Obama's Bank War: Banks Prepare to Strike Back

Wall Street is gearing up to respond to Obama's offensive against Big Banks:

Banks are mobilising a smooth-running lobbying machine in Washington to battle Barack Obama's plans to limit the size and scope of Wall Street institutions, as financial services firms gear up to stop a shake-up that could slice away large chunks of their operations.

Their influence on Capitol Hill is broad – the top eight US banks spent $26m (£16m) on lobbying efforts last year, an increase of 6% on 2008 despite their financial woes, according to Congressional records. And in the first 10 months of 2009, the financial industry donated $78.2m to federal candidates and party committees – more than any other business sector – according to political research institute the Centre for Responsive Politics.

The banks are not going to be pushed around.

Frightening Images of Looting

In Haiti

There seems to be no control over the distribution of supplies. It's every man for himself. It's all about survival. It's like the whole world is using a Darwin experiment on Haiti. It's kind of disturbing seeing people getting this on camera and not helping the people.

Brown Takes Washington

Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts has arrived in Washington DC. The Boston Globe is suggesting that it's important that he and Senior Senator John Kerry get along, and I tend to agree:

“Within any legislative body, all the incentives are to collaborate,’’ said Marty Linsky, a politics professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. “It’s not in either Brown’s or Kerry’s best interests not to get along and not work together. In the past, [senators in opposite parties] actually found it good for the state to be able to collaborate. It gave each one of them access to the other party.’’

And that, Linsky said, makes it easier to bring home the federal bacon.

In the Senate, he added, “you can’t afford to alienate anybody, particularly someone in your own jurisdiction. We’ll see a lot more collaboration than conflict.’’

It will be interesting to see how this relationship develops.

Conan Cash II

Conan looks like he's going to be making straight bank:

After a last long night of negotiations, the deal to end Mr. O’Brien’s short term as host of “The Tonight Show” was concluded with an agreement that will pay him about $32 million and free him up to return to television in eight months.

May be Conan on Fox will be a reality.

Obama's Bank War Continues

Here are Greg Mankiw's Thoughts:

Will the tax law in fact be so well written? It certainly won't be perfect. But it is possible that it will be better than doing nothing at all, watching the finance industry expand excessively, and waiting for the next financial crisis and taxpayer bailout.

Supreme Court Ruling on Campaign Finance

An explanation:

I'll add some brief thoughts later when I can actually watch the video. Here are some thoughts of various people. Barack Obama:

"With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. ... We are going to talk with bipartisan congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision."

Chief Justice John Roberts:

"The text and purpose of the First Amendment point in the same direction: Congress may not prohibit political speech, even if the speaker is a corporation or union."

Justice John Paul Stevens:

"The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation."

Theodore Olsen, who argued the case for Citizens United:

"Speech about our government and candidates for elective office lies at the heart of the First Amendment, and the court's decision vindicates the right of individuals to engage in core political speech by banding together to make their voices heard."

Senator Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin:

"Presented with a relatively narrow legal issue, the Supreme Court chose to roll back laws that have limited the role of corporate money in federal elections since Teddy Roosevelt was president. Ignoring important principles of judicial restraint and respect for precedent, the court has given corporate money a breathtaking new role in federal campaigns."

Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona:

"I am disappointed by the decision of the Supreme Court and the lifting of the limits on corporate and union contributions."

West Ham Move?

The new ownership at Upton Park of David Gold and David Sullivan have stated their desire to move to the new Olympic Stadium:

"If we could get this huge ground, we could take football back to the people," Sullivan said. "We could reduce the admission prices to the cheapest in the Premier League because we would have the capacity to do it."

The big issue would be seating capacity as the Olympic Stadium's capacty is due to be reduced to 25,000 with the track left. West Ham hope for there to be no track and to have a seating capacity of 55,000. I don't know if the club can come to an agreement, but there's plenty of time. These owners seem to have a very strong long term plan.

Great Scott!

Conan Cash

Conan O'Brien might make a killing if he leaves NBC:

Conan O'Brien is reportedly close to signing a $40 million deal to walk away from "The Tonight Show" and end a weeks-long controversy between the late-night host and NBC.

Not only will he make bank from this deal:

The agreement could come as early as Tuesday, according to the Wall Street Journal. The potential deal would bar O'Brien from "bad-mouthing" his former bosses at NBC but would allow him to take another television job within one year, the Journal said

I would love to see him back on the airwaves. He is by far the best talk show host on network television.

If This Doesn't Make You Believe In God...

...nothing will.

At least one person was pulled alive from rubble in Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, seven days after the earthquake. Anna Zizi was rescued from rubble either at or near the national cathedral, CNN's Anderson Cooper reported.

She was praying when the earthquake devastated the country. She was found today. Incredible story.

Stewart Kills It

From the Daily Show, the embed didn't work. so here's the link.

Morning Coverage

As I mentioned last night, Scott Brown and Martha Coakley are battling it out to represent Massachusetts in the senate today:

Total Disagreement: Technology in Football

Every now and then, I encounter articles that I disagree with. However, I came to one that I agree with particularly vehemently. This was in The Times, arguing that a recent misuse of technology during a cricket match is a reason that technology should not be implemented in football. Here's a little tid bit:

Had the referral system never been introduced, the view of the traditional umpire that Graeme Smith’s bat had made no discernible contact with the ball would have prevailed and life would have gone on, albeit after some tut-tutting and expressions of sympathy for England. Cricket would be accepted as an imperfect game so complex in character that enthusiasts can find themselves praying for its enemies, such as rain and bad light.

Basically, his argument is that we wouldn't be critical of this play and we wouldn't have controversy over mistakes made by mishandling technology. The truth is that the error was made by a person. The introduction of video technology is to get rid of human error. The error in this instance was made by a human. That's where his argument falls apart.

Now, I don't think video technology should be introduced because I think it would change the game. Football is a flowing game of continuous action. However, that's a different conversation on its own. I was really annoyed by this article.

Renovating Crisler?

According to Terry Foster, the U will finally renovate Crisler Arena. If you've been to Crisler, you would know what a dump it is. It's concrete and cold. Most importantly, it's not student friendly.

Now that football is set the school will ask the Board of Regents for $20 million during a meeting set for Thursday to upgrade lower bowl seating, indoor practice facility and badly needed infrastructure. The arena is a dump and does not sell the basketball program.

My main problem is that as a student, if you're no in the bleachers, it's hard to get involved in the game and make noise. The concrete is not easy to jump on. There's only limited seating there too so the environment isn't as good as it should be. I hope that this is taken into consideration when the renovations take place.

***UPDATE***

The University has announced renovations. Here's a quote from outgoing AD Billy Martin:

Renovating Crisler Arena is an integral part of our basketball program's future success, on and off the court," said Martin, the Donald R. Shepherd Director of Intercollegiate Athletics. "We really haven't done any infrastructure work in the arena since its construction 40-plus years ago, and this will be a major step forward in improving our basketball facilities

Here are the plans:

The first phase would address the highest priority infrastructure needs such as repair of the roof, electrical, plumbing and air handling systems. Lower bowl seats also would be replaced, with the expansion of seating for people with disabilities, addition of hand rails and other code related issues.

As proposed, the design work for the renovation by TMP Architecture, assisted by Sink Combs Dethlefs would begin in 2011. Those firms designed the new $23.2 million Basketball Player Development Center, which is scheduled to be completed in 2011. The design of the Player Development Center has been coordinated with the future Crisler Arena improvements in mind.

Funding for the renovations would be provided through Athletic Department resources.

Looking forward to coming back and seeing this.

Showdown: Massachusetts Senator

Tomorrow, Massachusetts will hold a special election to elect a new senator after the passing of the late Ted Kennedy. The process has been a heated battle between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. It appears now that Massachusetts might have its first Republican senator in a long time.

A week ago, Rasmussen had Coakley ahead:

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley attracting 49% of the vote while her Republican rival, state Senator Scott Brown, picks up 47%.

However, in the past week, Coakley has pretty much committed every single political blunder possible. Here is one such example:
She called Curt Schilling a Yankee fan. I don't know how you can say something so asinine. Every since, Curt has been ripping on her:

If we elect Coakley, or if enough people vote to get her into office, we’re going to get exactly what we deserve as a nation. A bankrupt country footing the bill for a health care plan so full of pork it oinks, that we can’t afford by the way, and MASSIVE cuts to medicare and medicaid that will seriously impede medical services for senior citizens.

Massachusetts can change it all in 5 days.

Brown has made up ground and looks like he will pull off the upset. This should be fun to watch. I got my popcorn ready.

Pants on the Ground

Hilarious.