Tag: Open Thread

This is a Pony Party!  Treat said Party as an Open Thread! Do not rec the Pony Party, please!

I can hardly make sense of it anymore.

Things seem to be spiraling faster and faster circling around a black hole of an energy drain.

Trouble in River City my friends.

I had my dad insist tonight there was a deal, but there’s not nor is there any indication that this one is a good one-

It’s not $700 billion in a lump (a made up number anyway).  It’s subject to legislative and judicial review.  It’s punitive in terms of executive compensation.  It will purchase equity except that most of it won’t.

Or so people say, but they’re the same people who said things were ok in the first place so why should I trust them?

Krugman is mildly in favor, Sirota thinks it’s a sellout.  Pelosi is peddling that there isn’t enough discipline among House Democrats and who knows?  I don’t think I’d vote for it.  Calls are said to be running 100 to 1 against.  It is a Republican policy meltdown and is correctly labeled that way in public perception.

Notable items on my agenda that are missing or unclear is where is the attempt to shore up the underlying asset rather than the 40x leveraged derivative?  I think that would be a heck of a lot cheaper.  And why do you want to maximize buy in?  This is not fucking flood insurance.

I don’t get the urgency either.  The fact is that given our actual economic activity we ought to be trading 2000 points lower and it will happen sooner or later.  Forty days is going to change things a lot.

Or not.  It’s very disappointing to hear dial backs in the urgent program of public works and infrastructure projects including green energy.  How come we’re not spending an Iraq Occupation on them?

And Chinese me no Chinese, someone who owes you a billion or 2 is a thief, a trillion or 14 a valued customer.

Or in for a penny in for a pound and as any fool knows a pint is a pound the world around and if you’ve ever paid $2.50 for a beer you know how true this is.

Times interesting enough for you yet?

I’d tell you what I know except I’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement.  And people have seen me eat a $10 sandwich on the street while I was no help at all flagging down a cab though I think I did see Kirk with a pedicab whom we could have paid to chase down a real cab if we’d been inventive.

Next time I’ll have to be earlier so I get a step seat or bring a chair.  I have some of the fold up types but nothing doesn’t make them seem like the Park Lane Mystery.  I have enough trouble with metal detectors.  Still, it wasn’t so bad, I’ve been in smaller theaters with less entertainment, there was a lot of energy and overall the experience was very much like TDS/TCR except there we were and we couldn’t talk so much.

There is only one topic worth discussing though-

Will the Mets make the post season?

Not about the economy at all.

The Morning News is an Open Thread.

Surprise! Once again I’m filling in for ek this morning. Here’s a few stories from home and around the globe. What else is happening?

USA

1. Bloomberg – Americans Oppose Bailouts, Favor Obama to Handle Market Crisis

   Americans oppose government rescues of ailing financial companies by a decisive margin, and blame Wall Street and President George W. Bush for the credit crisis. By a margin of 55 percent to 31 percent, Americans say it’s not the government’s responsibility to bail out private companies with taxpayer dollars, even if their collapse could damage the economy, according to the latest Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll. Poll respondents say Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama would do a better job handling the financial crisis than Republican John McCain, by a margin of 45 percent to 33 percent. Almost half of voters say the Democrat has better ideas to strengthen the economy than his Republican opponent. Six weeks before the presidential election, almost 80 percent of Americans say the U.S. is going in the wrong direction, the biggest percentage since the poll began asking that question in 1991.

2. NYT – McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac

   One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement. The disclosure undercuts a statement by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years. Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the people said.

Because you just can never get enough Anthrax-

Key senators dispute FBI’s anthrax case against Bruce Ivins

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Wednesday Sept. 17, 2008 10:25 EDT

Already, after 30 minutes or so, the two ranking members of the Committee have both told Mueller that, in essence, they do not accept or believe the FBI’s accusations against Bruce Ivins. The Democratic Chairman of the Committee, Pat Leahy (who was a target of the anthrax attacks) told Mueller categorically that he simply does not believe that Ivins was the prime culprit if he was a participant at all, and said he is absolutely convinced that there were others involved in the preparation and mailing of the anthrax. Leahy began the hearing by identifying the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Ground and the private CIA contractor Battelle Corporation — but not Fort Detrick — as the only two institutions in the U.S. capable of producing anthrax of the strain that was sent to him and Sen. Daschele. Leahy asked Mueller whether he was aware of any other institutions capable of producing the anthrax, and when Mueller — amazingly though unsurprisingly — claimed he couldn’t answer, Leahy demanded that he obtain the answer during a break and tell the Committee today what the answer is.

…

The bottom line is that it is quite extraordinary that the FBI has claimed it has identified with certainty the sole culprit in the anthrax attacks, but so many key Senators, from both parties, simply don’t believe it, and are saying so explicitly. Leahy’s rather dark suggestion that there were others involved in these attacks — likely at a U.S. Army facility or key private CIA contractor — is particularly notable. It has been crystal clear from the beginning that the FBI’s case is filled with glaring holes, that their thuggish behavior towards their only suspect drove him to commit suicide and thus is unable to defend himself, and yet, to this day, the FBI continues to conceal the evidence in its possession and is stonewalling any and all efforts to scrutinize its claims.

…

The crucial point, at least from my perspective, isn’t that the FBI’s accusations against Bruce Ivins are demonstrably false, and it’s not that Bruce Ivins had no role in the anthrax attacks — there is ample grounds for believing both propositions to be true, but I’m not at all suggesting one can reach a definitive conclusion based on what is known. Rather, the point is that the accusations that the FBI has outlined and the evidentiary case it has disclosed are so full of substantial holes that the FBI ought to disclose all of the evidence in its possession — scientific and non-scientific — and fully cooperate with a real, independent review of all of that evidence by an investigative body possessing subpoena power and whose mandate is both to examine the anthrax attacks and the FBI’s case from scratch.

FBI Still Using Shiny Objects to Distract from Their Flimsy Anthrax Case

By: emptywheel Wednesday September 17, 2008 10:16 am

We’re worried about Pat Leahy’s seeming certainty that only scientists at Dugway in UT and Batelle in OH have the technical competence to make the anthrax used in the attacks; when Leahy made Mueller call FBI to find out if that were true, Mueller eventually responded that the answer is classified. We’re worried that the FBI’s explanation for how and why Ivins would have driven several hours to Princeton to mail the anthrax letters keeps changing from dubious story to dubious story–meaning even if Ivins made this anthrax, they have no proof he mailed it. And we’re worried that the FBI seems to have attributed Ivins’ wife’s beliefs to him in order to explain the choice of targets–even though Leahy’s apparent suspicion (that the attack was related to recent efforts to develop an offenseive bioweapons program) provides a much more plausible explanation for the targets.

In other words, the flimsiest aspects of the anthrax case have nothing to do with genetic analysis. But it’s through an independent review of the genetic analysis, and genetic analysis only, that Robert Mueller would like to use to reassure us that the case is sound.

I quoted this little line back in September of 2006 over at the Orange.  I think it bears repeating again during these times.

We know what we’re fighting against in almost excruciating detail.

But we often don’t have the words to know what we are fighting for.

In 1955, Philip K. Dick wrote a book entitled Solar Lottery.  The protagonist (if there ever is such a thing in a Philip K. Dick Novel), Ted Bentley, gives his idea of what, I think, so many of us are fighting for:

“I never told anybody what to do in my life.  All I want to do –” Bentley shrugged angrily, unhappily. “I don’t know.  Be another Al Davis, I suppose.  Have my house and a good job.  Mind my own business.”  His voice rose in despair.  “But goddam it, not in this system.  I want to be an Al Davis in some world where I can obey the laws, not break them.  I want to obey the laws!  I want to respect them.  I want to respect the people around me.“

Emphasis mine.

                                                                      * * * * * * *

And from the I-Ching, in the hexagram of Lu/Treading, Conduct:

But it is important that differences in social rank should not be arbitrary and unjust, for if this occurs, envy and class struggle are the inevitable consequences.  If, on the other hand, external differences in rank correspond with differences in inner worth, and if inner worth forms the criterion of external rank, people acquiesce and order reigns in society.

Open thread is now open!

Ahoy matey.

If ye been cypherin’ why yer fellow Dharmaniacs be palaverin’ like land lubbers, they be not savvy to the tongue of the sea.  It be International Talk Like A Pirate day.

Hurray!

A round of grog fer all the hands.

I be Cap’n Hank Bloodbeard. and here be the reason we pillage and loot-

(T)he day is the only holiday to come into being as a result of a sports injury. He has stated that during a racquetball game between Summers and Baur, one of them reacted to the pain with an outburst of “Aaarrr!”, and the idea was born. That game took place on June 6, 1995, but out of respect for the observance of D-Day, they chose Summers’ ex-wife’s birthday, as it would be easy for him to remember.

Members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster find additional, symbolic significance in celebrations of this day.

According to the Pastafarian belief system, pirates are “absolute divine beings” and the original Pastafarians. Their image as “thieves and outcasts” is misinformation spread by Christian theologians in the Middle Ages and by Hare Krishnas. Pastafarianism says that they were in fact “peace-loving explorers and spreaders of good will” who distributed candy to small children, and adds that modern pirates are in no way similar to “the fun-loving buccaneers from history.” Pastafarians celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19.

The inclusion of pirates in Pastafarianism was part of Henderson’s original letter to the Kansas School Board. It illustrated that correlation does not imply causation. Henderson put forth the argument that “global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s.” A chart accompanying the letter shows that as the number of pirates decreased, global temperatures increased.

So they be doin’ it fer the Polar Bears.

Talking like a pirate, however, doesn’t just mean running through the hallways yelling “yarr!” at everyone. To get more in touch with one’s inner pirate, here is a short list of useful terms that may help readers throughout their day of pillaging and searching for buried treasure.

If ye steer a course to the official website of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, ye may wish to read the FAQ, to help ye splice the mainbrace proper like.  Then ye’ll be ready to talk like a pirate.

There will come a time when you have a chance to do the right thing.

I love those moments. I like to wave at them as they pass by.  

So last night you found out my Great Grandpa worked on the Panama Canal.

My Gramp didn’t do anything glamorous, he was an accountant in the payroll office.

He wrote an unpublished memoir that some people in my family have and the story that stuck in my mind was this one-

When the workers got to Panama they’d throw their hats off the boat as a symbol of their commitment to stay.

The conditions were terrible- tents, mud, and insects.

So he and his buddy were sitting at breakfast.  They were eating oatmeal with raisins and put the usual milk and sugar on them.

Then one of the raisins in his buddy’s bowl started moving.

The buddy left on the next ship.