Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Frivolous Friday Open Thread

by BooMan
Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:03:31 PM EST

Are you cutting slack?

Frivolous Friday Open Thread | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

If Tim Geithner really is SecTreas?

Hell no I'm not. As I've said, you might as well leave Paulson in charge.

More at Zandar vs. The Stupid.

by Zandar1 on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:13:11 PM EST

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Markets up six percent in the last hour on the news. Looks like the fix is in.

9/11 happened on the Republicans' watch.

by budr (budr at hughes net) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:37:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Do you have a specific criticism?

Who did you want?

by BooMan on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:37:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

I was ready to accept Larry Summers as the best of a bad lot, after all who really WANTS to be SecTreas right now, anyhow? Volker's too old, and anybody smart enough to see the derivative freight train barreling down upon us is smart enough to not want to job.

But as it is, the guy who was responsible for most of the behind the scenes legwork for the Uberbailout is not the guy I want to see running Obama's economic policy.

From Bear Stearns on down, Geithner's done the yeoman's work on getting the bailout done and in particular giving his Wall Street buddies the best possible terms on it. He's practically NY's third Senator as far as Wall Street's concerned.

He's smart and competent, but if Obama's going with him it means he still thinks the problem is an issue of Paulson's bailout not being big enough or something rather than dealing directly with the cause of the problems.

The upshot is we'll see more and more bailouts ahead, and they'll continue to fail.

More at Zandar vs. The Stupid.

by Zandar1 on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:52:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Hey, at least the bankers didn't fly in in SEPARATE private jets, like the automobile honchos did to DC for their hearings, much to Congress's shock and awe....

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

by Real History Lisa (lpeaseRemoveThis@gte.net) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:37:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 1)

Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC may have been a better choice if you're looking for someone with specific financial services chops. Brooksley Born, former head of CFTC who took on Summers, Rubin and Greenspan over deregulation is another.

Bill Bradley if you're looking for broad national financial policy and economic restructuring.

And that's for starters. Since Rubin, Treasury has been run as an appendage of Wall Street and that approach is both bankrupting the country and driving us straight into a depression.

by northcountry on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:05:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

I would like some official news. The leaking and speculation has me frazzled.

Recommended by Hideo Kojima

by robertdsc on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:44:14 PM EST

slack? (none / 1)

there's none left to cut...he got all the slack he's going to get from me during the campaign and election because the stakes were so damned high...guess that makes me a "non-serious person" according to barney franks...meh

deja vu

l've been very disappointed in most of the cabinet picks to date...hrh as sos seals the deal.

the revolution will not be televised...

by dada on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:45:19 PM EST

Re: slack? (none / 0)

setting aside Clinton and Emanuel, do you have a problem with Richardson at Commerce, Daschle at Health, or Holder at Justice? I don't.

by BooMan on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:49:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: slack? (none / 0)

the only problem l have with richardson at commerce, is that l think he'd have been far better at state or energy.

daschle at hhs l think is the best of the bunch.

as for holder...let's just say l'm very skeptical. primarily because of his connections to bill's travails, as well as his connections with, and defense of, some very unsavory corporate characters in their dealings with latin america...see chiquita...that, to me, is a problem.

arguments that the "good lawyers represent bad clients" doesn't quite wash with our history and potential future difficulties that we can expect to encounter, with those who we share the hemisphere and with whom we tend to disagree...generally at the point of a gun.

we shall see soon enough with him, especially regarding the legal issues surrounding doj,the gWot, and all that entails

the revolution will not be televised...

by dada on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:31:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: slack? (none / 0)

how do you set aside the Clintons? It's the top slot.

they over-weight all others.

When is the Clinton reunion party? Does that replace the Inaugural Gala normally scheduled for January 20.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:54:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: slack? (none / 0)

I have a problem with Holder over the Rich pardon. That guy should have gone to jail, from what I've read.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

by Real History Lisa (lpeaseRemoveThis@gte.net) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:38:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: slack? (none / 0)

I'm with dada on Richardson. He's wasted at Commerce. I think he has the makings of a great SoS.

And this doesn't make me feel very good about Holder.

New AG Choice Advocated To Stifle Speech On Web | NewsBusters.org

In April 1999, the Columbine High School massacre happened. The shooters, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, reportedly learned how to construct sophisticated bombs through their internet activity. This discovery caused then Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder to say the following(audio uploaded at Eyeblast.tv:)
The court has really struck down every government effort to try to regulate it. We tried with regard to pornography. It is gonna be a difficult thing, but it seems to me that if we can come up with reasonable restrictions, reasonable regulations in how people interact on the Internet, that is something that the Supreme Court and the courts ought to favorably look at. - May 28, 1999 NPR Morning Edition

9/11 happened on the Republicans' watch.

by budr (budr at hughes net) on Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 at 12:40:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

i've been cranky all week. it'll pass, but i literally get a pain in my gut when i think about the next two years in my state with the GOP in charge of all three branches.

Latino Político | "We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit." - Octavio Paz

by Man Eegee (man.eegee at gmail.com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 05:48:05 PM EST

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

rumor has it that Grijalva is in consideration for Interior.

Latino Político | "We are condemned to kill time, thus we die bit by bit." - Octavio Paz

by Man Eegee (man.eegee at gmail.com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:27:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Frivolous Friday Open Thread (none / 0)

Sorry Man ee:( We wound up nearly as bad with Mitch Daniels returning for a second engagement as guv. We gained a couple of house seats, tho. At least they can keep them in check (if they only will).

"Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live." Dorothy Thompson, Journalist

by Indianadem on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 08:38:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]

No (none / 0)

I'm giving the benefit of the doubt, for now.

The Underground Railroad

by Oscar In Louisville on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:03:05 PM EST

Patience (none / 1)

I figure until Jan 20th, I need to relax and not get worked up over things I have no control over. My points are these:

52% is not a overwhelming mandate. There is 48% that need to see the results and patience is the key.
Obama was able to win and if he does not bring in individuals who understand the Washington scene and create "civil war" in the nation's capital, the whole nation will suffer as a result.
Obama won so he gets to pick the folks he wants around him in a manner of speaking. He has to work with them so my like or dislike really is not the issue. He is the boss to them and that is one thing we, as citizens need to see and understand.
We arrived at our current state over a period of eight years, so let's sit back and see how things work before we start bitching about things.

I am just watching at this time. I am not ready to hit the panic button yet.

We must not continue to cure the symptoms and ignore the disease!
Spiritual Awakening

by vieravisionary (tdelaine (at) cfl (dot) rr (dot) com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:46:55 PM EST

Re: Patience (none / 0)

I meant:

"2. Obama was able to win and if he does not bring in individuals who understand the Washington scene and they end up creating "civil war" in the nation's capital, the whole nation will suffer as a result."

We must not continue to cure the symptoms and ignore the disease!
Spiritual Awakening

by vieravisionary (tdelaine (at) cfl (dot) rr (dot) com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:48:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Patience (none / 0)

Looks to me Obama is a great admirer of President Lincoln. So far he's following "Team of Rivals" he wants to duplicate.

Now all he needs is a civil war. And he's likely to get it. He has hired on all Clintons and their entourage.

It's coming.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 06:58:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Patience (none / 0)

And you know what followed that, and the other administration who also hired a team of rivals, with near disastrous results... more later.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

by Real History Lisa (lpeaseRemoveThis@gte.net) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:39:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Patience (none / 0)

Not very promising.

Can you imagine all those young Obama supporters who signed on with enthusiasm for change! Fool me once.

What we get is Bill Clinton's Third term. already coined in the MSM...BloombergTV

Guess Obama wants a one term. and be shadowed by the Clintons. He'll oon regret.

Here's the coming civil war because with anything near Clinton, what you get is high drama all the time.

Yglesias observes Wither the Subcabinet?

"Basically, you have all of these young, next-generation and mid-career people who took a chance on Obama" during the primaries, said one Democratic foreign-policy expert included in that cohort. "They were many times the ones who were courageous enough to stand up early against Iraq, which is why many of them supported Obama in the first place. And many of them would likely get shut out of the mid-career and assistant-secretary type jobs that you need, so that they can one day be the top people running a future Democratic administration."
In the foreign-policy bureaucracy, these middle-tier jobs -- assistant secretary and principal-deputy-assistant and deputy-assistant -- are stepping stones to bigger, more important jobs, because they're where much of the actual policy-making is hashed out. Those positions flesh out strategic decisions made by the president and cabinet secretaries; implement those policies; and use their expertise to both inform decisions and propose targeted or specific solutions to particular crises."
To add some further context here, back during the primaries there was tons of talk of the most senior "foreign policy community" types in Clinton's orbit "warning" younger national security professionals that there would be big-time payback if they backed Obama and he wound up losing. At the same time, while on the top level Clinton tended to attract a diverse group of people with personal ties to her, at the bottom level you tended to get a lot of very risk-averse careerists -- the sort of people who just sign on with the frontrunner and don't really have any passion or vision. I think that sort of thing wound up ill-serving Clinton during the campaign, when one advantage Obama had was a staff full of genuinely passionate supporters, and I doubt it's a dynamic she deliberately wants to foster. But you could have a situation where Secretary of State Clinton wants to bring in as key subordinates loyalists who she's comfortable with, and then those loyalists want to go about fulfilling their threat of punishing Obama supporters by locking them out.

Obama don't give a shit. That's the real fraud.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

by idredit on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 08:00:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Two weeks ago I was cautiously optimistic (none / 0)

Now I'm just cautious.

by northcountry on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 07:08:25 PM EST

Re: Two weeks ago I was cautiously optimistic (none / 1)

I was never optimistic, especially when it comes to foreign policy. It was entirely clear which way he would go on that. But the alternative was too horrible to contemplate, especially after Sarah Palin became part of it. Therefore, while I did not support Obama, I wished very hard that the alternative would not come to pass.

by Hurria (Muslawia@gmail.com) on Fri Nov 21st, 2008 at 11:50:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Frivolous Friday Open Thread | 24 comments (24 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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