There's an event going on the American Enterprise Institute with the key intellectual backers of the invasion of Iraq and then the surge discussing the future of the US occupation. Not surprisingly, they've all zeroed in on the concept of the "second election" (which doesn't come for another 18 months) being more important than the first in a new democracy -- and thus the need for troops to stay at least that long -- notwithstanding all the cheering about purple fingers that went on after the first one.
Anyway the panel is Fred Kagan, Michael O'Hanlon, and Ken Pollack. Kagan went through a list of benchmarks and declared most of them "done". O'Hanlon declared that the group of war architects like the panel and David Petraeus deserved a group name -- not Vulcans, but Lombardis, after the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers. That's quite an honour to bestow on themselves. Vince Lombardi had won three NFL titles in a shorter time than the war in Iraq.
O'Hanlon seems surprised that things got worse in Mosul during the surge. He never mentioned that troops were reallocated from Mosul to Baghdad for the surge -- and dastardly al-Qaeda moved in the opposite direction. Meanwhile Ken Pollack is complaining that the success of the surge is creating a demand for more troops in the south. "Overstretch through success" or something. He's also claiming that the surge turned Iraq around much more quickly than British military operations in Northern Ireland.
Vince Lombardi had many quotes. O'Hanlon clearly likes the ones about persistence and attention to fundamentals. But Vince also said --
We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time.
Someone is going to have blow the final whistle on the war, even at the risk of the "Lombardis" thinking that they could have won it.
UPDATE: Things are getting wackier. Fred Kagan is demonstrating that if you can use even slightly technical terminology, everyone thinks you're genius. He was talking about the reduction in brigades in terms of a "delta". He said that each reduction in brigade strength from 20 has exponential effects on military capabilities, so that by the time you're thinking about going from 15 to 14 brigades, the loss is 106. 1 million times less effective? Nobody asked.
FINAL UPDATE: Think Progress has the clip of O'Hanlon's Lombardi discussion.
Monday, March 24, 2008
New York Zombie
New York Fed, on its role in the revised JP Morgan bid for Bear Stearns --
The New York Fed will take, through a limited liability company formed for this purpose, control of a portfolio of assets valued at $30 billion as of March 14, 2008. The assets will be pledged as security for $29 billion in term financing from the New York Fed at its primary credit rate.
JPMorgan Chase will bear the first $1 billion of any losses associated with the portfolio and any realized gains will accrue to the New York Fed. BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. will manage the portfolio under guidelines established by the New York Fed designed to minimize disruption to financial markets and maximize recovery value.
So JP Morgan dumps the toxic $30 billion Bear Stearns assets into a separate company, gets to borrow against them from the Fed at 2.5% and only bears the first $1 billion of losses on the assets. Meanwhile the assets sit there, potentially for years, as exposure of the NY Fed, but BlackRock collecting nice fee income for managing them (or have they been promised some of the upside too?).
You would think that with part of the credit crisis being Special Purpose Asset-Backed Entities blowing up in people's faces, there might be some reticence about using them as a solution to the crisis. But the virus has mutated.
The New York Fed will take, through a limited liability company formed for this purpose, control of a portfolio of assets valued at $30 billion as of March 14, 2008. The assets will be pledged as security for $29 billion in term financing from the New York Fed at its primary credit rate.
JPMorgan Chase will bear the first $1 billion of any losses associated with the portfolio and any realized gains will accrue to the New York Fed. BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. will manage the portfolio under guidelines established by the New York Fed designed to minimize disruption to financial markets and maximize recovery value.
So JP Morgan dumps the toxic $30 billion Bear Stearns assets into a separate company, gets to borrow against them from the Fed at 2.5% and only bears the first $1 billion of losses on the assets. Meanwhile the assets sit there, potentially for years, as exposure of the NY Fed, but BlackRock collecting nice fee income for managing them (or have they been promised some of the upside too?).
You would think that with part of the credit crisis being Special Purpose Asset-Backed Entities blowing up in people's faces, there might be some reticence about using them as a solution to the crisis. But the virus has mutated.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
All hell on the eastern front
The New York Times is giving Nicholson Baker's book, Human Smoke, the star treatment. Two reviews -- one very negative, one very positive, the latter by Irish writer Colm Toibin. A profile of the author. A free excerpt of the book. The headline on Toibin's review, Their Vilest Hour, accurately captures the deeply anti-Churchill message of the book. And of course, there's plenty to be against. For example, the bits of Churchill that Jonah Goldberg glossed over when looking for evidence of 1920s Liberal Fascism --
Winston Churchill visited Rome. "I could not help being charmed by Signor Mussolini's gentle and simple bearing, and by his calm, detached poise in spite of so many burdens and dangers," Churchill said in a press statement. Italian fascism, he said, had demonstrated that there was a way to combat subversive forces; it had provided the "necessary antidote to the Russian virus."
"If I had been an Italian I am sure I should have been entirely with you from the beginning to the end of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism," Churchill told the Romans. It was January 20, 1927.
But anyway, the main business of the book is as Toibin says --
an eloquent and passionate assault on the idea that the deliberate targeting of civilians can ever be justified
and in particular the effectiveness of the bombing of cities. Baker says it didn't even achieve its stated purpose, let alone meet any moral standard:
the bombing served to kill and maim the civilian population, yet the survivors did not blame the Nazi leaders, who used the bombing as a further excuse to inflict suffering on the Jewish population, claiming, for example, that evictions of Jews were “justified on the grounds that Aryans whose houses were destroyed by bombing needed a place to live.”
But one could turn that around and note the implied pathology of the wartime German population -- that just about any event could be used to rationalize the Holocaust.
And there's another issue. Before there was the large scale allied bombing of German cities, there was the war in the east with the invasions of Poland and then the USSR. Battles in which the Nazis initially had little opposition. And still they set about killing everybody. Jewish people first of course, but Slavs didn't rank highly for Nazi Germany either. Hitler's Germany was evil. The Allies were not, at least not intrinsically. The pacifists had no answer for how to save the non-German eastern European population.
UPDATE: A conversation with the author on the website of Haverford College.
Winston Churchill visited Rome. "I could not help being charmed by Signor Mussolini's gentle and simple bearing, and by his calm, detached poise in spite of so many burdens and dangers," Churchill said in a press statement. Italian fascism, he said, had demonstrated that there was a way to combat subversive forces; it had provided the "necessary antidote to the Russian virus."
"If I had been an Italian I am sure I should have been entirely with you from the beginning to the end of your victorious struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism," Churchill told the Romans. It was January 20, 1927.
But anyway, the main business of the book is as Toibin says --
an eloquent and passionate assault on the idea that the deliberate targeting of civilians can ever be justified
and in particular the effectiveness of the bombing of cities. Baker says it didn't even achieve its stated purpose, let alone meet any moral standard:
the bombing served to kill and maim the civilian population, yet the survivors did not blame the Nazi leaders, who used the bombing as a further excuse to inflict suffering on the Jewish population, claiming, for example, that evictions of Jews were “justified on the grounds that Aryans whose houses were destroyed by bombing needed a place to live.”
But one could turn that around and note the implied pathology of the wartime German population -- that just about any event could be used to rationalize the Holocaust.
And there's another issue. Before there was the large scale allied bombing of German cities, there was the war in the east with the invasions of Poland and then the USSR. Battles in which the Nazis initially had little opposition. And still they set about killing everybody. Jewish people first of course, but Slavs didn't rank highly for Nazi Germany either. Hitler's Germany was evil. The Allies were not, at least not intrinsically. The pacifists had no answer for how to save the non-German eastern European population.
UPDATE: A conversation with the author on the website of Haverford College.
It's been a long time
Dick Cheney, with Israeli president Shimon Peres today --
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: I want to thank you, Mr. President, for welcoming me back again to Israel. I remember when we first met many years ago, when you were Defense Minister --
PRESIDENT PERES: Both of us.
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY: Both of us, yes. This was before I was defense minister. This was Rumsfeld's first time as defense minister.
A reminder of the deep roots of the Iraq fiasco. The photo is Cheney with Gerald Ford and Don Rumsfeld when Rumsfeld was Ford's Chief of Staff. Rummy was later moved to the defence position and Cheney took his Chief of Staff job, which is when he first met Peres.
A problematic portfolio
In what seems to be standard procedure -- and what must drive the neocons up the wall -- a Bush administration visitor finds himself underneath a picture of Yassir Arafat. But, in an indication of the lack of grounding of the de facto partitioned Palestinian state (by Arab standards), the best that Mahmoud Abbas can do is be under a picture of himself.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Go match yourself
OK, it's not quite up there with his Auschwitz parka, but Dick Cheney couldn't coordinate his jacket and pants to receive his Islamo-sash and al-bling from Custodian of the 400 Oil Wells, King Abdullah?
Republic or Province?
George Bush has "issued" a statement on the Taiwan election, although since he's probably mountain biking around Camp David, the statement has actually been waiting to go for a few days with an {insert victor name} field once the result was in. And quite a diplomatic dance it is, especially for someone with zero willingness to confront China over Tibet. Of particular note --
Once again, Taiwan has demonstrated the strength and vitality of its democracy ... Taiwan is a beacon of democracy to Asia and the world. I am confident that the election and the democratic process it represents will advance Taiwan as a prosperous, secure, and well-governed society.
As in, not like the other place.
It falls to Taiwan and Beijing to build the essential foundations for peace and stability by pursuing dialogue through all available means and refraining from unilateral steps that would alter the cross-Strait situation.
No reference to "China" at all. Just Beijing. Two places disputing a single title.
The maintenance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the welfare of the people on Taiwan remain of profound importance to the United States.
Not "people of Taiwan" (a usage shared by the State Department). But on balance, a pro-Taiwan statement. Yet, is there really anything that the US could do if things got ugly between China and its "renegade province"? And one hopes Bush doesn't think this compensates for his silence on Tibet.
Once again, Taiwan has demonstrated the strength and vitality of its democracy ... Taiwan is a beacon of democracy to Asia and the world. I am confident that the election and the democratic process it represents will advance Taiwan as a prosperous, secure, and well-governed society.
As in, not like the other place.
It falls to Taiwan and Beijing to build the essential foundations for peace and stability by pursuing dialogue through all available means and refraining from unilateral steps that would alter the cross-Strait situation.
No reference to "China" at all. Just Beijing. Two places disputing a single title.
The maintenance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the welfare of the people on Taiwan remain of profound importance to the United States.
Not "people of Taiwan" (a usage shared by the State Department). But on balance, a pro-Taiwan statement. Yet, is there really anything that the US could do if things got ugly between China and its "renegade province"? And one hopes Bush doesn't think this compensates for his silence on Tibet.
Hillary and The Peace Process, again
Interesting New York Times (via The Confluence) roundup of opinions regarding the role that Hillary Clinton played in the Northern Ireland peace process, the most celebrated peace process in recorded history. There's a hint that Bill Clinton's non-attendance at the commemorative event next month has less to do with a specific clash on the Pennsylvania campaign schedule and more with not wanting to draw further attention to the controversy over Hillary's role. And yet most of the actual quotes in the article are favourable to Hillary, including from non-obvious sources like Peter King (although one could guess that King, a McCain supporter, prefers Hillary to Obama as a general election opponent).
On the other side, there's the David Trimble quote contesting her importance (and don't forget Trimble's love-in with the neocons; he's not a disinterested observer). Yet much of The Peace Process was indirect, since the protagonists often refused to talk to each other. Intermediaries were important but not every intermediary would have interacted with every party. Furthermore, the White House has always had a large role in outreach to nationalists, since the Unionists had their channels via the UK government to the US State Department. Remember all the uncertainty that used to surround whether Sinn Fein leaders would get a visa? What you saw depends on where you were sitting.
On the other side, there's the David Trimble quote contesting her importance (and don't forget Trimble's love-in with the neocons; he's not a disinterested observer). Yet much of The Peace Process was indirect, since the protagonists often refused to talk to each other. Intermediaries were important but not every intermediary would have interacted with every party. Furthermore, the White House has always had a large role in outreach to nationalists, since the Unionists had their channels via the UK government to the US State Department. Remember all the uncertainty that used to surround whether Sinn Fein leaders would get a visa? What you saw depends on where you were sitting.
Army of God
George Bush's Easter radio address --
On Easter, we remember especially those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. These brave individuals have lived out the words of the Gospel: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And our Nation's fallen heroes live on in the memory of the Nation they helped defend.
Those Gospel words are from John, with Jesus explaining to the Apostles his own impending sacrifice for them, and by extension, all of humanity.
So death in Bush's war of choice is now equivalent to the death (if not Resurrection) of Jesus? One wonders if Pope Benedict, in Washington next month, has an opinion on this bit of theological interpretation.
On Easter, we remember especially those who have given their lives for the cause of freedom. These brave individuals have lived out the words of the Gospel: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And our Nation's fallen heroes live on in the memory of the Nation they helped defend.
Those Gospel words are from John, with Jesus explaining to the Apostles his own impending sacrifice for them, and by extension, all of humanity.
So death in Bush's war of choice is now equivalent to the death (if not Resurrection) of Jesus? One wonders if Pope Benedict, in Washington next month, has an opinion on this bit of theological interpretation.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Passport snoopers: good news and bad news
The good, or at least weird, news is that the one of the two companies involved in the peek into Barack Obama's passport file has as its chairman and CEO a Barack Obama adviser, John Brennan, of The Analysis Corporation. The bad news is that this corporation and its parent (SFA: "national security solutions provider") sees its main business line as counterterrorism, meaning the same securocrats are probably looking through all sorts of other intelligence information on Americans and US residents.
UPDATE: The Analysis Corp, unlike the other company Stanley, has yet to fire the snooper -- the delay at the request of the State Department. And Brennan has disagreed with Obama on retroactive immunity for telecom firms under Bush's modified foreign intelligence surveillance program. Looks like his own company has just become the case study in what happens when private companies start trawling through personal information.
Incidentally, Internet searches for the other company, Stanley, get more precise if you use its NYSE ticker symbol, SXE.
UPDATE: It took 24 hours from when you read it here first for the media to figure out the Brennan angle. But as usual, they try to go with a faux scandal and not look at the underlying issue of privacy and government information-gathering.
UPDATE: The Analysis Corp, unlike the other company Stanley, has yet to fire the snooper -- the delay at the request of the State Department. And Brennan has disagreed with Obama on retroactive immunity for telecom firms under Bush's modified foreign intelligence surveillance program. Looks like his own company has just become the case study in what happens when private companies start trawling through personal information.
Incidentally, Internet searches for the other company, Stanley, get more precise if you use its NYSE ticker symbol, SXE.
UPDATE: It took 24 hours from when you read it here first for the media to figure out the Brennan angle. But as usual, they try to go with a faux scandal and not look at the underlying issue of privacy and government information-gathering.
How long before a mysterious Congressional fire?
The Wall Street Journal editorial page, in a particularly ill-timed rant coming on the evening of news about George Bush's securocrats rummaging through Barack Obama's passport file --
This exercise [blocking "Protect America Act"] shows that the Democratic left that runs the House is a danger to American security.
This exercise [blocking "Protect America Act"] shows that the Democratic left that runs the House is a danger to American security.
Privacy for the little people
The White House/Republican spin on why State Department contract employees were snooping into Barack Obama's passport file will be: well, they got caught, right? But they got caught because --
of a computer-monitoring system that is triggered when the passport accounts of a "high-profile person" are accessed, he said. The system, which focuses on politicians and celebrities, was put in place after the State Department was embroiled in a scandal involving the access of the passport records of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992.
i.e. if you're not a politician or celebrity, anyone with access to the system, including those pesky "contract employees" could snoop as much they want and no red flag would ever pop up.
Where are the libertarians?
of a computer-monitoring system that is triggered when the passport accounts of a "high-profile person" are accessed, he said. The system, which focuses on politicians and celebrities, was put in place after the State Department was embroiled in a scandal involving the access of the passport records of then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1992.
i.e. if you're not a politician or celebrity, anyone with access to the system, including those pesky "contract employees" could snoop as much they want and no red flag would ever pop up.
Where are the libertarians?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Not a gay blitzkrieg
It'll take someone who knows Polish language and politics to sort it out, but in its report on how Polish president Lech Kaczynski used this picture of Drogheda man Brendan Fay (left) at his Canadian wedding to argue against the Lisbon treaty, the New York Times says --
The Polish president also showed a map of pre-World War II Poland, linking his anti-gay oratory to historic Polish anxieties about German encroachment.
But wasn't the president arguing, separately from the gay marriage issue, that the Lisbon treaty could allow Germans who owned property in what is now western Poland to initiate legal claims for the property on the basis that it was part of Germany before 1945? Maybe Kaczynski's speech was weird enough to have linked the two issues, but it read like they were completely different arguments.
Needed in Pennsylvania
As we said a while ago, the logic of Bill Clinton coming to Northern Ireland less than 2 weeks before the Pennsylvania primary was never clear. He has now cited "changes to his schedule" in withdrawing from the April 10 event marking the Good Friday agreement 10th anniversary.
Freedom cabbage
Future generations will find many aspects of our culture bizarre, one surely being why it was that visits by the McCain-Lieberman '08 campaign to Iraq required a stop at a fruit and veg market (in Iskandariyah) as an index of progress.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Bush's 5th anniversary speech
It's very strange. No one told him that "Concerned Local Citizens" were rebranded "Sons of Iraq" to sound less like vigilantes.
Here's an old post on this "weak horse, strong horse" quote. It's amazing that Bush admits that Osama bin Laden has guided his strategy.
Here's an old post on this "weak horse, strong horse" quote. It's amazing that Bush admits that Osama bin Laden has guided his strategy.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
There's no TV, radio, or phone there
Wall Street Journal (subs. req'd) --
With U.K. money markets tenser than those on the Continent, the Bank of England yesterday added an extra £5 billion to markets. Today, it auctioned £10 billion in three-month funds against an expanded collateral range.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King also postponed a planned trip to keep tabs on jittery markets. "He deferred the visit to the west Midlands because he needs to be in London to monitor events," said a Bank of England spokeswoman, noting Mr. King had planned a routine visit with business leaders outside London for yesterday and today.
With U.K. money markets tenser than those on the Continent, the Bank of England yesterday added an extra £5 billion to markets. Today, it auctioned £10 billion in three-month funds against an expanded collateral range.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King also postponed a planned trip to keep tabs on jittery markets. "He deferred the visit to the west Midlands because he needs to be in London to monitor events," said a Bank of England spokeswoman, noting Mr. King had planned a routine visit with business leaders outside London for yesterday and today.
Revolving door of yes men
White House announcement --
The President intends to appoint Peter Pace, of Virginia, to be a Member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
That would be the board whose oversight element Bush recently gutted with an executive order, removing many of its independent monitoring functions. But just to be sure he hears what he wants to hear, that "Peter Pace" is none other than General Pete Pace, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Afghan and Iraqi wars, and was the chairman thereof (and thus Bush's top uniformed adviser) when the wheels were coming off in Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
He was one of the guys Bush said he was listening to when he was claiming that he had enough troops in Iraq. Which was the period right before he decided that he didn't have enough troops in Iraq. Just the guy you went in an intelligence advisory capacity.
The President intends to appoint Peter Pace, of Virginia, to be a Member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.
That would be the board whose oversight element Bush recently gutted with an executive order, removing many of its independent monitoring functions. But just to be sure he hears what he wants to hear, that "Peter Pace" is none other than General Pete Pace, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Afghan and Iraqi wars, and was the chairman thereof (and thus Bush's top uniformed adviser) when the wheels were coming off in Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
He was one of the guys Bush said he was listening to when he was claiming that he had enough troops in Iraq. Which was the period right before he decided that he didn't have enough troops in Iraq. Just the guy you went in an intelligence advisory capacity.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Royal court
She has no known government job, no apparent protocol position, no official designation of any kind. But there again on a Dick Cheney Middle East trip is Liz Cheney (right), doing all the expensive travel at taxpayer expense and apparently attending a lot of meetings. Shouldn't someone e.g. the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, care?
UPDATE: More Liz Cheney here .
Photo: AFP/Paul J. Richards
What's a name between friends?
Dick Cheney Iraq event --
Remarks by Vice President Cheney and Sayyed Abdul-Aziz Al-Hakim, Chairman of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
That would be the bizarre pal of the neocons, the Iran-linked SCIRI, and part of the evidence for what would be one of history's great ironies, that the whole neocon operation is in fact being run for the benefit of Tehran.
But that's another story. SCIRI changed their name a year ago, to make themselves sound more Iraqi and less revolutionary. So why wasn't the name change reflected for Dick's arrival?
UPDATE: They corrected it.
Bertie hearts Hillary
Apparently it was an expansive Bertie Ahern chatting to the meeja in Washington today. Among the most notable elements was his standing up for Hillary Clinton regarding her claim to have been closely involved in The Peace Process -- which apparently extended to telling Barack Obama to lay off the talking points suggesting otherwise:
The Taoiseach also criticised those who have tried to downplay Hilary Clinton's role in the peace process, saying that she had played a key role along with her husband. He said it would be 'very unfair for anyone to take that away from her' and said this had been accepted by Senator Barack Obama in their phone call this morning.
Bertie also correctly assesses that the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill which would have helped the illegal Irish immigrants (inter alia) is a dead duck in an election year. One suspects that he thinks it won't be a President McCain signing it if it comes back in 2009.
The Taoiseach also criticised those who have tried to downplay Hilary Clinton's role in the peace process, saying that she had played a key role along with her husband. He said it would be 'very unfair for anyone to take that away from her' and said this had been accepted by Senator Barack Obama in their phone call this morning.
Bertie also correctly assesses that the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill which would have helped the illegal Irish immigrants (inter alia) is a dead duck in an election year. One suspects that he thinks it won't be a President McCain signing it if it comes back in 2009.
Did Bertie tell George that he's leaving?
At the Saint Patrick's Day reception --
President, as we say good-bye on this occasion, but hopefully we'll keep in touch over the years, I will remember -- and I hope that everyone in Ireland will -- how kind, how favorable you've been, how really open you've been to helping us, and the amount of time that the President has given to us.
Of course it's Bush's last St Patrick's Day. But he still has another very scary 10 months on the job. Does Bertie not think he'll see him again as Taoiseach? George seemed to have a similar impression --
Perhaps when we join the ex-leaders club, we'll sit back and put our feet up -- (laughter) -- and talk about the good old times. In the meantime, I know you're going to sprint to the finish, as am I, for the good of our countries.
"Sprint to the finish" was also Bush's formulation for his last press conference with Tony Blair, who by then had a public deadline for quitting.
One other thing Bush mentioned --
It's an interesting poster that somebody brought to my attention that said this: "In the United States, an industrious youth may follow any occupation without being looked down upon, and he may rationally expect to raise himself in the world by his labor." You know, occasionally, people did look down, but not anymore -- because Irish have been unbelievably productive people for the United States of America. They made a huge contribution. They've become an essential thread in the American fabric.
That "somebody" is senior Bush adviser Ed Gillespie, who had used the quote to argue that Ireland's famine emigrants would have favoured Bush's tax cuts.
President, as we say good-bye on this occasion, but hopefully we'll keep in touch over the years, I will remember -- and I hope that everyone in Ireland will -- how kind, how favorable you've been, how really open you've been to helping us, and the amount of time that the President has given to us.
Of course it's Bush's last St Patrick's Day. But he still has another very scary 10 months on the job. Does Bertie not think he'll see him again as Taoiseach? George seemed to have a similar impression --
Perhaps when we join the ex-leaders club, we'll sit back and put our feet up -- (laughter) -- and talk about the good old times. In the meantime, I know you're going to sprint to the finish, as am I, for the good of our countries.
"Sprint to the finish" was also Bush's formulation for his last press conference with Tony Blair, who by then had a public deadline for quitting.
One other thing Bush mentioned --
It's an interesting poster that somebody brought to my attention that said this: "In the United States, an industrious youth may follow any occupation without being looked down upon, and he may rationally expect to raise himself in the world by his labor." You know, occasionally, people did look down, but not anymore -- because Irish have been unbelievably productive people for the United States of America. They made a huge contribution. They've become an essential thread in the American fabric.
That "somebody" is senior Bush adviser Ed Gillespie, who had used the quote to argue that Ireland's famine emigrants would have favoured Bush's tax cuts.
Your winnings, sir
Alan "Mr Bubble" Greenspan in the Financial Times --
Those of us who look to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder equity have to be in a state of shocked disbelief.
Those of us who look to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder equity have to be in a state of shocked disbelief.
Bad luck of the Irish
What is it about Bertie Ahern and White House visits? 5 years ago he was there in the midst of the start of the Iraq invasion and we all know how well that turned out. Today he is there with financial markets imploding and Bush preoccupied with trying to find more effective "soothing" words for the market than his disastrously detached Friday speech in Manhattan. Another argument for having a new face there next year.
UPDATE: Bush's soothing words include apparent amazement that people work on weekends --
And I want to thank you, Mr. [Treasury] Secretary, for working over the weekend.
UPDATE: Bush's soothing words include apparent amazement that people work on weekends --
And I want to thank you, Mr. [Treasury] Secretary, for working over the weekend.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Does that include a price of zero?
In what is shaping up as the weirdest Sunday night of financial news in a long time, the New York Fed has announced that it --
has been granted the authority to establish a Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF). This facility is intended to improve the ability of primary dealers to provide financing to participants in securitization markets and promote the orderly functioning of financial markets more generally.
The PDCF will provide overnight funding to primary dealers in exchange for a specified range of collateral, including all collateral eligible for tri-party repurchase agreements arranged by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as all investment-grade corporate securities, municipal securities, mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities for which a price is available.
In other worlds, they'll take just about any old shite as collateral (and lend at an even lower rate against it), as long as someone can put a number on its value. But don't worry -- George Bush has his eye on the horizon.
has been granted the authority to establish a Primary Dealer Credit Facility (PDCF). This facility is intended to improve the ability of primary dealers to provide financing to participants in securitization markets and promote the orderly functioning of financial markets more generally.
The PDCF will provide overnight funding to primary dealers in exchange for a specified range of collateral, including all collateral eligible for tri-party repurchase agreements arranged by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as all investment-grade corporate securities, municipal securities, mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities for which a price is available.
In other worlds, they'll take just about any old shite as collateral (and lend at an even lower rate against it), as long as someone can put a number on its value. But don't worry -- George Bush has his eye on the horizon.
Karma can take a while
Joe Lewis, pal of JP McManus and John Magnier, has apparently lost just about everything he invested in Bear Stearns. The Wall Street Journal says that JP Morgan will pay $2/share. He paid about $80/share.
Free the BBC 7!
Or something. Presumably this will soon be written off as an unfortunate misunderstanding --
Eleven men have been arrested by gardaà in Donegal as part of an ongoing investigation into paramilitary activity. Four men were arrested by gardaà this afternoon. Yesterday gardaà detained seven men aged between 30 years and 48 years.
The BBC has confirmed that some of its personnel are among the eleven people arrested by Gardai in Co Donegal as part of a probe into paramilitary activity. The BBC has said the journalists were working on a current affairs investigation in Northern Ireland and had full editorial authority under the broadcaster's guidelines.
On the face it sounds like the BBC NI team had a lead on a real IRA cell in Donegal but hadn't told the Garda what they were up to. Hopefully someone knew that Donegal is in the Republic, although the border signage is so low-key, it can be hard to tell. Of course, the BBC haters won't be able to resist headlines like "BBC staff arrested in terror investigation".
UPDATE: The team was from BBC NI's Spotlight.
FINAL UPDATE: They are free.
Eleven men have been arrested by gardaà in Donegal as part of an ongoing investigation into paramilitary activity. Four men were arrested by gardaà this afternoon. Yesterday gardaà detained seven men aged between 30 years and 48 years.
The BBC has confirmed that some of its personnel are among the eleven people arrested by Gardai in Co Donegal as part of a probe into paramilitary activity. The BBC has said the journalists were working on a current affairs investigation in Northern Ireland and had full editorial authority under the broadcaster's guidelines.
On the face it sounds like the BBC NI team had a lead on a real IRA cell in Donegal but hadn't told the Garda what they were up to. Hopefully someone knew that Donegal is in the Republic, although the border signage is so low-key, it can be hard to tell. Of course, the BBC haters won't be able to resist headlines like "BBC staff arrested in terror investigation".
UPDATE: The team was from BBC NI's Spotlight.
FINAL UPDATE: They are free.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Preachers with attitude
Andrew Sullivan --
I know it's a stretch, but picture, if you will, Barack Obama* at a Louis Farrakhan event. Farrakhan isn't there, but his acolytes are. Obama -- stay with me a minute -- is shoring up support among blacks in a hard-fought election. His speech is campaign boilerplate, emphasizing themes of black self-reliance, the persistence of white racism and so on, but nowhere does he mention the Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic, anti-gay, racist ideology, let alone condemn it. He is mobbed. The crowds love him. His poll numbers among blacks, already strong, firm up.
This image is a stretch because not even Al Sharpton would be loopy enough to recommend such an event. Within seconds of even the idea of it leaking, Obama's campaign, indeed his political career, would be virtually over. Whoever recommended the speech would be fired; Obama would apologize; the Democratic Party establishment, once it had gotten over the shock, would essentially excommunicate him. For all these reasons, the event is literally unthinkable -- and not least because Barack Obama himself would feel nothing but revulsion at the idea.
*No, wait. That's not Andrew Sullivan writing about such an event -- it's Andrew Sullivan writing about how loony it would be for Al Gore, in 2000, to be (hypothetically) in the vicinity of Afrocentric demagoguery and not condemn it.
But fast forward to 2008, and when it's Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, with the dodgy quotes --
I don't think it's racist to understand that the black church has a different cultural style in its preaching and activism style that helps add some dimension to Wright's record. If you read Obama's books and listen to him speak about his church, it's clear that he was not drawn by Wright's more inflammatory and offensive language. His engagement with the Church was an attempt to connect with the life and feelings of a black urban class he had never truly belonged to and whom he intended to represent. We can forget what an outsider Obama was when he first came to Chicago.
Does that mean that in his 2000 example, his Gore scenario would be OK once allowance was made for the "cultural style" of a black event and Gore's attempts to connect with the "black urban class"? Or is it different because, accusations of a double-standard bedamned, Obama is black?
I know it's a stretch, but picture, if you will, Barack Obama* at a Louis Farrakhan event. Farrakhan isn't there, but his acolytes are. Obama -- stay with me a minute -- is shoring up support among blacks in a hard-fought election. His speech is campaign boilerplate, emphasizing themes of black self-reliance, the persistence of white racism and so on, but nowhere does he mention the Nation of Islam's anti-Semitic, anti-gay, racist ideology, let alone condemn it. He is mobbed. The crowds love him. His poll numbers among blacks, already strong, firm up.
This image is a stretch because not even Al Sharpton would be loopy enough to recommend such an event. Within seconds of even the idea of it leaking, Obama's campaign, indeed his political career, would be virtually over. Whoever recommended the speech would be fired; Obama would apologize; the Democratic Party establishment, once it had gotten over the shock, would essentially excommunicate him. For all these reasons, the event is literally unthinkable -- and not least because Barack Obama himself would feel nothing but revulsion at the idea.
*No, wait. That's not Andrew Sullivan writing about such an event -- it's Andrew Sullivan writing about how loony it would be for Al Gore, in 2000, to be (hypothetically) in the vicinity of Afrocentric demagoguery and not condemn it.
But fast forward to 2008, and when it's Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, with the dodgy quotes --
I don't think it's racist to understand that the black church has a different cultural style in its preaching and activism style that helps add some dimension to Wright's record. If you read Obama's books and listen to him speak about his church, it's clear that he was not drawn by Wright's more inflammatory and offensive language. His engagement with the Church was an attempt to connect with the life and feelings of a black urban class he had never truly belonged to and whom he intended to represent. We can forget what an outsider Obama was when he first came to Chicago.
Does that mean that in his 2000 example, his Gore scenario would be OK once allowance was made for the "cultural style" of a black event and Gore's attempts to connect with the "black urban class"? Or is it different because, accusations of a double-standard bedamned, Obama is black?
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