Michael Wolraich's picture

    Roland Burris - Here to Stay

    Once again, Illinois State Senators are calling for our good friend Roland Burris to exit stage left. One imagines a Dem Party master of ceremonies furiously giving the neck slash signal to end dear Roland's dance routine, but he just keeps twirling away and starts to remove items of clothing.

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    News From the Future: Last U.S. Forces Leave Iraq

    May 13, 2029

    Twenty-six years after invading Iraq, the United States closed its military bases and evacuated the last American soldiers from Iraqi soil.

    In an address to soldiers at Fort Bragg, President George Prescott Bush praised the U.S. military for accomplishing the mission that his uncle, former President George W. Bush, had set before them in 2003.

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Voters want Republicans to be Republicanier

    In a comprehensive study, voting experts recently conducted a series of interviews, polls, and focus groups to find out why American voters turned away from Republicans in 2008. While many reasons were cited, analysts observed a clear consensus among swing voters who had voted for President George Bush and other Republican candidates prior to 2006 but changed to Democratic tickets in the past two years.

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    News From the Future: U.S. Passes "Straight To Scrap" Auto Subsidy

    May 6, 2029

    President George Prescott Bush signed into law a ground-breaking automobile subsidy that will pay the United States' last remaining automaker, General Chrysford, to build cars that will be shipped straight to the scrapyards. The Automotive Repurposing Act is designed to help the Big One survive a global glut of automobiles that has driven the price of cars below the break-even point. Lisa Lemmon, the CEO of General Chrysford, has lobbied hard for the bill and argued in a recent USA McNews editorial that the auto company could not survive without assistance:

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    The Republican Party of Extraordinary Gentlemen

    The Puppet Master

    Primary power:
    Bending lesser minds to his will

    Secondary power:
    Manipulating intelligence data

    The Fulminator

    Primary power:
    Controls zombie army

    Secondary power:
    Feeds on hate

    The Brain

    Primary power:
    Devious brilliance

    Secondary power:
    Unhindered by conscience

    The Human Newt

    Primary power:
    Unpredictability

    Secondary power:
    Cannot be killed

    The Black Sidekick

    Primary power:
    Buffoonery

    Secondary power:
    Familiar with hip-hop terminology

    Captain War Hero

    Primary power:
    Righteous irritation

    Secondary power:
    Earmark disintegration ray

    Ice Girl

    Primary power:
    Emits patriotic-sounding nonsense

    Secondary power:
    Sentences of unusual structure

    Up-and-Coming Boy

    Primary power:
    Not an old white guy

    Secondary power:
    Dull speech of death

    Dr. No

    Primary power:
    Legislative sabotage

    Secondary power:
    No secondary power

    ?

    Primary power:
    Unknown

    Secondary power:
    Unknown

    Junior

    Primary power:
    Wreaks global destruction

    Secondary power:
    Blessed cloak of invisibility

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Oklahoma Governor saves Flaming Lips - Rep cites Constitutional right to be offended

    Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma decisively resolved a major battle over the official state rock song today. I bet you didn't realize that states had official rock songs, least of all Oklahoma.

    Well it does now. In an online contest, a majority of Oklahomans voted for Do You Realize? by the weird psychadelicish band, The Flaming Lips. I bet you didn't realize that the Flaming Lips came from Oklahoma.

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    American Hegemony: What is it, Where is it going, and Who really cares anyway?

    There have been many sober pronouncements lately about the end American hegemony, both on this blog and elsewhere. Some have reacted with despondence, others with glee. It may be that the end is nigh--it has to end sometime--but we should keep in mind that the forecasters of doom emerge from their caves during every period of hardship.

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    BREAKING: First Dog

    Under relentless media pressure after weeks of foot-dragging, the Obama Administration finally selected a nominee for a top government post: First Dog.

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    Bankers Want Out of Bailout Conditions

    Banks are chafing under Federal bailout terms, according to today's New York Times. Fearing that they will be forced to sell off toxic assets and curtail executive compensation, some banks are trying to return bailout money. But there's a catch. In order to receive the bailout loans, the banks had to grant the Federal Government stock warrants. The warrants give the Federal Government the option to buy stock in the company at a specified price.

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    Obama Must Stop Bowing!

    You've no doubt seen the video in which Obama bowed meekly before King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia:

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Don't Raise the Barricades

    A recent World Bank study indicates a disturbing rise in trade protectionism around the world in response to the economic crisis. Here are a few examples:

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Congress Shows Backbone on AIG Bonuses

    Congratulations to the august members of the House of Representatives. You just saved America $148.5M. Of course, after countless hours of wrangling with the Senate, that will surely be reduced by half. And then, there will be the lawsuits challenging the bill-of-attainder tax on a particular company--a really, really, really bad company which deserves to be disemboweled and which we would definitely do if that pesky economic depression weren't in the way.

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    China: Tiger on a Leash

    As the U.S. sinks deeper into recession and China gorges itself on ever greater quantities of American debt, you will start to hear about the "Chinese model" and the end of American hegemony. Yet China remains tethered by a stiff leash which will ultimately choke the charging tiger once it runs out slack: its government.

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    Help Wanted: De Facto Leader of the Republican Party

    Seeking qualified candidates for leadership role with a top American political party who will:

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    The House That George Built - The Movie

    Last week, I wrote a piece called This is the House That George Built. TheraP at TPM suggested that I make a video. This is the video.

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    This is the house that George built!

    This is the house that George built!
    These are men who lie in the house that George built.
    This is the war that killed the men
    That lie in the house that George built.

    This is the fraud that started the war
    That killed the men that lie in the house that George built.
    This is the Dick that contrived the fraud
    That started the war that killed the men
    That lie in the house that George built.

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    George Bush Not the Worst President Ever

    Defying expectations and confounding the critics one last time, George W. Bush is not the worst president ever according to C-Span's Historians Survey of Presidential Leadership. Bush beat out Millard Fillmore, Warren Harding, William Henry Harrison, Franklin D. Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and James Buchanan to place a respectable 36th out of 42.

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    Roland Burris, the gift that keeps on giving...

    Senator Roland Burris (D) speaks...

    Jan 5, sworn affidavit:

    There was not any contact between myself or any of my representatives with Governor Blagojevich or any of his representatives regarding my appointment to the United States Senate.

    Contact counter: 0

    Jan 8, sworn testimony:

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    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Economic Stimulus and the Parent Principle

    The $789 billion stimulus bill passed today. As expected, the Republican leadership carped about the cost. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell complained, "We've heard a lot from our friends about the danger of deficits over the past few years...Americans are wondering how we’re going to pay for all this." In case this message was too abstract for average Americans, McConnell supported his point with a common sense analogy, "Any parent knows you don't buy a new car and plan the summer vacation before you set the family budget for the year."

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    BREAKING: Obama is not Jesus

    Monday 2/9. The MS Wall Fox Times, a joint news venture created by various prominent media organizations, has revealed that President Barack Obama is not Jesus. A probing collaboration by numerous reporters, pundits, and editorial assistants has determined that Barack Obama bears little physical resemblance to the celebrated hero of Christian faiths worldwide and cannot walk on water.

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    Rich CEO Demands to be Taxed

    Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, publicly asked the government to raise his taxes in a NYT op-ed today. His position was not that of Warren Buffett, who has argued that taxes are unfairly low for the super rich. Rather, Hastings argued that higher taxes offer a more effective way to limit CEO incomes than pay caps. And he's right. To see why, we need to first understand why CEO salaries have gotten as high as they have.

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    InBloguration: Seeking the Silver Section

    I left my friend Jake's apartment on Capitol Hill at 8:45am, clutching my hard-won "silver section" inauguration ticket. Hat, gloves, long underwear, wool socks, sunglasses--perfectly equipped for five hours of 32 degrees, mostly sunny. We wound our way around the Capitol, exchanging anti-Bush witticisms with the passerby. At first, there were big, friendly signs: "Silver section -->." The signs happily directed us where we already knew we were supposed to go.

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Roland Burris, we hardly knew ye

    There's nothing wrong with Roland Burris and there's nothing wrong with the appointment

    -- Roland Burris

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    George Bush on the mortgage crisis: "How did we get here?"

    It was Sept. 18. Lehman Brothers had just gone belly-up, overwhelmed by toxic mortgages. Bank of America had swallowed Merrill Lynch in a hastily arranged sale. Two days earlier, Mr. Bush had agreed to pump $85 billion into the failing insurance giant American International Group. The president listened as Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, laid out the latest terrifying news: The credit markets, gripped by panic, had frozen overnight, and banks were refusing to lend money. Then his Treasury secretary, Henry M.

    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Sledgehammer Politics in South Korea

    Ah Democracy...freely elected legislators dutifully fulfilling the will of the people by blockading themselves in a locked room while the honorable opposition attempts to dutifully fulfill the will of the rest of the people by breaking down the door with a sledgehammer and other sundry power tools. Full video after the jump.

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