Thursday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What They Said

Tonight's honoree: Keith Olbermann:

Why do these people still have jobs?

We know how it is. When we work, we have to produce. We have performance reviews, regular feedback, and we certainly hear about it when we screw up.

But run a bank into the ground, and you get to keep your job:

It's one of the ironies of the U.S. financial bailout: The banking executives now managing billions in taxpayer money are the same ones who oversaw the industry's near collapse.

At banks receiving federal bailout money, nearly nine of every 10 of the most senior executives from 2006 are still on the job, according to an Associated Press analysis of regulatory and company documents.

Even top executives whose banks made such risky loans they imperiled the economy have been largely spared any threat to their jobs. Less fortunate are more than 100,000 bank employees laid off during a two-year stretch when industry unemployment nearly tripled, bank stocks plummeted and credit dried up.

"The same people at the top are still there, the same people who made the decisions causing a lot of our financial crisis," said Rebecca Trevino of Louisville, Ky., a mother of three who was laid off from her job as a Bank of America training coordinator in October. "But that's what tends to happen in leadership. The people at the top, there's always some other place to lay blame."

It's hardly a surprise that workers and managers experience a recession differently. What's new is that taxpayers are now shareholders in the nation's bailed-out banks, yet they lack the usual shareholder power to question management decisions or demand house-cleaning in the executive suites.

[snip]

But the financial bailout has forced no such consequences. AP's review of the more than 200 publicly traded banks that received bailout money found that about 87 percent of the top three executives in 2006 — typically the chief executive, operating and financial officers — are still on the job.

And that number is deceptively low, since those few executives who left their jobs often did so because they retired — or died. Several stayed on as directors or in consulting positions.

I'd like to ask something of the people dreaming of a Palin/Wurtzelbacher ticket in 2012: Would you mind looking up the ladder at the people who are really screwing you over and stop looking down the ladder while these people pick your pockets?

Can we please get rid of the passive voice?

Is anyone else as sick of non-accountable accountability as I am? In recent days, we've seen Administration official after official come forward and claim responsiblity for the various disasters of the criminals running this government without actually taking responsibility. "The responsibility lies with me" is bad enough, especially when it involves absolutely no pledge to fix the problem. After all, confession without repentance is useless, right? But my pet peeve is the now ubiquitous hedge, "Mistakes were made."

Man up, dammit! If you made a mistake,, say "I made a mistake", or even better, "I fucked up -- big time". If someone else made a mistake, name names! But let's stop this "Mistakes were made", as if a bunch of mistakes participated in a Mob initiation rite.

Mistakes don't make themselves. People make them. And if they're smart, they learn from them. But this bunch isn't at all sorry for any of the things they've done. They aren't sorry for the botched war, the horrific treatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed, the unjustified and illegal spying on Americans, the compilation of vast databases of Americans' activities, the huge amounts of debt it's amassed. The Bush Administration isn't sorry for a thing they've done, but they are very, very sorry they got caught.

It's time we confronted Administration officials, and indeed everyone in Washington, including Democrats. When they make a mistake, when they do something wrong, let's force them to own up to it. It's just a few words: I. Made. A. Mistake. Or perhaps even better, I. Did. Wrong.

It shouldn't be that difficult. And anyone for whom it is too difficult ought to be fired.

Alberto Gonzales is the latest:

Under criticism from lawmakers of both parties for the dismissals of federal prosecutors, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales insisted Tuesday that he would not resign but said, “I acknowledge that mistakes were made here.”

The mea culpa came as Congressional Democrats, who are investigating whether the White House was meddling in Justice Department affairs for political reasons, demanded that President Bush and his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, explain their roles in the dismissals.

=Ahem.= Saying "Mistakes were made" is hardly a "mea culpa". Gonzales shouldn't be let off the hook so lightly. Let Chuck Schumer hold Gonzales' feet to the fire and make him use the first person pronoun and the active voice. And if he won't, then he should be gone -- quickly.