Needlenose

After living through the Repug beatification of St. Ronnie, wherein they ascribed such miracles to him as the tearing down of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Soviet Union, I was wondering when the Neo-cons and other remnants of the old regime would start on the rehabilitation of Shrubya.

Didn’t take too long!  Former Bushie Elliott Abrams is already moving to credit Shrubya with the various ‘People’s Movements’ springing up in Tunisia, Egypt & Yemen.  Well I don’t see him crowing about the one place Shrubya did directly intervene, Iraq.  And we don’t see the angry crowds waving US Flags and yelling Viva Bush (or the Arabic equivalent thereof).

But I guess Abrams is right in one sense.  The protesters undoubtedly have a lot of issues on their plates, including a desire for more democracy.  However, what has them taking to the streets is the joblessness and growing poverty, stemming directly from the current economic crisis, which has direct roots in Shrubya & GOP policies to recklessly deregulate the U.S. Financial industry.  So in a sense, you could call Shrubya the “Godfather” of Arabic Street Protests!

I  wonder if the he or the GOP will still rush to claim credit if any of these People’s Movements take a turn towards Fundamentalist Dictatorship.

Reuters reports this afternoon:

President Barack Obama said on Friday the recession-hit U.S. economy was showing “glimmers of hope” despite remaining under strain and promised further steps in coming weeks to tackle the financial crisis.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Obama told reporters after a meeting with economic and regulatory teams plus Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. But he added, “We’re starting to see progress.”

Obama spoke a day after encouraging trade and jobless figures pushed stocks higher, and White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers predicted the economy would emerge from a sense of “freefall” by the middle of the year.

With the Treasury Dept. and Federal Reserve trying to hush up any suspicions of major banks failing the current “stress tests,” it seems like the Obama administration has decided on conscious strategy of encouraging positive thoughts about the economy.

Presumably they’re smart enough to know there’s no way to happy-talk their way out of a genuinely deep hole (remember what they did to John McCain for saying “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” last fall?). But even so, maybe Obama and company think a little optimism will help keep the economy from plunging further into the ground.

The most charitable interpretation of Team Obama’s timidity in challenging the banksters is that a bolder approach would intensify the sense of crisis, with counterproductive results. Extending George Soros’ metaphor that the financial system is “on life support,” the argument would be that you don’t want to unplug the machines at the patient’s weakest point and say, “Now or never — get up and walk!”

At the same time, of course, it’s useless to keep the patient on life support if you don’t ever do anything about the underlying disease. And so the point of continued artificial support is to give more gradual treatments (e.g., the“further steps in coming weeks” promised in the Reuters story) time to take effect.

Thus, a little public optimism may not necessarily be a mirror to reflect reality, as the old saying about art goes, but rather a tool for helping to shape it — nudging stock prices higher, making people feel less nervous about spending money, and as a result buying more time to implement the serious measures that are really needed. Um, assuming that the will to take those steps actually exists.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

An interesting story hitting the wires from the Washington Post this afternoon:

Senior Bush administration officials are preparing to ask lawmakers for the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package despite intense opposition in Congress and then have President Bush use his veto if the request is voted down, three sources familiar with the matter said.

Atrios immediately read this as Dubya trying to get his clumsy hands on the cash even though there’s almost no time left in his term, so I guess  this part must have been added in a subsequent revision by the Post:

The initiative, which is being coordinated with the Obama transition team, may be taken within days, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made.

. . . Under the emergency rescue legislation approved by Congress in October, the administration must inform lawmakers that it wants access to the second installment of $350 billion. Unless Congress passes a resolution rejecting the request within 15 days, the Treasury can begin to tap the funds. If Congress does turn down the request, the president could veto the resolution and then the Treasury could proceed.

The plan now being crafted by the Bush administration is not finalized. By unsheathing the veto threat, the Bush administration could make it more likely that the Obama administration would get the rest of the rescue funds. Only if Congress overrides the veto would the money be blocked. A congressional source said advocates of the plan are now exploring whether there are enough votes in the Senate to override a veto.

“There have been discussions between the administration and the transition about how to proceed should the president-elect determine that he wants to have those funds available on January 20th,” said Robert Gibbs, spokesman for the Obama transition team. “No final decisions have been made, but we want to be ready to act if needed.”

Hmmmm.  Could it be that with 10 days left to go, the Bushites have finally decided it’s okay to do something for the good of the country?  Or do they have some ulterior motive (as usual)?  And how does this play into Obama’s strategy regarding his stimulus proposals — is he willing to let Congress bat it around because he’s looking forward to having a separate slush fund to work with?  Inquiring minds want to know.

(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)

If former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan can be man enough to admit he screwed up, why can’t other prominent Ayn Rand worshipping free market wingnuts?  Seriously, unless we rub their noses in it now, they’ll be spouting their ‘unfettered market’ BS again after the current recession lifts in a couple of years.