I would definitely hang out with Biden's daughter, even if we weren't doing cocaine.

Because she seems pretty cool, and, well, she's totally hot. We wouldn't even have to do any blow: she's hot. I mean, if Michael Phelps happen to drop buy with some killer stuff, that's one thing. But me and her, we'd have our own thang goin' on--no need for anything illegal. Sure, a few drinks, maybe a Car Bomb or two. She's at least part Irish, right?

In case you haven't heard, someone is trying to peddle a video to the tabloids of people snorting cocaine. We care because, apparently, one of the folks is V.P. Joe Biden's daughter, Ashley.

So, does it matter if it's really her? Of course--this kind of thing (sex, drugs, etc.) usually does. But for no more than our attention span for soft-core-poli-porn fantasies. I hope it was her, just so Biden might come off his usually-high horse about the "drug war" in this country.

But, then again, if it helps obscure further the role her father has played in their state's credit-card-haven, then maybe not. This is part of the "problem with capitalism," usury-gone-wild, that hasn't been addressed, (hopefully just not) yet. Talk about sub-prime. But unlike even a bad mortgage, there's not any equity behind the debt.

Some of the best advice I ever received, definitely the best from high school, was to avoid not only credit cards themselves--this was the mid-90's when dogs and college students started receiving competing company's cards in the mail everyday--but credit as an idea. The principle of owning without rescind comes from cash on the barrel-head.

The administration is talking tough on the world stage about lax banking regulation in Europe and elsewhere, "tax-havens" for U.S. corporations and individuals, which is great, don't get me wrong. But how about states in this country, like Biden's home state, Delaware, that let credit card company's have free reign-ge? What's good for the chicken, the state's other main output, isn't necessarily so for the debtor-industry. Care to guess who has been Biden's largest campaign contributor since the 80's? Yep.

(Whoever guesses the name of the many-time-elected Mayor of a major U.S. city, in the picture below smoking crack with a whore, wins a prize.)

Really, the only reason I wrote this post is so that I could put up the following Biden family photo. Dickie or ascot? You be the judge.

What the hell is wrong with these people?

AIG ignited fresh outrage over the weekend with news that it's making $165 million in bonus payments to executives on Sunday, most of them in the unit that sold risky financial contracts that caused huge losses for AIG.

The Fed chief on Sunday's broadcast repeated his ire over the AIG bailout, saying that over the past 18 months, that was the case that angered him the most. He says he "slammed the phone more than a few times on discussing AIG." - Jeannie Aversa, AP Economics Writer

I mean, really!

Perhaps it's no surprise then: apparently, a lot of the business that AIG did was with European banks (see below). The Economist should do the stats for cocaine use of the bailout-banks. At least the U.S. is still #1 at something.

TARP this. (or: I Wanna a New Drug)

Of course, it takes a comedian to speak truth to power. Like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin before him, Gary Shandling on Tavis Smiley, tonight, talked about the "culture of greed" and an "addiction to money" that has gotten the country where it is at the moment. He went to joke that instead of the TARP bailout, whats needed is an Alcoholics Anonymous for the greedy on Wall St.

"If you put a big pile of cocaine in front of a coke addict, they're not going to start sharing it and spreading it around to their friends and co-workers."

The funny thing (or rather, the other funny thing) is that, perhaps not so coincidentally, the metaphor actually isn't completely a metaphor--it's a long established part of Wall St. culture to indulge in the white stuff.

Thinking about Shandling's call for an AA-like group for greed, it occurred to me that there isn't a word for a catchy acronym. There's no adjective for a greedy person that would work well. Rapacists Anonymous? That's not even a real word. Sure, there's GA (Gluttons Anonymous). But that sounds like it's more for over-eaters.

Well, let's open it up: any suggestions? Best answer will get a big ol' pile coke (cans).