Sleeping Dog

Delta Sucks

2011-06-08T13:25:00.001-04:00

In case you need another reason not to fly Delta

This is a GREAT Idea

2011-05-19T20:48:00.003-04:00

Congress doesn't want to raise the debt ceiling so...

But here’s what I don’t understand: we’ve already reached the debt ceiling. At this point, Geithner can point at just about anything and say that it’s an expenditure we can’t afford right now, and we’ll have to put it off until the debt ceiling is raised. Why doesn’t he just do that with all Congressional salaries?
Felix Salmon

Don't pay the bastards, what's not to like?

How Important is Social Security to America's Seniors?

2011-05-19T09:34:00.003-04:00

Average share of senior citizen income by age group.

The idea that Social Security can be saved by means testing is fallacious. There are not enough high income seniors to make a significant difference. Add to that eliminating Social Security would increase the poverty rate among seniors to 45% from 9%,

HT to the Daily Dish

2011-05-12T11:38:00.000-04:00

Time.com has a piece up saying that 85% of this years college grads will be returning home to live with mom and dad due to not having a job. What's missing is some context, what percentage of college grads returned home during an economic boom?

The Dogs of War

2011-05-12T06:52:00.000-04:00

The military relies on canines to detect bombs and keep the troops safe, yet the Keystone Kops of the TSA would rather grope you or spend millions on technology that they admit doesn't work.

If Not for G.W. Bush, the Budget Would be Balanced

2011-05-11T21:08:00.000-04:00

HT the Daily Dish

The US Pays more for Health Care and Why

2011-05-10T22:02:00.002-04:00

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

Hat Tip to the Daily Dish.

The Home Wrecker

2011-05-10T10:53:00.002-04:00

Serial philanderer, Newt Gingrich is running for president and he believes his current wife (#3) and former mistress, Callista, aka, The Home Wrecker will be an asset to his campaign. Given Gingrich's lack of ethics, she does look good by comparison.

At least Elliot Spitzer had the good sense to resign and (for now) remain in private life.

Then Banality of Evil

2011-05-10T07:45:00.001-04:00

Chuck Schumer is a Stupid Hack

2011-05-09T16:44:00.002-04:00

Schumer wants a No Ride list for Amtrak because the trove of information that was recovered with bin Laden's death revealed that al Qaeda had thoughts on disrupting US railroads. The method, tamper with the tracks, not place a bomb on board, meaning a No Ride list or any other airport like security procedure would have absolutely no effect.

Besides, if you want to attack the rail system and cause a major disruption and potentially a large number of deaths, a terrorist would not attack a passenger train, but a freight train hauling chemical cars.

Schmer is an idiot.

Entertainment?

2011-05-06T20:34:00.002-04:00

Thumbing through the Arts section of last Sunday's New York Times, was an article on musicals in development on such topics as a marine disaster, Bonnie and Clyde and non specific rape and murder. What's for next season, Pedophile Priests, A Love Story or Osama, The Musical?

It's About Time

2011-05-04T10:14:00.002-04:00

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.*

In the aftermath of the financial crisis one of the most frustrating things has been to watch the preening, fraudulent banksters go on as if nothing happened and that they deserved the bailout. Add to that Obama repeatedly kissing bankster ask and now the the Repugs falling all over themselves to give the banksters blowjobs and when their ~~mouths~~ wallets are filled with ~~semen~~ money, they are spreading the collective ass cheeks of America so that the banksters can ass fuck us again.

So the news yesterday that the US is suing Deutsche Bank for fraud is satisfying. Too bad its not a criminal case and it shouldn't be the last.

*Lyric by Woody Guthrie from Pretty Boy Floyd.

The Crazies New Conspiracy

2011-05-03T08:47:00.004-04:00

~~Trutherism~~ Deatherism, is the name that's been given to those who either don't believe that bin Laden is dead or believe he's been dead for sometime and his body has been preserved so to be released at an opportune moment.

Go figure.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54113.html
http://www.infowars.com/inside-sources-bin-ladens-corpse-has-been-on-ice-for-nearly-a-decade/
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/05/02/osama-bin-trutherism-is-born.aspx
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/02/breitbart-bin-laden-deathers/

How do these idiots make it through the day?

Bin Laden

2011-05-02T06:53:00.002-04:00

It would have been fitting for General Petraeus to present the head of Bin Laden to President Obama, but we're more civilized than that and a DNA sample will suffice. Hopefully some will be offended that the military fed the murders carcass to the fishes and perhaps in shark filled waters.

That Bin Laden was found in Abbottabad, a city that Google Maps says is less than a two and a half hour drive from Islamabad, makes a lie of Pakistani protestations that they knew nothing of his whereabouts. Significant members of the Pakistani government, military and intelligence services knew Bin Laden was there.

What now? With regard to Afghanistan and Pakistan it is time for the US to remove the teat of support and bring our troops home. These two miserable countries can fester in their own dysfunction, let them be the problem of their neighbors. What about the nukes? It should be made clear to Pakistan that any use of nuclear weapons by it or its supplicants will result in Pakistan receiving disproportional retribution.

Yup, This About Sums it Up

2011-04-27T22:00:00.006-04:00

Hat tip to Balloon Juice.

End of Life Spending

2011-04-26T15:46:00.004-04:00

Matthew Yglesais, building on a suggestion by Andrew Sullivan to provide a method and process for citizens to make their choices regarding end of life care known and enforced, thereby saving the country significant amounts of money by not extending heroic efforts in caring for the dying in their last months suggests:

That certainly seems like a good idea to me. Although as with most good ideas about reducing health care spending what’s good about it isn’t so much that it reduces health care spending as that it seems like it would make people better off. Nobody likes to spend time pondering our own mortality, but lots of us would do well to take at least a little time to consider in advance how we’d like to end our lives.

To me, this is the general shape of the Medicare problem. It’s not so much that it “costs too much” as that relative to what it’s projected to cost in the future it doesn’t deliver enough value to retirees. If you’re 77 years old and receive a medical diagnosis that implies you have eighteen months to live without treatment, the government will spend large sums of money on trying to extent your life twelve months further. The government won’t pay for you to take a trip to visit the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank or to see Michelangelo’s David in Florence. But would it be so crazy for a fatally ill 77 year-old art lover who’s never been to Italy to prefer the chance to see her favorite artists’ iconic works in person over the chance of receiving extra medical care? I don’t think so. The point of our retirement programs should be to deliver high quality of life to senior citizens, and that militates at the margin for more Social Security rather than more Medicare. But the way our programs are set up, per retiree Medicare spending will grow much more rapidly than per retiree Social Security spending. That’s not the most cost-effective way to deliver high-quality retirement to people.

Matthew will only partly object to being called a fuzzy headed liberal, but he makes a pertinent point that providing a good quality of life to senior citizens is the point of retirement programs whether government sponsored or private. Anyone who has spent time with a dying parent has seen that the things that brought them joy in their last days and months was making contact with the people and experiences that brought richness to their life.

Abandoning the Jobless

2011-04-25T09:33:00.002-04:00

David Frum is right, neither political party is offering more than lip service to the task of job creation. For the Repugs, talk of jobs is a smoke screen to justify what they really want to do, gut government. The Demiots, with their large majorities, never had the guts to launch Rooseveltian job creation policies. While both parties pay filial loyalty to their paymasters on Wall St. and at the banks who no longer are interested in creating anything but personal wealth and who are perfectly happy collecting tolls on financial transactions.

It is likely that many of the unemployed will never return to a full time job that pays middle class wages. The lucky among them will be close to retirement age and young enough to flee places that are creating jobs. It is sad to think of a youthful American diaspora emigrating to Asia seeking economic opportunity.

Cut the Pentagon Budget

2011-04-21T22:24:00.001-04:00

From today's NY Times/CBS New Poll

Given the choice of cutting military, Social Security or Medicare spending as a way to reduce the overall budget, 45 percent chose military cuts, compared with those to Social Security (17 percent) or Medicare (21 percent.)

Hat tip to the Daily Dish.

Serious? Brave? No, Silly and Stupid

2011-04-21T22:13:00.002-04:00

A few conservative bloggers are having a discussion of means-testing for entitlements, a discussion that is interesting in its own right. But what I found interesting is David Frum's view on health care for the elderly.

4) It’s true that Australia does a good job of means-testing benefits. But there is one benefit that Australia confers on virtually everybody, with only some slight clawbacks from the more affluent. It happens to be the benefit that Americans are debating most intensely right now: health care. All Australians are guaranteed health insurance. Through a program called Medicare, as it happens. Old and young. Rich and poor. Everybody.

5) Meanwhile, on this side of the Pacific, Medicare spends an average of $12,000 per recipient. In the past, that cost has approximately doubled every 10 years. If that trend continues, today’s 54-year-olds – the first cohort to be affected by the Ryan plan – will face premiums averaging $48,000 per couple. Today’s 44-year-olds will face premiums averaging $96,000 per couple. Per year. And rising.

Perhaps those trends will slow. Let’s hope they do. But there is no way on earth that the typical American family – hell, that the bottom 80% of American families – can accumulate the savings over their working lives sufficient to buy Medicare insurance as it has been known to this date.

I’m all for ferocious cost-cutting within Medicare. I’m all for intensified competition. I liked the concepts in Ryancare back when they were still called Romneycare. But let’s face it: until those concepts start working so brilliantly effectively that Medicare costs actually drop, means-testing in Medicare is code for denying Medicare to many, many older Americans.

Frum is right, privatizing health care for the elderly as proposed by the Repugs and Paul Ryan effectively will bankrupt them. Oh and Romenycare, many other Repubs claim that it is the same thing as Obamacare.

America's Elites have Failed Us

2011-04-18T15:43:00.002-04:00

E.J. Dionne is a smart guy but doesn't get it.

At other moments in our history, the informal networks of the wealthy and powerful who often wield at least as much influence as our elected politicians accepted that their good fortune imposed an obligation: to reform and thus preserve the system that allowed them to do so well. They advocated social decency out of self-interest (reasonably fair societies are more stable) but also from an old-fashioned sense of civic duty. “Noblesse oblige” sounds bad until it doesn’t exist anymore.

An enlightened ruling class understands that it can get richer and its riches will be more secure if prosperity is broadly shared, if government is investing in productive projects that lift the whole society and if social mobility allows some circulation of the elites. A ruling class closed to new talent doesn’t remain a ruling class for long.

What Dionne doesn't see or won't accept is that the wealthy in America no longer see themselves of America, but as a global class that is loyal only to itself.

Willard is a Rat

2011-04-16T18:21:00.001-04:00

And where is Mitten's birth certificate. Let's see the long form.

Don't Bitch...In Front of the TSA

2011-04-15T15:44:00.002-04:00

CNN discovers what any teenager who has run afoul of a mall cop knows, that complaining only makes you a target of the demi-fascists.

Risk Shifting and Moral Behavior

2011-04-05T16:24:00.002-04:00

Representative, Paul Ryan's Medicare plan is out and there are two things that you should know about it.

It intends to shield the government from needing to deal with the rising cost of health care. This to the determent of not only Medicare recipients, but business the buy there employees' health insurance, state governments who fund Medicaid programs and the individual insurance buyer.
It is a big sweet present to the insurance companies and it will result in higher costs and lower benefits for Medicare recipients.

If Ryan and the Repugs get their way, the elderly will be the front line in the battle over health care costs. Remember the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan? (Quite a coincidence) Now imagine that the insurance and health care industry are the Germans and the solders on the landing craft are senior citizens.

From the Economist, hardly a liberal magazine.

PAUL RYAN'S plan to replace Medicare with a system of vouchers for seniors to buy health care on the private market has only been vaguely described, as of this writing. But there is one thing about it that's fairly clear, regardless of what's in the details Mr Ryan will announce today: Mr Ryan's plan ends the guarantee that all American seniors will have health insurance. The Medicare system we've had in place for the past 45 years promises that once you reach 65, you will be covered by a government-financed health-insurance plan. Mr Ryan's plan promises that once you reach 65, you will receive a voucher for an amount that he thinks ought to be enough for individuals to purchase a private health-insurance plan. (Mr Ryan insists that his plan doesn't entail a "voucher", but there is no meaningful distinction between getting a voucher with which to pay for insurance, and having the government send a payment to the insurer you choose.) If that voucher isn't worth enough for some particular senior to buy insurance, and that particular senior isn't wealthy enough to top off the coverage, or is a bit forgetful and neglects to purchase insurance, there's no guarantee that that person will be insured. It's up to you; you carry the risk.

Insurance is all about spreading risk. Guaranteeing health insurance for the elderly takes their risk of high health-care expenditures and spreads it out across the population. Unfortunately, with the risk so diffuse, there's insufficient incentive for anyone to control costs, so government expenditures on Medicare are becoming unacceptably high. Mr Ryan's proposal to privatise and voucherise Medicare attempts to reintroduce the incentive to cut costs by dumping that risk back onto individual seniors. And the greatest risks will fall on the poorest, sickest, or least savvy elderly; they will be the ones most at risk of going uncovered. I agree with Mr Ryan that the government needs to limit taxpayers' exposure to Medicare cost inflation. I think this plan is a fundamentally immoral way to do it.

Read the rest here.

A War For Berlusconi and BP?

2011-03-31T21:27:00.000-04:00

This is what imperial powers do.

Would You Pay $93,000 To Live Four Months Longer?

2011-03-31T13:54:00.003-04:00

Would you have Medicare pay $93,000 so that you can live four months longer?

Hence the problem with the cost of providing health care to seniors and potentially to all medical insurance if the insurance industry succumbs to the inevitable pressure to pay for this treatment.

The Tale of Fannie and Freddie

2011-03-28T16:37:00.002-04:00

You know Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, no not that cute couple in little cape up the street, but the Federally sponsored, private, mortgage guarantee company that made investors tons of money till the mortgage market collapsed and then they cost the tax payers billions for a bail out.

Washington wants to rid themselves of these pests and that's a good thing. There are dissenters of course, mostly realtors and home builders who see Fannie and Freddie as integral to their business. But Dems, Repugs and economists in and out of government feel that the mortgage market should be private. That's right, but not without a cost.

If the mortgage market is privatized expect that interest rates will rise, that down payment requirements will be higher and that fix rate 15 and 30 year mortgages will disappear and that all mortgages will be adjustable. Housing prices will likely plummet, which is good for anyone hoping to buy, but it will be a disaster for those who own homes.

2011-03-21T17:46:00.002-04:00

The Indians called it counting coup, touching the dead body of your enemy after you've killed him. War is dehumanizing, to the civilians who are caught in the middle and to the troops. The vast majority serve with honor and bravery, but some will succumb to the baser instincts of man to treat our enemy as less than human.

US soldier 'posing' for a photograph with a Afghan
civilian that was killed by the patrol. One of 4 photos
published by Der Spiegel.

The war in Afghanistan is a travesty, it is time to come home.

Libya

2011-03-19T19:33:00.001-04:00

Now, explain to me again what are strategic interests are.

Where Americans are Moving

2011-03-14T21:19:00.000-04:00

Interactive map showing emigration between counties at Forbes.com.

Eliminating the Defectives

2011-03-11T07:52:00.002-05:00

The Concord Monitor had an interesting story that comments on the quality, intelligence and charity of the people that NH is electing to represent them.

A 91-year-old state representative told a constituent that he believes in eugenics and that the world would be better off without "defective people."

Barrington Republican Martin Harty told Sharon Omand, a Strafford resident who manages a community mental health program, that "the world is too populated" and there are "too many defective people," according to an e-mail account of the conversation by Omand. Asked what he meant, she said Harty clarified, "You know the mentally ill, the retarded, people with physical disabilities and drug addictions - the defective people society would be better off without."

The Monitor confirmed with Harty that he made the statements.

Harty told the Monitor the world population has increased dramatically, and "it's a very dangerous situation if it doubles again." Asked about people who are mentally ill, he asked, apparently referring to a lack of financial resources, "Can we afford to bring them through?"
Harty said nature has a way of "getting rid of stupid people," and "now we're saving everyone who gets born."

Might I suggest that we begin this process by euthanizing state representatives over 90.

Yup, That About Sums it Up.

2011-03-11T07:19:00.002-05:00

Politics Daily

You Get What You Pay For

2011-03-07T21:46:00.002-05:00

Fourth grade math test scores. Chart from the Connecticut Mirror.

Note the relative position of the performance of US students to what teachers are paid.
Chart from the Daily Dish

Waldo?

2011-03-02T11:50:00.002-05:00

Ruth Marcus says what many observers wonder about Obama and his presidency.

For a man who won office talking about change we can believe in, Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. There are a startling number of occasions in which the president has been missing in action - unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational, more cautious than forceful.

He does seem to confuse leadership with herding cats.

The president has faltered, though, when called on to translate that rhetoric to more granular levels of specificity: What change, exactly, does he want people to believe in? How, even more exactly, does he propose to get there? "Winning the future" doesn't quite do it.

My biggest beef is with the president's slipperiness on fiscal matters. Obama has said he agrees with some of his fiscal commission's recommendations and disagrees with others. Which ones does he disagree with? I asked this question the other day of Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

Here's what I got: "The view espoused by some of the . . . commission that we ought to do Social Security 100 percent off of benefit cuts for sure he doesn't agree with." But of course, the plan that 11 of the commission members endorsed did nothing of the sort.

It's odd that Geo. W. Bush was more convincing, even if you disagreed with him, than Obama is when he gives a small talk. Probably because Bush believes in something.

Where's Obama? No matter how hard you look, sometimes he's impossible to find.

A good one line summary of why Obama shouldn't be re-elected.

Goldman Sachs Economists Expose the Lie that the Budget Cuts proposed by House Repugs will Spur Economic Growth

2011-02-24T11:01:00.002-05:00

The long and the short of it is that Goldman estimates that if the proposed House budget cuts were to go into effect, GDP growth would be reduced by 1% and for an economy whose growth in GDP is sputtering along at 2-3% that would be devastating. The contents of the report, written by Alec Phillips was made available to The Note.

Here’s the Report:

Proposals to cut federal spending, the possibility of a government shutdown, and the escalated debate over state employee compensation has increased interest in the effect of fiscal policy on growth, after last year’s fiscal package briefly neutralized the expected drag from federal fiscal policy.
Federal spending cuts deserve the most attention. They are the most likely of these issues to occur, and could have the largest magnitude. The assumption we incorporated into our recently revised budget estimates—discretionary spending cuts of $25bn and $50bn below the CBO baseline for FY2011 and FY2012 respectively—would shave nearly one percentage point off of the annualized rate of real GDP growth in Q2, but would fade quickly with a negligible effect on growth by year-end.
The related risk of a temporary federal government shutdown could also lead to a fiscal drag on growth, but this appears to be a lower probability scenario. We estimate that each week that the federal government is shut down would reduce federal spending by around $8bn, and could reduce real GDP growth by as much as 0.8 pp at an annualized rate in the quarter it occurred, but would provide a lift to growth in the following quarter as federal activity returned to the previous level.
The policies that several state governments are debating related to state employee compensation and organization appear to have—at least in the short term—little potential macroeconomic effect. We assume that state governments will cut spending or raise taxes no more than necessary to balance their budgets. This amount will be determined by the level of tax receipts available to pay for spending, not political negotiations.

Fiscal drag is quickly reemerging as a focus, only a couple of months after an agreement to extend tax cuts and unemployment benefits appeared to have neutralized most of the drag from federal fiscal policy for most of 2011. We see federal spending cuts as the most important near-term risk. The possibility of a government shutdown is a significant but less likely factor, while the debate over state employee compensation seems unlikely to have a meaningful near-term macroeconomic effect:

Federal spending cuts would result in additional fiscal drag: In our recently updated budget deficit estimates, we have assumed that Congress will reduce discretionary spending by $25bn below the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) baseline for FY2011, and another $25bn (for a total of $50bn below the baseline) for FY2012 (for more on these assumptions and our budget estimates, see “The US Budget Outlook: Better, but Not Good Enough,” US Economics Analyst 11/05, February 4, 2011). By contrast, the House of Representatives passed legislation over the weekend to cut spending for FY2011 by $60bn from current levels (the House hasn’t yet addressed FY2012). Both scenarios would add to the drag from federal fiscal policy on growth:

The modest spending cuts we assume in our own budget forecast would lead to renewed fiscal drag. Since spending cuts could be enacted no earlier than next month, when the current fiscal year will be nearly half over, $25bn in cuts would require spending in the second half of FY2011 to be reduced by $50bn at an annual rate. Since the cut would be phased in abruptly, it could result in a drag on growth in Q2 by as much as one percentage point (pp), but would quickly fade over the next two quarters as spending stabilizes at a lower level, with little effect versus current policy on the rate of real GDP growth by year end.
The spending cut package that passed the House of Representatives would have a deeper effect. Under the House passed spending bill, the drag on GDP growth from federal fiscal policy would increase by 1.5pp to 2pp in Q2 and Q3 compared with current law. However, we don’t see this scenario as likely; while we expect discretionary spending to be cut, the current House proposal doesn’t appear viable in the Senate, and the president has already threatened a veto.

A federal shutdown poses less risk, as long as it is brief: A federal shutdown can potentially occur when one or more of the 12 annual appropriations bills have not been enacted for the current fiscal year. Usually, Congress provides temporary funding through a “continuing resolution” (CR) until appropriations have been enacted, but from time to time, particularly when control of government is divided, this does not happen and funding lapses. When this occurs, any agency or cabinet department without funding in place for the current fiscal year must cease non-essential operations. So far, Congress has not enacted any of the annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began October 1, so a shutdown would affect virtually all non-essential programs. That said, the potential for a federal shutdown probably does not present a major risk:

While the possibility of a shutdown is real, it isn’t that likely. We wrote more extensively on the key fiscal developments over the next few months last week (see “The Federal Budget Process Gets Underway,” US Daily, February 17, 2011). The bottom line is that while rhetoric has escalated regarding spending cuts and the threat of a shutdown, we expect both sides to try to avoid one if possible, with the most likely solution appearing to be a short-term extension of funding at slightly reduced levels.
The effect of a shutdown is narrower than the term implies. Even in the most protracted government shutdown to date, from November 13 to 19, 1995 and again from December 15, 1995 to January 6, 1996, the majority of federal employees kept working. In the first episode in November 1995, about 40% of federal employees excluding the postal service were furloughed; in the December lapse the share of furloughed employees dropped to less than 15%, since Congress had managed to enact some appropriations legislation between the two shutdowns. If a shutdown occurred next month, it would probably affect nearly all agencies and departments, since no appropriations legislation has been enacted so far this year. But even so, this would imply that only around 40% of federal employees would be affected.
A shutdown lasting more than a week could be meaningful. If Congress fails to renew the continuing resolution that is set to expire on March 4, the lapse seems likely to be fairly short. After all, there have been several short government shutdowns over the last few decades, but only two lasting more than three days. But a lapse of more than a few days, particularly toward the end of the quarter, could be more important. If funding lapsed, non-essential services would shut down immediately, representing around $8bn per week in missed federal spending, assuming that 40% of federal employees (not including the postal service) and their activities are deemed non-essential. This would equate to $32bn in annualized terms, or around 0.2% of GDP for each week of shutdown. Pulling this spending out of Q2 would reduce the contribution to quarterly GDP growth from federal activity by a little over 0.8pp at an annualized rate for each week the shutdown lasted, though if the shutdown ended long enough before the end of the quarter it is quite possible that some of the missed activity could be made up, reducing the overall hit to growth. Otherwise, the return to previous spending levels following a one-week shutdown would actually increase growth in the following quarter by 0.5pp and by smaller amounts in subsequent quarters until most of the effect is reversed.

State budget negotiations seem likely to have the least effect: Debate over state employee compensation and the related issue of collective bargaining and other organizational issues among state employee unions have begun to make headlines in a number of states—Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana are the latest. While these issues are important for the longer-run fiscal health of state and local governments, in the short-term their balanced budget requirements make revenue shortfalls the most important factor driving their fiscal stance over the coming fiscal year (for most states, this begins in July). Political decisions will determine how spending cuts are distributed, and will also determine the mix of tax hikes and spending cuts, but are much less likely to change the overall amount of tightening that will occur. So while we continue to expect around 0.5pp in drag this year from state and local fiscal retrenchment, recent developments don’t seem likely to change this in either direction.

Alec Phillips

Remember the Mortgage Loan Servicing Scandal?

2011-02-24T10:45:00.001-05:00

Where the banks had so f'ed up the paper work that they can't prove they own the mortgages that they are trying to foreclose on. Since failing to slip a fix through last year when Congress changed the rules to OK the offending paperwork, but it was vetoed by Obama after the press, interests groups and state Attorney's Generals began screaming the whole mattered has festered with the banking industry floating like a wounded swimmer surrounded by circling sharks in the form of those aforementioned AGs. The Wall St. Journal is reporting that the Obama administration is about to propose a way for the banks to buy their way out of the predicament.

Terms of the administration's proposal include a commitment from mortgage servicers to reduce the loan balances of troubled borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth, people familiar with the matter said. The cost of those writedowns won't be borne by investors who purchased mortgage-backed securities, these people said.

If a unified settlement can be reached, some state attorneys general and federal agencies are pushing for banks to pay more than $20 billion in civil fines or to fund a comparable amount of loan modifications for distressed borrowers, these people said.

But forging a comprehensive settlement may be difficult. A deal would have to win approval from federal regulators and state attorneys general, as well as some of the nation's largest mortgage servicers, including Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Those banks declined to comment.

A settlement could help lift a cloud of uncertainty that has stalled the foreclosure process since last fall. Economists have warned that foreclosures need to proceed for the housing market to continue on a path to recovery. It's unclear how many borrowers would benefit from a deal. Servicers have thus far had difficulty managing the volume of troubled loans.

I have no idea if this is a good or bad proposal, but we can be assured that like everything else Obama touches, he'll fuck it up and the banks will come out smelling like roses while the rest of use get our faces rubbed in shit.

"It's like John Holmes having an extra two inches grafted onto his dick."

2011-02-15T21:32:00.002-05:00

Oh, this is a wonderful rant.

Egypt ctd.

2011-02-11T17:16:00.004-05:00

Mubarak is gone, what's next? No one knows, but it will be interesting and let's hope for the best. A moderate, liberal democracy would suit just fine thank you.

Thinking earlier of Egypt, the bloodless revolutions of Eastern Europe in 1989 and the bloody crushing of the Chinese democracy movement in Tienanmen Square and considered why China was the exception. The difference was the role and attitude of the military.

Early in the Egyptian crisis, the military command was quoted as saying that the military exists to defend the nation, not the regime. The same happened in Eastern Europe where the military stayed in the barracks and didn't interfere. In contrast is China where the military sided with the Communist Party against the people.

Perhaps the next time in China it will be different and the military will choose to defend the nation.

A Voice that Should have been Ignored.

2011-02-03T09:03:00.002-05:00

Donald Rumsfeld's memoir is out and articles in the NYT and Wash Post both note Rumsfeld's contention that there were too many voices having a say in Iraq policy. He's right of course, Bush would have been better off ignoring Rumsfeld from the get go.

Egypt ctd.

2011-02-01T06:55:00.002-05:00

How the news of the Egyptian uprising is playing in China. Yes, the totalitarians in Beijing are nervous, they should be, sometime, hopefully sooner rather than later, it will be their turn to cower in front of the people.

Egypt

2011-01-31T10:11:00.002-05:00

For all the bloviator's out there, just shut up. This is about them and not about the US and there is noting we can do about it.

Regardless as to whether Mubarak "survives" the protests or resigns, the reign of Mubarak is over. At 82 he is not long for the scene and this desire to have his son Gabel take leadership in his place was contended before the protests began. Reportedly Gabel and his family fled Egypt in the early days of the protests so that transition plan is effectively dead.

The best result in the coming days is that the military serves as a stabilizing, transitional force that keeps the government and society functioning until such time as democratic elections can be held. After that it is in the hands of the Egyptian people.

For all the foreign policy hand wringers, particularly those who have a vested interests in Israel, an Egyptian democracy is worrisome. Democracy in Egypt is in line with our values it may not be in line with our short and mid term strategic interests. But then this is about them and not us, so we'll need to deal with it.

Republicans - The Pro Rape Party?

2011-01-28T21:56:00.002-05:00

In a very clever twist, Congressman Smith accomplishes this protection of rapists everywhere by changing the definition of “rape”. As the law of the land currently stands rape is rape regardless if it was violent, statutory, non-forcible, coercive, or forcible. Smith’s law takes the idea of rape back to another time. In his bill only exceptionally forcible and violent rapes like the ones in A Clockwork Orange would count as “Rape”. Anything else would be treated as some kind of wingnut idea of “consensual” sex. - Balloon Juice

There are 173 Republican members of the House of Representatives who have co-sponsored this bill. I wonder if Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass are among them?

SOTU

2011-01-26T06:34:00.002-05:00

Yawn.

Obama missed a chance to call on America to make the hard choices needed prepare the country for the challenges of the coming decade and thereby recast the current debates. Instead his predilection for incrementalism will simply reinforce the current dynamic.

Egyptian's Demanding an End to Dictatorship

2011-01-25T21:30:00.001-05:00

The Public: Cut Social Security or Raise the Payroll Cap?

2011-01-25T10:03:00.001-05:00

No contest.

Moscow Airport Bombing

2011-01-24T20:43:00.002-05:00

Shows the absurdity of creating elaborate security procedures when the terrorist will kill within yards of them.

New Hampshire?

2011-01-17T20:30:00.003-05:00

The Daily Dish had this chart showing the states with the greatest in migration and out migration. North Dakota, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan and New Jersey I understand. But New Hampshire??

Tucson ctd.

2011-01-13T18:23:00.002-05:00

Those who believed that the Tucson shooter was an extension of the intimidation tactics of some Tea Party fellow travelers, based that belief on incidents like this.

Tucson ctd.

2011-01-09T11:31:00.003-05:00

Howie Kurtz doesn't get it. But George Packer does,

It Doesn’t Matter Why He Did It

As does Jim Fallows.

Kurtz is the embodiement of the inside the beltway caricature known as a villager, in that world regardless of what a politician says, he or she bears no responsibility for the actions of others. Again the issue isn't hateful rhetoric's effect on those able to discern hyperbole from a true call to act, but the effect on the insane, who are unable to make that distinction.

UPDATE: Robert Wright gets it.

Tucson

2011-01-09T00:25:00.003-05:00

"The vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living doing that .... That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences."

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik commenting on the shootings in Tucson.

Those in politics...

and in the media

who have ginned up the crazies with their allusions to violence and declarations of enemies being anyone who doesn't agree with them have had their chickens come home to roost. They'll deny it of course, its not them, everyone knew it was hyperbole. Everyone but the crazies and based on the suspects YouTube postings, Jared Lee Loughner is likely mentally ill.

But then that's all it takes, is one crazy person and six are dead and a dozen wounded. But its not the hate mongers fault.

Update: Even if the shooter is crazy, the cultural environment can influence behavior.

Affordable Care Act Repeal

2011-01-06T11:59:00.005-05:00

Well the Congressional Budget Office has spoken and despite what the Repugs and the Tea Party claim, repeal will increase the budget deficit by $230 million over 10 years.

As a result of changes in direct spending and revenues, CBO expects that enacting H.R. 2 would probably increase federal budget deficits over the 2012–2019 period by a total of roughly $145 billion (on the basis of the original estimate), plus or minus the effects of technical and economic changes that CBO and JCT will include in the forthcoming estimate. Adding two more years (through 2021) brings the projected increase in deficits to something in the vicinity of $230 billion, plus or minus the effects of technical and economic changes.

Of course the House Repugs knew this, which is why they exempted H.R. 2 from the CutGo rules that state any increase in spending must be offset by a decrease somewhere else.

Its all theater.

2011-01-03T22:03:00.004-05:00

The NH legislature will be returning to work soon with its spiffy, veto proof Republican majorities. The first task, as it is for every incoming legislature is to deal with the budget and if the budget wonks are correct the state is looking at a revenue shortfall of $200M-$800M. Veteran Repub legislators are promising to erase the shortfall without raising taxes or fees and their more radical brethren want to eliminate the tax and fee increases imposed by the last legislature and some want to reduce taxes even further. Well good luck with that. Let’s take a look at what the new legislature will find in budget land.

New Hampshire is not a profligate state and for 2007, the most recent available data, the Tax Foundation says that NH spends $4,739 per person and is ranked 37th nationally in per capita spending. In other words we show the expected Yankee thriftiness. For reference the home of the Wasilla Windbag, Alaska leads with a per capita spending of $13,508 and Texas is the most parsimonious with per capita spending of $3,831.

Where does NH spend its money? Depending on the source of the data there are variations, but the Sunshine Review reports that NH’s spending breaks down as follows and US Government Spending.com has this graph.

Pensions 9%
Health care 27% Mostly Medicaid
Education 19.5% K-12 and the university system
Welfare 9.5%
Protection 6%
Transportation 9%

Health care and Education look ripe for cutting why not start there? Medicaid is the overwhelming component of Health care spending in NH and has been targeted for elimination by conservatives in other states, most notably Texas. The issue with cutting Medicaid is that it also requires giving up significant federal matching funds, making the revenue numbers worse, not to mention that if NH withdrew from Medicaid, the citizenry would still be paying federal taxes to support the program but not seeing the benefits in NH. Other issues with regard to Medicaid are the need and the resultant spending doesn’t go away, but is shifted onto others and who is benefiting from the Medicaid program.

The popular profile of a Medicaid enrollee is a child and maybe a parent and while true children make up the largest population served by Medicaid, spending on children’s health accounts for approximately 20% of spending nationally. By far the largest beneficiary of the Medicaid system is senior citizens who receive about 50% of the spending, mostly for residential, custodial and nursing home services.

Cutting education will be looked at, but the state is still under court supervision regarding equal education opportunity, making that category hard to cut

Where does NH get it funding? The NH Fiscal Policy Institute breaks out the revenue sources in the following chart. Additionally the Tax Foundation reported that for FY2006, NH received 33.1% of its revenue from the Federal Government. A note on Federal monies, often if not mostly, Federal dollars are in the form of matching funds and if NH chooses not to fund a program they will lose those dollars.

TSA Follies ctd.

2010-12-29T09:46:00.003-05:00

In mid December, the news department of an ABC affiliate in Houston, KTRK-TV, reported on a Houston man who inadvertently carried a loaded handgun in his carry-on baggage through security at Bush Intercontinental Airport. On arriving at his destination the passenger discovered the gun and reported the incident to security officials.

This is where it gets interesting. KTRK-TV looked into similar incidents and discovered...

Authorities tell ABC News the incident is not uncommon, but how often it occurs is a closely guarded government secret. Experts say every year since the September 11 attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert tests of airport security.

A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. (emphasis added) Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.

Security theater indeed. Of course the TSA and DHS keeps the results of the covert tests secret and doesn't report actual incidents though many become public knowledge when the citizen reports them. The TSA can't even find guns in baggage, yet it wants to see us naked or groped before we fly.

Oh for you that are obese, be prepared for humiliations beyond being required to buy a second seat.

"...the "enhanced" screeners can be fooled by explosives tucked, like hotcakes, into folds of body fat."

Its only a matter of time before Napolitano's blue shirts begin demanding that you open the rolls.

A Curious Rousing from the Bunker

2010-12-28T08:34:00.004-05:00

What issues and trends in popular culture that Obama chooses to comment on seems odd. Over the weekend the president was quoted as commending the Philadelphia Eagles for giving Michael Vick a second chance. In the context of the season it is reasonable to note that we as fallible human beings should get a second chance when we fail to live up to the expectations of our community and it speaks to the larger issue of the treatment of criminal offenders who have served their time and accepted responsibility for their actions. Too often our society seeks to heap on ad hoc punishments and set artificial barriers to the offenders return to society as a productive member.

But why a phone call to the Eagles owner? Allegedly the purpose of the call was to congratulate the Eagles for on energy efficiency steps at the stadium, But why bring up Vick? Given Vick's profile and history, the call was no longer about energy efficiency, but about fan-boy Obama.

Reputedly, Obama has a very small inner circle and there is evidence that there is no one in that group willing to take an action to stifle the president's poorly conceived notions. Thus his opponents have cudgel to beat him with for the next few days on cable news and Obama can expect that few of his dwindling supporters will do more than remain silent.

Sagebrush Rebellion?

2010-12-21T22:59:00.000-05:00

Montana jurors decide what is enough.

Big Brother

2010-12-20T21:38:00.003-05:00

The Washington Post has an important article today on the growth of US domestic surveillance.

A few snippets.

The FBI is building a database with the names and certain personal information, such as employment history, of thousands of U.S. citizens and residents whom a local police officer or a fellow citizen believed to be acting suspiciously. It is accessible to an increasing number of local law enforcement and military criminal investigators, increasing concerns that it could somehow end up in the public domain.

The Department of Homeland Security sends its state and local partners intelligence reports with little meaningful guidance, and state reports have sometimes inappropriately reported on lawful meetings.

Sample report

Suspicious Activity Report N03821 says a local law enforcement officer observed "a suspicious subject . . . taking photographs of the Orange County Sheriff Department Fire Boat and the Balboa Ferry with a cellular phone camera." The confidential report, marked "For Official Use Only," noted that the subject next made a phone call, walked to his car and returned five minutes later to take more pictures. He was then met by another person, both of whom stood and "observed the boat traffic in the harbor." Next another adult with two small children joined them, and then they all boarded the ferry and crossed the channel.

The Post goes on to discuss what may happen if this observation were to become a legitimate lead and then ends with this.

Or, as most often happens, it could make no specific determination, which would mean that Suspicious Activity Report N03821 would sit in limbo for as long as five years, during which time many other pieces of information about the man photographing a boat on a Sunday morning could be added to his file: employment, financial and residential histories; multiple phone numbers; audio files; video from the dashboard-mounted camera in the police cruiser at the harbor where he took pictures; and anything else in government or commercial databases "that adds value," as the FBI agent in charge of the database described it.

As you might expect, state and local authorities are trying to uphold their end of the responsibilities and are seeking out consultants on subjects like Islam.

Ramon Montijo has taught classes on terrorism and Islam to law enforcement officers all over the country.

"Alabama, Colorado, Vermont," said Montijo, a former Army Special Forces sergeant and Los Angeles Police Department investigator who is now a private security consultant. "California, Texas and Missouri," he continued.

What he tells them is always the same, he said: Most Muslims in the United States want to impose sharia law here.

"They want to make this world Islamic. The Islamic flag will fly over the White House - not on my watch!" he said. "My job is to wake up the public, and first, the first responders."

Hmmm, where does Mr. Montijo get his information? It is contradicted by copious US intelligence agency reports.

What is the quality that state and local authorities are receiving in threat analysis?

"The CIA used to train analysts forever before they graduated to be a real analyst," said Allen, the former top CIA and DHS official. "Today we take former law enforcement officers and we call them intelligence officers, and that's not right, because they have not received any training on intelligence analysis."

Even government intelligence and security experts are critical of the quality of training that is being made available and paid for by the Dept. of Homeland Security.

Government terrorism experts call the views expressed in the center's book inaccurate and counterproductive. They say the DHS should increase its training of local police, using teachers who have evidence-based viewpoints.

Go read the whole article, for if you are at all concerned about living in a free society you'll recognize just how quickly ours is slipping away.

Oh and another thing, DHS and the Federal government can't tell you how much all this is costing.

Where the Criminals Are

2010-12-20T08:51:00.002-05:00

Interesting CNN survey of the 10 states with the highest crime rates. Interestingly, 8 0f the 10 are Southern or Western.

I Guess this Means that We're Wall Streets Bitch

2010-12-16T13:30:00.001-05:00

Incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., told the Birmingham News that:

"...in Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks."

Real Hunters Don't Shoot Pets

2010-12-12T08:33:00.003-05:00

A sleeping dog doesn't hunt, but neither does he object to his more energetic cohorts that put on the blaze and head for the woods and fields. In fact given the number of deer that traipse through the yard and are found dead on the sides of roads, he wishes that there were more hunters. But canned hunting? Sorry no. This short from the Ideas section of this morning's Globe is of interest.

And for an extra $200, Mr. Nugent will pull the trigger himself “Real hunters don’t shoot pets.” So says Ted Williams, in Audubon Magazine, about “canned hunting” — the hunting of specially bred trophy game, not in the wild but in an enclosed area, with a “guarantee of success.” As Williams explains in his article, such hunts are on the rise, “vastly more popular” now than they were two decades ago.

Canned hunts vary in scope and difficulty. On one pheasant hunt Williams joined, “a guy named Dave threw them from a tower for about a dozen of them to shoot”; on more upscale hunts, like the ones offered by guitarist Ted Nugent through his company Sunrize Safaris, you hunt bigger game over a few hundred fenced-in acres. (Some hunts include a barbecue with Nugent.) Often the game is super-sized — bucks are specially bred, for example, to have huge antlers. Some companies allow hunters to select which animals they want to kill from a booklet: Once you’ve chosen Blitzen, he can be tracked down through his implanted radio transponder.

Many hunters find this kind of hunting distasteful. To them, it undermines the fairness and difficulty that make hunting meaningful. But, Williams argues, canned hunting is problematic for other reasons. For one thing, in many parts of the country traditional “fair-chase” hunting is the only way that deer and elk populations stay under control; as more hunters turn to canned hunting, deer populations are skyrocketing, damaging the ecosystems in which they live. This unlikely alliance between hunters and environmentalists reveals, ultimately, a sense in which real hunting is already “canned”: In an environment without natural predators, the “wild” is overflowing with game.

The idea of a canned experience is not limited to hunting, not too many years ago the completion of an around-the-world trip overland by motorcycle of a four wheeled vehicle required planning and an acceptance of risk to go along with the adventure. Now tour companies will handle the planning and all but eliminate the risk. Now if you meet an intrepid traveler one must consider asking if they undertook the travel by their own initiative or called a tour company. How else can one separate the posers from the adventurous?

Will the Obama/Repug Tax Deal Work?

2010-12-11T15:51:00.003-05:00

Bruce Bartlett has his doubts...

There are really only three ways that tax cuts could be stimulative. One would be to raise employment by reducing the “tax wedge” between the gross compensation paid by an employer and the net wage received by the worker.... While this is a plausible theory under normal economic circumstances, it doesn’t make much sense when the primary problem is insufficient demand for business output.... A second way tax cuts might raise growth would be to stimulate investment. Low taxes on the wealthy and big corporations, Republicans repeat ad nauseum, will lead to business expansion, new businesses and job creation. Again, this is a plausible theory under normal circumstances, but why would a business expand when it is perfectly able to satisfy existing demand from its current plant, equipment and labor force?... The final way tax cuts might stimulate growth is by giving consumers more money to spend. But we’ve seen from the experience of the 2008 tax rebate and the Making Work Pay Credit that this is an extremely inefficient method of increasing consumption. And of course, tax cuts are worthless to the millions of those that are unemployed because they have no income to tax. And let’s not forget that because of Republican tax policies in the 2000s, close to 50 percent of all tax filers paid no federal income taxes even before the economy collapsed.

All of this suggests that the tax deal to extend the Bush tax cuts and replace the Making Work Pay Credit with a 2-point cut in the payroll tax is very unlikely to raise growth much, if at all. The one and only justification for this initiative is that it is better than the alternative of raising taxes when the economy is still weak. Given Republicans’ dominance of Congress, Obama really had no choice but to cut a deal on their terms.

HT to Brad DeLong

Only the extension of unemployment benefits is certain to boost demand, the rest is wishes and hopes.

Delusional

2010-12-10T13:17:00.003-05:00

The public is as delusional about the budget and deficits as Congress is, with the public's attitude the likely reason for Congressional schizophrenia. A Bloomberg poll finds that the public feels that the Federal budget deficit is “dangerously out of control,” yet...

The public wants Congress to keep its hands off entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, a Bloomberg National Poll shows. They oppose cuts in most other major domestic programs and defense. They want to maintain subsidies for farmers and tax breaks like the mortgage-interest deduction. And they’re against an increase in the gasoline tax.

How does the public expect to to deal with the deficit and keep spending at current levels? Soak the rich of course. While the rich are under taxed, the taxes for those earning more than say $1M per year could not be raised enough to deal with the deficit.

It really is going to take a deep financial crisis on the scale of what Ireland, Greece and Iceland have gone through for the US public to accept the change that

Empty Suit

2010-12-10T06:31:00.001-05:00

More preemptive surrender.

The Causes of the US Deficits

2010-12-08T16:31:00.002-05:00

Hat tip to Stephen Budiansky.

Health Care Rationing

2010-12-03T07:14:00.003-05:00

During the health care reform debate Repug opponents screamed long and loud that reform would implement rationing. That was a lie, because rationing has long existed in health care provision in the US, if you could afford insurance or the treatment you received care. If not...

Now the Repug governor and legislature of Arizona has implemented its own version of rationing this time imposing what are effective death sentences on low income individuals.

The US spends nearly 50% more per capita for health care than most European nations and Japan, yet for many measures we have poorer outcomes.

Tea Party Caucus Receives $1B in Earmarks

2010-12-02T13:18:00.002-05:00

Hypocrites:

NAME EARMARKS AMOUNT

Aderholt (R-AL) 69 $78,263,000
Akin (R-MO) 9 $14,709,000
Alexander (R-LA) 41 $65,395,000
Bachmann (R-MN) 0 0
Barton (R-TX) 14 $12,269,400
Bartlett (R-MD) 19 $43,060,650
Bilirakis (R-FL) 14 $13,600,000
R. Bishop (R-UT) 47 $93,980,000
Burgess (R-TX) 15 $15,804,400
Broun (R-GA) 0 0
Burton (R-IN) 0 0
Carter (R-TX) 26 $42,232,000
Coble (R-NC) 19 $18,755,000
Coffman (R-CO) 0 0
Crenshaw (R-FL) 37 $54,424,000
Culberson (R-TX) 22 $33,792,000
Fleming (R-LA) 10 $31,489,000
Franks (R-AZ) 8 $14,300,000
Gingrey (R-GA) 19 $16,100,000
Gohmert (R-TX) 15 $7,099,000
S. Graves (R-MO) 11 $8,331,000
R. Hall (R-TX) 16 $12,232,000
Harper (R-MS) 25 $80,402,000
Herger (R-CA) 5 $5,946,000
Hoekstra (R-MI) 9 $6,392,000
Jenkins (R-KS) 12 $24,628,000
S. King (R-IA) 13 $6,650,000
Lamborn (R-CO) 6 $16,020,000
Luetkemeyer (R-MO) 0 0
Lummis (R-WY) 0 0
Marchant (R-TX) 0 0
McClintock (R-CA) 0 0
Gary Miller (R-CA) 15 $19,627,500
Jerry Moran (R-KS) 22 $19,400,000
Myrick (R-NC) 0 0
Neugebauer (R-TX) 0 0
Pence (R-IN) 0 0
Poe (R-TX) 12 $7,913,000
T. Price (R-GA) 0 0
Rehberg (R-MT) 88 $100,514,200
Roe (R-TN) 0 0
Royce (R-CA) 7 $6,545,000
Scalise (R-LA) 20 $17,388,000
P. Sessions (R-TX) 0 0
Shadegg (R-AZ) 0 0
Adrian Smith (R-NE) 1 $350,000
L. Smith (R-TX) 18 $14,078,000
Stearns (R-FL) 17 $15,472,000
Tiahrt (R-KS) 39 $63,400,000
Wamp (R-TN) 14 $34,544,000
Westmoreland (R-GA) 0 0
Wilson (R-SC) 15 $23,334,000

TOTAL 764 $1,049,783,150

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

2010-12-02T11:55:00.002-05:00

Obama's Bad Poker

2010-12-01T22:23:00.002-05:00

Ezra Klein has a pithy summary of a key Obama failing

Annoyed congressional staffers and baffled strategists rattle the list of concessions the White House has unilaterally made to Republicans from memory. There were the $300 billion in tax cuts, of course. The non-security discretionary spending freeze, a longtime Republican demand that the Obama administration simply announced during the 2010 State of the Union (Republicans responded by demanding discretionary spending cuts back to 2008 levels). During the climate-change debate, the administration gave away an expansion of offshore drilling, loan guarantees for nuclear power plants and delay of EPA regulations until 2011 -- all Republican demands that Lindsey Graham, John Kerry and Joe Lieberman were hoping to trade for GOP support. "Obama had served the dessert before the children even promised to eat their spinach," reported Ryan Lizza. "Graham was the only Republican negotiating on the climate bill, and now he had virtually nothing left to take to his Republican colleagues." And most recently, there's the two-year freeze in federal pay.

We should all be thankful that Hillary is conducting the foreign policy negotiations (negotiating from a set of WH approved positions) and not the White House directly.

John Cole finally gets it and realizes that Obama is irredeemable.

Morning Joe Rips Palin ctd

2010-12-01T17:50:00.002-05:00

Ed Rollins takes a shot at the Wallisa Windbag.

I expect this will become a steady drumbeat.

Negotiating with Obama

2010-11-30T21:19:00.000-05:00

Sigh

Bradley Manning

2010-11-30T13:21:00.003-05:00

It is an interesting to imagine that Manning, the alleged source of the thousands of diplomatic and military documents given to Wikileaks, as some sort of individualist hero/antihero out of a sci fi novel. The brave young man who brings down the empire. But that doesn't fit, nor do the images of Manning as a plotting, evil traitor or an idealist who seeing a chance to grant liberty to truth, ceases that opportunity.

Manning is an idealist, and naive. Most likely he has an unsophisticated image of the United States, more child-like, flag waving patriotism than anything. A belief in American exceptionalism, if you will. But he is naive and lacks an understanding of how the world works and how humans interact and yet not old enough to have the life experiences that would beat that naivety out of him. Reading the documents likely unsettled him and being an idealist he needed to do something.

It's doubtful that he comprehended the shit-storm that he would unleash, he probably thought freeing the truth would alert the better angels. Alas there are no better angels only flawed humans and the release of the documents won't improve anything but neither is the damage much more than embarrassment.

Morning Joe Rips Palin

2010-11-30T10:00:00.003-05:00

Joe Scarborough lets Palin have it and all but says that Repugs are gutless for not calling her out.

I suppose Palin’s harsh dismissal of this great man is more understandable after one reads her biography and realizes that, like Bush, she accomplished a great deal in her early 20s. Who wouldn’t agree that finishing third in the Miss Alaska beauty contest is every bit as treacherous as risking your life in military combat? Maybe the beauty contestant who would one day be a reality star and former governor didn’t win the Distinguished Flying Cross, but the half-termer was selected as Miss Congeniality by her fellow contestants.

Betcha she rips him for being "lamestream media"

If the Terrorists are Looking to Kill Hundreds...

2010-11-27T09:14:00.002-05:00

they can do it at Portland's Christmas Tree lighting.

The FBI's infiltration and arrest of the alleged plotter of a Portland car bombing underlines the absurdity of the Department of Homeland Security's obsession with ever more minute risks to transportation.

Congratulations to the FBI and thanks.

TSA Follies ctd.

2010-11-26T08:36:00.002-05:00

This article on a woman who dealt with airport security by wearing a bikini, reminded me of a flight several years ago out of Lambert Int'l in St. Louis.

In front of front of me at the TSA checkpoint was a young woman in jeans, sandals and a leather vest, covered with metal studs and it was obvious that the vest was the only garment on her upper body. After placing her bags on the x-ray conveyor a TSA agent told her to remove the vest. The woman paused and began saying something, the order was given again, her hand went to the top button, but you could see her thinking of an alternative strategy. Finally another TSA agent intervened and the woman passed through security.

TSA Follies ctd.

2010-11-25T09:04:00.000-05:00

It will probably come to this - PERV.

Tom DeLay

2010-11-24T21:20:00.001-05:00

The exterminator has been found guilty of money laundering by a jury of his peers. Great news on Thanksgiving eve.

Don't drop the soap Tommy.

Joe Lieberman

2010-11-24T21:04:00.002-05:00

This morning Politico had an piece on Joe and the lose - lose choices he faces if he runs again in 2012. John Cole at Balloon Juice sums it up nicely.

Knowing Joe, he would not be content to switch to the GOP without a grand pronouncement that the party left him, so if he does switch, it will probably be early next year, and he will just cherry-pick some issue that he knows the Democrats are going to win on, whine about it, and then announce that he can in good conscience no longer remain a Democrat. The only question is what the issue will be…

Jeter, Mo and the Yankees

2010-11-24T15:45:00.004-05:00

Sakes alive, the Yanks are quibbling with Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera over a few million bucks. What's this world coming to?

I don't buy the argument that is being expressed by some in the press that the Yanks should overpay Jeter and Mo, as a thank you for the loyalty and past production. Rivera received $15M last season and Jeter is coming off a 10 year $189M deal, both have been adequately compensated for their production and loyalty.

During the Reserve Clause era, the idea of carrying an aging star for a few years at his peak salary after his performance diminished made sense and was an expression of loyalty and appreciation by the teams owners to the player. But free agency and arbitration ensure that the player gets his while he's producing. What the team owes it's aging stars is the opportunity for them to leave the stage in the manner the player desires. And hopefully the player will know when it is time to leave. By this measure the Yanks' offers to Jeter and Rivera are fair.

But still the Steinbrenner's, (THE STEINBRENNERS!! Sons of George) quibbling over money? While in Minnesota the sons of Carl Pohlad are contemplating a $125M payroll for 2011. That's about twice what old Carl ever authorized. The old piker is probably spinning in his grave.

TSA Follies ctd.

2010-11-24T14:49:00.004-05:00

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.
“[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on "Charlie Rose."
“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”

Napolitano is delusional if she believes that the transportation system can be made entirely secure regardless of how many procedures are deployed. The reasons that no commercial airliner will ever be used as a missile again is not screening procedures, x-raying of luggage or magnetometers. The reasons no hijacker will commandeer a plane again is that the cockpit doors have been armored and passengers knowing they'll die anyway will overpower the hijacker or die trying.

What today's airport security mitigates is the potential to destroy a plane in flight killing a few hundred passengers. This is a reasonable, even laudable objective, but think for a second, if killing a few hundred air passengers is the goal of the terrorist, couldn't they achieve that outside the security perimeter? Next time you're standing in line to go through airport security or walking through the concourse outside the checkpoint on a busy travel day, note the numbers of people around you, now think if one or more of the hundreds of roller bags in the area contained a bomb intended to detonate outside security...

Regarding rail and maritime transportation, boats and trains run on a schedule on a set route, the terrorist need not be on board to inflict damage. New York's Penn Station has about one half million travelers pass through it each day, good luck screening them Janet.

Napolitano is a fool and the perfect caricature of a bloviating bureaucrat and someone who doesn't make me feel secure.

TSA Follies

2010-11-22T11:25:00.004-05:00

The reaction of the TSA to each newly perceived security threat has been to layer on another security procedure. Shoe bombs, take off your shoes; exploding computers, scan them separately; liquid explosives mixed after clearing security, ban liquids and insist on small containers and separate screening; undie bomber, grope the passengers or x-ray them. What will happen when a terrorist plants the bomb in his person, cavity searches?

We're at the point that layering on another procedure is counter productive and it is time to focus on intelligence, intuition and randomness to ensure air travel security. Adopt Israeli air security techniques. Use dogs to search for explosives. The military has spent nearly $19B to develop bomb detecting technology only to determine that the best detection device was also the cheapest - a dog.

The present TSA policies may have the unintended consequences of killing more travelers than the terrorists would.

UPDATE: TSA avowing no cavity searches. Should the editorial comment be; For now, or I guess you need to draw a line somewhere?

Maybe, just Maybe...

2010-11-20T07:47:00.002-05:00

they're finally coming for the banksters. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that,

Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders and analysts across the nation, according to people familiar with the matter.

The criminal and civil probes, which authorities say could eclipse the impact on the financial industry of any previous such investigation, are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, the people say. Some charges could be brought before year-end, they say.

The investigations, if they bear fruit, have the potential to expose a culture of pervasive insider trading in U.S. financial markets, including new ways non-public information is passed to traders through experts tied to specific industries or companies, federal authorities say.

Just remember that when the talk turns to privatizing Social Security, you'll be forced to place your money with a criminal class. The names will change but the propensity to lie and cheat will remain.

The Bush Tax Cuts and Economic Growth

2010-11-18T22:01:00.003-05:00

David Leonhardt examines the evidence.

The competition for slowest growth is not even close, either. Growth from 2001 to 2007 averaged 2.39 percent a year (and growth from 2001 through the third quarter of 2010 averaged 1.66 percent). The decade with the second-worst showing for growth was 1971 to 1980 — the dreaded 1970s — but it still had 3.21 percent average growth.

But more people joined the workforce since they could keep more of their earnings, right?

The labor-force participation rate fell in the years after 2001 and has never again approached its record in the year 2000.

But weren't new businesses were created?

The rate at which start-up businesses created jobs fell during the past decade.

If the Bush tax cuts didn't grow the economy, increase the number of wage earners or encourage new business creation, why does anyone want to add 4 trillion dollars to the deficit in order to extend them?

Thus Spake the Oracle of Omaha

2010-11-17T10:35:00.003-05:00

From Warren Buffet's Op Ed piece in this mornings New York Times.

Let me remind you why I’m writing. Just over two years ago, in September 2008, our country faced an economic meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the pillars that supported our mortgage system, had been forced into conservatorship. Several of our largest commercial banks were teetering. One of Wall Street’s giant investment banks had gone bankrupt, and the remaining three were poised to follow. A.I.G., the world’s most famous insurer, was at death’s door.

Many of our largest industrial companies, dependent on commercial paper financing that had disappeared, were weeks away from exhausting their cash resources. Indeed, all of corporate America’s dominoes were lined up, ready to topple at lightning speed. My own company, Berkshire Hathaway, might have been the last to fall, but that distinction provided little solace.

Nor was it just business that was in peril: 300 million Americans were in the domino line as well. Just days before, the jobs, income, 401(k)’s and money-market funds of these citizens had seemed secure. Then, virtually overnight, everything began to turn into pumpkins and mice. There was no hiding place. A destructive economic force unlike any seen for generations had been unleashed.

Only one counterforce was available, and that was you, Uncle Sam. Yes, you are often clumsy, even inept. But when businesses and people worldwide race to get liquid, you are the only party with the resources to take the other side of the transaction. And when our citizens are losing trust by the hour in institutions they once revered, only you can restore calm.

Yes Uncle Warren, we remember it was all too painful then and it's still sore now.

Well, Uncle Sam, you delivered. People will second-guess your specific decisions; you can always count on that. But just as there is a fog of war, there is a fog of panic — and, overall, your actions were remarkably effective.

I guess America's business hero approves of Bush's TARP legislation, the Obama stimulus and bailing out Detroit.

The Fix in Process. ctd.

2010-11-16T10:11:00.001-05:00

The drumbeat for a white wash of the mortgage fraud continues.

Catch 22

2010-11-15T13:39:00.005-05:00

Yossarian would understand fully The erstwhile combat avoider of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 would understand. The Transportation Security Administration has begun to roll out the back-scatter imaging systems, aka x-ray scanners at airports and a San Diego blogger fell victim to the TSA's own Catch-22. First the TSA website contained incorrect info, next he is ordered through the scanner and refuses. When the TSA worker explains the pat down procedure, the blogger tells him that he will file a sexual assault complaint if the worker touches his genitals. Since there is a no grope, no naked pics, no fly rule, the blogger couldn't fly, but he also couldn't leave till he submitted to groping or naked pics. The audio of the interaction is caught by the bloggers cel phone and his description and the audio are found here.

This morning, I tried to fly out of San Diego International Airport but was refused by the TSA. I had been somewhat prepared for this eventuality. I have been reading about the millimeter wave and backscatter x-ray machines and the possible harm to health as well as the vivid pictures they create of people's naked bodies. Not wanting to go through them, I had done my research on the TSA's website prior to traveling to see if SAN had them. From all indications, they did not. When I arrived at the security line, I found that the TSA's website was out of date. SAN does in fact utilize backscatter x-ray machines.

I made my way through the line toward the first line of "defense": the TSA ID checker. This agent looked over my boarding pass, looked over my ID, looked at me and then back at my ID. After that, he waved me through. SAN is still operating metal detectors, so I walked over to one of the lines for them. After removing my shoes and making my way toward the metal detector, the person in front of me in line was pulled out to go through the backscatter machine. After asking what it was and being told, he opted out. This left the machine free, and before I could go through the metal detector, I was pulled out of line to go through the backscatter machine. When asked, I half-chuckled and said, "I don't think so." At this point, I was informed that I would be subject to a pat down, and I waited for another agent.

Various advocacy groups are encouraging passengers to create chaos on November 24, aka, the biggest air travel day of the year, by refusing to be scanned and submit to a pat down, thereby
creating delays.

But Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic has a better idea.

There's no need to wait until November 24th. But come November 24th, here's an idea you might try to make the day extra-special. It's a one-word idea: Kilts. Think about it -- if you're a male, and you want to bollix-up the nonsensical airport security-industrial complex, one way to do so would be to wear a kilt. If nothing else, this will cause TSA employees to throw up their hands in disgust. If you want to go the extra extra mile, I suggest commando-style kilt-wearing. While it is probably illegal to fly without pants, I can't imagine that it's illegal to fly without underpants.

And when the TSA worker is through fondling my family jewels, I'd slip an Andy Jackson in his belt, wink and tell him thanks for the good time.

Update:

And Professor Bainbridge wonders if being a TSA worker is now a dream job for pedophiles.

Update II: When challenged, the bureaucracy reverts to form, threaten and launch an investigation in order to intimidate others.

The Fix is In Process

2010-11-13T09:11:00.002-05:00

Remember the mortgage fraud that the banksters were trying to propagate? Well Congress and the Big Zero are about to legitimize it.

When Congress comes back into session next week, it may consider measures intended to bolster the legal status of a controversial bank owned electronic mortgage registration system that contains three out of every five mortgages in the country.

They'll insert some commerce clause language in the hopes that the courts won't invalidate the move, but you need to wonder, since the founding of the country, states have been responsible for defining administering property law, particularly in regard to continuity of title. It is very easy to see how a court system that invalidated a Federal statute banning guns from within 500 feet of a school would also slap down Congress and the administration on this. Hopefully they will.

American League Gold Glove Awards

2010-11-10T11:50:00.003-05:00

Jeter at SS??? Baseball Reference can't believe it either.

Did G.W. Bush Vote for Obama?

2010-11-10T08:41:00.003-05:00

The venue was the Oval Office. A group of British dignitaries, including Gordon Brown, were paying a visit. It was at the height of the 2008 presidential election campaign, not long after Bush publicly endorsed John McCain as his successor.

Naturally the election came up in conversation. Trying to be even-handed and polite, the Brits said something diplomatic about McCain’s campaign, expecting Bush to express some warm words of support for the Republican candidate.

Not a chance. “I probably won’t even vote for the guy,” Bush told the group, according to two people present.“I had to endorse him. But I’d have endorsed Obama if they’d asked me.”

Financial Times

Has the US Caught the British Malaise?

2010-11-09T17:06:00.002-05:00

Searching for historical parallels between the fall of previous empires, particularly the British is

A final explanation for Britain’s failure to keep up makes economic policy the culprit. Britain failed to put in place an effective competition policy. In response to the collapse of demand in 1929, it erected high tariff walls. Sheltered from foreign competition, industry grew fat and lazy. After WWII, repeated shifts between Labour and Conservative governments led to stop-go policies that heightened uncertainty and created chronic financial problems.

Herein lies the most convincing explanation for British decline. The country failed to develop a coherent policy response to the financial crisis of the 1930’s. Its political parties, rather than working together to address pressing economic problems, remained at each other’s throats. The country turned inward. Its politics grew fractious, its policies erratic, and its finances increasingly unstable.

Sound familiar?

Alaska, Federal Spending and the GOP

2010-11-09T11:16:00.002-05:00

Anne Applebaum uses Alaska as an example of the contradictions in today's GOP, they profess to want less spending and balanced budgets, but reddest states are typically the largest recipients of federal government largess.

For whatever the reason, the hypocrisy at the heart of the party - and at the heart of American politics - is at its starkest in Alaska. For decades, Alaskans have lived off federal welfare. Taxpayers' money subsidizes everything from Alaska's roads and bridges to its myriad programs for Native Americans. Federal funding accounts for one-third of Alaskan jobs. Nevertheless, Alaskans love to think of themselves as the last frontiersmen, the inhabitants of a land "beyond the horizon of urban clutter," a state with no use for Washington and its wicked ways.

If nothing else, Alaskans' interesting choice must be keeping the Republican leadership awake at night: When faced with the reality of actual funding cuts, a year or two from now, might not other Republican voters suddenly feel they need someone like Murkowski, too? This must be a particular dilemma for the new Republican speaker, John Boehner. During his two-decade career as a Washington insider, Boehner has resembled Murkowski a lot more than Miller. As chairman of the House Education Committee, for example, one of his primary tasks was to entertain and indulge the companies that make hundreds of millions of dollars from federally funded student loan programs and that have been major donors to his campaigns.

The Murkowski-Boehner hypocrisy permeates the Repug Congressional delegation and that is why Repugs can't identify what programs they are willing to cut and go to absurd arguments to justify the evasion.

The View from Germany

2010-11-07T20:14:00.002-05:00

A brutal evaluation of the United States as we enter the second decade of the 21st century in the German magazine Der Spielgel.

The United States is a confused and fearful country in 2010. American companies are still world-class, but today Apple and Coca-Cola, Google and Microsoft are investing in Asia, where labor is cheap and markets are growing, and hardly at all in the United States. Some 47 percent of Americans don't believe that the America Dream is still realistic.

Corporations are not nationalists, except when it benefits them.

The fall of America doesn't have to be a complete collapse -- it is, after all, a country that has managed to reinvent itself many times before. But today it's no longer certain -- or even likely -- that everything will turn out fine in the end. The United States of 2010 is dysfunctional, but in new ways. The entire interplay of taxes and investments is out of joint because a 16,000-page tax code allows for far too many loopholes and because solidarity is no longer part of the way Americans think. The political system, plagued by lobbyism and stark hatred, is incapable of reaching consistent or even quick decisions.

HT, Balloon Juice

Obama: "Leadership Isn't Just Legislation"

2010-11-05T12:49:00.002-04:00

President Obama tells "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft that one of the reasons the electorate has become disenchanted with him was his failure to properly explain his policies and persuade people to agree with them.

It was, in effect, a breakdown in leadership: "Leadership is't just legislation," he tells Kroft, in his first one-on-one interview since his party lost its large House majority to the Republicans in Tuesday's midterm elections.

Well hello! Did you just wake up Wednesday morning and figure that out?

Early in the Obama presidency Bill Clinton was quoted to the effect that Americans are more willing to follow a strong leader who is wrong, than a weak leader who is right. In the end they will reject the strong leader because he failed and they will reject the weak leader because he's weak. This rang true to me then and now.

But the Obama-crats wouldn't hear it, look at what we accomplished they kept saying, listen to how perceptive the President is on these complicated issues. What the public heard was Obama undercutting the successes that he had and agreed with the criticism of his political opponents about the very legislation that was passed and to the nation if sounded like Obama lacks the courage of his convictions. Or maybe he lacks convictions.

Ireland's Debt Crisis

2010-11-04T13:38:00.003-04:00

Ireland, like the UK and to a lesser extent the US faces a large public dept. Currently the Irish are running a deficit of 32% of GDP and have proposed cuts will lower the deficit to less than 3% of GDP by 2014.

What's not to like? Debt reduction is good, that's what we keep hearing. Well what is the reaction among economists?

Ken Wattrett, chief European economist at BNP Paribas, said the government faced a difficult dilemma.
"[15bn euros] is a huge amount - what we're talking about there is something in the region of 10% of GDP in addition to all the measures that have already been delivered," he told the BBC.

"The intention for 2011 is to frontload quite a lot of that adjustment, probably in the region of 4% of GDP.

"[The government] needs to deliver these cuts to stabilise its public finances and win its credibility back, but at the same time it will probably push its economy into a deeper recession." (emphasis added)

But then again, few in Washington are serious about debt, particularly the resurgent Repugs.

Party Before Country?

2010-11-04T13:14:00.002-04:00

It seems that Mitch McConnell is willing to hold the prosperity of the country hostage in order to return Repugs to the White House. I doubt that is what most voters had in mind Tuesday.

Was it do to the Failure of Young Voters to Vote?

2010-11-03T13:16:00.003-04:00

Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias, both have posts up discussing how the failure of young voters to get to the polls was a drag on Democrats. Historically Democrats owned the senior citizen vote and often younger voters, but the senior voter has changed. The seniors loyal to the Dems are the Greatest Generation that is slipping from the scene, the new senior voter became serious about voting with Ronald Reagan and have continued to vote Republican.

What will be interesting watch is if Dems can maintain today's young voter as they age. It is expected that there will be a time during their 20's when these voters exercise the right infrequently. Will they be Dems when they begin voting regularly as the settle and raise families? This is key to Dem prospects as the Baby Boomers are likely to continue to trend Republican.

A question for the pollsters, has Obama squandered the youth vote who will be eligible to vote for the first time in 2012?

Now What Barry

2010-11-03T07:16:00.003-04:00

Now that hope and change is consigned to the dustbin of history, what will the President's response be? Let me suggest one, call the Repug's bluff and propose to balance the budget by 2016.

This of course can't be done with tax cuts and redlining 75% of the budget as untouchable, which is what the Repugs have proposed. Start by leaving the current income tax rates in place, but eliminating all tax deductions, credits and exemptions for business and individuals. These are nothing but spending through allowing selected groups not pay taxes owed. Eliminate all direct subsidies to business and industry, including farm subsidies. To deal with natural disasters that effect farmers, a private crop disaster insurance program modeled on the flood insurance program should be implemented. Eliminate all Federal funding of roads, highways and infrastructure, including water projects, while giving the receipts of federal gas and excise taxes that are dedicated for them to the states and let the states be responsible for maintaining and developing this infrastructure.

Phase in a raise in the eligibility age for Social Security to 70 and reestablish taxing Social Security benefits when the recipients income exceeds twice the annual benefit. Medicare should be changed from a fee for service model to payment for performance. Also the basic Medicare plan should be a "gatekeeper" model, similar to an HMO where the recipients primary care physician determines the appropriate treatment regime. If an individual wants the flexibility assume control of their treatment the market can provide supplementary insurance options.

The Defense Department shouldn't escape cuts either. First end the war in Afghanistan. Eliminate one naval carrier group. Close all US military bases in Europe, Japan and South Korea. Those nations are sufficiently wealthy and developed to provide for their own first line defense. As the current generation of manned attack aircraft becomes obsolete, replace it with drones and missiles.

A small but symbolic cut, eliminate foreign aid to Israel, Egypt and Palestine, we're not getting much cooperation for our money anyway.

These changes aren't enough to eliminate the deficit and have a snow ball's chance in hell of passing anyway. But if proposed in the President's 2011 State of the Union speech, it would shine a bright light on the stark choices that we face. To this point Washington has bickered around the margins of deficit reduction, quibbling over what may be possible and that won't get it done.

Would Obama adopt such a policy? Nah, he's too timid, too practical; he'll search for some middle ground. But how do you find the middle when the whole has no definition?

Cool and Collected

2010-11-02T21:11:00.000-04:00

Its the Thorazine.

And Just in Time for the Holiday Season

2010-10-30T11:13:00.002-04:00

From the Louisville Courier-Journal

Indiana's budget crunch has become so severe that some state workers have suggested leaving severely disabled people at homeless shelters if they can't be cared for at home, parents and advocates said.

They said workers at Indiana's Bureau of Developmental Disabilities Services have told parents that's one option they have when families can no longer care for children at home and haven't received Medicaid waivers that pay for services that support disabled children living independently.

Shades of Newt Gingrich's suggestion that orphanages be set up to care for the children of the poor.

Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for the Family and Social Services Administration, the umbrella agency that includes the bureau, said suggesting homeless shelters is not the agency's policy and workers who did so would be disciplined.

Fine, but you need to have some sympathy for the department staffers who are caught between a rock and hard place, between desperate parents and having nothing to offer them.

Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.

The Fruits of the Supreme Court's Labor

2010-10-28T16:49:00.002-04:00

ABC News is reporting:

In the bitter U.S. Senate race in Kentucky, a local millionaire has helped launch a barrage of ads attacking the Democratic candidate – a candidate who, as the state's attorney general, is prosecuting the businessman's nursing home for allegedly covering up sexual abuse, records show.

With the Citizen's United decision the court opened the door for crooks and other criminals to buy the government of their choosing. The old saying The Best Government Money can Buy has a new meaning.

Fire Them All

2010-10-28T16:11:00.002-04:00

Rasmussen reports that 65% of the respondents in a survey on Congress expressed the view that all members should be replaced. That would only re-arrange the deck chairs and not cure what ails Washington. If you got rid of the current cast of characters in a few years the replacements would be behaving similarly.

In truth the structure of our legislative and executive system is mal-adapted to the realities of governing in the 21st Century. The innumerable formal and informal checks that are part of Congress, no longer serve as a restraint on an imperial executive, but have come to serve the interests of select constituencies.

A few weeks ago Steve Walt had a blog post relating a conversation as to whether the US was up to the challenges that it faced. In general the consensus was yes, that the American business and its citizenry is, but there is serious questions as to whether our system of government is. Read it, its sobbering.

Getting the Punishment Right

2010-10-26T07:37:00.001-04:00

Pamela Smart was in the press the other day, saying that a death sentence would be preferable to spending life behind bars. The law and the courts got it right, each morning she needs to get up an face the consequences of her actions and will continue to do so for the rest of her natural life. Sounds like suitable punishment.

Yes, It's Coming to This

2010-10-20T21:56:00.002-04:00