And I mean this in a clinical sense, though obviously, I am an engineer, not a doctor, dammit!*
*I LOVE IT when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!
Category: Media
New York Times OP/ED Asks if Geithner/Summers/Bernanke is Obama’s Katrina Moment
Frank Rich, who I generally find unobjectionable, but also unmemorable, asks this question, and I believe that he may be right.
I believe that Wall Street is being run by, and for, a corrupt class of overpaid crooks, and most of the country agrees with this, but Geithner/Summers/Bernanke believe that these folks posses the unique genius to fix the problem that they have created.
They are wrong, and unless, and until, the campaign to fix these things becomes a campaign against these folks too, a bit of reality that even perennial light weight Maureen Dowd gets, things will get worse.
These people don’t work for their banks or brokerages, they work for their own benefit at the expense of those banks or brokerages.
People With Too Much Time On Their Hands
Clips of actors who appeared both in Star Trek and Wild Wild West.
Geithner Fesses Up
Well, I suppose that it’s an improvement that we now have people in cabinet positions who, when caught in a bald faced lie, will, when absolutely forced to, tell the truth.
Compared to Dick Cheney, or Alberto Gonzalez, the fact that Timothy Geithner is now admitting that it was the Treasury that demanded the bonus loophole is a step forward.
Of course, this followed 24 hours of “pin the bonus on Chris Dodd,” and only when people went back to contemporaneous news reports, and his fellow senators pushed back against the smear, did they change their tune, but considering the fact that Ari Fleischer accused Saddam Hussein of planning 911 just 6 days ago, this is a step forward, but still, Geithner needs to realize that he works for Barack Obama, who works for us, and not the banks.
Jon Stewart: The Best Financial Journalist in America
Hell, maybe the best journalist in America, or at least the best interviewer. Jon Stewart really gets it.
Jon Stewart interviews Jim Cramer of CNBC (I saw it last night on TV):
New York Times Makes an Affirmative Action Hire
I haven’t really read Ross Douthat, who has now been hired to write a regular column for the New York Times.
That being said, it is clear that he was not hired because they believed that he was the best writer and thinker out there; he was hired to fill a slot for conservatives, and he was the best person that they could find to fill that check off box.
I will note that the Times doesn’t do a great job with its regular columnists anyway, what with Maureen Dowd, who covers the issues of our day as if she is a middle schooler critiquing another shoes, and Tom Friedman, who seems to get his insights entirely in airports and taxicabs from people who talk like a person whose wife is worth (or was worth) about a billion dollars.
More CNBC PWN463 (Ownage)
Damn, Jim Cramer is a glutton for punishment.
Remind me never ever to f^%$ with Jon Stewart.
Note to Self: Do Not F$#% with Jon Stewart or His Writers
Rick Santelli canceled on Jon Stewart at the last minute, so they laid a can of whup ass on Santelli and his network, CNBC.
Ouch!!! Just brutal.
(8:28 Duration)
Smart Politics, and True
In 1993, Bill Clinton went after Rush Limbaugh, and it proved a failure.
Between people claiming that it was in assault on free speech, and the absolutely bizarre spectacle of a sitting president going after a political shock jock, it flopped.
Well, times are different now, and the Republican party really does take its marching orders from him now, and there’s also the fact that he’s a drug addict and a sex tourist too, and that he’s no longer the new flavor of the week.
So, Democrats are bring up Rush again, but they are not going after him, so much as they are Rush Limbaugh is the intellectual voice of the Republican party.
This makes a lot more sense, because Rush Limbaugh can be relied to say something mind numbingly scary to 70% of the American population on a weekly, if now daily basis.
Unfortunately, the ‘Phants can’t walk away from him, because those 30% dead enders are something like 70% of the Republican party, just note Rep Phil Gingrey’s (R-GA) abject apology to Rush after he made a fairly innocuous comment defending the House and Senate leadership, and Limbaugh sicced His Evil Minions&trade on him.
It was reminiscent of the confessions at Stalin’s show trials, and Rush Limbaugh now owns the Republican party.
Pass the popcorn.
Yeah, the VWRC is Back, Only It Ain’t So Vast
I’ve been vaguely aware of CNBC D-Lister Rick Santelli, who let loose a torrent of abuse at people at risk of losing their homes, The government is promoting bad behavior! Do we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages?! This is America! We’re thinking of having a Chicago tea party in July, all you capitalists who want to come down to Lake Michigan, I’m gonna start organizing.”
That day, a website went live Chicagoteaparty dot com (top pic), which is awfully fast, only the first domain was actually registered in August of last year, and had lain dormant, but suddenly sprung to life, calling for protest with Santelli’s rant on the front.
We also had another domain, created and going live that day, Officialchicagoteaparty dot com (middle pic), which was owned by one Eric Odom, a long time ‘Phant political operative, who created astroturf groups to support offshore drilling, which would directly benefit the business interests of the Koch families.
So, what’s going on?
Well according Playboy* (and mirrored at the Exiled for those of you who have to deal with content filters), the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (VWRC) is at it again, only it seems to be perhaps a few dozen people:
What we discovered is that Santelli’s “rant” was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a “Chicago Tea Party” was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.”
Added to this was the owner of Chicagoteaparty dot com is one Zack Christenson, who is a producer for a rightwing radio jock Milt Rosenberg, the man who came up with the bogus Barack Obama-Bill Ayers link.
It’s all a part of the “Sam Adams Alliance,” which has funding from the Koch family, though you have to go to cached copies connecting this to FreedomWorks, run by Republican House Majority leader Dick Armey and paid for by the Koch’s.
Note Santelli front and center on the FreedomWorks home page too.
Mr. Santelli’s contract with CNBC is up in a year, and getting a Youtube hit, even if it is AstroTurf, is likely to improve both his chances of renewal, and his chances for a big contract.
Not also that this has been going on for some time, as it’s also tied into angryrenter dot com, which has been registered for a year.
Seriously though, when you look at all these, there is a guy, his money, and perhaps a dozen other people, who were locked and loaded before the rant ever happened, and when the “grass roots” protests happened, they were lame and fake.
It’s kind of a metaphor for the Republican party as a whole.
H/T The Big Picture.
*Proving that Playboy, at least can do real reporting and cover real stories, in addition to being what the Brits call a “grumble mag”.
Well, That Makes 3 F-22 Shootdowns in Excercises
Stephen Trimble had a walkaround at Electronic Warfare Appreciation Day at Andrews AFB, and he noticed noticed this EA-18G “Growler” electronic warfare aircraft.
Look at the bottom picture: the pilot bagged an F-22 in exercises at Nellis.
This does raise an interesting question, how does an aircraft largely dedicated to electronic warfare bag what is supposed to be the hottest jet out there.
I think that it comes down to the fact that the F-22 had to get close to burn through the jamming, and once it did, its size, the aircraft is roughly as large as an F-14 Tomcat, made rather more visible to the Mark 1 eyeball than the F/A-18.
This raises an interesting question as to the effectiveness of the aircraft in a heavily jammed environment: will this require the Raptor to get close enough to its target that it is then in a visual conflict, where it will be more visible than its opposition.
Hrm….
Have I Mentioned that Michael Steele is Really, Really Stupid Lately?
Following Bobby Jindal’s disasterous response to Obama speech, RNC Chairman Michael Steele and promoted him using “Slumdog Millionaire” comparisons.
Mr. Steele, there are worse things than not being “hip”. One of them is pretending to be hip when you don’t get it.
NY Times OP/Ed Comes Out for Nationalization Pre-Privatization
I think htat it’s been clear that this is the best solution for some times, but the fact that The New York Times editorial board has endorsed this action, recognizing that there are Zombie banks, even if Ben Bernanke denies this, is significant.
The conventional wisdom is moving, and one hopes that mssrs Bernanke and Geithner will recognize this and act in a prompt manner.
Philadelphia Papers Go Chapter 11
They will continue normal operations for the moment.
My assessment is that this is not another sign of the death of newspapers, but rather what happens when a bunch of finance types decide to buy something with no money down…..and then the balloon payment comes due during a liquidity crunch.
White House Push-Back On Pentagon Insubordination
Obama’s people are demanding that all Pentagon staffers working on the budget sign a non-disclosure agreement:
…
In an undated non-disclosure agreement obtained by Defense News, the administration tells defense officials that “strict confidentiality” must be practiced to ensure a “successful” and “proper” 2010 defense budget process.
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The pledge covers any data about the 2010 budget, including: “planning, programming and budgeting system documents and databases, and any other information” that concerns the administration’s internal discussions about “the nature and amounts of the president’s budget for fiscal year 2010, and any supplemental budget request during the current fiscal year.”
…
“Under no circumstances will I disclose such information outside the Department of Defense and other government agencies directly involved in the defense planning and resource-allocation process, such as the Office of Management and Budget,” the agreement said.
I’m not sure if this is just paranoia, a recognition that there are a lot of Bushies burrowed in the bureaucracy who will work against this, or a realization that the Pentagon is completely out of control as an organization.
Maybe it’s all three.
Californicated Real Estate Markets
This story on the skyrocketing rates of default in jumbo loans misses the point.
It ain’t rich folks. It’s folks in places like San Diego and San Jose where house prices went insane, and people were putting down $400K for a 400 square foot 1BR.
I Have to Admire this Legal Stragegy
Muntadar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi shoe throwing journalist, has a novel defense against charges that he assaulted a foreign dignitary who was a guest of the Iraqi Prime Minister:
Zaidi, 30, who is charged with assaulting a foreign head of state, posited that Bush’s Dec. 14 trip to Baghdad was not an official visit by a foreign dignitary because he arrived in the country without prior notice and didn’t leave the Green Zone, which at the time was still under U.S. control.
“I am charged now with attacking the prime minister’s guest,” he said stoically, making his first public remarks since the incident. “We Arabs are famous for being generous with guests. But Bush and his soldiers have been here for six years. Guests should knock on the door. Those who come sneaking in are not guests.”
Roughly an hour into the hearing, Presiding Judge Abdul Amir al-Rubaie announced that he would postpone the proceeding until March 12 to seek an opinion from the Iraqi government about whether Bush’s swan song visit to Baghdad was, in fact, an “official” one.
True to form, and unlike the statements made by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao following a similar incident, when he asked for his show thrower to be released, Bush has made no statement regarding the fate of Zaidi, who has already been tortured by Iraqi authorities.
Media Consolidation
Barry Righoltz’s book Bailout Nation has been dropped by McGraw Hill, largely because he refused to soft pedal the ratings agencies role in the financial crisis, and McGraw Hill owns the largest of the ratings firms, Standard & Poors.
They claimed stylistic issues with his first description, which called the ratings agencies, “Pimps to the fixed-income fund managers’ Johns,” which to my mind is a fairly accurate description. (He did come out with an alternate chapter, which, while slightly milder in language, was even more damning, because it was more extensively sourced)
As Mr. Ritholtz himself notes, “The problems came not from Legal, but from Corporate within McGH. Legal had not even finished reviewing the manuscript at this time.“
If you wonder why newspapers and magazines are “dying”, it’s because of crap like this, where conglomerates allow other corporate issues to water down their content.
Michael Moore’s Next Movie
Tentatively titled “Swindle”, will be about the banking crisis.
Can’t wait until it hits DVD.
Obama’s Presser
I heard all of it, but I was multi-tasking, helping my son buy algae for the science fair, so you may want to read the Rude Pundit’s version….He’s is a better writer than I am anyway.
Ghod! It’s nice not having a drooling moron (mostly) dry drunk there anymore.
One thing that the Rude One missed though: Chuck Todd is a complete fracking moron.
Seriously. He asked if maybe now it’s the time for Americans to save, as opposed to spending.
Does this man even read the paper, and listen to even the most conservative economists, who say that right now paying down debt is the kiss of death?
Jeebus….This guy makes Jonah Goldberg sound like Albert Einstein (the actor, not the physicist*).
*Albert Lawrence Einstein the actor changed his last name to Brooks when he went into acting, to avoid confusion.