Losing Liberals

Posted: August 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Democratic Politics, Team Obama, We are so F'd, WE TOLD THEM SO | Tags: , , , | 24 Comments

artwork by nataliedee.com

There’s an emerging blog discussion on Obama’s dropping poll numbers in the Democratic Party base and the drop of yet another hippie bashing meme by OFA Director Ray Sandoval.  There’s a lot of people that think that the base has no place to go and will return to the fold, but I’ve noticed the increased number of Democratic Congress members that seem to have Obama fatigue.   You may have read BostonBoomer’s post on Maxine Waters who has been out with members of the black caucus in major cities trying to connect the jobless with jobs.

There’s also evidence that other members are equally disenchanted.  I’m not really sure what that will mean over the next year’s election cycle.  I just know that there’s a willingness now to speak up unlike the conspiracy of silence that plagued elected Democratic officials since early 2008.   I’ve got a few examples to share with you.

Here’s an excellent interview with  MA Representative Jim McGovern. The bolded sentence is my nomination for QOTD.

“We need to get the focus back on jobs,” said McGovern. “Here we are at the end of August, and Congress hasn’t done anything about jobs.”

McGovern voted “no” on the debt ceiling compromise, calling it “a catastrophe” that disagreed with both President Obama and the American people’s stance on revenues.

“I didn’t run for Congress to dismantle the New Deal,” said McGovern.

The Massachusetts Rep is a loyal supporter of the president, but feels that the current political climate in the country calls for bolder leadership.

“The president needs to fight back,” he said.

Congressman Pete DeFazio says that Obama “lacks the will to fight” and that  may cost him Oregon. DeFazio says that his boldest defense of the President recently sums up to it could have been worse.  That’s hardly a resounding endorsement of bold leadership.

In his Eugene office Wednesday, Defazio accused the President of lacking the will to fight for the promises he made to get elected.

“Fight? I don’t think it’s a word in his vocabulary,” said the Springfield Democrat, who specifically cited Obama’s lack of follow-through in promises to restore Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.

“He repeatedly said that. Then the Republicans telegraphed to him they were going to use a fake crisis over the debt limit in order to muscle some major spending reductions or other things on to him. And that was in December. And what happens? Suddenly he flip flops and concedes everything to the Republicans.”

Asked whether he thought the President had a shot at re-election, Defazio was skeptical.

“At this point it pretty much depends on how far out there the Republican nominee is. You know with a respectable–someone who is a little bit toward the middle of the road–Republican nominee, he’s going to have a very tough time getting re-elected,” said DeFazio.

He’s also not convinced the President will do well in Oregon.

“I believe Oregon is very much in play. I mean we are one of the harder hit states in the union, particularly my part of the state. I’ve just done six town hall meetings, have seven to go but people are shaking their heads and saying ‘I don’t know if I’d vote for him again.’” Defazio said.

Asked if he was surprised, the congressman shrugged.

“Not at all,” DeFazio said. “One guy asked me, ‘Give me 25 words what he’s about and what he’s done for me.’ I’m like, ‘It could have been worse.’”

So, those folks that were gaga over “No Drama Obama”  have suddenly found that translates into “No Guts and No Glory”.  Chuck Hobbs–a Florida Trial lawyer and writer for Politics365–has some interesting analysis on the thesis that President Obama is losing support from progressives.

Curiously, the president’s focus soon shifted from job creation to passing a sweeping health reform measure. What passed, known as the Affordable Care Act, was viewed by many progressives as a shell of the long desired single payer system in that the current act does more to provide incentives to existing insurance companies than containing costs or providing greater benefits to Americans.

Still, if most progressives are willing to concede that some form of universal care is better than none, few are as accommodating for other perceived missteps by the Obama administration. Chief among these include the president’s reticence to advocate government sponsored economic stimulation with respect to jobs—a modern day “New Deal” similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s public works programs. Others were concerned with the president’s escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan and willingness to attack Libya despite the fact that Libya’s civil war did not directly implicate any U.S. interests. Other progressives lament the fact that the president has taken a seemingly nuanced approach on the issue of gay marriage.

These concerns pale in comparison to progressives fevered pitch from the recent debt ceiling debate, one in which Tea Party conservatives’ unwillingness to compromise drove the president closer to the ideological right with respect to tax cuts.

The fact that no new revenue sources were created particularly vexed perennial third party challenger Ralph Nader, who now calls for a primary challenger to Obama in 2012.  Nader recently stated that he “would guess that the chances of there being a challenge to Obama in the primary are almost 100 percent.”

Nader also averred “when (Obama) surrendered the continuation of tax cuts for the rich last December, the least he could have gotten was the debt ceiling increased. He didn’t even do that. So he set himself up for this hostage situation by the Republicans and it’s his own fault. And the country and the workers are paying the price.”

Obama’s advisers are trying to position the President as the calm voice in Washington that seeks compromise and stays above the fray.  He’s got some room with that posture while the Republican primary contenders eat each other alive for the position of who can pander most successfully to the crazy right. It seems clear to me that Obama will never place himself in the position of pandering to the left or center left.  His strategy is appears to follow DeFazio’s characterization. Hey Vote for me! It could’ve been worse.

My thought is that line of reasoning will not hold water as the economy continues to crumble, joblessness remains high–especially among minorities and young people who are a core constituency of the President, and Republicans solidify behind a candidate.  Will Democratic voters sit this election out now that it’s unlikely to be viewed as historic?  Let me quote one more Democratic Congressman and examine a recent Obama policy morph.  This is from Luis Guitterez on Obama’s lost pledge to Latinos.

To understand why I chose to participate with others in an act of peaceful civil disobedience over President Obama’s record-setting pace of immigrant deportations, you need to go back to 12 July 2008. In San Diego, then Senator – and Democratic candidate for president – Barack Obama’s spoke to the annual national conference of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organisation. He told the mostly Latino audience:

When communities are terrorised by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to legal counsel, when all that is happening, the system just isn’t working and we need to change it.

He received thunderous applause and went on to promise to address immigration reform to protect immigrants from deportation in his first year in office, and pledged he would not walk away even if it was politically difficult to keep moving forward. He won the election with an overwhelming and unprecedented 67% of the Latino vote – which had expanded by 2 million new voters since 2004 – and won key states like Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada (and, therefore, the White House) on the strength of the Latino vote. Indeed, the slogan adopted by his campaign, “Yes We Can”, is an adaptation of the iconic chant of the Mexican American farm labor movement of the 1960s, “Si Se Puede,” led by César Chávez.

Flash forward to now and Barack Obama‘s record on immigration as president does not match the rhetoric or the huge expectations he created in 2008. A million people have been deported by President Obama – approximately, 1,100 per day; most of them Latinos – far more than his predecessor George W Bush or any American president. Without being prodded by Congress, he expanded the use of the military at the border with Mexico, mandated the use of an electronic employment eligibility system for all firms doing business with the government and, most controversially, expanded a programme misnamed “secure communities” that enlists state and local law enforcement in federal immigration matters. Such programmes erode trust between immigrants and their local police because reporting a crime or domestic abuse could lead to deportation (which has, indeed, happened). When the governors of New York, Massachusetts and Obama’s own State of Illinois – solidly Democratic Obama territory – tried to withdraw from the program, the president told them participation by their states, counties and cities is mandatory.

The response to this has been interesting.  US Today has labelled the Obama deportation policy as “Smart Politics”.

President Obama’s new policy on deporting illegal immigrants won’t just help those immigrants without criminal records. It could help Obama as well.

The policy, announced by the Department of Homeland Security Thursday, places priority on deporting criminal aliens and other priority cases. Those who arrived in the United States as children, received college educations or served in the military will be less likely to get deported.

The decision is sure to be reviewed by Congress. In particular, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, argues the administration is overstepping its authority by picking and choosing among those who entered the country illegally.

But one thing seems clear: The move will help Obama among Hispanics, many of whom have long argued that he was being unnecessarily tough on deportation policy.

This is clearly another example of a White House policy that triangulates rather than shows any bold vision. This does appear to be a White House that plays 11th dimensional chess with itself and then loses.  So, my question of the day is how many folks will be willing to show up and vote for the President based on “it could’ve been worse”?

Friday Reads

Posted: August 19, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, John Birch Society in Charge, morning reads, Team Obama | 15 Comments

Good Morning!

Well, another campaign day, another choice set of lies out there in the face of the public.  Let’s see.  Michelle Bachmann thinks we’re all frightened of the rising power of the Soviet Union.  Has she suddenly done the time warp or did she just never read a newspaper back in the day and some how forgot about that entire Boris Yeltsin, Mikhael Gorbachev, and  fall of the Berlin Wall thing?  Kinda makes you worry about her poor homeschooled children, doesn’t it?

Rick Perry seems to think that Texas illegally teaches the biblical creation myth along with actual science.  Steven Benen had a wildly funny tongue-in-cheek up wondering aloud if Perry actually has any idea about the age of the world after he answered this little boy’s question in New Hampshire.   Seems Perry doesn’t know his biology, his geology or his US Constitution either.

ABC News has a video up today showing Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry answering a question from a young boy in New Hampshire. “How old do you think the Earth is?” the kid said. Given Perry’s larger worldview, it seems like a reasonable question. The Texas governor replied, “I don’t have any idea; I know it’s pretty old. So, it goes back a long, long way.”

We can hope Perry doesn’t think 6,000 years is “pretty old.”

At this point, the boy’s mother pushed him to ask Perry about evolution. The candidate explained:

“Your mom is asking about evolution. You know, that’s a theory that’s out there; it’s got some gaps in it. In Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools — because I figure you’re smart enough to figure out which one is right.”

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, Perry may have no idea what goes on in Texas’ public schools, but if they’re teaching “both creationism and evolution,” they’re violating the law. It’s not even a gray area — the Supreme Court has already struck down a law that called for “balanced treatment for creation-science and evolution-science in public school instruction,” concluding that the law violated the separation of church and state. Teaching religion in science class is illegal under the First Amendment.

Some one should ask Perry if he believes in the Theory of Gravity.  I’m thinking his hair may not. John Huntsman, the Republican underdog candidate, actually tweeted this yesterday: ‘Call me crazy,’ I believe in evolution, global warming.  He may not be crazy, but there obviously are a lot of people out there voting in Republican primaries that sure are which is why his campaign is pretty dead in the water.  Evidently fact denial is part of conservative bona fides these days.

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman took to Twitter Thursday to offer his support for evolution.

Huntsman made the tweet shortly after Texas Gov. Rick Perry offered comments that cast doubt on evolution — his comments can be interpreted as criticism of Perry.

“To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy,” tweeted Huntsman, the former ambassador to China.

Perry has also raised questions about whether humans are contributing to global warming.

Huntsman’s tweet will raise questions about whether he has the conservative bona fides to win the Republican presidential nomination. Huntsman has carved out a niche in the primary fight as a centrist, but it is unclear whether GOP voters are looking for that in a candidate this year.

So, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a jobs plan that actually is a budget deficit reduction plan in disguise.  I’m just getting so cynical these days that I”m ready to move to the Channel Islands and pledge allegiance to HRH Queen Elizabeth.  At least the Brit monarchs these days read books and go to university.

The jobs package that President Obama plans to unveil shortly after Labor Day could include tens of billions of dollars to renovate thousands of dilapidated public schools and a tax break to encourage businesses to hire new workers, according to people familiar with White House deliberations.

As aides work to put together the proposal, they are also hammering out a companion plan to reduce federal budget deficits over the next decade, which Obama would share with the 12-member congressional “super committee” charged with finding long-term fixes for the growing national debt.

The deficit reduction plan would rely on some of the ideas Obama worked on in private negotiations with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) this summer, aides said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a proposal that is still taking shape.

The two-phase plan would probably require Obama to argue for spending more money in the short term while reducing the federal deficit over a longer period. Many economists support that combination, saying cuts in spending should wait until the economy is stronger. But political strategists say it has been difficult to communicate that idea to voters.

I’d rather not live in a country where policy decisions are based on if  ideas considered too “difficult to communicate” to voters personally.  Given that Michelle Bachman thinks that the Soviet Union still exists, Rick Perry isn’t aware the constitution forbids teaching specific religious doctrines in Public Schools, and John Huntsmen has to tweet to people that he’s not one of the “crazy people”,  I’ll take small wealthy, monarchy–like Monaco–for $1000 Alex.

Okay, I’ve decided that Science News and education is a priority now.  Here’s a few items to consider.  NASA is trying to figure out how to predict space weather.  Hope it’s easier than predicting earth weather.

NASA scientists for the first time can track the effects of a solar storm on Earth, offering new advancements in our ability to predict space weather and how it will impact our satellites, emergency systems, power grid, air traffic control equipment, and more.

New observations from NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or STEREO, spacecraft have allowed researchers to observe the sun throwing off immense clouds of material, see how the material interacts with solar wind, and monitor the result as it hurtles toward Earth’s magnetosphere.

The result: a first-ever view, end-to-end and in three dimensions, of the impact of a solar storm on Earth.

“With stereoscopic telescopes, we are actually witnessing the solar wind and solar storm blowing all the way from sun to Earth,” said Madhulika Guhathakurta, STEREO program scientist, during a press conference at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., today.

Here’s another kewl thing from NASA:  Mapping Antarctic Ice in Motion. Don’t tell Rick Perry, it’s more of those scientist trying to confuse us about climate change and global warming!

Put the arguments over how fast Antarctic ice is melting to one side for the moment. The latest study of the southern continent, by a group of scientists led by Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, shows how fast the ice rivers are moving and where they are going.

The map of ice in motion, which traces parts of the eastern Antarctic region that have previously been hard to see, offers a new and powerful tool for the study of the dynamics of ice melting into the southern seas.

The data used in the map was obtained from satellites in polar orbit. Dr. Rignot said in an interview that 3,000 different orbital tracks were studied, then combined into a mosaic of the continent.

The study was published on Thursday in Science Express. The work was done in conjunction with NASA, which said in a press release that the map, showing glaciers moving from the deep interior to its coast, “will be critical for tracking future sea-level increases from climate change.”

One last thing and I’ll turn the thread over to you for you to share what you’re reading today.  Roman artifacts are being used to study how better nuclear storage waste receptacles might last over time.

Scientists are experimenting with 1,800-year-old glass to better understand how nuclear waste storage will hold up for millennia to come.

Long ago a ship set sail in the Adriatic sea, possibly heading toward the ancient seaport of Aquileia. But it never made it. For 1,800 years the ship’s wreckage sat on the sea floor, exposed to the elements.

Denis Strachan, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory fellow, traveled to Italy last summer in search of the corroded glass to study how modern-day glass will hold up when storing nuclear waste. As a fan cools his lab at in Richland, Wash., he sounds almost as excited about the history as the science.

“These are experiments done by our ancient fathers for us – free.”

Modern scientists wanted to find out:

  • How much corrosion happened over the last 1,800 years
  • How water reacted with the glass
  • What the ancient glass turned into

Senior scientist Joseph Ryan holds up a blue piece of glass found at the bottom of the sea. Most likely it’s a part of a goblet and its handle. The corrosion looks iridescent, and there’s not much of it.

“You can still see on this material, all of the neat little ridges and decorations that are present on this glass, and its been buried for 1,800 years in just sea water – not really the world’s best repository situation.”

Ryan says they can use the chemistry behind the unintentionally durable Roman glass to make sure what’s used to hold nuclear waste will not fail.

Alright then!  Tag you’re it!  What’s on your reading and blogging list today?  Please share!!!

Another Republican Wingnut Spouts Surreal Idiocy

Posted: August 18, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Surreality, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Senator Weird Hair

Another day, another Republican wingnut reveals his ugly inner self. This time it’s Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. Let’s see … where to begin….

Via Think Progress: At a town hall meeting in Pryor, OK, a woman who advocates for people in nursing homes asked Coburn a how we can balance the budget and also make sure the “frail elderly” are protected.

QUESTION: With more and more cuts in Medicare and Medicaid on the horizon, I’m really worried about protecting our frail elderly in the Medicare and Medicaid facilities. So I would like to know how Congress proposes to balance the budget and still make sure our frail elderly in these facilities are protected and have trained care staff, especially in the home care services for seniors sector.

COBURN: That’s a great question. The first question I have for you is if you look in the Constitution, where is it the federal government’s role to do that? That’s number one. Number two is the way I was brought up that’s a family responsibility, not a government responsibility.

Oh really?

Read the rest of this entry »

Vacation first, Jobs Package Next Month

Posted: August 18, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: just because | 15 Comments

So, there’s discussion on the magical misery tour bus about a potential jobs package and some swagger, posturing and double dog dare yas to Republican Congress members in this pre-Martha’s Vineyard vacay speechification.  The suggested policy pretty much sounds like the same tax cut crap that usually comes out of Republican mouth pieces.  This leaves Republicans with the actual party affiliation hemming and hawing and reverting to the Nancy Reagan policy prescription of Just Say No.  I’m dubious on any policy prescriptions at the moment because it’s simply way too late.  If you believe the stock market is a fairly good barometer of economic health, and I do, economic recovery Elvis has left the building.  I double dog dare you to find an upward trend in the last 9 months or so in that Real GDP index over in the nifty graph up there, top right. (Wonky aside:  That’s a log linear series over there so it represents a growth rate or percentage change in GDP from month to month and it’s been annualized.)

So what’s on the horizon in terms of potential policy?  Former Biden economic policy Adviser Jared Bernstein inkles that the President is keen to continue his pay roll tax holiday and extend unemployment benefits but all that must wait until at least September. Bernstein admits there would be too much political heavy lifting to get a “Recovery-Style state fiscal aid” package through congress. This undoubtedly means that more teachers, fire fighters, policemen, and state workers will get the boot in most of the 50 states some time after October. Too bad we can’t extend the successful parts of the stimulus like aids to states to cover their shortfalls.

So, what will/should President Obama say in September on jobs?

–Given everything he’s been saying so far, he most likely starts out with a strong call to renew the payroll tax holiday and extend UI benefits.

–These are both essential—EPI estimates that to lose them next year would cost over one million jobs.  But since they’re already in the system, they don’t add anything new, so it’s like keeping your foot where it is now on the accelerator.  If they expire on schedule at years’ end, your foot comes off.  But keeping them going only maintains current speed, such that it is.

–He then pushes an infrastructure plan.

Robert Reich is going so far as to call the President “bold”. Well, it’s a backhanded sort’ve bold label, because he gives it and takes it away in the same blog thread  Yes, giving speeches and saying things that you never see through to reality is bold alright.  Let’s face it, Robert, sounding like a fighter while trying to crawl out of a hell hole of bad polling numbers is not exactly the same as bold action.

The President is sounding like a fighter these days. He even says he’ll be proposing a jobs bill in September – and if Republicans don’t go along he’ll fight for it through Election Day (or beyond).

That’s a start. But read the small print and all he’s talked about so far is extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits (good, but small potatoes), ratifying the Columbia and South Korea free trade agreements (not necessarily a job-creating move), and creating an infrastructure bank.

An infrastructure bank might be helpful, depending on its size.

Which is the real question hovering over the entire putative jobs bill – its size.

Some of the President’s political advisors have been pushing for small-bore initiatives that they believe might have a chance of getting through the Republican just-say-no House. They also figure policy miniatures won’t give aspiring GOP candidates more ammunition to tar Obama as a big-government liberal.

But the President is sounding as if he’s rejected their advice.

Reich does finally give a blue print on what would actually be a bold and Democratic plan for jobs.  Here’s one that’s not a shocker at all but unlikely to pass Presidential–let alone congressional–muster.  After all, it’s so very unlike the legendary Saint Ronnie’s fare. Yeah, I know, never mind about what the real Ronald Reagan did.  Let’s just stay with the myth.

Recreate the WPA and Civilian Conservation Corps to put long-term unemployed directly to work.

Something, however, tells me the President has yet to crack any macroeconomics text books when I read a headline like this:  “Obama: We’re Not In Danger of Another Recession”.  I just never know if its subterfuge or basic ignorance when I read these things.  Of course, he must knows more than your average Wall Street analyst.  Just ask Valerie Jarret, I’m sure she’ll tell you he’s so smart that to actually read anything about fiscal policy is beneath his IQ.  He just magically knows what’s right after reading Ronald Reagan fanzines biographies and talking to lawyers from Chicago.

President Obama countered many Wall Street analysts, saying on Wednesday that the U.S. is not going to have another recession.

“I don’t think we’re in danger of another recession,” Obama told CBS News. Obama did note that the recovery has not been fast enough, blaming the Arab spring, high gas prices, and March’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Obama said the volatility in the markets recently has been due to a lack of economic growth.

“The markets were reacting to the economy not growing as quick as it used to,” he said.

He also lamented the politics that surrounded the debt ceiling deal.

“We should not have had any brinksmanship around the debt ceiling,” he said.

Instead, let’s look at David Rosenberg’s 12 Bullet points that suggest we probably are already in a recession and remembering that recessions aren’t actually dated until they’re well usually under way or nearly over.  Oh, Dr. David Rosenberg, btw, is the chief economist at Gluskin Sheff so he actually cracked more than a few Newsweek articles on the subject. Here’s a few of those bullet points.

 Challenger layoffs have surged 80% in the past three months. That will lead to higher jobless claims in the near-term.

Consumer buying intentions for big-ticket items has sagged to recession levels. Watch the savings rate in the next six months — this will be key to the macro outlook.

Productivity has declined for two straight quarters and actually, unless companies willfully want their margins to implode, will soon respond by shedding labour input.

This already goes down as the weakest recovery on record despite unprecedented policy stimulus. Every dollar of balance sheet expansion at the Fed and the Treasury since the beginning of 2009 has generated 80 cents of incremental GDP gains. Not only is that a pitiful multiplier but now that there is no more stimulus, it is a legitimate question as to how an economy that only operated on policy steroids for the past two-and-change years is going to perform.

There is no doubt that the economy is not yet contracting, but the debate is whether it will start to by year-end. The withdrawal of stimulus is feeling like a policy tightening. And after coming off a mere 0.8% annual rate of gain in GDP so far this year, the question is how the financial shock since mid-year in the form of higher debt levels and equity cost of capital is going to impact an already near-stagnant economy.

The data on a three-month basis are following a classic pre-recession pattern and so is the stock market.

Indeed, today’s markets seem to be indicating there is a looming recession or even the suspicion of an onset.  It’s not just the equity and gold markets, however.  The job market remains extremely weak as Jobless Claims today shows.  Lay offs are on the increase.

More Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, signaling the labor market is struggling two years into the economic recovery.

Jobless claims climbed by 9,000 to 408,000 in the week ended Aug. 13, the highest in a month, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a rise in claims to 400,000, according to the median forecast. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls rose, while those receiving extended payments fell.

Lousy real estate numbers were also released today. We have record numbers of empty housing stock and no demand. We also have no plan for dealing with the problem.

What is obvious is the flight to safety.  Investors worried about both the US economy and the Eurozone are headed for the US bond markets.  This makes it a perfect time to borrow for a real bold job creating initiative.  The problem is that things like creative energy policies, tax credits for new workers, and infrastructure banks are policies that should’ve been put into place two years ago.  They take time to work through the bureaucracy and through the economy. Fiscal policy has very long lags between passing laws and actually get things into the economy.   If we are slipping into a recession–and many signs say that we are–there is actually little to be done at this point other than hang on.  That’s why traditional Republican Wall Streeters are horrified by rhetoric coming from the likes of Ron Paul, Michelle Bachmann, and Rick Perry.  Get this quote from David Rosenberg and think about Perry who just said such an act was “treasonous”.

So the markets are saying we’re in a depression?
That’s why you have gold at $1700 an ounce. That’s why 10-year Treasury bond yields are lower now. The bond market is saying we are in for weak growth. Gold is saying the government is going to try to reinflate their way out of it.

What can we expect to further happen while riding out the recession/depression?
Growth rates are going to be much weaker globally. There is going to be a prolonged period of very weak activity. Consumer confidence is lower today than after the 1987 crash and after 9/11.

How do we get back to a sustainable bull market and expansion?
In the end, you print money.

Is there any wonder why traditional Republican interests are scrambling for a traditional Republican candidate at the moment? They’re looking all over the place for one that knows economics and speaks rationally.  Now, if traditional Democratic interests would only scramble for a traditional Democratic candidate.  You know, one that knows economics and actually speaks about things they intend to do rather than aspire to.

Thursday Reads: Molly Ivins, Governor Goodhair, Corporate Crime, and Heroes

Posted: August 18, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Corporate Crime, George W. Bush, morning reads, Republican presidential politics, U.S. Economy, U.S. Politics | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 45 Comments

Good Morning!! I’m going to be leaving for a two-day drive to Indiana either today or tomorrow, so I’m a bit meshugge this morning. Please be patient with me. Let’s see what’s in the news.

From what I can see, it’s mostly Rick Perry. And I must say, I find “Governor Goodhair” endlessly fascinating. He’s more of a gaffe-machine than Joe Biden–and that’s really saying something. Molly Ivins gave Perry that nickname. I miss her so much. So I was thrilled when I cam across this article in the Sacramento Bee:
Molly can’t say that about Rick Perry, can she? It’s a collection of quotes on Perry from Ivins. Here’s one:

June 24, 2001

First, we Texans would like to salute the only governor we’ve got, Rick “Goodhair” Perry, the Ken Doll, for vetoing the bill to outlaw executing the mentally retarded.

We are Texas Proud.

Such a brilliant decision – not only is Texas now globally recognized for barbaric cruelty, but a strong majority of Texans themselves (73 percent) would prefer not to off the retarded.

Gov. Goodhair’s decision – in the face of popular opinion, the Supreme Court and George W. Bush’s recent conversion on this subject – is a testament to his strength of character.

Or something.

His Perryness announced, anent the veto, that Texas does not execute the retarded. I beg your pardon, Governor. Johnny Paul Penry, now on Death Row for a heart-breaking murder and the subject of two Supreme Court decisions, has an IQ between 51 and 60, believes in Santa Claus and likes coloring books.

We will never have another political writer like Molly.

Yesterday Perry “challenged” Obama on border security.

Perry, who was on his second trip to New Hampshire as a presidential candidate, criticized President Obama for his assertion during a speech in El Paso, Tex. in May that his administration had “strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible.”

“Six weeks ago the President went to El Paso and said the border is safer than it’s ever been,” Perry said. “I have no idea, maybe he was talking about the Canadian border.”

Perry thinks we should use Predator Drones to deal with illegal immigration.

“I mean, we know that there are Predator drones being flown for practice every day because we’re seeing them, we’re preparing these young people to fly missions in these war zones that we have. But some of those, they have all the equipment, they’re obviously unarmed, they’ve got the downward-looking radar, they’ve got the ability to do night work and through clouds. Why not be flying those missions and using (that) real-time information to help our law-enforcement? Becuase if we will commit to that, I will suggest to you that we will be able to drive the drug cartels away from our border.”

Apparently the Governor of Texas did not know that the Department of Homeland Security has already been using Drones to patrol the Mexican border for years.

I’m not that up on Texas politics, but I’m beginning to get the idea that the Bush crowd doesn’t care much for Rick Perry. According to Elspeth Reeve at The Atlantic, Bush’s Crew Is Gunning for Rick Perry

Is Rick Perry “another George W. Bush”? In reality, Bush was more of a fake Perry, the Texas version of a studio gangster, clearing brush in his cowboy boots despite his prep school background. It helps explain why Bush’s allies and Perry’s allies don’t like each other very much: the Bush-loving Republican establishment sees Perry as “the low-rent country cousin,” the Los Angeles Times reports. And it explains why Karl Rove (who once worked for Perry, before helping Bush become president) went on Fox News to criticize Perry for calling the Federal Reserve treasonous — and to wish for more candidates to enter the 2012 race.

You’ll need to go to the link to read all about the Bush-Perry feud. In addition, Howard Dean told The Hill that the “Bush camp will take Perry out.”

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean predicted that prominent political supporters of former President George W. Bush will deal a critical blow to Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) presidential campaign.

“The Bush people don’t fool around, as you know,” Dean said Tuesday night on MSNBC. “You can say a lot of things about Bush’s presidency and his failures as president, but one thing nobody should say [anything] bad about [is] his political team. They know what they’re doing, and they are ruthless, and they are going to take Perry out.”

Here’s Bill Clinton’s opinion on Rick Perry’s presidential ambitions:

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Do you have a Citi credit card? Better watch out

TANGERANG, Indonesia — Irzen Octa, a down-on-his-luck Indonesian businessman, suffered a torment familiar to millions of Americans struggling with debts racked up in better times: He feared losing his home.

In the end, he managed to keep the ramshackle two-story house where he and his wife raised their two now-teenage daughters. Instead, Octa, pursued by Citibank over a $5,700 debt on his platinum credit card, lost his life.

The 50-year-old businessman, invited to a Citibank office in Jakarta in late March, collapsed in a tiny room set aside by the U.S. bank for questioning of deadbeat debtors. He died shortly afterward — a casualty of a “harsh interrogation,” said Jakarta police spokesman Baharudin Djafar.

Whoa!

Noting that Indonesian debt collectors have a reputation for sometimes aggressive persistence, Johansyah, the central bank official, said: “The best thing to do is just pay.”

Octa’s widow said she first discovered that her husband had money problems when five men showed up uninvited at their Tangerang home one night in October and said they had come to get money. Unable to collect, they slept on a terrace outside the front door.

In the following months, debt collectors kept calling — and Octa’s debts kept rising because of hefty interest.

Sounds like a Mafia movie! Will that start happening here after the Republicans remove all regulations?

Matt Taibbi has a new article at Rolling Stone: Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?

Imagine a world in which a man who is repeatedly investigated for a string of serious crimes, but never prosecuted, has his slate wiped clean every time the cops fail to make a case. No more Lifetime channel specials where the murderer is unveiled after police stumble upon past intrigues in some old file – “Hey, chief, didja know this guy had two wives die falling down the stairs?” No more burglary sprees cracked when some sharp cop sees the same name pop up in one too many witness statements. This is a different world, one far friendlier to lawbreakers, where even the suspicion of wrongdoing gets wiped from the record.

That, it now appears, is exactly how the Securities and Exchange Commission has been treating the Wall Street criminals who cratered the global economy a few years back. For the past two decades, according to a whistle-blower at the SEC who recently came forward to Congress, the agency has been systematically destroying records of its preliminary investigations once they are closed. By whitewashing the files of some of the nation’s worst financial criminals, the SEC has kept an entire generation of federal investigators in the dark about past inquiries into insider trading, fraud and market manipulation against companies like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and AIG. With a few strokes of the keyboard, the evidence gathered during thousands of investigations – “18,000 … including Madoff,” as one high-ranking SEC official put it during a panicked meeting about the destruction – has apparently disappeared forever into the wormhole of history.

Under a deal the SEC worked out with the National Archives and Records Administration, all of the agency’s records – “including case files relating to preliminary investigations” – are supposed to be maintained for at least 25 years. But the SEC, using history-altering practices that for once actually deserve the overused and usually hysterical term “Orwellian,” devised an elaborate and possibly illegal system under which staffers were directed to dispose of the documents from any preliminary inquiry that did not receive approval from senior staff to become a full-blown, formal investigation. Amazingly, the wholesale destruction of the cases – known as MUIs, or “Matters Under Inquiry” – was not something done on the sly, in secret. The enforcement division of the SEC even spelled out the procedure in writing, on the commission’s internal website. “After you have closed a MUI that has not become an investigation,” the site advised staffers, “you should dispose of any documents obtained in connection with the MUI.”

I haven’t finished the article yet, but it sounds like an important story.

I’m going to end with a couple of feel-good stories.

Father of 2 becomes hero in abducted girl’s rescue

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The timing was just right for saving the life of a 6-year-old girl and for turning a 24-year-old mechanic and father of two young daughters into a hero.

It was coincidence that Antonio Diaz Chacon had come home from work early to spend time with his family Monday afternoon. It was also a coincidence that the family’s washing machine had just gone out, forcing them to do laundry a block down the road at a relative’s home.

Had it not been for that, Diaz Chacon wouldn’t have been there to see the girl thrown into a van as another neighbor yelled for the would-be kidnapper to let the child go.

Diaz Chacon is credited with saving the girl after chasing the van through a maze of neighborhoods to the edge of where Albuquerque’s sprawling housing developments meet the desert. It was there where the van crashed into a pole, the suspect fled and Diaz Chacon was able to rescue the girl and take her home.

Go read the whole thing. It’s good to know there are still brave and generous people out there who act selflessly just because someone needs help. And here’s another story about a heroic rescue–by an 8-year-old boy.

Just 8 years old and a novice swimmer, Jesus [Lara] reacted quickly last weekend to save a drowning infant from the bottom of a pool. On Thursday morning, the Plano Fire Department recognized his life-saving actions and explained how grateful they were for his quick reaction.

[….]

Jesus has only been swimming for two months. His father Henry began teaching him to swim in the pool at the Estancia Apartments where they live. Henry said after a long day of work Friday, Aug. 5, he kept his promise to take his son to the pool that night.

While Jesus was swimming, he noticed some bubbles coming from an object under the water.

Jesus Lara being honored by fire department

The bubbles were coming from a 21-month-old toddler who had stumbled into the water.

“I grabbed a quick breath, and I dove under,” he said.

Jesus resurfaced holding a 21-month-old boy and arms outstretched, he yelled for his father to help.

“It was what he said that spoke volumes to me,” Henry said, remembering the boy’s words, “I found him at the bottom of the pool.”

Jesus’ father knew CPR and was able to resuscitate the child, who is now “doing fine.”

Those are my recommended reads for today. What are you reading and blogging about?

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