Scritti Politti: April 13, 2009

Memo to CNN: How is it EVEN POSSIBLE that you guys have not made this headline into a t-shirt yet?

It's like you all aren't even trying to win this thing.

More here.

Just Can't Quit You: Jeez. The guy who resigned in a blaze of indignation from AIG on the pages of the New York Times? STILL WORKS THERE.

They're Not Booing, They're Just BOO-sting Your Self-Awareness: My wife and I are pretty tired at the way American Idol audiences just now reflexively boo criticism without regard for the substance. In related news, more people need to boo the opera, apparently.

Justice, Chiefly: Via Jezebel, here's Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the "ticking timebomb scenario" and the wisdom of foreign courts:

"The police think that a suspect they have apprehended knows where and when a bomb is going to go off," she said, describing the question presented in the case. "Can the police use torture to extract that information? And in an eloquent decision by Aharon Barak, then the chief justice of Israel, the court said: 'Torture? Never.' "

The message of the decision, Justice Ginsburg said, was "that we could hand our enemies no greater victory than to come to look like that enemy in our disregard for human dignity." Then she asked, "Now why should I not read that opinion and be affected by its tremendous persuasive value?"

Bad News For Teabaggers: Apparently, the people at the Congressional Mail Office are now intercepting and removing the teabags that the faddish crackpots of the Tea Parties have been sending to Congress. Everyone still free to send along their illegible rantings, however.

Shameless Suggestion: If you do not go and see Adventureland, then really, I just don't know what I'm to do with you.

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Comments

[billythehut]

09:01 AM on 04/14/2009

AIG execs; here's proof they're even failures at being quitters.

[Dailyfare]

08:22 AM on 04/14/2009

Didn't the AIG exec say that he wasn't just walking out, that in would stay on in order to make the transition smooth for the next person in line?

[liminal67]

05:54 AM on 04/14/2009

I've a got a Woody for Woody...

http://pitchbendpost.blogspot.com/

[Scar1]

05:17 AM on 04/14/2009

Woody was on a high-we still love ya!

[DinkSinger]

02:02 AM on 04/14/2009

In his resignation letter on March 24, Mr. DeSantis wrote "Mr. Liddy, I wish you ... luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer..." He said he would continue working at AIG, but not "much longer". Twenty days in not "much longer" so of course he is still working at AIG.

I have never worked in a business where leaving immediately upon resignation was the norm.

[ABCD]

09:55 AM on 04/14/2009

No, Two weeks is the norm (when you are leaving on good conditions).

Truth is...after that letter...AIG should have had him quietly escorted out! Who could trust anyone that blasts you in the NY Times?

[Carolab]

12:44 AM on 04/14/2009

Fed Overwhelmed, Calls Emergency Consultants To Untangle AIG

February 9, 2009

'AIG is just one piece of the derivatives mess.
Nonetheless AIG alone is so complex no one can figure it out.
In response, the Fed Calls Emergency Consultants To Untangle AIG

“I don’t think the Fed has seen anything like this,” former New York Fed general counsel and AIG executive Ernest Patrikis said in an interview. “AIG just got so complex in terms of private corporate matters that you just need that outside expertise.”

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/02/fed-overwhelmed-calls-emergency.html
________________

See Patrikis presented as an "outsider"?

He was AIG's chief legal counsel from 1998-2006.
_________________

AIG General Counsel and Former Senior Officer at New York Federal Reserve Ernest Patrikis Joins Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman

April 24, 2006

Patrikis has been instrumental in guiding AIG through a gauntlet of regulatory probes and enforcement actions, as well as numerous civil lawsuits. Throughout, he has worked closely with AIG's new chief executive Martin Sullivan, the senior officers of the company, and its board of directors.

Patrikis was already a financial institutions super-lawyer when he joined AIG in 1998, by virtue of his three decades of service at the Federal Reserve.

For years he functioned as chief operating officer, overseeing the legal aspects of wholesale financial market transactions encompassing government securities, foreign exchange, and DERIVATIVES.

Patrikis is a director of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association.

http://sarbanes-oxley.regulations-daily.com/dsp_getSpotlightDetails.cfm?CID=1539

[PhilipTaylor]

12:59 AM on 04/14/2009

They should have called a VEGAS Casino Manager!

That is what AIG was running, A Casino, very poorly! At least Vegas Knows How to WIN!

[Carolab]

01:03 AM on 04/14/2009

Look at this guy! He was a REGULATOR at the FED for 30 years, regulating securities, foreign exchange and DERIVATIVES.

THEN he became the CHIEF COUNSEL for AIG while it was doing all of its derivatives dirty work and being sued by Spitzer, et al.

He left in 2006 and joined Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw and Pittman and NOW he is at White & Rose law firm.

And the FED calls him in as an "outsider" in order to help UNTANGLE the AIG derivatives mess for US?

AAARRRGGGHHH!!

[Carolab]

01:03 AM on 04/14/2009

Look at this guy! He was a REGULATOR at the FED for 30 years, regulating securities, foreign exchange and DERIVATIVES.

THEN he became the CHIEF COUNSEL for AIG while it was doing all of its derivatives dirty work and being sued by Spitzer, et al.

He left in 2006 and joined Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw and Pittman and NOW he is at White & Rose law firm.

And the FED calls him in as an "outsider" in order to help UNTANGLE the AIG derivatives mess for US?

[jazzybo]

11:34 PM on 04/13/2009

Woody is smoking some good stuff!

[jimmyjones22]

10:41 PM on 04/13/2009

lol. What's with the woody haroldson zombie thing?

[blues101]

11:38 PM on 04/13/2009

Woody looks like he's portraying Michelle Bachman

[CatoTheCensor]

10:27 PM on 04/13/2009

AIG's employees have an odd habit of sticking around long after they've allegedly quit or been fired. Joe Cassano leaps to mind. If someone was willing to pay me a million dollars a month in consulting fees, on top of a cool $34 million in severance pay, I would definitely stick around.

Come to think of it, for that kind of money, I would do things on national television that would shame my ancestors back to the first prokaryote.

[Five Six Seven]

10:14 PM on 04/13/2009

Franken Wins, Says Election Contest Court: Analysis and Excerpts of the 68 page Order:

http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=261&ArticleName=Franken+Wins%2c+Rules+ECC

[bonum]

10:14 PM on 04/13/2009

bring back the guillotine for the Marie Antoinettes of the Greedy Meltdown

[Bitsko]

08:44 PM on 04/13/2009

Great stuff. Thanks!

[LeeCalif]

07:45 PM on 04/13/2009

AL FRANKEN HAS WON !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Carolab]

12:50 AM on 04/14/2009

It's not over.

[bubbuh]

07:15 PM on 04/13/2009

You know how it is: AIG executive Jake DeSantis isn't addicted. He can quit any time he wants to. He just doesn't want to just yet.

[jimhOR]

06:54 PM on 04/13/2009

"My wife and I are pretty tired at the way American Idol audiences just now reflexively boo criticism without regard for the substance."

who cares about lame-o American Idol audiences! Is that really worth writing about?

The more important story is that the Dancing With the Stars audience tends to reflexively boo completely accurate criticism with absolutely no regard for the substance! I mean, Len is just trying to help them improve for next week, but I guess the audience doesn't want them to improve their performance next week. jeez!