Friday Cat

Banks continue to record billions in profits

I wouldn't mind the profits so much if the money made was being pumped back into the economy. The point of all the rescuing was to first stabilize the banking system, then to energize the economy, in part, by loaning out the money made.  Instead they hoarded, they padded their balance sheets, and they covered over their toxic losses with new math.

I was naive to think the banks would act in good faith.  I thought it was understood that when the taxpayer covers your ass and saves you from the cliff that maybe the banks would reciprocate.  I was wrong. Business as usual rules the day.  

They only tools the American people have left is reform and regulation.  I hope the Congress and the Obama administration have the stomach for that fight.  As of now, I doubt it very much.

Not healthcare

160

That's the number of Republican amendments that were included in the Senate HELP committee's version of the health care bill.  Zero is the number of votes the bill got from Republicans who pushed for those amendments. Why Democrats even bother dealing with Republicans is beyond me.

Scared white men

I haven't been following the Sotomayor hearings too closely, but from what I've seen she's making the Senate Republicans look bad and the Senate Republicans are making themselves look even worse. It's like they're not even trying to hide their racism. Maybe that's a good thing in an emperor-no-clothes kind of way.

Because I am bored

Liz Cheney reacts to her dad's lawbreaking by calling Dems weak on terror

For some reason I feel we've been down this road before.  Really, Liz, your dad could have killed and captured as many al Qaeda leaders as he liked, except he was supposed to follow the law while doing so.  Informing Congress is not a hard task, unless you've got something to hide or your last name is Cheney.  

Truth in Comics

If it's Sunday, it's Truth in Comics.

AG Holder leaning towards appointing special prosecutor

Put me in the I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it camp. While I don't want to see Obama's agenda stalled, the reality is that the same people who are currently saying no to anything Obama will be the same people up in arms over any decision to look into Bush era crimes. Sure there will be yelling on the TV. Sure we will be subjected to an endless loop of Newt and Liz, but that's about it. It's not like Republicans are playing nice now. If it's a choice between getting yelled at and the rule of law, well, that's not a very hard choice. Is it?

Friday Cat

Obama the media and the polls

DougJ, over at Balloon Juice, makes a point I've meaning to make:

But it’s strange to me that the same people who insisted Bush was a popular wartime president even when his approval rating was in the 40s are now concern-trolling Obama’s 55-60 percent approval rating. Note that while many media types say that the country only turned on Bush after Katrina, the reality is that his approval ratings were consistently well-below 50 percent starting a four or five months before Katrina. [...]

I can’t escape the feeling that many in the media are fixated on puncturing the Obama image in a way they never were with Bush. From 2001—2005, reporters boasted about the nicknames Bush gave them, now they boast about having asked Obama a “tough question”. What changed?

As Doug's commenters point out, it's the "D" after Obama's name that makes the difference. With the media geared toward internalizing GOP talking points, it can be no other way. It's either chip away at Obama's ratings or get yelled at by their Republican overlords. Since they fear Republicans more it's a no brainier.

Not politics

Dems press Panetta on CIA's lies

“We wouldn’t be doing this over a trivial matter.” -- Representative Rush D. Holt (D-NJ)

I would like to give credit to Panetta for coming clean to Congress about his agency's lies over the past eight years, but I can't. I need accountability, not admissions. From day one President Obama promised the CIA he would protect them. President Obama believes it's good enough to draw bright lines between themselves and the past and that will be enough. It's not. Bright lines are not a deterrent.

Groundhog day

Ahhh, the magic of AAA:

Morgan Stanley plans to repackage a downgraded collateralized debt obligation backed by leveraged loans into new securities with AAA ratings in the first transaction of its kind, said two people familiar with the sale.

Morgan Stanley is selling $87.1 million of securities that it expects to receive top AAA ratings and $42.9 million of notes graded Baa2, the second-lowest investment grade by Moody’s Investors Service, according to marketing documents obtained by Bloomberg News.

I don't blame Morgan Stanley for trying to resell their crap, I blame the rating agencies for allowing it. Crap, backed by crap, is still crap (no matter how many magical AAAs Moody's uses to try and cover the stench).

Still not Michael Jackson

11% of Americans Think Obama Is Muslim

America The Stupidful.

Read more.

Quote of the Day

"So the status quo remains: banks with bad assets, a Treasury program to fix it that isn't operational and isn't expected to yield much once it is, and an economy stuck in quicksand in part because of it." -- Kevin G. Hall of McClatchy Newspapers reporting on our zombie banks, their toxic assets and the failure of all parties to face up to or do anything concrete about it.

Today looks a bit brighter

With the tough talk coming from Harry Reid in the Senate and the progressives in the House about not compromising with Republicans on a health care bill things do look a bit brighter this morning. The Republicans should be abandoned. The idea that they (and the conservative Democrats) would support any legislation that was true reform, that contained a strong public option, that didn't hand our health to the insurance lobby was ludicrous to begin with. So, bravo to progressives for drawing a line in the sand (something the White House still refuses to do). Now let's see if they can hold that line until passage. There's still a long way to go.