This bailout demand from Paulson makes no sense as stated.  It has been suggested that the true purpose is to provide a stealth recapitalization of the Fed, as Bernanke has traded most of its cash and treasuries for toxic paper and it is in danger of default.  They might not even have enough to guarantee Paulson's stock in Goldman's!   That would be a true emergency.

Today I came across a September 10 Op-Ed from the LA Times about Sarah Palin and Alaskan Secessionists that had been picked up by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.  Reading the article I realized that I shared many of their concerns.  A subsequent conversation with a stranger at Home Depot convinced me that this whole issue provided both dangers and opportunities.

Why Secesionists don't like the United States
In a recent poll, one in five agreed that states have the right to peacefully secede from the Union.
By Christopher Ketcham, LA Times
September 10, 2008

Sarah Palin's secessionist sympathies sparked minor hysteria last week. Her crime was hailing with round praise the work of the cranky Alaskan Independence Party, which advocates a statewide plebiscite on the secession of Alaska from the Union. "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government," the party's late founder, gold miner Joe Vogler, once said. "And I won't be buried under their damn flag."

Palin's husband was a member of the AIP for seven years, and Palin herself has courted the AIP for more than a decade. In an address to the party convention this spring, wearing a ski parka and looking like she was about to decamp into the back country, Palin told the secessionists, "Keep up the good work." Dexter Clark, the white-bearded vice chairman of the AIP, recently explained the motivation behind the "good work": "Through oppression, greed, corruption, incompetence and folly, the [U.S. government] is forfeiting its moral authority." (I can't disagree with that!)

The thing is, it's not just residents of the Last Frontier who favor breaking away from the Union. According to a Zogby poll conducted in July, more than 20% of U.S. adults -- one in five, about the same number of American Colonists who supported revolt against England in 1775 -- agreed that "any state or region has the right to peaceably secede from the United States and become an independent republic." Some 18% "would support a secessionist effort in my state."

George puts the Palin pick in context and points a way to an effective response.  Will Obama take it?

The Palin Choice and the Reality of the Political Mind

George Lakoff
The Huffington Post,  September 2, 2008

Election campaigns matter because who gets elected can change reality. But election campaigns are primarily about the realities of voters' minds, which depend on how the candidates and the external realities are cognitively framed. They can be framed honestly or deceptively, effectively or clumsily. And they are always framed from the perspective of a worldview.

The Obama campaign has learned this. The Republicans have long known it, and the choice of Sarah Palin as their vice presidential candidate reflects their expert understanding of the political mind and political marketing. Democrats who simply belittle the Palin choice are courting disaster. It must be taken with the utmost seriousness.

The Democratic response so far is a mixed bag at best, but there are effective responses available. More below the fold.

 

Today Obama introduced his running mate, Joe Biden.  In that introduction Obama seemed to show that he has learned how to make a Democratic stump speech and deliver it with passion. Twice he attacked Bush and McCain for their "bluster" over the Russian response to Georgia. Then he turned the mic over to Biden, who went on to praise McCain but then say that we needed more than a good soldier, we need a wise leader.  Both made effective attacks on McCain in his area of perceived strength.  

This was the second positive development in as many days.  Yesterday, (Friday, 8-22-'08,) conservative commentator Pat Buchanan wrote an opinion piece, And None Dare Call It Treason that appeared on Yahoo news, among other places.  In this piece Buchanan, who has impeccable conservative credentials dating back to the Nixon Administration,(Nattering Nabobs of Negativism" was his line,) accused McCain's chief foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemamm, of Treason:  

"He is a dual loyalist, a foreign agent whose assignment is to get America committed to spilling the blood of her sons for client regimes who have made this moral mercenary a rich man."

A better placed and more forceful messenger than Pat Buchanan would be hard to find.  He appears on half of the political talk shows originating from the US east coast.  Now the Democrats have to have the courage to pick up this bludgeon and use it on McCain.  Then maybe their ticket will have a chance.  (More below the fold)

Articles by Noureil Roubini and Robert Gottliebsen point to further financial turmoil.

Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor

Super-Senior Tranches of CDOs are Worth Much Less than 22 Cents on the Dollar: Another Ponzi Scheme of "Selling" Toxic Garbage with More Leverage

 Nouriel Roubini | Jul 29, 2008

Merrill Lynch decision to "sell" a good chunk of its remaining CDOs at 22 cents to the dollar has been widely praised as the firm finally recognizing the full extent of its losses on these toxic instruments. This batch of $30.6 billion of CDOs was already marked down to $11.1 billion. Now with the "sale" of it to Lone Star at a price of 6.7 billion Merrill Lynch is taking another $4.4 billion writedown and "selling" it at 22% of the original face value.

But is this a market-based "sale"? No way as calling this transaction a "sale" is a joke.

Roubini describes a transaction in which Merril provides the financing for the sale, as the secondary market for these CDOs is "illiquid."  I would describe it as paying the undertaker to dispose of the body.  

Below the fold Robert Gottliebsen of Business Spectator describes the thunder from down under that will waft its way to Wall Street.  No happy talk here.

The US Senate has passed a housing bill Saturday which now will go to the White House. It could have passed Thursday, but Senators refused to accept loss of a favorite feeding trough.  Senator Jim DeMint plays hero.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., delayed the final vote because Democrats refused to allow him a vote on a proposal to ban the companies from lobbying or making political donations to lawmakers.

"We can't have the people who are supposed to watch over these organizations getting money from these organizations," DeMint said. "At least if we're going to ask the American taxpayer to be on the hook for billions, possibly trillions of dollars, let's stop this."

Shining light into the heart of darkness!  Every dog shall have his day!

Two recent events brightly illuminate the scope of the problem in Washington.  Former Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) has a new book called MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK, and Nicole Sexton, a longtime Republican fundraiser and former Director of Finance for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has published a fictionalized account of political fundraising, Party Favors.

   This diary is the result of a diary posted by TBG on July 10. I received George Lakoff's latest book, The Political Mind , on Bastille Day, appropriately enough. Lakoff's subtitle is: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain His thesis is that Progressives still operate with 18th Century Enlightenment views, which do not account for findings from brain science over the last forty years. These findings show the importance of brain structure and function to language use and typical thought patterns we all employ. Few are aware of these findings and their implications.
   Unfortunately, the few that do include Radical Conservative Republican politicians and their strategists, who have digested these findings and learned brilliantly to exploit them to convince the majority of the voting public to support their candidates to the detriment of the self interest of the vast majority of that public. The book is a manual for understanding the way people think so progressives can counter the effects of these Radical Conservatives' tactics, wrest control of government back from them and save the Constitution, Government and society of the United States from their anti-democratic agenda.
   The book is highly readable and I strongly recommend it to everyone who wishes to effectively engage in the current political dialog.  It is compelling and can be followed by anyone with a high school education and an open mind.  While it is written with respect to the American political system and population, I believe it is equally applicable to Europe. Judge for yourselves.

I have found no source from which to "Lazy Quote," so follow me below the fold for selected excerpts and summaries of the main points set forth in the introduction to the book.

The old man who farms with the sea (Click for full story.)

Carl Hodges is growing salicornia, a crop nourished by ocean water that holds the potential to provide food and fuel to millions.

By Marla Dickerson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 10, 2008
Tastiota, Mexico

A few miles inland from the Sea of Cortez, amid cracked earth and mesquite and sun-bleached cactus, neat rows of emerald plants are sprouting from the desert floor.
The crop is salicornia. It is nourished by seawater flowing from a man-made canal. And if you believe the American who is farming it, this incongruous swath of green has the potential to feed the world, fuel our vehicles and slow global warming.

He is Carl Hodges, a Tucson-based atmospheric physicist who has spent most of his 71 years figuring out how humans can feed themselves in places where good soil and fresh water are in short supply.

The founding director of the University of Arizona's highly regarded Environmental Research Lab, his work has attracted an eclectic band of admirers. They include heads of state, corporate chieftains and Hollywood stars, among them Martin Sheen and the late Marlon Brando.

Some, if not all, of this could be valuable. More below the fold.

Honey bee colonies are collapsing in the United States.  The reasons are unclear. But the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is on the case.

Colony Collapse Disorder: Researchers Work To Control Varroa Mites, Increase Longevity Of Queen Bees
ScienceDaily (Feb. 16, 2008) -- In response to a fast-spreading syndrome called colony collapse disorder (CCD) that's striking honey bees nationwide, scientists at Agricultural Research Service (ARS) bee laboratories across the country are pooling their expertise. They want to learn what's causing the disappearance of the honey bees that add about $15 billion a year to the value of U.S. crops by pollinating fruit, vegetable, tree nut and berry crops. Some beekeepers have already lost one-half to two-thirds of their colonies to CCD.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Jeff Pettis, research leader at the ARS Bee Research Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., is a coordinator of the newly established five-year Areawide Program to Improve Honey Bee Health, Survivorship and Pollination Availability. Entomologist John Adamczyk at the ARS Beneficial Insects Research Unit in Weslaco, Texas, helps Pettis coordinate the program, along with Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman at Tucson, Ariz., and Tom Rinderer at Baton Rouge, La. This is the first such initiative to bring various components of all of the federal bee laboratories together to solve a single problem.

Researchers at Beltsville are attempting to improve the longevity of honey bee queens, find effective controls for Nosema protozoa and varroa mites, and reduce migratory colony stress. In Weslaco, work also focuses on controlling varroa mites and Nosema, reducing migratory stress and developing disease-control measures.

At the ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Laboratory in Baton Rouge, Rinderer and colleagues are looking into bee stock evaluation and improvement, with a view toward using genetic selection and colony size to improve early spring buildup.

In Tucson, Degrandi-Hoffman is leading scientists at the ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in studying carbohydrate and protein supplements, Africanized bee stock improvements and varroa mite controls.

The new bee-focused areawide program will also incorporate university partners, apiculturists and many others. By the end of this coordinated five-year effort, researchers hope to have specific recommendations ready for beekeepers to use to manage their bees more efficiently and improve colony survival, especially during long-range transport.

 

Reminds me of reading 1950's apocalyptic British fiction - Promoted by Migeru

From the April, 2008 issue of Scientific American

The Economist Has No Clothes
Unscientific assumptions in economic theory are undermining efforts to solve environmental problems
By Robert Nadeau

Photograph courtesy of Robert Nadeau; Illustration by Matt Collins

The 19th-century creators of neoclassical economics--the theory that now serves as the basis for coordinating activities in the global market system--are credited with transforming their field into a scientific discipline. But what is not widely known is that these now legendary economists--William Stanley Jevons, Léon Walras, Maria Edgeworth and Vilfredo Pareto--developed their theories by adapting equations from 19th-century physics that eventually became obsolete. Unfortunately, it is clear that neoclassical economics has also become outdated. The theory is based on unscientific assumptions that are hindering the implementation of viable economic solutions for global warming and other menacing environmental problems.

The physical theory that the creators of neoclassical economics used as a template was conceived in response to the inability of Newtonian physics to account for the phenomena of heat, light and electricity. In 1847 German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz formulated the conservation of energy principle and postulated the existence of a field of conserved energy that fills all space and unifies these phenomena. Later in the century James Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann and other physicists devised better explanations for electromagnetism and thermodynamics, but in the meantime, the economists had borrowed and altered Helmholtz's equations.

Economics is not physics - Diary rescue by Migeru

    * Posted on Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Easing of laws that led to detainee abuse hatched in secret

By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- The framework under which detainees were imprisoned for years without charges at Guantanamo and in many cases abused in Afghanistan wasn't the product of American military policy or the fault of a few rogue soldiers.

It was largely the work of five White House, Pentagon and Justice Department lawyers who, following the orders of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, reinterpreted or tossed out the U.S. and international laws that govern the treatment of prisoners in wartime, according to former U.S. defense and Bush administration officials.

The Supreme Court now has struck down many of their legal interpretations. It ruled last Thursday that preventing detainees from challenging their detention in federal courts was unconstitutional.

The quintet of lawyers, who called themselves the "War Council," drafted legal opinions that circumvented the military's code of justice, the federal court system and America's international treaties in order to prevent anyone -- from soldiers on the ground to the president -- from being held accountable for activities that at other times have been considered war crimes.

McLachy has a series of quality medium sized newspapers .  They appear to have ownership that remains concerned with traditional print journalism standards and they have a history of being right on stories, but only getting recognized for their coverage after the fact. This is thought to be due to the fact that they do not have papers in the largest markets: NYC, LA etc.  They do not get sucked in to MSM "fashion of the day" coverage, but no one notices. They do have a Washington Bureau however, and through it one can access articles in any of their papers. (They have great cartoons!)
Much more below the fold

A large sinkhole sinkhole has formed in East Texas over an apparently collapsing salt dome in a turn of the 20th century oil field. This prompted a cartoon in the Houston Chronicle.  The fact that newspaper running the cartoon is the Houston Chronicle is of at least as much interest as the content of the cartoon. Also of interest to ET members is the label on the cartoon.

NYT arcticle NYT arcticle about sinkhole