“For the eleventh time, Inkwell rings in the New Year with a visit from Well member Bruce Sterling, to address the State of the World and Things Various and Sundry.”
Read Bruce Sterling: State of the World 2010 from beginning to end instead of end to beginning. It’s supposed to be like a conversation.
How do you think the U.S. would react if Barry McCaffrey and Wesley Clark were kidnapped in Washington by narco terrorists, held for ransom, tortured and eventually murdered? Welcome to Mexico.
The two biggest drug cartels aren’t located in Peru or Columbia. They’re right across the Texas border. And they’re totally out of control.
President Obama should appoint Bill Richardson U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Do it now. Send him to Mexico City immediately. Here’s why.
You already know that he’s a troubleshooter who has negotiated in hotspots like North Korea. Did you know that he attended school in Mexico City with some of the people who now run that country? He doesn’t just speak their language. He speaks it with their accent.
PBS recently aired a documentary about the resurgent Taliban on Frontline.
The Taliban are smuggling opium to finance their insurgency.
Why not pay opium farmers in Afghanistan to grow nothing? Pay them the same price that the smugglers would have paid them.
It would be easier to monitor compliance with the opium eradication program if the fields were empty.
Owners of land in the U.S. have been paid by the government not to grow tobacco for decades.
The multicolored graininess is intentional. The idea is to tie-dye my face. The result is over a dozen self-portraits photographed by the turreted webcam of my Nokia n800 Linux PDA at various locations, such as Art Center College of Design, the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree installation.
All of the digital photos were taken during ArtNight last Thursday.
I recommend the slide show.
Al Franken called the bailout bill “a sacrifice at the altar of financial mismanagement.”
Harry Shearer called President Bush “the boy who cried Wolfowitz.”
A big news story was buried beneath Wall Street’s 777.68 point adjustment today. Special Prosecutor Named in Attorney Firings Case says the New York Times.
Meet the Special Prosecutor. Nora R. Dannehy was until very recently the Acting U.S. Attorney in Connecticut. She’s a graduate of Harvard Law School with 17 years experience as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.
Talk about blowback. The chickens have come home to roost in the House of Representatives.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich called for Treasury Secretary Paulson’s resignation last week.
Bob Barr, who is running for president as a Libertarian, posted The ‘Bailout From Hell’ Must be Rejected to the Huffington Post.
I don’t necessarily agree with anything that these gentlemen are saying, but I think that their opinions should be heard to gain an understanding of what the House Republicans want and don’t want.
Dozens of economists signed a petition that said “we ask Congress not to rush, to hold appropriate hearings, and to carefully consider the right course of action, and to wisely determine the future of the financial industry and the U.S. economy for years to come.”
The petition is now little more than an ironic postscript. It’s no wonder that the U.S. Congress is currently less popular than the unpopular President Bush.
Posted to his website yesterday.
1. No blank check. “Not one dime should go to this bailout without independent oversight, real accountability, and complete transparency.”
2. Taxpayers get a stake. “If we’re footing the bill for keeping these companies afloat, taxpayers should get an equity stake so that we can share in the benefits when and if they get back on their feet.”
3. No golden parachutes. “In the public sector, there’s no such thing as a golden parachute. And if we’re going to sacrifice $2,000 for every [...] taxpayer to bail out these companies, these executives are going to learn about sacrifice, too. So, all excessive compensation, bonuses, and severance agreements are hereby cancelled.”
4. Bring back oversight. “We need to restore the regulatory framework dismantled with George W. Bush in the White House [...] so that this doesn’t happen again.”
5. Help homeowners. “The foreclosure crisis caused this problem, and we still haven’t taken the steps I’ve been proposing for months to address it. We have to freeze foreclosures and allow bankruptcy judges to re-set mortgages on primary residences.”
6. Protect consumers. “I’m calling for a new Financial Products Safety Commission with similar duties and powers to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
The former Saturday Night Live gagwriter and funnyman is the Democratic Party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in Minnesota. Former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura was governor there not too long ago. Unconventional candidates are possibly mass self-medication of Minnesotans for SAD, winter depression caused by sunlight deprivation. Just a theory of mine.
That was Henry Paulson’s nickname when he was at Goldman Sachs.
Here are some corrections to my previous post in this blog.
I referred to “Treasury Secretary Paulson’s demand of zero accountability to the U.S. Congress.” According to the New York Times, Paulson’s draft bailout plan required that he report to Congress within the first “three months [...] and semiannually thereafter.” That’s right, once every other year.
I described a trillion dollar scheme. Truth be told, “The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time.” Not a trillion dollars all at once.
However, I was correct about Paulson wanting to place himself on a pedestal above the courts. “Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”
That said, my previous blog post was old news and irrelevant by the time that I published it.
U.S. Senators attacked Paulson’s draft bailout plan earlier today like a pack of stray dogs on a front lawn tearing a Sunday newspaper to shreds.
