Bush excluded from a Latin American summit?

Apparently, China, Russia & Iran was invited, but not Bush? Why isn't the news talking about this?

Obama is now officially the president-elect.

Not any more than he already was. The result of voting isn't official until the votes are officially counted; as the article linked notes, for the electoral votes, that is when Congress meets to count them on the 6th of January.

For those who think Reid should force Republicans to talk all night long, there is a great (though too long to copy) comment at fivethirtyeight.com at about 3PM. It’s written by a “former GOP staffer�, who calls himself EV. The short version is that it’s not as easy as you think. If you only want to understand the procedure, read the fifth and sixth paragraphs.

He-he. I have lived in Saudi Arabia. I have never understood the fascination with Dubai. From May until October it is scorching warm outside, and the sand glows - and the humidity is tremendous.
Mid-winter is actually cold.

Dubai is an abomination - either a Venus Fly Trap for the rich of the world, or just the definitive sign that this really is the end of Western civilization.

Quote of the day: We will make decisions based on facts. - -Barack Obama, while introducing his "green team". Ouch!

Interesting that Shrubya would lie again about something so easily checked out (remember "stay the course"?) in the age of Google. For someone who is trying to spruce up the image, this isn't the way to go. But, perhaps he was practicing the pisco sour technique all the times he said it.

I'm sure the summit snub is an oversight, as opposed to a reaction to the last time he was in Latin America. Or, the countries are trying to get a feel of what the real money has to say, and China and Russia would only be to happy to defend them against the US of A, Monroe Doctrine be damned.

And, last but not least, more than a few of the lib blogs have noted that Caribou Barbie immediately got her name in the papers as the reason it happened. As with many other things, this may backfire, since I for one find it very odd an arson fire occurs in a church with several other uninvolved folks in it without them noticing something. My gut reaction is there were some records to be removed from view and subpoenas. Even of they're still around on paper, the fire gives them an excuse to bury the bones.

Any truth to the rumor Palin's church was targeted by both fire and brimstone?

Word is that Arnie Duncan will be Sec. of Educ. I've lived next to Chicago my whole life - Duncan is not that innovative. The only appointment I'm disappointed in.

Obama continues to reach out to members of Congress individually, to the surprise of members from both parties

What's surprising them is that Obama is doing exactly what he said he would do during the election. In other words, fulfilling a campaign pledge. Practically unheard of by anybody in Washington DC.

No wonder they don't know what to do.

Glenn Greenwald gave an absolutely excellent interview with Moyers. Unfortunately, as happens far too often when I read Glenn, now I'm depressed.

Chopin: "Any truth to the rumor Palin's church was targeted by both fire and brimstone?"

They're saying it's arson. They're *not* saying by whom... or by what.

The SEC missed the boat on Madoff.

I have a hunch that 99.99% of all wealth is based on Ponzi schemes.

Look at the need for Wealthcare.

How many trillions have we been snookered out of by....the feds?

Crikey.

Me thinks Wall Streets brazillions stink.

Madoff's crime is despicable.

Problem is...all wealth is suspect.

Madoff is a wheeler-dealer fat cat who preys on other wheeler-dealer fat cats. Sort of a Dexter of Wall Street.

Here is one more part of the Government that has become dysfunctional on Bush's Watch: The Patent Office.

A relatively quiet day on Wall Street, with the three major indexes closing down slightly.

Is it relatively quiet compared to those days last week when it was relatively quiet? Or was it actually relatively turbulent on those days compared to today?

Oh, the hell with politics....
The Terminator movie looks coooool!

Wall Street can go F**K itself.

The DOW is an average, and it just so happens that many of Wealthcare recipients are DOW listings.

Go figure.

Madoff got caught.

The entire global capitalistic system is one big Ponzi scheme.

How else the meltdown?

(dot com bust...housing bust...massive oil spike... all money making money for itself at the expense of the rest of us)

2008.

The year it was all too clear why the wealthy suck.

Copy edit.

A "Fired" caused serious damage.

Another commenter last week talked about the need for copy editing. This is the third post since then that I've noticed from Steve Benen that has a context spelling error. (That is, it would go through a spell check, but is not correct nevertheless.)

May I suggest that before you post, Steve, that you read it from the bottom up, backwards. This is a copy editing trick that would help prevent such errors. A site generating advertising should be more professional.

Just the name - Madoff (pronounced as Made Off)
makes this case corny -
Bernard Madoff has made off with $50 billion dollars.

Reminds me of Chris Rock when he says, "every great wealth in America is tied to a great crime."

There have been suggestions that many of Madoff's clients knew that he was engaged in illegal dealings, what they didn't realize that they themselves were being scammed.

Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at the president, has become something of a cause celebre in the Middle East.

Er, cause célèbre. This is not a medium which lacks accents.

Reminds me of Chris Rock when he says, "every great wealth in America is tied to a great crime."

Chris Rock is just quoting Balzac, you know...

It's a paraphrase from "Le P re Goriot." Here is the quote in its original French:

"Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime
oubli , parce qu' il a t proprement fait."

An English translation:

"The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly
executed."

And the Illiad was written by Homer Simpson.

;)

This is not good with Madoff,

America's image have suffered another blow.

First, the Iraq war,
Second, we can't be trusted with other people's money.

At this point, we are relying heavily on foreign investments - to purchase houses, tourist dollars, investment purchases (bonds, stocks...)

Thanks to the GOP constant message of REFORM - which essentially means, deregulation. Thanks to Sarah Palin reminding the people of an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's inauguration speech, "sometimes government isn't the solution to our problem, sometimes government is the problem."

Since 2001 the GOP have deregulated the banking & financial system, cable business.

Businesses have taken advantage of illegal immigrants, now the unemployment funds are on a total collapse.

Businesses have taken advantage of the American workers - offshore banking, offshore subsidiaries/to offshore corporations to defraud the treasury department of profits, to filing bankruptcy to avoid funding pensions, and medical benefits.

Bernard Madoff has made off with $50 billion dollars - annjell

If he hasn't been assigned his bailout quota yet, will it still be available to him to keep his scheme floating for another year or is this particular scam bust?

Actually, this is great news. THIS should allow the Obama administration see EXACTLY what they will be dealing with for the next 4 years, even before they're in the White House. It's object lesson #1 for just how clean and above the waterline they must operate every minute of every day, and how fast they must close ranks. They will be under attack every second, and they must find new weapons against the plutocrats running our wonderful news media. I have hope given their record of finding new weapons to fight in elections.

Kevin,

I'm not sure. However, deregulation is a fancy term for, 'look the other way. hear no evil, see no evil, say no evil.'

If the SEC,FDIC, NASD, SIPC was operating under regulation, there's no way all of the banks, investment firms would have been able to carry off the Great American Robbery.

Besides, Madoff was able to be released on bond on just he and his wife's signature.

I hate to admit it, but, Chavez & Ahmadinejad has said somethings that are shedding light, and is potentially true.

Ahmadinejad said, "It's going to take 30 years for America to recover from what Bush did." **He said this after leaving the U.N.

Chavez said, "Sad Bush has to let banks fail in order to get socialism."

I don't like the hate speech that comes from any of these leaders, however, I do take note when they speak about the U.S.

**Sometimes, you have to listen to the so-called scorned woman, disgruntled employee...they tend to sing like a bird.

I was really impressed with President Bush's ducking ability over in Baghdad when some reporter threw his shoes at him...making me think that Bush has been out "duck" hunting with Dick Cheney before.

And a polar bear and Alaskan wolf were seen lurking suspiciously around outside Sarah Palin's church just before the fire started...with the wolf carrying a load of firewood in his jaws and the polar bear holding a box of matches in his paws.

anyone interested in seeing the inside of an Iraqi prison?

Youtube video at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7748016.stm
11-25-2008 "Inside Baghdad's Rusafa Prison."

Not that I'm defending the guy, and I myself have used the term "Ponzi scheme" to describe the collateralized debt/credit default swap stupidity that is bringing our economy to its knees.

But I think there is a difference between a con-man, who sets out to bilk the marks, and investment advisors who try to make up their losses and do stupid things to try to save face and maintain their reputations as Masters of the Universe. They are gamblers at heart, not con men.

Thus a have a bit of pity for guys like this, and a bit of "if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't true" with respect to his "clients."

My investments (managed by honest people) go down and up with the market in general, but our managers try to find "value" have avoided bubbles in both the Internets and real estate. Anyone who thinks their portfolios can be managed to NEVER go down, with good annual returns EVERY YEAR, are too greedy (or stupid) (or both) to spot managers with egos bigger than their brains.

Assoc. Press

U.S. anti-kidnapping expert kidnapped in Mexico?

Madoff is a criminal

He admitted it was a ponzi scheme!

"Here is one more part of the Government that has become dysfunctional on Bush's Watch: The Patent Office."-johan

The 1.2 million patent back log doesn't surprise me all that much. Republicans say they are for free enterprise pro-business and so forth, but really what they mean is that they are for concentrating money into the corporations that keep them in power. I damn sure bet you that any patents put forward by American megacorps ARE being processed. As for the rest? just less competition for the big dogs.

Cal Gal,

please do not take this as being confrontational or rude.

I had some shares in Williams Coal, a subsidiary of the Williams Co. My broker sold all my shares in 2004 without my permission or knowledge.

I had shares in Anheuser Busch. Shareholder did not, I repeat, authorize the merger with InBev - yet, the merger was completed, and I received $70 per share in check, accompanied by a letter stating the shares were not able to be converted to new shares of InBev - no one shares were converted.

I lost my money in Fannie Mae.

General Electric is a historically low levels.....

Now back to InBev, if I wanted to trigger a capital gains tax - I would invest in mutual funds.

With Williams Coal - I was stripped from getting royalty payments. You'd think this would have either a connection to the energy scheme, or my broker was trying to generate commissions.

Muntader al-Zaidi, the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes at the president, has become something of a cause celebre in the Middle East.

Oh dear, now they are going to be doing this all the time. No sense of proportion over there.

Does anyone else find throwing shoes, uh, unmanly? Didn't starlets do that in the thirties?

For a country that uses shoes and stones. Both with different meanings, of course.

Stones hurt physically
Shoes hurt mentally

Luckily it wasn't stones thrown at him!

Steve: "It's a bit of a surprise, but Time's Jay Carney will be Joe Biden's communications director in the OVP."

Oh, please. Regarding his own work as a journalist, I've long since concluded that Jay Carney has trouble finding the open end of an empty paper bag. What could he possibly offer Joe Biden?

Maybe this will prevent Steven Spielberg from making another movie. THat'd be 50 billion well spent.

Refrigeration, beaches!