The one and only Genghis - all freshly scrubbed and shorn - stopped by the dagbuzz studio to discuss his book, Blowing Smoke: Why the Right Keeps Serving Up Whack-Job Fantasies about the Plot to Euthanize Grandma, Outlaw Christmas, and Turn Junior into a Raging Homosexual.

Next stop: Oprah's couch.

I AM DEADMAN. HEAR ME TWEET!

Big news today. Ashton Kutcher just attracted his one millionth follower on the microblogging service Twitter, a milestone which has generated a fair amount of fanfare, but it's only the beginning as cult leader Oprah is going to feature Twitter on her talk show today and send her first tweet over the air.

Oh, how wonderful.

Excuse me if I don't join in the celebration - if I'm not all, ahem, atwitter with the news - but I have very mixed feelings here.

About a year ago, I signed up for Twitter - It's part of the responsiblities of my day job to keep abreadst of new emerging techonlogies on the Internets, and I had to see what all the developing hype was about. [Read more]

Details of the Geithner bank stability plan came out today, and Wall Street for one loved it. And why not,  for the plan basically allows financial institutions to take the worse of the toxic assets rotting away on their balance sheets and pawn off the vast majority of the risks of nonpayment onto the U.S. government (and ultimately the U.S. taxpayer). [Read more]

Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley yesterday went on the radio and suggested AIG executives do what their Japanese peers often do when the proverbial shit hits the fan and either "resign or go commit suicide."

Easy to dismiss the senator's remark as loony-toony and disturbing, but hell, we're basically following the Japanese blueprint to dealing ineffectively with economic crises anyway. I obviously don't think suggesting suicide is a helpful plan, but wouldn't it be nice for once to see American executives demonstrate a little bit of shame and take some personal responsibility for the destruction they've wrought? [Read more]

So some jackass reporter decided to ask White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to grade President Obama's performance after a whoppin' 50 days in office. Seriously? You could pass the question off as harmless, silly journalistic tripe, but I think it's symptomatic of a rush to judge and criticize anything and everything Obama is trying to accomplish. It's unhealthy, unproductive and unfair. The time to hand out grades will eventually come, but for now, how about giving the president a break and let him do his job. [Read more]

If you've been following my blogging at all, you know how little shame I have. In today's dagbuzz, I take the shamelessness to a whole new level by admitting I got emotionally involved with this past season of The Bachelor, which ended last night in spectacular fashion. It is so very very wrong that I think I may have gotten myself more worked up over what Jason did to Melissa last night than anything AIG, Madoff, Thain or Rush have done during the past year.

Excuse me now while I go lift weights or chew tobacco or trade worthless mortgage derivatives or just do something to prove that I have still have some testosterone left in me.

Thanks as always to Yahoo's Buzz! for the links! [Read more]

Today, I discuss codependent, abusive relationships, and our general resistance to change. Deadman understands the deal. He, too, just wants to relive the good old days and focus on things that will always stay the same, like the Middle East conflict. [Read more]

Been away all week on business, listening to my colleagues and the talking heads on CNBC bitch and moan about Obama's budget and economic policies. They believe he's declaring war on the wealthy and is going to destroy the economy with his increased tax hikes.

Are you fucking kidding me?!?

Oh yeah, I feel a rant coming on ... [Read more]

I usually hate happy endings in movies. They may be fine for movies like Rudy, but for many films, happy endings often ring false and feel like cheap cop-outs. Yet for reasons I explain in the video below, I actually enjoyed the ultra-gooey finale of Slumdog Millionaire.

Perhaps because America's economic story and outlook has become almost as depressing as the childhood of Slumdog protaganist Jamal Malik, it's somehow fitting that we allow ourselves to be gloriously deluded by inspiring, well-earned Hollywood ending bullshit. [Read more]

(Video below)

So Obama is signing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law in Denver this afternoon. I've heard several pundits calling the $787 billion stimulus package the beginning of Obama's New Deal. In today's dagbuzz, I discuss why that comparison is foolish, and why we probably couldn't even afford a new New Deal even if we desperately needed one.

I know Obama isn't done with today's bill. Homeowner and banking rescue plans are in the works and coming soon, but everything I've heard so far suggests that what the administration is trying to accomplish falls far short of the broad scope and scale of FDR's New Deal plan. [Read more]