It's Official

"Lil' Boots" Bush's Legacy
To The Present Future Generations

Via Talking Points Memo:

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has updated and refined a widely cited chart, laying out the origins of the country's current fiscal trajectory. And as before, the lion's share of the problem comes from ongoing George W. Bush-era policies -- particularly deficit-financed tax cuts, which eliminated Clinton-era surpluses and left the Treasury poised for a huge hit when the financial crisis and economic downturn further eroded federal revenues.

Ezra Klein also discussed the CBPP findings in his column at Bloomberg.

In other words, cut the financial crisis and the major initiatives from the Bush-era out of the picture, and we’d be in pretty good shape. In fact, we’d be in great shape. “Without the economic downturn and the fiscal policies of the previous Administration, the budget would be roughly in balance over the next decade. That would have put the nation on a much sounder footing to address the demographic challenges and the cost pressures in health care that darken the long-run fiscal outlook.”

The CBPP column from their website, with more detailed analysis and data, can be found here.

And what about Lil' Boots? Is he sorry for his "Mission Accomplished"?

When his tenure ended, it seemed that former President George Bush could not wait to leave office. A perfectly understandable sentiment seeing as his approval rating had dropped significantly during his second term in office. Receiving harsh criticism from both sides of the aisle and from the general public due to errors in judgment he made during his tenure... the former Governor of Texas moved back home to Dallas and refused to grant interviews or speak to anyone during the two years since his departure.

However, recently, George Bush broke the silence with the release of his memoir 'Decision Points'. The book was acquired by The Crown Publishing Group for $7 million and was released to the public November 9, 2010... and brewed a bit of controversy over claims of plagiarism.

This Peevish Dullard has been a failure at everything he attempted in life -- failed in business, twice (and bailed out by his father); failed at being a Governor; produced two neurotic and semi-pro alcoholic fun-loving daughters; utterly failed as President after being appointed to the job by the Supremes in 2000; and finally, failed to perform a convincing whitewash retelling of the exciting, "Go-Go" Lil' Boots years in his exciting official memoirs.

And there are all those dead Iraqis. But, like some character out of the film, Old School, he helped trash the Frat House that is America, and has driven off the next day ("Ya ran outta blow an' hoors? Ah'm outta here! YAAAH-hoo! Better 'n Mah Dadeeee!!!"). Rich and therefore blameless, tasteless and arrogant, he's left the Little People to deal with the damage.

But, look at who we're taking about. Then ask yourself just how surprised you actually are.

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Noch Einmal:

Bill Maher, May 7, 2011:

When Bill Clinton left office in 2001, the Congressional Budget Office predicted that by the end of the decade, we would have paid off the entire debt, and have a $2 trillion dollar surplus.  

Instead, we have a $14.5 trillion dollar public debt, and the difference in those two numbers is mostly because the Republicans put tax cuts for the rich, free drugs for the elderly, and two wars on the layaway plan, and then bailed on the check. So much for fiscal responsibility.

But hey, at least they still had the defense thing, right?  The public still believed Republicans were tougher when it came to hunting down dark-skinned foreigners with funny-sounding names.  But Bush had seven years to get Osama. He didn't.  He got Wesley Snipes.  

Only 6 months after 9/11, Bush said he didn't spend that much time on bin Laden, adding that he was no longer concerned about him, just as he wasn't before 9/11, when he blew off that mysterious, inscrutable memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the U.S."  In under a year, Bush went from "Who gives a shit?" to "Wanted: Dead or Alive" and back to "Who gives a shit?"  

Why focus on the terrorist who reduced Wall Street to rubble, when you can help Wall Street reduce the whole country to rubble?

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Defending The Swine Trough

Another Long Howl

Wovon Man Nicht Sprechen Kann, Darüber Muss Man Schweigen

("About what you cannot speak, you are obligated to be silent.")

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951)

As an analytical Dog, I take pleasure in nosing around various sites on the Intertubes dealing with finance, and the analysis of data sets to reach certain conclusions about The Future -- whether financial, political, or cultural.

The finance analyst community is varied, and contains as much opinion as hard fact. The Best among them present unambiguous data, which point to specific conclusions: That's what these numbers mean (And a good example is Bill McBride's Calculated Risk).

Others use that data and their conclusions as a point of departure for observations about the psychology of market investing (or markets, period), strategies for the future; and a running commentary on what the events of the past four years of the Financial Crisis mean (the best among them being Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture).

But like anywhere else in Blogtopia (this blog is no exception), there are commentators who simply use the anonymity of the Intertubes to behave like blowhard know-it-alls whose opinions are so precious and sublime that they must share them with a wider humanity (again, this blog is no exception).

Yes; Even Jonah Loadpants And Erik The Red and Grand TurtleBear

Bachmann Get To Say Stuff 'Cause It's The Intertubes An' Stuff.

But when a self-styled 'investment banker' does so... well, the results aren't pretty. Particularly when their defense of the financial and investment "community" boils down to Hey! The blame for all dat stuff what happened to th' Economy? It cuts so many ways. It's, whadyacallit -- complicated! How ya gonna say anyone is guilty? Hah?

The Epicurian Dealmaker quotes an article by Roger Lowenstein, investment analyst and advisor-commentator, beloved by the Street for saying that there were so many reasons for the real-estate-and-derivatives implosion -- including the greed of homeowners who accepted mortgage loan terms they could not meet, and individual investors who paid for investments they knew carried 'some risk'.

Obligatory Cute Small Animal Photo In Middle Of Blog Rant

It couldn't be the fault of the Banksters alone; that's Lowenstein's basic line, and he's well received by the well-paid Masters Of The Universe for speaking in their defense.

The 'Epicurean', in support of this line, bubbled that a recent Lowenstein op-ed piece in Business Week ("Wall Street Not Guilty") of the same ilk needed

...to be read by everyone and their brother carrying a pitchfork and torch towards the ramparts of Wall Street. There was a protest on Wall Street earlier this week wherein many of the demonstrators carried placards emblazoned with the slogan "Make the Banks Pay." If those people are truly interested in educating themselves about the sources of the financial crisis and perhaps even preventing another one in the future, they would have been far better served spending fifteen minutes reading this, instead of chanting slogans at a bunch of straw men.

I'll skip to this person's, uh (cough), 'Money Quotes':

But screaming "criminal," "bankster," and the like is far more satisfying — not to mention lucrative — to filmmakers like Charles Ferguson and polemicists like Matt Taibbi, who, after all, have tickets and magazines to sell. It also resonates nicely with the average American, who feels victimized by impersonal forces beyond his or her control or understanding. But it does nothing to help those Americans or their elected officials either understand or address the issues at hand.

As Lowenstein writes, the financial crisis resulted from the confluence of many different forces, which fell upon a system the checks and balances of which appear in retrospect to have been very badly designed and managed...

Writing about the ratings agencies... Lowenstein makes a point which applies generally to the entire crisis:

To call [this kind of behavior] criminal is to call the culture criminal, which is a point of rhetoric, not law.

"Dunno Why The Fuk I Be Heah; Um juss a Businessman; Capiche?"

Goldman BSD Blankfein Swears, Kinda, To Talk 'Bout Somethin', Maybe 

(Photo: Jason Reed / Reuters / ABC News Online)

Well, I certainly won't argue with calling (at least) Wall Street's culture 'criminal'. Later, Roger states that

It's worth remembering that in the American legal system, people who merely act badly or unwisely do not do time. And people who contribute to a financial collapse aren't guilty of a crime absent specific violations that make them so.

The statutes which would have rendered the behavior most culpable for the financial crisis criminal—greed, stupidity, arrogance, willful recklessness—were not on the books in 2007 and 2008. Therefore, the people who committed those acts did not commit crimes. Period, end of story.

...But's [sic] let put a lid on the rabble rousers jumping up and down screaming "Criminals!" at the top of their lungs. They are nothing but a distraction to the proper focus and task at hand, and the energy and anger which they are stirring up among the public is getting frittered away in purchases of movie tickets, magazines, and overheated exposés of the crisis, not to mention increasingly unhinged and disconnected comments on blog posts and news articles.

Yeah. In a former life, I would have observed that Herr Lowenstein was right -- If it isn't illegal, I can't arrest you for it, though I could step in to prevent something from happening which, based on common sense, would harm others, whether it was covered by a P.C. statue or not (The question that would follow would be whether by doing so, I placed others at risk, or opened the agency I worked for to bad press or civil action).

BSD Angelo Mozilo Of Countrywide Mortgage (J.Balin/Bloomberg)

If your argument is, "It wasn't illegal, so what's your problem?", that's a massively short-sighted and narcissistic perspective when considering the amount of damage that's been done by the Real Estate / Derivatives Scheme - and, to whom that damage has been done.

Those like the 'Epicurean' hate the Matt Taibbis of the world:

[Goldman-Sachs] was not the only target of Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse, the 650-page report just released by the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations... [The] unusually scathing bipartisan report also includes case studies of Washington Mutual and Deutsche Bank, providing a panoramic portrait of a bubble era that produced the most destructive crime spree in our history — "a million fraud cases a year" is how one former regulator puts it.

But the mountain of evidence collected against Goldman by [U.S. Senator Carl] Levin's small, 15-desk office of investigators — details of gross, baldfaced fraud delivered up in such quantities as to almost serve as a kind of sarcastic challenge to the curiously impassive Justice Department — stands as the most important symbol of Wall Street's aristocratic impunity and prosecutorial immunity produced since the crash of 2008.

It isn't against the law to be wealthy (many might offer the corollary to the Golden Rule as those with the gold make the rules). However, the methods by which money is gotten, and how established wealth is maintained, may be. And even if allowed under law, if a series of actions results in recognizable and actual harm...

Apologists for the Banksters, such as Lowenstein and 'Epicurean', like to point out that the nature of investment is risk, and everyone understands a prime concern of business should be to reduce it. The Banksters, in creating the crisis, could only be accused of creating an unacceptable level of risk -- bad management, bad decisions; nothing more; certainly not criminal behavior.

But in Taibbi's writing for Rolling Stone about the RE / CDO scheme (the one linked to above in particular), he indicates that there was a crime: Most recently, that Little Lloyd Blankfein, among others, came before Congress to testify in 2010 about the crisis they helped to create, and lied -- spectacularly, in Blankfein's case, as Goldman's own emails quoted in the Senate subcommittee report prove.

I agree with Loewenstein, insofar as there were many players in the action between 1998, when Glass-Stegall was repealed, and 2007, when the wheels came off the little red wagon built by nearly the entire American real estate, banking and investment sectors. Demand drove the Market, Roger claims; the Consumers were the engine driving all this. They were the ones trying to ape the rich and live above their station beyond their means, and now must share in the blame.

That sounds suspiciously like the age-old defense of the rapist: Hey; She Was Askin' For It! She Wanted It! It's really the fault of the mortgage borrowers and the clients to whom Goldman sold what they referred to internally as 'complete shit' and 'pigs' those bad investments, because... the Consumers; man, well -- they all wanted it. They demanded we give them loans with bizarre terms, and the CDO buyers all waved money at us. They forced us to do dat stuff. Not our fault, man.

And our Epicurean friend doesn't ask the simplest question when dealing with a potential crime: What happened since the fall of 2007 and 2008? Who benefited? Loewenstein simply dismisses the observations of a Matt Tabibbi by saying, essentially, ahh, this is business; these things happen. Grow up. A buncha people got hurt; a buncha people got rich. You're just mad it wasn't you. Now shut up with this 'criminal' fakakta, and go get a real job, ya dirty hippie.

Uh-Huh. The 'Epicurean' took great care to deliver this message ('Shut up, you bunch of whining peasants!') with the supercilious flair of someone who aspires. They want to be a Mellon or a Scaife; a Biddle or a Walker; a Koch or a Harriman or a Saltonstall (not understanding you have to be born into that milieu), and so axiomatically defend the system which maintains them. He even uses a Wittgenstein quote at the top of this post -- a sign of education and taste, surely.

Except (sadly, for Ep, and Loewenstein), Ludwig said it because the world is filled with people who have nothing to say; but even so, simply cannot or will not shut up -- a proper definition of the modern Rightist pundit, if nothing else.

It's why I don't spend time reading right-wing apologistas for the Owner class, or their political hirelings. They defend the indefensible and confuse the tail of the Elephant for the whole mammal, and subtract from the sum of human knowledge every time they open their mouths. As Herr Doktor-Professor Edward Teller once said to me in another context, they are "boring; irrelevant; and nobody's business".

One tip-off was finding that The Epicurean Dealmaker (a Blogger-hosted site like this one) has switched off the ability for readers to leave a Comment -- aber natürlich, a hallmark of discussion and the free exchange of views which might lead to insight, and learning... something Wittgenstein certainly believed in.

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Dylan At 70

Ashes and Diamonds

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, 1965 (Photo: Mirrorpix, via Newscom)

Joan Baez Performing At The Minnesota Zoo, 2010

Dylan Performing, 2011

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Still Here

At 6:01PM (or, 12:01PM, depending on the news agency) PDST on May 21st, the world was supposed to end, and the Rapture of (depending on who you talk to, only about some 144,000) Faithful And True Xtians to their heavenly reward, leaving behind their clothing and appearing before god (or, somebody's god, anyway) in "the altogether". They will then spend eternity praising and communing and more praising and communing, and then more praising. In the nude. Forever. Not even a g-string.

The majority of humanity would be Left Behind, muddling through about five months of (as Dr. Peter Weckman told us in Ghostbusters) "Basically the worst parts of the Bible" and a return to a pre-Internet culture, before the Earth would be horribly destroyed. The Billions still on Earth who perish will be cast into a pit of eternal fire and damnation, where they will be damned and in the fire forever, and Lloyd Blankfein and Angelo Mozilo will try to sell other damned souls Ice water Futures. Forever.


One Of The Millions Of Handbills, Preaching The Bad News™:
You're Damned, Because You Did A Bad Thing God Knows About

All this was utterly made up prophesied by the Reverend Harold Camping of Oakland, CA, just across the Bay from where I have my rug and dog bowl. And, international media have already reported that this wasn't Camping's first attempt at predicting Judgement Day: He had done so in 1994. When The End didn't occur then, either, Camping went back to his drawing board and came up with May 21, 2011 (Professor Frink: "Ah, sorry; forgot to carry the '2'!") as the really correct and accurate it's-for-real-this-time date.


Harold Camping Says Even If Jesus Doesn't, Chtulu Loves You.

No one knows how many years Camping had asked for money before the 1994 Judgement Day did not happen -- but after coming up with the 2011 "for-real" date, he had seventeen years to sell this concept and obtain more money from his more easily influenced fundamentalist Xtian followers.

Through his network of Family Radio stations (it's FCC licenses alone are valued at approximately $50 Million), Camping broadcast his message of The End Times, and his (always) urgent request that the Faithful send money. Lots of it. To do the good work.


Julian Beck As That Wacky Reverend Kane In Poltergeist II (1986)
Do I Really Have To Spell It Out, Or Did You Make The Connection?

And, send it they did -- approximately $80 Million since 1994, a large amount spent on printing leaflets and billboards from sea to shining sea, announcing The Bad News that the world was ending and that after 6:01PM PDST on 5/21/11, there would be no possibility of salvation If you weren't Raptured, you were damned -- Jesus would turn a deaf ear to your plea for forgiveness. Harold said so.

As the good people at Blazing Alcoholic Beverage point out,

Actor 212 said,

Revelation specifies that Jesus would choose 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel... so that's 144,000 people, all Jewish, presumably.

Now, while one might be tempted to go see if Israel... had an unusual spike in mysterious deaths yesterday, the Diaspora and subsequent immigrations has probably dispersed those Chosen over the entire planet. 144,000 deaths in a population of 7 billion wouldn't even show up in a statistical analysis of the third order.

So it could have happened.

I have the temerity to ask: Providing you believe in the possibility of a comic-book or Hollywood special-effects kind of religion; what kind of deity provides salvation for only 144,000 out of 6-plus billion people or provides no mechanisms or rules by which to increase that number; thereby ensuring that the majority of humans will perish in the everlasting lake, etc. Huh? What Kind?


Your Punishment For Buying Glenny's Line: In Hell, He's On Every Channel

Harold Camping's deity, apparently. Harold was reported as being "in seclusion" in his split-level home in Alameda, CA, and told the local ABC affiliate, KGO-7, that he was "honestly perplexed" and "doesn't understand why [the Rapture] didn't occur" as he had determined.

Possibly he will go back to the drawing board and come up with a new absolutely correct and for-real-this-time-we're-really-sure Rapture Date in, 2030, say. Another nineteen years of gathering the faithful, bringing in the sheaves and shearing the sheep. It's old-school banking, baby.

Camping will have passed away by then, but if his Family Radio is a Camping family business (as many evangelical schemes tend to be), then he'll be leaving a wonderful legacy of fund-raising for his children, along with attempts to raise some of the dead.


The Rapture: A Completely Believable Premise, With Flamingos

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Noch Einmal:

Radio Host Who Predicted End of Days To Speak
"Flabbergasted" Harold Camping says he will make a statement on his radio station at some point today -- By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press

Harold Camping declined Monday to immediately comment to The Associated Press at his home, but said he'll make a full statement in a radio broadcast later in the day... The 89-year-old Camping told the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday he was "flabbergasted" his doomsday prophecy did not come true.

Some of Camping's followers say they are surprised they were not swept up to heaven... Along with the disappointment, believers who spent their savings to advertise the world's end are now facing more earthly concerns.

Noch Einmal, Mit Schwein:

The New York Times reports that Harold Camping says October 21st is the absolutely, definite, real and honest-to-somebody's-god true date for... something. Possibly, the emergence of a new form of Latte from the mind of Starbucks™.

Yesterday, Camping told his radio audience of six people and a Parakeet that still listen to him that May 21st had been an "invisible Judgement Day" -- just because you could not see it, you of little faith, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

What [Camping] decided, apparently, was that May 21 had been “an invisible judgment day,” of the spiritual variety, rather than his original vision of earthquakes and other disasters leading to five months of hell on earth, culminating in a spectacular doomsday on Oct. 21 — something he had repeatedly guaranteed.

On Monday, however, Mr. Camping seemed satisfied with his new interpretation, which apparently spared humankind its months of torture for a single day of destruction.

“The world has been warned,” said Mr. Camping, who said this would be his last interview... “We don’t have to talk about this anymore,” he said.

At the same time, it raised concerns that some believers might do themselves harm rather than face Mr. Camping’s promised apocalypse, something he refused to take responsibility for on Monday. “I am not the authority,” he said.

But Mr. Camping said his company — which is a nonprofit — would also not return donations given by his followers in advance of the May 21 prediction. “We’re not at the end,” he said, “Why would we return it?”

Why, Indeed.

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A Reprint: More Unspeakableness

Chtulu Fhtagn Cheeseburger:
Reality's Not What It Used To Be

Buckle Up For An E-Ticket Ride; It's Easy And Fun!

(Given the number of bizarre things occurring in the world as we speak, I assume it's because we're living in a John Carpenter film (something like In The Mouth Of Madness). At any moment, the ground will give way outside the Ronald Rayguns Shrine, and the rotted visage of Ol' Ron will appear. It will take precisely twelve hours for him to become the Republican party's presumptive nominee for president in 2012.)

(But there have been signs and portents, in plenty, that the scrim between the Universe we believe we know and our imagination is very thin. And one such sign has been... Sweet Sue's Whole Chicken In A Can)

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Even H.P. Lovecraft Could Not Have Envisioned The Badness

This isn't going to become a regular item -- but another thing in a can was made known to me recently. As a Dog, I'll eat a wide variety of food (and the occasional non-food) items -- but even this is too much for me to contemplate: Sweet Sue's Canned Whole Chicken.


It Emerges: Ia! Ia! Sweeta Sue Chiken ARRROOOOOO!!

First, the unsuspecting housewife releases the Thing from the chamber where it slumbered. Then, without warning, it grew -- and grew, and began to threaten mankind with the unbelievable fury of unleashed cosmic forces!!!

And, as we all know, you don't want to mess around with Cosmic Forces.



Unleashed, The Beast Began An Orgy Of Feeding --
But, Only In North Beach And Fisherman's Wharf

ANNOUNCER: We're here on CBS Sportstalk Radio; I'm Bob Hampton, and we're talking about the giant tentacled monster that's making life a little hectic for the drive-time commute in the Bay Area this morning... And how about those Giants, huh? Will the Raiders make their move to Santa Clara? Let's take your calls.

Hello, you're on CBS Sportstalk 96.

CHTULU: Hi, Bob; this is Chtulu from Ryleh. Love your show.

ANNOUNCER: Thanks. Where is Ryleh? Is that Contra Costa County, near Pinole?

CHTULU: Actually, it's an ancient city, sunken deep in the ocean for many, many Millennia, and initially a base for many of the Old Ones. You see, the history you've been taught about your world, and the Universe, is about as wrong as Y. A. Tittle staying in football past Forty. Many things existed on Earth, long before human history began. And, one of them was Me -- I've been out the loop for a while, but I'm back now and just wanted to AAARRRRRRRROOOOOO!!!!



Sorry about that, Bob. It's just so good to be out.

ANNOUNCER: Uh-huh. You just get out of the Big Q, huh?

CHTULU: Not a prison as you would understand it, Bob. But I was just listening to your program this morning and did want to comment on the appearance of the 'tentacled monster' you mentioned a moment ago.

ANNOUNCER: What's your comment?

CHTULU: Well, you see -- the stars are right, Bob, and the Great Wheel has come around; and it's time for the ancient forces that once ruled this planet to assert themselves. So I don't think anyone should be surprised when they open a can of something like a whole chicken, only to have it transform into something as big as the Bank Of America building in a matter of hours and threaten all of human civilization.

ANNOUNCER: Okay. Did you catch the Giants' game last night by chance, Chtulu?

CHTULU: What?

ANNOUNCER: Did you see last nights' game?

CHTULU: Bob -- with all due respect; I'm a long-time listener, and I've always liked this program -- but we're talking about a radical shift in human consciousness, here. We're talking about the most beautiful mysteries, and the most terrifying nightmares, of humanity made manifest in this world simply through the energy of thought. This is an event that's... well, it's Galactic in its implications, and frankly, Bob, in light of that I'm a little less interested in what Buster Posey will or won't do this season.

ANNOUNCER: [Pauses] So you're saying Posey won't do well heading into the season?

CHTULU: Huh? Bob -- try focusing a little. There's an Octopus the size of Cleveland out in the Bay. I see on CNN that they're considering carpet-bombing the Golden Gate with nerve agents -- nerve agents, Bob.

ANNOUNCER: All right; well, that's an interesting perspective, but I'd say Posey's gonna have a great career with the San Francisco Giants, and we look forward to that.

CHTULU: Not going to mean a thing if he gets eaten, Bob.

ANNOUNCER: Okay; and we thank you for your call. Hey, the time is 11:30, and whenever you just don't have time to spend on meal preparation, Sweet Sue's Whole Chicken In A Can can help!


The Peasants Begin To Understand: They're Doomed --
In The Horrifying Tales Of The Plush Chtulu!

After all, while Sparkle Christmas Tree Sweater Bear, for example, was a friend to all boys and girls, and Ellie the Happy Elephant was beloved by all who knew her, neither they nor any of the other animals commanded a worldwide fanatical cult of believers ready to do their bidding, not to mention being an ageless, indestructible creature from Beyond the Stars.

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Little Paulie's Appalling Plan

Rep. Paul Ryan Practices His "Honest Face"

If He And I Were Ten, I'd Beat Him Up And Take His Lunch.

Paul Ryan, the "author" of a plan to hand Medicare to Goldman Sachs effectively privatize the government's public health system which was beaten to a pulp after his initial release in March, has returned with Part Two, Saving Plan Ryan. It was also noted that Ryan has a forehead hairline low enough to be considered within the Neanderthal range.

There appears no real difference between Ryan Plan One and The New Ryan Plan -- not that we'd be allowed to know; Ryan cannot or will not provide the details of this New Plan.

It isn't clear when all will be revealed, either. But, Ryan did say that anyone who criticizes the unseen Plan is engaging in "class warfare".

It's a bit like saying you have proof that you're Anastasia, but can't really show anyone because it's secret, and those who say your claim is spurious are just Bolshevik meanies who would, you know, shoot you in a basement or something.

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Chtulu Is Coming

Managing Director Of IMF Busted In New York

Strauss-Kahn And His Wife, Anne Sinclair (Photo: JungleKey)

Truly a WTF moment:

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, was taken into police custody after being removed from an airplane at Kennedy Airport.

According to the official, Mr. Strauss-Kahn allegedly forced a cleaning woman onto his bed and sodomized her at about noon Saturday inside his room at the Sofitel Hotel near Times Square. (Little Rupert's WSJ, via Talking Points Memo)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, 62, is not only the managing director of the IMF (and, if you discount what the organization is and does, has received high praise for his work during the past three years of worldwide economic crisis), but was widely expected to be the candidate of France's Socialist Party for that nation's presidency.

The New York Times reported that Strauss-Kahn, who had been staying in a $3,000-per night suite at the exclusive hotel, had assaulted the cleaning woman after she entered the suite and stood in its foyer.

"[Strauss-Kahn] came out of the bathroom, fully naked, and attempted to sexually assault her,” [NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul J.] Browne said. “He grabs her, according to her account, and pulls her into the bedroom and onto the bed”... He locked the door to the suite, Mr. Browne said.

“She fights him off, and he then drags her down the hallway to the bathroom, where he sexually assaults her a second time,” Mr. Browne added.

At some point during the assault, the woman broke free... and “she fled, reported it to other hotel personnel, who called 911. When the police arrived, he was not there.” Mr. Browne said Mr. Strauss-Kahn appeared to have left in a hurry. Investigators found his cellphone in the room, which he had left behind, and one law enforcement official said that investigation uncovered forensic evidence that would contain DNA.

It's a matter of record that Strauss-Kahn had been caught in 2008 having an affair with a Hungarian economist who was one of his subordinates at the IMF. The organization's Board of Directors made a statement at the time, indicating that he had "shown poor judgment", but took no other action. Strauss-Kahn issued an apology to employees at the bank, and to his wife, Anne Sinclair, an American-born French journalist.

Piroska Nagy, IMF Employee Involved With Strauss-Khan, 2008

Still -- as a former investigator, there's something about this that doesn't smell right. A man of Strauss-Kahn's position and influence, set to be a candidate for the French presidency, had far too much to lose. Unless he's done something like this before and simply never been caught, or has a medical condition which would explain spontaneous sexual aggression, there's no explanation for Strauss-Khan's behavior.

If he'd wanted to, he could have arranged for a grande Horizontale, who would allow him some Greek action or a little aggression role-playing, if that was his particular peccadillo; the simplest thing for a man operating at his level in the world.

He'd already been exposed publicly having an affair -- and it could be argued that he'd been taught a lesson. But even so, it's quite a leap from the relative discretion of an affair with a work subordinate, to literally bumping into a woman he had never seen before and sexually assaulting her, immediately, in a particularly brutal and degrading fashion. That part just doesn't fit.

The Famous Chtulu Balloon In The Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade -- A Favorite With Children (Photo: Ia-Ia-Chtulu-Fagn.org)

I'm assuming that the reason behind this is that, in his position, Strauss-Kahn has access to information we don't -- that we're about to be hailed and boarded by aliens; or that a giant asteroid is on a collision course with Earth.

Or, that Dread Chtulu is awakening from his slumber at Ryleh and will shortly arrive to allow The Old Ones to have their way with our women and drink up all stocks of Diet Coke. Or, as so many evangelical Xtians are praying for, the world will end next Saturday.

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Bloggr U Suk

When Pixels Die

Well, I'm going to have to go back and reconstruct a long post about American hegemony and a crying little girl in Iraq, which was swallowed when Google / Blogger went Ka-Blooie for a few days.

I'm assuming that Larry and Sergey were just really upset with Mark, when Facebook's attempt to screw with Googli were revealed, and one of them (probably Sergey; you know how those Russians get) kicked a server rack.

So it all comes down to a spat between a few rich kids through the proxy of their PR firms.

But, ain't in my business -- so s'all Good, Yo.

---

National Tunes

Talking Points Memo passed along some information from Sam Biddle at Gizmodo which may bring all of us some cheer (particularly Dogs who like to listen to Victrolas).

The Library Of Congress, that repository of the documents, books, journals, Congressional Records and ephemera that constitute our national collective memory, have just made a huge library of cylinder and 78 Disc recordings available, online as streaming audio. For free.

The "National Jukebox," available on a streaming-only basis, unfortunately, is a massive trove of audio recordings. Music, speeches, humor readings--spanning decades of American history. The original words of Teddy Roosevelt. "Rhapsody in Blue" with George Gershwin on piano. Serious national gems. And, due to some cuddling with Sony, the label's entire pre-1925 catalog will be accessible, encompassing a significant (and widely forgotten) musical past.

Accompanying the huge sonic repository is a ton of album and label artwork, as well as biographical information on artists (which you'll probably need for artists so dead that Sony gave them away for free).

Here, for example, is Smiler Rag, by Percy Wenrich and His Orchestra, a 10" 78-RPM record on the RCA Victor label, recorded March 1, 1910 (Please Note The Very Nice Dog On The Label -- A Jack Russell Terrier And No Relation To Mongo; But, Still):


(As Usual, My Dog-Sized Blog Doesn't Allow Showing The Full Area For This Audio Player -- You Can See The Full Version At The LOC Site Here.)

I'm involved in a writing project that's set in 1925, and not necessarily in the United States -- but something I wonder frequently is, how can we know what the music of any period actually sounded like?

After the advent of recorded sound, that becomes easier; but for every Scott Joplin, Glenn Miller, Fats Waller or Reinhardt and Grapelli, there were hundreds of other singers and bands who never 'hit the big time', but whose sounds were part of the audio leitmotiv of an era, and are for the most part lost -- until something like this archive comes along.

Who really remembers what popular music in 1910 might have sounded like? No one living now can -- but something like this effort by the Library Of Congress can give us a taste.

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What The Dog Is Doing

Posting has been nonexistent light recently. I may only be a Dog, but I do have a job which requires that I pay attention to it occasionally.

More shortly, which should cheer the hearts of the four three people who bother to read any of this stuff.

But, then, the world is ending in ten days. So, s'all Good, Yo.

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