The Day After Christmas

And a man's thoughts inevitably turn toward tires.

".exactly these cans." horn

[i'm working through an obstacle with exactly these cans on my ears. dual volume controls! i am enjoying very much the new Deerhunter and Lambchop records, and speaking of Lambchop the newest Giant Sand would go well between your Lambchop and your Testface records.]

The Interview: Barack Obama - Person of the Year 2008 - TIME

don't even think about not reading this, because it's lengthy and candid.

Palin leads top 10 list of memorable political economic quotes - Politics- msnbc.com

what a year of politics we've lived through? huh. this is a pointed kind of scrapbook, this list.

Electrical Audio - Best Albums of 2008

outside of our immediate circle, this is where the real top 10 conversation goes on. i am having a great time preparing my top ten...especially since i've already leaked the identity of my #1 on the other blogo.

Golden Girls Jewelry! » Is The “Thank You For Being A Friend” Necklace The Best Christmas Gift Since Christ Was Born?

i come to Best Week Ever exclusively for Paul F. Tompkins. but they've got me by the elbow now. shoegaze and pop-gossip, merry New Year!

blog.aflcio.org, "double-standard-critics-of-big-three-loan-subsidize-foreign-competitors"
again, i keep wondering why it took labor so long to get this winning message out to people!

back to work.

On the Verge of a Bridge Loan, Pelosi Quotes Corker

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said negotiations were continuing with the White House, and lawmakers were hoping to create an auto industry that could thrive on its own — an effort she said would require concessions from management, labor, creditors and others.

"We call this a barbershop. Everybody's getting a haircut," Pelosi said.

(h/t: ap, by "ap" i mean the 'press association.' not the other AP.)

ah, and here's Corker's response to the proposed deal.

House-Rocking House Financial Services/Bailout Open Thread 2

[I'm going to try to keep the Bob Corker (R-TN) references a bit toned down today, seeing as how we're in the House. At least my man Barney Frank (D-MA) always seems to calm me down. To me he'll always be "the balm."]

Big 3 Congressional Hearings Pt. 2 Open Thread

[originally published earlier this week, 'member? that's right, i bumped this thread back to the top for the length of its news cycle. i can do that now that i'm responsible for such an overwhelming majority of the content on this once-far-more-diverse, once-blossoming weblog ("blog"). i can also commit my characteristic layout atrocities with impunity (and aplomb.) is this the new regime? are you really going to let it come to this, Wobs?]

Hearing's not until Thursday...? well yeah, I'm already tailgating, apparently. By "tailgating" of course, I mean, scoping the FLSA for and listening to records with MSNBC muted in the old background.

Are "we" going to get the $25 billion this time (update: ABC says Harry Reid'll introduce the bailout bill on Monday)? Can we expect some primo, public declamations about "the unions" from the minority party? 'Hope to hear from those of youse who're (mebbe or mebbe not) romancing East Lansing, weak-kneed in Ypsilanti, or erstwhile in Webberville!

For starters please see

• the righteous MRzine piece by Dan La Botz.
• jonathan cohn disspelling the $70/hr myth
• (the Prodigal Uncle) Dave3544's masterpiece of historical fiction.
• always and in every way, the Burlman.
  

players in their own right: Stern, Biden, Reuther, Christie

1) Andy Stern on the New Moment
here's the Nation editor KVH swooning a little bit over Andy. it's an interesting opportunity to hear Andy spew forth, and you can always count on Big Purple for some interesting frames:

It's a different world – the free market ideology has been discredited," Stern said. This was "a clear election not on small things." And he argues, "We've redefined the center. Universal health care is now centrist."

2) BIDENLAND! amidst all the appointments, my question is, how do we ensure that my man Joe Biden always has the ear of the pres.?
3)Harold Meyerson puts forth a superior reading of the Big 3 Bailout that doesn't fail to evoke the era or Reuther:

The United Auto Workers’ pamphlet is nothing if not explicit in criticizing the direction of the American automobile industry. New cars cost too much relative to the buying power of the American public, it says. They are oversized. Their fuel efficiency is appallingly low.

This indictment of the Big Three appears in "A Small Car Named Desire," published by the UAW in 1949 (when the Tennessee Williams play which its title invokes was new). It was written by the social democratic labor intellectuals with whom the UAW's new president, Walter Reuther, staffed what was then the world's largest and most vibrant union. During World War II, the union, along with the Steelworkers, had won the first contracts that committed its employers to paying for its members' health care. In the first years of Reuther's presidency, it won the first contracts ensuring that productivity gains would be shared with the workers and devised the first annual cost-of-living adjustments so that paychecks would keep up with inflation. The union also won decent pensions for retirees and coverage of those retirees' medical expenses.

In other words, the UAW did more to build the era of postwar American prosperity, when workers' paychecks kept up with productivity gains, than any single institution save the federal government itself. That's one reason why it's such a target for conservative attacks as the Big Three beg the government to bail them out: In an era when no productivity gains are shared with workers, when workers’ incomes have been stagnating for decades, the UAW still preserves some of the gains that were broadly shared among American workers three and four decades ago.

read on!

4) and then there's NJ US Attorney and soon-to-be GOP candidate for Governor of NJ, Chris Christie, whose made hay through taking a creative, expansive approach to making political corruption cases. in addition to Christie's ingenuity, the Garden State's long-infamous culture of party patronage, etc., echoes neoliberal political culture's common-sense skepticism not just towards government, but towards politicians, and by extension, towards politics itself:

"After 35 years as a defense lawyer, I find it has become far more difficult to defend public officials," says Joseph Hayden, a prominent Democrat who also has been mentioned as a possible successor to Christie. "People simply don't trust them -- and those people become jurors."

Jurors, says Hayden, "don't care about legalities. They care about the smell test. If it smells like corruption, they'll convict."

Rooting for Pat Buchanan? "Economic Nationalism"

I hope some of you will tough out the full 11+ minutes here, because I need to share it with somebody. Pretty unusual for Matthews to get to moderate between far-right types - one a libertarian, the other a, uh, Pat Buchanan - and you can tell he's enjoying himself.

What do you think? There may be a moment or two where Pat B. is "right for the wrong reasons," but his is a really powerful pro-bailout argument, no? And when Pat goes after the Heritage Foundation towards the end? This is the sort of television I should hope to be watching while I quietly (but not joylessly) die.

speaks for itself

Dean Baker, Big Three Bankruptcy: Now or In Two or Three Years Matters

Market Place radio presented a comment by University of Maryland economist Peter Morici on the bailout of the Detroit auto makers. Mr. Morici said that the auto companies will face bankruptcy, the only question is whether it is now or three years from now.

While this is presumably meant as an argument against the bailout, it misses the main argument as to why a bailout is needed. The economies of Michigan and Ohio are still heavily dependent on the Big Three. If these companies go under at the moment, it will mean that a whole group of suppliers suddenly incur large losses due to the money owed to them by the Big Three, which they will not receive, as well as their lost orders. This will lead to a large second wave of bankruptcies as many suppliers go under. In addition, state and local governments will see plunging tax revenue.

While this process will be extremely painful for the region at any time, it will be devastating in the middle of the current recession. The federal government would have to step in with large amounts of money so that governments in the region can continue to provide essential services and to support the unemployed workers. In two or three years we can reasonably hope that the economies of the region have rebounded enough so that they could withstand a bankruptcy, if it occurred.