Short Attention Span Musing

...Apparently, they've pretty much cleaned out the U.S. Treasury, so now the Republicans are reduced to ripping off themselves...

From The Hill -

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) said Thursday that former Treasurer Chris Ward apparently funneled several hundred thousand dollars to his personal and business bank accounts from the committee’s funds.

The transfers caused the committee to severely over-report its cash-on-hand totals in recent financial reports.

...Apparently, Bush Administration is making a run at a Sunday Morning Crappie award (or a Sunday Morning Deck Bass, or a Sunday Eel Pout), not even waiting a day between a flip and a flop; at the very least,...

From his speech to the Economic Club of New York (speaking on the mortgage foreclosure crisis) -

I want to talk to you about a couple of ideas that I strongly reject. First, one bill in Congress would provide $4 billion for state and local governments to buy up abandoned and foreclosed homes. You know, I guess this sounds like a good idea to some, but if your goal is to help Americans keep their homes, it doesn't make any sense to spend billions of dollars buying up homes that are already empty.

From Business Week -

Bear's stock was in a free fall Mar. 14—hitting an 11-year low—following the news that JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and the New York Federal Reserve had stepped in with an emergency cash bailout for the New York-based investment firm.

For those of you who aren't sure of why Bear Stearns gets a helping hand, and the average American gets a backhand -

Median U.S. home price, 2007 - $246,900 (Census Bureau); Median U.S. houshold income, 2006 - $48, 201 (also Census Bureau)

Bear Stearns' stockholder equity as of November 30, 2007 - approximately $11.8 billion (Yahoo! Finance); 2006 compensation of Bear Stearns (then-) CEO James Cayne - $28.4 million (Forbes.com).


...Trent Franks, the cutting edge Republican Congressman - if this was 25 years ago...

I don't have a link yet (it's too soon for today's floor speeches to be in the Congressional Record), but Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ2), threw everybody a curveball today. Instead of his normal 5-minute rant against a woman's right to choose to control her own medical decisions, he stood in the well of the House and expressed support for the President's national defense program.

However, the President in question was Ronald Reagan, and the defense program in question was the ballistic missile shield, the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka - Star Wars.

What's next, Congressman Franks? Criticizing the Mary Tyler Moore for provocatively wearing capri pants on the Dick Van Dyke Show??


End Arizona's embarrassment - Thrasher for Congress.


Hope to see some of you tomorrow at ASU!