Sy Hersh’s recent discussion at University of Minnesota revealed the edges of the way Dick Cheney worked. By reading Hersh’s work in conjunction with a recent CRS report, it suggests more about how and why Cheney did what he did.

From Politico via Yahoo, we find that Gary Bauer is still out there acting as if anyone gives a rat’s buttock what he thinks. Today’s Gospel According to Gary: It’s not seizing, jailing, and torturing innocent Muslims in the Levant that turns them into Western-hatin’ terrorists, but letting them pray to Mecca.

Dean Baker released a paper last week on AIG, written for the Center for Economic Policy and Research. The words “must read” get bandied about with way too much freedom, but it certainly applies here. I can think of no better succinct telling of the tale that will remove the perpetual question mark from above the head of anyone who takes the trouble to read it (you can find

I’m starting to believe Michelle Bachmann isn’t a real politician at all, but instead, an unusually gifted performance artist who’s engaged in a brilliant post-modern parody of an insane wingnut.

Why pay hedge funds to perform ministerial tasks?

Krugman:But the Obama administration, like the Bush administration, apparently wants an easier way out. The common element to the Paulson and Geithner plans is the insistence that the bad assets on banks’ books are really worth much, much more than anyone is currently willing to pay for them.

The WSJ makes clear that Treasury specifically avoided discussing bonuses when negotiating new aid for AIG, at a time when they were forcing the UAW to renegotiate compensation.

Timothy Geithner’s new plan shovels billions into the pockets of the very same bankers who got rich on the mortgage bubble. And it does absolutely nothing to plug the regulatory holes that made it such a disaster for the financial system.

Despite Timothy Geithner’s contention that banks are simply “burdened with bad lending decisions,” most Americans understand at this point that there was serious fraud involved in those decisions.

After several weeks of pushback on Paulson redux for TALF, the Obama administration appears to have settled on…the Paulson redux plan with assorted new shiny windowdressings. Oh joy and rapture. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will testify twice before Congress this week regarding TALF. I’ve got plenty of questions about due diligence and much-needed transparency and accountability.

• The POTUS on “60 Minutes.“
• The Teabagging’s working — everyone hates Obama!
• The return of economic populism.
• Spitzer for Treasury.
• Good news.
• You’d hope so.
• Tragedy in Montana.
• When are we gonna legalize the stuff?
• Atrios no likey Geithner’s plan.
• Greenwald’s on Twitter.