Uh, so we’re not completely sure what to make of this trailer for the Japanese animated series “Cat Shit One” (?!), which features a specialized squad of mercenary sniper rabbits duking it out in the desert with turban-clad camels. Don’t be fooled by the cute-and-fluffy tail action—these bunnies are killing machines.
Rep. Michele Bachmann is sounding the alarm to radio-show host/wingnut Sue Jeffers about the scary government-controlled future that will surely result if Barack Obama has his way with us—starting with “mandatory” re-education camps for American children. And don’t even get her started on SCHIP.
So, Matt Lauer busted right out of the gates with the sex-scandal questions in his interview with Eliot Spitzer on Monday’s “Today” show, taking far too much time to extract mea culpas from the fallen former New York governor before getting to the better part of the program, during which Spitzer holds forth about the economy.
William K. Black made a name for himself busting bad bankers and the lawmakers who loved them during the savings and loan scandal. His book, “The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One,” says it all. Here he tells Bill Moyers that the treasury secretary is a failed regulator engaged in the cover-up of a massive fraud.
President Obama’s NATO allies may have responded favorably to his call to ramp up the war effort in Afghanistan, but anti-war demonstrators near the French-German border made their opinions known with protests following the photo ops in Strasbourg, France, on Saturday.
Did President Barack Obama achieve anything at the G-20 summit besides showing up and pressing the flesh with other international political players? Tony Blankley isn’t so sure, but Robert Scheer and guest moderator Lawrence O’Donnell are ready with their rebuttals. And how about that ginormous budget plan?
What’s with all these fancy economic algorithms that supposedly explain what goes down (or up) on Wall Street but are unintelligible to the average American? Why not make a new model that everyone can understand—and that’s always on the up-and-up?
Is American exceptionalism just a euphemism for nationalized narcissism? Are narcissists to blame for the cataclysm on Wall Street? Stephen Colbert takes a read on the national zeitgeist and brings in Slate columnist Emily Yoffe to declare that certain public figures might suffer from narcissistic personality disorder. Let the armchair diagnosing commence!
With military personnel deployed in 150 countries, Bill Maher says bringing the troops home from Iraq is only the tip of the iceberg. “Can you imagine if there were 20,000 armed Guatemalans on a base in San Bernardino right now? Lou Dobbs would become a suicide bomber.”
The clock is ticking for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to come up with a plan to deal with the banks that actually works. Meanwhile, some of the United States’ current struggles seem beside the point to European countries that already have a strong social safety net. And finally on this week’s list of “Left, Right & Center” hot topics is President Obama and Afghanistan: Is this a disaster waiting to happen?
In a bid to interact more directly with the public at large, the Obama administration once again turned to the Web, inviting Americans to submit questions for Thursday’s online “town hall” meeting. Here President Obama sets the stage with his opening remarks, discusses helping homeowners and considers whether marijuana should be legalized.
If you thought your air travel experiences have been nightmarish recently, chances are they’re not as bad as the daily goings-on at Prague’s Franz Kafka International Airport—a fictional (or is it?) hub of despair in which the word terminal takes on a much more angst-ridden meaning.
The Nixon tapes have yielded untold, er, riches over the years, and here’s yet another nugget, featuring Nixon in a wide-ranging conversation with Bob Haldeman and John Erlichman on the subject of homosexuality. The discussion begins with a dissection of an episode of “All in the Family” and then spins off to such topics as how homosexuality “destroyed the Greeks,” the Roman Empire and San Francisco.
We certainly saw evidence that President Eisenhower’s famous warning about the dangers of an insatiable U.S. “military-industrial complex” rang true during the Bush administration, but how about now?
President Obama personally conducted a tour of the White House for “60 Minutes” and in the Sunday broadcast defended his embattled treasury secretary, said sending more troops to Afghanistan was his toughest decision yet, and refused to grant a look at his wife’s vegetable garden. The president also took the opportunity to unload on Dick Cheney, who recently suggested we are less safe without torture.
Have the American media become too fixated on AIG and its nefarious bonuses—at the cost of focusing too little on the whereabouts of the other gajillions of dollars doled out in bailout funds? What’s to become of Timothy Geithner? And how about those warm New Year’s wishes that winged their way to the people of Iran from the U.S. and Israel?
The merger of the entertainment and political spheres is now complete. Witness this lengthy chatfest between President Barack Obama and Jay Leno on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.” During the broadcast Obama cracks jokes about the Secret Service, the Special Olympics (oops) and “American Idol” between more serious discussions about the economy and alternative energy.
President Obama has gone digital, releasing an online video of diplomacy to the people and politicians of Iran, suggesting “new beginnings” between the two nations to coincide with Iran’s new year holiday, Nowruz.
Truthdig’s Robert Scheer appeared on “Democracy Now!” on Thursday to tell host Amy Goodman who exactly sent the U.S. into financial dire straits and to recommend some changes that could put the country on a better track. Here are some hints: One culpable party rhymes with “Shmoldman Shmacks,” and another is at the top of President Obama’s economic team.
No one expects the former “Inside Edition” host and Fox News provocateur to be a class act, particularly not since he made his intentions with that falafel clear, but what Bill O’Reilly does with a pipe metaphor in this clip is just lame.
What’s to be done when companies that received major bailouts from taxpayers turn around and brazenly offer beaucoup bucks to the executives who helped put us in the hole in the first place? Here are a couple suggestions by way of an answer: Pitchforks! Angry mobs!
MSNBC’s resident smartypants, Rachel Maddow, paid a visit to “Late Night With David Letterman” on Monday to guesstimate the size of Keith Olbermann’s coconut, describe her rise to the heights of punditry and opine about how Wall Street is like a bumper-car ring.
A Response From UFW to Marc Cooper
