White House Press Secretary: Leftwing Critics of Obama ‘Ought to Be Drug Tested’
August 11th, 2010Via: Guardian:
The Obama administration’s most public face, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, has tried to climb down from angry remarks he aimed at leftwing critics, calling them “crazy”.
In an interview with The Hill newspaper in Washington DC, Gibbs revealed frustration at attacks on the administration from liberal Democrats and others on the left, in terms likely to make relations even worse:
“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”
The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”
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More: Robert Gibbs Attacks the Fringe Losers of the Left
Via: Salon:
You may think that the reason you’re dissatisfied with the Obama administration is because of substantive objections to their policies: that they’ve done so little about crisis-level unemployment, foreclosures and widespread economic misery. Or because of the White House’s apparently endless devotion to Wall Street. Or because the President has escalated a miserable, pointless and unwinnable war that is entering its ninth year. Or because he has claimed the power to imprison people for life with no charges and to assassinate American citizens without due process, intensified the secrecy weapons and immunity instruments abused by his predecessor, and found all new ways of denying habeas corpus. Or because he granted full-scale legal immunity to those who committed serious crimes in the last administration. Or because he’s failed to fulfill — or affirmatively broken — promises ranging from transparency to gay rights.
But Robert Gibbs — in one of the most petulant, self-pitying outbursts seen from a top political official in recent memory, half derived from a paranoid Richard Nixon rant and the other half from a Sean Hannity/Sarah Palin caricature of The Far Left — is here to tell you that the real reason you’re dissatisfied with the President is because you’re a fringe, ideological, Leftist extremist ingrate who needs drug counseling…
Fed to Buy More of Its Own Debt
August 11th, 2010*chortle*
Via: Bloomberg:
Federal Reserve officials decided to reinvest principal payments on mortgage holdings into long-term Treasury securities, making their first attempt to bolster growth since March 2009 to keep the slowing U.S. economy from relapsing into recession.
“The pace of economic recovery is likely to be more modest in the near term than had been anticipated,” the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement in Washington. “To help support the economic recovery in a context of price stability, the Committee will keep constant the Federal Reserve’s holdings of securities at their current level.” The Fed retained a commitment to keep its benchmark interest rate close to zero for an “extended period.”
With growth weakening in the second quarter and company job gains in July falling short of estimates, today’s step signals that risks of a downturn have increased enough for the Fed to delay its exit from unprecedented stimulus. Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress last month that the Fed was “prepared to take further policy actions as needed.”
The Fed said it will “continue to roll over the Federal Reserve’s holdings of Treasury securities as they mature.” The reinvestment policy applies to agency debt and agency mortgage- backed securities held by the central bank.
The central bank left the overnight interbank lending rate target unchanged in a range of zero to 0.25 percent, where it’s been since December 2008. High unemployment, low inflation and stable price expectations “are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period,” the Fed said, repeating language from every policy meeting since March 2009.
Student-Loan Debt Surpasses Credit Cards
August 11th, 2010Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble: Look at overall inflation vs. college education inflation.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
Consumers now owe more on their student loans than their credit cards.
Americans owe some $826.5 billion in revolving credit, according to June 2010 figures from the Federal Reserve. (Most of revolving credit is credit-card debt.) Student loans outstanding today — both federal and private — total some $829.785 billion, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com.
…
But student loan debt, in many ways, is different than credit-card debt. These loans typically can’t be discharged in bankruptcy.
Elizabeth Warren Uncovered What the Government Did to ‘Rescue’ AIG, and It Ain’t Pretty
August 10th, 2010Unless the AIG imbroglio is untangled, the rest of this is nonsense.
Here’s another one for your voluminous Captain Obvious file.
Via: Alternet:
The government’s $182 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG should be seen as the Rosetta Stone for understanding the financial crisis and its costly aftermath. The story of American International Group explains the larger catastrophe not because this was the biggest corporate bailout in history but because AIG’s collapse and subsequent rescue involved nearly all the critical elements, including delusion and deception. These financial dealings are monstrously complicated, but this account focuses on something mere mortals can understand—moral confusion in high places, and the failure of governing institutions to fulfill their obligations to the public.
Three governmental investigative bodies have now pored through the AIG wreckage and turned up disturbing facts—the House Committee on Oversight and Reform; the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which will make its report at year’s end; and the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP), which issued its report on AIG in June.
The five-member COP, chaired by Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, has produced the most devastating and comprehensive account so far. Unanimously adopted by its bipartisan members, it provides alarming insights that should be fodder for the larger debate many citizens long to hear—why Washington rushed to forgive the very interests that produced this mess, while innocent others were made to suffer the consequences. The Congressional panel’s critique helps explain why bankers and their Washington allies do not want Elizabeth Warren to chair the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
The report concludes that the Federal Reserve Board’s intimate relations with the leading powers of Wall Street—the same banks that benefited most from the government’s massive bailout—influenced its strategic decisions on AIG. The panel accuses the Fed and the Treasury Department of brushing aside alternative approaches that would have saved tens of billions in public funds by making these same banks “share the pain.”
Bailing out AIG effectively meant rescuing Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch (as well as a dozens of European banks) from huge losses. Those financial institutions played the derivatives game with AIG, the esoteric practice of placing financial bets on future events. AIG lost its bets, which led to its collapse. But other gamblers—the counterparties in AIG’s derivative deals—were made whole on their bets, paid off 100 cents on the dollar. Taxpayers got stuck with the bill.
‘Buy and Bail’
August 10th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
Harvey Collier, a mortgage broker in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, says he gets as many as 10 calls a month from people planning to default on their loans. The twist: They first want financing to buy another home.
Real estate professionals call it “buy and bail,” acquiring a new house before the buyer’s credit rating is ruined by walking away from the old one because it’s “underwater,” or worth less than the mortgage. It’s an attempt to escape payments on a home whose value may never recover while securing a new property, often at a lower price with a more affordable loan.
The practice, which constitutes fraud if borrowers lie on loan applications, is continuing even after Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the biggest U.S. mortgage-finance companies, beefed up standards to prevent it, according to brokers such as Collier and Meg Burns, senior associate director for congressional affairs and communications at the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Whether driven by greed or desperation, the persistency of buy and bail underscores the lingering impact of the worst housing crash since the Great Depression.
“People were holding on, hoping the market would turn around,” Collier, who won’t work with applicants who intend to go into foreclosure, said in a telephone interview. “But now they’re giving up because there’s no light at the end of the tunnel in places like Florida.”
Google Raided by Korea Police in Probe of Street View
August 10th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
South Korean police raided Google Inc.’s Seoul office as part of an investigation into possible breaches of privacy laws resulting from the company’s collection of data for its Street View mapping service.
Law-enforcement officials confiscated materials from Google in a raid today and will ask the company to surrender all data that may have been collected illegally from late last year until May, the Korean National Police Agency said in a statement. Google said it will cooperate with the investigation.
The Korean authorities follow investigations in Europe and the U.S. over Google’s data collection. The probes began after the company said in May that it had mistakenly gathered wireless Internet data while photographing residential streets worldwide.
“We will cooperate with the investigation and answer any questions they have,” Google said in an e-mail.
“Putin Puts Out Two Wildfires in Central Russia”
August 10th, 2010This is hilarious, Soviet style propaganda. Better than the tiger incident, in my opinion.
Click through to see the photo of ole’ Vlad himself at the controls. HAHAHA.
Via: Ria Novosti:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday took part in extinguishing forest fires in Ryazan Province on board an amphibious firefighting airplane.
The Russian head of government was the co-pilot for half an hour aboard a Be-200 plane scooping up water from the nearby Oka River and dumping it on raging forest fires some 200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.
He dumped approximately 12 tons of water on each of two fires, extinguishing both completely.
Putin initially sat in the cabin in front of a thermal imaging monitor together with Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Ryazan Governor Oleg Kovalev.
However, shortly after takeoff Putin suddenly entered the cockpit and sat in the co-pilot’s seat.
He received a quick briefing from Emergency Situations Ministry aviation chief Rafail Zakirov.
It took the Be-200 a mere 11 seconds to fill up its water tanks.
During the flight, Putin observed the operation of another Be-200 that was also dousing fires from a minimum height.
He also spotted a fresh steppe fire in dangerous proximity to two villages.
Governor Kovalev, still airborne, immediately issued instructions to the local authorities to take measures to extinguish it.
Proposed Law Would Put Video Cameras In Cars
August 10th, 2010I’m sure the FBI wouldn’t access these cameras, like they access the microphones on the cell phones that people are carrying around. Oh no. Never.
Via: CBS:
Lawmakers are considering controversial new legislation this week that would allow vehicles to be equipped with dashboard cameras to record the moments leading up to accidents.
The proposed law, AB1942, would promote safer driving habits and reduce accidents by permitting video recorders to be installed on the windshield.
The bill currently allows devices to record video, audio, how fast and which direction the vehicle is traveling, a history of where your car has been, steering and brake performance and seat belt usage.
The devices would record in a continuous loop and would only save information if there is unusual vehicle motion or a crash. They could also be capable of transmitting the information to a central control center the moment of the accident.
Proponents say there are enough safety measures to avoid an invasion of privacy, but others call the proposal a huge overreach of government power.
Plane Carrying Former Senator Ted Stevens Crashes in Alaska
August 10th, 2010Update: Ted Stevens Killed In Plane Crash
Via: CBS News:
Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator in U.S. history who lost his seat after a corruption conviction that was later dismissed, was killed Tuesday in a small plane crash in Alaska. He was 86.
A family friend said Stevens was among five people killed in the crash in southwest Alaska.
—End Update—
Update: Sean O’Keefe, CEO of EADS and Former Head of NASA, Also Aboard
Via: Reuters:
The head of plane manufacturer EADS North American unit, Sean O’Keefe, and former Republican U.S. Senator Ted Stevens were aboard a plane that crashed in Alaska, and it was not immediately known if they survived, EADS and a congressional source said on Tuesday.
“Local authorities are reporting that there are survivors and a rescue operation is under way,” EADS North America spokesman Guy Hicks said in a statement, adding that no further details were available.
O’Keefe is the former head of NASA and worked for Stevens for many years in Congress. His son was also aboard the plane.
—End Update—
Stevens was a company man! Here’s one in mind from 2009: BP Gives $1 Million to UAF to Process Ted Stevens Papers:
British Petroleum is donating $1 million to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to catalog the papers from Ted Stevens’ four-decade political career.
Stevens sent more than 4,500 boxes of documents to the university’s library. Without the BP grant, the Rasmuson Library told The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner it would have taken decades to sort.
The library plans to hire additional staff to catalog and digitize materials. The library plans an online exhibit and electronic catalog.
Via: Cleveland Leader:
Former Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was amongst eight people believed to be on board a plane that crashed Monday night in a remote area of Alaska about 325 miles southwest of Anchorage. According to the Alaska National Guard, there are possible fatalities but there were some good Samaritans on scene helping the crash victims.
A spokesman for the Alaska Air National Guiard, Maj. Guy Hayes, said:
“They’re not out there alone right now. There’s people that are providing support. From what I’m told, there are survivors on this aircraft. I don’t know how many could be fatalities at this point.”
The aircraft is a 1957 DeHavilland DHC-3 Otter registered to the Anchorage-based communications company GCI. According to friends of Stevens, he was due to travel Monday to Agulowak Lodge, which is owned by GCI.
Possibly Related: Matt Simmons Dead “Of An Apparent Heart Attack”
U.S. Electricity Blackouts Skyrocketing
August 10th, 2010Via: CNN:
Throughout New York City, about 52,000 of ConEd’s 3.2 million customers lost power during the heat wave. Triple-digit temperatures forced residents like 77 year-old Rui Zhi Chen, to seek shelter at one of the city’s 400 emergency cooling centers. “It felt like an oven in my home and on the street,” Chen said.
Should Americans view these kinds of scenarios as extraordinary circumstances — or a warning sign of a darker future?
Experts on the nation’s electricity system point to a frighteningly steep increase in non-disaster-related outages affecting at least 50,000 consumers.
During the past two decades, such blackouts have increased 124 percent — up from 41 blackouts between 1991 and 1995, to 92 between 2001 and 2005, according to research at the University of Minnesota.
In the most recently analyzed data available, utilities reported 36 such outages in 2006 alone.
“It’s hard to imagine how anyone could believe that — in the United States — we should learn to cope with blackouts,” said University of Minnesota Professor Massoud Amin, a leading expert on the U.S. electricity grid.
