RIP RMN

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

This is so grim.

Bush's Law

March 3, 2009
In Legal Memos, Clearer View of Power Bush Sought

By NEIL A. LEWIS/ NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — The secret legal opinions issued by Bush administration lawyers after the Sept. 11 attacks included assertions that the president could use the nation’s military within the United States to combat terrorism suspects and to conduct raids without obtaining search warrants.

That opinion was among nine that were disclosed publicly for the first time Monday by the Justice Department, in what the Obama administration portrayed as a step toward greater transparency.

The opinions reflected a broad interpretation of presidential authority, asserting as well that the president could unilaterally abrogate foreign treaties, ignore any guidance from Congress in dealing with detainees suspected of terrorism, and conduct a program of domestic eavesdropping without warrants.

Layoffs

Here are the heads of the Big Three automakers: Wagoner from GM, Mulally at Ford and Nardelli from Chrysler.

Why, as a condition of getting a federal bailout, should they NOT be forced to resign? Plenty of regular Joes and Janes are going to see their lives sent into a tailspin because of their (and their boards') incompetence.

Why do these guys get to keep their jobs? Clearly they are not indispensable.

UPDATE: As I was saying...

Fi Fo Fo Frum

David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, told The Sunday Telegraph that Republicans should now concentrate all their fire on "the need for balanced government".
"It's hard to see a turnaround in the White House race," he said. "This could look like an ideological as well as a party victory if we're not careful. It could be 1980 in reverse.
"With this huge new role for federal government in the economy, the possibility for mischief making is very, very great. One man should not have a monopoly of political and financial power. That's very dangerous."

Oh really, Mr Frum? And where have YOU been for the last 8 years?

Full article

Madding Crowds

My financial advisor wrote an urgent email this week and for the first time used the word 'disaster' in a communication. He said, the so-called bailout is not the end, not by a long shot, and the impact of the mortgage mess combined with consumer credit card debt has yet to be realized.

When I produced Marketplace we covered many real estate stories and the growing push toward home ownership..and the move by banks to lend to less-than-qualified lenders. You didn't need to be Alan Greenspan to wonder about a) the exposure of banks and mortgage lenders b) the under-education of first time mortgage holders (did they really know what they were getting into?) and c) the shaky house of cards this was built on IF the economy stumbled. Greed covers up a lot of common sense. What struck me then is that the movement toward shaky mortgages came within a few short years of the S&L collapse. The so-called ownership society means assuming more debt.

Remember when the term Master of Universe was equated with genius? I have worked with people who thought they could defy the laws of supply and demand, who really believed they had crossed over into a new reality where unending growth was possible. These same people saw gravity reassert itself when the first Internet Crash occurred. There is no perpetual motion machine. Laws of nature cannot be defied. Things run in cycles, not hockey-stick lines on a graph.

The bailout is not communism. I have heard some well-educated people in the last two weeks who think it is. They betray a lack of history and an ignorance of what is happening here. The US government has always been the banker/lender of last resort -- to raise the money for wars, for the bailout of a depression (John Keynes anyone?), for subsidies for uncompetitive enterprises, even for the mortgage tax deduction. The government is a co-investor (owner) in all parts of the economy. There is no pure market.
Communism is an ideology about state control and ownership by the broadest of working classes. As an ideology, communism is to be applied across the board on all government actions. The bailout is an extension of government borrowing...but a last resort. If we're lucky, it'll be short-lived. I wonder if in four years when the market has turned around the federal government will auction off its portfolio of holdings to the highest bidder, like what was done with the auction of the broadcast spectrum. If time were no matter, there would be no need for the bailout. But the credit crisis is real, and the bailout is one step toward slowing the bleeding. But it won't be the last as long as we have the mortgage crisis still playing out.

Out of Her Depth

Well, this is what cramming for a test usually looks like when you get to the exam.

If you are reasonably adept you might, might, be able to pull off a C-. I'll be generous, Sarah Palin didn't bolt from the chair in abject embarrassment. But she should have.

ABC News' Charlie Gibson asked some very basic and very pertinent questions. The answers to two were predictable, and I am sure the questions were designed to elicit some nuance about the complexity of events: whether she would send troops into Pakistan to hit terrorists without Pakistani approval; and, whether she would support Israel if it decided to attack an Iranian nuclear site in the name of self defense.

Palin pretty much blubbered through those and spouted "a blizzard of words" but in the end delivered boilerplate stuff.

Gibson asked her about the Bush Doctrine and it soon became clear she had absolutely no idea what it is.

And, when discussing the situation in Georgia and Russia, she let the discussion drift to war... and was backed into a corner on that topic. An experienced person would have been able to parry and finesse this sensitive topic. Palin could not. I am sure in Moscow this interview is being dissected nicely. Note: Josh Marshall agrees with me

What we have here now on the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is another example of the double down on minimal talent and wisdom that passes for political leadership in this country. At a time when we absolutely need more qualified people.

The decline was certainly evident with Dan Quayle, slipped lower with George W. Bush and now has dropped to the bottom with this hockey-mom governor. Sarah Palin. Please. Wake up. This nomination is a pitiful fraud that puts the country and the world at risk.

Time for the "Amateurs"?

Senator John McCain went on a rant today, declaiming to a crowd of supporters how Barack Obama was "Wrong on Iraq, wrong on Iran.." But, Obama might be right on Pakistan. In fact, he called for a policy of attacks inside Pakistan if it meant attacking Al Qaeda and Taliban forces the Pakistanis would not attack.

Now, the New York Time is reporting that is exactly Bush administration policy. The president signed secret orders in July permitting special ops attacks inside Pakistan without the approval of the Pakistani government.

This is yet another foreign policy development that Barack Obama called for and anticipated as the GOP attacked him for being naive and inexperienced. The other? The withdrawal of troops from Iraq to press attacks in Afghanistan. Which is what the Bush administration is now doing.