Okay, let’s talk about the auto bailout / bridge loan- or lack of one or wherever we are right now, as the situation changes minute to minute. 

While countries around the world are helping their ailing auto manufacturers, it seems that as of the morning of Friday December 12th, the Senate Republicans here in the U.S. thought America’s best interests are served by blocking the bridge loan to auto companies.  Many of these same Republicans, however, supported the bail out of Wall Street banks by giving authorization for them to receive over 2 trillion dollars in emergency loans from the Federal Reserve…who, by the way is now refusing to disclose who is getting the money.  All courtesy of the American taxpayer, of course. 

Now, after enormous amounts of pressure and outcry from the public and press, Senate Republicans are considering asking the Fed to give some of that Wall Street money to GM, Ford & Chrysler.  God forbid the Republicans do the right thing without being pressured into it!

But I digress from what I really want to talk about… how the Republicans are using the auto bailout as a platform to air their hatred for unions, which to me equates to their hatred of all American workers.  After all, if UAW employees lose their jobs, they’re not the only ones who go under… so do countless supporting businesses, both related and non. From parts suppliers here and abroad to the local coffee shop owner or independent hotelier, everyone gets screwed when 3 million decently paid workers hit the unemployment line. 

Can these ignorant fuckers do basic math? Do assholes like Senator Jim DeMint (SC) – who issued a press release on Friday saying “the unwillingness of the union to accept common-sense reforms to help the American automakers restructure and to save thousands of jobs demonstrates an arrogance that is outrageous” – have a clue about the financial devastation that will ensue should the “Big 3″ auto manufacturers fail?  Trust me, the American taxpayer will end up spending a lot more than the bail out would have cost, should that happen – not just in unemployment benefits, but on lost tax revenue, healthcare for now uninsured workers and loan defaults via failed small businesses and home foreclosures. We’re talking about a snowball effect from which some communities will never recover.

I guess the Republicans figure they don’t have anything to gain by saving the jobs of union auto workers. What’s in it for them?  Big Wall Street firms will employee these Republican wankers or put them on their boards once their political careers have dried up. Saving auto workers only serves working people…you know, the ones they give lip service to but really don’t give a flying fuck about.  Self serving pricks.

In this week’s address, Obama talks of a plan to help end the mortgage crisis as well as his appointment of Shaun Donovan as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

“In the end, expanding access to affordable housing isn’t just about caring for the least fortunate among us and strengthening our middle class — it’s about ending our housing mess, climbing out of our financial crisis, and putting our economy on the path to long-term growth and prosperity. And that is what Shaun and I will work to do together when I am President of the United States.”

I don’t know why – maybe I’ve got a lot of pent up aggression because of the ice and snow storm – but I just feel like watching some good hockey fights… blood on the ice, gloves off hockey fights.  So sit back, grab a beer and enjoy, eh.

So how bad is it in America right now?  How royally did the Bush administration fuck the American Public?

Let the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) count the ways.  Please check out their absolutely amazing “Broken Government Project” and download a comprehensive PDF showing what they call their “assessment of executive branch failures since 2000.” 

It is astounding and overwhelming. Here are the highlights (each with a clickable link containing additional data):

• 45 million Americans without health care
• 60 percent of EPA scientists report political interference with their work
• 1,273 whistleblower complaints filed from 2002-2008; 1,256 were dismissed
• 190,000 U.S.-supplied weapons missing in Iraq
• $212.3 million in overcharges by Halliburton for Iraq oil reconstruction work
• $455 billion deficit for fiscal year 2008; estimated to reach up to $1 trillion in 2009
• $9.91 billion for government secrecy in 2007 — a record
• 809 government laptops with sensitive information lost by FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
• 30 million pounds of beef recalled in 2007
• $300 billion over budget for Department of Defense weapons acquisitions
• Less than 3 percent of U.S. electricity needs met by alternative energy
• 2,145 troops killed and 21,000 injured in Iraq from March 2003 through November 1, 2008, by IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and other explosives — many while awaiting body armor. Additionally, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the conflict
• 34.8 percent of oil used in America imported during Nixon administration; 42.2 percent during first Gulf War; 59.9 percent in 2006
• $100 million for failed FBI computer network
• $100 billion in federal tax revenues lost annually to corporations using off-shore tax shelters
• 163 million airline passengers delayed 320 million hours; cost to U.S. economy: more than $41 billion in 2007
• $60 billion stolen in Medicare fraud each year
• 2.5 million toxic toys recalled in summer of 2007
• $12.5 billion for defective National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System
• $4 billion to upgrade National Security Agency computers that often crash, have trouble talking to each other, and lose key intelligence
• 60,000 flights made by 46 Southwest Airline jets in violation of FAA safety directives due to lax FAA enforcement
• 12.8 percent job turnover at Department of Homeland Security in 2006 — double that of any other cabinet-level agency
• 730,000 backlogged patent applications
• 148,000 troops not enough to secure Iraq, enabling insurgency to take root
• $1 billion, six-year “Reading First” program called ineffective by Department of Education Inspector General
• 20,000 U.S. deaths annually from lack of pollution controls on diesel vehicles and power plants
• 60,000 newborns a year at risk for neurological problems due to mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants
• Two-thirds fewer clean ups of EPA Superfund toxic waste sites during 2001-2006 than in previous six years
• 935 demonstrably false statements in lead-up to Iraq war by President Bush and seven members of his administration
• At least $500 million for FEMA trailers contaminated by formaldehyde occupied by thousands displaced after Hurricane Katrina
• 558 detainees at Guantanamo detention facility reduced to 255 after court-ordered case reviews
• 26 percent of corporations holding at least $250 million in assets audited in 2006; percent audited in 1990: more than 70 percent. IRS audit staff slashed by 30 percent
• $431.5 billion spent on Medicare in 2007, double amount in 2001
• 47 dead in mining accidents in 2006 blamed on lax oversight
• $9 billion in federal oil and gas royalties mismanaged by agency linked to drug-and-sex scandal
• 275 largest U.S. corporations pay, on average, about 17 percent in taxes in 2007, half the standard corporate tax rate
• $45 trillion in credit-default swaps, without federal oversight, in 2007
• 760,800 disability claims backlogged, awaiting hearings at Social Security Administration as of October 2008
• 806,000 Veterans Affairs disability claims in 2006, up 39 percent since 2000; backlog reached 400,000 claims by February 2007
• 2,640 days Osama bin Laden at large since September 11, 2001 (as of December 10, 2008)

Jesus Christ, when do the short holiday week’s start? Anyway, here are my weekly musings offered (once again) as a wretched substitute for more substantive dialogue…

Huffington Post’s 23/6 offers a hee-larious look back at George Bush’s presidency with their “Defending Bush’s Legacy-O-Tron.” …it’s like Mad Libs …for libs! Thanks for the tip RaccoonMama…this video and all of my “mail it in Monday” are dedicated to you this week:

so he needs a doormat…what?

Indulge your love of childhood nostalgia (apparently only if your childhood occurred between 1978 and 1990) courtesy of the folks who bring you the Fail Blog with their new site “Once Upon a Win“  where readers submit their favorite “blasts from the past.” Some of it is lame, but there are some truly inspired submissions for such items as the Snoopy Sno Cone Maker and the Fisher Price barn (yeah, the one where the barn door “moos” when you open it!)

Book publisher 4th Estate (a division of Harper Collins) decided to commemorate their 25th anniversary by creating this wonderful video titled “1000 Books”:

Feel like being a hater today… or whining about your life? Let me do you a large by directing you to this article in Vanity Fair magazine.  Think you’ve got it rough because you’re buying the store brand frozen peas? Go fuck yourself and read about people with REAL problems…like layed-off Lehman Brother’s employees who have had to cut their housekeeper to 4 days a week or (gasp!)  fly commercial! 

These poor rich people have it so bad that some of them have had to seek out professionals specializing in ”wealth psychology” – counseling that caters to the rich – it’s is a big thing right now. Seems there are a lot of affluent  folks out there who just aren’t happy, or feel that their wealth is an overwhelming burden or responsibility. 

Now go and read the article in Science Daily where it’s found that children from poor families have brain function similar to stroke victims…or as Robert Knight, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology says: “kids from lower socioeconomic levels show brain physiology patterns similar to someone who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an adult.”  As if we didn’t know it, seems that being poor is bad for your health. 

“…we need action – and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.

We won’t do it the old Washington way. We won’t just throw money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.”

Jdimytai Damour

I found out something that truly surprised me yesterday:  Jdimytai Damour, the man trampled to death in a stampede of frenzied Walmart shoppers was 6′5″ tall and weighed 270 pounds. It just goes to show you how out of control that crowd had to have been to take that man down.  Unbelievable.

As is appropriate, his family has filed a lawsuit against both Walmart and the owners of the mall property where Jdimytai’s death occurred.  They state: “The defendants and each of them engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem and was otherwise careless, reckless and negligent”…saying his death was caused by carelessness and reckless negligence and that the defendants failed to provide adequate security, failed to account for overcrowding and failed to implement a crowd-management plan.

Nassau, Long Island Police Commissioner Lawrence Muvy said: “When you advertise…products…and you market it heavily…and its gone as public interest and its great bargains with limited quantities of merchandise and you have a crowd that can grow beyond the quantity available…it is a recipe for disaster…In our assessment there were not adequate protocols in place. In fact security was inside the store and not outside organizing, arranging and planning for this anticipated opening.”

We all know it, but let’s say it again: this didn’t have to happen.

Well I guess, “the other folks” voted this time around and Mr. Saxby Chambliss has retained his Georgia senate seat. Score one for the racist douchebags.

Poor Saxby, bemoaning the fact that enough good white folk didn’t come out and vote on November 4th…well I guess he got his wish this time. 

I think you can actually hear the gigantic sigh of relief from the Republican Party, now that the feared “60 seat” scenario is no longer a possiblity for the Democrats. But we sure had ‘em running scared didn’t we? Felt good.

From the people who brought you Batboy and the World’s Fattest Cat, comes the stunning story of Bobby Jindal teaming up with Satan to ensure a win for the Republicans in 2012! Read the entire story here.  I don’t know about you, but I say fuck Huffington Post, I’m going to the World Weekly News for all of my politics! I mean, who else has given us the headlines ”Dick Cheney is a Robot” or “Hillary Clinton Adopts Alien Baby”?? These are the things the American Public needs to know!