Quick Hits

Alan Greenspan - The Asians Made Me Do It!

Global excess savings made a housing bubble inevitable, explains Alan, who manages to avoid the phrase "Yellow Peril".  He does not explain why expecting the Fed to jawbone banks into maintaining mortgage lending standards was not realistic, but I will hazard a guess - both parties favored expanded home ownership and sub-prime mortgages tended to flow to minority neighborhoods.  How does this headline sound - "In Senate Testimony Fed Chief Decries Minority Lending"?  Yeah, I don't think it sounds so good either.  Oh, well - the problems began in sub-prime but have gone way beyond that now.

Chas Freeman - The Jews Made Me Do It.  More here.

Our Nimble Federal Loan Officers:  The Lawyers Made Me Do It - The Fed/Treasury $1 billion TALF is bogged on documentation.  But nationalized banks will get credit flowing again!

WaPo to Eric Holder: Drop the AIPAC prosecution, explaining that Bush Made Me Do It.  (Oooh, Freeman and the AIPAC case gone - a big day for a certain lobby.  Oh, why be coy - a big day for AIPAC.)

[END OF THREAD]

Comments

[bgates]

The Fed/Treasury $1 billion TALF

Ah, those were the days.

Incidentally, if you want to get ahead of the curve, the next number to look forward to is a quadrillion, coming to a federal budget near you in around 2011.

[Ranger]

Several Blogs are picking http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/cabinet-chief-obama-team-unreachable-1642088.html>this up, but I think they are missing the real story here.

Cabinet chief: Obama team 'unreachable'

Last week, it was all smiles and handshakes as Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama put on a show of unity in Washington.

But yesterday, Sir Gus O'Donnell, Britain's most senior civil servant, exposed transatlantic tension when he protested that Downing Street was finding it "unbelievably difficult" to plan for next month's G20 summit in London because of problems tracking down senior figures in the US administration. "There is nobody there. You cannot believe how difficult it is," the Cabinet Secretary told a civil service conference in Gateshead.

Gordon Brown just got a little payback in on Barry. Barry leaked to the Telegraph that he was 'too busy dealing with the financial crisis' to focus on Brown's visit. Now Brown is letting it be known that Team Barry isn't working on the financial crisis much either.

[jimmyk]

Actually the Greenspan article is pretty reasonable, especially where he warns about overregulation of financial markets in response to the crisis.

The problem with his argument, though, is that if house prices were just responding to low interest rates, that's not a "bubble," that's just a rational response of an asset price. I don't think you can explain the sustained appreciation over a 10-year period from the fact that long-term rates were a bit lower than usual. But he is right that the boom was global, not just in the U.S., and requires more than just a U.S.-centered explanation.

[Ranger]

And, in case you missed it, the White House just announced yesterday that they granted two more ethics waivers to lobbyists to work in the administration:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/obama-white-hou.html>Obama White House Discloses Two More Lobbyist Waivers Granted

Funny how they wait to announce this for a week, then put it out on a busy news day with the Dow jumping up and the Omnibus bill about to pass. Its almost as if they were trying to hide it from us.

[bgates]

that MSNBC poll is still up. With just over 109,000 responses, it's 16% A, 60% F. I wonder if it's the same mechanism I thought online polls had for the past 8 years - unhappy partisans from the other side expressing frustration the only way they (we) can - or if most of the people voting in these things would be unhappy with anybody.

Or maybe most of the people voting in these things are strong defense/free marketer "traditional Americans" who would be horrified at the idea that Bush and Obama constitute the entire spectrum of American politics.

Anyway, 300 more people voted while I was typing this, and his numbers aren't getting any better.

[glasater]

Zero is speaking and the market once again is going down.

[Tully]

He does not explain why expecting the Fed to jawbone banks into maintaining mortgage lending standards was not realistic

The obvious--Fannie and Freddie were the leading issuers and originators of securitized mortgage paper. No matter how much anyone jawboned the banks, F&F would keep right on issuing those pooled securities, and the banks, needing those high-risk pooled loans to avoid getting gigged for redlining, would buy them. It's tempting to lay everything on the banks, but they weren't operating in a vacuum. Also a major factor was the ongoing growth-by-merger trend among banks. F&F and the 1995 CRA changes were prime market drivers.

The problem with his argument, though, is that if house prices were just responding to low interest rates, that's not a "bubble," that's just a rational response of an asset price. I don't think you can explain the sustained appreciation over a 10-year period from the fact that long-term rates were a bit lower than usual.

That's only part of what Greenspan is saying, both a contributing factor and a symptom of the underlying cause. The bubble came about from too much money chasing too few assets. That was exacerbated by (and exacerbated) artifically low interest rates, but the rates were not the prime cause, the excess of money was. Had the spending been general rather than focused on investment, the result would have been general inflation. Since it was focused on housing, it mostly resulted in housing-cost inflation and increasing lending risk.

Yes, the price rise was a rational effect of the excess money. As was the collapse when the excess money pressure vanished. Trying to "fix" that by throwing more moey at it is trying to re-inflate a burst bubble.

[Old Lurker]

Good Barone, via RCP, on the cause of the meltdown. LUN

[Pofarmer]

Obama has the Audacity to say that going forward we'll only have good earmarks.

What. A. Bunch. Of. Maroons.

[Danube of Thought]

I just voted at MSNBC. To honor the institution of the secret ballot I will refrain from revealing my vote. I will, however, offer the observation that following my vote the "F's" had jumped one point to a lusty 61%.

[clarice]

The IT is full of anti-semitic stuff. Not just at the usual sites, but at the WaPo comments on the AIPAC editorial as well.

It is remarkable to me that President Bush who was the most loyal supporter of Israel nevertheless allowed the prosecution of the AIPAC officers and Libby to go forward when to my mind the Goebellian stink attaches to both those cases.

Gabriel Schoenfeld beat the WaPo on this case by YEARS (Commentary) and with a far more persuasive point:No one before had ever been prosecuted for leaking supposed "classified" information which they'd received orally. In every other case, they'd been given a document clearly marked "classified" and there could have been no doubt as to the nature of what they'd been given. The defensants in the AIPAC case were lucky to have had Judge Ellis on the case. Libby was less fortunate to have a judge the prosecution was able to hoodwink.

[Neo]

... the "living conditions of homeless children." Fifty-six percent of them are "doubled-up," defined as "sharing housing with other persons due to economic hardship." By this definition, the Meathead on "All in the Family" was "homeless."

[BobS]

Bill Sammon catches Carville saying he wanted Bush to fail.

LUN

[BobS]

DOT: I'm really surprised at the MSNBC vote. I would have thought that every lefty on the planet would be pumping up Obama - especially on that network.

[Rick Ballard]

Neo,

That's a tie in to the "millions of empty houses" meme that Bad mentioned yesterday evening. It's related to the relaxation of the Welfare Reform act standards (to return Welfare to the Bastard Breeding Program of yore). The prog slavers are concerned about the Escape from Blue Hell problem regarding their power centers. Solution? Use Kelo to grab property that is still salvageable plus Zero's Caulking and Weather Stripping Corps to make sure the houses are "habitable" then hand them out (via ACORN) to female child farmers who will qualify to "purchase" the houses on the basis of their AFDC receipts.

Otherwise, Conyers, Kilpatrick, Jackson and Rush might lose so many serfs that redistricting would imperil their baronies.

It's tough to be a Blue Baron these days - deciding how many babies to kill while still maintaining the viability of the Barony is very tricky. Which women are suitable breeders and which will cause just too much trouble?

[BobS]

no way I'm gonna try to follow up what Rick said

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Oh, why be coy - a big day for AIPAC.

I swear to God I read that first time as "why be goy".

Uh, G*d.

[Rick Ballard]

A Decent Defense of Quants

I don't agree with Salmon very often but he is correct here. My only beef with quants is that the increase in first month defaults beginning in late '05 (particularly in CA) should have triggered an alarm that the risk models weren't functioning as advertised. OTOH - the alarm may have rung but management took a "next month, quarter, year it will revert to normal" attitude.

[DebinNC]

Hot Air: Why Has Obama Neglected Treasury? It's incredible, especially given Bush's generous access during the transition.

[bad]

Inevitably, credit lines will continue to be reduced across the system, but the velocity at which it is already occurring and will continue to occur will result in unintended consequences for consumer confidence, spending and the overall economy. Lenders, regulators and politicians need to show thoughtful leadership now on this issue in order to derail what I believe will be at least a 57% contraction in credit-card lines.

How will this be achieved? Will people use their card one day and the next it doesn't work? LUN

[DebinNC]

Bobs, Carville didn't wish Bush would "fail". He hoped Bush "doesn't succeed". Very different things apparently.

[bad]

Haven't read the article Deb, but have a number of ideas:

1. Stays away 'cause he knows squat about economics and monetary policy.

2. He can blame Turbo for everthing. Who's gonna stick up for turbo? He was a screw-up before he even started.

3. He's too busy practising with his teleprompter.

[Matt]

I think there is a deep difference between Greenspan's identification of the huge piles of cash that needed a place to invest and Freeman's or Holder's or some bureaucrat's explanations.

Keeping the printing presses running was the root cause. The Chinese and Japanese have been kind enough to buy Treasury debt to help finance our huge trade deficits with them. This is based our good faith and credit. However, the Chinese have warned us clearly that they cannot continue to finance a runaway train. Greenspan points to one of the effects of easy money and poor credit management. But remember, his job was to keep the economy rolling and to keep inflation in check, which he did pretty well. It was foolish business practices and related government policy that got us into this mess.

Freeman was a tool from the get go. Nixon's interpreter in China was jumped up and later called a toady for the Saudis when ambassador there by his boss at State, Baker, and today as an advisor to CNOOC and being part of a Saudi funded think (or non-thinking) tank was eminently disqualified from a national security job in which he would be expected to exercise an unbiased opinion on matters affecting his former clients. sheesh...

Holder is probably doing a lot of this simply to retain more power to the federal government by defending Bush's policies. Conspiracy is a high hurdle regardless, but if they have the tapes (data, etc), then they have the tapes. Israel is not necessarily our friend. They are an ally. They have been stealing US technology since the 1970's that I'm aware of and are ruthless in protecting their national interests and use whatever influence they can to affect/effect US policy. Nations have interests, and we must keep this in mind.

[bad]

4. If nobody's working with Turbo, no one can squeal on what he's doing. The damage will be done before details see the light of day.

[DebinNC]

Bad, here's the gist:

The White House has responsibility for appointing these 18 positions. Those appointments get handled by the Senate Finance Commitee, which after receiving the formal nominations, has to do background checks and other information gathering to prepare committee members for their hearings. It takes some time to get a nomination from the White House to a confirmation vote, but the clock doesn’t start — it can’t start — until Obama makes each nomination.

Obama has provided one name - Geithner - and none for the other positions.

[Ranger]

Hot Air: Why Has Obama Neglected Treasury? It's incredible, especially given Bush's generous access during the transition.

Posted by: DebinNC | March 11, 2009 at 02:19 PM

Well, Volker did admit that about 1/3rd of the people they want to nominate have tax problems. But this is getting really crazy. Obama knew the day he was elected that the economy would be the first big issue he was facing. Now we are over 5 months past election day and he still hasn't formally nominated any of the key deputies at Treasury.

[bad]

Ranger, both McCain and Obama knew by Sept. 18. Probably earlier since Treasury had been working on the problem since 2007.

[Ranger]

Ranger, both McCain and Obama knew by Sept. 18. Probably earlier since Treasury had been working on the problem since 2007.

Posted by: bad | March 11, 2009 at 02:40 PM

That implies that Obama actually thought about anything other than getting elected before election day. I don't give him that much credit.

[Ann]

Jane, This is for you and your radio show.

Michelle Malkin has a fun fact:

More than one out of every five dollars of the $125 million Massachusetts is receiving from a federal spending bill is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.

I call it Hyannis Pork.

[DebinNC]

Putting Obama On the Coach

I bet we see more and more attempts to pychoanalyze BO in an attempt to explain the craziness coming from this admin.

[Jane]

Ann that is Spectacular - in a really sick way, thank you.

Rick, what do you disagree with Sammon about?

[Rick Ballard]

I'm beginning to wonder if a position in Zero's Clown Show is coming to be regarded as a non enhancement to one's resume. That, or finding enough folks with both financial and commie credentials is proving more difficult than initially envisioned.

[BobS]

I have a different take in my blog about Treasury. The Obama agenda was first global warming and health care. The delay at Treasury allowed him to cut loose the plans he's had with Orszag who's areas of interest are the same. Orszag's work goes first and anything that would fall under Geitner's jurisdiction in banking and the markets could have waited anyhow. No wonder Obama's been so flipant about Wall St...he doesnt care.... He gave the base and his allies in congress their stimulus and now their budget in return for his agenda with cap and trade, health care and payoffs to ACORN in the mortgage buyout.

[bad]

Ranger, the dates point out how long he ignored the issue, even as he campaigned to be president.

[clarice]

Guess you can't keep voting "present" all your life.

[Rick Ballard]

Jane,

It's Felix Salmon and the article linked illustrates why I disagree. He heads off in the "situational ethics" direction to an extent which raises my hackles. My interpretation of his ending suggestion is that signing a contract with him would be a waste of good ink.

[Jane]

It's Felix Salmon

Now that is a typical Jane mistake. Sorry.

The reason I asked is because I really enjoy Bill Sammon and have loved his books on Bush. I wondered what I was missing.

[Ranger]

Ranger, the dates point out how long he ignored the issue, even as he campaigned to be president.

Posted by: bad | March 11, 2009 at 03:26 PM

That's very true. He should have been thinking about this since September, and he clearly hasn't cared enough to, even to this day.

[Ranger]

Guess you can't keep voting "present" all your life.

Posted by: clarice | March 11, 2009 at 03:27 PM

Yes, it does appear his "free ride" through life is almost over.

Rush has been mentioning the last few days about how the media strategy of the White House is to keep holding the meaningless summits to appear to be addressing issues without actually taking any action. It struck me that this is just a new version of what he has done his whole life. Appear to care while the cameras are there, then walk away and never come back to actually fulfill the promises. Remember the school in Kenya that he promised to help, but is now closed, and the neighborhood in Chicago he promised to help when he was running for congress, and then never did anything for once Bobby Rush beat him at the polls. The failure to follow through is going to really become clear in the next few months.

[kim]

Don't forget, Ranger, that it turns out he's really pretty good at being President. At least, according to him. I'll bet he doesn't dare ask Michelle what she thinks of his performance.

Dreamland, that's where they are.
============================================

[kim]

Remember the three natural forces that Obama and Gang are going to be completely unable to deal with, because they can't manipulate them with media work: climate, capital, and the Chinese and Muslims.
===============================

[kim]

Chinese and Muslims. Hmmmm. Freeman. Hmmmm. He wasn't going to manipulate those two forces, he was going to succumb to them.

And watch Geithner jawbone capital into acquiescence.

And I'm going to enjoy watching Chu, Holdren and Browner try to raise global temperature.

Choo choo, Kachoo. Obama Jones, you'd better watch your speed.
=======================================

[bio mom]

Obama has a history of running for positions, getting them, and then losing interest to look for the next thing. Never actually performing the position. But where do you go if you are already the president of the United States? President of the World? Not that far-fetched.

[Porchlight]

The failure to follow through is going to really become clear in the next few months.

Ranger, I totally agree he fails to follow through, but I wonder just how it will become clear with our compliant media declining to notice.

I would love to hear the thoughts of all of you on this. We've seen a couple of chinks of light through the curtain, but nothing like the full sunshine that our theoretically free press ought to be throwing on this Presidency.

Will the media ever start doing their jobs, and if yes, when? I have been assuming it will eventually happen but I am continually disappointed.

[DebinNC]

Giving Porkulus money to vulnerable Dems in swing districts in PA: LUN

I bet a lot of that will go on.

[kim]

Well, PL, I happen to think some of the media is waking up. This crisis/opportunity meme is developing legs, and Emmanuel is tagged with it. It will persist as long as there is a crisis, which will be a while yet. It would amuse the shit out of me if Obama has to jettison Emmanuel to get rid of the belief that all this disaster is deliberate.

I'm tending more to the belief that it is plain and simple executive incompetence. Obama is not a competent executive, nor has he been able to find any. Axelrod can manipulate public opinion, but the theme I'm developing is that this administration is caught in a maelstrom of forces that cannot be manipulated like public opinion. They are helpless.

Show me the certificate. Let's get on with life and leave this poser, this pretender, in the dust. Some one, do something.
=========================================

[Ranger]

Well, I think the recent semi-negative press on Obama is meant as a warning. The MSM knows that all the positive spin in the world will not save him if people's retirement accounts and college fund accounts keep shrinking. All the bold new social spending will not help when the 50 something baby boomers see their dreams of a comfortable retirement destroyed.

[kim]

It's a short step from pretender to imposter. Obama is a bubble, a media creation. He can no more preside than he can speak persuasively without a teleprompter. He's FAKE.
========================================

[DebinNC]

Porchlight, I don't see it happening. Even when the MSM mentions a story that would have created hullabaloo under Bush, they don't "push" it, so it withers and dies. For example, this story via CNN about the Army now considering making veterans pay for treatment of service related injuries with private insurance. Anyone seen much reaction to this? But contrast that real story, to the false story of Mayor Palin requiring rape victims to pay for their rape kit tests that led to an ongoing furor during the campaign.

[kim]

Your belief, Ranger, which may be true, presumes that they believe Obama has transgressed and can be corrected. I disagree with you because I think the media is catching on to his utter incompetence as an executive, and is having second thoughts about their own foolishness in hyping him.

Our views aren't mutually exclusive; there may be both elements going on, but for sure, the media is turning a little. And it's been mostly in the last week.

I don't think Obama can change, and correct course. And I think the media is catching on to that.
=================================

[Jim Ryan]

I'm beginning to wonder if a position in Zero's Clown Show is coming to be regarded as a non enhancement to one's resume.

Well, the phone just rang and they offered me, a junior computer programmer in a gray cubicle, a senior spot in Treasury. They said something about the course in Finance I took last year at the local junior college, and I acknowledged that, yes, it had been a very good course.

I considered the job offer, since it's half-good resume padding anyway, but I politely declined. The man sounded desperate and after he asked again and I again declined and was hanging up the phone I could hear him cussing and somebody yelling in the background.

[kim]

One of the key statements of this whole mess has been Obama bragging that it turns out he's good at being President. What the Hell ever gave him that idea? It's delusionary and defines the ignorant bubble he lives in.
================================

[kim]

Look we know he is not an executive. We know he got where he is through Axelrod's brilliant media manipulation, and criminal money. Why shouldn't the reality start to dawn on the nations' journalists. It's not like they are all dumb. Remember, you can fool all of the people some of the time. Well, some of the time is up, and only some of the people are going to continue to be fooled. His use by date was election day. It's been all downhill since, and the forces arrayed against him are not going to push him back uphill. Pandora's Box is spilling its dirty secrets.

Rant, rant, rant. Gong! Show me the certificate, you FAKE.
==============================

[kim]

Emmanuel's not an executive either. And Axelrod can execute a media campaign, manipulating forces within his control, but not what's hitting them now. So who's in charge? Michelle? We could only hope.
====================================

[Old Lurker]

"finding enough folks with both financial and commie credentials is proving more difficult"

And who paid their taxes, and represent the desired demographic, and will not outshine the boss, and will fill out the 64 page vetting document...becomes a very small pool.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

kim, you are sure on a roll.

Think about this quirk in history:

With the exceptions of Warren G Harding, JFK, and Nixon, I can't think of any twentieth century president who hadn't run something (a state, the senate, a federal agency, a large military force, even a haberdashery shop).

HIstory shows that Harding, JFK and Nixon all struggled to control the reins of government (Teapot Dome, Bay of Pigs, Watergate).

Looks like BHO is following historical precedent.

[clarice]

Jim boy--he WAS editor of the HLR..LOL

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

I can't think of any twentieth century president who hadn't run something....

Jim,
This is the 21st century.
All one is required to have run now is one's mouth.

[Matt]

latest post on the Obama web site

Your name has been submitted by the highest most excellent sources for my contacting. My name is Okumo Kwesi Obama, and owing to a tragic car accident, my uncle, the Director of the Very Large National Bank of Sierra Leone passed away in a terrible, terrible way leaving $279 Billion in a bank account to which only I now have access. I am willing to pay a commission of $27 Billion dollars if you will be able to help me with some small transactional fees and to wire the funds to your account. This must be kept completely confidential as there are many many many people here in Sierra Leone who are exerting ther most serious pressure to access these funds. Upon your gladly acceptance I will send details of accounts and where to wire funds.

Thanking you for your most excellent acceptance of my esteemed terms.

[bgates]

Why shouldn't the reality start to dawn on the nations' journalists. It's not like they are all dumb.

What would it be like if they were?

I'll start the list; stop me when I get to a smart one who's not a committed progressive ideologue:
Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, George Stephanopolous, David Cay Johnston, Gwen Ifill, Evan Thomas, Anderson Cooper, MSNBC, Thrill Up My Leg....

You know what I just realized? I have no idea who the network anchors are any more. It was Rather-Brokaw-Jennings for a while there. Do they still run news programs on tv?

[verner]

Has anyone else checked to see how much their worthless congresspeople contributed to the pork sausage packed omnibus bill?

Not one dime will the rats get from me, and I will support ANY candidate who wants to unseat Alexander and Corker in the primary.

As for Wamp, he can forget about being governor.

They handed Obama a moral victory on a silver platter. And for WHAT?

[Ann]

Porchlight,

Bernard Goldberg's interview with RUSH was interesting because they both came to the same conclusion. They believe that the MSM reports the news for each other. Here are some quotes:
BG: "They don't want to become unpopular among their socialite friends, and they're not courageous, strong, or smart enough to" change. (LOL)

RUSH: "It would be the end of..cocktail party invitations. It would be the end of any chance to win awards."
and "Exactly, They'd have Graydon Carter and Tina Brown coming after them, and that would be the end of it."

I had a terrible thought the other day. What if part of the Trillion went to GE (owner of MSNBC) and The New York Times. Would we ever really know about it?

[verner]

And another OT thing. Has anybody looked into Arne Duncan, or new secretary of Ed?

See wiki LUN

Hyde Park, U of Chicago, looks like a Bill Ayers clone to me...

Another member of the Chicago Mafia that O is surrounding himself with.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

You may have something there, Ig. But even W ran a big state for two terms.

Fair point, Clarice. I did overlook that and his phantom work as head of a 501c3. Making sure footnotes conform to proper standards and doling out dollars to Ayers' minions somehow hasn't seemed so far to translate to general executive prowess.

[clarice]

verner, I think we noticed that..Also that he's (Duncan) functionally illiterate.

[Porchlight]

verner, I think Arne Duncan was considered a moderate in Chicago education circles. (Make of that what you will.)

Thanks for your thoughts, all. I guess time will tell. I am not hopeful that serious inquiry will be made anytime soon. However, what may happen is that a scandal of some sort will emerge, and that will force the media to pay attention. (The staffing vacancies at Treasury are the beginning of something, perhaps, but not "scandal" as the media defines it.)

I hope that we can avoid any scandal of personal nature, if possible. It is much better to not to give ammunition to the "politics of personal destruction" howlers. Even though they are full of it.

[Porchlight]

Well, media aside, at least some people aren't fooled all of the time:

Gallup: Global Warming Skepticism at All-Time High

[hit and run]

Porchlight's link:
Gallup: Global Warming Skepticism at All-Time High

That's not fair. Back in the 70s, when the same people who are now pushing global warming were pushing catastrophic global cooling, global warming skepticism was much higher.

[bad]

March 11 (Bloomberg)

Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp.’s bond prices are sliding on concern that owners of debt issued by U.S. financial firms will be forced to swallow losses if the industry needs another bailout.

Doesn't this aggravate the AIG situation if the govt. follows through.

[Ranger]

Get ready for Obambot heads exploding in the not to distant future (via Drudge):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123680763049200481.html>Obama Makes Use of Signing Statements

A taste:

Mr. Obama objected to another provision that would cut the salary of any federal officials who interfere with a whistleblower's communications with Congress. The president declared that the provision would not prevent his administration from supervising, controlling or correcting "employees' communications with the Congress in cases where such communications would be unlawful or would reveal information that is properly privileged or otherwise confidential."

"This is alarming," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa). "The words 'privileged' and 'confidential' could cover just about anything the White House doesn't want released. It looks like the new era of transparency is over before it began."

[Kevin B]

I guess you guy's will have seen this description of Obama's Harvard days

Dan Collins has a bit of fun with it at PW.

[Porchlight]

Heh, hit, I never thought about that. It should read "...All-Time High Since Global Warming Scare Was First Manufactured."

[Matt]

There's no "there" there....

[pagar]

Mr. Obama objected to another provision that would cut the salary of any federal officials who interfere with a whistleblower's communications with Congress.

I expect anyone (Who works for the government) capable of understanding what happened to Joe the Plumber, knows that whistleblowers who attempt to expose any wrongdoing by the Obama Administration will be destroyed. \\\\\\Probably with in seconds. Look what happens when someone tries to post non flattering things about Obama on Wiki.

[Extraneus]

More people should read Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Facism, and probably will as this goes on.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

You may have something there, Ig. But even W ran a big state for two terms.

Jim I was listing the minimum 21st century qualifications for CIC and Barry is nothing if not minimal.

[clarice]

seriously, someone ought to set up a hotline for DoJ and other employees who surely will be kept from whistleblowing. Under the Bush administration all the dissident employees had hotlines to the front page of the WaPo. Who will they go to in this Administration?

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

And I wonder if he is even that, Ig. Time will tell. So far, time hasn't been kind to his legacy.

Getting off to a good start, he is not.

[pagar]

about the Army now considering making veterans pay for treatment of service related injuries with private insurance

Nothing this administration does to do less for the military and veterans would surprise me.

Here's what John Kerry thought of veterans when he spoke to the Senate subcommittee on Foreign Relations on 22 Apr 1971.

testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....

IMO, nothing has changed on how John Kerry views the US military and those who have served. Furthermore, it is evident from various things said and done by Obama and others (such as friendship with William Ayers) that his views of the military and veterans is even lower than those of Kerry.

One of the most consistent themes of Democrat campaigns is the desire to ensure that ex-cons get to vote. When was the last time anyone ever heard of Democrats worrying that all the military got to vote or that the military ballots were counted?

Interestingly, but sadly so, out of the 54 sponsors of H.R. 5673, 53 were Republican members of the House. And of the 30 co-sponsors of S. 3073, all were Republican members of the Senate. It clearly speaks volumes about the Democrats' lack of concern about the rights of the U.S. fighting military. And if such lawmakers on Capitol Hill had hoped to correct such a public impression, they have but failed in that regard as well.

[PeterUK]

Typepad keeps locking me out.

[Ann]

Ari Fleischer takes down Chrissy Matthews over at Hot Air.

I think it also answers Porchlight's question earlier in the day. MSNBC and most of the MSM will go down defending Obama, until their paychecks are threatened and then they will turn into Noonan, Parker, Buckley and Frum.

[clarice]

Probably something you said about brussels sprouts, PUK

[Ann]

PUK,

Gawd, I hope it is not the UK czar Obama hired to stamp out all democratic allies to the Amerikas.

[Ann]

Pofarmer, this is for you. The world is officially nuts. Taxing farts and burps...

How now kowtow [Mark Steyn]

To comply with emissions targets, European countries are considering a tax on bovine flatulence (or, as Steve Forbes would say, a flat. tax):

A cow tax of €13 per animal has been mooted in Ireland, while Denmark is discussing a levy as high as €80 per cow to offset the potential penalties each country faces from European Union legislation aimed at combating global warming... The Danish Tax Commission estimates that a cow will emit four tonnes of methane a year in burps and flatulence, compared with 2.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide for an average car...

Agriculture, transport and housing are not included in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which enables industrial companies to buy and sell permits to emit carbon dioxide. Instead, EU member states are obliged to cut the emissions from non-ETS sectors by 10 per cent overall by 2020.

While Romania and Bulgaria will be allowed to increase emissions, Ireland and Denmark are each faced with cuts of 20 per cent in farming sector emissions.

Even allowing for the regulatory yoke Europe's cowed citizenry labor under, the logic here is hard to follow. Why is some Bulgar's Holstein allowed to increase his flatulence while the poor Jutlander's has to put a stopper in it? Is there a dearth of flatulence in the Balkans but a Code Red alert over the North Sea? Couldn't the EU introduce flatulence offsets?

I asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs if the Obama Administration was also considering taxing cows, but he said only those cows earning over $250,000 a year. The Cow Jones fell 700 points on the news.

(via Tim Blair)

[clarice]

Following up on TM's critique of the WaPo Freeman coverage..today the paper has a front page story on the Israel Lobby with nary a mention of the other kookiness of Freeman or his opposition. Then there's an article by Broder about how brilliant Freeman is.
And to top it off the editors attack Freeman's claim about the Israel Lobby.

The paper is really coming apart at the seams

[kim]

The left is strongly anti-semitic and they don't seem to be ashamed about getting overt about it. Ugly times ahead.
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[kim]

That statement from Freeman as he withdrew had the brilliance of madness about it.
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[kim]

Heh, c, the WaPo editorial didn't quite call Freeman's statement a 'blood libel', now, did they?
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