Okay, really, i'm done....

Paul Krugman on why the bank plan is a bad idea. Nobel Prize in economics, and so far he’s been pretty much right on nearly everything for, oh, as long as I’ve been paying attention to him. Geithner? Um, he worked for the Fed during the AIG bailout. Obama, I can understand the political need to “Stand By Your Man” but now ain’t necessarily the time for country music. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/more-on-the-bank-plan/#more-1689

And Krugman isn’t the only one. More wonkish but still not a fan. http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/private-public-partnership-details.html

I’m highly disappointed in The Washington Note. Steve Clemons, the head honcho, is a great writer and thinker, and even when I disagree with his opinions, his arguments are always well constructed. (He looks good on TV, too!) Whoever this guy is, however, I don’t like his show. Trying to lecture us about the underlying politics of Turkish/Armenian relations without giving any part of the story except why Turkey is our friend is insulting, not to mention an entirely new definition of the term “underlying politics” than I was previously aware of. The United States is one of only a small group of countries in the world that refuses to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide, and it’s because we don’t want to offend our Turkish allies. The FBI has found cases of Turkish corporations bribing US government officials to keep this legislation from passing. Pro-Armenian Turks are still routinely arrested and killed in Turkey. The refusal of the world to take what happened in 1915 seriously helped lead to Hitler’s belief that no one would care if he exterminated the Jews, and our continued failure to address genocides as they occur throughout the world continue to feed that belief. Does anyone seriously believe that al-Bashir will be truly held accountable for the situation in Darfur? Does anyone truly believe that Bush and Cheney will be held accountable for their actions? How many were dragged before the Hague for Rwanda? Or from the Khmer Rouge? How many died in the gulags? The point is not whether Turkey and Armenia need this distraction as they try to normalize relations. The point is that the United States should have had the collective cajones to call this out for what it was a long time ago. And until we, the people of the world, grow enough conscience to stand up and say that this kind of atrocity will not stand, people will continue to slaughter each other with hatred in their hearts and no fear of reproach or repercussion. If Turkey cannot look into the past and say that once upon a time mistakes were made but they will not happen again, how can they look to their future and say that they will not happen again? Why are we afraid to ask that of them? Are we afraid that they may ask us to do the same? http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/03/the_los_angeles/

How progressive are you? Take this quiz and find out! If it wasn’t for those darn social issues… I’m a 240 out of 400, making me a progressive. http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/03/progressive_quiz.html

The World’s Biggest Losers of the Week, according to Foreign Policy Magazine. Surprisingly, no Americans in the #1 spot this week. http://rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/20/the_worlds_biggest_losers

A story about icanhascheezburger and Pet Holdings, the company that brings us Fail Blog and most of the random images I post from time to time. http://www.slate.com/id/2214241/pagenum/all/#p2

Now HERE’s an abortion story that screams “We’ve officially arrived in the 21^st Century.” http://www.slate.com/id/2214057/

No, BAD ELEPHANT!!!!http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/5023005/Animal-pictures-of-the-week-20-March-2009.html?image=11

-- There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2009/03/ephemera-2009-7.html

Latest and Greatest from Matt Taibbi. Disclaimer: I haven’t actually read it, it’s 8 freaking pages long. But at least it’s not about Thomas Friedman. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

Arianna Huffington asks… WWJSD? Imagining Jon Stewart interviewing Dick Cheney… (sigh) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/what-if-jon-stewart-inste_b_175503.html