Well, that takes interbank interest rate down to essentially zero. After this, there ain't no more to be had boys.

Next step, print money. Lots of it.

Ok, so do we want a depression with or without wild inflation on the side.

Like asking if you prefer rock... or hard place?

The man who threw the shoes at Bush faces up to 15 years in prison...think Bush will pardon him?

Wall Street seemed to react well to the Fed's latest (and last) rate cut.

Further proof that day traders are idiots.

Conservative Republicans in Congress seem to want the U.S. auto industry to collapse.

And thanks in part to the complete mis-handling of the bank bailout (ie theft) most Americans are perfectly willing to go along with them.

Enjoy the decades long depression to come folks. Just think about the great stories you'll be able to tell your great-grandkids. The soup lines, the burning of Wall Street, the return of a barter based economy when money is shown to be worthless.

Good times, good times.

Is Muntadar al-Zaidi, the shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist, being abused

Last night Rachel Maddow said you could hear al-Zaidi screaming in the background while Bush was laughing it off in front of the other journalists. Since I had Tivo'd it, I went back and watched. You had to listen carefully to hear the screaming, though it was the same with reporters asking questions without microphones. During the screams, Bush was joking that they were size 10 shoes, and then smirking as the man screamed.

Meanwhile, Candy Crowley asked Bush today if he was angry when reports came in that there were no WMD in Iraq. Bush replied that "angry" is too strong a passion. How compassionate.

Muntadar al-Zaidi is my hero. In the future I hope there are many, many more people willing to throw things at that murderous moron. Thank dog for the 20th next month, I can't wait till those people are nearly powerless. BushCo. should be tried at the Hague.

"Wall Street seemed to react well to the Fed's latest (and last) rate cut." - Yeah, that's news but Steve B please let's have some explicit hint that such a revelation shouldn't be what life is all about.

As we approach Christmas & the end of this year, I would like to extent my thanks & appreciation to Steve Benen for his work on this web site.

I liked features on your old site better than here, but the core of the content is what counts and this web site addresses multiple issues each day with a viewpoint that is not that of the corporate media.

Thanks,
SadOldVet
AngryOldVet
RepublicanPointOfView

Today's Fed rate cut to a negative interest rate will someday be acknowledged as the act that pushed the American economy into depression, not as the act that avoided it.

I'll second SadOldVet's comments. Except that I don't miss guessing what color an orange is ;-)

It looks like some folks may end up owing Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.) an apology

I hope so, but here's why I remain a bit skeptical. If Fitzgerald "interviewed" Jackson as a suspect or potential witness in the Rezko investigation, this is precisely how Jackson would have spun it. Jackson didn't testify at Rezko's trial, but he was on record accusing another politician of being involved with Rezko. That strikes me as being defensive.

The prosecutor neither denied nor confirmed anything. Giving him a heads up about the Blago indictment could have been a courtesy, especially if the prosecutor thought Blago knew about Jackson being "interviewed" in the Rezko case.

But why would Jackson have had a fundraiser for Blago right around the time Fitzgerald was beginning his wiretap. Why would he tell CNN he's fighting for his life and his reputation? Why would he weigh in on Blago's mental health? Imagine testifying that he was involved in a sting operation against a guy he thinks was mentally ill.

* Evidence of deflation may have had something to do with the Fed's move.

Given the recent dip into negative territory of short-term T-bills (i.e., the government being briefly able to borrow at negative rates), which makes sense only if those buying T-bills expect deflation, it seems that deflation fears are widespread, and the recent economic data shows that those fears are justified. Maybe massive, well-aimed fiscal stimulus will help now that the monetary side is shot, there aren't words for how bad this is going to be.

And, of course, given the transition, any coherent massive stimulus is likely not to even get started for another month and a few days, all we're likely to see in the interim is more of the failed TARP handouts.

of course, when Japan's central bank went to free money, it merely caused everyone to panic worse and their recession lasted 6 years.

as for the notion that the next step is printing money, in fact that is a step already underway: in November, the government printed millions of new dollars.

topic whiplash: numerous news outlets are saying that former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, whose background is as a small-town plaintiffs' attorney - which is to say, nothing related to the substance of agriculture - will be named Obama's Sec. of Ag.

Interesting, Boy George said, "So what!"

He said it was no big deal that Al-Zaidi threw shoes at him.

If it was no big deal, then why isn't he putting pressure on Al-Maliki to release the journalist with a fine.

You never know where Boy George is coming from, you can't read his emotions...what a character!

How BAD was the housing start report:

"The steep decline pushed construction down to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 625,000 homes, the slowest pace on records dating to 1959."

50 years is bad enough. How's about that 625k housing starts was for a population of approx.190 million in 1959. Today's pace is for a population of 300 million+.

The number sucks, but this number has to put into perspective regarding the population it is building for to realize how REALLY bad it is.

Another job well done(as in stick the fork in it, it's done) King George

*Conservative Republicans in Congress seem to want the U.S. auto industry to collapse.*

So, union busting trumps ultra-nationalism.

Conservative Republicans in Congress seem to want the U.S. auto industry to collapse.
Actually it's a grand slam: they get to dismantle the last effective union in the country, they create a legion of serfs, they ruin the economy so comprehensively that no one will be able to remedy it, and they get a handsome bonus from their foreign masters.

I have to give Pres-elect his props - he said, "it's the urgency of now."
True dat, true dat

* Is Muntadar al-Zaidi, the shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist, being abused while in custody? -- Steve Benen

Did you really have to ask? What do you think? It's like asking: "Is Cheney the evil puppet-master of the Clueless George?"

*****************************

* The Securities and Exchange Commission was unbelievably slow in responding to doubts about Madoff's business practices, which were apparently an elaborate Ponzi scheme. -- Steve Benen

Well... SEC might have been a tad more efficient, if the senior Senator from New York (Schmuck Chummer) hadn't defanged it in his zeal to serve his most select constituents on Wall Street.

On Gibson - maybe radio's a better medium for him. At least his listeners won't have to be confronted with how stupid he looks. Now they can concentrate fully on how stupid he sounds.

The idea JJ. jr. gets an apology is way too early. The guy since day one has been campaigning here in Illinois so aggressively for Blago to pick him it is bizaare. So if he knew Blago was up to no good then he has been putting on a good act or it is all a pile of nonsense what is coming out now.

Zirp! The dead-economic-bounce sound...

I'm with Krugman: Seriously, we are in very deep trouble. Getting out of this will require a lot of creativity, and maybe some luck too.

Want to know about the creativity part?

Barack is going to have to use the power of the unitary executive to create a solar based economy. The country cannot afford republicans to obstruct with their normal shit-throwing escapades. He needs to declare a crisis, an economic war if you will, and start ordering things into being. This is 1932 all over again. Damn the prick republicans. Pad the Supreme Court if you have to. In other words: Do what ever it takes. Full speed ahead. The time is now. It is the only way out of this jam...

"Conservative Republicans in Congress seem to want the U.S. auto industry to collapse..."

I'm pretty sure they want the UAW to collapse; if it takes a collapse of the big three to make that happen... well then, so be it.

I cannot agree that deflation is what caused the Fed's move.

No one knows exactly what is going on, except a big cover-up using creative financing, and lies.

No one will know exactly what's going on until the Pres-elect takes office.

For eight years, we have been borrowing money from China, Saudi Arabia & yes Mexico.

We are in two wars right now. With private contractors making the biggest gains.

Corporations are hiding profits offshore in the Cayman Islands (Ugland House building - Georgetown) & Dubai, therefore, cheating the treasury department millions of tax revenues.

Government is outsourcing contracts - e.g. Blackwater instead of using all military troops, the money makers are Haliburton, KKR.....military personnel are paying $8.00 for a six-pack of coca-cola made in Iraq. By the way, did you know that Coca-Cola is using a factory in Ireland to make the syrup for the drink (for tax purposes).

Americans are unemployed, that reduces tax revenues, losing homes, that reduces tax revenues. At the same time, you have businesses hiring illegal immigrants and not paying worker's comp insurance, taxes or anything else that would generate revenues for state, local, or federal governments.

Then to top it off, they are selling our roads to toll companies, trying to sell are ports,

So, the question is, will America default on the interest and/or debt payments to foreign governments?

We don't know, because the GOP and the media outlet kept it hush-hush and kept trying to get people to spend money. Maybe they thought people could pull money out of its A**.

Marines *assist* CHP in drunk driving checkpoints!?!

I was just at that Home Depot! I would've gotten arrested immediately for mouthing off. WTF!?!

* The Supreme Court has cleared the way for smokers to sue tobacco companies over the marketing of "light" cigarettes.

Let's see. This case was about the right of a state to impose stricter regulations on deceptive advertising than the Federal government regulations. A classic state's rights case! So of course the principled, strict constructionist conservatives on the case came down in favor of state's rights.

What's that? The ruling was 5-4 with all of the hard line conservatives coming down in favor of the Federales regulatory power trumping that of the state? Unpossible! Why, where in the Constitution does a strict constructionist find the passage that says that the Federal government trumps the rights of states to regulate deceptive advertising?

What a bunch of hacks.

Wow, finally got a chance to see the shiner that 'Spin-derella' got in Iraq.

Watching Rachael Maddow in that bouncy and giggly way she has, Rachael, always asking anyone out there to “talk me down�, or is it “take her down� or just plain “dumb down America�? That is, having to say, just try to have the guts and do it, all the while inviting the challenge to her in debate with sophisticated resources at her back.

Sometimes for me it is compelling to kick in a few ideals with Journalist liken to that type. Seems to be the same game Rush Limbaugh, Hannity and others are claiming to be playing in the primer grand insight of politics. But all that is beginning to appear in the media, as the central secret, is a rhetorical mystic in playing political Pokemon. Gaming the public for time.

The horror and terror of it also includes a simple Childs game, an ingenious way to spread child immaturities to limits we don’t understand that seems parallel to that adult world, dumbing it down. But one sense of Loyalty, sometimes referred to as "Happiness," is a serious issue in the Pokeman theory, and to consider to train young minds in a new generation of Pokemon gaming in the free market is worse than any shopping around for the going price of a senator.

There is a chance a good lawyer might be able to prove that Patrick Fitzgerald is instrumental for the power that be are trying to take over the world through the misuse of Pokémon with the comedy proof of Letterman, SNL, or Jay leno?

So what in the heck am I saying? Again, referring to paragraph twelve were Fitzgerald claimed to be leaving out some important information is interesting yet is Fitzgerald’s Achilles heal. Besides to wire tap information could be the most important evidence that brings down not Blagojevich but the entire FISA scandal with it.

Billing dates are not efficient enough to determine issues in telephone conversations. More over what if forensics can prove Blagojevich wire tapes are spiked with FISA wire tapes. We are talking about taping a whole lot of people in an undetermined window. Here, that, he said she said stuff is likely to turn on Fitzgerald opening the door to federal fraud.

Is it true that a second-hand souvenir shoe store is going to be built adjacent to the Bush Presidential Library at SMU, where shoes flung by an adoring public against the library's front door will be sold? (That library will make millions, if not billions, of dollars).

And is it also true that Bush was able to so artfully dodge the flung shoes because he's been on so many hunting trips before with Dick Cheney, with "DUCK!!!" ringing out every few minutes as Cheney stumbles drunkenly around swinging his shotgun in all directions at once?

DanP, that's not the half of it. JJJ's spokesman, Kenneth Edwards, claims he's been an informant for the U.S. Atty in Chitown for more than a decade.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/16/breaking-jackson-jr-an-informant-to-us-attorney-investigation/

He's either lying like hell to get JJJ off the hook, or else, we're going to find Jesse Jr. dead in some Loop back alley soon.

That, combined with the Indian BBQ, makes me thing nobody will be offering JJJ an apology soon, Steve.

Oh, and I'm sure many "liberal" bloggers are ignoring the fact that the SEC started ignoring Madoff's corruption during the Clinton-era SEC.

It's the bipartisan duopoly, folks!

That's right, the liberal bloggers will ignore the Madoff corruption.

If the GOP would stop trying to get impeachment hearings over sex, (may I remind you, with an adult & of the opposite sex) trying to frame people for political gain, then maybe the dems could do their jobs.

Instead, they have to fight the injustices brought on by the hatefilled GOP.

Example, Newt shut down the federal government offices for political gain.

It's not like the GOP are angels!!!!!

According to worldfocus.org

al-Zaidi, the famous Iraqi reporter, has sustained a broken leg, cracked ribs, eye injuries...

Just so you know, I used to be a rightwing-dingbat.

However, I came to my senses. I am not an abused child, I don't need someone yelling at me, manipulating me, or trying to control me.

I'm not a follower just to be included in the crowd, I am responsible for my own actions.

I'm not dumb, I can make my own decisions.

I'm not stupid, I see how the GOP treat people.

So yes, I switched from GOP to DEM this election, and guess what, I've got a new attitude.

Speaking of Cheney, the fact that he's still confused about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction is kind of scary.

The word is "lying", CB!

Saw late night with Conan O'brien -

He did still frames on the shoe throwing incident.

While people were subduing Mr. al-Zaidi, the still frames caught another unidentified man with his shoe in hand ready to throw towards the stage.

Annjell, I switched to Green (only because Texas has no Socialist or Social Democratic party) long ago. No two-party duopoly for me.

Oh, Steve, I notice you still haven't commented on the CNN link I sent you, with a different Triple-J spokesperson directly contradicting the Jesse Jr. spokesperson from your links.