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Author: Gerardo Orlando (Page 44 of 169)

The perils of outsourcing

March 10, 2009 /

This story should make every American furious. We have been outsourcing military functions for years under programs initiated years ago when Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense. This process was accelerated under the last Bush administration.

The result is the story we have below.

Basically, according to whistle blowers who just testified before Congress, soldiers in Iraq were getting electrocuted due to shoddy work done in Iraq by KBR. KBR was a subsidiary of Haliburton, and it’s not even a U.S. company – they transferred their headquarters to the Cayman Islands in order to avoid paying U.S. taxes. How patriotic.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

I’m getting tired of Republicans talking about wasteful spending now that Obama is president after living through the Bush years. So much money was wasted by that administration, it’s a disgrace. At least Obama wants to invest in health care for people who can’t afford it.

Foreign Policy, Iraq War

Spending freeze follies

March 6, 2009 /

It’s stunning how far the GOP has fallen. We expected some turmoil after the party got smoked in 2006 and then again in 2008, but this is getting ridiculous.

Putting aside for a moment the hilarious ass-kissing taking place as Michael Steele and other Republicans bend to Rush Limbaugh’s knee. The GOP leadership in Congress has decided they want to play their own part in making the party look like a bunch of buffoons.

The latest and greatest idea coming from Republican geniuses like John Boehner is the “spending freeze.” Basically, their actually TRYING to sound like Herbert Hoover.

Someone has decided that Republicans need to “rebrand” themselves as spending hawks, but they’re putting that political effort over the need to drag this economy out of a recession. They can certainly argue about spending, and they can vote no on all spending bills to make their point, but a spending freeze in an economic downturn is moronic.

The Republicans deserve to be in the minority. They deserve a chairman like Michael Steele who thinks he’s the coolest man alive but who puts his foot in his mouth every day. Finally, they deserve a blowhard spokesman like Rush Limbaugh who dresses like Johnny Cash and does his best to alienate two-thirds of the country.

Meanwhile, Newsweek just released a new poll that has President Obama’s approval rating at 72%.

Conservatives, Lunatic Fringe, Politics

Melissa Francis – The Dumbest Person on CNBC

March 6, 2009 /

It’s quite an accomplishment to be the dumbest person on a business network that completely missed the financial crisis, but Melissa Francis takes the cake. She argues like a teenager, like today when she became totally fixated on a 30-point drop in the Dow while Obama was speaking, conveniently ignoring that the market had been up over 100 points, and had given back those gains just as Obama began speaking (meaning that the trend was down as he began speaking). Anyone with half a brain knows that swings in the market in the short term are often not rational. The market is rational over the long term, not the short term. Steve Leesman was totally exacerbated as he tried to reason with her to no avail. I’m sure he would have told her to shut the f%#& up if they weren’t on the air. It was one of the most embarrassing exchanges I’ve seen on a network that has come to be known for it’s inability to understand the financial markets it’s supposed to cover.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of “analysis” we’ve come to expect on CNBC. Commentators like Larry Kudlow have one answer to everything – lower taxes on the wealthy. Idiots like Jim Cramer scream about socialism, even though he supported Obama in the fall. They’re becoming the Sarah Palin of financial analysis.

Conservatives, Lunatic Fringe, Policy

Jon Stewart slams CNBC, Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer

March 5, 2009 /

I’ve been stunned by what I’ve been seeing on CNBC. After most of the clowns on this networks completely missed the financial crisis, we have them lecturing the Obama administration about its efforts to dig us out of this mess and address long-term problems like health care and energy.

Rick Santelli has received the most press with his idiotic rant, but Jim Cramer has pushed the envelope on irresponsible rhetoric, calling Obama “Lenin” and saying he wants to destroy capitalism. This over-the-top rhetoric is absurd, particularly when you watch the video below. Cramer has been so spectacularly wrong about the banks that he looks like a complete fool now.

Jon Stewart reminds us that CNBC just sucks.

Economy, Humor, Video

Moronic Republicans

March 4, 2009 /

There are so many examples of how this party has completely lost its way, but this news item takes the cake.

A group of 31 House Republicans have introduced a resolution “declaring victory in Iraq,” which is bound to evoke images of “Mission Accomplished” and George W. Bush in a flight suit.

The intention of the resolution isn’t actually celebratory. It’s intended to set a political trap by declaring, six weeks into Obama’s presidency, that all responsibility for the six-year conflict, which was initiated by President Bush on flawed evidence and incompetently pursued for much of his presidency, is now Obama’s to lose.

These guys are complete morons. It’s amazing that they would try to declare victory when we still have 150,000 troops in Iraq and the Iraqi government needs to hide from its own people behind our army in the Green Zone!

This is pure politics, but it’s also dumb politics. The GOP is turning into a sideshow.

Conservatives, Iraq War, Lunatic Fringe

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