October 21, 2008 archive

Oct 21 2008

Alan Greenspan – Legacy of Mr. Bubbles

Peter Goodman of The New York Times examined the role of Alan Greenspan in the financial collapse in The Reckoning: Taking Hard New Look at a Greenspan Legacy.

The article has been sitting open in my web browser now for almost two weeks wondering when I was going to write about it. Since I’ve not see this article covered, I want to make sure it doesn’t go unnoticed. Unfortunately, I do not find Greenspan very inspiring, so the best I can do at this time is a Lazy Quote Diary™. It begins with a quote from Greenspan.

“Not only have individual financial institutions become less vulnerable to shocks from underlying risk factors, but also the financial system as a whole has become more resilient.” – Alan Greenspan in 2004

Oct 21 2008

Vampire Kisses: Did Abramoff and Wilson Bleed Romero in NM Election?

Crossposted from ePluribus Media

Dennis Greenia, Vampire Slayer

dengre I first learned about Jack Abramoff’s successful plot to help Heather Wilson ambush and bleed dry my good friend, Richard Romero, in two separate New Mexico congressional elections while strolling with dengre down K Street. Both times, Abramoff employed a stealth PAC purportedly championing health care reform. By 2004, New Mexico’s political aquifer flowed red.

K StreetI’m not the first person to learn about Abramoff from dengre.  He’s one of the brave few whose nocturnal obsession with vampires unearthed Washington’s Empire of the Undead for the slumbering masses.

Dengre, aka Dennis Greenia, reminds me of Van Helsing. He wears rumpled plaid shirts and seems to sport a permanent case of bedhead. He talks about Abramoff all the time. I’m not sure if he sleeps.

Oct 21 2008

Never interrupt an enemy making a mistake

It is amazing. John McCain mocking Barack Obama for saying he wants to spread the wealth around.

cross-posted at The Wild Wild Left and at daily kos

Oct 21 2008

FIFTEEN DAYS!

Man

“FIFTEEN DAYS is an eternity in politics. Anything can happen. So, you’d better stay watching our riveting, moment to moment analysis, because, considering the fact that all of human evolution occurred in under fifteen days (see scientifically vetted chart to the right) it is absolutely possible for John McCain, even with a huge financial disadvantage, to flip Democratic leads in Colorado, Florida, and North Carolina while simultaneously finding ways to salvage Nevada, Ohio, Missouri, Montana and North Dakota.

Hey, hey. What are you doing? Don’t flip to Cinemax…”

Oct 21 2008

Kucinich calls for investigation of Wall Street bonuses

Last Friday, I wrote about how 10% of $700 billion bailout is to cover Wall Street banker pay and bonuses.

At least one member of Congress is awake. None other than Rep. Dennis Kucinich has called for an investigation. According to The Guardian —

Kucinich, an outspoken Democratic opponent of the US taxpayer’s $700bn bank bail-out, said his staff would immediately begin asking Wall Street firms set to benefit what plans they had to distribute bonuses.

“When Congress placed restrictions on excessive executive pay, it had no intention of permitting business as usual with respect to bonus structures,” he said. “It would add insult to injury to ask taxpayers not only to bail out a firm, but to pay for bonuses as well. The Guardian’s report necessitates an immediate inquiry.”

Why in a time when banks are being bailed out by the American taxpayers, do they still believe they should award bonuses to their executives and other employees?  

Oct 21 2008

Open Thread

From one of my favorite NOLA bloggers, adrastos, a Bob Grant rant:

All the nuts in the US and A seem to be commenting on the 2008 election and some of them have talk radio shows. My new favorite winger weirdness comes from veteran yakker Bob Grant:

“[W]hat is that flag that Obama’s been standing in front of that looks like an American flag, but instead of having the field of 50 stars representing the 50 states, there’s a circle?” He then said: “Is the circle the ‘O’ for Obama? Is that what it is?” Grant later said: “[D]id you notice Obama is not content with just having several American flags, plain old American flags with the 50 states represented by 50 stars? He has the ‘O’ flag. And that’s what that ‘O’ is. That’s what that ‘O’ is. Just like he did with the plane he was using. He had the flag painted over, and the ‘O’ for Obama. Now, these are symptom — these things are symptomatic of a person who would like to be a potentate — a dictator.” ‘

Check out the flag and the rest of the post; I don’t want to spoil this.

Open thread is now … OPEN!  

Oct 21 2008

Green Works!


[OAKLAND, Calif. – California’s energy-efficiency policies created nearly 1.5 million jobs from 1977 to 2007, while eliminating fewer than 25,000, according to a study to be released Monday.

The study, conducted by David Roland-Holst, an economist at the Center for Energy, Resources and Economic Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley, found that while the state’s policies lowered employee compensation in the electric power industry by an estimated $1.6 billion over that period, it improved compensation in the state over all by $44.6 billion.

Built into that figure were increases of $1.2 billion in the light industrial sector, $11.2 billion in wholesale and retail trade, $7.3 billion in the financial and insurance sectors and $17.8 billion in the service sector.

“Consumers were able to reduce energy spending,” the study said, adding that “these savings were diverted to other demand.”

“When consumers shift one dollar of demand from electricity to groceries,” the report said, they create jobs among retailers, wholesalers, food processors and other businesses.

The study, which examined household spending, comes as state and regional initiatives on climate-change policies have been gathering momentum. At the same time, arguments have sharpened over how much it will cost the economy to cut the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels, which are linked to climate change.

Roughly half the country’s electric power is generated by burning coal, the fuel that produces among the highest greenhouse-gas emissions of any in widespread use.

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