Of all the people behind the Iraq war, Wolfoitz is at the heart of this disaster. He'd drawn up a plan for the occupation of Iraq after the first Gulf War. Even Cheney (once) knew that this would be an enormous mistake. This had been his hope and goal for over a decade. I hope his so-called career never moves beyond his current position at AEI. If we can't put him in jail, he needs to at least be kept away from public service for the rest of his life.

Of all people, he should have been denouncing torture from the roof top. What an asshole. He's never done a worthwhile thing for the nation - lousy pilot, lousy husband, dishonest legislator.

. . . to post this, but they are dragging their feet because they knew all along that it was happening, and may even have given at least tacit approval by not objecting to it publicly so they wouldn't appear weak on terrorism.

I'm pretty sure it's that simple. The Dem members of the intelligence and defense committees knew the details and either didn't have the guts to protest this or didn't want to seem "weak."

Of course, in their acquiescence, they are shown to be even weaker. They all fell in line and will forever be lumped with Colin Powell as not having the character to resist what they knew was wrong. If they didn't believe torture to be wrong, then they are slime of a Cheney hue.

They made a respectable profit in the first quarter and have shed thousands of employees. They need to forget about their share prices for a couple more quarters and begin writing off bad debt against profit.

Why?

. . . what a narcissistic waste of time.

. . . believe is meaningless.

I am perfectly prepared to believe that current University of Chicago economics students no longer are the true believers that their forebears were -- FreeExchange cites survey data indicating that "75 percent of them expressed at least mild support for the [Keynesian] theory's tenets (compared to 40 percent in 1985)."

The people who were in school in 1985, and before, are the people who made today's mistakes.

This has nothing to do with hedge funds. Chrysler is a shitty car company and has been for most of its existence. Being #3 in the U.S. made them about #15 world-wide.

I think they need to just go away altogether.

While I applaud his criticism of the Bush administration, his only claim to fame was being a part of the Mustang team when at Ford and lying successfully about Chrysler "inventing" the mini van (that would be, of course, the Toyota).

Why didn't they call Iacocca? -- terkoy

. . . month's Atlantic.

China's got hundreds if not thousands of factories idled right now. If we aren't buying, they aren't making it. China is in a recession, too. It's just not as deep as our nor would it be since their per capita GDP is much lower. However, I would be willing to bet, if you could get honest statistics, that China's unemployment rate is over 20%.

. . . the domain of public opinion and religion. Churches, etc. have no legal jurisdiction over marriage - it is strictly a state matter. Therefore, personal preference and religious "convictions" have nothing to do with who marries who.

This is not to say that states won't continue to be bigoted and stupid, but the sooner religion is removed from the issue (most issues in fact), the better.

. . . a gentleman and kiss and tell.

I guess we can applaud Obama for sitting down with two of his most vociferous critics. I would applaud louder, though, if he'd had the good sense to have one if not both on this council of economic advisers.

And sad. The Chinese economy, essentially starting from scratch, has made all the the wrong choices, but is willing to make money helping Americans try to make the right choice?

. . . I think Krugman answers the question of just how much advice the president took on board.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/opinion/08krugman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Remember Bank of America is now "Too Big to Fail" so the government will do everything it can to protect managment bonuses, I'm sorry, the company. -- thorin01

Speaking as someone on the inside, bonuses aren't being paid this year. That being said, Lewis has an interesting psychology vis-a-vis Wall Street - he grew up very "main street" and hates the way it operates but wanted BofA to be just as powerful as Goldmans, but by doing it his way. Classic case of overreach with both the Countrywide and Merrill acquisitions. Sad as BofA was in great shape prior to these buys.

Chase bought Wamu They seem to be doing fine... -- williedigital

Only because they didn't get stuck with the bad parts of the bank. They acquired the branches and assets, but not the bad debt. And the debt they did acquire is backed by a tangible asset.

Instead of a brutally ugly and incompetent neoconservative for president, you now have an attractive, well-spoken, and competent neoconservative for president.-- walter_map

You really are an idiot. Being a neoconservative has to do with someone's foreign policy perspective, particularly with regard to security issues, and nothing to do with domestic policy.

Obama may not be as aggressive as he should to be handling the banking problems, but his foreign policy posture to date has not been that of a neoconservative.

. . . to being call the banking and finance industry bitch, since they've owned his ass for at least a decade.