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David Brooks apparently believes that buying distressed companies, loading them up with debt, raiding their pensions, busting unions and outsourcing their jobs is the equivalent of someone being "the corporate version of a personal trainer." Here's David Gregory asking him about his recent column where he said just that:

GREGORY: David Brooks, you’re writing in part about just the-- the gamesmanship of the campaign, but it goes to something I think Michelle was saying about a real focus on alternatives. What the vision is? Why Mitt Romney wants to be president, after all? And you wrote this in a-- in a column on Tuesday that I’ll put up on the screen. You talk about his capitalist, you know, narrative. “It’s been the business of his life to take companies that were mediocre and sclerotic and try to make them efficient and dynamic. It has been his job to be the corporate version of a personal trainer: take people who are puffy and self-indulgent and whip them into shape.” You write about Romney, “That’s his selling point: rigor and productivity. If he can build a capitalist vision around that, he’ll thrive. If not, he’s a punching bag.” Is he more of a punching bag right now over releasing his taxes, o-- o-- over the years in his experience at Bain?

MR. BROOKS: Yeah, releasing the taxes won’t help. I-- I don’t care about the issue particularly. Can anybody think about a president who was either qualified or disqualified by some of the tax reform? That is irrelevant. What’s relevant is who the guy is? He has an amazing personal story. His family was really an (Unintelligible) going across the West, poverty, building an empire, poverty, building an empire. He can’t talk about it because it involves Mormonism. He is personally a decent guy. For some reason, he’s not willing to talk about it. He’s a hidden man. And so, one of the turning points in this campaign is when he comes out, and if he can come out, and I don’t know why they’re waiting so long.

The second thing is, as Michelle said, people are-- people-- I personally find this an incredibly consequential election and incredibly boring election because the two campaign staffs, they’re on their iPhones, they’re responding to whatever the campaign-- other campaign did five minutes ago and the rest of us just don’t care.

Both the Booman Tribune and The New Republic featured articles earlier this week explaining why Brooks' advice for Romney might not go over so well with most voters.

Mr. Brooks: Champion of Capitalism:

David Brooks' latest piece is quite offensive. It's also grossly inaccurate. [...]

So, now the president of the preeminent capitalist country in the world does not represent capitalism. How dishonest can you get? The president is saying that we should not incentivize plant closings and outsourcing through the tax code, and that we ought to have more reasonable CEO compensation. He's also suggesting that vulture capitalists like Mitt Romney have enriched themselves by loading up profitable companies with debt and fees until they go bankrupt. Where's the efficiency in that?

But we're getting to "efficiency."

Romney is going to have to define a vision of modern capitalism. He’s going to have to separate his vision from the scandals and excesses we’ve seen over the last few years. He needs to define the kind of capitalist he is and why the country needs his virtues.

Let’s face it, he’s not a heroic entrepreneur. He’s an efficiency expert. It has been the business of his life to take companies that were mediocre and sclerotic and try to make them efficient and dynamic. It has been his job to be the corporate version of a personal trainer: take people who are puffy and self-indulgent and whip them into shape.

That’s his selling point: rigor and productivity. If he can build a capitalist vision around that, he’ll thrive. If not, he’s a punching bag.

Good luck going into blue collar America and telling people that you're an "efficiency expert" who practices the kind of virtuous capitalism that puts rigor and productivity over the interests of the workers. But it's not even true. Mitt Romney was not a venture capitalist or an efficiency expert. He feasted on companies. A bankrupt company is not an outsourced company. It's just broke, with a broken pension plan and unpaid vendors.

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Lou Dobbs regularly looked like he'd come close to losing his mind when he was still raging on about illegal immigrants day after day on CNN. It appears he's well past that point now with this bit of insanity from his show on the Fox Business Channel from this Tuesday.

Not that it should be a big surprise after we've had their sister channel, Fox "News" attacking the Muppets and Sesame Street.

From Media Matters -- More "Indoctrination" Paranoia: Fox Attacks Dr. Seuss' The Lorax:

The Muppets. SpongeBob SquarePants. Dr. Seuss.

Beloved icons of childhood entertainment in America, or subtle forms of anti-business indoctrination that brainwash your kids into hating capitalism?

Thank goodness we have Fox to ask these questions.

Lou Dobbs sounded the alarm again tonight on his Fox Business show:

DOBBS: Now, an "Unmentionable" -- a story you won't hear anywhere in the liberal national media, or nearly all of the national liberal media. Hollywood is once again trying to indoctrinate our children. Two new films out this year, plainly with an agenda, plainly demonizing the so-called "1 percent" and espousing the virtue of green-energy policies, come what may.

The first, Dobbs said, is an animated film called The Secret World of Arrietty, and the second is Universal Pictures' computer-animated version of the 1971 Dr. Seuss classic The Lorax. Read on...

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Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain claimed Sunday that the Occupy Wall Street protests going on in New York City and across the country were a conspiracy designed to help President Barack Obama.

"The proof is quite simply the bankers and the people on Wall Street didn't write these failed policies of the Obama administration," Cain told CBS' Bob Schieffer. "So it's a distraction. So many people won't focus on the failed policies of this administration."

"You're saying that these people all got together to draw attention away from Barack Obama?" Schieffer asked.

"We know that the unions and certain union-related organizations have been behind these protests that have gone on, on Wall Street and other parts around the country. It's coordinated to create a distraction so people won't focus on the failed policies of this administration," Cain replied.

"It's anti-American because to protest Wall Street and the bankers is basically saying you are anti-capitalism. The free market system and capitalism are two of the things that have allowed this nation and this economy to become the biggest in the world."

Also appearing on CBS, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich offered his own take on the protests.

"The sad thing is is this a natural product of Obama's class warfare," Gingrich declared. "We have had a strain of hostility to free enterprise. Frankly, a strain of hostility to classic America starting in our academic institutions and spreading across this country. I regard the Wall Street protest as a natural outcome of a bad education system, teaching them really dumb ideas."

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YouTube version

Wall Street has shown Americans how they feel about protests. This video shows unidentified occupants watching protests from the balconies of Wall Street in amusement while sipping champagne.

Edit: ABC News reports in their story titled "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Meet Champagne Sippers" the location as Cipriani 55.

The well-dressed guests at the restaurant, Cipriani 55, were in sharp contrast to the protesters holding signs and chanting below. The restaurant is associated with Cipriani Club Residences’ luxury apartments at the same address, 55 Wall Street.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

We're taking donations to buy the protesters some pizzas this weekend.

Bill Maher had another great New Rules segment tonight with his comparison between the economic models embraced by the NFL and MLB and those of the Democratic and Republican parties.

You can say this doesn't necessarily apply to a lot of conserva-Dems, and I'm sure Bill would agree, but the analogy between liberal and conservative economic ideologies is spot on.

MAHER: So it's no surprise that some 100 million Americans will watch the Super Bowl next week. That's forty million more than go to church on Christmas. Suck on that Jesus! It's also 85 million more than watched the last game of the World Series and in that is an economic lesson for America, because football is built on an economic model of fairness and opportunity. And baseball is built on a model with the rich always winning and the poor usually have no chance.

The World Series is like the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; you have to be a rich bitch just to play. Where as the Superbowl is like Tila Tequilla, anyone can get in. Or to put it another way, football is more like the Democratic philosophy. Democrats don't want to eliminate capitalism or competition, but they would like it if some kids didn't have to go to a crummy school in a rotten neighborhood, while others get to go to a great school, and their dad gets them into Harvard. Because when that happens, achieving the American dream is easy for some and just a fantasy for others.

That's why the NFL literally shares the wealth. TV is their biggest source of revenue and they put it all in a big Commie pot and split if thirty two ways. Because they don't want anyone to fall too far behind. That's why the team that wins the Superbowl in the next draft, picks last, or what the Republicans would call “punishing success.”

Baseball... baseball on the other hand is exactly like the Republicans. And I don't just mean it's incredibly boring. I mean their economic theory is every man for himself. The small market Pittsburgh Steelers go to the Superbowl more than anybody. But the Pittsburgh Pirates? Levi Johnston has sperm that will not grow up and live long enough to see the Pirates in a World Series. Their payroll is forty million. The Yankees is two hundred and six million. The Pirates have about as much chance of getting to the playoffs as a poor black teenager from Newark has of becoming the CEO of Halliburton.

That's why people stop going to Pirate games in May. Because if you're not in the game, you become indifferent to the fate of the game and maybe even get bitter. That's what's happening to the middle class in America. It's also how Marie Antoinette lost her head. So you kind of have to laugh that the same angry white males who hate Obama because he's “redistributing wealth” just love football; a sport that succeeds because it does just that.

From The Thom Hartmann Show Feb. 9, 2010:

Thom Hartmann debates free trader, the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore about whether it is more important to have capitalism or democracy. Stephen Moore of course feels that free trade is going to help the economy while Hartmann reminds him that it's wrecked it. Moore claims that the last forty years have been some of the most prosperous for America and as Thom points out, it has been if you're rich. When Moore tries to claim that the average household's standard of living has improved, Hartmann reminds him that the reason for that is people living off of their mortgages and incurring more and more debt.

This sure as hell is not ClusterFox where Greta Van Susteren or I've lost count of how many of their other shows just let this clown rattle off talking points unchallenged.

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From Democracy Now--Naomi Klein Issues Haiti Disaster Capitalism Alert: Stop Them Before They Shock Again:

Journalist and author Naomi Klein spoke in New York last night and addressed the crisis in Haiti: “We have to be absolutely clear that this tragedy—which is part natural, part unnatural—must, under no circumstances, be used to, one, further indebt Haiti and, two, to push through unpopular corporatist policies in the interest of our corporations. This is not conspiracy theory. They have done it again and again.”

As Klein noted, it took The Heritage Foundation 13 days to come out with their "free market solutions" for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They didn't even wait 24 hours after this disaster in Haiti.

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Michael Moore had a few things to say about the Dow rallying past 10,000 today on the set of Morning Joe. First on how well the markets are doing.

Moore: Oh! It’s so incredible. Yes. Fifteen million people out of work.

Scarborough: Isn’t this a perfect example for you? Isn’t this a great example of what you’re trying to say? How there’s a disconnect between what’s going on on Wall Street, 10,000, and Main Street, 10% unemployment?

Moore: Oh, it’s not a disconnect. It’s connected very well. It’s connected just the way our economic system is set up. It’s set up so that the pyramid scheme that we call capitalism—it’s become a pyramid scheme now—the very few at the top get away like bandits making billions and billions of dollars. And everybody else in the lower parts of the pyramid are told to work really hard and maybe some day they can come up and be on top of the pyramid too. Well guess what? There’s only a few people that can sit on top of the pyramid and it’s just so revolting and so immoral when we live in a country—the wealthiest country on earth—fifteen million people unemployed. One in every eight homes right now is in foreclosure or delinquency. And they’re celebrating on Wall Street? And they’re paying each other bonuses?

Surprisingly Moore gets some agreement from Joe and Mike on the disparity of wealth in the United States. Maria Bartiromo however disagrees with Moore’s view of the news on Wall Street. Shocker right? The Wall Street flack tries to come to their defense.

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Michael Moore joined the set of the Larry King Live for the full hour. Here's part of the first segment where Michael talks about how much richer the upper one percent have gotten, how much Wall Street loves corporate welfare when they get into trouble and why Wall Street and large corporations are happy when they lay off workers in the United States.

KING: Are you saying capitalism is a failure?

MOORE: Yes. Capitalism. Yes. Well, I don't have to say it. Capitalism, in the last year, has proven that it's failed. All the basic tenets of what we've talked about the free market, about free enterprise and competition just completely fell apart. As soon as they lost, essentially, our money, they came running to the federal government for a bailout -- for welfare, for socialism. And it -- it -- I thought the basic principle of capitalism was that it's about a -- it's a sink or swim situation. And those who do well, the cream rises to the top and, you know, those who invest their money wrongly or, you know, don't run their business the right way, then they don't do well.

And if you run your business the wrong way, where does it say that you or I or anybody watching this has to bail them out?

I understand -- I understand why everybody seemed to get behind it, because a lot of people were afraid, because these people down on Wall Street had taken our money and made bets with it. I mean, they essentially created this invisible virtual casino with people's money -- people's pension funds, people's 401(k)s. They took this money and they made bets. And then they made bets on the bets. And then they took out insurance policies on the bets. And then they took out insurance against the insurance -- the credit default swaps.

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Michael Moore hits back at Wolf Blitzer for his question about "the charge that either has been made or will be made that (he) is being hypocritical". Blitzer seems to have a bit of trouble understanding that someone can be wealthy themselves and still care about the poor and as Moore notes, those two things don't have to be at odds with each other.

BLITZER: But let's talk about -- most people going to see this movie who don't like you are going to say, you know what? Michael Moore has done pretty well in this capitalist or free market system. You've become a fairly rich guy yourself.

MOORE: Well, first of all, Wolf, there's nobody that doesn't like me. I don't know who these people are.

BLITZER: There are a few.

(CROSSTALK)

MOORE: If you have a list of names...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: A tiny number out there.

MOORE: Provide me with those names, and I will go to their homes and cook them dinner. And perhaps they will like me better.

(LAUGHTER)

MOORE: So, yes. Your point was, I have done well. Yes, for a documentary filmmaker, I have done very well.

BLITZER: You've done very well. And the allegations of...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: ... you're being hypocritical.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Explain, because you're hearing a lot of that.

MOORE: Why am I against capitalism if I have done so well?

BLITZER: Right.

MOORE: Isn't the question better put -- and I'm not trying to do your job for you -- but wouldn't the question better be, gee, Mike, you have done so well. Why don't you just kick back at the lake and enjoy life? Why are you caring about all these people losing their health care and their jobs and all that? You're not losing yours?

I wonder if there was like a Wolf Blitzer like 200 years ago who asked Thomas Jefferson or John Adams or George Washington, hey, you know, you guys are wealthy landowners. You have benefited from the king's system. What are you complaining about? What is this revolt all about?

It's like, sometimes, people, even people who have actually had the good fortune and blessings in life to not have to struggle with worrying about their health care, whether or not it's going to be here tomorrow or the next week, sometimes, those people actually are willing to take great risks and create sacrifices for themselves, in the hopes that others will have it just as well.

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