Archives for 2009

I’ve heard several bobbleheads state that “liberals and progressives want to go back to the drawing board” with health care, and this is just ridiculous. There is no drawing board to go back to. Period.

The notion that they could just go back, rewrite the bill, and somehoe this time sneak in a medicare buy-in or public option is laughable, and there is no chance that, in an election year, Pelosi would be able to get the votes to get the bill we have now through the house again, let alone a more progressive one.

So it should be clear. If you are thinking that you can kill this bill and come back with a better one, you are fooling yourself. It is this, or it is nothing for decades, and that is why folks like Rockefeller and Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden and other folks are sucking it up and still supporting the bill. Likewise, it is why that retrograde asshole Ben Nelson is still playing games with it- he doesn’t want the bill passed in any way, shape, or form, so he is back to his abortion BS.

There is No Drawing Board To Go Back ToPost + Comments (252)

Interesting interview with Richard Cordray. A snippet:

Q: What made you go after the rating agencies?

In discussions with our pension system here in Ohio, we had a strong reaction that the rating agencies really were derelict in their duty in terms of how they handled mortgage-backed securities, some of the asset-backed assets, some of the complicated derivative packages where most investors around the country relied heavily on the ratings agencies to do the due-diligence, to really investigate carefully and make a strong and a solid assessment of the risks involved with those securities.

In fact, we believe, as we investigated the matter in bringing the lawsuit, that much of what was done was not up to snuff. In fact, the ratings agencies knew that there was a great deal more risk that their ratings were indicating — the ratings were fraudulent or badly mistaken and that was incentivized by their financial arrangements in the marketplace.

Q: But not much has changed with the rating agencies. What’s the solution?

A: Change has certainly been needed. We’re in the middle of a process where that change is occurring.

I do think that lawsuits that I and other states are bringing will result — we expect — in significant compensation for people who were harmed. That creates a deterrent effect; that helps change behavior. That’s part of the picture. If you’re trying to change behavior, the federal regulators — the SEC and others — and Congress’ ability to write the landscape is going to be critical to the success.

I wouldn’t rely on the Senate to do anything about this. At all.

And for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, apparently President Nelson hasn’t had enough attention yet and is still going to block the Health care bill.

Ohio’s AG SpeaksPost + Comments (25)

I guess HCR is sucking all the air out of the room, because I have seen very little in the way of freak-out over this:

The federal government will acquire Thomson Correctional Center in Thomson, Ill., transforming the prison in a sleepy town near the Mississippi River into a prison that exceeds “supermax standards,” according to a letter to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.

Those departments “will work closely with state and local law enforcement authorities to identify and mitigate any risks” at the prison, the letter said.
The decision is an important step toward closing Guantanamo Bay. Thomson, about 150 miles from Chicago, is expected to house both federal inmates and no more than 100 detainees from Guantanamo Bay.

I’m sure the Republicans will pitch an absolute fit about “terrorists on our soil,” but this is, of course, ridiculous and ignores two big things. First, of course, is that Gitmo was never created for security reasons, as Jonathon Turley ably pointed out on one of the talk shows today. Gitmo was established so we could skirt domestic law.

Second, of course, is the fact that these will be REALLY, REALLY GOOD JOBS. It really never ceases to amaze me how out of touch the politicians who claim to speak for the little guy just don’t even have the first clue how good many people consider these jobs are and what they would do to get them. When I was in the National Guard, half the guys in my unit were corrections officers, and for their level of education, this was about the best job they would ever be able to get around here. The steel and glass mills are largely gone, a lot of the chemical plants are gone, and coal mining is so automated that it is hard to get on anywhere. A job making 40-50k a year with benefits and the possibility of overtime is the kind of job you can raise a family on. You can buy a modest house, get your kids braces and glasses, buy a new Chevy every couple of years, and if your wife works a part time somewhere, you can have a pretty good week at the beach every summer and a good Christmas every year. You don’t find too many jobs like that any more- everything is nickel and dime BS at Wal-Mart or other crap. Working as a corrections officer allows for a good life for a lot of people.

I’d be willing to bet anything that there are a lot of communities that would take on these detainees without even thinking twice about it.

Osama In Your Back Yard!Post + Comments (60)