Good Morning, Everyone.  Yesterday was windy and rainy.  But at least it stayed over 40 for most of the day.  High 30s today.  We aren't quite ready to wash our winter coats, gloves, and scarves to store away for the season.  But we are close.  I can feel it.

Thanks to Kay at Kay's Thinking Cap for this link to youtube.  I saw snippets of this rant by a Massachusetts representative yesterday but no one carried the full 5+ minutes.  Otherwise the testimony by all of these bankers amounted to less than a bucket of warm spit.  Of course, these guys are the johnny-come-latelys who replaced the smart assholes who dumped this mess on everyone.  But I think the assessment of the credit default swaps and other slight-of-hand 'investment' maneuvers is right on. 

Here is another sign (by way of MSNBC) of the times that I can readily relate to.  More companies are finding it worthwhile to challenge the unemployment claims of laid off workers.  And doing so successfully.  Why can I relate?  When I left my last job I was under the impression, explicitly given to me by my direct supervisor, that I would be eligible for unemployment.  I was leaving by mutual consent because I simply was not suited to the job. Not entirely by choice because I was fully aware that they would have terminated me even if I hadn't come to that same conclusion.  Imagine my surprise when my claim was denied because I had left 'voluntarily.'  I have no idea what my supervisors told the home office about my struggles to perform the job and my efforts (and minor successes) to improve my performance. The end result has been 16 months unemployed without unemployment benefits and the feeling that I was lied to.

Doug Tarnopol at Free Expression has done some interesting research.  The mainstream media has pretty much stopped talking about drought and I had wondered how the drought-stricken areas of this country fared over the winter.  Not well evidently.  The Australian drought has made only a blip and that when connected to the very few reports on the wildfires.  We haven't heard anything about the spreading drought in China.  According to Doug's info, the countries that account for two-thirds of the worlds agricultural output are experiencing droughts in the extreme to historic range.  Doesn't bode well, does it?  Didn't I read somewhere last year that grain reserves in the U.S. were also at or near historic lows?

This was a delightful surprise.  It is the web site for a Dutch department store HEMA.  Make sure your sound is on and just wait a few seconds after the page loads.  Thanks to Donna at Changing Places for the link.

And from John Aravosis at Americablog--another reason to get universal, single-payer health care coverage.  And another argument for making the penalties for violations of state insurance laws much more punitive.  Hit them in ways that really hurt their bottom line. 

Good Morning, All.  Haven't had much to say.  Wild fires are still burning in Australia.  The death toll has climbed to the point to where our news/entertainment media can take note.  Close to 200 (maybe over by the time the evening news comes on tonight.)  The Stimulus Bill still has to get through the Senate which now appears likely since they voted to stop any filibuster attempt by the disgruntled Republicans who won't support any package no matter how light weight or skewed to their particular pets.  Winter has finally loosened its grip here.  We have had above normal temps for almost a week.  Today should be over 60 degrees and sunny.

Something that has been in the back of my very suspicious mind has been very nicely expressed by Robert Reich in his blog.  Why would the Republicans refuse to support this package?  After all any time Bush asked for outrageous spending and tax cuts that fueled the deficit, they happily complied.  Perhaps because they hope to prolong the suffering of their constituents so they can make a killing in the mid-term elections?  By the way, I wonder how many of those 20k jobs Toyota (I think it was) is cutting will be in this country.  I wonder how that makes the Senator from Alabama (aka, Toyota/Honda depending on the commentator) feel.

I also notice that some of those Senators fancy themselves historians.  They quoted Republican Senators from 1938-9 who lambasted Roosevelt because they claimed that, after all of the massive government spending and the debt run up, his programs had simply not worked.  It is wonderful what you can 'prove' if you choose the right point in time.  The economy had been slowly improving after a very low trough in 1933-4, when the government (due to a number of factors including Roosevelt's own preference for more modest government spending and the agitation by hardline conservatives) cut back on spending.  That drove the economy back into deeper depression.  If government spending had been maintained would the economy have continued to improve?  No one knows.  My dad always said that figures don't lie but liars can figure.  I say historical precedent can prove any point you want to make if you choose the right point in time and ignore any evidence to the contrary.

Jim Kunstler at Clusterfucknation also expresses some of my thoughts about the economy, the stimulus and the state of our nation generally.  He says that all of the debate on the stimulus and the economy suffers from one very basic problem--lack of imagination.  On the one hand, massive debt, and the very creative investment instruments built on it, precipitated the economic meltdown.  On the other, one of the major thrusts of the financial bailout has been to 'get credit flowing again.'  The assumption is that if we can get the credit system back to what it was a couple of years ago everything will be fine.  No one questions the place of credit in our economy.  No one has the imagination to question it.  If you consider every other aspect of our economic rescue packages you see the same tendency.  On the one hand we must create jobs.  On the other, no one questions what kind of jobs they will be and what kind of life they will support.  All the years good paying jobs were being shipped overseas we were assured that new jobs would be opening up.  No one questioned what kind of jobs, doing what exactly, and paying what.  So we wound up with an economy generating low wage and/or  part time jobs by the bushel full.  No one ever paid any attention to the fact that the economy ran on debt while wages stagnated.  An old saying holds that generals are always preparing and planning for the last war.  The same holds for economists and politicians--they are always trying to recreate the past.  Neither take imagination at all.

Well, that is enough for today.  I have to repair the rug I made a bit ago.  The rug itself is fine but I have to re-attach the backing.  I didn't stitch it on as well I thought I had.  Then I have to attach the backing to the second rug I just finished.  Besides it is also shopping day for the week. 

Well, Sarah and John have pounced all over Joe's prediction that if Obama is elected he will be tested 'as John Kennedy' was tested in the 1960s.  My, my, what a surprise.  I do think Biden is right that the new President, which ever is elected in two weeks time, will be tested.  Unfortunately for the McCain/Palin camp I definitely do not want 'Quick Draw McGraw' McCain and the Beauty Queen Palin responding to those crises.  I like the prospect of measured, thoughtful, adult responses.  We have had much too much of the shoot-from-the-hip, knee-jerk kind of response that all too often results in our President shooting us in the foot, or the ass, or the pocketbook.

I have just been over to Tom Englehardt's tomdispatch blog reading his 'report card' on the Bush Administration's Global War On Terror.  Talk about friendly fire, I think we have all been 'fragged.'  

I can also say that I am not very surprised or impressed by McCain's and Palin's recent attempts to define Obama's economic policies as 'socialist.'  For years we have suffered through repeated tax cuts for the wealthy and tax increases for the less than wealthy but no one talked about socialism.  Somehow, it seems, taxing those who have little to give to those who have much isn't socialism.  Certainly McCain, who by his own admission voted for Bush policies '90% of the time,' is making, by implication, that claim.  Now he claims that he doesn't want to tax anyone.  Really??  How, then, will he pay for his programs which are largely left overs from the current administration?  His recent singing from the Populist hymnal is very unconvincing.  Too little, way too late.  And, I suspect, way too insincere.

PureLandMountain has an interesting graph and it does, as he says, explain a lot.  No wonder tuition is so high at the nations' colleges and universities.  Although the ultimate source for the graph is PHD Comics, the graph may not be far fro reality.  Many years ago, when I attended a University that I won't name, the University President held the equivalent of a town hall meeting to defuse the rising tide of dissatisfaction students were expressing over the large amount of money the University was spending on a perennially losing football team.  He repeatedly told us that the money spent on football paid for itself.  I asked him how he could claim that when the University spent $1.5M on the team and only got back, by the University's own figures, $500k.  That seemed to me a deficit of $1M.  All he could say in reply was he was sorry I 'felt' that way.  I guess my advanced degrees in science didn't provide me with the expertise required to do such elevated math.  

I am continuing today (Thursday) what I started yesterday.  Sometimes I just don't have the time to finish off what I start.

Archcrone at The Crone Speaks has a blog post that hits the nail on the head and says much of what I have been thinking about our economy for a very long time.  We have a very peculiar brand of capitalism now.  One which exists only because more and more people used credit to maintain a middle class or higher level of consumption.  We are beginning to learn the answer to the question I have frequently asked: what happens to a consumer based economy when the consumer can no longer consume in the heroic style to which we have become accustomed?  Another thought: why is it not considered fraud to make deceptive offers of credit cards to economic fragile and possibly desperate people?

This is amusing from The Australian.  Australia has been in the grip of a prolonged drought and now the authors of a government study wants people to stop using the word drought because it 'depresses' farmers.  Instead they want to encourage the use of 'dryness' instead.  Rather reminds me of the gyrations economists go through to avoid the word 'depression.'  How many kinds and levels of recession do we have to go through before someone decides to ignore the lipstick and call a pig a pig? Note: I find the linguistic contortions amusing NOT the drought.  I am glad to see that some are resisting the notion.  They are also debating the effectiveness of government programs to help drought ravaged farmers. 

Talking about code words and the creative use of language to hide rather than illuminate, take a look at Helen's latest entry at Margaret and Helen.  She is right on and we have had scads of trash talk ever since St. Ronald railed against the 'welfare queens.'  Now we have McCain ranting on behalf of the poor Joe the Plumbers while proposing programs that would leave Joe and his brothers and sisters in the dust while transferring more wealth up the economic ladder.  I don't care much for taxes either but, like Helen, there are amenities those taxes pay for which are necessary. I do like properly maintained roads.  I would like an education system that really educated.  I would love a health care system that worked for more than those who have, however tenuously, insurance or the money to buy whatever services the wanted.  I also think that a system that acts on the old Ebenezer Scrooge sentiment (If the poor are like to die without assistance, let them get on with it and reduce the surplus population) is a very unChristian, and immoral one.  If that is the essence of Capitalism I will take socialism any day.

Enough of my jaundiced rants for today.  See you all next time.

I just approved a comment by Timothy on my post for sometime back in January of this year on the best politics money can buy.  It was simply a notice that the early/absentee voting systems' deadlines is approaching.  I have a general policy that I will approve any comments unless they are abusive.  However, I decided to re-read the post because I had forgotten what I wrote.  It was interesting how much remains the same just ratcheted up a notch or two.

The news this morning noted that an oil company is 'suffering' because the price of oil has dropped by about 50% since about July so it is cutting its work force.  Our comment over coffee this morning?  'Great!! (sarcasm here)  People can now buy gas but they are unemployed.'  We also noticed that this is an industry that had record 'profits' over the first two quarters this year.  (Sorry, I didn't hear which company was mentioned or if the situation is industry wide. I may find out later.

In the wake of the debates and Joe the 'Plumber,' Senator McCain has been trying to make some headway on the issue of 'spread the wealth.'  That is, he is trying to paint Obama as one who would take the hard earned money from the middle class and distribute it to those who don't deserve it (remember the 'undeserving' poor I have mentioned before?).  This post by Dean Baker on TPM Cafe notes that the lions' share of the redistribution to date has been from those lower on the economic food chain to those higher up.  And the bail out package just continues that pattern.

I caught an interesting few minutes of a discussion on CNBC yesterday.  The topic for that segment of the Sunday morning talk show was 'Who was to blame for the mortgage mess?  Greedy bankers or Greedy loan applicants?'  Of course, this is the kind of question which will never get answered to any one's satisfaction.  It implies an either/or answer when the real situation is much more complicated.  I don't doubt that there were greedy bankers AND greedy loan applicants some of whom were moved by their greed make fraudulent or nearly fraudulent loan deals.  However, the commentators moved away from the greed angle to another which was, to my mind, a more fruitful discussion of how much the ordinary consumer really knows about the ins and outs of mortgages loans.  Two of them recounted their own experiences shopping for loans.  One remembered how much pressure the person she was negotiating with put on her to accept an adjustable rate loan with a very low teaser interest.  She managed to reject it for a fixed rate loan.  Another recalled how he was cajoled into an adjustable rate loan which he was able to convert to a thirty year fixed rate when he realized what had happened.  They both noted that if this could happen to them, seasoned financial professionals, what could happen to those who were not so knowledgeable.  

Blog Hopping, Politics, and other random things

I have neglected this for a while. Not intentionally. I just go through silent spells when I just seem to have nothing to say. However, some rambling thoughts do come to mind.

Marian at Elderwoman put up a new post asking why more people aren't going green and why those who have made a stab at it aren't getting greener? Good questions. I can think of a number of reasons. One major one is simply inertia. We get into habits and don't easily get out of them. When I was a kid my father would constantly tell us kids to turn off lights. I am no longer a kid and haven't been for many many years but Mom still reminds me to turn off lights. We buy things because we have always bought them and continue to buy those same items without thinking. We do what we have always done without exploring the alternatives. We just don't expend the energy.

Marian described an encounter with another woman which rang some bells with me. The woman complained that a local food store was going to close but all the while she clutched a plastic bag full of food purchased at a large chain store. She never connected the dot between her own shopping and the demise of an alternative store. I have seen the same thing myself several times over the last few years. In one case, I worked at the store that closed. Over the three years that store was in business, I marveled at the number of people who visited the store, raved about our service, prices, and selection and then walked out never to return. Were they being just polite? If they meant what they said, why did they not come back? Others loved our service and selection but complained about the prices. They were the Wal-Mart or Dollar Store 'gals.' They never connected the low prices at Wal-Mart with the lack of selection and service offered at Wal-Mart. During the 'going out of business' sales we saw many of those people come to take advantage of the sale prices that were still above the Wal-Mart prices. It was all I could do to remain civil.

Granny Geek has a couple of really nice pictures of miniatures her sister-in-law creates. I especially like the one that is an office, compete with antique Coke machine and computer in an empty computer monitor. My own hobby is needlework but I love to see what other people do with their hobbies.

Barbara Ehrenreich has a post which notes that the official definition of what makes a recession has very little meaning for the ordinary Americans who are hurting in these times of economic uncertainty and hardship. You will have to scroll back a bit. I noticed that she just has a new one I will have to read when I am done here.

Ronni Bennet has a new Time Goes By post which should terrify anyone who is getting on in age and is without close friends and relatives. She tells the story of a 73 year old woman who went into the hospital with a broken ankle expecting to go home after a short stint in a re-hab hospital but never got out. Instead, she is a prisoner in a nursing home with a radio anklet that alerts the nurses if she sets foot out of the building. She was committed as mentally incompetent even though she had a long history of managing her own affairs on the terse and illegible diagnosis of a doctor that was not even her primary care physician. This frightens me far more that anything Al Qaeda could do. This is terrorism aided and abetted by law and social prejudice.

On the environmental/political scene, I found a nice article on Grist which tries to deal with the issue of urban sprawl, transportation policy and our current silly season (aka presidential primary season.) Bill Richardson mentioned it once during the debates and it has been since forgotten like so much else in the primary races where the focus has been on personality clashes and non-issues. I would give you a link but haven't figured out what is the matter with the address I have. I will try this again some other time.

I think I will call it a day. I am going to have to start taking better notes so I can link to the right articles more easily. I wish I knew of an easier way to do it than typing the address each and every time. Oh, well!!!