Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I have too much to do, so you are on your own. Post anything relevant in the comments.
BTW- I just checked my paypal account because I was going to order something from Itunes, and I noticed that a couple of you donated and I didn’t know it until just now. Thanks for that.
Well played Hedge Fund managers. Your strategy of rejecting every offer, then trying to smear the White House and work the refs is really paying off:
The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of Chrysler on Tuesday took a significant step toward allowing the sale of most of the automaker to Fiat, approving the bidding procedures advocated by the company and backed by the Obama administration.
The decision by the federal bankruptcy judge, Arthur J. Gonzalez, is a setback for a group of Chrysler creditors who have argued that liquidation of the company or some other transaction could yield greater value. These lenders, primarily investment firms, have said that the plan for the Fiat transaction ran afoul of bankruptcy law and would chill efforts by others to produce competing, potentially higher bids.
But Judge Gonzalez disagreed, saying, “The court concludes that the bidding procedures are appropriate and necessary.”
The judge’s decision was a victory for Chrysler and the government, which together argued that a speedy sale was the only way to protect tens of thousands of jobs and help along the American economy.
“It’s a very big first step,” said Howard Seife, the head of the bankruptcy practice at the law firm Chadbourne & Parke. “It’s clear that the company is moving down the road to a Fiat sale.”
The judge’s decision was the second blow dealt to the holdout lenders during a marathon hearing on Tuesday that began mid-afternoon and ended at 11 p.m.
And just so we are clear, since there will no doubt be a couple more breathless letters whinging about “the rule of law” and the “sanctity of contracts” and “this is America,” nothing improper has been done. Not one law has been broken or violated. This is playing out exactly according to the law, the Constitution, and anything else you want to chuck out.
So when you read the bleatings of some hedge fund manager echoed on every wingnut blog, just remember, no laws have been broken, nothing unethical has taken place, and they only have themselves to blame. Which is, of course, why they are squealing so loudly.
And one final thing. I adore hearing about the sanctity of contracts, because it just cracks me up. Where was all this concern about the sanctity of contracts when the entire Republican caucus was trying to destroy every auto union contract out there? Where was this overabiding concern for the sanctity of contracts every time the autoworkers have made concessions the last couple of decades? Why are there hundreds of thousands of lawyers out there spending every day trying to litigate their client out of contracts or trying to litigate more favorable terms for their clients? Just plain silliness.
The hedge fund managers gambled that they could push Chrysler to liquidation so they could possibly get a few more pennies on the dollar while destroying tens of thousands of lives, and lost. Twice. Sorry, fellows, but just close your eyes, bite the pillow, and think of the Bank of England.
Just Close Your Eyes and Think of the Bank of EnglandPost + Comments (97)
Make of this what you will:
In a highly unusual reversal, the Defense Department’s inspector general’s office has withdrawn a report it issued in January exonerating a Pentagon public relations program that made extensive use of retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks.
Donald M. Horstman, the Pentagon’s deputy inspector general for policy and oversight, said in a memorandum released on Tuesday that the report was so riddled with flaws and inaccuracies that none of its conclusions could be relied upon. In addition to repudiating its own report, the inspector general’s office took the additional step of removing the report from its Web site.
Has this ever happened before?
Dr. Frank Luntz, a top Republican consultant on the language of politics, is warning the GOP that the American people want health-care reform and that lawmakers need to try to avoid directly opposing President Barack Obama.
[….]Here are some suggested arguments for Republicans that Luntz calls “clear winners”:
—“It could lead to the government setting standards of care, instead of doctors who really know what’s best.”
—“It could lead to the government rationing care, making people stand in line and denying treatment like they do in other countries with national healthcare.”
-“President Obama wants to put the Washington bureaucrats in charge of healthcare. I want to put the medical professionals in charge, and I want patients as an equal partner.”
Fighting health care reform, Luntz-stylePost + Comments (90)
The updates on Glenn Greenwald’s piece (highlighted earlier by John) about Jeff Rosen’s attack on Sonia Sotomayor are truly fascinating. It turns out that Rosen’s brother-in-law is in line to become Solicitor General if Obama names Elana Kagan to the court. And, predictably, the usual suspects — Marc Ambinder, etc. — have jumped on the Rosen piece as a sign that the “respectable intellectual center” doesn’t want to deal with an uppity Latina on the court.
My first question is this: why did the attacks on Sotomayor from the right-center (Halperin, Cohen, TNR) come so quickly and in such a coordinated way?
My other question is this: is Sully’s take on this accurate?
So I will merely note how interesting it is as a media phenomenon. Washington’s old journalistic guard is not yet fully aware that the pool they operate in now is much larger than it was, and the cozy familiarity of it all – the sustenance of reputation, the quiet hierarchy of the Northwest quadrant – is now history. What might have been sent into the ether as a small provocation, summing up a coterie’s assumptions, will no longer be given credence because of its provenance. It will have to make its case in a brutally frank environment. Or fail to.
What I mean is this: to what extent have GG and others dented the hegemony of TNR-style wankery?
It’s a simple fact that for the last 20 years, the American political media landscape has been dominated by careerist mediocrities who got where they are by sucking off Marty Peretz or Jack Welch or David Bradley.
Will the next 20 years be any different?
I realized we have not had one in a while.
I’ve been cranky today, and especially so since I have been craving Mexican all day, and the line at my favorite place was around the block.
I mentioned the other day that my sister’s beloved cat Sid died, so I thought I would throw up some pictures of him for the record. That is from above in his waning days, when he had shrunk a little from his formidable 20+ pound size.
That is a picture of Sid lying on my couch in his porn pose, and I can tell it was summer because we had him shaved down for comfort. Just look at the size of those paws!
You know where a twenty pound polydactyl cat sleeps? Wherever he wants.
I have never met a cat who had so perfectly mastered the look of contented contempt until I met Sid. While he was nothing but loving with my sisters, I always got an evil eye- until he knew I was asleep, and then he would jump up on bed and start purring. He also, surprisingly enough, got along superbly with Tunch.
My favorite Sid story, though, is the time he chased a deer out of the back yard. That cat was fearless. And these pictures really don’t do him justice, because you can’t really tell just how magnificent and beautiful he was. He will be missed.