“If people would look at the strength of our economy, they’d realize why, you know, I believe that the dollar will be stronger,” Bush told the Fox Business Network.

Phew…time for a smoke!

With the Recession Becoming Inevitable the Consensus Shifts Towards the Hard Landing View. And the Rising Risk of a Systemic Financial Meltdown

So at this point the debate is less and less on whether we are going to have a recession that looks inevitable; but it is rather moving towards a debate on how deep, protracted and severe such a recession will be. But the financial and real risks are much more severe than those of a mild recession.

Aw, love is blind…

As Bank Profits Grew, Warning Signs Went Unheeded

When the history of the financial excesses of this decade is written, that will be a verdict of financial historians. There were signs that banks were either lying about their results or were taking large risks that were not fully disclosed, but investors were oblivious.

Oh yeah…ReBushLickens!

Fannie Slapped; Stock Falls to Decade Low-

“This just smacks too much of the accounting games the company was playing a couple years ago,” said Armando Falcon, who headed the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the federal agency regulating Fannie at the time its accounting crisis erupted.

“They have very little room to play with here when it comes to trust and credibility,” Falcon said in a telephone interview. He said the executives failed to explain why the change was made at this particular time.

Let’s see… the check’s in the mail…that’s one…

The quicker other unions join and stand beside writers on the picket lines, the quicker everybody will get back to work, with fair deals in their pockets.

annagranfors @ 27

I got word from my stupid union (IATSE) yesterday that they’re not only *not* supporting the WGA, but essentially calling the executive director of WGA a dirty fucking hippie in the bargain.

I am SO embarrassed to belong to IATSE today, and have written to tell them so, and written to WGA to voice my support.

“where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?”

What reasons do they give for their position?

i found this illuminating:
IATSE chief bashes WGA, strike

“Over 50 shows have been shut down, (and) more will come,” Short said. “Thousands are losing their jobs every day. The IATSE alone has over 50,000 members working in motion pictures, television and broadcasting, and tens of thousands more are losing jobs in related fields. It’s time to put egos aside and recognize how crucial it is to get everyone back to work before there is irreversible damage from which this industry can never recover.”

Verrone responded with his own publicly circulated reply.

“To put it simply, our fight should be your fight,” the WGAW president wrote to Short. “We’ve received support from the Teamsters, the actors, many IATSE members and unions throughout the world.

“As we’ve state clearly, we are willing to negotiate; we have wanted to negotiate; we are here to negotiate,” he added.

a shameful failure of solidarity.

It’s gonna be hard for them to make any money on no product, isn’t it? If the writers strike spreads beyond Hollywood, for instance should the CWA refused to say, work on telecom lines at the media companies that carry work that pays the writers nothing it would get ugly real fast, because it would essentially cripple their commerce in short order. Would the other unions honor those lines outside the Media Telco facilities?

If the Teamsters refuse to deliver DVDs to stores for the Christmas season, gosh that would be a shame.

It’s all interconnected to Sumner Redstone and his “peers” wallets, the goal should be to empty their wallets in the most legally painful way possible.

Support the WGA! It’s what’s right for America.

Brilliant comment.
Absolutely brilliant.

Things are so out of balance economically these days, that something like this is EXACTLY what should happen.

Digital is the future, and the writers need to insist on fair payment.

Very Interesting…..

Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred “diamonds or pearls” at last night’s debate wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

“Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN,” Luisa writes. “I was asked to submit questions including “lighthearted/fun” questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance.”

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

holy cow. worse than i thought.

must listen to prof foland when he tells me to release my inner cynic.

Steve-AR,

What is the difference between planted and pre-approved questions? I forget.

I’ve been wondering if the audience was pre-screened for ‘pro-Hillaryness’.

I am SO embarrassed to belong to IATSE today, and have written to tell them so, and written to WGA to voice my support.

MY opinion of IA has been on an ever more slippery slope for almost a decade…That’s what happens when you put bucks before ‘brotherhood’.

Bargain Countertenor @ 40

Okay, I’m clueless. Who is Jenna Jameson?

BC

Jenna Jameson

That explains that. I couldn’t place the name. And it is a nice dress she’s almost wearing…

BC