catfish's blog

Scrub up, fellow tossees! Throw on your best under-the-bus threads, practice your salutes (do civilians salute Generals? What does the Emily Post manual say?), and shift over one slot to make room for ... General Zinni!

Playmobil Security Checkpoint Manufacturer's Description:

Iraqis vote today. Uppity Iraqi women, daring to run for office, we stand behind you! Our reading of recent years tells us running for office in Iraq is a risky endeavor as many candidates get killed. It's not holding these women back.

NYT: Iraqi Women Vie for Votes and Taste of Power

BAGHDAD — Amal Kibash, a candidate for the Baghdad provincial council, is running a bold and even feverish campaign by most standards. With elections coming on Saturday, she is trolling for every vote she can muster.

 

“You are going to vote for me, right?” she quizzed passers-by on a stroll recently through her neighborhood of Sadr City, which was until May a battleground for Shiite militias. Giant posters of her veil-framed face were draped on several buildings, some of which still bore the marks of recent fighting.

 

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From NYT.

"One provision, which was sought by the student lending industry and went unmentioned in early Congressional summaries of the stimulus package, would temporarily increase subsidies to banks in the guaranteed student loan program by tying them to a new index, partly because recent federal intervention in the credit markets has invalidated the previous index. A spokesman for Sallie Mae, one of the largest student lenders, said the change was needed to keep student loan markets fluid. Critics said it represented a potential new "windfall for lenders."

Sounds like a pre-bailout. Government gives taxpayer money to banks just in case students default on loans. So ... what's the incentive for banks not to rip off students with high interest rates? Can't see any. 

Our 'uniquely qualified' Treasury secretary decided to show all his cards to big banks Wednesday, thereby surrendering the U.S. taxpayer's negotiating leverage for future bailouts.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made it clear in remarks to reporters Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration does not plan to nationalize banks or wipe out the value of bank stocks.

Nationalizing banks is now "off the table." (Remember when Pelosi showed all her cards to the Bush Administration by declaring impeachment "off the table"? That was awesome.)

Back to the country's most prestigious tax cheat, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner:

Politico:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner issued new rules Tuesday restricting contacts with lobbyists – and then hired one to be his top aide.

Surely this new hire wasn't a banking lobbyist!

Mark Patterson, a former advocate for Goldman Sachs, will serve as chief of staff to Geithner as the Treasury Department revamps the Wall Street bailout program that sent an infusion of cash to his former employer.

But it's been yeeears since Patterson lobbied for Goldman Sachs? (crosses fingers)

Patterson was a registered lobbyist for Goldman Sachs from 2005 until April of 2008.

Huh.

Mulling this NoQuarter post about Obama's first interview with Al-Arabiya. This tidbit popped out:

The president declined to reveal where he plans to give his first major speech in a foreign country. In the past he had said he would speak in a Muslim capital sometime within the first 100 days of his administration.

Interesting. Given Jim Clyburn's statement to The Hill newspaper that health care reform is off the table for 2009, this speech in a Muslim capital seemed like an interesting priority. A speech in a capital of a religious state. Because that's what the voters wanted. They didn't want health care reform.

Obama would not appear in the same room as gay rights advocate Gavin Newsom. But he proudly announces, in his own voice, the confirmation of tax cheat Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary of the U.S.

In his acceptance speech, Geithner pledges, as Treasury Secretary, to set out to "make our economy more just" and immediately "restore trust in our financial system" and "to restore confidence in America's economic leadership around the world."

Berlin Zoo baby polar bear Knut became a media sensation as he grew up in the public eye last year. Cameras followed him as he learned to walk, eat, play. As his zookeeper taught him to swim.

German children wrote songs about him. Knut mashups populated YouTube. The zoo gave Knut his own blog and he graced the cover of Vanity Fair.

Comcast launches a 24-hour OnDemand Obama channel.

Obama penned a very personal letter to his daughters which will be published in this Sunday's Parade magazine. A photograph of Obama, wife Michelle and the girls will adorn the cover, Politico44 reports.

Who's not under the bus: the $42,000 tax-dodger Obama nominated for Treasury Secretary. Timothy Geithner is "the right person to help lead our economic recovery during these challenging times,” incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today.

Watch out for tranquilizer darts, friends - the Bay Area Puma Project is out to track movement, behavior of the growing ranks in their midst.

"There she is, straight up above us," said Paul Houghtaling, a 33-year-old researcher for the Bay Area Puma Project, as he dug his boots into the soft leaf matter on the nearly vertical hillside.

You all in midwest, northeast - treasure your privacy, it may not last!

I don't get it. What is wrong with Roland Burris? He's been elected to office, there's an empty Senate seat in Illinois, the Illinois legislature rejected a proposal to hold a special election to fill said seat. So fill it already! Chop chop!

Our former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, a shrewd politician and author of political memoir Basic Brown, considers Burris more qualified than Obama was when he won the Senate seat! Brown credits Blago with making a Joe Montana-league political play:

Put on that yammuhah,
it's time for Channukah!

(Hat tip Cal.)

Regardless of religion, gender or socioeconomic status, many adults empathize with Ralphie's childhood hopes and disappointments in this movie inspired by Jean Shepherd's short stories.

My favorite scene from this movie (below, about the 1:10 mark) conveys the letdown that follows hype.

Pastor Rick Warren, who has compared gay marriage to incest, pedophilic marriage, and polygamy, will deliver the invocation at President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony next month.

Inspiration or plagiarism? Did one Daily Beast original, authored by New Agenda founder Amy Siskind, lift from a Partizane diary?

Partizane, Dec 5:

Title: Who are Sheila Bair and Brooksley Born?
Deck: "And why does Barney Frank see a 'No Girls Allowed' sign?"

Daily Beast, Dec 15:

With senses newly heightened to detect sexism, I find myself reevaluating all kinds of incidents past. I faintly remember a celebrity press wave of Paula Abduhl-is-crazy chatter ... I don't watch American Idol, but my reevaluater is activated today.

Via The Daily Beast Cheat Sheet, we find show producers overrode Abdul's objections enlisting her stalker to compete as an Idol contestent:

And why does Barney Frank see a 'No Girls Allowed' sign?

Sheila Bair, current chairperson of the FDIC, is a very ... "independent" person, some men say. Here's some more detail from Bloomberg:

Uh huh. Thaaat's right.

President-elect Barack Obama is considering the appointment of Daniel Kurtzer, former American Ambassador to Egypt (1997-2001) and Israel (2001-2005), to become his administration's presidential envoy to the Middle East, a senior Israeli diplomatic source said this week.

 

Obama's decision to appoint a special envoy reporting to him directly, rather than to the secretary of state, indicates that the president-elect attaches special importance to the regional peace process. Reportedly, several of Obama's advisers recommended the appointment.

From Haaretz http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1042698.html . Oh also, is Kurtzer the most neutral party Obama could find?

This story says something about women, about materialism ... well, I can't figure out what it says. Maybe I'm overreacting ...

Barack Obama to buy rare £20,000 gold ring for his wife to say 'thanks for your support'

Daily Mail photo caption: "Diamond encrusted thanks: Barack Obama will buy his wife this £20,000 ring made of black gold or rhodium"

Michelle Obama is to receive this £20,000 thank you from her husband for her support during the election.

 

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New media, same gender imbalance, according to a Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting study. Here's the summary from Portfolio magazine:

You might expect that someone like Arianna Huffington, who has incorporated female empowerment as a big part of her shtick (at least since the days when she made her name as an anti-feminist author) would make sure that men don't dominate the discourse on her top-ranking website.

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With the election over, the Internet will be more welcoming! Oh no. ABC News:

President-elect Barack Obama will take office in January with a weapon no president has ever had at his disposal: An online army of more than 10 million supporters who can now be put to use to help carry out a sweeping agenda.

 

The vast lists of e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers compiled by the Obama campaign represent an opportunity for the incoming administration to establish a digital presidency that takes advantage of both new technologies and the wide enthusiasm that greeted Obama's candidacy.

 

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Newark Mayor Cory Booker says everything I wish Obama would say. I wished throughout the campaign that Obama's candidacy would pave the way for Booker to become the first black president.

(Warning: Booker makes a small "dig" at Sarah Palin, but she really does shop at discount clothing stores, and Booker is much less mean-spirited than Maher prods him to be.)

Feisty Brit journalist Harold Evans, (husband of the fabulous Daily Beast editor Tina Brown,) in the UK's liberal- (liberal!) leaning paper, The Guardian, is: Mad about The One

It's fitting that the cynicism "vote early and vote often" is commonly attributed to Chicago's Democratic boss, mayor Richard Daley, who famously voted the graveyards in 1960 to help put John Kennedy in the White House. In this 2008 race, it's the American media that have voted very early and often. They long ago elected the star graduate of Chicago's Democratic machine, Barack Obama.

 

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