Thursday, September 25, 2008

Sylvan Migdal Nails It

(bonus points for including two of my favorite NYC landmarks -- the Brooklyn Bridge and the WIlliamsburg Bank building)
 

Toles!

Tt080925

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Nation Needs His Two Cents

McCain announced that he needs to put off being whupped by Obama in the debate so he can use his complete lack of economic knowledge to help save the economy.
Tenderfoot and I were having people over for beer and shouting at the TV! The Fret in Lafayette! The De-bate in the Dirty State!
If Obama doesn't reject this completely, the Republicans could drag out the bailout legislation until November and blame everything on the Democrats. Or at least until no Friday night prime time slots are left.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

So the Markets Are Falling Apart...

...I thought Bear, Lehman, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG failing was the end of the world until I just read this:  the IAEA is pretty sure Iran is designing nuclear missiles.
Now that's the end of the world.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Crude!

(pun intended)
 
NYT article on reports by Earl Devaney, the Interior Department's inspector general, about shenanigans at agency that collects oil and gas royalties.  You know, it's just the usual "financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct."
 
According to one report, about one-third of the program's staff accepted prohibited gratuities from oil companies.
 
The report also indicates that staff improperly steered business to former agency employees, abused expense accounts, and accepted tickets to a Toby Keith concert (which should be a capital offense).
 
The program's manager (allegedly) "mixed official and personal business, and took money from a technical services firm in exchange for urging oil companies to hire the firm," and "ha[d] intimate relations with two subordinates, one of whom regularly sold him cocaine."
 
And on, and on, and on.  A pirate ship has less corruption than this place.  And if it'd been prowling the Gulf when Katrina hit, probably could have saved more people than FEMA did...
 
Anyway, the best excerpt even has a pun:

On one occasion in 2002, the report said, two of the officials who marketed taxpayers' oil got so drunk at a daytime golfing event sponsored by Shell that they could not drive to their hotels and were put up in Shell-provided lodging.

The same two women also "engaged in brief sexual relationships with industry contacts," the reports' cover memo said, adding that "sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length."

Friday, September 05, 2008

Roger Cohen

...expresses just how I feel when I fly back to the States these days...

Thursday, September 04, 2008

My favorite Wikipedia editor's note

This article may contain an excessive amount of intricate details which may only interest a specific audience.
 
See, e.g., klaatu barada nikto
Or this great xkcd cartoon.