Where's the Outrage?

Here’s the Tuesday evening’s news roundup:

• Senator Ted Stevens’s trial has kicked into high-gear. Bill Allen, former CEO of VECO, testified against his former friend. It will be interesting to see how Stevens tries to get out of this one.
• I have no idea what happened on Wall Street today. If part of the plummeting stock numbers from yesterday resulted from the failure of reaching a bailout deal, then what was the almost 500 point rise today about? There is no bailout deal yet, although there’s a lot of speculation of adeal in the works. The more I look at this bailout, the less I like it. The politics of it are all wrong. Fiscal conservatives feel that such an expenditure is simply not warranted. There are some conservatives that believe the market needs to take care of the market. Similarly, there are a significant number of Democrats who did not vote for this bill. These Democrats are wondering why we should bail out Wall Street when they created this mess. All of the House members will be up for re-election in a little more than a month. We have a president who is clearly a lame duck. He has no clout with Democrats or Republicans. He went on television this morning… did anyone know that he was going to be on TV this morning?
• One of the plans that continues to percolate in the background is somehow rescuing struggling homeowners. Although I’m all for helping homeowners who were duped by predatory mortgages, I’m not sure that this will fix the problem. The problem has to do with falling home values in relation to wages. Home values are going to fall even more over the next year or or so. Historically, home values are too high. Therefore, either home values need to decrease or wages need to increase. With the economy screeching to a halt, we all know wages are not going to increase. This is kind of a head scratcher.
• There was a British comedy called Fawlty Towers which aired for a short time in the mid-70s. Basil Fawlty, the lead character, was so inept that it became painful at times to watch him flounder. I think the same can be said for Governor Sarah Palin. More of her interview with Katie Couric were aired tonight. She didn’t get any better. I don’t know why, but I expect that she will do well in her debate with Senator Joe Biden.
• It appears that Missouri Senator Kit Bond (Republican) was deeply involved in the firing of Attorney General Todd Graves. The latest inspector general report, released yesterday, seems to implicate Senator Bond’s office.
• Although John McCain has mentioned at least a million times that the surge has worked, the purpose of the surge was to create a peaceful space where political reconciliation could begin. We really haven’t seen any of that reconciliation. One of the major parts of this reconciliation is the inclusion of the Sunni militias into the Iraqi police force. So far, that hasn’t happened.
• In a one-game playoff, the Minnesota Twins lost to the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox are in the playoffs.
• Scott Linehan of the St. Louis Rams was fired on Monday. It’s really unclear to me why he wasn’t fired during the off-season. They need an offensive line. They need some playmakers on defense. None of this happened in the off-season. Al Davis, long-time owner of the Oakland Raiders, fired Lane Kiffin today. Al Davis then proceeded to excoriate his former coach! It’s pretty remarkable. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s completely classless.

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