Month: July 2009

Tomorrow’s Much Too Long

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by publius This week's narrative is that the weak economy is dragging Obama down at bit.  The bad economic news has also re-energized Republican attacks against the stimulus.  And while those attacks are absurdly premature, I can't say I blame Republicans.  Pounding a weak economy is what opposition parties do.  In Wire-speak, that's part of … Read more

Stop It

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by hilzoy From McClatchy: "Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who's at the center of Sotomayor's most controversial ruling. On the eve of Sotomayor's Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize what one called the "troubled and litigious work history" of firefighter Frank Ricci." … Read more

Looking Backwards

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by hilzoy From the Washington Post: "Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, setting the stage for a conflict with administration officials who would prefer the issues remain in the past, according to three sources familiar with … Read more

The IG Report and Iraq

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by publius Yesterday's IG Report isn't about Iraq — it covers surveillance programs that started soon after 9/11.  But I do think the report casts an ugly shadow on the Bush administration's marketing of the war. One theme that comes through in the IG Report is a total disregard for process and evidence.  The conclusion … Read more

His Word Was Law

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by hilzoy I was out and about last night, so I didn't get to write about the IG report (pdf). Luckily, publius covered the part about John Yoo; Anonymous Liberal is also very good on this. I want to focus on another bit. To set the stage: Comey and Goldsmith have been read into the surveillance … Read more

Our Man in OLC

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by publius As I noted earlier, John Yoo played a starring role in the new IG report (pdf) on the Bush administration’s surveillance program (PSP).  And it wasn’t a flattering one. Yoo’s actions were dishonest and inappropriate on so many different levels that I’m going to try to break them up into three categories:  (1) … Read more

John Yoo: Even Worse Than You Thought

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by publius And I already thought he was pretty bad. As you've probably heard, the Inspectors General report on the surveillance program was released today.  I'm still reviewing it, but Spencer Ackerman is all over it — here, here, here, and here. I'll have a more detailed post later.  But the highlight so far is … Read more

Gucci Little Piggies

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by Eric Martin

Kevin Drum read Matt Taibbi's recent stemwinder on Goldman Sachs and has some harsh criticism:

I finally got around to reading it the other day, and my verdict is simple: it was terrible.  Taibbi wrote a terrific article about AIG a couple of months ago, but the Goldman piece was just phoned in, a long series of blustery assertions with essentially nothing to back up any of them.  If he wants to claim that Goldman was the wizard behind the curtain of everything from the dotcom boom to last year's oil spike, he really needs to produce some evidence for it instead of just saying so.

Unfortunately, Kevin doesn't actually discuss which assertions from Taibbi are mere bluster, and which aren't (if Kevin is even allowing that some of Taibbi's piece is an accurate portrayal of events).  Nor does Kevin refute the evidence that is presented.  So we're left to wonder at the…well, the evidence for his strident assertion.

That's not to say that Taibbi's over-the-top writing style is devoid of bluster, and it is true that Taibbi is laying too much at the feet of Goldman Sachs alone, but in terms of choosing Goldman as a proxy for Wall Street investment banks (and their serial malfeasance), it's as good a choice as any. 

Further, in defense of Kevin, Rolling Stone hasn't made the full article available online, and the excerpts they've posted leave out many of the details and in-depth treatment.  If Kevin only read the excerpted version, then his criticism would be valid – there isn't enough meat on those bones.  Actually, it reads like a disjointed, non-sequitur, meandering piece of little substance (the full version is here). 

While I'm not qualified to assess the validity of all of Taibbi's claims, I can say that he got the Tech Stocks section pretty dead-on (and used evidence to back up his key claims).  I know because I worked on some of the legal cases that dealt with the various misdeeds of the investment banks during that era (I've written about them before), and in pursuit of that, I spent years poring over documents and other discovery.  Actually, my main critique ofTaibbi with respect to this portion of the article is that he left out (or didn't delve deeply into) one of the sordid chapters of that bubble-bust story: the circumvention of the barrier between the research side of the banks, and the underwriting side and the mischief that ensued.  More on that below, but first an extended excerpt from Taibbi: 

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Read the News Today, Oh Boy

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by publius Pew released a new poll outlining a gap between scientists and the general public on various issues.  There's a lot to chew on, but these numbers in particular stood out: First thought — isn't 87% a bit low for scientists' belief in natural selection?  I would hope that number is close to 100%.  … Read more

O, What A Tangled Web We Weave

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by hilzoy From the NYT: "Senator John Ensign's wealthy parents gave almost $100,000 to his former lover and her family, ostensibly out of concern for their welfare and as part of a "pattern of generosity," his lawyer disclosed Thursday. A statement by his lawyer, Paul Coggins, on behalf of the Mr. Ensign, a Republican from … Read more

Twitter Bleg

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by publius This request is so 3008 that it's probably going to blow your mind.  But I just downloaded TweetDeck, which allows you see multiple Twitter accounts at once.  Basically, I have one account among friends, but I want to create additional accounts as quasi-RSS feeds. So here's my question — what political Twitter feeds … Read more

Corner, Backed Into

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by publius The Obama campaign has a problem — it needs more revenue for health care coverage reform.  But increasing revenue is politically problematic. One potential source of funding is to tax employees' group health benefits by imposing a modest cap on the amount that can be excluded.  It raises revenue, and it's actually good … Read more

Cloture Votes

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by hilzoy Yesterday, Sen. Durbin said this about Senate Democrats and the filibuster: "If they will stick with us on the procedural votes, we at least know that we can move forward," he said of his Democratic colleagues. "They may vote against final passage on a bill, they may vote with Republicans on an amendment. That's … Read more

A Question For Megan McArdle

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by hilzoy Megan McArdle responds to my last post: "Surely the point of worry is that many millions of people will be forced into the public system, because its existence will encourage their employers to dump their health care plans.  Since private systems have so far found it virtually impossible to deny many treatments for … Read more

The “Crucifixion” of Sarah Palin

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by publius Steve Benen notes that Palin's abrupt resignation has actually increased her standing a bit among Republicans according to a recent Gallup poll.  Steve writes: Inexplicably quitting, for less-than-clear reasons, has managed to endear Palin to her party more. I think these numbers vindicate the Ed Kilgore theory of Sarah Palin.  The upshot of … Read more

The Ice Floes Are Crowded

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by hilzoy There's one piece of persistent dishonesty in the debate over health care that I would like to see vanish once and for all. It concerns the word 'rationing'. You can use it in several ways. On the one hand, it can refer to any process that determines who gets some scarce commodity. Here's … Read more

The Failure of State Government

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by publius The state budget situation is getting uglier by the day.  It’s pretty much a full-blown crisis at this point – and that’s including the federal stimulus aid that was shamefully cut by the Senate “centrists.” The budget crisis is not, however, some sort of freakish one-time event.  It’s a recurring problem that points … Read more

Filling Out Forms

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by hilzoy Queen Emily, who is guestblogging at Feministe, hates forms. Why? Because while "my birth certificate says I am male, my gender presentation is female.  They do not match. Until I can afford expensive genital surgery, I cannot change the marker on my birth certificate." If you've never had to think about exactly how much … Read more

Good News

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by hilzoy From MSNBC: "Around Washington and Wall Street they have come to be known as TBTF — too big to fail. It's not just size, though. These companies are so far-flung, so intertwined and so precariously leveraged that a single one's collapse can create systemwide tremors that imperil the finances of millions of Americans. … Read more

Like A Grizzly With Cubs, If By “Grizzly” You Mean “Quitter”, And By “Cubs” You Mean “Kids You Can’t Be Bothered With”

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by hilzoy Sarah Palin, January 22, 2009: "When I took my oath of office to serve as your Governor, remember, I swore to steadfastly and doggedly guard the interests of this great state like a grizzly with cubs, as a mother naturally guards her own. Alaska, as a statewide family, we’ve got to fight for … Read more

Barracuda

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by hilzoy I just watched Sarah Palin's announcement that she will step down as governor, which was surreal even by her standards. It's hard to pick just one favorite moment, though this has to be on anyone's list: "Life is too short to compromise time and resources… it may be tempting and more comfortable to … Read more

Sarah, We Hardly Knew Ye

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by publius Well, this should end the whole "Sarah Palin is bizarre and erratic" meme.  Honestly, I don't know what to make of this.  My first thought was that she's obviously gearing up for 2012.  But now I'm not so sure.  Today's announcement was so ill-timed and rambling that it's hard to believe she's seriously … Read more

The Wire

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by publius So after years of resisting passionate pleas from friends, I've broken down and started watching The Wire.  I'm now through Season 4 about to start 5.  And it's absolutely fantastic. To those who haven't seen it — go start it right now.  If you are reading this blog, chances are you have a … Read more

My One and Only Sanford Post

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by publius Poor Mark Sanford – the skeletons keep spilling out of his closet.  And I suspect he’s not long for the Governor’s office. I can’t help but feel bad for him.  And I suppose this is inappropriate – but from a purely voyeuristic perspective, there’s something tragically beautiful about the whole thing in an … Read more

Andy In Print

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by hilzoy As I think I've written before, Andy Olmsted's parents have collected his Rocky Mountain blog posts from Iraq into a book. If you'd like to order it, it's now available at 1-800-882-3273. Andy's parents will use any money they make above the production costs to establish a scholarship in his name at St. John's Academy … Read more

Stay on Target…Stay on Target

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by Eric Martin Mike Hanna is on point, as usual: The United States took an important step yesterday toward leaving Iraq by moving combat troops out of Iraqi population centers in anticipation of the June 30 deadline specified in the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). This redeployment has focused attention on Iraq's current security … Read more

Quote That Man

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by publius Noted communist Michael Gerson spells out the case for emission regulation as succinctly as anyone I've read.  In particular, he notes that one of the underlying purposes of the regulation is to spur market innovation.  Take it away: Critics argue that carbon restrictions, even if fully implemented, would reduce global temperatures only by … Read more

“The Optics Are Bad”

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by hilzoy From the NYT: "Banks and mortgage lenders are placing top priority on killing President Obama's proposal to create a new consumer protection agency that would regulate home loans, credit card fees, payday loans and other forms of consumer finance. The Obama administration fired an opening shot on Tuesday, sending Congress a detailed, 150-page … Read more

Coleman Finally Concedes

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by hilzoy From the NYTimes: "After nearly eight months of waiting, almost 20,000 pages of legal briefs, and millions of dollars in election costs, Al Franken emerged Tuesday as the next United States senator from Minnesota, ending one of the most protracted election recount battles in recent memory. Mr. Franken, 58, a former comedian and author, … Read more