Quote Unquote: Corporate Decency

CNN commentator and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin, on Anderson Cooper 360 last night, in response to Reddit exercising its First Amendment rights and not shutting down some user-generated "potentially illegal" (read as: "legal") corners of its website — such as r/jailbait and r/asianjailbait — that many may deem as being in poor taste…

"Even if they aren't [technically in violation of any actual laws], don't we want them to be good corporate citizens? What happened to decency? What happened to corporations doing the right thing?"

I should point out that she was not saying that in jest.

Also, time spent on Anderson Cooper's show last night wringing hands over "the possibility that somebody somewhere might be looking at sexually suggestive photos of your teenage child" on the Internet: 8 minutes.

Time spent on Anderson Cooper's show all told covering the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations – protesting "negative corporate influence over U.S. politics" — that have been happening 5 miles from the CNN studios in New York City for the past two weeks: 0 minutes.

Tags: Anderson Cooper, Bill of Rights, CNN, Constitution, Occupy Wall Street, Porn, Quote Unquote, Reddit, Sex, Wall Street

Stephen Colbert on America's Credit Downgrade and Rick Perry's ColbertPAC Upgrade

You ever have one of those weeks where it seems no matter how many blood sacrifices you make to your tribal deity, things don't get any easier? This is totally one of those weeks!

Coverage continues with Rick Perry's patriotic non-political America prayers after the jump.

The Colbert Report airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30pm / 10:30c.

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Tags: Belgium, Bill of Rights, Christianity, Colbert Super PAC, Constitution, Debt, Dow Jones, Economy, Iowa, Iowa Straw Poll, Money, New Zealand, Primaries, Religion, Republicans, Rick Perry, Standard & Poor's, Texas, Wall Street

Jon Stewart on America's New AA+ Credit Rating

I choose not to think of this as the U.S. losing an A in it's credit rating. I prefer to think of it as us gaining an F in our A.

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.

Tags: Debt, Economy, House of Representatives, John Boehner, Jon Stewart, Money, Standard & Poor's, Tea Party, The Daily Show, Video, Wall Street

Stock Market Commits Suicide After U.S. Credit Rating Downgraded

Does anybody know how Wall Street responded just at the beginning of the fall of Rome?

Wall Street stocks plummeted Monday morning on the first-ever downgrade of the United States' credit rating, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging as much as 380 points in the first hour of trading.

The move by Standard & Poor's over the weekend to cut the U.S. rating from AAA to AA-plus shook confidence among global investors and added to worries that the world’s largest economy could sink into a double-dip recession.

Investors dumped stocks and fled into safe havens such as gold, which rose to record highs of more than $1,700 an ounce.

Oh… my… God! This is more serious than I thought!I never thought I'd actually see this day, and now that's upon me, I almost feel like I'm hallucinating.

Glenn Beck was right!

(I'm scared…)

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Debt, Economy, Glenn Beck, Money, Standard & Poor's, Wall Street

Huge Majority of Americans Unhappy with Congress for Some Obscure Reason

So, this debt ceiling deal that President Obama and congressional Republicans concocted to get America on the path to recovery. I mean, I know it's a little early to tell for sure, but how's that working out so far?

The Dow tumbled 512 points on Thursday, its biggest point drop since Dec. 1, 2008. It's in the red for the year and has fallen more than 10% below the 2011 closing high in April, putting the measure squarely in correction territory.

Oh, but that doesn't mean… Does it?

It has been three decades since the United States suffered a recession that followed on the heels of the previous one. But it could be happening again.

Hmmmmm… I see.

But people have to know that the the President and Congress — in taking us to the brink of financial ruin before deciding to cut trillions of dollars of spending, without bringing in any additional revenue,  in a time of extreme economic hardship — were acting in what they believed was the best interest of the nation, right? I mean, people have to know that!

A record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job — the most since The Times first began asking the question in 1977, and even more than after another political stalemate led to a shutdown of the federal government in 1995.

More than four out of five people surveyed said that the recent debt-ceiling debate was more about gaining political advantage than about doing what is best for the country. Nearly three-quarters said that the debate had harmed the image of the United States in the world.

Republicans in Congress shoulder more of the blame for the difficulties in reaching a debt-ceiling agreement than President Obama and the Democrats, the poll found.

Okay, but people still think that John Boehner's tan looks totally boss! Right? Right?

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Barack Obama, Debt, Democrats, Dow Jones, Economy, Eric Cantor, Harry Reid, House of Representatives, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, Polls, Republicans, Senate, Wall Street