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DAILY BRIEFING

Former AIG Head Maurice R. Greenberg Is Up To His Old Tricks—Because He Is 84 Years Old, See?

  • Maurice R. Greenberg, the impossibly geriatric former head of AIG, has been quietly luring young, unsuspecting insurance execs to his new firm. [New York Times]
  • Harry Reid promised out loud that the new health care bill will have a public option, which means it actually might! [Washington Post]
  • Like half an hour ago, NASA sent the the largest rocket ever (327 ft.) into space. The moon was unharmed. [CNN]
  • Starting nowish, a Senate committee will meet for the next three days in order to figure out some tenable clean energy initiatives. It’s bipartisan, because look: Lamar Alexander! [Reuters]
  • Over the last three days, 700 adults were arrested in sweeping sex-with-children raids that spanned 36 cities. [Los Angeles Times]
  • The Somali pirates not only continue to exist if everyone pretty much ignores them, they also apparently continue to kidnap British people. [Times Online]


8:38 AM on Tue October 27 2009
By Juli Weiner
715 Views

  1. MLHencken says at 8:44 am, October 27th, 2009

    Operation MOONHATE is reactivated.

  2. ManchuCandidate says at 8:49 am, October 27th, 2009

    Good luck with AIG2, you fizkal succus Mo. I guess he’ll need another 40 years to do it, but that’s what the blood of Bangladeshi babies is for.

    NASA’s largest rocket? Meh. It’s not the length, it’s the width (which helps determine payload capacity) so the Saturn V is still the king.

  3. They had to fire that rocket off fast before the program was cancelled.

  4. Larry McAwful says at 8:58 am, October 27th, 2009

    If we really wanted to divide the Republicans on energy policy, someone would invent a coal-powered abortion machine.

  5. NebraskashireGentry says at 8:59 am, October 27th, 2009

    “The moon was unharmed.”

    Juli, I wasn’t so sure about you. You now have the unwavering devotion of NebraskashireGentry and, by extension, his many serfs.

  6. finallyhappy says at 9:02 am, October 27th, 2009

    I normally don’t believe in the death penalty but I would personally kill someone who used a child for sex. What the hell is wrong with people? There are 100,000 child prostitutes still out there in the US???? No snark here- but a lot of anger.

  7. Hawaiiexpat says at 9:03 am, October 27th, 2009

    I would request your indulgence to treat this as an open thread for comments.

    Bill Kristol may be the biggest ASSFLAKE in contemporary America.

    Thanks for listening.

  8. Barry White Zombie says at 9:04 am, October 27th, 2009

    I just hope those Somalis can supply a lot of tea and bland food, and withstand constant complaining about the weather and everything else.

  9. Monsieur Grumpe says at 9:06 am, October 27th, 2009

    Terry:
    A premature blast-off?
    NASA is in worse shape than I thought.

  10. Oreilly4897 says at 9:09 am, October 27th, 2009

    When’s this fucking war going to end?

  11. God dammit, I was complaining about this just yesterday. Stop doing reasonable and/or good things, Lamar Alexander. I’m supposed to hate you, and you’re confusing me.

  12. hobospacejunkie says at 9:25 am, October 27th, 2009

    Larry McAwful: Ha ha, yes…I wish I had an equally amusing rejoinder.

  13. V572625694 says at 9:28 am, October 27th, 2009

    The purpose of NASA is what, again? To take the “space exploration” job away from the Army and Air Force, because they screwed it up in 1959 and didn’t really want it anyway but had to do something with German POW Werner von Braun? To go to the moon, play golf and come home again? To provide boring press releases about boring stuff done in the ancient space shuttle, which (the press releases) are earnestly read by aerospace-worshipping newsreaders like Myles “O” Brian and Walter Cronkite?

    No, none of those. It’s all about the jobs. You gotta love The Sustainable Bureaucracy. Government Printing Office! US Postal Service! Bureau of Mines! Tea-Tasting Board!

  14. I totally thought Maurice Greenberg was the guy who wrote “Where the Wild Things Are.”

  15. Mr Blifil says at 9:44 am, October 27th, 2009

    GET THE GUBMENT OUT OF MY PRIVATE CHILD SEX-HAVING BIZNIS.

  16. Come here a minute says at 9:46 am, October 27th, 2009

    My flying saucer fly back for home!
    You will get lost in the universe alone!

  17. 700 adults for 52 children? Christ, those are sobering odds.

  18. hobospacejunkie says at 9:49 am, October 27th, 2009

    finallyhappy: 100,000? Hardly the basis or taking off point of a humorous aside. Makes me wonder what evolutionary pressures create misfits like this. They don’t seem to serve any useful purpose, apart from uniting their would-be executors in resolute anger.

  19. hobospacejunkie says at 9:53 am, October 27th, 2009

    Clean energy initiatives, no doubt including “clean” coal. I seem to remember the US “chamber of commerce” saying flatly “there is no such thing as clean coal.” Oh you Yes Men. Is there nothing sacred you won’t mock?

  20. Come here a minute says at 10:01 am, October 27th, 2009

    Okay, why is that big rocket sitting on the launchpad? Julie tells me it is already gone!

  21. sra: Silly - Maurice Greenberg is the actor who plays Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

  22. ManchuCandidate: I’ve always preferred girth over length myself.

  23. If it were up to Cheney, that rocket would have been promptly destroyed by his laser defense system, therefore perpetuating the value-added activity of spending billions on blowing stuff up.

  24. DoctorCulturae says at 10:10 am, October 27th, 2009

    I seem to recall JFK saying the reason we went to the moon was “because we can,’ thus making it gov’t-supported performance art. Jobs yes, but it’s art people. Oops, was that a secret? Everyone knows the arts are worthless, right?

  25. Flanders says at 10:17 am, October 27th, 2009

    NebraskashireGentry: Juli has come into her own, hasn’t she?

  26. Flanders says at 10:18 am, October 27th, 2009

    Bebe: It’s not the size of the rocket, mates, it what you do with it.

  27. Come here a minute says at 10:39 am, October 27th, 2009

    “Nearly 15,000 people heard the former president, known more for mangling the English language than for his eloquence, reminisce about his White House days. Bush, who is writing a book about the dozen toughest decisions he had to make, used much of his 28 minutes onstage to talk about lighter topics such as picking out a rug design for the Oval Office that reflected his ‘optimism.’”

    That fucking rug again. I sure hope Rahm pissed all over the damn thing before it got hauled out of there (though it really tied the room together).

  28. proudgrampa says at 10:41 am, October 27th, 2009

    Bebe: It’s not how long you make it, it’s how you make it long!

  29. Larry McAwful: hobospacejunkie: Brilliant! All I’m coming up with is a missile defense system manned by ACORN.

  30. norbizness says at 10:50 am, October 27th, 2009

    I’ll never forget the time Lamar ran for President wearing a single flannel shirt (hint: he stunk somethin’ powerful by the end of the campaign); after losing, he joined Soundgarden and played spoons on “Spoonman.”

  31. Come here a minute: The rocket launch has been delayed. The delay is due to, among other things, “a stubborn lanyard attached to a sock that wouldn’t come loose at the nose.” I’m not sure exactly how they’re dressing up the rocket, but it’s pretty clear they’re doing it wrong.

  32. queeraselvis v 2.0 says at 10:57 am, October 27th, 2009

    Zadig: Oh worry not. It’s only Tuesday after all. I’m sure Lamar will do or say something more typically Rethuglican that will have you back to hating him by Thursday morning at latest.

  33. norbizness says at 10:57 am, October 27th, 2009

    I think that NASA’s new theme song should be “Armageddon It,” although Def Leppard has never satisfactorily explained how a Biblical noun could be transformed into a verb by sheer force of will.

  34. InKnockYouUs says at 11:20 am, October 27th, 2009

    Is it just me, or does it seem that the Feds are getting this arresting people thing straight: arresting Mexican drug cartels that behead people and people who sell children for sex instead of stoners who sell pot to sick grannies? Almost makes me think there is a role for law enforcement after all.

  35. DangerousLiberal says at 12:06 pm, October 27th, 2009

    Rocket=FAIL. Today, at least.

    V572625694: Time to read a bit o’ NASA history. And to reread that civics textbook. Some agencies, ya know, do serve useful functions.

    Why all the recent whining about the postal service? To the extent I use it any more, it’s sort of a miracle to put a sticker on something, drop it in a box, and have it show up in Nome or whereever-the-fuck for 50 centavos, mas o menos.

    Still and all, it’s good that my mail isn’t on that rocket. The Pony Express might be faster.

  36. geminisunmars says at 12:28 pm, October 27th, 2009

    hobospacejunkie: Agreed.

    I appreciate that something is being done, but that they have rescued 900 children altogether since starting the Initiative in 2003, and estimate that 100,000 children are involved in sex-trafficking, doesn’t make me feel that near enough is being done.

    I also wonder, then what? What happens to these children? What support do they get? The perps - throw the book at them - and the knives and guillotines.

  37. glamourdammerung says at 4:46 pm, October 27th, 2009

    It really is not a child rape bust until all the GOP politicians involved get named.

  38. Phil46526 says at 1:48 pm, October 28th, 2009

    Watching these politicians is like watching a bunch of elementary kids on a playground. I have to talk up the website http://www.Dearpolitician.org. The site totally rocks! You want to write your politicians without the hassle of looking for all their addresses, printing them off, buying paper, envelopes and stamps, then you need to check http://www.Dearpolitician.org. Not only are they FREE and non-partisan, they will even deliver your letters to all the politicians you choose the same day. You can even send your letter to complete Senate and Congressional committees. Check these guys out!

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  40. barbara789 says at 3:01 am, October 29th, 2009

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