Quote of the Day

11 Comments

1. 

   Real History Lisa on October 27, 2009 at 9:41 pm

   No. THIS is the quote of the day:

   Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

   From http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html?_r=1&hp.

   Tell me again how the CIA of today is so different from the CIA of the 1950s.

   • 

     Indianadem on October 27, 2009 at 9:48 pm

     “The more things change…”

   • 

     Oui on October 28, 2009 at 9:25 am

     .
     See fp story by Steven D – The Afghan’s CIA President

     and my diary – Paying the Price in Afghanistan

     "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

2. 

   rootless2 on October 27, 2009 at 9:50 pm

   anthony weiner has been acting flake city recently.

3. 

   joe in oklahoma on October 27, 2009 at 11:17 pm

   nothing wrong with Alan Grayson.

4. 

   Alice on October 28, 2009 at 8:02 am

   Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

   – Mark Twain, a Biography

5. 

   Oui on October 28, 2009 at 9:20 am

   .

   Alan Grayson To Alex Jones: “The Fed’s Lobbyist, This K-Street Whore Linda Robertson Is Trying To Teach Me About Economics” (Radio Broadcast, Sep. 24)

   .
   Fed Intends to Hire Lobbyist in Campaign to Buttress Its Image

   (Bloomberg) June 5, 2009 — The Federal Reserve intends to hire a veteran lobbyist as it seeks to counter skepticism in Congress about the central bank’s growing power over the U.S. financial system, people familiar with the matter said.

   Linda L. Robertson currently handles government, community and public affairs at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and headed the Washington lobbying office of Enron Corp., the energy trading company that collapsed in 2002 after an accounting scandal. She was also an adviser to all three of the Clinton administration’s Treasury secretaries.

   Robertson would help the Fed manage relations with lawmakers seeking greater oversight of a central bank that has used emergency powers to prevent Wall Street’s demise. While she wasn’t tied to Enron’s fraud, her association with the firm may raise questions, analysts said.

   “Some members of Congress think there are votes in attacking the Fed” after it “unnecessarily and unwisely entangled monetary policy with fiscal policy,” said former St. Louis Fed President William Poole. “The Fed is going to have a tricky time of unwinding what has been done” and will need to “keep in touch with members of Congress more thoroughly,” said Poole, now senior fellow with the Cato Institute in Washington.

   Robertson served under Treasury Secretaries Lawrence Summers, Robert Rubin and Lloyd Bentsen. She didn’t return calls seeking comment.

   Summers Tie

   Summers now heads the White House National Economic Council. Along with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, he is leading Obama administration efforts to broaden the economic rescue and overhaul financial regulation.

   Robertson is likely to start at the Fed in July and have the title of senior adviser to the Board of Governors. She was considered for a senior post under Geithner at the Treasury but ran up against the Obama administration’s restrictions on hiring lobbyists, the people said.  

   Oversight Investigation Management Practices at Treasury – June 1998 [large pdf]

   November 2000, Robertson was hired by Enron as VP and GM of federal government affairs

   GATA, Summers, Bernanke and the US Gold Reserve

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

6. 

   Brendan Skwire on October 28, 2009 at 10:08 am

   I find Alan Grayson to be a breath of fresh air, someone who is happy to meet the Republicans in the gutter and call them what they are.

   we could use a couple of smashmouth fighters on our side.

   • 

     corvus on October 28, 2009 at 11:30 am

     Indeed. It is for that reason that he has been the recipient of the only political contributions I have made this year, and among the few I have ever given anyone.

     Apparently, some people don’t like Democrats who are unwilling to subordinate the plain unvarnished truth to fawning politeness to robber barons and their lackeys.

7. 

   DaveW on October 28, 2009 at 3:33 pm

   I take it you can’t get a Happy Meal with a weiner?

8. 

   lyvwyr101 on November 2, 2009 at 2:16 pm

   Grayson is a slugger!

   One of the things I like about him.

   Nothing wrong with the old (rhetorical) uppercut or two-or three-or four………….