Last Call

There's pre-emptive Obama Derangement Syndrome pre-buttals, and then there's the class act that is Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito announcing a good  3-4 months in advance that he's skipping the State of the Union address because it's all kabuki.

Alito, answering questions following a speech Wednesday at the conservative Manhattan Institute in New York, also said, "Presidents will fake you out." The institute provided an online video link to Alito's talk and question-and-answer session.

The president will begin a sentence with an invocation of the country's greatness, Alito said. If justices don't jump up and applaud, "you look very unpatriotic," he said.

But, Alito continued, then the president may finish the thought by adding "because we're conducting a surge in Iraq or because we're enacting health care reform." Justices aren't supposed to react to statements about policy or politics.

The better course, Alito said, is to follow the example of more experienced justices like Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and the recently retired John Paul Stevens. None has attended in several years.

"So I doubt that I will be there in January," Alito said.

To recap, Alito, a SCOTUS justice, will not be attending the State of the Union address because it's too political for him and he has trouble maintaining his impartiality at a speech.

Being one of the final arbiters of the constitutionality of United States law, setting precedents that may stand for decades?  Easy.  Knowing when to stand at a speech?  Being able to tell the difference between patriotic cheerleading and policy fluffing?  Man, call off the dogs!

Keen mind, that Sammy.

Dear America:

Dear America:

"You ivory tower egghead libs with your math and your objectivity will never understand.  You can have all the education in the world and your vote still counts the same as everyone else's, and that's why you'll lose in the end.  What's more American than that, stupid nerds?  SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!"

-- Peter Berkowitz, Wall Street Journal

Bonus Verbatim Stupid:

"Those who doubt that the failings of higher education in America have political consequences need only reflect on the quality of progressive commentary on the tea party movement. Our universities have produced two generations of highly educated people who seem unable to recognize the spirited defense of fundamental American principles, even when it takes place for more than a year and a half right in front of their noses."

You know, spirited defenders like Michele Bachmann.  Facts?  Logic?  Debate?  Discourse?  Critical Thinking?  These are meaningless when you can just ring Pavlov's bell and take the power you want through fear, anger, resentment, and scapegoating.

On the contrary, progressives understand the Tea Party only too well, as America's history has seen those forces employed time and time again in the name of political expediency.  Of course, that would require looking back at America's darker past and studying it in order not to repeat it.

Why bother when repeating it works so well...and is so much easier to do?

Too Cleaver By Half

As the hate rhetoric on the right keeps growing, so do the threats to Democrats in office.

It turns out that the right-wing crazy who was threatening Patty Murray supporters with a cleaver in Spokane on Thursday is a man with a history of mental illness:

Friends and family of Sieler told KREM 2 News he is psychotic and needs help.
"He has no control of what he's doing," Sieler's ex girlfriend Theresa Stapleton said. "He's made death threats on people."

Stapleton is the mother of Sieler's child, and says she speaks to him regularly. Stapleton says Sieler has been off his medication and has dangerous psychotic episodes.

Recently, Stapleton says he's been obsessed with politicians who he thinks they are out to get him.

Interestingly, this incident is only the latest in a string of violent threats at Democrats -- and particularly President Obama -- cropping up very recently, and in all of them mental illness appears to be playing a significant role.

And it's not just this one time.  Several incidents just in the last six weeks indicate that the vitriol that the right tosses off as "just playing to win" is in fact increasingly dangerous.  You have to wonder just what is driving people to literally come after Democrats with cleavers.

However, you have to wonder what will happen if they wake up on the morning after Election Day and discover that their planned takeover of Congress has failed. Because then, it won't just be the diagnostically insane who will be acting out.

No, it won't.  But of course the loudmouths on the right will never take responsibility for any of this.

He's An Aqua Buddha Man, Part 2

Jack Conway's latest attack ad against Rand Paul here in Kentucky is...umm...interesting.



It tries to intimate a little too hard that Paul's anti-Christian, and that's a fairly big whopper. On the other hand, Rand Paul did say and do these things, and that's a viable political attack card to play in Kentucky, that Paul is only paying lip service to religious conservative Republicans and independents.

Given Paul's record of doing that, this ad is pretty relevant.

Piling On The First Lady

With news that Michelle Obama is still popular with a majority of Americans came out this month, the Wingnut right had to do everything they could to reverse it, from Glenn Beck...

On the October 14 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Show, Beck invoked the horror film The Omen while attacking Michelle Obama for her comments. Beck said, "I've never heard that. I've never heard that from a Christian -- I'm not questioning her Christianity, here." Later, executive producer Steve "Stu" Burguiere said, "Thank you, Michelle Obama. Creating jobs." Beck replied, "Jobs? Spooky phrases."

...to Michelle Malkin...

"Keeping the spirits clean around us?" Huh? She sounds like the liberal caricature of Christine O'Donnell. Bubble, bubble, toil, and trouble.

As for the "prayer circles" and "Everybody I know in our communities is praying for us" and "we're all proud of Barack and his accomplishments" jabber, have the Obamas learned nothing about the price of arrogance and the value of humility over the last two years.

Question: Does Michelle O ever pray for anyone other than Barack?

...to El Rushbo...

"I've never heard of prayer circles and keeping the spirits clean around us. I mean, I've been praying for things like my family and friends' health, the country, things of this nature, and now I learn that we're supposed to be praying for the hygiene of the spirits?"

 ...to Moose Lady...

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin seemed to have the 2008 election – and, specifically, first lady Michelle Obama – on her mind during a speech at a conservative forum Thursday night.


"You know, when I hear people say, or had said during the campaign that they've never been proud of America, haven't they met anybody in uniform yet?" Palin opined during her remarks at a Liberty and Freedom Foundation forum in San Jose, California. 

...to Matt Drudge.

Did Michelle Obama violate Illinois election law?

The question arose after the first lady, who voted early at her Chicago precinct Thursday, responded to voters who voiced support for her husband. It’s unlawful in the state to have a “political discussion” or engage in “electioneering” within 100 feet of a polling place.

A pool report by Chicago Sun-Times reporter Abdon Pallasch said Obama had a photo taken with electrician Dennis Campbell, 56 years old. It quoted Campbell as saying, “She was telling me how important it was to vote to keep her husband’s agenda going.”

Boy, do you remember all the nasty, vicious, mean-spirited attacks Democrats made on Laura Bush?

Me either.  They didn't happen.  But if you're a Democrat in the White House, your spouse is fair game.  As I've said a few times before, not all Obama Derangement Syndrome is directed at Barack.  You'd think Wingers would have something better to do, but alas, they have no human souls.

Eric Holder's Smoking Something

The Attorney General is indeed partaking of some sort of mind-altering substance if he thinks threatening Californians is going to scare them off of voting for Prop 19 to legalize marijuana.

The U.S. government will "vigorously enforce" federal laws against marijuana even if voters next month make California the first state to legalize pot, Attorney General Eric Holder says.

Holder's warning, contained in a letter to ex-federal drug enforcement chiefs, was his most direct statement yet against Proposition 19, and it sets up another showdown with California over marijuana if the measure passes.

With Prop 19 leading in the polls, the letter also raised questions about the extent to which federal drug agents would go into communities across the state to catch small-time users and dealers, or whether they even had the resources to do it.

If the ballot measure passes, the state would regulate recreational pot use. Adults could possess up to one ounce of the drug and grow small gardens on private property. Local governments would decide whether to allow and tax sales of the drug.

But Holder stressed that the Justice Department remains committed to enforcing the Controlled Substances Act in all states.

"We will vigorously enforce the CSA against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law," he wrote.

Unless you plan on making every weed possession case a federal one and rounding up thousands of Californians (if not millions) if Prop 19 passes, then you've not got a leg to stand on, man.  The Feds don't have the manpower nor the facilities to handle pot charges on 1/7th of the entire US population.  No way.  He bluffing.

I don't use the stuff myself, my choice...but isn't that the point of Prop 19?

Turn On The Lights, Watch The Roaches Scatter, Part 23

A prime example of what I was talking about last night on Last Call -- the fact that the financial happy-face press is trying to treat Foreclosuregate as a paperwork snafu that doesn't change anything rather than years of institutionalized industry fraud -- is on full display with CNBC's John Carney (again with this guy.)

So here’s what I expect will happen. The lame duck session of Congress will pass a bill that essentially papers over the misdeeds of the banks that originated mortgage securities. Every member of Congress and every Senator who has been voted out of office will cast a vote for the bill. And the President will sign it.

Will the public be outraged? Probably. Financial bloggers will scream from the high heavens against another bailout of the banksters. Congress may try to create some cost for banks in exchange for the forgiveness, perhaps requiring more mortgage modifications. 

But the much feared put-back apocalypse will be laid to rest. 

If you’re skeptical about the possibility that this will happen, you have greater faith than I do in the ability of the political system to resist doing favors for bankers. 

Carney is clearly underestimating someone here.  Oh, not Republicans in Congress.  He's right that this is exactly what they will try to do.  I think he's underestimating the President and Democrats somewhat, but not by much.

But Carney is completely underestimating the American people.  The second this happens, you will have an event which will put the Teabaggers, the Centrist Daleks, and the Dirty F'ckin Hippies on the same side, and it will be a dangerously beautiful thing.  It would be a visceral reaction out there:  Congress just passed a law allowing the banks to get away with stealing people's homes.

Madness.  You thought people hated TARP?  This would be riot-inducing, not to mention morally and legally wrong as hell.  It would be over for this administration, not to mention Congress.

I just don't see how this happens.  It can't.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• At least 20 are dead in a coal mine explosion in China, leaving 17 more miners trapped.
• The US Army will try the first of five soldiers accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport.
• UNC football coach Butch Davis has told his players to deactivate their Twitter accounts as the team is investigated by the NCAA.
• Ex-Countrywide Mortgage CEO Angelo Mozilo will settle his fraud charges from the SEC for a hefty $67.5 million.
• Only Canada has more expensive cell phone plans per minute than the US.

Last Call

In the real world, Forclosuregate is being trated as a serious, if not crisis-threatening problem caused by widespread and systemic document fraud that should be punished by jail time and fines.  It is a massive issue that involves trillions in real estate and could jeopardize the economy of the entire country.  it is the genesis of the next financial collapse, plain and simple.

In the financial press, it's just a damn paperwork mishap that doesn't mean anything because everyone the banks are foreclosing on is guilty and deserves to be thrown out in the street for being poor, and the real victim here in Wall Street.

Which side Obama comes down on here will define not only his Presidency, but the direction of America.

Dear America: The Butler Did It

Several months ago, I read an article about a college graduate who was still living at home, unable to find work. He was in despair because of his college loans and was forced to live with his parents. Mom and dad tsked and sympathized. Then the other details began to emerge. For example, this student had turned down jobs because they just didn't pay enough. His highest offer had been $45,000, and that was simply not worth it. After having his living supported while attending for school he wasn't paying for yet, he decided that he deserved better. I read several follow up editorials rightfully asking why this young man felt entitled to live for free in a nice, two-story home in a middle class neighborhood and turn down work. How is earning nothing better than earning a "measly" 45k per year with no experience in the field? How did the editor not realize how ridiculous it looked that their slant clearly intended to drum up pity for this man's plight? Therein lies our problem. Some people still don't get it.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies: Arthur. The lines are spoken by Sir John Gielgud, in the role of Hobson the butler.

"Please remove your helmet." Smack smack. "You spoiled little bastard." Smack. "So you feel unloved. Welcome to the world, Arthur, everyone is unloved." Smack. "And incidentally, I love you."

We all need a wake up call now and then. This one is long overdue. We are spoiled little bastards. Normally, I try to refrain from mixing Dudley Moore with Ben Stein in polite company. The one time I saw Ben Stein in person, he said something that has stuck with me ever since. "We have people living below our poverty line who have air conditioning, a TV set in every room, guaranteed emergency medical care and a cell phone," he said. He is right. Make no mistake, I'm not saying that minimum wage is acceptable, or that the tax system is right or fair. I'm saying as a nation, most of us take a lot of luxuries for granted. We have bought the fairy tale that our standard of living will continue through no real effort or sacrifice on our part. We somehow trick ourselves into forgetting what poverty looks like. How can we complain about our health care system when tuberculosis, starvation and dying from a simple infection are still a threat for millions? Our law prevents an emergency room from turning anyone away, regardless of their ability to pay. Compare that to Zimbabwe and tell me we have the short end of any stick.

We do have problems in our nation that have to be dealt with, and now. One of them needs to be our perspective. Our gift of a free education should empower us to be smarter than this. Due to the economy, some of us are learning how to make choices, budget, go without and work harder for the first time ever. In the long run, that's not a bad thing. As a culture, it may be our salvation. We've been spoiled children long enough. Now it is time to live like the rest of the world and take ownership of our problems, regardless of whether we feel they are fair, or of the solution looks a little too much like work. I think we are finally waking up and shaking off the stupor that let us fall into this trap. It's about time we recognize our assets and put our energy into what matters.

And incidentally, I love you.

Bon

Bachmann To The Future

I have accused Republicans of wanting to roll back this country to the 1950's or even the 1920's.  As usual, their truth is greater than my imagination as Michele Bachmann apparently wants America to go back to 1789.

Q. If, with a snap of your fingers, you could change anything about America, what would it be?

A. Reduce the federal government to its original size and constitutional limitations and to restore the 9th and 10th amendments.

Stop and parse that for a sec.   The first Congress in 1789 had 26 Senators and 69 members of the House.  They created the Bill of Rights during that period, the first ten Amendments to the US Constitution.  Michele Bachmann apparently thinks everything since then is rubbish.

You know, like Minnesota having Senators or Representatives (not a state until 1858).  I guess she wants herself fired.  Odd reason to vote for someone, don't you think?

And hey, let's get rid of all the cabinet departments created since then.  We had Foreign Affairs(now State Department), War (now Department of Defense), Treasury, the Attorney General and Postmaster General in 1789.   Everyone not working for Hillary, Robert Gates, Tim Geithner, Eric Holder and the post office is outta there!

And since "restoring the 9th and 10th Amendments" to a 1789 state would mean getting rid of all the Amendments after them, Michele wouldn't have the right to vote.  Of course, there wouldn't be elections for Senate at all, states would determine who would be allowed to vote, own property, or you know, not be a friggin slave, and the US would basically be a pretty lousy place to live in.

If I recall, a lot of the problems with America's history stemmed from the fact that Michele Bachmann's view of a 1789 America wasn't all it was cracked up to be, and we had a nice little Civil War over it some 60 or so years later.

But going back to that is what Michele Bachmann wants, apparently.  if she could "snap her fingers" we'd be pretty much screwed.  But it's a great campaign slogan!

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Here's why I hate election politics sometimes.

What Harry Reid had to do in order to win last night's Senate debate in Nevada:

1. Memorize his entire Senate voting record.
2. Memorize every word he has said on the Senate floor.
3. Be prepared to debate every piece of legislation he has ever voted on.
4. Be prepared to defend every vote.
5. Memorize every dollar of income he has ever received and why.
6. Justify every job lost in Nevada since he became a politician.
7. Explain why every job in Nevada lost since then was lost.
8. Speak in an exciting, dynamic, and engaging manner.
9. Display all the gravitas of the Senate Majority Leader.
10. Defend President Obama.
11. Be willing to criticize President Obama.
12. Catalog every earmark Nevada has received because of his actions and defend them.
13. Justify every federal dollar spent in the last four years outside the state of Nevada, and what the benefit is to Nevada taxpayers.
14. Justify every federal dollar spent in the last four years in Nevada, and what the benefit is to Nevada taxpayers.
15. Explain everything to everybody, to everybody's satisfaction.
16. Prounounce every word correctly.
17. Not make any gestures that would be taken as his elitist dismissal of a real American.
18. Emote wildly in order to prove he is a regular American and not an elitist.
19. Satisfy the entire Village with his extreme seriousness, because the Senate is sacred.
20. Make everyone laugh at least once to show how human he is.

What Sharron Angle had to do in order to win last night's Senate debate in Nevada:

1. Not execute a box full of kittens with a food processor while praising Satan.

Guess who "won" the debate last night?

[UPDATE]  Steve M. argues fairly convincingly that Reid not only lost the debate, but this Senate race as well.  And that's where we are:  the Senate is now high school student council elections writ large, where the cool kid who wants to put vending machines in every locker is going to trounce the debate club nerd.

The Kroog Versus Foreclosuregate

Finally, Paul Krugman weighs in on the robo-signing, foreclosure milling, wrong-house repossessing, document-forging disaster that has been the housing market over the last several years.

Now an awful truth is becoming apparent: In many cases, the documentation doesn’t exist. In the frenzy of the bubble, much home lending was undertaken by fly-by-night companies trying to generate as much volume as possible. These loans were sold off to mortgage “trusts,” which, in turn, sliced and diced them into mortgage-backed securities. The trusts were legally required to obtain and hold the mortgage notes that specified the borrowers’ obligations. But it’s now apparent that such niceties were frequently neglected. And this means that many of the foreclosures now taking place are, in fact, illegal.

This is very, very bad. For one thing, it’s a near certainty that significant numbers of borrowers are being defrauded — charged fees they don’t actually owe, declared in default when, by the terms of their loan agreements, they aren’t.

Beyond that, if trusts can’t produce proof that they actually own the mortgages against which they have been selling claims, the sponsors of these trusts will face lawsuits from investors who bought these claims — claims that are now, in many cases, worth only a small fraction of their face value.

And who are these sponsors? Major financial institutions — the same institutions supposedly rescued by government programs last year. So the mortgage mess threatens to produce another financial crisis. 

Obama doesn't want to do anything, Krugman goes on to say, and the Village econ division seems to think the bank doesn't need any stinking paperwork.   It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, mainly because the people who have solutions are once again being ignored in favor of hand-wringing over the banks, or trying to sweep the measure under the rug completely.

The pushback by the Village on this has been impressive.  they're acting like this is a minor inconvenience because the Masters of the Universe don't need paperwork.  They create their own reality.  Jim Cramer is not just drinking the Kool-Aid, he's made of it, like some sort of cursed elemental made of conventional wisdom and sugar. 

"This is a remarkable moment where the bears who have seized control of the media have created an atmosphere where it seems like no one believes anything could go higher," Cramer said. "While those in control of stock buying see silver linings and glasses half full everywhere, which is why we didn't go down nearly as hard as I thought we would."

Foreclosuregate is all in your head, folks.  It's too complex for anyone to understand, so just trust the banks!

Awesome.  Just like last time!

Quantitative Physics

That musical whirring sound you hear this morning is Helicopter Ben's Magical Printing Press going through its pre-flight warm up checks.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave the clearest signal yet that the Fed is about to act to further spur the sluggish U.S. economy, stating that "there would appear...to be a case for further action."

The Fed chairman, in a speech in Boston Friday morning, said persistently high unemployment poses too great a threat to the economy, and that the central bank needs to weigh the risk of weak prices, rather than focus on its traditional concerns about inflation. He suggested the battle against inflation has largely been won by the Fed.

"For the first time in many decades, [the Fed] had to take seriously the possibility that inflation can be too low as well as too high," he said.

Benny here is about to go quantitative on somebody's ass.  At this point it's just a question of how large the money nuke is going to be.  I'm glad that bernanke has finally noticed that unemployment just might be a problem, but I'm wondering what buying up a trillion and change in treasuries is going to do when American companies continue to sit on the small inland sea of cash created by the last batch of QE cooking and not spend it on expansion.

There's little to no point if businesses aren't going to hire workers because the workers have no money to buy stuff because they have no job.  This would involve crazy things like "government make work programs as the employer of last resort" and other things that would cause Tea Party embolisms in the streets.

We'll see what happens.  If it's anything like the last time, all it will do is just stall the inevitable until we fix the root cause of the problem:  the financial system.

Tea'd Up For A Beatdown

I'd like to thank the NY Times' Kate Zernike for this story, because it needs to be said.

Enough Tea Party-supported candidates are running strongly in competitive and Republican-leaning Congressional races that the movement stands a good chance of establishing a sizeable caucus to push its agenda in the House and the Senate, according to a New York Times analysis.

With a little more than two weeks till Election Day, 33 Tea Party-backed candidates are in tossup races or running in House districts that are solidly or leaning Republican, and 8 stand a good or better chance of winning Senate seats.

While the numbers are relatively small, they could exert outsize influence, putting pressure on Republican leaders to carry out promises to significantly cut spending and taxes, to repeal health care legislation and financial regulations passed this year, and to phase out Social Security and Medicare in favor of personal savings accounts. 

Scared yet, America?  You should be.  The Tea Party will effectively take control of the Republican Party if the Republican Party takes control of Congress.   Obama will actually develop some sort of elbow condition from overuse of his veto pen.  But that's what we're facing here.

The Tea Party isn't anything new, folks.  it's just the same old fringe lunacy on the right repackaged, astroturfed, and mass produced for consumption.  In fact, just about the only thing people are consuming these days in our economy is Tea Party ideas.  It's the same old litany of hate, the same old "I'm the candidate who stands for something, I stand for being against blah blah blah" and if you value any sort of two party sanity in DC or in the American system as a whole, you'll want to see these guys go down in flames roughly the same height and temperature as the sun's corona.

These guys actually make me miss the Republicans of the 80's.  So if you're going Galt with your vote this year as a progressive because you want to teach the Democrats a lesson, then the lesson that they will learn is "The Tea Party runs this country now and progressives are to be ignored" and that the country should lurch even further to the right.

Because right now a small percentage of folks on the right are about to run rampant over the country, because an even smaller percentage of folks on the left are actually planning on giving a rat's ass.  I hate to bring up, of all things, the lyrics of Rush, but here you are:

"If you choose to stand still, you still have made a choice."

There are better choices in November, folks.  Make them.