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Hot Air – CBS: Panetta didn’t interrupt his vacation either after Flight 253 plot
More lack of concern and leadership. Do you think if a family member was hit by a car, you could just call in? The people who are under these guys see this and realize how much they matter.
Nor, apparently, did he rush home to Langley at word that seven of his agents had been assassinated by a jihadist double agent on December 30. Question: If you were a political appointee whose credibility at the agency you’re in charge of was in question, wouldn’t you want to go the extra mile to show unity with your underlings at a moment of crisis?
I guess not.
A source told CBS News that Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, was on holiday in Monterey, Calif. when Abdulmutallab was apprehended, and didn’t return to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. until the weekend following Jan. 1.
The CIA maintained that Panetta’s absence from Langley was not a problem. “While we don’t comment on the Director’s whereabouts, wherever he is—and at every moment of every day—he has the ability to communicate instantly and securely with anyone he needs to be in touch with,” a CIA spokesman said.
Hot Air » Blog Archive » CBS: Panetta didn’t interrupt his vacation either after Flight 253 plot
Oh My: Geithner Told AIG to Lie to Public About "Backdoor Bailout" of Big Banks and Investment Houses Through AIG
Oh, WOW. This one will be big!
The government was trying to bail out AIG, to keep the mega-insurer from going down, which could (maybe) bring down the financial system for a year or two.
AIG was loaded up with obligations it could not possibly meet. It had insured all those subprime mortgages, figuring that only a fraction of them could go bust at any particular time, which was a gross miscalculation, as it turns out.
They also had a lot of credit-default swaps, which, I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t know really what they are. Except you don’t want to have a lot of those on your books as the system comes crashing down.
So here is the malfeasance: AIG paid other banks 100 cents on the dollar — that is, full freight — for their own credit default swaps, which were now either worthless or worth pennies on the dollar.
Why would AIG do this? Why would it put out good, hard cash to get back virtually worthless paper? And why in the hell would you want to saddle a company which was already insolvent with even more insolvency-creating bad paper? All the while pumping its cash (cash from the government, of course) right out the door?
Well, the government — or more specifically, Tim Geithner — seems to have instructed them to do so as a requirement for continuing government assistance. And he instructed them not to disclose such 100-cents-on-the-dollar swaps to the public.
Social Security deficit slides to worst showing in a generation
When the Dems stood up to applaud the fact that they had stopped any attempt at reforming Social Security, the nation should have realized that the Dems don’t give a rat’s ass about the nation, only their own grip on power.
Well, the MSM fooled the fools and now the nation has to pay the price, once again, of the actions of the Democrats.
Steve at No Runny Eggs has kept a close eye on the financial statements from the Social Security administration, and he has good reason to do so. Earlier this year, we began to see monthly deficits from SSA, a result of income drops as the recession and unemployment deepened. However, with the Obama administration arguing that the economy has already begun its recovery, the deficits at SSA have hit their deepest ever:
The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Chief Actuary finally got around to posting the detailed November numbers for Social Security, and things have only gotten worse:
- The combined OASDI (Old-Age Survivors and Disability Insurance) “Trust” Funds posted a $5.858 billion primary (cash, non-“interest”) deficit for November, the worst monthly performance since monthly records began in 1987.
- The 12-month OASDI primary surplus was only $9.598 billion, also the worst 12-month performance since monthly records began.
Since there won’t be an cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits, the combined funds may yet avoid a 12-month primary deficit in 2010 by the skin of its teeth. However, that is dependent on an improvement in the wage situation, and specifically an improvement in the job prospects of those between 62 and 67 years old. Somehow I don’t see the trend of older and higher-earning workers losing their jobs disproportionately reversing.
And the DI has begun to cannibalize its capital in order to pay off benefits:
- For the 50th straight month, going back to October 2005, the DI Fund ran a 12-month primary deficit, this time hitting a new high of $21.399 billion.
- Outside of the “double tax-collection” months of January and April (when it recieves both the quarterly estimated income tax payments, also received in June and September and the quarterly tax on benefits, also received in July and October), the last time the DI Fund posted a monthly primary surplus was September 2007 (which itself is a “tax-collection” month, specifically of the quarterly estimated income tax payments). One would have to go back to March 2007 to find a month outside of a “tax-collection” month with a monthly primary surplus, and all the way back to May 2003 to find a month outside both the “tax-collection” and “tax-season” months (January through April) with a monthly primary surplus.
- A similar monthly situation with the overall DI Fund exists – outside of the “double tax-collection” months and the semi-annual interest-crediting months (June and December), the last time it posted an overall monthly surplus was September 2007; and outside of tax or interest “enhancements”, the last overall monthly surplus was posted in July 2003.
- All that has led to the DI Fund entering a 12-month overall (which includes the effects of “interest”) deficit beginning in February 2009, which means it is redeeming more US Treasuries than it is buying. That 12-month overall deficit, which has existed since then, has now hit $10.525 billion, the first time it topped the $10 billion mark.
Recall that Peter Orszag, now Director of OMB, predicted as CBO Director in August 2008 that no one needed to worry about SSA until 2019:
Today, Social Security’s revenues each year are greater than its outlays, but as the baby-boom generation (people born between 1946 and 1964) continues to age, growth in the number of Social Security beneficiaries will accelerate, and outlays will grow substantially faster than revenues. CBO projects that outlays will first exceed revenues in 2019 and that the Social Security trust funds will be exhausted in 2049.2 If the law remains unchanged, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will then no longer have the legal authority to pay full benefits.
Hot Air » Blog Archive » Social Security deficit slides to worst showing in a generation
Can Someone Get Gore To Correct These Manatees? Record Manatee Deaths in Florida Due to Cold Stress
Someone has to find ManBearPig and have him explain to these poor animals that its “global warming” and its not cold?
Funny how you hear these global warming retards say that its still global warming, yet temps continue to drop all around the world.
No one has explained the horrors of global warming to Florida manatees:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State wildlife officials said 429 manatees died in Florida last year, nearly 100 more deaths than in 2008.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Wednesday the increased deaths can be attributed, in part, to cold stress during the winter months of 2008 and 2009.
According to a news release, biologists documented a record high of 56 cold stress-related deaths in 2009, more than double the five-year average. They also found high numbers of boat-related and newborn deaths.
Moonbattery: Record Manatee Deaths in Florida Due to Cold Stress
Why Does Obama Never SAVE The US Money? EPA Replacing Bush Smog Limit with Stricter Rule. Will Cost States Tens Of Billions To Implement
Did Obama ever have and idea or mandate that saved money instead of dug us a deeper hole?
Washington (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed stricter health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran counter to scientific recommendations.
The new limits – which are presented as a range – will likely put hundreds more counties nationwide in violation, a designation that will require them to find additional ways to clamp down on pollution or face government sanctions, most likely the loss of federal highway dollars.
CNSNews.com – EPA Replacing Bush Smog Limit with Stricter Rule
New Mexico Family Sues Funeral Homes Because They Were Given A Bag With A Brain In It
Ok. First, read this:
Albuquerque, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico family is suing two funeral homes over a gruesome incident in which members unwittingly accepted a bag containing a relative’s brain and only became aware of it by the odor a day later.
This is a tragic and horrible thing for any funeral home to do to someone. Someone goes to a funeral home expecting them to help ease the torment of losing a loved one and get through the funeral as easily as possible. They do not expect them to hand them grisly organs from the corpse to hang on to. I think that most states (if not all) even have laws against unlicensed disposal of human remains.
That being said, and I know this is horrible, but I have to ask: If a funeral home hands you a squishy plastic bag, do you a) look inside to see what it is or b) take it home and put it on the table for a day or two. Even if you thought it was a bag of personal effects, wouldn’t you look in the bag? I mean a brain is like 3lbs. of mostly water. How could you not think “Odd. I don’t remember him wearing a football sized wet sponge."
I know. I am evil and morbid for asking, but seriously, I really want to know how the funeral home could do this and how the family would take the damn thing.
CNSNews.com – N.M. Family Sues Funeral Homes over Brain in Bag
Remember When Obama Said He Wouldn’t Raise Taxes On Those Making Less Than $250K? Let Me Be Perfectly Clear, He Lied
Seriously, they want us to believe that they are going to put a tax on an industry that has less than a 2% profit margin and they won’t pass that onto consumers?
I would say they are idiots, but that’s not accurate. They think we are idiots.
He’s now on board with the Senate tax increases for so-called Cadillac Health Care Plans.
President Barack Obama is pushing U.S. House Democrats to drop their opposition to a tax on high- end insurance plans as lawmakers try to craft a final health- care measure by early next month, a Democratic aide said.
The president expressed a preference for a Senate proposal to tax so-called Cadillac plans in a meeting yesterday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top party lawmakers, the aide said. The White House meeting came on the eve of a conference call Pelosi plans for noon today with her chamber’s Democrats.
Pelosi is facing resistance as she tries to resolve differences in House and Senate bills that would mark the biggest changes to U.S. health policy in 45 years. The Cadillac tax is opposed by labor unions, which are among the party’s strongest backers, and 190 House Democrats.
“I realize the White House has a timeline they want to meet here, but particularly on the tax issue, there is great potential for blowback,” said Representative Joe Courtney, a Connecticut Democrat who’s helping lead opposition to the tax.
Gibbsy said yesterday that this tax doesn’t violate Obama’s pledge because it will be a tax on the company that offers the policy and they won’t pass that cost on to customers. Seriously, he said that.
Official In Charge Of Analyzing Terror Threats Thought Skiing Vacation More Important Than Attempted Bombing… Like Obama
UPDATE: He was a Bush appointee. Since he did the same thing as Obama, they are setting him up to be the fall guy. Should he be fired? Damn straight. So should Obama.
Why am I not surprised?
Obama doesn’t stop golf for the attempted murder of nearly 300 people, but a cut chin on his buddy’s son gets him off the greens.
When your leader considers a skate board accident more important that 300 American lives, why would you expect to respond to a terror incident when your job is to analyze them?
The top official in charge of analyzing terror threats remained on the ski slopes after the attempted Christmas terror bombing over Detroit. He didn’t return to work until several days after Christmas.
The New York Daily News reported:The top official in charge of analyzing terror threats did not cut short his ski vacation after the underwear bomber nearly blew up an airliner on Christmas Day, the Daily News has learned.
Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center since 2007, decided not to return to his agency’s “bat cave” nerve center in McLean, Va., until several days after Christmas, two U.S. officials said.
“People have been grumbling that he didn’t let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation,” said one of the sources.
The NCTC, the post-9/11 clearinghouse for intelligence to detect terror plots against the U.S., is under intense scrutiny for failing to “connect the dots” on Nigerian bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
‘Negro’ Race Choice On Census Form Sparks Outrage. United Negro College Fund Is Fine Though, I Guess
I guess “Negro” is ok if they are giving money out, right?
Seriously, what is the criteria for when a word is not PC? I have heard black people get offended, saying “does my skin look black”. My reply is “No. Does mine look white?”
You can call me a pink skinned person, light skinned, white, whatever. Why the hell should I care. It’s not a derogatory term, nor is “negro”, “black”, African-American” whatever.
Racism is not a word, it’s an intent. Black people call each other “nigga” and other terms that would get a white person vilified forever? That’s what keeps racism alive.
Get over it and grow up. You want to insult me? Call me a “Anglo-Saxon” or “Euro-American”. I am an American first. Anything after that is just a descriptor.
I am so sick of the PC world. I am an AMERICAN. I am defined by my actions and myself, not by some label you put on me because of my skin color. When everyone realizes that and leaves kindergarten (aka liberalism), racism goes away. It’s stupid crap like this that keeps fanning the flames.
A fiery blast from the past is conjuring controversy in the new millennium. The word "negro" is now featured on an official U.S. document and now many are questioning if the Census Bureau is being insensitive.
It’s a word that many African Americans associate with segregation, so imagine how shocked many were to see it on the 2010 U.S. census form.
"The fact that it’s 2010 and they’re still putting ‘negro,’ I am a little offended," said Secaucus resident Dawud Ingram.
Question #9 on the this year’s census asks about your race. One of the boxes you can choose is "black," "African American," or "negro," all placed next to the same box. Ingram said it’s not a word he uses to identify neither himself nor anybody else.
‘Negro’ Race Choice On Census Form Sparks Outrage – wcbstv.com
‘Aliens will eat the fatties first’: Gym sparks outrage with new advertising campaign
Ok, this is TOO damn funny. And as a big-boned eating disorder victim fat guy here, I love it. Hey, people. For 99.9% of you out there, being overweight is not a “disease” or a “disorder”, its a freaking choice. Get over it, accept it or do something about it. But most importantly, shut up. You are not, as Cartman says, festively plump when you decided to eat the entire Christmas turkey. “But I gain weight no matter what I do”. Really? So, somehow, food is amazingly appearing inside your belly without you needing to actually stuff it down your gullet? Call the scientists. We have discovered how to make unlimited power, harvest the fat from your ass, that is coming from no where. Morons.
Get the impression I am sick of hearing people give excuses?
Great ad campaign.
An advert for one of Britain’s biggest gyms has sparked outrage by declaring: ‘When the aliens come, they will eat the fatties first.’
The campaign, featuring a little green man, was meant to encourage people to join up and shed pounds put on over Christmas.
But instead slimmers have branded the ad in offensive and weight loss experts said the ‘negative message’ is more likely to drive people away.
‘Offensive’: The ad for Cadbury Gym, Bristol, was intended to encourage slimmers
Signs put up near the health club and spa at Cadbury House Hotel in Congresbury, Bristol, read: ‘Advance health warning! When the aliens come, they will eat the fatties first.’
However, mother-of-two Vicky Palmer, who suffered from an eating disorder as a teenager, believes the sign should be removed immediately.
Mrs Palmer, 45, of Churchill, Somerset, said: ‘I would like to think that their hotline is very “hot” with people phoning to complain about this degrading and offensive advertising.
‘I am not overweight yet I still find this extremely offensive and patronising but how much more so to someone genuinely overweight?
‘Aliens will eat the fatties first’: Gym sparks outrage with new advertising campaign | Mail Online
