Daily News Roundup, 1/22/08: An "Equity Correction" Of Startling Proportions

The Federal Reserve's leadership doesn't want you to worry or anything, but before you woke up today they cut the federal funds rate by .75 percent. Their decision to do so may have had something to do with how yesterday's world markets ended up.

For a quick refresher: the federal funds rate is the interest rate at which banks loan cash to each other overnight. The rate cut is a stopgap measure, aimed at keeping markets both here and hopefully abroad from tanking any more. The statement on things from Treasury Secretary Paulson didn't do much to fill me with confidence seeing as how he didn't mention yesterday's global drops at all, but hey, at least someone is paying attention, right?

Paulson did not specifically mention the steep plunge in global markets on Monday, which included declines in many markets that were the largest since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

However, he did say he and his economic team have been in close consultations with policymakers in this country and around the world "as we closely monitor the global equity correction." Markets have been roiled since August, when the credit squeeze struck with force.

These developments also bring up the question as to how Bush plans to deal with these enormous deficits we've piled up, at his direction and at an astonishing rate, while ignoring the advice of Democrats (and these days, even Republicans) that maybe deficit spending isn't such a good idea at all, let alone in the amounts we've undertaken such a thing. Some are starting to think that the answer is that Bush won't do anything about it, and that he can't do anything about it. I wonder if he would do anything about it even if he had the opportunity.

The Democratic candidates had a debate in South Carolina last night, and things got off to a rough start. Obviously both sides are getting cagey, looking for some kind of knockout blow. The period in which the candidates seemed determined to be nice to each other is over, and as Super Duper Giant Extreme Tuesday gets closer and closer, the rhetoric is heating up. Obama, Clinton and Edwards all got some shots in while advancing the discussion on some issues like health care and the economy. You can expect these three to draw ever-sharper distinctions between themselves in the coming days.

In other political news, Rudy is totally done. Well, okay, I suppose anything can happen, but he is now trailing in both Florida (where he has been planning to win) and New York (where anything less than a crushing victory should by all rights mean his banishment from politics forever). If he can pull something out in Florida he might have some kind of momentum going to New York, but it looks very very bad for him.

It also looks bad for CNN, who has been getting an earful (and an inbox-ful) ever since they ran a story yesterday about how, on the Democratic side, black women are forced to choose between race and gender. The readers took umbrage... to a whole new level:

CNN received dozens of e-mails shortly after posting the story, which focuses largely on conversations about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that a CNN reporter observed at a hair salon in South Carolina whose customers are predominantly African-American.

The story states: "For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?" Read the story

An e-mailer named Tiffany responded sarcastically: "Duh, I'm a black woman and here I am at the voting booth. Duh, since I'm illiterate I'll pull down the lever for someone. Hm... Well, he black so I may vote for him... oh wait she a woman I may vote for her... What Ise gon' do? Oh lordy!"

Oh CNN, at least you have the decency to tell on yourself.

Recently un-indicted Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina, un-indicter Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal, and Medina's attorney Terry Yates all would probably like everyone to stop paying attention the claims of a grand jurors that politics overrode justice, but that doesn't seem to be happening. The characters involved do nothing to squelch the legs the story has. It also doesn't help that this sort of thing seems to have happened before. From the Chron:

One need only look back at some historical examples, one being the 2000 case of Dr. Steven Hotze. The Christian activist and Republican king-maker managed to elude trial in a misdemeanor DWI case with the help of none other than Terry Yates, who is also a friend and hunting buddy of Rosenthal's.

Hotze had failed a field sobriety test after his car was seen weaving and crowding several vehicles on Memorial Drive and even running a police car off the road as it swerved to avoid a collision. Hotze, who said he was not drunk, refused to take a breath test, so the case rested on the testimony of the officer who administered the sobriety test.

It just so happened that the very same officer was deemed unable to testify against Hotze for several months because he found himself accused in an unrelated case of tampering with a document.

And so on, and so on. It doesn't take much for a web like this to come unraveled, and you can bet there are plenty of reporters asking plenty of questions in this matter.

And another Texas Supreme Court Justice is having a bit of trouble. Justice Paul Green is the focus of an ethics complaint filed by Texas Watch, who are friends of the show. The matter at hand here is the ever-lasting problem of converting campaign funds to personal use. From Statesman:

Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, said Green paid himself $16,761 for 272 separate trips between Austin and San Antonio over the past three years.

Green listed the destination of two of those trips as a court retreat in 2005, but the rest listed no specific purpose, Winslow said.

Hey, two out of 272 isn't bad, right? In baseball that's a batting average of .007. It's as if there's .007% accountability and transparency.