SUSA: Obama 51, McCain 43 in Missouri!

+8. Hot damn! Looks like Obama has made huge gains in the suburbs of KC and St. Louis in the past few weeks.

Starting to look like McCain is
!

euphemism alert/thoughts on the RED MENACE

European nations back banks
Euro-zone leaders held an emergency session Sunday. Measures include injections of capital.

Last Updated: October 12, 2008: 4:14 PM ET

PARIS (AP) -- Nations in Europe's single-currency zone agreed Sunday to temporarily guarantee bank refinancing as part of a raft of emergency measures to ease the credit crisis.

The head of the region's central bank welcomed the unity -- but warned there is more work to do.

"The force of unity that we showed today is a fundamental element of confidence," said European Central Bank Chief Jean-Claude Trichet. But, he added: "there are still many things to do," both by governments and central bankers.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the measures -- which range from help with liquidity and injections of capital to new accounting rules for banks -- will be enacted "without delay" in the 15 countries using the euro -- with simultaneous Cabinet meetings being held Monday in Italy, Germany, France and elsewhere.

OK. The term "injection of capital" is being tossed around pretty frequently, and as far as I can tell, all that means is "nationalization". Which of course = socialism. Cue scary music.

Why are the media using a gobbledygook phrase to avoid calling it what it really is (the government taking over a bank)? Beats the hell out of me. I think part of it is that the Reagan-era mantra of "government isn't the solution, government is the problem" has become such a deep-seated part of our political discourse over the last three decades that we don't seem to know how to talk about governmental solutions to problems any more. Every disaster is further proof that the government can't solve problems. And there have been a whole bunch of disasters over the last eight years.

So we have no way of having an effective national discourse about what really smart folks are saying is probably the ony way to address with the problem. Just mentioning the word "socialism" in most corners in America will draw instant hisses and bared teeth. We don't have any words to describe nationalization--state takeover of private business by fiat--because, duh, we're Americans and we believe in the free market, d-duh.I mean, didn't the Cold War prove to everybody that capitalism is superior?

But the American government has always intervened in the markets! We've never been a truly, 100% purely free market, because such a thing implies no regulation at all....clearly ridiculous. Anarchy is worse than any form of government--Madison famously said "if men were angels, they would have no need of government." So it seems to me that the art of statecraft is in guiding the nation on the sliding scale between 100% nationalization of the means of production (communism) and 0% government intervention in markets (pure laissez-faire capitalism).

On one extreme is abolition of private property, and on the other is plutocracy (which is pretty much where we're at now).

In fact, you may have been quickly laughed out of the room for suggesting such a thing, but maybe it's possible that the disintegration of global Reaganist economic policy is analogous (imperfectly) to the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 80s/early 90s. Their economic philosophy had ceased bearing any relationship to reality, and it eventually caught up to them. While I don't think the US is going to break into dozens of different mini-republics any time soon, we've definitely been knocked down several pegs in the global King-of-the-Hill game, for what ultimately is the same reason: our economic philosophy ceased bearing any relationship to reality, and it eventually caught up to us.

George "Fucking" Bush (who has done nothing more useful than screaming REMAIN CALM!!!!! ALL IS WELL!!!!! like Kevin Bacon at the end of Animal House throughout this debacle) ran the national debt from $5T to $10T. He managed to do that by giving huge tax breaks to rich folks*, and by playing political games with the budgetary process to keep the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq from counting in the official budget. And then, there's this....

Although not included in the figures reported by the government, the U.S. government has moved to more explicitly support the soundness of obligations of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, starting in July via the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, and the September 7, 2008 Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) conservatorship of both government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). The on- or off-balance sheet obligations of those two independent GSEs is just over $5 trillion.[27] The government accounts for these corporations as if they are unconnected to its balance sheet. The U.S. Treasury contracted at the inception of the conservatorship to receive US$ 1 billion dollars in senior preferred shares, and a warrant for 79.9% of the common shares from each GSE, as a fee to fund, as needed, up to US$ 100 billion total for each GSE (in exchange for more senior preferred stock), in order to maintain solvency and adequate capital ratios at the GSEs, thereby supporting all senior (normal) liabilities, subordinated indebtedness, and guarantees of the two firms. Some observers see this as an effective nationalization of the companies that ultimately places taxpayers at risk for all their liabilities[28] The net exposure to taxpayers is difficult to determine at the time of the takeover and depends on several factors, such as declines in housing prices and losses on mortgage assets in the future.[29] Over 98 percent of Fannie's loans were paying timely during 2008.[30] Both Fannie and Freddie had positive net worth as of the date of the takeover, meaning the value of their assets exceeded their liabilities.[31][32] The Congressional Budget Office has recommended incorporating the assets and liabilities of the two companies into the federal budget due to the degree of government control over the entities.[33] The 5-year credit default swap spread for U.S. treasuries had risen to 18 basis points per annum as of 9 September 2008 as a result of market perception regarding the increased debt load of the government.[33]

Ugh. Just thinking about this shit makes me want to reach for the vodka Budweiser.

And then, on top of that, we have the collapse of the housing bubble, which triggered the problems with banks, which is liable to trigger problems in the ~$60T credit default swap market. (60 trillion. That is not a typo. Do not adjust your TV set.)

So perhaps there's a parallel here to the way the USSR fell apart; the US, by contrast, is in much better shape and is not headed for anything like the total political meltdown of the Soviets. But there's a similarity in the blind adherence to ideology and browbeating or ignoring Ph.D.s that knew better, the stubborn refusal to acknowledge reality until the roof comes caving in, and the self-inflicted nature of many of the wounds. (And there's also the parallel endless occupations of Afghanistan..........)

So I guess, in light of all that, which is surely rattling around in a great many national reporters' brains, if not in so many words, maybe it's no surprise that we can't talk very well about moving somewhat to the left on the economic intervention/freedom scale.

Again, as far as I can tell, when a bank is insolvent, the government has to step in and clean up after them. That means the bank doesn't get to keep operating as a private business, which is what Treasury Secretary Paulson wanted in the original bailout package. But....I think we're finally beginning to see Paulson change his mind and start mulling over bank takeovers, which is what Europe is already doing. (Note that the linked Seattle Times article manages to use both the "inject capital" euphemism and the phrase "partial nationalization".)

Will it work? No idea. Maybe. I hope so. I don't think we have any other realistic options.

Which means the FREE MARKET UBER ALLES crowd is just going to have to get over this. The more they bitch and moan about "socialism," as if they have any idea what they're talking about, just makes them sound more and more disconnected from the world the rest of us are living in.

* Remember the Clinton surplus? Bush claimed we needed tax cuts because we were running a surplus. By 2004, when he'd managed to blow thru the surplus and get us back into good ol' Republican deficit spending, he claimed we clearly needed more tax cuts, because we were running a deficit. YEEEEEEEEAARRRRGHHHH

EDIT: Devilstower muses on very similar territory here. He's better at articulating this stuff.

pix from the show

Sorry this took so long....

loading up....


By the time I got there, Jeff had been working for hours already....


Jeff up on the ladder....


Those are cool looking....


"Beauty Fades"....


cue the Jaws theme....


the space....





The full set. I didn't pick these up until the day before the event....


Jeff surprised me with a very nice print of the four CD covers joined together....


all set up....


people....


playback....


L-R: Kevin, my guitar player; Bryan, my roommate; Chris, my neighbor; and Sara, Jeff's wife....

the plot thickens

OK, so I've been procrastinating on putting up pictures of the event. I had a bunch uploaded to a hosting web site, but couldn't get blogger to load them; I think I have to lower the resolution of the images. Which sucks cause I was going to slap 20 or 30 pix up here.

Anyway, so I hear the news has gotten pretty dramatic lately (Sep 08 has been genuinely nuts, hasn't it? I'm glad it's over).

To recap, here's September in a nutshell:

• McCain picks Dan Quayle somebody named Sarah Palin to be VP


• They have a debate which was basically a draw....


• ....which is remarkable cause it was unremarkable when Sen. Black Guy proved he could hold his own in a debate with Senator POW


• McCain blurted out that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong"


• Then a bunch of banks exploded....


• ....which made the whole economy explode....


• ....which made McCain declare that the economy was in so much danger he had to suspend his campaign (which he didn't) to work on a bailout bill....


• ....which promptly failed in the House....


• ....causing a huge drop in the stock market.

And then today the Dow made up most of that. I dunno about anybody else but I plain don't understand why anybody would ever fuck with the stock market.

Q: What's the difference between a casino and the stock market?
A: The casino is regulated! (rimshot)

* * * * *

And then Biden and Palin are going to debate on Thursday. The entire world (especially Tina Fey) is waiting with breathless anticipation to see what pearls of wisdom and nuggets of reg'lar folksy charm she'll bring to the debate.

Biden is facing a major Florida State vs. Div III One-Stoplight Tech dilemma....there's no upside at all in winning, but if you lose, oh brother....

* * * * *

OK....so the real reason I wanted to post was because I saw this article on Kit Bond being linked to the firing of Todd Graves.

If you remember, there has been no shortage of controversy over the firings of several US Attorneys. It is undisputed that the President has the authority to fire US Attorneys, but which Attorneys got fired apparently was due to political influence. This is one of several different Bush-era scandals that will be an indelible part of the man's lasting legacy; and like many of those, this one hasn't had anything like a full accounting of just what the hell happened. This week however, lost in the hubbub over the presidential campaign and the Wall St. Circus there was a report from the DOJ Inspector General's office, and it apparently is quite a doozy.

Graves was the last U.S. attorney to be counted among those fired through the work of Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales and Michael Battle, director of the Executive Office of the United States Attorney. His case differed from the others in many ways -- he was fired in January 2006, almost 11 months earlier than the other removed attorneys, and the circumstances around his dismissal were unclear.

But according to the report, Graves' removal was a result of multiple calls and emails from Bonds' legal counsel Jack Bartling, to members of White House Counsel -- who "kicked over" the complaints to the Justice Department.

Bond's problems with Graves' began in late fall of 2004. Bond's office had been having problems with another Missouri Congressman -- Rep. Sam Graves (R), U.S. Attorney Graves' brother. Between October and December 2004, a staffer from Bond's office reportedly called former U.S. Attorney Todd Graves to ask for his help in convincing his brother to fire his chief of staff. When Graves refused to intervene, the staffer told him "they could no longer protect [his] job," and hung up, according to the report.

Shortly after, in February 2005, Bartling began placing calls to the White House Counsel's office about Graves, pushing for a replacement. By the fall of 2005, the complaints had been passed to the Justice Department. In December, Bartling reached out again to Michael Elston, chief of staff to the deputy attorney general, who had interviewed Bartling when he had been applying for a position in that department.

In a call shortly before Graves' firing, Bartling asked Elston to, "'keep his ear to the ground' to ensure that the Senator's role in requesting White House action on
Graves was not being disseminated within the Department," and make sure that Bonds name was never linked to Graves' ouster, the report states.

I don't think there's any appropriate response to this except what the fuck?!?

What's bizarre is that Bond is relatively moderate issues-wise compared to most of his Republican colleagues, and Sam Graves is definitely a conservative. Makes you wonder just what the hell it was that caused a problem between Bond's staff and Sam Graves' staff. (I downloaded the PDF of the IG's report to see if there's more information in there, but it's ~400 pages long, so I haven't exactly dove right in....)

If this gets any attention at all, it'll be blockbuster news in Missouri. Thought it was too interesting not to share, especially since the entire economy is being sucked into a huge black hole and nobody's paying attention to anything else.

that's Pat frigging Buchanan

I am so looking forward to the debates....

re: South Ossetia

The mighty billmon's latest essay. As usual, it's both illuminating and depressing.

There is more insight there in just one paragraph than in 24 hours of CNN.

as promised....

....previews.

#2 corrosion dub 4.24
#40-41 tectonic/l'etat c'est moi 4.46
#59-60 city on a hill/manifest destiny 4.37
#67 abandoned malls 4.30

You may have noticed that some of these are very quiet. Don't hesitate to adjust your volume level; you will hear additional detail.

coming attractions

You'll notice a new link on the roll to your right. Jeff is an asskicking photographer and there are plenty of strange/beautiful things to look at on his site. Jeff and I are collaborating on an upcoming show called CORROSION, which will premiere @ 1617 Main St., KCMO (2nd floor, above Nara), Friday September 5th, 6 pm.

I attended one of Jeff's shows a while back at a loft at 18th & Troost. A friend of his contributed some very interesting ambient music as a backdrop, which I thought complemented his artwork very well. That gave me an idea: why not try to create a single piece of music that would not repeat at all during the entire time the gallery was open? I bounced the idea off of Jeff, who loved it. We started talking about this in fall of 07 sometime, so this has been in the works for a long time. It's evolved considerably since then; the amount of stuff we've decided not to do is pretty huge....

The audio and images will have some themes in common (in particular processes of decay and urban blight), but the material in each will be independent. However, due to an effect called pareidolia, since the work is very abstract, each and every viewer/listener will interpret what they experience uniquely. If you are looking at the picture of the semi-destroyed pianos while the music is chaotic and percussive, you will make sense of it one way; if you are looking at the same picture while the music is tranquil and drony, you will understand it in another way.

The very abstract/experimental nature of both the music and photography will encourage this effect, and hopefully the extreme length and open form of the music will make it impossible for anyone to experience the same combination of music and art. Also, the speakers being scattered around the room means that the "sound" of the room will fluctuate unpredictably depending on where you are in the room and how many other people there are, whether they're talking, etc. Since there will be no one "correct" way of experiencing the show, one is left only with their five senses as guide.

I am getting very close to completing the work; running time is going to be just slightly over four hours (looks like it'll be about 4:03, but I'm not quite done yet....), which has presented some interesting technical challenges in creating, storing, manipulating, and compiling the whole thing. Most of it is texture and drones; one sound drifts into another, usually without clearly delineated boundaries (although there are several abrupt transitions and surprises scattered throughout).

You can view what Jeff will be displaying in the "glassworks" gallery on his page. I'll have some mp3 previews up shortly (once I can figure out what the hell to excerpt!).

"If you have a well-maintained car.....

THEN THE TERRISTS HAVE ALREADY WON!!!!!!!!!!!"



A few thoughts....

1. He's clearly dead right, and I don't see how anybody can argue otherwise with a straight face.

2. When was the last time you remember a Democratic presidential candidate actually using the word "lie"?

3. Somewhere Jimmy Carter is putting on a sweater and having a pretty good laugh.

4. McCain cannot be excited about facing Obama in the debates.

5. I'm confused as to what the point of the tire gauge stunt was in the first place....do Republicans genuinely think that "conserving gas is for dirty fucking hippies" is a winning message this year? They've gotten some good polling on the proposals for increased offshore drilling. Which means absolutely fuck-all in terms of what is sound policy, but I guess they feel it gives them license to throw feces at the people who correctly point out that drilling isn't going to do a damn thing to fix the problem.

The problem, of course, is that the economy depends on a finite resource which will gradually become more and more expensive due to the highly esoteric and obscure laws of supply and demand. And here I was thinking that the people who lift up the free market as a panacea for everything would be familiar with supply and demand....

Even if increased American drilling could improve the situation right this minute (which it can't), it would still only provide a temporary solution. Eventually, the economy must be weaned off of oil. It is nowhere written that an oil-based economy must be permanent.

(Anyway, this post is for Sara who was giving me shit about not updating the blog since the end of March a jillion years ago.)

Pre-Edison recordings discovered

Whoa.

Apparently a Frenchman figured out how to record sound well before Edison did. But it took 150 years and lasers to actually play back the sound. Edison's place in history is safe because his system could play audio as well as record. Still, it's hard for me not to find something called a "phonautogram" cool.

If I read the article correctly, they had to take the paper (yes, paper) and scan it optically, and then reconstruct the waveforms for playback. The gadget was hand-cranked, so the playback rate would have been erratic and would have to be corrected for. That sounds like it was really the hard/time-consuming part....historians have been carefully scanning really old documents of various sorts for a while now, but converting those images to sound (while accounting for the wobbly speed of the machine, and any other idiosyncracies it had) is new.

5 Years

US deaths: ~4,000
US wounded: ~29,000
Iraqi deaths: unknown (minimum six figures)
Total cost to American taxpayers: $474B (and rising)

Dear George, Dick, Tony, Colin, and all the rest: hang your fucking heads today, you red-handed criminals.

Samplitude 10

arrived yesterday. I am one happy geek.

Just because I can, here's a picture of the gigantic flag hanging on the only wall in the house big enough to hold it:

Super Fat Tuesday

WV Republicans actually have a convention (not a caucus or election). Today McCain threw his support to Huckabee to prevent Romney from claiming the delegates. That alone will make Limbaugh apoplectic tomorrow.

Here's what's going to send him into orbit: so did Ron Paul!

Paul and McCain teamed up to hand WV to Huckabee in order to screw Romney. Yowza.

for what it's worth....

In Missouri, Obama has been endorsed by Sen. Claire McCaskill, and Clinton has been endorsed by Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (former mayor of KC--they named 47th St. after him, is all you need to know).

This means that Obama has been endorsed by the state's highest profile white female Democrat and Clinton has been endorsed by the state's highest profile black male Democrat.

MO: the ultimate border state.

*****

While I'm at it....

HRC will probably win MO, but as of maybe a few days ago, it's looking like (if we can believe the polling) Super Fat Tuesday will be indecisive....this has become a delegate race (for the first time in decades) and we will probably have meaningful conventions on both sides. I was convinced that either Obama or HRC would be pulling away by now, but it just hasn't happened.

I have no idea when this thing will end. If either Obama or Clinton can score some sort of surprise GOTV coup on 2/5 and knock the other out, then the nomination will be decided. But it's looking likely that we'll have to keep going, into the post-Super Duper Tuesday primary season. And the stakes get higher....

Personally, I was hoping we could have had this figured out by now....especially since McCain is very close to being the presumptive nominee on the other side.

*****

I'm surprised Edwards dropped out so soon. He could have plausibly had ~10% of delegates at the convention, which if Obama and Clinton were nearly at parity (45-45), could have made him the kingmaker. For whatever reason, he decided to end the campaign. Perhaps this will make the brokered convention less likely.

Here's hoping....

surprise!

Some good news for once: Matt Blunt took everybody by surprise today by announcing he wasn't going to run for re-election this November.

And there was much rejoicing....

MO Republicans seem to be caught off-guard; Blunt re-election campaign ads were already on the air (!), possible replacement candidates had to get back to reporters about whether they were running or not. Suddenly the shadow of a multi-candidate free-for-all is looming over the Republican primary.

Obviously the immediate question is: what changed? Blunt's tenure has been scandal-ridden....it's possible a really big scandal is going to break in the next few days, or something.

Whatever....the sound you hear is champagne being popped at Nixon for Guv 08 HQ....