February 1, 2009 - February 7, 2009

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Week of February 1, 2009 - February 7, 2009

Looking at the crisis from Spain

February 7, 2009, 2:19PM

"Courage is grace under pressure."
Ernest Hemingway

The most significant thing about the financial crisis, up till now, is that it is universal.

Something with its origins in the US financial sector has hit the entire world economy and the numbers are horrible everywhere. Millions of people are suffering from the effects of an economic philosophy and ideology that was hatched in America's nest, just as those same millions enjoyed the economic boom that nest and philosophy produced, until the bubble burst.

For the first time in history we are all sailing in the same leaky boat.

Spain in no exception. Their wish to be a major player and to end the long isolation Franco brought upon them has been amply granted, for good and for bad.

A political cartoon from Spain

February 6, 2009, 11:42AM

"They are against protectionism, but wherever they go they are always surrounded by bodyguards"

Andrés Rábago, who signs "El Roto" (the broken one) is more than a political cartoonist: his drawings are brilliant, tiny, essays in the bitterest traditions of the blackest, Spanish, anarchist humor.

The one I have chosen today is especially poisonous.

Enjoy!

Let's not dramatize Daschle

February 4, 2009, 3:01PM

The California Energy Crisis - Wikipedia
The 2004 release of transcripts of taped conversations among Enron electricity traders in the summer of 2001 revealed that company insiders not only knew they were stealing from California and other states, but gloated about it. (...) At a time when streets in Northern California were lit only by head lights, factories shut down and families were trapped in elevators, Enron Energy traders laughed:
"Just cut 'em off. They're so f----d. They should just bring back f-----g horses and carriages, f-----g lamps, f-----g kerosene lamps."

I don't want to dramatize the Daschle affair, it's just another drop in the boundless ocean of America's ongoing Satyricon.

The decadence of a society is a very mysterious thing. Many people recognize it, denounce it, rail against it; finally even a majority of its members might acknowledge it, but somehow, seeing it, recognizing and denouncing it doesn't change it. Decadence doesn't come about overnight, it is chaotic in its complexity and may go on a long time and rarely ends painlessly.

The tax farce

February 3, 2009, 3:18PM

"Rule of all without rule of oneself would prove to be as deceptive and disappointing as a painted toy-mango, charming to look at outwardly but hollow and empty within." Conquest of Self - M.K. Gandhi

President Obama's choice for the position of chief White House performance officer has withdrawn from consideration for the post, an administration official said Tuesday, after coming forward with concerns about her tax returns. New York Times

Thomas A. Daschle, President Obama's choice to be secretary of Health and Human Services, has withdrawn his nomination, White House officials announced shortly after noon. Daschle cited the distractions that followed his failure to pay all of his taxes in recent years. Washington Post

Obama is off to a very shaky start. The belief that he is ready to push for a fundamental remaking of America has weak evidence in its favor, despite his intelligence and his intellectual openness. The United States is getting good grammar. It needs bold remaking. Immanuel Wallerstein

Gee, that didn't last long did it?

As skeptical as I have often been about Obama, I admit that the last place I ever expected him to trip up was on something sleazy like this.

The word was that everyone being considered for even minor positions in the Obama administration was being exhaustively vetted, gone over with a fine tooth comb, held up to the light like a dangling chad...