Pimp and Circumstance

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Oh, the men pay the girls and the girls pay me. Yes, it's grand how the money changes hands. So begins the song from "Tenderloin," but the lyrics seem awfully familiar these days. Sometimes I wonder if our entire country isn't being pimped by the Bush administration and sold to the highest bidders. With TV shows like "Pimp My Ride" as a guide, it's easy to find parallels with BushCo policies. And the best descriptions of pimp boys and donor-ettes are hiding in plain sight... on the blogs.

Pimp My War

Add several coats of Haditha whitewash, cover (up), and simmer for seven months. Bob Dreyfuss, blogging at The Huffington Post, asks, "How many more Hadithas are out there? Five? Ten? One hundred?" If you're looking for a comprehensive fact-based guide to the unfolding Haditha story, Booman Tribune has the best compilation of links, timeline, and George W.'s "I didn't know until Time (magazine) asked me about it" defense. If Bush is telling the truth about his "not knowing about the Haditha massacre," it's only because his handlers didn't tell him - and not because they thought he couldn't make up a lie on the fly.

Pimp My U.S. Treasury

Think Progress has caught Bush in yet another lie. Yawn. So what's new? This lie (a Snow Job, featuring Snow & Snow) was designed to keep the stock market propped up.

On May 25th, President Bush said that Treasury Secretary John Snow had not given him any indication that he was leaving soon:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Secretary of Treasury Snow?

Q Has he given you any indication he intends to leave his job any time soon?…

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, he has not talked to me about resignation. I think he's doing a fine job.

(snip)

Later in the briefing, Tony Snow essentially admitted that Bush misled the public, claiming it was necessary to protect the market:

QUESTION: Can I just ask you one other follow-up on Karl about Secretary Snow? When the president was asked, when he was standing next to Prime Minister Blair and millions of people were watching, he's telling the American people that: I have got no indication the secretary's going to resign…

SNOW: No, He has not talked to me about resignation. I mean, it was very carefully worded. But again, what you didn't want to have, I think, is at a period of time when you haven't finished doing your clearances for the person you want to fill that position, you don't want to have chaos in the markets.

So, what happens when you try to prop up the markets by lying about your choice for Treasury Secretary Snow's replacement? According to World Wealth View (a Prosperity Project blog), the stock market nose dives... probably because insiders recognize a Nixon thug when they see one.

Dirt City Paranoia has the skinny on "another rich white guy from Nixon days":

Paulson, 60, is a former Nixon thug and heavy Republican bagman who presided over Goldman's insider trading scandal three years ago. He is poised to take the reins of an economy that grew at its fastest rate in 2-1/2 years during the first quarter, benefiting Exxon-Mobil's major shareholders and a couple dozen other friends of the Bush Crime Family, but shows signs of slowing as consumers run out of money.

"It looks like they got someone who will be an iron fist and, if any problems arise, will be able to step in and break some fuckin' legs," said Marc Summerlin, an economic consultant ignored under Bush in his first term.

Pimp My Grossly Inflated Equity

Pop goes the housing bubble! Aren't you the least bit suspicious when every single corporate-owned "news" story about the housing bubble reads almost exactly the same as the previous one? They all claim that housing bubbles are only regional, and the entire country won't be affected. Bubble Meter knows, "It's the inventory, Stupid":

In the bubble markets, inventory has increased at an even faster pace then the national picture over the past year.

In San Deigo County, housing inventory started off at 13,916 on January 1st 2006 and has risen by a full 45% and was 20,617 as of May 20th (Zip Realty, Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking).

In Los Angelos County, housing inventory started off at 24,463 on January 2nd 2006 and has risen by a full 49% and was 36,689 as of May 20th (Zip Realty, Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking).

(snip)

In Phoenix, inventory spiked from 10,748 on 7/20/05 to 43,900 on 5/02/06 according ZipRealty and Bubble Markets Tracking Inventory.


In Prince William County (DC suburbs), the inventory has exploded going from ~1000 to ~4500 active listings in the past year.

In Northern Virginia, a part of the Washington DC metro area, the number of active listings was 2,983 in April 2005, which increased by 241% to 10,038 in April 2006 (MRIS).

Keith at Housing Panic writes: "Ding dong the Housing Ponzi Scheme is dead." Go for the post, but stay for the 44 comments concerning everyone's fear of verbal attacks after saying "I told you so" to eager newbie 2006 real estate investors.

Hmm. Do you find it strange that Housing Panic has just learned that his site (along with several other Housing Bubble blogs) has been hacked? I didn't think so. Me either.

Pimp John Kerry's War

Swiftboat is now a household vocabulary word and not in a good way. Determined to smear Senator John Kerry's distinguished Vietnam war record, they lied about where they were, what they saw, and what they couldn't possibly have known about Kerry's missions. In a Claude Rains Moment this week, the New York Times is shocked (shocked, I tell you!) to discover that Senator Kerry was telling the truth about his service record. AZnomad (at Daily Kos) has the background, the current swiftboat shenanigans update - and best of all - the New York Times' own art:



Two years late and a presidential election later? Hmm. One has to wonder if the new and improved blog-ish Times isn't doing a little housekeeping for posterity. They pimped the swiftboaters big time when it mattered, and now we're supposed to be impressed that they've printed the evidence (dug up by Kerry supporters, by the way) that exonerates a war hero, without lifting a finger to find and report the truth themselves? Some paper of record!

Pimp My Former First Lady

Raymond Hernandez, "blogging" for the New York Times' new Empire Zone Blog, wonders if Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is "inching toward calling for a reduction in the American military presence in Iraq." Have you ever noticed how right-wingers always Alex Trebek their innocent (gag me) yet uncorroborated wedgies in the form of a question? Post commenter Matt returns the slap quite nicely:

but how is her love life? i don't really care about Iraq. is bill cheating on her again? with whom? also, what is on Hillary's Ipod? does she have an Ipod? if not, does she use a different mp3 player? please respond.

Feeling thwacked, Raymond? Of all the blog topics at your disposal, you choose to point out to Dems that Senator Clinton doesn't think the Iraqi government can control the country, thereby insinuating that she might call for cutting and running someday? Sad. Truly sad. The burning blog question: Is the Times Empire Zone Blog's raison d'être based entirely on smearing Senator Clinton? Attytood seems to think so:

By splashing the weakly-written but innuendo-laden story across Page One on Monday, the editors of the New York Times sent a signal to Washington's Gang of 500, to smaller media outlets around the country and to influential bloggers that, hey, this is really important, because we don't put things on the front page unless it's important.

Yet in this one case, there was something else going on. The story by reporter Patrick Healy was clearly tied to an event that had nothing to do with the news value of his article: the launching of a blog, the Empire Zone (no link, for reasons that will become clear), the very first political blog offered by the Times. Knowing that, the Page One story carries the aura of a huge advertisement -- a very good idea from a pure marketing standpoint, if you decide to ignore the journalistic integrity issues involved.

In fact, knowing how these things work, it wouldn't surprise me if Healy had a conversation with his editor, and one of them said, "You know what would be great would be to have a really provocative story - one that would get linked by a lot of blogs - on the day that we launch it."

(snip)

Thus a blog - and one really bad article - were launched at the same time. Did the ploy work? You bet it did. The New York Times could have just thrown up a link on its home page, and the Empire Zone might have gotten a couple of thousand visitors, about what a boring blog on New York politics with a name that took 14 seconds to think up deserves.

Instead...well let's just say that in the blogosphere, there's a sucker (including this blogger) born every minute.

Yep, we all got pimped. Dick Cheney Big Time. Nice to know though that Media Matters hasn't taken this Clinton sex-or-no-sex pimp wedgie, er, lying down:

Coming soon to The New York Times? Globe reports Bush marriage breakup

Summary: In Patrick Healy's recent front-page New York Times article on the state of the Clintons' marriage, Healy noted that a "tabloid photograph" of former President Bill Clinton "was enough to fuel coverage in the gossip pages."

(snip)

As it happens, the cover of the May 29 edition of the Globe contains another sensational headline about another high-profile political couple:

BUSH MARRIAGE BREAKUP!
EXCLUSIVE!
SEPARATE LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE

* Nasty fights
* Booze problems
* Laura urges counseling

Media Matters also has art:


Yikes! My President Is A Pimp!

When you google "Bush and pimp" you get over 4 million hits. Yikes, indeed. Still making the rounds is Dominic Tocci's George W. Pimp rap, "D.R.A.F.T.":

(CHORUS)

The terrorists have heard about me
And now they complain to Allah over me
And I will crush this insurgency
With a motherf**king D.R.A.F.T.

(REPEAT CHORUS)

Now saddam he in the jail and he know that we done it
I'm re-elected. Beat the liberal. That's what Jesus wanted
Despite the deficit and the big old corporate scandals
I had my team of thugs. There ain't nothin' we can't handle.

I got the name. I got the look. They got me re-elected
I thank my boys for all the corporate money they collected.
Yeah the corporate world was dirty, so we gave you Martha.
Then I turned our focus on Saddam just like my father.

We had to go and stop the nucular proliferation
Oops. Don't got dem nukes. How about a sovereign nation?
I know they want they freedoms so I'm gonna bring 'em fastest.
And if I torture terrorists, yo that don't mean I'm fascist.

Don't mind those soldiers over there pullin' double tours.
Still in Afghanistan. Yeah, we fightin' double wars.
Look bitch, the second term of my presidency
Could begin with a mother f**kin D.R.A.F.T.

Watch the video and read the rest of the lyrics. Pretty fly for a... (there's no delicate way to phrase this) pimp-pointer-outer.

Yes, it's grand how the money changes hands. If Bush is the pimp-in-chief, what does that make the Republican-controlled House, Senate, Supreme Court, and the nation as a whole? Rhymes with witches, you say? So many examples of the country being pimped. So little time. Send me your pimp picks, and I'll include them in next week's update. Until then, stay fly and fly right left!

-- Delilah Boyd