out the backroom window

While the spinners parse President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly according to the foreign policy clichés of the moment, it’s at least interesting to wonder if any US president can effect any change in foreign affairs that is more than symbolic, or alter the ideologies of the nation’s military and intelligence agencies or [...]

Nomi Prins, a former Wall Streeter, has a good critique at Mother Jones of the bailout proposal as it was voted down yesterday. After summarizing the reasons why, in her view, the amended bill was not a good bill, Prins concludes: The current financial crisis—and the debate over the bailout package—provided an opportunity to shine [...]

All the news services have carried the story. The bipartisan bailout of the nation’s largest financial institutions has failed in the House of Representatives by 13 votes. According to CNN: The measure need[ed] 218 votes for passage, but it came up 13 votes short of that target, as the final vote was 228 to 205 [...]