Update: TOTUS’ comments from WH/Congressional leadership meeting on AfPak a bad sign?: TOTUS ready to vote present again, this time in Afghanistan?
Update 2: Oh this is IMO a very very bad sign. It sounds like TOTUS will do what McChrystal called the worse case scenario. Send in less troops than the Generals say is needed but not withdraw, leaving our people unprotected:
(…)“Mr. Obama seemed to be searching for some sort of middle ground, saying he wanted to “dispense with the straw man argument that this is about either doubling down or leaving Afghanistan,” as White House officials later described his remarks.”..
Update: Richard Cohen WaPo of all people:
(…)But the ultimate in realism is for the president to gauge himself and who he is: Does he have the stomach and commitment for what is likely to continue to be an unpopular war? Will he send additional troops, but hedge by not sending enough — so that the dying will be in vain? What does he believe, and will he ask Americans to die for it? Only he knows the answers to these questions. But based on his zigzagging so far and the suggestion from the Copenhagen trip that the somber seriousness of the presidency has yet to sink in, we have reason to wonder.
God Bless the troops, their families and the Afghani people. We need leadership, we have an empty suit. Reuters reports TOTUS is about to take the MIDDLE WAY sending in only 10-15k more troops, and McChrystals worse case scenario. Ironic considering he will not meet with the Dalai Lama no? We cannot excerpt Reuters as they are toolz about it Please go read the linky.
Meanwhile General Petraeus is making it known he fully supports Gen McChrystal’s call for 40k troops, courtesy of AllahPundit at HotAir:
(…)he knows how these comments will be interpreted. More military weight thrown at The One:
Gen. David Petraeus, the head of the U.S. Central Command, said that the situation in Afghanistan needs “sustained and substantial” commitment.
His statements echoed the assessment made by the senior U.S. general in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal.
However, Petraeus, in his comments Tuesday to a convention of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA), refused to detail what a substantial commitment means and whether it would translate to sending more troops into Afghanistan….
Update: TOTUS throws Larry Summers unda da bus; will reappoint Ben Bernanke head of Fed manyana…
Update 2: Rally fizzled but we stayed positive, DOW closes up 30+…
Update: TOTUS just made the announcement. Ben thanked his colleagues at the FED and thanked TOTUS for backing a STRONG and INDEPENDENT FED.
BWAAAAHAAAA!!!!! Another TOTUS promise broken, Larry Summers must be eating his liver..you KNOW the ONLY reason he wasn’t named Sec of Trez was because head of the FED was promised to him….
…As the nation’s top financial authority, Geithner will inherit oversight of the Bush administration’s $700 billion bailout for Wall Street and a U.S. economy struggling with recession.
He will be flanked by former Treasury chief Lawrence Summers, who will head Obama’s National Economic Council. Analysts say this appointment puts Summers in line to succeed Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve in 2010….
WSJ –Several options were on the table, including naming Mr. Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, as Fed chief. Mr. Summers, the gruff, brilliant economist, would likely have run up against resistance on Capitol Hill, too.
Privately, many economists including Fed officials worried that Mr. Summers’ sharp-tongued style could undermine the collegial halls of the Fed…
IMO TOTUS was informed that in light of the new deficit projections to be released tomorrow, the ONLY way China would feel comfortable continuing to purchase our ENDLESS debt issuance was under Bernanke going forward. Ben being seen as a non-political appointment, having gained his position under GWB, and having earned his chops these past 9 months…
Oct 2008 Economic Club: Tim and Ben (Reuters Photo / Lucas Jackson) Tim demonstrates Paper Beats Rock economic plan..
And that is because Bernanke WILL IMO take the steps necessary to tighten when recovery is imminent, thus avoiding the HYPERinflationary Carteresque scenario…
Thanks China! Are you having fava beans and a nice Chianti with that liver Larry?
Larry Summers was SHOCKED to learn of Bernanke's reappointment, as he had slept through the team meeting...
We should have a killer rally tomorrow! I may have to get out my DOW 10,000 hat if Gentle Ben will be in that chair for another term…it was the idea of Summers calling the shots at the Fed when we needed to tighten that really freaked me out….still a double dip IMO but one we can correct with Ben at the helm…
President Barack Obama will announce Tuesday that he is nominating Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said.
Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Obama will make the announcement from Martha’s Vineyard Tuesday. He said the president credits Mr. Bernanke for “pulling the economy back from the brink of depression.”…
The amazing Snowball (TM) courtesy of BirdLoversOnly rescue organization
Obama Economic Team 'Vogues' last November
Updated: Regulators won’t back down…Tiny Tim curses out Sheila Bair and Mary Schapiro…
Update from MM The regulators aren’t backing down. Excellent.
…Reuters sheds more light on the turf battle between Geithner/Emanuel and the regulators:
Top U.S. bank regulators will speak out on Tuesday against some key elements of the Obama administration’s plan to reshape financial regulation, saying parts of it were unneeded or could be disruptive.
The officials’ defiance, in prepared congressional testimony obtained by Reuters, came despite a warning given to them on Friday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
In private remarks punctuated with expletives, Geithner urged the regulators to end their turf battles and show support for President Barack Obama’s plan, according to a person familiar with the situation on Monday.
But that seemed to have little impact on John Bowman, acting director of the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), an agency slated for closure under the Obama plan.
“We do not support the administration’s proposal to establish a new agency, the National Bank Supervisor (NBS), by eliminating the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency … and the OTS,” Bowman said in written remarks to be given to the Senate Banking Committee at a hearing…
Since Sheila as head of FDIC, won’t just GIVE away the regulatory power to Treasury, Timmeh is mad mad mad. No doubt he stomped his foot, making him look even more like Rumpelstiltskin were that possible….
By dequalss
Timmeh and Larry Summers together are like the Hot and Cold Misers..seriously, look at the faces…then add the personalities…
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blasted top U.S. financial regulators in an expletive-laced critique last Friday as frustration grows over the Obama administration’s faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation, according to people familiar with the meeting….Mr. Geithner told the regulators Friday that “enough is enough,” said one person familiar with the meeting. Mr. Geithner said regulators had been given a chance to air their concerns, but that it was time to stop, this person said.
Among those gathered in the Treasury conference room were Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair.
Friday’s roughly hourlong meeting was described as unusual, not only because of Mr. Geithner’s repeated use of obscenities, but because of the aggressive posture he took with officials from federal agencies generally considered independent of the White House. Mr. Geithner reminded attendees that the administration and Congress set policy, not the regulatory agencies.
Mr. Geithner, without singling out officials, raised concerns about regulators who questioned the wisdom of giving the Federal Reserve more power to oversee the financial system. Ms. Schapiro and Ms. Bair, among others, have argued that more authority should be shared among a council of regulators.
Well, gee since only Ben, Tim, Mary and Sheila were in the room, and the argument is that Ben should get more power which Mary and Sheila are resisting, clearly he can only have been cursing and threatening Mary and Sheila…just like his boss, he has an issue with powerful women who get in his way…..frakker…It’s kind of TOTUS’ karma ain’t it? Everywhere he turns middle aged women are in his way….I’ve got news for them, Sheila is one tough ‘cookie’ she isn’t rolling over for anyone…heh..
Shorter Timmeh/Rumpelstiltskin “If I say we can turn this damned straw into gold then we can!”
Hey I tried not to make elf comparisons and then People mag named him and I kid you not, one of the sexiest men of the year. Well alrighty then…guess they haven’t seen any CW shows last season….
See MM for more coverage…
Johnny Cash courtesy of askeboy
Video: Paul Krugman on Geithner Toxic Asset Plan…
Bloomberg has the exclusive in-depth with Krugman, including a response to Summers’ take on Paul’s position:
Exclusive Interview with Nobel Prize Winning Economist Paul Krugman (Bloomberg News)
BSGcast:Final Frak Party and BSG Prop Auction & REPO: The Genetic Opera-post-Apocolyptic hit ….
These guys are frakin great, catch the party if you can!!
BSGcast: We’ve got some big news! The BSGcast LIVE Frak-Party on January 16-17 is not only happening at the same place as the PROPWORX Battlestar Galactica Prop Auction, but now we’ve got special exclusive PREVIEW access to the auction items on Friday before the bidding even begins!
If you’ve never watched BSGcast, tune in, here they are on REPO: The Genetic Opera! (they call it RockyHorror if made while on acid)
If you haven’t seen REPO! The Genetic Opera, you REALLY should find the nearest theatrical screening and go! It’s coming to DVD on January 20, 2009, after a VERY limited release, but you’ll get one heck of an experience in the theatre, since this bad boy may well be the Rocky Horror Picture Show of the 21st Century!
If we’ve reviewed one MUST SEE movie this year, REPO! is it!
Moderate in the Middle 