Hot air...

Hot air… 20 March 2009

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, DC Politics, Democrats, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Lie Down Fall Down Dems.
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Hot air balloons float over Cyberjaya , Kuala Lumpur , during the Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta 2009

… hot air all over the place. I wish they’d all just shut up. Nobody’s looking good in any of this…

Just to toss something out there tho… Michael Wolff is not far off the mark with this one: Barack Obama is a terrible bore.

This guy is leaden and this show is in trouble.

Smack!

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1. liberalcatnip - 20 March 2009: First!

(Okay – glad that’s over with. Carry on.)

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2. Madman in the Marketplace - 20 March 2009: Sorry, couldn’t blog … the series finale of Battlestar was on.

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3. marisacat - 20 March 2009: we’re so liberal! I came to, so to speak and discover that KGO is on the third hour of some bizarre (and rather ugly) defense of Wal-Mart… and local PBS/KQED is running some equally bizarre, not artistic assessment or recap of a long and interesting career, but a full on RESURRECTION and cleansing of Joan Crawford.

Really.

How much she loved children and what a great mother she was. All that she gave up for her adoptees.

Unfuckingbelievable.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 20 March 2009: no brand is beyond redemption, right?

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4. marisacat - 20 March 2009: LOL Always something to look forward to.. Mike Davis is on with Moyers. Rather too much of an apologist for Obber.

and Clusterstock is in their usual hilarity at the decline.

I don’t really blame them. Watching Obber and Arnold togther… their joyous mutual mastication… actually rid me of what little hope I had left. A sort of general grasp that things are so bad, that s o m e things will get done. I did sort of think that…

Don’t think so.

And I will be interested to read Mike Davis in a year or two. Or three. He should be fucking ashamed.

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gluelicker - 22 March 2009: I saw Davis on Moyers. You don’t think Davis’ “good king, bad retainers” line was a strategic move to avoid antagonizing the pwog-libs who tune into Moyers, so that they would tune into the rest of what he had to say? (Nonetheless, knowing Davis’
long-established venom for the DP, his popular frontism was a little disconcerting.)

What I found to be a more annoying specimen of pandering what his reassuring Moyers that his socialist commitment had nothing to do with the USSR or the PRC. Pre-empting imagined red-baiters sure was gratuitous, was it not? Why bother going down that unnecessary path when the only result is to prop up cardboard caricatures of umitigated evil (as opposed to something a little more complex, yet not apologetic)? It was augmented by his crack about the Wall Street-CCP conspiracy to loot and pillage the global proletariat. I mean, with a little dexterity, there is a point to be made there, but the way he made it will only embolden the
“Free Tibet!” simpletons of the “left” (I use the term advisedly) and the “who lost China?” faction which seems to have a growing toehold in the paleocon-infested RP these days (the same people whom popular frontist Davis says we need to watch very closely). I dunno, maybe it was just a case of Davis letting his Trotskyist instincts slip. In any event it left me slightly crestfallen, since Davis is such a hero.

As for Wolff’s superficial teardown of Obama (altho’ no more superficial than anything else in our superficial political culture): all I can say is the politics of spleen sure makes for strange bedfellows. Being no better or worse than the rest, though, a little dimestore psychological profiling does have its joys.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: To be frank I am unsure what Davis’ point was, anywhere along the way in that appearance…. Buying into the cribbing game that Obama is in anyway FDR (which the DP tries to fly, that or Kennedy, periodically when flummoxed for the next game) is a fool’s errand.. He did squeeze out a somewhat tougher take on O a bit later in the conversation.

But then I don’t fret for an eternity over 1968. Some do… or for red diapers. And pink diapers. Who danced with Trotsky and who did not.

For anyone who cares, this is the transcript to the Moyers show.

Wolff, my take, got a gut full and penned a fast slap. I did not waste time seeing it as definitive.

There will be more (slaps).

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5. marisacat - 20 March 2009: I heard this a week ago and finally was able to look up a news report. Oddly enough KGO late night doing a program on growing homeless in CA… the tent city outside Sacratmento that went national… of course it is nothing new. Nor the only one.

But this will surely add to homelessness. And look, the money to fund it was to come from Stumble bill. Ah yes.. the great vaunted Stumble bill.

My issue is, was there no deal the useless fall down lie down cream puff Dems could do with the Republicans to get the 20 weeks? Apparently not.

A bill that would provide 20 additional weeks of jobless benefits in California failed by one vote in the state Assembly Monday, the AP reports.

Republicans opposed the bill, which would be funded with $3 billion from the federal government. It would extend unemployment benefits to a maximum of 79 weeks from the current 59.

The bill, ABX323, failed on a 53-9 vote, one shy of the two-thirds vote needed for passage of urgency legislation.

Most Republicans abstained. GOP officials fear the extension would burden businesses with additional costs.

A separate bill, SBX3 3, which would ease eligibility for unemployment, passed but not as urgency legislation. It was sent to the state Senate for action. An estimated 30,000 people would become eligible for jobless benefits under the second bill.

Read the full story HERE.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: assholes. Meanwhile it’s getting worse: Sacramento to make its tent-city permanent?

The primitive settlement sits in the shadow of the state capitol and is home to about 300 people who have no toilets or running water, creating unsanitary conditions that advocacy groups worry could promote diseases like cholera. With the downturn in the economy and more working-class people losing their jobs and their homes, the tent city is expanding.

The mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, said in an interview that he wants to create a permanent tent city for the homeless, although he is not sure where it should be. He said he recognized that doing so would be difficult politically. But he said a permanent site could bring sanitation services and regulations like a ban on drugs and alcohol.

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: I plowed thru a Unemployment Insurance site last night… and last minute, the extension bill may come up for another vote on Monday. Some negotiation over changing wording for the Republicans. Even tho the Stumble bill will pay for it there is some angst on the R side over costs to employers. Etc.

Gah.

As for the tent city.. well the mayor is offering the least horrid resolution. The usual method of breaking up the ad hoc communities is pretty brutal. IF he will be allowed to even look into that proposal… I wonder.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: I seriously doubt they’ll let the mayor do it, right there in the capital. I half expect to read about Ahnold driving his Hummer over the tents any day now.

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BooHooHooMan - 21 March 2009: Oh but think of the investment opportunity
~ in Coleman Camping Equipment.

This is America. Surely the market will respond with a damn fine two story tent.

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Arcturus - 21 March 2009: Sac Bee:

Homeless campers who live inside Sacramento’s tent city will be asked to move to shelters and other indoor structures, officials said Thursday.

Responding to growing concern and criticism about the burgeoning homeless encampment north of downtown, Mayor Kevin Johnson announced a plan to move as many as 150 campers to “safer, more sanitary” grounds.
. . .
The resulting plan, to be brought before the City Council on Tuesday, calls for relocating the campers to various types of temporary and permanent indoor housing, including existing shelters and modular buildings at [state-owned] Cal Expo.
. . .
SMUD, which has been part of the mayor’s task force on the topic, hopes to fence off the property some time within the next four weeks to pursue an upgrade of its substation there . . .

. . . campers represent just a fraction of the 1,200 people in the Sacramento area who are homeless.

here’s a local blog that started covering homeless issues last Dec

meanwhile, a federal investigation into St-Hopey mayor Johnson’s previous projects has him forbidden from receiving federal funds that could possibly preclude the city from receiving any stimulus funds . . .

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: meanwhile, a federal investigation into St-Hopey mayor Johnson’s previous projects has him forbidden from receiving federal funds that could possibly preclude the city from receiving any stimulus funds . . . — Arcturus

Oh FFS.

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NYCO - 21 March 2009: 7. Yay! American favelas, in our lifetime.

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6. marisacat - 21 March 2009: James K Galbraith on the Geithner Plan… in WashMo. He is not hopeful.

[T]he most likely scenario, should the Geithner plan go through, is a combination of looting, fraud, and a renewed speculation in volatile commodity markets such as oil. Ultimately the losses fall on the public anyway, since deposits are largely insured. There is no chance that the banks will simply resume normal long-term lending. To whom would they lend? For what? Against what collateral? And if banks are recapitalized without changing their management, why should we expect them to change the behavior that caused the insolvency in the first place?

The oddest thing about the Geithner program is its failure to act as though the financial crisis is a true crisis—an integrated, long-term economic threat—rather than merely a couple of related but temporary problems, one in banking and the other in jobs. In banking, the dominant metaphor is of plumbing: there is a blockage to be cleared. Take a plunger to the toxic assets, it is said, and credit conditions will return to normal. This, then, will make the recession essentially normal, validating the stimulus package. Solve these two problems, and the crisis will end. That’s the thinking. …

He also references how invested Ob and Oblings are in thse spurious issues of “entitlement reform”… and points out that no previous recession (not including TGDepression) has witnessed the wholesale wipe out of individual middle class families basis of wealth… that now SS and Medicare loom as assets that are left for people. Til plundered.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: Geithner is clearly only concerned about preserving his buddies’ jobs.

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7. Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: Atlas sucked.

So in lieu of that rant, I will simply say this: If you’re basing your lifestyle, your belief system, or even the name of one of your pets on Atlas Shrugged or anything else written by Ayn Rand, you are a tool.

This isn’t even the cranky asshole left-wing liberal in me telling you this, this is the cranky asshole English-lit minor: Atlas Shrugged sucks. It sucks as both a political allegory and a work of fiction. It sucks hard. Atlas Shrugged is not a novel, it is a pissy, monotonous political treatise disguised as a novel, only the disguise is as threadbare as literary gloss gets, because less than 100 pages in it’s clear that Rand never bothered to listen to the “show, don’t tell” part of her creative-writing classes, nor did she listen to the part where somebody might’ve taught her how to base her characterizations on anything deeper than what brilliant, calculating industrialists her characters are. It is melodramatic, cartoonish, and as deep as a kiddie pool, but while the simplistic banality of Rand’s central conceit seems like something that the average writer could explain and wrap up pretty efficiently, she manages to go on and on and on for more than a thousand pages. Here’s a tip: If you’re trying to write something as cut-and-dried as a political allegory but you can’t bring that bird in for a landing in anything less than 1,088 pages, maybe you need to hang up your literary ambitions and go get your MBA instead. Either that, or find a more diligent editor.

If you’re still of an age where teachers or professors are still making you read certain things, I have a bit of advice for you: If any of your teachers have put Atlas Shrugged on your assigned-reading list, drop that class and don’t look back. Atlas Shrugged is not just awful, it is godawful. It does not need to be read or analyzed, much less lived; it exists for only two reasons: first, to demonstrate that economic conservatives can be just as annoyingly self-righteous as liberals and religious conservatives, and second, to show you whom you should avoid getting involved in conversations with at parties. I speak from experience here, for I’ve had the misfortune of running into a few Rand devotees in social settings, and to call them dipshits would be an insult to both dip and shit. This is not meant as a slam against libertarians in general, because I’ve known some very bright ones, but Ayn Rand is to libertarianism what Fall Out Boy is to punk rock: It’s what you get into before you grow up and start actually thinking.

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8. BooHooHooMan - 21 March 2009: {psst…Hun-nee? …Let’s say we get home early…}

This is no Opera . No glasses. No ‘corn.

For Cuomo, Financial Crisis Is His Political Moment

Andrew M. Cuomo, whose love of analogies is great, often likens his investigations to a fine opera.

The opening act, he instructs his lieutenants at the New York State attorney general’s office, is taken up with his investigation and rivets the audience’s attention. The middle acts are sung by tenors from executive suites, who agree to change their misbegotten ways.

The final act, in his rendition, is played by Congress or the State Legislature, which enacts new laws and systemic reform.

Mr. Cuomo, a double-espresso of a politician and an oh-so-careful guardian of his own media image, now has found his moment like few politicians in the United States.

{ c’mon, sweetie, let’s leave early….} My take anyways.

Unless he guns for Robert Rubin, Chuck Schumer, and Shelly Silver’s network in New York, it’s crap.

The NYT piece today IS a thinly veiled slapback following Cuomo sticking his hand into one wicked hornet’s nest: the NY Pension Fund looting by the NY UberJews, , the indictment of Schumer Campaign Director in 1998 and 2004, Hank Morris- for 30 Million in kickbacks under Alan Hevesi, the sole trustee at the State’s $150 Billion Dollar Fund. This , without hyperbole, is a HUGE case. The money trail and set of thieves, , if followed, will show up Bernie Madoff as a mere candy pilferer in the scheme of things….

The NY Pension Fund is the 2nd Largest Public Pension fund in the US. Second only to CALPERS. Hevesi made his pitch there, too, much to the headscratching dismay of analysts, that CALPERS invest with Markstone , the Israeli money-shuttle fund run by Elliot Broidy. In Broidy’s case , upwards of one billion dollars was then invested in Israel. Where? For What? Who knows? “Small Bussiness” “Growth Sector” is the smoke. i think it’s a fair bet that guys like Broidy, his Political Patrons here, and his parter “firms” in Israel can get at the money, tho.

But the crux of the matter follows, as the amounts of money thus far are small given the collapse of markets at large. Here’s really why Coumo’s Delving into the Pension Funds is “HUGE” , IMO: Like the similarly sized Wall Street Operations in the Private Sector, the investment decisions of these enormous public pension funds [100+ Billion Dollar Funds per entity], given their size, such funds and their operators have the ability to move the market itself. Enmeshed with nefarious operations on Wall Street, the opportunities for market manipulation and insider trading are infinite with political protection.

Money entrusted to such a system: designed, legislatively constructed, manned, leveraged, and then protected by crooks?— With respect to the money supply, the input? Quite literally, the opportunity for looting is mathematically infinite given an ever expended money supply, the operative, ad infinitum REALITY of the Fed, the underlying money scam of scams. The pillagers- private and public sector alike – then scoop it up. The NeoCon agenda remains the gangsters base consensus: Militarism, Oil, Israel, and the Security Apparatus First, before hearing any supplications from pet constituencies. The only restraint, barring effective prosecution or rebellion, remains the tacit agreement among thieves to avoid being “too greedy.” Good Luck with THAT. Quite ironically the U.S. industrialist who were the first short-term beneficiaries of this financial gangsterism are now tossed on the scrap heap. GM/ GMAC are clear examples.

Politically, potentially at least- the NY Pension Fund case could be a show-stopper. 30 million dollars in NY Pension Fund kickbacks going to
Hank Morrris, director of Chuck Schumer’s Senate Campaign in 1998 and in 2004.
Alan Hevisi,</b feted by Netanyahu in Israel, Morris friend, trusted adviser of 40 years, SOLE Trustee of the NY State Public Pension when alleged Pension Fund Crimes occurred,

leading the 2nd largest State Pension in the US, ,
Lobbying the largest State Fund California’s, CALPERS,
in a public role, serving as advocate of public investments

managed privately, “for investment in Israel” ,
who was given protection by

All indications are that Hevesi will be indicted.
Sheldon Silver Assembly Speaker, who vowed to block any moves to replace the Sole Trusteeship of the NY Controller with a pension Board , regardless of investigation outcomes regarding Hevesi.

Silver, who brokered more investments out of the Fund than perhaps will EVER be adequately detailed..
Senator Charles Schumer, Money Broker, Democratic Senate Campaign Committee chair at the time when he quickly provided his friend, campaign chief, now 132 count/$30 Million Dollar Fraudster Indictee, Hank Morris, the quintessential “Nothing to See Here, “Move-Along” cover- when the investigation was leaked over a year ago.

It has the potential to be breathtaking in dismantling that last shred of bourgeois confidence that most of the teachers, courthouse jockies, city hall and statehouse hacks have while floating along: The belief that they’re too “in” to fail, that their pensions are okay. It will be quite the rude awakening to be confronted with the fact that they, too, have been ripped off, by the very system they bought into and propped up. Quite the shock to come to terms with, that THEIR Pensions have also been stuffed with bogus paper while real money and it’s purchasing value has already been hauled away. And what’s left in circulation is devalued by the Fed, simply printing money when economic activity has come to a standstill. There is a similar disconnect here wrt the belief in The Bosses, be they economic wizards or lesser hacks in the Bureaucracy. The Public Pensioners, with a great degree of insulation thus far, actually believe the TBTF mantra, they’ve had no reason to doubt it thus far. It is this type of thinking that doesn’t sweat the Feds devaluation of the dollar. They believe quite naively it will somewhat dilute the economic pull the elites possess in their vaults, too. It is dunderheaded, all-come-out-in-the-washism, of course.

Yet a “no worries/ tread lightly” aproach ties in WRT Prosecution of Oligarchs or, more precisely, the lack thereof: Short of relentless, war-footing prosecution and recovery of hard assets, the productive means and valuable equity positions obtained via stolen money— these malefactors will continue to be in control, a few particular individauls in prison or not, from one generation to the next.

::

Thus, the NYT today is a nice little chop-chop review of Cuomo. Afterall, he is another politician on the make. But what of the wide eyed possibility, that perhaps there is room for us, the little people still– as one Pol-on- the- make takes his shot devouring others, with marginal benefits accruing to our great relief? That was Obama’s Election. {Slap} Snap out of it.

The question moves to whether Coumo has the guts, the acumen, the juice to make the case— let alone make it stick- in a system that apparently is designed to quash any such Quixotic ambitions…
That IS Opera. Coumo, tho?
We’ll see if he’s Pavarrotti, all that. Or not.

In any event, Regarding todays NYT snapshot, Cuomo would be wise to read it and heed it regardless if its writers are accomodating his adversaries in the NY PTB.

Pretty much – Andy’s Opera?
No dungeoun? No tower?
Welp. Looks ~ Like ~ It ~ BLOWS~

“Evincing outrage is not a legal strategy, so it remains to be seen what he’s going to do with his information,” said Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia law professor and former prosecutor.

Eliot Spitzer, his congenitally combative and competitive predecessor, not too subtly mocked Mr. Cuomo’s subpoena penchant this week.

“Everybody is jumping up and down, serving subpoenas and beating their chest trying to be tougher than the next person,” Mr. Spitzer said on WNYC radio.

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mattes - 21 March 2009: WHOA…..this should be frontpage.

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mattes - 21 March 2009: LOL…

However, projecting the state of the Israeli economy to the years ahead, Moskowitz hazarded a guess that investors could anticipate a doubling of their capital in five years, or an annual rate of return of 20 percent.

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9. Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: Barney Frank calls Justice Scalia a “homophobe”

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: well I think there is a good chance Frank is a classic Northern racist. He sure ruined public housing in NO in the wake of Katrina. 2 out of three large not badly damaged or undamaged projects were slated for the wrecking ball. Straight from him… and housing activist barely raised their voices.

So Massachusetts.

I am sick to death of them all.

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10. marisacat - 21 March 2009: Not exactly news I realise… but Blodget has a round up of responses to Geithner’s Plan…

…. from Krugman, Calculated Risk and Naked Capitalism.

It ain’t good.

The big bop out here to Cali left a vicious taste in my mouth. It was ugly and stupid. It really was. Quite aside from what can only b called a spital exchange between Ob and Arn.

I am so iiritated by it that to divert myself I am looking at hummingbird plants (agastache)… I am nto sure what brings the h-birds over to my dying patch.. but they do come… and I think I should encourage it. Plus I am thinking the mouse, mice and mousettes used my bedroom for a birthing center… at least it is a sign of life. As i await delivery of the humane traps…

What a mess we are in.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: add to that IOZ’s take on it.

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: ugh.. the close from IOZ.. and he could be right.

In 2012, Mitt Romney gets his shot, while the American Southwest and California beg the drug cartel that will have taken over the Mexican government to accept their apologies and let them back in.

If not Romney then a Romney clone. Classic white biz Republican. hell Romney might be better than some others.

Obfuck is almost saying out loud,

“I’ll do my part for 4 years then over to youse guys. Hey works for me guys, Michelle hates DC. So do I, who knew. But then, I just got promoted to senate to get promoted to historic black pretzel, nver bothered to look around.. so what the hell. Who cares. Early speaking fees. Sell outs buy ins, whats the diff. They can come to Hawai’i to hear me expound. Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.”

Really.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: Romney might be more tolerable than Sanford … of course we’re screwed no matter which.

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: I see he mentions how we will learn to live iwth 15% unemp. I would say we are there… considering how they don’t count people who fall of the “collecting UEI and actively looking for work”…. and many were laid off end of 2007.

Cali if officially now at 10.5 … and I am sure we are much higher.

20 years ago Europe, UK and France that i know of, were actively looking at a long term future of not being able to maintain (or fictionalise) a “tolerable” unemployment rate, they were thinking that with reduced sorts of employment, it might have to be a too stable 20% unemployed,.. hell at least they were looking at it and devising ways to keep nations stable.

However it gone blown to hell with various subsequent administrations.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: I vaguely remembering reading years ago, I can’t remember the source, the idea that capitalism REQUIRES a permanent underclass, and that having a base dole to maintain stability is required, and that dole has to enable the underclass to live fairly well and be able to spend money on consumer goods. The idea was that this was the only way to smooth out the wild booms and busts built into capitalism.

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: Yes but America is eager to shove that ever growing underclass to utter deprivation. Starvation. I really do think we are in Shock Doctrine Part 2 here. Bush was Part 1 and WHOEVER the fuck followed him was Part 2.

I am NOT saluting Europe here, but I am saying that in the past ( and non white immigration and often unwelcome Eastern European immigration is a newer polarised Europe) there was an active desire for a “tranquil nation” baseline. That was a description you used once for the opposite of the rumble stumble and fall that America goes thru… and i thought it was a good descriptive.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: Americans obviously turned their backs on mitigating capitalism’s damage, and if anything getting harsher.

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wu ming - 22 March 2009: Naomi Klein’s book was pretty clear about the 2nd blow being the seemingly center left technocrat suckerpunch to catch people off guard after they’d rid themselves of the rightwing regimes.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: I thought that was clearly the game that was being run, to be frank. A different face, more of the same. Different language, same scams. Milk and cookies for the poor and some bones for the “people” but the thieving moves right along.

He sure loves him some Arnold… who has been a destroyer, no question. Full complicity of the state Democratic Party.

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11. CSTAR - 21 March 2009: Tim Geithner seems to me like a nice guy. I think he really needs to spend more time with his family.

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12. Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: Israeli soldiers say army rabbis framed Gaza as religious war

JERUSALEM_ Rabbis affiliated with the Israeli army urged troops heading into Gaza to reclaim what they said was God-given land and “get rid of the gentiles” — effectively turning the 22-day Israeli intervention into a religious war, according to the testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza.

Literature passed out to soldiers by the army’s rabbinate “had a clear message — we are the people of Israel, we came by a miracle to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, now we need to struggle to get rid of the gentiles that are interfering with our conquest of the land,” the soldier told a forum of Gaza veterans in mid-February, just weeks after the conflict ended.

A transcript of the testimony given at an Israeli military academy at the Oranim college on Feb. 13 was obtained on Friday by McClatchy and also published in Haaretz, one of Israel’s leading dailies. The soldier, identified as “Ram,” a pseudonym to protect his identity, gave a scathing description of the atmosphere as the Israeli army went to war.

“The general atmosphere among people I spoke to was . . . the lives of Palestinians are . . . let’s say far, far less important from the lives of our soldiers,” Ram said. The religious literature gave “the feeling of almost a religious mission,” he said.

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CSTAR - 21 March 2009: From Lenin One shot two kills

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: truly awful…

I did nto post it here but there are photos around of the mil PX gift shops… with “fun in the sun for muslims” tshirts about Gitmo. And other related sorts of jokes.

They probably hide the uglier stuff in a back room.

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13. marisacat - 21 March 2009: Kroft has been soft interviewing Obster for two years. sorta like sitting down to a big squishy ”dessert” of donuts with Pepsi. Or Dr Pepper. Some kind of pop.

The president tells CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the Treasury Secretary’s job isn’t up for grabs.

Jokes that if Geithner even tried to resign, he would say, “Sorry Buddy, you’ve still got the job.”

And he sells the kids again. Quite the game.

The interview includes a walk on the grounds of the White House, where the swing set for his two daughters, Sasha and Malia, is visible. Obama said having dinner with his family and playing with his children each day is a welcome respite from the pressure of his office where, he concedes, decisions that land on his desk are often a choice “between bad and worse.” His hardest one thus far, he tells Kroft, was sending an additional 17,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Sub text, I’m a dad. Dad-in-Chief. The jokes write themselves. Funnily enough, I don’t think Kroft even likes Ober. Etc.

Excerpts

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: just reading it was a NINETY minute interveiw. Wonder how much of it 60 Minutes will release, via online vid and transcript.

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14. BooHooHooMan - 21 March 2009: Gianni Giansanti,
Unofficial Photographer of Pope John Paul II, Is Dead at 52

Gänswein In Possession of Unofficial Role of Film.

{writes itself, }

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15. marisacat - 21 March 2009: well ti has been developing all afternoon, but none too lovely cop shooting over in Oakland. 4 cops in two separate events by one person. Interestingly they are tipped to his location (he eluded cops twice) and is killed (tho the version in the report says second two cops shot at the tipped off location, where he is killed). Word, via reporters, is that mood at Highland Hospital, where all 4 are said to be “fighting for their lives”, is “grim”. with “hundreds” of cops at the hospital.

Such bad news. All that has been happening in poor old Oakland just got worse.

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16. Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: Surviving A Lynch Mob – AIG Internal Staff Memo

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17. marisacat - 21 March 2009: All four cops died.

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: San Jose Mercury News… this report does nto say it but earlier ones described the team that went in to the building he was in as SWAT team and STILL he killed two.

First two were motorcycle cops at a traffic stop.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: I don’t see any info yet on why he went off like that.

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marisacat - 21 March 2009: dribbles of reports, fwiw, it was a traffic pull over, motorcycle cops, the first kill. Wearing helmets… and he exited the car and calmly (if any of this is accurate) shot them .. FACE shots. They fell to the ground, pretty close together, bleeding from the head shots.

he then took off… in his car … Sounds as though at that instance there were no cops there to shoot out his tires.

This is in a high crime area… I would nto be surprised if mototcycle cops might not also wear kevlar vests, just as a matter of course.

The still shots and film of OPD on the streets following the first kill is well .. hundreds with big weapons, running the streets. No surprise.

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18. BooHooHooMan - 21 March 2009: NEW YORK (CNN) — Four people were killed early Saturday after a fire broke out at a state-run group home for mentally disabled residents in upstate New York, the governor’s office said.

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BooHooHooMan - 21 March 2009: Surely there will be a call for more money and people
to protect and serve.

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19. marisacat - 21 March 2009: FFS. Went to LA Times to look around. This rides at the top. Sounds like Obster takes office sometime in the future. And may or may not do as he has already done.

U.S. missile strikes said to take heavy toll on Al Qaeda

By Greg Miller | 6:03 p.m.

Predator drone attacks in northwest Pakistan have increased sharply since Bush last year stopped seeking Pakistan’s permission. Obama may keep pace.

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20. Madman in the Marketplace - 21 March 2009: The virtues of public anger and the need for more

The overarching question is not: why is there so much public rage? The overarching question is: why has there been so little? A political establishment that can function without any fear of the citizenry will inevitably trample on its interests. That is what has been happening more than anything else. And it is why we need far more public outrage, and fear of that outrage more deeply implanted in the minds of our political and financial elites.

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21. marisacat - 21 March 2009: ALERT!!

Very sorry… there is a comment sitting now up at # 17.. one from BHHM… ti sat in Spam file for hours…
Very sorry!

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22. marisacat - 21 March 2009: I fianlly made it to the Krugman blog entry on the Geithner Obama Plan K uses DESPAIR in the title..

Despair over Financial Policy

Pretty blunt.

So, the line up is Ob on Sunday CBS then G on Monday then Ob on primetime Tuesday?

Good luck. Obster owns this scheisse.

Despair over financial policy

The Geithner plan has now been leaked in detail. It’s exactly the plan that was widely analyzed — and found wanting — a couple of weeks ago. The zombie ideas have won.

The Obama administration is now completely wedded to the idea that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the financial system — that what we’re facing is the equivalent of a run on an essentially sound bank. As Tim Duy put it, there are no bad assets, only misunderstood assets. And if we get investors to understand that toxic waste is really, truly worth much more than anyone is willing to pay for it, all our problems will be solved. …

Poor widdle misunderstood assets. Daddy will fix.

Yes I fell to utter sarcasm w/r/t Ob, and all Oblings, a long time ago.

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23. marisacat - 21 March 2009: Yves at Naked Capitalism…

Dear God, the Administration really thinks the public is full of idiots. But there are so many components to the program, and a lot of moving parts in each, they no doubt expect everyone’s eyes to glaze over.

Bingo on that last bit… working the glaze effect. That is what CONS do. Just my opinion.

Regardless, the equity comes from TARP, and Elizabeth Warren of the Congressional Oversight Panel is no slouch. What will happen when she asks for reports of how the actions have gone (for instance, how many failed because the reserve was not met?) The mechanics will become more apparent to the public over time and may yet come back to haunt Team Obama.

Ah yes. Transparent and ethical Team Obama. (‘I love you Obama!”, ”I love you back!”… has there been greater gibber drool? Out to match all that “brush clearing”!)

How soon til they get the damned dog? As distraction. How soon til he lights out for Camp David mid week. ‘Working” as they say…

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24. marisacat - 22 March 2009: Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The private developer redeveloping New York’s World Trade Center site, destroyed in the September 11 attacks, has asked the government for financial assistance, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Quoting people familiar with the matter, the Journal said The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government body that owns the site, was considering helping finance at least one of the three office towers planned in the project.

Sources said developer Larry Silverstein had sought financial help with at least two of the towers.

Silverstein declined to comment to the Journal, but the Port Authority confirmed it was engaged in ongoing talks on the rebuilding.

“We are continuing to discuss with SPI (Silverstein Properties) how to best meet a changed market while ensuring the WTC site is rebuilt in the best public interest,” a statement obtained by Reuters said.

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BooHooHooMan - 22 March 2009: These NY guys are muddying the MUD swirling around ALL their necks —> Wrap it in 9/11! Problems at the Memorial!

I have been piqued by this Morris/ Hevesi/ Silver/ Schumer scam at NY Pensions …Hank Greenburg of AIG, Silverstein of Port Authority /WTC infamy…..ALL NY MOB. All cozy with accts in CT boutique hedge funds, Dodd and Lieberman – Gak – coherent full sentences elude me….
So at you can count on THAT. LOL.

The CT AG Blumenthal is now “involved”
“looking into” AIG,
He wants answers! (and source docs) now that 30 people bussed in to CT to protest Execs homes. I’d send the protesters a handcrafted torch – LIT – if the mail services handled such things. LOL.

Seriously – ????- this late-off-the-block CT AG Blumenthal?????
I see him as a prick who is going to get in and create a clusterfuck over discovery, jurisdiction, etc.

Wouldn’t it be funny if the PTB just threw Dodd under the bus and called it a day?

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: I could see Dodd going down.. Too many problems… and possibly more that we have nto heard of… and whoops, I guess he just did not make the White Daddy cut for Ob.

or soemthing.

It’s sad. This wretched mess is what it is.

I was just trying to remember where I read some truly sick slobberation … oh yes.. SULLY snipping from KLEIN at Newsqueak… that it is time to wait a bit let smart men like Rahm and Biden and Schilirio straighten all of this out.

I will say it again, Biden will dine out for the rest of his life on how he TRIIIIIED to help dear Ob do better… he triied.. but you know.

What a game.

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BooHooHooMan - 22 March 2009: LOL. Your vignette of Biden is perfect.

Also, before I pack it in, the hummingbirds from above, a beautiful sight.. One suggestion on the meese maternity suite, tho- if you could craft a matchbook sized clipboard with an insurance form in triplicate you may have your solution….I mean, hey – if I was a mouse and saw a shoebox sized-plexiglass box, I’d prolly say to my mouse S.O. “Hey , that looks like a shoebox-sized plexiglass box that marisacat intends to use as a mousetrap for us. Look here, she even writes about it.” Any indications that they’re reading your stuff and you better plan on hosting their in-laws during the summer, their boozy obnoxious friends etc..

LOL. I’m out.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: I think they are putting in a croquet court…

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25. marisacat - 22 March 2009: I am sure it is temporary… the 13 million on the list will awaken. And write cheques.

Pretty funny tho.

In the wake of the Democratic National Committee’s surprisingly weak February fundraising Democratic insiders are questioning the unusual arrangement that has Gov. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) serving as a part-time chairman until his term as governor ends in January 2010.

The disappointing results come despite conditions that are ripe for a Democratic Party fundraising windfall: The party faithful are still buzzing from Barack Obama’s November presidential victory, Democrats have large congressional majorities and President Obama is riding high in the polls despite a bleak economic picture. On top of that, the party is now in possession of the vaunted 13-million-address email list he used to shatter fundraising records in 2008.

Yet fundraising numbers reported Friday show that in February, Kaine’s first full month as chairman, the Republican National Committee – supposedly plagued by GOP apathy and a chairman who got off to a rocky start, outraised the DNC $5.1 million to $3.3 million.

Though Kaine plans to devote more time to fundraising now that the Virginia legislative session has ended, he won’t be able to completely throw himself into the money chase – or other party business, for that matter – for another eight months. …

They’ll be running the pretzel ragged for the ’10 season.

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BooHooHooMan - 22 March 2009: 10 Cents a Dance.

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26. BooHooHooMan - 22 March 2009: The Villagers

don’t like the Rich.

‘”Recommended” Orange: How Dare You?!
vs.
Rich in the NYT: Has A Katrina Moment Arrived?

So Brittle. At least HuffPo has their eyes open..Today They feature the Newsweek, the Krugman and Rich…

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27. marisacat - 22 March 2009: This is a bit much. Frank Rich in fulmination. I am guessing there is a phoenix suit somewhere, for Ob to don. At some point.

“Within 24 hours, Summers’s stand was discarded by Obama, who tardily (and impotently) vowed to ‘pursue every single legal avenue’ to block the bonuses. The question is not just why the White House was the last to learn about bonuses that Democratic congressmen had sought hearings about back in December, but why it was so slow to realize that the public’s anger couldn’t be sated by Summers’s legalese or by constant reiteration of the word outrage. By the time Obama acted, even the G.O.P. leader Mitch McConnell was ahead of him in full (if hypocritical) fulmination.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2009: funny that Rich and so many others are SURPRISED by how clueless this bunch is.

Yet last week’s events suggest that the administration learned nothing from that brush with disaster.

Otherwise it never would have used Lawrence Summers, the chief economic adviser, as a messenger just as the A.I.G. rage was reaching a full boil last weekend. Summers is so tone-deaf that he makes Geithner seem like Bobby Kennedy.

Jeez, what a surprise.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: SHOCK is breaking out all over… ! Set to music… a show on Broadway, windows on Fifth Avenue… they are so shocked.

Meanwhile we are too… kinda like unseen electric cattle prods.

I don’t know… CA is supposed to be getting some immense amt of money (the figures are all over the place, a wide range) and yet Home Health Care Workers (organised under SEIU, a few years ago when I thought Stern might be a little better) are getting their pay cut.. talk about killing a life line. Teachers STILL got pink slips.. an annual CA ritual… to be rehired at close of summer. But this year, who knows. Some now say they will go teach in TX were there is not an annual pink slip routine.

I assume we get something from the so called “shovel ready” money… but it is very muddled. I assume a lot of DIVERSION and DISTRACTION of monies.

Arnold looks like the big Teutonic cat who ate Obster for mid day break. AND we still have a long running PSA featuring ObMan. Softly loftily he sends us to the moon (they were volunteers he says) or to levees (ha no volunteering in that one, not out here!) and some other dust in the eyes he throws.

AND he is a lousy speaker. What in the deal got delivered? (CBS news is playing clips from the sales job tonight, how ”sharp” Geithner is, the “sharpest”… so we hired a PENCIL?).

Does nto matter ti will all be about cops and “the hundreds of shooters in Oakland” (grace a Jerry Brown, that line) and on and on for days weeks months here.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2009: I hate to break it to Brown, but given the system’s response when the cops are caught, on tape, murdering an innocent man red-handed, they shouldn’t be surprised when real criminals decide that there is a serious risk of death whenever confronted by cops.

I would not want to live in that city this summer.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: it’s going to be very bad.

NOT from quotes from observers (mostly small business people on the street where the trffic stop was) but gratuitous toss in by AP, it is reported a small group of 20 taunted the police, with the two motorcycle cops down. Some reports have a bit of detail, some just say it happened. There have been so many lies… that until I hear from a quote from someone working living on that block.. I will doubt it. Not saying it could nto happen, it could…

The cops should worry that they can be taken down this way, to be frank. Two face shots, immediately, at the stop on the street… to helmeted cops. AND he took out two SWAT guys, at his place. He used a small firearm on the street and an “assualt weapon” at his house. No further identification… but my guess, he had armor piercing bullets in the assault weapon.

Also imo he took out all 4, on the scene. Suddenly at about 8 pm, one (in reports) came to life… it was suddenly 3 dead, one “clinging to life”… then around 3 am, “on life support”. My guess, a parent had to get there from whereever… so the illusion lived on.

EVERYTHING in Cali, nto just in Oakland just got much much worse.

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Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2009: they have made, by their actions, the cops into just a gang, a gang that can kill with impunity. I think a lot of people left behind of society always knew it, but they couldn’t PROVE it to people living safely in nicer neighborhoods, and the media and the politicians ramped up the agitprop everytime a crack appeared in the facade. Yet now there is mounting video-tape and digital video DOCUMENTING police abuse and murder across the country. In cities like Oakland, where a sizable chunk of the city is in the “left behind” population, the thin veneer keeping a lid on things is gone.

Police depts and city gov’ts across the country had better learn that when this happens in their city, they better come down on the cops hard, or this kind of thing is going to spread as more and more people become more and more desperate.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: well this guy was def a killer. This was too quick and clean. There is little information on the impetus to pull him over. But he was on the lam. with a “no bail warrant” for breaking parole… and previous weapons and dealing charges. Now when there are more details, how bad all of that is.. who knows. But he made quick work of the cops. He made chop suey of them.

They should owrry they can be taken down like that.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: The shooter’s family surfaces. Supposedly when he shot the three SWAT guys (one had superficial wound to the head) he was shooting blindly from a closet. Geesh.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/22/BAAU16L4OI.DTL&tsp=1

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Arcturus - 22 March 2009: how ‘’sharp” Geithner is, the “sharpest”… so we hired a PENCIL?

or Mack the Knife – pearly whites ‘n all . . .

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: SHOCK is breaking out all over… ! Set to music… a show on Broadway, windows on Fifth Avenue… they are so shocked.

Meanwhile we are too… kinda like unseen electric cattle prods.

I don’t know… CA is supposed to be getting some immense amt of money (the figures are all over the place, a wide range) and yet Home Health Care Workers (organised under SEIU, a few years ago when I thought Stern might be a little better) are getting their pay cut.. talk about killing a life line. Teachers STILL got pink slips.. an annual CA ritual… to be rehired at close of summer. But this year, who knows. Some now say they will go teach in TX were there is not an annual pink slip routine.

I assume we get something from the so called “shovel ready” money… but it is very muddled. I assume a lot of DIVERSION and DISTRACTION of monies.

Arnold looks like the big Teutonic cat who ate Obster for mid day break. AND we still have a long running PSA featuring ObMan. Softly loftily he sends us to the moon (they were volunteers he says) or to levees (ha no volunteering in that one, not out here!) and some other dust in the eyes he throws.

AND he is a lousy speaker. What in the deal got delivered? (CBS news is playing clips from the sales job tonight, how ”sharp” Geithner is, the “sharpest”… so we hired a PENCIL?).

Does nto matter ti will all be about cops and “the hundreds of shooters in Oakland” (grace a Jerry Brown, that line) and on and on for days weeks months here.

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28. NYCO - 22 March 2009: Sign of the Times: the New York Times is apparently running out of rich adults to turn into news stories, so now they are reduced to reporting on rich prep school girls.

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29. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2009: I love how this is presented as some kind of “compromise”

As business and labor gird for battle over legislation that would make it easier for workers to organize, the debate could be transformed by a “third way” proposed by three companies that like to project a progressive image: Costco, Starbucks and Whole Foods.

Like other businesses, the three companies are opposed to two of the Employee Free Choice Act’s components — a provision that would allow workers to form a union if a majority sign pro-union cards, without having to hold a secret-ballot election, and one that would impose binding arbitration when employers and unions fail to reach a contract after 120 days.

But the companies’ chief executive officers say they also recognize that just opposing the legislation, commonly called “card check,” is not enough because of the widespread perception in Democrat-dominated Washington that there is not a level playing field between labor and business. So the CEOs have come up with ideas they hope will form the basis of new legislation.

Their proposal would maintain management’s right to demand a secret-ballot election and would leave out binding arbitration. The proposal would keep the third main element of card check — toughening the penalties for companies that retaliate against workers before union elections or refuse to engage in collective bargaining. But it would also toughen penalties for union violations, and it would make it easier for businesses to call elections to try to decertify a union.

To address labor’s concern that businesses intimidate workers before elections, it would set a fixed period in which an election must be held, limiting the delays that give employers time to exert pressure. The proposal does not specify what the time period should be.

The proposal would also provide unions equal access to workers before elections — for instance, by allowing organizers to address workers on a lunch break in the company cafeteria just as management can.

“We wanted to see what we can do to come up with a compromise position that is going to address the concerns of labor and also protect the sanctity of the collective bargaining process and secret ballot,” said Costco Wholesale chief executive James D. Sinegal.

Starbucks chief executive Howard Schultz cast the proposal in more defensive terms. “The way the wind is blowing, we’re heading toward a bill that is not the right approach,” he said. “My responsibility is to not be a bystander but to offer a voice of reason, offer a more positive alternative that levels the playing field.”

The effort is being led in Washington by Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton. Davis said he had approached about 20 Senate offices and gotten an overwhelmingly encouraging response. The Employee Free Choice Act has majority support in both chambers, but there are signs it may have trouble getting a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate, where several centrist Democrats who previously supported it are expressing reservations.

Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), a centrist who is ambivalent about card check, praised the companies’ proposal. “I appreciate a good-faith effort that could result in a reasonable compromise on what has become a highly polarizing matter,” he said.

Davis said he thought that the proposal would intrigue President Obama, who as a senator was a co-sponsor of the card-check bill in 2007 but signaled in an interview before his inauguration that he was also open to other proposals to help organized labor. “This is consistent with President Obama’s overall approach of avoiding polarized positions and looking for third-way ideas,” Davis said.

It takes out ALL of the teeth that would even the battlefield and serves mainly as a subtler way for the companies to target “troublemakers”.

I also find it funny that corps, that insist on arbitration when it comes to firing people or in disputes with customers, are so terrified of it when it comes to labor negotiations.

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: Ambinder has been trying to make the Lanny Davis medicine sound good. Gah.

Reminds me of when Andy Stern of SEIU “partnered” with Wal-Mart over some spurious model for universal health cioverage. yeah right…

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30. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2009: Teachers for CEO Merit Pay

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31. Madman in the Marketplace - 22 March 2009: Law Dog

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marisacat - 22 March 2009: for some reason it reminds me of one time that i came back to the US via Chicago. As we lined up for the Customs routine, a loudspeaker told us it was illegal to smuggle drugs… (NEWS!) … or to not lawfully declare overseas purchases. Then they played tapes of what they called their drug sniffing BEAGLES. Barking. I would have laughed but I did nto want to draw notice.

What a nightmare it has all become.

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32. marisacat - 22 March 2009: Someone just popped me this… John Kass in the Chicago Trib. A lot of too easy hits, it’s true. But…………….. and there will be more of it.

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33. marisacat - 22 March 2009: What is he smoking.

[O]n Afghanistan, Obama said he is looking for a “comprehensive strategy” that stresses diplomacy that includes engagement with neighboring Pakistan. While Obama is studying requests from the military for more troops, he warned that, “there’s gotta be an exit strategy. There– there’s gotta be a sense that this is not perpetual drift.”

He said Afghanistan is a more complex problem than Iraq. “Iraq was actually easier than Afghanistan. It’s easier terrain,” Obama told Kroft. “You’ve got a– much better educated population, infrastructure to build off of. You don’t have some of the same destabilizing border– issues that you have between Afghanistan and Pakistan. And so this is going to be a tough nut to crack. But– it is not acceptable for us to simply sit back and let safe havens of terrorists plan and plot.”

For all the challenges, Obama said, “the complexities of Afghanistan– are matched, maybe even dwarfed, by the complexities of the economic situation.” …

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34. marisacat - 22 March 2009: neue thread…

LINK

……………. ……………..

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