“But if you are looking for a leader who has been tested in times of crisis … a leader who has achieved results – results that some people thought were impossible … I believe I am that leader,” he will say, according to excerpts provided Friday.

Hurricane Jeb?

Then again who could have believed that someone could have carried on an adulterous affair during the midst of the destruction of three of the major buildings in Lower Manhattan? Them d’ere results are nearly IMPOSSIBLE!

How can anyone take Ghouliani seriously? I don’t see any way that women can respect him. I don’t see any way that Fundies can respect him. I don’t see any way that those who care about freedom and/or decency can respect him. Rather, he seems to be a darling of the neocons, a small minority of a small minority, and the people who still take them seriously, which includes an amazingly large segment of “the village.”

OT

You want to know why the world economy is collapsing rapidly, read this:

http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/3368#more

Since you mention him, Attaturk, looks like huck is getting bold enough to mention shrub in a negative fashion. I’ve got a sneaky feelin’ more of the republic candidates will head in that direction in their speechifyin’….and then what the h*ll will the dims have to run on? It sure ain’t spine!

http://www.breitbart.com/artic….._article=1

It appears Nathan’s hot dog is trying on a new coat of mustard to cover up his rotten smell. I wonder if Judy is finally realizing that she’s been riding the wrong horse??

“Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers. This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”

“The Goldman Sachs’ alumni who have served in government include Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick; former president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States Kenneth D. Brody; chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and former director of the National Economic Council Stephen Friedman; Reagan Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead; and Reagan Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Robert Hormats. Goldman Sachs’ graduate James Johnson served as president and CEO of quasi-government housing lender Fannie Mae.

And THEIR bank, The Fed.

Banks that hold the controlling stock in the Federal Reserve Corporation:
Goldman Sachs Bank of New York.
Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin,
Lazard Brothers Bank of Paris,
Israel Moses Sieff Banks of Italy
Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam,
Lehman Brothers Bank of New York,
Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York
Chase Manhattan Bank of New York…”

“”[T]he powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country, and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion, by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences.
The apex of the system was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world’s central banks, which were themselves, private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control, and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups.”
~Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time (New York:
Macmillan, 1966) p.324

BTW, Quigley was Bill Clinton’s teacher I think.”

Very educational, SanderO. I ended up reading quite a bit of the Oil Drum in some sort of horrified fascination.

” Prudent Bear’s Doug Noland has for years been pointing out that one of the drivers of the credit bubble has been the ever-broadening definition of money. As the global economy expanded without a hic-up, more and more instruments came to be used as a store of value or medium of exchange or even a standard against which to value other things—in other words, as money. Thus mortgage-backed bonds and even more exotic things came to be seen as nearly risk-free and infinitely liquid. In Noland’s terms, credit gained “moneyness,” which sent the effective global money supply through the roof. This in turn allowed the U.S. and its trading partners to keep adding jobs and appearing to grow, despite debt levels that were rising into the stratosphere. For a while there, borrowing actually made the world richer, because both the cash received and the debt created functioned as money.

With a few months of hindsight, it’s now clear that debt-as-money was not one of humanity’s better ideas. When the U.S. housing market—the source of all that mortgage-backed pseudo money—began to tank, hedge funds found out that an asset-backed bond wasn’t exactly the same thing as a stack of hundred dollar bills. The global economy then started taking inventory of what it was using as money. And it began crossing things off the list. Subprime ABS? Nope, that’s not money. BBB corporate bonds? Nope. High-grade corporates? Alas, no. Credit default swaps? Are you kidding me?

No longer able to function as money, these instruments are being “repriced” (a slick little euphemism for “dumped for whatever anyone will pay”), which is causing a cascade failure of the many business models that depend on infinite liquidity. The effective global money supply is contracting at a double-digit rate, reversing out much of the past decade’s growth. “

People here are fighting about this party and that party and the capitalists have taken the world over with their cynical control of our economic lives.

It’s the economy stupid.

These bankers have more control over everything than governments and we are now slaves to their credit system of created (worthless) money.

The ponzi scheme is collapsing and they are trying to find some new smoke and mirrors.

Capitalism did it. It’s based on creating money from nothing, introducing it and driving the economy. A completely unsound notion which has rolled out one scheme after the next to manage risk and postpone the unravelling.

Here we go!

morning!

Good morning, pups. It’s a sad day in the NYT when the only columnist we have is The Odious Ms. Collins. She’s wringing her hands over Sen. Obama… She says the real question is whether Barack Obama has worked out a way to explain his drug use during his adolescent days to the more conservative voters he’d be wooing next fall.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and there are toasted Thomas’ English muffins. I’ve made lots and lots of tea so I can have iced tea this afternoon. If it’s anything like yesterday afternoon, up in the mid 80s, I’ll need it… Have a good day.

Good morning Selise. Has there been any progress on the FISA front? I’ve read at least one rumor that Reid might be having second thoughts.

It will be interesting to see if the voters really care about Obama’s youthful indiscretions. I submit that many will find his honesty refreshing.

Perhaps he:
— didn’t inhale
— has since found Jesus
— will go on tour telling teens not to
— all of the above

I believe Obama said that he did indeed inhale. “That was the point.”

Rudy letting his hair down:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kXdsOYrAeSw

I’ve read at least one rumor that Reid might be having second thoughts.

linky please?

i could use some good news!

p.s. and after obsessing (probably way too much, but i don’t trust anyone and am determined to try to check everything out) on reid’s cloture motion last night, it seems that the only non-standard thing was to call for the vote on monday, instead of tuesday as it would been if rule 22 was being followed.

Good morning to all the fine people reading today.

I’ve read at least one rumor that Reid might be having second thoughts.

linky please?

i could use some good news!

Me, too.

Good morning, everyone.

A friend read both Obama books. He first read the more recent tome and really liked it. He was so inspired that he then read the second book. He was disappointed by Obama’s past behavior as portayed in the earlier book. My friend said that Obama demonstrated an important lack of self-control and bad judgement. (If Obama were a Republican hopeful it wouldn’t matter. Dubya stands as a glaring example of the kidd gloves – hands off media policy for the chosen rethug primary winner.) My friend said that the Republican machine will use excerpts from that book and slime Obama with it. It is chock full of ammunition. I’m not an Obama fan, though I loved Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention. I liked him very much, then. I concur with many of the Obama naysayers here. His negatives have been widely discussed.

Good morning from L.A. I just wanted to thank you, selise, for posting Sen. Whitehouse’ speech on youtube-accessed it by clicking on your name. He made that speech while I was out of town on business & had no way to watch or record CSPAN channels.

Just got through emailing it to everyone in my address book.

Thanks again!

I’ve read at least one rumor that Reid might be having second thoughts.

call me a cockeyed optimist, but lets keep in mind that Reid pulls every bill that can’t get cloture. So if the SSIC bill is “filibustered”, Reid will pull it, and substitute the SJC version. (which would explain Leahy’s willingness to sign the cloture petition….)

Just curious. Which of his negatives carry any significance? Discuss please. Besides drugs (W?) and not being a longtime washington player, what are these negatives that influence you?

glad you liked it (i did too – that’s what motivated me to make it)… got the idea from marcy’s post.

wouldn’t that mean there are 41 votes against for monday’s cloture vote?

wouldn’t that mean there are 41 votes against for monday’s cloture vote?

For it to work, yes. But if there aren’t 41 votes against cloture, it wouldn’t matter what bill was put up; it could be amended to look like the SSIC bill anyway.

so you think/hope the ssci bill might fail monday’s cloture vote..

ok, let me try to play this out…

and then the sjc bill will be brought up for a vote?
and the R “filibuster” – basically block cloture (they certainly have 41 to vote against or not vote).

then the PAA expires.

is that what you hope is going to happen?

this is the first time i’ve checked which senators signed the cloture petition. i guess one of the things i could do this weekend is to go back and check previous ones (that leahy voted against) and see if his signature is on any of them.

one bit of evidence (possibly) against your hypothesis is that the cloture vote is being taken on monday instead of tuesday. if they (i’m sure reid does not act alone) were thinking of pulling it, wouldn’t they have wanted the vote to be on tuesday?

one bit of evidence (possibly) against your hypothesis is that the cloture vote is being taken on monday instead of tuesday. if they (i’m sure reid does not act alone) were thinking of pulling it, wouldn’t they have wanted the vote to be on tuesday?

I don’t think it matters which day the vote is taken (in fact, if the goal is to get the SSIC bill off the table, the sooner its done the better). The real question is what Reid’s intentions are.

And it may well be that he put up the SSIC bill because there are a bunch of Democrats who are in the pocket of the telecoms, but don’t want to be forced to vote specifically in favor of immunity. The SSIC bill lets them get away with saying that they don’t support immunity, but “national security” demanded that a bill be passed blah, blah, blah…” Of course its obvious to us what they will be doing, but they’d prefer a fig leaf to a display of naked cravenness.

i’m in the fig leaf camp.

but since it was you, paul, being the cockeyed optimist, i wasn’t going to ignore your thinking… because as cynical as i am, i’m really just a disappointed romantic at heart – i want to believe in the good intentions of our political class.

Remember the radio interview the day after 9/11 in which Rudy said he was told that “the World Trade Center was going to come down”. What the hell is up with that? Listen to it here: http://www.secretwarsinter.com

i’m in the fig leaf camp.

but since it was you, paul, being the cockeyed optimist, i wasn’t going to ignore your thinking… because as cynical as i am, i’m really just a disappointed romantic at heart – i want to believe in the good intentions of our political class.

me too. The other thing is, that while we’re directing all of our anger against Reid, if the bill does get cloture, it will only be because 10 Democrats voted for it — Reid may be taking a more “neutral” stance here — telling Dodd that he needs to shut down the SSIC bill, and if he does that, it will be withdrawn and the SJC bill will be considered. (Reid has always talked in terms of which bill to consider first … )

i’m not directing all my anger against reid – i just don’t believe he’d be doing what he is without the support of a majority of his caucus.

that’s why i think that the combination of clinton, obama, biden and dodd could block the ssci bill if they all took a strong stand – the caucus wouldn’t want to vote against our likely presidential candidate…. unless they (clinton, obama and biden) take a low profile and don’t push the issue (implicitly saying they are ok with it passing – their vote is just for show).

I forget: Is “perfection” Republican code for “honesty” or “competence?”