“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” If the bill passes with this in it, Xiao Bushie will still have 3 months to dip his mitts into the bail out money. It is the Bush way to suspend the very underpinning of what makes Democracy work as well as it does. No pins is not good for the highly touted “transparency” which in large measure helps to keep the gummint honest.
This is so scary. Why would the Executive branch, within which the awesome responsibility will reside, need to insist on no judicial review. Isn’t that what criminals do when they turn states evidence so they won’t have to go to jail for things they haven’t yet been charged with? The 32 word sentence should be the deal breaker. Chris Dodd’s attempts to make provisions that would disallow such unfettered mastery over the financial lives of the citizenry have already been quashed. The Paulson polemic mimics what the bloody “Bush Doctrine,” preemption before you get caught, really means. They lied about the war then lied about blowing it. Called “quaint” the Geneva Convention rules. Brownie doing a heck of a job (think what New Orleans would look like with even a lick of that $700 B). Managed the budget and deficit into a staggering shag-up that some people’s grand-children will be paying for ad infi their lives.
McCain’s little trick, make that a BIG trick, to supposedly suspend his campaign to go roaring into the White House to solve what could be one of the biggest issues of this country in modern history, is about the only transparency in his campaign. If you can’t see through this gimmick, you ain’t been paying attention. It is as desperate a move as picking Palin. But it should show to most voters that he is relying on hoodwinking us which means he thinks that our level of nincompoopery knows no bounds. I can see Steve “the Bullet” Schmidt glowing over the plan and thinking, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. At least that’s what I think he’s thinking.
Will McCain show up tonight? The Smoking Jacket has learned that nobody actually knows. The multi-millionaires in the punditocracy who get paid to prognosticate, begin their answer to that question: “Well Pete, nobody knows for sure what the Senator will do, but… Then while they are getting paid more per word that some of us make a month on Social Security, they blab on. If I knew what the “it’s time to fish or cut bait” statement of definitiveness meant, I would tentatively hazard a speculation that if you held a gun to my head I might guess that a no-show would be a major blow to the campaign. What ever people think of Obamaian wisdom and judgement, you must know (or can learn here), the dude has a crack team of advisers that any campaign would love to claim and they are all over this. They are working around the clock so that whatever eventuality happens they will have the best possible response. “There is no advantage too small to take” and certainly that is true in this universe altering game of the White House race. But you knew that.
Click on Sue Bru’s column on the right (of this page) for a catch-up course on what’s taking place till now.
Supposedly, 100 million people will watch the debate. That is the number of voters in the country. Picture an up-market bar in Manhattan, DC, SF, or St. Looey say, with all eyes turned to the tube to see if McCain shows. Rehearsal dinners from sea to shining sea will halt in the middle of toasts to watch the white haired wrinkly dude greet the nation with that insane rictus. Voter age college kids will cancel their frat party to pay sober attention to this terribly important first debate that will pretty much control the polls on Saturday morning. If I had a tivo, I’d watch Larry King and Jamie Lynn Spears with pictures of her first breast feeding.
In Webster World there was only one big development. While she refuses to make eye contact, I can tell that she knows I know something or know somebody who does know, who in this case will remain OTR. A second secondary (or even flimsier) rumor has popped up and has confirmed (for me) that Margie may be looking at charges. This would make my heart soar like an eagle (thank you John Ashcroft) because I am a petty and vindictive little shit who will have revenge no matter the cost.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
They don’t really know, do they?
Where are the wanker wonks of economic policy on this crisis? We haven’t really heard from BarackO on this and he has Paul Volcker, Bob Rubin and Larry Summers on his team. He even has William Donaldson and Paul O’Neil, two republicans working with him. We’ve heard quite enough from that genius Phil Gramm, McCain’s guru who told us to “quit whining” because it was a “mental recession.” Gramm’s wife helped the Enron people figure out their mess. That’s just what we need. Actually, it looks like what we’re going to get.
Hank Paulson, who is said to be a very smart guy and respected on all sides, has asked us for $700 billion of our tax dollars to buy up the devalued mortgage bundles now risibly called “securities,” a misnomer if ever there was one. The idea being that eventually, when the next real estate boom gets rolling, they will be worth more than they are now and can be sold in an up market that will pay back the money into the treasury.
But they are not telling the public the whole truth. Just like AIG went from needing $40 B to $75 B and then got $85 B, all in the space of three days, we are now looking at the 700 number with no explanation how it got to be that high. Part of it, I read this morning, is that other bad debts, like credit cards and car loans, will also get paid off. But they will likely be written off. We really don’t think the government is going to buy those bundles and then a few years from now try to collect on them, do we? Hell no. The money will go to the schmucks who made the bad deals. This is supposed to shore up our economy and the people with bad credit will only have to wait a few years before their mail box is stuffed with card company offers of 0%.
Paulson sounds almost believable but what is he saying? We cannot trust just one guy to be making these decisions, but wait TSJ reader! Since the likely scenario will be that this Secretary of the Treasury and the next will in fact be making these decisions with the concurrence of their boss, you now gotta ask yourself, who you really want to be the one person who will say yea or nay to the next Treas. Sec.
McSame has been anything but lately. He says the economy is “fundamentally sound” one day but something else the next. He’s now conveniently for regulation, and suggests that maybe a commission can straighten this whole thing. Let’s wait till the next administration to get to work on that, is his thinking. His pandering is just more playing to us dopes who, he thinks, don’t know noffink. He wants to believe that should he possibly get into the WH, others will do his thinking for him, sort of like the guy who is in there now.
This is an argument that needs to take place because I believe that people who are undecided, if asked, will pick the Harvard hotshot over the bottom feeding legacy guy who barely made it through the Naval Academy. He may be a great pilot, but…never mind. I believe that the Obama skeptics (and you know who you are, you blue collar catlicks clinging to your guns) are going to have to take a very close look at the quality of leadership that is required for this situation because only the President will be able to say “no” to the Treas. Sec. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen. It could get very ugly. Does anyone think that a guy who admits to being out of touch with how the national economy is run would be the best one making decisions on recommendations from just one man? If Phil Gramm is that man, the mackerel snappers amongst us can kiss it all off. He will invariably do what’s best…for the richest five % of the country. It would be like letting Paul Wolfowitz into the DoD with no rules.
Bush is now asking Congress to rush the $700 B through. So you know it MUST be wrong. Xiao Bushie, whose only true business experience is trading on his family name, and I must say he has done this brilliantly, is the last guy we want trying to figure out a fiasco of this proportion. This hurry up mode suggests to some skeptics that there can only be something in it for him down the line. “Congress wants strict oversight with an equity stake. The administration wants flexibility.” If I want to borrow a bunch of money from you but I insist on “flexibility” on how it will be repaid or what it will be spent on, you are more than likely going to say no. What does Bush want with this money? What has he not already bought that this now gives him the means?
I like what Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee, said. “It would be foolish to waste massive sums of taxpayer funds testing an idea that has been hastily crafted.” O yes it would. This morning Paulson and Bernanke go in front of the banking committee to make their case. It should be veddy interesting. As Incurious George says, “The whole world is watching.”
And here it is, your moment of Zen. At the end of a longish article in today’s NYT, that never mentioned specific downsides to the bailout, came this: “Officials said that the administration was also prepared to adopt conflict-of-interest rules for any private firms that are hired to help the Treasury manage the bailout program. Some lawmakers were worried that such firms might also own assets that could grow in value depending on how the rescue plan was run.” The crooks will be in charge, gah fo’bid.
Hank Paulson, who is said to be a very smart guy and respected on all sides, has asked us for $700 billion of our tax dollars to buy up the devalued mortgage bundles now risibly called “securities,” a misnomer if ever there was one. The idea being that eventually, when the next real estate boom gets rolling, they will be worth more than they are now and can be sold in an up market that will pay back the money into the treasury.
But they are not telling the public the whole truth. Just like AIG went from needing $40 B to $75 B and then got $85 B, all in the space of three days, we are now looking at the 700 number with no explanation how it got to be that high. Part of it, I read this morning, is that other bad debts, like credit cards and car loans, will also get paid off. But they will likely be written off. We really don’t think the government is going to buy those bundles and then a few years from now try to collect on them, do we? Hell no. The money will go to the schmucks who made the bad deals. This is supposed to shore up our economy and the people with bad credit will only have to wait a few years before their mail box is stuffed with card company offers of 0%.
Paulson sounds almost believable but what is he saying? We cannot trust just one guy to be making these decisions, but wait TSJ reader! Since the likely scenario will be that this Secretary of the Treasury and the next will in fact be making these decisions with the concurrence of their boss, you now gotta ask yourself, who you really want to be the one person who will say yea or nay to the next Treas. Sec.
McSame has been anything but lately. He says the economy is “fundamentally sound” one day but something else the next. He’s now conveniently for regulation, and suggests that maybe a commission can straighten this whole thing. Let’s wait till the next administration to get to work on that, is his thinking. His pandering is just more playing to us dopes who, he thinks, don’t know noffink. He wants to believe that should he possibly get into the WH, others will do his thinking for him, sort of like the guy who is in there now.
This is an argument that needs to take place because I believe that people who are undecided, if asked, will pick the Harvard hotshot over the bottom feeding legacy guy who barely made it through the Naval Academy. He may be a great pilot, but…never mind. I believe that the Obama skeptics (and you know who you are, you blue collar catlicks clinging to your guns) are going to have to take a very close look at the quality of leadership that is required for this situation because only the President will be able to say “no” to the Treas. Sec. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen. It could get very ugly. Does anyone think that a guy who admits to being out of touch with how the national economy is run would be the best one making decisions on recommendations from just one man? If Phil Gramm is that man, the mackerel snappers amongst us can kiss it all off. He will invariably do what’s best…for the richest five % of the country. It would be like letting Paul Wolfowitz into the DoD with no rules.
Bush is now asking Congress to rush the $700 B through. So you know it MUST be wrong. Xiao Bushie, whose only true business experience is trading on his family name, and I must say he has done this brilliantly, is the last guy we want trying to figure out a fiasco of this proportion. This hurry up mode suggests to some skeptics that there can only be something in it for him down the line. “Congress wants strict oversight with an equity stake. The administration wants flexibility.” If I want to borrow a bunch of money from you but I insist on “flexibility” on how it will be repaid or what it will be spent on, you are more than likely going to say no. What does Bush want with this money? What has he not already bought that this now gives him the means?
I like what Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee, said. “It would be foolish to waste massive sums of taxpayer funds testing an idea that has been hastily crafted.” O yes it would. This morning Paulson and Bernanke go in front of the banking committee to make their case. It should be veddy interesting. As Incurious George says, “The whole world is watching.”
And here it is, your moment of Zen. At the end of a longish article in today’s NYT, that never mentioned specific downsides to the bailout, came this: “Officials said that the administration was also prepared to adopt conflict-of-interest rules for any private firms that are hired to help the Treasury manage the bailout program. Some lawmakers were worried that such firms might also own assets that could grow in value depending on how the rescue plan was run.” The crooks will be in charge, gah fo’bid.
Friday, September 19, 2008
The gift that keeps on giving
The feisty frequent traveler (picture a hungover Madeleine Albright on steroids) has told somebody that she is canceling her plans to move to Michigan where her “boyfriend” lives (she’s older than I am). What we think is happening based on the flimsiest of rumors and snarky speculation is that she got dumped. The wildest buzz, from the impeccably secure source of my dentist’s wife, is that she may have to stick around to answer some sticky questions about her performance when she was at the Tri County Cap, another government sinecure that she managed to snooker for twenty or so years.
We do know that she said she didn’t get fired from that place that her bullying helped to build, earning it the sobriquet “Marge Mahal,” but some higher authority (like there could be?) tried to split up her job and give her first choice, for less pay. But in the murk of the latest whisperings winding around the old court house in Ossipee, some of us are very curious to see if Marge is giving up on her Michigan beaux who she has been meeting, we suspect, at the semi-annual conferences. She has after all given up her cozy if contentious slot as a commissioner which pays about ten grand (?) a year for a once a week gig. Some cynics will wonder if she will give up going on these ridiculous conference trips all over the country if there is no boyfriend waiting at the other end of the flight. Maybe the commissioners should send him a bonus for saving the county money.
I know of at least one person who thinks that Margie will try for a job in some sort of supervisory capacity when the new nursing home is getting built. I would think that she should not benefit from such a position after lobbying so heavily for the new building. It would be such an obvious conflict of interest, not that I think that would stop her from trying. But I do know others who will try to stop her.
In other news: The re-count on the Carroll County sheriff’s race has concluded that there was a one vote discrepancy and that Frannie Lord lost by 17 votes instead of 18. I can’t help but wonder if that letter that Michael Callous wrote to the Daily talking about the potential sheriff “swaggering” along side his foxy blond wife in “six inch heals” (sic) was the death knell for Lord who most thought would win handily. Not trying to stir things up here, much. I’m just sayin’…
I have a question for Hank Paulson: Say a person sells their house because they are moving to a new job. Is it possible they won’t be able to buy a house where they are moving to because they didn’t get enough for the old house and the credit is now so tight because of all the loser loans that got us into this trillion dollar mess? Who bails their sorry ass out?
I forget how many years ago it was when ballsy Lee Iacocca went to congress to get a bail out for Chrysler. Bodacious audacity, it was thought at the time. 1.5 billion freakin’ dollars to help keep a company afloat that employed tens of thousands in the heartland, never mind all the derivative companies through out the land who depended on the vast car manufacturer. Well, they did it and got paid back. But even in today’s dollars, does 1.5 BILLION compute to 1.1 TRILLION? And aren’t we mostly bailing out egregiously greedy Wall Street hot shots who would sell anybody anything for an ounce of Colombian to do with their friends on their 60 foot Cape Hatteras in Long Island Sound? The old argument that Wall Street “doesn’t make anything” is a good one in this case.
And what is really bugging me is that over the last weekend AIG was looking for another 20 billion from a private source to make it 40 billion in order to survive. It didn’t happen. By Monday they were asking the government for a little help to the tune of 75 billion. Paulson and the CNBC barkers (not Erin Burnette though) were saying no way. The next day, the newspaper of record had headlines in rather large font saying the gummint (emphasis on the last four letters) will loan AIG 85 billion. Ten more than they were asking for. I just want to know if any lobbyist made money on that transaction and I bet one of our polymath commenters will tell me.
All in all it’s been a good week, for Wall Street. And me, for getting to pick on the Barge some more.
We do know that she said she didn’t get fired from that place that her bullying helped to build, earning it the sobriquet “Marge Mahal,” but some higher authority (like there could be?) tried to split up her job and give her first choice, for less pay. But in the murk of the latest whisperings winding around the old court house in Ossipee, some of us are very curious to see if Marge is giving up on her Michigan beaux who she has been meeting, we suspect, at the semi-annual conferences. She has after all given up her cozy if contentious slot as a commissioner which pays about ten grand (?) a year for a once a week gig. Some cynics will wonder if she will give up going on these ridiculous conference trips all over the country if there is no boyfriend waiting at the other end of the flight. Maybe the commissioners should send him a bonus for saving the county money.
I know of at least one person who thinks that Margie will try for a job in some sort of supervisory capacity when the new nursing home is getting built. I would think that she should not benefit from such a position after lobbying so heavily for the new building. It would be such an obvious conflict of interest, not that I think that would stop her from trying. But I do know others who will try to stop her.
In other news: The re-count on the Carroll County sheriff’s race has concluded that there was a one vote discrepancy and that Frannie Lord lost by 17 votes instead of 18. I can’t help but wonder if that letter that Michael Callous wrote to the Daily talking about the potential sheriff “swaggering” along side his foxy blond wife in “six inch heals” (sic) was the death knell for Lord who most thought would win handily. Not trying to stir things up here, much. I’m just sayin’…
I have a question for Hank Paulson: Say a person sells their house because they are moving to a new job. Is it possible they won’t be able to buy a house where they are moving to because they didn’t get enough for the old house and the credit is now so tight because of all the loser loans that got us into this trillion dollar mess? Who bails their sorry ass out?
I forget how many years ago it was when ballsy Lee Iacocca went to congress to get a bail out for Chrysler. Bodacious audacity, it was thought at the time. 1.5 billion freakin’ dollars to help keep a company afloat that employed tens of thousands in the heartland, never mind all the derivative companies through out the land who depended on the vast car manufacturer. Well, they did it and got paid back. But even in today’s dollars, does 1.5 BILLION compute to 1.1 TRILLION? And aren’t we mostly bailing out egregiously greedy Wall Street hot shots who would sell anybody anything for an ounce of Colombian to do with their friends on their 60 foot Cape Hatteras in Long Island Sound? The old argument that Wall Street “doesn’t make anything” is a good one in this case.
And what is really bugging me is that over the last weekend AIG was looking for another 20 billion from a private source to make it 40 billion in order to survive. It didn’t happen. By Monday they were asking the government for a little help to the tune of 75 billion. Paulson and the CNBC barkers (not Erin Burnette though) were saying no way. The next day, the newspaper of record had headlines in rather large font saying the gummint (emphasis on the last four letters) will loan AIG 85 billion. Ten more than they were asking for. I just want to know if any lobbyist made money on that transaction and I bet one of our polymath commenters will tell me.
All in all it’s been a good week, for Wall Street. And me, for getting to pick on the Barge some more.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
It's the stupid economy
“The fundamentals of the economy are strong (my friends) because the American worker is strong,” said the economic numbnut who is running for the highest office in the world. McCain couldn’t find his economic fundament with both hands. His understanding of what’s happening on Wall Street is that there need be no panic because the Americans have strong backs; just not enough jobs. And of course if they do have a job and hurt their back, they probably don't have adequate healthcare.
What is fundamental to the downer that is our economy right now is the housing crisis which through “greed and stupidity” has allowed the subprime mortgage fiasco to fester into a world wide crisis because the holders of the loans and collateral have no way to collect what is owed to them and can’t figure out some way to keep the payments coming in. TSJ has said before that some of this problem could be resolved by not upping the rates on ARMs at the consumer level. Think: half a loaf is better than none. If the lender started out thinking they were going to make money when the initial low rate period expired, too bad. Now you have to eat it. Work with Mr. Risky. Why foreclose and then have to play realtor in one of the worst housing slumps in modern memory?
And who in the Senate Commerce committee allowed the sleaze bag mortgage companies like the one I worked for to give loans to the riskiest possible candidates? That doesn’t make sense to anyone. Only the mafia makes loans to risky borrowers, but then they have ways of convincing people to pay them back.
How is it that McCain can go on the morning shows and not have a more complete answer to the direct question of what to do? I think you have to identify the problem, analyze its provenance and then offer up ideas for resolution. Mc saying that the “alphabet soup of oversight agencies needs to be consolidated” is much like closing the barn door after the horse is already gone. Why, when he was a sitting Commerce Committee member and chair (I think) did he not see the potential for the greed-heads to bend the rules and the resulting long term effects?
On Bloomberg Television this weekend, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank noted that, as a leader in the Senate Republican caucus, McCain did nothing for years to deliver reform in the face an impending credit crisis:
So here’s the record – 12 years of Republicans, including John McCain being a committee chairman for much of that period. Zero – zero enactment of any reform.
Well, nobody expects Barney to be singing McCain’s praises and it is most unlikely that McCain would put him on his bi-partisan admin but if Sen. Mc had done anything in the last twelve years, this morning would have been a good time to point it out instead of the clunky ingenuous sounding, “Look, the American people are the soundness of this economy.” More pandering to the dopes (he thinks) are going to vote for his ticket because they will believe any bullshit he tries to shove up their fundament.
And yet, I can understand why, even if he did know anything, he would be very unwilling to address the economic evils of the land. The US has an anual budget of almost ten trillion dollars. It has a debt of nearly ten trillion dollars. This administration took over with a budget surplus of $200B and now it’s in the red $400B. Who cuts taxes when you have war to run? And who offers to extend tax cuts when the economy sucks? You need to go to this page—www.federalbudget.com—to see how your taxes get spent. And remember a billion dollars may not seem like that much anymore but you can still buy 1,000 million dollar homes with a single billion dollar bill.
It is very interesting to look at this page to see the undulations of the fed def. Truman had a war going on while he was doubtlessly still paying for the one he helped to finish, so his was pretty high. Then it went down even under the tax and spend dems. In fact during Carter’s admin it was the lowest it’s been in the last sixty years. Reagan pushed it back up and the Slickster, with Bob Rubin’s help, brought it back down. W has added more than $400 billion to it after blowing the Clinton gain, and it’s climbing. He just offered Texas to pay 100 percent of the clean up down on the Gulf coast. The little dude can’t spend it fast enough.
If the economy is the main issue in this presidential race, I’m gonna go with the guy who has Bob Rubin on his team.
BTW/WTF W/ AIG? Here’s what they need to do before getting a taxpayer bailout: Go chapter 11, which is a “reorganization” with a judges permission and finite rules. Fix it, get better, pay people back. AIG isn’t just gonna collapse and go away. They are all over the world. Someone will pick up their slack if they fail. And just when did the thieving slime ball insurance companies of the world stop making money?
What is fundamental to the downer that is our economy right now is the housing crisis which through “greed and stupidity” has allowed the subprime mortgage fiasco to fester into a world wide crisis because the holders of the loans and collateral have no way to collect what is owed to them and can’t figure out some way to keep the payments coming in. TSJ has said before that some of this problem could be resolved by not upping the rates on ARMs at the consumer level. Think: half a loaf is better than none. If the lender started out thinking they were going to make money when the initial low rate period expired, too bad. Now you have to eat it. Work with Mr. Risky. Why foreclose and then have to play realtor in one of the worst housing slumps in modern memory?
And who in the Senate Commerce committee allowed the sleaze bag mortgage companies like the one I worked for to give loans to the riskiest possible candidates? That doesn’t make sense to anyone. Only the mafia makes loans to risky borrowers, but then they have ways of convincing people to pay them back.
How is it that McCain can go on the morning shows and not have a more complete answer to the direct question of what to do? I think you have to identify the problem, analyze its provenance and then offer up ideas for resolution. Mc saying that the “alphabet soup of oversight agencies needs to be consolidated” is much like closing the barn door after the horse is already gone. Why, when he was a sitting Commerce Committee member and chair (I think) did he not see the potential for the greed-heads to bend the rules and the resulting long term effects?
On Bloomberg Television this weekend, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank noted that, as a leader in the Senate Republican caucus, McCain did nothing for years to deliver reform in the face an impending credit crisis:
So here’s the record – 12 years of Republicans, including John McCain being a committee chairman for much of that period. Zero – zero enactment of any reform.
Well, nobody expects Barney to be singing McCain’s praises and it is most unlikely that McCain would put him on his bi-partisan admin but if Sen. Mc had done anything in the last twelve years, this morning would have been a good time to point it out instead of the clunky ingenuous sounding, “Look, the American people are the soundness of this economy.” More pandering to the dopes (he thinks) are going to vote for his ticket because they will believe any bullshit he tries to shove up their fundament.
And yet, I can understand why, even if he did know anything, he would be very unwilling to address the economic evils of the land. The US has an anual budget of almost ten trillion dollars. It has a debt of nearly ten trillion dollars. This administration took over with a budget surplus of $200B and now it’s in the red $400B. Who cuts taxes when you have war to run? And who offers to extend tax cuts when the economy sucks? You need to go to this page—www.federalbudget.com—to see how your taxes get spent. And remember a billion dollars may not seem like that much anymore but you can still buy 1,000 million dollar homes with a single billion dollar bill.
It is very interesting to look at this page to see the undulations of the fed def. Truman had a war going on while he was doubtlessly still paying for the one he helped to finish, so his was pretty high. Then it went down even under the tax and spend dems. In fact during Carter’s admin it was the lowest it’s been in the last sixty years. Reagan pushed it back up and the Slickster, with Bob Rubin’s help, brought it back down. W has added more than $400 billion to it after blowing the Clinton gain, and it’s climbing. He just offered Texas to pay 100 percent of the clean up down on the Gulf coast. The little dude can’t spend it fast enough.
If the economy is the main issue in this presidential race, I’m gonna go with the guy who has Bob Rubin on his team.
BTW/WTF W/ AIG? Here’s what they need to do before getting a taxpayer bailout: Go chapter 11, which is a “reorganization” with a judges permission and finite rules. Fix it, get better, pay people back. AIG isn’t just gonna collapse and go away. They are all over the world. Someone will pick up their slack if they fail. And just when did the thieving slime ball insurance companies of the world stop making money?
Friday, September 12, 2008
In what respect, Charlie?
You gotta hand it to the Moose hunter in chief, she’s got pluck. With everybody but me watching her interview with Charlie Gibson, the little lady leaned on her chair arm, looked him straight in the eye and said (under her breath) “Bush has a doctrine? You gotta be shittin’ me?” Then, she said to the question: “In what respect Charlie?”
Pretty slick, but… It showed that she had the hubris that she told Charlie she had in order to be the next veep and if necessary (Gah fo’bid) the 45th POTUS. And yet who without hubris would even consider running for the lowliest office? Her no nonsense style is really nonsensical. She’s kinda like: "I’m just gonna stick to my guns and back down all these dubbers until I have proven the Peter principal beyond the shadow of a doubt that my highest level of expertise is to be governor of a state with less people than there are cows in Vermont. I’ll make them see that I am no more prepared for this position than Mike Huckabee. In fact I’ll take a page from his book, and separation of church and state be damned, I’ll ask for god’s help to do it."
I saw her ask, in front of a huge churchy audience, for god’s help to build a natural gas pipeline. That’s some whacky stuff. Combined with her dogmatic refusal to deal with abortion and birth control by just saying no leads me to think that her simplistic black and white approach to policy is a from-the-gut decision making process that anyone can make. She is ready to write a blank check to Israel which does not help with Middle East tensions, and which she did not address for reasons best left to the people who prepared her for the debate. But her answer already speaks for a possible McCain administration and that cannot be encouraging for the people in that very region we are trying to foster better relations with.
Clearly the same debate coaches had not read The Smoking Jacket on the question of who threw the first rock in Georgia. And even though it is now widely known that Saaskasvili tempted the fate he got, the Gov just spouted the McCain line showing what? Loyalty or ignorance. Likely both. I believe the average Joe or JoJo on the street, in this pastoral rurality in which I live, would be able to answer Charlie’s questions as well as she did without any coaching. I’m sure many of them also think that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. I have a hard time thinking she knows what the initials in NATO stand for never mind why we should tout the admission of two Russian antagonists by pushing for their acceptance in it.
Chuck Todd, who is seldom fallible in things political, sees her best quality as “being the campaigner in chief.” I don’t think you have to be Chuckie T to figure that out but what’s not being said by any of the Morning Joe carnival barkers (which is where I get most of my opinionatedness) is the feeling I have that she will stumble just at the right time and fa’ down; go boom. John Heileman summed up the essence of her ABC prime time debut (which I have only seen in clips) that she was “very unimpressive but said nothing disqualifying.” The best news is that newsies are still talking about her and they will continue to do so because, I think, it’s no longer just about two old boring white guys. And that’s a step up.
In local news: What is up over at Ossipee Lake Marina where they tried to secure a special permission to violate a standing ordinance to have access that they are not supposed to have? They wanted to know: If we can’t have the necessary permission, how much will the fine be?
These guys have been flouting the law over in Freedom for years. The first time I saw Kevin Price the owner, he was so obviously lying to the Ossipee Planning Board about cleaning up his off site boat storage on route 16 that I had to chuckle. They had given him five years to fix the place or shut down and back then they reminded him he only had one year left. Gee shock! Times up.
But a bigger question than why the special treatment for a guy from away is why the Selectmen (actually they are not all men, one is the wife of the marina’s manager) have, time and again, allowed the shenanigans. What’s in it for them? They have made arbitrary decisions that have cost the Freedom citizenry unnecessary legal funds climbing into the tens of thousands. It’s a boondoggle that appears to have to do with some personal animosity between the Town Fathers (and one Mother) and the Ossipee Lake Alliance who has fought the shifty daring-do Derry man from the first violation.
Pretty slick, but… It showed that she had the hubris that she told Charlie she had in order to be the next veep and if necessary (Gah fo’bid) the 45th POTUS. And yet who without hubris would even consider running for the lowliest office? Her no nonsense style is really nonsensical. She’s kinda like: "I’m just gonna stick to my guns and back down all these dubbers until I have proven the Peter principal beyond the shadow of a doubt that my highest level of expertise is to be governor of a state with less people than there are cows in Vermont. I’ll make them see that I am no more prepared for this position than Mike Huckabee. In fact I’ll take a page from his book, and separation of church and state be damned, I’ll ask for god’s help to do it."
I saw her ask, in front of a huge churchy audience, for god’s help to build a natural gas pipeline. That’s some whacky stuff. Combined with her dogmatic refusal to deal with abortion and birth control by just saying no leads me to think that her simplistic black and white approach to policy is a from-the-gut decision making process that anyone can make. She is ready to write a blank check to Israel which does not help with Middle East tensions, and which she did not address for reasons best left to the people who prepared her for the debate. But her answer already speaks for a possible McCain administration and that cannot be encouraging for the people in that very region we are trying to foster better relations with.
Clearly the same debate coaches had not read The Smoking Jacket on the question of who threw the first rock in Georgia. And even though it is now widely known that Saaskasvili tempted the fate he got, the Gov just spouted the McCain line showing what? Loyalty or ignorance. Likely both. I believe the average Joe or JoJo on the street, in this pastoral rurality in which I live, would be able to answer Charlie’s questions as well as she did without any coaching. I’m sure many of them also think that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. I have a hard time thinking she knows what the initials in NATO stand for never mind why we should tout the admission of two Russian antagonists by pushing for their acceptance in it.
Chuck Todd, who is seldom fallible in things political, sees her best quality as “being the campaigner in chief.” I don’t think you have to be Chuckie T to figure that out but what’s not being said by any of the Morning Joe carnival barkers (which is where I get most of my opinionatedness) is the feeling I have that she will stumble just at the right time and fa’ down; go boom. John Heileman summed up the essence of her ABC prime time debut (which I have only seen in clips) that she was “very unimpressive but said nothing disqualifying.” The best news is that newsies are still talking about her and they will continue to do so because, I think, it’s no longer just about two old boring white guys. And that’s a step up.
In local news: What is up over at Ossipee Lake Marina where they tried to secure a special permission to violate a standing ordinance to have access that they are not supposed to have? They wanted to know: If we can’t have the necessary permission, how much will the fine be?
These guys have been flouting the law over in Freedom for years. The first time I saw Kevin Price the owner, he was so obviously lying to the Ossipee Planning Board about cleaning up his off site boat storage on route 16 that I had to chuckle. They had given him five years to fix the place or shut down and back then they reminded him he only had one year left. Gee shock! Times up.
But a bigger question than why the special treatment for a guy from away is why the Selectmen (actually they are not all men, one is the wife of the marina’s manager) have, time and again, allowed the shenanigans. What’s in it for them? They have made arbitrary decisions that have cost the Freedom citizenry unnecessary legal funds climbing into the tens of thousands. It’s a boondoggle that appears to have to do with some personal animosity between the Town Fathers (and one Mother) and the Ossipee Lake Alliance who has fought the shifty daring-do Derry man from the first violation.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Sliming Sarah
It is almost too much. The blogosphere is abuzz with the made up mystery of the true parentage of baby Trig. In a goofy spoof in Vanity Fair, after reviewing the putative “evidence,” 15,000 of their readers, or just random blog hounds, voted 70 percent that Trig is Bristol’s baby even though the time line shows that she would have had to have had the baby while already pregnant with the one she admits to.
People just want to believe what they already believe and no amount of evidence that Obama is not a Muslim will convince them other wise. I remember a friend’s grand father up in Maine who was asked, “Well grandpa, what do you think of them landing on the moon?” And he replied, “They say they did.”
People believe in creationism to the extent that they refuse to acknowledge that the world is older than 7,000 years. A hundred years ago, the President of South Africa refused to let it be said in his country that the world was anything but flat, even though he cheerfully entertained Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail around it by himself. Many bright people say they believe in Adam and Eve and are serving in the congress and courts making life and death decisions. Our president believes, he says, that every life is precious, but has signed the official death warrant of many of his fellow Texans when he was their governor. He also started a war that has killed over a million “precious” lives.
Many Catholics say they believe the Pope is infallible. He may have impeccable taste, because the first thing he did after getting sworn in was to design his own Pope hat and then order up a new Mercedes Pope mobile made to his demanding specs. Obviously John Paul II’s taste was not good enough for him, making the former Holy See seem just the teeniest bit fallible. Maybe they just mean living Popes.
The thing about conspiratheorists is that they really have no interest in being proven wrong. They want to think that Sarah Palin is an early grandmother for whatever odd ball reason. They care not what it does to the hapless Bristol who has quite enough shit to deal with that is actually true. We news-nerds want the worst to come out almost whether it’s true or not. But keeping an eye out the way I do, I am not finding the kind of wrongdoing here that has risen to the level of John Edwards’ new baby. Now there is a clear case, if a grainy photo, of someone who looked awfully like Pretty Boy, visiting the hotel that we are pretty sure Reille Hunter lives in, so it must be so.
I’m not terribly turned off by Sarah’s political politics. I would expect the Republican nominee to pick some one with solid conservative credentials. But her ethical politics give me an eye ache. If she has a hand in the next Supreme Court nominee, I am going to have one upset wife and I feel more than a little queasy my damn self thinking of that happening. With all the Bush backward steps of the past eight years, I think that any more blows to the more sane of personal beliefs would be the tipping point in how America is perceived in terms of its once flaunted fairness. We are walking such a thin line.
My oldest brother, who is almost pope-like in his perspicacity, opines that Sarah is a very popular governor. He’s been up there since Nixon was in office and was mayor of a small Alaskan town too. He believes that she did a creditable job in Wasilla. But what we read and hear is the niggling of the nabobs of negativity, nitpicking how big the population of her town is or even that of the State. In fact, she has unprecedented approval ratings of 80 percent and higher. As Mike says, whatever her faults she’s a lot better than her predecessor. I wonder if people thought that Batista made Castro look good?
In bloggo-land we like to try to get the jump on any story. Palin’s popularity right now will have to answer to the premise that what goes up must come down, and, my guess is, the Peter principle. This may be her best show. A consummate performer on the campaign trail. But what happens in the debates with Biden, and how well will she respond to red meat questions the press is salivating to throw at her. She looks tough but she’s in for a tough slog and the self description of a “pit-bull with lipstick” may just come around to bite her in the ass.
People just want to believe what they already believe and no amount of evidence that Obama is not a Muslim will convince them other wise. I remember a friend’s grand father up in Maine who was asked, “Well grandpa, what do you think of them landing on the moon?” And he replied, “They say they did.”
People believe in creationism to the extent that they refuse to acknowledge that the world is older than 7,000 years. A hundred years ago, the President of South Africa refused to let it be said in his country that the world was anything but flat, even though he cheerfully entertained Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail around it by himself. Many bright people say they believe in Adam and Eve and are serving in the congress and courts making life and death decisions. Our president believes, he says, that every life is precious, but has signed the official death warrant of many of his fellow Texans when he was their governor. He also started a war that has killed over a million “precious” lives.
Many Catholics say they believe the Pope is infallible. He may have impeccable taste, because the first thing he did after getting sworn in was to design his own Pope hat and then order up a new Mercedes Pope mobile made to his demanding specs. Obviously John Paul II’s taste was not good enough for him, making the former Holy See seem just the teeniest bit fallible. Maybe they just mean living Popes.
The thing about conspiratheorists is that they really have no interest in being proven wrong. They want to think that Sarah Palin is an early grandmother for whatever odd ball reason. They care not what it does to the hapless Bristol who has quite enough shit to deal with that is actually true. We news-nerds want the worst to come out almost whether it’s true or not. But keeping an eye out the way I do, I am not finding the kind of wrongdoing here that has risen to the level of John Edwards’ new baby. Now there is a clear case, if a grainy photo, of someone who looked awfully like Pretty Boy, visiting the hotel that we are pretty sure Reille Hunter lives in, so it must be so.
I’m not terribly turned off by Sarah’s political politics. I would expect the Republican nominee to pick some one with solid conservative credentials. But her ethical politics give me an eye ache. If she has a hand in the next Supreme Court nominee, I am going to have one upset wife and I feel more than a little queasy my damn self thinking of that happening. With all the Bush backward steps of the past eight years, I think that any more blows to the more sane of personal beliefs would be the tipping point in how America is perceived in terms of its once flaunted fairness. We are walking such a thin line.
My oldest brother, who is almost pope-like in his perspicacity, opines that Sarah is a very popular governor. He’s been up there since Nixon was in office and was mayor of a small Alaskan town too. He believes that she did a creditable job in Wasilla. But what we read and hear is the niggling of the nabobs of negativity, nitpicking how big the population of her town is or even that of the State. In fact, she has unprecedented approval ratings of 80 percent and higher. As Mike says, whatever her faults she’s a lot better than her predecessor. I wonder if people thought that Batista made Castro look good?
In bloggo-land we like to try to get the jump on any story. Palin’s popularity right now will have to answer to the premise that what goes up must come down, and, my guess is, the Peter principle. This may be her best show. A consummate performer on the campaign trail. But what happens in the debates with Biden, and how well will she respond to red meat questions the press is salivating to throw at her. She looks tough but she’s in for a tough slog and the self description of a “pit-bull with lipstick” may just come around to bite her in the ass.
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