tagged w/ Sleaze
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Do Obama and Geithner Have the Same Flaw: Accommodation Instead of Moral Action?
By Mark Ames, AlterNet. Posted January 15, 2010.
Tim Geithner has a long history of caving to moral pressures and smoothing over colossal failures. But his personality is much like Obama. Maybe that's how he keeps his job.
A lot of us have been wondering, despondently, why the Hell Barack Obama is keeping Timothy Geithner on the job as Treasury Secretary, given his central role in the plunder of trillions of dollars from American taxpayers, and his record of subverting democracy in the service of Wall Street billionaires. Geithner's the guy that drove the getaway car in the heist -- so why was he hired to run the Treasury? You'd expect to see a guy as corrupt as Geithner serving as the Finance Minister in some Central Asian autocracy -- but not in Barack Obama's government, not after all he promised in the campaign.
Maybe a better question is: Why did Obama choose Geithner in the first place? On the surface, those two are supposed to be on relatively opposite ends of the American spectrum: Geithner is an East Coast Republican blue-blood whose catastrophic tenure at the New York Fed represented everything Obama -- a half-Kenyan liberal Democrat from America's western-most state -- promised to change for the better.
The most recent hope-crushing revelation about Geithner -- emails showing that the New York Fed under Geithner's watch forced AIG to lie to the public in order cover up tens of billions of taxpayer dollars that were being funneled through AIG and out the backdoor to top financial institutions like Goldman Sachs -- proves once and for all that Geithner is the worst choice imaginable for the job. He's the epitome of the sort of incompetence, sleaze and corruption that Bush specialized in -- so why did Obama name him, and why is he sticking by him?
So far the most convincing rational explanation I've read comes from William Black, the former Savings & Loan investigator-hero who understands public-private corruption in this country like few others. Prof. Black, like a true prosecutor, puts Geithner's rise to head the Treasury in simple crime-world terms: he's there to cover up his own heist. All across the board, as Black has pointed out, the same perps who caused the collapse of the financial system and the looting of all those trillions are all in positions of power to cover up their crimes, and keep the details out of the public eye.
But there are also other, deeper, personal reasons too. I came across some rather disturbing biographical similarities between Obama and Geithner that show why Obama might be more comfortable with a guy like Geithner on a deeper, mammalian level.
Even though Geithner and Obama come from such different backgrounds and from different political parties, both have strikingly similar temperaments -- both earned reputations as conciliators and centrists in campus debates at their respective Ivy League schools, over the very same hot-button issue: affirmative action.
More at the link:Do Obama and Geithner Have the Same Flaw: Accommodation Instead of Moral Action?
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Photo by lewisha1990: http://flickr.com/photos/bluemandy/2624448611/
Francis is being sued to the tune of $2 million by The Wynn, a Las Vegas Casino, for failing to pay his gambling debts. Of course, Francis is going to fight the lawsuit claiming that the Wynn failed to make due on promised discounts and credits.Photo by lewisha1990: http://flickr.com/photos/bluemandy/2624448611/
Francis is... more
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Okay so the post may seem kind of mean but in light of Usher's comment today in the news that lesbian are lesbian because they can't get men (??) Now we have P Diddy dishing out grooming advice when maybe he should be preaching conception since he has so many wee ones running around? Good role models? You decide. Read our post- click on the linkOkay so the post may seem kind of mean but in light of Usher's comment today in... more
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I swear, I hear the sleaziest stories from women all the time—a girl I know once told me about how a guy got up to go get a condom before they had sex, but then FAKED putting it on. How gross is that?!
Hear more gross guy stories and IM interviews with real guys who explain their BAD behaviour!I swear, I hear the sleaziest stories from women all the time—a girl I know... more
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The Conservative Party's leader in the European Parliament has been forced to resign, after admitting to breaking the rules on expenses to the tune of around £500,000. Ironically, Giles Chichester's role was to ensure MEPs in his party were behaving scrupulously. But it has emerged that over the past 12 years he has been transferring funds from MEP allowances into a company of which he was a director.
The Tories have moved to head off damaging allegations of sleaze. David Cameron, Tory party leader, issued the following statement:
"Giles Chichester is right to stand down as leader of our MEPs to prepare a full explanation of how his office is funded. Just as I expect our MPs to adhere to the highest standards, so must our MEPs. The tax-paying public have a right to know how their money is being spent and politicians have a duty to ensure it is spent properly."The Conservative Party's leader in the European Parliament has been forced to... more
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