Darth is gonna run for president of the homeowner’s association in the exclusive gated community he lives in. First order of business, turn the Senior Center into Gitmo North. “That kid walked on my lawn. Get the CIA to find out what terrist acts he’s planning.”

Digby on the Rethugs:

But they are going to represent their narrow interests because that’s what they believe their constituents want. That’s the way the system works.

Reminds of a slogan from the IWW:

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.

*tap tap tap* Is this thing on?

The snowbirds in central FL are packing up and heading for Costa Rica and other parts south. In the high 20s in some places and supposed to get colder tonight. I can’t wait.

Good morning, BT and thanks for the link fest.

Good morning to you as well SD. Back to my lurking.

Mornin’, oldnslow. Back to lurking? Well, I could start transcribing some tome here for the rip roaring audience.

SoDrag — I’m lurking also. And as long as things are slow let me go off topic — what happened to Raven?

Morning you guys.

I’m sure hoping Rather’s suit is successful. It would be extra if it ended up revealing those who set him up.

How about a lengthy disertation on the economic benefits of the supply side policies of the last 30 years. Or, why basing your world view on a mediocre novel is really fucking stupid.

Or are those the same thing?

he’s around, I do believe he was posting yesterday.

I can only make a guess and that would be he’s uncomfortable with the bashing of the administration.

Thanks, Elliott and SD.

I tried to re-read Atlas Shrugged a couple years ago. Didn’t get very far. The ex turned me on to Rand in the early 70s. Not being into economic theory in those days I thought her novels were fairly good, for novels. I can see how RayGuns lovers would embrace the individual over all theme in them.

We should all consider signing up for this.

Selise, if yer lurkin’ out there I’ve got a book you might be interested in.

Wobblies and Zapatistas: Conversations on Anarchism, Marxism and Radical History

Good Morning Firedogs,

the Zinni story is disheartening – who in bloody hell is minding the store ?!?! The guy should be Sec Def for goodness sakes

hey there Scooter Boy . . . lurk here often ?

Morning all,
John McShame, who had to suspend his campaign to deal with and lead the TARP legislation, can’t cancel his european junket this weekend to deal with the stimulous. Enjoy the sights John and Lindsey.

yeah that sux, some things in this Administration have been very very good, and other things have been horrid.

Megan McArdle’s idol.

Greenspan’s as well. Rumor is that he and Ayn had a little thing goin’ for a short time.

good morning SD and fellow pups. wasn’t lurking… just updating my list of hearings and posting today’s list. before visiting the threads. thanks very much for the recommend, SD. will put it on my reading list and while i probably won’t be able to get to it any time soon, will look forward to it when i can. love to read and just don’t spend enough time doing (ok, on my scale reading always deserves more time *g*).

btw, the hearing list for today is up at oxdown and here is the summary:

No hearings today for House committees (is the House in recess again?), but it’s a full day for Senate committee hearings. Nomination hearings are being held for Leon Panetta for CIA Director (Senate Intelligence) and David Ogden for Deputy Attorney General (Senate Judiciary). Elizabeth Warren is scheduled to testify before the Senate Banking committee on TARP oversight and the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry committee will hold an oversight hearing on food safety and the peanut recall.

What is really troubling naive moi is the kind of money corporations through around at influential and influence-able people.

Just read that Panetta pocked over 700k for his “efforts” – speaking to and speaking for his corporate friends.

These corporations and their top echelon are used to too many zero’s. We really have a two classes and a huge gulf between them even though some of those on the high side are not facists, they are obviously into personal enrichment at obscene levels.

There’s way too much money in the PR and influence peddling biz. The lobbyists and ex giv officials who cash out are disgusting. But really, that’s the way things work in America. You claw your way up and then flat on clouds of easy made cash.

Soooo, what did ya think of Panel 2 yesterday? I think Ackerman would make a great Speaker come 2010, or sooner if we can shitcan Pelosi.

No, first time. Gotta date tonight?

We really have a two classes and a huge gulf between them

See my 2 above.

The DIGG is open

Frankly at this point I don’t want to see a familair name, ie ex pol being sent up for a cabinet post. They are all damaged goods.

I am for reaching into academia for people to take these posts.

I am so for term limits because I have reached my limit of tolerance for these repeat offenders and self promotors and ear marking corporate suck ups – the whole lot of them.

It ruins it for the very few dedicated public servants like Denis K.But he is treated like a nut case, when he is in fact 100% right 100% of the time.

And nutty Nadar was screaming about corporations and is this close to being IN a nut house.

oh goodie, thanks selise, you’ve earned yourself some chocolate chip pancakes (of course you’ll have to make them lol! )

oooh my yoga knitting class just cancelled – how’s ’bout Yellow House, say about 7 ish, I’ll be the girl with the big smile on her face

Just read that Panetta pocked over 700k for his “efforts” – speaking to and speaking for his corporate friends.

These corporations and their top echelon are used to too many zero’s. We really have a two classes and a huge gulf between them even though some of those on the high side are not facists, they are obviously into personal enrichment at obscene levels.

It troubles this naive person, too. Yet these corporations protest mightily at paying taxes…or livable wages to employees…they need the money to buy more politicians with, I guess.

This gem from today’s St Pete Times:

Hillsborough GOP official rebuked for racial e-mail joke

Welcome to the South.

Get a room, you two. *g*

Yoga knitting class. Fer shure.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool. And I’m freezin’ my ass off!

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

oh darnit, I can’t remember who said or where I heard it, mebbe NewsHour? but yesterday some reichwinger was going on about the “made-up” class warfare argument. as if.

Guess it’s one of the new Rush talking points

Grey flannel? Sorry. Got up late. Need. Coffee. Then I’ll lurk and behave. For a while. Oh. Bad manners. Good morning. Now to read the links.

It is ONLY individuals that control their destinies. Masses destroy it. The current administration is the horror of the government that Ayn Rand predicted. When the producers are taxed so only the looters benefit, there will be no producers left.

In more than one way this administration seems like rank amatuers.

Southern Dragon and Sandero -

Yale Lit Prof nails it succinctly for me

burnt offerings indeed

For some reason they just can’t avoid tying themselves to the tracks and saying there’s no train coming. Newsflash: that light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train.

“Youngish oldnslow, buff, active, seeks same. Enjoys rock climbing, bungee jumping, extreme marathoning, opening cans with teeth. No belly fat. Kind, sensitive, intuitive, generous to a fault. You?”

Yep.

and Thomas Frank responds quite nicely here

Has Cbl been talking out of school?

Soooo, what did ya think of Panel 2 yesterday? I think Ackerman would make a great Speaker come 2010, or sooner if we can shitcan Pelosi.

lol. didn’t watch the whole thing (that will have to wait for this weekend), but what i did catch of panel 2 was seriously entertaining tv.

nakedcapitalism has a couple of nice youtubes: SEC Stonewalls at Senate Hearings on Madoff (and Congressional Fireworks!)

L’affaire Madoff gets more interesting by the day. I had though the failure to pursue the hedge fund scamster had more to do with incompetence and a disinclination to go after investment managers (insider trading cases, which is what seems to get the SEC’s enforcement division juices going, usually pick up penny ante players at big name firms, so they generate lots of media coverage without rocking any boats).

But the Congressional hearings today suggest that the SEC, or at least some of its members, think they have something to hide.

the first part though with markopolos (i listened to some of that before going to the house ag hearing on derivative regulation) was both entertaining and informative, although not always in a pleasant way.

from the la times (my bold): Madoff tipster Harry Markopolos assails SEC

“The SEC is … captive to the industry it regulates and is afraid” to bring big cases against prominent individuals, Markopolos asserted. The agency “roars like a lion and bites like a flea” and “is busy protecting the big financial predators from investors,” he said.

He spoke as several top-level SEC officials, including the agency’s enforcement director, sat three rows back in the packed hearing room, awaiting their turn to testify before the panel.

While the SEC is incompetent, the securities industry’s self-policing organization, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is “very corrupt,” Markopolos charged. That organization was headed until December by Mary Schapiro, President Barack Obama’s new SEC chief.

The SEC has been sustaining volleys of criticism from lawmakers and investor advocates over its failure to discover Madoff’s alleged $50 billion fraud, which could be the biggest Ponzi scheme ever, despite the credible allegations brought to it over years. Against the backdrop of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, the SEC is being accused of further eroding investor confidence and lawmakers of both parties are calling for a shake-up of the agency.

Markopolos disclosed that he anonymously conveyed a package of documents on Madoff to former New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer, but noted Spitzer took no action. Spitzer’s family trust was among the victims that lost money investing with Madoff.

Markopolos also suggested that senior editors at The Wall Street Journal may have prevented a reporter from pursuing leads he provided because the newspaper “respected and feared” Madoff.

Madoff, who was at one point chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market and sat on SEC advisory committees, was “one of the most powerful men on Wall Street and in a position to easily end our careers or worse,” Markopolos said.

Dragon -

Sorry about disappearing downstairs….stayed awake most of the night listening to the hearing and the zzzzzz’s reached out and grabbed me. To your question: No mention of panel 2 in milbank’s snark piece.

KayinMaine (if you’re still about) -

Here’s the milbank article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..inionsbox1

No, no. She is the soul of discretion.

I wush someone could tell me why the ag committee is the one studying derivatives. Is there a relationship between derivatives and compost?

Think “bullshit”.

test

thanks!

Best hour and a half of the “new times” yet.

Damn, forgot my pencil.

I wush someone could tell me why the ag committee is the one studying derivatives. Is there a relationship between derivatives and compost?

been that way for years (lots of ag committee hearings in the ’90s on this issue as well). i think it’s because the ag committees (house and senate) have oversight of the cftc (Commodity Futures Trading Commission). for a bit of the history of the cftc (and congress and the fed and the sec and treasury) on the decision to prevent any regulation of most otc derivatives, see my diary: Which Idiot Decided Not to Regulate Credit Default Swaps? (and for even more, see the timeline link).

While the SEC is incompetent, the securities industry’s self-policing organization, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, is “very corrupt,” Markopolos charged. That organization was headed until December by Mary Schapiro, President Barack Obama’s new SEC chief.

Oh, spit! Hadn’t put that one together. Ugh!

Water’s ready for coffee. Colour me gone.

Best hour and a half of the “new times” yet.

reality tv!

namaste, SD.

My take on the hearing.

Markopolous was incredibly lucid and credible while panel two was complete Bush era executive contempt. I stayed up way too late watching the replay and need coffee.

I would absolutely recommend panel two viewing. Acura, Grayson, and Mutterpearl were excellent as well as Ackerman.

I had nightmares thinking of the risks Markopolous and his associates took to try to stop the scam. There are forces at work here of intimidation and greed throughout this whole scam. Markopolous pointed out 29 Red flags over the years and even sent a package to Spitzer whose family trust lost in the Ponzi scheme.

Best TV in a looooong time. :-))))

Selise, you watching C-span? We’re going to have the author of “Welcome to Obamaland: I’ve seen your future and it doesn’t work”

I think Fresh Air will focus 2 new books on Reagan: Bunch on Destroy the Myth and Brinkley on why he is one of the 5 best Prez of the 20th century. The details are alittle thin/not sure, but that’s about right. I knew Brinkly had done some memoir stuff with Nancy Reagan, but I did not know he is such a RR fan.

sorry i didn’t see your comment sooner. i wasn’t watching cspan but am turning it on now – or am i too late?

thanks!

You barely caught him, but you avoided the worst of the nasty person. Yuccck! On the plus side, I’m so nauseated, I have no desire for breakfast

Just read that Panetta pocked over 700k for his “efforts” – speaking to and speaking for his corporate friends.

It’s the same in academia. I have a friend who occasionally does op-eds for the NYT and is one of the top economists in an important area I won’t mention. He gets $10 to $15 thousand a pop for speaking to corporate groups, and he’s on our side! I was floored when he told me. Once I got a thousand for delivering a speech, and I thought I was a made man!

The point is that companies have so much cash, and so much they can write off, that they can buy people. It works.

Which person would this be? So many in the pool.