Haiti, FOX/GOP and Wall Street

Real Americans Do It with Hate
Warning: The following is a flabby, spiteful cloud of spew, but the Chernobyl heart that powers my existence has not vented in a while.*

It's a little galling, as the quake death toll in Haiti mounts, to hear bankers testify that the financial system they've engineered for their own benefit suffered an "act of God" or a "100 year flood."

People wonder at the perpetual failure of Haiti, where the legacy of slavery and self-serving dictators like Papa Doc Duvalier have left it a poverty stricken sea of corruption one disaster away from hell on earth.

Meanwhile the bankers -- freed from regulation by the adoption of Reagan's "voodoo" trickle-down economics -- have turned the financial system into a casino that serves the global aristocracy they represent, and leaves the rest of the world prone to the financial equivalent of the collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince.

- Paul Krugman: Bankers Without a Clue

And still not much has changed here over the past year.  The adults in D.C. still have to waste 90% of their time dealing with the arguments of people who are either bought off ("centrist" Democrats) or seek to destroy government (FOX/GOP, and the Tea Party Sturmabteilung who think the GOP establishment's evil is not pure enough) and deliver us to a tax-free Real American paradise (just like Port-au-Prince but... 99.99% white, of course!).

The good news is that there seems to be a rising call to get rid of the Senate's "60 vote" rule, which lets a hellbent minority hold the nation hostage.  Why are the Bush tax cuts for the filthy rich still in effect?  Why don't we tax the useless global aristocracy out of existence, at rates that were in effect before the GOP found the magic formula that made a good part of this nation bitter, proudly ignorant, and gullible enough to believe it has something in common with that aristocracy?

- Gail Collins on Senate rules
- Mr. Smith Rewrites the Constitution
- Paul Krugman on Senate rules

In other news, it seems the Reid "scandal" was just part of Michael Steele's plan to cash in -- while, hilariously, daring the party to fire him -- as yet another GOP facade collapses to reveal a purely profit-motivated alliance of hucksters and thieves.

- Frank Rich: The Great Tea Party Rip-Off

And you know the world has gone to hell when it takes someone like right wing Congressman Darrell Issa -- self-proclaimed inventor of the car alarm and therefor one of the most worthless sacks of flesh to ever walk the earth -- to help lift the veil from the operation that let AIG pay banks 100% on the dollar.

The obvious image on top is mixed from the NY Times (Haiti) and the Internet (haters).  I could have used a picture of Rush instead of Rove, but what's the difference?

* That warning used to be an apology at the bottom, but it was like a witness waiting until after you stepped in dog crap to inform you.