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Saturday, February 16, 2008
Wanker of the Day
John Dickerson.
Has It Been A Year Already?
Indeed it has.
Bush Regains His Footing
By David S. Broder
Friday, February 16, 2007; A23
It may seem perverse to suggest that, at the very moment the House of Representatives is repudiating his policy in Iraq, President Bush is poised for a political comeback. But don't be astonished if that is the case.
Anything Going On?
Joe Klein do anything stupid today? Some days I just got nothin'.
Happy
Blog birthday to Dependable Renegade.
Saint McCain
I thought it was only foul-mouthed bloggers who threatened to disturb the tranquil peace of the most civil institution in the history of the universe.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Temper, temper.
Republican John McCain is known for his.
He's been dubbed ''Senator Hothead'' by more than one publication, but he's also had some success extracting his hatchet from several foreheads.
Even his Republican Senate colleagues are not spared his sharp tongue.
''F--- you,'' he shouted at Texas Sen. John Cornyn last year.
''Only an a------ would put together a budget like this,'' he told the former Budget Committee chairman, Sen. Pete Domenici, in 1999.
''I'm calling you a f------ jerk!'' he once retorted to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Deep Thought
Your candidate's campaign is a cult!!!
Price to Sell
Things only got completely crazy in Philadelphia for a little while, but even here anecdotally for sale signs seem to sit on houses for a long time...
Kegley, owner of Moreno Valley-based National Realty Group, said he's finding a fair amount of pre-approved homebuyers. It's finding sellers willing to lower their prices that's more challenging.
"(Sellers) ask me what it would take to sell in 30 days, and when I tell them, they say, `Come on, be realistic,"' Kegley said. "They keep reducing the price, but they're always too late."
A real estate veteran of more than 20 years, he said the current housing meltdown "has a different twist to it" than prior slumps.
"Last time we had some equity on properties," he said. "This time there's just no equity. The prices are much lower than what's owed on the properties."
To the extent that people are underwater you can understand. You're telling them to write a big check for the privilege of leaving their house behind.
Breakfast thread
Speaking of totally cult candidates... And more Republican follies. Signed, Not Atrios
Friday, February 15, 2008
Splitting the Baby
As CR says, the only way this could work is if the almost inevitably bankrupt part of the business is surgically removed from the traditional muni insuring part of the business. Then all those bits of big shitpile which we've pretended have AAA rating because they're "insured" cease to be insured and lots of financial institutions have a problem. It's fun when that last Jenga piece comes out!
Thread
And, of course, you couldn't see his daughter getting kidnapped practically every episode coming a mile away, either. Signed, Not Atrios
Friday Night
End of the week and I'm outta gas.
Deep Thought
Your candidate's campaign is a CULT!!!
IT'S HERE!!!
The greatest book titled Liberal Fascism ever written has arrived!
Friday Cat Blogging
Wanker of the Day
Christine Flowers.And her editor, Sandra Shea.
Facts Are Stupid Things
Pelosi:
The President is misrepresenting the facts on our nation’s electronic surveillance capabilities. Last August, he insisted that Congress pass the Protect America Act; but this week, he refused to support an extension, which can only mean he knows our intelligence agencies will be able to do all the wiretapping they need to do to protect the nation. That surveillance can be undertaken under broad orders authorized under the PAA or under orders that can be obtained through the FISA court.
The President knows the facts; if he did not want the PAA to expire this weekend, he should have supported an extension of it, as the overwhelming majority of House Democrats did on Wednesday. Having guaranteed the lapse of the August law, the President should now work in a cooperative way with Congress to pass a strong FISA modernization bill that protects our nation’s security and the Constitution.
Grover Gets It
Along these lines, it's worth remember what the Republican plan for dealing with Democrats is as provided by Grover Norquist. As Chait once wrote:
Norquist, like a Bond villain, has an irresistible penchant for spelling out his master plans in their full, nefarious detail.
And he does.He spelled it out quite plainly:
Once the minority of House and Senate are comfortable in their minority status, they will have no problem socializing with the Republicans. Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they've been fixed, then they are happy and sedate. They are contented and cheerful. They don't go around peeing on the furniture and such.
He was writing from the perspective of being in the majority, but between Bush's veto pen, the hideous Bush Dogs, and the 60-vote Senate not much has changed. They can only be neutered by the Republicans if they let themselves be. And when they do, they won't look tough. The White House expected them to cower in fear:
White House officials and their allies were angry that the Democrats did not "blink," as one outside adviser said. The decision to defy the White House came in the form of a weeklong adjournment of the House yesterday afternoon.
To restate yet again: you don't look tough when you surrender.
Can't Look Strong When You're Running Away
Yglesias:
As I argue in Heads in the Sand, it's important to approach these things from a self-confident point-of-view rather than a defensive one. When Bush says something outrageous, you have to act like you're outraged not like you're frightened that his outrageous statements will cause the voters to punish you. Confidence alone, obviously, isn't nearly enough to win political fights but it is a necessary precondition of doing so.
This has most obviously been an issue for so-called national security issues over the past few years, but it's also been an issue pretty much across the board for Democrats. Too often they sound like they're apologizing for themselves, buying into media narratives that core Democratic principles are somehow unpopular even when polls show otherwise.
And No One Will Ask Why
Glennzilla:
The issue is not "intelligence gaps." Rather, as McConnell candidly admits, the "real issue" is "liability protection for the private sector." To take them at their word, George Bush and Mike McConnell are putting the nation at risk in order to ensure that AT&T and Verizon do not have to be held accountable in a court of law for having broken the law. Think about how twisted and corrupt that calculus is.
I don't actually believe this is about protecting the telcoms; it's about protecting themselves. And given the fact that a supine press has been relatively unconcerned that the president had been illegally spying on Americans without warrants as required by law for years, one wonders just what it is they feel the need to hide.
The Press
I think this John Heilemann article on the disparate press treatment of Clinton and Obama is pretty good. I'm not sure there was anything Clinton could do to try to change the press's "meta-narrative" of her, so playing up it as a strength was probably the best bet. I also think that while the press has been good to Obama, the press has been pretty damn good to every candidate with an R after their name. Obama's coverage may be strangely positive, but strangely positive for a Democrat.
More Financial Fun
Citigroup:
Citigroup has barred investors in one of its hedge funds from withdrawing their money, and a new leveraged fund lost 52 percent in its first three months, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The largest U.S. bank suspended redemptions in CSO Partners, a fund specializing in corporate debt, after investors tried to pull more than 30 percent of its roughly $500 million of assets, the newspaper said. Citigroup injected $100 million to stabilize the fund, which lost 10.9 percent last year, the newspaper said.
The fund's manager, John Pickett, left following a dispute with Citigroup executives and complaints from investors after he tried to back out from committing more than half the fund's assets to buy leveraged loans tied to a German media company, the newspaper said. That matter was settled when CSO agreed to buy $746 million of the loans at face value, though they were trading at 86 percent to 93 percent of face value, it said.
Billion Here, Billion There
No biggy.
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The world's banks ``remain at risk'' of up to $203 billion in additional writedowns, largely because the bond insurance crisis could worsen, UBS AG said.
``Banks have made progress in credit-market related writedowns,'' London-based UBS analyst Philip Finch said in a note to investors today. ``But more are expected,'' he added.
Writedowns for collateralized debt obligations and subprime related losses already total $150 billion, Finch estimated. That could rise by a further $120 billion for CDOs, $50 billion for structured investment vehicles, $18 billion for commercial mortgage-backed securities and $15 billion for leveraged buyouts, UBS said. ``Risks are rising and spreading and liquidity conditions are still far from normal,'' the note said.
The Campaign
Josh:
Clinton is ultimately responsible for putting her political fate in this fool's hands. But this is a guy who has basically one big political win under his belt and whose record in seriously contested races, particularly Democratic primary races is one of almost constant defeats. Much of Clinton's current predicament stems from Penn's disastrous, glass-jaw 'inevitability' strategy and the mind-boggling decision not even to contest a slew of states where Obama racked up huge victories and many delegates.
Campaigns are about winning votes not making excuses. There are plenty of delegates still out there for Clinton to win -- over a thousand left in the remaining primaries. But her efforts are being stymied by a campaign apparatus rooted in the belief that any new reality can be overturned by pretending it away.
Like any political strategy, it's only "disastrous" if it fails to work. If it works it's "genius." Politics is binary. Win or lose. For quite a long time Clinton's inevitability strategy was working. Genius! And then it maybe it wasn't working so well. Like I said yesterday, all this "spin" bugs me. Not because I'm being spun, but because spin should make your candidate look good, not bad. Mark Penn's pronouncements, and others from the campaign (he's not the only one), give me that watching-an-Ari-Fleischer-press-conference feeling. It's the utter contempt for everyone not on board with the candidate, an attempt to just assume them all away.
Morning Threadily Diddily
 Luckovich
VIOLENCE ON ESCHATON
Really, people. It must stop. Listen to Lee Siegel.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Confused
K.O. just said Bush was a liberal? [/Jonah]
Thread
I hadn't really looked at the banking crisis this way.... Signed, Not Atrios
Deep Thought
I have 10,000 virtual friends, and on this day I love them all.
Insolvency
Even the CNBC chatters (some of them) seemed to be getting it today. We're basically in a situation where several major financial institutions are probably not really meeting their legal reserve requirements even though we're pretending they are. This doesn't necessarily mean that there will be bank meltdowns, but it does mean they're trying rebuild the foundation as the game of jenga continues. Exciting!!
Fresh Thread
I'm cooking. Please provide links to discussions of your pet issues in the comments.
Feels Good
Good for Steny. Let's hope it holds. What's weird is why they don't actually stand up more. You get a sense that once they do it they do feel a bit better about themselves and have a good laugh. And why not? Winning is fun!! There really just isn't any political price to be paid for opposing Mr. 24% on anything. Nobody buys this "terra terra terra" crap coming from Bush anymore except for cowards who write conservative blogs.
Eye Rolling Season
I admit I'm entering the non-stop eyerolling phase of primary season. We have two candidates who are different but not that different when it comes to policy. Those differences are real, and they could be highlighted and debated in a serious way. But we're not really getting that. i can haz general election now?
They Write Letters
Congressman Reyes writes to President Bush.
Washington, DC - Congressman Silvestre Reyes, D-TX, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, sent the following letter to President George W. Bush today regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The text of the letter is below:
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The Preamble to our Constitution states that one of our highest duties as public officials is to "provide for the common defence." As an elected Member of Congress, a senior Member of the House Armed Services Committee, and Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I work everyday to ensure that our defense and intelligence capabilities remain strong in the face of serious threats to our national security.
Because I care so deeply about protecting
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