action would markedly reduce the number of rapes that our society is experiencing.

Allan Jay Silver, MD, Albany

Jesus H. Christ. There are so many things wrong with this letter.... starting with the fact that someone let this guy have a medical degree. I hope he's retired.

... am I misreading this? Is he actually suggesting that men rape women because they can't stop themselves due to pheromones?

Fox News Guest Jokes About Killing Obama, Laughs

Excuse me?

Can we pull our collective heads out of our collective asses yet?

Please?

[Bizarro World] Sara Gelser's Primary Challenger

I heard this at work today, and, well, see for yourself. From Blue Oregon:

I'll have a full recap on the House races now that filing day has come and gone, but this is just too good to pass up.

There's one name that jumps off the page when you're scrolling through all the filings: Rockne Roll.

What the heck kind of name is that? (Yeah, I know, I'm one to talk about weird names.)

He's the Republican who filed to run against Rep. Sara Gelser down in Corvallis. So, wondering who he was, it's time for a little Google action. Turns out he's a student at Oregon State. He's got bloggers who like him, he edits a right-wing student publication, and likes to blab about his personal life and underage drinking on the internet.

Yes, it's that Rockne Roll, the guy who edits the Liberty, the hate-screed that its supporters think is a newspaper at Oregon State.

Words fail me.

Luckily, laughter does not.

Bizarro World

Hasso Hering, in an editorial that I assume was printed in an actual newspaper:

There must be more effective ways to protect children from illegal drugs than to post this arbitrary distance. When you think about it, selling drugs to children ought to be a capital offense. Drug dealers who do this ought to be shot — with due process, of course — regardless of the distance from school. (hh)

Um, yeah. So when I asked how crazy Hasso had to be to get a response from his corporate overlords, I didn't mean it as a challenge...

Just to be as clear as possible, this is incredibly offensive - and the next time Hering complains that other people are not civil enough, I hope someone has the good sense to remind him that he's now advocated for punishment that has been deemed unconstitutional (cruel and unusual, 8th Amendment) in a public forum & on the record.

Trickle-down

From Democratic Underground via Sadly, No!, a story of what can happen when bad politics and eliminationist rhetoric trickles down.

This is one reason I'm appalled by the existence of the Bush Administration and their tactics. It's not the only one.

What followed was a coordinated effort to block Andy’s medical care or his benefit from the medical care we could secure for him. In specific, the Bush right had its agents make small donations so they could then call Paypal with allegations of fraud that froze Andy’s account. They also called Paypal, misrepresenting themselves as the hospital to “verify” that this effort was a scam.

...

As late as week before Andy died, we couldn’t keep the poisonous campaign from him. He felt well enough to log into to his email and found a multipage denunciation, supposedly being filed with his state’s attorney general. He called me, not so much in a panic. Panic was no longer a speed Andy had. He called me in despair, because he could no longer fight the barrage of hatred being leveled at him. I don’t remember what I said to him but I hope it helped for a moment.

Um, What?

I'm a little speechless:

Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue - In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission.

...

By barring any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation, the law effectively gives Chinese authorities the power to choose the next Dalai Lama, whose soul, by tradition, is reborn as a new human to continue the work of relieving suffering.

Yeah. That's so bizarre it pretty much defies description.

Via /.