Bloomberg To Stand Again

Michael Bloomberg is planning to change the law so he can run for a third term as Mayor of New York (The New York Times). The former Democrat and Republican, now independent, believes that the financial crisis requires New York to remain in his hands.
As competent as he is and as much as I admire [...]

A Matter Of Faith

Through a post by a chap called Graeme Archer (CentreRight) I became aware of an organisation called The Conservative Humanist Association (Official Website).
The CHA “is open to Conservatives who want a more secular United Kingdom and a reduced role for religions in the affairs of state”.
A more secular United Kingdom? Save for outlawing the Church [...]

Standing Up

David Cameron, the ‘Conservative’ Party leader, was rebuked by business leaders yesterday after saying that his party “should never be frightened of standing up to big business” (The Financial Times).
Only in the la-la land of left-wingers and populists no one is standing up to big business. Every day regulators, legislators, protesters, courts, trade unions, European [...]

Roll Call

The final roll call of the vote on the Bailout has been published (Office of the Clerk).
Please note that one idiot Republican even abstained – Jerry Weller (R-IL). I can understand and even appreciate voting no on the basis of ideological conscience. But abstaining is just spineless and a breach of his duty to his [...]

The Day After

A few after-thoughts on Congress, or rather the Republicans, rejecting the Bailout (The Zanzibar Gazette).
First, the vote has confirmed the weakness of the Republican leadership. The influence of President Bush has dwindled. Furthermore, the congressional Republicans no longer have a tight-fisted leader like Tom DeLay, the former Majority Leader, to whip them into line.
Secondly, Republican [...]

Glomgolds midnight thoughts

Well.. Not a very nice day. We all expected something like this (see Rockerducks post below) would happen if the bailout bill was rejected, but deep inside I think many of us after all hoped it would pass. I was against some parts of the bailout as a matter of principal but I am pretty sure that we [...]

777

In a move backed by regulators, Wachovia avoided failure by being acquired by Citigroup today (The Times). Thus it joins the long list of failed/nearly-failed banks over the last two weeks.
And then, in a shocking development, the House of Representatives rejected the Bailout plan 228-205 (The Denver Post). 132 Republicans voted against the bill, while [...]

Cameron Sides With The Robbers

David Cameron said today at the Tory Party Conference that there is no money for tax-cuts because the “government spent it all” (Politics Home).
I do not know where to begin.
First, tax cuts are not a ‘cost’ which needs to be financed. It is a reduction in revenue, which requires corresponding cuts in costs. There is [...]

Another One (Almost) Bites The Dust

Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis almost joined Bear Stearns, Lehman and WaMu in the graveyard of banks but was saved by a joint-effort of the Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourg governments (Bloomberg). In effect, the bank is now part-nationalised. It is interesting that quite recently Fortis seemed to be a bank on the way up after joining RBS [...]

Glomgolds thoughts 2

RFSU, the swedish lobby for sexual promiscuity writes a debate article in todays (Svenska Dagbladet). For non swedes to understand RFSU´s agenda; their utopia is described in Genesis 18:20.
In the debate article published today Åsa Regnér, generalsekreterare of RFSU, thinks the right for religious institutions to conduct marriages should be revoked. This due to “discrimination” [...]