Words Fail Me category archive

You can’t make this stuff up:

Bank of America, which has already received $25 billion from the government, told the U.S. Treasury Department last month it might not be able to complete the Merrill deal because of Merrill’s larger-than-expected fourth-quarter losses, a source familiar with the matter said. Fearing a blow to financial markets if the deal unraveled, the Treasury agreed to work with Bank of America on a plan that includes new government capital, the person said.

The possibility of more government assistance is likely to stir new worries about the bank’s health in a city that has already seen its second-biggest bank, Wachovia, acquired by San Francisco’s Wells Fargo. Bank of America is in the midst of slashing up to 42,500 jobs worldwide and Wells Fargo is expected to cut its work force here as well.

In other news, Secretary of the Treasury Paulson et familia wants a cash-strapped city to build them a stadium:

As Henry Paulson engineers the $700bn economic bail-out for America’s banks billed to the taxpayer, his family is leading a quieter, smaller-scale effort in Portland, Oregon to take $85m more.

In Portland, Merritt Paulson, the 35-year-old son of the US Treasury secretary, is 80% owner of the Portland Timbers – a second-division professional soccer team that has its sights set on Major League Soccer – and the Portland Beavers, a Triple-A baseball team. His father, who’s reportedly worth $700m himself, owns the other 20% of the two teams.

The Paulsons have agreed to fork over the $40m MLS franchise fee but argue they need $85m in public money to renovate the local PGE Park into a soccer-only stadium and to build the Beavers a new stadium at a separate location.

or sense of morality than a box of rocks.

Via Atrios.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Selling inauguration tickets isn’t illegal, not yet anyway. But it was still embarrassing for one former congressional aide who now works at a powerful lobbying firm when she was caught this week trying to sell tickets to Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony for big bucks.

The former aide is Gina Santucci, who now works as associate general counsel at BGR Holding, the lobbying, public relations and financial advisory firm formerly known as Barbour Griffith & Rogers, founded by current Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and veteran GOP political strategist Ed Rogers.

H/T Karen for the link (she reads this stuff so we don’t have to).

Jesus H. Christ.

How the hell did he ever graduate from Romper Room?

Not just crazy. Bleeding delusional.

I cannot wait until Lt. First Son gets a boss who lives in the real world.

H/T Karen for the link and the nitro pill for my heart palpitations.

Unintended irony strikes deep. Into your soul it will creep.

“We hope to do to this industry what Wal-Mart did to theirs, Starbucks did to theirs, Costco did to theirs and Lowe’s-Home Depot did to their industry. And I think if we’ve done our job, five years from now you’re not going to call us a bank.”

— Kerry K. Killinger, chief executive of Washington Mutual, 2003

He was right, though not in the way he intended.

Starbucks sells something. They sell really bad coffee, but it’s still something.

Costco sells something. If you have a chest freezer, it’s a great place to shop.

Walmart sells something. Inferior products from cheap labor, but still, it’s things.

Lowes and Home Depot sell real things that weigh lots of pounds.

WaMu sold (note the past tense) boxes of air.

And now they are gone with the wind.

They are truly not a bank.

At least, not any more.

Via Duncan.

Holy moly. Going out in a blaze of dumb.

Steve comments.

H/T Karen for the link.

Addendum:

Digby has a theory.

Wow!

Self-medication via pine trees.

Religous wingnuttery of the highest order.

H/T Alison for the link.

Oh, my.

After a flurry of calls generated by the manufacturer of the Palm Pistol, a single-shot 9mm handgun that rests in the palm and fires when squeezed, the FDA told the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence on Monday that it certainly had not approved the device. Shortly after the Brady organization contacted FDA, the agency issued a statement saying “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined that the Palm Pistol, manufactured by Constitution Arms, is not a medical device under the Federal Food, Drugs, and Cosmetic Act. The manufacturer registered and listed the product in the FDA’s electronic database on Dec. 2, 2008. Because the FDA has determined the product is not a medical device under section 201(h) of the Act, FDA is canceling the registration and will return its registration fee.”

Via Wait! Wait!

Second Son told me about this.

Jimmy is a friend of friends who took a fall a couple of years ago:

“With financial support, his family could afford the resources that would help Jimmy progress faster. Services like physical and speech therapy–programs that his insurance no longer cover (sic).”

The consumer culture claims two lives:

“They’re savages,” said shopper Kimberly Cribbs, 27. “It’s sad. It’s terrible.”

Via Atrios.

Addendum, the Next Day:

Meg Kane in the Guardian:

I don’t care how nervous you are, how much your pay raise was cut, or how small your bonus will be this year. That is no excuse for behaving like an animal. It’s not like this madness occurred in line at a food bank – your family would still pull through this season without the Wii Fit. Certainly, retailers don’t help the matter at all when they fuel shopping enthusiasm into overdrive with coupons, contests, queues, and promotions, but at the end of the day the responsibility can be found on the hands of the store-chargers themselves. I hate to reduce these tragedies into an aphorism not even fit for a fortune cookie, but perhaps next year we can pause a moment, remember these events and monitor ourselves, thereby managing to check “Not Cause Harm to Others” off of our shopping list.

Addendum-dee-dum-dum:

kpshea on Kos:

Who needs peace on earth, goodwill toward men when there are only five Garmin GPS devices available for $99?