Plenty of time to tamper with stuff --

By Carol Gee

-- by the "party of whiners#," as Paul Krugman names the GOP. The next couple of weeks provide plenty of time for our current "Sarah Palin-like president" - #Lawrence Wilkerson's term - (OCP) to make hiring mischief#, to be inept, burnish his legacy#, and defend his record# of failures. I cannot wait to say goodbye to all that. The Republicans were defeated.

The past week has provided an opportunity for Israel to invade Gaza with impunity from OCP, a NYT analysis asserts. Despite world-wide protest, the current administration has come down almost entirely on the side of Israel. Ironically, there is every possibility that United States citizens protesting against either Israeli or Palestinian violence will have their civil liberties violated. They can easily be monitored by some arm of the government* for their potential as so-called "terrorist threats." If Maryland police could dream it up you can imagine that some other set of cowboys would try it.

While most Republicans will flee DC for the inauguration, Frank Rich's recent New York Times op-ed column, "A President Forgotten But Not Gone," reminds us painfully that OCP will still be in town until the White House changes hands. His piece is a searing indictment of OCP's failed presidency, along with a very perceptive analysis of the personality of OCP. And the Bush dynasty may not be over; Bush 41 is now touting Jeb for the top job#. "NO! NO! NO!," exclaims my regular contributor, Jon.

Put your money in gold# -- A study released last month by Celent , a Boston-based firm that provides independent information and advice to financial services companies, produced a "Fraudlent 'Credit Crisis' paves way for economic disaster#" MensNewsDaily headline that, to quote:

The analysis, Flawed Assumptions about the Credit Crisis: A Critical Examination of US Policymakers, concludes that the result of the unjustified massive federal intervention in the economy could be similar to the economic crisis in the Weimar Republic of 1922, where disastrous hyperinflation made the currency worthless and threatened the nation’s political system and stability.

. . . Paulson had claimed that, by mid-September, when he persuaded President Bush to go public with demands for Congress to approve a $700-billion bailout plan, the financial system had “seized up,” credit markets had “froze,” and interbank lending had been “substantially reduced.”

But none of this was true. “The freezing of the credit markets that Secretary Paulson cites is not visible” in the data, the Celent report shows . . .It declares, “Doubtlessly, a number of the leading financial institutions in the US are in serious trouble, as are a number of the leading industrial firms. However, credit difficulties surrounding a specific set of firms is not the same as a problem in the credit markets in the aggregate.” The study says that, “A clear and cogent analysis of the credit crisis has not been presented by policymakers, despite the fact that unprecedented levels of public funds are being deployed.” As a result, the “massive injection of funds could well exacerbate the problem rather than help.”

Fighting the Last Depression# -- "Banks have plenty of money; this is a crisis of confidence," is Time Magazine's analysis. Authors Lawrence and Ari Officer warn that the administration (s) should not fight this crisis like it is another Great Depression. AlterNet posits in similar posts# that the "credit crunch was a myth perpetuated to sell a trillion-dollar scam#." We will see how long it lasts after being exposed to the light of day.

Gates has guts -- Walter Pincus' article, "Pentagon Chief sees opportunities in Russia and the War on Terrorism," is a very welcome way for all of us to get some practice bridging out of the administration of OCP and into some sanity. We have just a couple more weeks to wait.

Hat Tip Key: Regular contributors of links to leads are "betmo*" and Jon#.

(Cross-posted at South by Southwest.)