The Garlic: 02/08/2009

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Top Ten Cloves: Signs You're Having A Bad Valentine's Day

News Item: Valentine's Day - Not Like it Used To Be

10. Instead of a Vermont Teddy Bear, you receive former French President Chirac's clinically depressed poodle

9. You just started dating Cher, and she's pressing you on whether you are a Republican or Democrat

8. You receive a box of chocolate-covered peanut butter cups

7. Your date starts proudly quoting Virginia GOP Chairman Jeff Frederick

6. A minor argument turns into "I'm so glad that you could never be my wife because I surely wouldn't have to listen to that prattle from you every day."

5. You're sweetie just blew off a job in the Obama Administration, to keep his job as a goddamn Senator from a Nowheresville state

4. When visiting your girlfriend's Facebook, you discover her 25 Random Things - about another guy

3. Your girlfriend dumps you for Joaquin Phoenix

2. You're boyfriend read that article and hasn't showered for days

1. You go to pick up your date, and she starts throwing shoes at you

This Date ... On The Garlic

14 February 2008... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Things About U.S. Plans to Shoot Down Broken Spy Satellite

Weekend At Rogers'; Or The Dead Guy For The Mitchell Report

14 February 2006... On The Garlic

New White House Press Strategy On VP Shooting Deemed "Smashing Success"

Coulter Cites Lost Opportunity; Says Sorry Cheney "Didn't Shoot A Raghead"

Top Ten Cloves: Ways U.S. and Israel Plan On Destabilizing Hamas-Led Palestinian Government

14 February 2005... On The Garlic

Nader Runs Strong in Iraq Election; Misses Seat

Apple To Split Stock; Follow Google With Unique Auction For New Shares

Bloomberg Announces Central Park 'Gate' Toll

For Rock, Exit, Stage Left after Grammy Faux Paux

Top Ten Ways Howard Dean Will Revitalize The Democratic Party

Friday, February 13, 2009

Blackwater Going All Prince On Us (But You Can Pronounce The Name)

Who knows, if Prince (the musician) had picked out an esoteric, but pronounceable, name, how many more albums would he have sold?

And, I am quite sure the irony, of changing your company name, to that of a 1969 film of the same pronunciation, one about political murder, a government overthrown, with the rightwing across-the-board working to cover it up, is totally lost on them.

But that is exactly what Blackwater USA is doing

Meet the new company - "Xe," pronounced "zee."

From Noah Shachtman, at Wired's Danger Room;

For the last year or so, Blackwater Xe has been moving away from its core business of diplomat protection, and into -- well, just about everything else, it seems. Firm CEO Erik Prince has put together teams of spies-for-hire. The company is pushing ahead with plans to protect commercial ships, traveling through pirate-packed seas. And in case that doesn't work out, the company is making custom rifles, marketing spy blimps, assembling a fleet of light attack aicraft, and billing itself as experts in everything from cargo handling to dog training to construction management. It's even training pro athletes.

Shachtman was also a bit disappointed, that Blackwater, err, I mean Xe, didn't take his advice, as to changing their logo to his "Hello Kitty-style logos".

From USA Today's "What's in a name? Blackwater aims to bury its past with a new brand"

The company was founded in 1997 by chief executive Erik Prince and former Navy SEAL colleagues. They named it for the swampy black streams around Moyock, in northeastern North Carolina.

Wonder what the folks who run XE — "The World's Favorite Currency Site" — think about Blackwater's name change?

Xe is also the chemical symbol of Xenon, a colorless, ordorless, heavy "noble gas" used in powerful lamps.

Final note: Wikipedia tells us that "xe" is a gender-neutral pronoun, neither male nor female.

Hmmmm ... I don't know about this, we all remember the "New Coke" fiasco.

Zachary Roth, over at TPM Muckraker notes also;

They've also renamed Blackwater Lodge & Training Center, the subsidiary that does much of their controversial overseas operations. It's now the "U.S. Training Center Inc." (Which doesn't exactly mesh with "Xe," but whatever.)

And reminds us;

It's not hard to guess why Blackwater (or wait, Xe) wants to get out of the private security business. In 2007, Blackwater guards opened fire in a Baghdad square, killing 17 Iraqis. Five ex-Blackwater guards were charged with voluntary manslaughter and are awaiting trial.

And recently, thanks largely to that incident and other cases where Blackwater has been accused of using excessive force, the Iraqi government declined to renew the company's contract to operate in the country. Soon after, the State Department announced that, in any case, it wouldn't renew Blackwater's contract to operate in Iraq.

Now, I suspect all the subscriber's to Mercenary Illustrated probably have boners, a new whiff of mystique, about this, even if they do have trouble pronouncing the new name.

But I don't know ...

This may very well turn into the Military-Industrial Complex's version of "Who's On First"

Who's On First?

Bonus Blackwater, errr, Xe, Riffs

"They will have flies walking across their eyeballs"

They Another "I'm Shocked ... Shocked To Find Gambling Going On Here" Moment ...

Top Ten Cloves: Ways The Iraqi Government Can Get Blackwater USA Out of The Country

All You New Iraq Diplomats, Don't Forget To Pack Your Brooms

Breaking News! Burma Junta Contracting Blackwater For Internal Security ...Could Mean Exit From Iraq For Embattled Mercenary Firm; Radio's Limbaugh Charges "Phony Monks" Stirring Up Trouble

Here's One Look At Privatization

We have seen, with The Bush Grindhouse, the rush to privatize aspects of what was formerly government responsibilities.

We had these Private Profiteers providing dirty water to our soldiers, as well as electrocuting them.

And, electrocuting the rebuilding of Iraq that they were hired for was godawful substandard, and mired in over-costs and greed.

So, when I descried this headline this morning, it was a head-shaker;

Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit

The answers became a bit clearer on Thursday as the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.

While prosecutors say that Judge Conahan, 56, secured contracts for the two centers to house juvenile offenders, Judge Ciavarella, 58, was the one who carried out the sentencing to keep the centers filled.

This is/was a sick, demented rendition of "Bad Cop/Bad Cop".

With Judge Conahan serving as president judge in control of the budget and Judge Ciavarella overseeing the juvenile courts, they set the kickback scheme in motion in December 2002, the authorities said.

They shut down the county-run juvenile detention center, arguing that it was in poor condition, the authorities said, and maintained that the county had no choice but to send detained juveniles to the newly built private detention centers.

Prosecutors say the judges tried to conceal the kickbacks as payments to a company they control in Florida.

So, these two assholes fucked up the lives of scores of teenagers (the one mentioned in the above article, for creating a MySpace page satirizing her school's assistant principle, earning her a profit-generating three-month sentence), so they could line their own pockets.

If the court agrees to the plea agreement, both judges will serve 87 months in federal prison and resign from the bench and bar. They are expected to be sentenced in the next several months. Lawyers for both men declined to comment.

Since state law forbids retirement benefits to judges convicted of a felony while in office, the judges would also lose their pensions.

The article states over 500 juveniles appeared before soon-to-be-ex-Judge Ciavarella.

Here's hoping the presiding Judge, who will have to decide on this plea bargain, rejects it, and hits these two cretins with a much stiffer sentence, say, a month for every kid they put away, strictly so they could make a profit.

Additionally, that they turn over their illegal gains to some youth program in the area.

And this presiding Judge should also look into the DA's office, or the local prosecutors - why are they placing so many teenagers, and those with relatively minor offenses (like building a MySpace page), into this hellhole of a system?

May a thousand MySpace pages get launched, mocking these guys.

Prosecutors say Judges Michael T. Conahan, and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., above, took kickbacks to send teenagers to detention centers.

This Date ... On The Garlic

13 February 2008... On The Garlic

Hillary's Smelling Burning Rubber! ... Or: The Garlic Was Right - Hillary Has Built Her "Field of Voices"

FISA Update #4 - Don't Let the Fat Lady - Or The Fat Corporate Cats - Sing!

Retro Garlic ... Maybe The Next President Needs To Pull Out The Contractors First

13 February 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Mitt Romney's Announcement To Run For President

13 February 2006... On The Garlic

Mehlman Apologizes (Sort Of ) For Saying Hillary Clinton Angry

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons White House Delayed News Of VP Cheney's Shooting Of Fellow Hunter

Thursday, February 12, 2009

A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing ...

Well, perhaps this was Thud Gregg's big master plan to shut down the Commerce Department.

Gregg Withdraws His Commerce Nomination

However, it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy.

Obviously the President requires a team that is fully supportive of all his initiatives.

WTF?

He only had about two-years to form some kind of idea the type of policies and programs that would be in an Obama Administration.

Not to mention he is a broom-up-the-ass "fiscally conservative" Republican (and from that "Live Free or Die" oasis of New Hampshire).

What happened - did he park in 30-years experience and all those principles he carries around somewhere and couldn't remember where, while he courted a cabinet post?

Did he think that, with Obama's quest for bipartisanship, he was just going to let Thud Gregg run wild in Commerce, continue the Bush Grindhouse program?

What a fuckin' bozo!

In the meantime, filling the Commerce seat is becoming, more-and-more, harder than getting a prom date for the president of the Science Club.

So there, Obama Team, ABC.

A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing ...

Glengarry Glen Ross speech

Bonus "My Sister/My Daughter" Thud Gregg Riffs

John Aravosis (DC): Now Obama only has two Republican cabinet members serving in a Democratic administration - pretty tragic blow to bipartisanship

DougJ: How many Washington wise men does it take to screw an administration?

Prairie Weather: Another war of choice -- in spite of deep recession

Digby: Who's Your Daddy?

Thomas Edsall: Judd Gregg's Refusal To Vote On Stimulus Provokes Firestorm At Home And In Washington

Happy Birthday Abie Baby!

Hair The Musical - Abie Baby

Perhaps the next best thing that came along after this song, was the weaving of Lincoln's Assassination into the storyline of the tremendous 'Homicide: Life on the Streets', it being an obsession of Detective Crositti.

Bonus Links

Top Ten Cloves: Things About If Abraham Lincoln Were Shot Today

Retro Garlic: Bring In The Homicide Guys!

This Date ... On The Garlic

12 February 2008... On The Garlic

Obama Romps ... And, Gloria Borger, with The Best Political Team on Television, Sticks Her Neck Out

FISA Update #2 - Who Are These Men That Sold Out Our Democracy Today!

Today's Must Read - Glenn Greenwald's "Amnesty Day for Bush and lawbreaking telecoms"

12 February 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Dixie Chicks Can Begin To Win Back Country Music Fans

12 February 2006

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

El Manisero

Too bad there isn't a tune "The Salmonella Vendor" (there could be soon), for it there were, Stewart Parnell, owner of the Peanut Corporation of America could have played that in Congress today, instead of hiding behind the 5th Amendment.

Then again, he's already got 9 dead, and another 600, or so, sick, on his tab, therefore, legally, his reticence to speak is not abstruse.

However, the ethical and moral end of it?

No way Jose!

There's an old saw that says never trust someone, say a restaurant owner, that won't eat in his own joint.

"Did you or any officials ever place food products into inner state commerce you knew to be contaminated with salmonella?" asked Rep. Bart Stupak, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

"Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, on advice of my counsel, I respectively decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the U.S. Constitution," said Parnell.

Moments later, as Parnell sat stiffly, his hands folded in his lap at the witness table, as Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., held up a clear jar of his company's products wrapped in crime-scene tape and asked if he would eat them.

Again, Parnell invoked the Fifth Amendment.

After he repeated the statement several times, lawmakers dismissed him from the hearing.

This Parnell guy - a Bushie!

From Wikipedia;

Parnell served on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Peanut Standards Board, which sets quality and handling standards for peanuts.[47] He was first appointed by Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to the position in 2005,[51], and was reappointed for another term that expires in 2011.[47] On February 5, 2009 the USDA announced that the new Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack had removed Parnell from the board.[46][11][48]

And much like a Bushie;

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Peanut Corp. and trouble aren't strangers."[2] The company was sued by American Candy Co. after the FDA discovered in 1990 that PCA's peanut butter exceeded the FDA tolerance level for aflatoxin, a toxic mold product. American Candy had turned the peanut butter into 8,000 cases of Kisses for Wal-Mart, which were not shipped. Another lawsuit was brought by Zachary Confections Inc. of Frankfort, Indiana in 1991 after a 40,020-pound shipment of nuts from PCA was found to have an unacceptably high level of aflatoxin.[2]

Hmmm ... I wonder if he was using any of Halliburton's dirty water to wash the peanuts ...

This Parnell guy knew - there are a trail of emails - that he was putting out bad, tainted product and went ahead with it just the same.

Despite more than 12 tests between 2007 and 2008 that showed salmonella contamination in his company’s products, Parnell wrote an e-mail to company employees on Jan 12 that stated, "we have never found any salmonella at all." After the company was identified as the source of the outbreak, Parnell sent an e-mail to officials at the FDA pleading with them to allow the company to continue doing business. He wrote that they "desperately at least need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money."[36]

Now, I never went for - never - those god-awful, day-glo orange crackers, with a dollop of peanut butter in them.

(Probably, for the past 15+ years, I've opted for the natural peanut butter, you know, the kind that comes with all the oil at the top, to which you have to stir it in to the peanut butter for about five-to-six-hours to achieve total smoothness and then, assuming you can still use your arm, with a cold glass of milk, and fresh Syrian bread - perfection!)

So, I think, I'm safe.

One would think, this Parnell guy, shelled his last peanut, and will be looking at some decent jail time, down-the-road.

In the meantime, he should be hauled back into Congress, let him keep mumbling the 5th, but they should have the Sargent-at-Arms force-feed Parnell his own product.

Even if it doesn't turn those raw peanuts on his floor into money.

Bonus Links

Peanut boss refuses to testify at salmonella hearing

US: Plant Shipped Tainted Products, F.D.A. Says

Problems Coming in All Varieties for Peanut Corp. of America

Fallout Widens as Buyers Shun Peanut Butter

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Spinach Industry Plans To Overcome E. Coli Setback

Bonus Bonus

We couldn't title this post "El Manisero" (or "The Peanut Vendor") without giving you the tune.

Being the legendary classic that it is, so many to choose from ...

Stan Kenton - The Peanut Vendor

Here's a good Prez Prado version

Another, a vocal by Antonio Machín

And, for something of a different color, a Ska version, by The Skatalites

This Date ... On The Garlic

11 February 2008... On The Garlic

Does McCain Approve of The Washington State Voting Withdrawal?

"Yes, Dear, I'll Play Nice With the Democrats" ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll

11 February 2007... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

11 February 2005... On The Garlic

Krispy Kreme Turning Off The Light; Doughnuts To Be Room Temperature

Parker-Bowles Steams Over Missed Title

Lock-Out Bogus; NHL Playing Full Schedule In Secret

Top Ten Other Things Barry Bonds Didn't Realize He Was Doing

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Rachel's Grand Experiment

Oh my, was it a hoot.

If you thought Tweety's "Thrill up my leg" couldn't be topped, hang on ...

The Garlic is not in the camp (and it's a big one) that believes Rachel Maddow walks on water.

Far from it.

Even if we were, I don't believe I could have ignored this monumental display of obsequiousness.

When she was just a mere rookie MSNBC pundit during last years primary elections, she received the proverbial rookie treatment, getting paired up with Pat Buchanan for those post-election night debates.

Well, road kill would shine against the former Nixon Nazi, so it was pretty much a false facade being erected.

Besides, Maddow all but wore a Hillary t-shirt, or covered up with make-up, the "Clinton" tattooed on her forehead, which we commented on at one point.

But that didn't hinder her ascent, as she soon began sub-hosting for the MSNBC Mount Olympus, Keith Olbermann.

The whispers and buzzing soon morphed into a clamoring - "Give her a show!" - and the MSNBC suits, apparently after getting a Bogart-like nod from Olbermann, soon complied.

Now, there hasn't necessarily been any improvement, per se, but hey, she got the show.

Each night, Monday-Friday, she follows Olbermann, with an Olbermann-like show, of pithy politics, imbuing it with her own pithiness.

Well, we should say straining to imbue it with her own pithiness.

And, boy, does she suck up to guests.

Rarely is it a simple, "Thank you", and moving on to the next segment, Maddow has to fawn all over whoever it is she just talked with.

Constantly ... All most every night.

Last night was no different.

With the big Stimulus Package day coming to an end, the Stimulus Bill passing the Cloture vote, Maddow had Obama Guru David Axelrod on the program.

It was about a 10-minute interview, with Maddow tossing quite a few softballs;

Earlier today, you said the president is going to keep his foot on the gas pedal when it comes to the stimulus. Has the stimulus plan gotten better or gotten worse as it has gone through Congress? Qualitatively, has it improved or not?

Do you sense any frustration from the president with some of the rhetoric on the Republican side, Lindsey Graham, for example, accusing him of being AWOL on this legislation—which seems to me to be, frankly, ridiculous. Is that frustrating for you guys, for the president himself?

How much do you expect this bill to change between the time that it passes the Senate tomorrow and it is expected to pass, and the time that it actually reaches the president‘s desk? Do you think it will be a whole new ball game?

Not edge-of-the-seat, earth-shattering, but they paid for the satellite time, so, I guess, you had to allow for some filler.

But, as the interview ended, is where Maddow shined.

Like a giggly school girl talking to the football captain, trying, desperately, to connect, to show she was "with him", looking for his approval, seeking his blessing, that it was an "OMG, what did she just do!"

Here's the video

Rachel Maddow Show - David Axelrod, counselor to President Obama - press conference tonight

Fast forward to the 9:32 mark, for this;

MADDOW: I feel like I‘m part of this grand experiment where everybody else is talking about partisanship and you, guys, are talking about urgency. And I can feel you changing the frame around me while I‘ll try to resist.

Ooooh Nooooo!

Talk me down!

She didn't just drool all over Axelrod, did she?

"Changing the frame on me while I try to resist"

The heroine, tied to the railroad tracks, resisting , no, no, no ...

But, suddenly, the frame changes around her, her resistance starts buckling ...

"Hey man, I'm with ya! ... I'm on your team! ... Give me the cup, I'll drink from it from now on!"

I searched the World Wide Web, and I just couldn't find any instances of Walter Cronkite slobbering all over Pierre Salinger.

Not only that, but by uttering "part of a grand experiment", no doubt, the tinfoil hat crowd of her fan base must be in a tizzy today.

What experiment, and just what makes it so grand?

Is she going to expose it on her show?

What should we do to prepare for it?

Ohhh, I don't know ... Bring back Abrams, or Rita Cosby, maybe.

There must be a backlog of Missing White Woman, or Anna Nicole Smith, news stacking up.

Beware, This Press Conference Protected By Lapdogs!

"You moved the cemetery, but you left the bodies, didn't you? ..."

Well, we took a bite out of the Obama Prime Time Presser last evening, but it is such a juicy apple, we're coming back for seconds today.

This is supposed to be the era of "Change" and "Change you can believe in", yet, in the White House Press Room, it looked to be the same-old, same-old.

This is not to say, that the remarkable, breathtaking manner in which our national media gave The Bush Grindhouse a free pass, that they should push the pendulum all the way over to the other side, and bust the Obama Administration's balls.

And, it didn't help very much, that President Obama, at some point before entering the East Room, adjusted, and turned the dial, to "Long-winded Answers", allowing for just 13 questions in the span of just under an hour.

Man, you could have painted a house in the given time of his answers.

(Walter Shapiro points out, "What Obama was decidedly not Monday night was Kennedy-esque. When JFK unveiled the live presidential prime-time press conference 48 years ago, he answered 37 questions in the space of 40 minutes; Obama only half-responded to 13 questions in the space of an hour.")

After all, the Obama Team put this first Obama press conference up on a pedestal, marking it for Prime Time, having a message to deliver, which the President did, repeatedly, and often;

The Commander Guy, and the slobbering rubber stamp Republicans created this pile of shit and I am the one that has to clean it up ..."

Make no mistake about it, along with selling the Stimulus Package, Team Obama wanted to make sure everybody knew it was "them" that got us into this mess, and it will be "us" who will get us out of it.

But, for most of the conference, it was 'The King and His Court', a proverbially softball tournament, with the national media, happily, lobbing those softballs at the President.

There were the perfunctory queries about the Stimulus Package, and Obama Bipartisan quest, even a "hot" one, about A-Rod and his steroids.

Nothing for Obama to break a sweat over, nothing he couldn't handle by inhaling, and then yakking away for a few minutes on.

And you think, being in the same pot together, someone would have given Chuck Todd, of NBC, a nudge, to wake him up from his power nap, at least a few seconds before Obama called on him.

Jesus, what the hell was Todd thinking?

Our financial meltdown was the result of consumer overspending?

Here's Juan Cole, noting the same about Todd's clueless question;

Uh, I don't remember about Todd receiving that Nobel Prize in economics. But here is what Paul Krugman said about the cause of the crisis:

' What lies behind the credit squeeze is the combination of reduced trust in and decimated capital at financial institutions. People and institutions, including the financial institutions, don't want to deal with anyone unless they have substantial capital to back up their promises, yet the crisis has depleted capital across the board.'

Does that sound to you like "too much consumer spending" was the problem?

C'mon there, Chuck, get a glove, get in the game!

The most pressing question came from someone that didn't get the "Lapdog" memo.

Sam Stein, of Huffington Post, pressed the Prez on whether or not he was going to prosecute the Bush Grindhouse cretins for their War Crimes, to which Obama (inhaling), gave his standard stock answer about if there were crimes, and we want to look forward not backward.

We can only hope that he is throwing a head fake, keeping his cards close to his chest, as, if he did answer affirmatively, that would set off a conflagration, and epic battle, with the Right Wing Freak Show running to unlock the weapons locker.

Helen Thomas, perhaps another slap at his predecessor, got the final question, to ask an uncomfortable one, about who had nuclear weapons in the Middle East, to which the new President answered (after inhaling) without really answering it, and survived the presser without having to answer "Israel".

Perhaps, that explains Thomas getting the final question, and the dial being tuned to "Long-Winded Answers".

If the media wants to take umbrage about continuing to be lapdogs, why then, did no one ask the President why his Secretary of the Treasury's tax problem was okay, and Tom Daschle;s wasn't?

And they blew the MONEY QUESTION.

No one, not one single lapdog there last evening asked President Obama about what was going on with the new puppy that is to be forthcoming, for his daughters.

How could they blow that, in the first Press Conference, on Prime Time television?

Did Obama's staff not go around and drop a few hints?

Are they jealousy of the pending new puppy, knowing that in the canine world, they will become second bananas to the new First Puppy?

Man, that is just unbelievable.

What are the tabloids, and cable news programs, going to talk about for days to come?

Bonus Obama Presser Links

CNN - Transcript: Obama takes questions on economy

No More Mister Nice Blog: GOSH, AND WE WERE ALL SO PERKY AND UPBEAT BEFORE NOW

Mike Madden: "I won't return to the failed theories of the last eight years" ...In his first press conference, the president dismisses his opponents on the stimulus package as out of touch

Robert Stein: Obama's Offhand Ultimatum

Joe Sudbay: Report from the Press Conference

This Didn't Make The 11PM News ...

All you can do is read this and go "WOW!"

From Tyler Durden, over on Zero Hedge;

How The World Almost Came To An End At 2PM On September 18

"LiveLeak has caught a scary moment of previously undisclosed insight by Paul Kanjorski where he reveals some facts that have not been captured by the media previously. At 2 minutes and 20 seconds in the video below, Democratic Representative Kanjorski explains how the Federal Reserve told Congress members about a "tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the United States, to the tune of $550 billion dollars." According to Kanjorski, this electronic transfer occurred over the period of an hour or two. And it gets worse. Kanjorski paraphrases the following disclosure by Bernanke and Paulson:"

On Thursday (Sept 18), at 11am the Federal Reserve noticed a tremendous draw-down of money market accounts in the U.S., to the tune of $550 billion was being drawn out in the matter of an hour or two. The Treasury opened up its window to help and pumped a $105 billion in the system and quickly realized that they could not stem the tide. We were having an electronic run on the banks. They decided to close the operation, close down the money accounts and announce a guarantee of $250,000 per account so there wouldn't be further panic out there.

If they had not done that, their estimation is that by 2pm that afternoon, $5.5 trillion would have been drawn out of the money market system of the U.S., would have collapsed the entire economy of the U.S., and within 24 hours the world economy would have collapsed. It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it.

Hmmm ... Doesn't sound like Sam Wainwright, and a boat full of "Hee-Haws" would have helped here.

Who was pulling the money out?

Where did it go?

Someone gaming the system?

Yeah, I know, $550-Billion, that could have been just a few of the Wall Street CEO's pulling out their bonuses.

Actually, it had to do with the Lehman Brothers crash.

Olbermann had Daniel Gross of 'Newsweek' on to give the rundown of what went down.

The frightening part of it is ... Well ... There isn't anything preventing it from happening again.

This Date ... On The Garlic

10 February 2008... On The Garlic

Good Thing Frank Rich Doesn't Work For MSNBC!

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At CPAC

10 February 2006... On The Garlic

White House Burns Midnight Oil As President Loads Up On "Unvarnished Advice"

McCain - Obama Feud Update: Obama Grammy Sends McCain Heading Into Studio

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Bush Administration Is Dealing With Danish - Muslim Cartoon Controversy

10 February 2005... On The Garlic

Boston Mayor Calls for Rolling Rallys 24/7/365

Kilts, Gillette Board Vote For All Profits

Romney Calls For Closing of Big Dig; Old Expressway To Be Re-Built

Top Ten Bush Incentives To Open A Private Social Security Account

Monday, February 09, 2009

Top Ten Cloves: Ways President Obama Can Better Sell His Stimulus Package

News Item: Live Blogging the Obama News Conference

10. Get Alex Rodriguez back (??) using steroids to jump start the economy!

9. Have a prime-time Press Conference ... Oh ... Never mind

8. If he can wrestle him away from the Republicans, Billy Mays! ("Look at this Stimulus Package! ...)

7. Auction his Blackberry email address, and you won't need a Stimulus Package

6. Nominate someone new, with a tax problem, to take some of the heat off

5. See if Captain Sullenberger can land a plane in the Potomac, so he can suck up the PR, giving him Key to the City

4. Give everyone a new Kindle to jump start the economy!

3. Bernie Madoff is just hanging around the house, doing nothing ... He should be able to move it

2. He can write up 25 things about it and post it to Facebook

1. In ultimate show of bipartisanship, and win support, offer Rush Limbaugh that he will, for real, nominate him for Nobel Peace Prize

This Date ... On The Garlic

9 February 2008... On The Garlic

An Enigma, Wrapped Inside of A Riddle ... The Tesseract Archipelago...

9 February 2006... On The Garlic

Cheney, Rice Comments Signal PNAC Back On Track; "Hamas Was A Hiccup"; Steered Danish Cartoon Hubris To Capture February Sweeps For Max Exposure

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At The Grammys Last Night

9 February 2005... On The Garlic

I'll Have Some Wheat Toast With That iPod

Top Ten Things about Yassir Arafat's Investments

Sunday, February 08, 2009

So Long Blossom, It Was A Great Ride!

Well, it was a cumbersome weekend to begin with, and I did labor today to write a few posts (those will go up tomorrow).

And, just as I was settling in to tag (link) them, a good friend dropped an email on me that stopped me in my tracks;

Blossom Dearie, cabaret singer, dies at 82

Oh man, not fair.

I knew that she had been ill in the past few years, even stopped performing for sometime.

Yet, it still brings about a mother lode of sadness to know that she has passed on.

When I first got into Jazz, for the first few years, it was the instrumentals - Miles, Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Stan Getz, Coltrane, Duke and Basie, Lester Young, Bill Evans, Weather Report, and a bevy of others - then, I got hip to the vocals.

First Ella, Sarah, Lady Day, Carmen McRae and, next, Blossom Dearie.

Her duet with Bob Dorough hooked me.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Blossom Dearie, cabaret singer, dies at 82

Blossom Dearie, the jazz pixie with a little-girl voice and pageboy haircut who was a fixture in New York and London nightclubs for decades, died on Saturday at her apartment in Greenwich Village. She was 82.

[Snip]

A singer, pianist and songwriter with an independent spirit who zealously guarded her privacy, Ms. Dearie pursued a singular career that blurred the line between jazz and cabaret. An interpretive minimalist with caviar taste in songs and musicians, she was a genre unto herself. Rarely raising her sly, kittenish voice, Ms. Dearie confided song lyrics in a playful style below whose surface layers of insinuation lurked. Her cheery style influenced many younger jazz and cabaret singers, most notably Stacey Kent and the singer and pianist Daryl Sherman.

But just under her fey camouflage lay a needling wit. If you listened closely, you could hear the scathing contempt she brought to one of her signature songs, “I’m Hip,” the Dave Frishberg-Bob Dorough demolition of a namedropping bohemian poseur. Ms. Dearie was for years closely associated with Mr. Frishberg and Mr. Dorough. It was Mr. Frishberg who wrote another of her perennials, “Peel Me a Grape.”

Ms. Dearie didn’t suffer fools gladly and was unafraid to voice her disdain for music she didn’t like; the songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber were a particular pet peeve.

And while aging Jazzheads like myself got to know her music, so did a generation of youngsters get hip to her;

Blossom Dearie, Educator

It’s ironic then that many of us may forget that we first heard Blossom Dearie not on vinyl or CD but in the middle of H.R. Pufnstuf after an ad for Count Chocula. Starting with “Figure Eight,” on the original Multiplication Rock (1973), she contributed three installments to what would eventually become Schoolhouse Rock! I think the song she did with Bob Dorough, Jack Sheldon, and Essra Mohawk, “Mother Necessity” (“Mother Necessity, where would we be?”) is up there with “I’m Just a Bill” and “Conjunction Junction” in becoming something like mascots for the series, as instantly recognized and recalled as any three-chord Beatles riff. “Mother Necessity” was so nice a lesson that, as a kid, it never even hit you that were learning something. But my personal favorite was her 1975 “Unpack Your Adjectives”: It turned a letter from camp into an easy-to-remember grammar lesson and made mnemonics as appealing as Fruity Pebbles: “Friends asked us to describe/The people, places, and every last thing./So we unpacked our adjectives.”

Along with all of the above, if anything, Blossom Dearie was truly, incredibly, totally, unbelievably unique.

Blossom Dear on Wikipedia

Blossom Dearie, Vocalist Whose Wispy Voice Caressed Show Music and Standards, Has Died

RIP: Blossom Dearie, 1926-2009

We leave you with her music