Archive for March 16th, 2010

The Unshakeable Blonde

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Hillary Clinton, backing down on Israel for America, as everyone in the world knew would happen.

Why?

Here’s Matthew Yglesias pointing out the obvious: there’s no political support whatever in the United States for any kind of retaliation against Israel, no matter what Israel does.

So, back will go George Mitchell for another round of proximity talks.

Israel will come to the table for a serious negotiation only when it decides that its future as a Jewish state is under threat. Both demographics and time are on the Palestinian side and the Israelis aren’t completely stupid.

The Palestinians will come to the table for a serious negotiation only when they decide that some kind of state is better than another 60 years of being stateless.

At the moment, neither side is serious about peace, so the US shouldn’t waste any further time on forcing them to get serious; both sides know we have zero leverage.

Gorilla says: “Getting Republicans to vote for any bill introduced by any Democrat is a walk in the park, when compared to getting Jews and Palestinians to divvy up their park!”

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Permanently Qualified Homeowning Debtors

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Calculated Risk has a very good summary of just how indebted the homeowners who qualified for permanents HAMP mods (only 170,000 or so of the million plus in the HAMP program) are.

Roughly 60% of these borrowers’ income after permanent HAMP mod goes to paying debt. Leaving 40% for everything else, good luck with that!

A great CR line: Just imagine the characteristics of the borrowers who can’t be converted!

So, it’s pretty clear that default rates will continue to be sky high, even among the “best” modified borrowers, home prices will continue to decline, the banks will continue to hoard and avoid losses, and the economy will go nowhere for several more years.

Gorilla says: “That’s my best worst-case scenario!”

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Fighting For Impunity

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Apparently, that’s part of what we’re doing in Afghanistan, where a blanket immunity has been given for all bad things done before 2001.

Human rights groups have rightly denounced this, but it’s really not a surprise: we’re not trying our own war criminals, so why should Afghanistan?

Best line in the article:

“Supporters of the amnesty say prosecuting old allegations would risk restarting years of civil war.”

Gorilla asks: “As opposed to what’s going on there now?”

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Nothing To See Here

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

When Republicans are saying that Senator Chris Dodd’s financial reform bill is “85-90%” of the way there, you know it’s not a serious bill and it’s certainly not a serious reform.

The independent consumer financial protection agency is toast, the Fed’s been given powers it already has, and there’s no requirement that regulators be held responsible the next time a bubble bursts. It’s all about not offending Wall Street, so Congress will stay bought and paid for.

Gorilla thinks: “And that’s how you produce a meatless sausage!”

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First Do Harm

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

To the 47 million on Medicaid, who can’t find doctors to accept them as patients!

As states look to close budget deficits, the poor are always the first to get the axe. They don’t vote as often and they’re not seen as often on tv.

And the AMA, the world’s greatest closed shop union, is far more interested in protecting the ridiculous salaries paid to doctors than to the rights of patients.

Gorilla says: “We should be dying for health care, but in this rich country we do!”

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