BETAMAX WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL.

Charmingly retro.

It was even popular in England: it was only because VHS won out in the US that it died out over there. In other words, a Betamax gift would have rocked, Iowahawk.

Sorry: it turns out that the stupid jokes that we all made about how the DVDs that Obama gave Brown were the wrong region were…

Yeah. Yeah, they were. How do we know? Because the Prime Minister actually sat down to watch ’em, that’s how we know.

I never want to hear another single damned word about how intellectually incurious George W Bush was.

EVER.

Moe Lane

Hi, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND). Enjoying your Countrywide mortgage?

You know, the one that’s just like the ones that your fellow Democrat Chris Dodd (D-CT) got?

Report Details Countrywide’s Efforts to Benefit VIPs

WASHINGTON — – Executives at Countrywide Financial, one of the biggest names of the housing boom, routinely violated internal company policies to provide below-market rates on home loans to the politically connected and powerful, according to a congressional report to be released Thursday.

[snip]

Recipients of special loans included senators and other officials, prominent businessmen, congressional aides, celebrities and journalists, including Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke, former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, Jackson’s daughter and others.

Via Jeff Goldstein. Continue reading Hi, Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND). Enjoying your Countrywide mortgage?

A recap of the AIG Bonus Blame Party.

So, let us review the bidding on the AIG bonus scandal, and who’s being blamed for it.

The Senate, in the person of Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), is blaming the executive branch, pretty explicitly.

The House, in the person of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), is likewise blaming the executive branch – but she’s also blaming the Senate.

The White House doesn’t want to blame anybody… but AIG is like a suicide bomber (H/T Hot Air), and a “senior government official” is just plain “outraged” at that awful Congress for passing this.  But Obama’s not about pointing fingers about how it could be the Republican’s fault – which is good, because as Ace points out our only contribution to this mess was Senator Olympia Snowe’s (R-ME) language in the debt bill that would have prevented these bonuses in the first place (that was before Dodd/Geithner/The White House/The Easter Bunny took them out, of course).  Nope.  It’s all Obama’s responsibility – but not his fault!
Continue reading A recap of the AIG Bonus Blame Party.

Come, I will hide nothing from you: I don’t *do* March Madness.

I don’t watch basketball.

Deceiver Madness, on the other hand… so far, on the Politicos bracket all four of my guys are still in play. The other categories? Not so much.

Looking at the future, my Final Four are going to be Tom Cruise, PETA… hmm, Perez Hilton, and Barack Obama (although John Edwards is going to give him one heck of a fight).

Crossposted to RedState.

I agree with Rand Simberg about the Star Trek Commander Chair thing.

Or at least, with what he implies: this NYT article is inadequate.

An adequate article would have told that you could order such a marvelous item directly here.  Sheesh: it’s 2009.  There’s no excuse not to give the link.

Moe Lane

PS: There’s also this, if you’re on a budget.

PPS: If there are sites about how to build the blessed things, I’m not finding them.   Tanj dammit.

PPPS: Constant Reader Matt justifiably mocks me for my lack of Google Fu.

Jack Murtha (D, PA-12) Claims Constitutional right to trade earmarks for donations.

The phrase ‘bawling like a stuck calf’ comes to mind, for some reason.

Okinawa Jack seems very, very defensive in this article (H/T: Instapundit):

Murtha defends statement

The region’s outspoken congressman is in the national lens again – this time CBS News television cameras – in a report Wednesday that calls him “the king of earmarks who wastes a lot of taxpayer money” and implies that the FBI is investigating.

U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, responded by waving the Constitution at the camera, saying: “What it says is the Congress of the United States appropriates the money. Got that?”

The CBS article in question is here, along with video footage that Murtha is going to regret. You can say and do things to, say, a private citizen with a video camera that you can’t do to a national news organization, and he made no friends in CBS with that antic. As can be seen with the next couple of paragraphs:
Continue reading Jack Murtha (D, PA-12) Claims Constitutional right to trade earmarks for donations.

Scott Murphy (D Cand, NY-20): ‘One of them.’

Jim Tedisco reminds us that Murphy may have an inclination towards giving bonuses to companies losing money…

…although that may not be an entirely fair comparison. After all, back then Murphy’s bonus scheme didn’t involve your money. I wonder if he’s still for passing that miscalled “stimulus” bill – Tedisco is on the record as opposing it, mind you – and I wonder if Murphy is going to comment on his stance on the AIG payoffs further. Or at all, really.

contribute:

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.