The automakers are in a bind for one reason: they can not predict the long term conditions of their market. And how could they? When oil prices are down, no one buys green, and when they are up, no one has any money to buy anything.

So why should they retool at a cost of tens of millions, to create products that are unlikely to be competitive in the free market? Is anyone is really surprised that gasoline prices are down now that we have a reformer President, _even_ as OPEC slashes production?

Detroit cannot be reformed without reforming our relationship with OPEC, and that cannot happen if OPEC and Exxon can pull the price string whenever they want. Here's the game in a nutshell:

1. high national debt? OK, gas prices are now going up, we are crashing your economy, have a nice day.

2. Working on becoming energy independent? OK, gas prices are down, your investments are now chasing false markets, have a nice day.

3. Repeat step 1. until bankruptcy.

OPEC is at war with the United States, and the citizen army is ignorant of the invasion. The only way to solve this is to stop the loop, and as much as no one wants to admit it, the ONLY way to do that is to price regulate fuel with a floating tarrif.

Gas needs to stay hovering around $3.25 a gallon domestically, regardless of production levels. Why? Because that is the only way that Detroit will successfully retool. Oh sure, they'll be happy to build new factories with government money.

But if the products those factories make are not going to permit them to remain solvent, they will simply build unproductive factories and then sell off those factories as scrap. Why? Because that is that the customer (the federal government) asked them to do with the money.

Detroits bottom line does not care whether bailout money is used to create jobs, or loot the taxpayers. They make their money off the labor, and so their bottom lines improve either way. You can not solve this problem by throwing money at it. You have to incentivize the market. Water will no flow uphill no matter how much you wish it to be so.

I saw a little snippet on the tube the other day regarding Detroit automakers, and it appears the pigs are already lining up at the trough. These guys are planning on playing bankruptcy lotto with the federal budget, and we need to get out ahead of that.

There needs to be a bipartisan speech coming out letting Detroit know that prior to any future grants being issues, the audits will be deep, and the every effort to "pierce the corporate vial" will be made in cases where big business has decided to play grabass with the national economy.

What went on with the banks, and what is going to go on with Detroit if it isn't stopped, is treason by plausible deniability. We are not talking about negligence, they know what they are doing, and it will only stop when Congress and the POTUS call bullshit.

when their conventions _all_ seem to be filled with hundreds of people smacking each other with giant pink dildos?

I mean republicans... seriously... either come out of the closet, get a room or do some yoga or something. I really don't need anymore of this seedy behavior.

There needs to be a pre-operative insurance, to replace punitive damages against doctors.

The reason you pay ridiculous fees at the doctor is because they get sued all the time. These lawsuits are often for ridiculous sums, and while sometime justified in principle, only rarely effect justice in any practical way.

Punitive damages are so factored into the normal business of health care, that getting sued is just part of a normal work day. In effect, punitive damages have ceased to be punitive.

The competency of care is also negatively effected by tort. Many doctors simply refuse to do some procedures because they are high risk. If you knew that statistically what you were going to do today had a 30% chance of being successful, and a 15% chance of resulting in a lawsuit, would _you_ do it?

So persons needing difficult procedures are less likely to get them, for no other reason than the doctor would rather not have to deal with the army of ambulance chasers that are just waiting for him to to make a mistake.

I'm not saying that bad doctors shouldn't be punished. Criminal charges could still be filed, and most hospitals have fairly extensive peer review already. Those that don't would likely benefit from being legislatively compelled to do so.

But long term, a pre-operative insurance fund should take the place of the punitive damages against medical doctors. In this way, persons may acquire insurance in advance of any given procedure. The state would then be able to subsidies the insurance rates of more serious procedures, allowing doctors to do their jobs without the constant fear of reprisal.

This will result in a janitors wife, insuring her husband for say 1M$ prior to a surgery, instead of the hospital and subsequently the patients and tax payers paying 50M$ in punitive damages, of which at least 15M$ goes to the lawyer, in the event the surgeon sneezes while he is cutting.

Obviously, sensible hospitals would then include a certain amount of preoperative insurance for all of their patients, and all of their procedures. The families of persons seeking care, would have the ability to _buy_ additional insurance if they see fit. My point here, is that people playing lawsuit-lotto should at least have to buy a ticket.

For the large majority of cases in health care, justice is NOT served by litigation. If we think about it, justice may be served by standardizing a compensatory system for those subjected to ill fates. So why do we have the former, instead of the latter?

Somebody nicked my yard sign.

I live in a gated community. I have been surprised how few Obama signs there have been out there, and how many McCain signs... Up till now. I suspect my cop neighbors son, who I also suspect of siphoning gas.

These are the kind of people who support McCain. This is why he can't win. This is why he won't win. They are nuts.

I'm going to get another, laminate to a board, and lag-bolt it to a tree. I expect to see a few bullet holes in it by the end of the week. People just don't realize how close we really are to having our very own Baghdad right here in our own country.

The difference will be burning at the stake instead of chopping heads of with scimitars. Fundamentalism is fundamentalism. It doesn't matter what religion you are.

The nature of my work dictates that I can do it from just about anywhere. So I'm something of an Internet gypsy.

I went to the DMV today to get a drivers license, (the plot thickens), and they requested proof of identity. I provided: A passport, a federal pilots license, a social security card, and as proof of address: an car title that _they_ issued.

As it turns out, my pilots license simply won't do. It is paper, (issued before 9/11) and the first letter of my first name is frayed off the left side making it "illegible" and therefore unservicable as a document of identity.

Mind you, a birth certificate and a marriage license would have done, or as it turns out, identification cards issued by various penal institutions and federal employment agencies, (if you should choose to differentiate) as well as Universities etc.

Of course, since I'm not married, don't go to University in this state, have never been to jail, and have never before needed my birth certificate, (I have had a passport since I was a child) I'm pretty well screwed.

Now, I _have_ a drivers license from another state, but I WILL NOT give it to them (thus letting them confiscate it) for the following reason: Many states within the Union have HEAVY fines for moving to those states and not changing your license within say... TWO WEEKS. So why should I pay this state, to revoke my right to walk down the street in another state, without being financially raped by that other states government?

The department of fatherland security has likely already given my background a thorough thrumming, and very probably yours as well since very few of us go through life without at some point being acquainted with some colorful characters.

So there isn't much accomplished by being a dick about authentication at the state level. And while I feel the plight of all those challenged persons who feel threatened by the day laborers hanging out in front of the seven eleven, I should take a second to remind you:

This WILL EFFECT YOU EVENTUALLY. These ridiculous hoops are intended to screw illegal aliens and bad guys. But all systems of security have their price, and the interest tends to compound. To paraphrase a founding father: Those that would have security before freedom, will have a deserve neither.

So take a minute the next time you do something that requires ridiculous levels of documentation, and note that the only people this system works for are those who: Get married and settle down, or do something that puts them behind a hot firearm. (good or bad)

By not having the courage to live without ridiculous levels of state oversight, people are encouraging this kind of regulation. By tolerating it, they are discriminating against people... like me.

I was surprised Obama didn't pummel McCain with that "spending freeze" bit. That is an incredible gaff if you think about it. He basically gave Obama a free shot to ask:

What do you propose to freeze John? School funding for teachers? Milk subsidies for children? Military spending? Healthcare spending? Maintenance for bridges and tunnels? National security? The war john? The WAR? etc. etc. etc.

Obamas plan is to bring us back from the precipice of collapse, Johns proposal is the fastest way to the bottom of the canyon. John basically got away with saying he will double down with a loosing hand.

Like the tard' next door who invades my lawn,
I suffer your invasion with laugh and yawn,
and fear nothing in your entire bag of tricks.

Your amoral presumptuousness I fear not,
your wit troubles less than dribbling snot,
on an average winters day.

Let me know oh micros-shamen of technology war,
all this time you spent? what for, snooping through
the underwear drawers of countless systems?

Your science once praised, now more malaise to
any man of action. Concern ourselfs not with
your satisfaction for you are what you are:
a spectator.

Without the courage to build, with only voyuerism
fulfilled with each bit transmitted. I've seen
more worthy things in the bowl, once I've shitted.

Your skills are not banners of courage.

So continue on, nicking bits, betwixt fear and mind
in your witless fits. A limbo between where
sperm rots, and man begins is the penance of your
sins.

With luck some future day, a terrorist asshole on
his way, will get lost and Tim-Mcvey the next Def Con
convention by accident.

Doing the rest of us, one, big, fucking, favor.

How does one increase liquidity, and insure those responsible experience appropriate reciprocity?

If you give them cash, they will just do it all over again.

However, if you break them up NOW, when the stock is devalued, then auction off the new small institutions to anybody _but_ former owners, you have saved the day, and divested the assets of the board members and CEO's who should have been paying attention.

TADA! You many return your trays to the upright and locked position. The ministries of disinformation will now return to running video soundbites on breast implants, train wrecks, and whatever other psychologically vomitous goo they can scrape up off the bathroom floor.

The other night someone mentioned that the FBI was carrying on twenty-something odd investigations into corporate fraud as a result of the current economic situation.

This is interesting, considering that as corporate fraud within publicly traded companies the jurisdiction for this investigation lies primarily with the SEC, and since Fraudie Mac is a psuedo-federal AND public agency, probably with the GAO as well.

So you understand my wondering, WTF is the FBI doing in charge of these investigations?

If I was to speculate, I would say that the two afore mentioned organizations, WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE, is to provide objective oversight over publicly traded, and governmental institutions have been shut out of the investigation for only once conceivable reason: That their findings are not subject to a chain of authority that ends at the white house.

This Nixon-esque delusional paranoia from the white house continues unabated.

Today's rant was about E-File, which is a centralized database run by the federal government, and used by employers to verify employment status. Apparently this is a great tool for prosecuting illegal immigrants.

Poo Lobbed, actually quoted a %99.5 lookup-accuracy rate as a good thing. So that would be 1 out of every 200 employees validated was SCREWED because this system is in place. I guess that is Ok. 99.5% of DMV transactions are probably accurate, so obviously nobody I know could have experienced a typo on a title, or pissed off the teller by... breathing.

Not to mention the fundamental problem with _ALL_ centralized federal databases: THEY ENABLE ABUSE. If you consider for a moment the depths that W. has stooped to, do you actually think this sort of resource WON'T be abused as a means of redistributed wealth and/or power?

Are you a member of an unpopular political association? Oops, terribly sorry fellow, the labor department has misplaced your citizenship records, good luck getting a job!

What kind of man takes such tremendous pride in degrading those poor bastards I see digging ditches along the highway? A small man. A very small man. Even worse, the utter lack of foresight he demonstrates by giving without recourse, tantalizing powers of exploitation and abuse to the federal government is just an astoundingly bad idea.

Good or bad, better or worse, nothing should be considered without considering it in more than one context.

Howdy,

Got a political call a few hours ago; told them this was a Democrat house and they hung up. Not less than half an hour ago we received an automated call informing us that absentee ballots would be sent to our address. Of course those ballots will not come, and if I was a fool I would then not vote.

This is a well known vote suppression tactic, and I would very much like to see those responsible GO TO JAIL. I am pleased to announce that I used the telephone companies "Call Trace" feature to lock the ANI information in the local switch.

So I've got the bastards. I would be very pleased if someone could put me in touch with persons who can file the necessary charges in order to recover by warrant, this incriminating evidence from the phone company, and assist in filing criminal charges.

For those who would also like take action, you can look up "Call Trace" on your local phone companies website. For those of you unfamiliar with the way the phone system works: Caller ID can be spoofed, but there is a second Caller ID message that cannot be interfered with by the caller. By using your phone companies "Call Trace" feature, you can record caller ID information, even for calls that display "unknown number" or the like. The problem is you can't get the information from the phone company without a warrant.

So who can I talk to about this?

Scene: A young college applicant is considering his future. Clouds form over his head with various professions:

the student smiling as an engineer on top of a massive wind turbine,

the student smiling as a marine biologist working from a trawler in the ocean

the student smiling as a writer clacking away on a keyboard,

the student smiling as a scientist in a chemistry lab,

the student frowning standing in a line frustrated waiting to approach a doorway, above which a sign says: "Draft Board"

Fade to black:

File footage: Various generals and pundits talking about how overstretched the military is.

Fade to black:

White Letters: Both candidates have plans for improving domestic employment. Your vote counts!

______________________________________________

This add is intended to target young new voters, half of which have recently filled out their selective service cards.

Click here for the video:

This doesn't just affect Florida and Maine.  "Drill now and Drill often" could easily result in catastrophic damage ANYWHERE on the eastern seaboard. 

From this article:

_______________

Professor Rick Steiner of the University of Alaska, who concludes: "It's far too risky to do these oil developments offshore in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas off Alaska.

"The oil industry says they can do it safely. But there have been several major  blowouts offshore on rigs that have exceeded the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill [the oil tanker that ruptured off the southern coast of Alaska 20 years ago]."

_______________

Is that Chevy suburban really worth risking your favourite fishing grounds? Is it worth risking the destruction of your local tourism economy?  

"All of the above" is not an energy policy, it is the absence of an energy policy. We ALREADY use "all of the above", and it isn't working anymore.  The only way to move forward is to start considering LONG TERM energy costs, and LONG TERM solutions. 

The United States shouldn't just be compliant with the Kyoto Protocol, we should be BEATING IT, and we should be leading other nations by example.  Pumpin' Palin, has too short a memory. This was HER state that was molested by Exxon Mobil, and it was HER constituents that were left with nearly zero compensation for damages more than two decades later. 

With that kind of legacy, her current position on Oil is completely unfathomable. Or maybe it just got lost in that thin ribbon of oil sludge that can still be found in the sands just off Alaska's southern coast.

From here:

First, Treasury and FHFA have established Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements, contractual agreements between the Treasury and the conserved entities. Under these agreements, Treasury will ensure that each company maintains a positive net worth.

In other words, the fed has decided to abandon it's zero-oversight approach, and instead of pointing the finger at the boss, who was the one who screwed it up, they have simply BOUGHT OUT the mortgages. It is only a matter of time before congress starts dictating mortgage elegability based on whatever terms they fancy at the moment.  Having a picture of the president in your house as a prerequisite for owning one may not be far away. 

Because the U.S. Government created these ambiguities, we have a responsibility to both avert and ultimately address the systemic risk now posed by the scale and breadth of the holdings of GSE debt and MBS

Systemic risk, is only a problem if their isn't a systematic means of managing that risk. There is, and was, and it was completely ignored. So then the question becomes: how much of this catastrophe was intentional? Was the consumer used as an unwitting pawn in order to liquidate third party oversight and place consumer land assets in the hands of the treasury? To what end? There is a transparency problem here that has not been addressed.  

Given that Treasury can hold these securities to maturity, the spreads between Treasury issuances and GSE MBS indicate that there is no reason to expect taxpayer losses from this program, and, in fact, it could produce gains.

Averting reciprocity for embezzlement, encourages embbezzlement.  This is like the FERC debacle.  If the fed needs a slice of the pie to keep things running, nobody minds.  And if the availability of pie fluctuates, well we'll just have to deal with it. All we would like, is for them to keep their damned thumbs out of our slices. This isn't a plan, it is a vague reference to one. You cannot profess a solution without first identifying the problem, and this they have not done. 

If the stock market fluctuates irrationally, all trading is suspended for 24 hours. The idea is that people should take a look around and see if they are surrounded by lemmings.

The Real Estate market has a similar device: the Interest Rate. And had it been briefly raised in 2002 or 2003, many investors and home owners would have relied on more conservative strategies.

So this catastrophe was avoidable, and there was plenty of warning. W. and Bernaky were stoking the firebox in a heavy fog, and that is something most people will understand.

Democrats need to attach this fustercluck to Bush and Bernaky with SUPERGLUE. People are starting to become more hopeful. Calling McCain "more of the same" needs to have some heavy iron behind it. Crafted correctly, this debacle could be a big enough anchor to drown the Republican campaign.

The other reason this catastrophe needs to be seriously played up, is to justify the inevitable purge when we take the white house. We need to attach as many department heads, justices, etc. etc. etc. to this mess as possible. If you are going to strike while the irons hot, you must first heat the iron.

I don't know much about hospitals other than how their computer systems work, and how I get treated and billed when my accident-prone-self decides to mangle a limb, bust some ribs, or suffer a new scar.

One thing I HAVE noticed along the way, is that the average hospital staffs two billing clerks for every doctor and that is being generous.

If you think about that for a minute, what does ONE man do, that requires TWO people just to describe it and bill for it? The answer of course, is negotiate with insurers, shuffle paperwork to seperate treatments across multiple corporate accounts, and probably a myriad of other ridiculous CYA strategies just to enable them to continue to do business.

During one minor accident, I was billed 15K dollars, one bill was vastly over the average for the work done which required me to threaten a doctor (who I liked incidentally) with legal action before he and the insurer would come to terms. Another bill was for equipment I never received. One bill was for equipment I received, but wasn't covered by my insurer, so I took it to the orthopedist and asked for an alternative. A one thousand dollar brace instantly became a fifty dollar brace.

My point here, is that if you want doctors to act reasonably, and bill reasonably, then you need to give them adequate leeway to do so. And that leeway, at the moment, is encrusted with a need for litigious self defense exceeding all reasonable expectations.

I would really like to know how much of that $15K actually went to the doctors. My guess is less than $5K, with the remainder going to insurers, lawyers, billing overhead, etc. etc. etc.

You want reasonably priced healthcare? Reform healthcare tort law, and it will be. Until then all the legislation in the world will only accomplish one thing: Making more lawyers wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

NUCLEAR...

I was in Europe during Chernobyl. Let me tell you, it ain't no fun watching people with Geiger counters taking readings in front of your house.

While France may be happy to risk irradiating themselves, they have been oddly flippant about death since Julius Caesars time. So you understand my concern when we talk about emulating their national policies.

The Germans have managed to reduce their dependency on Nuclear, AND foreign oil. Hell, I'm for that even if I have to wear the leather knickers and switch to beer.

Simply stated: "all of the above" is not an energy policy, it is a declaration of failure. Americans _already_ exploit "all of the above" as normal business practice so "all of the above" is gilding the lilly, and definitely inconsistent with a message of "change". That is what McCain does, AND it is why rational people don't like him. We are not talking left vs. right, we are talking rational vs. fundamentalist.

Democrats need to GET BACK ON MESSAGE, and stop feeding the enemy with this "all of the above" garbage. We also need to be a little more careful when treading the line between being flippant and being sarcastic. (Myself included)

In the words of a great basketball player, "sometimes you need a friend to tell you, you have something hanging from your nose there." Please donate a box of cleanex to the DNC.

for contributing to our national energy conservation goals. For I'm confident that I am not the only one who faced with baseless insinuation, childish whining and unguided antagonism, is obliged to turn off the television in disgust.

Yes, here's to you oh Talleyrand of eighth grade eloquence.

My family is watching the Convention at the moment while I enjoy a glass of wine and read a good book, listening quietly through the door periodically in case something of consequence is said.

After 30 minutes of cheer leading someone began to say something that sounded eloquent and historically interesting, at which point CNN went to commercial.

I would like to thank Donna Brazil for her commentary.

As for the rest of CNN's whining twits: seriously, get some help. This isn't about _you_, you sycophantic lesions on the collective consciousness. Somebody at CNN needs to scrape the barnacles off the boat.