If You Are Having Trouble Finding Things To Worry About...

Here's a gloom-inducer - as of Election Eve in 2004 it became obvious that Bush would get a second term and we would elect a new President in November 2008.  That gave Al Qaeda (and anyone else who likes long lead times) four years to plan a transition or inaugural surprise.

Well, Joe Biden guaranteed that Obama would be tested.

STILL NOT WORRIED?  Given the fragile state of the US and world economies, can we endure another 9/11 scale attack just now?  Not that there is ever a good time...

Comments

[SunnyDay]

PSA 37:25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

[Eric Ivers]

We have been pretty good at thwarting their attempts so far, and that will probably carry into the early part of the Obama administration. It will take a while for him to screw it up.

[SunnyDay]

I agree. Let's hope the intel briefings are giving Zero a sense of reality.

For Rick B. of the twisted sense of humor (I love it). Chicago City layoffs to come. LUN

[DrJ]

Rick,

Taken from today's Corner, I thought you would enjoy this.

"The problem with releasing these Guantánamo detainees is that no one really knows for sure whether any one of them is a really bad guy, a sort of bad guy or just a fellow who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Therefore, a particular detainee's country of origin doesn't want him, the USA doesn't want him and no third party country wants him.

"What to do? Well, although the criminal risk of any one Guantánamo detainee is unquantifiable, thanks to the law of large numbers a whole bunch of detainees rolled together into a group will have an average criminal risk that will be easier to estimate and manage. So instead of looking for a home for any one detainee on a case-by-case basis, we should be trying to find a home for packaged groups of detainees. There will be some better and some worse guys in each group but the outliers will average out.

"These packaged groups could even be sliced up into "tranches" with the more sketchy characters sprinkled more heavily into some of the lower tranches. That way a lower risk tolerant sovereign nation (in Western Europe perhaps) can have a higher comfort level in what they're taking on in the name of global justice and take down the top tranche. And a country that is less risk adverse (maybe one of the 'Stans or an African nation) might be willing to take the lower tranches in exchange for a higher maintenance fee paid by the US Government. Since Barack Obama has a tremendous amount of goodwill with the international community, who all seem to share his view that the Guantánamo detainees aren't as dangerous or risky as they were originally cracked up to be, I think the highest tranches of these group detainee packages could receive the equivalent of a triple-A rating from the UN."

[tioal]

It's obvious that Obama went back in time to do his selective service. It is obvious his birth certificate is lie. We know he is an alien and all those are creations of lucifer. So, like, the terror shouldn't be much of an issue now because the CIA is doing the made name game thing and that's supposed to keep terrorists happy. I don't understand the psychology. We need Rove to make some more visits and see what he scares up. It's a good time to close down blogs for a while and start up again later. Except for JOM.

[reliapundit]

HAYDEN ANNOUNCED TODAY WE THWARTED A MAJOR 9/11 SIZE ATTACK.

[clarice]

Very funny,Dr J.
TM's worry is not so far fetched..they do like to move during transitions when new govts are not fully entrenched and capable of a quick response. That is precisely why this administration has done so much to make this a well-run, well-briefed transition---not like that asshole Clinton gave Bush.

[Rick Ballard]

SD,

Never fear - Mr. BoMumbles has everything in hand. Those nasty capitalists will see. The running dogs are just kidding. It's all rainbows and unicorns now that we've elected our first commie.

DrJ,

That's really pretty good - the only thing missing is Mr. BoMumbles selling CDS on the deal.

As to the thrust of the post - why would Obama's allies attack when he'll give them anything they want for the asking?

[clarice]

Do you have a link reliapundit?

I went to your site BTW and I agree with you on the need for an urban agenda. In fact we need more middle class urbanites and one way to do that is to get our schools into shape.

[clarice]

Link for reliapundit's Hayden blurb.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6248595&page=1

(2006 UK liquid bomb on airline attempt)

[not_bubaroooni]

HA Tom Maguire! I call your bluff and raise you $20!

From today's wapo:

Obama Team Faces Major Task in Justice Dept. Overhaul

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/12/AR2008111202679.html?hpid=topnews

A partial listing of the impartial luminaries weighing in on the story:

-'Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.),'
-'Ron Klain, who was chief of staff to Vice President Al Gore,'
-'Officials at interest groups, including the Center for American Progress and People for the American Way,'
-'Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union,'
-'House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).'
-'Jamie S. Gorelick, who served as the department's second in command during the Clinton administration'

The only voice of reason:

"It would not be beneficial to spend a lot of time calling people up to Congress or in front of grand juries," Litt said. "It would really spend a lot of the bipartisan capital Obama managed to build up."

Ha! Fat chance! Let the show trials begin!

Read the article if you dare. It's the opening salvo. There are just to many pressure groups to please and to many perverted ideas of justice to promulgate and put in place to maintain even a modicum of safety. I think it'll take the Dems a bit of time to dismantle the security of our nation, 9 to 18 months. After that it'll be less than pre 1/11. Thinking of that is a gloom inducer...

[RichatUF]

Did this comment go through?

Typepad

[Terry Gain]

Good of him to tell us after the election. Perfectly consistent with Bush's awesome communications strategy.

The Republicans are as stupid in the art of communicaton as the Democrats are in the art of security.

If al Qaeda is smart - and generally it isn't - it will cease activities in Iraq until Obama triumphantly "ends the war" by withdrawing every last U. S. soldier.

And then it will begin again ...

[RichatUF]

Yea!!!! Typepad is working

On topic of the post: what a buzzkill. I thought since Obama was elected the Islamists will like us and they won't try to pull off another terror spectacular.

Next I'll hear there are no unicorns and there is no such thing as Santa Claus

[Daddy]

Not to worry TM,

The Alaskan election recount today shows we just elected Democrat Mayor of Anchorage, Mark Begich, to Ted Steven's Senate seat. Begich has a High School Degree, so that should solve all our foreign policy problems. Sleep tight!

[Pofarmer]

Hey. I though this was a pretty good article on the origins of the financial mess. I haven't read it all yet, but it uses the word idiot in regards to wall street bankers a lot. LUN

The end of Wall Streets Boom

[Pofarmer]

Sorry,

Now LUN

[Pofarmer]

Begich has a High School Degree, so that should solve all our foreign policy problems.

Anybody questioning his qualifications?

[Louie]

I've known more than a few educated people without much intelligence and some intelligent people without much education.
On the whole, I think I'd rather take my chances with the latter.

[Bruce]

Its like a bad horror movie:

The Obama Administration: Return of the Dead Clintonistas

The team that encouraged al Quada to try try again with no repercussions is back in power!!!

I'm glad I don't live in a big city.

[clarice]

No wonder Hillary's packed on about one hundred pounds..all her peeps belong to Obama now.

[clarice]

Really, Daddy? That's the final count! Wow!
And in Minn missing ballots keep showing up in people's glove compartments making it more likely that Franken the Clown will be in the US Senate. Amazing. Chambliss' run off becomes the race of the year.

[clarice]

One LESS thing to fret about..per Reuters..No Bailout for the auto makers:
"WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - A senior Democratic senator raised doubts on Thursday that an attempt to bail out U.S. automakers had enough support to clear Congress this year.

As Republicans amplified their concerns about a bailout, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd raised the biggest red flag for fellow Democrats trying to craft a $25 billion rescue and pass it during a post-election session set to start next week.

"Right now, I don't think there are the votes," Dodd of Connecticut told reporters about prospects in the Senate. "I want to be careful of bringing up a proposition that might fail," he said.

Although Dodd said "we ought to do something" and personally backed using money from the ongoing $700 billion financial services rescue program to help Detroit, he was skeptical that enough Republicans would support a bailout."

[bgates]

An inaugural attack before Obama's started the hard work of alienating various chapters of his fan club would be so obviously counterproductive it could only happen if alQ had picked up McCain's disaffected campaign staff. Europe might revert to form and launch the kind of attack only dreamed of in the darker recesses of LGF comments, without worrying about helping Bush or appearing racist because, hey, it's for Obama.

I'll stick to worrying about the financial crisis, the wars, and Obama's ability to make those things worse while pinning blame on the Republicans.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Daddy: I thought they still had about 40,000 absentee ballots to count.

[clarice]

Very good, bgates. Very good.

[Daddy]

Clarice,

I'm being a tad facetious. It's not yet the final count, 40,000 still to go, but local news pollsters are saying that from where they are coming in and from when they were voted on, that they favor Begich over Stevens. Steven's yesterday morning lead of 3,500 has by this evening turned into a 4,000 vote lead for Begich and we are led to believe that trend will continue.

Louie,

Don't disagree about your "intelligence" comments. I simply continue my practice of high-lighting Begich's lack of post High School Education because the MSM were so ruthless in dissing Sarah Palin's college Credentials, and because not 1 word has so far been said by anybody in the MSM concerning Begich's only having a High School Diploma. It is a glaring MSM Double Standard, so everytime I have the opportunity I try to let folks know that the Tax loving Mayor of Anchorage, Mark Begich, lacks the educational background the MSM considers so necessary for Conservative politicians. That's where I'm coming from.

[Ann]

Jake Tapper reported that Hillary was spotted boarding a flight to Chicago today. Since the big rumor is she might be the Sec. of State, I keep wondering why she would want that job.

Seems like a prime cabinet position to pin blame on if things go wrong.

I guess she could cause a lot of mischief. PUMAs would be happy. The Secretary of State is always a potential successor to the Presidency.

Still, it is perplexing. Can a SoS demand a state or nation to produce a birth certificate? ... kidding,.. kinda :)

[Bill in AZ]

That is precisely why this administration has done so much to make this a well-run, well-briefed transition---not like that asshole Clinton gave Bush.

Oh, c'mon clarice - Gen Weasley Clark and Richard A (for, "After all, they only bombed two embassies, it's a cost of doing business") Clarke told us repeatedly how well they briefed the new administration.

[clarice]

Well, daddy, a lot of those absentee ballots may be from abroad where people voted before the criminal trial was concluded. We'll see.

Begich can't be dumber than Kerry or Biden no matter what level of educational attainment in his record.

[clarice]

Well, Bill, I guess I. Don't. Believe. Them.

What is amazing to me about that deliberate obstruction of the transition is that the first world trade bombing took place just at a transition point so everyone knew we were particularly vulnerable then. Bush' new appointees barely sat their rears in their new chairs when 9/11 hit.In fact, many posts still were unfilled then.

It was really shameful.

[scoopa]

I worry about things I have absolutely no control over:
A bigger attack on this country
A government where I have no voice
Elections being stolen or rigged

Things I have hope for:
Republican Governors
Dinosaur media's extinction

Things I can enjoy:
Not having to defend my party for 2 years! I'm mentally exhausted from that, how about you?? My motto will be.....

DON'T BLAME ME!!!

[Bill in AZ]

...and with Jamie Gorelick ON the commission instead of in front of it or in jail, how could you not believe them?

[clarice]

It would be a comfort to me in my old age to have communicators like Palin and Jindal and Michael SAteele at the helm. Yes, indeed. I could use a break, too.

[Bill in AZ]

I vote MSM extinction - it is the single greatest factor in everything that is broken right now.

[Ann]

Besides the transition, nobody ever mentions the fact that the new administration had to handle the March 31, 2001, US spy plane that crashed in China carpola where the Chinese stripped the plane of sensitive equipment and took our guys hostage.

[scoopa]

Yes, Michael Steele!! I told everyone that I would vote for a black man in a heartbeat - Michael Steele.

[Ann]

I agree Bill in Az, it makes you want to put your 50 cents in the newspaper stand and take all the papers not just one.

[Daddy]

Hope you're right Clarice, but that's not what I'm picking up here. Here they seem to think that many of the still to count votes were from the time period of the trial and just after the conviction. The State was saturated with outside ads hammering Steven's for being a criminal all that while. The revelation about the lying Juror who ran off to the Horse Races caused anger about the unseriousness and ridiculous nature of the trial, but that only appeared just immediately before the election. That is probably what contributed to angry folks going to the polls on Election day to enter a protest vote for Steven's. The local Pollsters don't think that will be reflected in the outstanding 40,000 absentee ballots.

And as for Begich, he's definitely smarter than Kerry or Biden, because he hasn't yet been surrounded by 30 years worth of sycophants telling him he's a great man, and he still has to occasionally explain himself to irate citizens on the local Talk call-in shows. But when it comes to voting to increase your taxes I think you'll find him far from a rookie in that department. Hope I am proved wrong.

[sylvia]

This is from the NYT on 11/11. There's a little info on this but still they dance around it. So.. what WAS the black turnout? It seems no one wants to tell.

I think it is still a little shady. People vary by region, but come on, 9 out of 10 whites voted for McCain in the south but it was so different elsewhere? That's a little too much difference for me. And if Obama got 43% of the white vote, but ended up with 52%, he got more of the black vote. So Obama prob got 100% of the black vote, and someone posted earlier here that black turnout is usually 57%, probably already for a dem. If the black turnout was 100% this time, would it have made that difference? I'm not too sure yet. Lun and some excerpts:

"Less than a third of Southern whites voted for Mr. Obama, compared with 43 percent of whites nationally. By leaving the mainstream so decisively, the Deep South and Appalachia will no longer be able to dictate that winning Democrats have Southern accents or adhere to conservative policies on issues like welfare and tax policy, experts say.

Here in Alabama, where Mr. McCain won 60.4 percent of the vote in his best Southern showing, he had the support of nearly 9 in 10 whites, according to exit polls, a figure comparable to other Southern states.

David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, pointed out that the 18 percent share of whites that voted for Senator John Kerry in 2004 was almost cut in half for Mr. Obama."

[scoopa]

I saw on another blog:

Coin flip - Texas or Alaska.

Where will we all move to???

[Daddy]

11 PM Local Anchorage news is saying Begich up by 800, not 4,000, but that of the 40,000 outstanding ballots, tomorrow's count will include 15,700 ballots from Anchorage and 8,000 coming in from Juneau. TV is saying too close to call at the moment, a little different than the Talk Radio brain trusts. We shall see.

[Ann]

Daddy,

Hope they don't steal it like they have in Ohio and Minn. Right out in the open and nobody seems to care.

Clarice,

Today, we made a quiche with spinach, Italian Fortina Val d'Aosta, French Le Guyerre cheese and sauteed Portobello mushrooms. Along with a dozen coconut cupcakes for my husband's potluck at work. What should we make tomorrow?

Cooking is calming, isn't it. You and PUK should come up with a
new cooking school for the next four years. Cooking for Calm, you can't afford to eat out so follow Clarice and Peter. Check out their new line of cookware, cookbooks, and spices. Get a free apron that says "Give me liberty or give me death". It is fabulous!
Order now while supplies last!!!

Ok, I am still trying to be humorous and optimistic during this never ending time of gloom. Good Lord , what is on the menu tomorrow?

[mark l.]

my fear is that the various oil producing nations would love to produce a disruption in supply from any other source.

Russia, Iran, and Venezuela are completely dependent on oil running at 80 bucks a barrel.

Each one is out there trying to figure out who's supply they can disrupt, by proxy. given our future milquetoast in chief's open unwillingess to use force, we are less than 10 weeks away from the idiots running the asylum of the world.

[Ann]

I should of mentioned that I normally make that quiche with a pound of bacon but my husband works with the aurugula crowd that are vegetarians and are in heaven now that we all love unicorns and rainbows. Interesting, management is now determining who to fire due to the glorious election before Christmas. Merry Aurugula, Folks!

[bmeuppls]

management is now determining who to fire due to the glorious election before Christmas

Ummm... those who are over the rainbow too busy looking for unicorns in the merry ole land of OZ to notice the man behind the curtain?

[Pagar]

Something else to worry about. The real barrack Obama website has the latest posting from Trevor Loudon at the The New Zeal.

"Trevor writes:"

"The best way to determine the Obama administration’s likely agenda is to read the communist press."

"The Communist Party wants to make US workers completely dependent on the Democrats as a step on the road to socialism."

LUN

IMO, when you are reading what the Democrats are planning to do to America, you are reading what the Communists want done to America.

[peter]

Anyone here have any experience on wikipedia? I wrote an article about Michael Baron, one of only two people who remember BO from Columbia (three if you count Ted Rall, whom I don't believe.) They deleted the article. What do I have to do to get it reposted? I hate wikipedia, but I hate giving in to the libs that run it.

[narciso]

So we've moved from satire to opera buffe; Hillary as Secretary of State, Biden as a
Gray eminence; well maybe the ones from Zeta Reticuli. In the words of George Constanza; "somebody please make it stop".
As my historian acquaintance put it, Jerry
Lewis, couldn't imagine the hijinks involved. I have to insist that Gov. Palin, was the only who said anything of substance.
Boy that lineup of Republican governors, didn't it feel like the "Bachelor" show.
They don't want press next time, don't
have her come in, she has enough to do in Alaska. except for the whole oil, natural gas, methane crystals, are going to come
in handy in the next few years. Unless the plan is to really bankrupt the auto industry. Which the oil speculator's spike
and then the subprime derivative crash is designed to do.

On a more serious note, one of the reasons we weren't ready on September 11th; was that
around the time, the first serious warning
signs, like the Phoenix Memo; was exactly the time that Jeffords decided to have his
temper tantrum, and turn the Senate over to the Democrats. Thus making defense and energy planning a luxury.

[Extraneus]

Daddy,

Hope they don't steal it like they have in Ohio and Minn. Right out in the open and nobody seems to care.

Isn't that strange? If it was the other way around, they'd be out in the streets, burning sh*t down. Instead, we're just willing to go peacefully.

Do with us what you will, Democrats.

[bad]

Ayers is lying!!! Claiming to meet Obama the first time at Obama's fundraiser.

[bad]

The interviewer sucks. He isn't calling Ayers on anything.

[bad]

This interview is a rehabilitation so Ayers can hang openly with Obama. Hanging with Ayers is now a virtue.

[sbw]

Help recall something referenced here or at Instapundit over the past month. It was to a piece of science fiction relating diplomatic speech that when parsed revealed the politician had promised nothing.

Anyone have the link?

[Pofarmer]

I've just gotta' wonder. Obama got something like 85% of the vote in places like St. Louis and KC proper. Those are Saddam like levels. Is that even possible without some sort of ballot stuffing going on?

[bad]

Steve Diamond has an explanation for Treasury woes. LUN

[bad]

Ayers says the US waged a terrorist war against Vietnam.

[Bill in AZ]

I should of mentioned that I normally make that quiche with a pound of bacon but my husband works with the aurugula crowd that are vegetarians and are in heaven now that we all love unicorns and rainbows.

I'd have put the bacon in - the hell with 'em. The veggies will sneak bites of it anyway :)

[RichatUF]

bad-

This interview is a rehabilitation so Ayers can hang openly with Obama. Hanging with Ayers is now a virtue.

I think I want to puke. Even more amazing is that shithead trains "teachers" which have ruined school districts all across this country and have produced nearly illiterate and innumerate students for a generation. No wonder a campaign based on "hope and change" and lots of flash could have such an appeal.

On the article re: Dodd and the automakers bailout. I think he is weather ballooning for his banker friends that C11 reorganization is the only thing that will help. It will be interesting to see which banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds wrote CDS contracts on Ford, GM, and Chysler issues and if the blow up would be worse than the Lehman debacle. I'm skeptical that a bailout won't happen, but I think the terms, both with mandates for electric cars and the cost of the loans, might force the car companies to take C11 anyway.

[Ait]

Wiki pedia and the other wikis are for the nuts. They focus on keeping the 'history' right and leave other people alone. Skip them, they're not worth the time.

Start a blog or something we read them.

[Thomas Collins]

As horrific as a DC attack that wiped out significant governmental figures would be, the negative impact on the US would pale compared to the negative impact of investigations second guessing the Bush/Cheney actions to combat terrorism (see not_bubaroooni's post above). The world will always be dangerous, and there will always be enemy attacks. Only the willfully ignorant can pretend otherwise. Strong societies recover. But second guessing attempts to defend the homeland will sap our strength and leave us open to even more attacks. This is so obvious that one has to be a member of the oligarchic chattering or political class or have gone to a psuedo elite institution such as Columbia or Harvard or Berkeley not to understand this.

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

I wonder if Chapter 11 will actually do any good for GM, Ford and Chrysler wrt auto sales. The October retail sales report:

"Auto companies reported unit sales fell to the lowest level in 17 years as potential buyers, frightened by all the turmoil on Wall Street, stayed away from auto showrooms."

As someone here noted "Why buy a car from a company that's going bankrupt?". How long will it take to educate people on the difference between Chapter 11 and Chapter 7? Can bankrupt car companies sell enough during reorganization to successfully emerge? Is protecting jobs with an average cost of over $70 per hour even worthwhile?

If the auto companies dumped North American production for a few years and imported their cars from their plants overseas would there be a market? I'd say yes, because after a bit people would realize that a Ford made in wherever costs quite a bit less than a Ford made in the prog hell of Detroit.

Dodd is lying through his crooked teeth about Reps blocking this. His caucus has the majority. If he can't pass legislation he needs to look at Harry Reid or in the mirror.

It's your ball Dems. Your responsibility now. Ask Mr. BoMumbles how to find the unicorns and rainbows in the auto industry. I'm sure his vast experience will lead him to the correct answer.

[Barney Frank]

On the article re: Dodd and the automakers bailout. I think he is weather ballooning for his banker friends that C11 reorganization is the only thing that will help.

Maybe. But more likely he is weather ballooning that when they do inevitably fail due to Chris's buddies in the UAW it will be because of Republican obstructionism.
Plus he is getting in his last few shots of "It's the Republicans blocking us" while there is still time before the benign dictatorship begins Jan 20.

[Extraneus]

Agree, Thomas Collins, but they'll never be dumb enough to give an Oliver North the microphone again. Somebody like that could make the argument you're making.

I'd pay money to see them try to grill Karl Rove in prime time, though.

[RFS]

sbw -

I don't recall seeing the reference on a blog, but I know exactly what you are referring to:

In "Foundation," the first of Asimov's trilogy, a psychohistorian named Hari something converted all of a visiting politician's remarks to symbolic logic. When totalled, the remarks added to zero, which meant that every position he took had been cancelled out by some other position he took during his visit.

[RichatUF]

Rick & Barney-

Good points. I'm not really sure what could be done and 1 of the 3 are going to have to liquidate anyway.

Even with a bailout this year I'm not sure they make it through 2009. The Dem's are going to lard up the bill with stupid eco mandates for cars no one wants to buy, the eco car tax credits are going to push the price on those vehicles up, and with a round of tax increases and further weakening in employment new vehicle purchases are going to weaken further. This doesn't even get into the already heavy inventory levels and repo's putting deflationary pressure on the exsiting fleet.

There really are no good options and "blaming the Republicans" for the failure of a Dem controlled union, Dem controlled companies, and an already Dem controlled congress, which has already shoveled in 25 billion, will ware off when unemployment skyrockets to mid-double digits in Dem controlled Michigan. It would be easy I suppose because the Reps got the blame for the Fannie/Freddie/subprime debacles as we waited for McCain to "name them and shame them", but blaming Reps isn't going to fix the Big 3 and a steady stream of Dems, all with their hands in the cookie jar, will be the ones with their names and faces associated with the failure.

[PeterUK]

The basic problem with the Guatanamo prisoners is not whether they have criminal intent or not by their own lights,they are not criminals.The problem is, are they active combatants returning to violence on release,wandering goatherds whatever?
As such it would be insane to insert them into the criminal justice system with the jihadis dream,bail on continental US soil.

[sbw]

Did Good Morning America ask Ayers:

-- When did Ayers first meet Obama?
-- Did he helped Obama write his "Dreams" book the way he had helped others?
-- What contact there was with Obama when Ayers' Small Schools office was on the same floor of the same building as Obama's Chicago Annenberg Office?
-- How much did Ayers' committee influence directing CAC money to his favored organizations and people like Mike Klonsky?
-- If he knew Obama in New York during the "Columbia years" because they certainly knew the same professors?
-- If his wife knew Michelle at Sidley-Austin because their times overlapped?
-- Was the purpose of the nail bomb he designed that blew up his girlfriend to terrorize Americans?
-- Did he and his wife laugh at stories of the Manson crew sticking a fork in their victim's bodies?
-- Why did they misrepresent the facts to American voters?
-- Why did they help Obama misrepresent the facts to American voters?
-- Why should anyone listen to them or their friends today?

Good Morning America is entertainment, not journalism.

[narciso]

It does Peter, that's why the holding in ex parte Quirin, et Eisentrager holds; even Milligan, but that's apparently not 'sentimental enough' to the likes of Ted Sorenson and god help us Doug Brinkley.

On another point, even 100 billion dollars is likely not going to salvage the big 3; in
a time of limited liquidity; not to mention the implications of the reduction of energy
development, more inflated tires anyone. The insanity is palpable; but only this unique band of brothers and sisters, with a few other exceptions in the blogosphere seem to recognize it. The political will is even more sparse on the ground; with only one candidate I can see almost by default, having any kind of fight in them. According to the correspondent at Sundries;(future. md.com) the other invitees seem to resent this fact; willing to make nice.

[kim]

There is, indeed, a madness of the crowd.
==========================

[Rick Ballard]

Rich,

There's also the not so small problem of credit scores and the impact that raising minimum FICO scores to 700 for auto loans is bound to have. I was looking at personal bankruptcy data the other day and noted that filings dropped tremendously after Congress made credit card debt non-dischargeable. A fair portion of what has occurred in the housing mess is due to very poor advice given to buyers to "toss 'em your keys" when the market went upside down on valuation. "Tossing 'em your keys" is dropping a few million people into the <500 score category and they will stay there from 3-5 years. During that time they will come to understand how stupid they were but they are still removed entirely from the credit market (unless they are dumb enough to pay 20%+ rates on non-dischargeable debt).

I find it rather droll that FICO has been substituted for character. A cold blooded, impartial and remorseless standard has replaced the judgment of those terribly intolerant bankers who would occasionally give someone a loan based upon character references when circumstances argued against. The switch to FICO only belongs on the shelf next to the three strike laws which were enacted in defense against predators taking advantage of the Miranda BS.

I'm going to have to buy a new Ironiedetektor (for cash, of course).

[bad]

sbw, of course none of those questions were asked. The interviewer didn't even know enough to question Ayers when Ayers said his first meeting with Obama was the fundraiser at Ayers house in fall of 1995.

Stanley Kurtz uncovered the March 1995 lunch between Ayers and Obama before Obama was hired as the Chairmnan of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. And of course the initial rounds of board meetings as CAC was getting off the ground were ignored.

Obviously, there is still a denial of the relationship. Ayers wants to sell books but is willing to only go so far.

If Ayers had any balls he would lay it all out.

[bad]

Rick

My dad worked with the local bank on a handshake basis for years. The paperwork was a formality that happened after the decisions were made. Everyone knew that Dad's word was stronger than any contract.

Years later when he was much more prosperous, the bank went from a local insitution to part of a much larger banking entity and he had to fill out reams of paper to secure a loan.

He found it ironic that when he was struggling to start his business and had little but his character and willingness to work as collateral that he was treated better than later in life when he was zero risk.

[Bill in AZ]

In Libtopia the only good corporation is a socialist corporation. Bailing out the big 3 once in a while is all for the greater good and we should be all for it:

- it spreads the wealth,
- compensates them for implementing all of the socialist programs the people and congress are too slow to implement,
- and is easier than going to congress to get checks to hand to people.

'Course, the fact I have bought overpriced socialist manufactured American cars for years, but am now going to fund a bailout with my tax dollars, is a bit troubling.

[jeanedcrusader]

Good grief, Tom, that was depressing. All we can do is wait and see what happens--and make dark predictions about the demise of the illuminati administration, Joe Biden-style.

[Soylent Red]

Who knew that "Buy Foreign!" would be the new patriotism?

[bad]

Rich, academia is a mystery to me. It exalts dumbasses and communists. I don't get it.

[Rick Ballard]

"It exalts dumbasses and communists."

No mystery - it's just like to like. The exaltation of dumbasses and communists is the purpose for the existence of Gramscian affinity groups. One big happy family.

[DrJ]

I'll add that the humanities and the *studies are prone to that sort of thing. The physical sciences and engineering are not prone to such lunacy. Nor are most professional schools (not counting education as a profession).

Not very often, at least.

[clarice]

Ann, I am certain that bacon and prosciutto are parve (neither meat nor milk and therefore under kosher rules allowed with anything). Lunch sounds great. So does the plan for PUK and me, but I can't think about it until after having some of your great sounding food.

[Extraneus]

Iowahawk's new gig.

[Pigilito]

Something to brighten your day, Tom: the Yankees are preparing a huge offer for CC Sabathia.

[matt]

Rick;

that mean that the new term is "cold as a FICO's heart"?

[Greg Q]

Terry Gain,

If al Qaeda is smart - and generally it isn't - it will cease activities in Iraq until Obama triumphantly "ends the war" by withdrawing every last U. S. soldier.

Nope. If they do that, they can't claim credit for "driving the Crusader Americans out."

[Greg Q]

Daddy,

Steven's yesterday morning lead of 3,500 has by this evening turned into a 4,000 vote lead for Begich and we are led to believe that trend will continue.

As of 11:14 p.m. EST, Nov 14 '08 it's down to 1022 votes.

If Stevens wins, I'm going to have to try really hard not to puke and laugh at the same time.

[truthynesslover]

one of the best articles on the wallstreet bust Ive read!
The Endby Michael Lewis Nov 11 2008
The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong.

To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which stocks and bonds would rise and which would fall. The essential function of Wall Street is to allocate capital—to decide who should get it and who should not. Believe me when I tell you that I hadn’t the first clue.
The New Order
The crash did more than wipe out money. It also reordered the power on Wall Street.
What a Swell Party
A pictorial timeline of some Wall Street highs and lows from 1985 to 2007.
Worst of Times
Most economists predict a recovery late next year. Don’t bet on it.I’d never taken an accounting course, never run a business, never even had savings of my own to manage. I stumbled into a job at Salomon Brothers in 1985 and stumbled out much richer three years later, and even though I wrote a book about the experience, the whole thing still strikes me as preposterous—which is one of the reasons the money was so easy to walk away from. I figured the situation was unsustainable. Sooner rather than later, someone was going to identify me, along with a lot of people more or less like me, as a fraud. Sooner rather than later, there would come a Great Reckoning when Wall Street would wake up and hundreds if not thousands of young people like me, who had no business making huge bets with other people’s money, would be expelled from finance
Its shocking to know how mismanaged the economy has been!
read the rest at conde nast portfolio.com

[sophy]

I do not know how to use the rs gold ; my friend tells me how to use.