Catfish Wallow

04-10-09

For Every $1 Corporations Spent Lobbying For Income Tax Breaks, They Saved $220 In Taxes (wonkroom)

We Are All Georgian Protesters Now (digby) Georgians fed up with petty neocon tyrant Saakashvili, whom Bush neocons propped up to reignite the Cold War with Russia by criminal invasion of South Ossetia.
Odierno setting the stage for continuing the occupation beyond deadlines. (timesonline) How long will Obama let this thing go on? With a little finessing, Bush's generals could keep the war going on right up to the elections in 2010 and 2012, deliberately jeopardizing Dem chances for reelection to power.
Iraqi shoe thrower is world’s 3rd most powerful Arab (arabianbusiness)

Matt Taibbi: The Official End of Obama's Honeymoon (smirkingchimp) "How are all those CHANGE posters looking now?"

Hey Paul Krugman... (commondreams video)
Four Bush Holdovers Responsible For TARP Decisions (wonkroom) "Evidently, part of the problem here is that the Obama administration hasn’t yet named some of its appointees to the TARP Investment Committee. But with TARP funds 'running thin,' and the program expanding to include life insurance companies, the administration may want to get around to doing that."

Oh How the Lying Liars Lie, and Get Paid Well For It: Marc Morano (nytimes)
One giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50m cars (guardian/uk) "pollution from the world's 90,000 cargo ships leads to 60,000 deaths a year in the US alone and costs up to $330bn per year in health costs from lung and heart diseases . . . Shipping is responsible for 18-30% of all the world's nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution and 9% of the global sulphur oxide (SOx) pollution" and "3.5% to 4% of all climate change emissions"

London G-20 Police Goons Murder Innocent Passerby (dailymail pics & video) "By using highly aggressive tactics to manage demonstrations, the police are discouraging the peaceful, law-abiding majority from demonstrating and therefore risking radicalising these events." Why is it that it is usually the police who cause the trouble at otherwise peaceful demonstrations?

Oh, Those Silly Republicons And Their Strange Fetishes - First It Was David Vitter And His Diapers, Now It's Teabagging:

Rachel Maddow on conservative teabagging craze (americablog video) - Andy Cobb points out in this not-safe-for-work PG-17 video, the conservatives may have bitten off more than they can chew (americablog video - video)
The Tea Bag Lobby (digby) -- There is nothing spontaneous about this silliness; it is being orchestrated and run by two heavily funded public relations (lobbying) firms: Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. -- "Here's the thing. The right lost it's ability to be spontaneous sometime back when Phyllis Schlaffley was pounding the ERA. They require structure and leadership in order to function, which is one reason why their movement and their party are so stuck. (They proudly call themselves dittoheads, after all.)"

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) Proposes Weak Reform of Payday Lenders (washingtonindependent) And Should Be Removed From Power. "Chairman of a House Financial Services subcommittee is pushing a loophole-riddled bill that would allow payday lenders, who are his top campaign contributors, to charge annual interest rates of nearly 400 percent."

The Two Faces of Barack Obama - One for the Masses, One for the Power Elite (antiwar) "The Janus-faced American hegemon speaks out of both sides of his mouth, and in two voices: one for the masses, who delight in his soaring idealism and seeming ability to express their deepest aspirations, and one for the elites, who hear a promise of continuity rather than change."

Friday, April 10, 2009