Steve in Manhattan

Atrios points out that Little Tommy Friedman, age 7, might be in trouble:

General Growth Properties, the second largest mall owner in the U.S. behind Simon Property, has hired bankruptcy counsel …

From the WSJ: Mall Owner Lines Up Bankruptcy Law Firm (hat tip crispy&cole)

Debt-laden mall giant General Growth Properties Inc. has hired the law firm Sidley Austin as bankruptcy counsel … The move doesn’t mean a Chapter 11 filing is imminent.

The company, which owns more than 200 U.S. malls, has struggled to repay debt it amassed during an acquisition binge near the market’s peak.

Tommy Friedman, you see, is married to one of the heirs to the GGP fortune.

Give it another six months Tom.  Maybe things will get better.

Mistress Cynica points us to this bit of fucktardery from Kathleen Parker:

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Likely will?  Oh please.  They will continue to rearrange deck chairs.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I’m bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.

Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth — as long as we’re setting ourselves free — is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.

More whining after the jump.

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Cheney, Gonzo Indicted

Vice President Cheney and Former Attorney General Gonzales Indicted [Think Progress]

Keeping his Homeland Security Chair.

They mock us.

WTF?

From the people that brought you GE Capital’s participation in the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program – FDIC is now insuring ‘Stored Value Cards’.

Exsqueeze me?

Yes, that would be Stored-Value-Cards (and other non-traditional access mechanisms). According to the definition provided by the NY Fed these are:

… one of the most dynamic and fastest growing products in the financial industry. Anyone who makes purchases with a merchant gift card, places phone calls with a prepaid telephone card, or buys goods or services with a prepaid debit card is using a stored value card.

In other words, gift voucher cards, pre-paid telephone cards and any other prepaid debit cards.

More after the jump.

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Mittens is romancing the morons over at the National Review:

Mitt Romney is meeting with a group of top GOPers: The National Review post-election Caribbean cruise. National Review’s 2007 cruise, which went to Alaska, was the venue where Sarah Palin introduced herself to the right-wing media elite, leading to her being placed on the 2008 GOP ticket.

Sadly, there are no icebergs in the Carribean.

Did he fall and hit his head?

But to have been so completely and fundamentally wrong about so huge a disaster as what we have done to Iraq — and ourselves — is outrageous enough to prove that people like me have no business posing as wise men, and, more importantly, that The New York Times has no business continuing to provide me with a national platform.

In any case, I have made a decision: as of today, I will no longer write in this or any other newspaper. I will immediately desist from writing any more books about how it’s time for everyone to climb on board the globalization high-speed monorail to the future. I will keep my opinions to myself. (My wife suggested that I try not to even form opinions, but I think she might have another agenda.)

Sure it’s a spoof, but I can dream, can’t I?