Fact-esque

"Is There Nothing We Can Do?"

OK, hard lesson: probably not. The bail-out restrictions the Democrats have on the table are maybe important for the fairness issue (a political decision they may go for because they're hoping the tar-and-feathers waiting for Wall Street bankers won't stick to them) but it's hardly sufficient to reverse a process that may very well have gone beyond the PONR and most likely has. (via Avedon)

Most people don't understand what happened on Thursday, but the build-up of bad news on the Lehman default and the $85 billion government takeover of AIG, triggered a run on the money markets and a freeze in interbank lending. The overnight LIBOR rate (London Interbank Offered Rate) more than doubled to 6.44 per cent. Bank of America reported overnight borrowing rates in excess of 6 per cent. Longer-term LIBOR rates also rose sharply. On Wednesday, jittery investors removed their money from money markets and flooded short-term US Treasurys for the assurance of a government guarantee on their savings even though interest rates had turned negative which means that their balance would actually shrink at the date of maturity. This is unprecedented, but it does help to illustrate how raw fear can drive the market.

The TED spread (the TED Spread measures market stress by revealing the reluctance of banks to lend to each other) widened and the credit markets froze in place. Borrowing three-month dollars on the interbank market and the U.S. Treasury's three-month borrowing costs widened five full percentage points. That's huge. The banking system shut down.       

What does it mean? It means the Federal Reserve has lost control of the system. The market is driving interest rates now, and the market is terrified. End of story.

End of economy, end of country, end of planet.
 

Arrest Karl Rove NOW

Not that it was unexpected but Bad Boy/Evil Troll Karl Rove has just refused to honor a Congressional subpoena. Well, why shouldn't he? Dozens of other Bush minions have ignored their subpoenas and nothing ever happened to them. The Democrats did NOTHING and they'll do NOTHING again.

Former White House adviser Karl Rove defied a congressional subpoena and refused to testify Thursday about allegations of political pressure at the Justice Department, including whether he influenced the prosecution of a former Democratic governor of Alabama.

Rep. Linda Sanchez, chairman of a House subcommittee, ruled with backing from fellow Democrats on the panel that Rove was breaking the law by refusing to cooperate — perhaps the first step toward holding him in contempt of Congress.

Lawmakers subpoenaed Rove in May in an effort to force him to talk about whether he played a role in prosecutors' decisions to pursue cases against Democrats, such as former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, or in firing federal prosecutors considered disloyal to the Bush administration.

Rove had been scheduled to appear at the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Thursday morning. A placard with his name sat in front of an empty chair at the witness table, with a handful of protesters behind it calling for Rove to be arrested.

Why TurdBlossom doesn't have to worry:

A decision on whether to pursue contempt charges now goes to the full Judiciary Committee and ultimately to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi is DLC and their strategy is to NEVER challenge Bush or the Republicans because that would make the Democrats look weak, a strategy Glenn Greenwald calls "Strength through bowing". Glenn notes the AP Headline "Senate bows to Bush" and notes:

Their rationale for doing that is that it prevents the Republicans from depicting them as "weak," because nothing exudes strength like bowing.

We have to arrest Rove for contempt or Congress, whose credibility is all but gone, will vanish like a night wind and everybody will ignore everything Congress wants from this point on. It has already gone waaaaay too far.

Arrest him. TODAY.

Possible Protection and Defense for the Constitution

From True Majority:

Your calls and emails worked! We just got word that Senators Dodd and Feingold will step up as progressive leaders and filibuster this legislation. Here's part of the joint statement they just released:

                   

"We will oppose efforts to end debate on this bill as long as it provides retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies."¹

Call your Senators and demand support for the filibuster.  Call Dodd and Feingold and make sure they stand by this latest sort-of-promise by thanking them for protecting and defending the Constitution with a filibuster of the FISA bill.

Democrats "Close to a Deal" on Warrantless Surveillance

And we know what that means, don't we campers? Oyez, oyez, oyez. Bush...gets what he wants. Poor Glenn Greenwald is gonna have a heart attack. He's been so hopeful the last few weeks.

A key element of the new plan would give U.S. district courts the chance to evaluate whether telecommunications companies deserve retroactive protection from lawsuits. A previous proposal floated by Republicans would have put the question to the secret FISA court that approves warrants.

Discussions extended late into the afternoon yesterday as aides for Sens. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) hammered out details with staff members for House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). Details in the current proposal continue to evolve, and await vetting by House and Senate leaders, according to congressional sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the process is not yet complete.

Telephone and Internet service providers say they received written assurances that the warrantless wiretapping program was legal at the time they agreed to participate. The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups, however, said the telecoms should be held to a higher legal standard for helping the government eavesdrop on their customers.

"It sounds like they've crafted a bill that gives the president everything he wants," said ACLU legislative director Caroline Frederickson. "The essence of this so-called compromise appears to be the White House legislation with a couple of ribbons around it."

The Republicrats are back.

Aided by Blue Dogs in the Senate and House, the best they could come up with was to give Bush the retroactive power he wanted and dodge the issue of telecom immunity from lawbreaking by tossing it to the increasingly conservative Federal District Court.

The most obvious travesty here is that the deal is being made in back rooms solely by proponents of the bill. Opponents, even famous ones like Chris Dodd, aren't included in the Amnesty Bill Boys' Club.

Discussions extended late into the afternoon yesterday as aides for Sens. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) hammered out details with staff members for House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.). Details in the current proposal continue to evolve, and await vetting by House and Senate leaders, according to congressional sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the process is not yet complete.

What a line-up. Security whacko Kit Bond and GOP hack whack Roy Blunt playing kissy-kissy with wholly-owned-telecom-subsidiary Jay Rockefeller and neocon wanna-be Steny Hoyer.

What a crew to be deciding the fate of the Constitution. It's sort of like pooling the James Bros and the Dalton Gang to decide whether banks should be robbed. What're they gonna say, No?

That this is the height of corruption and Constitutional irresponsibility goes without saying. That it's a crying shame Democrats are any part of this, much less leaders, is by now as trite as it is true. What we're watching is a takeover of the Democratic party by Republicans, who used corporate sponsors to buy FDR's party with contributions and then turn it into a shadow of the GOP for pennies a day and a few $$$ down.

And so democracy in America dies, and the Paradorian Simms party takes its place.

Senate Leaders OK Help for Homeowners

The NYT reports today that Chris Dodd and Richard Shelby have reached an agreement on a bail-out bill for distressed homeowners rather than distressed merchant banks.

The Senate bill would create an affordable housing fund, financed by the government-sponsored mortgage-finance companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that fund would be used in its first year to provide about $500 million for the foreclosure rescue effort.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, who announced the agreement, said his goal was to create a solid foundation underneath the nation’s depressed housing market.

“The primary goal here is to keep people in their homes, but also to establish a floor, a bottom to all this,” Mr. Dodd said. The foreclosure aid is tied to legislation creating a new regulatory agency to tighten oversight of the government-sponsored mortgage financiers.

Bush, of course, has said he would veto it, characterizing the victims of the bankers' housing scams as "speculators". Nothing like a little reverse spin, eh?

The worry here is, of course, just how much of the store Dodd gave away to Shelby's concern for "taxpayers" - by which he means rich taxpayers and the same investors who brought about this disaster in the first place. The AP quotes Shelby as saying: "I've long said that we should do what we can to help struggling homeowners short of asking the taxpayer to foot the bill." Which means what exactly? How is this bill going to provide a half-billion $$$ of relief without using tax money?

The answer seems to be: it isn't. Shelby has apparently sold out his un-rich taxpayers for a package of new regulations on the govt banks that will end up aiding merchant bankers.

Mr. Shelby had been particularly intent on tightening regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the deal with Mr. Dodd would create a new Federal Housing Finance Agency. The agency would oversee the companies, which are private but are virtually assured of government assistance should they experience financial difficulty.

The govt banks have needed some regulatory oversight, it's true. Bush appointees have been caught recently siphoning off funds for their own use and playing the same kind of accounting games that got Enron and WorldCom in so much trouble a few years ago. But one suspects that catching typical Republican corruption and theft of public $$$ isn't really what Shelby has engineered here. The fact that the White House is now saying, through its spokesman -

“We appreciate and encourage the efforts to create a strong, independent regulator” for the government-sponsored companies. “We’ll look forward to seeing the details of the bill,” he added, “especially provisions to expand programs of the Federal Housing Administration.”

- is already cause for serious concern. That was infamous Bushie hack Tony Fratto, and when he sees a deal he likes, you run for the hills no matter how good it sounds.

Something is seriously amiss here but we'll have to wait for the details to figure out what it is.

Barney's Bill in Trouble Already

As predicted - although a bit earlier than predicted - Barney's Bill, the one that wants to be the first one to bail out homeowners rather than bankers, is already, a day later, in trouble.

The bill, which passed the House on Thursday, is quickly becoming a casualty in a battle between the Bush administration, which says it opposes any taxpayer bailout that would only further encourage risky lending practices, and Democrats who say that homeowner assistance is the only way to contain the damage to the broader economy.

Despite pledges by the White House and Democrats to work together, the bill produced partisan recriminations the day after it passed the House.

With the unerring instinct of a suicidal lemming, Bush is determined not to be seen helping anyone but bankers. The latest Bush excuse comes from WH PR hack Tony Fratto: “Taxpayers shouldn’t be taking on the risk of foreclosure.” No, even though we're talking about the foreclosures of actual taxpayers as opposed to taxdodgers. Taxpayers, according to the Bush Admin, are there to bail out the investor class, not the middle class and certainly not the *ugh* lower classes who were taken in and bamboozled by the aforementioned investor class of merchant bankers.

There must be a way for this Admin to embarrass itself that it hasn't yet found but I'm beginning to wonder what that might possibly be.

Meanwhile, the bill goes to the Senate Democrats for processing, specifically Chris Dodd's Senate Banking Committee. Chris says it's up to Dick Shelby.

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who heads the Banking Committee, said Friday that he was hoping to quickly complete negotiations with the ranking Republican on the committee, Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, and have the committee vote on a measure next week.

“We’re getting very close to a compromise but I can’t promise it will happen,” Mr. Dodd said. He said any measure that did not have Republican support would almost certainly fail.

So there you have it. Dodd - who really ought to know better - is leaving it all in the hands of a Republican Senator who is hip-deep in the mess Dodd wants him to help clean up. You and I both know what Dick's answer will be: whatever the mortgage industry and conservative ideologues want it to be. And neither group likes this bill. Conclusion: Barney's Bill is dead.

But it's our own fault, us taxpayers. We had the nerve to ask for help from the govt that took our money and gave it to the people who got us in trouble. Since when do ordinary taxpayers get bailed out by the taxes they, after all, paid? That money, as Bush made perfectly plain the very first month of his presidency, is for non-tax-paying corporations and the rich. We don't get Penny One unless we yank it out of their grasping fingers with pliers.

Chertoff Announces New Domestic Spying Program

As usual on Saturday, there's a lot to write about. The standard PR dump on Fridays loads up the newspapers as everyone assumes they can safely let us know what they've been up to because we won't be paying any attention.

For instance, HS Sec Michael Chertoff picked yesterday to let us know he was enabling his new domestic satellite spying agency, the National Applications Office (NAO - and how much blander a name could they have picked?), before Congressional concerns about its legality have been settled. Or even discussed.

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea's legal authority.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department's new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities -- such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.

Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications.

(emphasis added)

Chertoff, of course, has a fine reputation for respecting the legality of his spying programs, crossing every "t" and dotting every "i" before he allows the FBI to go trolling through data without warrants.

Nah. April Fool.

This is just more Bushie "We can do whatever we want because, after all, who's going to stop us?" arrogance. And they've got a point. Who is going to stop them? The Senate Dems? The SCOTUS? Don't make me, like, laugh. Congressional Democrats have been on the edge of passing the telecom immunity bill for months. Organized opposition from the likes of Chris Dodd plus a mega-noise from us lefty blogs have stalled it for the nonce but despite Glenn Greenwald's recent hopefulness, they still are planning to pass it. If we let up or they do it in the dark, it will happen anyway.

There are signs that many Democrats would like to back off their support for Bush's illegal domestic spying programs but so far they haven't shown the guts to buck their own leadership, especially in the Senate. Even if Greenwald is right about the Republicans laying off because they've got bigger fish to fry, we're still left with the problem of the telecom's bought-and-paid-for pets, Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Sylvester Reyes, who have promised their bosses that the bill will pass.

Is Chertoff right? He sure doesn't act worried about any potential Democratic blowback.

"There is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans," Chertoff wrote to Reps. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee and its intelligence subcommittee, respectively, in letters released yesterday.

"I think we've fully addressed anybody's concerns," Chertoff added in remarks last week to bloggers.

End of story, I guess. Unless Jane Harman follows through (she's one of the dissenters but not, of course, part of the leadership).

Congress delayed launch of the new office last October. Critics cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses.

Democrats say Chertoff has not spelled out what federal laws govern the NAO, whose funding and size are classified. Congress barred Homeland Security from funding the office until its investigators could review the office's operating procedures and safeguards. The department submitted answers on Thursday, but some lawmakers promptly said the response was inadequate.

"I have had a firsthand experience with the trust-me theory of law from this administration," said Harman, citing the 2005 disclosure of the National Security Agency's domestic spying program, which included warrantless eavesdropping on calls and e-mails between people in the United States and overseas. "I won't make the same mistake. . . . I want to see the legal underpinnings for the whole program."

So would I. Of course, that desire recklessly assumes that such legal underpinnings exist and that they are not part of John Yoo's assumption that the law is whatever the president says it is.

In the meantime, I'd, you know, be careful what I said on the phone or online, what books I took out of the library, and what messages were carried on my t-shirts. You never know who's watching - and listening - these days.

Quick Hits

via Avedon:

The FISA plot thickens again. Bush wants to keep Senators clueless because telecom immunity also gives Bush immunity. Telecom immunity includes by definition the approval of two condition precedents: Bush had constitutional authority for the warrantless surveillance and the surveillance was determined to be lawful. Under the doctrine of Congressional ratification, the effect of this approval is to retroactively "legalize" Bush's authority and program. This means that Bush may have immunity from prosecution. Moreover, for years, Bush could not cite any statutory authority for his theory of unitary presidential prerogatives. Bush will now have precedent.

Dodd has warned us about that too:

Why is this administration asking for retroactive immunity out of the Congress?  The executive branch can grant immunity.  They don't need Congress to do so.  If the President thinks these phone companies deserve immunity, then why doesn't he do it?  Why does he want the Democrats to join him in that?  What's in that stuff that all of a sudden a week or two from now you're going to be turning around saying "Did you know what you were granting immunity to?"

Have you called your senators today to tell them no immunity no matter what?   Any plans to show up at their district offices with fifteen of your best friends, some signs and a video camera for YouTubin' it?

The explanation of the Pink Project quickly gets too confusing for me to understand completely but I think it's about putting safe, affordable, sustainable housing in New Orleans' 9th Ward, which is good.  And some of the designs are super cool.

I want an air car!!  Company site here.  Video here.  Reasons why you'll never own one here, here, here and here.

WGA Strike Product

Start Planning to Support Dodd on FISA Now

When the FISA fight heats up again and we're all counting on Dodd to derail immunity, which is sure to be in it, remember what that will be costing him.   Remember this comment from a WaPo reporter that Glenn featured in a column late last year:

A little noticed statement Reid made to reporters on Tuesday: he said that by mid-to-late January, when the Senate takes up FISA again, it's likely the presidential campaign will be finished. That was a not-so-subtle dig, I think, at Dodd, who some Democrats believe was grand-standing to try to gain attention for his floundering '08 campaign. Don't yell at me for saying this, this is what some Democrats here on the Hill believe.

For Reid to be talking that kind of trash about a fellow Senator - a fellow Democratic Senator no less - is not a small thing.  That comment strikes at the core of Dodd's character as it suggests that he would hold up the business of the Senate simply to get some interest in a quixotic campaign for president.  I really can't imagine a more insulting thing for Reid to have said. 

So when Dodd has to fight this fight all over again - and you can be sure that the Dems are going to come loaded for bear - he's already fighting from behind.  He has no chance at all if the public doesn't rally in large, visible numbers around him.  It's really not as hard as it sounds.  You get a bunch of people, paint some signs, show up at your Senators' district offices and let the press know you'll be there.  Put video up on You Tube.  Rinse and repeat.   There's really no other way.  Start planning now.

Chris Dodd is a Champion

"I will  carry the determination and the courage of this campaign back to the important battles that need to be won for the future of our county.  I'm not going anywhere.  I'm going to be fighting in that United States Senate."

He's going to need help.  Start calling your Senators today and every day to let them know that you don't want immunity in that FISA bill or in any other bill.   Don't wait for Dodd to fight the battle alone and hope he can pull off a miracle.