The cherry on top

Military commissions can sentence people to death. Military regs were quietly updated in 2006 to allow executions at Gitmo, to avoid actual judicial review:

David Sheldon, an attorney and former member of the Navy's legal corps, said an execution chamber at Guantanamo would be largely beyond the reach of U.S. courts.

"I think that's the administration's idea, to try to use Guantanamo as a base to not be under the umbrella of the federal district courts," he said. "If one is detained in North Carolina or South Carolina in a Navy brig, one could conceivably file a petition of habeas corpus and because of where they're located, invoke the jurisdiction of a federal court."

Okay! So! We've got an administration that can kidnap anyone (including you) anywhere (including where you are), haul them off anywhere (such as Gitmo), hold them without charge, torture them (however they want, until they decide you're proven guilty, apparently), "try" them in military tribunals subject to severe political pressure, and execute them, far away from any hope of appeal.

When I say we're about to hit the bottom of this pit, I mean, we are about to hit the bottom of this pit. It's deep, and it's dark, and it's very, very, very cold.

not good!

More bond auctions have been failing. The latest impacts are in student loan and other educational funding. Even Deerfield is having to pay high rates. What the fuck, people?! It's time to stop screwing around and trying to cover up the insolvency, downgrade the monolines, let them implode, let some banks fall over, salvage the rest, and clear this crap out of the system. Apparently, nobody's going to lend anything until this gets flushed out, so get to it already!

From the WSJ:

In the past few days, problems have mounted for many borrowers as an obscure -- but important -- corner of the credit market called auction-rate securities has gone into a deep freeze.

Borrowers ranging from student-loan authorities to municipalities to big bond funds depend on this market to raise money for making loans and funding projects. They do so by selling securities whose interest rates are reset every week as they change hands in auctions arranged by Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

In recent days, the money managers and other investors who typically buy auction-rate securities have been balking, out of fear the credit turmoil is spreading. The remaining bidders have commanded higher interest rates from borrowers including Deerfield, San Francisco's de Young Museum, New York's Carnegie Hall and many others. A call to Deerfield's finance department wasn't returned. The de Young Museum declined to comment.

[...]

"If student loan providers are having trouble raising money, then that's a concern for us," says Justin Draeger, spokesman for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. He says the loans tend to go to low-income students. "If there's a problem with getting the funds, then they may not be able to pay for their education."

Peter Warren, vice president of government relations for the Education Finance Council, which represents nonprofit lenders and state lending agencies, said that while Michigan may be the only state yet to announce a student-loan halt, others are "seriously evaluating" the viability of their programs.