I see spring from my back window

Over the years we have shopped at the end of the season for cut back hydrangea pots and this year our wall of hydrangeas should be better than ever. They love our lack of sun out back much more than we do. The buds are everywhere at the moment so fingers crossed that a cold spell doesn't come again.


We bought this clematus just after it peaked last year when the price was right. It's an early bloomer and showing a lot of new growth.


This is one of four camellia plants that I bought in the Asian quarter a few years ago at a fraction of the price elsewhere in town. (Tang Freres always has deals on flowers.) They've taken off in the three years that I've had them and I place them directly outside of my desk window. A few buds are even showing a touch of color and in a few more weeks, everything should be out. Read the rest of this post...

Alabama paper stands by quotes from GOP Senator Dick Shelby, who still hasn't produced proof that he isn't a pedophile

I don't know if GOP Senator Dick Shelby is a pedophile. I do know that I've never seen proof that he isn't. And now the Alabama press is calling him a liar. Senator Shelby really ought to come clean with his constituents. For the sake of the children.

Anybody else think Dick Shelby just had himself a Trent Lott moment? And interesting that both men are from the deep south. Read the rest of this post...

EU agrees on more oversight and regulation of financial markets

Hint, hint. This would be an ideal time for Geithner to start working closely with the EU to implement similar oversight or even propose additional changes. It's in the best interest of everyone to have a common policy in light of the current crisis. Who knows, maybe Switzerland will even want to join in the fun.

The European leaders of the Group of 20 called Sunday for more transparency and regulation of all financial markets, products and investors, including hedge funds, according to published reports.

Heads of state and finance ministers from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Luxembourg met in Berlin to come up with a European position ahead of the G20 summit in London scheduled for April 2.

"There was a consensus ... that all financial markets, products and participants -- including hedge funds and other private pools of capital which may pose a systemic risk -- must be subjected to appropriate oversight or regulation," a summary of the meeting said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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It's only protectionism if it's in the US

Surprise, surprise, governments throughout Europe are proposing their own "protectionist" measures to provide aid to local businesses. It just so happens that the countries proposing such measures are the countries who were making noise about US protectionism even before anything had been proposed. As I mentioned before, there are limits but it's also equally fair to ask a government bailout plan - paid for by local taxes - to do something more to support their own struggling economy.

If the political leaders had not sold such a pack of lies about so-called free trade in the past, there also would not have been such a strong reaction against it today. Leaders from the left and the right all told voters how great it was going to be but never the reality has been radically different from the sales pitch. Bill Clinton sold Americans on free trade and then cashes in to the tune of millions doing consulting work for emerging markets. How fair is that?

A number of EU governments are planning or considering measures to help the European automobile industry, which saw the weakest sales in 15 years in 2008 with new car registrations plunging eight percent.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced this month new measures worth 2.0 billion euros (2.6 billion dollars) to boost the economy and help the auto industry, but he tied the aid to keeping factories at home.

Italy swiftly defended its plans.

The measures the government plans to take to support the Italian auto industry "are absolutely not discriminatory," Andrea Ronchi, Italy's minister for European affairs said in Rome.

Brussels, along with several EU nations, had already asked questions about the French auto plan, and has also asked Spain for details of its measures.

The French proposals in particular have been met with the protectionist tag.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced plans to lend PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault three billion euros (3.9 billion dollars) each and other measures in exchange for a promise not to shut French plants or sack French workers.

"If you build a Renault plant in India to sell Renaults to Indians, that's justified, but if you build a factory, without saying the company's name, in the Czech Republic to sell cars in France, that's not justified," Sarkozy said early this month, provoking outcry in the Czech Republic which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

At least the EU is trying to stay fair in this but those who have made the most noise about protectionism are at the leading edge of protectionism. It's a tough sell to ask locals to fund a bailout for factories in Eastern Europe or wherever. Many large manufacturers have moved production to cheaper and cheaper locations and of course, that means job losses back home. Regardless of the country, it's asking a lot to fund such migrations which are destroying local jobs. Why should anyone fund long term employment suicide? Read the rest of this post...

GOP Senator Dick Shelby and pedophilia

I'm sure they say Dick Shelby has never been arrested for pedophilia, but I haven't seen any police records. You have to not be a pedophile to be a US Senator. Read the rest of this post...

CNBC & MSNBC agree - Santelli and CNBC are the best!

Hooray! At the CNBC lunch table, they all agree that CNBC is the best. What else are they going to say about their employer who is finally getting some hype thanks to the "Democrats are making America like Castro's Cuba" rant? My favorite CNBC personality Becky Quick hypes the Santelli-mania that is rallying hundreds - yes hundreds - of traders who want more freeloading help from the US government. Ms Quick has been a favorite of mine ever since the public backlash against Bush after Katrina. As CNBC showed a video of Bush taking 2 minutes for a photo op and hammering in a few nails, she rushed to his defense and asked how Americans could not support Bush. Couldn't they see that he was there trying to help? Yes, she's consistently been a right wing apologist who is more focused on Botox than what's going on in the real world. Maybe that's why she's so impressed with the Santelli rant.

Then again, there's a lot of echo-chamber going around and around and around on CNBC and sister network MSNBC. Who needs to hear what others really think of a Wall Street apologist when they can simply ask fellow wingnuts? More fair and balanced.

Without providing any substantive response, on February 20, MSNBC twice promoted CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli's February 19 rant over what Santelli said was the government's "promoting bad behavior" and "subsidiz[ing] the losers' mortgages" through President Obama's proposed foreclosure reduction plan.

When CNBC anchor Trish Regan reported on Santelli's comments during the February 19 broadcast of NBC's Nightly News, she included Moody's Economy.com co-founder Mark Zandi's response that the administration's plan "is a bitter pill to swallow, but it's one we need to swallow, so that the financial system, the economy, don't slide away" and that "you have a choice, either you can help your neighbor and help them so they can stay in their home, or don't help them, and they'll lose their home, and it'll cost you money because you'll be worth less because your home will have just dropped in value." However, when Santelli was interviewed about his comments on the February 20 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, no one provided or aired any substantative reply to Santelli, either from Zandi or anyone else. Later that morning on MSNBC Live, anchor Tamron Hall replayed and discussed Santelli's comments; again, no substantive response was provided.

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Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

The shows are teeming with Governors today -- 12 altogether. The governors are in DC for their conference. A couple of the Republican Governors, including Jindal from Louisiana (who wants to run for President), have decided to really screw Obama by not taking stimulus money for their states. That'll show him, huh? Now, in reality, those Governors are actually screwing their constituents. But, as we all know, for Republicans, politics trumps policy (or humanity.) We'll see if any of those GOP governors have to own up to their games on the shows today, but, don't count on it.

So, governors and housing. That's the talk today.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" — Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan; Govs. Jon S. Corzine, D-N.J., Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., and Ted Strickland, D-Ohio.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" — Govs. Bobby Jindal, R-La., and Charlie Crist, R-Fla.

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CNN's "State of the Union" — Govs. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., Deval Patrick, D-Mass., and Schwarzenegger; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Donovan.


"Fox News Sunday" _ Govs. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., Jennifer Granholm, D-Mich., Mark Sanford, R-S.C., and Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.

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Mugabe celebrates 85th birthday with massive party

The healthy looking 85 year old spared no expenses including the efforts of schoolchildren. A dictator has minimum standards, you know. Can't someone send him a bag of those pretzels that Bush liked so much?

Robert Mugabe marked his 85th birthday yesterday with a sumptuous banquet in Harare at the start of a week of parties which observers say is a further sign of the Zimbabwean president's defiance in the face of growing criticism of his regime.

His latest show of excess came as prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai said "maybe US$5bn (£ 3.5bn)" would be needed to rehabilitate the collapsed health, social and education systems.

Surreal celebrations got under way on Friday as schoolboy pipers, accompanied by drum majorettes, marched through the decrepit capital and members of a ruling party youth organisation sold $10 raffle tickets.

Teetotal Mugabe's private party yesterday was hosted by his wife, Grace, 44, and attended by friends and a number of African diplomats. But state television did not, as is customary, broadcast his speech.

A $100-a-ticket gala dinner at Harare's Rainbow Towers Hotel on Wednesday is advertised as a musical extravaganza including Nigerian hip-hop star 2Face, Congolese rhumba band Werrason and a host of local acts. The parties will culminate on Saturday with a public feast and concert at Chinhoyi, about 50 miles west of Harare, which is to be televised. Dozens of animals will be slaughtered for the event and guests include hundreds of children also born on 21 February.

Zimbabwe University political science professor John Makumbe said the birthday display was the latest of many signals that the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) does not intend to respect the power-sharing agreement that saw Tsvangirai sworn in on 11 February.

"The money for the parties and the cattle and chickens donated are extracted from people virtually against their will," he said. "Thousands have died from cholera and many students are not attending school or university because teachers are not paid. It's unbelievable that he can blow quadrillions of Zimbabwe dollars on parties."

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Human Rights Watch - UK "colluded with torture in Pakistan"

As expected, it looks as though the US isn't the only country in the West that has been involved in torture. The Guardian:

In the study, which will be published next month by the civil liberties group Human Rights Watch, at least 10 Britons are identified who have been allegedly tortured in Pakistan and subsequently questioned by UK intelligence officials. It warns that more British cases may surface and that the issue of Pakistani terrorism suspects interrogated by British agents is likely to "run much deeper".

The report will further embarrass the foreign secretary, David Miliband, who has repeatedly said the UK does not condone torture. He has been under fire for refusing to disclose US documents relating to the treatment of Guantánamo detainee and former British resident Binyam Mohamed. The documents are believed to contain evidence about the torture of Mohamed and British complicity in his maltreatment. Mohamed will return to Britain this week. Doctors who examined him in Guantánamo found evidence of prolonged physical and mental mistreatment.

Ali Dayan Hasan, who led the Pakistan-based inquiry, said sources within the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), the Intelligence Bureau and the military security services had provided "confirmation and information" relating to British collusion in the interrogation of terrorism suspects.

Hasan said the Human Rights Watch (HRW) evidence collated from Pakistan intelligence officials indicated a "systemic" modus operandi among British security services, involving a significant number of UK agents from MI5 rather than maverick elements. Different agents were deployed to interview different suspects, many of whom alleged that prior to interrogation by British officials they were tortured by Pakistani agents.

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Sunday Morning - Velvet Underground

We went out to see a movie last night - this tends to happen roughly once a year - and saw Slumdog Millionaire. A good friend who has good taste talked about how much she disliked Benjamin Button (people walked out - that bad) so we thought Slumdog was a better option. Wow. Great film and it lived up to the hype. Maybe a person like Jamal Malik could never make it to such a TV program, but the stories of his life are very real. Read the rest of this post...