WTF Is It Now?!?

Another great image by a.s. at Blah3.com.



I have painful hickeys on both eyelids today. Egon again plastered himself like a limpet to my head last night, and used my eyelids as pacifiers. For a while there I was too out-of-it to move him, but I kind of woke up enough when I felt a river of kitten drool run down my face.





HEADLINE OF THE DAY
OVERWHELMING PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR JUDICIAL WATCH LAWSUIT AGAINST VP CHENEY AND HALLIBURTON

CNN Internet Survey Shows 95% of Americans Want Answers From VP Cheney Regarding Halliburton Accounting - Lawsuit is Strong Legal Action During Period of Financial Crisis Marked by Political Rhetoric and Posturing

A CNN poll, featured on the Internet web site of Lou Dobbs, the anchor and managing editor of “Lou Dobb’s Moneyline” – the prestigious and authoritative financial and business news program – revealed that 95% of the respondents answered “Yes” to the question, “Should Vice President Dick Cheney answer questions about accounting at Halliburton?” A similar poll on the Judicial Watch web site (www.JudicialWatch.org) shows 83% of respondents answering “Yes” to the question, “Should Vice president Cheney be required to answer accounting questions about Halliburton?” Interestingly, both the “Moneyline” and Judicial Watch web sites are likely frequented by large numbers of economic and social conservatives. This proves that conservatives are as concerned as liberals about Cheney’s alleged involvement in stock fraud. - More here.






HYPOCRITICAL MEDIA GIVING W A PASS
The Insider Game: Some pundits have tried to dismiss questions about Mr. Bush's business career as unfair — it was long ago, and hence irrelevant. Yet many of these same pundits thought it was perfectly appropriate to spend seven years and $70 million investigating a failed land deal that was even further in Bill Clinton's past. And if they want something more recent, how about reporting on the story of Mr. Bush's extraordinarily lucrative investment in the Texas Rangers, which became so profitable because of a highly incestuous web of public policy and private deals? As in the case of Harken, no hard work is necessary; Joe Conason laid it all out in Harper's almost two years ago.

Mr. Bush claims that he was "vetted" by the S.E.C. In fact, the agency's investigation was peculiarly perfunctory. It somehow decided that Mr. Bush's perfectly timed stock sale did not reflect inside information without interviewing him, or any other members of Harken's board. Maybe top officials at the S.E.C. felt they already knew enough about Mr. Bush: his father, the president, had appointed a good friend as S.E.C. chairman. And the general counsel, who would normally make decisions about legal action, had previously been George W. Bush's personal lawyer — he negotiated the purchase of the Texas Rangers. I am not making this up. - Snipped from Paul Krugman's column in The NY Times.





THE FIX WAS IN
Bush's new piety on corporate ethics means the press has the hook it needs to reexamine his cozy Texas business history. And that means we may finally get beyond fawning accounts of Bush's first-president-with-an-MBA-management style to reminders that, among other remarkable facts, Bush is the first president to have been investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading, and that Bush seems to have received an unusual $12 million gift while governor of Texas that accounts for his fortune.

Beyond the importance of knowing whether these and other deals crossed the line, Bush's business history underscores the massive hypocrisy of his avowed public philosophy. How dare this man preach "self-reliance" and "personal responsibility," how dare he rail against "dependence on government," when his fortune was won via a gift from rich pals as payback for persuading Texas taxpayers to approve a sweetheart stadium deal for the Rangers. - Snipped from Matt Miller's piece in The Philadelphia Inquirer.






THE SMOKING GUN: COMPANY MEMOS PROVE BUSH KNEW HE WAS BREAKING THE LAW
Salon's Anthony York reports "When President [sic] Bush sold more than 200,000 shares in Harken Energy Corp. in June 1990, he said he did not know the company was in bad financial shape. But memos from the company show in great detail that he was apprised of how badly the company's fortunes were failing before he sold his stock -- and that he was warned by company lawyers against selling stock based on insider information." - From Salon, via email from democrats.com.

And Ken Fireman, Long Island Newsday, writes "Harken Energy Corp. was in the midst of a serious financial crisis in the spring of 1990, and George W. Bush had been fully apprised of it when he sold most of his stock in the company in June of that year, newly released internal corporate documents reveal. The documents, which were made public yesterday by the Center for Public Integrity, include two letters to Bush from top Harken officials in April and May of 1990 stating that the company was gripped by a "liquidity crisis" and was in trouble with its main banker because it had breached the terms of a loan agreement." - More here.




So, how sore are Howard Fineman's knees this morning? And are his ears ringing, too?




TOXIC TINHORN IN MORE TROUBLE AS MARKETS TANK
Emperor Snippy's New York speech, supposedly an attempt to restore investor confidence, failed spectacularly. The proposals were widely attacked as weak, and in the two days since then billions more have been wiped off Americans' wealth and pension plans with near-panic selling on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones index slumped 283 points on Wednesday - its worst day since just after the September 11 attacks - and was again down more than 100 points before the close of trading yesterday, making a 7% drop on the week. In London the FTSE fell heavily, down 190 points. - From The Guardian.




"Bush's aw-shucks persona is wearing thin" - Read Drew Fagan's column at The Toronto Globe.

Lots of good stuff at SmirkingChimp.com.