US banking system reserves are at a NEGATIVE $100 billion. The US banking system has been insolvent for months now. The crisis keeps accelerating and accelerating in size and scope. The Fed, the US Treasury, and the FDIC only have so many resources at their disposal to socialize the markets. This, like all market manipulations, will end. Its all over except for the shouting.
[Click for larger sized chart]

Well, the Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae situation most certainly represents a systemic risk a magnitude greater than the Bear Sterns deal. Sure, the bank failure on Friday is big, but this is bigger. It was a pimple on a pimple. There's $3 billion of their debt up for auction and if the auction fails, well, you'll probably be hearing about it. Heck, you may be hearing about it by the time you read this email.

All weekend long CNN has been hitting the story, as has been drudge. The CNN coverage is total fail. They report there might be as many as 150 banks at risk of failure this year. They give no context, such as
that there were 76 banks where on the same list and only a handful failed. So, great reporting on that one, CNN. And, to top it off,
"they are working feverishly" to obtain said list (which I'm sure they
could get -- if only they had people working for them that can ask
questions over telephone or email. You know, like reporters or
something). So, to even better that, today they are telling people not
to panic. But as far as every watcher is concerned, its *their* bank
that is going to fail since, as they admitted, they don't want people

Christopher Hitchens, one of the most obnoxious and arrogant war apologists around, has made endless arguements which intellectually justify every despicable thing the US govt has done. One of his pieces in Salon was about how torture really isn't torture, to paraphrase. People said put your money where your mouth is, and so Hitchens subjected himself to water boarding. And guess what, afterwards he said it was definately torture.

No kidding, scumbag.

/sarcasm

i can't wait to see how they deny this one

its long as hell, follow the link.

of course, if you already know what a liar hersh is (you know he invented the my lai massacre, right?) then this is the article you should read this.

that about sez it all. i swear to god the f'in repubs are going to blame iraq on the dems and obama. i can see it now...

by the way...

passed was the supplemental spending bill for iraq. paul voted against of course. i cannot find out how obama voted, cause, ah...the press neglects to mention that. my guess, in that case, is that he voted for it. or didnt vote seeing as how busy he is. i looked but cant find online. i'd love if someone is able to sleuth how obama voted on that bill. my thinking:

OBAMA CAN KISS MY BLACK ASS - I'M VOTING FOR RON FUCKING PAUL WHETHER HE RUNS OR NOT.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

Since the DC gun ban went into effect, the city's population has shrunk nearly 25% and the poverty level has decreased as well -- yet the number of deaths due to handguns has increased.

I'm not exactly surprised by any of this. But being anti-gun means never having to look at evidence or logic.

At any rate, the Surpreme Court has ruled on the matter and the handgun ban has been struck down and the individual right to bear arms has been confirmed.

why isn't this splashed all over drudge in 48 bold point font ? the Iranians have made it clear in the past that Hormuz is their lifeline and if anyone even comes near it, they will attack. of course, the AIPAC has put their full weight behind this resolution passing.

http://www.campaigniran.org/casmii/index.php?q=node/5315

A House resolution effectively requiring a naval blockade on Iran seems fast tracked for passage, gaining co-sponsors at a remarkable speed, but experts say the measures called for in the resolutions amount to an act of war.

H.CON.RES 362 calls on the president to stop all shipments of refined petroleum products from reaching Iran. It also "demands" that the President impose "stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran."

Analysts say that this would require a US naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

Kieran

One of the arguements the intelligent design chowderheads make is that "no one has ever witnessed evolution, we just observe the results and create theories about it, theories that are in error because it's all God's work".

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn14094-bacteria-make-major-evo...

suck it, jesus freaks.

this article about the founder of Broadcom is awesome. i guess if you worked at a frenetic pace for years until your company hit the bigtime, you might pause upon reaching the pinnacle and say "wait, I have all this money and power, why don't I have a coke den with hookers ?". granted this is the ny post, where sensationalism is the norm, the story still gave me a laugh:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06152008/news/nationalnews/rockin_the_coked_...

In an Oriental-themed, tricked-out parlor, Nicholas, his friends and a bevy of prostitutes would party and have sex for days - abusing cocaine, laughing gas and other drugs, as music from such chart-toppers as Led Zeppelin and Phil Collins played, according to court papers and a former employee.

The worker said the parlor had six couches. The main room was fashioned in a Far East motif and adorned in rugs and statues, including a four-foot stone figure of Medusa. There was a Jacuzzi for six. A bedroom in the back was used for sex and sleeping, the worker said.

this is why I like Obama ... it takes ballz to make this speech about absent black fathers considering that anyone else who has ever done it (Bill Cosby) is called an Uncle Tom. God knows a white candidate could never do this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/16/us/politics/16obama.html?_r=1&hp&oref=...

CHICAGO — Addressing a packed congregation at one of the city's largest black churches, Senator Barack Obama on Sunday invoked his own absent father to deliver a sharp message to black men, saying "we need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception."

In an address that was striking for its bluntness and where he chose to give it, Mr. Obama directly addressed one of the most delicate topics confronting black leaders: how much responsibility absent fathers bear for some of the intractable problems afflicting black
Americans. Mr. Obama noted that "more than half of all black children live in single-parent households," a number that he said had doubled since his own childhood.

A person who sets a house on fire and 6 years later boasts he can't put it out.

- Bill Moyers

Ahh, winning the hearts and minds....

Marines pass out Gospel verse to Iraqi Muslims

FALLUJAH, Iraq — At the western entrance to the Iraqi city of Fallujah Tuesday, Muamar Anad handed his residence badge to the U.S.
Marines guarding the city. They checked to be sure that he was a city
resident, and when they were done, Anad said, a Marine slipped a coin
out of his pocket and put it in his hand.

Out of fear, he accepted it, Anad said. When he was inside the city,
the college student said, he looked at one side of the coin. "Where
will you spend eternity?" it asked.

He flipped it over, and on the other side it read, "For God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16."

"They are trying to convert us to Christianity," said Anad, a Sunni
Muslim like most residents of this city in Anbar province. At home, he
told his story, and his relatives echoed their disapproval: They'd been
given the coins, too, he said.

Either Bill Clinton is getting crazy in his old age or he consciously/sub-consciously doesn't want Hillary Clinton to be president. Am I the only one thinking that? He just seems to be losing his mind.

"Clinton goes on to say that 'you have to really go some to play the race card on me.' He lists a number of his accomplishments on behalf of African Americans, inexplicably putting the fact that he has "an office in Harlem" at the top of the list."

Well, I guess if you go to a large, nation-wide store and they have a directive from HQ not to sell more than a certain quantity of some food-stuff. Then I guess its called rationing, but it isn't being mandated by government (which export controls would effectively do). Either way, food stocks are tightening here like else where in the world.