Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
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October 18, 2006
WB: Deadbeat

Billmon:

So I guess we can bid (or swear) a final farewell to Ken Lay. You got away with it after all, dude.

I just hope he thought to convert his wealth into gold coins — or better yet, a safety deposit box full of diamonds. Because where Kenny’s going, paper money has a tendency to catch fire.

Deadbeat

Posted by b on October 18, 2006 at 04:08 UTC | Permalink
Comments

If they want justice, let ’em form their own PAC.
Is a paraphrase more damning of our utterly corrupt political class possible?

Posted by: John Francis Lee | Oct 18 2006 4:33 utc | 1

Because where Kenny’s going, paper money has a tendency to catch fire.
In the witness protection program down in Paraguay? It gets that hot down South?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 18 2006 4:59 utc | 2

It goes to show that Bush remains true to his friends, even after death.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Oct 18 2006 7:40 utc | 3

This doesn’t affect the civil suits. Those can proceed. I doubt juries are going to take into account the lack of appeals on his conviction when considering their verdicts.

Posted by: rapier | Oct 18 2006 7:58 utc | 4

HAGEN
You were around the old timers who dreamed up how the Families should be organized, how they based it on the old Roman Legions, and called them ‘Regimes’… with the ‘Capos’ and ‘Soldiers,’ and it worked.
PENTANGELI
Yeah, it worked. Those were great old days. We was like the Roman Empire. The Corleone family was like the Roman Empire.
HAGEN
(sadly)
Yeah, it was once.
They both puff on their cigars. Pentangeli lets himself be
carried away by thoughts of old days of glory; Hagen thinks
of other days too.
HAGEN
(very gently)
The Roman Empire… when a plot against the Emperor failed, the plotters were always given a chance to let their families keep their fortunes.
PENTANGELI
Yeah, but only the rich guys. The little guys got knocked off. If they got arrested and executed, all their estate went to the Emperor. If they just went home and killed themselves, up front, nothing happened.
HAGEN
Yeah, that was a good break. A nice deal.
Pentangeli looks at Hagen; he understands.
PENTANGELI
They went home and sat in a hot bath and opened their veins, and bled to death. Sometimes they gave a little party before they did it.
Hagen throws away his cigar. Pentangeli puffs on his.
HAGEN
Don’t worry about anything, Frankie Five-Angels.
PENTANGELI
Thanks, Tom. Thanks.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Oct 18 2006 10:01 utc | 5

Wow, what an update to a great American Business story.
And that Godfather clip was chilling reading, more so than when I saw it in the movie.

Posted by: christofay | Oct 18 2006 11:42 utc | 6

Speaking of deadbeats, someone just sent me this:
36
have been accused of spousal abuse
7
have been arrested for fraud
19
have been accused of writing bad checks
117
have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
3
have done time for assault
71,
repeat
71 cannot
get a credit card due to bad credit
14
have been arrested on drug-related charges
8
have been arrested for shoplifting
21
currently
are defendants in lawsuits, and
84
have been arrested for drunk driving
in
the last year
535 members of the United
States Congress.
The
same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year
designed to keep the rest of us in line.
And they just voted themselves $15,000 per month pension for life after serving only one term in Congress.

Posted by: beq | Oct 18 2006 11:59 utc | 7

Notwithstanding the fact that a sizable number of members of Congress are contemptible idiots, that particular email has been floating around the internet in various forms for several years.
As usual, Snopes has the straight story.

Posted by: Joe F | Oct 18 2006 12:24 utc | 8

I have to admit I’ve seen it before too.
Thanks.

Posted by: beq | Oct 18 2006 13:09 utc | 9

I have to agree with Uncle $cam, hard to believe they don’t have a bunch of good cardiologists in Veil. I bet Dick knows a few.
Did Kenny have life insurance and was it paid? They’d want proof positive.
There’s never a good time to die but KennyBoy came as close as you can get.

Posted by: gp | Oct 18 2006 15:16 utc | 10

Yes, but are we talking about Wahabi Sunni? And which mudhhab of Shia are we speaking of?
And do we realize the impact of Shari’a teaching and Quranic edicts on both houses of faith when the Umma is threatened by infidels?
If someone had managed to crack open Cheney’s skull with some hard “facts”, such as the Wahabi’s rejecting any specific mudhhab and relying upon direct interpretation of the writings — which is the chief cause of the divide with the Shia, then he might have realized the intense folly of enabling the Shia in Iraq, on his quest for cheap oil.
It won’t be Cheney’s cronies who gets that oil, so to speak. And it was written.

Posted by: SteinL | Oct 18 2006 16:25 utc | 11

There once was smart trickster called Kenny
His crimes ‘n his lies impoverished many;
While in his grave he slept,
His fortune he kept
Right down to the last copper penny.
From his abode, he spoke out, listen here!
I have a friend staunch and dear
A man of such power
There is no one higher
…..

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 18 2006 16:28 utc | 12

Translation: This is why they allied themselves with Chalabi, thinking it would give them a strong card with the Shia circles in Iraq. Which means the NeoCons weren’t entirely clueless when it comes to relations between Sunni, Shia and shades between.
It’s just that Cheney thought he could control the Shia … A laughable proposition, given that Cheney pretends to be Christian and represents Christian power. The Umma wahida – is the Quran’s reference to the duty of all of the faith when faced with threats from outsiders: you are to be One Community, and aid all believers ini the struggle against the infidel.
Bush’s Mission Accomplished was doomed from day 1.

Posted by: SteinL | Oct 18 2006 16:31 utc | 13

RIVERBEND IS BACK! She has a new post on her Baghdad Burning site!
The poor woman has been too depressed to post. Can you blame her? Her latest post is enough to make me cry.

Posted by: hopping madbunny | Oct 19 2006 0:00 utc | 14

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