Is something Top Secret

if 854,000 people are in the know? Bizarre.

I am not surprised by the article.

Your Government At Work

The result, he added, is that it's impossible to tell whether the country is safer because of all this spending and all these activities. "Because it lacks a synchronizing process, it inevitably results in message dissonance, reduced effectiveness and waste," Vines said. "We consequently can't effectively assess whether it is making us more safe."

Feel safe now?

The following paragraphs are enligtening:

SCIF size has become a measure of status in Top Secret America, or at least in the Washington region of it. "In D.C., everyone talks SCIF, SCIF, SCIF," said Bruce Paquin, who moved to Florida from the Washington region several years ago to start a SCIF construction business. "They've got the penis envy thing going. You can't be a big boy unless you're a three-letter agency and you have a big SCIF."

SCIFs are not the only must-have items people pay attention to. Command centers, internal television networks, video walls, armored SUVs and personal security guards have also become the bling of national security.

"You can't find a four-star general without a security detail," said one three-star general now posted in Washington after years abroad. "Fear has caused everyone to have stuff. Then comes, 'If he has one, then I have to have one.' It's become a status symbol."

(ps: if memory serves top secret is the lowest classification... but still!)

See Top Secret America

Global Economic Crisis

Icelanders knit crafty response to global crisis

"At least there's a silver lining," says Sara Eysosdottir, owner and head designer of the psychedelic clothing store Naked Ape. "Because of the exchange rate, more foreigners are coming here, and they're buying what we've got in the stores: local design.

"And in a sense, the financial collapse has gotten young people busy," Ms. Eysosdottir says. "They have realized that they can't just be on Facebook all day; that if they want to survive, they're going to have to use their creativity and start making things to sell."

The upside to the current economic crisis is that people are getting crafty - not only finding new ways to save money but digging into old skills to make new money. I don't think there fortunes to be made here but some things are more precious than gold.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Obama: greatest wealth destruction ever

It's been an interesting media week. Rush Limbaugh is being targeted by White House/Democratic insiders and they are, basically, acting like bullying school boys. Limbaugh brought this on himself, but the childishness is reaching new lows. Now Cramer has done an about-face on his Obama-worshipping of last year and has declared that the President has “basically put a level of fear in this country that I have not seen ever in my life.”

Hm. I would argue that was the previous administrations gift to America.

Will the media ever engage in worth-while debate? Are they ever going to get past mud-slinging and deal with real-life issues?

Probably not.

Rich Man's Panic

Investors should expect the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall below 10,000 points, as the current credit crisis is a repeat of the 'Rich Man's Panic' of 1907, Tom Hougaard, chief market strategist from City Index, told CNBC.

A bit of forgotten financial history:

"We've been here before … About one hundred years ago we had an identical credit crunch," Hougaard said, adding that the Dow lost nearly 50 percent in over two years due to the 1907 crisis, which indicates further downside yet to come for today's markets.

The 'Rich Man's Panic' was caused by a severe lack of liquidity as banks pulled back lending and led to numerous bank runs and eventually the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913.

"It's most likely to get worse before it's going to get better … I don't think we're really seeing this capitulation just yet, but we're close," Hougaard said, adding that the S&P 500 could take out the low of the 2002 bear market, which was 944.

I think this is acutally worse than the 1907 panic, even though there are more safty measure in place now than at that time. And I don't see any J.P. Morgan's looming on the horizon...

See also: 5 Lessons About What Happened To The Economy You Didn't Learn From CNBC.

They had me at the melting cow

Gawker, that is: It's The "Absurd Financial Product Some Rich Person Actually Bought" Contest!, but I stayed for the story.

Today's decision by the Bush administration to stick us with even more debt (to the tune of half a trillion US$) is just insane. Re-inventing the RTC was a semi-decent idea yesterday, but it's morphed into a massive bailout for the entire economy. These idiots are re-financing the United States. Hell, they're re-financing BAD DEBT.

Ye gods and little fishes. Why the hell didn't we impeach the Clown College when they lied and invaded Iraq?

CNN wants to know, Will it work?

Um.

Those securities were backed by home loans, many made to buyers with bad credit or without proof of income. As housing values fell and foreclosures shot to record levels in the past two years, the value of those securities plunged. That in turn caused massive losses in the financial sector.

This week it reached a crisis situation. Banks and investment firms stopped making the loans to each other as they hoarded cash to protect against any sudden liquidity crunch as well from unknown problems on their partners' balance sheets.

No.

"I'm confident this will work," said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Economy.com. "The federal government is committed to backstopping the nation's financial system and will do whatever is necessary to make sure the system does not unravel. The details are important but secondary."

The Devil's in the detail Mr. Zandi. This bailout is going to cost more the Iraq war, which has already saddled the US with a multi-trillion dollar debt.

"If this doesn't work, we're in trouble, because there's not much more the government can do," said Jaret Seiberg, a financial services analyst at the Stanford Group. "They've left very few arrows in the quiver."

Good point Ms. Seiberg.

I'm a lot less optimistic than I was yesterday.

~ ~ ~

Text of Paulson's news conference Friday

Paulson, Bernanke Expand U.S. Power to Rescue Markets

Rescue cost: Hundreds of billions

Thankfully it doesn't happen often.

Sleepless night last night. My stomach was still a bit riled by the flu, even though I stuck with plain rice for the second day in a row. As I lay tossing and turning Scrooge's encounter with Marley leapt to mind at one point:

"Why do you doubt your senses?"

"Because," said Scrooge, "a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"

Instead of Ghosts showing up at appointed hours, I just rolled back and forth watching the clock ~

9:43

10:18

11:02

12:25

At some point I fell asleep and had one of those I have to get there dreams. Dreams tend to fall into two categories for me - impending death and fear of being late or missing an appointment. Last night I had to be someplace and the cat, Pewter, was doing something to make me late. I was in a frantic need to get him back... someplace. Then I'm in a motel room with a parking lot outside the door and I'm talking to someone I have to get him back before I can leave!, completely panic stricken. After crawling under cars and fretting because I was ruining my suit I finally got him and put him into the cat carrier.

Then I woke up. 3:11 am. Drenched in sweat and I felt like my heart was going to explode right out of my chest.

I'm don't know what triggered this dream. It's always when I'm under a great deal of stress that the panic or death dreams show up. My body's been under stress with the damn flu, but I'm not, so I'm at a loss to explain last night.

I didn't bother going trying to get back to sleep. I got up and stripped the bed and started doing laundry (ain't you glad you ain't my neighbor?) and then took a shower. It was now nearly 4 am and I'm casting about for something to do. I thought about going into the office and might have if it wasn't 10 degrees outside. Didn't feel like playing Xbox or computer games so I flipped on the television. 4 am. Infomercial Heaven.

I want whatever drugs these people are on. Have you ever watched these infomercials? These people have got to be high or insane because no sane, sober, person can be this happy. They're freaky and hypnotic, but by 6 am I had had enough and made my self some toast, boiled yet more rice (in chicken broth!) to take to work and left by 7 am.

My head will crash on the desk sometime around 1 pm today.