Saturday Reads
Posted: November 13, 2010 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: Asian Century, DADT, Juan Cole, Robert Gates, Study Leaks 46 Comments
'Cupcakes on a Book' by Rachel Montague
Good Morning!!!
First up, a couple of items from Politico.
Well, we can’t get any action on torture memos and evidence destruction, but Robert Gates is ordering a probe into leaks. Guess it’s only a problem if we know about it. This time the problem is who inkled the DADT pentagon survey before its time.
“The secretary strongly condemns the unauthorized release of information related to this report and has directed an investigation to establish who communicated with The Washington Post or any other news organization without authorization and in violation of department policy and his specific instruction.”
The Pentagon’s anger over the release of parts of the report aren’t based on national security concerns. Instead, the newspaper story appeared to foil a carefully orchestrated plan to make public the reports findings after they were due Dec. 1. Releasing aspects of the report would affect public perceptions just weeks before the issue is likely to emerge again in Congress. The newspaper article based on only parts of the report could undermine the overall integrity of the report’s findings, Pentagon officials said.
I suppose that means that all had to get their stories straight before we found out about it. I’m also thinking that some folks probably aren’t quite on board with it yet.
Raise your hand if you think Rick Perry is running for President. Yup, me too. He’s angling for some higher profile positions right now.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry will be tapped as the new chairman of the Republican Governors Association when the organization meets next week in San Diego, GOP sources tell POLITICO.
Perry recently released a book taking aim at the federal government and both the subject of the tome, “Fed Up!,” and his promotion of it have fueled speculation that he is eyeing a presidential bid.
Ah, Matt Yglesias wants to feel better about Obama and just comes out and says it in a post called ‘Results, Not Words’. Good luck with that.
I think that where a lot of progressive political junkies go wrong is that they think “blame Republicans for failing to pass plan to fix the economy” is a close substitute for “fix the economy.” In reality, the evidence that fixing the economy would help Democrats politically is overwhelming, while the evidence that the plan/block/blame strategy would work is non-existent. People like me and Atrios would feel better about President Obama and his team if they made public statements that indicated that he roughly agrees with our take on what ideally should be done, but people like me and Atrios are neither swing voters nor marginally attached voters. Our emotional state has very little political relevance.
Here’s Juan Cole’s take on Obama and Asia and what he calls The Asian Century. Bottom line: No one takes us seriously any more and they still don’t like us very much. Cole sees this from the diplomatic viewpoint. I’ve seen it from the same things in terms of trade and economics. It’s just a matter of time before we’re the little guys just like the Brits.
Just how weakened the United States has been in Asia is easily demonstrated by the series of rebuffs its overtures have suffered from regional powers. When, for instance, a tiff broke out this fall between China and Japan over a collision at sea near the disputed Senkaku Islands, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered to mediate. The offer was rejected out of hand by the Chinese, who appear to have deliberately halted exports of strategic rare-earth metals to Japan and the United States as a hard-nosed bargaining ploy. In response, the Obama administration quickly turned mealy-mouthed, affirming that while the islands come under American commitments to defend Japan for the time being, it would take no position on the question of who ultimately owned them.
Likewise, Pakistani politicians and pundits were virtually unanimous in demanding that President Obama raise the issue of disputed Kashmir with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his Indian sojourn. The Indians, however, had already firmly rejected any internationalization of the controversy, which centers on the future of the Muslim-majority state, a majority of whose inhabitants say they want independence. Although Obama had expressed an interest in helping resolve the Kashmir dispute during his presidential campaign, by last March his administration was already backing away from any mediation role unless both sides asked for Washington’s help. In other words, Obama and Clinton promptly caved in to India’s insistence that it was the regional power in South Asia and would brook no external interference.
This kind of regional near impotence is only reinforced by America’s perpetual (yet ever faltering) war machine. Nor, as Obama moves through Asia, can he completely sidestep controversies provoked by the Afghan War, his multiple-personality approach to Pakistan, and his administration’s obsessive attempt to isolate and punish Iran.
Here’s a cool list. It’s the World’s Richest Women. It’s also another sign of the Asian Century. Have you learned any Mandarin yet?
Topping the list is Zhang Yin, founder of a paper recycling company, who is worth $5.6 billion. She’s followed by two more Chinese women who are each worth more than $4 billion. To put that in perspective, Oprah ranked ninth with $2.3 billion and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is 20th with $1 billion. The numbers were compiled by the Hurun Report.
What explains the surge in China’s wealthy women? One answer appears to be an intense work ethic and strong ambition. According to a study completed earlier this year by the Center for Work-Life Policy, just over one-third of all college-educated American women describe themselves as very ambitious, versus two thirds in China.
Here’s another eye-popper: More than 75 percent of women in China aspire to hold a top corporate job, compared with just over half in the US. One of the more interesting findings from the study was that communism may have given women a boost, because it underscored that women could do whatever men could do. Who could have ever imagined that Maoist philosophy could be a calling card for capitalism?
Chinese women, like their American counterparts, still have a long way to go. Only 11 percent of the richest Chinese citizens are women and Chinese women have about a third less wealth than their male counterparts. Here in the US, the Census Bureau recently said that the number of women with six-figure incomes is rising at a much faster pace than it is for men. But overall, women still earn about twenty cents less on the dollar than men nationwide and only three percent of CEO’s of publicly-traded companies are women.
WAPO reports that the Supreme Court has declined to throw out DADT.
Rejecting a request by a Republican gay rights group, the U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to stop enforcement of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy while a lower court hears a challenge to the ban.
Friday’s decision by the high court keeps in place the military’s ban on gays and lesbians serving openly as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit prepares to hear legal arguments in a case brought by the Log Cabin Republicans. The group is challenging the constitutionality of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and in September convinced a federal district judge to briefly block enforcement of the ban.
The 9th Circuit reversed the decision, which led LCR to appeal to the high court on Monday. The Justice Department argued the policy should continue as the court case proceeds.
The justices provided no comment with their decision, but Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case, the court said. Kagan previously served as the Obama administration’s solicitor general and helped develop the Justice Department’s strategy on the Log Cabin case.
Here’s an interesting tidbit from Salon. It seems that one of Sarah Palin’s top aides is funded by George Soros AND it’s something the Beckster overlooked in his all out attack on Soros as worst person in the world. Oh, wait, Soros as anti-American fascist commie pinko … Well, one of those things you call people who you want to make a living off … and no, this isn’t a gratuitous fire spouting liberal I obsess with Sarah Palin post. You can breathe easy now. I’m just intrigued by the irony of it all.
Glenn Beck spent the past week denouncing the liberal billionaire and philanthropist George Soros as a “puppet master” who is orchestrating a coup “to bring America to her knees.”
Given Soros’ alleged role plotting to destroy the United States, Beck and his Fox viewership might be surprised to learn that one of Sarah Palin’s top aides has been on Soros’ payroll for years.
That would be Republican lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, Palin’s foreign policy adviser and a member of her small inner circle. He runs a Washington, D.C., consulting firm called Orion Strategies. Scheunemann and a partner have since 2003 been paid over $150,000 by one of Soros’ organizations for lobbying work, according to federal disclosure forms reviewed by Salon. The lobbying, which has continued to the present, centers on legislation involving sanctions and democracy promotion in Burma.
Scheunemann’s client is the Open Society Policy Center, a DC-based advocacy group founded and funded by Soros. The Open Society Policy Center says on its website that it “encourages Congress and the Administration to press the military dictatorship in Burma to restore political rights and democracy.”
In the course of Beck’s three-day look at Soros’ network of organizations and his links to Democratic politicians, the fact that a top aide to a likely GOP presidential candidate has been retained by a Soros outfit did not come up.
So, my guess is the media is in a ratings war to find the bottom of the gene pool.
[MABlue’s picks]
A worthy Nobel Peace Prize laureate is finally free. You hear that China?
Aung San Suu Kyi walks free
Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally walked to freedom today amid massive cheers from elated supporters who flooded the streets outside her home in Burma.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years, was greeted by jubilant crowds who had gathered in Rangoon in anticipation of her release.
Facebook wants to invade your privacy some more.
Facebook set to launch ‘Gmail killer’ email system
Facebook is set to launch its latest Google-taunting product on Monday: the long-anticipated Facebook email system.
The launch of an @facebook.com email is not itself a great surprise – the existence of a secret project officially known as Project Titan and unofficially as “Gmail killer” has been circulating since February.
But tech industry analysts believe that a Facebook email system, coupled to its popular photo and events programs, could become a comprehensive competitor to Gmail.
I always knew those vanity plates had some usefulness.
Vanity Plate Leads Police To Robbery Suspect
Hooksett woman was arrested and charged with robbing a pharmacy after a witness jotted down the vanity plate on her car as she left the area, police said
[…]
The license plate reported by the witness was B-USHER, which police said was registered to Bonnie Usher, 43. Usher was arrested at her home a short time later and charged with armed robbery.
How could a woman say “NO!” to this perfectly nice gentleman?
Man accused of trying to run down ex-girlfriend after rejected marriage proposal
Hernandez’s car had the proposal “Stacy Will You Marry Me?” written on the back window of his car, according to reports.
“She said no. He was a little unhappy with that,” Berg said.
Hernandez allegedly drove onto the sidewalk through some bushes and into the restaurant parking lot, narrowly missing the woman
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Friday Reads
Posted: November 12, 2010 Filed under: just because, morning reads | Tags: Currency appreciation, Daily Beast Newsweek Merger, hot money, repeal DADT, secret war on Yemen, web spying 59 Comments
Anji Allen "Books, Cup and Flowers"
Good Morning!!!
Well, the on and off again relationship between The Daily Beast and Newsweek is on again. They’ve got more issues with mergers than a couple of teenagers.
The New York Post‘s Keith Kelly tweets tonight that Mr. Harman, reached by telephone, said: “It’s not done yet.” And Advertising Agereports that while the sides are “close to finalizing a deal,” the announcement is only “possible” for Friday morning. With two powerful egos at a negotiating table, no deal is final until it is final. But Mr. Harman and Mr. Diller have broken through on the major issues between them, according to one source, and a deal is all but complete.
If you ever need proof of the corporate agenda and money impacting policy positions within the Beltway, this is it. WAPO has an article up revealing how many of the Cat Food Commission staffers were actually paid by outside entities. Wanna guess what types of companies contributed employees to the effort? How about those that are after our social security dollars to fund their casino operations?
Kennelly and other liberal-leaning critics say they are particularly troubled by the influence of Peterson, a billionaire and former investment banker who began a $6 million campaign this week urging lawmakers to cut the deficit. Peterson, co-founder of the Blackstone Group investment fund, paid for a series of town hall meetings this year that included participation by deficit commission members. He also funds the Fiscal Times, a digital news organization that focuses on federal debt issues.
Best blue ribbon panel money can buy!!!
A pentagon survey evidently shows that dropping DADT will not cause wartime strife. So what the heck is Obama waiting for? Just sign an executive order and get it over with already! I’ve had it with this dilly dallying around with discrimination.
The findings summarized in a lengthy report that the Pentagon is preparing to send to President Obama about the potential effects of repealing the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy have been relayed to The Washington Post ahead of the game, and from the (secondhand) look of it, the policy’s days may well be numbered if the Department of Defense heeds those findings
Okay, I’m back on currency war topics again. This is from Nouriel Roubini on ‘New Rules for Hot Money’ at Project Syndicate. This is the money that will cross borders in search of higher returns from those developing markets that are in good shape. I think you’ll remember me telling you about 9 months ago that that was my investment strategy so I’ll just put this in as some kind of notification to you that I have money in this strategy. It’s not a lot of money, but, hey it’s hot!!! (And, I’ve done real well recently so I’m probably going to cut and run shortly too, so don’t take this as any indication of me saying do this, please! )I’m going to excerpt Roubini’s explanation. It’s also one of the reasons that the dollar weakens and other currencies appreciate because if you want to invest in bonds from Thailand, you don’t use dollars, you use the Baht. So, high demand for baht, low demand for dollars, exchange rates for baht are the price of the baht and so the baht gets more expensive. The interesting points this explanation are on what policy makers can do in response to this phenomenon. Also, there’s a point you have to separate the potential for a bubble vs. actual appreciation.
Capital flows to emerging-market economies have been on a boom-bust merry-go-round for decades. In the past year, the world has seen another boom, with a tsunami of capital, portfolio equity, and fixed-income investments surging into emerging-market countries perceived as having strong macroeconomic, policy, and financial fundamentals.
Such inflows are driven in part by short-term cyclical factors (interest-rate differentials and a wall of liquidity chasing higher-yielding assets as zero policy rates and more quantitative easing reduce opportunities in the sluggish advanced economies). But longer-term secular factors also play a role. These include emerging markets’ long-term growth differentials relative to advanced economies; investors’ greater willingness to diversify beyond their home markets; and the expectation of long-term nominal and real appreciation of emerging-market currencies.
There’s some important analysis up at the WSJ by economist Robert E Hall who is one of the folks that actually dates the start and end of recessions and booms. He’s basically talking about how dysfunctional monetary policy is now because we’re in a liquidity trap.
In a paper presented Thursday at a Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta conference, Mr. Hall calculates that loose credit earlier in this decade resulted in consumers buying 14% more long-lasting items — from cars and dishwashers to houses — than they would have if credit conditions had remained as they were in the previous decade.
The recession was marked by those overextended households cutting spending and saving more in the face of hard times. The problem now is that the normal tool used to revive consumer spending and hiring — cutting interest rates well below the inflation rate — isn’t available because rates are nearly at zero. So unemployment has remained stuck at a high level, currently 9.6%.
Mr. Hall, who also serves as chairman of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee — the group that officially pronounces the start-date of recessions and recoveries — concludes that the only way to get the job market growing is to institute monetary policies “that emulate the effect of low real rates — making current purchasing cheaper than future.” That should be music to the ears of many at the Fed, which just launched a controversial program to buy government bonds aimed at getting the economy growing faster.
Yves over at Naked Capitalism has found more evidence of BOA fraudulent foreclosures. This time they’re pulling stuff in the state of Kentucky. We’ll just have to see what newly minted Senator Rand Paul says about that, won’t we?
The bank position so far has been that problems so far are mere mistakes and “sloppiness”. But as we’ve described repeatedly, the problems with securitzations run much deeper than that. It appears that the parties to the deal often failed to take the time consuming steps necessary to convey the note (the borrower IOU) to the trust as stipulated in the contract governing the deal, the pooling and servicing agreement. The PSA required that each note in the deal had to be signed by multiple intermediary parties before it got to its supposed final resting place, a trust. And that had to take place by closing or at most 90 days thereafter.
Many foreclosures show this process was not observed on a widespread basis: the notes were assigned (as in transferred) to the trust right before closing, a violation of the PSA, the New York trust statutes that govern virtually all mortgage securitization trusts, and IRS rules for these trusts (REMIC). When foreclosure defense attorneys started contesting these assignments, suddenly a new ruse started to show up: allonges, which are sheets of paper that contained the needed endorsements, would magically appear out of nowhere. The problem is that an allonge is supposed to be used only when there is no space left on the note for endorsements, including margins and the reverse side, and when it is used, it is supposed to be so firmly attached to the original as to be inseparable. But these “ta da” allonges were always somehow discovered at the custodian, quite separate from the note.
How long can the Justice Department turn a blind eye to these things? There’s too many states involved and too many loans for it not to be a systemic procedure. Follow the details over there and I think you’ll see the evidence is strong.
Speaking of corporate malfeasance, have you read about GOOGLE recently? You might want to find out if the company’s been spying on you, because it appears they’re doing so as a matter of course.
Ardent Google critic Consumer Watchdog has called on Congress to hold hearings on a major privacy breach by the Internet search engine giant, and insists that CEO Eric Schmidt should come to Washington to testify.
The group says Congress should get involved even though the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is already investigating.
That probe is important, but Congress is “the best venue to get a full explanation,” the group said Thursday in a letter to House lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Google.
Google admitted last month that it collected and stored private user data, including passwords and e-mails, from Wi-Fi networks. Critics have termed the incident Google’s “Wi-Spy” breach.
Seems you don’t have to look over your shoulder any more to see if some one is following you. They’re doing it under your nose and fingers.
Glenn Greenwald continues to believe the Terrorism is being used an excuse to erode freedom of speech. You can read his latest at Salon. More importantly, I found a link to Justin Elliot’s latest on Obama and how he’s escalating the secret war in Yemen. Whoa!!!
The Obama Administration has U.S. military trainers on the ground in Yemen and has already launched an attack and possibly multiple attacks in the country, drawing relatively little public attention and virtually no debate in Congress. Analysts and news reports suggest that the administration is now poised to escalate the secret war in Yemen, possibly by launching drone attacks targeting suspected terrorists.
The attention of the U.S. media briefly re-centered on Yemen late last month after explosives originating from the Gulf nation were found on two cargo planes in Britain and Dubai. The Obama Administration has fingered the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) as responsible for the failed attempt. (AQAP also claimed responsibility.) This is the same group that claimed responsibility for the failed attempt by Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day 2009.
But less attention has been paid to U.S. attacks on targets in Yemen — of which there have been at least two since 2002 — and the U.S. military role in training Yemeni forces as well as helping them carry out air strikes.
And you thought last stop was Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan? Yup, way to go PEACE candidate!
Alright, that’s enough from me. I’m going through my recipes to look for some good New Orleans recipes to share on Treats thread tonight. I’m giving you some warning so you’ll be prepared to share any that you’ve got that are just plain good ol’ down home cookin’.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Wednesday Reads
Posted: November 10, 2010 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: . Minority Whip, CIA, Clyburn, destruction of evidence, DOJ, Durham, health insurance industry, Hoyer, Michael Steele, RNC, Torture 29 Comments
Good Morning!!!
The infighting for Democratic party leadership positions is getting heated. The Hill highlights the struggle between Clyburn and Hoyer for minority whip status. Clyburn is calling shennanigans on Hoyer but both insist the squabble doesn’t signal a party split.
Clyburn, currently the majority whip, said Majority Leader Hoyer’s strategy of releasing the names of his supporters is threatening a process that is historically “about respecting and honoring” fellow Democrats.
“This is not about playing the numbers game,” Clyburn told The Hill outside Washington’s Newseum when asked about his whip count . “This is about respecting and honoring the members of our caucus in such a way that they will be comfortable with the process.
“I don’t see how you maintain a comfort level for all of our members by rolling out these names. I don’t think it does the process any real good. I’ve never done it; I’m not going to do it.”
It must be getting bad since CNN reported a letter by some congress critters suggesting that a delayed leadership election might be in the best interest of the upcoming lame duck session. A copy of the letter is available at the link.
Reps. Marcy Kaptur (D- Ohio) and Peter Defazio (D-Oregon) say in the letter that the “historic results” of the Democrat’s 60-seat loss in the House is one reason to push back leadership selection.
The letter comes as the soon-to-be former House Democratic majority leaders are embroiled in a controversy over who will lead the Democrats when the House changes to Republican hands in January.
Defazio is a known critic of the Democratic leadership and has vocalized his opposition to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- California) remaining in a leadership role. Kaptur has occasionally broken with leadership, but her spokesman told CNN that Kaptur’s request to delay the elections is not about Pelosi, but about giving Democratic members some time to return to Washington and discuss future moves for all leadership slots before any decisions are made.
Meanwhile the Republicans–despite a good election year– are still trying to get rid of Michael Steele. Well, that’s if you believe the NYT.
So far, the effort has been tentative, with Mr. Steele’s most ardent opponents working behind the scenes to persuade an alternative to run against him — fearful that any overt moves will create a backlash in Mr. Steele’s favor among those committee members who tend to view the establishment in Washington with suspicion.
One man leading the effort is a Mississippi Republican Party committeeman, Henry Barbour, who is a nephew of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi — a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, himself. Governor Barbour is said by people involved in the discussions to be among those eager to see a change at the top of the party and recently criticized party fund-raising under Mr. Steele.
Officials close to the presumed new House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, and the Senate minority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said that both men would prefer a new chairman as well, but that they were also resigned to Mr. Steele’s continued leadership should no clear alternative emerge to defeat him.
In an interview Tuesday night, Henry Barbour said, “I like Mike Steele, and I’ve worked hard to support him as chairman.” But, he added, “I do think we have to make a change, and I have actively talked to some other members in the last week or so and encouraged a few of them to consider running.”
The CEO of Cigna doesn’t think that repealing the U.S. Health Reform law is a worthwhile endeavor. What exactly does that say? There’s a lot of talk about how the industry is gearing up for the changes already and the trouble that any additional major changes would cost. Is this why some GOPers are standing down from their earlier threats to move for repeal? Or, is it some other industry reason? This is from Reuters.
“I don’t think it’s in our society’s best interest to expend energy in repealing the law,” David Cordani told the Reuters Health Summit in New York. “Our country expended over a year of sweat equity around the formation of it.”
Debate over the law, passed in March, has reignited after Republican gains in last week’s congressional election. The party promised to overturn the overhaul, but some leaders have backed off, saying they would target specific changes and funding.
There’s a great blog entry by EmptyWheel at FDL about the DOJ decision that basically infers its’ okay to cover up torture and destroy the evidence if you’re the CIA and it’s in the name of terrorism. You can read how no criminal charges will be sought against the CIA at the NYT. Then, go read the the FDL blog piece. Why is it even called the Department of JUSTICE any more?
Of course no one will be charged for destroying the evidence of torture! Our country has spun so far beyond holding the criminals who run our country accountable that even the notion of accountability for torture was becoming quaint and musty while we waited and screamed for some kind of acknowledgment that Durham had let the statute of limitations on the torture tape destruction expire. I doubt they would have even marked the moment–yet another criminal investigation of the Bush Administration ending in nothing–it if weren’t for the big stink bmaz has been making. Well, maybe that’s not right–after all, Bob Bennett was bound to do a very public victory lap, because that’s what he’s paid for.
The investigation continues, DOJ tells us, into obstruction of the Durham investigation itself. Maybe they think they’ve caught someone like Porter Goss in a lie. But at this point, that almost seems like a nice story the prosecutors are telling themselves so they can believe they’re still prosecutors, so they can believe we still have rule of law in this country.
This inquiry started long before Obama started looking forward, not backward. It started before the White House allowed the Chief of Staff to override the Attorney General on Gitmo and torture. It started before we found out that someone had destroyed many of the torture documents at DOJ–only to find no one at DOJ cared. It started before the Obama DOJ made up silly reasons why Americans couldn’t see what the Vice President had to say about ordering the leak of a CIA officer’s identity. It started before the Obama White House kept invoking State Secrets to cover up Bush’s crimes, from illegal wiretapping, to kidnapping, to torture. It started at a time when we naively believed that Change might include putting the legal abuses of the past behind us.
This inquiry started before the Obama Administration assumed the right to kill American citizens with no due process–all the while invoking State Secrets to hide that, too.
Explain to me again how this a change from the Dubya/Cheney years? You can read the WAPO take here. I swear, the more I read about some of what’s not happening with the worst abuses of the Dubya/Cheney years, the more I get convinced we’re just in their third term.
David Leonhardt at Economix is calling the recent gold highs as not so high as you think. Leonhardt says that most of the gold quotes are in nominal and not real terms (i.e. adjusted for inflation over time). He does the math so you don’t have to.
Gold is at a record only if you fail to adjust for inflation. And you should almost always adjust for inflation. Otherwise, you end up with a series of meaningless records — Gold reaches record high! Oil reaches record high! Lettuce reaches record high! — that depend on the fact that a dollar in 2010 does not have the same value as a dollar did in, say, 1980.
More than a month ago, Ryan Chittum of The Columbia Journalism Review noticed the epidemic of supposed gold records and urged those of us in the media to stop. As he explained, the actual record was set 30 years ago, when the price of gold, in today’s dollars, hit $2,318 — or 65 percent higher than it closed on Monday.
This isn’t simply a question of math. Anyone who says gold is at a record high (or who said oil was several years ago) is getting the story wrong. Why? Because $10 today is not more valuable than $9 a few decades ago. Claiming otherwise is tantamount to saying that 10 rupees is more valuable than $9 because 10 is a bigger number than 9.
Getting information out of any one responsible for the BP Oil Gusher is not quite an act of Congress, but almost. The EPA had to subpoena Halliburton to get that data on the “fracking” chemicals. And no, that’s not my way of avoiding the cuss word, there actually is something called “fracking” chemicals. The story is on HuffPo.
The Environmental Protection Agency subpoenaed energy giant Halliburton Tuesday, seeking a description of the chemical components used in a drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing.
The EPA said it issued the subpoena after Texas-based Halliburton refused to voluntarily disclose the chemicals used in the controversial drilling practice, also known as “fracking.” Halliburton was the only one of nine major energy companies that refused the EPA’s request.
The agency said the information is important to its study of fracking, in which crews inject millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals underground to force open channels in sand and rock formations so oil and natural gas will flow.
The EPA is studying whether the practice affects drinking water and the public health.
Now, if we could only get our fracking checks down here.
“There continue to be obvious deficiencies with the claims system,” said Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Ruth Johnson, who, along with the Division of Administration, is overseeing the state’s role in the oil spill claims process. “An emergency payment should not take six months to process. For people waiting on those payments, the six month delay has moved from an emergency status, to one of survival. Although the Gulf Coast Claims Facility’s (GCCF) claims system is an improvement over BP’s, the state believes that claims need to be processed faster, a priority scale be implemented and baseline compensation models used for claimants who can prove their profession but not their income.”
Since Feinberg took over from BP processing oil spill claims, the GCCF has paid out more than $1.6 billion, $612 million of that in Louisiana. However, despite that large figure, only 23 percent of claims filed in Louisiana have been approved for payment
[MABlue here] You’ve probably all heard that George W. Bush has released a Mt Vesuvius-size of dog droppings an autobiography. Some people have been documenting the absurdity. Here are a couple of must-read:
The UK Guardian has a really good play-by-play of the book release, along with great comments.
George Bush’s memoirs published – as it happened
Professor Stephen Walt went through “Decision Points” and had this to say:
Delusion Points
Don’t fall for the nostalgia — George W. Bush’s foreign policy really was that bad.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder says George Bush is a liar in addition to being delusional:
Bush-Schröder Enmity Continues in Memoirs
[Schröder] Ssaid Bush used “almost Biblical semantics” and, in reference to the US president’s repeated mentions of his faith, wrote: “The problem begins when the impression is created that political decisions are a result of this conversation with God.”
On Tuesday, the day that Bush’s own presidential memoirs, “Decision Points,” finally hit the shelves, Schröder went even further. “The former American president is not telling the truth,” he said on Tuesday in Berlin.
Schröder was referring to a passage in Bush’s memoirs in which the former president described a meeting that took place between the two leaders in the White House on Jan. 31, 2002. Bush writes that, when he told Schröder that he would pursue diplomacy against Iraq but would use military force should the need arise, the German leader responded, “‘What is true of Afghanistan is true of Iraq. Nations that sponsor terror must face consequences. If you make it fast and make it decisive, I will be with you.'”
Matthew Norman of the UK Independent has my favorite review. This is unbeatable.
How did this wastrel ever find his way to the White House?
It takes a certain minimal intelligence for the truly dim to have a notion of their own dimness, but this is denied George Bush. He has the self-awareness of a bison.
[…]
Apparently he concludes his memoir Decision Points with the familiar anecdote of how, within days of leaving Washington, he was picking up his dog’s mess with a plastic bag in a Texas park. Evidently he regards this as a cute vignette of the transience of power, as well as his own endearing lack of pomp. Yet what causes the stab of pity is the stupidity at which it hints.
How could anyone in possession of a three-figure IQ (still a moot point with Bush) fail to see what a golden gift that image is to satirists?
His mere resurgence brought back some memories. Here’s a witness account:
Bush: “I probably won’t even vote for McCain”
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.”
We already knew there was no love lost between Bush and McCain. I think Bush voted for Obama.
Oh, before I go, let me bring you this earth-shattering announcement from Captain Obvious:
Tony Hayward says BP was ‘not prepared’ for the Gulf oil spill
The former boss of BP Tony Hayward has admitted that the company was “not prepared” to deal with fallout over the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and the media “feeding frenzy” surrounding it.
No kidding, Einstein!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Tuesday Reads
Posted: November 9, 2010 Filed under: morning reads, New Orleans 42 CommentsGood Morning!
I spent the evening at Spotted Cat chatting up my Saints and jass lovin’ Uncle Lionel Baptiste and Doctor Daughter and her Doctor significant other who has never known what it means to miss New Orleans until now. The cool fall weather is delightful and I’m remembering why I just absolutely love my hood. Uncle Lionel was talkin’ bout sendin’ off Bunchy still and I was asking about sending off the late great Walter Payton. You can see both Uncle Lionel and Walter on that last link. I wanted to take Doctor Daughter to see my friend Mikki do her retro Japanese jazz thing on Frenchman at Yuki’s last night but missed it ’cause I spent way too much time with Uncle Lionel. I’m thinking it’s about time I get a regular gig since Jindal’s destroyed higher education in Louisiana. I can always gig and I can always teach piano. I also own a little tiny bit of the upper ninth ward and I want to keep it as long as I can.
My favorite Uncle Lionel story is when he was sitting next to me on the piano bench at Vaughn’s right after Katrina and I was playing away. Some tourist came up and said to him that no one plays like that ‘cept down here with that twinkle in the eye that meant I did not come with that extra appendage and such. That’s always a reference to some or other attributes that I do not possess if you get my drift. My uncle Lionel looked up to him, straight up, and told him that his ears might work but his eyeballs were a bit distracted by trifflin’ things. ‘Nuf said.
Let’s get to the news out side my beloved ninth ward after I treat you with something from the HBO series Treme. Oh, and I promise that this week on a Treat link I will give up some secrets for cajun/creole delights.
As the man says, “that moment can’t happen in New York”.
Speaking of interesting developments, the congressional black caucus still hasn’t figured out what to do with a tea party candidate that qualifies for the club. This should be one of those Kodak Moments.
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) is staying silent about a Tea Party Republican’s bid to join the group.
Rep.-elect Allen West (R-Fla.) indicated last week he intends to join the CBC to challenge the group’s “monolithic voice.”
“I plan on joining, I’m not gonna ask for permission or whatever, I’m gonna find out when they meet and I will be a member of the Congressional Black Caucus,” West, one of two black Republicans elected to Congress last Tuesday, told WOR radio. “I meet all of the criteria, and it’s so important that we break down this monolithic voice that continues to talk about victimization and dependency in the black community.
“We’ve got to turn this thing around, and I think it’s time for some different voices to be in that body politic.”
Here’s Bloomberg’s take on the Potus trip to Indonesia.
“We see in Indonesia the intersection of a lot of key American interests,” Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said. The partnership “is very important to the future of American interests in Asia and the world.”
As China’s economic and diplomatic clout grows, Obama has made a priority of engaging other Asian nations, particularly the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. With a population of about 600 million, Southeast Asia was America’s fifth-largest trading partner and the fourth- biggest market for U.S. goods last year.
The Times of India has an interesting bit about Obama’s visit there. You can find it here.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Mumbai, he said, “I do think that one of the challenges that we are going face in the US, at a time when we are still recovering from the financial crisis is, how do we respond to some of the challenges of globalisation? The fact of the matter is that for most of my lifetime and I’ll turn 50 next year – the US was such an enormously dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the US remains the largest economy and the largest market, but there is real competition.”“This will keep America on its toes. America is going to have to compete. There is going to be a tug-of-war within the US between those who see globalisation as a threat and those who accept we live in a open integrated world, which has challenges and opportunities.”
The US leader disagreed with those who saw globalisation as unmitigated evil. But while acknowledging that the Chindia factor had made the world flatter, he said protectionist impulses in US will get stronger if people don’t see trade bringing in gains for them.
“If the American people feel that trade is just a one-way street where everybody is selling to the enormous US market but we can never sell what we make anywhere else, then the people of the US will start thinking that this is a bad deal for us and it could end up leading to a more protectionist instinct in both parties, not just among Democrats but also Republicans. So, that we have to guard against,” he said.
Labor demand has been growing in the United States, reflected in a modest increase in private payroll employment this year and a more substantial increase in private-sector job vacancies over the past 12 months. Despite these signs of improvement, the unemployment rate has declined only slightly. Some analysts have raised the specter of a fundamental mismatch between the supply of labor in terms of workers’ skills and demand for labor in terms of employers’ skill requirements. Such a mismatch between available workers and available jobs could increase the level of structural unemployment. To the extent that structural unemployment is actually rising, the phenomenon poses a dilemma for policymakers. It cannot be ameliorated through conventional monetary and fiscal policy. And it implies an increase in the lowest unemployment rate associated with stable inflation, often identified by the acronym NAIRU, which stands for the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment.
It’s true that things aren’t as bad as they were during the worst of the Depression. But that’s not saying much. And as in the 1930s, every proposal to do something to improve the situation is met with a firestorm of opposition and criticism. As a result, by the time the actual policy emerges, it’s watered down to such an extent that it’s almost guaranteed to fail.
We’ve already seen this happen with fiscal policy: fearing opposition in Congress, the Obama administration offered an inadequate plan, only to see the plan weakened further in the Senate. In the end, the small rise in federal spending was effectively offset by cuts at the state and local level, so that there was no real stimulus to the economy.
Now the same thing is happening to monetary policy.
The case for a more expansionary policy by the Fed is overwhelming. Unemployment is disastrously high, while U.S. inflation data over the past few years almost perfectly match the early stages of Japan’s relentless slide into corrosive deflation.
Unfortunately, conventional monetary policy is no longer available: the short-term interest rates the Fed normally targets are already close to zero. So the Fed is shifting from its usual policy of buying only short-term debt, and is now buying long-term debt — a policy generally referred to as “quantitative easing.” (Why? Don’t ask.)
There’s nothing outlandish about this action. As Mr. Bernanke tried to explain Saturday, “This is just monetary policy,” adding, “It will work or not work in much the same way that ordinary, more conventional, familiar monetary policy works.”
Yet the Pain Caucus — my term for those who have opposed every effort to break out of our economic trap — is going wild.
What’s on your blogging and reading list today?
Monday Reads
Posted: November 8, 2010 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: Drone Wars, Keith Olbermann, Obama 60 minutes interview, rewriting econoimc history 59 Comments
Good Morning!!
I was celebrating my youngest daughter’s 21st birthday last night with the other daughter and her boyfriend in Baton Rouge. I missed the 60 Minutes interview with the President but FDL put the transcript and video up here. Does this worry any one but Jane Hamsher–who is responsible for the bolding–and me? This quote is from President Obama.
Well, it’ll be interesting to see how it evolves. We have a long tradition in this country of a desire for limited government, the suspicion of the federal government, of a concern that government spends too much money. You know? I mean, that’s as American as apple pie. And although, you know, there’s a new label to this, I mean those sentiments are ones that a lot of people support and give voice to. Including a lot of Democrats.
And so, the test is gonna be what happens over the next several years, when it’s not just an abstraction, but we have to start making serious choices. I’ve got a deficit commission that I’ve put forward that is gonna be releasing recommendations for how we can start reducing the deficit. And I don’t know yet what they’re gonna say, but I do know what the federal budget looks like. And if you eliminate all the earmarks. If you eliminate all the foreign aid. If you eliminate all the waste and abuse that people, you know, talk about eliminating — you’re still confronted with a fact that the vast majority of the federal budget are things that people really think are important. Like Social Security and Medicare and defense.
And so, you then have to start making some tough decisions about how do we pay for those things that we think are important? And you know, we’re not gonna be able to balance the budget just by slashing the National Parks budget, even if you didn’t think that was a proper function of government. We’re not gonna be able to balance the budget by, you know, eliminating the National Weather Service.
I mean, we’re gonna have to, you know, tackle some big issues like entitlements that, you know, when you listen to the Tea Party or you listen to Republican candidates they promise we’re not gonna touch.
What’s on the table now? The War in Afghanistan or our social security? What does the President mean when he says “entitlements”? I don’t know about you, but I’ve been working since I was 15 and I’ve paid for those ‘benefits’! I don’t want them handed over to Wall Street or shot into space as a spy satellite instead.
You may have heard already that Olbermann will be back on the air tomorrow. Was it really his ‘questionable’ political donations that forced the suspension? Here’s an interesting twist from Alternet: ‘If Olbermann’s Donations Are Bad, What About GE’s?’
If supporting politicians with money is a threat to journalistic independence, we should consider the contributions of NBC, and at NBC’s parent company General Electric.According to the Center for Responsive Politics, GE made over $2 million in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle (most coming from the company’s political action committee). The top recipient was Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman from Ohio. The company has also spent $32 million on lobbying this year, and contributed over $1 million to the successful “No on 24” campaign against a California ballot initiative aimed at eliminating tax loopholes for major corporations (New York Times, 11/1/10).Comcast, the cable company currently looking to buy NBC, has dramatically increased its political giving, much of it to lawmakers who support the proposed merger (Bloomberg, 10/19/10). And while Fox News parent News Corp’s $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association caused a stir, GE had “given $245,000 to the Democratic governors and $205,000 to the Republican governors since last year,” reported the Washington Post (8/18/10).
Olbermann’s donations are in some ways comparable to fellow MSNBC host Joe Scarborough’s $4,200 contribution to Republican candidate Derrick Kitts in 2006 (MSNBC.com, 7/15/07). When that was uncovered, though, NBC dismissed this as a problem, since Scarborough “hosts an opinion program and is not a news reporter.” Olbermann, of course, is also an opinion journalist–but MSNBC seems to hold him to a different standard.
Okay, good question, if it’s okay for Scarborough why isn’t it okay for Olbermann? I frankly can’t stand either and don’t watch them, but NBC really messed up with this one.
Mike Kimel at Angry Bear has a some what wonky economic post up today, but it’s worth looking at because it debunks the conservative argument that the Great Depression was solved by war expenditures during WW2 and every thing was just hunky dory after that. You may recall the bizarre op-ed in WAPO last week by David Broder suggesting that starting a war with Iran would jump start our economy. Interestingly enough it’s called Very bad economic Theory. Good to see some one tackle yet another canard spread by right wing hopealogues looking for to replace real economic analysis with voodoo doodoo. There’s links also to this paper which is really odd. It’s a working paper from David Henderson at George Mason University and it’s probably going to stay a working paper just about every where except maybe the AEI or the Club for Growth. Kimel rips the paper to shreds and does so with some really, nifty graphs!
Finally, it is worth noting – some of the commentators to Tyler Cowen’s post also seemed to incorrectly believe that there was a post WW2 boom, though they tended to attribute that non-existent boom to the fact that the US came out of WW2 intact and went out building up other participants of the war. The fact that there are a variety of incorrect views about what happened in the past is not important. The fact that people believe in things that are demonstrably (and easily demonstrable, at that) not true is vital and unfortunate. As Michael Kanell and I point out in Presimetrics, theorizing based on incorrect facts leads to very poor theory, poor theory leads to abysmal policies, and abysmal policies lead to very unfortunate outcomes that negatively impact the lives of all of us.
US News & World Report–which is no longer being offered in a print edition–has an interesting op ed up by Mort Zuckerman: ‘America’s Love Affair With Obama Is Over;The administration is running out of time to lower unemployment and fix the economy’.
The last two years have exposed to the public the risk that came with voting an inexperienced politician into office at a time when there was a crisis in America’s economy, as the nation contended with a financial freeze, a painful recession, and two wars. The Democrats were simply not aggressive enough or focused enough in confronting the profound economic crisis represented by millions of ordinary Americans whose main concern was the lack of jobs.
Jobs have long represented the stairway to upward mobility in America, and the anxiety over joblessness became the dominant concern at a time when financial security based on home equity and pensions was dramatically eroding. No great speech is going to change the fundamental fact that millions of people are either jobless or underemployed at a time when only a quarter of the American population describes the job market as good.
Why did Obama put his health plan so far ahead of the economy? To do what the Clintons couldn’t? His rush to do it sparked a broad resistance that has only spread since the bill was passed. The public sensed that healthcare was a victory for Obama, and maybe for the Democrats, but not for the country—and contrary to Democratic hopes, public support for the measure has continued to drop to as low as 34 percent in some polls. A significant majority, some 58 percent, now wish to repeal the entire bill, according to likely voters questioned in a late October poll by Rasmussen.
Let’s see, who have we heard this all from before?
WAPO reports that the U.S. is deploying drones in Yemen now. Are we going to open a third front in the wars in the Middle East now? How much do those things cost? Is this yet another example of a sneaking into a skirmish that becomes a war?
The United States has deployed Predator drones to hunt for al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen for the first time in years but has not fired missiles from the unmanned aircraft because it lacks solid intelligence on the insurgents’ whereabouts, senior U.S. officials said.
The use of the drones is part of a campaign against an al-Qaeda branch that has claimed responsibility for near-miss attacks on U.S. targets that could have had catastrophic results, including the recent plot to place parcels packed with explosives on cargo planes.
U.S. officials said the Predators have been patrolling the skies over Yemen for several months in search of leaders and operatives of the group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. After withstanding a flurry of attacks involving Yemeni forces and U.S. cruise missiles earlier this year, AQAP’s leaders “went to ground,” a senior Obama administration official said.
The use of U.S. drones in Yemen underscores the deep U.S. reliance on what has become a signature weapon against al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
I think there is probably some things weird in there to say about Biden’s wars and Drone Wars but I can’t seem to do it right now. All I know is that I’m tired of watching my tax dollars being spent on drones for sale. Can we buy a few levees and electric grid up grades in the US while we’re at all this? Maybe they could clean up the Gulf of Mexico? Keep funding Head Start? Repave a few bumpy interstate highways?
[MABlue here]
I’m among those who have seen it, but here is the entire interview of President Obama on 60 Minutes. What are your impressions?
Many Democrats are afraid Obama still doesn’t get “it”.
Assessing midterm losses, Democrats ask whether Obama’s White House fully grasped voters’ fears
President Obama‘s failure to channel the anxieties of ordinary voters has shaken the faith that many Democrats once had in his political gifts and his team’s political skill.
In his own assessments of what went wrong, the president has lamented his inability to persuade voters on the merits of what he has done, and blamed the failure on his preoccupation with a full plate of crises.
But a broad sample of Democratic officeholders and strategists said in interviews that the disconnect goes far deeper than that.
Paul Krugman is not happy with QE2. He thinks we didn’t learn anything from a watered down stimulus. [Kat,do we have a problem of multiple personality disorder here? Ben Bernanke, pre-eminent scholar of the Great Depression vs Ben Bernanke, Fed Chair]
Doing It Again
[A]s in the 1930s, every proposal to do something to improve the situation is met with a firestorm of opposition and criticism. As a result, by the time the actual policy emerges, it’s watered down to such an extent that it’s almost guaranteed to fail.
We’ve already seen this happen with fiscal policy: fearing opposition in Congress, the Obama administration offered an inadequate plan, only to see the plan weakened further in the Senate. In the end, the small rise in federal spending was effectively offset by cuts at the state and local level, so that there was no real stimulus to the economy.
Now the same thing is happening to monetary policy.
Oh! And Sarah Palin is unhappy with Ben Bernanke for doing “quantitative easing” at all. She says he should do like Reagan… Or something.
Palin to Bernanke: ‘Cease and Desist’
We shouldn’t be playing around with inflation. It’s not for nothing Reagan called it “as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber, and as deadly as a hit man.” The Fed’s pump priming addiction has got our small businesses running scared, and our allies worried. The German finance minister called the Fed’s proposals “clueless.” When Germany, a country that knows a thing or two about the dangers of inflation, warns us to think again, maybe it’s time for Chairman Bernanke to cease and desist. We don’t want temporary, artificial economic growth bought at the expense of permanently higher inflation which will erode the value of our incomes and our savings. We want a stable dollar combined with real economic reform. It’s the only way we can get our economy back on the right track
Mmmkay!!!!
The age of austerity is coming with a vengeance.
Now in Power, G.O.P. Vows Cuts in State Budgets
Republicans who have taken over state capitols across the country are promising to respond to crippling budget deficits with an array of cuts, among them proposals to reduce public workers’ benefits in Wisconsin, scale back social services in Maine and sell off state liquor stores in Pennsylvania, endangering the jobs of thousands of state workers.
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says India is not stealing US Jobs
India on Monday asserted that it was not in the business of stealing American jobs, even as US President Barack Obama said that deals with India to create 50,000 jobs back home were aimed at assuaging citizens’ fears.
“India is not in the business of stealing jobs from the US… outsourcing (work to India) has helped improve the productive capacity and productivity of America,” prime minister Manmohan Singh said at a joint press conference with visiting US President Barack Obama at Hyderabad House here.
For Heaven’s sake! Can this guy/gal make up his/her mind already?
A very peculiar engagement: Charles had a sex change… then hated being Samantha so became a man again. Now he’s getting married
Born Sam Hashimi, the businessman and divorced father-of-two had a sex-change operation in 1987 to turn him into glamorous interior designer Samantha Kane.
He spent £100,000 on cosmetic operations and tooth veneers to create the ‘ultimate male fantasy’ and was so convincing as a woman he had no trouble attracting men, and was briefly engaged to a wealthy landowner.
Then, in 2004, after seven years of living as a woman, he decided he’d made a horrible mistake; the result -he believes now -of a breakdown following the acrimonious end of his 12-year marriage and estrangement from his children.
What’s on your Reading and Blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
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