SAR #11333

There is still some time left; act accordingly.

Constitution 2.0: The Senate voted Tuesday to repeal large parts of the Bill of Rights, Miranda, habeas corpus and all that twaddle, giving the US military the right to arrest anyone, anywhere and hold them indefinitely without judicial proceedings. 'Anyone' includes US citizens and 'anywhere' includes everywhere, even Philadelphia.

Duet: Ratigan eggs Spitzer on, Spitzer admits he wants to put more financial miscreants in jail. Great rants all round.

Knees, Jerking: The market went zoom, up, up and away – all the way back to the levels last seen two weeks ago - because the Fed (and others) had to step in and flood the world with liquidity because one or more big French banks was falling off the edge. The Fed may have bought Europe another week, but not much more. It also seems that the Fed's decision was made over the weekend and leaked – in the Paulson tradition – to a select few bankers and hedgies, which would explain the inexplicable market surge on Monday. It's a trap; none of the underlying problems has been addressed, much less solved.

A Sure Thing: The Republican leadership has agreed to join the Democrats in slowly starving Social Security by extending the payroll-tax cut. Very clever.

What're the Odds? ADP Payroll numbers, the Chicago PMI and pending home sales all came in above the highest expert prediction and each was 4 standard deviations above the average forecast. Can't wait to see what the BLS can do with their data.

Three Card Monte: The Super Committee was a major success. It was never meant to do anything about the deficit, it was a beard behind which the Republicans could let the federal debt ceiling be increased and the imminent shutdown of the government avoided. It worked, and ever since increases in the debt ceiling have passed without a mummer. As for the automatic cuts, there is lots of time to delay, revise or discard them. They were just window dressing, too. Watch their hands, not their lips.

Enlightened Self-Interest: Doctors who own MRIs, CT scanners, and such are more likely to use them than Doctors who do not. Big Wow.

Cut, Print 'em: Mortgage applications fell 11.7% last week, mainly because everyone that isn't underwater has already refinanced. Refinancing fell to 73.9% of mortgage applications, from 75.9% the prior week.

Exaggerations, Inc: The stock pumpers at Goldman Sachs claim that the US will be the world's largest producer of petroleum by 2017. Of course they also claim that the US produces 8.3 mbd today. The EIA says that US production is at 5.65 mbd and Platts puts it at 5.57 mbd.

Drilled, Baby, Drilled: Cairn Energy blew $600 million drilling dry holes of the coast of Greenland. In the Arctic. Where all that oil was supposed to be.

Be Afraid: Something calling itself the North American Electric Reliability Corporation says that if the EPA actually enforces the law and makes the industry retire its oldest, most polluting plants, Texas and New England will run short of power. The NAERC did not mention that the EPA will let power companies apply for more time to comply with pollution standards.

Poor = Powerless: Great Britain says that it's too bad that poor countries are going to bear the brunt of global climate change, but that just the way its going to be. The idea that the rich nations, who got rich polluting the environment, are going to pay to clean up their mess is silly.

All Aboard! Rick 'wannabe' Perry says that when he's president any federal employee who doesn't agree with him and his policies will be sent to “some really God-awful place.” He didn't say what all those civil servants are going to be doing in Texas.

Porn O'Graph: I love it when you blow in my ear....

-> Go read Automatic Earth's “Day X" <-