WorldCom will file for bankruptcy protection today, according to the embattled company’s chief executive. The bankruptcy would be the largest in U.S. history.
Didn’t see that coming.
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
This post is in: Open Threads
WorldCom will file for bankruptcy protection today, according to the embattled company’s chief executive. The bankruptcy would be the largest in U.S. history.
Didn’t see that coming.
This post is in: Open Threads
This is the most shameless and outrageous op-ed piece I have seen in the NY Times in a long while (I no longer read Dowd, so I may be wrong).
Wagging the dog no longer cuts it. If the Bush administration wants to distract Americans from watching their 401(k)’s go down the toilet, it will have to unleash the whole kennel.
Maybe only unilateral annihilation of the entire axis of evil will do. Though the fate of John Walker Lindh was once a national obsession, its resolution couldn’t knock Wall Street from the top of the evening news this week. Neither could the president’s White House lawn rollout of his homeland security master plan. When John Ashcroft, in full quiver, told Congress that the country was dotted with Al Qaeda sleeper cells “waiting to strike again,” he commanded less media attention than Ted Williams’s corpse.
In two paragraphs, Rich has now stated the following through insinuation and exxageration:
A.) The war on terror is a sham designed to hide the woes of the DOW.
B.) Not only is it a sham, but Bush et. al. are too stupid to do it properly, and must engage in more of it. I am sure this is setting the stage for Rich to call any future action against terrorism/Iraq as further evidence of “Wag the Dog” behavior.
C.) By implication, the woes of Wall Street are causing a failing economy- which we know is not the case.
D.) Even more sinister, Rich is suggesting that the woes of Wall Street are somehow Bush’s fault.
E.) Bush is indifferent to the woes of investors, and merely cares about obfuscating and talking about Homeland Security.
Paging Common Dreams. I think Rich may be your next editor.
This post is in: Open Threads
The Blogfather and others have been mentioning the TIPS program, and everyone seems to be somewhat scared about the Orwellian nature of the program. I am scared, but as usual, for a much different reason.
The reason I am scared is because I am shocked that this is the BEST idea we have for what would amount to a Federal neighborhood watch- reliance on civil servants???? Let me get this right- the best way to find terrorists in our midst is to employ the same people that took three weeks to get my mail to me when I moved 1/2 mile across town? And this was after I went to the post office and TOLD them my new address.
Yeah. I am scared alright. Excuse me while I go build my bomb shelter.
This post is in: Open Threads
Reason # 5 billion to hate the French
MONT VENTOUX, France — As he closes in on a fourth straight Tour de France title, Lance Armstrong is hearing a familiar but unwelcome chant from fans lining the route.
On Sunday, after another strong performance in the mountains extended his overall lead to almost 41/2 minutes, Armstrong had heard enough.
“If I had a dollar for every time somebody yelled, `Doe-PAY! Doe-PAY!’ (French for ‘Doped! Doped!’), I’d be a rich man,” he said. “It’s disappointing.”
For what it is worth, Armstrong has never failed a drug test, and he steadfastly denies ever using illegal substances. On the other hand, this is the story behind the French favorite:
Virenque is one of the riders who’s most popular with French fans, even though two years ago he confessed to taking drugs when competing for the Festina team. That whole squad, including Virenque, was thrown out of the 1998 Tour when a stash of banned drugs was found in a team car.
Hrmm. Makes you wonder.
This post is in: Open Threads
Why does everyone in the Granola Mafia talk like this:
These comments are from William Quick’s comments board, and are so funny they need to be reproduced:
The republicanspeak corporatist propaganda engines can weave their web of disinformation, distortion, and lie, and cite polls buttressing their spin and work to refract the seriousness of the many abuses of Bush and his obscenely rich and greedy corporatist cronies,- but the truth will not be silenced for long. There are far too many terrible questions yet to be answered. This is America. The people have a constitutionally protected right to dissent, to ask questions, and to demand answers from our supposed leadership. Bush and his imperialist cronies will be held accountable for their misdeeds. Unless this imposter and his clan of pathological liars has bin Laden’s head on a plate before the next election, – Bush can forget about stealing another presidency. The enormity and incestuousness of the republicanspeak corporatist machine and their web of lies, collusion, disinformation, and malfeasance is so thick and sticky; it will eventually smother them in their own filth. You can rely on polls and spin, – I will trust the truth.
Tony Foresta
The loon left his email over at Quick’s site. Feel free to email him and provide him with another opportunity to dissent. Just don’t dare ask him to tell you one right of yours that has been eroded within the last two years. He might melt down.
This post is in: Open Threads
If you thought I was intemperate, you have not read Isntapundit’s latest screed:
Brendan O’Neill (bone ill dot blog spot dot com) is a pompous dwarf, a pinch-faced ninny, a snarling and scrofulous whelp. He certainly knows how to push warbloggers’ buttons, referring to his toffee-nosed dialect for inbred pumpkin-rollers as “Proper English”, and deriding us for not writing in same. In his view, Clint Eastwood stands less proud than a sallow, snaggle-toothed, sunken-chested, drooling cretin in a frill cravat and balloon pleated bloomers. O’Neill would have us substitute “Preenz Jawls” for our every “dork”; fie for shame on the smug twit!
This post is in: Open Threads
Matt Yglesias thinks I am being intemperate. He is right. There are enough damn things I dislike about this administration (like the coddling of the House of Saud, and the Faith Based Initiatives nonsense, and that hideous Farm Bill, and the Kennedy written Education Bill) that I am sick and tired of defending them from these stupid attacks from the left.
These attacks have no basis in reality, and are merely media-assisted smear campaigns. So, instead of blogging about what I want to, I am forced to try to set the record straight. Whether it be Enron, Harken, Halliburton, whether or not the administration knew about 9/11, arsenic in water, Bush being a moron, etc.- you name it- there have been hundreds of these tawdry attempts since G.W.B. took office. What is infuriating is that the media equates the assertion as fact, until it is merely proven otherwise. However, that is often weeks after the initial phony charge has been leveled.
I think that is enough to make a man intemperate. Quit lying Dems- and I will calm down.