Unfortunately for Arizona, the wingnuts will now have full control of the government and will step up their efforts to beat Mississippi in their race to the bottom of all those quality of life statistics.

How did the 700 billion dollar Wealthcare transmorgofy (my word) into 7 trillion?

Any chance Bush and gang are robbing the till before they exit stage (far) right?

The DOW is an average.

It also contains a massive percentage of Wealthcare recipients.

Yeah the economy's tanking. But something sure smells fishy.

The spike of oil to 150/barrel = some major stench.

The housing thing's been rotten since late 2007.

I think Elliot Spitzer was outed to make way for Wealthcare (He was on to Bear Sterns!).

...U.S. intelligence agencies warned their Indian counterparts several weeks ago about a potential terrorist attack "from the sea against hotels and business centers in Mumbai."

If I ever operate a terrorist organization, priority #1 will be to stop all leaks. How do spy agencies get tips like this?? And take the case of the NPR bombing in Baghdad: the Iraqi military was warned ahead of time, which gave them a chance to alert the NPR team before they got in the car. What kind of bomber leaves those kinds of tips?

Maybe the Riddler isn't so farfetched.

Why is the drop so "horrific"? It will be biz as usual for the next six months.

Besides, this is another way Wall Street games things for itself.

If stocks are going up on an individual day, the sky's the limit. But, if they're going down? Nooo, can't have that. Limits on computerized trading.

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The Taj Mahal story? Old news, Blogged by me and reported yesterday, the Taj’s owner did know, and this is worth more than just a “snippet� link. The plotters apparently knew the layout of the Taj and/or had connections. They avoided metal detectors by using a back door, then shot a security sniffer dog, defeating the security upgrades he had done.

That would be part of why India wants Pakistan's "full cooperation."

Especially as Zardari is saying “Don’t blame me for my effed-up country.�

The state projects a $28-billion deficit by mid-2010, but at the current rate is on track to run out of cash by February or March. (LAT 12/1/08)

The world's 6th largest economy.

God Bush America. (And he did)

Larry Kudlow said much more than this that show him a fool. There is a video out showing his predictions and where people should put their money and if any had fo9llowed his advice then they are broke now. He chooses cheerleading republican policies over economics.

The more Rachael Maddow gets involved with NBC the more she will become compromised...and she won't see it happening. She will always be leaps ahead of the news "hosts" we have now but it will change her should she become host on MTP and constantly battling with her employer. She was so much more fun when she was just doing Air America before her TV gig. Still, I can't think of anyone I'd rather see hosting an important news show.

AIG failed and had no union, The Banks failed and had no union, trying to tie the automakers failure to unions is more republican nonsense. Question is...who are they talking to...who would believe anything out of their mouths except other republicans. There is a reason that party is so self destructive and being driven out of government. Now if we can just get them out of the MSM then ridiculous stories like $75/hr union members wages would never be printed.

...U.S. intelligence agencies warned their Indian counterparts several weeks ago about a potential terrorist attack "from the sea against hotels and business centers in Mumbai."

I flat out don't believe it. Anonymous sources that cast U.S. intelligence agencies in a positive light are worthless. There's no reason on earth why a name couldn't be attached to that pronouncement.

"...Posted by: Tom Nicholson on December 1, 2008 at 5:48 PM "

Spot on. Love the term "Wealthcare" and agree that the treasury is being robbed as they exit stage (far) right.

The horror is we are powerless to stop them and they know it. DoJ won't step in to force accountability. Congress just stands watching as the president grants Treasurer unchecked powers.

Property and holdings should be seized until accounts are settled. After all, it's our money they are giving out.

They are making sure Obama takes over a broke and collapsed economy and government while all their holdings and wealth acquired are protected from loss. I feel like I'm hearing bank robbers say, "There's no more money left in here so can you please put some more money in here so we can still call it a bank".

[...] Obama's team has received 290,000 applications -- a number that may grow to 1 million by the time he takes office. -- Steve Benen

Just in case he doesn't manage to get the universal health insurance through Congress? There's nothing better than federal coverage; even 47 million applications wouldn't be surprising.
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Vis that BlogAds survey... I took it for the electoral-vote and was about to ask more 'puter-literate folk (everyone here), whether I ought to be taking it again but, when I clicked on the link, I was told "congratulations, you've already taken it and it'll apply to all other blogs". Technology is like the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead...
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They avoided metal detectors by using a back door, then shot a security sniffer dog, defeating the security upgrades he had done. -- Socratic(?) fly, @17:56

Maybe we ought to outsource our own security arrangements to Indian dogs? True, he let himself be shot, so that's points against him but, he managed to get himself a job at a fancy hotel -- not a shabby achievement for a Mumbai cur.

I would love to see Rachel Host Meet The Press.However a Liberal Lesbian on MSNBC is one thing, if you think the corporate honchos would allow her on the big show you are nuts.

I continue to believe that we're lacking a reasonable measure of skepticism, even cynicism, about all the media hype that these are the worst of times, second only to the Great Depression. I think it's kind of like Bush comparing Iraq to World War II.

I also suspect that we're being herded into this stampede-level of hysteria for the sole purpose of restoring the lost, paper fortunes of the mega wealthy. We're throwing trillions of our taxpayer wealth at the problem in order to restore these phony riches, that were built up out of thin air - speculation and greed in a gambling casino system called capital markets.

Even if I'm wrong, and I certainly could be, there's a lesson here that we just aren't learning. Money is an abstraction, a human invention, to facilitate the orderly business of our civilization. It doesn't exist except as in our imaginations. You can't find it in the universe, measure it, examine its qualities, weigh it, time it as it runs through hoops or falls out of the sky. It shouldn't, by itself, independent of everything real and tangible, be able to cause an economic disaster such as we are now - supposedly - experiencing.

Money should be our slave, do our bidding, keep things running smoothly, predictably, evenly. After all, that's why we invented it. Why have we let it turn on is, so that we have become slaves to this master which is not supposed to have a life of its own? Why do we allow this to happen to us?

The real world hasn't changed at all. But because of some numbers in a computer, we stand frozen in fear, unable to crank up the bulldozers, open the factory doors, grow the food that we need. Just because we say we don't have enough of that which doesn't really exist, and we could just make up if we wanted to, and were clever enough.

It's crazy. This crisis is a money problem. Not a real problem. We got to the moon, but we can't figure out how to make money work for us, instead of the other way around?

If NBC is really smart.....?

They are not!

This has been another simple answer to simple questions!

"Is Sen. Bunning (R-KY) the Republican senator who secretly blocked the confirmation of an Inspector General to oversee the $700 billion we've forked over to stabilize the financial sector?"

Ummm, why THE HELL isn't the answer part of the public record, and how can we make it so, if it isn't already?

"The spike of oil to 150/barrel = some major stench."
Yes, Tom, it couldn't have gone up so high before going down again so much without speculative pressure. However, nerdy centerish liberal hail-fellows-well-met (sorry Steve and Kevin) thought that smelled of the trenchy populist stench of off-center "conspiracy theory", thus depriving from the voices that could have exerted more pressure on commodity manipulators.

Neil T and Former Dan (and any other Canadians here),

So, what are we to think of this mini-revolt?
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/546315

I just don't know enough of Canadian politics to fight off the knee-jerk, Orwellian response -- Two legs (Harper) bad, four legs (coalition) good...

Mr. Benen,

If we are to retain our credibility as liberals when we criticize conservatives for fixating on technicalities while ignoring the main thrust of arguments, we mustn't do the same ourselves.

Autoworkers cost an average of 75 bucks per hour. The right is CORRECT about this and we do ourselves a disservice when we perpetuate the myth that it these costs are a myth. The technicality that CURRENT auto workers pull about $50 bucks per hour does not negate their point. It is a detail that serves as nothing more than a tangent.

The thrust of their argument is that the costs are too high and GM can't survive unless SOMETHING is done to make them competitive. They're correct and we would do well to channel our effort into deciding what that something might be.

When we deny this documented, uncomfortable fact, we set ourselves up for endless bailouts of an unsustainable business model and come across as oblivious fools.

I hope you will stop this madness.

From what I can tell, generous retirement packages for previous employees are the key problem. If so, does it MATTER how Detroit goes bankrupt? The retirees will lose those benefits if the companies go under.

If the US must subsidize "American" car companies, let us at least call a spade a spade and publicly declare that we are putting the fix in and the concept of a free market has been deliberately, aggressively subjugated.

I personally believe that the UAW would be capable of competing with a non-unionized workforce as well as a global marketplace, but I'm quite confident they'll choose charity instead.

Re: Detroit autoworkers making $75 per hour - all of you please feel free to cut and paste the following to every blog or news site where you see this garbage repeated. From the AP:

GM, which negotiated the four-year deal that serves as a template for UAW deals with Chrysler and Ford, says its total hourly labor costs dropped 6 percent this year from pre-contract levels, from $73.26 in 2006 to around $69 per hour. The new cost includes laborers’ wages of $29.78 per hour, plus benefits, pensions and the cost of providing health care to more than 432,000 GM retirees, GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said.

See, if you take the estimated 350,000 current autoworkers and all the hours they collectively work each year, and you divide that total number of hours by what you paid those workers including benefits and employer payroll taxes PLUS the costs of medical insurance (and perhaps pensions too - this part is not clear) for another 432,000 people, you can come up with a "labor cost" of $75 an hour. Note, though, that even at this they're lying - under the newest contract, that figure is under $70 per hour, no doubt due to a cut in benefits or pay for the current workers.

Then again, it's not as if anyone expects Republicans to be able to perform simple mathematics. After all, look at what they've done the federal budget deficit and debt; look at what they've done with Wall Street.

toowearyforoutrage - see my previous post; it's not at all clear that pensions for already-retired workers are part of that bogus $75 per hour figure. Pension plans are generally not funded out of current revenue stream/operating funds, if I recall correctly. And it's not as if the pensions weren't considered part of the worker's compensation when he was working - those retirees EARNED those benefits. Also you have to consider that management has leaned on the unions repeatedly over the years to accept lower wages in return for increased benefits packages - the same well-known ploy used by our own US government in deficit spending and putting off paying the piper until a later date.

Bottom line, now that it is time to pay the piper, it seems that the funds have been squandered on things like excessive CEO compensation and payouts to shareholders. Should I get out the world's tiniest violin and play "Hearts and Flowers" for the poor American automakers now that their "hourly labor costs" are so high, thanks to a failure to fully fund pension and healthcare funds for future retirees back in the days when they were shittin' in high cotton? I'm having a hard time finding a lot of sympathy for management here.

tooweary for outrage: The retirees will lose those benefits if the companies go under.

Not quite right, I think; perhaps someone familiar with pension benefits may clarify. But I believe that, under ERISA, if a company goes bankrupt, the company is supposed to "wall off" (or, to bring back an image from 2000, put it in a lockbox) the pension funds to ensure they can be there. And, they may also be insured/guaranteed by the federal government... Perhaps this is one of those things where letting the car companies go south can cost the government (let alone the economy) much more than any bailout package.

Rachael Maddow as host of "Meet the Press?"
Worth it, if only for the raw feed of some DC fossil calling her "Girly-girl" and telling her to fetch a latte.

Why is it that Larry Kudlow seems to always be wrong?

Because he is really William Kristol's secret twin brother.

Re Janet:
Bad move for Arizona at this time since it's trending more Democratic. Brewer is a republican's godsend.

Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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Let's give the Medal of Freedom to Torturers!? So says Bill Kristol, that paragon of impartiality who proposes in the Weekly Standard that "everyone who served in good faith in the war on terror, but whose deeds may now be susceptible to demagogic or politically inspired prosecution by some seeking to score political points" get pardons and Medals of Freedom. This would include John Yoo, author of the infamous "torture memo." Obviously, anyone prosecuted for crimes in bu$h's regime could never have actually done anything wrong, and would only be prosecuted due to a witch hunt to score political points, right?

I urge you to go to FireJohnYoo.org regularly for a picture of why the lawyers, CIA agents, and most of all, the "deciders" should be held accountable for torture carried out over the last seven years, and most of all, be prosecuted for war crimes.

What is the importance (to the media, me, you, etc.) of when Hillary resigns? Prudence would suggest that it be as late as possible, just in case something comes up. She didn't exactly drop out of the Democratic primary on a quick schedule, but in this case, giving up her seat now could aid any attempt by her enemies to leave her without a chair to sit in.

Also: did anyone ever figure out if Biden could resign now, since his new term starts in January. I was thinking that he might have to resign twice.

Somehow I view resignation from office something like selling your house. You don't turn over the keys until closing, and as soon as you do close the deal, the new owners are quick to assert their control.

The staff of both Hillary and Joe may also benefit from a late resignation.

It is interesting that $75/hour amounts to $150k/year, something Obama terms middle class, McCain categorizes as poor and media pundits living in New York term as scraping by and begging for a COLA and Sarah Palin considers about right to spend on clothes before heading out on her "Nothing to Lose" tour of America (oops, the Lower 48).

Besides the obsession by Republicans over the hourly wage of rust belt auto workers, they also try to mention two other "problems": pensions and Union Labors. They have the gall to crow about how great things are going in the Deep South with Honda, Toyota and other foreign auto makers who are free of unions.

This is one area where I'm in near alignment with Pat Buchanan. The cost of an American made car (not American assembled) represents wages, taxes on wages, property tax, corporate tax, etc.

I have been thinking a lot about autoworkers and their pay. The fact is that we need to raise the incomes of the folks in the South, not lower the income of workers in the North. The more middle class consumers the better our economy. Hell, the more middle class workers the better the Chinese and Indian economies.

I think universal health care would help make GM competitive, but dissing union workers for making a decent wage is pretty counter productive if we are trying to pull our way out of the worst recession since the 1930s.

290k people applying for a job? No wonder I haven't gotten a call back on my resume yet! :(

Bill Kristol makes “His Usual Sense� which is insane logic. Award those who torturer. I say this laughingly but know it is a serious issue especially for me, it is absolutely disgusting. Mr. Kristol should head the new schools of Witch Craft and Warlock Sorcery as political necessary prerequisites for the Neo-Con cultural renaissance.

We need good spirited debates in America. The first course is to take notes and study the Palin method of Infinite absurdum to memorize the crowd of opened mined, and opened hearted in good American types that are eventually crystallized with the Rovian theorem of hate bating developing hard dedication to a Conservatoire Party that liberally propagandizes their pray. Convoluting each moment with contextual snarked lies that cover up their barrow and spend continuum to better unregulated government spending un-necessary time proving to everyone that stability can be found in chaos profiteering. Such as, Newt Gingrich’s contract with America here introducing fundamentals in economic treachery, likely the real secret behind America’s economic, industrial, and banking melt down.

Of course when Bush and Company saw how well this was accepted Bush jumped in with grandpas Prescott rule “Cut and Run profiteering� here endorsed by the new aged Jekyll island group, the federal reserve of an offer you can’t refuse.

That was fun! With that said, it was interesting to watch c-span in a discussion with former White House Press secretaries. It was a real laugh when the question posed “Do we lie when asked a question in front of the public�? For me they have been lying for something like uh five decades or so, maybe more…

Wouldn’t it be funny to attach a lie detector machine on news Journalist? Then ask them the same question? “Do you lie, all the time, occasionally, just once in a while, or not at all� I would like to ask that of Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Blitzer (sounds like one of Santa’s reindeers’) Andrea Mitchell, Chris Mathews, etc…

Hey maybe Bush and Company has something going here to wire tap America, put some quality in to the net works in real time with meters and graphs on the bottom of the screen to the level of lies. Low, medium, or high, Indictable, conviction able or Supreme Court reviewable? Hey how about a lie ticker tap with a twenty second delay to pull those who can not take pressure of a sweet six figure salary to lie when ever they get the orders from those corporate conferences, you know, you with me or against me types, then likely go into fits and have a break down. We need time for what do call that stuff human and civil rights, mental health applications, and paramedic treatment, don’t for get the conversion to free pharmaceuticals? No wonder Rush Limbaugh was having more fun than a human should have, we need his documented history to prove that you don’t have to say no to drugs.

From Jennifer's post @ 8:30 PM 1 Dec 2008: "...The new costs include laborers' wages of $29.78 per hour, plus benefits, pensions and the cost of providing health care to more than 432,000 GM retirees...". Personally, as this was apparently a transcript of some comments, I believe that the comma after 'hour' was actually just a pauseand the sentence should actually read: "...The new costs include laborers' wages of $29.78 per hour plus benefits,...". Does make a difference.
My question is: why are reporters allowing GM to conflate two separate operating costs - the cost of labor and the cost of retiree pensions and healthcare? I sincerely doubt the pay stub of a present employee shows that he/she was paid $69 per hour and then deductions amounting to nearly $40 were made to pay retirees' pensions and healthcare. While retiree pensions and benefits may be an operating cost, they most certainly are not "labor" costs.
If this is how GM manages its books, I now know why they can't make a profit.
And what's with the massive disparity between people applying to work for Democrats (Clinton/125,000 and Obama/290,000) and Republicans (Bush/44,000)? Might explain some of the idiots Bush appointed; no one else applied.