Tag: Open Thread

Nov 23 2008

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 APEC: Financial crisis to be overcome in 18 months

By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer

31 mins ago

LIMA, Peru – The global financial crisis can be overcome within 18 months by acting “quickly and decisively,” Pacific Rim leaders said Sunday as they pledged to make food cheaper, governments cleaner and markets more open.

But the 21 leaders, who represent more than half the world’s economic power, offered few details of their recovery plan. The biggest accomplishment of the two-day summit was broadening support for the Washington Declaration made last weekend by major economies, pledging to maintain free trade despite domestic pressures.

“We are convinced that we can overcome this crisis in a period of 18 months,” the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum said. “We have already taken urgent and extraordinary steps to stabilize our financial sectors and strengthen economic growth.”

Nov 22 2008

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Nepal’s Buddha boy returns to jungle to meditate

By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA, Associated Press Writer

2 hrs 47 mins ago

KATMANDU, Nepal – A Nepalese teenager revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha has returned to the jungle to meditate after emerging for less than two weeks, officials said Saturday.

Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, reappeared on Nov. 10 after several months of meditation to bless thousands of his followers, speaking to them on at least two occasions.

He made his last appearance on Friday and then returned to the jungle to meditate, said Biswo Prakash Newpane, a government administrator in the area. It was not clear when he would return again.

Nov 21 2008

Open Thread

 

I pledge allegiance to the thread.

Nov 21 2008

The Stars Hollow Gazette

digby- Back to The Future–

Bill Bennett just said that he thought the new president would have his biggest fights with Henry Waxman and said that he himself would side with the president. That’s very interesting and it tracks with my ongoing observation that village is airbrushing Bush out of history and the last eight years never happened. In fact, they are in the process of disappearing McCain too.

Christopher Hitchens said it directly last night on Larry King:

The Clinton era is over. That’s why we voted for Obama.

Ok.

Actually I completely understand why Hitchens would want to pretend that’s true. After all, he has written some of the most embarrassing garbage it’s possible for any quasi sober person to write over the last eight years. If I were he, I’d want a mulligan too.

(Extended Hitchens quote- ek)

After all that, he’s back to clucking hysterically about the “immoral” Clintons just like every other Bush supporter and sophomoric media drone trying to make everyone forget how epically wrong they were during the past eight years.

Sorry, fellas, I don’t think we’re going to be able to let that happen. The political system may not be interested in accountability, so they will live to fight another day. But we do have memory — and they will never be able to get away with disappearing their criminal stupidity.

People forget.

Video and lyrics below the fold.

Nov 20 2008

Madam Zelda! Madam Zelda! Is it true this house is haunted?!

A Stars Hollow Gazette

SILENCE!!!  The spirits are about to speak…

You know, I don’t just spend my time railing at our craven capitulationist Congress and their blow dried Beltway butt kissing Bozo court stenographers.  No siree.  I reserve a certain amount of bile for our corporate criminal culture of greed is good conmen and thieves.

When last we looked in the crystal ball, 18 trading days ago, my prediction was grim-

I expect a rally in anticipation of rate reduction from the next Fed meeting.  I expect a rally after they confirm market expectations.

I expect the fundamentals to remain the same.

Look for big Friday sell offs, why be long over the weekend?  What should you do in the mean time?

I feel the spirit of Jim Cramer…

Sell!  Sell!  Sell!  Sell!  Sell!  Sell!  Sell!  Sell!

Buy at the dips and sell into strength.  This market will not be done dropping until it bottoms out on the intraday lows, 6K to 7K.  For long term investments look at dividends and p/es, if you have the cash and the time.

Scary.

I think that over the next couple of days we’re going to test the market lows.  We might start hitting those 6Ks I talked about.

I’ve heard some gloom and dooming on CNBC about how Dow 4K is ‘the Great Depression all over again’, but I don’t agree that things are that dire yet.  I expect some serious defict spending and it’s all good (some types are better than others of course).

Anyway, at some point earnings and dividends are going to get more attractive than just leaving your money in your mattress.  There will be a bottom.

If you are liquid then you will pick up some bargains in the long run, there is no reason to believe that in 2 or 3 years values won’t approach historic levels.  And by historic I mean historical average growth, not tulip market prices.

Should have bought potato futures.  At least you can eat them.

I don’t pretend economic wisdom, but I see patterns in the data.  I use the DJIA as a broad indicator.  I don’t claim poblano prescience or accuracy, but if you want to see some brightly colored tables join me below.

Nov 19 2008

The Morning News

The Morning News is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Big 3 carmakers beg for  5B, warn of catastrophe

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

11 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Detroit’s Big Three automakers pleaded with a reluctant Congress Tuesday for a $25 billion lifeline to save the once-proud titans of U.S. industry, pointedly warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse. Millions of layoffs would follow their demise, they said, as damaging effects rippled across an already-faltering economy.

But the new rescue plan appeared stalled on Capitol Hill, opposed by the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress who don’t want to dip into the Treasury Department’s $700 billion financial bailout program to come up with the $25 billion in loans.

“Our industry … needs a bridge to span the financial chasm that has opened up before us,” General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner told the Senate Banking Committee. He blamed the industry’s predicament not on management failures but on the deepening global financial crisis.

Nov 18 2008

The Stars Hollow Gazette

File under things I just don’t get and yet can’t let go of.

So Atrios has this item tonight.

Umm…

That’s Luke Smith, and he’s played by an actor named Tommy Knight.  Chris Hayes is the Washington Editor of The Nation.  Outside of a superficial facial resemblance there is no connection at all.

Now I’d sure like to tell Duncan that The Sarah Jane Adventures is “a big, full-blooded drama; that nobody should ever think of it as ‘just’ a children’s programme.” but I’m not quite sure how to do it.

259 Comments and counting and they’re not nested and you can’t even search the Haloscan window.

How do these people communicate?

Nov 18 2008

Open Thread and Second DD Ripple Awards!

Yay!  Another Monday Open Thread DD Ripple Awards!   A totally egalitarian endeavor, anyone can appoint themselves as awarders (is that a word?).  If no one does, then I reign supreme!  A win/win for me!  Mwoo ha ha ha ha.

The object of the award is akin to mining for gold in Sutter’s Field back in the Gold Rush Days.  Find a gem and give it some attention by bestowing an award.  Simple.

Without further ado:

From Roy Reed’s “The Weapon of Young Gods #39: Frayed Strands a great opening scene:

For many years I’d tried to convince myself that nostalgia meant death, that indulging in happy memories was much worse than just a pleasant waste of time, but recently I’d suspected that was a war I’d lost before it had even begun. The impulse to dwell to distraction had long since permanently fused with my frontal lobe, because not only had I been unable to kick the vile temptation, I’d come to enjoy it and-in a pinch-even capitalize on it. What I didn’t realize, though, was how completely uncontrollable it could be, and that almost cost me a lot more than a few lost hours on the day I discovered how completely Frankie had lied to me.

And as far as comments, a pretty recent one.  We’re all struggling with the issue of accountability and in edger’s essay: “Never Forget”, by Marc Ash, Jay Elias has this to say (and the resulting dialogue with edger is ripple-worthy, imo):

This is a question I’ve been considering lately…  

..that of how to deal with the felons who are former and current Bush administration officials.  And I remain mixed.

Prosecuting them for their crimes is something I consider important.  But to my thinking, the real failure has been to purge the Nixon criminals from the public sphere.  And without cleansing them, I don’t see how you can cleanse the Bush people.

How do we the people actually seek justice for Antonin Scalia, Henry Kissinger, or Pat Buchanan?  And if we cannot obtain justice from them, can we really honestly clean up the present?

I don’t know.

Open Thread is Open.

Nov 17 2008

The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford, a National Historic Landmark, (also known as the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, and more formally as the Edison Institute), in the Metro Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, USA, is the nation’s “largest indoor-outdoor history museum” complex.

Nov 16 2008

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 US supply line threatened by Pakistan truck halt

By RIAZ KHAN and FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer

1 hr 19 mins ago

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Pakistan temporarily barred oil tankers and container trucks from a key passageway to Afghanistan, threatening a critical supply route for U.S. and NATO troops on Sunday and raising more fears about security in the militant-plagued border region.

Confirmation of the suspension came as U.S.-led coalition troops reported killing 30 insurgents in fighting in southern Afghanistan and detaining two militant leaders – both in provinces near Pakistan’s lawless border.

Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are behind much of the escalating violence along the lengthy, porous Afghan-Pakistan border, and both nations have traded accusations that the other was not doing enough to keep militants out from its side.

Nov 16 2008

Sunday music retrospective: Al Stewart

Al Stewart I: setting a mood



Last Days of the Century

Nov 15 2008

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

49 Stories.  Now with U.S. News.

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Election spurs ‘hundreds’ of race threats, crimes

By JESSE WASHINGTON, AP National Writer

26 mins ago

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

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