I know, I know. Enough all ready with the clunker stuff. But these clunker programs are such clear and convincing examples of how politically driven and dysfunctional our government has become that I can’t seem to help myself.
And could anything says it better than this cartoon?

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Host Paulie Abeles had to cancel her show “Sins of Omission” for 9:00 pm Monday, August 31st due to illness. Please join me in wishing her a speedy recovery.
You can link to archived shows with guests– CARL BERNSTEIN, AMY GOODMAN, MICHAEL SHNAYERSON & AYELET WALDMAN — here.
Paulie has a great line up [...]

Taxpayers get your wallets out. It seems the government was so pleased with the success of their Cash-for-Clunker car program that it rushed through a $300 million spin off “Cash for Refrigerators” before leaving for the August recess. So just in case you missed out on the “free” Cash-for-Clunkers money, you can [...]

The CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System) program, better known as Cash for Clunkers, came to an end at 8 pm Monday night. But for a short-lived program that burned through $3 billion in about a month, it has successfully managed to hit an amazing amount of sour notes for all its claims to be [...]

Warning! This is painful to watch and listen to for anyone who loves autos and racing. Traded in as part of the “Cash for Clunkers” program, sodium silicate solution is used to freeze up the engine of this Corvette. The death throes start about the three minute mark.

It just seems incredibly sad that [...]

(Reprint of Aug. 17th orginal with updates at end of post. Update I: Video of Dylan Ratigan’s Morning Meeting talking about the administrations “un-American” deals. Update II: Greenwald’s take — monied interests rule both parties; jettisoning the “Public Option” was part of the Obama plan.)
We must have misunderstood the plan. [...]

On Friday, detailed compensation plans for the top 25 earners at seven companies — American International Group, Bank of America, Citigroup, Chrysler, Chrysler Financial, General Motors and GMAC — were delivered to the offices of Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s bailout bonus czar. Why? Because these companies received substantial government funds, and Mr. [...]

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As many recent townhall meetings have shown, the American people are dealing with a few issues of trust in regards to their government. So I thought it might be fun to take a look at two very different videos on Money and what it can do.

(Updated at end of post with excellent video of Dylan Ratigan’s Morning Meeting talking about the administrations “un-American” deals.)
We must have misunderstood. We actually thought the whole point of reforming health care was to help the american people have better, more affordable health care. We thought the promise was:
BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN FOR A [...]

“We really have let them down. We did not help prevent this recession.”
Trust and respect. They are fragile things. You do not earn them by finger pointing. You can not instill them through political theater. You should not jeopardize them with fear mongering.
Those are the tactic of political players. Politicians [...]

The “U.S economy turning a corner” is the latest hopeful trumpeting from news reports and media outlets. George Soros proclaims that “the economy has actually bottomed”. And the most recent Wall Street Journal survey of top economists found that 57% believe the “recession is already over,” while another 23% believe that the economy [...]

This a reprint of the original post, expanded to include comment information. Major h/t janicen, bayareavoter and elise.
Dear Mr. President:
I read a post on the Whitehouse blog called “Facts Are Stubborn Things” that said:
Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to “uncover” the truth about [...]

Dear Mr. President:
I read a post on the Whitehouse blog called “Facts Are Stubborn Things” that said:
Scary chain emails and videos are starting to percolate on the internet, breathlessly claiming, for example, to “uncover” the truth about the President’s health insurance reform positions.
And that:
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there… [...]

There is a gaping hole in our recovery and more and more of Main Street America is falling through it. And that gaping hole is JOBS. Or more accurately, the place where JOBS should be.
The price of U.S. recession is paid in jobs
In the current recession, economists say high unemployment is likely [...]

Bumped down – July 19th show over
John Batchelor’s show begins at 11 p.m. EDT. Then, at 11:20 p.m. EDT, Don’t Miss LARRY JOHNSON Tonight on the Batchelor Show, via KFI 640 AM.
Sunday 1120P: (820P Pacific Time): continued with Larry Johnson, No Quarter, re Honduras, re Officer James Crowley of the Cambridge Police.

Check out [...]