Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

Any man who is under thirty and is not a liberal has no heart; any man over thirty and is not a conservative has no brains.

Winston Churchill

They stab at it with their steeley knives, but they just can't kill the beast.

Nationalization

Lots of people are pointing out today that "nationalization," in the context of federal ownership of banks, is not really nationalization. It's "receivership," because these assets, such as they are, will eventually be sold back to the private market.

It is a fine and worthy distinction to point out. But putting all of the major players of an industry into receivership is a lot like taking over an industry. And it's the industry-wide scale which makes terms like "receivership" too weak a word.

Anyway, it's all semantics. Sell your bank stock, keep your accounts where they are, nothing changes.

Failure.

Bank of America, Citigroup are dead. Long live Bank of America and Citigroup.

Also, everybody stand back and let these losers fail. LOSERS! LOSERS! LOSERS!

Don't come crying to me about credit-default swaps, though, Rick, future loser.

Why, that's outrageous!

The lefty blogs are up in arms about CNBC something or other--I can't call him a reporter, if that's what he is--ranting about how poor people, losers, as he calls him, fucked everything up.



This doesn't surprise me. Floaters clump.

If there was some way we could nationalize the banks in such a manner that we ensure this little turd of a man gets his condo foreclosed on, I'll go on the internet and vote for it.

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

Scar tissue is stronger than regular tissue. Realize the strength, and move on.

Henry Rollins

7,000,000

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Albert Einstein

Jivin'.

Please, Do It.

BATON ROUGE, La. —

A half-dozen Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, health care and infrastructure, the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will even help the economy.

"My concern is there's going to be commitments attached to it that are a mile long," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "We need the freedom to pick and choose. And we need the freedom to say 'No thanks.'"

In other news, I formally announce my intentions to establish exploratory committees to run for governor of a half dozen states. I will have a better chance of winning election than these assholes have of re-election.

Seriously, though, I wholeheartedly recommend these assholes do it. The clearer people see the consequences of Republican principles, the less Republicans we have to deal with.

Go away, assholes, and come back when you have a plan.

California

Reporting from Sacramento -- As California's government continued its grinding downshift toward insolvency, efforts to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget gap hit a new snag late Tuesday as Republicans in the state Senate ousted their leader.

Around 11 p.m., a group of GOP senators, unhappy with the higher taxes that Senate leader Dave Cogdill of Modesto agreed to as part of a deal with the governor and Democrats, voted to replace him in a private caucus meeting in Cogdill's office.

They chose Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, a staunchly antitax lawmaker from Murrieta, as their new leader.

Cogdill's ouster could be a major setback to budget negotiations. Cogdill was a lead negotiator on the budget package and had committed to voting for it. Hollingsworth will likely try to renegotiate the deal, which lawmakers spent three months forging.

These people are simply divorced from reality. Do your part to divorce them from their offices.

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

First they ignore you,
Then they laugh at you,
Then they fight you,
Then you win.

Mahatma Gandhi

Bolero.

George Will Got Laid 4 times in 1979,

And has gotten laid, on average, only 2.3 times since then, according to the University of Illinois Arctic Climate Research Center, which predicts that, with the "La Nina" weather event in the Pacific, George Will will only get laid 1.6 times in 2009, including a rather embarrassing moment with a half eaten container of cottage cheese.

Welcome Back From the Wilderness

The US government may have to nationalise some banks on a temporary basis to fix the financial system and restore the flow of credit, Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman has told the Financial Times.

In an interview with the FT Mr Greenspan, who for decades was regarded as the high priest of laissez-faire capitalism, said nationalisation could be the least bad option left for policymakers.

”It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring,” he said. “I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do.”

Come on in, Mr. Greenspan, the water's fine. Now unless you plan to serve as the private pitchman for this plan to the rest of the idiots who got us into this mess, kindly shut the fuck up.

Meanwhile, since it's unpolite to talk about such things, here's a list of the banks we've already nationalized since 2000, provided without comment.

Change I Can Believe In

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) is pushing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to take a harder line with the Senate after a trio of Republican senators forced Congress to trim billions from the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

It’s not clear how far Pelosi is willing to go in standing up to the Senate — or, realistically, what effect Hoyer and Pelosi combined could have in the face of the 60-vote hurdle Senate Democrats face.

But after last week’s stimulus votes, Hoyer called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to force Senate Republicans to mount actual filibusters if they want to stand in the way of bills “so that the American people can see who’s undermining action.”

And in a private conversation with Pelosi, aides say Hoyer reminded the speaker that they’d talked previously about tolerating Senate strong-arming on the stimulus and on children’s health insurance — two Democratic priorities — but then holding their own on future legislation.

It is about time you make these motherfuckers put on their their adult diapers and read the dictionary on the Senate floor. You don't have to take the filibuster away, as the Republicans threatened to do, you make them go up there and filibuster health care reform. Quit letting them poison your priorities without having to get on the TV obstructing legislation.

We've got your backs.

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

We can forgive Christianity much, because it taught us the worship of the child.

Karl Marx

Sit and Listen.

El Rushbo

The pill poppin', doctor shoppin', limp dicked, sex touristin', torture lovin', foreigner hatin', anal cyst havin', draft dodgin', confirmed(1) racist(2) Rush Limbaugh is homophobic.

And he is the de facto leader of the Republican party.

Enjoy being losers, assholes.

Digby

She needs to start saying what she means, as opposed to all of this alluding to things in the most mealymouthed manner.

Norm Coleman.

Douche bag.

Discuss.

Porkulus.

I don't think "pork" means what the Republicans want it to mean. Understand the point, but to my knowledge, there were no legislative earmarks in the bill. That is, nothing went to a specific district, at the behest of a legislator from that district. Which is what "pork" means.

I've all but given up this fight against revisionism, so I will simply call Republicans "assholes," since it's close enough, and everyone is familiar with the concept.

Also, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. This shit is straight up Orwell.

Being politically-minded was easier to do before Newt's era, because both parties shared roughly the same vocabulary and agreed-upon historical facts and truths. The difference was in the analysis. In any case, I'm sure the level of revisionism has been expanded in absurdum since then.

The preceding paragraph has been brought to you by the American Freedom From Historical Fact Yet Is Still Plausible Institute. Do you have any idea how easy this shit is?

Student Debt Forgiveness

There's a growing movement for student debt forgiveness.

I agree with it wholeheartedly. In the interest of full disclosure, I currently have approximately $1.2 billion of student loan debt.

Having said that, most recent graduates have monthly debt payments roughly amounting to a car payment upwards of a mortgage payment. Since most people coming out of college are wanting to buy cars and houses, and since our economy needs people to buy cars and houses, maybe it's not such an offensive idea to forgive the debt....blah blah blah, just, like, forgive the debt and stuff, because it makes perfect political and economic sense or something whatever.

Note: If you are in your 20s or early 30s, you should probably get used to the fact that the government will be completely unresponsive to your needs. The Baby Boomers will take all the shit, and you won't get anything but the bill. This is because they vote more than you, and their cohorts are in power.

Obama's no-good, very bad day.

Obama really had a horrible day on Wednesday. I personally would have been rooting through the presidential liquor cabinet that night.

On Tuesday, a member of his National Economic Council, Jim Owens, says that his company, Caterpillar, will be able to rehire some of the 22,000 laid off workers at their production facilities if the stimulus bill passes. That same day, the stimulus bill passes the senate.

Wednesday, Obama flies to Peoria to make an impromptu appearance at a Caterpillar facility to tout his stimulus bill, and reiterate Owen's decision to rehire the laid off workers, now that the stimulus bill has passed. While Air Force One is in route to Peoria, Obama's pick for commerce secretary withdraws his name for consideration.

After Obama's speech, Jim Owens says that there is a strong possibility of more lay offs before Caterpillar will be in a position to call back affected workers, indicating that the soonest the latter action can occur would be toward the end of the third quarter, or fourth quarter.

Intermittent Picture

Quote of the Day

Building outhouses in Peoria.

Richard Nixon, defining domestic policy

He. Is. A Wild and Crazy Guy.

Health Care.

Another moon mission.

Really, really, really interesting.

Poll is pdf, so I won't link it. You can find it at the Dkos link above.

HEALTH INSURANCE: PRIVATE ENTERPRISE VS. GOVERNMENT?

1979
Private Enterprise: 48%
Government - All Problems: 28%
Government - Emergencies: 12%
Don't know: 12%

2009
Private Enterprise: 32% (-16%)
Government - All Problems: 49% (+21%)
Government - Emergencies: 10% (-2%)
Don't know: 9% (-3%)

Somehow, free market capitalist Americans support pinko commie government health care, despite all evidence that Americans are healthy and physically fit.

Allow me to be bipartisan here. I'm willing to debate anyone on whether or not the health care system is experiencing market failure, as long as same person will debate whether access to health care services is a human right. Hint: I'll win both.

The health care system is broken. Americans know this. The industry knows this, which is why they fought tooth and nail against this:

WASHINGTON — The $787 billion economic stimulus bill approved by Congress will, for the first time, provide substantial amounts of money for the federal government to compare the effectiveness of different treatments for the same illness.

Under the legislation, researchers will receive $1.1 billion to compare drugs, medical devices, surgery and other ways of treating specific conditions. The bill creates a council of up to 15 federal employees to coordinate the research and to advise President Obama and Congress on how to spend the money.

I really do worry about the costs associated with single payer, as well as how effectively the government can institute such a plan. Obviously, though, it's badly needed. I'm glad there's been a poll conducted on this, and I hope public opinion is studied more in depth on it.

Like I've said before, this is not something that can ever come from on high. Obama has consistently said that he does not support single payer. It does have its drawbacks, but I do not think these are insurmountable. Most of Washington does. I'll spell out my concerns, and my suggestions later.

GM II

This is more of a trial balloon than established fact, though it is interesting in its implications.

DETROIT — President Obama has dropped the idea of appointing a single, powerful “car czar” to oversee the revamping of General Motors and Chrysler and will instead keep the politically delicate task in the hands of his most senior economic advisers, a top administration official said Sunday night.

Mr. Obama is designating the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, and the chairman of the National Economic Council, Lawrence H. Summers, to oversee a presidential panel on the auto industry. Mr. Geithner will also supervise the $17.4 billion in loan agreements already in place with G.M. and Chrysler, said the official, who insisted on anonymity.

[...]

“We’re going to need a restructuring of these companies,” the adviser, David Axelrod, said on “Meet the Press” on NBC. He added that a turnaround of the companies would “require sacrifice not just from the auto workers but also from creditors, from shareholders and the executives who run the company.”

Considering that the National Economic Council includes my boss, who just laid me off, I'll go ahead and assume that their advice will be to break the union.

However, the thrust of this post is that this will mean either the bank plan; taxpayers assume all the bad stuff, including retiree pensions and the like, and GM gets off scot free, or it's nationalized, and taxpayers assume all the bad stuff anyway. I really don't see any middle ground. Unlike the banks, I don't see anybody else in the market who is in the position to buy up GM's assets, even at pennies on the dollar, so unless Buffet wants to take a crack at making cars, I think you pretty much have to nationalize the company.

Intermittent Picture

Like the banks, except they make shit.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - General Motors Corp, nearing a Tuesday deadline to present a viability plan to the U.S. government, is considering as one option a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would create a new company, the Wall Street Journal said in its Saturday edition.

"One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of GM's viable assets, including some U.S. brands and international operations, into a new company," the newspaper said. "The undesirable assets would be liquidated or sold under protection of a bankruptcy court. Contracts with bondholders, unions, dealers and suppliers would also be reworked."

The worst part of this is not that GM will die an inglorious death, or how this affects its own employees. What I'm most saddened by is that we're going to watch the implosion of auto parts manufacturers, the companies that doe the majority of the manufacturing work that GM (and Ford and Chrysler) used to do. Very little of the steel that goes into a car is formed and machined by GM employees. These companies will get wiped out, and, in aggregate, they employ many more people than the Big Three.

Everybody knew this was coming, but we haven't thought much about parts manufacturers. GM owes billions of dollars to these companies, who will not be paid back by the original borrower.

So, these are the consequences (though it wasn't like GM was in a position to pay these guys anyway), and they are for the most part unavoidable. I don't see how the government will be able to sit back and watch this unfold without trying to soften the blow, so you'd have to think that the government would guarantee GM's operating debts so the parts companies can make payroll while they downsize. You're still looking at tens of thousands of workers laid off, both within GM and within parts manufacturers, and all of this will happen quickly.

Pretty much exactly what you don't want to happen right now, but I don't see a way out of it.

Quote of the Day

I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Grover Norquist

Are we going to give up? Are we going to try to figure out what life is?