From The "You Have To Be Effing Kidding Me" Department

...Is the big shiny WaPo leak by Al Kamen and Philip Rucker proclaiming the newest nugget out of Obama's team: Hillary as Secretary Of State.

There's increasing chatter in political circles that the Obama camp is not overly happy with the usual suspects for secretary of state these days and that the field might be expanding somewhat beyond Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) and maybe former Democratic senator Sam Nunn of Georgia.

There's talk, indeed, that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) may now be under consideration for the post. Her office referred any questions to the Obama transition; Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor declined to comment.

The pick of the former presidential contender and Senate Armed Services Committee member would go a long way toward healing any remaining divisions within the Democratic Party after the divisive primaries. Also, Clinton has long been known for her work on international women's issues and human rights. The former first lady could also enhance Obama's efforts to restore U.S. standing amongst allies worldwide.

And Obama could put her in his speed-dial for a 3 a.m. phone call every morning.

So I'm sitting here watching Rachel Maddow and Andrea Mitchell discuss how bad it would be for Obama if this isn't true, that it would be a "slap in the face" to Hillary for her not to get this position now after a leak like this, and for the first time I want to throw something at Rachel Maddow for giving into this Village garbage and I'd like her to tell Andrea Mitchell to go intercourse herself with a power tool of her choice.

Ladies and gentlemen, I can honestly say that I cannot think of a worse person for Sec State for Obama to pick than Hillary Rodham Clinton...which makes me think the quid pro quo on this was sealed months ago. This means Obama's idea of foreign policy is Bush, Only Competent! Joy!

We now know Hillary's price for her and Big Dog campaigning for Obama, and the other shoe has dropped on all these Clinton folks in the transition team. The usual Hillbloggers are already saying that she'd be perfect for the position, when in fact she would absolutely assure that America's foreign policy would continue to be the same abysmal mess we're in right now, and that Israel would be the chief architect of our "diplomacy".

Quite frankly, the trap's been closed on Obama on this one. My major beef with Obama has always been his depressingly Bush-like foreign policy, and the fact it was marginally better than Clinton's even more Bush-like foreign policy was the decider for me in the primaries...at least Obama wanted out of Iraq.

Then again, Obama's too smart for this to really be a trap: Hillary was promised this all along, and this is the pound of flesh she got for not being VP. You'd better believe Big Dog will be all over this too.

So hooray, our foreign policy is officially a shitburger! This right here? This is Obama's first major screw-up, and he's still 68 friggin days from being inaugurated. Should have know it was coming, things were going too well for him.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Jesus.

LIBOR's Liable To Li-Boom

The three month LIBOR numbers have been steadily but slowly improving over the last four and a half weeks. That is...until today.

The cost of borrowing dollars for three months in London rose, snapping a 23-day decline, signaling policy makers have yet to succeed in thawing the global credit freeze.

The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, that banks say they charge each other for such loans increased almost 2 basis points to 2.15 percent today, according to British Bankers' Association data. The last time the rate climbed was Oct. 10. The overnight rate also climbed 2 basis points, to 0.40 percent, or 60 basis points below the Federal Reserve's target rate.

Declines in money-market rates may be slowing amid signs the financial crisis will persist and is spreading to the global economy. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday he plans to use the second half of the $700 billion financial-rescue program to help relieve pressures on consumer credit, scrapping an effort to buy devalued mortgage assets.

``There's still a lot of uncertainty, especially after the change in the U.S. rescue plan,'' said Alessandro Tentori, a fixed-income strategist in London at BNP Paribas SA. ``The perception in the market will change.''

The global hedge-fund industry lost $100 billion of assets in October, according to an estimate from Eurekahedge Pte, as firms including Sparx Group Co. and Man Group Plc were hammered by investor redemptions.

The LIBOR and TED spread numbers are still much higher than they need to be historically, and if they are heading back UP now due to the US bailout being focused on buying bank stock stakes rather than buying bad mortgage securities and getting them off the books of banks, it means...surprise!

The $700 billion bailout isn't working at all.

We're changing plans in midstream here. Treasury has been reduced to throwing things at the wall to see what sticks, meanwhile the auto industry is about to go under and banks are doing exactly what I said they would do a month ago: sit on all their nice safe government cash and use it for everything BUT lending to consumers and businesses.

Another bailout program will inevitably be signed into law by Obama in early 2009. He'll have no choice.

StupidiNews!

• The second expansion to the wildly popular World of Warcraft hits stores across the world.
• As vote counting continues in Alaska, Democrat Mark Begich has now taken a lead over convicted felon Senator Ted Stevens.
• US foreclosure numbers continue to get worse as October's figures show nearly 85,000 homes were lost.
• Seven-year-old Stanislas "Stas" Gunkel: Political blogger and Stoopid fighter in training?
• Even Wal-Mart is expecting a bad fourth quarter this year.