Don't have much time right now, but...

I heard one of the least-informed opinions I've heard on the radio this morning from a market analyist who claimed that in March the markets would rally because when those "first" subprime-ARMs reset (fail) everyone will see that the CDOs are actually going to perform just fine (fail) because everyone will have refinanced (fail). One, we already know how these go because they've been resetting already - to failure. Two, they aren't performing just fine in this environment which we already have. And three, there isn't a lender in the world which hasn't jacked up refi criteria to the moon. Applications to refinance are not acceptance; this guy didn't know the difference.

Meanwhile, this is also important:

Coal bottleneck tempts investors to other black gold
Citigroup sees price rally continuing as blizzards, floods cap output
By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch
Last update: 7:08 p.m. EST Feb. 6, 2008

Long URL elided

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Coal, whose price surge has already outrun those of crude oil and natural gas, is generating an even louder buzz as a rash of bad weather has reduced its production globally.

Citigroup earlier this week raised its forecast for thermal coal, saying it now expects prices for the benchmark product to double this year as blizzards in China, power outages in South Africa, and floods in Queensland cut into global output. Meanwhile, demand for coal keeps rising as the world's electricity use expands.

Today's PAA/FISA update, and Atty. General Mukasey makes things clear

Senate Majority Leader Reid's plan to pass the bush as Mr. Bush desires - unlimited warrantless wiretapping with no oversight, and, for that matter, no actual power in the FISA court as the bill allows illegally-collected material to be used in the same manner as legally-collected material, a significant weakening of the current FISA law. Most amendments are going down pretty hard, with none receiving even the 40 votes you'd need to sustain a filibuster.

According to comments here, the final vote on the Senate version will be on Tuesday, and it will pass as Chief Executive Mr. Bush wants.

Then it will be up to the House to do whatever it's going to do. The plan is to come up with a PAA/FISA bill at the last minute so that the House will accept the Senate version as-is. This will end the lawsuits against the illegal spying by telecom agencies on behalf of the Bush administration, by making the actions retroactively legal. This has been the only path to investigation, so that's that then. The Democrats have endorsed everything.

Attorney General Mr. Mukasey, by the way, took the opportunity today to say that no investigation would be launched by the Justice Department on any matter on which the Department had written an opinion (no matter how crazy), and also that if Congress moves forward on contempt charges for ignored subpoenas, he'll refuse to enforce. So that's fun. Law, clearly, is for suckers, and to be written, rewritten, or ignored on the whims of the Chief Executive and their appointees.

So remember, kids: there is no Constitution, there is no law; we do not have a President, and you are not a citizen. The politics of authoritarianism are opaque, and brutal, but at least some people are starting to wake up and call them what they are.