Babies

Atrios: WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

WATB alert:

HONOLULU - Citigroup Inc.'s new board chairman, Richard Parsons, said financial institutions are being targeted for creating the nation's financial crisis, but they aren't the only ones responsible.

"Everybody participated in pumping up this balloon. Now the balloon has deflated," he said Monday. "Everybody, in reality, has some part of the blame. But it's much more in the culture to find a villain and vilify the villain."

Besides banks, there was reduced regulatory oversight, loans to unqualified borrowers were encouraged and people took out mortgages or home-equity loans they couldn't afford.

Reduced regulatory oversight...of banks and big financial institutions. Loans to unqualified borrowers made by... banks.... People took our mortgages and home-equity loans from they couldn't afford from...banks who abandoned underwriting requirements.

The rich assholes who run the world are babies.

Olberman commits public service: GOP dirty tricks and bullying April 7: House Minority Whip Eric Cantor revealed plans to force YouTube moments by interrupting freshmen Democratic Representatives on the floor of the House in mid-speech by asking them about their voters on other topics. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Ohio discusses.

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

Chris in Paris:Arianna Huffington: Obama needs human-centric not bank centric view

She is so right in so many ways. It's not that the current team is bad or stupid, but they are the wrong people for this moment in history. They are wrapped up in an old argument where banks are at the center of the universe yet that is a pre-credit crisis mentality that does not fit the world today. Obama's economic team can craft an intelligent sounding argument and maybe they've even convinced themselves - as many Democrats had done in the Clinton years - that we are to worship at the alter of Wall Street banks who will deliver us to prosperity. This is not the case and the longer we continue down this path, the longer and more difficult it will be to move forward.

It's a good investment of your time to read Arianna's post in full. Maybe one day soon, Obama will get around to engaging in a discussion with the other Democrats instead of the old school team who are yesterday. One can hope, at least.

Linkins: Washington Post: Obama "Helped Fuel" Rumors That He's A Secret Muslim

In today's paper, the Washington Post states that Barack Obama has "helped fuel" the false rumors that he is a Muslim, and that his efforts in Turkey to reach out to the Islamic world were a shift from his "tactic" of diverting attention to these matters.

I'd call it hysterical, if it weren't simply more indicative of a lazy attempt at provocation.

During his campaign, Obama consistently played down connections to Islam, rarely mentioning his middle name, Hussein, or his childhood years in an Indonesian state school. The tactic helped fuel false Internet-driven rumors that Obama, a Christian, had once been Muslim. But in his appearance Monday, the president noted the contributions that Muslim Americans have made to the United States, saying that many Americans "have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country."

"I know," Obama said, drawing applause from the lawmakers, "because I am one of them."

I'm not at all sure what this reporter is talking about. "Tactically" speaking, the Obama campaign did not "consistently play down" his connections to Islam, causing "false Internet-driven rumors" to spread. In reality, the false rumors spread, and the campaign "tactically" responded by launching a website called "Fight the Smears" that took on these rumors head on. At the time, the Obama campaign was criticized for not doing more to downplay these matters -- many so-called experts held that the act of disputing the rumors only helped them to take root.

The idea that Obama caused these particular smears to come into being is nonsensical. And I have no idea what is being contended by noting that Obama "rarely mention[ed] his middle name." I must have missed that whole rich American tradition of constantly asserting one's middle name, you know, like John Sidney McCain did, every chance he got.

But, more to the point, I'm having a hard time understanding why the Post wants to treat any of this as an unprincipled flip-flop on Obama's part. Naturally, everything hinges on the strange contention that Obama's campaign tactics caused false internet rumors to exist, but I'm still lost in translation: is the article asserting that because Obama didn't like hearing a bunch of false rumors while he was campaigning, he shouldn't speak about his past intersections with the Muslim world as a means of bridging diplomatic gaps?

The Post is basically suggesting that it would be more consistent, and, indeed preferable, for Obama to spare himself the grief of some internet rumormongering by subordinating the national interest and passing up potential diplomatic gains.

By contrast, the New York Times doesn't seem to find Obama's trip to Turkey nearly as confusing:

"The United States has been enriched by Muslim-Americans," he said. "Many other Americans have Muslims in their family, or have lived in a Muslim-majority country.

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"I know," he said, "because I am one of them."

And then he paused. Throughout his speech, he had moved swiftly from passage to passage, but this time, he waited for the interpreter to catch up. After about five seconds, the applause came.

The line was a bold one for Mr. Obama, who has been falsely described as a Muslim. The claim persists on some right-wing Web sites, which may try to interpret his remarks as proof of that view.

But Mr. Obama, who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, is calculating that the benefits of demonstrating to the Muslim world that Americans are not antagonistic toward it outweigh the potential political fallout back home. His calculus may also reflect an increased belief that he has enough political capital that he can spend some of it in pursuit of strengthening ties between Muslim nations and the West.

This account more aptly captures the consistency between a guy who - as a candidate - fought back against bigoted rumors, who is now reaching out to persuadable Islamic communities by dispelling the idea that America similarly lumps all Muslims together with shunned extremists on the basis of similar misperceptions and rumor.

If you've been paying attention to the military tactics that are in vogue at the moment, you'd probably recognize this as "counterinsurgency strategy." And if you have a brain in your head, you'd at least recognize that it's not a flip-flop at all.