FISA updates

McJoan updates us, along with Jane and Glenn. Read the rest of this post...

Trouble in hedge funds?

I'm sure that Mr Bubble and the SEC were on top of any potential problems in this sector as well. So much so that Greenspan has even gone to work at a hedge fund.

Up to 10 European hedge funds have suspended redemptions after investors clamoured for their cash when the managers made severe losses.

A London prime broker told The Sunday Times that even before last week’s extreme gyrations, nearly two-thirds of London-based hedge funds had lost between 4% and 10% of their value. A “significant number” had lost much more, he said.

The manager of one of Britain’s biggest hedge funds said: “It’s been an extraordinary week. Even in the crash of 1987 I don’t remember so much carnage.”

Without bucket loads of easily available credit, things could turn ugly very quickly. Read the rest of this post...

GOP contest: "an increasingly bitter and personal struggle"

The latest Reuters/CSPAN/Zogby tracking poll of Florida Republicans shows a tie between McCain and Romney. No wonder those two are getting so nasty. Have at it:

Mitt Romney and John McCain are in an increasingly bitter and personal struggle to control the campaign conversation before Florida's primary on Tuesday - and the Republican presidential nomination itself may go to the one who succeeds.

So, basically, the Republicans will nominate whichever candidate can outdo the other on the bitterness scale. Okay.

McCain wants the GOP campaign to focus on Iraq. Romney wants the emphasis on the failing economy. Iraq and the economy are two of George Bush's worst failures -- but that's what the GOP's top two candidates want to run on. The 2008 campaign should focus on the failed legacy of George Bush and what he's done to the U.S. and the world. It's a testament to the pathetic state of the Republican party that their front runners are fighting over the mantle of that failed legacy. No wonder the GOP base is so disillusioned. Read the rest of this post...

I'll be on CNN at 7:30pm Eastern to talk about the SC primary

Heading to CNN in a few minutes to discuss the South Carolina primary, the upcoming Florida primary, and Super Tuesday (which is only 9 days away). Will be there with Jim Geraghty, the guy from National Review Online I usually dog-and-pony with. I like Jim, we always have a good laugh, so it should be fun. Especially with the way the election is going on each side, hard not to find this entire contest exhilarating. Read the rest of this post...

Everyone's a little bit racist, sometimes

I thought the same thing, figured I was crazy, and wasn't going to say anything. Then I read what ABC's Jake Tapper had to say:

Said Bill Clinton today in Columbia, SC: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here."

This was in response to a question from ABC News' David Wright about it taking "two Clintons to beat" Obama. Jackson had not been mentioned.

Boy, I can't understand why anyone would think the Clintons are running a race-baiting campaign to paint Obama as "the black candidate."

Too many subtle incidents at this point for this to all be a coincidence. I'm actually a bit surprised that the black community isn't doing more to put a stop to this. Had any campaign baited gays like this, it would be a very public World War III - and it wouldn't happen twice. Read the rest of this post...

Ted Kennedy to endorse Obama

Last night, we learned that Caroline Kennedy endorsed Obama in a NY Times op-ed titled "A President Like My Father."

Today, the word is out that her uncle Ted will do the same thing:

Kennedy believes Obama can ``transcend race'' and bring unity to the country, a Kennedy associate told the Globe. Kennedy was also impressed by Obama's deep involvement last year in the bipartisan effort to craft legislation on immigration reform, a politically touchy subject the other presidential candidates avoided, the associate said.

The coveted endorsement is a huge blow to New York Senator Hillary Clinton, who is both a senatorial colleague and a friend of the Kennedy family. In a campaign where Clinton has trumpeted her experience over Obama's call for hope and change, the endorsement by one of the most experienced and respected Democrats in the Senate is a particularly dramatic coup for Obama.

Certainly adds to the Obama momentum right now.

UPDATE: The Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, is also endorsing Obama. Kansas has a caucus on February 5th. Sebelius is giving the Democratic response to the State of the Union tomorrow night. Read the rest of this post...

Romney failed to save jobs - sided with profit

Despite his recent campaign talk, Romney chose profit over people. That may be life in the fast lane at an investment firm such as Bain Capital, but he's the one attacking others on the subject of protecting every single job. Glass houses, Mitt, glass houses.

In early 1995, as the Ampad paper plant in Marion, Ind., neared its shutdown following a bitter strike, Randy Johnson, a worker and union official, scrawled a personal letter to Mitt Romney, pouring out his disappointment that Romney, then chief executive of the investment firm that controlled Ampad, had not done enough to settle the strike and save some 200 jobs.

"We really thought you might help," Johnson said in the handwritten note, "but instead we heard excuses that were unacceptable from a man of your prominent position."

Romney, who had recently lost a Senate race in which the strike became a flashpoint, responded that he had "privately" urged a settlement, but was advised by lawyers not to intervene directly. His political interests, he explained, conflicted with his business responsibilities.

Of course Mitt tried to help. Of course he did. Read the rest of this post...

To where chocolate is always okay . . .

. . . dinner is pizza crusts, every trip a car ride, and the squirrels are plentiful and slow.


1992 - 2008.

Very sad day today.


Torza was the best. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

As you can imagine, it's another week chock full of the presidential candidates. Obama, Clinton, Giuliani, McCain and Romney each do a show. Huckabee does two.

The GOPers are gearing up for Florida's primary on Tuesday. McCain and Romney have really been going after each other for the past couple days. The Democrats will be dissecting the stunning results from South Carolina and looking ahead to February 5th. I suspect there may be a question or two about the impact of Bill Clinton.

Also, the Secretary of the Treasury does a couple appearances to assure us about the economy that his boss still thinks is strong -- even if no one else shares that view. General Petraeus is on CNN's Late Edition. So, Bush's two top disasters -- Iraq and the economy -- will be broached.

The full line up is after the break.

With all these candidates on the shows, someone is going to say something outrageous. I'm betting on Mitt and McCain:

ABC's "This Week" — Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.; former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

___

NBC's "Meet the Press" — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

___

CNN's "Late Edition" — Gen. David Petraeus; Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.; former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark.

"Fox News Sunday" _ Paulson and Huckabee.

Provide the commentary.

Read the rest of this post...

Former Indonesian dictator Suharto dies

The US Cold War ally lost much of his support in Washington following the fall of the Soviet Union. At the time, his record on human rights was overlooked due to his harsh attacks against communists and trade unionists.

Jeffrey Winters, associate professor of political economy at Northwestern University, said the graft effectively robbed "Indonesia of some of the most golden decades, and its best opportunity to move from a poor to a middle class country."

"When Indonesia does finally go back and redo history, (its people) will realize that Suharto is responsible for some of the worst crimes against humanity in the 20th century," Winters added.

Those who profited from Suharto's rule made sure he was never portrayed in a harsh light at home, Winters said, so even though he was an "iron-fisted, brutal, cold-blooded dictator," he was able to stay in his native country.

Read the rest of this post...

Free trade is great - just ask Gordon Brown

As long as you have a political pension and benefits for life like Gordon Brown and others who talk up free trade. It's all fine and good to talk about the evils of protectionism but you have to be able to address the valid concerns of working people who watch their jobs go overseas or pay decline rapidly. Global trade can offer many plenty of positive benefits but to just wing it and open everything (think NAFTA) without restrictions isn't the answer either. Can a worker in France, for example, really compete with someone in Bulgaria for the same job but at a fraction of the pay? We see this struggle over and over on both sides of the Atlantic.

These are problems that Western Europe and the US are facing and neither extreme position is the right answer. Even when we do set up so-called free trade, all too often it only means free for local special interests and not-so-free for everyone else. Many in the emerging markets would like less dumping by First World countries and greater ability to sell their own products overseas. As the British economy heads downhill, how many regular families are going to want to dive in to the unrestricted free market? Moving in that direction over time is one thing, but the well being of families is at stake, so no need to rush overnight. Read the rest of this post...

Mellow Sunday morning

Yesterday morning was comedy, today it's the real thing. Two American greats, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, play Hot House. What an amazing period for jazz in America. Read the rest of this post...