In this article from today's news about McCain's speech at Wake Forest University (located in Winston-Salem, NC), one comes across this little tidbit (thrown off by the reporter as an incidental but telling aside):

For a moment Tuesday, McCain appeared confused about where he was, saying, "I appreciate the hospitality of the students and faculty of West Virginia," then correcting himself to say Wake Forest as the audience laughed.

as the audience...nervously laughed?

Just a brief diary about a very interesting article from today's financial news:

Wall Street Grain Hoarding Brings Farmers, Consumers Near Ruin

By Jeff Wilson
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- As farmers confront mounting costs and riots erupt from Haiti to Egypt over food, Garry Niemeyer is paying the price for Wall Street's speculation in grain markets.

Commodity-index funds control a record 4.51 billion bushels of corn, wheat and soybeans through Chicago Board of Trade futures, equal to half the amount held in U.S. silos on March 1. The holdings jumped 29 percent in the past year as investors bought grain contracts seeking better returns than stocks or bonds. The buying sent crop prices and volatility to records and boosted the cost for growers and processors to manage risk.

(jump below the fold for more...)

Lately, not a day goes by where one does not stumble upon some truly troubling economic statistic or terrifying economic news story. Today was no exception:

Wall Street May Lose 36,000 Jobs
By Joan Gralla Thu Apr 24, 1:00 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street, the lifeblood of New York City's economy, could lose over 36,000 jobs because the financial credit crisis has rocked markets and stunned the U.S. economy, estimated James Brown, a labor market analyst with New York state's labor department.

New home sales plunge to lowest level in 16 1/2 years
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON Apr 24, 2008 (AP)
Sales of new homes plunged in March to the slowest pace in 16 1/2 years as a two-year housing downturn extended into the start of another spring sales season. The median price of a new home in March compared to a year ago fell at the fastest clip in 38 years.

Today's London Times is reporting that

[Chancellor of the Exchequer] Alistair Darling is preparing to announce an unprecedented £50bn bailout [about $100 billion USD] of Britain's banking system in an effort to save the housing market from collapse.

The Chancellor will tomorrow tell the Commons that the Bank of England is to allow lenders to swap their assets for Government backed bonds in a move intended to restore confidence.

It was reported earlier today that:

Citigroup reports $5.1 billion loss on hefty write-downs

By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer
1 hour, 38 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Citigroup Inc. lost $5.1 billion during the first quarter and will eliminate about 9,000 more jobs, as poor bets on mortgages and leveraged loans lopped billions of dollars from its investment portfolio.

And a NYT article on the same announcement tells us that:

...The layoffs are in addition to the 4,200 cuts announced in January, the bank said during its conference call.

The bank’s first-quarter results reflected more than $16.9 billion in write-offs...

I find this very hard to believe:

Male Rock Fans Likely to Vote Republican: Survey
By Sue Zeidler Wed Apr 2, 8:51 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - If you are male and a Led Zeppelin fan, chances are you may be leaning toward voting Republican in the U.S. presidential election, according to a survey of rock radio fans released on Wednesday.

The Jacobs Media's Media/Technology Web Poll IV of more than 27,000 respondents cited stronger than expected interest in the November 2008 election among fans of rock, classic rock, and alternative radio stations.

It also found that John McCain, the Republican candidate for U.S. president, was the top pick for the Oval Office for men and classic rock partisans -- those people who tune in to stations playing music from the "original classic rock era" of 1964 to 1975, comprised of bands like Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd

I know we have a tendency to create too many microdemographics in the USA, but really WTF?

Regarding Wall Street's seemingly improbable bounce today, the NYT said it best:

Only on Wall Street can billion-dollar bank losses be a good thing

This diary will explore the unintended irony of this comment, but first:

The Times was referring to the latest bad news regarding the UBS "write-down" (such a euphamism that) of another $19 billion (totaling almost $40 billion for the last nine months, according to the article just linked), which forced their CEO to resign, and also to the news that Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's largest bank, wrote down $4 billion.

This morning's news regarding the Bush administration's proposed regulatory overhaul of the financial market has received some commentary so far here at dkos, and is being described elsewhere as a non-starter, but I thought it might make sense to address whether or not this new proposal--especially in light of Obama's excellent speech last week on the economy--makes the current situation better or worse.

Like most people here, I am highly dubious about a plan from an administration that tends to favor Wall Street elites and corporations over Main Street and middle class individuals. So, is this new plan a case of the fox guarding the henhouse, or is it a case of too little too late, and what should the Democratic response (particularly Obama's) to this plan be?

Remember that phrase?

Well, it still applies: perhaps more so now than ever.

Consider the latest GDP report:

Economy Sputters With 0.6 Percent Growth
Thursday March 27, 9:18 am ET

By Jeannine Aversa, AP Economics Writer

Economy Nearly Sputtered Out at End of 2007, Probably Faring Worse Now

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy nearly sputtered out at the end of the year and is probably faring even worse now amid continuing housing, credit and financial crises.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product increased at a feeble 0.6 percent annual rate in the October-to-December quarter. The reading -- unchanged from a previous estimate a month ago -- provided stark evidence of just how much the economy has weakened.

Just a quick diary to note that...

According to this AP report, the already tenuous and unstable situation in Iraq is rapidly deterioriating:

Iraq Faces Shiite Crisis
ROBERT H. REID | March 25, 2008 04:05 PM EST |  

BAGHDAD — Iraq's leaders faced their gravest challenge in months Tuesday as Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr battled for control of the southern oil capital and unleashed rockets on the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad.

Armed Mahdi Army militiamen appeared on some Baghdad streets for the first time in more than six months, as al-Sadr's followers announced a nationwide campaign of strikes and demonstrations to protest a government crackdown on their movement. Merchants shuttered their shops in commercial districts in several Baghdad neighborhoods.

Although all sides appeared reluctant to trigger a conflagration, Brig. Gen. Ed Cardon, assistant commander of the U.S. task force operating south of Baghdad, said the situation in the south was "very complicated" and "the potential for miscalculation is high."

Buried in the financial news today was this startling tidbit:

Reuters
Investment banks are borrowing from Fed
Wednesday March 19, 12:12 pm ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS - News), Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (NYSE:LEH - News) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS - News) are testing a new program that allows investment banks to borrow directly from the Federal Reserve, according to people at the banks.

My first thought: how do I get my own private access to this Federal ATM?

This diary is about some small but creepy word choices our president made last week; it's about the odd and bothersome phraseology of the following:

Bush Pushes for House Action on Eavesdropping Rules After Senate Passage
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Associated Press

WASHINGTON —  President Bush pressured the House on Wednesday to pass new rules for monitoring terrorists' communications, saying "terrorists are planning new attacks on our country ... that will make Sept. 11 pale by comparison."

Recently, it appears that Joe Lieberman, when not busy trying to become McCain's VP nomination, and when not cozying up to the Rapture-Ready evangelicals of Hagee's Christians United for Israel, has been preparing us for doomsday:

On his way to a security conference in Germany, Lieberman has tasked key agencies with ensuring they are prepared for a possible nuclear terrorist attack...

more below the fold

Surprise, surprise.

Cheney Wants Surveillance Law Expanded

TOM RAUM | January 23, 2008 03:34 PM EST |  
             
WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney prodded Congress on Wednesday to extend and broaden an expiring surveillance law, saying "fighting the war on terror is a long-term enterprise" that should not come with an expiration date.

"We're reminding Congress that they must act now," Cheney told the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The law, which authorizes the administration to eavesdrop on phone calls and see the e-mail to and from suspected terrorists, expires on Feb. 1. Congress is bickering over terms of its extension.

On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to extend the stopgap Protect America Act without expanding it, raising stakes for an expected showdown in the Senate later this week on a new version of the law.

B/c it's holiday time and I need a break from politics, this music-related diary is entirely apolitical.

***

Recently some papparazzi captured the fact that both Sir Paul as well as Sir Mick were part of the  celebrity-set that gathered backstage at the much-anticipated and much-ballyhooed Led Zeppelin reunion show in London.

And it got me to thinking about these three seminal British rock bands: the Beatles, the Stones, and Zep.

In politics as in life we might say that there are big picture scenarios and little picture scenarios...

Or general questions and particular questions; long-term visions and short-term details; forests and trees.

The forest I want write about here is a cluster of related themes: America's reflexive imperial machinery, the now bankrupt neocon ideology that supports it, what we can do to change it, and our lack of any long-term plan to extract ourselves from the middle east and wean ourselves from our addiction to fossil feuls.

The trees in all this are the Iraq war (I am convinced the Iraq war is a symptom and not the disease, to mix another metaphor), the sabre-rattling about Iran, etc.

Jump below the fold to see where this is leading....

Here is a story hot off the wires that seemed to deserve its own diary, even though it should surprise precisely no one.

I will keep it short b/c it speaks for itself.

My last diary on this website, posted about a month ago, referred to General Abizaid's recent comments about our need to be in the Middle East (with some level of permanent military occupation) for at least another 50 years.

A tremendous amount of information (for instance the fact that we have constructed the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad) indicates that with regards to Iraq, many within the Bush administration have operated under the implicit and unspoken assumption that our occupation and fortification there will indeed be permanent.

Today we see explicit confirmation that this is what is happening.