Well It Didn't Go On Forever

The report has been delivered to the Attorney General and what is going to be released to the public is the question that needs to be answered.

We will now spend time arguing over what should or should not be released, unless of course the entire thing is released.

That would also not stop the ongoing questions and speculation about what didn't get into the report or what is in the supporting documentation.

When we are still speculating about who assassinated Kennedy, whether the Moon landing was real and what happened to Amelia Earhart, the odds that the report will put an end to ongoing speculation and recriminations is unlikely.

We do live in a time of media circuses and while real circuses have lost their appeal, the media ones go on and on.

There are still organizations that want to prove that one or both of the Clintons should be in jail.

Maybe they should, but there is no evidence of anything criminal, even if there is plenty of evidence of some bad judgment and some infidelity.

If we start making those things crimes very few of us would still be free.

The bad judgment is a killer.

CPAC?

There was a time when CPAC was dominated by literate, intelligent people who argued the rightness of their conservative philosophy citing the constitution and the founding fathers.

It is now more of a joke.

We have the chief clown coming out and hugging the American flag as is he loves it.

He didn't love it enough to serve in a war.

As a con man he like to play to the crowd and as a snake oil salesman he simply lies about how great his product (in this case him) is.

What is interesting is that the principled conservatives have descended into a crowd of true believers, believing things that they argued against for many years.

Free trade was one of their core principles, when they had some.

Massive deficits and debt were never something they supported.

Cozying up to dictators was never one of their core values.

I don't know if the audience is different now or if the attendees have just decided to enjoy the circus while it lasts.

Fed circus?

One of the great benefits of living in a country like the United States is the great entertainment value that political maneuvering can provide. Yesterday, we watched an oversight committee attempt to get Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to admit to some sort of wrong doing in regard to the Bank of American takeover of Merrill Lynch.

I didn't intend to watch the whole thing, but it was so silly and amusing that I couldn't help myself, although I did leave from time to time to do some yard work. Luckily, the proceedings were so limited and redundant that I never felt I missed much.

What did we find out? Well since most of us already know that most politicians are secretly clowns, not much. Apparently they are surprised by the following.

1. People who work for Bernanke or the Fed write e-mail that express opinions.

2. People trying to negotiate high level deals use all sorts of tactics.

3. There is reason to question the competence of Bank of America business executives (and in fact most of the banking industry).

4. Just because you blurt out a stupid question doesn't mean you will get a stupid answer.

5. When all else fails ask for every document that might have ever existed about the deal.

6. If you are hoping to get any press or TV time from a silly hearing like this, make sure you don't conflict with the death of a Pop Superstar.

7. If you are going to make allegations based on old e-mails, have your staff check to see if the author has written or said anything more recently that contradicts your point.

8. The hearings may have contributed to the stock market and bond rally that were going on at the same time, so from that perspective they may have had some value.

9. Since it is generally accepted that the deal ended up being a good thing, diving into the process that led to it has little to no benefit if you can't demonstrate some law was broken.

10. Clueless people aren't even very good at 20-20 hindsight.