Whoa.

This, by the way, is not a parody.

ziggy

Don't forget that at one time, David Bowie ruled the pop music world like few others ever have.

Michael Lewis on the end of Wall Street

Great read.

Blowback on the Treasury..

We are really in uncharted waters in terms of reacting to the conflagration that is running through our economy and the markets, and the great fear is that opinions will swing wildly one way or t'other. Digby, who's writing I enjoy, has been at the far end of the reaction to the bailout efforts of the Treasury, basically getting the pitchforks out and lighting the torches.

I think at this point, stripping Henry Paulson of his authority to spend more cash, with Ben Bernanke thrown in for good measure, isn't an option but a duty. And Chuck Grassley's call for the newly minted oversight board to investigate conflicts of interest among all the Goldman Sachs execs serving as the ladlers of corporate cash during the bailout is absolutely warranted. However, this oversight is coming at the END of the process, not the beginning. With four trillion already passed out, it's not like putting the brakes on the giveaways is going to make much of a difference today. This is not to say we shouldn't be investigating and scrutinizing what amounts to theft, as well as building a new regulatory structure for the future (yes, listen to Eliot Spitzer on this one - setting aside his personal life he's probably the most knowledgeable person in America about what needs to be done).

I don't share the abject fear of the Goldman-led cabal that is wildly flailing about, throwing our money at the problem in any and every way that they can come up with. But I do understand the suspicion, the cynicism, and the outrage that Digby shows. In my estimation, the systemic problem facing us, the painful de-leveraging of the economy itself, is truly unprecedented, and like the 1930s requires creative and disruptive ideas and approaches. Those are by nature unsettling and scary.

What I do fault Paulson and the Treasury on is their incredible tin ear as it pertains to the process. His immediate response, in which he said: "give me the 700 billion and don't ask any questions" was an obvious non-starter in a politicized environment. His refusal to move quickly away from the flawed idea of repurchasing troubled assets from the banks rather than investing directly into the institutions themselves looked bad as well. But the appointment of Neil Kashkari really sealed his doom, I think. He could have picked from any number of smart and competent candidates to head up the TARP program, and in fact, Kashkari may be the smartest and most competent candidate. But he is 35 and he's from Goldman, and that wasn't going to play in DC.

Paulson lame ducked himself, and the fallout is ugly. He gave his opponents all the ammunition that they needed to paint him as a Wall Street guy taking care of his Wall Street buddies. He's exiting, stage left, but can't do it soon enough.

Tom Friedman Recants

Wow. The confessionals keep rolling in. Here's the column that we all wish that Tom Friedman would actually write. It's fun to imagine, though:

But to have been so completely and fundamentally wrong about so huge a disaster as what we have done to Iraq — and ourselves — is outrageous enough to prove that people like me have no business posing as wise men, and, more importantly, that The New York Times has no business continuing to provide me with a national platform.

In any case, I have made a decision: as of today, I will no longer write in this or any other newspaper. I will immediately desist from writing any more books about how it’s time for everyone to climb on board the globalization high-speed monorail to the future. I will keep my opinions to myself.

The importance of Sarah P

Andrew Sullivan, former editor in chief of the New Republic, who literally destroyed his reputation as he went into the tank for Bush and the rush to war in Iraq in 2003, has seen the scales fall from his eyes over the past five years and admirably called out the McCain campaign for the travesty that it was. He reaches his boiling point in this post where he explains why the nomination of Sarah Palin continues to be a shocking and important thing.

The impulsive, unvetted selection of a total unknown, with no knowledge of or interest in the wider world, as a replacement president remains one of the most disturbing events in modern American history. That the press felt required to maintain a facade of normalcy for two months - and not to declare the whole thing a farce from start to finish - is a sign of their total loss of nerve. That the Palin absurdity should follow the two-term presidency of another individual utterly out of his depth in national government is particularly troubling. 46 percent of Americans voted for the possibility of this blank slate as president because she somehow echoed their own sense of religious or cultural "identity". Until we figure out how this happened, we will not be able to prevent it from happening again. And we have to find a way to prevent this from recurring.

There is a bit more piling on that follows, but the post is worth a read. I truly never thought that we as a nation could be more insulted by a candidate than we were by W, but I'll admit that Caribou Barbie took it to a new level. And Sullivan makes a good point, in that we need to understand why this could happen and in particular why a near majority of our electorate would support such a potential President. It is disturbing indeed.

Fast Forward..

Man, I know that we just finished a grueling death march, but with the prohibitive favorites for the Republican nomination lining up, I almost want to fast forward to 2011, when the recession will presumably be over and the race for the White House will resume.

I mean, c'mon, really?

Holy Joe

Here's as far as I would reach across the aisle if I were President Elect Obama....







Chuck Hagel for SecState, bitches...

by the way, as soon as the Senate races are settled, Holy Joe should be stripped of his committee chair and relegated to the back benches of the Senate. They won't forbid him from caucusing, but they darn well should.

John McCain Will Win

Alabama.

Worst campaign ever.

A generation of voters will never consider the Republican Party because these idiots listened to Karl Rove and Bill Kristol and stirred up this ridiculous culture war. They fell back on their old canards because they couldn't find anything better or more relevant to talk about. They will be rightly drubbed, and the collateral damage will be great.

Good riddance to the lot of them.






UPDATE: An enlightened commenter at Townhall.com gives his opinion on unfounded reports of a Republican election official being removed from a polling station in Philadelphia:

Bring it on
Start the rioting. I know my neighbors and we are ready for battle. We have seen this before. Every time blacks don't get their way, they riot, killing innocent people and burning down businesses. It's never that I lost this time, and I will try even harder next time to succeed. It's the evil white man. The bright side is they always burn down their own neighborhoods, knowing full well that a 12-gage is waiting for them elsewhere.