September 2008
Monthly Archive
September 29, 2008
The ongoing housing/mortgage/securities collapse south of the border is an unprecedented example of what can happen when a variety of bad things occur at the same time.
An economy driven by its housing market. What were they thinking? Homebuyers who believed that the value of their properties would increase forever on the back of near nil interest rates? What were they thinking? Mortgage lenders who were, in reality, mortgage bundlers and hawkers. What were they thinking? Securities giants who thought they could reap billions in buying and selling securitized mortgages. What were they thinking? Regulators who dismissed this as so much “froth” in the marketplace? What were they thinking? Congressional leaders who greased the wheels with legislation to keep this scam rolling. What were they thinking?
You see, this fiasco was delusional at every level. It was a society, a nation on full bore “TILT.” From the homeowner/mortgage borrower to the mortgage lender/reseller to the bundled mortgage buyer/reseller to the investors who bought the securitized mortgage bundles to the economic watchdog regulators and to their political masters, they all bought into the same, rightwing laissez-faire ideology, the very same message of madness.
From the moment, eight years ago, that former Senate Banking committee chairman (and McCain advisor) Phil Gramm pushed through the legislation that permitted unrestricted warfare on America using securitized derivatives in lieu of torpedoes, TODAY has been not merely foreseeable. It’s been all but inevitable. It’s not that people couldn’t see it coming, it’s that they chose not to look. When a whole nation does that, it’s scary. When it’s the most powerful nation on earth that does it, it’s pathetic and scary.
Okay, so now we have a trillion dollar “bail out” of Wall Street, the nationalization (pure socialism) of America’s top economic sector, the financial sector, and the media are howling on about the end of “free market capitalism.” Who says?
America has been a free market capitalist state since it invented the idea. It has remained a free market capitalist state even when, in the past, it had to resort to getting taxpayers to bail out bad capitalists – remember the Savings & Loan scandals? What happened in the wake of that sort of debacle? Not much, hardly anything at all.
You see, if this was going to be the end of free market capitalism there would have to be another economic model put in its place and the appropriate (and enormous) adjustments run through every stratum of society.
What new model is being ushered in to replace America’s free market capitalism? A government bail out isn’t an economic system like capitalism or socialism or communism. Heaping debt on future generations of wage earner-taxpayers isn’t an economic system. Restoring (at least until the ruckus dies down) a healthy degree of essential regulation to the capitalism isn’t a new system.
There is no new economic system for America on the horizon. All that’s happening is the shifting of debt from failed economic giants to the shoulders of wage earning taxpayers. That’s it. That’s anything but the end of free market capitalism.
Until you hear John McCain say that America can no longer afford Bush’s tax cuts for the rich, free market capitalism is very much alive and well in the United States. It may have been sent to its room for a little “time out” but that’s about it.
September 29, 2008
The esteemed editor of NewsWeek International has joined the chorus of voices – left, right and in-between – urging John McCain’s living, breathing, senior’s moment – Sarah Palin – to pack up her moose hides and go home.
“Will someone please put Sarah Palin out of her agony? Is it too much to ask that she come to realize that she wants, in that wonderful phrase in American politics, “to spend more time with her family”? Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS’s Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn’t help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:
“‘It’s very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where–where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to–to our state.’
“There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the rest of her response. “It is from Alaska that we send out those …” What does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. (“We mustn’t blink.”) But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.”
Zakaria focuses on this Palin answer in response to a Couric question, “designed to see if Palin understood that the problem in this crisis is that credit and liquidity in the financial system has dried up.”
PALIN: “That’s why I say I, like every American I’m speaking with, were ill about this position that we have been put in where it is the taxpayers looking to bail out. But ultimately, what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health-care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy, helping the–it’s got to be all about job creation, too, shoring up our economy and putting it back on the right track. So health-care reform and reducing taxes and reining in spending has got to accompany tax reductions and tax relief for Americans. And trade, we’ve got to see trade as opportunity, not as a competitive, scary thing. But one in five jobs being created in the trade sector today, we’ve got to look at that as more opportunity. All those things under the umbrella of job creation. This bailout is a part of that.”
Nothing could make it plainer that Sarah Palin has no business standing as a potential “next in line” to the presidency of the United States. She is vacuous – an empty vessel from the neck up. She is Dan Quayle minus the intellect. The McCain people have been trying to groom her for weeks and yet she still has no grasp of even the most major issues of the day.
Okay, fairness demands that I acknowledge Fareed Zakaria is an elitist. Yes, he is well educated. Yes, he is highly experienced and very knowledgeable. Yes these are the qualities that fuel the righteous indignation of you fundamentalist nutjobs. There you go. Now, bite me.
September 28, 2008
Posted by MoS under
McCain
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John McCain’s problems with campaign manager Rick Davis just keep getting worser and worser.
First there was the problem of Davis serving as an influence peddler to the now ruined mortgage giant, Freddie Mac.
McCain’s first line of defence was to claim that Davis had cut his ties with FMac long before he joined the campaign.
Then it came out that, right up to death’s doorstep, Freddie Mac kept paying $15,000 per month to Davis’ old “consulting” firm, Davis Manafort.
That’s Davis (as in Rick) Manafort.
McCain’s next line of defence was to claim that his campaign manager had also cut his ties with Davis Manafort before joining the senator’s campaign. The reality there was that Rick Davis had supposedly resigned from Davis Manafot but.. there’s always a but… he retained his equity interest in the firm.
McCain’s people lashed out like cornered rats at The New York Times for leaking that one. But now the Rick Davis calamity is back, this time courtesy of Newsweek.
It goes like this. If Rick Davis severed his ties with Davis Manafort when he joined the McCain campaign, why did he ask that his $20,000 a month campaign salary be paid directly to Davis Manafort? From Newsweek:
“The McCain campaign told reporters the fees were irrelevant because Davis “separated from his consulting firm … in 2006,” according to the campaign’s Web site, and he stopped drawing a salary from it. In fact, however, when Davis joined the campaign in January 2007, he asked that his $20,000-a-month salary be paid directly to Davis Manafort, two sources who asked not to be identified discussing internal campaign business told NEWSWEEK. Federal campaign records show the McCain campaign paid Davis Manafort $90,000 through July 2007, when a cash crunch prompted Davis and other top campaign officials to forgo their salaries and work as volunteers. Separately, another entity created and partly owned by Davis—an Internet firm called 3eDC, whose address was the same office building as Davis Manafort’s—received payments from the McCain campaign for Web services, collecting $971,860 through March 2008.
In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, a senior McCain official said that when the campaign began last year, it signed a contract with Davis Manafort ‘in which we purchased all of [Davis’s] time, and he agreed not to work for any other clients.'”
So which is it. Is John McCain no longer capable of discerning the truth or just incapable of telling the truth?
September 28, 2008
Posted by MoS under
Palin
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This one is almost too good to be true. The
Times of London speculates that Sarah Palin may be gearing up to give the McCain campaign a popularity boost by marrying off her pregnant daughter, Bristol, to her high-school dropout boyfriend, Levi, just days before the November 4th vote.
The paper claims the McCain camp sees this as a blessing to be milked for everything it’s worth:
“It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”
Who would’ve imagined that a 17-year old’s uterus could play a pivotal role in a US presidential election?
September 28, 2008
Posted by MoS under
Afghanistan
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Remember how we were supposed to be saving Afghanistan from the Taliban? Times change, ask Harpo. Two years ago he was wetting his panties, flying to Afghanistan, making rousing speeches to the troops and bagging photo ops galore. Lately he’s dummied up. No more jingoism about what we are going to do to the Taliban or what we are going to do for the Afghan people. No more boasting about democracy or women’s rights.
We may have begun this half-assed adventure believing we were going to save the Afghans from the Taliban but it seems we’re now focused on saving part of Afghanistan for the Taliban.
The Guardian reports that the Saudis, backed by the Brits, are brokering high-level peace talks with the Taliban leadership.
“The unprecedented negotiations involve a senior former member of the hardline Islamist movement travelling between Kabul, the bases of the Taliban senior leadership in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and European capitals. Britain has provided logistic and diplomatic support for the talks – despite official statements that negotiations can be held only with Taliban who are ready to renounce, or have renounced, violence.
Last week the French Prime Minister, François Fillon, referred indirectly to the talks during a parliamentary debate on Afghanistan. ‘We must explore ways of separating the international jihadists from those who are acting more for nationalist or tribal motives. Efforts in this direction are being led by Sunni [Muslim] countries such as Saudi Arabia,’ he said.
This summer’s fighting season in Afghanistan has been the most violent since the invasion of 2001. The deterioration of the situation has provoked a major review of strategy among the 40-nation international coalition pitted against an increasingly confident and effective insurgency.”
At the moment it appears that Karzai is dragging his heels and yet he seems to understand quite well what the future may hold for him if this initiative fails.
We sure have lowered our sights on this one. It’s only taken seven years for us to realize we’re just going to have to settle for what we can get and, right now, that seems to amount to driving a wedge between the insurgents and their al-Qaeda terrorist brethren.
Don’t get any fanciful ideas that peace in Afghanistan is just around the corner. It isn’t. Even if a power-sharing deal was worked out with the Taliban it’s not likely to hold for long. The Taliban and many Afghan warlords, want the West – NATO and the US – out of their country. At some point they’re going to want to settle their differences themselves, their own way. Then there’s the country’s criminal elements – its drug barons, warlords and corrupt central government with its predatory security services.
Don’t let this get you down. We were never in this to win in the first place. Afghanistan may go down in the books as one of the most thoroughly botched military adventures in Western history since WWI. Seriously, all those generals? Idiots. And those cheerleaders, Bush, Scheffer, Harper? Ditto.
If you want to know just how screwed up Afghanistan has become, read the following article from BBC that explains who’s arming the Taliban.
September 27, 2008
Maybe it’s just one of those giddy ideas that gets a bit of traction yet some pundits are talking about whether the McCain organization has decided the only safe thing to do is ditch Sarah Palin.
Where was she after last night’s debate when her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, was making the rounds of the TV networks? It turns out the McCain people wouldn’t make her available for interviews – no live TV appearances for Sarah Palin.
The Huffington Post has this from radio talk show host Ed Schultz:
“Capitol Hill sources are telling me that senior McCain people are more than concerned about Palin. The campaign has held a mock debate and a mock press conference; both are being described as “disastrous.” One senior McCain aide was quoted as saying, “What are we going to do?” The McCain people want to move this first debate to some later, undetermined date, possibly never. People on the inside are saying the Alaska Governor is ‘clueless.'”
Now, in fairness, Schultz is a progressive and he’s said some pretty scathing things about Palin before. But what about the uber-uber-right, National Review? HoffPo links to this opinion piece by the NR’s very conservative commentator, Kathleen Parker, who claims Palin should take a powder:
As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.
It was fun while it lasted.
Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.
No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.
Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there.
If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.
If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.
What to do?
…Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.
Do it for your country.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDZiMDhjYTU1NmI5Y2MwZjg2MWNiMWMyYTUxZDkwNTE=
As if the McCainsters don’t have enough problems without lugging about this anchor, Biden made it clear last night that Palin has no reason to expect any kid glove treatment from him when they square off in the vice-presidential debate. Conservative Kathleen Parker is right. Palin does exhaust your cringe reflex.
Poor old Johnny McSame. He hired her for the bump and now he’s stuck with the grind.
h/t Unrepentent Old Hippie
September 27, 2008
I expect that everybody was happy with the performance of their guy in last night’s presidential debate. My assessment is that viewers saw that debate pretty much according to the leanings they had when they came into it. I can’t see that it would have shifted too many voters one way or the other.
One network said Obama won their focus group of undecideds 60-40 but there’s no way of knowing how reliable those numbers are, at least not until some serious polling is conducted.
McCain, as expected, took the low road and, at times, looked very much the wizened up Old Geezer, the kind who yells at the kids in the street from his front porch rocker. In my view, Obama wasn’t nearly as aggressive as he ought to have been but, of the two, he alone seemed presidential. McCain didn’t even look at his opponent. He couldn’t look him in the eye as he told some genuine whoppers.
Then again, it was the “foreign policy” debate which the McCain camp maintains is their guy’s real strong suit. On that basis it was probably up to McCain to trounce Obama – to put him away – and he didn’t do it.
September 27, 2008
Paul Newman, dead at 83 – lung cancer. A true progressive in the very best sense of the word.
September 26, 2008
The European Union’s foreign affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, warns that the Afghan insurgency is becoming increasingly dangerous and spreading into the once tame northern provinces. From Associated Press:
“We have seen that unfortunately the insurgency has come back,” Ferrero-Waldner told a business forum on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
“Now some of the (troop-contributing) countries are going all to the south,” she said. “But what about the north, the north is falling apart again.”
What wasn’t pointed out is that the insurgency is spreading beyond the Pashtun/Taliban regions as other Afghan warlords start to side with the insurgents to oust US and NATO forces. This is no longer just us versus the Taliban. This is on the cusp of becoming a much more generalized civil war and that ought to be of real concern to us given that we’ve never had more than a fraction of the troop strength necessary just to deal with the Taliban alone.
Some of the Taliban’s former enemies, nasty characters like the warlords Hekmatyar and Haqqani, have recently thrown in with the insurgency.
What’s most remarkable about this isn’t the growth of the insurgency or its spread but the total refusal of our political and military leadership to even acknowledge what’s going on. They can’t be honest with us about it because that would force them to explain what they intend to do about it.
We know Canada’s response. Harper announced just a couple of weeks ago that, come 2011, we’re gone – period. My guess is that Harpo is praying this doesn’t turn into a total shitstorm in the meantime.
September 26, 2008
Posted by MoS under
Coquihalla
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British Columbia’s invisible man, Premier Gordon Campbell, surprised everyone by announcing that, effective immediately, the Coquihalla highway is no longer a toll road. Jaws dropped throughout the province at the announcement.
The Coquihalla was built as a super expressway by the long vanished Social Credit government. It provided a high speed link between the lower mainland and Kamloops, allowing traffic to bypass the sometimes treacherous and always challenging Hope-Princeton highway.
It was built as a toll road with the promise that, once the construction costs had been recouped, the tolls would end. That, of course, never happened. Last I checked the toll revenues had paid for the thing twice over and then some.
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