And Digby, too. And this is pretty damned interesting, too. Josh Marshall: It turns out that one of the features of the 2005 Bankruptcy bill was to put derivative counter parties [like CDS holders] at the front of the line ahead of other creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. Actually, from what I can...

Great piece by Michael Lind in today’s Salon on the timid liberalism of Obama’s policies, an absolute must-read. Here’s an excerpt: I’m sympathetic to the argument that the public, after nearly half a century of conservative anti-government propaganda, will oppose the direct ...

The horror goes on. And in the meantime, Congressional “moderate Dems” are fighting to make sure the only people who will get real help are on Wall Street! (Thanks, Rahm, for insisting we starve all the progressive primary candidates of cash. Have you explained that stategy yet to your n...

Oh, boo fucking hoo. And by the way: her district is considerably more liberal than this “business friendly” Dem. She’s more interested in wielding obstructionist power as a minority DINO....

On cramdowns, via Chris Bowers....

I read this in Salon this morning, and I’ve been brooding over it all day. Mick Arran points out that the powers that be only get worked up about class war if they start losing the war. That pretty much sums up the dynamic of this country for the past 30 years or so. (I remember reading in som...

The faces behind the foreclosures....

Republican mouthpieces. But you already knew that!...

Robert Reich: Presidential budgets are aspirations. They’re not real, in the sense that no one really has to adhere to them. Obama’s budget now goes to Congress, where budget committees will draw up their own versions. Even these congressional budgets are mere guidelines for appropriatio...

The main reason I decry the way the political classes hire from the children of the well-off and well-educated is that so few of the policy wonks understand the consequences of legislation on those not so well educated or well off. And now, someone needs to fix this: A federal law designed to protec...