Year: 2009

Yes, This Photo Needs to be Published

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On the right is a photo of Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard, 21, of New Portland, Maine, in happier times.

Below is a photo of him dying, after being struck by an RPG in Afghanistan.

Secretary of Defense of Robert Gates tried to strong arm the Associated press into not distributing the photograph.

It is Secretary Gates behavior, and not that of the Associated Press which is repulsive.

In Bob Gates world, or for that matter, in George W. Bush’s world, there must be no reporting of the realities of war.

Robert Capa War Photos

Following the Vietnam War, the defense establishment concluded that the only way to deal with bad press is to muzzle the press, hence the press restrictions in Grenada, the Gulf War, the invasions of Afghanistan, and Iraq.

In there world, there is no Bob Capa, documenting, and honoring soldiers at (top to bottom) Omaha Beach, or the Spanish civil War, of the invasion of France in 1940 (I think).

Far from being decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency,” as secretary Gates suggests, these pictures reveal the sacrifices of our fighting men, and honor them.

People like Bob Gates want to bury this sacrifice, because in showing it for all to see, it will sometimes raise questions about whether that sacrifice is truly justified, and that is not acceptable in the minds of the old men who send the young men to die.

In addition to being a craven way to think, as it implies an unwillingness to support one’s own ideas, it is a slap in the face of the idea that it is civilians who decide when and where we fight, and when it is no longer worth it for us to fight.

This is about REMFs covering their own flabby, generally lily-white, asses.

Lance Corporal Bernard Doing Honor to Himself and the Corps

Economics Update

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Employment-population ratio, part time for economic reasons, and hours worked economic graph pr0n courtesy of Calculated Risk

The employment numbers are out, and you can look at the cup as half empty or half full, with non farm payroll falling by 217K, but unemployment (U3) spiking to 9.7%.

Note that the drop was less than the 276K in July (up from 246K following revisions), U6, the broadest measure of unemployment, and the one closest to the Depression era metric,* spiked to 16.8%.

Other than that, there was not a whole bunch of news, priobably because the upcoming Labor Day holiday, though Treasuries fell, and their yields rose, as a result of the job numbers, which also drove oil and the US dollar up, so the markets considered all this generally good news.

Minor, as I write this though, the FDIC bank closing page does not have any closings yet.

Normally, they like to move on 3 day weekends, it gives them more times to get things done.

*Though still more conservative than the 1930s version, so we are getting very close to the 25% rate at the height of the Depression.

On Being Clueless

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Mike “Mish” Shedlock writes about a lot of things, and he tends to come from the position of the “Treasury View”, which states, among other things, that deficit spending cannot hasten recovery, since it takes money from other things.

It should be noted that this theory has been widely, from Keynes and Galbraith to Friedman, has been discredited since the 1930s.

In his latest, he goes after Paul Krugman for writing in 2004 that the Bush tax cuts should be rolled back to help with the deficit, and for writing in 2009 that the stimulus package, and the resultant deficit, are not matters of immediate concern.

Of course, in 2004, we were dealing with a frothy economy, most notably in the housing market, though it was still 2 years off peak, while in 2009, we are suffering from the worst recession, and worst banking crisis since the depression, with the central bank unable to lower rates because they have run up against the zero bound.*

Of course, Mich has the answer:

Q. What’s different?

A: Politics: a democrat ultra-liberal is in the White House.

(If Barack Obama is ultra liberal, I’m Jayne Mansfield)

It’s complete crap like this that keeps him off my blogroll and my feed list (it went there via a link).

I do actually check out some sites that I disagree with vociferously some times, Mat Rodina comes to mind, but in those cases I get insight into a point of view, in that case Russian nationalism, that I would not otherwise understand.

There are people who are cogent writers who help me understand opposing views. Mike “Mish” Shedlock is not one of them.

*Zero bound: When rates cannot be lowered, because they are effectively 0%.

Repairing the Damage That Bush and His Evil Minions&trade Have Done

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Barack Obama and Eric Holder have to go on a hiring binge for the DoJ’s Civil Rights Division.

It appears that after 8 years of forcing competent, experienced, and qualified people out, and replacing them with hacks who got their diplomas from the back of cereal boxes, they need to bring in some people who are not implacably hostile to the idea of Civil Rights.

Of course, some of these same hacks, most notably Hans “der Novotenfuhrer” von Spakovsky, who has built a career on keeping blacks from the ballot box, are claiming that this is “nakedly political,” but they think that the law, and for that matter facts, have a liberal bias, to paraphrase Stephen Colbert.

I Guess That They Are Morally Superior

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Stephen is on the left, Melina is on the Right

The former assistant dean at Pat Robertson’s Regent University, formerly CBN University, and his wife, Stephen and Melina Mcpherson, pled guilty to sexually abusing three teenage sisters at Hope Haven Children’s Home.

Court records show the McPhersons manipulated the teens into submitting to fondling, kissing and other sex acts. They cited Bible verses that they said justified the abuse and, afterward, would pray together for God’s forgiveness.

It gets better, because he has already pled guilty to forcible sodomy and object sexual penetration on two of the girls.

I guess that the members of the religious right are just better than the rest of us.

Seriously, Tartuffe looks less and less like a comedy every day.

H/t Pam’s House Blend.

A New Term to Describe Our Economy

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The shrill one, Paul Krugman, noted on Stephanopoulos’ show, that, “We’ve got a problem with terminology because we usually say either the economy is in recession or the economy is recovering. Either you’re in hell or you’re in heaven. And the trouble is we’re actually in purgatory.”

You can see it on the video at about -7:20. (it counts down, not up, and there is a 15 second ad)

This is a term which should stick. “Jobless recovery,” like the last 2-3 recoveries, sounds so benign.

On the Greatness of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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And guess what, it was not about bipartisanship or bringing in stake-holders:

….With the exception of the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 (which gave the president authority to close the nation’s banks and which passed the House of Representatives unanimously), the principal legislative innovations of the 1930s were enacted over the vigorous opposition of a deeply entrenched minority. Majority rule, as Roosevelt saw it, did not require his opponents’ permission.

When Roosevelt asked Congress to establish the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide cheap electric power for the impoverished South, he did not consult with utility giants like Commonwealth and Southern. When he asked for the creation of a Securities and Exchange Commission to curb the excesses of Wall Street, he did not request the cooperation of those about to be regulated. When Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act divesting investment houses of their commercial banking functions, the Democrats did not need the approval of J. P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs or Lehman Brothers.

Word.

No go read the rest.

How Matt Taibbi Changed Goldman Sachs

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It’s clear that he’s got them rattled, because they are trying to claim that hostility toward them is motivated by antisemitism, and their marionette, Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner, has felt it necessary to deny that Treasury has a tilt toward Goldman.

The idea that either GS or the Treasury would actually feel defensive about this would have been ludicrous just a few months ago, but now everyone has heard of That great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.*

It appears that he has them scared.

*Alas, I cannot claim credit for this bon mot, it was coined by the great Matt Taibbi, in his article on the massive criminal conspiracy investment firm, The Great American Bubble Machine.

Liberals Draw Line in the Sand

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Barack Obama has called just about everyone in Washington, DC for a meeting at the White House, insurance companies, doctors, Republicans, Blue Dogs, etc., but he hasn’t called in the progressives.

While members of his staff are making it clear that they intend to Sistah Soulja the liberals, the Liberals, or more accurately the Progressive Caucus in the House, are hitting back:

In a letter delivered to the White House moments ago, the two leaders of the bloc of House progressives bluntly told President Obama that they will not support any health care plan without a public option in it — and demanded a meeting to inform him face to face.

The bullet points of the letter are that in order to have them support the plan, there must be a public option, built on Medicare providers and using Medicare rates.

Note that there three things that can happen:

  1. Obama can stick with, and pass, most likely under reconciliation in the Senate, a bill with a real public option.

    1. Which means that the progressive caucus wins, and the Democratic party wins, particularly in the long run, when people see that government works for them.

  2. The bill gets killed in the house when 40+ Democrats vote against it.

    1. Which means that the progressives win, because they show that they have the power to stop things, and the electoral repercussions hit the Blue Dogs from close districts, not the Progressive, and Barack Obama. It means that they have to be negotiated with in the future, and the Powers That Be of the Democratic Party’s efforts cannot be exclusively dedicated to providing anilingus to the Blue Dogs.

  3. They fold like a bunch of wet broccoli, and vote for a milquetoast bill that allows Barack Obama to claim that he has done something to reform our healthcare system in 2012

    1. This is a lose for the progressives, and they go back to being people that everyone in Washington, DC can ignore with impunity.

The only way that these guys lose is if they blink…..Then again, never underestimate the capability of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Needless to say, the argument that is apparently being fronted by Rahm and His Evil Minions™:

Should Obama jettison the public option, progressives will come under tremendous pressure to back the plan anyway. White House advisers will likely insist that liberals mustn’t deny the president a historic victory and enable a defeat that could cripple the first African-American presidency.

Is one of the most repellent things that I’ve read…well this week….It’s a bull market for repellent these days.

I would also add that the only person crippling Barack Obama, whether its on marriage equality, DADT, banking reform, healthcare, torture, accountability, etc. is Barack Hussein Obama.

Letter from Congressional liberals below:

Dear President Obama:

Thank you for continuing to work with Members of Congress to draft a health reform bill that will provide the real health care reform this country needs.

We look forward to meeting with you regarding retaining a robust public option in any final health reform bill and request that that meeting take place as soon as possible.

Public opinion polls continue to show that a majority of Americans want the choice of a robust public plan and we stand in solidarity with them. We continue to support the robust public option that was reported out of the Committees on Ways and Means and Education and Labor and will not vote for a weakened bill on the House Floor or returning from a Conference with the Senate.

Any bill that does not provide, at a minimum, a public option built on the Medicare provider system and with reimbursement based on Medicare rates-not negotiated rates-is unacceptable. A plan with negotiated rates would ensure higher costs for the public plan, and would do nothing to achieve the goal ofproviding choice and competition to keep rates down. The public plan with set rates saves $75 billion, which could be lost if rates are negotiated with providers. Further, this public option must be available immediately and must not be contingent upon any trigger.

Mr. President, the need for reform is urgent. Every day, 14,000 Americans lose their health care coverage. We must have health care reform that will effectively bring down costs and significantly expand access. A health reform bill without a robust public option will not achieve the health reform this country so desperately needs. We cannot vote for anything less.

We look forward to meeting with you to discuss the importance of your support for a robust public plan, which we encourage you to reiterate in your address to the Joint Session of Congress on Wednesday.

Lynn Woolsey
Raul Grijalva

Economics Update

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Image Courtesy Calculated Risk

We have the new unemployment claims numbers, and according to USA Today and Reuters, the numbers are down, though as Bloomberg notes, the numbers are still 570K, more than the 564K expected.

Only, in a bit of flagrant journamalism, they ignore the fact that, the initial numbers for last week were 570K, and this week’s numbers are 570K, but since last week’s numbers have been revised up to 574K, they claim a small drop in initial Filings. (H/t Dean Baker, as well as CNN, normally the Cheer-leaders News Network, out there, for the catch)

Note that if the number is much above 400K, we are still losing jobs, that the 4 week moving average rose to 571,250, and that continuing claims rose by 92K to 6.23m.

The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) is at 48.4%, indicating further contraction, but this is an improvement.

As Atrios puts it, “Hurray, the 2nd derivative is positive.”

In retail, same store sales fell 2.9% year over year in August, the back to school season, so the consumer is not yet ready to put the economy back on their shoulders.

In central bank news from across the pond, the European Central Bankleft its benchmark interest rate at 1%, and issued a statement that it sees no prospect of either rate hikes or its unwinding its support for their banks in the near future.

In the world of credit rating, Moody’s raised Ford’s debt rating to Caa1 from Caa3, but according to S&P, the default rate for junk bonds rose to 10.2% in August, up from July’s 9.4%, which does not bode well for the ability of companies to raise capital.

BTW, remember last week when I said that insider selling was beating insider buying by 30.6:1? Well, it’s up to 61.8:1.

The sucker’s rally is coming to an end.

Finally, something I generally pay very little attention to, but gold is getting awfully close to $1000.00/oz. (Troy)

The gold bugs will tell you that now is the time to buy gold, but I’ll say that gold approaching the 4 digit line means that it is time to dump gold and get the f%$# out of dodge.

In currency, the dollar was a bit stronger, largely on concern for Japan’s new government, and the statement by the ECB.

In energy, oil fell slightly, largely on the unemployment numbers.

High Broderism

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Outsourced to Brad Delong, who notes that not only is David Broder a deeply immoral man, he suggests in that prosecution of crimes by his cocktail party friends is simply unAmerican, but that he is also lying through his teeth.

You see Broder says (not linking, friends don’t link friends to Broder) in the first substantive paragraph of his OP/ED (the first 2 ‘graphs are calling out Eugene Robinson for supporting the investigation):

First, let me stipulate that I agree on the importance of accountability for illegal acts and for serious breaches of trust by government officials — even at the highest levels. I had no problem with the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, and I called for Bill Clinton to resign when he lied to his Cabinet colleagues and to the country during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Actually, this is a flat out lie. While he did call for Clinton to resign over a blowjob, he strongly argued against impeaching Nixon at the time, when he wrote, “that he hoped it would fail–and that Richard M. Nixon would have his revenge.”

In the world of sociopaths like David Broder, Bill Clinton gets a blow job, so he must therefore resign.

Richard Nixon, on the other hand, uses the IRS, and the FBI, to pursue his political opponents, authorizes crimes against them, including attempted blackmail and robbery, and then is actively involved in covering up those crimes, and it’s “no harm, no foul.”

I think that David Broder is angry with Democrats, because somehow or other, he missed all the “free love” in the 1960s, and he blames the Democrats, for reasons that are unclear to me.