Last Call

If Rush Limbaugh publicly acts like he's the defining voice of the GOP in 2009, then, Paul Begala argues, Democrats should treat him as such.

Top Democratic operatives are planning a stepped up campaign to promote Rush Limbaugh as the public face of the GOP — an effort that will include recruiting Dem governors to make this case on talk shows, getting elected officials to pen Op eds arguing it, and running more ads pushing it, a senior Democratic operative says.

Key leadership staff in the House and Senate, and in all the political committees, have been encouraged by senior Dem operatives to push this message wherever possible, the operative says.

“I’m encouraging everybody to go out and say this,” Paul Begala, the well-known Dem strategist, just told me by phone. “I’m hot for this. Let’s get this out every way we can.”

Begala is emerging as a major cheerleader and public face for this effort, though he says he’s not formally directing it. He described the effort as “organic” right now, though senior Democrats are discussing ways to formalize it.

Demonizing El Rushbo certainly has the potential to backfire. It's the kind of tactics you'd expect the GOP to use against Obama, and let's face it: demonizing Obama is most certainly the GOP's current strategy. Still, there's a big difference between demonizing Rush Limbaugh and the President: You can simply use Limbaugh's own words to do him in.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Atrios sez:

One of the bits of wrong conventional wisdom going into 2008 was that at some point the Republican presidential candidate and conservatives generally would break up with Bush somehow. I never believed this because for 8 years the entire identity of the conservative movement was George Bush. There was no way to do it.

I'm not sure why they're bothering to try now.

I'm 100% why they are trying now, and that's that the GOP has fully embraced becoming the Party Of Hoping America Collapses So They Can Rise From The Ashes. The inmates are running the asylum. CPAC is just the tip of the iceberg for these wackos, and I guarantee you that the completely delusional right-wingers are running stuff now, and the Bush/McCain Chamber of Commerce "big tent" wing of the party now only exists to be purged.

This includes guys like Mitt Romney, Charlie Crist, and Ahnold out in Cali, as well as centrists like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Arlen Specter. They will be driven out of the party by fire here in the next several years as the assault on Obama The Enemy grows into full-fledged insanity.

El Rushbo gave the plan away months ago and continues to reaffirm it almost daily: Obama must fail, and with him America must fail as well, for the GOP message of hate and violence to properly prosper. The rest of the GOP is beginning to publicly admit it. The same folks who screamed that dissent against Bush was tantamount to treason are now openly admitting they want the President to go down in flames and take your country with him.

The storm is coming, folks. It's going to be like nothing we've seen in generations. Obama will be singled out by the GOP as the cause of everything, and they will all but tacitly encourage America to rise up against him. The country is sadly underestimating the extent to which the deposed lunatics in the Republican Party will go.

They will not stop until somebody rids them of this troublesome President.

Obudget Battle

This week's Presidential Address takes on the budget and Obama's efforts to pass it.


The problem is Obama's budget is staggering: $3.55 trillion at last count. Not even I think all of that will be approved. Even with a 78-seat majority in the House, Obama is going to have to fight for every last dollar through Congress, and remember, last year a budget didn't even get passed. It fell to those omnibus spending bills that were extended to the last minute. Some of those bills still haven;t been passed, and the fiscal year ended back in September.

But the honest truth is we're down to the government as spender of last resort. If we don't get the economy going soon, we're facing the Lost Decade scenario. And remember, that suits the GOP just fine. They want a spending freeze and to permanently extend (if not increase) the Bush tax cuts...and throw in MORE tax cuts for corporations. They will do everything they can to block this budget for months and months, causing as much damage to the economy as possible.

Expect Blue Dog Democrats in the House and DINO senators to follow suit. The usual suspects are already whining about the budget, and corporate interests and wealthy Americans are already declaring war on Obama.

We'll see.

This Week's Busted Banks

Another Friday passes, another pair of banks end up dragged out on the pile of bodies by the FDIC.

Banks in Nevada and Illinois were seized by regulators, bringing this year’s tally to 16, as tumbling home prices and surging unemployment caused more borrowers to fall behind on loan payments.

Security Savings Bank of Henderson, Nevada, and Heritage Community Bank of Glenwood, Illinois, with combined assets of $471.2 million, were shut by state regulators and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver, the FDIC said yesterday. Bank of Nevada in Las Vegas is assuming Security Savings’ $175.2 million in deposits, while Heritage Community’s $218.6 million will go to MB Financial Bank of Chicago.

“Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage,” the FDIC said.

As regulators wrap up the busiest month for bank failures since 1993, they’re preparing to replenish the FDIC’s insurance fund, which dwindled by 45 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months to $18.9 billion. The FDIC said it will charge U.S. banks a one-time assessment and increase other fees amid estimates that bank closures could cost the fund $65 billion through 2013.

The FDIC shuttered 25 banks in 2008, including Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest U.S. bank to fail last year, and IndyMac Bank Inc., the second-largest. The 10 banks closed in February were in Oregon, California, Florida, Nebraska, Illinois, and Georgia and Nevada as foreclosures rose across the country.

10 banks a month is not exactly a really good thing here. The happy-face financial media says it's no big deal, but the FDIC is raising fees on banks in order to get cash for its emergency bank fund.

Facing a cascade of bank failures depleting the deposit insurance fund, federal regulators on Friday raised the fees paid by U.S. financial institutions and levied an emergency premium in a bid to collect $27 billion this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now expects that bank failures will cost the insurance fund around $65 billion through 2013, up from an earlier estimate of $40 billion. The bank failures, 14 already this year following 25 last year, reflect the ravages of rising unemployment and falling home prices that have sent loan defaults soaring.

The FDIC said the economic crisis, which has caused the insurance fund to drop to its lowest level in nearly a quarter-century, also warranted extending the plan to rebuild the insurance fund from five years to seven.

The emergency premium, to be levied on the roughly 8,500 federally insured institutions on June 30, will be 20 cents for every $100 of their insured deposits. That compares with an average premium of 6.3 cents paid by banks and thrifts last year.

So yes, triple the fees charged to banks to keep customer deposits insured. That doesn't exactly strike me as a sign the FDIC isn't worried. Quite the opposite: the FDIC is expecting many, many more banks to fail in 2009 and well beyond.

We may be on a tad slower pace than two weeks ago, but we're still shooting for 96 bank closings in 2009, 8 banks a month. I honestly think that rate will rise, and it will rise soon.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition

• Controversial evangelical leader James Dobson steps down as head of Focus on the Family.
• A daring heist in Dublin, Ireland netted thieves over 6 million British pounds in cash.
• A Federal appeals court says that a lawsuit against the warrantless wiretap program can proceed.
• Tough times are driving a surge in movie box office receipts across America.
• Amazon's second-generation Kindle may be to books what Apple's iPhone 3G is to cell phones.

Last Call

California's unemployment rate in January? A nasty 10.1 percent. Counting all the underemployed and those who have given up looking for work, I'm betting the "real unemployment rate" is closer to eighteen percent or so...if not twenty. One in six, perhaps even one in five Californians are either out of work, are working only part time, or have given up on finding a job.

California represents 1/7th of the country by itself. It is far over the national average of 7.6% and the tarnished Golden State numbers are dragging it way up. The bad news is that the national average is then well under the actual numbers and will be revised upwards next week when the February numbers come out.

If the February numbers are where I think they are going to be, we'll be well into 8% plus nationally on Thursday, and it's entirely possible the February numbers could hit as high as 8.5% with a strong upwards revision on the January numbers to 8% even.

I don't want to be right on this one. Those revised GDP numbers are f'ckin terrifying. I fully expect 1Q 2009 to be a 7% contraction or so, if not (Flying Spaghetti Monster help us) 8%.

We're honestly getting to the point now where we have to start calling this what it is.

Economic Depression.

Kenneth The Governor Is Done

Bobby Jindal is toast, kids.

Not only did he come in dead last in CNN's 2012 GOP hopeful poll (taken before his disastrous speech), not only has Tom Tancredo pronounced his career DOA, but it turns out he lied about his Hurricane Katrina story in that widely panned speech.

Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn't have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, "that's ridiculous," prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

This is no minor difference. Jindal's presence in Lee's office during the crisis itself was a key element of the story's intended appeal, putting him at the center of the action during the maelstrom. Just as important, Jindal implied that his support for the sheriff helped ensure the rescue went ahead. But it turns out Jindal wasn't there at the key moment, and played no role in making the rescue happen.

There's a larger point here, though. The central anecdote of the GOP's prime-time response to President Obama's speech, intended to illustrate the threat of excessive government regulation, turns out to have been made up.

Maybe it's time to rethink the premise.

Sadly, the unemployed of Louisiana still have to deal with him keeping them from getting benefits, and he's taking the rest of the GOP down the road to near-permanent wilderness.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

Robert Reich asks:

There's no reason to suppose the 1st quarter of 2009 will be any better, and lots of reason to think it will be worse. Government is spender of last resort. We're at the last resort now. $787 billion over two years, and only two-thirds of it real spending, is way below what will be needed to get the economy moving back toward full capacity. Do Republicans know this? Is this why they're continuing to bet that the economy won't be recovering by November, 2010, and why they're going to continue to say no?

Why yes and yes, Bob.

The GOP is committed to the destruction of the American economy for political gain. From Bobby Jindal turning down federal stimulus dollars in order to earn conservative cred to John Boehner's laughable hypocrisy calling Obama's legislation a "job killer" to Mitch McConnell's equally laughable hypocrisy saying that Republicans "prefer personal freedom" to government control, the Republicans have bet their political future that America will all but collapse, and that the GOP will be able to rise from the ashes anew.

And they'll do everything they can to nudge America off the cliff.

The Real Tea Party

While the Wingnuts keep insisting there's an invisible massive populist anti-Obama protest just around the corner, the reality is the populist protest is coming at the expense of GOP governors who are turning down stimulus unemployment money. The result is that these 2012 Presidential hopefuls are drawing the anger of the people in their states who don't appreciate being the price paid for those ambitions.

For people like Henry Kight, 59, of Austin, Tex., the possibility that the money might be turned down is a deeply personal issue.

Mr. Kight, who worked for more than three decades as an engineering technician, discovered in September that because of complex state rules, he was not eligible for unemployment insurance after losing a job at a major electronics manufacturer he had landed at the beginning of the year.

Unable to draw jobless benefits, he and his wife have taken on thousands of dollars in credit-card debt to help make ends meet.

It is precisely these kind of regulations, involving such matters as the length of a person’s work history or reason for leaving a job, that the federal government is trying to get the states to change. Such a move could extend benefits to an estimated half-million more people, according to the National Employment Law Project, a liberal group in New York that supports the changes.

Mr. Kight and other unemployed workers said they were incensed to learn they were living in one of a handful of states — many of them among the poorest in the nation — that might not provide the expanded benefits.

“It just seems unreasonable,” Mr. Kight said, “that when people probably need the help the most, that because of partisan activity, or partisan feelings, against the current new administration, that Perry is willing to sacrifice the lives of so many Texans that have been out of work in the last year.”

He was referring to Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, who has said he may decline the extra money rather than change state policy.

“I remain opposed to using these funds to expand existing government programs, burdening the state with ongoing expenditures long after the funding has dried up,” Mr. Perry wrote in a letter to Mr. Obama last week.

The governors contend that once the federal money ran out, they would have to continue providing the new benefits, which they say would force them to raise taxes on businesses. The federal money will end in two or three years in some states, or much later in others, depending on the size of the state allocation.

Proponents say that nothing would prevent states from changing the laws back at that time.

The anger at the governors’ positions goes beyond just the unemployed workers who could directly benefit from the changes. Because eligibility rules for unemployment insurance are complicated and vary by state, many unemployed people do not even know whether they would be affected.

There is also confusion over what parts of the stimulus money are in danger. The governors have mostly said they do not object to the stimulus bill’s $25 per week increase in unemployment benefits, or a new federal extension of benefits.

As a result, many laid-off workers across the South have been fretting over precisely what they might lose out on, even as they express astonishment that they might not receive the help that jobless people in other states will get.

“I don’t understand the whole thing,” said Kelley Joyce, 43, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., about indications from Gov. Mark Sanford that he may reject some of the stimulus financing in that state. “Apparently because he has money and he doesn’t have to worry about everybody else who doesn’t have money.”

South Carolina, which has the nation’s third-highest unemployment rate at 9.5 percent, ruled Ms. Joyce was ineligible for benefits for the same reason as Mr. Kight after she lost her job as a marketing assistant in November.

Partisan stupidity has a price, and it's the nation's more unfortunate souls who are paying it. Remember that when the thought crosses your mind that GOP might not be so bad after all. You'd be right...they're much worse, and they have learned nothing.

Troop Transporting

Obama's getting a lot of flak on both sides for his Iraq withdrawal policy that he officially announced today at Camp Lejeune.

"Let me say this as plainly as I can: By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end," Obama said in a speech at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Between 35,000 to 50,000 troops will remain in Iraq, he said. They would be withdrawn gradually until all U.S. forces are out of Iraq by December 31, 2011 -- the deadline set under an agreement the Bush administration signed with the Iraqi government last year.

The problem is he's getting pillaged on the left by the likes of Nancy and Rachel Maddow and on the right by the wingnuts for leaving those troops in country (and the August timing...just before the 2010 midterm elections.)

Frankly, I have to combine both criticisms. 35,000 troops in Iraq is 35,000 too many, and the timing does make Obama look like he's gearing up the Dems for a midterm declaration of "Mission Accomplished" redux.

It's an ugly compromise on something that shouldn't be compromised. The American people overwhelmingly want out of Iraq, and withdrawing 75% of our troops there just isn't going to cut it.

Right now this plan leaves Obama rightly open to being Bush on this issue on both sides.

Nobody Could Have Predicted...

And that, as Josh Marshall points out, is the problem.

What continues to surprise me, however, is that even after we've gotten to an apparent consensus that we are in for a recession that is much more severe than anything we've endured in the post-war era, and even after six months in which each successive month looked worse than the last, that with each new number we're still surprised that it's even worse than we'd realized -- still worse than the consensus assumptions.

That's because the consensus assumptions are and continue to be made by the people who got us into this mess, failed to predict the mess, and in fact did everything in their power to cover up the mess. They need to be given the heave-ho, cleaned out, fired, dismissed, reduced in headcount, whatever.

But we stubbornly refuse to do so. In fact, we turn around and keep them in charge of the "recovery efforts"...guys like Timmy Geithner.

If these guys are so motherf'ckin smart, how come they lost trillions of friggin dollars? Over at Obsidian Wings, Hilzoy takes a look at a Financial Times article that explains just how badly these idiots screwed up.

If I'm reading this right, within four years of being issued, two thirds of these CDOs are in default, and their recovery rates are very, very low. That's just staggering. It's actually hard to understand how the banks managed to do this badly: you'd think they could have done better hiring people off the street and paying them to put all those nice little loan documents into piles at random, or tossing mortgages down the stairs and bundling them based on how they landed. They certainly didn't need to hire people with advanced math degrees and pay them seven- or eight-figure salaries to get these kinds of results.

And how about those ratings agencies? They would have done a better job using a Magic 8-Ball to rate the CDOs. ("Signs point to junk!")

I have been hearing for years and years about how the financial services sector pays such exorbitant wages because the people who work there are so immensely talented that they are cheap at $50 million a year. I never particularly bought that line before. But I never imagined that all those Masters of the Universe would do quite this badly. If we had paid them $50 million a year to go far, far away and leave our financial system alone, it would have been a bargain.

And yet for the most part these guys are still in charge of the economy because we're told time and time again that mere mortals like ourselves just aren't intelligent enough to understand the complex intricacies of these mortgage products or the economy that runs on them.

Well, I'm no theoretical economathical projectionist or anything, but even I understand these three things:

1. If people don't know how much to value what you're selling, and
2. What you're selling is the universe's most glorified IOU, and
3. The value of your whole company is based on craploads of those IOUs,

Then you're screwed. Period. Now if your entire financial system is based on the above three principles, then your entire financial system is screwed.

Where's my $50 million? I'm worth that much by comparison, right?

And yet...still...bank CEOs are still there, Treasury and the SEC still have most of the same faces, the financial happy-face talking heads are still there, and nobody's taken any responsibility for any of this mess.

And these same people continue to be surprised at how badly the economy is doing? We don't just need new pundits, new voices, new direction. We need to replace the system. A system that allows this much wealth to be lost, that in fact threatens the stability of the globe, is a system that needs to go.

And the first step is to jettison the people who created it and rode it into the ground. You guys lost. Make way for the new. They need to be gone.

I leave you with The Kroog:

Why is this important? A recurring theme of those who believe that the financial system can be rescued with fancy financial engineering — a group that, sad to say, apparently now includes the Obama administration — is that the losses on toxic assets aren’t really as bad as people say; that lack of liquidity and “irrational despondence” have led to an undervaluation of these assets, and that if we can just calm things down and get cash flowing again all will be well.

Not so much, it seems.

Not gonna happen. It's to the point now where ripping out the plumbing is cheaper than repairing it.

Your Number's Up Again

Back on January 30th, the government popped out a 4Q GDP decline of 3.8% and said "Hey, it wasn't so bad!"

Then, today, they revised it. Down 6.2%.

The U.S. economy contracted more sharply than initially estimated in the fourth quarter, government data showed on Friday, as exports plunged and consumers cut spending by the most in over 28 years amid a severe recession.

The Commerce Department said gross domestic product, which measures the total output of goods and services within U.S. borders, fell at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the October-December quarter, the deepest slide since the first quarter of 1982. The government last month estimated the drop in fourth-quarter GDP at 3.8 percent.

The weaker GDP estimate reflected downward revisions to inventories and exports by the department.

The decline was worse than analysts' expectations for a 5.4 percent contraction in fourth-quarter GDP. The economy expanded 1.1 percent in 2008, the slowest pace since 2001, the department said.

Back in January I called the decline at 6% even, and I thought I was highballing the number at the time. That 6.2% is bad. Flying Spaghetti Monster help me, but I think it's going to get worse this quarter.

We'll see in May, I guess.

Fannie Mae Fumble

Fannie Mae announced a $25.2 billion quarterly loss for 4Q '08, bringing 2008 losses for the mortgage giant to nearly a staggering $60 billion.

The company, a crucial source of funding for mortgage lenders, said it would draw down $15.2 billion of its $200 billion federal line of credit. In return, the government will receive preferred shares.

And it gave a dour view of the housing market -- saying it expects peak-to-trough price declines to be in the 33% to 46% range, up from the 27% to 32% range it gave in the previous quarter. For 2009, it predicts home values will drop 12 to 18%.

And that's bad, bad news. If housing prices end up where Fannie Mae predicts, off 40% from 2005-2006 highs (and another 15% drop this year alone) then there will be no recovery at all in late 2009...and there may not be any real recovery in 2010 either.

In other words, the "lost decade" scenario is growing ever closer. We're maybe a bit more than halfway through the housing collapse now, with another 18 months to go or more possibly before the housing market stabilizes. That would delay recovery until 2010 or even 2011, and even then recovery would be excruciatingly slow.

It's going to be a long, ugly period in world history here, folks.

StupidiNews!

• The Pentagon is finally lifting the ban on media coverage of flag-draped coffins, but only if soldiers' families allow it.
• Mexico has deployed more troops to Juarez to battle drug cartels.
• Sarah Palin is backing a bill to require parental consent for abortions in Alaska.
• The government is expected to bail out Citigroup with another $25 billion in exchange for a 36% stake in the company.
• The Senate bans the Fairness Doctrine outright, 87-12.

Obudget Proposal

So, yeah, Obama's budget proposal.

Obama's FY 2010 Budget Overview

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Reports Periodicals & Report

NASA gets money for robots. Robots. Hell yes.

On the other hand, the Pentagon needs $2,000 for every man, woman, and child in America for stopping guys with car bombs 9,000 miles away from here.

You know, and for more robots.

First National Bank Of Straw Men

This here? This is a stupid, stupid argument.

The government's "stress-test" of the nation's largest banks could end up discouraging lending as banks hoard cash to appear healthier to regulators, banking analysts say.

The reason: most banks want to avoid taking more government money because of the onerous restrictions the government places on the funds. As a result, they are likely to become even more conservative with their money and pull back on lending—defeating a major goal of the bank bailout in the first place.

Which is a bit like saying "more difficult college exams are bad for the beer industry because having to study more leaves less time for binge drinking."

Assholes. Why would we want to encourage accountability among banks when they made bad decisions and lost hundreds of billions by betting trillions in IOUs on those decisions? We can't have that, it'll discourage banks to lend. You know what would solve the problem? Requiring banks that take CAP money to f'cking lend some of that money out to consumers and businesses.

But...no. We can't do that. Too hard on the poor little banks.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

David Paul Kuhn asks:

Has the GOP lost enough to change?

Nope! When you're losing, DOUBLE DOWN FOR VICTORY!

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

So, there's this:(h/t Atrios)

A dispute among House Democrats stalled legislation Thursday to let bankruptcy judges reduce the principal and interest rate on mortgages for debt-strapped homeowners.

The measure, backed by President Barack Obama, is the most controversial part of a broader housing package that had been expected to pass the House this week.

It hit a snag after a group of moderates expressed concerns in a closed-door meeting of House Democrats about how the bill would affect homeowners who are still struggling to make their mortgage payments.

The banking industry has lobbied hard against the measure, mounting a successful multimillion-dollar effort last year to kill it.

My question is actually pretty simple:

Exactly with what money is anybody in the banking industry using to lobby any-f'ckin-body against this badly needed measure? You're telling me there are Democrats out there blocking this legislation because it's going to be too hard on the industry we're giving trillions of dollars to?

Obama needs to put an end to this noise damn fast.

Dear America:

"What the devil does this Obama person think he is doing? Where does he get off thinking he can fix the United States Government? How dare he try to reform health care or education or energy policy? Just who does he think he is, anyway? It's...it's just not bipartisan!"

--Dean David Broder, High Chief Of The Village

A Heartwarming Story

...if by "heartwarming" you mean "setting crosses on fire".

Don Black says he despises Barack Obama. And he says he believes illegal aliens undermine the economic fabric of our country.

Black, a 55-year-old former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, isn't the only person who holds such firm beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which today released its annual hate group report.

The center's report, "The Year in Hate," found the number of hate groups grew by 54 percent since 2000. The study identified 926 hate groups -- defined as groups with beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people -- active in 2008. That's a 4 percent jump, adding 38 more than the year before.

What makes this year's report different is that hate groups have found two more things to be angry about -- the nation's first African-American president and an economy that is hemorrhaging jobs. For the past decade, Latino immigration has fueled the growth of hate groups.

"We fear these conditions will favor the growth of these groups in the future," said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project. "In the long arch of history, we are definitely moving forward, but these kinds of events can produce backlashes."

Black claims the number of registered members and readers on his white nationalist Web site surged to unprecedented levels in recent months.

On the day after Obama's historic election, more than 2,000 people joined his Web site, a remarkable increase from the approximately 80 new members a day he was getting, Black said. His Web site, which was started in 1995, is one of the oldest and largest hate group sites. The site received so many hits that it crashed after election results were announced. The site boasts 110,000 registered members today, Black said.

"People who had been a little more complacent and kind of upset became more motivated to do something," said Black, who also said he joined his first hate group at age 15.

Hate groups loose in the country? Obama motivating racists to possibly take drastic actions? People looking for an easy scapegoat to blame?

Now who would want to foment crazy stuff like that?

Al Versus Norm, Part 312

Norm Coleman is still losing the recount, so now he wants a do-over.

The talk from the Coleman campaign about how the Minnesota election results are unreliable, and that a do-over election could be an option, has now gone beyond just Norm Coleman's lawyers -- it's now coming from the mouth of Norm himself.

Coleman did an interview with Sirius conservative talk-radio host Andrew Wilkow, and discussed the campaign's argument that the court's current strict standards for allowing in previously-rejected ballots must by extension render illegal a whole lot of ballots accepted and counted on Election Night, when local election officials used lax standards:

"What does the court do?" Norm asked rhetorically. "Yeah, you know some folks are now talking about simply saying run it again, just run it again."

"Have another statewide election?" Wilkow asked.

Coleman responded: "You know the St. Paul Pioneer Press is...one of the second largest papers in the state, last week [they] said we're never going to figure this out, just run it again. So you start hearing that. Ultimately the court has to make a determination, can they confirm, can they certify who got the most legally cast votes?"

Remember, when a Democrat is losing a recount, it must be settled as soon as possible in favor of the Republican to avoid "disenfranchising the people" because the "voting process worked".

But if a Republican is losing a recount, we have to have to have a re-vote because the "voting process is fundamentally flawed".

Bobby The Page, Or Kenneth The Governor?

There is win. There is awesome. And then there is this. (h/t TPM)


Dead. On. Jindal. I love it.

Powered By Wishful Thinking

Anyone else sense something wrong with this?

U.S. bank stocks rebounded on Wednesday as investors took comfort that the federal stress test being applied to the largest lenders may be lenient enough to avoid forcing banks to seek additional bailouts.

I mean am I just nuts, or is the article saying that the reason bank stocks are rocketing up is that Wall Street honestly believes that the bank stress test is in fact a complete and total mountain of bullshit that will allow banks to continue to pretend they are still solvent when they are not?

If It's Thursday...

...it must be time for a new 26-year high for unemployment claims. A whopping 2/3 of a million this week, 667,000 new claims, and the total number of people drawing benefits easily broke the five million mark (5.112 mil).

Go go Gadget stimulus bill! (please.)

[UPDATE] Sales of new homes fell to an all time low, the worst levels since the government started keeping track in 1963. That's scary enough. There are so many unsold homes on the market that housing prices will simply continue to fall even further...and America knows it.

The inventory of homes available for sale in January was at 342,000, the lowest in over five years. However, because of the weak January sales pace, the supply of homes available for sale is now at 13.3 month's worth, a record high.

And why should anyone buy now when you know the house will be cheaper later? Would you buy now if you know the price of the home your looking at will be several thousand dollars cheaper in a couple months? You would be insane to do so.

Right now we're looking at an almost permanent housing price death spiral, and there's just no bottom to the mess...which means there's no bottom to the economy in sight.

Picking A Fight On Torture

While the President may not have time...or the inclination...to go after those who tortured in the name of America, the Senate has plans of its own to investigate.

The Senate is quietly preparing plans to investigate allegations of torture under President George W. Bush, according to comments published Wednesday by Senate Judiciary Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

The Senate Judiciary Committee could announce a hearing to consider various plans to probe allegations of torture as early as today, according to Salon's Mark Benjamin, citing Committee Chairman Pat Leahy and members of his staff.

Leahy's office told Raw Story Wednesday morning that a press release would be sent out shortly.

Sen. Whitehouse said he’s “convinced” the investigation will move forward.

“Stay on this,” he told Benjamin. “This is going to be big.”

Whitehouse, Senator from Rhode Island, is “spearheading” the efforts, and as a member of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, “is privy to information about interrogations he can’t yet share,” the magazine noted.

We've already seen Obama take a pass on the worst offenses of the Bushies due to having to deal with this entire crumbling economy thing, but that's still no excuse. So, it looks like the work Obama can't or won't do on bringing these bastards to justice will have to be taken up by Congress.

Obama will at least have the decency to stay out of the way,. I'm hoping. New tag: Unfinished Bush Business.

StupidiNews!

• President Obama unveils his budget proposal today to close corporate tax loopholes and scrap some weapons programs.
• Iran first nuclear power plant could go online within months.
• Obama's CAP plan may not have a cap on money given to the nation's 19 largest banks.
• The UK plans to insure toxic assets in British banks to the tune of 500 billion pounds.
• A study shows podcasts may be better for university students than lectures.

Timmy's Free Cash Emporium

Timmy's boys released the details on the CAP (Capital Assistance Plan) for the banks today (h/t CalculatedRisk). The first thing on the list?

Capital provided under the CAP will be in the form of a preferred security that is convertible into common equity at a 10 percent discount to the price prevailing prior to February 9th.

Which is, you know, the date both BoA and Citi were trading at their relative peaks over the last month.

Which is, also, about 40% above what they were yesterday. Both stocks up up up after trading in the basement all morning.

That's a nice touch, Timmy.

[UPDATE] Bank stocks exploding across the board. My favorite part of the story?

The option to convert the preferred shares into common shares is a change in the rescue program designed to give financial markets greater confidence.

Common shares absorb losses before preferred shares do, which means that under a stock-conversion plan taxpayers would be on the hook if banks keep writing down billions of dollars' worth of rotten assets, such as dodgy mortgages, as many analysts expect they will.

Like I said, bend over. You just bought a financial system, and if these banks go under, we all get wiped out.

We're Losing, Double Down

Republicans: Still the party of compounding massive losses by continuing to do the same actions that got them into the mess to begin with. GOP Rule #1: When you're losing, double down on the Stupid.

Between to Monday’s Fiscal Responsibility Summit and Tuesday’s presidential address to Congress, the White House’s economic message shifted to new territory: health care.

“To my fellow budget hawks in this room and in the rest of the country, let me be very clear,” said Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, at the financial summit. “Health care reform is entitlement reform. The path of fiscal responsibility must run directly through health care.”

The sudden shift took Republicans off guard. They had girded for a health care battle, but not on these terms. House Republicans have responded with a change of subject: they have proposed a “spending freeze,” a controversial idea among economists during an economic downturn. Their immediate target is the $410 omnibus spending bill that packs together nine bills, containing spending that ranges from NASA to national parks, that did not get a vote in the last Congress. It’s a double-down bet on spending austerity and opposition to “wasteful spending” as the message that can bring the party victory in the 2010 mid-term elections.

“We’re advocating that Congress freeze all federal spending immediately,” said Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), the chairman of the House Republican Conference, during a Tuesday luncheon at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “People out there are hurting, and they understand what you do when times are tough. You make hard choices. Today House Republicans are urging the Democrats to do the same. We think it’s time that the Democrats put our money where their mouth is.”

Everyone! All together now...

We'd like to thank you: Herber Hoover
For really showing us the way
We'd like to thank you: Herbert Hoover
You made us what we are today

Prosperity was 'round the corner
The cozy cottage built for two
In this blue heaven
That you
Gave us
Yes!

We're turning blue!
They offered us Al Smith and Hoover
We paid attention and we chose
Not only did we pay attention
We paid through the nose.

In ev'ry pt he said "a chicken"
But Herbert Hoover he forgot
Not only don't we have the chicken
We ain't got the pot!

House Republicans would like to remind you when in a recessionary scenario where the government is the consumer of last resort of in an economy based on consumer consumption, the obvious answer is clearly A GOVERNMENT SPENDING FREEZE. You know, like when your heart has stopped, the obvious answer is to shoot the EMT trying to save your life because he might give you germs when he touches you.

Yes, I'm sure a large, large sector of the American voters will be going "man if only we spent less during the recession the company would give us our old jobs back."

Jesus hell these people are idiots.

Wall Street Stupidibubble(tm)

So, like I said, 92% of America liked Obama's speech according to CNN. So what's the headlines coming off of Wall Street today?

"Stocks fall as Obama fails to deliver details"

Stupidibubble(tm).

The Great Plan N Debate

Last night on Lehrer, The Kroog took on former FDIC Bill Isaac on the Plan N debate. Highlights:

KRUGMAN: And let me just say one important thing, that we do -- you know, we nationalize two banks a week. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation takes over temporarily two banks a week on average because of problems with the banks. This is not something that is qualitatively different from what we do all the time. It would be quantitatively different, because we don't take over trillion-dollar banks every week, but these are -- you know, this is something we do, do all the time.

Which is the point. The banks are insolvent. If they weren't insolvent, they wouldn't need hundreds of billions of dollars and trillions in loan guarantees. It's self-evident, guys. We're throwing more money at the banks than the banks themselves are worth. That means their asses are broke. On the other hand, we have people saying silly things like this, from former FDIC chairman Bill Issac:

ISAAC: And they're terribly complex. I don't know who would run them. I don't know who's going to buy them once the government decides to divest them. And they're definitely going to shrink, if they are nationalized. The markets won't support them.

And so you're talking about shrinking maybe two-thirds of the banking system in half? That's exactly the wrong medicine in the economy we're in today. We need our banks to grow; we need our banks to start lending money. And that's not going to happen if we nationalize them.

And the other thing, Judy, I would tell you is we're not going to be able to stop at a bank or two. The SEC is still not regulating the short-sellers, and they're going to attack one bank, until they score some kind of a victory and get the stock down to zero, and then they're going to attack the next one and the next one and the next one.

The banks won't grow if we nationalize them. They have lost 95%, 97%, 99% of their market value, but the fear is they won't grow if nationalized? They've taken terrible losses from bad, bad investments made with assets they didn't actually have.

He's right about the markets not supporting the banks however. When all is said and done, there will be a lot fewer banks out there in America and the world. A lot of the financial sector itself will have to go, and those jobs aren't coming back. Branches are going to close, banks are going to get swallowed up, assets sold to larger companies and debts...well now, that's the real problem, isn't it?

Somebody has to pay for these debts, trillions of dollars in deleveraging mess here. Somebody's picking up the tab for these bank debts. No matter who does, the debts are going to crush the economy.

Home, Home I'm Deranged

Home sales in January took another nasty drop to a 12-year low. There are still way too many unsold homes on the market, and people are waiting for the price to keep dropping before they buy, leading to more unsold homes on the market, leading to lower home prices, etc, etc, etc, death spiral kaboom.

Bibi Makes A Hard Right

Unable to secure the centrist Kadima and Labor party folks for his coalition government, Benjamin Netanyahu quest to become Israel's next PM turns to the country's right-wing to form a hard-line government.

Netanyahu, who has said he wants to shift the focus of Palestinian statehood talks from territorial to economic issues, was chosen on Friday by President Shimon Peres to try to form a government and become prime minister for the second time.

Likud negotiators met officials of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party of Avigdor Lieberman and other right-wing factions later near Tel Aviv on terms for political partnership in a governing coalition.

A spokeswoman for Lieberman said he would push to secure either the defense, finance or foreign affairs portfolio for himself. She said the party also wants the justice and internal security portfolios.

Now, here's the real problem. Avigdor Lieberman makes America's right-wing Republican nutbars look sane by comparison. He makes Michele Bachmann look like Dennis Kucinich by comparison. Giving this party control of Israel's defense, justice, and internal security ministries is f'ckin scary.

Yisrael Beiteinu, which came in third after the centrist Kadima party and the Likud in a February 10 election, opposes Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank.

It advocates trading land in Israel where Arab citizens live for Jewish settlements in the West Bank in any peace deal with Palestinians and calls for all Israelis to take an oath of loyalty to the Jewish state.

A narrow right-wing government and a prominent role for Lieberman could put Netanyahu on a collision course with Washington, where the Obama administration has pledged swift pursuit of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Likud spokeswoman Dina Libster denied Israeli media reports that Netanyahu had ruled out appointing Lieberman as defense minister and would offer him either the finance or foreign affairs portfolios.

This guy as foreign minister would be a disaster too.

More and more it's looking like Obama's going to have a serious Israel problem on his plate, and soon.

Obama Delivers, Jindal Quivers

CNN's polls on America's reactions to Obama's address to Congress showed Obama absolutely belted out a grand slam.

Sixty-eight percent of speech-watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey had a very positive reaction, with 24 percent indicating that they had a somewhat positive response and 8 percent indicating that they had a negative reaction.

Eighty-five percent of those polled said the president's speech made them more optimistic about the direction of the country over the next few years, with 11 percent indicating the speech made them more pessimistic.

Eighty-two percent of speech-watchers said they support the economic plan Obama outlined in his prime time address, with 17 percent opposing the proposal.

But...wasn't Obama in trouble, blah blah blah. He pretty much crushed it out of the park, and the American people love the guy right now. Numbers in the eighties mean even Republican voters...hard core Republican voters...thought Obama gave a good speech, and that they support his efforts to do something about this economy. 82% is five out of six, and that means even the GOP is sick of the GOP.

Watching the speech on MSNBC last night, the approval meter ratings for Obama's speech among McCain voters was pegged all the way positive for most of the night. America is behind our President not because it's mandated by the Village, but because they actually believe in the guy. That's the kind of President we need right now.

Bobby Jindal, on the other hand...well, even Fox News was dumping on the guy.

Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) response to President Obama’s speech tonight received a universal thumbs down from the Fox News panelists, who are traditionally conservatives’ most gentle critics:

BRIT HUME: “The speech read a lot better than it sounded. This was not Bobby Jindal’s greatest oratorical moment.”

NINA EASTON: “The delivery was not exactly terrific.”

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: “Jindal didn’t have a chance. He follows Obama, who in making speeches, is in a league of his own. He’s in a Reagan-esque league. … [Jindal] tried the best he could.”

JUAN WILLIAMS: “It came off as amateurish, and even the tempo in which he spoke was sing-songy. He was telling stories that seemed very simplistic and almost childish.”

That's not good news for the 2012 hopeful. His "coming out party" was instead a "deer in the headlights" moment.

On PBS, New York Times columnist David Brooks also remarked, “In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say ‘government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending,’ it’s just a form of nihilism. It’s just not where the country is, it’s not where the future of the country is.”

Nihilism! For once, David Brooks is absolutely right (Whoa, dodge that lightning bolt from above there.)

The GOP isn't just the Party of No. They are the Party of Nothing. Nothing the government can do, nothing but the same actions that got us into this mess, nothing but tax cuts as the answer to everything, nothing but obstructionism on whatever Obama and the country want to do, nothing but jingoistic empty responses, nothing but outright Hooverism when the country needs a strong and bold plan. Nihilism indeed.

Jindal fell flat on his face to most of us. To the wingers, he fell on his face because he wasn't angry, hateful, and obstructionist enough. His 2012 aspirations just got craphammered. Once again, Sarah Palin is winning by virtue of keeping her mouth shut.

Jim Bunning Pitches A Fit

The saga of my state's junior senator, Jim Bunning (R-Nutbar) continues. After the weekend's ghoulish remarks on Justice Ginsberg's pancreatic cancer and news that the KY GOP is looking for a replacement for him in the primary, it seems Jimbo is threatening to sue. Sue the Republican Party, that is.

But really, what could be less frivolous than a little old-fashioned infighting? On Tuesday, Senator Jim Bunning threatened to sue fellow Republicans if they do not support his bid for reelection in 2010.

Bunning's threat was leveled after rumors that the National Republican Senatorial Committee was courting David Williams, president of the Kentucky State Senate, to take a shot at the incumbent senator's seat.

"Support of incumbents is the only reason for (the NRSC's) existence," Bunning said. "So if they recruited someone and supported them in a primary against me, I would be able to sue them because they’re not following their bylaws."

"Just to clear up any potential confusion, the NRSC supports Sen. Bunning," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), chairman of the NRSC, told Kentucky's Courier-Journal.

The Texan called it a "misunderstanding," though Bunning was much more terse.

"I don’t believe anything John Cornyn says," the senator told the Courier-Journal. "I’ve had miscommunications with John Cornyn from, I guess, the first week of this current session of the Senate. He either doesn’t understand English or he doesn’t understand direct: ‘I’m going to run,’ which I said to him in the cloakroom of our chamber."

Bunning is a complete crackpot, and the more he stomps around like a screaming child denied ice cream, the more it looks like the Dems have a shot at his seat (especially with increasingly popular Gov. Steve Beshear in Frankfort.)

The more divided state and national GOP election officials are over Bunning, the more uncoordinated his campaign looks. The Dems can counter-attack hard and take this seat in 2010.

StupidiNews!

• Another bank throwing a series of lavish events after taking taxpayer billions has Congress mad.
• The President plans to announce that will have troops out of Iraq by August 2010.
• An unpaid dinner for a Bush team in Israel could turn into a problem for the current President.
• The Ukraine's credit rating drops even further into junk bond status.
• It's Jackson Browne versus John McCain in the battle of political free speech versus intellectual property rights.

OBAMAVISION!

My thoughts on the speech:

It was solid, upbeat, and strong. Even the House Republicans were standing and applauding several times during the night. Obama committed some strong language, that we "do not torture", that dropping out of high school is "quitting on your country", that America "will rebuild".

He gave a pretty decent explanation of the credit crisis and the bank problems. He challenged Congress to get him the legislation he wants to sign, but he also gave strong reasons why that legislation needs to be passed into law.

Cure for cancer in his lifetime, a little much. Maybe. But you know, Obama's got a good, what, 50 years plus ahead of him? Why not?

I liked the speech, overall.

Cramer Versus Plan N

Jim Cramer hates Plan N with the burning hatred of a thousand burny suns that burn things, but he's accidentally told the truth in his tirade:

What's at stake with nationalization? Why do I oppose it so much? Why do I feel that its proponents are glib and over their heads and have done no homework and do not have a stitch of rigor? Maybe because I think that nothing is impossible for those who don't have to do it themselves. I have said again and again that as much as you may hate the bankers who got us here, it is well beyond the ken of this government to fix it. I have said that the analogies to the Swedish "success" of nationalization are chimerical, because the Swedish banking issues were small and manageable. I have said that you simply can't compare the two.

On one level, Cramer's right. The free market got us into this mess...but the government may not be able get us out.

However, he seems to think that because the government's not capable of doing it, the people that got us into this mess somehow are. That's just as false, if not more so. I'm far more willing to let the government try then I am the people who cost us several trillion dollars and our economy. Frankly, they can't be too much worse.

Epic Failure To Launch

Like a rocket, baby.

The U.S. government's first attempt to map carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere from space ended early on Tuesday after a botched satellite launch from California, officials said.

The $278 million Orbiting Carbon Observatory blasted off aboard an unmanned Taurus rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 4:55 a.m. EST (0955 GMT), headed for an orbital perch about 400 miles above the poles.

The 986-pound (447-kg) spacecraft was tucked inside a clamshell-like shroud to protect it during the ride into space. But three minutes into the flight, the cover failed to separate as expected, dooming the mission.

"As a direct result of carrying that extra weight we could not make orbit," said John Brunschwyler, the Taurus program manager with manufacturer Orbital Sciences Corp.

The spacecraft, also built by Orbital Sciences, fell back to Earth, splashing down into the southern Pacific Ocean near Antarctica.

The irony of a satellite designed to measure carbon dioxide strapped to a huge rocket and crashing near Antarctica is so very rich in Vitamin Fail that it meets 100% of the daily nutritional intake requirements of Fail for most of the country.

EPIC FAIL.

Dubya's Keepin' Busy

While my good friend Bon The Geek let me know today that Dubya's been offered a job as a hardware store greeter in Dallas, it looks like he's pursuing a career as...wait for it...

Public speaker.

Insert your own snark here, I'm having a 17-wisecrack pile-up inside my head. Most of them involve the current unemployment rate in the state of Texas.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Maybe...just maybe...I should stop being so hard on the Village.

No, seriously. By serving as the echo chamber for GOP talking points when the vast majority of the voting public is ignoring the Republicans altogether right now, they continue the delusion for the GOP and Obama and the Democrats only grow stronger as a result.

Your liberal media, indeed.

Michael Steele Keeps On Giving

The more Michael Steele keeps opening his mouth and being stupid, the more comfortable I feel about the Dems' chances in 2010.

Yesterday on Fox News, RNC Chairman Michael Steele said he was open to withholding RNC funds from Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Arlen Specter (R-PA) because they voted for Obama’s economic recovery package. “I’m always open to everything baby,” he told host Neil Cavuto. If state parties want to enact retribution against those Senators, then the RNC will follow their lead, Steele explained.

You do that, Mike. Replace those guys with hard core fundies in deep blue New England and the Mid-Atlantic, and see how badly they lose.

We could sure use more Democratic senators. You're doing a great job. Bonus stupid:

Steele said his solution for the economic crisis is to put in place a spending freeze. Republicans are quickly rallying around the old Hoover agenda of enacting a spending freeze in the midst of a recession.

Yep. Keep on spinning out those oldies, man.

Heck of a job, Steeley.

Epic Helicopter Ben To The Rescue Fail

Up in the sky, it's our hero! Ben Bernanke will save us!

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he's hoping the recession could end later this year, but he cautioned that a full economic recovery will take "more than two or three years."

The head of the central bank said a turnaround will only occur "if actions taken by the administration, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability." He also acknowledged the recovery might not go as well as hoped.

EPIC FAIL.

No Bottom In Sight

Quick, what's worse than the 18.2% drop in the Case-Shiller home price index in November? How bout an 18.5% drop in December?

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities declined 18.5 percent in December from a year earlier, the fastest drop on record, as foreclosures climbed and sales sank.

The decrease in the S&P/Case-Shiller index was more than forecast and followed an 18.2 percent drop in November. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007, and year-over- year records began in 2001.

Record foreclosures are contributing to declining property values and household wealth, crippling the consumer spending that makes up about 70 percent of the economy. The Obama administration has pledged to spend $275 billion to help stabilize the housing market, including $75 billion to bring down mortgage rates and encourage loan modifications.

“The massive inventory overhang in the market and the surge in foreclosures mean prices will continue to fall rapidly,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in Valhalla, New York, said today in a note to clients. “The administration’s rescue plan will, in time, slow the rate of decline, but it won’t happen immediately.”

Economists forecast the 20-city index would fall 18.3 percent from a year earlier, according to the median of 28 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Projections ranged from declines of 17.4 percent to 19 percent.

Compared with a year earlier, all areas in the 20-city survey showed a decrease in prices in December, led by a 34 percent drop in Phoenix, a 33 percent slide in Las Vegas and a 31 percent decline in San Francisco.

So until the CSI starts stabilizing, forget any idea of economic improvement. Yes, it may be roughly 45 days behind the curve, but it's been crumbling for a good two straight years now and keeps reaching record drops.

Until that settles off...and there's really no evidence that it will any time soon...we'll keep floundering.

Popping The Stupidibubble(tm)

The Village stupidibubble(tm) continues to deflect reality around Washington reporters, but a big fat dose of post-stimulus reality is threatening to pop it.

Overall, 68 percent of poll respondents approve of Obama's job performance, a finding that puts him on par with the average for the past eight presidents at this point in their tenures. Ninety percent of Democrats and 67 percent of independents approve of Obama's performance. Sixty-four percent said they approve of how Obama is handling appointments to the Cabinet and other top positions in the administration, despite tax problems and stumbles that have led to three of his top nominees withdrawing from consideration.

Although Obama has encountered near-unanimous GOP opposition to his stimulus plan in Congress and widespread criticism for a housing bailout plan that some say rewards people who have been fiscally irresponsible, 64 percent of those polled back the economic recovery package, and the same percentage support the mortgage proposal. The broad support for the recovery package comes as just 10 percent said the bill was too heavy on spending and too light on tax cuts, the primary contention of the Republican leadership in Congress.

Overall, 60 percent of poll respondents approve of how Obama is dealing with the economy.

But wasn't Obama in trouble? Hadn't he largely blown it already? Wasn't his administration on shaky ground according to the pundits? Aren't we in the era of AFOP now where the groundswell of anti-Obama anger is threatening to sweep the GOP into power?

Why, my goodness! You mean the Village is full of complete crap?

Head to head, though, Americans put far more faith in Obama than in congressional Republicans: Sixty-one percent said they trust Obama more than the GOP on economic matters; 26 percent side with the Republicans in Congress. On that question, Obama's advantage is bigger than George W. Bush, Bill Clinton or George H.W. Bush ever had over the opposition party in the legislature.

Overall, Democrats maintain an edge of nearly 2 to 1 over Republicans as the party that Americans prefer to confront "the big issues" over the next few years.

You mean so far the American people are actually behind our President? After years of Bush's sub 40% numbers it's a shock, I know...but there you are. Obama has a thirty-five point edge in who Americans trust more...that's massive. But the headlines with that sixty percent approval for the economic recovery act? America is "Divided over stimulus."

So, you have to ask why the Village is trying to portray the Obama administration as hopelessly out of touch with the American people, why CNN.com's top story at this hour is about the "coming out party" for the man giving the Republican response to Obama's speech tonight (Bobby Jindal) rather than President Obama's actual speech tonight to Congress. Meanwhile the most popular guy in the room is still that Rick Santelli asshole, bravely fighting Obama's Socialist dictatorship across the Village airwaves. You see, Obama clearly doesn't have the support of the "real American people", the wingnuts and the Village Idiots. You see, the poll is nothing more than a huge lie because it's a product of the Lie-beral Media, and so they refuse to accept it.

It hasn't occured at all to the Village..and by extension the Republicans controlling them...that they're the ones out of touch. The Village thinks it's more important that Republicans like Obama less, and furthermore it's a sign of failure on Obama's part, despite the fact that a majority of the country clearly supports him. Your Liberal Media has decided that only the Republican opinions count. It's simply reflexively doing what has been ingrained into it since Carter and Reagan, giving far more credence to conservative views. Obama has failed to impress conservatives masquerading as Sensible Village Centrists, therefore he has failed, period. They won't see it any other way.

And they may never do so.

Luckily, the rest of America has told these morons to go to hell. And that's a good thing. The only way to kill the Village is to rob it of all the power it has over us, and blogs and web news out there countering the Village on a daily basis is only healthy for the democracy.

The days of the Village as gatekeeper of America's opinions are over. They're resisting tooth and nail, and that means allying themselves with the equally power-robbed Republicans. That era is clearly coming to a messy end.

If there's a lesson to be learned over the last several years, it's that all bubbles pop.

[UPDATE] Steve Benen, Greg Sargent, Balloon Juice and the Double G have more.

StupidiNews!

• A massive and coordinated national FBI law enforcement sweep netted 500 arrests in child prostitution rings in the US.
• Karl Rove skips his testimony before Congress for a third time.
• A California lawmaker seeks to legalize marijuana in order to raise badly needed funds.
• Obama's plan to restructure Fannie and Freddie mortgages is running into a Republican legal roadblock.
• Video game retailer GameStop is either the industry's best friend, or worst nightmare.

It's A Locke

Lots of news racing around that Obama has decided on Commerce Secretary nominee #3, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke.

Locke, 57, was the country's first Chinese-American governor, elected to lead Washington in 1996 and re-elected in 2000.

Prior to becoming governor, the Democrat served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives and one term as executive of King County, Washington. He was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee from 1989 to 1994.

Locke's pretty well-respected and a solid progressive choice...so far. We'll see what the microscope finds on his record.

The Good Lord Helps Those Who Aren't Complete Assholes

...like Gov. Mark Sanford (SC-Douchenozzle).

On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning, Sanford received a call from a Charleston resident who said he lost his job because he has been taking care of mother and sister, both of whom have serious illnesses. The caller told Sanford he is “wrong” to decline the money. “A lot of people in South Carolina are hurting. And if this money can come and help us out we need it.” In response, Sanford could offer him only his prayers:

CALLER: I hope you all are not playing politics with this. People in South Carolina are hurting. You know how unemployment rates are high right now and going up higher. We are running out of money in the unemployment bank — we need money for that, the people that need help. And I’m one of them, I can’t get no help. […]

SANFORD: Well I’d say hello to Charleston because its home and I’d say hello to this fellow this morning and say that my prayers are going to be with him and his family because it sounds like he is in an awfully tough spot.

What a guy. Prayers! I wonder if the good Governor knows anyone who would be in a position to help that caller.

You know, like whatever Democrat the voters get to replace this jackass.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

So, guys...really...about this whole government stake in financials thing...

American Insurance Group, the insurance giant that is 80-percent owned by the US government, is in discussions with the government to secure additional funds so it can keep operating after next Monday, when it will report the largest loss in U.S. corporate history, CNBC has learned.

Largest loss in US corporate history...$60 billion...and you and I own 80% of the company.

And this is what they want to do with all the banks?

The Village Anti-Reality Bubble

The Village? They don't exist in our dimension. (h/t Balloon Juice) The Star-Tribune on the Minnesota Senate race:

A series of court rulings have dealt the Republican long odds for overturning DFLer Al Franken's 225-vote lead. The three judges hearing the case have been only partly receptive to Coleman's bid to expand the field of ballots as he seeks more votes, and they brushed aside his claim of systemic problems with Minnesota elections.

Coleman once wanted to examine up to 11,000 rejected absentee ballots in hope that enough might eventually be opened and counted to help him overtake Franken. Now he's looking at opening perhaps a couple of thousand ballots. And the number could turn out to be even smaller.

"It's very hard, the way it's set up right now, for him to be able to win," said David Schultz, a Hamline University law professor specializing in elections.

"Very slim," was how Duke University law Prof. Guy-Uriel Charles characterized Coleman's current chances.

"Coleman is in a bubble running out of oxygen," said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political science professor.

Washington Post reporter Shaliegh Murray on the Minnesota Senate race:

Baltimore, Md.: Speaking of junior senators, do you see Al Franken being seated anytime before 2010?

Shailagh Murray: Perhaps, but it seems more and more likely that the Minnesota race will wind up as a re-vote. At this point it seems like the quickest way to resolve the situation.

Al Franken Revote Really?: Star Tribune just published an article on the front page which discusses Coleman's dwindling chances. The Politico last week published an article discussing Coleman's need for a miracle. Election experts from Minnesota are discussing the math which makes a Coleman comeback extremely difficult and the higher courts taking this case an unlikely prospect. How did you arrive at this recount theory? I think the only folks advocating this are a FEW Republicans who see this as Coleman's only realistic hope for overturning the results of November.

Shailagh Murray: I don't have a revote "theory." I'm just wondering how long this is going to sit in the court system. If Coleman looks desperate, why not just hold another election and beat him handily?

But there's a process in place here, and we can only assume both parties will abide by it.

So, since the Republican is going to lose a very close race, clearly we're headed towards a re-vote according to the Village. You see, it's a waste of time because the Village will never accept Franken, the Democrat, as legitimate in such a close race. Why not hold another election then?

Of course it was fine when Coleman was ahead.

It's 1994!

The logical endpoint of the Right's mass delusionary populist anti-Obama uprising is of course the ironclad belief that this imaginary uprising will mean that voters will magically vindicate them at the polls and sweep the Republicans into power in Congress in 2010.

Republicans are hatching a political comeback by dusting off a strategic playbook written nearly two decades ago.

Its themes: Unite against Democrats’ economic policy, block and counter health care reform and tar them with spending scandals.

Those represent the political trifecta that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich bet on in 1994 to produce a historic Republican takeover of Congress.

Now, some Republicans believe President Barack Obama’s one-two push on the economy and health care reform is setting the stage for a new round of significant gains, if not a total takeover.

And of course, the Village Idiots are there to help the GOP along, still believing totally that the country will have forgotten the entire Bush administration by 2010 and that the same economic plan they had that got us into this mess is the plan America wants them to use to get us out.

In other words, they're clinically insane. But watch...the Village will push the GOP Takeover Of Congress as not only possible in 2010, but that it's the expected conventional wisdom.

Moved The Decimal Point Over One

Citigroup's market cap, the total value of its common stock, is roughly $11.5 billion or so right now.

Citigroup wants the government to pay $45 billion for 40% stake for converting the stock, where a 40% stake of common stock should be worth...$4.5 billion.

So...yeah, that seems to me to be a typo of some sort. Because Citigroup can't honestly expect the government to pay $21.50 a share for a stock trading at $2.15.

Right? Because otherwise, this means either Citigroup has the worst accountants in the history of the universe and should be allowed to die, or Obama's about to pay 10x what the stock is worth and waste, oh, $40.5 billion.

Either option is, how shall I say, completetly f'ckin criminal.

As The Kroog says, just nationalize the banks already.

Conversion Convention

Building off last night's post on the government converting its stake in Citigroup from preferred to common stock as a back door for Plan N, this article in Bloomberg News takes a look at several scenarios for Plan N's implementation.

The Obama administration, which says it doesn’t want to nationalize U.S. banks, may find itself taking another step in that direction if it converts the government’s preferred shares in Citigroup Inc. into common equity to help the firm withstand losses.

Citigroup and rival Bank of America Corp., beaten down in New York trading last week on U.S.-takeover speculation, are among more than 20 lenders that could wind up majority-owned by the government if such conversions took place. Executives at New York-based Citigroup have discussed the change as a way to quell concerns about capital adequacy while heading off all-out nationalization, according to a person familiar with the matter.

U.S. regulators led by the Treasury Department announced today that the government stands ready to take bigger bank stakes in the form of shares that “would be converted only as needed over time.” To analysts including Paul Miller of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group Inc., nationalization of some of the nation’s largest lenders appears well under way. The government already holds $52 billion of preferred shares in Citigroup, five times the bank’s market value as of Feb. 20.

“We’re already in the nationalization phase,” Miller said today on Bloomberg Television. “We already own a chunk of Citigroup and Bank of America. The problem is that the government is dancing around this nationalization issue. They do not want to do it.”

Of course they don't want to do it. But I've been saying they have no choice now for months. So, what happens if the TARP funds Citigroup and other banks have been given were converted to common stock for the government?

The stock is more senior in the capital structure than common shares, so “loan-loss reserves and tangible common equity are the first line of defense,” he said.

If the U.S. were to convert all of its holdings into common shares, it would own more than 80 percent of the company.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America, which has received $45 billion in TARP funds in exchange for preferred shares and warrants, would be 66 percent owned by the government if its entire stake were converted to common equity, according to data compiled by KBW Inc., a New York-based investment bank. The figure would be 69 percent at Regions Financial Corp. in Birmingham, Alabama, which has received $3.5 billion from the U.S. It would be 83 percent at Fifth Third Bancorp, the largest Ohio-based lender, which got $3.4 billion.

KBW calculated the government stakes based on a conversion price of 80 percent of the stock’s value as of Feb. 5.

Voila. Nationalization through the back door. It's going to have to be done. Looks like majority government ownership of the banks, temporary as it may be for now, is imminent.

Here's the real question: How will the government be able to re-privatize the company without annhiliating the stock price and the value of the company? It's not going to able to do so. For the most part, when the government takes over, it's going to have no choice but to break up the banks it eats.

None of these nationalized banks will survive. Assets will be sold off to those banks that are above water...the real problem is that the banks that are above water now won't be for much longer as housing prices, commercial real estate prices, and mortgage defaults continue to pile up, and the rest of the economy tanks.

It's not that some banks are good and others bad, it's that some are clearly insolvent and some haven't collapsed yet, but will over the course of the next year.