Author's posts
Oct 31 2007
Jane Harman Really Scares Me This Halloween
—————
Here’s a true Halloween scary story for you.
Over at The Big Orange, I’m sure many of you have seen this:
Harman’s Response to drational’s FISA Post
Have a look and come back for a brief chat if you haven’t seen it yet.
Oct 30 2007
Economic Update – The Sky is NOT Falling
—————-
Your humble sleep-deprived author is back to offer a counterpoint yet again to some of the ongoing analysis we see in lefty blergsville.
Two points continue to appear on the radar:
1) Our trade policies suck. Too many left-leaning financial types have bought into the myth that ‘Free Trade is Both Inevitable and Good’.
2) The lower value for the US Dollar is not the end of the world. At least not for those of us who live and work here.
Updates on both below the fold…
Oct 26 2007
On Gloom, Doom and the Elephant in the Room
—————–
Yesterday, thanks to the power of teh Google, your humble essayist posted on how China had recently entered the fray of purchasing US homeowner mortgage debt and appeared to be getting ready to do (much?) more of the same.
The resulting essay appears to have contributed to a rattling of the confidence of at least one of our own. To those of us who live and breathe the crap dished out by our political opponents day in and day out, a very good question or three comes to mind.
Why add to the pile? Why give us yet another thing to worry about? Shouldn’t we stop talking and go do something fer cryin’ out loud?
The answer? Yes (to do more), and no (to stop talking)…
Oct 25 2007
Holy Crap on a (Chinese Made) Pogo Stick
——————-
I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.
In a diary on mortgages, now frontpaged, a comment was made about the Chinese moving in to your home when the proverbial shit hits the fan.
My initial reaction – that sounds just a tad farfetched to me. After all, China does own a lot of our government debt, but I seriously doubt they own much in the way of our personal debt.
Well, since Google is our friend, I decided I better test my theory before spouting off.
And thus, the title of this essay.
Oct 23 2007
Short Term Gain, Long Term Pain
——————–
Truth be told, what the Democrats are doing today is smart short term politics.
The scenario will probably play out like this:
A) Piss off your base by refusing to Impeach / Defund
B) Strengthen your gains with the squishy middle, do not risk pissing them off
C) Count on the base having nowhere to go come election time
D) Win in 2008 and MoveOn from there
Essentially, they are following a smart political strategy.
But in the mean time…
Oct 22 2007
Free Financial Advice
———————
I admit it – I’m a closet Randi Rhodes fan. It’s not even her show so much as her personal story, her ‘damned the torpedoes’ approach to life, and her in-your-face style. If I ever had the pleasure of meeting her, I would be thrilled if we hit it off and became friends.
But I cringe every time I hear one of her radio commercials.
Oct 19 2007
Friday Frivolity – (Mostly) Political Style
———————
Stuff I didn’t know until I decided to go trashing around the intertubes today:
PARIS: For President Nicolas Sarkozy, a day does not get much darker than this.
On Thursday, the 52-year-old French leader was struck hard on two different domestic fronts: a wave of strikes that swept through France and an official announcement that his 11-year marriage had come to an end.
Oct 18 2007
The Power of Doing Something
—————–
Thanks for the available play on words for the title, Big A.
Real quick today, so much stuff to do.
We have a lot of fun in blogosphere land. This group here in particular has a good time.
This isn’t a guilt trip essay or anything, but I’ve been thinking I need to do more, to accomplish more, to see actual real progress on the issues that matter.
Oct 16 2007
By The Numbers: 5.5 vs. 1.12
———————-
Numbers.
They serve as the ultimate descriptive methodology. They can be misleading, but if used responsibly they also are vital to understanding the way the world works.
To me, they serve as a starting point for discussion.
I believe health care and education are the twin pillars of an equitable society. They should be the two most important areas of government involvement. The two numbers in the title of this essay – 5.5 and 1.12 – are linked to health care and education in a big way.
Any guesses as to their meaning? Details below the fold.
Oct 10 2007
The Road To Hell…
Note: Revisiting a topic originally posted over on The Big Orange. Given our current discussions about extraordinary rendition and torture, it seemed worth dusting off (actually this is a major rewrite) and posting in the new digs.
The seminal piece to date on the origins of extraordinary rendition is this piece over in the New Yorker. It is titled: Outsourcing Torture – The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program. (by Jane Mayer).
The main focus of the article is to discuss how egregiously the government of George W. Bush has crossed the line in its decisions to use extraordinary rendition as a tool to fight terrorism.
But my interest in the piece was tweaked by the discussions about the origins of the program. And with a little research, the picture proved not to be pretty.
Oct 09 2007
Cross Your Fingers
…These Guys Are Getting WORSE.
Have a look at this:
A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.
Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company’s Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.
To quote the wise one: ‘I have a bad feeling about this…’