scandals

My really busy week continues. I have a really nice post on GOP hypocrisy.

• Fox news is convinced that we spent way too much time on the Rupert Murdoch scandal. They think it’s time for us to move on. When you think about it, how many scandals include the British Parliament dragging business executives in for a little chat and a spot of tea? To be interesting see what the FBI comes up with. Oh, you did see that Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton resigned.
• Michele Bachmann’s husband admits that he has tried to remove the gayness from gays. I wonder if Larry Craig, Senator wide stance, should take this course?
• Did you see this?? Bachmann’s church believes that the Pope is the antichrist? Oh, this isn’t radical and way outside of the mainstream.
• Representatives Steve King believes that revenue increases are just silly.
• Who is winning the money race? It is sad that we think that this is important. It is sad that it is important. Raising money is more important that you’re political message. It is more important than anything else. It is a BIG reason that are political candidates listen to big business and not to us. It is why we are so screwed up.
• Cutting spending will really hurt our economy and many Americans.

non-security discretionary (NSD)

• The Bancroft family are sorry that they sold out to Rupert Murdoch.
• Larry Flynt, the longtime publisher of Hustler, states the Rupert Murdoch has gone too far. I have no comment on this.
• Mark Zandi, the lead economist at the conservative publication The Economist, states what we already know. Fix the debt ceiling. He then discusses how we can get to a $4 trillion reduction in expenditures over 10 years. Seems reasonable.
• Just to make sure that we never, ever make any progress in this country, the House has killed a measure that would have increased light bulb efficiency, again.
• Bendable electronics look really cool.
• Darren Clarke and Lucas Glover lead the British Open after the second round.
• I’m sorry I have drifted away from Harry Potter. After the first 3 Potters, I found the series transformed from an updated Disney adventure to Tales from the Crypt. The whole thing became very dark. Harry was always worried about dying. So, I’m not all that jazzed over the final installment but Roger Ebert kinda likes this final episode. If you see it let me know if I should wander by. I’m still waiting for Captain America. I’m hoping that it is everything that the Green Lantern wasn’t.

Update

• There is more going on at News Corp than meets this eye. Executives are tripping over themselves to find the door. Why? If this is just a simple hacking scandal isolated to Britain wire executives here in the United States stepping down?I’m not sure why Les Hansen, CEO of Dow Jones and the publisher of the Wall Street Journal has stepped down. In his resignation letter he apologize for the actions of News of the World. It is a noble gesture but is there more? The FBI had better turn over every single rock. A week ago, I paid little or no attention to this scandal. Now, I’m reading every single thing that I can because I think this is going to be huge.
• I find the fact that credit rating firms are threatening to downgrade America’s bonds as tasteless and reprehensible. Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s sat idly by…  No that’s not right. They aided and abetted Wall Street in slicing and dicing complex mortgages securities which were worth much less in their stated value because of high default rates, no money down loans and no documentation loans. They were the ones that slapped the AAA ratings on these fancy mortgage derivatives. It isn’t that they mis-rated them, anyone can make an honest mistake. Instead, they knowingly rated garbage as AAA. Now, they’re going to tell the United States that they are going to downgrade our bonds? Most of these knuckleheads should be in jail. By the way, why aren’t they in jail?

So, what’s on your mind? What are the news stories that you’re following this weekend?