Month: March 2009

The Perfect Piano For The AIG Lifestyle

by tristero

A crystal-encrusted Bosendorfer grand. It will just cost the taxpayers a very reasonable $1.2 million. And wait’ll you hear your ten-year old and his friends play chopsticks on it!

Seriously, not my taste. Besides, if I’m gonna get a Bosendorfer, I want this one. It’s got ninety-seven keys.

Mmmmm…..

Delayed Or Averted?

by dday

I didn’t think it would turn out this cleanly, and it probably hasn’t. But the Pakistan crisis has at least been delayed, as the government decided to reinstate Iftikhar Chaudhry as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. This led Nawaz Sharif to call off the “Long March,” the mass sit-in at the Parliament, as this was its goal. Some reports are calling this the first triumph of diplomacy for one Hillary Clinton.

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appears to have succeeded in persuading warring political leaders in Pakistan to soften their attitudes towards each other, the US media reported on Saturday.

Various US television and radio networks noted that soon after Secretary Clinton called President Asif Ali Zardari, a presidential spokesman announced in Islamabad that the government will restore the deposed judges in the light of Charter of Democracy and will file a review petition in the Supreme Court to undo the disqualification of Sharif brothers.

A spokesman for opposition leader Nawaz Sharif later described these decisions as ‘a corrective measure,’ the US media noted.

If true, that would be great. However, the fact that local police in Punjab apparently refused to honor the house arrest for Sharif are likely to have forced Zardari to recalculate and give in to demands to save his political skin. Plus, as Juan Cole notes, Pakistan’s political strife is not over.

The Punjabi population resents Zardari’s imposition of ‘governor’s rule” or a Federal take-over of the province, which has an elected provincial legislature in which the PMLN is the leading party. And, the Sharifs are not going to put up with being excluded from politics, and Zardari and his courts tried to do.

Those issues have to be resolved before the political situation can calm down. Moreover, Iftikhar Chaudhry is himself an iconoclast, and what if he indicts Musharraf or even Zardari? Or maybe Dick Cheney. If Chaudhry is worried about Pakistanis who were made to disappear without habeas corpus or formal legal proceedings, as part of a ‘war on terror,’ I have suggestions for perpetrators he should look into, who now live in Texas.

So, good news, but not an end by any means.

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Wrecking Crew

by digby

Marcy Wheeler spotted something in the AIG document that may explain why the government is seemingly paralyzed in the face of these AIG executives’ extortion:

I take this to mean that if a bunch of AIGFP managers quit because they didn’t receive bonuses promised in their contracts, then France could, if it wanted, to appoint its own designee. And if that happened, then it would equate to a default and those contracts would kick in, at a cost to AIG the US government of at least tens of billions. In other words, I take this to be a threat: “if you don’t give us our bonuses, we’ll trigger a default event that will cost AIG the US government tens of billions of dollars.” It’s just a polite way of saying, “Pay us the $100 million ransom or we start exploding the suicide bomber vests we’re wearing.” Frankly, I have no idea whether this particular threat–France responding in a way that would set off a default–is real, or whether there are similar events that those AIGFP managers demanding their ransom could easily trigger. But what they’re doing is pointing to one relatively preventable area, noting that we might be able to defuse the explosion before it went off if we worked hard enough with the French, but saying that that, in general, is the kind of thing the AIGFP managers might contemplate if they don’t get their bonuses. AIG agreed to pay the guys whose gambling AIG the US government insures hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses. And the gamblers are now saying they would be willing to blow their own gambles–ignite their semtex vests–if we refuse to pay up.

That makes more sense than AIG being afraid of being sued for breach of contract, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. I mean, the worst thing that happens under that scenario is that the courts sort out the mess and these guys are given their bonuses sometime in the future. I would guess that everyone would be happy to kick that can down the road. There’s some other reason why the administration and congress are reluctantly agreeing that these bonuses must be paid even though there’s a terrible political price to pay for it. Perhaps this is it.
But then, it may just be the Billionaire Boyz Club closing ranks. Jane Hamsher reports on some of the AIG miscreants and points out:

AIG would have been a smoking hole had taxpayers not started bailing it out last year. It would not have had the money to pay anybody anything if it had gone bankrupt.

And we already know how the masters of the universe see that:

As for how he and his fellow Wall Streeters could still afford such afternoons, he said: “We all made so much money in the past five years, it doesn’t matter.”

A 29-year-old man who works for a large investment management firm and was at Bagatelle’s brunch one recent Saturday and at Merkato 55’s the next, put it another way: “If you’d asked me in October, I’d say it’d be a different situation, and I don’t think I’d be here. Then the government gave us $10 billion.”

In every conversation I’ve had about this (and it’s come up spontaneously over and over again over the last 24 hours) people have been gobsmackede that the AIG executives wouldn’t have voluntarily given up their bonuses, if only for PR sake. It’s such an in-your-face defiant act that it’s enraged the public. (I am not surprised, however. John Galt would never give up any compensation — it would be immoral.)
People instinctively know that these assholes are taking the taxpayers for a ride. And if Marcy is correct they may be holding a big gun to the taxpayers heads as well. It’s not going to end well.
Firedoglake has put together a petition to deliver to the House this week in anticipation of its AIG hearings.

We’ll be delivering our petition to Congress when Barney Frank’s House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on AIG at 10am ET this Wednesday. You can sign it here and leave your comments.

Update: Greenwald has more on the employment contracts as does Talk Left.Update II: It’s good that Obama is saying that he’s angry about this, but we’ll see if they are able to finesse it. I am suspicious that there is more to this than mets the eye. Something doesn’t track — unless the AIG guys really do want to make it impossible for the government to fix the financial system. And thats certainly possible. They seem to be on a mission to do just that.

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Why Are We Listening To You?

by digby

Good for John King for asking this question exactly this way:

During an interview with Dick Cheney this morning, CNN host John King asked the former vice president why “we should listen to you” for economic advice. To make his case, King noted the following statistical changes that occurred under the Bush/Cheney administration:

Unemployment rate: Rose from 4.2 percent to 7.6 percent
Poverty: Jumped from 32.9 million individuals to 37.3 million
Uninsured: Escalated from 41.2 million individuals to 45.7 million
Budget deficit: Inherited budget surplus of $128 billion and left office with $1.3 trillion deficit

“So what would you say to someone out there watching this who’s saying why should they listen to you?” King asked.

I think every reporter should ask every Republican that exact question every time they start to spout off about anything.

Cheney predictably answered “stuff happens,” claiming that 9/11 and Katrina were the reasons for the budget deficit, conveniently forgetting his famous statement “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter — this is our due.” As for the unemployment, poverty and lack of insurance, he actually considers those things a Bush administration success story.

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Splain It

by digby

It’s great that George Packer and EJ Dionne have discovered that it’s important for liberals to communicate about their actual philosophy instead of blathering on with thin, ephemeral bromides about nothingness (or worse praising conservatives and using right wing rhetoric.) After all, some of us have been saying that for years.

But this, while true, really chaps me because I’ve heard nothing but gooey [praise for bipartisanship and “pragmatism” for many, many months and criticism of anyone who objected, as if those of us who were calling for some serious articulation of values and principles were being naive or silly.

[A] debate in which one side claims to be arguing from principle and the other side from pragmatism eventually works against the latter (understanding this was one of the main secrets to Reagan’s success). That’s because the side that can offer the most persuasive and appealing account of what is happening will hold onto the public’s assent even as facts drift on the surface of daily events. When one party says that the bank bailout is a colossal big-government waste of taxpayers’ money, and the other says that the details of the bank bailout will show its economic necessity, which side do you think has the rhetorical advantage? The conservative establishment has no new ideas, but in standing athwart Obama’s program it has turned quite rapidly and ferociously to the old ones.

What these conservatives are saying is absurd, but it has the advantage of having a certain, comfortable sound to which people may very well find themselves drawn back if they find themselves insecure and unsure about the principles the administration is using to guide them. “Pragmatism” doesn’t mean anything. It’s a process, not a belief.

Right now, everything rests upon the fact that most of the American people like and respect Obama and want to give him a chance. And that’s great. But it had better hold up because it’s quite clear they haven’t the faintest idea of what this new allegedly liberal form of governance means or what’s required to attain it. Nobody’s ever told them. So, when Packer says this, he’s quite right:

Whatever his current popularity, I’d say the odds for success are no better than even. Facts—the economy—could erode Obama’s support. The Democratic Congress could flyspeck the opportunity into a million pieces. The tide of populism, currently directed at banks and executives, could change direction and swamp the Administration. And the conservative reaction, while offering nothing resembling a viable alternative, could undermine the always-fragile will of the public to put their faith in government.

I wish that Democrats had spent the last campaign educating the public about the differences between the conservative and progressive philosophies. It was intensely frustrating to watch the candidates spout tired Republican rhetoric, although in some circumstances it was clear they actually believed it, at least to some degree. But conservative ideology is bankrupt and with problems this complicated people may need to know what principles and beliefs are guiding their new leaders. When they see the Democrats bailing out the billionaires and the Republicans raising hell about corruption and earmarks, they are quite reasonably going to get a little bit confused unless the Democrats start talking about how and why government is the best (and only) institution that can solve these problems. I don’t get the impression that Americans get that at all. Why would they?

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Teenage Pregnancy

by tristero

While Jodi Jacobson has an excellent point, namely that Steve Waldman is an ass, I have to say I don’t give a damn about Bristol Palin and whether or not she gets married or whether or not she keeps the child or anything else about her.

Whatever she decides to do, or is forced to do by her creepy mother and father, she will have a far easier life than the typical one that faces teenage parents – married or unmarried – and their children. Because of their position, their income, and Sarah’s ambition, the Palins will guarantee that Bristol and her child have proper health care, access to a good education (including college if Bristol wants it), and an opportunity for employment. None of these is the case for many teenagers trying to raise a baby.

I care about those kids a lot more. Here’s a link to an earlier post about the tremendous human and economic cost teenage pregnancies in the US.

Trust Worthy

by digby

Bill Sher confronted David Walker on the latest leg of his Little Friskies Fiscal Scold Tour and seemed to make him quite upset. He really doesn’t like to be confronted with the fact that social security is solvent for the next thirty years. And he certainly doesn’t want people to recognize that in order to fix medicare and medicaid there must be comprehensive health care reform. It seems he prefers to obsess about how everyone needs to sacrifice even if the problems of the moment require different solutions.

And I too have wondered why Pete Peterson didn’t form a foundation and devote millions to protest government spending on an unnecessary, expensive war in Iraq. For some reason nobody ever says anything about that. It’s only when you try to help sick and old people that the fiscal scolds really put their money where their mouths are.

As Sher writes:

Peterson could have spent $1M on ads opposing the Bush tax cuts. He could spend that money now supporting comprehensive cost-saving health care reform.

But he only chooses to spend it on attacking Social Security and Medicare, when they are in fact, not the underlying fiscal problem.

That speaks to blind ideology, which is what The Fiscal Wake-Up Tour is all about.

They aren’t going to give up. This is just too perfect an opportunity to dazzle people with BS and misdirect them from the failures of the Pete Petersons of the world to government programs.

There’s a sucker born every minute:

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As California Goes

by digby

I hesitate to celebrate too soon, but this seems to me to be a very good sign:

Tune in to conservative talk radio in California, and the insults quickly fly. Capturing the angry mood of listeners the other day, a popular host in Los Angeles called Republican lawmakers who voted to raise state taxes “a bunch of weak slobs.”

With their trademark ferocity, radio stars who helped engineer Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rise in the 2003 recall have turned on him over the new tax increases. On stations up and down the state, they are chattering away in hopes of igniting a taxpayers’ revolt to kill his budget measures on the May 19 ballot.

But for all the anti-tax swagger and the occasional stunts by personalities like KFI’s John and Ken, the reality is that conservative talk radio in California is on the wane. The economy’s downturn has depressed ad revenue at stations across the state, thinning the ranks of conservative broadcasters.

For that and other reasons, stations have dropped the shows of at least half a dozen radio personalities and scaled back others, in some cases replacing them with cheaper nationally syndicated programs.

Casualties include Mark Larson in San Diego, Larry Elder and John Ziegler in Los Angeles, Melanie Morgan in San Francisco, and Phil Cowen and Mark Williams in Sacramento.

Two of the biggest in the business, Roger Hedgecock in San Diego and Tom Sullivan in Sacramento, have switched to national shows, elevating President Obama above Schwarzenegger on their target lists.

Another influential Sacramento host, Eric Hogue, has lost the morning rush-hour show that served as a prime forum to gin up support for the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. Now he airs just an hour a day at lunchtime on KTKZ-AM (1380).

“It’s lonely, it’s quiet, and it’s a shame,” Hogue said of California’s shrinking conservative radio world. “I think this state has lost a lot of benefit. I don’t know if we can grow it back any time soon.”

[…]

Many of the others on California’s conservative radio circuit are less belligerent. “It doesn’t need to be ranting and raving all the time,” Hedgecock said.

And apart from KFI, whose morning show with Bill Handel draws 652,000 listeners a week, the California shows are far less popular. The only hosts of conservative programs with a weekly audience of more than 100,000 are Doug McIntyre of KABC (790) in Los Angeles, Lee Rodgers of KSFO (560) in San Francisco and Rick Roberts of KFMB (760) in San Diego.

“The content is the same,” said Hogue, “but it doesn’t have the reach it once did. There are major players gone.”

It’s a tired schtick. There will probably always be some kind of know-it-all conservative blowhards on the air. They’ve been around forever. But they are terribly overexposed and out of fashion at the moment, spouting tire, stale bromides that just don’t seem to have much salience.

The top national guys will keep their audience, but if we’re lucky we’ll see a time when you can drive through rural America and something besides fatuous wingnut gasbags and fatuous wingnut preachers will be on the radio dial. The country will be far better for it.

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Too Big To Fail

by digby

Following up on the news that AIG executives are so arrogant that they are actually going to insist that taxpayers pay their bonuses in spite of their epic failures to fulfill their fiduciary duty, this will really make your day:

Champagne corks are always popping somewhere, of course, and the high life never disappears entirely, especially in New York. But these days, a $750 magnum of Perrier-Jouët stands in striking contrast to the scene outside Bagatelle’s glass-paneled door, where the Dow has lost half its value since the fall of 2007, the recession has claimed a net total of 4.4 million jobs since it began, more than 850,000 families lost their homes to foreclosure last year, and the word “depression” is being heard in the land.

[…]

The latest incarnation of Saturday brunch began last April at Bagatelle, a French bistro with decorative moldings, crystal chandeliers and striking white décor; it seats 95 people. Six months later, the high-end brunch arrived at Merkato 55, a space on Gansevoort Street that can accommodate about 300 people and typically attracts a younger and slightly less affluent crowd, though the term affluent in this context may be relative.

The two scenes have recently garnered attention in the news media. Merkato 55 was voted “Best Bacchanal” by New York magazine this month. And the blog Guest of a Guest has weighed in on what the site describes as “the Battle of the Recession-Proof Brunches.”

[…]

The concept took off just as most Americans were watching the value of their paychecks, stock portfolios and 401(k)’s take a nosedive. This confluence is extremely perplexing to some and makes perfect sense to others, the argument being that dancing and drinking are age-old antidotes to troubled times.

“It’s been really more crazy since the recession,” said Mr. Clemente, who is 35. “In a time of crises, you have a tendency of wanting to be with people and see if you can feed from their energy. If you feel sad, you want to go to a lively place, to recharge your battery.”

Ok. So it’s a bunch of rick people acting like asses. Whatever.

But you have to love this:

A man who works in finance and was standing near the bar of Merkato 55 the following Saturday started to talk about this issue, but then he had second thoughts, saying he could be fired for drawing attention to the subject in the news media. Any overt display of conspicuous spending, he added, even if not a dime was expensed to a corporate account, would not sit well with his employer. “Excess,” he said, “is frowned upon heavily.”

As for how he and his fellow Wall Streeters could still afford such afternoons, he said: “We all made so much money in the past five years, it doesn’t matter.”

A 29-year-old man who works for a large investment management firm and was at Bagatelle’s brunch one recent Saturday and at Merkato 55’s the next, put it another way: “If you’d asked me in October, I’d say it’d be a different situation, and I don’t think I’d be here. Then the government gave us $10 billion.”

Fitzgerald was right. They really are different from you and me. I’m not even sure they’re human.

h/t to jv
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Saturday Night At The Movies

Of butcher boys and green-eyed ladies

By Dennis Hartley

Child of nature, friend of man.

With Saint Patrick’s Day coming up on Tuesday, I thought I’d help you “get your Irish up” and drive the snakes out of your media room with a few screening recommendations:

The Butcher Boy-A real gem from director Neil Jordan, featuring one of the most extraordinary performances I have ever seen by a child actor (Eamonn Owens is like a midget Brando). Hard to describe, the film is sort of a distant cousin to An Angel at My Table or Heavenly Creatures. The difficult and dark subject matter is handled with judicious compassion. Both heartbreaking and savagely funny, this is worth seeking out.

The Commitments -“Say it leoud. I’m black and I’m prewd!” Pulling together a cast of talented yet unknown actor/musicians to “play” a group of talented yet unknown musicians was a stroke of genius from director Alan Parker. This “life imitating art imitating life” trick makes The Commitments one of the better “behind the music” movies. In some ways a thematic remake of Parker’s own 1980 film Fame, the scene moves from New York to Dublin (look fast for a sly reference when a band member starts singing a parody of the Fame theme). These working class Irish kids don’t have the luxury of a performing arts academy, however, and there’s an undercurrent referencing the economic downturn in the British Isles (several band members are “on the dole”). The acting chemistry is superb, but it’s the amazing musical performances that really astonish, especially from the 16-year old lead singer, who has the pipes of someone who has been drinking a fifth and smoking 2 packs a day for 30 years. Gritty, realistic and spiced up with a goodly amount of ribald humor (“Fook yew, yew fat fooker!”)-this one’s a winner.

The Crying Game -Another entry from Neil Jordan, this unique IRA political thriller/androgynous love story remains a jaw-dropper and the director’s most popular film to date. Killer performances from Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Miranda Richardson and Forest Whitaker. I seem to recall that when this film was still in its theatrical run, it was considered tantamount to committing a capital crime if you gave away The Big Reveal!

Gangs of New York -Chameleon extraordinaire Daniel Day-Lewis has given us memorable performances in several great Irish films (The Boxer , In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot), but they all pale next to his indelible portrayal of an iconoclastic Irish-American character by the name of Bill the Butcher. It pains me to say this, but relative to his usual high standards of excellence, Martin Scorsese’s ambitious historical epic about the growing pains of America’s original metropolitan melting pot misses it by “this much”, but it’s a bulls-eye for Day-Lewis (bet you’re glad I didn’t say “glass eye”).

The General-Brendan Gleeson explodes onscreen like an Irish Tony Soprano in his turn as real-life gangster Martin Cahill. According to the script, Cahill was a bit of a latter-day Robin Hood figure to some Dubliners (one suspects some degree of artistic romanticism on that count). Regardless, Gleeson makes quite an impression in his first major role. Jon Voight (!) is an unexpected delight as Cahill’s law enforcement nemesis. Written and directed by the eclectic John Boorman, who adapted from the novel by Paul Williams.

In Bruges-OK, full disclosure. In my original review, I gave this 2008 Sundance hit a somewhat lukewarm appraisal. But upon a second viewing, I realized that I had “missed something” the first time around, and have now decided that I actually like this film quite a lot (happens sometimes…nobody’s perfect!). A pair of Irish hit men (Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) botch a London job and are exiled to the Belgian city of Bruges, where they are to remain in a holding pattern until their piqued Cockney employer (a way over the top Ray Fiennes) dictates their next move. What ensues can be perhaps best described as a tragicomic Boschian nightmare (which will make more sense once you’ve seen it). Written and directed by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, who deftly demonstrates the versatility of the word “fook” (as a noun, an adverb, a super adverb and an adjective).

Into the West-Here’s another sleeper worth seeking out, from one of the more deft (and underappreciated, IMHO) “all-purpose” directors working today, Mike Newell (Dance with a Stranger, Enchanted April, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, Pushing Tin). At first glance, it falls into the “magical family film” category, but it carries a subtly dark undercurrent with it throughout, which keeps it interesting for the adults in the room. Lovely performances, a magic horse, and one purty pair o’humans (Ellen Barkin and Gabriel Byrne, real-life spouses at the time). What more do you want?

The Quiet Man-A classic from the great John Ford. I was never a huge John Wayne fan, but he’s damn near perfect in this role as a down-on-his-luck boxer who leaves America to get in touch with his roots in his native Ireland. The most entertaining (and purloined) donnybrook of all time plus a fiery performance from the gorgeous Maureen O’Hara round things off nicely. Although quite tame by today’s standards, I’ve always thought the romantic scenes between Wayne and O’Hara to be surprisingly tactile and sensuous for the time. The pastoral valleys and rolling hills of the Irish countryside have never looked so verdant and lush onscreen, thanks to the Oscar-winning cinematography by Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout. Ron Howard reversed the storyline and attempted a loose remake of sorts with his 1992 film Far and Away (that’s my conjecture, anyway).

The Secret of Roan Inish–John Sayles delivers an engaging fairy tale, devoid of all the usual “magical family film” clichés. Wistful, haunting and beautifully shot by the great cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who captures the misty desolation of County Donegal’s rugged coastline in a way that frequently recalls Michael Powell’s similarly effective utilization of Scotland’s Shetland Islands for his 1937 classic, The Edge of the World.

U2 – Rattle and Hum-An outstanding, artfully produced rock doc from director Phil Joanau (State of Grace). They’re a band from Dublin, y’know. P.S.-Fook the Revolution!

….and no St. Paddy’s Day tribute would be complete without raising a glass to the memory of one of my favorite late and great Irish poets, who will sing for you now…

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