When Krugman starts to worry ...

So do I:

...

How bad is it? Well, I’ve never seen financial insiders this spooked — not even during the Asian crisis of 1997-98, when economic dominoes seemed to be falling all around the world.

This time, market players seem truly horrified — because they’ve suddenly realized that they don’t understand the complex financial system they created.

...

See, I've always likened the markets to Las Vegas. It's gambling, but with other people's money. With all the different investment vehicles floating around, there are just as many games on the floor as there are at Harrah's.

...

“What we are witnessing,” says Bill Gross of the bond manager Pimco, “is essentially the breakdown of our modern-day banking system, a complex of leveraged lending so hard to understand that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke required a face-to-face refresher course from hedge fund managers in mid-August.”

...

And you can blame this whole mess on the same thing that's keeping us in Iraq and stealing away our civil liberties.

...

Why was this allowed to happen? At a deep level, I believe that the problem was ideological: policy makers, committed to the view that the market is always right, simply ignored the warning signs. We know, in particular, that Alan Greenspan brushed aside warnings from Edward Gramlich, who was a member of the Federal Reserve Board, about a potential subprime crisis.

And free-market orthodoxy dies hard. Just a few weeks ago Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, admitted to Fortune magazine that financial innovation got ahead of regulation — but added, “I don’t think we’d want it the other way around.” Is that your final answer, Mr. Secretary? [my ems]

...

Look, I don't care what the fucking 'financial guys' say, business needs regulation. The mess in the air travel sector we're feeling now is directly related to the deregulation of airlines by St. Ronnie of Raygun in the '80s.

Big Business, be it airlines, banking and credit, pharmaceutical, or others, can't be allowed to police themselves because they always look to the bottom line, the environment, economy, and consumers be damned.

It's time to rein these businesses in, especially the credit markets. We're gonna have a bitter pill to swallow real soon and the sooner we accept reality, the sooner we can straighten this mess out.

Update:

Via Skippy, Dave Johnson asks: Is Your Money Safe?

...

This is exactly what could happen to money markets and banks as people realize this is their money everyone is talking about in the news. YOUR money. Find out where your money is, your parents' money, etc.. [em in orig]

...

The Frontrunner of Hypocrisy

Thank the God of your choice that this asshole doesn't stand a chance of becoming president. You can go read this pretty interesting article at AlterNet if you wish, but it sums up well with just the headline and last paragraph:

Tom Tancredo Hired Illegal Laborers to Renovate His McMansion

But there is one way the Republican candidates can never out-Tancredo Tancredo. The congressman lives in a “sanctuary mansion” built by the kind of people he has made a career out of demonizing. Tom Tancredo may have no hope of winning the Republican nomination, but in the cause of hypocrisy, he is the frontrunner.

Tancredo is the Perfect Repuglicant - Do As I Say And Not As I Do, in other words IOKIYAR to talk out of both sides of your mouth at the same time.

From the mouths of Babes

Normally, I wouldn't use Moonie's Washington Times to wrap fish in if I had to eat the fish, but they've got a section called 'Fishwrap' which I guess refers to what they think of the opinions therein. Like those of The Old Ay-rab on Rove's gig at Newspeak.

Columnist Helen Thomas brought down the house this morning in the White House briefing room.


Ms. Thomas, as the morning, off-camera gaggle wound down, asked White House press secretary Dana Perino what President Bush thinks of former advisor Karl Rove being given a regular column by Newsweek.


Mrs. Perino turned the question back on Ms. Thomas, and asked her what she thought.


"I think it's terrible," Ms. Thomas said.

That was the whole article. Further development was limited to a coupla Repuglitard comments.

Ms. Thomas, my invitation for a night out stands.

Update:

See more of the exchange between Ms. Thomas and 'Danial' Perino at Raw Story.

Who’s Afraid of Barack Obama?

Just about everybody according to Daddy Frank. Heh. Today's 'must read'.

JUST 24 hours after Hillary Clinton mowed down a skeptical Katie Couric with her certitude that she would win the Democratic nomination — “It will be me!” — her husband showed exactly how she could lose it.

Election year isn’t even here yet, and already most of the first drafts penned by the political press have proved instantly disposable, from Fred Thompson’s irresistible Reaganesque star power to the Family Research Council’s ability to abort the rise of Rudy Giuliani. The biggest Beltway myth so far — that the Clinton campaign is “textbook perfect” and “tightly disciplined” — was surely buried for good by the undisciplined former president’s seemingly panic-driven blunder last week.

[...] Were Mr. Obama to best Mrs. Clinton for the Democratic nomination, he may prove harder for the Republicans to rally against and defeat than the all-powerful, battle-tested Clinton machine.

But much like the Clinton campaign itself, the Republicans have fallen into a trap by continuing to cling to the Hillary-is-inevitable trope. They have not allowed themselves to think the unthinkable — that they might need a Plan B to go up against a candidate who is not she. It’s far from clear that they would remotely know how to construct a Plan B to counter Mr. Obama. The repeated attempts to fan “rumors” that he is a madrassa-indoctrinated Muslim — whether on Fox News or in The Washington Post, where they resurfaced scurrilously on the front page on Thursday — are too demonstrably false to survive endless reruns even in the Swift-boating era.

Part of the Republicans’ difficulty in countering Mr. Obama, should they have to, is their own cynical racial politics. For the most part, race has been the dog that hasn’t barked in this campaign despite the (largely) white press’s endless fretting about whether the Illinois senator is too white for black voters and too black for white voters. Most Americans aren’t racist, most Republicans included. (Those who are won’t vote for the Democratic presidential candidate even if it’s not Mr. Obama.) But the G.O.P., by its own doing, is nonetheless saddled with a history that most recently includes “macaca” and Katrina, Mr. Bush’s appearance at Bob Jones University in 2000 and the nonexistent black population of its Congressional delegation.

Perhaps most striking is the case of Shelby Steele, the archconservative scholar who shares Mr. Obama’s mixed-race heritage. Though he has just written an entire book, “A Bound Man,” to argue (unpersuasively, in my view) that Mr. Obama “can’t win,” he can’t stop himself from admiring the guy throughout. Peggy Noonan wasn’t being tongue-in-cheek when she wondered in The Wall Street Journal last month whether Mr. Obama “understands the kind of quiet cheering he is beginning to garner from some Republicans.” In her view “they see him as a Democrat who could cure the Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton sickness.”

Or at least they do in the abstract. Should Mr. Obama upend the Beltway story line by taking Iowa, the Republicans will have every reason to be as fearful as the Clinton camp is now.

I couldn't begin to do Pop's piece justice with just those few quotes. Please go read the rest. Lotsa links, too.

If Senator Obama does nothing more than make the establishment candidates, on both sides, crap their britches, he will have done good.

If he really catches fire and actually wins this crippled-horse race, he better be prepared to really do good.

While the gettin's good ...

They know the party's almost over. Montag:

Because they want to get the most from the Republicans that they bought before said Republicans are toast in Nov '08. After all, one would have to be a miserable excuse for a human to think there is any reason for these rules changes.

...

Skeletor 451

Tim Hollis has at Chertoff's ridiculous move to have firefighters spy on Americans by looking for signs of 'discontent'.

Every bit as depraved, deranged and demented as he looks, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has enlisted firefighters and emergency responders as his eyes and ears in the fight against discontent in America. Not satisfied with demanding warning labels for satire, the Screaming Skull vowed to stamp out not only discontent, but metaphor, double entendre, innuendo, facetiousness, puns, sarcasm and anything smacking of witty repartee.

Man, this is getting personal! If there's anything we 'smack of' around here, it's discontent, metaphor, double entendre, innuendo, facetiousness, puns, sarcasm and witty repartee. It's on, motherfuckers.

Firefighters and emergency personnel are being grilled in the investigative arts of detecting subtle signs of subversive activity such as the possession of worthwhile books, posters proposing world peace, suspiciously intellectual phrenology and telltale signs of terrorist sympathies inferred from micro facial expressions. Don't let a careless impulse to laugh betray your evil seditious secrets.

That dust covered Cat Stevens album in the attic? You can count on just something like that to net a lengthy stay in Guantanamo or an overnight rendition to Syria. So, hop around like hell, today, scrubbing your environs of anything that could be deemed as seeding dissent by postal workers, librarians, delivery drivers, neighbors, friends or family (including, I shudder to say, in-laws). Thought you'd enjoy a morning cup o' joe while perusing the Buzzflash headlines? Huh. Just remember, if there's a fire, you're fucked.

Unlike Chertoff I'm concerned about not disrupting vital services or I'd suggest a date and time for those millions of us yearning for a functional society to turn ourselves in.

Now there's an idea! If we could get all the illegal Meskins to turn themselves in at the same time, we could bring this country to a screechin' halt! Lawns would run wild, kids' diapers would be full, rational thought would disappear, and those left on the outside would have to retreat, drooling and whining (which they do anyway), to deep dark caves. Or the recesses of their alleged minds which is about the same.

Firefighters should fight fires and aid those with emergencies, which is what they signed on to do and do supremely well.

Just as an aside, my little town relied on volunteer firefighters for many years. Their motto was "We haven't lost a foundation yet!"

I call on firefighters everywhere to tell Chertoff to go fuck himself.

Hotness ...

The lady and the car too, but Carlos smokes.

Corazon Espinado

Dog walkers ...

NYC is full of 'em, 5, 6, 10 dogs at once, a mass of bark and fur coming down the sidewalk dragging a human. Except, when it's Judy Nathan(pre-Giuliani)'s dog, the walker is a New York City policeman.

Tip o' the Brain Bucket to Watertiger.

Wake up!

If you're dumb enough to listen to these Jesus freak preachers, or just think you're young and invincible, and engage in unprotected sex with multiple partners or those whom you don't know their sexual history, you'll want to stop here and get an education.

It's World AIDS Day. Get informed and stay safe. I've seen too many bright, productive lives wasted to this horrible disease.

Everyone is crazy ...

Save me and thee, and I have my doubts about thee. Heh ...

Repuglitards are DESPICABLE!

Like, DUH! The freeper trolls are already having at Hillary about yesterday's hostage situation, the bastards. At The Nation with links:

The vile Freeper commentary continues on and on, and grows progressively more revealing of the pathology of the Republican base. The tone of commenters over at Politico is no less despicable. But according to Joe Lieberman flack and Politico contributor Dan Gerstein, left-wing bloggers are the ones who need "some adult supervision."

I dare ya to come try and supervise me, asshole, not that you're an adult.

I feel for the poor tormented gent that did that hostage deal. When I was drinking, I felt like doing shit like that a time or two, and but for the grace of God might have. He didn't hurt anybody, and I hope he gets the help he needs.

Look on the bright side of the incident - he did it on the premises of a Democratic candidate. If he'da tried that at a Repug facility, they'da had him shot and killed for interfering with the process of their failing attempt to hang on to power.

You're taking your vacation where, Mom?

Tony Peyser

If this interests any of you,
then ya
Better start Googling about
Kenya.

I don't think ya need to bring back any souvenirs, thanks...

Magic Carpets, Maybe?

From McClatchy, AKA 'real journalists':

CAIRO, Egypt — Yes, Iran has medium-range ballistic missiles that could reach American air and naval bases in the Persian Gulf and possibly hit Israel or southern Europe.

The Iranians may have some longer-range missiles. Or maybe their arsenal contains little more than faulty North Korean, Russian and Chinese knockoffs, some of which are descendants of Germany's World War II V-2.

News Flash: Every missile on the planet is a descendant of the V-2. Captured German rocket scientists were a war prize for both us and the Soviets and both sides' first missiles looked suspiciously like the V-2 these guys already knew how to build. With a different paint scheme, of course.

President Bush repeatedly has pointed to an Iranian ballistic missile threat as the main reason for building a billion-dollar missile-defense system in Eastern Europe to protect Europe and the United States.

Ah, bullshit. The real reason is to line the defense industry's pockets with yet still more of our money. And to make an inadequate little twerp feel like a big man, of course.

Here's the money shot:

Critics of the U.S. proposal to build a ballistic missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic describe the project as, in Coyle's words, "a system that doesn't work for a threat that doesn't exist." They say the shield would stop only an "unsophisticated threat," meaning one or two missiles that were launched without decoys.

"Do you think Iran would attack Europe or the United States with just one missile and sit back and see what happens?" Coyle said.

They know damn well what would happen to them. "Gee, let's lob a rock at the giant sitting over there on that big pile of rocks and make him run away!". I don't think so.

The Bush administration's fixation on Iran also worries Western officials eager to avoid the embarrassment of another Iraq-style preemptive strike based on incomplete or bogus intelligence, some of it from exile groups with obvious agendas.

With absolutely no sense of history himself, and a brain full of holes instead of a memory, Bush probably thinks no one will remember.

"Nobody is going to believe that hogwash about WMDs, not anymore, not after Iraq," the senior Egyptian diplomat continued, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss Iran publicly. "The U.S. would be alone on this one. Nobody can afford another such dangerous adventure."

Got news for ya, Egypt Man - we couldn't afford the first one, either. We'll be paying off on this subprime president for generations.

Later, man ...

He was the guy who inspired me to do stupid shit with motor vehicles. I owe him a lot for the fun I've had over the years. We'll hoist one when I get there, Evel.

Cross-posted @ F&G.

Saturday whorage

Yes, another chapter of Thirty Days at Zeta is up at The Practical Press.

And just a reminder, if you're interested, The Captains and The Fourth Estate are still available.

As usual, if you got something you want our readers to know, leave it in comments.

Exactly!

Stolen from the Ranger:

Click to get the full effect.

Victoria's Secret, Slave Labor

HuffPo

D.K. Garments is a subcontract factory with 150 foreign guest workers (135 from Bangladesh and 15 from Sri Lanka), which has been producing Victoria's Secret garments for the last year. None of the workers have been provided their necessary residency permits, without which they cannot venture outside the industrial park without fear of being stopped by the police and perhaps imprisoned for lack of proper documents.

The Victoria's Secret workers toil 14 to 15 hours a day, from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 10:00 p.m., seven days a week, receiving on average one day off every three or four months. All overtime is mandatory, and workers are routinely at the factory 98 to 105 hours a week while toiling 89 to 96 hours. Treatment is very rough, as managers and supervisors scream at the foreign guest workers to move faster to complete their high production goals.

Workers who fall behind on their production goals, or who make even a minor error, can be slapped and beaten. Despite being forced to work five or more overtime hours a day, the workers are routinely shortchanged on their legal overtime pay, being cheated of up to $18.48 each week in wages due them. While this might not seem like a great deal of money, to these poor workers it is the equivalent of losing three regular days' wages each week.

Workers are allowed just 3.3 minutes to sew each $14 Victoria's Secret women's bikini, for which they are paid four cents. The workers' wages amount to less than 3/10ths of one percent of the $14 retail price of the Victoria's Secret bikini

Ladies, change your Christmas wish lists accordingly.

You know, it's what's inside the garment that's important. A flannel shirt and a come-hither look work for me.

Of course, if Mrs. G catches me posting about naughty ladies' sexy lingerie, it won't matter much...

Workin' on the chain gang...well, not exactly

Michael Moore cut this scene from Sicko because no one would believe it

Leahy: White House aides must comply with subpoenas

CNN Politics

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected White House claims of executive privilege and demanded Thursday that key White House aides testify in the case of the controversial firings of U.S. attorneys.

Sen. Patrick Leahy ruled that president has no claim of executive privilege protecting Karl Rove and others.

The committee's investigation has found "significant and uncontroverted evidence that the president had no involvement in these firings," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said. Thus, the White House can't claim executive privilege or immunity, which are meant to protect private communications between a president and White House aides, he ruled.

The committee has issued subpoenas for White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former political adviser Karl Rove, among others.

Note to Senator Leahy: All these former White House criminals think their shit don't stink and they're above the law. They're just gonna keep shinin' you on like they've been doing. Grow some balls and put some teeth into getting them to appear in front of you or they won't do it. Hint: Bench warrants, U.S. Marshals, handcuffs, orange jumpsuits.

Bush: We'll be in Iraq forever and ever, amen and fuck you

Click to magnify the problem

Tomgram. Take a lunch. Long informative article, but here's the crux of the biscuit:

Finally there is that unresolved question of developing Iraqi oil reserves. For four years, Iraqis of all sectarian and political persuasions have (successfully) resisted American attempts to activate the plan first developed by Cheney's Energy Task Force. They have wielded sabotage of pipelines, strikes by oil workers, and parliamentary maneuvering, among other acts. The vast majority of the population -- including a large minority of Kurds and both the Sunni and Shia insurgencies -- believes that Iraqi oil should be tightly controlled by the government and therefore support every effort -- including in many cases violent resistance -- to prevent the activation of any American plan to transfer control of significant aspects of the Iraqi energy industry to foreign companies. Implementation of the U.S. oil proposal therefore will require the long-term suppression of violent and non-violent local resistance, as well as strenuous maneuvering at all levels of government.

Shorter: We're trying to loot their oil and they want to keep it so we must shoot them or bribe them until there's no one left who doesn't see it our way.

Market forces, peak oil, competition? Bah! We're the baddest motherfucker on the block, so we'll just take it. We're bullies for the bottom line.

That's what America has become under Cheney/Bush. I don't like it one bit.

So surge "success" doesn't mean withdrawal -- yes, some troops will come home slowly -- but the rest will have to embed themselves in Iraqi communities for the long haul. This situation was summarized well by Captain Jon Brooks, the commander of Joint Security Station Thrasher in Western Baghdad, one of the small outposts that represent the front lines of the surge strategy. When asked by New Yorker reporter Jon Lee Anderson how long he thought the U.S. would remain in Iraq, he replied, "I'm not just blowing smoke up your ass, but it really depends on what the U.S. civilian-controlled government decides its goals are and what it tells the military to do."

As long as that government is determined to install a friendly, anti-Iranian regime in Baghdad, one that is hostile to "foreigners," including all jihadists, but welcomes an ongoing American military presence as well as multinational development of Iraqi oil, the American armed forces aren't going anywhere, not for a long, long time; and no relative lull in the fighting -- temporary or not -- will change that reality. This is the Catch-22 of Bush administration policy in Iraq. The worse things go, the more our military is needed; the better they go, the more our military is needed.

Don't expect this to change if Hillary or Obama are elected, either.