Outrageous

Campbell Brown spotlights a tragic story brought about by an absurd law.

(You can read the transcript of Campbell Brown’s commentary here.)

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I have a Native American heritage, although I’m not on any rolls. I am certainly not unsympathetic to the plight of Native American tribes in this country, especially given the horrendous treatment of Native Americans by our government over our nation’s history. But this law is outrageous and it’s absurd.

Once a mother and/or father gives up a child voluntarily, then that is decision that should stand permanently and not be allowed to be rescinded. It’s not fair to the child or the adoptive parents to take back that child once the new family has been established. I cannot see how it’s in the best interests of the child to be taken from the only parents that he/she knows to be “returned” to strangers.

It’s wrong and this tribe should be ashamed of itself.

The right end of the dial is all atwitter — borderline messing themselves — with this Blagojevich scandal. Nothing like a good scandal to get everyone all hot-and-bothered.

“Americans voted for change. Barack Obama promised that he would have the most open and honest administration and transition in history,” said RNC chairman Mike Duncan, on a conference call with reporters. “But that’s not what we’re getting. What we’re getting is the same old politics out of Chicago.”

Why all the sudden interest in an “open and honest administration” by the party whose leader for the last eight years was anything but “open and honest”? What short memories the clamorers must have. Wasn’t this the same party who just a couple of years ago faced significant losses in Congress following one of the worst corruption scandals in Congressional history? Does Abramoff ring any bells?

I’m as disgusted as anyone with the Illinois governor’s outrageous behavior. But, as Mike McCarville said, “guilt by association without facts is irresponsible.” Those so quick to pass arbitrary and capricious judgment on Obama were strangely silent — or worse, complicit with their unashamed defense of the indefensible — when their own president and administration, Congressional leaders and party powerbrokers were whole hog in the filth of corruption.

It seems to me that all the hand-wringing about this scandal would be better done with clean hands — something the GOP and its faithful following in the blogosphere cannot rightfully claim.

The brazenness of this governor’s corruption makes my stomach churn. Think Progress reports:

In a press conference explaining the arrest and the corruption charges filed against Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D-IL), U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald — who successfully prosecuted Scooter Libby — declared the current case as a “new low.” Fitzgerald described the charges as a “political corruption crime spree.”

Noting that Blagojevich has been under investigation for years for pay-to-play corruption charges, Fitzgerald expressed his amazement that the activity would continue. “You might have thought in that environment, pay-to-play would have slowed down. The opposite happened. It sped up,” he said.

The “most cynical behavior” by Blagojevich pertained to his attempt to sell the open Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama, Fitzgerald said:

The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave. The governor’s own words describing the Senate seat: “It’s a [bleeping] valuable thing. You just don’t give it away for nothing.” Another quote: “I’ve got this thing and it’s [bleeping] golden. I’m just not giving it up for [bleeping] nothing. I’m not going to do it. I can always use it — I can parachute me there.”

Fitzgerald emphasized: “I should make clear that the complaint makes no allegations about the President-elect whatsoever, his conduct.”

The Illinois legislature shouldn’t wait for the criminal case to play itself out in this circumstance, based on what’s been released today. Impeach this governor — now! Such outrageous behavior by any politician demands a swift and unequivocal response. It’s disgusting.

Can we bring back tar and feathering?

From CNNMoney.com:

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the $10 million bonus reportedly being considered for Merrill Lynch’s chief executive John Thain is “nothing less than shocking.”

In a strongly worded letter sent to members of Merrill’s board of directors, Cuomo points out that the brokerage reported losses for every quarter this year, and has lost more than $11 billion in 2008.

He added that Bank of America’s takeover of Merrill, which was formally approved by shareholders Friday, “seems to have been the only thing that saved Merrill from collapse.”

“Clearly, the performance of Merrill’s top executives throughout Merrill’s abysmal year in no way justifies significant bonuses for its top executives, including the CEO,” Cuomo said in the letter.

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It takes some really big balls to want a bonus after overseeing the collapse of a financial services giant during your brief tenure as its leader.

One more thing wrong with the way this bailout is being executed…

AIG, Citibank and a number of other federally bailed-out financial institutions have no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships, even as they take billions in taxpayer support, ABC News has found.

In boom times, the sponsorships were seen as a way to advertise the firms’ “brands” and appeal to potential customers. Even today, at least one bank told ABC News that a naming deal was increasing its revenue. But critics, including a member of Congress, say the decision to continue them now is hard to defend.

Struggling Citibank just sealed a multi-billion-dollar emergency “backstop” deal with the U.S. government. The financial behemoth, suffering with billions in bad mortgage-related assets on its books, recently shed 53,000 workers and saw its stock price lose over half its value. Yet it’s in a 20-year contract to pay the New York Mets $400 million to name the team’s new stadium “Citi Field.”

“This type of spending is indefensible and unacceptable to Citigroup’s new partner and largest investor: the American taxpayer,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., in a statement Monday.

Citi isn’t alone: Imploding insurance giant AIG is paying the British soccer team Manchester United $125 million for the privilege of having its logo appear on Man U’s uniforms. That, despite the fact the firm is standing largely thanks to a $150 billion lifeline from the U.S. Treasury.

“A friend of mine joked they should put ‘US Treasury’ on the front of their uniforms,” said Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan watchdog group which is outraged by the expenditures.

Josh Marshall reports on the latest bailout outrage story:

We’re focusing today on Mack “MackDaddy” Whittle, longtime CEO of South Financial Group, who pushed up his retirement last month so he could cash out with a $18 million Golden Parachute just before sending his bank hat in hand to the Feds to get $347 million in choice Grade A Prime bailout money.

From Think Progress:

AIG executives went on luxurious retreat one week after receiving $85 billion bailout.

Today, the House Oversight Committee discovered that, just one week after the federal government bailed out insurance giant AIG, company executives went on a retreat to a luxury resort. The executives spent nearly $500,000 on manicures, facials, pedicures, and massages. During a hearing today, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) asked, “Have you heard of anything more outrageous?”:

CUMMINGS: Let me describe for some of you the charges that the shareholders, taxpayers, had to pay. AIG spent $200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon. They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don’t know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?

This week, the national debt passed $10 trillion. Your individual share of that is more than $33,000 and growing. When George W. Bush took office, the debt was at $5.7 trillion. It has mushroomed by more than $4.3 trillion just during his presidency alone. What’s even more interesting is that since World War II, the national debt, as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product, has ballooned under the “small government” and “fiscally conservative” administrations of Republican presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

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Can we really afford another four years of a Republican administration promising “fiscal restraint”?

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Text of the ad spot:

Announcer:  “Last week, another bank went under — but its CEO could walk away with $19 million. John McCain’s advisor, Carly Fiorina: The fired CEO who left with $42 million.”

Obama:  “You’ve got corporate executives who are giving themselves million dollar golden parachutes and leaving workers high and dry. That’s wrong, it’s an outrage.”
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It is indeed an outrage. This has been a problem for a long time… and it’s contributed to the current financial crisis because these people haven’t had meaningful consequences to their poor decisions and bad management. Firing people who do a poor job running your company by giving them multi-million dollar “golden parachutes” is not accountability… it’s a reward! If only I could be fired with such a severance package, I wouldn’t worry about screwing up either!

While some would like it to be so, it doesn’t seem to rise to the level of criminal activity. But one police office thought so and charged a man with battery for farting near him. MSNBC reports…

A man has been charged with battery on a police officer for allegedly passing gas and fanning it toward a patrolman.

Jose A. Cruz, 34, of Clarksburg, W. Va., was pulled over early Tuesday for driving without headlights, police said. According to the criminal complaint, Cruz smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and failed three field sobriety tests before he was handcuffed and taken to a police station for a breathalyzer test.

As Patrolman T.E. Parsons prepared the machine, Cruz scooted his chair toward Parsons, lifted his leg and “passed gas loudly,” the complaint said.

Seriously? I mean, are you freakin’ kidding me?

I know it’s nasty and all, and I certainly don’t want to be around it, but to charge someone with a crime because they farted near you seems more than a bit of a stretch. What’s next? Belching could qualify as a citable noise complaint?

Has our society just completely lost its mind? It’s just plain ridiculous.