Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Let the wild rumpus begin

Rewriting history:
...In an article about the Obama administration's "effort to undo bonuses at A.I.G.," The New York Times reported, "The Treasury and Federal Reserve officials said they had known about the bonus program as far back as last fall." But at no point in the article did the Times note that the Treasury Department at the time was then-President Bush's Treasury Department. Indeed, the article did not mention Bush or his Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson at all, much less report that the Bush Treasury Department worked with the Federal Reserve in carrying out last year's bailouts and bought AIG stocks notwithstanding the existence of these bonus contracts.
The fake uproar about Gibb's joke about Dick Cheney:
Dick Cheney is one of the most divisive -- and disliked -- political officials in memory. Maybe Chip Reid and Rick Klein haven't heard, but he just presided over the virtual collapse of the American economy and is directly implicated in severe war crimes and other pervasive criminality. Yet they speak of him -- and demand that everyone else treat him -- as royalty: This is the former Vice President of the United States you're talking about; have you no decency?

Journalists love to depict themselves as hard-nosed, rambunctious, ornery adversaries of establishment orthodoxies and political power. The reality is the opposite: there simply is no class of people more reverent of the political establishment and more devoted to protecting and defending its prerogatives.
Good for you, Canada! Thank you!!:
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - More than 100 protesters chanted "war criminal" and flung shoes in Calgary on Tuesday, angry that former U.S. President George W. Bush was in the Canadian city to give his first speech since leaving the White House.

At least two demonstrators were hauled away by police after brief skirmishes, as 1,500 business people in the oil patch city waited outside a convention center for an hour to pass through tight security and enter the C$400-a-plate ($315) luncheon.

Media were barred from the invitation-only event, during which Bush had been expected to reflect on his eight years as president.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I heard NBC Nightly news today say that "a bipartisan effort was made to avoid the bonus problem but it failed."

No explanation as to why it failed. Seems like good journalism would have figured that one out, since it is entirely related...

ellroon said...

Well... Congress said it failed to keep the heaps of money out of the pockets of their fat cat pals who made the markets fail so it must be true. And it was bipartisan, too! I mean... why should they lie?

Just because AIG and other banks have been swamping the offices of Congressmen with lobbying cash means nothing.

Really.