very slightly unsorted politics

I do crappy linkblogging, but here it is anyway.

The FBI is working on a new protocol for domestic investigations that throws out crap like "probable cause" and adds profiling, including racial profiling. Yeah, that's what we need. I can't wait for the Democratic party to endorse it as they "move to the centre" for the elections by opposing everything they pretend to stand for and supporting everything they tend to oppose.

Oh look, Christopher Hitchens changes his mind about torture real fast after getting tortured for 17 seconds. At least he's finally admitting waterboarding is torture. Here's video, if you must. He's still having nightmares after the experience. The clown gets it now, at least. And no, I'm not fucking feeling generous towards him, even if he's finally gotten it into his thick head by firsthand experience, and I'm not going to commend him for doing it firsthand, any more than I'd commend an adult for testing out electrocution by sticking a knife in a live electrical main, because any jackass willing to look at reality wouldn't have fucking needed to get waterboarded to realise that torture isn't about truth, it's about torture. It's about fucking people up and about getting them to say whatever the hell you want them to say. Hitch gets that now. Good. Fuckhead took long enough.

The meme against those of us protesting Senator Obama reversal on and the Democratic Party's support for retroactive immunity for telecom lawbreaking, warrantless spying on Americans, and the destruction of the 4th Amendment is that we're upset "that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) is trying to win the 2008 presidential election." Fuck that. I'd take it apart but Greenwald has done it for you, go read him.

econonoise

Okay, so, up front, some linkless material: I'm not a technicals person, but we should've seen a bounce Wednesday in the equity markets, as a continuation of previous ticks up. Seriously, we should've, and we didn't. The market is crazy oversold and there wasn't much shocking news and we're overdue for a little corrective jump, and so far, we aren't really seeing it. What we have been seeing is a clusterfuck of Hindenberg Omens¹, and these are the conditions where historically you see crashes.

Oh, and Saudi Arabia yesterday told buyers to get used to high oil prices. Um, yeah, we know.

Mish is coming all out and saying we're fucked; it's deflation. He's talking Austrian terminology, which means money and money-equivalent supply, and not necessarily price. I still think oil issues will defeat price deflation overall, but that's not better, and wage pressures are pretty much zero, so don't look for inflationary input on that side - or pay hikes to help deal with rising costs of things you need, either. Karl at Market Ticker is even more bearish.

I'm really hoping that various theories that China will stop being such a huge buyer of US dollars as soon as the Olympics are over are wrong. Really hoping. (Link is to Brad Setser's article over at the CFR website.) One thing they want the US to do is shore up the dollar, but that'll be some work. Again, I'm not a technicals trader, but if I were, I'd bring up the six month chart on the dollar index and note you can draw a very nice "bear flag" with a channel that the dollar has just broken out of, down. The target would be a new low of, eh, 66ish, if I understand that sort of thing correctly. Which I'm not sure I do, so don't go placing shorts on my word for it - if you're one of those people, you should do your own drawing. I think it's nuts enough in equities where people believe in it; I think forex traders are less likely to buy in.

Bank of America went through with its plans to buy Countrywide. This is crazy. Seriously, what the hell are they doing buying a zombie housing lender that's being sued from coast to coast? S&P downgraded BoA stock from "sell" to "strong sell" (a.k.a. short the hell out of this) on the news. Presumably the intent is to loot and destroy, but you can't duck the legal liabilities that way.

Shaking out what's left in the sack:

The Fed appears to be having some trouble defending its target rate. That's neat. Credit card losses are worse than expected, which is a no-brainer, but still. The government-chartered housing corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are seeing delinquencies continue to rise. California lender IndyMac is having to spend a lot of time swearing it's not about to die. I'm hearing otherwise. And Dr. Roubini at RGE Monitor has given a lot of interviews lately, some of which are linked on that page.

And that's that.

¹: Yes, I am proposing this as a new plural; a school of fish, a murder of ravens, a clusterfuck of Hindenberg Omens.

FISAfest

First off, Jane at Firedoglake has put up a Senatorial public appearance locator. The goal is to find your Senator, if they're going to be around over the holiday, and dunn them over FISA. I suggest clicking and seeing if you have an event in range. (I don't.) Go for it.

Meanwhile, there's lots of commentary flying around on the FISA disaster. The American Conservative is on our side, asking if the 4th Amendment and law-bound executive isn't worth defending, then what the hell is, and why are only "left-liberals" concerned:

It seems to me that there have to be some things that are not negotiable and things that should not be compromised for electoral expediency. You might think constitutional protections would be among those things, and that this would not be the concern of left-liberals alone. Apparently, you would be wrong.

Eschaton asks the same question - why the hell is this supposedly a "left-liberal" question, and Daniel Larison wants to know why "the idea that defending the Fourth Amendment against egregious, systematic violation by the government is some far-out extremist position that must be watered down or abandoned in order to appeal to 'the middle.'" Digby at Hullabaloo explains things to the American Conservative in a post worth reading. Highlighting key aspects of Digby's commentary, The New Republic tells FISA protesters, "HEY NUTROOTS - YOU LOST," calling protests in favour of the 4th Amendment "hissy-fits," and adding, "By rejecting these people and their radicalism, Barack Obama isn't just showing that he wants to win, but that he wants to govern the country responsibly." That "radicalism" to which they refer is the Constitution and rule of law - you know, things only losers care about, not Real Americans.

Glenn Greenwald has a couple of important articles, one on a third ruling against Mr. Bush's illegal surveillance programme, which will likewise be mooted if this legislation passes as is expected. Senator Obama has issued a new statement on his FISA reversal, which Mr. Greenwald takes apart here, comparing and contrasting it to facts and previous statements. And Obama supporters protesting this move now form the largest self-organised interest group on Senator Obama's campaign website.