It’s out. On popular request I’m letting you all know my ‘Journal of the Flame Wars’ has now been published in Prospect Magazine .
As with all such articles, they get cut for length, subbed and simplified, and this is even more true in a British publication where the Netroots has to be explained as Blogosphere 101. There are a lot of things – a history of snark, mentions of other bloggers that have been cut because of length and complexity.
Sorry guys. I tried to mention a lot of you. But the editors found it confusing. It really needs a longer piece to get the whole story. Maybe I should write a book
I hope you enjoy despite this. In the fierce urgency of defeating McCain Palin, I don’t want to reignite any unnecessary and ancient flame wars, so the only two issues I want to comment on are these…
History lesson: writing a biography can be a team effort. While writing “American Sphinx,” author Joseph Ellis had a lot of input. In an attempt to uncover the “truth” about Thomas Jefferson, Ellis faced an onslaught of “helpful” advice. The furnace repairman hoped that Ellis would remind his readers how devout a Christian Jefferson was; a poet hoped he would focus on Jefferson’s concern with language. A local high school teacher presented Ellis with a “little blue book” of Jeffersonian thought designed to “serve as a democratic alternative” to the teachings of Communism; historical groups of various stripes begged him to circumvent the Sally Hemings affair. Every person, it seemed, had a stake in Mr. Jefferson, and wished to make their point of view the prominent one. Jefferson the Everyman.
This is my understanding of the financial crisis, and a suggestion for resolution.
The basic understanding is that the entire network of mutual obligations represented by the advanced derivatives is a cancer that is superfluous to the functioning of the economic system, but can potentially completely disrupt it. Hence it needs to be isolated and removed.
This is the core proposal:
* Freeze the worldwide secondary wholesale instruments market (CDS, CDO and other advanced derivatives). Build a firewall between this part of financial institutions and the other parts (retail and primary instruments).
* Address the liquidity impacts on the retail and primary wholesale (stocks, bonds, options etc.) parts of the financial system through Government loans (in anticipation of a full buyout) against the assets represented by the secondary wholesale instruments.
* Unwind the advanced derivative position (over months) on paper. Settle the positions against the loans (after the system stabilizes). This will cause some institutions to fail – allow them to do so. Some will also fail in anticipation of the unwinding. But building a firewall between the traditional economic system and the securities market (which is frozen and eliminated) will eliminate domino effects and prevent a global meltdown.
This is effectively the same as “buyout of the securities”, with loans pending final settlement. But it adds firewalls that prevent securities from absorbing the liquidity being pumped in, and eliminates moral hazard.
Reasoning after the jump.
Thanks to Texas Gray Wolf for his feedback on a seed version of this. I am including his feedback as the first comment.
People can switch their vote just as fast back to McCain or to undecided. And we know national polls are just beauty contests anyway.
But damn it!
THIS POLL IS FIERCE!
I know this is likely a semi-outlier, but it still makes my day!
Also, the CNN poll (51-45) isn’t an outlier anymore, so we’ve got that working for us too.
The poll has great internals as well.
Feel free to post your favorite one!
Sarah Palin is a GAME CHANGER!!!!!
The survey also found that the strong initial public reaction to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, has cooled somewhat. Overall, her unfavorable rating has gone up by 10 points in the past two weeks, from 28 percent to 38 percent.
People love winners and Obama is just a point away from that mythical “double digit lead”.
Who doesn’t like getting on the bandwagon?
I’ll bet all those kids (me) were harcore Chicago Bulls fans back in the days because they had pretty cool uniforms.
It had nothing to do with Jordan and the fact they seemed so dominant.
A double digit point is huge if only for narrative purposes.
This fresh poll further cements Obama’s dominance during the current economic crisis.
Understands Economic Problems:
Obama: 57%
McCain: 33%
The impression these days is that “The Deregulators” have never been able to fix the economy, they are amateurs and cronyfeeders.
Whereas the Democrats are the ultimate professionals.
The ones who can make it work and get shit straightened out.
Can we finally get these jokers out of power?
Don’t get too excited though. The debates still remain and it’s not a guarantee Obama will do well. McCain is a scrappy piece of shit and will lie through his yellow teeth all throughout the debate to avoid looking like the crazy lunatic that he is.
Even if he pwns McCain all over the stage, most people will believe what the talking heads feed them.
So let’s keep working!
What would smarter people than me say?
We can’t start counting votes yet.
Let’s fight like we are 10 points down.
Continue to work the ground game hard to get that “mythical” double digit lead
Knock on every door.
Call every phone.
Do it until ALL polls are closed.
Every one of us needs to sprint to the finish with our best efforts.
Let’s remain cautiously optimistic and keep working hard. It’s great news but there are still 41 days left.
No dancing in the streets tonight, please.
Except me of course…
As John McCain was driving down the freeway, his cell phone rang.
Answering, he heard his wife’s voice urgently warning him…
“John, I just heard on the news that a car is going the wrong way on Route 280.”
” Please be careful!”
To which he replied…
“It’s not just one car Cindy!”
“It’s hundreds of them!”
You’re driving in the wrong direction Maverick!!!
FREIGHT TRAINNN!!!!!!!
By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you are not showing her the respect she deserves. Free Sarah Palin! Free her from the chauvinistic chain you are binding her with. Sexism in this campaign must come to an end. Sarah Palin has just as much a right to be a real candidate in this race as the men do. So let her act like one.”
Now this is what I call a rant!
For comedic effect, I’ll remind you all of this little quote.
Sarah Palin: Hillary’s “whine” doesn’t do women any good
Whine? Heh.
Hillary never whined.
Maybe you don’t need to whine when you actually have the qualifications to be Commander in Chief.
I don’t think Hillary can see Alaska from her house though!
Could someone buy Senator McCain some cue cards? Something with big, bold text on them that can be read from a mile away. And somebody to hold them for him would be a good idea, too.
Seems that he told the world that Rick Davis has not had any dealings with Freddie Mac for a long time.
NYT, September 23, 2008 One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager from the end of 2005 through last month, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.
Last week, we finished surveying the lay of the land out West. This week, we begin to turn our attention to the Midwest. Yes, that’s right. The Midwest looks to be once again a crucial battleground to win both the White House and Congress. And with just six weeks left until election day, we’d like to talk about the state of the races in America’s Heartland.
I’ve been wanting to post a diary here at The Moose for some while now, but have found myself ridiculously busy with work, life, and all the general ad naseum that come along with such things. Most notable among my preoccupations is the pending addition to our little tribe.
The movement over the last couple weeks has been particularly acute with independent voters. 56% of them say that the Palin choice makes them less likely to support McCain and what was a 49-38 lead for Obama with that group is now a 58-31 advantage.
Folks, the hits keep coming. We’re rocketing up in Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa. Please remember how significant that combination of states is. I honestly think that with those three and Virginia we’re in an unassailable position.
Go Colorado! Interestingly, Governor Palin’s unfavorables seem to have jumped above her favorability rating in this poll. If that’s true in Colorado, a home to quite a few evangelicals, one wonders how she’s doing elsewhere.
The Moose is Loose, here we go again! From our national trackers:
Rasmussen
Obama 48, McCain 48
Gallup
Obama 48, McCain 44
Daily Kos/Research 2000
Obama 49, McCain 43
Diageo/Hotline
Obama 47, McCain 42
Some small movement; as you can see, McCain moved up one to tie Obama in the Rasmussen tracker, and Obama gained some ground in the Diageo tracker. All said, we can see the same trend, with the R2K and Rasmussen trackers flanking each end- Obama’s slightly ahead, nationally.
