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Reason Morning Links: Big Government, Bad Countrywide, Busy Raelians
• "White House Set to Appoint a Pay Czar"
• The outlines of Obama's health care plan become more clear.
• "One of every six dollars of Americans' income is now coming in the form of a federal or state check or voucher."
• The SEC accuses Countrywide's former CEO of fraud.
• The Raelians claim they're going to build UFOland in Las Vegas, "where visitors can attend a Happiness Academy and see a full-size replica of a UFO."
Hugh Akston|6.5.09 @ 9:02AM|#
Obama seems to be a big fan of the double dash. I can't imagine
a place where that kind of idiotic affectation would actually be
appropriate, but he seems to want his written documents to have
dramatic pauses in them, as though he were standing over the
shoulder of downtrodden Americans--inspiring them to keep up hope
for Congress to make things all better.
I guess no one suggested a copyediting czar.
|6.5.09 @ 9:07AM|#
visitors can ... see a full-size replica of a UFO
Well at least it will be full-size. Do you know how difficult it is
to build a scale replica of something that doesn't fucking
exist?
Cabeza de Vaca|6.5.09 @ 9:14AM|#
"The Raelians claim they're going to build UFOland in Las
Vegas"
This sounds great, I love crazy religions. I will totally go to it
if admission is free.
Kyle Jordan|6.5.09 @ 9:15AM|#
UFOs exist and are very real. They're just most likely NOT a fucking alien craft. Then again, if everything is known to at least one person, nothing is really unidentified.
Fluffy|6.5.09 @ 9:17AM|#
Who's that guy that hates the Feministing people? Is his name Sugarfree or something? Make him real happy by linking to their post today claiming that the vigilante violence in Philadelphia is OK. We need to have the anarchist / minarchist argument about that.
|6.5.09 @ 9:20AM|#
Dammit enough with the czars. Can't we please have at least one czarina? Sexist bastards.
Kyle Jordan|6.5.09 @ 9:29AM|#
Or the Czar Czar. Overseer of the many Czars of the United
States.
I really didn't like typing the last part.
|6.5.09 @ 9:30AM|#
Unemployment hit 9.4%. That is hope and change you can believe in. Any one want to give odds on the chances that The Obama will go his first two years in office without one quarter of positive job growth or GDP growth? I think it is at least 25% at this point. I think his chances of getting a quarter that goes above 1% is less than 10%. Good thing we blew all that money on the stimulus. It certainly is turning things around.
|6.5.09 @ 9:35AM|#
Mr. Feinberg, founder and managing partner of the law firm
Feinberg Rozen LLP, spent several years overseeing payouts totaling
more than $7 billion to victims of the 9/11 attacks. He personally
reviewed every claim, approving or denying awards and allocating
sums to be paid out of the Treasury.
Compassion Czar.
Fascitis Necrotizante|6.5.09 @ 9:43AM|#
Yesterday's news: Obama names Chicago environmentalist as Great Lakes Czar.
Citizen Nothing|6.5.09 @ 10:03AM|#
Hugh, what's with the double-dashophobia?
I like -- no, I love! -- the double dash and use it all the time.
(Perhaps the copy editors are cringing, but they let me get away
with it.)
|6.5.09 @ 10:43AM|#
Will UFOland be staffed by clones?
Anyway, I thought the Raelians were danged furriners. Will
Lonewhacko have something to say about the French cult menace
invading our shores? Aren't American sci-fi cults good enough or
something? Say what you want about the CoS, at least they are
Americans.
|6.5.09 @ 10:47AM|#
• "White House Set to Appoint a Pay Czar"
Start with GM and Chrysler. Please start with their
engineering, accounting, executive, legal, advertising and
purchasing departments. None of these people should be renumerated
for more than the median wage of female minority hourly
workers.
Please, oh pretty please with a cherry on top, start creating the
socialist paradise based on what is "fair" with the auto companies
you just fucking bought. Since the money that you've already
invested in these viable firms flushed down the
shitter isn't coming back anyway, let's do the fucking
experiment. I really mean this, if the CEO or anyone else at
Government Motors makes more than a GS-15, fire them and allow
current government employees to apply for the job.
• The outlines of Obama's health care plan become more clear.
I am really beginning to despise Obama. I had low expectations for
the community organizer. Now that aggogant twit shows that he
thinks he's qualified to micromanage every goddam thing in America,
I am beginning to really fear how much this Ivy league educated
"legal scholar" is going to fuck up the economy.
It is comforting to know I'm smarter than the last two U.S.
presidents. Belay that, it is frightening to realize that I'm
smarter than the last two U.S. presidents
combined.
• "One of every six dollars of Americans' income is now coming in the form of a federal or state check or voucher."
GWB, the gift that keeps on giving. That number will only increase
under the Obama administration. All the while his fellators will be
continue to crow "Bush started it!".
• The SEC accuses Countrywide's former CEO of fraud.
It would not surprise me if he's guilty. It would also not surprise
me if he ends up getting sacrificed on the altar of "somebody has
to be held accountable".
• The Raelians claim they're going to build UFOland in Las Vegas, "where visitors can attend a Happiness Academy and see a full-size replica of a UFO."
They've got 25 years of research! 25 goddam years! I
can't won't bother to argue with that. I
don't debate bag ladies either.
|6.5.09 @ 10:50AM|#
Apparently, Roger Penske is going to buy Saturn.
Interesting.
Front page of the local here in Motown. I hope he gets fire sale
prices, tells the UAW to fuck off, and starts to build practical
economy cars as Saturn was originally envisioned. Good luck
Roger.
|6.5.09 @ 11:20AM|#
The Raelians claim they're going to build UFOland in Las Vegas, "where visitors can attend a Happiness Academy and see a full-size replica of a UFO.
Las Vegas IS a Happiness Academy. And I
can see all the aliens I want by just walking the strip or Fremont
Street after dark.
|6.5.09 @ 11:23AM|#
Apparently, Roger Penske is going to buy Saturn. Interesting.
Can I buy Mars? I know it's a lot smaller, but I think it will give
me a better return on my investment.
|6.5.09 @ 11:35AM|#
Aresen,
Sorry, but we can't buy things in space. It's a giant socialistic
utopia, thanks to the Moon Treaty, which, among other things "bans
any ownership of any extraterrestrial property by any organization
or person, unless that organization is international and
governmental" (from the wiki summary).
The rag wasn't ratified by any country actually going to space or
capable of going to space, which probably explains why it uses "the
Moon" to mean all celestial bodies. Which means that if you can get
there first, you have an argument that you can own it.
|6.5.09 @ 11:36AM|#
Phil (he may be an idiot, but he's "our" idiot) Lebeau said, a
few minutes ago, GM is going to build the cars under contract; for
now anyway.
Based on what The Captain did with Detroit Diesel, Saturn will
probably be selling more (and better) cars than Chevrolet in five
years.
|6.5.09 @ 11:47AM|#
I can't figure out why The Obama killed Saturn. It is the one decent brand GM has. My dad has an Aura and it is a really good car. A lot of people really liked Saturn. I with P Brooks. I bet Penske takes Saturn and kicks The Obama Motors' ass.
|6.5.09 @ 12:04PM|#
PL
I know about the treaty.
I expect it will be as respectfully honored by all parties as most
treaties are.
BTW, I have some nice view lots on Olympus Mons available
if you are interested.
|6.5.09 @ 12:05PM|#
Somebody remind the Canada Czar that he'll need a
passport.
I meant to mention this on the thread on that subject, but it turns
out you don't need a passport. An
EDL (enhanced drivers license) from your home state will do the
trick if you're traveling by land or sea.
|6.5.09 @ 12:59PM|#
I meant the planet. Jupiter is fictional, anyway. Only Zeus is
real.
I call Jupiter's moons, too!
|6.5.09 @ 1:15PM|#
Tulpa | June 5, 2009, 12:05pm | #
Somebody remind the Canada Czar that he'll need a passport.
I meant to mention this on the thread on that subject, but it turns out you don't need a passport. An EDL (enhanced drivers license) from your home state will do the trick if you're traveling by land or sea.
Hell, no. He'll need a passport. A diplomatic passport. With a
letter signed by Great Czar Obama, Ruler of All of the United
States of America, Czar of Many Czars, Automaker Supreme and
Protector of the People's Health.
You think we're going to let any old fundraiser walk in, waive a
driver's license and pretend he is the Emissary of the Great
One?
robc|6.5.09 @ 1:31PM|#
Pro Lib,
Im suing you for my last (and all the previous) sunburn.
You are going to pay for not restraining your orb.
|6.5.09 @ 1:41PM|#
Which means that if you can get there first, you have an
argument that you can own it.
Your argument is a sure winner if its backed up by sufficient
firepower.
I can't figure out why The Obama killed Saturn.
The UAW has always hated Saturn, and has been out to close it down
as a separate operating unit from day 1.
If Penske buys Saturn, does he get it free and clear of the union?
Or is he planning to close the plants and just use the dealers?
|6.5.09 @ 2:34PM|#
I won't try to predict whether Saturn will survive, but what I
do suspect is that somewhere down the road you will still see new
Cadillacs and Corvettes and Jeeps on the road. They may even be
made in the same plants and even by the same workers. But they
won't belong to General Motors or Chrysler.
They'll belong to companies like India's Tata and if the UAW is
involved you can bet they'll be working under contracts a lot
different from the bullshit "concessions" they've been giving the
big three.
Just because Obama thinks he can stop the tide coming in doesn't
mean he can. King Canute's lesson is wasted on modern
politicians.
Of course, the real question that remains is what to do with all
those UAW retirees.
|6.5.09 @ 2:36PM|#
They'll belong to companies like India's Tata...
And if that happens, we'll have the bonus entertainment of watching
nativist heads assplode.
|6.5.09 @ 3:29PM|#
Of course, the real question that remains is what to do with
all those UAW retirees.
Walmart and Social Security.
Of course, we all know that they will transition over to the public
tit, and be sitting around fat and retired while the productive
amongst us work our asses off to make enough inflated money to pay
our higher taxes so they can sit around all fat and retired.
Because they won, bitches.
|6.5.09 @ 4:16PM|#
Because they won, bitches.
Unfortunately, I wrote that sentence badly.
Of course, yes, as beneficiaries of a bloated system based on an
unrealistic promise, they should take their lumps through reduced
benefits and a less generous healthcare program.
But, you're right. Ain't gonna happen.
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