Year: 2009

Alan Grayson Leans on Reid

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I’m really starting to like this guy.*

He’s just delivered a petition with over 90K signatures to Harry Reid telling him to do his f$#@ing job and lead:

I’m told Dem Rep. Grayson will hold a press conference this afternoon in D.C. to unveil a petition to Reid bearing more than 90,000 signatures, collected by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, insisting that “any Democratic senators who support a Republican attempt to block a vote on health care reform should be stripped of their leadership titles.”

While it is clear that Harry Reid could not do this on his own, he would need backing from other people in the senate leadership, as well as the White House, if he can’t keep Democrats from filibustering healthcare reform, why should we pull the lever for Democrats?

*In a 110% purely heterosexual kind of way, of course, as the General would say.

Economics Update

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Retail Sales, Courtesy Calculated Risk


DJIA Since Late 1998

As much as I think that the crossing of arbitrary numbers is bullsh#@, and I think that covering the daily swings of the market is bullsh#@, and I think that the Dow Jones is perhaps an even bigger load of bullsh#@, the fact that the DJIA topped 10,000 today is the obvious lede in today’s economics news.

The Dow closed at 10015.86, the highest number in over a year.

It should also be noted this makes the return on the Dow Jones Industrial Average over the past 10 years roughly 0%.

I still think that this is a dead cat bounce, fueled largely by the Federal Reserve printing money and laundering it into the stock market through the banks.

It appears that the Federal Reserve is similarly dubious about the meaning of the recent rally, as the newly released FOMC Minutes make notes about “Considerable Uncertainty” about the strength of the recovery, once the stimulus package wraps up.

When one looks at things like falling retail sales in September with the expiration of “cash for clunkers”, (though the number did beat expectations) and US business inventories falling in August, there is little sign that all this money doing anything but creating an equities bubble.

In real estate, we are seeing mortgage applications fall again as rates for the 30 year fixed mortgage head back above 5%.

The energy and currency markets are ecstatic about breaking the 10K barrier, which drove oil above $75/bbl for the first time in almost exactly a year, and because people are optimistic, and hence no longer looking for a safe haven, the Dollar weakened to $1.4924:€1.0000, the lowest number in 14 months.

You Have Got to Be Kidding Me

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So, it appears that the House of Saud, whose two businesses are shaking the world down for oil, and shaking down observant Muslims on Haj to Mecca are now saying that they want compensation if the world starts burning less oil.

They are claiming that, “assisting us as oil-exporting countries in achieving economic diversification,” is basic fairness.

Ummm….You are getting plenty of money now. Put your royal family on a more reasonable allowance, stop bankrolling a Neanderthal view of Islam around the world, and spend that money in diversifying your damn economy.

You have at least a decade before anything changes to do this. If you choose not to, you can go Cheney yourselves.

Good News in Honduras

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It appears that a deal has been agreed to regarding President Manuel Zelaya. (also here)

Whether or not Zelaya needed to be removed from office, what happened was a coup. He was abducted at gunpoint by the military and put in exile: That’s a coup.

If there had been a vote in parliament, or an order from the courts to arrest him, that would be a legal removal.

I will note here that the lack of involvement of Obama and the State Department is both striking and depressing.

Not Just Stupid, Not Just Wicked Stupid, but Wikkid Stoopid

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Let’s Send a Senator a Package of White Powder! That’s the Ticket!

John Cole reads Redstate, so the rest of us don’t have to, and he comes across one of the stupidest things yet written this millennium, by Eric Erickson, the “editor” of Redstate.

Yes, he is actually suggesting that people mail packages of a white powdery substance to a US Senator.

Un-dirtyword-believable. Was he dropped on his head at birth or something?

H/t Atrios.

I’m not an Economist, but ….

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I have to agree with Dean Baker when he excoriates New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin for this bit of crap:

That Treasury bills were trading for less than 1 percent interest, as if they were no better than cash, as if the full faith of the government had suddenly become meaningless.

When you have people who lend you money, and they ask for less interest from you, which is the position of the government when they sell Treasuries, it means that they have more faith in you, not less.

The issue was not that people stopped trusting the government as Sorkin implies, it is that people are desperate for Government debt, because the lost faith in everything else.

I’ve done a quick google, and it appears that he’s also one of the idiots who took the thoroughly debunked $70/hour pay rate propaganda GM workers, which included the costs of those workers who were already retired, and ran with it.

I Googled Mr. Sorkin, so see if this was perhaps yet another innumerate journalist covering finance, and while I know when he earned his degree (BS, in 1999), and where he earned his degree (Cornell University), I cannot determine what he earned his degree in, and hence the degree to which is actually able to count.

My guess is that he got it in pastry baking.

Baucus Piece of Sh%$ Healthcare Proposal Passes Finance Committee

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The vote was 14-9, with President Olympia Snowe voting with Democrats, but she said very clearly that she is only voting this way today.

You know if a couple of Dems had voted against the bill, like Rockefeller, who has been leading the charge for a real public option, and Wyden, who got screwed by Baucus, the measure would still have passed by 12-11, and a shot would have been fired across the bow of morons like Baucus and the Nelson twins.

Of course, now the press is wringing its hands at the likelihood that Snowe may not get Huchison’s position as ranking member of the Commerce Committee, when Kay Baily Hutichison leaves to run for governor against Rick “Goodhair” Perry….My heart bleeds. It’s clear that she has no interest in voting for real healthcare reform.

In the least surprising news of the day, it turns that the insurance industry’s biggest bitch in Congress, Senator Joe Lieberman, is taking the insurance companies’ line, and supporting the status quote.

Economics Update

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Well, if you are a small business that relies on CIT for your credit, you have a problem, because the company’s CEO is resigning as a likely prelude to bankruptcy.

There are over a million small and medium sized businesses that rely on CIT for their credit.

Additionally, the meltdown among the monoliners continues apace, with Fitch downgrading Assured Guaranty from AA+ to AA, which, given the fact that their business is basically renting out their credit rating, they are pretty close to “toast” status.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, investor confidence in Germany has fallen for the first time in 3 months, down to 56 September’s 57.7 and well below the forecast of 58.8.

Meanwhile, we are seeing increased demand for Treasuries because foreign investors think that they have become cheap with the falling dollar, and investors are expecting a rebound in the dollar when the Federal Reserve finally does tighten monetary policy.

It appears that this optimism also pushed the price of oil to $74.15/bbl.

I Hope That She Brings Her Toothbrush

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Well, it appears that the has fined birther whack job Orly Taitz $20,000.00 for misconduct, and Taitz has stated that she has no intention of paying.

Judge Clay Land who heard Ms. Taitz’s pleadings has written a 43 page explanation of the fines., and I’ve skimmed it and it’s harsh.

I do not think that she will have a license to practice law by this time next year.
Scrollable PDF below the break.

H1N1 Update

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I had to drop my son off at school today, because the buses were running so late.

It appears that there are a sh%$ load of drivers who are out sick, so they are scrambling with substitute drivers, who are not only getting last minute calls to show up, but are unfamiliar with the routes.

They are not saying that it’s Influenza, but I’m thinking that it’s likely.

Saint Rush Limbaugh has Done a Miracle

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Specifically, he has gotten someone who lives within 25 miles of where Memorial Stadium, home field for the Baltimore Colts, once stood, to say something nice about someone with the last name of Irsay.*

You see Jim Irsay, son of the infamous (if you have any affection at all for the Baltimore Colts) Bob Irsay, and owner of the (now) Indianapolis Colts, has come out in the strongest terms against Rush Limbaugh being a part owner of the Rams or any other NFL franchise:

“I myself couldn’t even think of voting for him,” said Irsay speaking from the NFL’s fall ownership meetings in Boston.

Asked if he’d spoken to other owners about Limbaugh’s candidacy, Irsay said, “I haven’t and I don’t think I would even go to the point of talking to Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, Dwight Freeney, talking to those men and seeing what their positions are. I’m very sensitive to know there are scars out there. I think as a nation we need to stop it. Our words do damage and it’s something that we don’t need. We need to get to a higher level of humanity and we have.

Good for Jim Irsay for taking the high road….I can’t f%$^ing believe that I just said that.

BTW, it looks like Limbaugh’s toxicity has killed any possibility of his taking any ownership role deal, because NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that Limbaugh’s statements are “divisive”:

“I’ve said many times before, we’re all held to a high standard here,” Goodell said. Then he continued: “I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL –- absolutely not.”

Put a fork in your involvement with the NFL, Rush, you won’t ever be allowed to be a broadcaster or an owner.

My earlier post on this is here.

*Bob Irsay literally moved the Colts out of town in the middle of the night in a bit of infamy called “The Move”, see here.

Remember, Do Not F$#% With Jon Stewart

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As I’ve said before, do not with f$#% with Jon Stewart, and when you go after a comedy program and “fact check”, as CNN did with a Saturday Night Live sketch, you are messing with the bull, and they got the horns when Stewart fact checked CNN:

Stewart made the obvious point, before you fact check a comedy show, how about fact checking people who are on your news programs, or even knowing how to check the numbers?

A note to the so-called journalists on cable news:

Do not f$#% with comedians. They are smarter than you are, they are better informed, they are better looking, and they are probably better in bed.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to leave it right there……………..