Month: September 2008

The Markets Stabilize?, Ctd.

A reader writes:

I am a retired Wall Street Advisor and have been with one of the largest banks mentioned in the news for sixteen years.

The bounce that you see today in the market should be attributed to:

1- "Dead Cat Bounce"- After a big daily decline, there is always a reflexive uptick generated by "short Covering" and "buy on the dip "investors.

2- "talk of Optimism"- The news media this morning is talking about another shot at a bailout, albeit a smaller one. Also, do not forget that market does not have all its participants at "at the table". One thousand financial related shares can not be sold short, yet.

Pity Party

Rebecca Traister doesn’t feel bad for Palin:

Sarah Palin is no wilting flower. She is a politician who took the national stage and sneered at the work of community activists. She boldly tries to pass off incuriosity and lassitude as regular-people qualities, thereby doing a disservice to all those Americans who also work two jobs and do not come from families that hand out passports and backpacking trips, yet still manage to pick up a paper and read about their government and seek out experience and knowledge.

When you stage a train wreck of this magnitude — trying to pass one underqualified chick off as another highly qualified chick with the lame hope that no one will notice — well, then, I don’t feel bad for you.

When you treat women as your toys, as gullible and insensate pawns in your Big Fat Presidential Bid — or in Palin’s case, in your Big Fat Chance to Be the First Woman Vice President Thanks to All the Cracks Hillary Put in the Ceiling — I don’t feel bad for you.

  (Hat tip: John Cole)

Letting Palin Be Palin

A Canadian commenter at Jonathan Martin’s blog is puzzled:

I don’t understand why Palin isn’t doing more interviews in America. In her hourlong appearance on Canadian TV, she engaged in a trenchant critique of Samuel Huntington’s clash-of-civilizations theory, identifying the western Balkans and central Asia as but two significant outliers. She acknowledged Syrian secret service involvement in past unrest in Lebanon, but said to craft a Syria-focused US policy vis-a-vis Lebanon for that reason alone would be "reductionist." I didn’t understand the second half-hour very well, when she was answering the questions in French. But I think she gently corrected the interviewer’s imprecise use of the word "geostrategic."

She also speaks many foreign languages fluently:

Fisking Brooks’ Harrumph

A young conservative has a go. There is a philosophical difference here. David has long been a skeptic of conservatism, of free markets, small government and libertarian-leaning pundits. He’s more of a national greatness, interventionist, big government conservative – Bushism with competence. In a crisis like this, some of us hold back, leery of letting socialism control the financial sector. Others see authority as the key ingredient, and want more of it. I just don’t think the problem of the last eight years has been too little authority and deference. Maybe David is right on the bail-out. But I reluctantly remain a conservative of doubt on it.

Benedict’s Bigotry

The Pope rejects the new Sarkozy-appointed French ambassador to the Vatican because he’s gay and married to a man. These facts in no way impede the man’s ability to do his job, just as being gay does not in any way impede a seminarian’s ability to be a great priest (as so many gay men have been through the centuries). But this Pope is a bigot, as we now know – and will discriminate against people just for who they are, rather than what they can professionally do.

Palin’s Petty Abuse Of Power

The latest from the investigation that the McCain campaign is trying to stop:

An Alaska woman who owns a company that processes workers’ compensation claims in the state has told an independent investigator that she was urged by the office of Gov. Sarah Palin to deny a benefits claim for Palin’s ex brother-in-law, a state trooper who was involved in an ugly divorce and child custody dispute with Palin’s sister, despite evidence that the claim appeared to be legitimate, according to state officials who were briefed about the conversation.

Murlene Wilkes, the proprietor of Harbor Adjusting Services in Anchorage, had originally denied that she was pressured by Gov. Palin’s office to deny state trooper Mike Wooten’s claim for workers compensation benefits.

But Wilkes changed her story two weeks ago when she was subpoenaed by Steven Branchflower, the former federal prosecutor who was appointed in July to probe allegations Gov. Palin, Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate, abused her office by abruptly ousting Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan, state officials knowledgeable about her conversation with Branchflower said. Monegan has said he felt pressured by Gov. Palin, her husband, Todd, and several of her aides to fire Wooten. Branchflower’s investigation centers on whether Palin fired Monegan because he refused to fire Wooten.