So which John McCain story line do you believe? The carefully crafted legend about the hero whose character and convictions were forged in the fires of hell, a tale perpetuated in today’s Washington Post story by Michael Dobbs? Or the narrative spun in Tim Dickinson’s Rolling Stone piece that questions McCain’s bravery, his honesty and paints him as a lothario whose life has been about putting his own ambitions above everything else? continue reading » »
Well, Congress passed the bailout bill and President Bush quickly signed it but not before lawmakers loaded it with corporate handouts stuffed into the bill at the behest of lobbyists for the banking industry. It looks like Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is already rewarding several of his old buddies at Goldman Sachs with jobs overseeing how this $700 billion handout will be spent. continue reading » »
My friend and I have a standing zombie plan, which includes a predetermined rendezvous point at the end of the Metro system’s red line. That’s where, according to our plan, we’ll recover our cache of weapons, food and other survival supplies. We drew up an “end of the world” zombie plan over beers and herbal refreshments but never got into the fine details because the discussion broke down into an argument over whether we would be better off heading into the mountains or out to sea.
So I called him the other day and asked if the plan was still on in the event of a financial apocalypse. “Hells bells,” he said. “I’m off to the store to get some guns and canned goods right now.” He was joking. I think.
Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard this one before except with George W. Bush, Bill Clinton or Barack Obama’s name in the place of Sara Palin. You’ve got to admit, however, this version is pretty damn funny.
And if you haven’t seen Palin’s “Little Miss Sunshine” performance at the 1984 Miss Alaska contest, the HuffPo has the video of her stylin’ a really ugly, red one-piece bathing suit. This is the pageant where she finished second runner-up. I wonder if she skinned a moose as part of the talent competition. I’ll restrain myself from commenting further on the would-be VP’s performance. The video speaks for itself.
John McCain obviously doesn’t understand. Or wait, maybe he does understand but only when it comes to him not being Miss Congeniality. Because, you know, it’s a well-known fact that he’s a maverick, who also happens to be a sheriff but not the new sheriff in town because, well, he’s old. And cranky.
Lucky for us, however, he doesn’t have that presidential seal. He could have some fun with that presidential seal, stamping it all over important documents like his dire warnings two years ago about those misbehaving brats, Fannie and Freddie. Except, well, he didn’t really warn anyone about them, he just signed on to an overhaul bill some 16 months after it was introduced and only then after a critical government report came out. Luckily, John McCain saw the train wreck coming, which was pretty easy because he was riding up front with the engineer where you can be damn certain he wasn’t sending text messages. (Note to McCain: Text messages are like email, which is like a typewritten note, except it’s written on a computer … fuck it. Get Meghan to explain it to you.) continue reading » »
So I considered suspending my blog and offering my services to Congressional leaders to help them hammer out a sensible solution to our looming economic disaster.
But they didn’t really seem interested in what I had to say. So screw ‘em. I decided to march to the White House to protest the $700 billion bailout, instead.
I blogged about Thursday’s bailout protest over at Citizen Vox, where I write as part of my day gig. The turnout for the protest was light — the rain probably kept a lot of folks away — but don’t misread that as a lack of anger about this unbelievable bailout plan.
This strange scene on the National Mall is one in a series of street art installations that have popped up around Washington, D.C. in recent weeks. I haven’t actually seen one in person but I was on the Metro the morning one of these sculptures shut down a station because officials thought it might be a bomb or something sinister.
Uh, yeah.
The homeless polar bears are a collaboration between Greenpeace and artist Mark Jenkins to raise awareness about global warming. If only it was that easy for the polar bears to pack up their shopping carts and head south after the Artic ice melts away.
This is a hilarious exchange between Stephen Colbert and Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope, even if Colbert is able to get a little jab in there about Pope’s carbon footprint. It is also a great reminder that leaders in the green movement have to keep in mind that everything they do is going to be scrutinized by the other side. Remember when the Iconvenient Truth was up for an Oscar and the media made a big deal of Al Gore’s residential electric bill?
(Highlights from Al Gore’s speech on climate change last week in D.C.)
Isn’t it time we moved beyond the empty rhetoric of the Bush administration when it comes to solving global warming, humankind’s greatest challenge? You know the George Bush I’m talking about, the one who tells the world that he’s committed to solving the climate crisis while offering no real solutions and refusing to agree to any binding treaties on emissions.
Meanwhile the Bush administration proposes the weakest fuel economy standard for vehicles possible, much to the delight of Detroit automakers. And it refuses to consider any type of reform that would reign in the oil barons, who are running free and unregulated on the back of every American motorist.
As we start sliding toward the end of the worst presidency in the history of the Union, it is becoming even more apparent that, while Bush offers earnest sound bites on global warming for public consumption, he and his lieutenants are working behind the scenes to undermine critical pollution controls. continue reading » »
If you’re still brooding over how much the value of your house has sunk during the current real estate bust, cheer up. Things could be worse. Chances are, your house didn’t lose as much value as your life just did. Last week, the AP reported that the Environmental Protection Agency over the last five years has marked down the value of a human life from about $8 million to $6.9 million. Talk about depreciation.
Someplace else, people might tell you that human life is priceless. In Washington, the federal government has appraised it like a ’96 Camaro with bad brakes.
