ANOTHER INSTALLMENT OF THE SALLY QUINN CHRONICLES

(h/t Atrios)

Sally Quinn and Villagers like her despised the Clintons for not sucking up to her and her Villager cohorts and she thinks the Obama Administration is making a mistake by pointing out that FAUX News sucks.  In short, she's an entitled BITCH and she's been that way for decades.

Her newest article in the WaPo bemoans the fact that bitches like her are no longer in the power elite. She withheld her bitchiness until the start of the 2nd paragraph:

I was shoved up against Callista’s hair and nearly broke my nose. It was scary.

Quinn seems astounded that money trumps power today in a way that it didn't in her Golden Age. Apparently, power trumped money from 1970 to the arrival of the Clintons. In the end, its all about Sally:

How special can you feel when you know you have to pay to go to an event and then get a bad seat on top of that?

Tbogg has a more on this truly American bitch.

CAPITALISM ITSELF IS A MORAL HAZARD

Pretty much like Ireland, Spain went down the economic tubes because of greed in the Spanish housing market.

Spain goes from boom to bailout in a decade
By HAROLD HECKLE | Associated Press – 3 hrs ago

PROPERTY GOLDRUSH

—Cheap money triggered a real estate boom as property developers and families borrowed heavily. This fueled an unprecedented economic expansion known as the "Spanish fiesta". The country's then-muscular economy, the fourth-largest in the eurozone, rode out the 2008 financial crisis as its main lenders — and savings banks called cajas — were widely viewed by investors as sound.

FROM BOOM TO BUST

—Unemployment started rising. The jobless rate, which stood at 8.3 percent in 2007, jumped to 18 percent in 2009. It is now almost 25 percent. The huge numbers of unsold properties in Spain caused prices to plummet.

BTW, austerity failed in Ireland and it also failed in Spain:

ZAPATERO ACTS

—In 2010, Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero introduced controversial hikes in the retirement age, from 65 to 67, and in sales taxes to get a handle on the size of government debt and appease markets. Zapatero's measures failed to halt the country's slide into recession and he was forced to call early elections in 2011.

But even a conservative was forced into socialism:

CHANGE AT THE TOP

—The conservative Popular Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, took office in December 2011. Rajoy moved quickly on reforms and austerity measures, triggering massive demonstrations by people worried about their future. Many protesters were young — the jobless rate for those between 16 and 24 has reached 52 percent.

DRAGGED ALONG BY THE TIDE

—Rajoy has had to nationalize eight lenders facing bankruptcy as Spain fell into a double-dip recession.

A GREAT MATCH

In the 3rd hour of his radio show yesterday, Mark Levin had Jesse Kelly on and it was a mutual admiration party.  Levin keeps podcasts of his shows online so you can get the 6/8/2012 show here.

BAD NEWS FOR THE BANKSTERS...

(h/t Wonkette)
They lost GOP Sen. Richard Shelby:

Counterparties: The bank capital battle
By Ben Walsh
June 7, 2012
REUTERS

America’s big banks are short a mere $500 billion in capital. That’s how much more of a cushion Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Engle thinks is needed for banks to survive another financial crisis. Even more disconcerting is that the shortfall is just $39 billion less than it was before the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

In the wake of JPMorgan’s multibillion-dollar botched hedge, there’s something of a bipartisan consensus for stronger bank capital requirements for America’s banks. Even Richard Shelby now thinks the Basel III requirements should be beefed up. Keep in mind that just last fall, Jamie Dimon was calling capital requirements “anti-American“.

WELL, THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS DOING OK

I noted before that public sector jobs have been declining and that obscures the gains made in the private sector:

Data extracted on: June 8, 2012 (5:18:57 PM)

Employment, Hours, and Earnings from the Current Employment Statistics survey (National)

Series Id: CES0500000001
Seasonally Adjusted
Super Sector: Total private
Industry: Total private
NAICS Code: -
Data Type: ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS

MEAN PEOPLE SUCK

(h/t BuzzFlash)
That's not profound yet it certainly applies to Jesse Kelly.

Jesse Kelly Calls Gabrielle Giffords 'A Hero Of Nothing' In New Democratic Ad
The Huffington Post | By Lucia Graves
Posted: 06/04/2012 3:57 pm Updated: 06/04/2012 5:15 pm

WASHINGTON -- A Democratic super PAC is airing a new ad in the special election race to replace former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) that features Republican Jesse Kelly calling her a "hero of nothing."

"And now she stands there with that smile and pretends to be some type of hometown hero," Kelly says in the clip, which began airing Monday. "She's a hero of nothing."

Kelly made the comment at a campaign event in August 2010, less than half a year before the Tucson shooting rampage that left six dead and 13 wounded, including Giffords.

The clip also highlights Kelly supporting a zero percent corporate tax rate and the abolition of a minimum wage, as well as his characterization of Medicare and Social Security as ponzi schemes.

NICE QUOTE

(h/t The Dish)

Gail Collins wrote this in her new book:

You can’t build a Tea Party on good news.

IS PRES. OBAMA NAIVE?

Michael Tomasky reports that Pres. Obama thinks (and hopes) that if he is re-elected, GOP extremism will decline.  There is almost no chance that will happen.

ANOTHER WONDER COMPANY

Microsoft has been producing mediocre software (remember the frigging paper clip dude in WORD?) for decades and their inattention to security has at times been breathtaking.   (I recall back in 2002 having dozens of "critical" security updates in less than a month.)

Anyway, it's no surprise that someone discovered another security flaw and has exploited it:

Flame virus prompts Microsoft to boost Windows security
By Jim Finkle

BOSTON, June 5 | Tue Jun 5, 2012 10:48am EDT

(Reuters) - Discovery of the Flame virus that mainly affected computers in the Middle East, has prompted Microsoft Corp to strengthen the security of a Windows program that helps customers secure their PCs and update software.

Mike Reavey, senior director of the Microsoft Security Response Center, said in a blog post that the world's biggest software maker plans to boost security measures on the Windows Update software that is included with the operating system that runs the majority of the world's PCs.

Microsoft disclosed over the weekend that the hackers who built Flame exploited a flaw in Windows that allowed them to trick PCs into believing it was a legitimate piece of software from Microsoft. The software was then downloaded onto computers using the Microsoft Update feature.

IRELAND DIDN'T NEED THE FANCY MATH

The former model nation for the radio gasbags blew money the old fashioned way: GREED.

Housing boom left Ireland littered with vacant homes and unpaid loans
By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, June 6, 2012

After decades as an economic backwater, its entry into the European Union galvanized one of the most dramatic periods of industrialization of the last century. Thanks to a low corporate tax rate and an educated, English-speaking workforce, foreign investors flocked to the island – 600 American companies set up offices here, including giants like Intel and Google – and helped bankroll the construction boom.

Construction came to account for 14 percent of the economy as banks funneled the majority of their loans to real estate and politicians instituted tax breaks to spur building in every corner of the country.

There were no tricky American-style financial instruments needed here – just cash, or the paper version of it, with Irish and foreign banks falling over themselves to offer 115 percent loans and other easy credit to borrowers. The government raked in billions from capital gains taxes and transaction duties on every house sale.

AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF GASBAGS

By pointing out the ages of some prominent radio gasbags, I was touching on my fantasy that many of them would soon retire and stop polluting the airwaves. Sadl, I don't think we are ever going to run out of krazies:

“The G-Man” Announces Retirement
June 6, 2012

After nearly 20 years in national syndication, G. Gordon Liddy has announced he is retiring from his daily Talk radio program syndicated by the Radio America network.

Taking over Liddy’s 10am-noon (ET) time slot will be author and investor Peter Schiff, whose latest book The Real Crash: America’s Coming Bankruptcy and How To Save Yourself and Your Country debuted at #11 on this week’s New York Times bestseller list.

Schiff is another psycho.

MARK LEVIN PLAYS STUPID

(h/t Atrios)

Yesterday he mocked Bill Clinton for saying that the GOP is advocating fiscal policies that have failed in Europe by pretending not to know what Clinton meant.  This is what he meant:

Greece Warns of Going Broke as Tax Proceeds Dry Up
By LIZ ALDERMAN
Published: June 5, 2012
NY Times

“After two and a half years of austerity, it’s really a difficult time to bring in revenue,” said Harry Theoharis, a senior official in the Greek Finance Ministry who helps oversee the country’s tax payment system. “You can’t keep flogging a dead horse.”

Salaries and pensions in the private and the public sectors have been cut by up to 50 percent, leaving Greece 495 million euros short of its revenue targets in the four months ended in April, according to the Greek Finance Ministry. With less cash, consumers have curbed spending, leading thousands of taxpaying businesses to fail.

THIS WILL ONLY ENCOURAGE THE BAGGERS

At least we tried to get rid of this lying prick... (yes, I contributed a few bucks)

Walker survives recall election in Wisconsin

By SCOTT BAUER | Associated Press – 22 mins ago

FLORIDA HAS A DE FACTO "LICENSE TO KILL" LAW

(h/t Liz Goodwin)

The Tampa Bay Times looked into almost 200 "stand your ground" cases and came up with these disturbing statistics:

- Those who invoke "stand your ground" to avoid prosecution have been extremely successful. Nearly 70 percent have gone free.

- Defendants claiming "stand your ground" are more likely to prevail if the victim is black. Seventy-three percent of those who killed a black person faced no penalty compared to 59 percent of those who killed a white.

- People often go free under "stand your ground" in cases that seem to make a mockery of what lawmakers intended. One man killed two unarmed people and walked out of jail. Another shot a man as he lay on the ground. Others went free after shooting their victims in the back. In nearly a third of the cases the Times analyzed, defendants initiated the fight, shot an unarmed person or pursued their victim — and still went free.

THE MORALITY OF SALEM RADIO NETWORK

Salem has several Jeebus gasbags, though with Richard Land's forced departure, it will need a replacement.  According to this note by Tom Taylor of Radio-Info, Salem has laxer standards than even the Southern Baptists:

“Theologians have a much different perspective on talk radio than programmers in our industry.” That’s Tom Tradup, VP of News and Talk Programming at SRN. He says “What the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission considers ‘hurtful language’ on the Trayvon Martin case would be just a free and open exchange of ideas and opinions on talk radio.” Tradup (“TRADD-up”) turns to the second reprimand by the church body – he says nothing on Dr. Land’s radio show or website “rose anywhere near the level of ‘plagiarism’ as defined by our [talk radio] industry.” Tradup acknowledges that a religious denomination might have different sensitivities than a GM at a talk radio station or a syndicator. Nonetheless, he says “we respect the Commission’s decision, and thus Saturday (June 2) was the final edition of Richard Land Live! On SRN.”

UPDATE: More here.

AMERICA OR SPAIN...

(h/t Atrios)

the Banksters rule.

Bank bailout makes Spaniards question their future as euro agonies mount
Spaniards having to tighten their belts find it hard to stomach bailing out banks whose recklessness has brought them to ruin

Giles Tremlett in Madrid
The Observer, Saturday 2 June 2012
Manchester Guardian

Seven years ago a local savings bank persuaded Reyes, a cleaner, to take out a 100% mortgage to buy the flat for €195,000 (£157,000). The bank has since merged with half a dozen others, all of which had thrown bad money at property speculators, to form a sick giant called Bankia.

Last week, as Reyes waited for the bailiffs, Bankia was demanding €23.5bn of taxpayers' money to stave off collapse. That is €1,350 from each working Spaniard. Among other costs that need absorbing by the savings banks that made up Bankia are a €6.2m payoff to one senior executive who helped drive the bank to disaster and €14m to another.

"I put on the television and see that all this money is being given to Bankia, but at the same time the bank is taking away from those in need," said Reyes.

HANNITY, WRIGHT, OBAMA & VETTING

Sean Hannity has been claiming that the MSM didn't properly vet Pres. Obama before the 2008 election and it especially didn't look into Pres. Obama's connection with Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  David Weigel found that Hannity is wrong:

In April 2007, nearly a year before he became a campaign issue, the Times published a 2,593 word Jodi Kantor story (with addtional reporting from Kenya!) about Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his relationship to Barack Obama. The story appeared on A1.

Using LexisNexis, I searched for "Sean Hannity" and "Jeremiah Wright" within all TV transcripts for FOX News. The earliest hit was the Oct. 24, 2006 edition of Hannity & Colmes which contained an interview by Alan Colmes with then-Senator Obama. There were no comments by Hannity.

The next earliest hit is from the March 1, 2007 edition of Hannity & Colmes in which Hannity interviewed Jeremiah Wright. Hannity tries to portray Wright and his church as radical black separatists but as you can read for yourself, he FAILED:

WRIGHT: If you're not going to talk about theology in context, if you're not going to talk about liberation theology that came out of the 1960s, (INAUDIBLE) black liberation theology, that started with Jim Cone in 1968, and the writings of Cone, and the writings of Dwight Hopkins, and the writings of womanist theologians, and Asian theologians, and Hispanic theologians...

HANNITY: Reverend, I've got to get this in.

WRIGHT: Then you can talk about the black value system.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: I'm going to tell you this. Listen...

WRIGHT: Do you know liberation theology, sir? Do you know liberation theology?

HANNITY: I studied theology; I went to a seminary. And I studied Latin.

WRIGHT: Do you know black liberation theology?

HANNITY: I'm very aware of what you're calling black liberation, but let me get my question out.

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: I said, do you know black theology?

HANNITY: Reverend, I'm going to give you a chance to answer my question.

WRIGHT: How many of Cone's books have you read? How many of Cone's book have you read?

HANNITY: Reverend, Reverend?

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: How many books of Cone's have you head?

HANNITY: I'm going to ask you this question...

WRIGHT: How many books of Dwight Hopkins have you read?

HANNITY: You're very angry and defensive. I'm just trying to ask a question here.

(CROSSTALK)

WRIGHT: You haven't answered -- you haven't answered my question.

THIS IS AN EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT

I've been hoping that someday Richard Land would get slapped ever since I heard him lie for an hour about John Kerry in 2004.

Southern Baptist ‘ethics chief’ reprimanded for racial remarks and plagiarism
By David Edwards
Friday, June 1, 2012 13:54 EDT
The Raw Story

Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, was officially reprimanded twice on Friday and had his radio show canceled following a series of racial remarks and about Trayvon Martin’s slaying and evidence that he had plagiarized conservative publications.

“We reprimand Dr. Land for his hurtful, irresponsible, insensitive, and racially charged words on March 31, 2012 regarding the Trayvon Martin tragedy,” Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission said in a statement. “We also convey our own deepest sympathies to the family of Trayvon Martin for the loss they have suffered. We, too, express our sorrow, regret, and apologies to them for Dr. Land’s remarks.”

“We further reprimand Dr. Land for quoting material without giving attribution on the Richard Land Live! (RLL) radio show, thereby unwisely accepting practices that occur in the radio industry, and we acknowledge that instances of plagiarism occurred because of his carelessness and poor judgment,” the statement added.

“[W]e have carefully considered the content and purpose of the Richard Land Live! broadcast. We find that they are not congruent with the mission of the ERLC. We also find that the controversy that erupted as a result of the March 31 broadcast, and related matters, requires the termination of that program.”