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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Spitballs “R” Us

Spitballs “R” Us

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I just love this stuff:

In recent days both Democrat Vice President Joe Biden and the other fellow have begun to make the argument in public that from the point of view of the secure White House, they can somehow see the current dumpster economy smelling better, light at the end of the tunnel, the dawn of a new economic era just over the horizon.

This is based largely on scattered economic stats indicating that things are not so much really getting better; they’re just not getting bad as much as before. Back in those awful winter days when new blood and Aretha Franklin’s hat arrived with such promise and the new team inherited a terrible situation from you-know-who and his evil partner, you-know-him.

Also Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, who also still has a full-time job, sees the recession as virtually over.

But a new poll indicates it’s gonna take a whole lot more than repeated rhetoric to …

…convince skeptical Americans not feeling the $787-billion economic stimulus. The new CNN / Opinion Research poll finds an overwhelming majority of Americans see the country as good and stuck in a recession and have no doubts about it.

That is Andrew Malcolm, Laura Bush’s former press secretary, a man who cheerleaded every single Bush endeavor the last decade and who hasnever found a Republican talking point that didn’t get him excited, giddily blogging at the “liberal” LA Times. Malcolm was last seen mumbling that Obama’s press conference was too boring, and was the man behind the “OH NO THEY HAVE CELL PHONES AT THE SOUP KITCHEN” fauxtrage.

I seriously love this shit. It’s like the arsonist throwing spitballs at the fire department as they try to put out the five-alarm blaze. And if Obama said the economy was still crappy- Malcolm would be one of the first ones accusing him of “talking down the economy.”

Reader Interactions

122Comments

  2. 2.

    liberal

    It’s absolutely true that the economy sucks. The question isn’t whether the stimulus has completely fixed the economy—clearly, it hasn’t. Rather, the question is whether the stimulus has improved the economy, as compared to what it would have been w/o the stimulus.

  3. 3.

    Zifnab

    And if Obama said the economy was still crappy- Malcolm would be one of the first ones accusing him of “talking down the economy.”

    Give him a week. I’m sure he’ll release self-contradicting pieces in the Weekly Standard and the WSJ blaming Obama’s PORKULUS! and other economic policies as “tasting terrible and with entirely too small portions”.

    It’s been a while since we got to hear a stirring round of “Tax Cuts for Everyone!” Maybe a quick revisit to the economy’s performance, after a few months of death panels and socia-ma-list Hitler corporate takeovers, can strike up the band again.

  6. 6.

    Comrade Mary

    Speaking of trolls, can someone quickly bring me up to date on the BoB-in-exile situation? Was he bounced, given a time out, or what?

  7. 7.

    Fencedude

    And can you add Makewi to whatever you did to BoB?

    BoB is at least entertainingly crazy, Makewi’s just a dick.

  9. 9.

    neill

    you might have to have a little sympathy for the moron who was laura bush’s press secretary.

    …just as you might have to have a little sympathy for laura bush.

    on the other hand, malcolm’s got a lot of nerve assuming anybody would care what he has to say.

    given his track record, and that of the la times, the word “dickwad” keeps coming to mind.

  10. 10.

    Zifnab

    @liberal: Not even. It’s a question of exactly how much more government intervention this economy is going to need to fully recovery.

    The stimulus worked. The end. We’ve got tens of thousands of jobs that have helped mop up unemployment. Now it’s just a matter of our next move. Do we throw more money into infrastructure? Do we spend more on health care? What new regulations should we add to Wall Street and how much higher do we need to raise taxes to pay for it all?

  11. 11.

    Keith

    And I’m sure there are quotes of his from 2 years ago where he refutes that we’re even in a recession, as he probably thinks of the term in more of a slang sense rather than something that has a specific, measurable definition.

  12. 12.

    burnspbesq

    The thing I have trouble figuring out is whether people like this sincerely believe the crap they are spouting, or laughing at us behind our backs.

    I mean, I used to be a litigator. I have successfully sold judges on technical interpretations of complex statutes that arguably didn’t make policy sense, and not worried about it because it was Congress’ job to write the law and my job to enforce what Congress wrote. But I can’t imagine being able to completely make up shit and sell it with a straight face.

  14. 14.

    joes527

    @Fencedude:

    BoB is at least entertainingly crazy, Makewi’s just a dick.

    Oh I don’t know. He is a bit obsessed with pie, but other than that I haven’t seen anything to complain about.

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    I seriously love this shit. It’s like the arsonist throwing spitballs at the fire department as they try to put out the five-alarm blaze. And if Obama said the economy was still crappy- Malcolm would be one of the first ones accusing him of “talking down the economy.”

    In the movie Glengary Glenn Ross,, Alec Baldwin explains the shark approach to sales.

    A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing.

    The patented GOP technique is Always Be Criticizing the Obama Administration, no matter what the news is, since this will hopefully create a permanent, underlying sense of dissatisfaction and failure.

  22. 22.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    It really is shocking that an administration would latch onto some data points that seem to make the case they are trying to make. Shocking! Why this has never happened in the history of the entire universe. No this is much worse than fabricating a story that then gets leaked to a reporter, then pointing to that leaked report as evidence that even the establishment media thinks it is true. No, this really is much worse than lying a country into an unnecessary war. I see Malcolm’s point here. Clearly “the other fellow” should be brought to task for this outrage.

  23. 23.

    AnotherBruce

    We have to remember that it wasn’t just that Bush broke the economy. It was the free-market, hate regulations, hate the government conservative ideology that broke the economy. Basically it was the same crap that broke the economy in the ’30s. It’s not enough to blame it on Bush, it has to be blamed on a philosophy that is every bit as rigid as communism was.

  25. 25.

    steve s

    ““talking down the economy.” ”

    I remember the morons at Outside the Beltway last year. “Obama’s talking down the economy. Is anyone even _talking_ about 10% unemployment?

  27. 27.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    @Persia:

    Yeah, I sort of want to go back and read the thread it happened on. BOB was an overt cross-burner in the best of times; I’m extremely curious as to what he had to say to actually get himself ejected from this place.

  28. 28.

    burnspbesq

    Jeebus H. Keerist on a Segway: did Hiatt actually say what Andrew claims he said?

    http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/09/american-exceptionalism-as-farce.html#more

    I’m amazed that the shareholders of the Washington Post Co. don’t demand that the newspaper be closed down immediately. It is tarnishing the reputation of Kaplan, which is the only part of the company that actually makes money. (Newsweek? Does anybody other than its employees still care about Newsweek?)

  32. 32.

    jibeaux

    @burnspbesq:

    I kind of like the new Newsweek, actually. They published a very nice T.R. Reid piece on health care in the last one, and some thoughtful things on end of life care. Month or so ago some unflattering things about Oprah that really, really needed to be said. They seem a little less afraid to call a spade a spade.

  33. 33.

    jibeaux

    Also, too, is there a reason Laura Bush would need such a relentless partisan bulldog as her press secretary? Did she have to field a lot of tough questions about literacy campaigns or something?

  34. 34.

    GregB

    What about Dana Millcrank and his latest wierd piece about Michelle Obama.

    The nerve of her to go out in public with her secret service and all. How very uppity of her.

    And Al Gore is fat and his house uses electricity.

    -G

  35. 35.

    liberal

    @Zifnab:

    It’s a question of exactly how much more government intervention this economy is going to need to fully recovery.

    I’m talking about the idiots who appear to be implying that if the stimulus hasn’t brought us back to the status quo ante, then it failed.

  36. 36.

    Dugmoor

    @attaturk I got that, too. Might as well called him “boy”. How childish and condescending, not to mention dismissive.

  37. 37.

    Comrade Mary

    @gnomedad: John has banned MAYBE one person that I can think of, so I don’t think there’s really a policy about something that has happened so rarely. I don’t even know if BoB has been booted, but he’s not around and people are making cryptic exile jokes, so I just want to know what happened.

    If he’s just being ignored, then thanks, I will go and make myself some pie, too.

  38. 38.

    freelancer

    @GregB:

    I haven’t had my coffee yet. #dickwhisperer is especially harsh today.

    “The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

    Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. “Now it’s time to buy some food,” she told several hundred people who came to watch. “Let’s shop!”
    […]
    There’s nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.”

    Asshole.

  39. 39.

    liberal

    @burnspbesq:

    did Hiatt actually say what Andrew claims he said?

    Given that the Wash Post is nowadays a neocon organ, I’d be surprised if he didn’t say it.

  40. 40.

    Leelee for Obama

    While Hiatt’s BS was interesting, go to Sully and read the lastest View from your Sickbed. I don’t know how to link, but go. I’m still weeping

  41. 41.

    jibeaux

    Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House

    This isn’t J. Lo refusing to walk an NYC block from her hotel to her restaurant. Does Michelle Obama look like someone afraid of exercise? Security is taken seriously for the president and his family, and security for a walked route is a complete nightmare for the secret service. I am not a White House reporter and I know this, do they honestly not realize this or are they just hellbent on stupid portrayals not worthy of TMZ.

  42. 42.

    jibeaux

    There’s nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots.

    Also, garden on the White House lawn courtesy of the Obamas, asshole squared.

  46. 46.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @jibeaux:

    This isn’t J. Lo refusing to walk an NYC block from her hotel to her restaurant. Does Michelle Obama look like someone afraid of exercise? Security is taken seriously for the president and his family, and security for a walked route is a complete nightmare for the secret service. I am not a White House reporter and I know this, do they honestly not realize this or are they just hellbent on stupid portrayals not worthy of TMZ.

    John Boner tells me we’re in a rebellion so ya can’t be too careful these days. And the baddies look just like ordinary people, no furrin’ accents or exotic skin tones, so that makes ’em doubly hard to combat.

  47. 47.

    freelancer

    @jibeaux:

    “are they just hellbent on stupid portrayals not worthy of TMZ.”

    If there was any justice in the Beltway, #dickwhisperer would be an intern at USWeekly on Jon and Kate watch while stalking Chris Brown.

    Fucking Gossipy Fuck.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    @jibeaux:

    Month or so ago some unflattering things about Oprah that really, really needed to be said. They seem a little less afraid to call a spade a spade.

    Unfortunate juxtaposition. LQTM [laughing quietly to myself].

  50. 50.

    Laura W

    @Comrade Mary: If and when BOB returns, he’s going to learn that he is no longer my favorite pet troll. He is apparently incapable of not shitting in the living room and spends more time chained up outside than inside lately.

    You know how draining it is to try to bond with an unruly creature of such willfulness who just can not seem to BEHAVE. One heartbreak after another. I am spent.

    I am hoping there are Troll-Anon meetings in my area because this is going to take a lot of time and love to heal.

  51. 51.

    Steeplejack

    @Comrade Mary:

    BOB got a one-week timeout, which has happened before, but he is back, because he was going on about tariffs this morning in one of the other threads.

  52. 52.

    SGEW

    re: B.O.B.

    From what I know, he was given a week long time-out for overt bigotry then returned once the ban was lifted. I haven’t been around these parts that much since then . . . was there another “incident,” or is he just lying low?

    And remember: B.O.B. is a self admitted racist, misogynist, and homophobe whose most egregious statements could technically be labeled “hate speech.” Makewi is merely a troll, and has never sunk to the same level of outright bigotry.

  53. 53.

    Svensker

    @D-Chance.:

    Just keep… doing something… oh, my. (via)

    Didn’t know it was boring old Ernie Anastos who said “just keep fucking that chicken”. Ha ha ha ha ha. Wonder what the HELL he meant?

  54. 54.

    jibeaux

    @Steeplejack:

    Oh, good grief, no one even says that anymore. It’s one of those expressions that I am aware is a racial slur because I probably read it in a Faulkner novel or history of racism or something, like “wop”. Needless to say, it was unintentional.

  58. 58.

    Mark S.

    Slightly OT, but is this the worst legal analysis ever by someone whose first name isn’t Orly?

    Applying these principles to President Barack Obama’s health-care proposal, it’s clear that his plan is unconstitutional at its core. The practice of medicine consists of the delivery of intimate services to the human body. In almost all instances, the delivery of medical services occurs in one place and does not move across interstate lines. One goes to a physician not to engage in commercial activity, as the Framers of the Constitution understood, but to improve one’s health. And the practice of medicine, much like public school safety, has been regulated by states for the past century.

    I guess the federal government can’t regulate partial birth abortion. This also is a fun game of redefining transactions as non-commercial. “One goes to a prostitute not to engage in commercial activity, as the Framers of the Constitution understood, but to have intimate relations with another human being.”

    h/t

  60. 60.

    Jim

    “the other fellow”? Is that like “He who must not be named”?

    When teh Washington Post prints some steaming pile of crap like this, Atrios names Fred Hiatt Wanker of the Day. I think that holds here. The LA Times is to blame for inviting Malcom in the house to shit on our carpet.

  61. 61.

    Zifnab

    @Morbo:

    Someone had to deflect questions about whether or not Laura Bush killed a man Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990.

    Fix’d

  62. 62.

    bedtimeforbonzo

    I bet Maria “God Bless the Health Insurance Rackets” Bartiromo thinks the recession is over.

  63. 63.

    SGEW

    @Mark S.:

    . . . is this the worst legal analysis ever by someone whose first name isn’t Orly?

    I guess you’ve never read Justice Thomas’ dissents in Commerce Clause cases, huh?

  64. 64.

    eemom

    The WaPo sinks deeper into the cesspool every. fucking. day.

    Every clueless, shit-writing nobody Hiatt can find who’s willing to trash Obama shows up on the op ed page. Plus the longstanding regular shit-writing nobodies like Krautie and Will.

    The husband want to cancel our subscription and get the NYT instead. Somehow I can’t quite bring myself to do it though. As bad as it sucks, it’s the only local paper besides the Moonie Times.

  67. 67.

    r€nato

    I seriously love this shit. It’s like the arsonist throwing spitballs at the fire department as they try to put out the five-alarm blaze. And if Obama said the economy was still crappy- Malcolm would be one of the first ones accusing him of “talking down the economy.”

    Heads they win, tails you lose.

    It’s a feature, not a bug of wingnuttery. Your opponent is always wrong and your side – whatever it is – is always right.

  68. 68.

    Demo Woman

    @freelancer: I loved this line Rumors have swirled since the crash was first reported that Mrs. Bush may have been criminally negligent (i.e. that she may have been drinking) at the time of the crash, but no chargers were filed and no evidence of wrong-doing was recorded.
    She ran a stop sign. I would think that would be a sign of negligence. True it was unfortunate but I do hope she received a ticket at least.

  69. 69.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @jibeaux: Oh, it wasn’t that long ago.

    Glad to see you say that, because I actually thought it was intentional, and didn’t know quite what to make of it.

  70. 70.

    Demo Woman

    @Laura W: You need to start a pool, to see how long BOB can keep racism out of his posts. I think that he’s good for 11 days before he gets banned again.

  71. 71.

    jibeaux

    This comment at Millbank sounds like one a you guys. “This may quite possibly be the dumbest thing I’ve read all day. And I read something at a libertarian blog today.”

  73. 73.

    Origuy

    In almost all instances, the delivery of medical services occurs in one place and does not move across interstate lines.

    Another instance of deliberately confusing medical care with medical insurance. United HealthCare, MetLife, and the other big companies are certainly operating across state lines. My claim forms aren’t handled down the street, they go to another state.

  74. 74.

    jibeaux

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    I’m really, really post-racial. I’m like Colbert, I don’t even see color. Is Oprah black?

    Heavens, of course it wasn’t intentional. “call a spade a spade” is an expression that fit the context. It’s a good thing they’re aren’t any expressions with wop in them, I guess.

  76. 76.

    noncarborundum

    Democrat Vice President Joe Biden

    You can stop reading right there and be assured you won’t miss anything worthwhile.

  78. 78.

    freelancer

    @Demo Woman:

    To be honest, this is one of those things, like Chappaquiddick, that I don’t even care about. People screw up, bad things happen. I don’t have the time or inclination to be a busybody about how people screwed up when they were 17 years old.

  79. 79.

    jibeaux

    @liberal: Thanks, I’m here, well, a lot of the time. I’m reading Pride and Prejudice right now. I can probably work up a bunch of jokes that would be offensive in 1803, too, see if y’all can spot ’em. Actually, someone has already done a lot of that footwork for Montgomery Burns, haven’t they, I should probably just rip off the Simpsons.

  80. 80.

    noncarborundum

    @jibeaux:

    When I was in college a candidate for station manager of the campus radio station gave a speech in which he addressed the vexing question of whether the station should come right out and acknowledge that what had been known as the “Contemporary Music Department” was in fact an all-black staff broadcasting for an all-black audience, and therefore should just be called the “Black Music Department”. Believe it or not, he actually used the phrase “call a spade a spade” during the speech. I was explained later (and I tend to believe) that the racial connotations of “spade” in that context just never occurred to him. Still, it did him no favors in the election, which he lost handily.

  82. 82.

    joes527

    @jibeaux: the whole squeamishness about this phrase is silly.

    To quote Wikipedia:

    The phrase predates the use of the word “spade” as an ethnic slur against African-Americans, which was not recorded until 1928; however, in contemporary U.S. society, the idiom is often avoided due to potential confusion with the slur.

    And yes, I heard the same from more reliable sources, Wikipedia is just the easiest to quite.

    So, don’t be niggardly in calling a spade a spade.

  85. 85.

    jibeaux

    @noncarborundum:

    Yeah, there was some Republican rep. to which something similar happened, can’t remember the exact circumstances, and I did learn about that at the time and roll my eyes when he was accused of racism. I actually did think of that experience when I wrote it since it’s not an expression I use much, but I didn’t connect to having just written about Oprah. Because I’m fucking post-racial! With a short attention span.

  87. 87.

    Napoleon

    @joes527:

    That phrase dates back to something like midevil Europe. I am pretty sure they had no African Americans to diss in Coventry England in 1566 or whatever.

  88. 88.

    jibeaux

    @joes527:
    lol and @Scruffy McSnufflepuss:
    That book is actually what I was trying to read, and I decided I needed to read the original first. So it would make more sense. I know. But anyway, it’s o.k. DH’s thoughts were, “I don’t think that book is going to be your cup of tea. Or rather, that book is a cup of tea, and your cup of tea is a margarita.” Which is kind of it, but still, it’s ok.

  92. 92.

    ellaesther

    Oh please oh please open an open thread so that I can wish all my Jewish and non-Jewish peeps a shana tova, a good new year! You know, so that I don’t have to go all OT to do it!

  93. 93.

    liberal

    @jibeaux:

    I actually did think of that experience when I wrote it since it’s not an expression I use much, but I didn’t connect to having just written about Oprah.

    Well, honestly, the greater offense was the libel against Oprah. She commands legions, after all.

  94. 94.

    SGEW

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    It’s actually kind of a shame about that particular word: it’s a rather specific concept that isn’t quite covered by “miserly” or “stingy,” and has absolutely no etymological connection whatsoever to that other word. But I can’t even bring myself to type it.

    It’s a small price to pay for being socially aware, but the word nerd in me (which often strives towards using precise language) still laments the loss.

  95. 95.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Just workin’ in my own racially insensitive catch phrase, folks. I wouldn’t have bothered if I’d have known it was gonna turn into a tarbaby.

  96. 96.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    @jibeaux:

    LOL Trust me. Stick with the zombie one. I read it first, then I tried to read the original version. I failed, miserably.

    The zombie version is all-around superior. It makes me think about other classic works of literature that could use an undead infusion. “Madame Bovary” and “Anna Karenina” top the list, but even the ones that actually ARE great and not just overhyped tomes of tedium could probably be made even better with the right undead creatures. (I’m thinking Stendhal’s “The Red and the Black” with the main character as a vampire, but that’s almost too obvious.)

  97. 97.

    Scruffy McSnufflepuss

    @jibeaux:

    LOL Trust me. Stick with the zombie one. I read it first, then I tried to read the original version. I failed, miserably.

    The zombie version is all-around superior. It makes me think about other classic works of literature that could use an undead infusion. “Madame Bovary” and “Anna Karenina” top the list, but even the ones that actually ARE great and not just overhyped tomes of tedium could probably be made even better with the right undead creatures. (I’m thinking Stendhal’s “The Red and the Black” with the main character as a vampire, but that’s almost too obvious.)

  98. 98.

    eemom

    I heard some South Carolina Joe Wilson groupie on NPR say that Wilson called a spade a spade. No reaction from the ace (haw haw) interviewer.

  100. 100.

    Xanthippas

    You know the thing is, I kind of feel the same way. The Obama admin has to play up the news that things aren’t getting worse as quickly as things are really getting better, while in reality we know that even the recession ends, it’ll be a long, long while before you and I get our jobs back. Thing is, I have more cred when I say this because I’m not a right-wing douchebag.

  101. 101.

    Svensker

    @Scruffy McSnufflepuss:

    LOL Trust me. Stick with the zombie one. I read it first, then I tried to read the original version. I failed, miserably.

    You are making me weep. Pride and Prejudice is a wonderful book and needs no folderols to “update” it. The zombie idea is cute for a comic book, or a short article, or a cartoon. I don’t despise the idea, but the thought of replacing really good writing with silly, if fun, crap, is very disheartening. Ditto, of course, with Karenina, Red & Black, etc.

    There’s enough trendy crap out there already. Good writing — at least fiction writing — is an endangered species.

  102. 102.

    jibeaux

    @Svensker:

    I think I’m going to like them both, in different ways. I started with the zombie one since I’m more of a margarita girl than a tea girl, but switched to non-zombie because I wanted to understand the characters better and get the background. I’m not only post-racial, I’m post-Napoleonic era, I’m post-monster, I’m just a lot of post stuff.

  103. 103.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @joes527: Well yeah, but using it along with a comment about Oprah just made people wonder if the commenter was making a joke.

    I don’t think anyone is being “squeamish” about using the expression “calling a spade a spade” by itself or suggesting avoiding it.

    No big deal, in any case, people were wondering.

    FWIW, the derogatory “spade” slang was definitely still in use in the 60 and 70s, not all that long ago.

  104. 104.

    Original Lee

    @Svensker: I thought about halfway through the zombie version that the updaters agreed with you, since it got kinda lame towards the end. But they have come out with several others. That said, I did enjoy the beginning, where there were several beautifully snarky passages, and the zombie version has also helped me find the snark in the original. (Who knew?)

  105. 105.

    scav

    @Napoleon: Othello, Shakespeare, 1655. Nah, there weren’t any African Americans around, but the limiting factor was probably the American part…..

  108. 108.

    jibeaux

    And, really, I wasn’t thinking about Oprah anymore, I was back to thinking about Newsweek’s overhaul, which I realize was where I got the Oprah thing from, but I was back to thinking that just in general they don’t appear to be shying away from saying something is true or false just because there’s a deranged minority uninterested in inhabiting the world of objective reality. And I prolly should have said just that, but then where would we be without this fascinating thread?

  110. 110.

    IndyLib

    @jibeaux:

    I’m reading Pride and Prejudice right now. I can probably work up a bunch of jokes that would be offensive in 1803, too

    Why don’t we just start referring to David Brooks as Mr. Collins?

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @jibeaux:

    I’m reading Pride and Prejudice right now. I can probably work up a bunch of jokes that would be offensive in 1803, too, see if y’all can spot ‘em.

    It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a president in
    possession of a good health plan, must be in want of a public option.

    geg6 — OT, but SNL is back this week and I found this preview at TPM. Joe Wilson and James Carville…funny:

    Even more fun…. I understand that Obama is going to appear on ALL the Sunday pundit shows (except maybe Faux News), pushing his health care plan.

    Ah, here we go:

    Mr. Obama is going to appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on ABC. And Meet the Press on NBC. And Face the Nation on CBS. In between, he is going to sit down for interviews on CNN and Univision. (Fox News didn’t make the cut).

  112. 112.

    Michael

    I’ll mention here today (and I might be the first) that healthcare IS the bubble du jour. We’re at something just a notch above 1 dollar in 6. While I see 1 dollar in 5 being a possibility, at 25% the bubble collapses, inasmuch as healthcare is a secondary productive activity.

    Discuss among yourselves…..

  114. 114.

    Comrade Darkness

    @Michael: Where is the overvalued asset in this scenario, I’m wondering? Where is the leverage?

    I’m not saying there isn’t some truth to your comment, but it’s not a classic bubble if it is a bubble.

  116. 116.

    Brachiator

    @Michael:

    I’ll mention here today (and I might be the first) that healthcare IS the bubble du jour.

    I don’t think that this quite fits the notion of a bubble.

    By the by, I found this little bit from the recent Economist Magazine to be interesting. It suggests that smart market watchers should have seen the signs of a major problem.

    http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14401566

    Lehman’s failure is widely seen as a similar turning-point in the current financial crisis: an unexpected blunder that came close to turning a garden-variety recession into another Depression. [Harvard economist Kenneth] Rogoff … believes, as he did the month before Lehman’s collapse, that America had the classic preconditions of a massive financial crisis: trillions of dollars of debt secured by an inexorably deflating asset bubble. Bank write-downs already totalled more than $500 billion in August 2008. If Lehman had not been allowed to fail, some other firm would have, with similar results.

    The week before Lehman failed, futures markets predicted a 15% decline in the prices of homes in major metropolitan markets in America over the next nine months, on top of the 24% decline that had already occurred. Such a drop—which is quite close to what actually occurred—would, when combined with similar declines in commercial-property values, have pushed some big banks to the edge. That same week derivatives markets put the odds of default for Washington Mutual, a large thrift (or savings bank), at 85%.

    Granted, a lot of this is hindsight. But in addition to the need for regulatory reform, you have to wonder if anything can be done to better monitor the activity of the financial markets, to provide some kind of warning should similar problems happen again.

  117. 117.

    Anne Laurie

    @Crashman06:

    For a while, I was convinced that BOB was just a spoof.

    For the sake of all that is good and decent in America, that is sincerely to be hoped.

    I’m also under the impression that the Piggy-went-weewee troll only shows up when BoB is on time-out, which lets me hope that it’s the same spoofer producing the most toxic crap here. My own Eeyore version of positive thinking.

  118. 118.

    Anne Laurie

    For the non-initiate, Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s Big Snark novel, where she uses the “gothick romances” that were already becoming cliche to satirize the very serious business of striving young middle-class Englishwomen pursuing the only viable career open to them, namely a “good” marriage. It’s the one that begins “No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine… Her father was a clergyman, without being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his name was Richard — and he had never been handsome…. and was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what is more remarkable, with a good constitution… “ and finishes “To begin perfect happiness at the respective ages of twenty-six and eighteen is to do pretty well… I leave it to be settled, by whomsoever it may concern, whether the tendency of this work be altogether to recommend parental tyranny, or reward filial disobedience.”

    Northanger Abbey was the first Jane Austen novel I ever read, at an age (eleven or twelve) when my peers were starting to read the contemporary equivalents of Twilight: the Mormoning (Dark Shadows novelizations, if anyone else remembers those). Forty years later, it’s still a mystery to me why NA isn’t used as a junior-high introduction to Austen rather than P&P, because it is not the ‘best’ of Austen’s novels but it’s the most accessible to an inexperienced reader.

  119. 119.

    Luthe

    Somewhat OT, I have finally realized who the Congressional Republicans (and most Villagers) are like: Jareth the Goblin King.

    Consider their rallying cry,”Just fear [us], love [us], do as [we] say and I will be your slave it will be bipartisan.”

    Unfortunately, not one of them looks as hot in leather pants as David Bowie.

  120. 120.

    Luthe

    Where did my strikethrough go?

    “Just fear [us], love [us], do as [we] say and I will be your slave it will be bipartisan.”

  121. 121.

    Steeplejack

    @jibeaux:

    Late back to the thread, after having to go to work in the middle of the afternoon.

    Jibeaux, I wasn’t imputing anything to you at all. I just thought the (unintentional) juxtaposition of Newsweek criticizing Oprah and “calling a spade a spade” was funny. Actually, it makes me laugh again as I type this. And I see you all had a wonderful thread while I was away. Good times.

    I am aware of all etymological traditions (niggardly, etc.).

  122. 122.

    henqiguai

    @joes527 (#82):
    On the issue of “call a spade a spade”

    So, don’t be niggardly in calling a spade a spade.

    And this is why I come to BJ first…

    Hey ! When did the Edit function come back ?!

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