Recurring themes

I'm consistently mesmerized by denial...Idiocracy...and my current favorite, euphemisms.

How fitting that the very word itself sounds so much better than, say, obfuscation.

Cap industries’ emissions of the gases blamed for climate change? Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, who leads the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will have to contend with dissent on a panel with Democrats from coal and manufacturing states.

“The legislative process requires compromise and being open to different alternatives,” Mr. Waxman said.

In defense of Henry though, I'm not sure I'd want to say, "We're copping out on this one."

I beg your...

"Extraordinary." -- former Justice Department Attorney
"Quite remarkable." -- (I'm lost as to whether this would be an offense or defense) attorney

This story just gets better and better as it unfolds:

Pardon Lasts Just One Day for Developer in Fraud Case

Administration officials and experts in pardon law said they were not aware of a prior instance of a president’s withdrawing a pardon after it was announced. “This is extraordinary,” said Margaret Colgate Love, who served as pardon attorney at the Justice Department in the 1990s.

The Justice Department official maintained that Mr. Toussie would have no grounds to argue that the president could not take back a pardon....

The Toussie episode comes as more lawyers appear to be going directly to the White House for consideration of pardons, rather than through Justice Department channels, according to people involved in the process. The most notorious recent instance came in 2001, when President Bill Clinton pardoned the fugitive financier Marc Rich, even though the Justice Department had not offered a formal recommendation.

Which, of course, preceded the other pardon Bill had to ask for.

It's heart-warming to know that even partisanship can be trumped by special interests.

Neural networks

I pride myself on the breadth of my network. There are, however, reassuring exceptions.

You and this LinkedIn user don’t know anyone in common.

• George Bush
  President of the United States of America at US Government

You can only view the profiles of users within your network. However, as you add connections, you may discover people you know in common.

Am I reading too much into the color theme here?

I am no respecter of persons...

....when the person legitimately commands my respect.

Barely 48 hours in and no prisoners are being taken.

In 1651, Thomas Hobbes outlined the dangers of unadulterated libertarianism, stating it leads to a life that is "nasty, brutish, and short".*

In 2008, the New Administration is ensuring this doesn't happen. Act 1: Rahmbo, whom the Chicago Tribune has rather described as "profane, ruthless and savvy."

Bring it on, O!


While I have always appreciated the Brits....




....I am really growing in my appreciation of Israelis. Lest anyone accuse me of being starry-eyed for just ONE man.

*this phrase actually became emblazened in my memory as The Red Herring magazine's unofficial legal counsel circa 1995.... attorneys out there, please take no offense despite intent

The Audacity of Hope

Hope that I will no longer be flabbergasted.
Hope that I will no longer be reduced to a fetal-positioned wet noodle.

Despite the merciless, incessant, unrelenting inanity, I will remain....audaciously hopeful.

Please stay here.

Some things bear repeating

For example.... perfection. To resume my rhetorical questioning (albeit this time in the most positive light):

How often can we truly bask in the presence of greatness? I'm going to savor it as long as I can....images below selected from The Boston Globe:

Presence.

Grace. Dang: our PREZ?



Cooollllllll factor on steroids. I mean again...our PREZ?



Possibility. The future is ours to lose.



Today my friend Teresa accused me of becoming an Obama Girl. I plead guilty.... but of course, on a far less hoochie and far more enlightened level.

Baracked indeed!

Results on state props not yet in and lalalala because for now: We Dance!


Listening with mirth to acceptance speech at Yerba Buena








Christina & I jam to the bit of good music to be had at YB before heading out to where the real partying was taking place....



....which of course would be...MY 'hood....we released the Obam-uppet from the fridge to join the fray.

NOW it's a party: me, Christina and Obamuppet

The Brits always say it better

Today The Economist officially endorsed Barack Obama as President of the United States.

The endorsement touches on a number of factors which led to my own transformation, but of course, elaborates on them more eloquently because, well, it's The Economist.

A choice excerpt reminds me of one of my key (and favorite) posts illustrating my fitful morphing from McCain-to-Obama:

If only the real John McCain had been running

That, however, was Senator McCain; the Candidate McCain of the past six months has too often seemed the victim of political sorcery, his good features magically inverted, his bad ones exaggerated. The fiscal conservative who once tackled Mr Bush over his unaffordable tax cuts now proposes not just to keep the cuts, but to deepen them. The man who denounced the religious right as “agents of intolerance” now embraces theocratic culture warriors. The campaigner against ethanol subsidies (who had a better record on global warming than most Democrats) came out in favour of a petrol-tax holiday.

The stars keep aligning. What options are left for us to sabotage ourselves now?

Is consistency a virtue?

Take Alaska, which is making some pretty consistent choices these days.

The state is not only allowing a convicted felon to run for Senator, but also to vote. Based, of course, on one condition:

The Alaska Department of Law on Wednesday concluded that (convicted felon Ted Stevens) would retain his voting rights until he received a sentence.

Idiocracy, Part 4. This series will be a long, painful one....

To quote a state GOP official: "The situation's the situation." Must be that proximity to Russia.

And we thought the prodigal had hit rock bottom

The [Alaskan GOP] is pushing for the re-election of Senator Ted Stevens, who was convicted on Monday of seven felony counts but continues his campaign for a seventh full term, in the hope that his re-election will allow Republicans to hold onto his seat even if Mr. Stevens eventually resigns.

Under that chain of events, a special election would be held later to replace Mr. Stevens, giving the party the chance to find a new candidate and keep the seat out of Democratic hands.

“That’s the reality,” said McHugh Pierre, a party spokesman. “Unfortunately, the situation’s the situation.”

I'm sure that McHugh once had aspirations of using his liberal arts degree for some noble purpose. Now, perhaps acting out of an ego bruised by the eccentricity of his name, he's instead lowered himself to the level of Accomplice to the state Party Machine, which is hurtling itself towards a fate that even Sarah Palin refuses to condone.

At the risk of yet another rhetorical question....: can it get any worse than that?

Rant refining and Rand renouncing

One movie, one webcast and one cocktail party later, I feel compelled to refine my previous allegations. Specifically, I'd chided our former Fed Reserve Chairman for using 40 years' prior experience as an excuse for his scandalous neglect of the U.S. economic system. But, you say, 40 years' experience sounds like a compelling reason to stay on the same trajectory? To that, I offer up three clarifications:

• The "past performance is not an indicator of future results" truism can be gleaned straight from Statistics 101 (or is that 01?): when you flip a coin, it always has a 50% chance of being tails. Regardless of how many times it turned up tails prior. (brain refresher credit to "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" - fabuuuu kudos to Gary Oldman...sigh....).
• AND: good economists must live by Mark Twain's wisdom that "history does not repeat itself...but it does rhyme". That is, while no two economic environments are exactly alike, overarching principles can be gleaned and applied to future conditions. In the current crisis, historical disasters amidst lack of regulation (but 2 examples: in the '30s up to Black Tuesday; in the '80s up to the S&L collapse) should have served as instructive examples (Twain quote credit to Schwab SVP Mark Riepe, who is emerging as one of my newer geek heroes).
• I thus underscore my original charge: that Greenspan is a purist to the detriment of the globe. Specifically, his 40-year tryst with Ayn Rand led to a sorely misguided ascent to the unfettered rationalistic, meritocratic nature of humans, thwarting the rest of the world into the cataclysmic consequences of such distorted thinking. (credit to Haas mixer where I blurted this out in verbal form with only afterthought consideration as to whether other Rand-ists were present).

Yes, we have her to thank, too. "Objectivism" is an attractive philosophy not because it is true, but because it plays to our sense of pride. Why else would people eat up McCainistic lauds of "the American people" as being so virtuous when it was these people - not just corporate execs - who contributed to our current economic mess in living beyond their means (one example: embracing "Pick-A-Pay" negative amortization schemes...I mean, "negative amortization"??).

How much more roadkill do we need to accept that, when left to our own devices, we do NOT do the right thing?




******
Update on 12/11/08: my friend Jim just sent me an article which leads me to believe that Cardinal Ratzinger (aka The Pope) and I are somewhat aligned...

...and while I am not in 100% agreement with the entire article, I did find its assertion that "the market mechanism has a negative but not a positive function. The market cannot decide what innovations or practices are beneficial to society. It can only punish incompetence and inefficiency" to be incredibly thought provoking....I'll be gnawing on that one for a while....

Un-be-frickin'-lievable (or: the Post of Rhetorical Questioning)

Welcome to this highly evolved and erudite term - you saw it here first! - which I was forced to create because I've exhausted all other descriptors -- outrage (twice, even), shock, disbelief, audacity, indignation and flabbergasted(ness) .... even getting to the point of becoming "Blogless".

So, while Blogger really has saved on the therapy bills, we know that therapy only elucidates but does not transform. Hence the un-be-frickin'-lievability pounds on. In this case, the culprit: Credit Default Swaps were unregulated....???????? I mean, I could see how these new securities constituted uncharted territory (=they were "new") and, as such, the exposure they created for their holders wasn't fully realized* until it all unwound.

But....COMPLETELY unregulated????????

Free-market purists are so pure they fail to grasp human nature, which is not, of course, purely rational.

“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said. Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”

Our former flavor-of-the-Administration went on to subtly defend himself....:

“I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that [this economic worldview] was working exceptionally well.”

But doesn't every Series 7 person know that 'past performance is not an indication of future results'? Reference my grasping to define character as being willing to course- correct....sometimes of course than can appear as waffling ;-)

I know hindsight is always 20/20 and it's easier to criticize retroactively than to formulate policy proactively. However, I'm being hard because, in this case being "wrong" has led to trillions....as in, "tr"....of damage worldwide.

Somehow that adage of "asking for forgiveness is easier than asking for permission" just doesn't seem to cut it here.

*see #2, "Minute 14:40" reference in this post

Outsourcing has its limits

I finally get it. Sometimes it takes me a while.

That official and others said that officials from the Department of Homeland Security, along with the Justice Department, have argued most vigorously for keeping Guantánamo open, largely because a ruling like the Uighur case could result in foreign fighters being freed into American communities.

Ergo Gitmo = parking lot for justice. The hallmark of the Administration's outsourcing of just one of its moral and legal failings (is "failing" adequate to describe the gravity?).

I thus remain outraged!!! Am I the only one?!?!?

Integration -cntd.-

"Integration" heretofore referenced indicated "internalisation and incorporation of new attitudes and behaviours into everyday life." (sic).

As my newly-attained integration has now been published for the masses, I feel the weight of accountability for these new behaviors...er, behaviours*....which as you will see, are fortunately not onerous to undertake. Some documentation:


Requisite raw materials needed to redeem the nature of "banking": New Mexico registered voter phone list, iPhone, and my Amelie-esque ever-present Obama puppet.





Just one more thing for us parochial elitists is needed: a listing of Obama's stances on key "rural issues" such as agricultural policy, gun law, and meth...for reals.






Now that we're All Systems Go, we grab our urban, dark blend fair trade organic coffee from hipster Four Barrels cafe in SF's Mission District and hide out in the back alley to get to work.





...but despite being fully equipped, I still have some reticence about calling up Jose (qua Joe) in Albuquerque on a Sunday night. I guess integration takes practice. Good thing there's still two more weeks!

*Sigh. I just love those Brits. This movie provides just some of the reasons why.

The bliss of full integration

In August I lauded the attempts of my near-intellectual and aesthetic peer to graphically convey psychological phenomena. That specific example pertained to macroeconomic moods and ensuing trends; today, I've stumbled across a graph that depicts my very personal journey in the political realm:

Alas: after much contrarian hemming, hawing and zig-zagging, I'm at last "in." I'm "fully integrated."*

*though the photo at top might indicate "assimilated" ;-)

What language are you speaking?

Ok, there's 'negative' ....and then there's NEGATIVE. Truly, is an attack on McCain's health care plan equivalent to character assassination?

God love the U-Wisc. Advertising Project, but it does demonstrate the degree to which I've always believed "social science" to be an oxymoron. Despite its best intentions, it usually does a great disservice by trying to quantify the qualitative.

(forgive the alignment on the illustration below - full graphic at this link also included above >multimedia popup on the left - which has proven elusive in posting directly here):

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October 18, 2008
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Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

For the Cause

So I used to not like Obama because people followed him so unwaveringly...so cultishly....

Then circumstances started to change and it became a matter of not voting FOR Obama, but voting against McCain.

But now. Now. The koolaid is kicking in.

If supporting Obama means shaking your hiphop rappin' bootay the way we did tonite ... for reals... then I'm a lifer. Let's re-look at those term limits. I can't go back.

Let's just face it....McCain will never....never...have this kind of cool factor.

What is this? Why, my beloved Obama finger-puppet, proudly displayed as I "wave my hands in da air" to the evening DJ's rap-sody. I don't think Cindy & John are bringin' down da house in quite this way...do you?

When ivory towers lead to barbed-wire fences

I've noted elsewhere how we as humans have our limits when it comes to outrage. Sometimes God blesses us with humor to let off the steam; other times, maybe it's just a reprieve from thinking about the issue.

When it comes to Gitmo, I'm rather sad to say the latter situation applies, and the reprieve is for tragic reasons. We simply don't hear about Gitmo because:

1) Other tragedies have grabbed our attention (economic collapse, campaign smears and the like); and
2) W...yes, we can add this to the 3,846* other tragedies left in his wake:

“It is part of a broader strategy not to make difficult decisions about Guantánamo and leave it to the next president.”

-- Vijay Padmanabhan, an assistant professor at Cardozo Law School who was until July a State Department lawyer with responsibility for detainee issues

I wonder if the detainees think of this "broader strategy" every morning when they wake up.

*count as of 11:39:43 PST 10 October 2008

Validation of my brilliance

In that lame, self-promoting spirit of "I Said It First" (recall I've never held back from shameless pandering): Liz Ann Sonders, SVP & Chief Investment Strategist at my beloved employer (and nearly as brilliant and beautiful as me), writes today:

Gov’t to pull a Buffett?
I also think the Fed may have to consider direct investments via preferred shares in banks; kind of like a mega-Warren Buffett, and/or allow financial institutions outside the normal banking system, like commercial lenders, to borrow directly from the Fed via the discount window, with appropriate collateral and with an oversight that those borrowings do indeed get lent out.

Of course, I noted this nearly 1 week ago which feels like eons in light of the unprecedented pace of change bemoaning the financial services industry. But who am I to shamelessly self-promote? I always give credit where it's due.

The Weekend of Causing Scenes, Part 2

The ultimate Saul of Tarsus moment*: confessing to a room full of Obama supporters that you once supported John McCain. A sheep among wolves? Au contraire: these are progressives. Therefore, the response is rather this: a feigned intellectual curiosity seeking to cover up utter shock, disbelief and audacity.

My co-campaigner Chris managed to emote this quite well: note the seemingly focused, attentive gaze which all but masks the glimmer of terror further into the eyes.

*And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.