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Michael Maiello's picture

Budget Hawking All Over Libya

KGB wants to know why so many Keynesian, "the debt is not an issue" lefties have become budget hawks where the Libyan war is concerned.  I'm certainly guilty of this.  When it comes to the economy, I'm so Keynesian that Keynes would question my sanity.  I have advocated using the powers of the Federal Reserve to pay people's credit card bills.  I believe that Social Security benefits should be expanded, not cut.

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Michael Maiello's picture

Why We Shouldn't Intervene In Libya

While my wife and I were gallivanting in Barcelona, which is a heck of a town, some pundits here at home and even some world powers, began beating the war drum once again.  To be fair, nobody is calling for an outright invasion of Libya (right?) but they do want the U.S. to impose a no fly zone, to bomb Gadhafi's air defenses and to basically use its might to tip the balance of power in favor of Libya's rebels.

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Michael Maiello's picture

Why Jay-Z and Beyonce? Oh, For The Money

I was really disappointed to see that Beyonce took seven figures to perform for the Gadhafi clan and that she and her husband Jay-Z then partied with the dictator's family after the show.  I wrote about it today for The Daily and pretty much make my case there.

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Michael Maiello's picture

Unions and Utopians

The most ridiculous critique of civil service unions I've heard so far this week goes like this: "It isn't fair that the union members can vote for the people who will ultimately meet them on the other side of the negotiating table.  Even worse, the unions contribute money to campaigns and thus have undo influence over there negotiating partners in government."

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Michael Maiello's picture

The Secret Plan To Cut Your Benefits?

This Slate article is pretty darned amazing.  John Dickerson imagines that President Obama is secretly working with the Republicans on some hardcore budget cutting.  Dickerson writes of this approvingly, as if a back room deal is the only way that we'll get to the Social Security and Medicare cuts that he believes we need.

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Michael Maiello's picture

Globalization, Dictators and Your Money

I hope you'll all indulge me once a week if I post the lede to my new column here, along with a link back to "The Daily."  Because, heck... I want to discuss this stuff with you guys.  But they own it because I sold it to them for money that I wanted.  I mean, "that I needed."

So, assuming your indulgence (since I'm not going to wait for an answer), here's the first bit:

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Michael Maiello's picture

Pigs At The Trough

Leave it to my old friend Charlie Gasparino to just blithely toss out offensive descriptions of public sector workers in America.  Here, in an otherwise sane commentary about the political uses and abuses of investment analyst Meredith Whitney, he refers to public sector employees as "living off the public trough."

Michael Maiello's picture

Don't Mess With Switzerland

Former President, and some would say war criminal George W. Bush cancelled an appearance at a Swiss human rights gala because he feared being arrested.  So now Bush joins Henry Kissinger in the ranks of Americans who don't feel that they can safely travel to or even through certain countries, not for fear of assassination or kidnapping, but for fear of arrest and trial.

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Michael Maiello's picture

Snappy Gorebacks To Stupid Questions

Then Why Is It Snowing, Mr. Gore?

The former Vice-President and climate change activist offers a number of responses to this most pressing question.

By your reckoning, the Earth is 6,000 years old.  Give it time.

Because you keep voting for people who make sure that you can’t afford to retire some place tropical.

It snows on the righteous and the just and, well… you. 

It’s not snow, it’s angel kisses. Feel better now?

The Ski Resort Industrial Complex.

Soros!

Michael Maiello's picture

Joe Lieberman Wants To Be Dictator Of Egypt

Simply stunning.  The lesson that outgoing (but not outgoing) Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman has learned from Egypt's oppressive dictator Hosni Mubarak is that the President needs to be able to order the shutdown of Internet access in the U.S., too.

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Personal Information

Website
http://www.dagblog.com
Superpowers

Figure Four Leglock.

Favorite Quotes

Jet flyin, limo ridin, kiss stealin, wheelin, dealing, son of a gun!

Biography

Michael Maiello (also known as "Destor23") is a New York based columnist, performer, fiction author and playwright. He is the author of Shuts & Failures, Rejected New Yorker Pieces (Also Rejected by McSweeney's!). He worked for ten years at Forbes Media, writing and editing for both Forbes Magazine and Forbes.com and also appeared frequently on CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business News, CNN and MSNBC.  He is also the author of the 2004 book Buy The Rumor, Sell The Fact: 85 Wall Street Maxims and What They Really Mean. He has performed stand up comedy at The Laugh Factory, The Comic Strip and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Mama D's Arts Bordello and The Lost and Found Show. He has had four plays published (Night of Faith and Waiting For Death by Playscripts.com; Principia and Troy! Troy! Troy!by The New York Theatre Experience/indiethieatrenow). He has written for Rolling Stone, The Daily, Reuters, Esquire, McSweeney's the Liar's League reading series and theNewerYork.

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