We Found the W.M.D. : "Get me a Supreme Court justice and a Bible, and swear in Obama right now."

[DeepModem Mom]

We Found the W.M.D.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 22, 2008

....If I had my druthers right now we would convene a special session of Congress, amend the Constitution and move up the inauguration from Jan. 20 to Thanksgiving Day. Forget the inaugural balls; we can’t afford them. Forget the grandstands; we don’t need them. Just get me a Supreme Court justice and a Bible, and let’s swear in Barack Obama right now — by choice — with the same haste we did — by necessity — with L.B.J. in the back of Air Force One.

Unfortunately, it would take too long for a majority of states to ratify such an amendment. What we can do now, though, said the Congressional scholar Norman Ornstein, co-author of “The Broken Branch,” is “ask President Bush to appoint Tim Geithner, Barack Obama’s proposed Treasury secretary, immediately.” Make him a Bush appointment and let him take over next week. This is not a knock on Hank Paulson. It’s simply that we can’t afford two months of transition where the markets don’t know who is in charge or where we’re going. At the same time, Congress should remain in permanent session to pass any needed legislation.

This is the real “Code Red.” As one banker remarked to me: “We finally found the W.M.D.” They were buried in our own backyard — subprime mortgages and all the derivatives attached to them.

Yet, it is obvious that President Bush can’t mobilize the tools to defuse them — a massive stimulus program to improve infrastructure and create jobs, a broad-based homeowner initiative to limit foreclosures and stabilize housing prices, and therefore mortgage assets, more capital for bank balance sheets and, most importantly, a huge injection of optimism and confidence that we can and will pull out of this with a new economic team at the helm.

The last point is something only a new President Obama can inject. What ails us right now is as much a loss of confidence — in our financial system and our leadership — as anything else. I have no illusions that Obama’s arrival on the scene will be a magic wand, but it would help.

Right now there is something deeply dysfunctional, bordering on scandalously irresponsible, in the fractious way our political elite are behaving — with business as usual in the most unusual economic moment of our lifetimes. They don’t seem to understand: Our financial system is imperiled....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/opinion/23friedman.html?em

[BlooInBloo]

1. Shorter Friedman: "Quick! Somebody clean up my mess!!!".

[jgraz]

3. Win.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. It's only a 1/3 of a Friedman Unit away.

What's the big deal?

:shrug:

[BlooInBloo]

4. Indeed - he's the LAST person who should have any sense of urgency.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Here's a clue, Tom F.:

They don't WANT to clean up the mess. Their rich pals are benefiting from it, so who cares what happens to the rest of us.

[HillbillyBob]

6. The local morning news just said Citibank needs help

Now they will need 20 Billion $ to bail them out.
mm aint that funny. The credit card cos get laws passed so they can rip off customers by calling in debt and arbitrarily raising interest rates and to hell with letting people file for bankruptcy.. I guess there are some benefits to bein po, I don't have credit cards myself my partner has one for a store we use to get farm equipment and one through his bank we use only in emergecy, like car repairs that just have to be done in order to get to work.

[SpiralHawk]

7. Something "deeply dysfunctional" about the republicons. D'oh

Friedman and the other corporate media clowns are soooo slow on the uptake.

Anyone not intent upon fellating the status quo could have made that "deeply dysfunctional" observation 8 years ago.