Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Chistopher Buckley Gets Fired by The National Review
William F.'s son endorsed Obama a few days ago, so he got fired by The National Review. Read his entertaining post at The Daily Beast here. It's awesome when the Kool-Aid drinkers eat (or drink?) their own!
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Tahitian Pearls of Wisdom
Tonight's Tahitian pearl of wisdom - Cartman's Haiku
Shut your goddamn mouth
Or I'll kick you
Square in the balls
Shut your goddamn mouth
Or I'll kick you
Square in the balls
Who "helped" the first dude build his house?
Interesting post from Daily Kos. It looks like the "buddies" Todd Palin said "helped" him build his house might have all been the same contractors who were busy building the Wasilla Sports Complex boondoggle that Sarah pushed through as mayor. Nice payback if you can get it. It's hard to tell exactly what happened, cuz in spite of all that snow, Alaska seems to be quite opaque - no building permits were filed.
Senator Ted Stevens all over again!
Senator Ted Stevens all over again!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
What Obama Must Do...
...which of course I believe he won't. From David Seaton:
[T]he legendary prosperity of the American middle class, their massive home ownership and dizzying consumption have long been based on easy credit, that with the end of the cold war, America's credit binge went out of control, that the days of easy credit have just ended with an enormous bang or thud and that if Barack Obama, probably the next president of USA, has any specific ideas about what to do about the whole thing, he is playing his cards very close to his chest, indeed.
The reference to the cold war is very relevant, in my opinion.
If a worldwide banking meltdown, such as we are experiencing right now, had occurred in the 1960s or 70s, the large soviet backed, communist parties of France and Italy, and their trade unions, would have been out in the streets in force rapidly destabilizing those countries: the reaction in Asia, Africa and Latin America might have been even more explosive. Certainly the risk of strengthening such political movements would have been a conscious restraining factor for regulators all over the capitalist world. Those parties and those unions no longer exist. At the end of the cold war, as William Pfaff writes, "without the enemy, the machinery of power begins to race, with nothing to resist it; megalomania sets in."
With this crisis the era of easy private credit is surely drawing to a close and we will see a revival of traditional, conservative, lending practices. This means, for those too young to remember, that to get money you will have to already have money. Nouriel Roubini gives a short list of things that you will find yourself paying up front for besides a house: anything you usually pay for with a credit-card, or a college education, or an automobile, etc.
As you look at the list of things that you will have to save up to buy, James Stewart's, Charles Bailey voice may echo in your ear, "Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars?" In 1946 you could buy a house with five thousand dollars, nowadays you can't buy very much with that sum, but it is still hard for anyone on minimum wage, or not so minimum wage, to save five thousand dollars.
A great many people are going to discover for the first time in their lives that they are poor and they are going to resent it.
Many more people than today are going to feel bitter and in Barack Obama's prescient phrase, "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations”. As another major new voice in American politics might add, "you betcha".
With nothing to threaten it, the system has set out to destroy itself. Now the danger to our system is right wing populism not socialism. Socialism or at least some version of a Scandinavian social democracy is the only way to stabilize this situation and stability is the most truly conservative of values.
This ultra-right, Le Pen-like populist anger is going to sweep America and make an already horrible situation much worse, unless very proactive, openly social democratic, anti-poverty programs are put quickly into place: universal, free health care, grants, not loans, for higher education, government sponsored, high quality subsidized rental housing with option to buy, etc. And make no mistake, this means cutting back defense spending, closing tax havens and raising taxes on the very rich and moving the money into education, health and infrastructure... right away.
Nothing original here, the plans are already drawn up, all you have to do is translate them from Swedish.
The wing nuts are accusing Barack Obama of being a "socialist radical", oh, but were it true.
I think he should quickly announce his future cabinet choices and give a detailed outline of the legislation he aims to pass in his first hundred days.
If Obama doesn't move strongly with vigorous social democratic measures to stabilize the situation of America's seething masses of nouveaux pauvres, he will simply be fattening frogs for snakes... keeping the Oval Office chair warm for Sarah Palin or even worse in 2012.
[T]he legendary prosperity of the American middle class, their massive home ownership and dizzying consumption have long been based on easy credit, that with the end of the cold war, America's credit binge went out of control, that the days of easy credit have just ended with an enormous bang or thud and that if Barack Obama, probably the next president of USA, has any specific ideas about what to do about the whole thing, he is playing his cards very close to his chest, indeed.
The reference to the cold war is very relevant, in my opinion.
If a worldwide banking meltdown, such as we are experiencing right now, had occurred in the 1960s or 70s, the large soviet backed, communist parties of France and Italy, and their trade unions, would have been out in the streets in force rapidly destabilizing those countries: the reaction in Asia, Africa and Latin America might have been even more explosive. Certainly the risk of strengthening such political movements would have been a conscious restraining factor for regulators all over the capitalist world. Those parties and those unions no longer exist. At the end of the cold war, as William Pfaff writes, "without the enemy, the machinery of power begins to race, with nothing to resist it; megalomania sets in."
With this crisis the era of easy private credit is surely drawing to a close and we will see a revival of traditional, conservative, lending practices. This means, for those too young to remember, that to get money you will have to already have money. Nouriel Roubini gives a short list of things that you will find yourself paying up front for besides a house: anything you usually pay for with a credit-card, or a college education, or an automobile, etc.
As you look at the list of things that you will have to save up to buy, James Stewart's, Charles Bailey voice may echo in your ear, "Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars?" In 1946 you could buy a house with five thousand dollars, nowadays you can't buy very much with that sum, but it is still hard for anyone on minimum wage, or not so minimum wage, to save five thousand dollars.
A great many people are going to discover for the first time in their lives that they are poor and they are going to resent it.
Many more people than today are going to feel bitter and in Barack Obama's prescient phrase, "cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations”. As another major new voice in American politics might add, "you betcha".
With nothing to threaten it, the system has set out to destroy itself. Now the danger to our system is right wing populism not socialism. Socialism or at least some version of a Scandinavian social democracy is the only way to stabilize this situation and stability is the most truly conservative of values.
This ultra-right, Le Pen-like populist anger is going to sweep America and make an already horrible situation much worse, unless very proactive, openly social democratic, anti-poverty programs are put quickly into place: universal, free health care, grants, not loans, for higher education, government sponsored, high quality subsidized rental housing with option to buy, etc. And make no mistake, this means cutting back defense spending, closing tax havens and raising taxes on the very rich and moving the money into education, health and infrastructure... right away.
Nothing original here, the plans are already drawn up, all you have to do is translate them from Swedish.
The wing nuts are accusing Barack Obama of being a "socialist radical", oh, but were it true.
I think he should quickly announce his future cabinet choices and give a detailed outline of the legislation he aims to pass in his first hundred days.
If Obama doesn't move strongly with vigorous social democratic measures to stabilize the situation of America's seething masses of nouveaux pauvres, he will simply be fattening frogs for snakes... keeping the Oval Office chair warm for Sarah Palin or even worse in 2012.
Obama: The Master of Rope-a-Dope
Interesting article by Andrew Sullivan, where he posits that Obama is the master of the rope-a-dope. Best paragraph:
"Obama rarely directly attacks. He subtly baits. His most brilliant rope-a-dope of the entire campaign was against Bill Clinton in the spring. In a newspaper interview, Obama cited Ronald Reagan as the last transformational president. He didn’t mention Clinton. The former president was offended by being implicitly dissed, took the bait and unleashed a series of unwise public scoffs at the young Democrat, culminating in a dismissal of Obama as another Jesse Jackson. Suddenly, black Democrats abandoned Clinton’s wife, and the Clintons’ base collapsed. Obama merely stepped out of the way as the Clintons self-destructed. He didn’t just end their campaign; he helped to bury their reputation."
"Obama rarely directly attacks. He subtly baits. His most brilliant rope-a-dope of the entire campaign was against Bill Clinton in the spring. In a newspaper interview, Obama cited Ronald Reagan as the last transformational president. He didn’t mention Clinton. The former president was offended by being implicitly dissed, took the bait and unleashed a series of unwise public scoffs at the young Democrat, culminating in a dismissal of Obama as another Jesse Jackson. Suddenly, black Democrats abandoned Clinton’s wife, and the Clintons’ base collapsed. Obama merely stepped out of the way as the Clintons self-destructed. He didn’t just end their campaign; he helped to bury their reputation."
Al Franken Spanks Norm Coleman!
Here's a cool Al Franken ad, where he does a pretty great job of shaming Norm Coleman!
The script:
Announcer: Paul Wellstone used to run alongside his son, David, when David was running cross country races. Listen to Al Franken tell the story.
Al Franken (from speech at Wellstone Center): And David said, "Yeah, but get this. My dad made me run cross country. And this is like a two-and-a-half- three-mile race every time. And my dad would run alongside me on the edge of the course, off the edge of the course. And I'd get to the last quarter mile, and I'd be behind by, you know, ten or fifteen yards, and I'd be totally out of gas. My dad would see it. And my dad running alongside would start yelling, 'You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy."
Announcer: Look familiar? That's right. Ads for Norm Coleman use this footage of Al Franken telling this story about Paul Wellstone and his son and try to make is seem like he was angry. Minnesota deserves better.
Al Franken: I'm Al Franken and I approve this message.
The script:
Announcer: Paul Wellstone used to run alongside his son, David, when David was running cross country races. Listen to Al Franken tell the story.
Al Franken (from speech at Wellstone Center): And David said, "Yeah, but get this. My dad made me run cross country. And this is like a two-and-a-half- three-mile race every time. And my dad would run alongside me on the edge of the course, off the edge of the course. And I'd get to the last quarter mile, and I'd be behind by, you know, ten or fifteen yards, and I'd be totally out of gas. My dad would see it. And my dad running alongside would start yelling, 'You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy! You can take him. You can take this guy."
Announcer: Look familiar? That's right. Ads for Norm Coleman use this footage of Al Franken telling this story about Paul Wellstone and his son and try to make is seem like he was angry. Minnesota deserves better.
Al Franken: I'm Al Franken and I approve this message.
Macro Man thinks it's time to buy stocks!
From Macro Man, a pretty cool financial blog:
"And so Macro Man has decided to bid adieu to an old friend, his equity short position. Most major indices are down 20%-25% this month alone. While it is of course foolish to suggest that further downside is impossible, Macro Man now believes that prices are discounting a bone-crushing recession and could actually be cheap. At the same time, the Four Horsemen of the Investment Apocalypse- Risk Aversion, De-leveraging, Illiquidity, and Panic- stalk the land like hounds from the bowels of Hell."
"And so Macro Man has decided to bid adieu to an old friend, his equity short position. Most major indices are down 20%-25% this month alone. While it is of course foolish to suggest that further downside is impossible, Macro Man now believes that prices are discounting a bone-crushing recession and could actually be cheap. At the same time, the Four Horsemen of the Investment Apocalypse- Risk Aversion, De-leveraging, Illiquidity, and Panic- stalk the land like hounds from the bowels of Hell."
Sell! Buy!
Here's a tragically funny cartoon from The Economist in 1987, recently posted on Paul Krugman's blog:
Suitgate!
Here's Culleen Sheehan, Norm Coleman's campaign manager, refusing to answer whether or not the Senator accepted expensive suits from a rich campaign contributor:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)