A senior administration official, briefing reporters late Sunday night on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, said Obama will call for more sacrifice from carmakers, their investors and automotive unions.
Fascinating. Unions, which have made incredible concessions already in an effort to help GM and Chrysler stay in business, are being ordered by the federal government to concede even more. Yet the dickheads who obscenely profited from wrecking the world financial system remain in their offices, forced only by public shame to forgo bonuses they haven't earned. The same federal government treated these high criminals with kid gloves, saying publicly they feared being sued by the likes of AIG if they attempted to force repayment of unearned bonuses or prevent future ones being paid out.
Recap: Those who work and make something real and useful in order to earn their pay will be further punished by the very same government that has coddled those who play with paper and imaginary numbers and reap unparalleled financial reward for their "toil". The latter are on the hook for many multiples the amounts of the loans the auto industry is seeking, and have given up almost nothing in exchange for, in many cases, essentially free cash.
This is so utterly fucked. It is also the clearest indicator yet that nothing will substantively change in the financial services sector, rendering real the possibility this will all happen again, and the perpetrators will get away with it.
The modern Republican party, be it in or out of power, has a single strength: playing the role of the obstructionist opposition. For the sake of it. In power, they hold up straw men and push though policies intended to fix problems that don't exist, while annihilating the ability of government to function effectively.
In the midst of an economic crisis, the GOP and its allies have convinced a whole lot of people that the only sensible recovery plan is a bad idea. The minority party has not only persuaded news outlets to give them airtime to spew this obviously-ridiculous nonsense, they've also convinced a lot of media figures that they're right.
I do wonder if they have any clear idea of the potential, even likely consequences of doing nothing about the imminent global economic collapse, already well in progress. If they do, then their actions are criminal. If they don't, then we are in deep deep trouble.
Oklahoma was one of the few states that went more Republican in the latest election (McCain pulled his highest vote percentage in any state here), with the Retro-dumbass party securing both houses for, I believe (correct me Jim, if I am wrong) the first time in state history.
And right out of the gate, they fail to disappoint.
Living in the reality based community is fraught with difficulties. One of them is not taking the bait when legislation like that is proposed. I suppose it is my fault for believing that the entire creationism debate as it relates to public schools is settled law. It is, but apparently that doesn't matter to the forces of know-nothingism.
The anti-evolution legislative pushes are particularly annoying because they are, at heart, so profoundly dishonest. In the guise of presenting a legitimate alternate scientific theory to challenge the enormous body of work that makes up Darwinian theory we get proposed laws that would enforce a religious orthodoxy on school children. It is obviously done in the service of a wider effort to subvert public institutions in the name of a Christianist political attempt to remake our country in their likeness. Legislators who engagfe in this sort of behavior are, to my mind, wholly illegitimate.
It is cowardly. If those Christianist ideas are so valid, then come out in the open, propose legislation that really endorses those views, that this country ought to be ordered on principles conceived primarily through a ridiculously selective, literalist reading of the bible. I recall reading a Catholic writer some time ago saying, and I paraphrase, "the Bible is the Word of God, not the words of God". If a government that rigidly follows a specific reading of the bible is so right and just, then package that legislation appropriately, and let's have the discussion they want to have and do so out in the open. Advocate for theocracy, state the case, have the debate.
It would bring this nonsense to a very quick close. Which is exactly why we have this sort of clumsy, but frightening thought control legislation instead, because its proponents know they have a losing argument otherwise.
The guy writing it makes some of the players out to be more heroic than they really are. Shorting a market you find reprehensible is full participation in reprehensible activity.
Still, a fascinating peek into what happened. This also explains some of what these financial instruments actually are. Which is a terrifying realization.
Regulation cannot come too soon, but I suspect nothing will actually happen.
Epic fail on the part of CNN last night. Threatening us all with the "one party rule" cudgel, they fail to name the last president who had control of both house of Congress.
Campbell Brown: For those people who have been worried about the possibility of one party controlling Congress and the White House, the last president to do that, of course, was....?
John King: Ah, that was Bill Clinton, and...
Brown: Jimmy Carter! Jimmy Carter had... Bill Clinton had Democrats in the House and in the Senate?
King: Very briefly.
Brown: Very briefly. [Crinkles her nose] Didn't go so well.
King: No it didn't.
Hint: he is still in office for a few more weeks.
Fucking idiots. Watch them run as hard as they can from an eight year legacy of sucking up to the Bush administration. Gotta coddle your only source of fucking news...
