Sean Hannity Wants to Be Waterboarded….*cricket*

From FOX News Channel yesterday…italics are mine…

GRODIN: You’re for torture?

HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation. (oh ok, so if we call it something different and PC sounding, it’s ok)

GRODIN: You don’t believe it’s torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?

HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has. (and you brought up Ollie North for what reason?)

GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?

HANNITY: Sure. (sure? Like sure like ‘sure I’ll do a hot dog eating contest…sure I’ll try rock climbing…’)

GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?

HANNITY: I’ll do it for charity. I’ll let you do it. I’ll do it for the troops’ families. (you’ll be tortured for charity to benefit the troops? Somehow I don’t think the troops will appreciate that)

Alright Fine, We’ll Talk About the Tea Parties

I didn’t want to give these idiots any relevancy, but since the nutjobs are sprouting up all over the place, I guess I’ll take some time to respond, however inane their arguments are.

Ok so I think the best way to do this is to just rattle off some facts (and some opinions) in list format for ease of reading:

Here’s are 10 questions for all you people at these so-called T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already…cute isn’t it?) Parties ranting and raving about wasteful spending and deficits–

1. Why all of a sudden are  you upset about paying taxes?
2. Why all of a sudden are you upset about government spending?
3. Why all of a sudden are you upset about the bailout and the stimulus package?
4. Where have you been over the past eight years?
5. Where have you been while GWB and his Republican administration racked up the largest deficit in our country’s history?
6. Where were you when GWB and his administration would not include Iraq in the normal budget and would only pay for it with “emergency spending money” so he could hide the billions that were being funneled to private contractors (aka his friends) over in the Gulf to rebuild and secure a nation that we had just irresponsibly attacked for no good reason?
7. Where were  you when GWB passed the first stimulus package?
8. Where were you when Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt (i.e. more than equaled the entire debt burden produced by the previous 200 years of American history?
9. Where were you when GWB doubled it after Clinton eliminated it?
10. Where were you when Reagan (because of his insane cut taxes/raise spending economics) was forced to raise taxes TWICE to avert a fiscal catastrophe?!

I don’t mind if  you are worried about government spending. I will respect your views as much as their are LOGICAL and VIABLE with facts, history, and reality. But you Republicans and Libertarians and Fox News nuts at these tea parties don’t have facts, history, or reality on your side.

You protest when there is a Democrat in the Oval Office and a Democratic Congress. But you’re silent when there is a Republican President and/or Congress. You are currently a party that is living in a heaping pile of lies, revisionist history, and alternate reality.

You’re not protesting spending. You have rallied behind deficit spending for the past 30 years. You are protesting the fact that you lost the election in embarassing form. You are protesting because you are sore losers and you’re not willing to allow the “other side” even 100 days to try to right this enormous ship that has been diverted off track by your leaders.

Rather than taking to the streets to allegedly protest wasteful spending (by, ironically, wastefully spending on millions of tea bags), why don’t you all take some time to READ FACTS and LEARN HISTORY and deal with REALITY. Just for a change. Just to see where it leads you. You might upset your other ignorant, fire-breathing friends and family members, but you might just feel a little better inside yourselves.

Guantanamo Guard Speaks Out Against Torture

Army Private Brandon Neely served as a prison guard at Guantánamo in the first years the facility was in operation. With the Bush Administration, and thus the threat of retaliation against him, now gone, Neely decided to step forward and tell his story. “The stuff I did and the stuff I saw was just wrong,” he told the Associated Press. Neely describes the arrival of detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, he details their sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, an isolation regime that was put in place for child-detainees, and his conversations with prisoners David Hicks and Rhuhel Ahmed. It makes for fascinating reading.

Neely’s comprehensive account runs to roughly 15,000 words. It was compiled by law students at the University of California at Davis and can be accessed here.

Stimulus Good For Medicine

The Block FM is trying to keep you up to date about what’s hot and what’s not about the recently passed $789 billion stimulus package. oops, I think it’s $787 billion now, but who’s counting. So yeah, the new stimulus package is good for medicine, just like it’s good for the environment. See most of the time when the government sponsors medical research, they’re just giving money to scientists to figure out if new drugs and treatments are safe and effective. But what we’ve never ever given scienists and researchers money for is testing new drugs and treatments against the effectiveness of the current drugs and treatments that are on the market. So basically, the stimulus package is giving medicine $1.1 billion to do some quality control and compare the new to the old and scrap what sucks and keep what works. Good idea, Geniuses! Yeesh, it took until 2009 to figure that would be a good thing?! Wow. So way to go, yippee and all that jazz. Happy President’s Day. As Bush would say, “go shopping.”

Bailed out Bankers Testify

The eight chief executives from bailed out Wall Street banks are testifying today before Congress. The CEOS will be quizzed aggressively on how they have used more than $160 billion in taxpayers’ money. Watch the hearing live here… See below for a list of paraphrased quotes from the hearing.

JP Morgan CEO: We Bear Some Responsibility For The Current State Of Financial Markets…

Bank Of America CEO: We Are Lending… We Intend To Pay The TARP Funds Back… We Play A Supporting Role In The Economy…

State Street CEO: Myself And Six Other Members Of Our Leadership Team Are Forgoing Incentive Compensation…

Citigroup CEO: We Continue To Reach Out To Homeowners… The World Is Changing Very Fast… I Want To Say Something About The Airplane That Was In The News… We Need To Do A Better Job of Acknowledging The New Reality… My Salary Should Be $1 A Year Until We Return To Profitability…

Wells Fargo CEO: We’re Americans First, Bankers Second… We Made A $3 Billion Profit Last Year…

Chairman Barney Frank: If You Want To Give Back The Money, We Will Take It

TWITTER US!!!!

TheBlockFM on Twitter!!! LOOK IT UP!

Cut the nuclear crap. Literally.

Some Senators have stealthily stuffed $1 billion for nuclear weapons into the recovery bill. The only thing this will stimulate is an arms race. It must go.

The Senate bill now contains language authorizing $1 billion “for weapons activities” at the sprawling nuclear weapons complex of laboratories and factories run by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), including new construction, new projects and new computers. The House bill does not contain this funding, for good reason.

Military spending is notoriously poor at stimulating the economy. Studies show that investing in mass transit, education or state and local government projects generate far more economic activity than money spent on weapons. There are, in addition, three other major problems with using this emergency legislation for non-urgent and unnecessary nuclear weapons purposes.

First, this is a stealth increase in the nuclear weapons budget. The government currently spends at least $52 billion each year on nuclear weapons and related programs, according to a new study by the Carnegie Endowment. This is an unconscionable amount in any year, but particularly outrageous during this profound economic crisis. Of this amount, the NNSA got $9.3 billion last year. The Senate would give the agency a $1 billion bonus–free money above and beyond its normal budget. It is an 11 percent increase for weapons programs at a time when hospitals, schools and state governments are forced to slash their budgets and lay off workers.

The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability provides a complete NNSA budget breakdown on their website. They are mounting a public campaign against this give-away.

Second, this weapons increase comes without any presidential plan for the size, composition, or mission for the 5,200 nuclear weapons currently in our stockpile. We have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world–or any nation therein–many times over. But the Bush Administration planned to expand nuclear weapon production, plans that could cost $200 billion over the next two decades, according to Bill Hartung at the New America Foundation. Giving a nuclear bonus to the weapons complex now is an attempt to force start this expansion, box in President Obama, and create facts on the ground that he will find more difficult to reverse.

Finally, this is a nuclear earmark manipulated in Senate backrooms. There is not a record of who put these funds into the bill, nor any justification for why this amount and why now. The culprit, however, is suspected to be a senator who has no intention of voting for the bill. This is not transparency; this is hypocrisy. No member of Congress should be allowed to vigorously oppose the recovery bill with one hand and stuff nuclear pork into it with the other.

Source

Whats in your wallet?

Now it’s time to make a deal on economic stimulus: Key members of the Senate and House are in talks to craft a final bill. They hope to reach an agreement ASAP.

Whatever they come up with, there’s a good chance it will closely resemble the version passed Tuesday by the Senate.

The Senate provisions carry more weight because the Senate, unlike the House, cannot pass a final package without the support of a few Republicans. Only three Republicans voted for the Senate bill. Should the final package’s cost or contents be substantially different, those Republican votes could be lost.

So using the Senate as a guide, we took a look at what the financial rescue package might mean for you.

Here’s a rundown of many of the measures that would benefit individuals directly. It’s likely that many, if not all, of these measures will make it into the final package. CNNMoney.com will update this list as negotiators hammer out a final deal.

Make Work Pay Credit: The bill provides a $500 credit per worker and a $1,000 credit per dual-earner couple. The full credit would be paid to people making $70,000 or less ($140,000 per dual-earner couple). It would also be refundable, which means that even very low-income families who don’t make enough to owe income tax would be able to claim it. Estimated cost: $139.4 billion.

One-time payments to those who don’t work: For seniors who don’t work, as well as disabled veterans and retired railroad workers, the bill provides a one-time $300 payment. Estimated cost: $17 billion.

Break for higher income families: The bill includes a one-year provision to protect middle- and upper-middle-income families from having to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT was intended primarily for high-income taxpayers but has in recent years threatened to engulf those lower down the income scale. Estimated cost: $70 billion.

Temporary credit for car buyers: The bill would let those who buy a car in 2009 deduct the interest they pay on their car loan as well as the sales tax charged in the purchase. The full deduction would be available to those earning less than $125,000 ($250,000 for joint filers). Estimated cost: $11 billion.

Temporary credit for home buyers: The bill doubles the size of an existing temporary home buyer credit to $15,000. It also would allow all home buyers to claim it. And it removes the requirement under current law that the credit be paid back. Estimated cost: $39 billion.

New college credit: The bill introduces the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a $2,500 credit for higher education expenses. The full credit would be available to those making less than $80,000 ($160,000 for joint filers). Estimated cost: $10.3 billion.

Pell Grants: The bill increases the maximum Pell Grant by $281 in the 2009-10 academic year and by $400 in the 2010-11 academic year. Estimated cost: $14 billion.

Child care credit: The bill increases eligibility for the child care tax credit by lowering the income threshold that must be met to $8,100. That will allow lower income families to claim more of the credit. Estimated cost: $7.2 billion.

Earned income tax credit: The credit will be temporarily increased from 40% to 45% of qualifying earnings for low-income families with three or more children. It also includes a marriage penalty relief provision for couples who qualify for at least a portion of the credit. Estimated cost: $4.6 billion.

Direct lifeline benefits

Health insurance help for the jobless: The bill includes provisions to help eligible jobless workers pay for health insurance under Cobra. Cobra coverage allows newly laid off workers to keep health insurance provided by their former employers for a period of time.

One of the provisions offers a government subsidy — 50% of premiums for 12 months — to help out-of-work Americans pay for healthcare. Estimated cost: $20 billion.

Another provides states funding to help pay for expanded Medicaid rolls for workers who’ve lost their jobs and can’t afford health care on their own or can’t get Cobra coverage because their former employer doesn’t offer a health care plan. Estimated cost: $87 billion.

Unemployment benefits: The bill provides jobless workers with an additional 20 weeks in unemployment benefits, and 13 weeks on top of that if they live in what’s deemed a high unemployment state, of which there are about 30 currently. Estimated cost: $27 billion.

In addition, the weekly unemployment benefit will temporarily increase by $25 on top of the roughly $300 jobless workers currently receive. Estimated cost: $8.8 billion

Plus, the first $2,400 of benefits in 2009 would be exempt from federal income taxes. Estimated cost: $4.7 billion.

Also included in the bill is an incentive for states to provide unemployment insurance coverage for part-time workers and for workers who quit their jobs for compelling family reasons. Estimated cost: up to $2.6 billion.

Food stamp payments: The bill includes a provision would increase food stamp payments by 12%, so a family of four would see an additional $71 on top of the $588 per month they receive currently. Estimated cost: $16.5 billion.

Help for needy families: The bill provides $2.3 billion to states to create a contingency fund through 2010 for the welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which provides cash assistance to the needy. Estimated cost: $2.3 billion.

Source

He must be brainless…. all the Jacketless presidents!

Click Here

Is this a joke?

Michael Gerson, who authored President George W. Bush’s first and second inaugural addresses, offered on Fox News this critique of President Obama’s speech:

It is pretty amazing that this man’s presence filled that extraordinary rhetorical stage, the main rhetorical stage in American life when he is just a few years from giving speeches on the floor of the Illinois State Legislature. He has an extraordinary presence when he delivers speeches. I thought thematically it had a lot of outreach, a lot of strengths. It was part of that great tradition of American inaugurals that says we find renewal by returning to the great values, the transcendent values of our nation including responsibility and care for one another…

The surprising thing about this speech, however, is its extraordinary moments, the speech was actually quite ordinary, from a literary perspective. There were too many raging storms and gathering clouds and other things that any writer could consider cliched. I do not understand, given Obama’s literary ear in so many past speeches, how some of these things got through into an inaugural address. I think it’s a mystery.

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Coming up this week.

-Wednesday Kayla from The Bad Girls Club on Oxygen calls in

-Thursday Frangela will be in-studio to share there thoughts on the economy, Bush, Obama and celeb gossip… Oh and to talk about “He’s just not that into you”

-Friday Matt has your over/unders for this weekend in sports

-Karus will be breaking down the Hollyweird scene

And of course, Tim and Cassie got you covered on ALL the news to help you talk around the water cooler… to who ever is there!

Bush’s lack of Secret Service?!

WASHINGTON — President George W. Bush’s “after-life,” as Laura Bush calls the post-presidency, is shaping up to be pretty comfortable, with a Dallas office, staffers, Secret Service protection, a travel budget, medical coverage and a $196,700 annual pension, all at taxpayers’ expense.

The Bushes will move to their new $2 million, 8,500-square-foot Dallas home – not paid for by taxpayers – on Jan. 20, where Bush will be close to his future presidential library at Southern Methodist University.

“We’re working on a conceptual design for the building,” said Mark Langdale, president of the George W. Bush Foundation. The president will help develop the $300 million structure, which will include a library, museum and policy institute.

Fundraising is just beginning, Langdale said. Once the project is finished in 2013, the National Archives and Records Administration will take over the operation of the library and museum, at federal expense. Construction will be paid for with private funds, and Bush is expected to be involved in organizing the fundraising drive.

“He is enthusiastic about spending a lot of his time and effort working on the programs of the institute,” Langdale said.

Bush will maintain an office nearby in space acquired by the General Services Administration, which, under the Former Presidents Act, will pay for the office suite and staff to assist him for the rest of his life.

However, Bush will be the first president not to benefit from one former lifetime benefit: Secret Service protection.

“He’ll be the first one to receive it for 10 years,” said Malcolm Wiley, Secret Service spokesman. Congress changed the law in the 1990s so that any president elected after Jan. 1, 1997, and his or her spouse will receive the federal protection for only 10 years.

Bush’s pension, which is tied to the base pay of the most senior government executives and increases with federal cost-of-living adjustments, will be about half the $400,000 annual presidential salary. He and Vice President Dick Cheney will receive transition expenses as well for seven months – one month before the inauguration and six months afterward – “to facilitate their transition to private life,” according to the Congressional Research Service.

The GSA also covers travel expenses for any official activities attended by a former president, as well as two staff members. Former President Bill Clinton was allocated $50,000 for travel in fiscal year 2008 and former President George H.W. Bush, $56,000.

Former presidents and their families are entitled to health care in military hospitals, although they have to pay a reimbursement rate set by the Office of Management and Budget.

Bush will receive a state funeral upon his death, with full military honors for the former commander in chief.

Source

Jeb Bush… As President?!?!

Former President George H.W. Bush said his son Jeb should run for president and blasted the New York Times for its “grossly unfair” criticism of another son, President George W. Bush.

During an interview on “FOX News Sunday,” the nation’s 41st president said Jeb, the former governor of Florida, is “as qualified and as able as anyone I know in the political scene” to be president.

“I’d like to see him run,” Bush said. “I’d like to see him be president some day.

“As president, it’s about service, service for the greatest country on the face of the Earth and the honor that goes with it,” Bush said. “I think Jeb fits that description.”

He added: “I mean, right now is probably a bad time, because we’ve got enough Bushes in there.”

In the meantime, Jeb could take another job, his father suggested.

“If Jeb wants to run for the Senate from Florida, he ought to do it,” Bush said. “He’d be an outstanding senator. This is a guy that really has a feel for people, the issues in Florida and nationally. And his political days ought not to be over, says his old father.”

But the current President Bush’s political days will soon be over, prompting the former President Bush to unburden himself about what he calls unfair criticism of his eldest son.

“It’s been tough on his father and his mother,” the ex-president said. We’re not very good sports about sitting around and hearing him hammered, I think, unfairly.

“Now, there were some things that clearly he deserved criticism for,” he said. “But I think the idea that everything that’s a problem in this country should be put on his shoulders — I don’t think that’s fair. And I’m not trying to get back in game by criticizing people, for example, the New York Times, but you know, it’s just grossly unfair.”

Bush said “it burns me up” when critics suggest he and his son are presidential rivals.

“There isn’t any such competition,” Bush said.” We’re very close, and we remained close for many, many years. People don’t quite get that. But we are very close as father and son.”

On Wednesday, Bush will join his son for a White House lunch that will also be attended by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as President-elect Barack Obama. Bush does not know the incoming commander-in-chief well, but spoke highly of Obama.

“I talked to him right after the election and… assured him that he was my president,” Bush said. “I’ve very impressed with his style on the campaign and his coolness and his articulate nature. I think he can give a sentence and it’ll sound like it’s been thought out by Shakespeare or something.”

Bush said Obama should surround himself with people who “will not be out there talking to the press and… building their own nests.” He also predicted that Obama’s presidential honeymoon may be short lived.

“He should and will get people around him in whom he has their loyalty and to whom he can give his loyalty,” Bush said. “But that’ll change. Something will come up. Somebody will err. Something will come out of the unforeseen. This guy said that, he did that, and he’ll have to move quickly to straighten that out.”

Bush, known for skydiving well into his golden years, said he will “make one more parachute jump” in June, when he will be 85.

“Oh, there’s a thrill with it,” Bush enthused. “Just because you’re an old guy, you don’t need to sit around, sucking your thumb, drooling in the corner.”

Bush said his “tears will be flowing” on Saturday, when the Navy commissions its newest aircraft carrier as the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush in honor of the former president, who was once the Navy’s youngest pilot.

“It’s very emotional to me and it’s kind of the last big thing in my life,” reflected Bush, who was shot down in the South Pacific during World War II. “This brings back a lot of memories. I mean, my going into the Navy at a young age was probably the best thing I ever did in my life. And then now to be, you might say, rewarded – certainly honored in this way – is just mind boggling.”

Source

The Bush-McCain Economy

A little logic game for you all….

A. 9 out of every 10 Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction.

B. What’s got them bugged? It’s the economy, stupid.

C. Who do they think screwed things up? George Bush.

D. Who voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time? Who backed Bush’s rush to deregulate, to free up trade and to otherwise leave working Americans economically defenseless?

DING DING DING: John McCain

It’s the Bush-McCain Economy that has us in this jam. The Bush 1/2 is on its way out. The American voter needs to make sure to silence the McCain 1/2 as well.

The Bush-McCain Economy…

The Bush-McCain Economy…

The Bush-McCain Economy…

Hillary Weighs In

Hillary Clinton issued a statement shortly after the debate praising Joe Biden’s performance:

“Tonight’s debate underscored the stark choice American families face in this election,” she said. “I’ve known Senator Biden a long time – as Americans saw tonight, he is a strong, passionate and experienced leader. Like Barack Obama, Joe Biden understands both the economic stresses here at home and the strategic challenges in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world.

“We saw yet again that Senator McCain and Sarah Palin will offer only more of the same failed policies of the Bush Administration. America’s hardworking Middle Class families deserve better.”

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1.02.05

The Pressing Question No One is Asking…

Ronald Reagan, in his first inaugural address, famously declared that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

Twenty-seven years later, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and seven-plus years into the reign of Bush and Cheney, Reagan’s anti-government battle cry should be on trial. But, stunningly, it is not.

This needs to change. The presidential candidates’ view of the role of government should be one of the central questions of the last 36 days of the campaign. And it should definitely be a question they are asked at their next debate:

“Sen. McCain, given the part deregulation played in the current economic crisis and your support of a massive government bailout of the financial industry, are you now ready to break with Ronald Reagan’s assessment?”

And, to be even handed: “Sen. Obama, in 1996, Bill Clinton cheerfully announced that ‘the era of big government is over.’ As the Dow plummets and Wall Street and Main Street turn to Washington for big government bailouts, are you now ready to break with President Clinton’s assessment?”

The shift in my own thinking on the role of government was what led to my disillusionment with the Republican Party, and the transformation in my political views. I’ve always been progressive on social issues: pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay rights — even when I was a Republican. The big difference is that I once believed the private sector would address America’s social problems. But the hope that people would roll up their sleeves and solve this country’s social ills without the help of government was never fully realized. There were never enough volunteers or donations — and the problems were just too massive and intractable to tackle without the raw power of appropriations that only government can provide.

Our economy is not the only thing that is crumbling. So is the philosophical foundation of the modern Republican Party — also known as the Leave Us Alone Coalition, led by its spiritual guru, Grover Norquist. His dream of making government so small “we can drown it in a bathtub” has been embraced by the GOP mainstream.

Indeed, during his 2003 inauguration, Jeb Bush stood in front of Florida’s capitol building and said: “there would be no greater tribute to our maturity as a society than if we can make these buildings around us empty of workers; silent monuments to the time when government played a larger role than it deserved or could adequately fill.”

I sadly suspect that Jeb and Grover and their Republican compatriots have not yet updated their views of government — they have not yet made the connection between demonizing government and looking to it to save the day.

The financial meltdown has put the Grand Old Party’s schizophrenia on full display. But why are so many in the media, the Democratic Party, and the Obama campaign averting their eyes from the spectacle of a party that wants to drown government until they need it to bail out Wall Street or AIG — that wants to vanquish government workers, unless they are listening in on our phone conversations or working hard rolling back government regulations?

It’s like the story, probably apocryphal, of the agitated — and obviously confused — senior citizen imploring a GOP politician not to “let the government get its hands on Medicare.”

With the madness of this contradictory mindset exposed, voters will have a chance to decide if they agree with Norquist and Jeb and W and Cheney and the Republican Messiah himself, Ronald Reagan and, yes, with John McCain. And even Cindy McCain who, in her otherwise bland convention speech, called for “the Federal government” to “get itself under control and out of our way.”

A staggering 83 percent of Americans believe that we are heading in the wrong direction. And, I’m sorry, Sen. McCain, I don’t think it’s because of too many earmarks or because $3 million was spent in 2003 to study bear DNA in Montana.

Size matters in some things, but when it comes to government, it’s not the size of the government, it’s the way it is utilized.

“Big government” didn’t get us into Iraq. It didn’t spy on Americans or open black op rendition facilities all over the world. “Big government” didn’t create Guantanamo or okay the use of torture. “Big government” didn’t leave the residents of New Orleans to suffer in the wake of Katrina. “Big government” didn’t cause the financial industry to run off the rails. Indeed, the free market is what created all the new, risky ways for banks to game the system and, eventually, implode — then come calling on “big government” to ride to the rescue.

So let’s hear what McCain and Obama think the fundamental role of government should be. I can think of no better way to underline the massive gulf between the two candidates — and the two parties they represent — at the very moment when McCain is so desperately trying to blur the differences (see his recent shopping spree at the second-hand populism store: “Big discounts on ‘fat cats’ and ‘Wall Street greed’!”)

Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig says that if Americans recognize that the financial crisis — and the need for a government bailout — is due to “policies McCain still promotes… this could well be the event that effected a generational shift in governmental attitudes. Think Hoover vs. (the eventual) FDR.”

But if we want to make sure that Americans make that connection, we need to put the question of the role of government front and center in the campaign. Economic policy and foreign policy and domestic policy are all important areas of debate. But before we continue looking at the (falling) trees, let’s take a step back and consider the forest.

-Arianna Huffington

I love me some Citibank!

Citigroup Inc. has agreed to buy Wachovia Corp.’s banking operations, creating the largest U.S. bank by total deposits.

In announcing the agreement, Citigroup said it would pay Wachovia approximately $2.16 billion in stock and assume Wachovia senior and subordinated debt, totaling approximately $53 billion. Wachovia will remain a public company and retain its asset management, retail brokerage, and certain select parts of its wealth management businesses, including the Evergreen and Wachovia Securities franchises. Going forward, Wachovia expects to have adequate capital to support its remaining businesses.

Citigroup will acquire more than $700 billion of assets of Wachovia’s banking subsidiaries, and related liabilities. Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup, says the transaction will give it $600 billion in deposits in the U.S., or about a 9.8 percent market share. Total global deposits would reach $1.3 trillion.

Citigroup says it expects to raise $10 billion in common equity in connection with the transaction and would reduce its quarterly dividend to 16 cents per share, effective immediately, to maintain the company’s capital position. On a pro forma basis for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008, Citigroup’s Tier 1 capital ratio is expected to be 8.8 percent assuming completion of the transaction.

Under the agreement, Citigroup will absorb up to $42 billion of losses on a $312 billion pool of loans held by Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia, which is the tenth largest bank in the Austin area by deposits.

The FDIC will absorb losses beyond that.

Citigroup has granted the FDIC $12 billion in preferred stock and warrants to compensate the FDIC for bearing this risk.

“This morning’s decision was made under extraordinary circumstances with significant consultation among the regulators and Treasury,” says FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair. “This action was necessary to maintain confidence in the banking industry given current financial market conditions.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, Wachovia held advanced merger discussions with both Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co. late Sunday. The Journal cited individuals familiar with the discussions.

It was only last fall that Citi was seeking to raise billions to offset its substantial losses amid the credit crisis.

Spain’s Banco Santander SA also was said to be interested in Wachovia, but longtime industry observers were dubious that the U.S. government would be interested in working with a foreign bank to rescue Wachovia.

Late Friday, a Wachovia spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the bank doesn’t discuss merger speculation.

Reports late last week indicated that struggling Wachovia was seeking a suitor. The bank fumbled badly on its ill-timed purchase of Oakland, Calif.-based Golden West Financial Corp. Much of the bank’s mortgage woes stem from that $25 billion deal completed in 2006. Many analysts said that deal was a huge mistake even before it closed.

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McCain F*&%s Up Bailout Compromise

If the party was looking for leadership, it did not find it in its presidential nominee. Sen. John McCain, who on Wednesday said he was leaving the campaign trail to help steer a bailout proposal, may have just exacerbated the problems.

His arrival on Capitol Hill came shortly after the initial compromise was announced. And his presence at a White House meeting later in the day produced more confusion than results. Shortly after McCain convened with the president, Sen. Barack Obama, Treasury Secretary Paulson and congressional leaders, his campaign seemingly criticized all parties involved.

“Despite today’s news reports,” a memo read, “there never existed a ‘deal,’ but merely a proposal offered by a small, select group of Members of Congress. As of right now, there exists only a series of principles, including greater oversight and measures to address CEO pay. However, these principles do not enjoy a consensus in Congress.”

Later, the campaign sought to fight back against a developing narrative that McCain had hurt negotiations by speaking positively about an alternative bailout proposal, one put forth by a “working group” of conservative House Republicans.

In a damage control effort, McCain aides sent reporters a link to an article written by the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, which reported that the Senator had taken no leadership position whatsoever.

“McCain himself did not bring up those [alternative] proposals” or attack the compromise, Ambinder reported, citing multiple sources. The McCain campaign called this an “accurate” reporting of what had happened, seemingly pressing the point that McCain had not tried to derail the compromise.

But in his story, Ambinder opined, “Boehner and the White House — and McCain — if they want to get something passed — do have the responsibility to persuade these Republicans to support the bailout. After all, if not to get these recalcitrant Republicans on board, why did McCain go to Washington in the first place?”

Indeed, even members of the conservative commentariat were forced to acknowledge that much of what was happening among Republicans was strict, bare-knuckled politics.

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of people thinking about how to rebuild this party,” said GOP strategist Ed Rollins on CNN, “and do we want to rebuild it with John McCain, who’s always kind of questionable on the basic facts of fiscal control, all the rest of it, immigration. And I think to a certain extent this 110, 115 members of this study group are saying, here’s the time to draw the line in the sand.”

“That’s pretty scary stuff that they’re thinking about party right now and not country, is that what you’re saying?” responded host Anderson Cooper.

“I think they’re, yes, they’re thinking about themselves,” said Rollins. “I think they don’t think that the threat is as great as a lot of other people do.”

And so, a bailout proposal that once seemed likely to pass now is back to negotiations. In the process, Secretary Paulson was reduced to getting on his knees to beg House Speaker Nancy Pelosi not to have her party members bail on the proposal; President Bush was forced to ponder a market meltdown on his watch; and Democrats were left fuming that in a bid for the leadership spotlight, John McCain may have simply gone and fouled things up.

“Bush is no diplomat,” said a Democratic staffer, “but he’s Cardinal freaking Richelieu compared to McCain. McCain couldn’t negotiate an agreement on dinner among a family of four without making a big drama with himself at the heroic center of it. And then they’d all just leave to make themselves a sandwich.”

We Have a secret…

Be sure to tune in on Monday, the 29th. We have a huge announcement!!!!!

David Letterman Skewers John McCain

All 9:40 is worth watching!