Are they ALL crooks?

Democratic politicians, that is, such as Pete Stark, Elliot Engle, and Tom Daschle.

If these noble Solons of the Potomac have been claiming million $+ vacation homes in Maryland and DC as primary residences in order to avoid (or is it evade?)taxes, then how can they be legal residents of the states or districts they allegedly represent? Should their votes be retroactively rescinded because they weren't legally Congressmen and a Senator? I think so, but I'm just a citizen.

And how do they afford million dollar vacation homes on politician's salaries?

And I won't go into the press avoiding the story of Senators Dodd and Kennedy making a Waitress Sandwich at La Brasserie some years back. If you are interested, just Google >>waitress sandwich Kennedy Dodd<<

"Popcorn" Sutton is no more.

He apparently has committed suicide rather than go to prison for moonshining and possession of a firearm.

I hope the revenuers are sitting in their offices, smirking and self-satisfied.

Much more here.

Dang!

That last was my 1000th post and I didn't even realize it.

Whoo Hoo!

(That's technical jargon for "Cool!" and "Get a life, Dude!)

Congresscritters & AIG

"Video: Congress, Geithner knew about bonuses on March 3rd"

It just doesn't stop.

More AIG

Brady Dennis at WaPo confirms the reports that the people getting the bonuses were not the cause of the problems, but those who are working to resolve them:

In actuality, he said, nearly all the troublesome sectors of the business -- namely, the risky credit derivatives written on mortgage-backed securities -- are now out of the equation, as are the people who worked on them. That leaves a small number of employees to untangle the remaining trades

Not that our Congresscitters, or even their own new boss care:

Before he waded into the circus on Capitol Hill on Wednesday,(American International Group Chairman Edward M.) Liddy e-mailed a letter to the employees of Financial Products, asking them to "step up and do the right thing." He asked that anyone who received more than $100,000 in retention payments return at least 50 percent.

Thanks, Boss: Don't keep telling people we are working to fix things we didn't break, just tell the country that we are slimeballs who did something wrong.

The handful of souls who championed the firm's now-infamous credit-default swaps are, by nearly every account, long since departed. Those left behind to clean up the mess, the majority of whom never lost a dime for AIG, now feel they have been sold out by their Congress and their president.

Not to mention their own boss.

"My fear is that the damage is done," he told a congressional subcommittee. "That they will return [the money], but that they will return it with their resignations."

There is little doubt within Financial Products that he's right about that.

Why would our Solons care? They have had a chance to polish their soapboxes once again. Consequences for the country be damned. Including:

(E)-mails from the public have continued to roll in, including death threats and calls to blow up the firm's Wilton headquarters. Reporters and photographers have camped out in front of the offices in London and Connecticut. They have staked out employees' houses. The New York Post identified one executive and labeled him "Jackpot Jimmy." Another employee had to relocate his family after a London tabloid printed his address.

Why should politicians care about they harm they do to Others? The Others are just pawns in the noble game of Power.

I suspect Connecticut, thanks to more local Solons, is not among the states with "shall issue" concealed carry permit laws, either.

Rupert Murdoch buries his lede

But at least he had one:

But I am curious: Why do we never hear calls for Hamas leaders to be charged with war crimes?

Why, for example, do we hear no calls for human rights investigations into Hamas gunmen using Palestinian children as human shields? Why so few stories on the reports of Hamas assassins going to hospitals to hunt down their fellow Palestinians? And where are the international human rights groups demanding that Hamas stop blurring the most fundamental line in warfare: the distinction between civilian and combatant?

I suspect the answer has to do with the same grim logic that leads Hamas to provoke a military battle it knows it cannot win. Whether Israel is ever found guilty of any war crime hardly matters. Hamas gets a propaganda win simply by having the charge made often and loudly enough.

While he suggests an answer to why they commit war crimes, he never really answered his own question of why aren't they charged with same. Still, it's worth a read.

Now, here's something to warm the cockles of a Daddy's heart

Watch 11-Year-Old Girl Assembles Rifle In Record Time and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Those AIG Bonuses

John Hinderaker over at Power Line has some info on those evil bonuses which I haven't seen emphasized by our Solons on the Potomac:

* All of these payments, as to AIG's troubled financial products division, are retention bonuses, not performance bonuses.
* The money is not going to anyone responsible for the implosion of AIG--those people, who were in the credit default swap area, are gone.
* These retention bonuses were promised to AIG employees who are responsible for winding down the company's financial products division....AIG made a deal with these employees: if they would stay at AIG until specified conditions were met, i.e., either certain business was wound down or a given period of time had elapsed, they would receive a specified retention bonus.

So the bonuses were paid to the people responsible for shutting down operations for sticking with those dead end jobs until they were finished. They were paid not to take viable jobs elsewhere until the orderly shut down was finished.

The people who want to run our health care system don't care.

My question: Are they pretending to be outraged to pander to their ignorant supporters, or are they themselves ignorant about what they are paid to be knowledgeable?

Either way, they do want to run our health care system.

Perhaps the best thing Edward Liddy could do for the country is to tell the fools and charlatans in Congress and the White House for whom he is doing volunteer work is: "You don't deserve me. Take this job and stuff it." Then go on the campaign trail.

So remind me: Just what is wrong with glorifying or glamorizing the use of guns?

The trailer for Angelina Jolie's film "Wanted" has been banned from the British telly:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the advert gave the overall impression "that using guns was sexy and glamorous" and breached the code for television.

"We concluded the ad could be seen to condone violence by glorifying or glamorising the use of guns," its adjudication said.

Mustn't let the wee tykes think it is OK for women to shoot criminals. That American virus must be stopped until it can be sent the way of small pox.

UPDATE: Ah: Possibly this explains in small part the blatant hoplophobia:

The film stars Jolie and British actor James McAvoy as a pair of assassins.

I guess I'll have to see it to find out if they are good guy assassins or bad guy assassins.

AIG & those naughty Bonuses

It turns out that Senator Dodd, who now rails against them, added an amendment to the bailout bill to allow them.

And President Obama knew all about it.

UPDATE: This Yahoo Finance article seems to confirm the above, altho the President may not have been aware of the bonuses all that long before they were made:

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., won passage of a provision earlier this year that they said would have prevented the type of payments now at the center of a storm.

It was dropped without explanation in the final compromise on the economic stimulus measure, replaced by a less restrictive set of conditions backed by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and accepted by the White House.

So, what was the Machiavellian Senator Dodd up to? Or is he just as dumb as his finance scandals suggest?

Warm Fuzzies

That's how I feel about Washington when I read stuff like this editorial in the Washington Times:

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

I don't know how accurate this editorial is, especially in blaming it on the O-Man as George Bush was never a lover of the program, but if this is going on, we should all thank our government for protecting us from pilots who have the power to shoot themselves in order to crash their planes.

Pilots cannot openly speak about the changing policies for fear of retaliation from the Transportation Security Administration. Pilots who act in any way that causes a “loss of confidence” in the armed pilot program risk criminal prosecution as well as their removal from the program. Despite these threats, pilots in the Federal Flight Deck Officers program have raised real concerns in multiple interviews.

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, and all that, you know.

Arming pilots after Sept. 11 was nothing new. Until the early 1960s, American commercial passenger pilots on any flight carrying U.S. mail were required to carry handguns. Indeed, U.S. pilots were still allowed to carry guns until as recently as 1987. There are no records that any of these pilots (either military or commercial) ever causing any significant problems.

No records? The evil Reagan/Carter/Ford/Nixon/Johnson/Kennedy/Eisenhower/Truman/Roosevelt cabal probably deleted the records of all the gunfights among flight crews.

Seriously folks, whoever is behind this is an idiot.

Unconstitutional Stimulus?

I bet there are some who consider that a feature, not a bug.

Bad Decisions...

...have long term consequences.