ThinkFast: December 1, 2008
ThinkFast: December 1, 2008
Later today, President-elect Barack Obama will name some members of his national security team. The appointments will reportedly mark “a sweeping shift of priorities and resources” by greatly expanding a “corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states.”
In naming Susan Rice his ambassador to the United Nations today, President-elect Obama will pick “a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.” Obama will also restore the U.N. ambassadorship to a Cabinet-level position, as it was under President Clinton.
On the 20th anniversary of World Aids Day, governments across the globe are pledging “to step up the fight against HIV” and combat the stigma associated with the disease. Obama will deliver taped remarks to the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health.
NPR reporter Ivan Watson and three members of NPR’s Iraqi staff “narrowly escaped an apparent assassination attempt in Baghdad on Sunday after a hidden ‘sticky’ bomb exploded underneath their parked, armored BMW.”
“When the Iraqi government ratified an agreement last week setting new terms for a continued American presence in Iraq, private contractors working for the Pentagon faced the inevitability that they would be stripped of their immunity from Iraqi law.” Some experts said that contractors would be forced to rely much more on Iraqi employees, rather than on Americans.
The 110th Congress passed only about 3.3 percent of all the bills introduced, the lowest success rate since 1976. A full 32 percent “did nothing more than rename a federal building,” up from the 25 percent of legislation representing ceremonial bills from the 109th Congress.
The European Space Agency has identified new rifts on an Antarctic ice shelf that “could lead to it breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula.” The ice shelf had “been stable for most of the past century before it began retreating in the 1990s.”
The UN continues climate change talks in a new summit that begins today in Poznan, Poland. Delegates from 190 countries will discuss “[p]roposals for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol treaty…with a final agreement planned to be signed in Copenhagen a year from now.”
Tanta, the blogging pseudonym of a popular and admirer financial blogger Doris Dungey, passed away Sunday morning. Thanks in large part to Tanta’s contributions, the blog Calculated Risk became “a crucial source of prescient analysis as the housing market at first faltered, then collapsed and finally spawned a full-blown credit crisis.”
And finally: Jonathan Lifschutz, a Long Island supporter of Barack Obama, says he has been forced to hide his OBAMA vanity license plates inside his car because people keep trying to steal them. He said “would-be thieves tried prying off the plates and he even caught one man red-handed. He jokes the Empire State plates one day will be a collector’s item — in someone else’s house. So he’s taken them off his car and put his old plates back on.”
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Government warned of mortgage meltdown
Regulators ignored warnings about risky mortgages, delayed regulations on the industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.
"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.
Bowing to aggressive lobbying -- along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK -- regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.
LINK
December 1st, 2008 at 9:11 amWhat happened here? I thought the Iraqis were supposed to be laying roses at the feet of Americans as we were "greeted as liberators" in Iraq? Must be that these rogue Iraqis who planted the bomb under this car didn't get the roses and liberators memo?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:14 amIndia's top security official resigns in wake of Mumbai terrorist attacks
New York Times News Service
MUMBAI, India – India's top domestic security official resigned in disgrace on Sunday for the failure to thwart or quickly contain the horrific terrorist attacks in Mumbai last week.
LINK
Not exactly how the U.S. government handled 9-11, is it?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am#3, DNFP - you know you're a failure when Bush gives you a medal of honor...
December 1st, 2008 at 9:19 amThe Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.
"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.
Yahoo News -- AP report 12/1/08
December 1st, 2008 at 9:22 amIn civilized nations the Secretary of the Treasury would have resigned following such a devastating financial collapse.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:23 amAnd finally: Jonathan Lifschutz, a Long Island supporter of Barack Obama, says he has been forced to hide his OBAMA vanity license plates inside his car because people keep trying to steal them. He said “would-be thieves tried prying off the plates and he even caught one man red-handed. He jokes the Empire State plates one day will be a collector’s item — in someone else’s house. So he’s taken them off his car and put his old plates back on.”
Wowsers! Long Island sure knows how to steal those license plates and trample Wal-Mart workers to death! What's their secret!?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:23 amMatt Yglesias and Barstow of the NYT have written about the conflict of interest within NBC.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:30 amNBC continued without objection to feature (Gen. Barry) McCaffrey, and the similarly-conflicted retired Gen. Wayne Downing, as objective "military analysts."
(they were also on the payrolls of various firms profiting from lucrative contracts with the Pentagon)
Brian Williams himself had developed what he called "a close friendship" with both McCaffrey and Downing, and could therefore assure us that "these men are passionate patriots" who would never offer anything but the most honest and forthright assessments.
DNFP-
December 1st, 2008 at 9:31 amSorry -- I was hurriedly posting my comment and THEN I read that you had posted the same thing.
The 110th Congress passed only about 3.3 percent of all the bills introduced, the lowest success rate since 1976
What do you expect will happen when the Republicans announce that they will filibuster any meaningful legislation and then they do just that (on merely the threat of a filibuster)? And since we have a complacent Congress that is not willing to force them into an actual filibuster, you have a system where nothing is going to get done, which is what happened.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:32 amFor any interested, Ron Howard's on C-Span, talking about his latest movie, Frost/Nixon.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:43 amBilbo Hussein Baggins Says: What do you expect will happen when the Republicans announce that they will filibuster any meaningful legislation and then they do just that (on merely the threat of a filibuster)?
I've had at least two people call me to ask me to vote for Jim Martin. I can imagine how many actually called, but I didn't answer. I think the Democrats see the 60 majority as their mandate.
However, they seem to forget that moderate Republicans like Snowe and Hagel and even McCain on certain issues could be brought over to weight the balance in their favor... And these folks are suposed to be the best and brightest, yet hey keep missing the obvious?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:45 amI guess this fact pretty much shoots down the reich-wing talking point that the Dems are to blame for the financial crisis because they had a [slim] majority over the last 2 years. How are they to blame if the Dems couldn't pass any of their legislation?
December 1st, 2008 at 9:53 amhe has been forced to hide his OBAMA vanity license plates inside his car because people keep trying to steal them.
Murphy's Law holds that this week his car will be stolen.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:56 amunbelievable Says:
I’ve had at least two people call me to ask me to vote for Jim Martin.
Good morning, unbelievable.
December 1st, 2008 at 9:56 amI've heard Obama has sent some of his campaign team into Georgia for tomorrow's runoff election. Here's hoping enough of 'our folks' get out to vote again.
Zimzone Says: I’ve heard Obama has sent some of his campaign team into Georgia for tomorrow’s runoff election. Here’s hoping enough of ‘our folks’ get out to vote again.
Hi Zimzone :)
I hope Obama has done that, because it's expected to be pretty close. I'm planning to let my students out early tomorrow to go vote hoping that will help.
Unfortunately, the Republicans have sent Palin here. Ugh! When is that woman going to finally go away?
December 1st, 2008 at 10:04 amunbelievable Says:
Unfortunately, the Republicans have sent Palin here. Ugh! When is that woman going to finally go away?
Perhaps she'll have the same influence on the Chambliss runoff as she did with McCain.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:14 amI agree, though, it's time for her to crawl back in her Igloo.
Obama is expected to announce Hillary Clinton as SOS today:
December 1st, 2008 at 10:28 am
Zimzone Says: Perhaps she’ll have the same influence on the Chambliss runoff as she did with McCain.
I agree, though, it’s time for her to crawl back in her Igloo.
LOL. I just saw that she hasn't been back to her office since the election. If she keeps that up, she's going to lose another election - her own re-election.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:30 amOne might think that the moderate Repubs would come to their senses and help break filibusters, but how many times did that happen in the last two years? I wouldn't count on it.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:00 pmRe comments 1 and 5 - The next shoe to drop will be the collapse of the "other" mortgage market, i.e. commercial real estate.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:26 pmSomebody stole the Obama signs from my yard a day or two after the election. It was quite a splash of cold water to go out and find them missing. Signs for local races remained so I know it wasn't an overzealous political sign clean-up crew. You may want a souvenir, but stealing is just wrong. Stealing someone's license plates is beyond the pale.
December 1st, 2008 at 12:55 pmclusterphuck; FLAGGED FOR AD-SPAMMING!
December 1st, 2008 at 1:57 pm