Torching Torch

Daily Deal (subscription only) gets the word out on the Creditor's Committee for Torch Offshore and their annoying behavior. After challenging the DIP, now the committee is asking for a trustee, and using the same arguments that they used for their defeated challenge to the DIP. DIP lender Regions Bank, along with GE I presume, call the creditor's committee out and a nice showdown is set for Wednesday.

But here's the thing, creditor's committees do this sort of crap all the time, and rarely is it ever in anyone's economic interest to keep having these hearings and having the DIP held up. But they do it anyway... and the lawyers for the committee, who pretty much have carte blanche, are the only ones making out by way of legal fees. Waste, waste, waste. Here's a place for some real reform, lets give b-judges a little more direction on how to stop lawyers from milking the company before it even gets reorganized.

I like my Congressmen

Why yes, I have six or seven of them. So do you by the way. Each with the same name: "staffer". And no, they weren't elected, but they are quite polite on the phone. [apropos the below]

The Two Party System

Just a note regarding some of the research I'm presently working on... (and which you'll hear more about soon)

I like the two party system just fine, but it doesn't exist today. Today we have a one party state, much like China. Except, whereas their party is called "Communist," ours is called "Incumbency".

The GOP is German

First the Moose uses a veiled "n" word, then Sullivan analogizes Rove to Bismarck. What's up with the German? Actually, the Bismarck analogy isn't far off. Bismarck passed a great deal of "progressive" legislation, but went to war on the working class and Catholics in politics (sound familiar?). Yet, aren't both bloggers mistaking greed for hatred when they make these comparisons? And isn't that exactly what greed would like us to do? I smell a trap.

"An Act of Barbarism"

Hiding behind tough words like these, is a moral coward.

Colorful Holidays

Happy Holi to everyone. And, it being Good Friday as well, let me say Happy Easter to everyone too.

Democracy Guy

Tim Russo has a good rundown on the latest, with updates, on Kyrgystan.

DLC Appeasement

As the hard left giddily points out DLC compromise, the Bull Moose calls Tom Delay and the modern Republican Party fascist. "Corporatism" might be a new label for the conservative majority. Kinda like the "librulism" of yesterday's majority. And how long before the dKos community argues it was their idea first?

Gotta Love This

Riebling takes a page out of Tim Russo's book and becomes self-critical (a trend developing?). A9 loudly applauds, especially the daily pics. To annoy the left's "reality based community" how about thinking, self-critical bloggers go by the slogan: "proud member of the meat eating community... more bull, less shit."

Train Dispatch #6 - AM Talk

Every morning we stop at East Norwalk on our way to Grand Central. Its one of those little stops where the platform is too short for the train, some days the end of the train is boarded, while others its the back. Today it was the back. I like it when the East Norwalk folks make it on to my end of the train. They're a different bunch altogether. A lot of East Norwalk commuters, at least the ones I've gotten to know, live right by the water. Sure their house isn't as grand as the estates in Greens Farms, but they're right up there against the sound, probably have a boat crammed in the front yard, and they love it... so do I.

This morning one of my favorite people on the train sat across from me in the two person seat backing up to the vestibule. A lot of times, these facing seats make great card game spaces, but this morning it was me, my old friend from East Norwalk, and three people snoozing away.

"How's the family?" he asked me. "Doing well, yours?" "Oh fine, just fine. My grandson graduates high school this year." "Congratulations." "Yes, he lives in CA so I doubt I'll be able to make it, wish I could."

Just so everyone is clear here, this sort of pleasant, civil, polite banter is highly unusual on Metro North, especially in the mornings. Most people are either sleeping, reading the paper, or are somewhere in between the two. Few people have conversations like this in the morning, and the evenings are more like locker room talk than coffee talk.

"Well I'm sure you must be proud." "Yes, I am..." He stared out the window for awhile.

"Say, what did you think about the latest attack in Iraq?" This question puzzled me. What on earth could he be referring too? I follow Iraq pretty closely, more closely than most I guess, but I was unaware of a new "attack" having happened, just more of the same.

"Which latest attack?" I asked. "Oh you know, the one oustide Baghdad, it was on MSNBC. They say they got 24 insurgents and only 6 of ours wounded. I suspect we'll be hearing about some dead on our side in a few days. That's how it always is, we know their dead right away, but it takes awhile for us to count ours."

I then peppered him with some questions, really worried I had missed a major development, but from what I could tell, it was just more of the same stuff I've been hearing.

At one point in the conversation, he looked at me squarely and said: "if we ran such a cheap war in WWII, the Germans would rule the world." My reply, after a second thought, "it begs the question of how badly we want to win?" "You're right" he nodded. We bothed stared out the window.