Too Big To Fail Is Failing

The country's largest bank, Bank of America, is now on life support with its stock under the $5 a share poison price as of close yesterday on the Dow.

Bank of America dropped 4.1 percent to $4.99 at 4:15 p.m. in New York, the worst showing in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, after falling as much as 5.4 percent, the most in more than a month. The lender has plunged 63 percent this year.

European regulators are struggling to quell concern that their lenders may be hurt by the sovereign-debt crisis. For Bank of America, a sustained decline below $5 could reduce its appeal to investors, said Eric Teal, chief investment officer at First Citizens Bancshares Inc., which manages $4 billion in Raleigh, North Carolina, including Bank of America shares.

“As active managers, we have screens that usually prohibit us from buying stocks under $5,” Teal said in an interview, citing the greater volatility and risk of such equities. “If we own it, we would not kick it out automatically, but generally we tend to avoid stocks like that.”

Bank of America shares have been pummeled as bond buyers and insurers demanded the company repurchase soured mortgages made by Countrywide Financial Corp., the home lender acquired in 2008 whose lax underwriting contributed to record U.S. defaults. Concern has also focused on the impact that a sovereign European default could have on the world’s largest financial firms. 

No secret here that B of A has too much exposure to a European implosion, as do the rest of the big banks in the US.  But there's still Foreclosuregate to deal with, and the two combined mean this bank is in real trouble.

Enough to be in $5 freefall and falling.  Could this be the trigger event that causes the Fed to step in?  Can the Fed even try to step in without the Republicans literally trying to string up Helicopter Ben?  And how bad will it get before the Fed is allowed to do anything about this mess?

2012 will show us these answers and more, I suspect.

And Then...Enter The Moose

Sarah Palin's bank account must be running dangerously close to under a couple million or so, either that or her narcissism is kicking in full blast, because...she's baaaaaaaaaaaack!

In a pre-taped interview set to air tonight on Fox Business Network’s “Follow The Money,” Eric Bolling mentioned to Sarah Palin that people constantly tell him they wish she was running for President. Instead of tut-tutting the idea, Palin — who said on Sunday that she wasn’t ready to endorse any Republican candidate yet — swung the door wide open for a possible entry into the GOP field:

“Any chance we can see you making a play, even after Iowa or New Hampshire?” Bolling asked. “There’s still plenty of time, Governor.”

“You know, it’s not too late for folks to jump in,” Palin replied. “And I don’t know, you know, it — who knows what will happen in the future?”

So… good news for all those people who bought “Palin 2012″ t-shirts as a joke four years ago; they may soon be wear-able outside of Halloween parties or in ironic neighborhoods of Brooklyn. And love her or hate her, Palin entering the race could add a fun element to the GOP race, which is due for another major shake-up soon.

And so, the Great Alaskan Grifting resumes.  People will send her money, she'll get on TV, she'll get attention...and then she'll pull out like she always does.  And her fans will love her all the more for it.

She can do this for decades.

"Record Number" Of Youths Leaving Church & Questioning Ethics

(CNN) -- Republican conservatives should be worried. Evangelical churches that frequently support conservative candidates are finally admitting something the rest of us have known for some time: Their young adult members are abandoning church in significant numbers and taking their voting power with them.

David Kinnaman, the 38-year-old president of the Barna Group, an evangelical research firm, is the latest to sound the alarm. In his new book, "You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church and Rethinking Faith," he says that 18- to 29-year-olds have fallen down a "black hole" of church attendance. There is a 43% drop in Christian church attendance between the teen and early adult years, he says.

• Seven in 10 millennials say sex between an unmarried man and woman is morally acceptable (PDF). (According to Kinnaman, young Christians are as sexually active as non-Christians.)

• Most women in their early 20s who give birth are unmarried.

• More than six in 10 millennials (including 49% of Republican millennials) support same-sex marriages.

• Six in 10 millennials say abortion should be legal (PDF), a higher proportion than found in the general population. A higher percentage say abortion services should be available in local communities.

Millennials also part ways with conservative orthodoxy on wealth distribution and caring for the environment. According to a report in The Christian Science Monitor, three out of four say that wealthy corporations and financiers have too much power and that taxes should be raised on the very wealthy, and two out of three say financial institutions should be regulated more closely. In addition, most say that creationists' view on evolution is outdated.

Sounds a lot like Democratic ideology to me.

I come from a strong religious background, and from an area famous for using religion to bully people.  I'm glad to see our young people stop, pause, and think it through.  There are many conclusions they can come to, but the moment of pride is when they use common sense and independent thinking to reach their decisions.

Politically speaking, this can mean a lot of changes.  The "voting army" of Republicans may be on the decline.  It also means that religious behavior won't be associated so strongly with Republicans.  After all, there are plenty of spiritual Dems out there.  Most important of all, these young people are able to see these issues as separate topics instead of a bundle, which is a major weakness in the Republican design.

We have educated, free-thinking individuals coming up as a next generation who believes in equality and fairness.  That is the biggest threat to the elitist, compartmentalizing disposition of the GOP.  They are less likely to fall for the "if you don't believe my every word you are my enemy" strategy employed thus far, and are actually likely to be turned off and disgusted by the open discrimination we see when Republicans rally to restore DADT and dismiss the working poor.  The closing paragraph says it the best:

And that's a good thing. As the most diverse generation ever, they've shown themselves to be better than their elders at seeking areas of common ground and making compromises. They're also more optimistic: Despite the economic instability of their generation, more than two-thirds believe they can achieve success regardless of race, ethnicity or social class. All of us, whether we're churched or unchurched, could use that kind of faith.

Can I get an amen?

To Be Franco About It

A former NYU professor claims he got the chop because he dared give James Franco a "D" -- this according to a new lawsuit.

José Angel Santana -- who taught Franco in his "Directing the Actor" class -- is now suing the University for his job back, claiming he was wrongfully terminated ... simply because he gave Franco a low grade.

According to the lawsuit, Santana dropped the D on Franco for missing 12 of the 14 classes in the MFA course. No shocker, considering the pic TMZ posted back in 2009 ... showing Franco passed out at one of his Columbia classes.

Twelve of fourteen? He deserved an F. Sleeping in class, disrespecting the teacher, all reasons to score poorly. I find myself sympathizing with the teacher here, who wants the craft to be taken seriously.

Besides, I've seen Franco's movies. He should have stayed awake.

The Comeback Kid

No, not Bill Clinton, Barack Obama.

Aided by comparison to the vastly unpopular Congress, Barack Obama has advanced to a 49 percent job approval rating in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll - his best showing since spring, and one that, if it holds, that may put his re-election prospects back within reach.

The result continues an improving trend for the president amid some signs of economic gains. And it contrasts with both parties in Congress, embroiled in their latest game of political chicken. A mere 27 percent of Americans now approve of the Democrats in Congress, and just 20 percent approve of the Republicans – both new lows in ABC/Post polling back to 1994.

Obama’s rating, while still (barely) under 50 percent, is up from his career-low 42 percent in October, and back at the level at which he could run competitively for a second term. George W. Bush had 47 percent approval as close as three months before he won re-election in 2004.

Now because this is a major Villager poll, they proceed to dump on the President for the entire rest of the article, but these numbers are a serious improvement.

It also means that the House is up for grabs in 2012...but it also means the Senate is up for grabs too.  It's going to be a long campaign season and every race, every vote is going to count.  Make sure you do your part.

The Sandbag Game, Orange Julius Version

Having completely lost control of his caucus to the Tea Party, Orange Julius is now using legislative parlor tricks to assure that the payroll tax cut extension fails and that the Senate bill, passed 89-10 by an overwhelming bipartisan majority is scrapped for the House version.  On top of that, the House plans to leave town for the holidays after the vote, leaving both Senate Republicans and Democrats with a take it or leave it deal.  Brian Beutler:

“We will have a motion to reject the Senate amendment and go to conference,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told reporters at a Monday press briefing. “We expect the minority to have a motion to instruct conferees. And then we will have a majority resolution that will lay out our House position that is consistent with the bill that we passed last week.”

In other words, House GOP members will get to vote “yes,” but in a way that says “no” to the Senate bill. This bears some resemblance to the health care reform-era controversy over so-called self-executing rules, when Democrats briefly considered tying two votes together into one, thus “deeming” unpopular legislation passed. Under the GOP’s plan, there’s no way for a vote to result in passage of the Senate bill.

Despite the delays and the procedural hijinx, House GOP aides confidently predicted that their measure will pass Tuesday. That would leave Reid to decide whether to stick to his guns or to appoint negotiators to work through the holidays on a full-year plan to renew the payroll tax cut, extend unemployment benefits, and patch a Medicare reimbursement formula to make sure physicians don’t take a big paycut on the first of the year. Reid has insisted he considers the matter closed and will leave Boehner holding the ball — giving him a choice between quelling the rebellion and passing the bipartisan Senate bill before January 1 or triggering a tax increase on middle class workers in a weak economy.

Republicans will hit back and call on Democrats to return to Washington to strike yet another compromise. Complicating that message for them? Many Republicans plan to leave town tomorrow after the close of votes. 

In other words, after the deal was worked out in the Senate and Speaker Boehner signed off on it Saturday, the Tea Party revolted.  Orange Julius has now lost complete control of his own caucus, and the Senate deal cannot be passed under this 2 for 1 vote.  If today's vote passes, the Senate deal is automatically scrapped, if it fails, the Senate deal dies normally.  Jon Chait points out why the revolt happened:  Boehner is a terribly weak leader, and the Tea Party caucus has decided that America's poor, working class, and middle class aren't paying enough taxes.

Republican opposition to extending the payroll tax is, in part, an expression of this same belief that the lower-earning half of the income distribution is getting a free ride – that the “takers” are exploiting the “makers,” to use Paul Ryan’s increasingly common catchphrase. This happens to be a wildly unpopular position, and Republicans are attempting to avoid having to defend it openly. (Being unpopular obviously isn't the same as being wrong, though I do disagree with the Republican position.)

Surprise, the Tea Party has always been the political patsy of the one percent, and nowhere is this more clear than the payroll tax cut rebellion in the House.  The fact of the matter is the Tea Party doesn't care if the 160 million Americans get burned with higher taxes next year...as far as they're concerned, you're all looters and moochers anyway.

StupidiNews!

• Travel across the Rockies and Great Plains will be "difficult" and "dangerous" today due to a powerful blizzard dropping more than a foot of snow from Utah to the Dakotas.
• A new study finds 1.6 million homeless children in the US, up 27% since the recession began in 2007.
• Iraq's Shiite government has ordered the arrest of the nation's Sunni Vice President after bodyguards confessed to his role in assassinations of Shiite officials.
• Lockheed Martin has won a multibillion dollar Japanese contract for 42 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft over the next 20 years, beating out rivals Boeing and Eurofighter.
• Apple is experimenting with "wearable displays" and other peripherals to interface with smartphones.

Last Call

And the big deal is now off:  AT&T has officially dropped its bid to buy T-Mobile after massive opposition from consumer groups, competitors, and the government.

AT&T had said it urgently needed to buy T-Mobile USA to help overcome a spectrum shortage, while Deutsche Telekom saw it as a way to exit the U.S. market to focus on its European operations. Once a cash cow, T-Mobile USA has been loosing customers.

An agreed $3 billion break up fee to be paid by AT&T, roaming agreements with AT&T and additional mobile licenses for T-Mobile USA will soften the blow but puts Deutsche Telekom back at square one.
"It was definitely a miscalculation (by AT&T)," said Steve Clement, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities.

"I don't know that it's such a big deal to the extent that you're going to have people looking for a change of management (at AT&T). But they definitely miscalculated what they would be able to push through to regulators'" he said.

AT&T will have to look elsewhere for the wireless airwaves it has said it needs to support the high demand for mobile data services and to compete with larger rival Verizon Wireless, which has agreed to buy spectrum from cable operators.

Considering wireless outfits just got stung for "sticker shock"  a couple months ago and have agreed to a "voluntary" measure to send out alerts to let people know they've gone over their plan minutes, it's not like wireless carriers have any real goodwill built up with consumers or the government right now.  AT&T's muscle deal to try to obtain critical mass to squeeze out competition would have given it control of too much of the market.  We need more wireless carriers, not less.

The deal's been doomed for some time now, but it's good to know it's finally finished.

Getting Soaked ByThe Free Market

The endless drive to privatize public government services is beginning to hit consumers right in the wallet.  We're told by the corporatists that private companies can provide services and utilities more cheaply and efficiently that evil old government.  Increasingly, that list of privatized services is including basic necessities like water itself.

Ask Texas resident Robert White how that's working out.

When Robert White opened his water bill last month, his jaw dropped: $250 for a month's worth of water and sewer service. The 63-year-old construction contractor, who shares a three-bedroom home with his wife in the bucolic Springbrook Centre subdivision, said he likes to keep his lawn green and expects hefty water bills. "I just don't want to be hijacked," he said.


White's water service is provided by a private utility owned by California-based SouthWest Water Co. LLC. Just across the four-lane Pflugerville Parkway, where White's neighbors in the Springbrook Glen subdivision — a nearly identical grid of neatly arranged brick-faced homes — get their water from Pflugerville, rates are on average about 60 percent less.

And White's bill for water service may nearly double soon, if SouthWest Water gets the latest rate increase it has requested. "I have never felt so helpless," he said. 

So White and other Texans are facing up to $2,000 a year for just for water and sewer service.  No competition, bound to a company who only cares about profiting off water.  And Texas's Utility Commission is designed to make it all but impossible to fight these massive rate increases.  The private water companies say they are simply passing on the true cost of water these days...because states simply don't want to pay to fix aging pipes.  They pass it all over to the private companies and they are making a killing.

Do read the whole story.  Privatized water systems are becoming more and more common...and so are massive rate increases.

Beware Of Funny Money This Holiday Season

The Cincy office of the US Secret Service reminds us that this time of year is pretty bad for counterfeit bills, and that there's a rise in funny money being used for online transactions.

Two-thirds of fake money is now printed on ink jets, not the printing presses of years ago, and because of the low-cost options, more people are doing it according to Cincinnati Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Mark Porter.

"The better color and duplication of color, how easy that is, and now the low prices. When the first started ten years ago not everybody could afford a printer and a scanner. Almost anybody can get their hands on this now."

One technique the Secret Service is seeing more often is the bleached bill. Counterfeiters take the ink off a five dollar bill and print that piece of paper with the markings of a 100. Assistant Steve Schwarz opens a loose leaf binder with laminated real and fake money, and points to a security symbol.

"That one is fairly close, but a lot of times it will be a blur." 

I would probably never sell an item for cash like that if I did that online just for that reason alone.  Worth more to me to have the piece of mind of an eBay or PayPal transaction instead.  To each his own, however.

Be careful out there this year.

Boy Chokes To Death At School While Workers Stand By

I had to take a first aid course before I could work with kids.  We had to take a basic one and pass before we could graduate high school.  I voluntarily took a refresher course just so I knew I had practice and was prepared.  I've performed CPR twice in my life.  Once it saved the person, the other time it failed.  But I knew what to do and in the heat of the moment I was calm and confident.  This fall, I choked and if my husband hadn't been there to help me I would have died.  I was trying to do the Heimlich maneuver on myself, and it wasn't enough (that was one stubborn chicken nugget).  I was starting to get dizzy and gray out when it worked.

I know the terror and pain of being unable to breathe.  I have seen the moment firsthand when you realize this may be it, you may die right here and now.  I hurt now realizing a 9-year-old boy's last memories will be of this, while the adults who worked at the school stood around unsure of how to help him.

NEW YORK -- Family members and a witness say a New York City fourth grader choked on meatballs during lunch earlier this month while school cafeteria workers stood by. The boy later died.

A parent at the school, Andrea Perez, told the newspaper she saw the boy choking but cafeteria workers did nothing. She said at one point they yelled at him to put his fingers down his throat.

"He was on the ground and not moving after a while," Perez said through a Spanish-speaking translator. "Nobody was paying attention and they didn't know how to give aid, nobody knew what to do."

Jonathan Jewth later died from the brain damage he suffered. A room full of people, and nobody knew how to perform the Heimlich?  My first job ever was at McDonald's.  My shiny CPR card meant nothing, we were trained in the Heimlich maneuver before we were allowed to work in food service, no exceptions.  Did the school lapse in training, or did the employees just forget in the panic?  Nobody knows yet and the comments are few and far between from those who were there.

Please, if you don't know basic medical aid sign up for a course.  They're often free, and can save lives.  The world is missing an adorable and gifted child because of ignorance.  That is inexcusable.

Viral Happiness - It's Catching

Okay, I laughed and I also got a bit teary at the pure damn happiness of this guy.  But first, a foreword from Jezebel:

The Surprise Pregnancy Announcement Youtube Video is practically its own genre, but this one has a twist: The expectant and delighted grandparents are two men. And they're jump-up-and-down excited.

I won't ruin the delight of watching the whole thing yourself, but suffice to say, their joy is contagious. If this is what happens when "traditional" families are destroyed by gay couples, then sign me up.

Tell me again why this is so dangerous to the world?

Legacy Of The Big Mistake

The most brutal casualty of the Iraq war from a political standpoint is that without Saddam keeping sectarian violence in check, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are now bitter enemies as the Saudis believe that Iraqi PM Al-Malaki is an Iranian puppet.

The Saudis charge that Iraq has come under the sway of Saudi archrival Iran. But they themselves have also tried to affect Iraqi internal politics: they've thrown their support and funds behind Ayad Allawi, Maliki's main political rival, who's blocked the appointment of top security officials in the Iraqi government.

"We're trying to contain them ... it's a sectarian government," said an adviser to the Saudi government who agreed to discuss the delicate Saudi-Iraqi relations anonymously because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

For its part, Iraq charges that insurgents are still infiltrating from Saudi Arabia. "There are a lot clerics and religious organizations that encourage and incite people to go to Iraq and fight in a so-called jihad," Labeed Abbawi, Iraq's deputy foreign minister, told McClatchy in Baghdad, skirting direct criticism of the Saudi government.

The enmity between Saudi Arabia and Iraq is just one of the many fissures in the Middle East that have widened in the almost nine years since the U.S. toppled Saddam. Now, the Arab Spring has exacerbated already existing sectarian tensions in the region at a time when the U.S. departure from Iraq leaves it with less capacity to act in the region to intervene if military conflict seems imminent.

The biggest fissure is the division between Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Shiite-led Iran. The two countries have been at loggerheads for centuries, in large part over whose branch of Islam should lead the Muslim world. But the replacement of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led regime with Maliki's Shiite-led government unsettled the playing field for the two countries.

And without that balance of power which we promptly wrecked over nine years, Iraq and Saudi Arabia aren't even talking anymore.  The Iraqi-Saudi border is now a major flashpoint in the world.  We knocked the Saudis off their block, something the neocons fail to mention...or wanted to happen.

Strange Definition Of "Not Hating"

Michele Bachmann doesn't hate Muslims, she just wants to compare them to Nazi Germany as the greatest threat to America right now.

Fox News host Mike Huckabee told Bachmann Saturday that he had never seen her act like she hated Muslims.

“You never have because I never have said anything that foolish,” Bachmann explained. “What I believe is that I love the American people and I love this country, and I want this country to be safe, sovereign and free.”

“Let’s address that specific allegation that you hate Muslims,” Huckabee pressed. “Do you hate Muslims?”

“Of course not,” Bachmann insisted. “I don’t hate Muslims. It’s outrageous to say that, but I do recognize that we have a very real threat. Just like when Hitler was building up the threat prior to World War II. All of the signs were there and they were evident, and there were people that wanted to bury their heads in the sand.”

So if we just rounded them up and put them in internment camps, I'm sure we'd be fine or something, right, Michele?  Just awesome.

StupidiNews!

• North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is dead at the age of 69, his son Kim Jong-Un is said to be his successor as the world reacts to the new order in the Communist regime.
• Cancer researchers have found a way to keep tumor cells alive outside of the human body, which could revolutionize cancer treatment.
• Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC are competing to be the site for the FBI's new headquarters building in 2020, the site could be selected as early as next year.
• Euro zone leaders are trying to secure another 200 billion euros in crisis funding from the IMF today, trying to get a deal in place before Christmas.
• A vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act was delayed indefinitely on Friday as House Judiciary Committee chair Lamar Smith of Texas pulled it from the schedule.