From the WaPo:
In a letter to President Bush, Jackson, 62, said he is stepping down effective April 18 and would "fully assist in the orderly transition of the leadership at HUD."
He added: "There are times when one must attend more diligently to personal and family matters. Now is such a time for me." He made no mention of the controversies that have cast a pall over his agency at a time of crisis in the nation’s housing industry.
Spare me the feigned surprise. Nobody really believes that any of these odious racketeers are going to acknowledge that the blatant corruption in which they were directly involved during their tenure might not really have been in the best interests of the country. These guys make Tammany Hall at the height of its power look like a Quaker meeting house.
Bush, who departed yesterday on a trip to Eastern Europe for his final NATO summit, issued a written statement calling Jackson "a good man" and "a great American success story."
For several reasons, this makes me laugh. No sooner has the President has uttered his magic command, "heckuva job [fill in name of latest professional incompetent here]," the political appointee drools in Pavlovian fashion that he or she is "leaving for personal and family matters." I’m assuming that excuse is actually code for "I’m about to be brought up on RICO charges." To be fair, Jackson did last longer than the other resignees, so I guess that makes him a great American success story, for sure.
And, in typical Republican/right wing fashion, Jackson tried to get away with saying the most execrable nonsense by insisting it was all just a joke:
Jackson is also the target of investigations by a federal grand jury, the FBI and the Justice Department. Those investigations began after a speech in Dallas in April 2006, in which Jackson said he had arranged the firing of a contractor who told him, "I don’t like President Bush."
The secretary later said he concocted the anecdote . . . .
I’m not entirely clear on what the purpose of concocting an anecdote that shines the spotlight on your ongoing corrupt practices would serve, but then again, I have a conscience. During the EschaCon political humor panel last Saturday, Athenae asked us how best to counter instances in which wingnuts make offensive comments and then, when called on the carpet for them, respond with "I was only joking!" In my opinion, Ted Rall had the best answer: "If a joke had been made, there would have been laughter."
So it looks like Alphonso Jackson has finally learned (with the help of several Senate, DOJ and HUD investigations) that blackmailing cities into submission and funneling major government contracts to his friends has not been getting laughs.
Don’t let that NOLA trailer door hit your ass on your way out, Alphonso.
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Boing – back one-and-a-half somersaults, tuck position, no splash (’natch)
g’evening pups
excellent post watertiger – karma and her payback is a bitch yanno
Clap! Clap! Suzanne!
Tigre de Aqua! Rrrrroooaaarrrr!
I really need to spend some time with my family.
George Bush – Great judge of charecter(s)!
But you really are doing a heck of a job!
Thomas Nast!
watertiger!
Heh, love the Tammany Hall toon, Water Tiger!
they know where the skeletons are buried
Evening tigre Aquatique, evening Suzanne.
Every lie is a victory for these ratfuckers. The agenda goes forward…
You’re entirely too funny, Watertiger.
I have no inhaler, what I’m going to do now?
One of my favorite classes in college was “The History of the City of new York.” The amount of time we spent on Tammany Hall was significant, to say the least.
Alfonso will be another character, in the neverending W administration, to be watched for years to come. We’ll never have a chance to be bored.
Yay!!!
Hey watertiger. Nice post.
Good evening, everybody…
Hey!
Can’t Digg it.
Howdy MP.
We should remind ourselves that this is the same hack that once used his bully pulpit as head of HUD to give a speech on WHY WE SHOULD GO TO WAR WITH IRAQ.. ’cause shrub’s little war has so much to do with housing (or, as the case may be, unhousing) America
i read your digg is broken :(
Hey Bets – how are you these days?
looks like newton got the digg
DUGG here, WT!
Evening all. Great post WT, however, given his diligent efforts to resurrect the Harding administration in every other regard, I would suggest Teapot Dome is a better analogy.
hey dr (pause) dick
Anyone hungry for cake?
‘evenin’ Suze, how goes the fight?
Pretty much in the same way Al Capone was a great american success story.
Where’s my CAKE, Bedilia? :-D
Not bad. Just finished my final set of injections today, and surviving the process very nicely. Thanks for asking.
Heh, In my history studies, here in Hawaii, in my second half of intro to US History, we spent a full lecture on Tammany Hall and Tweed, with many of Nast’s toons interspersed…!
hey watertiger– thank you.
here’s a good one:
bwahahahahahaha
http://www.brainyquote.com/quo…..ckson.html
Enough little cakes for everyone!
Play Ball! *g*
hahahahaha
Oh, I have a special one reserved for your birthday! When is that?
August, M’dear!
i guess poor alphonso wasn’t important enough that he could leave to spend time with andy card’s family
it’s is always a bummer when an indictment rains on the going away party
Suz, it did make the headlines…!
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/
kewl, ct and bummer dood
Yum, thanks!
margot, ygm
*poof* 2,000 jobs…! 8-(
I would like to bid a fond farewell to Alphonso “I hope to be gone before the indictment arrives” Jackson.
CT, there is no possible way I could wait until August. here ya go!
don’t matter as long as the big wigs get theirs. i’m sure consideration was given to the employees fate – and they were told they could find jobs at walmart or in fast food driveup
bum link, CT.
Worked for me Loo Hoo.
And hi!
Hey Peeps and Pals!
What do you have to do wrong to resign from this administration?
Whew, I thought it was gonna be a Cuff shaped cake…! *g*
I’m sure the prosecutor has a forwarding address.
publicly disagree, mary mc
Nope, those are waiting till Bush, Cheney or Rice get frog marched.
Get caught.
Well, saying that invading Iraq was a mistake would be a good start…
be a little fish?
Stir the coffee with your winkie?
No…stir TEA with your winkie. Firing offense.
What? Someone told the truth?
Hello! Got it the second try. (Not sure which article is CT’s)
depends on if female hooker or male hooker
That’ll do it everytime! Heaven knows, doing something illegal doesn’t do it, in fact, it seems to be a prerequisite…!
develop a conscience and remorse?
(and then swear not to tell the public the truth– only teensy parts of it in some very few instances)
Diaper weirdness is perfectly fine. Remember Vitty Cents.
Did you all see that Pelosi is suggesting Bush skip the opening of the Olympics?
She’s had a long and proud history of sticking up for the people of Tibet.
well, he was one of them good ole boys, and not like that new yawk guy
No, that will get you renditioned to a CIA black site in Uzbekistan.
Heh, sorry, I’m not a reporter for my rag! Suz, had given me a link to SF gate telling me about Aloha’s demise, there hadn’t been any mention of it prior to it in the local media…!
It’s a diaper not a clown car.
prolly so.
what ever happened to larry flynt’s big names named expose?
Wish she’d stick up for us…you know, the table…
Two #2 seeds have advanced in the women’s side to the Final Four. See, this was not difficult.
Did Larry lead us on? We should email and ask.
Hush money? I never had a really high regard for Larry’s ethical standards.
NYT observes that if Derrick Rose and Kevin Love go straight to the NBA neither of their teams would likely be here today.
Well, there’s been a rash of retirements announced by numerous Repugs, maybe some of them were induced by Larry…?
I am glad that Nancy is standing up for the beleaguered people of Tibet– really I am.
(now, how’s about standing up for your Constitutional duty to impeach, Madame Speaker???)
Larry said he had a prominent person to out. (Wasn’t it a Senator?) Maybe he’s holding it for October….
…it would be irresponsible not to speculate…?
Maybe Larry is waiting until after the primary. Perhaps he has some nasty little tid bit on McIcrashed5airplanes.
what Angie said
Yes it would.
A long-ago ex-Treasury Secretary. Not much in that dept since.
If Shrub thought the Nats’ boo job was bad, imagine the international treatment…!
and destroyed numerous others with a “Hot Dog” wet-start!
Wasn’t it supposed to be a Gooper Presidential candidate?
perhaps it was newt and that is why newt hasn’t been seen much lately
newt the g – not newtonusr – to clarify in case anyone got mixed up by my #90
I owe you a Coke for your 74!
lol.
I liked that guy. Paul O’Neill?
Newt’s dalliances were legion…
I’m thinking Rudy. Again.
And thanks for the clarification, Suz. I should take the “Loo Hoo option” and change the damned handle! :-)
only if newt the g runs.. otherwise, i think your moniker is safe
Yeah. One of the first to expose the neocons.
The ultimate Hillary Clinton supporter……whoofah.
-G
Gahd, that’s not poo. That’s shit.
just goes to show there is a blog out there for everyone (head shaking) egad
Pretty sick.
Darn it. The W library lost it’s domain name.
urgh.
or, whoofah.
or, that person sure has their panties in a twist.
I didn’t see this emptywheel post from earlier today mentioned yet, but it is an excellent analysis of the new Bush re/de/fee-fi-fo-fum regulation reorganization. Emptywheel points out that it contains language that leaves open possbility that investment banks will remain unregulated, and institutionalize a policy of bailing out unregulated investment banks whenever they need it in future panics (which would probably be more frequent). I think it is very important to read.
In other words, it explicitly opens possibility than for the rich, massive mroal hazard, completely unregulated highly leveraged investment banking, followed by government bailouts will be US government policy.
http://emptywheel.firedoglake……-the-same/
A documentarian Jon Taplin at TPM agrees, and he has links at his blog to a financial analysis who agrees.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsme….._fig_leaf/
And Krugman seems to agree in Monday NY Times.
So, another reason to defeat McCain in November, and electing a more progressive more aggressive Congress later this year.
so what is newt the salamander been up to these days?
bwahahahahaha they had the name and let it expire…
What would you change it to? Everyone knows the newtonusr! Newt is you around here. If the other one darkens the door, we know it’s not you.
Yeah… yeah, TreoUser doesn’t have the same insouciance…
I’ll have to think on it.
www. George W Bush Library.com.
——-moron———–oxy——–
Just ask him what he named his dog. :)
I think until McBush locked up the R nomination, he was sitting by the phone waiting for a draft.
Reflecting on Alphonso Jackson got me to take a look at the other members of his Cabinet. It’s like a really grisly Madame Tussauds of incompetence.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, done a lot for shoes, squat for foreign policy
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, enabler of Bush’s failed wars
Attorney General Michael Mukasey, defender of Bush’s unconstitutional power grabs
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, wife of Mitch McConnell and destroyer of Labor Department
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, most incompetent man in Washington
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, global warming for him is when he has had a scotch and feels warm all over
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, scored essentially a zero on environmental issues when he was in Congress
Secretary of HHS Michael Leavitt, parlayed the sellout of the San Rafael Swell into a Cabinet career
Secretary of HUD Alphonse Jackson, helps his Bushie friends, nuff said
Administrator of the EPA Stephen Johnson, famous for his stonewalling Congress and his footdragging on environmental issues
Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, facing contempt of Congress
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, believes the nation’s roads should be privatized
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, homophobe who helped put together No Child Left Behind
I don’t know much about these guys but I’m thinking they are more of the same.
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez
Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer
Director of OMB Jim Nussle
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab
Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake
Director of National Drug Control Policy John Walters
what’s that spell
R-I-C-O
newt g. is no salamander katymine.
he is a horny- toe leezard with gross purulence leaking from his spores– a common genus of the phylum Republicanus A**.
(an aberrant form of horned-toe lizards, with all due respect to that naturally evolved genus.)
What did you name your dog, newt?
wesgpc, I posted this letter from Dodd about the ‘Blueprint’ on EW’s thread, several commenters immediately said Dodd reads Marcy’s posts…! *g*
http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q=node/4344
This is what I’ve been saying for the last couple of days. Paulson’s proposals are kabuki meant to give the impression of action where there is none, pre-empt regulation of investment banks, hedge funds, and derivatives guaranteeing future bubbles and panics, and kicking the whole disaster down the road for the Democrats to fix, or get the blame for.
Sounds like a group you would see on the Post Office wall.
YAY!
Hugh’s at it again.
Bless you sir.
a group you “should” see on the P.O. wall.
The Horned Lizard is the state lizard if AZ…. dried up and ready to snap…. that is McBush…..
newt is slimy and slithers in the mud…. therefore salamander
Haven’t had a dog since 1988, and she was a Golden Retriever named Bonus.
Good image. I wish it were true.
that won’t work for an alt at all newt. guess you are stuck with newt
BONUS it is then!
This would have to get through congress, though, right, Hugh?
Bonus wouldn’t really work, newt, ‘cept that you are a bonus around these parts!
That would be correct and Dodd is extremely skeptical! See the link at 115!
bonus would be like having a sex education expert named dr dick…
subject to a buncha puns
OK, I’m off to bed. Still have six weeks of school left before I can be carefree and decadent. Take car and enjoy.
If that’s the case, I fear we’re in deep doo-doo.
So far (and I haven’t given up doing what I can) nothing has motivated the dems to do the right thing en masse.
That’s what makes it kabuki. It is supposed to be the big fix. It isn’t and even those things it does propose would have to be approved by Congress and since it is largely irrelevant that is unlikely to happen.
Hardy Har!
sorry dr dick.. i’ll behave – you aren’t leaving because of my joke are you?
sleep well dr d
yup
Nope. Got to teach in the morning is all.
Something that’s interesting in “spooky” kind of way. The Carlye group is buying Booz Allen Hamilton.
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=14963
Aloha, DD!
exhaling… thank you – sorry about the w word in the morning
There was discussion of drawing together the various oversight responsibilities into a single umbrella organization but Paulson’s plan doesn’t even do that. It is the classic Dilbert stratagem of re-arranging the boxes in the organizational flow chart. The appearance of action where there is none.
But how will the Bush Administration save all the poor middle-class mortgage-holders who are losing their homes due to foreclosure without a HUD Secretary? Surely this was tops on Alphonso’s agenda!
Will he reimburse the US Government for the most outrageous vanity wall ever seen in Washington DC?
Good for Dodd (once again), CTuttle.
Crude. My computer speakers aren’t working. I have been under my desk fighting dust bunnies. All parts are connected. Maybe if I restart.
hey helpless – didn’t carlyle have some $$$ issues earlier this month?
Yea. They want yours and mine.
Nighters, Dr.D.
I associate salamander with the mythical one. The creature of fire and light. Granted, you never EVER want to get ‘em mad. They’ll burn you to a crisp, but Newt G? Not one of those. He’s a reptile but not that one. Definitely not a basilisk either…
gee, they are gonna need a new decorator – from your link:
That is interesting and not in a good way. It is a further example of the corporatization of government, where it is becomes increasingly unclear where the one ends and the other begins.
Newtass.
Newtbegone.
Newtwit
Did you check to see if your audio is on mute?
Dodd doesn’t mince his words…
Doesn’t everyone decorate their office that way?
Stop! You’re killing me with these jokes. You notice how Jackson’s name never came up in the housing crisis except when he left? That’s because he did zilch on it.
You Mac MaryMc?
Check Sound prefs for mute, and if that doesn’t get it, zap the pram.
I went to the control panel and checked the sound. I must have done one of those mysterious left handed right clicks that mix voodoo and juice to confound the electric box.
i hear rachael p wanted to turn her lobby into an homage to her for her coronation ceremony (/s)
given this administration, hugh, that may be a good thing – his doing nothing…
I thought pictures of the
famigliafamily were not PC these days on your desk…Me used to be a mac girl. Have an Apple sticker on my car window. But when the G4 went south I got Ron’s nasty pc. No can zap the pram cause I am on the dark side.
poor thing :-(
One of their hedge funds went belly up.
8-P!
that’s right. thanks
my english teachers are gonna haunt me for that abysmal grammar.
shit, don’t tell me there are english teachers around here. i thought i had successfully gotten rid of the spelling police down here in the comments…
Regarding US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, wiki has this odd tidbit:
I was watching World Business Report on PBS and one thing that struck me is that credit unions could be at risk of total destruction from Paulson’s grand pooba finance so called regulations thingy ….
THE one safe place to park our money….. share owner & managed Credit Unions
THE one financial institution who DID NOT do risky loans…
Well doing nothing for ordinary Americans. Looting the government is after all a full time job.
There ought to be a law against zapping a pram. There could be a baby in it.
Those Apple engineers are harsh types.
The thing is that the Carlye group is a truly international group of real shady characters. I find myself disliking the idea of them getting their hooks so deeply into our intelligence operations.
707! At least in England they do…! ;-)
Re: Alphonso (from Teddy’s link)
“And investigators are looking into his alleged role in arranging a contract for a golfing pal who allegedly did repairs and remodeling on Jackson’s South Carolina vacation home.”
What is it with these corrupt public officials who settle for such small change–who are too cheap to pay for their own home repairs like the rest of us do? Alphonso, Sen. Ted Stephens, I believe Clarence Kelley, Nixon’s FBI director…such petty little crimes that bring them down…
We must nationalize Carlyle along with Halliburton and Exxon Mobil.
I just can’t decide whether to tackle this before or after the Alito and Roberts impeachments.
They’ve got to hate credit unions!
neuro, my mom sez it’s how the rich stay rich — they never pay for anything
neuro, in Stevens case, they raised it up and built a whole new floor!
my mom says the same thing
I didn’t know about this plan until the day before yesterday. I wondered whether Krugman was being too harsh when I read his column last night (Krugman has been a bit crabby lately). What I heard in the media sounded very different. But the excerpts in the TPM post rang alerm bells. And emptywheel’s analysis left my mouth gaping.
Unbelievably irresponsible.
And the corporate press performance is abysmal again. Let us see if it reports some of the Democratic and financial press reaction.
Gargh. That scares me, because my main account is with a Credit Union(been with it since i was 16, since my dad’s a part of it). The secondary one is with Chase, but i consider that the secondary one for emergency purposes. I don’t like risking anything with it simply because i know they’re huge and pretty vulnerable to petty crap like hacking. A good place to squirrel away a few dollars, but no major amounts–EVER.
Thomas Ricks chatz about Iraq at noon eastern at WaPo0
Gene Robinson chatz at one eastern
And nationalize Blackwater so we can drown it in a bathtub
The NewsHour had Krugman on this evening but against him they had a setup interview with the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and then some other economist taking a more pro-Administration point of view.
Ding Ding Ding!
Blackwater/Graystone? They are no longer headquartered here. They are in Dubai and the Caymans for tax purposes. Our government shouldn’t offer them any more work.
along with halliburton
check out Felon Rowland (CT)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Rowland
This happened in Joey’s state.
How about it Nancy et al???
Have you been following Ricks? I never could make him out. He would be appropriately critical of the mess in Iraq but then conclude that we need to stay there. John Burns when he was the Times bureau chief in Baghdad did this and it drove me crazy.
Scares me too….. Many of the financial guru’s have been recommending moving all your money to Credit Unions because they are the most stable institutions who do not make risky investments.
Think of a wild ass scenario where BofA defaulted on ALL of its accounts after buying that grand canyon of a black hole Crountrywide….. Think of it…. Millions and Millions of customers who have FDIC insured accounts which makes the federal government responsible ultimately responsible.
The 2008 version of a run on a bank, bank refusing funds and defaulting…. Yahoo…. welcome to the third world
So we would be responsible for paying ourselves back. Perfect Orwellian/Bush bullshit.
and all the ceo’s have their golden parachutes so all is right in their world
I think when reporters are intelligently critical of the mess, they get hounded with “Well, what should we do then?” from those they cover. Kind of like the “Would you prefer Saddam was still in power?”
Stupid questions from stupid people, but debate-changers if you accept the premise. Not many journalists seem to have mastered Cheney’s patented “I simply reject the premise of your question, Wolf.”
Democrats either, for that matter. It’s a brilliant stroke, and almost solely Darth’s.
Well so much for having guns everywhere here in AZ….. guy went into a local mall, bought a 8 inch butcher knife and walked into the food court and stabbed a guy to death…..
You would think these clowns would be smart enough, if they wanted to accept a bribe, to have cash deposited in their Caymen Islands bank account and then write a personal check for the damn home repairs.
One of several things that helped to bring down my 6-term R congressman in 2006 (Jim Ryun, R-KS) was that he bought a D.C. townhouse from a couple of lobbyists for less than market value. It was featured on TPM Muckraker. Is that dumb, or what?
I would agree to a point and then we have to get into the media consolidation thing and the ” post-
911″ thing and the ratings thing and then I just want to explode.
I would follow along with Ricks, Burns and a few others and then just throw up my hands and curse when I was left thirsting for the truth.
They drove me mad.
I now feel it was just exculpatory stuff– ‘don’t ask me to go too far out and tell the whole truth.’
I hear the US Attorney in Dallas awarded Mr. Jackson a no-bid contract to oversee a class action settlement between Texas real estate developers and everyone who’s bought a home in Texas since 1963. He intends to arbitrate disputes.
*g*