... i've been checking news online for about 10 minutes...

... on SUNDAY evening!!!
The latest?

Wall Street awakes to 2 storied firms gone
By JOE BEL BRUNO, CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Business Writers
15 Sep 2008
NEW YORK - When Wall Street woke up Monday morning, two more of its storied firms had vanished.

Lehman Brothers, burdened by $60 billion in soured real-estate holdings, said it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after attempts to rescue the 158-year-old firm failed.

Bank of America Corp. said it is snapping up Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in an $50 billion all-stock transaction.

Honestly, it's been less than 30 minutes since I started reading today's news.

"It's the economy, stupid!" seems better and better every minute!

Stop the madness!!!

Gee, ya think?

Petraeus: more than troops needed in Afghanistan
By KIM GAMEL, Associated Press Writer
14 Sep 2008
BAGHDAD - U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said Sunday that experience in Iraq shows it will take political and economic progress as well as military action to tackle increased violence in Afghanistan

Just for grins:

Afghanistan, Opium and the Taliban
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (February 15, 2001
U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer.
[emphasis added]

Please note the date: 15 Feb 2001.

And today?

Another Huge Opium Harvest in Afghanistan
February 06, 2008 | Kevin Whitelaw | Permanent Link
Along with forecasting another near-record opium harvest in Afghanistan this year, the United Nations says that cultivation of cannabis, or marijuana, is also on the rise.

Just one "success" after another for W's resume!

If the idea was to undo all that the Taliban had achieved, W is on the right track! From eliminating opium production to producing a record crop!!!

Hmmm... maybe he actually made use of his Harvard MBA!

Stop the madness!!!

... more SUNDAY news!

Lehman rescue fails, BofA buys Merrill for $50B
By JOE BEL BRUNO, CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Business Writers
14 Sep 2008
NEW YORK - A failed plan to rescue Lehman Brothers was followed Sunday by more seismic shocks from Wall Street, including a government-brokered takeover of Merrill Lynch by the Bank of America for $50 billion.

A forced restructuring of the world's largest insurance company, American International Group Inc., also weighed heavily on global markets as the effects of the 14-month-old credit crisis intensified.

Again, once-upon-a-time, critical economic/financial news broke Mon-Fri. With W and the Republicans in charge, one must now pay attention on Sunday!

Is Greenspan advising McCain?

Let's see... oil at > $100/bbl. Gas at > $3.50/gal.
The subprime fiasco is percolating thru the larger economy.
... threatening the liquidity of VERY BIG PLAYERS, and the availability of credit to keep the economy afloat.

Who managed to undermine the largest economy in the world?
The REPUBLICANS!!!

Does anyone seriously believe the REPUBLICANS can get us out of the hole they dug???

Remember that budget surplus? Remember $2/gal gas? Remember $30/bbl oil? Remember your last raise? These were called "The Clinton Years."

Stop the madness!!!

Why is this always SUNDAY's news?

Fed moves to deal with financial crisis
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
14 Sep 2008
WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve announced late Sunday several steps to cope with the worst credit crisis in decades, including broadening the types of assets that investment banks can put up to get emergency loans from the Fed.

Time was, critical financial/economic news broke Mon-Fri.

These days, if you don't pay attention on Sunday, you miss it!

Aside to all Dem candidates:

When your respected Republican opponent tries to tar you as a tax-and-spend liberal, kindly suggest that tax-and-spend makes a whole lot more sense than borrow-and-spend...
... and that regulation of markets ain't really all that bad!!!

The Republicans dug us into this hole.

Who really believes they're competent to get us out of it???

Stop the madness!!!

an anniversary of sorts...

Recall:

THE PRESIDENT: "They will try to hide, they will try to avoid the United States and our allies - but we're not going to let them. They run to the hills; they find holes to get in. And we will do whatever it takes to smoke them out and get them running, and we'll get them."
[President Urges Readiness and Patience, Remarks by the President, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft
Camp David
Thurmont, Maryland, 15 Sep 2001]

"... we'll get them."

Not too long after this, we heard from a different leader:

[Mullah] Omar: "I am considering two promises. One is the promise of God, the other is that of Bush. The promise of God is that my land is vast. If you start a journey on God's path, you can reside anywhere on this earth and will be protected... The promise of Bush is that there is no place on earth where you can hide that I cannot find you. We will see which one of these two promises is fulfilled."
Wednesday September 26, 2001, The Guardian]

Now - SEVEN YEARS LATER - we know whose promise is stronger.

W: our wartime President!

Stop the madness!!!

... again from my very conservative friend (paraphrased)

A few months ago, during lunch conversation with my very conservative friend, politics raised its ugly head.
[note: my very conservative friend & I actually manage to conduct fairly civil political discussions - both of us are sufficiently cynical to allow this.]

... anyway... during the conversation I said something to the effect that McCain would be W's 3rd term. His response? (paraphrased, from memory):

"If I thought McCain would be four more years of Bush, I'd vote for him. But I think he'd be worse!

I mention this now only because this sentiment now aligns my very conservative friend with Paul Krugman!

"... the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse."
[Blizzard of Lies, Paul Krugman, NYT, 12 Sep 2008]

I'll send my very conservative friend this thought via email as soon as this is posted!

Stop the madness!

... from one of my very conservative friends

In response to my question, "What are your thoughts regarding Palin":

"Well, she’s cute, she runs almost as many miles as I do, and she hunts caribou, so she can’t be all bad. Obviously I would be more comfortable with someone who had been governor a little bit longer (I’d guess that being governor of Alaska during an energy boom isn’t the strongest test), but in general I’d prefer someone who had been a governor for 5 minutes over someone who had been in the Senate for somewhere in the interval (0, Robert Byrd]. The bottom line for me is that:

a) I’d prefer a random homeless person to McCain, Obama, or Biden

b) I’d prefer Palin to a random homeless person

c) Therefore, I don’t have a big problem with her"

A slogan for the Republicans:

"Better than a random homeless person!"

Thanks for asking.

In response to commenter 'takoma park'

Please realize that I am NOT an impartial observer.
The Dem candidate could be a one-eyed, hairless, gap-toothed ogre with halitosis,... and I'd still prefer him/her to McCain!

... what's more: I don't understand folks who don't share my position!!!

[Full disclosure: in past petulant moments I have declared my unwillingness to vote for Dem candidate who says xyz or espouses position abc... in my saner moments I realize that I no longer have this luxury. I am committed to any/all Dem candidates for national office this election cycle... even if they be one-eyed, hairless, gap-toothed ogres with halitosis!]

There are a number of McCain signs up in my neighborhood.
(There are also a number of Obama signs.)
The McCain folks? I just want to slap 'em up the side of the head!

One more note: I am fairly successfully avoiding Prez Politics. Family & friends have made reference to "lipstick on a pig"... I only today learned the relevance of this reference - from Krugman's NYT column.
My inattention to this blog accurately reflects my recent inattention to the current news.

I'm pretty sure we're not at war with anyone new, but that's about the extent of my knowledge.

Sing a song!

Wow! I've been away a LONG time!!!

To loyal readers: my apologies for such infrequent posting!
I hadn't realized i'd been absent a full week.

I've several really good excuses, but they're just that: excuses!

Sing a song!

Meanwhile, back on the ranch...

Unemployment, mortgage delinquencies soar in worrisome sign for slumping economy
UNEMPLOYMENT RISE BLOWS BY EXPECTATIONS MORTGAGES DELINQUENCIES INCREASE ANALYST'S FORECAST 'IT PAINTS A DREARY PICTURE'
By Scott Duke Harris and Sue McAllister
Mercury News
Article Launched: 09/05/2008 05:00:42 PM PDT
The nation's unemployment rate jumped to a five-year high Friday as mortgage delinquencies rose, stoking fears that America's slumping economy could get much worse before it gets better.

If the Dems don't win overwhelmingly in Nov, it's time to disband the Party!

Stop the madness!

Freddie & Fannie in receivership!

Sources: Gov't takeover of Fannie, Freddie expected

The meltdown continues...

Republicans really HATE regulation of financial markets, but seem ever so ready to bail out those "too big to fail".

Stop the madness!

Another one!

Reuters freelance photographer detained in Iraq

Wed Sep 3, 2008
BAGHDAD - An Iraqi freelance photographer working for Reuters has been detained by U.S. and Iraqi forces south of Baghdad, the news agency said Wednesday.
...
The U.S. military spokesman Lt. Patrick Evans said Jassam was detained because he was "assessed to be a threat" to Iraq and coalition forces. Evans did not provide more details.

Assessed to be a threat. By whom?

From Bremer forward, none of our viceroys in Iraq have had much use for the press... particularly the Iraqi press.

Just for a moment, imagine the screaming from Washington that would have ensued had the Russians detained U.S. cameramen in Georgia.

Stop the madness!

Hurray for our Federal Courts!

Judge says gov't must produce waterboarding memos
Wed Sep 3, 2008
NEW YORK - A federal judge has ruled in New York that the government must either produce memos on waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods used by the CIA or explain why they should be kept secret.

The ruling came in a case brought by the ACLU in 2003.

... so, while we're cheering: Hurray for the ACLU!

Sing a song!

more reminders of a distant past...

McCain says knows how to capture bin Laden

"... I know how to do it and I'll do it."

At least some of my readers are old enough to recall Nixon's 1968 campaign promise that he had "secret plan" to end the war in Vietnam.
Turns out, the secret plan was to expand the war into Laos & Cambodia, and keep U.S. troops actively engaged for another 5 years... then to declare victory and walk away. (The distraction of Watergate left Nixon little time to pursue the war.)

Just out of curiosity: if McCain knows how to capture bin Laden, why hasn't he shared that information with the Administration? Seems to me that keeping this certain knowledge from our current leaders is tantamount to disloyalty... perhaps even to treason. [Okay - I'm getting carried away here... but still...]

Have a nice day.

p.s. I DON'T know how to capture bin Laden, but I'm pretty sure looking for him in Iraq is as pointless today as it was 5 years ago.

I've been invited

I got a call today inviting me to a McCain-Palin victory party in Albuquerque.

... it would probably be more correct to say that I took a call today inviting us to a McCain-Palin victory party in Albuquerque... my wife is a registered Republican.
(We recently celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary: politics ain't everything!)

It would have been more fun if the call hadn't been a recorded invitation... you know, to have had a real person on the other end of the line with whom to chat.

Oh, well.

enough is enough

Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution.

Although Greek, Indian and Muslim savants had published heliocentric hypotheses centuries before Copernicus, his publication of a scientific theory of heliocentrism, demonstrating that the motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center of the universe, stimulated further scientific investigations and became a landmark in the history of modern science that is known as the Copernican Revolution.

Among the great polymaths of the Renaissance, Copernicus was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classical scholar, translator, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. Among his many responsibilities, astronomy figured as little more than an avocation — yet it was in that field that he made his mark upon the world.
[Wikipedia entry, Nicolaus Copernicus]

For a delightful if somewhat dated read, see Thomas Kuhn's The Copernican Revolution: Planetary Astronomy in the Development of Western Thought.

Me? "Politics as usual" is getting very tiresome!

Read a good book.

p.s. the '1543' in Swordfish1543 references the year of Copernicus's death & the publication of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium. For what it's worth, this is also the publication year of Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica, another ground-breaking work in the history of science.

There is something fundamentally wrong here...

Oil steady in Asia but risks seen in new storms
By EILEEN NG, Associated Press Writer
1 Sep 2008
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Oil prices hovered around $111 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as the threat of Hurricane Gustav dissipated but traders predicted further risks with new storms on the radar and concerns over slowing demand.

I'm sorry, but when seasonal weather patterns drive oil prices dramatically, something is wrong with the system!

Is this usual?

Help!

an old, semi-relevant joke

With the latest flap(-s) about Palin as McCain's running-mate, I can't help but recall a very old joke about McGovern & his first VP pick:

McGovern is 100% behind Eagleton...
... and 30% behind Nixon!

Fun times.

an innocent question

Palin says daughter, 17, is 5 months pregnant
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
Mon Sep 1, 2008
ST. PAUL, Minn. - John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, said Monday her 17-year-old unmarried daughter was five months pregnant, the latest in a string of disclosures that left the McCain campaign defending the thoroughness of its background check of the little-known Alaska governor.

My innocent question:

Was Bristol Palin enrolled in an abstinence only sex-ed class?

Just asking.

Have a nice day.

Any aspiring historians out there?

I've long had in mind two books, but realize that I'm unlikely to start - let alone finish - either:

50 years of revolution: Columbus, Luther, and Copernicus
The Jewish Century: Marx, Freud, and Einstein

Each has the advantage of focusing on a short period of time, with three central figures.

I've imagined these projects as both books and mini-series.
I am unlikely to complete either.

Please, someone - accept my gift!

Have a nice day.