Apple passes Microsoft on Wall Street

That really says a lot about the great products that Apple is delivering. A friend passed through the other day and showed us his new iPad, which was much nicer than I had imagined. (The price is steep so I may hold off for a Google Android equivalent, but still.) Back when Apple was on life support, I don't think anyone would have imagined such a day.

And Apple is in the right place at the right time. Although it still sells computers, twice as much revenue is coming from hand-held devices and music. Over all, the technology industry sold about 172 million smartphones last year, compared with 306 million PCs, but smartphone sales grew at a pace five times faster.

Microsoft depends more on maintaining the status quo, while Apple is in a constant battle to one-up itself and create something new, said Peter A. Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook. “Apple is a bet on technology,” he said. “And Apple beating Microsoft is a very significant thing.”

As of Wednesday, Wall Street valued Apple at $222.12 billion and Microsoft at $219.18 billion. The only American company valued higher is Exxon Mobil, with a market capitalization of $278.64 billion.

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DADT compromise adopted by House 234-194

It's been added to the Defense Authorization bill, which is still being debated by the full House. You can watch a number of the speeches here and here. Read the rest of this post...

Senate Armed Services Committee pass DADT compromise

It's not a repeal, Dear NYT. It's legislation that will permit the Pentagon, working with the President, to repeal the language in the future, if and when they so choose, if ever. The vote was 16-12. Webb (D-VA) voted with the bigots. Collins (R-ME) voted with us. Read the rest of this post...

Economies of Europe: the lending merry-go-round

Sometimes when the problem is so bad, you have to find a way to laugh about it. Read the rest of this post...

I guess it takes men to plug a leak

From AP and the NYT. Read the rest of this post...

Rachel Maddow revisits the 1979 Gulf oil spill

It's déjà vu all over again, as Yoggi said. The damned "top kill" better work better this time because nine months of oil pumping into the sea is a long time and probably only a minimum. How is it that so little has changed in terms of safety in those years? Watching this report is not very settling at all. Read the rest of this post...

Two of the four joint chiefs wrongly think DADT compromise repeals the law immediately; send letters to Congress about the wrong legislation

I'd like to think that you have to be pretty smart to be chosen to run an entire branch of the military. But yesterday, Army Chief of Staff General George Casey and Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz brought that assumption into question when they wrote letters to GOP Senator John McCain suggesting that the compromise "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" legislation being debated today before Congress would immediately repeal the anti-gay law, before the Pentagon's implementation study is completed.

That is utterly false. And a simple read of the rather short amendment, even by a non-lawyer, would clarify this point beyond a doubt.

You can read more about this on AMERICAblog Gay. But it really is disturbing the lengths to which our military leaders will go to subvert their own commander in chief, and to meddle in the democratic process. We're supposed to have civilian control of the military. But somehow, whenever a Democrat becomes president, the military conveniently forgets this fact and believes, instead, that we live in Bolivia. Read the rest of this post...

California health insurers to increase rates 12% - 23% for small businesses

It's a good thing Congress scrapped that pesky public option. Who would really want it anyway because everyone knows that private industry is always more efficient and better to work with, right? Thanks for killing the recovery and glad to see the protection you received has been appreciated.

Small businesses in California are being hit this year with double-digit hikes in health insurance costs that could hurt the state's economic recovery as companies curtail plans for hiring and expansion to pay their insurance bills.

Five major insurers in California's small-business market are raising rates 12% to 23% for firms with fewer than 50 employees, according to a survey by The Times.

Similar increases are being felt by many small businesses across the nation, including those in Texas, Ohio and Florida — mainly the result of escalating costs for medical care and pharmaceuticals, insurers say.

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BP employee pleads Fifth Amendment, avoids testifying at government review of accident

This does not sound like a positive start. There have already been instances of BP not responding to funding health care clinics for workers so don't be surprised when BP starts questioning the full extent of their financial responsibilities. Now more than ever, it's time for the administration to take much more control, including setting up an escrow account to fund the recovery effort. It's unfortunate that BP is already stonewalling the investigation.

Mr. Vidrine was supposed to testify Thursday but dropped out, citing an undisclosed medical issue, according to a Coast Guard spokeswoman. Another top BP official who was scheduled to testify Thursday, Robert Kaluza, declined to do so, asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, the Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

Mr. Kaluza's lawyers, in a statement, said: "Bob did no wrong on the Deepwater Horizon, and we will make ... sure that this comes out at the appropriate time."

BP declined to comment on the testimony.

A Transocean spokesman said in a written statement: "The testimony certainly seems to suggest that [Mr. Harrell] disagreed with the operator's instructions, but what those were and why he disagreed are matters that will ultimately be determined during the course of investigations."

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BPGlobalPR Twitter feed is the best

If only every Twitter account was like this. Reading the sour grapes response from BP makes it even better. The LA Times has blog post about it including some of the most popular tweets.

Catastrophe is a strong word, let's all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy.

The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct. #bpcares

We just saw a shark fight an octopus inside the geyser. Almost made this whole thing worth it.

I might add a few more.

A lot of people are asking if we could have prevented this mess. Honestly, we have no clue. Our hindsight is 20/80.

They want to fine us $4,300 for every barrel of oil spilled? Umm, we're not spilling barrels, the oil is going directly into the gulf. DUH

Lots of people blaming this on Bush or Obama. Pph, we wish. The truth is Presidents don't have any control over what we do.

Just saw new satellite images of the spill. Actually, it kinda looks like the Earth has a beauty mark! Ooolala!

Please help us with rebranding. We're not calling it an "oil spill" anymore, now it's a "Southern Fun Party".

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Coast Guard: 'Top Kill' has stopped the oil leak

Big news out of the Gulf of Mexico:

There is currently no oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from the well that had been spewing crude into the sea for more than a month.

"They've stopped the hydrocarbons from coming up," National Incident Commander Thad Allen told WWL First News. "They've been able to stabilize the well head, they are pumping mud down it."

Allen says now they have to make sure the heavy drilling fluids, or mud, will hold back the oil and natural gas in the well long enough for them to be able to cap the well.

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More on left upset with Obama, public gives poor grades for oil leak crisis

The Obama team has to be concerned now that another voice on the left has voiced its concern with Obama deferring to BP during the crisis. This is a think tank that is considered to be closely linked to the Obama administration though perhaps they are also now the "left of the left" as some might say in the White House. It's a good overview of the problem and how the administration could take charge. Choosing a high profile leaders is well overdue and BP dropping money into an escrow account which the US government will oversee is another excellent idea. We all know there are limitations due to the special nature of this disaster but there is also so much more Obama could and should be doing.

BP is required as the responsible party for this apocalyptic disaster to provide full and instant funding for the response by the federal, state, and local governments and their contractors. BP personnel and equipment being used for disaster response in the Gulf should be put under governmental control during the crisis.

BP’s funding should come in the form of an escrow account that draws on BP’s $100 billion in capital reserves, without limit. The federal government should require BP to use its first quarter 2010 profits — $5 billion – to establish the escrow account.

Perhaps as troubling is the change in public opinion as the crisis drags on. The leadership gap that we continue to see on issue after issue has not been missed by the public. It's hard to say how or when this problem will be fixed but there does not appear to be much progress in overall management with this administration. More puzzling is why so many Americans still think BP should remain in charge of the cleanup but this does come back to the continuing problem of poor messaging.

In the five weeks since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, Obama had largely escaped political fallout. But as BP attempts yet again to seal the leak, a new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds a majority of Americans unhappy with Obama's handling of the spill. According to the poll, 53 percent rate Obama's handling "poor" or "very poor"; 43 percent believe Obama is doing a good job.

Yet the poll also finds that the public tends to blame others in the mess more than it blames the White House. Asked broadly about the federal government's role, 60 percent rated the response "poor." BP got the lowest marks: 73 percent of Americans gave the company's handling of the spill a "poor" rating. Still, a whopping 68 percent say BP should remain in charge of the cleanup.

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Still waiting to hear if the "top kill" has worked to plug the oil that's been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. We should find out today. There are hearings all over Capitol Hill on the oil spill and its aftermath all day.

The President is holding a press conference at 12:45 PM. According to the Daily Guidance, he "will deliver remarks and take questions in the East Room." He hasn't taken questions for awhile.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is doing its markup of the compromise Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal bill. It's a closed meeting and will go on all day. Last night, Senator Robert Byrd agreed to vote for the legislation -- after adding a 60-day review period at the end of the administrative review. It's still unclear when the discharges will actually end.

The House will take up the Defense Authorization bill later today, but the vote to repeal DADT could get pushed back til tomorrow.

There's also legislation to extend unemployment benefits pending on the Hill. The recession is far from over for many Americans, but it's unclear if Republicans, who created the economic crisis, understand that.

Busy day... Read the rest of this post...

Citi and Bank of America 'incorrectly' hid billions of debt

To be fair to BofA and Citi, it's a mistake that could have happened to anyone who had massive teams of lawyers and accountants. Gosh, some people are such nitpickers. Funny how those two banks were among the hardest hit during the crisis but that was surely a simple coincidence. It could have happened to anyone and was surely an accident since intentional hiding of debt would be a violation of SEC rules. CNBC:

Bank of America and Citigroup incorrectly accounted for billions of dollars in debt over the past three years, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

The report highlights a form of corporate borrowing increasingly under scrutiny since the financial crisis began. The loans, known as "repos," or short-term repurchase agreements, allow banks to increase the amount of risk they can take in securities trading.

Both BofA and Citigroup disclosed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that they have over the last three years accidentally classified some repos as sales when they should have been classified as borrowings, the newspaper reported. The amounts involved were small for the banks, though they totaled billions.

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British Conservatives launch first attack on safety net

If only this was so similar to what the new Work and Pensions secretary said yesterday. Sounds like the new Con-Lib coalition is stuffing the cabinet the same way Bush did. In this case, the secretary is obviously against any social safety net that might somehow benefit those in need. So do platinum parachutes count too? Here comes the nasty side that we've all been waiting for.

Britain's welfare system is "bust", with such penal disincentives to work that many people on benefits regard those who take up job offers as "bloody morons", Iain Duncan Smith, the new work and pensions secretary, says in a Guardian interview setting out the most ambitious welfare reform plans for a decade.

Duncan Smith says he is to propose to the Treasury a radical scheme that includes simplification of the complex benefits system designed to make it financially worthwhile for unemployed people to work, including in part-time jobs.

He claims that at present it is not worth going from the dole into work if the job pays £15,000 or less. He also suggests that it is an imperative that the state retirement age rises because of growing life expectancy. The coalition agreement published last week said the state retirement age should rise to 66, although it added that this would not happen before 2016 for men and 2020 for women.

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