Obama says he’d possibly appoint Arnold to his cabinet

Hmmm.... Read More......

Condi calls Huckabee's foreign policy ideas "ludicrious"

I hate when they fight. The Bushies are trying to clamp down on any GOP candidates pulling a Sista Souljah on George Bush. The thing is, if Huckabee wanted to get votes by distancing himself from Bush, then Condi just helped Huckabee even more. Read More......

Cliff's Corner

The Week That Was 12/21/2007

Another week. More preposterousness to report.

So whaddya know? It turns out the Bush Administration has taken to economics and foreign policy like Lynne Spears has to parenting. Not too much is going wrong during this most wonderful time of the year. Well, if you don't count a currency just about on par with the Thai Baht, staggering government debt and Al Qaeda's number two thug opening up shop online for a game of 20 questions with the media.

Although, at the very least Al Zwahiri must be living a tortured life, you know, waking up every day realizing he is "wanted dead or alive." That taught his ass a lesson!

Hell, if he entered the Republican primaries right now he might actually out poll Giuliani in Iowa. In fact, I think if Al Zwahiri really concentrated his resources in South Carolina, his views on abortion, gay rights and pornography could really bolster his standing among the Palmetto State GOP. And he's more believable in his videos than Fred Thompson ever was in any televised appearance.

Excluding Baby's Day Out, of course. If you don't admit he outright nailed that role, then you're just being mean spirited and partisan.

Although, no matter who comes out of the GOP primaries as the Capo of the Cultists, it is pretty much all waterboarding under the bridge anyhow. Because, well, and this is an expert opinion of course, they all carry just about as much appeal as being Dick Cheney's proctologist.

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And with that, I bid you all a happy holidays to piss of Fox (yeah, I am so taking part in the War On Christmas). And speaking of that illustrious arbiter of newsiness, enjoy this new video about their contributions to the Democratic primary race, courtesy of Brave New Films (psst...they pay me):

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Giuliani spent a night in the hospital?

I have been under three times for surgery in the US and never spent a night in a US hospital. In a 6AM and out in the afternoon, stitches and grogginess be damned. The only time I can think of when anyone I know (besides a woman giving birth) spending a night in a hospital was my father, the night before he died.

American insurance companies are so against paying for overnight stays so I wonder what was going on with Giuliani. How bad did it have to be for him to receive such a privilege? If it wasn't serious, does this mean Giuliani supports change in health care, or only change for the select few like him? Maybe he just raked in a few million that he charged a poor Third World city and can afford cash. If only everyone else was so fortunate.

Or maybe Giuliani is REALLY sick and isn't telling anyone? (After the jump: Giulini's plane was diverted to an emergency room, yet his campaign won't say what's up - that's creepy.)
More from ABC's Jake Tapper:

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was all smiles for the cameras as he left Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis Thursday afternoon after experiencing headache pains so severe he had his charter plane turn around on the way from Missouri to New York and was rushed to the emergency room.

"I feel fine," Giuliani said, refusing to answer any reporters' questions as he left the hospital....

The campaign shared no concrete medical information about which tests the mayor undertook and what the exact results were, also refraining from allowing the media to see his medical records or speak to his doctors.

And let's not forget that Giuliani had (has?) prostate cancer, which is quite treatable but also sometimes quite deadly. Read More......

Bush finally admits, will leave 100,000 troops in Iraq when he leaves office - and that's if things go well

Well, they're finally being honest. Bush is going to leave his Iraq mess for the next president. We knew this all along. He and the Republicans denied it all along. It's all very sad. Read More......

Obama calls Hillary's campaign "desperate"

As Greg Sargent asks, "Does calling someone's attacks desperate count as an attack, too?" What do you think? Read More......

Please make a gift to AMERICAblog this holiday

You can donate quite easily and safely online via this link.

Here at AMERICAblog, we pay our daily writers, and I'd like to give all of us a Christmas bonus. A lot of blogs don't pay their regular writers (though some do), but I just don't feel comfortable having a friend write every day on the blog and not get something in return.

As you know, our crack team includes, Joe, who writes along with me during the day and is my deputy on the site. Chris is our overnight guy in Paris, paying attention to more worldly issues and corporate corruption. AJ (aka Alex) is our former Defense Intelligence guru who covers Iraq, foreign affairs/national security, and anything that Juan Cole says. And finally there's Cliff, who writes Cliff's Corner on Friday - a most irreverent look at the week that was. Mostly their income comes from a percentage of our ad revenues. This year, that bonus means even more as our ad revenues have been lousy the past six months, though this month, thankfully, the ads are back (and then there's poor Chris, who took a 40% cut in his AMERICAblog salary as he lives in Euro-land).

So, if you like the blog, if you like our advocacy and our reporting and our general sassy attitude, please consider making a gift to AMERICAblog this holiday. I'll share the donations with the guys, based on their relative responsibilities.

You can donate quite easily and safely online via this link.



Note: Donations are not tax-deductible.

PS A quick update on AMERICAblog 2.0. I've hired an html guru, who will also be our project manager. She is helping me put the finishing touches on the design html of the site (the design is done, but Leah has a few very interesting final changes she's suggesting). She's also helping us plot out the stage 1 and stage 2 functionality (we're going to launch with some basic functionality - you'll be able to create your own blogs, and more, then we'll build more in over time). And more generally, Leah is helping me manage the entire project which, as she said to me yesterday, is rather huge (I was like, uh yeah, welcome to my world :-). Leah is quite brilliant, we worked together almost ten years ago, and since then she worked at a huge PR firm doing Web consulting, and I'm very excited to have her on board. Over the next few weeks, Leah and I will plot out all the pages that the site will have (i.e., for you to create a profile, how many different pages do we need and what exactly will be on each page, where will each button/box be, and how will it look?). Once Leah builds all those pages in final html, we will then hand the project off to our database guy who will create the very complicated and very scary back-end that will run the site. I hate to hazard a guess, but I'm hoping that we can have the site up and running in two months, by March 1 (knock on wood). A project this huge takes time, but with Leah on board I'm finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Stay tuned, and thanks as always for your support. Read More......

PIMCO CIO: "We began a recession in December"

Just because PIMCO founder and Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross leads assets worth $750 billion and thinks we are in a recession, what does he know? Doesn't he know that we are supposed to be cheerleaders for financial incompetence by the Bush administration and Alan Greenspan? Speaking out is really unpatriotic.

Gross changed PIMCO's strategy regarding subprime loan investments. This initially showed poor results compared to competitors, though he is looking pretty clever these days as the others implode with write-downs. He might just know a thing or two about where the economy is headed. Read More......

CIGNA insurance denies transplant, teenager dies

Who thinks Big Insurance is going to roll over and suddenly cooperate with America's health care crisis? This does not sound like an industry that is seeking compromise or anything less than total control.

A 17-year old died just hours after her health insurance company [CIGNA] reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed.

Nataline Sarkisyan died Thursday night at about 6 p.m. at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks, said her mother, Hilda.

"She passed away, and the insurance (company) is responsible for this," she said.

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In NH, Clinton & Obama even; McCain closing in on Romney

New polls from New Hampshire show tight races on both sides. Despite what people in NH tell pollsters, they will be swayed by what happens in Iowa. And, NH voters are notoriously fickle -- so this could fluctuate wildly. And, keep in mind, unlike Iowa, where only registered party members can attend caucuses, Independents in New Hampshire can vote in either primary. That's a wild card in NH:

In the poll, Clinton and Obama are tied at 32%-32%, with Edwards at 18%. No other candidate breaks into double digits.

Counting only those who say their vote is certain, Clinton narrowly leads Obama, 20%-18%. Edwards is backed by 10%.

In the Republican race, Romney leads McCain, 34%-27%. Including only those whose votes are set, Romney's lead narrows to 19%-15%, within the survey's margin of error of +/— 5 points.

Effectively tied for third place are former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, at 11%, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, each at 9%.

Just last month, most Granite State surveys showed Clinton and Romney with double-digit leads. Now, Clinton's "firewall" against a possible setback in Iowa has weakened. Of eight statewide polls taken by other news organizations during the past two weeks, Clinton has led in six, Obama in two, according to RealClearPolitics.com.

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Friday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Washington is starting to empty out. The Today Show told me this is the biggest travel day...so if you're heading out, drive carefully and be patient.

If you need to kill some time, listen to "The SantaLand Diaries" again. I played it last night and it still cracks me up -- 30 minutes of hilarity.

What's the latest? Read More......

Time magazine’s Person of the Year - $40 billion fortune?

Who could imagine such good fortune for a dictator in an oil-rich country? I'm sure "Vlad" (that's what his oil buddies call him) is thankful for the gas guzzlers who are building his retirement package. He might even think about friends in Congress who hold back environmental laws and protect Big Oil as they maintain a stranglehold on our energy future.

To help streamline the connection, Putin is now rumored to be joining Gazprom. Aren't we lucky to have so many good friends in the oil industry around the globe? Read More......

The British bubble may be bursting

A housing bubble and government (over)spending is not just an American problem. The Blair legacy is now taking its toll and Gordon Brown is going to have more explaining to do.

The UK's current account deficit leapt by almost 50 per cent in the third quarter, hitting a record £20bn and raising fresh concerns about the stability of the country's economy.

The deficit was almost twice as large as expected, as the strong pound saw the level of imports far exceed exports, and the levels of investment fell.
More troubling news on the UK economy, after the jump.

Public sector borrowing also hit a new high of £11.2bn last month, up from £9.1bn at the same time last year, while gross mortgage lending fell by 7.7 per cent during the month, confirming the slowdown in the housing market.

Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics said the data showed the UK economy to be "dangerously unbalanced". "This morning's flurry of UK data paints a worrying picture of a dangerously unbalanced economy," he said. "The UK's external position now looks pretty much as bad as that in the US, suggesting the pound needs to fall sharply like the US dollar."

Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, added: "What is really shocking about these figures is that they reveal that the Exchequer was running a large current deficit before the credit crisis hit home, when the economy was doing very well and it should have been showing a large current surplus.

"Now, the economy is slowing sharply and the public finances will deteriorate equally rapidly. The first hit will come in February when the January tax receipts will be published. These will be well down on last January's figure, which was of course swollen by huge City bonuses and profits last year. We have revised our forecast of this year's current deficit up to £16bn, twice the Treasury pre-Budget report forecast of £8bn. As if the Chancellor had not got enough problems on his plate already."

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Wall Street losses, in historical perspective

For anyone dismissing the significance of the massive losses on Wall Street, a few amazing historical references are popping out this week. We may hear more similar stories but this speaks volumes about just how badly mismanaged the US economy has been during the Greenspan/Bush years. This is disgraceful, at a minimum.

- Morgan Stanley posts first ever quarterly loss. The company has been in business for 72 years.
- Bear Stearns has reported its first ever loss in 84 years. Even during the Great Depression, they did not report losses.

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Open thread

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