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Blogs Eric Reads
- A Miami-Dade judge says there is “no rational basis” for a Florida law prohibiting gays from adopting children. John Cole outlines the wingnut interpretation of the Constitution when it comes to Teh Gay. Now you know what to expect for the next few days. (CBS News/Balloon Juice)
- Repeatedly bailed-out coporation AIG is hard at work making sure bloggers accruately represent how they’re wasting their latest infusion of taxpayer money. They’re media relations department emailed Wonkette and, needless to say, hilarity ensued. (Wonkette)
- DC police are investigating a bank robbery that occurred at 14th and K Street NW this morning. Obviously, this master thief hasn’t been reading the news or he would have known that banks don’t have any money anymore. Still, it’s inspiring to see a taxpayer robbing K Street, rather than the other way around. (DCist)
- Still-President Bush pardoned a guy who pled guilty to killing three bald eagles in 1995. Let freedom ring! (Associated Press)
- Woohoo! Citigroup has been approved to snort $306 billion in bailout crack off of the hooker’s ass that is the United States government. Oh, and because begging the government for taxpayer money comes with absolutely no consequences, $400 million of that money will go to naming the New York Mets’ new stadium Citi Field. And they wonder why nobody has confidence in the market. (New York Times/ABC News)
- Of course, we can all takes some comfort in the fact that Hank Paulson won’t be around much longer to hand out big black checks to corporations in the name of democracy and freedom. This morning, President-Elect Obama named the people who will fix this mess–we hope. Otherwise, getting the Change We Need might involved scrounging around on the ground by vending machines and laundromats. (Change.gov)
- Nate Silver projects that Al Franken will win the Minnesota recount by just 27 votes. What?! I don’t know how he does it, but he has some fancy numbers and variables to back it up. If he’s right, all political reporting that does not come from FiveThirtyEight should be banned. If not, well, at least there’s already a precedent for blowing projections. (FiveThirtyEight.com)
Shorter AIG Executives
- $85 billion? Woohoo, we’re goin’ to Malibu!!
“Shorter” concept created here. Are you aware of all internet traditions?
Wall Street Tells Us to Take Our $700 Billion and Shove It
Remember a few weeks ago when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson asked you if he could borrow 5 bucks one hundred and forty billion times or else the entire universe might implode? Well, Hank got his $700 billion bailout, but now it looks like Wall Street might not take the money:
Fears are mounting that many Wall Street banks and financial firms will refuse to participate in the US government’s $700bn bail-out package, leaving global markets and world economies in a perilous state for months to come.
‘There is a growing feeling that banks … might instead decide to tough it out,’ said Thomas Caldwell, chairman and CEO of Caldwell Financial, a $1bn-plus fund manager.
Wait, what? After we’ve essentially agreed to forget about providing universal healthcare, funding real education reform, and developing new sources of energy for a few years, why is it that the banks that begged for this money suddenly don’t want it? Because they might have to take a pay cut:
One of the least attractive elements is a section designed to curb executive pay at banks that participate in the bail-out package. These include limiting stock-related pay and banning ‘golden parachutes’ for executives.
‘I think this hodge-podge of regulations and rules will be enough to put many [chief executives] off participating,’ Caldwell said.
Sources close to Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch indicated the banks might choose not to participate in the bail-out as there is a growing view on Wall Street that the market may be bottoming out.
Well, that seems perfectly reasonable! How could we reasonably expect banking executives to give up their third or forth vacation homes or their private jets and let their $700 billion investors have a little oversight as to what they did with our money? Let’s just let them fool around with the world’s economy for a little while longer on the off chance that maybe the market is “bottoming out.” After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
The Gays Destroy Wall Street
Republicans blame Democrats. Democrats blame Republicans. But the religious right and the rest of Greater Wingnutia knows who’s really responsible for our economic crisis:
Christian fundamentalists are suggesting gays and lesbians are to blame for Wall Street’s woes, a frequently made charge in the wake of national calamities.
In a September 25th blog post titled ‘The Nation Will Right Itself If It Fixes Sex’, Christian Civil League of Maine Executive Director Michael Heath writes that the financial crisis facing Wall Street is a symptom of America’s sinful sexual culture, including the acceptance of gay unions.
…
A related post by Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian at the National Review’s website pushes a similar theme, this time focusing on Friday’s failure of WaMu.Krikorian suggests the big bank failed because it was too accommodating to minorities, including gays, African-Americans and Hispanics.
Great job, homos. You really screwed the pooch on this one.
(h/t)
McCain Claims Credit for Bailout as Bill Fails in House
As Congress prepared to vote on a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, the McCain campaign was already taking credit for the bill’s success in the House:
Mitt Romney, McCain’s erstwhile rival for the Republican nomination, said the deal on a Wall Street bailout worth up to 700 billion dollars would never have happened without the Arizona senator.
Speaking on NBC television, the former Massachusetts governor said “this bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain.”
There’s only one problem. The bailout bill wasn’t agreed to:
After a series of impassioned speeches on the House floor, the Bush Administration’s $700 billion bailout bill was rejected by the House early Monday afternoon.
The controversial measure needs 218 votes for passage, but it came up 13 votes short of that target, as the final vote was 228 to 205 against.
Whoops. Will they take responsibility for the bailout’s failure and the resultant stock market plunge?
Update: Politco’s Mike Allen reports that McCain touted his “success” at a rally in Ohio today, as did campaign communications director Jill Hazelbaker on FOX News this morning.
McCain Calls for Bipartisanship But Only Talks to Republicans
When John McCain suspended his campaign and tried to postpone Friday night’s debate, he emphasized the need for a bipartisan solution, saying, ”We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved.”
Per NYT’s The Caucus blog, here’s a list of who McCain spoke to regarding the proposed bailout plan on Saturday:
- President Bush
- Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson
- Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Senate Minority Leader
- Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)
- Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
- Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), the House Minority Leader
- Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the House Minority Leader
Phoning It In
When John McCain announced he was suspending his campaign and coming back to Washington to negotiate the bailout deal, his surrogate Lindsey Graham said “You can’t phone something like this in.”
Then, when McCain was asked this morning why he came back to Washington, he said he came back “because I wasn’t going to phone it in.”
So what is John McCain doing today while he’s off the campaign trail? He’s phoning it in:
Even though his campaign is no longer suspended, John McCain is staying in Washington this weekend to keep working on the bailout legislation. He will not be visiting Capitol Hill, however, preferring to work out of his campaign office.
“He can effectively do what he needs to do by phone,” said senior adviser Mark Salter. “He’s calling members on both sides, talking to people in the administration, helping out as he can.”
Why did he have to cancel the debate again? Oh right, so he could rush back to Washington and work on that bailout plan. But now that he’s had the debate, he’ll just wait it out until the rest of the Congress finishes negotiating. Meanwhile, what was Barack Obama up to?
“Today, as John McCain sat in his condominium in Arlington, Sen. Obama spoke directly with more than 20,000 voters in North Carolina as well as Congressman Barney Frank,Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Senator Harry Reid to discuss ongoing negotiations,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for Obama’s presidential campaign
Talking to the people versus sitting at home and sulking. Which one of those sounds more presidential?
Is McCain Trying to Stall Bailout Plan to Avoid Debates?
At the Clinton Global Initiative this morning, McCain said:
I cannot carry on a campaign as though this dangerous situation had not occurred, or as though a solution were at hand, which it clearly is not. As of this morning I suspended my political campaign…It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration’s proposal to meet the crisis. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time. So I am returning to Washington to seek five fundamental improvements to this critical legislation.
Except there are multiple reports this morning that a deal on the bailout is nearing completion. So is McCain going to ride into Washington, raise all sorts of objections to the proposed compromise plan, and then back out of tomorrow’s debate? Or push tomorrow’s debate back to October 2nd, postponing the VP debate until Palin has more time to prepare (or preempt the veep debate entirely)? Something is not right here.
Update: Obama says:
Congressional leaders have made progress in their negotiations, and appear close to a deal that would include these principles. President Bush addressed some of these issues last night, and I’m pleased that Senator McCain has decided to embrace them too. Now is a time to come together — Democrats and Republicans — in a spirit of cooperation on behalf of the American people.
Later today, I’ll be traveling to Washington to offer my help in getting this deal done. Then, I’ll travel to Oxford on Friday for the first of our presidential debates. Our election is in 40 days. Our economy is in crisis, and our nation is fighting two wars abroad. The American people deserve to hear directly from myself and Senator McCain about how we intend to lead our country. The times are too serious to put our campaign on hold, or to ignore the full range of issues that the next President will face.
Shorter Barack Obama:
Really Large Number
Lessons in how to fix an economic crisis:
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
“It’s not based on any particular data point,” a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. “We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
You know, I could really use a million bucks right now. There’s no reason, it’s just a really big number.