Cogitamus

Al Giordano Is So Fucking Smart. Just Ask Him.

According to Al Giordano, I'm a fucking idiot for being mad about the AIG bonuses.  So is anyone else that's upset over AIG and the treatment it's received from two presidential administrations.

I don't really feel like arguing it, because both sides feel justified.  And despite Giordano's endless litany of insults, straw men and ad hominem attacks, I don't mind being in the company of Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald.

What's funny about this "I'm so damn smart and y'all are dummies nyeah nyeah nyeah" post is his treatment of the Chris Dodd issue.  According to the Smartest Man In The Universe, Senator Dodd wasn't pressured at all to water down his amendment.  Nope!  In fact, here's Dodd's own words on the issue, "admitting" to doing it all on his own:

The alternative was, in my view, losing the entire section on executive excessive compensation," (Dodd) said. "Given the choice ... I agreed to a modification in the legislation, reluctantly. I wasn't negotiating with myself. I wasn't changing my own amendment. I was changing the amendment because others were insisting on it."

Now, if you're a member of the "Poutrage Lobby" - how cute! - you might think that in the above statement Dodd doesn't "admit" any culpability at all.  You might think that Dodd is actually doing the complete opposite of admitting anything, and in fact is supporting what shrieking banshees like Hamsher, Glennwald and I have been saying.  Dodd didn't go into committee seeking to water down his own amendment in some kind of bait-and-switch.  "Others were insisting" upon the change, and Dodd was simply a team player.  And, of course, we have Geithner himself confirming that he told Dodd to change the amendment.

Since the HuffPo piece to which Giordano links is titled "Dodd: Treasury Officials Insisted On Weakening Bonus Provision" and contains the important bit of info from Geithner doing the only "admitting" in this whole mess, one - again, if one is a member of Giordano's "Poutrage Lobby" - might think that Giordano is either lying in order to serve his own special brand of outrage at his fellow liberals, or that he's astoundingly stupid.  Spectacularly, unbelievably, dumb.  Dough Feith, Jonah Goldberg levels of stupid here.

But I'm sure Giordano, if asked, would let us all know that he is, in fact, the smartest fucking man on the planet, so some other explanation is necessary.  Unfortunately, the only one left to us is that he's a self-righteous asshole whose brand of gotcha-blogging, demagoguery and constant insults is better suited to Pajamas Media or The Corner.  Talk about a rock and a hard place.

Volcano Erupts Near Tonga

You absolutely must take a look at The Big Picture's collection of photographs on this.  Words fail.

Chart of the day

Courtesy of the Economic Policy Institute, via MSNBC: "In 1965, CEOs earned 24 more times than the typical worker. In 2007, CEOs made 275 times more than the average employee."

The real jump, from 71 times to 275 times, came only after 1989.

The chart came with this story: Can wild CEO pay be tamed? Probably not

A Perfect Pop Song for the Evening

"St. Valentine's Day Massacre" - The Cocktail Slippers

They're Norwegian kids - symbol of quality.  Part of my continuing work to spread socialism in whatever way I can. 

Talk amongst yourselves.  I am trying to muster another post but that invisible hand seems to have worn me out.

The problem with water pricing

...in short, is that crazy-ass stuff like this is all too likely:

But according to the state of Colorado, the rain that falls on Holstrom's property is not hers to keep. It should be allowed to fall to the ground and flow unimpeded into surrounding creeks and streams, the law states, to become the property of farmers, ranchers, developers and water agencies that have bought the rights to those waterways.

What Holstrom does is called rainwater harvesting. It's a practice that dates back to the dawn of civilization, and is increasingly in vogue among environmentalists and others who pursue sustainable lifestyles. They collect varying amounts of water, depending on the rainfall and the vessels they collect it in. The only risk involved is losing it to evaporation. Or running afoul of Western states' water laws.

Those laws, some of them more than a century old, have governed the development of the region since pioneer days.

"If you try to collect rainwater, well, that water really belongs to someone else," said Doug Kemper, executive director of the Colorado Water Congress. "We get into a very detailed accounting on every little drop."

Welcome, Coloradan environmentalists, to the reality of water privatisation. The people of Cochabamba, Bolivia, can fill you in on the rest.

The Passing of an Illusion

There is something bracing about the stark revelations regarding the character of America's criminal corporate class over the last several months.  Yes, we are outraged, yes, we are shaken by the damage that they have done, and many will suffer much on account of their sins.  Nonetheless, there is an upside to the pain that they have caused -- the scales have fallen from our collective eyes and our country's business overclass appear before the public as they are and long have been -- arrogant, entitled, greedy beyond measure, incompetent, short-sighted, solipsistic, and astonishingly overrated. 

For years we have been fed the bullshit notion that our economic system provided "pay for performance." rewarding greatly those who most deserved it.  When one was so gauche as to engage in "class warfare" and criticize the compensation of CEOs and Wall Street titans, and the growing gap between them and the average worker, we were lectured to by the Randroids and libertarians, the business press, and most of all, by Republicans, that this was simply the invisible hand briskly stroking the deserving organ of commerce. 

The AIG situation stands as a wonderfully emblematic moment, a veritable tsunami washing away this illusion.  It is but one of many instances in recent years where business elites have chosen to enrich themselves despite their all too verifiable failure.  But it is one so stark, so brazen, so jaw-droppingly, gob-smackingly outrageous that it has created a public furor that could be transformative if used correctly.  Coming as it does on the heels of Madoff and Stanford, Lehman and Bear Stearns, the stock market meltdown, the real estate bubble, the grotesque manipulation of exotic financial instruments by our financier-illusionist class, the public has simply had enough.  They are afraid and angry, bitter and put-upon.

Obama needs to validate these feelings, both because they are legitimate, but also because they can be the key to promoting transformative change in our politics.  America's business elites have been the true beneficiaries of a generation of Republican rule.  They and their cheerleaders in the press and on televsion have stood in the way of any moves toward more leftish, egalitarian economic policies over the last 28 years.  It is time to rout these people, to amplify their unpopularity, to make clear which side this Administration is on, and to do so in a way that isn't afraid to show a little righteous anger toward them.  Health care reform, a more progressive tax structure (including on dividends and capital gains), the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-worker measures, and the strengthening of Social Security and Medicare can all be accomplished if we can effectively channel the anger of this moment into political popularity for the President and progressives and against the business elite and their apologists.    

The Bushian Clown Show At Treasury

Geithner and Summers need to be fired right the hell now.  They're liabilities on both a policy and politics basis, and I'm starting to suspect that they're both rogue officials, making decisions which favor their buddies, knowing that Obama won't be happy with them and hoping that he'll feel trapped into honoring commitments made in his name but without his approval.

The uproar over AIG's bonuses is why I'm thinking this.  I put these thoughts in rough form over at Jamelle's place:

1. AIG announces hundreds of millions in bonuses, prompting criticism.  The White House shrugs and says, "what're ya gonna do?"
2. The criticism turns into an uproar.  AIG advances BS legal theory about how they either pay the bonuses or the world turns into a post-apocalyptic nightmare.  The White House shrugs and says, "what're ya gonna do?"
3. Snow falls in Hades, and both Democrats and Republicans unite in calling for the bonus money to be recovered.  Republicans predictably go a bit farther rhetorically and start calling for AIG's executives to commit ritual suicide.  In response, the White House starts advancing a ridiculously complicated scheme involving the IRS and specially targeted legislation to recover the bonuses.
4. Obama himself finally gets involved, and suddenly the Treasury Department is telling AIG to either get the bonus money back or they can say good-bye to $30 billion.

That last step is a simple and very legal solution to the problem.  It's exactly what Congress and the White House told the UAW:  either renegotiate your contracts and take a hit, or no money for you.  Either AIG's financial wizards can give the money back, or they don't have a company anymore.

Further evidence that Geithner and Summers are working at cross purposes to Obama himself is how they're trying to pin responsibility for the whole mess on Chris Dodd.  Unfortuantely for them, the facts of the matter are getting out.  Dodd's amendment was retroactive and would have blocked these bonuses from going forward, or would have given the government all the legal basis it needed to recover the money.  His amendment was stripped of that language in conference at the insistence of Timothy Geithner himself.  Clearly Geithner has been protecting his buddies on Wall Street from day one. 

Geithner is wholly captive to Wall Street groupthink; as Harold Meyerson said in the WaPo, we have "a Treasury secretary who cannot conceive of an alternative to our catastrophic system of banking."  He cannot and will not attempt to consider doing business any other way.

President Obama needs to deal with Geithner - and Larry Summers, who seems to think his job is peddling BS for Geithner and their buddies on Wall Street - and he needs to do it quickly.  His Treasury Secretary is making the Obama administration look like the Bush administration:  constant, erratic strategy changes, continual need to walk back plans and statements, the palpable sense that no one knows what is going on or what's going to happen next. 

Obama was elected in part because of his ability to project a steady, quiet competence in the face of the GOP's hysterics during the campaign.  And on a host of issues, from stem cells to equal pay, from protecting choice to enacting a massive stimulus program, even to Obama's commitment to reforming healthcare, that competence is on display.  President Obama's second term - and not only that but his ability to enact his agenda during his first term - rides in equal parts on his policies actually working and Americans' continued belief that he knows what he's doing.  Timothy Geithner makes Obama look dumb, and he can't afford it. 

Neither can we, and that's why he needs to go away.

Why, yes, O'Reason *is* an Irish name.

Here's a little glimpse of your pseudonymous West Coast all-too-infrequent blogster in action at Santa Monica's Sonny McLean's with my baseball buddy Mike, circa 11 a.m. PDT, watchin' the Sox, well, masticate the Twins. (Homers by Tek, Papi, Jacoby, and Bay!) Happy St. Patrick's Day, y'all.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

"If I Should Fall from Grace with God" - The Pogues

Yes, St. Patrick's Day, the Pogues, and Sir Charles all meet this evening at D.C.'s 9:30 Club in a combustible combination.  I am glad my first meeting of the day tomorrow is at 11:00.  

Have fun and take a taxi.     

Give the Bonuses Back—Or Else

I know Matt Miller isn't the only one saying this.  But he's certainly laying it out there logically and directly.  Give AIG execs an ultimatum, sweetened by a little "for the good of country."  If they don't do the honorable thing, then take the next step.  Force the fuckers to sue.  I dare them.

Masticating in the Closet

Via Atrios, I came across this Brad DeLong post in which our hero, Ross Douche Hat, describes his completely normal youthful disgust and boredom with a young woman (who looks like a "chunkier Reese Witherspoon") who wanted to bed him when he was in college (now I'm disgusted) and had the bad taste to whisper that she was "on the pill" while nibbling his ear lobe.  I know when I was in college that that is the sort of thing that would have sent me into alternating fits of nausea and yawning.  (Don't even ask about now -- the only thing more disturbing than the mind of a 20-year old college student is that of a 49-year old man.)

So let me repeat. Callow. Prudish. Prig.

And a cruel one to boot.  I've seen Douthat and he didn't strike me as Mr. Studly Six-Pack Abs -- why he feels the need to call someone chunky and express distaste at her "breasts spilling out of pink pajamas" is beyond me.  

This guy is a fucking creep, and the notion that one of the premier Op-Ed slots in the country is going to someone with this little going for him makes me a little nauseous.  And once again the fact that Yglesias fancy him some sort of prose stylist bewilders me -- but then again, he seems to think McArdle is some kind of thinker.    (The comments by the way are priceless.)

Well, That's Just Sad

From an email, maybe Obama, Geithner and Congressional Dems can be shamed into action:

Washington, D.C. - Representative Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Chairman of Republican House Policy Committee and the first member of Congress to oppose the Wall Street bailout, released the following statement in response to AIG's announcement of executive bonuses totaling $165 million:  

 

"AIG has affronted and defied the public and its representative government.  This ‘too big to fail’ company that is now 80 percent owned by the American taxpayer, is now lavishing its executives with $165 million in bonuses.  For what? 

 

Abject failure. 

 

“In point of fact, this institution is ‘too big to succeed.’  It has received over $150 billion from taxpayers’ who played by the rules and suffer from the misfeasance of AIG and other gigantic financial institutions; yet it is no closer to solvency and responsible behavior than it was when it first received billions in taxpayers’ aid.   

 

It is despicable that AIG and others defend these bonuses as legally enforceable contractual obligations that cannot be broken.  Our own domestic automakers are bound by legally enforceable contractual obligations with the United Auto Workers.  But, in return for a TARP financed bridge loan, this has not prevented government from forcing our auto companies and the union from renegotiating contracts and continuing the painful restructuring hurting working families. 

 

“No more double standards; no more ‘necessary evils’ AIG has insulted and defied the American people and their representative government.  The time has come to cut off all taxpayer support for AIG; break it up; and end its bleeding of American taxpayers."

Shamed, because it shouldn't be a Republican Congressman doing this.

Or at least he shouldn't be so alone.

Greetings From Santa Fe Plus a Must-see South Park

I am a nervous flier, but a confident drinker and valium-swallower.
--Martin Amis

The boys and Boy and I arrived in Santa Fe yesterday (your home state is gorgeous, Stephen!), and I'm taking the morning off to sleep late, read e-mails and blogs, watch a South Park episode with Son One, and generally enjoy the wonderfulness of Not Having To Be Anywhere or Do Anything at Any Time Unless I Feel Like it. This vacation was long overdue--I'd forgotten how much I love being Elsewhere, how much I love mountains, and how funny South Park can be when Matt and Trey are really on their collective game.

Anyway, once I get myself out and about--there is a snowy mountain to be conquered, after all, despite the deceptive blue sky I can see outside the picture window--I'll have some pics and observations to share. (Although I can tell you this right off the bat: Santa Fe appears to be a terrific foodie town, certainly insofar as its Indian cuisine--sampled yesterday--is concerned.)

So, go watch last week's hilarious South Park, The Ring*, in which Eric and company address the hypocrisy of using wholesomeness, purity, and non-badness--you know, Christian Family Values® as demonstrated by the Palins--to sell to little girls what is, at its core, the same old thing everyone else in the entertainment and advertising worlds is trying to sell: sex. I only wish that in the real world, we could similarly retard--or, better yet, completely obstruct--the dread Disneyfication Creep that we in Florida have long been decrying.

I must pay more attention to Son One's teevee recommendations, as it would appear he has inherited his parents' wit, bless his twisty little heart.

Peace, everyone.

*Not even remotely safe for work or small children, as this is the uncensored version (not that the censored versions of South Park are especially safe for small children, but in this case, it might be distressing for kids to hear Mickey Mouse going verbally medieval on the asses of the Jonas Brothers followed by Mickey Mouse bloviating, in Rush-like tones, his true opinion of little girls--and more.)

Also at litbrit.

Nobody Could Have Predicted That Geithner And Summers Would Be Tools

Tools of Wall Street, tools of the status quo, just tools in general.

Nobody could have predicted, that is, except for the same dirty hippie bloggers that correctly predicted the disaster that Iraq would become, and correctly predicted that Bush's War on Terror would accomplish the direct opposite of its stated goals, and correctly predicted the housing bust, and the move from subprime mortgages in crisis to a general mortgage crisis. . .

Now these same dirty hippie bloggers - one of whom is a Nobel laureate, not that it matters - are correctly calling out Geithner and Summers for their methods in dealing with AIG.  As Atrios says, little Timmy Geithner has his hands in America's cookie jar, and he's throwing chocolate chip cookies to all of his little friends from down The Street.

The latest bit of criticism which they'll ignore is the latest and greatest round of bonuses AIG is paying out.  Neil reproduces a bit of an email justifying these bonuses:

-AIGFP is in the hole something like $100b, with potential losses much higher than that. Unwinding all their contracts is a bitch, and the people who already understand how best to do that are the current employees. Unwinding strange positions effectively is a giant mess even if you already understand all or most of them. I believe that having new employees step in would cost way more than the 10 bps they're paying to current employees.

- Imagine you're a trader at AIGFP. You've done pretty well for yourself over the last decade, actually, and probably you've got enough savings to retire. Not in the kind of luxury you're accustomed to, maybe, but some. Certainly you can ride out the recession without changing your lifestyle. Do you really want to keep working at AIGFP for a small amount (to you) of money to minimize the cost of unwinding the thing? No reputation, no promotion, no head start on a new career of some kind, and the job itself will be no fun. Honestly, you've got lots of egg on your face, but why stay?

So sure, I have no desire to pay these idiots, but this is one of those things that you just suck up in a bad situation. If it helps retain staff at AIGFP (those bastards), that cash was probably money well spent.

This falls for the competency excuse we're hearing so much about.  But there's no reason for us to worry about losing these people and their suppoed ability to work through their contracts.  The plain fact is AIG is staffed by people who were either incompetent or criminal.  Incompetent because they didn't see how what they were doing was unsustainable and destructive in the long run, to their own business and the economy as a whole.  I hardly think we need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars - every few months, it seems - to retain utterly incompetent workers.  If, however, they weren't incompetent, it means they knew that what they were doing was unsustainable and destructive.  They knew their actions would precipitate a huge crisis, and they did it anyway in order to make a fast buck.  That's criminal.  And I don't see the need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to keep criminals around so they can continue rooting through the contracts of a business they no longer own to see what kinds of fast bucks they can still make.

As Jane Hamsher points out, the difference in our government's treatment of the AIG criminals/incompetents who are directly responsible for their company's problems and the autoworkers who aren't responsible for their companies' problems is astounding.  With AIG, there's a wide-open money spigot and high-ranking government officials in front of the country making excuses and justifications for them.  With the UAW, there's nothing but condemnation from every side, nothing but expectations that they of course need to make sacrifices.

We don't need to honor the contracts made by AIG.  We didn't see any need to honor the UAW's contracts with GM and Chrysler.  It's a bogus argument made by a couple of guys who are entirely too chummy with the people who put us into this mess. 

Finally, it sickens me to see Geithner and Summers make such stupid arguments, such blatantly false declarations.  It smacks of the kind of ham-handed incompetence we used to see all the time from the Bush Administration, half-assed attempts to cover or justify incredibly wrong decisions.  There simply is no justification for what they're doing, and they know it, but they're doing it anyway.  How many times did we see that from Bush Administration officials?  I can understand that Obama is not as liberal as I'd like.  I can understand that his people are going to make decisions in this crisis that I will oppose.  But it's infuriating to see rank incompetence, denial of the facts on the ground and dismissal of the concerns of American citizens from the very people who were supposed to represent a clean break from such Bushian nonsense.

Budapest riots: not what they used to be anymore

It's March 15, a national holiday, and police was duly out in massive numbers to guard the some twenty different, mostly oppositional, manifestations that took place. March 15, on which Hungarians commemorate the 1848 uprising against their Habsburgian overlords, is one of the two or three most volatile days in this country. There's always a great number of protest manifestations (especially if there is a leftwing government), and the last couple of years there was widespread rioting.

Which is why today was a bit of a disappointment, really.

I was sort of ready to ignore the festivities already, since after two and a half years and a dozen iterations, the demo-cum-riot scene has jumped the shark. It's always the same anyway: angry grannies and families with Hungarian flags in the afternoon, hooded and balaclavad youths in the evening, when the mainstream conservative politicians sternly intoning their dire warnings make way for younger rabble-rousers, who shout about PM Gyurcsany, the commies, the police and the Jews. Demonstrators who look like the kind of mix of students and squatters you'd get in a far-left demo in Western Europe. Much posturing, waiting around, exchanging of tall tales, waving flags and shouting slogans; not to mention trying to impress the far-right girls, who are surprisingly cute. Marching this way and that, avoiding the police, building barricades, and then the inevitable show-down; teargas, batons, the crowd tearing back with scarves over their mouths. A lengthy cat-and-mouse game, as the rioters taunt the cops and pelt them with stones, until the dull thuds of tear gas grenades being shot into the crowd set everyone running again. Only for the game to start over twenty minutes later once the dust is settled. Rinse and repeat.

Nevertheless, I did keep an eye on the website of the Magyar Nemzet, a national-conservative newspaper which at every new iteration publishes a breathless minute-by-minute account of goings-on in the city. Very practical if you want to know where the riots are at any given moment. Not saying they actively incite the rioters, but ... OK, who am I kidding, they do.

Headline of the day

The six sentence story itself doesn't quite match up to expectations, but the headline's worth the prize:

Man unwisely tries to rob Tae Kwon Do studio

CNBC suffering from a "Stewart Dip"? That Maddow and Olbermann will not speak of?

Business is business, and that goes for any talk show host left or right. I know that, or should know that. And yet I was still disappointed to read that both Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow apparently followed orders after their employer, MSNBC, allegedly exhorted its producers, Fawlty Towers style, not to talk about the war. I mean, about the Jon Stewart / Jim Cramer face-off.

I mean, it's understandable enough that Cramer begged off from his previously announced repeat appearance on Morning Joe, and decided to just ignore the whole fracas when he presented own show. I probably would too. But it would have been nice if Maddow or Olbermann had at least made some veiled allusion to the goings-on, if only to prove they weren't entirely slave to their paymasters.

The good news - or "gratifying" is probably the better word: CNBC (and Mad Money specifically) seem to be suffering from a "Stewart Dip" of sorts.

In the first three days of this week, CNBC's Business Day programming block was down 10 percent in the key demographic of adults 25-to-54 versus the same period the week before, and down 11 percent among total viewers. Meanwhile, Mad Money was also down 10 percent in the 25-to-54 demographic, but only 4 percent among all viewers -- suggesting that maybe some of those bored college kids who watch Jon Stewart did, in fact, tune in to find out exactly what is the deal with this Jim Cramer character.

How Embarassing

I saw chief Justice John Roberts speak yesterday at the Bellwood lecture right here in my very own hometown! I was a little starstruck, obviously. The speech he gave bored even me. I kept waiting for the introduction to be over, and then he finished up. It was all about Abraham Lincoln. I could pick up a book about Abe without standing in line for 30 minutes.

There was a Q & A session at the end of the speech, and to the audience's palpable horror, a "birther" got ahold of the mic and accosted Justice Roberts about "Barack Hussein Obama['s]" citizenship. She got a laugh from the audience when she actually stated what her deal was, and Roberts deflected politely. Her "question" included an account of how she'd flown thousands of miles to come to Moscow to see his speech. Once her game was apparent, I was a little angry that she probably figured that we amateurs in Idaho are sympathetic to her wingnuttery, and couldn't manage to keep her quiet. I mean, if you're going to get on a plane and hound this guy, why not just fly to DC?

Liverpool Street Station Jan 15 2009

The Truth-Not-Cherrypicked: Sweet and Quite Delciious

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Jim Cramer Pt. 3

Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor Jim Cramer

Here it is--better late than never (sorry!)--to watch in amazement and watch again. (Is it conceivable, do you suppose, that Jim Cramer really believes that it is all just a big game? I mean, look at the guy and consider how...Nah. Never mind.)

A Little Nostalgia Trip and Birthday Wishes

"Prettiest Girl" and "No Place Like Home" - The Neighborhoods

Happy birthday to my younger sister  (who is somehow 46 today).  A little something from a fabulous Boston band of our youth, who, in a just universe, would have been big stars.   

As a bonus, here they are reprising "Prettiest Girl" (and Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging") thirty years later (still sounding pretty good) while at the Somerville Theatre, where Voice o' Reason once worked. 

Jon Stewart Destroys Jim Cramer

Wow. Watching Jon Stewart take Jim Cramer apart piece by little piece last night was amazing.  I started to write a post while watching, and here was my first thought: "Holy shit, I'm starting to feel sorry for Jim Cramer".  What an absolute and utter train wreck for Cramer 

Maybe Jon Stewart should be made chairman of the SEC.  He was totally prepared to just slaughter Cramer as the sacrificial lamb for the sins of the broader business television news set.  I had read someone's comment that this was going to be another "Crossfire" moment for Stewart, but I think it was even more devastating than that.  Cramer was reduced to a joke in this segment.  It's nice to know that there is someone on television practicing actual journalism, even if you do have to tune in Comedy Central to see it.

The essential point that Stewart drilled home relentlessly is that this isn't a fucking game.  There are genuine consequences to the society for the acts of these criminals in the business community and their cheerleaders on television.  Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be negotiating wage cuts for a couple of unions that I represent in a desperate attempt to keep them competitive in a construction environment that is in full "race to the bottom" mode.  When I am not doing that I will be trying to hammer out reductions in future pension benefits in order to keep a couple of pension plans solvent going forward after the recent market debacles.  This is the world that our masters of the universe have wrought.      

Next Week He'll Build A Compound

Glenn Beck isn't usually worth the time people give to him.  Anyone that makes Bill O'Reilly appear sober and thoughtful is just too buffoonish to deal with.

But this "We Surround Them" thing is really weird and creepy.  At first the webpage is just standard conservative fearmongering.  But then Beck starts talking about "The Nine Principles" and "The 12 Values."

At one level, they're the usual source of comedy whenever someone like Beck tries to talk about having principles and values.  "If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it."  Unless, of course, you're a Republican president breaking a law that we think is dumb or French.  "I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday" - there isn't a sliding scale of honesty.  One is either honest or not; being truthful 90% of the time simply means that one is a liar.  Rational people, even Christians who manage to escape fundamentalism in one way or another, admit that telling the whole truth 100% of the time is simply impossible, and anyway there are considerations that can trump utter truthfulness.

But those principles and values quickly moved from being funny to vaguely creepy to downright scary.  There are people who will actually try to order their lives around them, including the idea that "America is good" - notice that this is the first value, before even that God "is the Center [sic] of my Life.[sic]"

If Beck decides to join forces with the Going Galt movement, I suggest we give them Guantanamo and let them go for it. 

The March of Money Madness

If you're like me, your desire to understand the often-arcane intricacies of the current financial crisis has been tempered by the fact that the more you learn about the insanely large amounts of money involved (and the character of the people handling it), the more nauseous you feel. Former IMF research director Simon Johnson talked to Terri Gross on Fresh Air last week, and he did an excellent job of putting the numbers into a realistic context and explaining the situation in terms a layperson could understand. It's worth a listen. He kept the queasiness factor sufficiently in check that I wasn't overwhelmed midway through with the sense that my mental health would be better off Just Not Knowing.

Johnson is also part of the crew that runs the blog Baseline Scenario, which appears to be a very cogent overview of the fiscal fiascos we're facing. Bring your Tums.

(Great job by Stewart with Cramer last night, BTW; I assume litbrit will be doing the honors.)

Because Callow Prudish Prigs Deserve a Voice too

The replacement by the New York Times of grinning death's skull William Kristol with Ross Douthat, the upscale Ben Shapiro (or is he the hep cat's Rod Dreher), is certainly grabbing a lot of attention in the left blogosphere. 

I have always found the tolerance for Douthat among some young male liberal bloggers to be totally baffling.  (Yes, he's on our links here -- I blame Beaudrot.)  (Yglesias's claim that he is an impressive prose stylist makes me laugh -- shit, I bang out most of my posts either at lunch during work or at home while half in the bag [guess which one this is an example of] and I'm a better phrase maker than Sir Stick-Up-His-Ass.)

Dylan Matthews and Jesse Singal have a nice piece (yes deliberate editorial choice) about Douthat's college writings, which really captures the essence of his time in the Junior Anti-Sex League while at Harvard.  Why am I inherently suspicious of a 20-year old guy who is so clearly repulsed by sexuality?  

Douthat's world view is misogynistic, puritanical, naive, squeamish, preposterous, and utterly unworldly.   The notion that this is the best that the Times can do is hard for me to swallow.  I've got a radical notion for the Times -- how about a young left-wing woman on the Op-Ed pages?  One who's actually gotten laid a time or two (and doesn't feel  bad about it).