The SEC Attempts To Paper Over Its 'Rakoff Problem': Rolling Out The Big Guns--Press Releases!!

OS spent Saturday late morning doing the weekly grocery-pharmacy-dry cleaner-liquor store shopping run with the sainted Mrs. OS. Jet lag began to catch up to him, rather delayed after attendance at a fabulous Westminster Choir College concert last night. More about that another time, if the spirit moves. However, if any of OS's readership are in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, eastern Tennessee, or West Virginia these next few days, it's worth the drive to hear these young people--a completely inspirational evening of music.

In the parking lot, the humorous moment of the morning: A car, owned by a Tea Party member, with the window display announcing 'You can't cure stupid, but you can vote it out of office.'

It did provide a grin, and food for thought as OS shopped for groceries.

At the next election, this country desperately needs to elect grown-ups, people who will demand (and make happen) certain basic truths take hold, such as Judge Rakoff is insisting upon: Banks who defraud investors, customers and the country at large, walking away with $700 million, cannot be asked to settle for pennies on the dollar with no admission of wrongdoing. The defrauded never are compensated, and the truth is never known. The government becomes complicit with the criminals, and essentially charges 'protection tax' to keep the whole corrupt game in play. It's a recipe for tragedy, sooner or later.


Mish, Heaven bless 'im, continues to track the Rakoff v. Citigroup and it ally, the SEC, who has decided to issue press releases to douse the fires of public disdain.

He points out that the last person prosecuted and jailed for securities fraud by the SEC was (drumroll please...) Martha Stewart.

Really.

While essentially ignoring billions of dollars in repeated fraud allegations against Citigroup, the SEC brought full weight down on Martha Stewart over (drum roll please) ... $45,673.

Martha Stewart went to prison and was fined $30,000. Since then, no one has gone to prison or even been criminally indicted in $trillions of dollars of fraud in the global financial crisis. And unless someone does admit criminal action, the SEC reserves the right to do more whitewashing without seeking admission of guilt.

OS continues to follow and harp on this and the MF Global scandal, because they strike at the heart of this country's ability to function. If the Martha Stewarts and those more humble go to jail, and firms like Citigroup and individuals like Corzine go free after surrendering their pocket change, we will one day reach a tipping point, where the citizenry decides to either simply sit on its hands and refuse to participate in a fixed game--which may already be occurring--or it (more ominously) blows up, or some combination of the two in sequence.

Neither option is desirable, each leads to poverty, despair, decline. It is not the kind of world we wish for our children and theirs. Unlike some more nihilistic souls, OS spends his energies begging that these things not happen.

One thing that struck OS on his vacation in England was that much of the peaceful and prosperous way of life he witnessed there, and enjoys here, is due to a robust system of banking. Currency gets exchanged, card transactions complete within seconds, goods get imported and exported and onto the shelves while fresh, and at reasonable cost. Cash and credit, borrowed and paid back, lubricates the intricate machine. If the banking system is crippled, everyone loses, the farmer, the merchant, the employer, the employee, the school, the church, the charity, on it goes. It's happening already, in ways great and small.

The Citigroups and the Corzines, the SEC, the Fed, and all the lawyers and politicians will end up blowing the system to bits. It will never operate perfectly, but it doesn't need to in order to work wonderfully well. It needs to operate in a culture that assumes honest dealing underpins the system.

You can't cure stupid, and you can't rid the world of all the Corzines--but you can vote for grown-ups, and insist they insist on governance where virtue is rewarded and crime punished. 

It's not that much to ask of them. If they do that one thing, a lot of the other problems will sort themselves.


 

Scoring OS's 2010 Prediction List

It's interesting reading, ruminations from a year ago. So, in fairness, here's the list, admissions of being wide of the mark, and a few more or less on the money.

The 2010 list

1. We had 140 bank failures in 2009, mostly small fry.  We'll have 200 in 2010, and some of the 'bigger fish' will be among them. Some will not be the classical Friday afternoon raid scenario, as it will be difficult to find anyone able to take over these sick elephants.  A lot of TARP money will be lost next year.

Missed on that one. Calculated Risk reported last week. The FDIC is probably finished closing banks for the year. The total was 157 failures in 2010, up from 140 failures in 2009. There are now 919 banks on the 'problem list', with total assets of some $407 billion. The big banks have paid back their TARP advances, and are back to business as usual. HellsBells, the credit-card come-ons have begun appearing in OS mailbox again. Just like old times. Deja vu all over again.

2.  FDIC will have to admit it's insolvent, that insurance fees from the banks that behaved won't be enough to rescue their drunken cousins.  Treasury and/or Fed will have to kick in a bunch more money, and there will be a major stink.

Perhaps premature on that one. FDIC hasn't hit a crisis point yet, and here's hoping they don't. OS takes no joy in predicting future pain.

3.  Ford will be making cars and money, GM will be making cars and losing money, and Chrysler will no longer be with us.  Ford will make most of its money where it always has, on the F-150 pickup truck, because working America has to use a pickup truck to get its work done, and there is a real attrition of F-150's.  You know, a real market, not the one Himself and Miss Nancy dream of.

True, true(by any sort of honest accounting standards), and thankfully a prediction that did not come true. The F-150 did lead the charge for Ford. GM flogged shares at $33, to allow Treasury to get some of its money back. They've got to get their customer base back, and hopefully not go underwater at less than $33.

4.  There have been two Democrats, Tennessee Blue-Dogs, who have announced they will not run next fall, in addition to an Alabama Democrat who has switched parties. (He won't be back, because he'll be trounced by a black conservative in the spring primary.) I predict another 10 Democrat House members will head for the hills rather than face a furious electorate. GOP and Independents will pick up a total of 25 House seats. Miss Nancy will have a real problem on her hands.

Whooodathunkit. 63 GOP seats picked up in the House, 6 picked up in the Senate. Could have been more, but Harry Reid pulled out a squeaker, and California remained true-blue. The bigger news is the hundreds upon hundreds of utterly pissed-off conservative who ran for state house and senate seats, and won. The Democrat gerrymander is about to go down in flames. The Tea Party took aim at the appropriate target, namely, the scuzzbags who run the GOP as a country club.

5. There will be a massive market correction by June 2010, and the Administration and Fed will desperately try to pump it up again, to maintain the illusion that all is well. It won't work, it will be transparent this time, and it will really piss the voters off.  We will end 2010 with Dow 7700, S&P 700. Pension funds will bleed, and local governments will go through convulsions, long overdue.

Well, there was a pullback in midsummer, but OS completely underestimated the determination of the Fed to print money come what may. There is no logic to the securities markets, and it feels like a huge bubble. OS dipped in and out, made a few bucks, and left. The bleeding in pension funds and local governments lies ahead. The StimulusGasm of 2009 allowed everyone to pretend one more year.

6.  There will be the exposure of at least one more major financial scandal the magnitude of Madoff. Someone, somewhere, will expose a specific money trail from Washington to Wall Street and back again, with specific people attached. That someone will go through hell as the machinery of government is turned against him, but in the end heads will roll. Don't know if anyone will go to jail like Bernie did.

Can u say WikiLeaks? The story hasn't broken, but it will. Wait for it, be patient.

7. Sadly, sometime this year, we will have some major loss-of-life terrorist attack in either the US or UK, or both. Obama and company are both unwilling and unable to look reality in the eye.  We will recover, but it will be tragic.  I hope to Heaven I am utterly wrong on this one.

Thank Heaven, as of this date, OS is wrong. His opinion of the Obama administration remains unchanged. The UK foiled the UPS package bomb plot. BigSis concentrated on techniques of groping passengers, and appearing to be on the job. We still have a major angel on our national shoulder, since we didn't get hit.

8. There will be a major assassination attempt staged by the Islamists, in India, Pakistan, the Emirates or Saudi Arabia. It may succeed. I hope I am wrong on this one as well.

Happy to report OS was wrong on this one.

9.  Labour will be routed in the UK general election, but not before Gordon Brown attempts to impose some sort of 'state of emergency' to prevent the election from going forward. The UK electorate will finally tire of an unelected PM and unelectable government killing their country off. We can hope.

Yep, on the money, except that Brown was too discredited by the time the election arrived to stage a crisis. Good riddance, BTW. They need to fire the EU next. Here's hoping.

10. Obama will do nothing about Iran's nukes. The Israelis will.

On the money. The software attack was a stroke of genius, the kind only the Israelis can pull off. They also just assassinated one of the Iranian wonks in charge of undoing the damage, and injured the other. Two attacks, same day. Score one for the good guys. Obama has no intention of doing anything, as he hates Israel.

11. Tiger Woods will re-emerge after his divorce deal is inked. He'll play some European tour events, accompanied by Steve his caddy, his manager, and one person tasked with the job of keeping little Tiger's pants on, tucking him alone into his bed at night. He'll play the Open at St. Andrews, will be booed by the gallery, and will miss the cut by a wide margin. He will then begin to rehab for a 2011 comeback, but the old magic will definitely be gone, even if his golf comes back. Expect the fist pump to go away.

Pretty close. He came back, much chastened, played some good golf, lost the stupid fist-pump, and began acting a bit more human. He did well at The Open, and the gallery acted with real class. If he really really really learned some life lessons from the experience, perhaps his best years are ahead. If he gets it going too quickly, and the ego and fist pump returns, he's doomed. He'll screw up again, and there will be no grace left. Golf's equivalent of Pete Rose. Let's keep a good thought for him. Life is tragic enough without that kind of tragedy playing out.

12.  Again, I hope I'm wrong, but there will be violence at the polls in some locations in November 2010.  Feelings will be running very, very high.  I'll be voting early.

Feelings ran very high. Blessedly, OS was wrong about the violence. It is a real worry for him. Once the genie of political violence is let loose in the land, events have a way of taking horrible tragic turns. We don't want to go there. Anyone within earshot jabbering about it is someone to freaking avoid. Please.

Not a bad list, and the darkest predictions did not come true, blessedly.

Sweep Up The Confetti, Ya'll: The Morning After The Night Before

Last night was good, not as good as OS had hoped for, but good. Harry Reid managed to stay in office, sadly, but he's now 70, widely reviled even in his own state, and the experience undoubtedly aged him. One way or the other, he's riding into the sunset.

Locally, the Right To Hunt And Fish amendment passed, 91% to 9%. PETA will call for a recount, or attempt to overturn in a friendly court in San Francisco, no doubt.

It was gratifying to see the uber-creepy Doug Jackson sent on his way, after decades of holding office in these parts. The plantation his family set up in the 1940's finally withering away, bit by bit, perhaps. Long, long (blanking) overdue.

Oklahoma passed a creative bit of forward-thinking law, barring Sharia law from its state courts. OS thinks will be appearing in many other states in a couple of years.

As for Kuhlifornia--well, what can one say? Hopefully, we'll have the courage to leave them to their fate. They think, like every crackhead, that someone, somewhere, somehow, will ride in to bail them out. Yet again. So they can go out and create chaos next week.

The pressing problems remain. And the newly-elected to Congress don't have two years to grapple with them. They've gotta come out of the gate and get a lot of stuff done in the next nine months or so. Himself and The Clown Circus have dedicated their lives to making sure this country fails, so all these newly elected will be swimming upstream. On the other side, the Tea Party voters have made it very clear that their loyalties lie with the Constitution, not with anyone they voted for.

In the meantime, the lovely, elegant and erudite Katherine Birbalsingh appears in today's Telegraph, with an insightful essay. OS left her warm greetings, and hopes his loyal band of readers will do likewise, and pass her thoughts along to their friends. We can't toss her tormentors overboard, but we can send her encouragement, and humiliate those who treated her so shabbily. It's a start, it's what we can do today.

Picture Of The Day, Nov. 2, 2010

'Nuff said.

Now, go vote. For the sake of your kids, and theirs.

The Spin Ceases, And The Anxiety Attacks Begin: Robert Reich On The Tea Party

It's dawned upon Robert Reich that all them ig'nrant, gun-totin', Bahble-thumpin, never-went-to-Harvard-but-can-read-the-Constitution, AstroTurfin, TeaBaggin', 8/28-attendin', tri-corner-hat, hand-lettered-sign-totin' people, and their friends and families, are alllllll showing up to vote on Tuesday, and that Tuesday is just the beginning, not the end, of the process.

His contempt for all those little people is unabated, but his dismissiveness has, well, turned into open worry.

What if those cretins actually reassert the rights of the states, because they will also be voting in state legislators from their own ranks?

What if they disassemble the IRS?

And the welfare state?

What if they decide that (OMG! OMG! OMG!) they need not pay the salaries of academics at state universities who despise them, like Robert Reich, who assume that the legislature will just keep sending money, no matter how badly they act? What if they decide not to spend money on degree programs in Wimmen's Studies, Queer Sociology, Ethnic History Studies, Ebonics, or any of the plethora of useless/politically-correct liberal arts offerings and special offices that have supplanted useful things like Classics, Ancient Languages, Modern Languages, etc. OMG! OMG!

What if they disassemble the IRS? (Oops, did that one already, but it's worth repeating. If you take away the money and power from the ruling elites, they have to find honest work out in the real world...)

What if they break the umbilical cord between the large corporations and the Federal Government, especially the large banks?

What if they insist the Supreme Court be comprised of justices drawn from schools other than Harvard or Yale?

What if they insist that we face the reality that we can't have a viable government if we have porous borders?

What if they insist that people who aren't citizens can't vote? Or that felons shouldn't vote?

Reich attempts, one final time, to explain it away:

Under normal times ideas like these wouldn’t gain much public traction. Why are they now? Because of the continuing effects of the Great Recession. History has shown that people threatened by losses of jobs, wages, homes, and savings are easy prey for demagogues who turn those fears into anger directed at major institutions of a society, as well as individuals and minorities who become easy scapegoats – immigrants, foreign traders, particular religious groups. Were it not for their ongoing economic stresses, Americans wouldn’t be receptive to abolishing the Federal Reserve and the IRS, or believe government and big business were conspiring against them, or turn nativist and isolationist.

It's the old 'ignorant rabble' theory. No need to worry, after all, right?

Robert Reich has reason to worry. The world he has inhabited, where everyone holds at least an M.A. from an Ivy, where everyone transitions seamlessly from government to academia to corporate boards and back again, an endless life of influence and cash flow, with almost no accountability, is now about to change, irrevocably.

He thought Obama would finally set it in stone for him and his tribe.

He didn't count on another tribe getting itself organized, without permission.

A Glorious Day In Middle Tennessee: 16 October 2010

Meaning to be more attentive to his duties, OS nonetheless, at Mrs. OS's urging, took the day off.

It was a glorious day, with the height of the mid-October colors almost upon us, clear blue skies, temps in the mid-70's.

We took the MuttDawg to our country vet for treatment of a skin allergy, and to purchase the breathtakingly expensive but effective flea treatments for the entire pack which are a necessity in our pest-ridden part of the country. CountryVet was delightful as always, cheerful, dry sense of humor, has forgotten more than most of his colleagues will ever learn, with his practice that treats everything from horses to pet waterfowl.

A trip to the Mennonite bakery followed. It's miles from anywhere, located in heart-breakingly beautiful rolling hill country. A group from that particular branch of Christianity moved into the area a few years ago, bought farms, set up shop, and have thrived. They've helped the area around them thrive as well. Nice folks, who dress quasi-Amish simply, but use electricity, farm equipment, etc. The bakery dining area doubles as the church meeting room on Sundays, all are welcome. The kitchen and sales area are pristine, eat-off-the-floor clean, stocking incredible baked goods, meats, cheeses, and supplies for 'scratch' cooks. The place is prospering, with its customers driving in from miles around.

The Mennonite nursery was nearby, and we hemmed MuttDawg in with huge mums and asters, and plant stands bought at a local junk shop. She looked at dubiously, settled in and continued her nap. From there, we headed to vote early at the election commission, on the courthouse square of the tiny county seat. A steady stream of voters, a cheerful atmosphere.

OS walked the back nine at the local club, and we joined friends who fixed dinner to celebrate a birthday, and the fact that both the hosts had just weathered terrible medical crises which would have killed lesser souls. Lots of laughter, and a few tears of joy shed as well.

It was a wonderful day.

OS shares this with you, especially overseas readers, not to gloat or bore, but to attempt to explain this part of the world to you, and hopefully offer an insight into what may appear bewildering from a distance.

All of this is what is known as Americana. The rolling hills are home to farms, mostly small, with a few grander homesteads, a couple of villages; and quirky, independent-minded souls, all manner of them, from demure Mennonites to outlandish Pentecostals, twelve kinds of Baptists, and some who mainly just ignore the question. Many are self-employed, 'hip-pocket' entrepreneurs, or work a 'day job' and supplement with a family business. It is a quiet, modest prosperity. No flash cars, more pickup trucks than cars driven anyway. The occasional overdone house, but mainly brick ranch homes with trimmed yards, hardwood trees, roses, sometimes fruit trees, and a dog or two.

It is far from a perfect place. But it is truly wonderful, especially on a day like we spent yesterday.

It's made possible by some things ThePeopleInCharge of the big institutions in Washington, New York, and London just don't seem to understand.

Political freedom without intimidation.

A rule of law that allows the owners of the small farms to convey clear title of their houses and lands--that seems now to have been undermined. Can't buy or sell if the paper trail has vanished into thin air, can we?

A tax system that is easy to comply with, and doesn't punish success or the building or conveyance of wealth within the family.

Religious freedom.

Local control of local issues, and most issues are local, beginning with the school system.

A financial system based upon sound accounting.

A health care system that allows the sick to be cared for, and the healers to do their jobs, without bankrupting anyone in the process.

Otherwise, these folks simply wish to be left alone, to live their lives, their families, their businesses, and their churches. No utopian schemes, no great crusades. And, it's much the same in the city neighborhoods around the country as well.

This Americana way of life is threatened by ThePeopleInCharge, who either see those people in the hills as ignorant church-going rubes, or as a source of tax money to spend on utopian schemes, or as a source of wealth to be expropriated via manipulation.

The funny-looking people in the tri-corner hats and hand-lettered signs, who have been called 'AstroTurf', and referred to as practicioners of aberrant sexual behaviors are drawn from this way of life. The last thing they want to be doing with their time is attending Tea Party rallies, but they feel they must, to give their kids, and their grandchildren, a chance to have the kind of day Mr. and Mrs. OldSouth spent yesterday.

They sense, rightly, that there are people at the helm of the major institutions of government, the academy, the press, entertainment, finance and industry who would not lose a moment's sleep if this way of life vanished into thin air, so long as their power and their wealth remained untouched by the event.

The people who live in Americana are very angry about it all. They will be marching, donating in $25 and $50 increments, and voting. Here's hoping they shift the ground out from under the feet of those who disdain them so deeply.

Arlen Specter Is Shown The Door In Pennsylvania, Rand Paul Kicks In The Door In Kentucky

The poster child of RINOism, Arlen (I don't give a fig about which party I'm in, just so long as I can stay in office!) Specter, went down in flames in the Democrat primary tonight.

OS caught his concession speech. The old gent truly looked shell-shocked. He rambled, almost incoherently. Not even the rooms full of people cursing him last summer at town hall meetings had managed to break through his ego, his vision of himself as an American Institution. Finally, tonight, it dawned on him: 'Gosh, everyone's really really pissed at me!'.

Rand Paul, on the other hand, kicked ass. He beat Grayson, the GOP establishment candidate, 60-40. Not even close.

Here's the raw video from his acceptance speech:



Of course, by tomorrow evening, the White House and their shills in Yew Nork will have it all explained away, assuring themselves and us that nothing is amiss, Arlen was just an old fool who needed to go, and Rand is just a TeaPartyNutJobFromKentucky (you know, where all those unwashed Kentucky people hang out...). No problem, no worries.

Of course, if we start tallying it up--Brown takes Massachusetts, Christie takes New Jersey, Stupak runs away, Tanner runs away...hell's bells--a bunch of Democrats have run away! Charlie Crist gets out of the GOP while he can, 'cuz he's going down in flames, Bennett is shown the door by the GOP in Utah...

The list is growing. Folks out here really really really are ticked-off, and they're tired of writing their Congressman, 'cuz he stopped listening a long time ago. Or, like the good Rep. Souder of Indiana, he was too busy nailing the office staff to pay attention.

Oh, by the way, in the Kentucky race (from the Washington Post):

With 99 percent of the vote counted in the Kentucky GOP primary for U.S. Senate ...

-Rand Paul outpaced Trey Grayson in every major region of the state, scoring his biggest win in the North, an area that includes the fast growing areas around Cincinnati and Louisville that have become reliably GOP. In that region, Paul won 65 percent of the vote, to Grayson's 32 percent.

-Paul won 109 counties; Grayson 11.

It'll be entertaining to watch ObamaBob explain this away tomorrow...there's always an explanation, more people to label as racists, AstroTurf, sexual perverts, rednecks, nutters, etc.

Chin-straps on, friends and neighbors.

Hannan's History Lesson On The Tea Party

A bit of a history lesson from Dan Hannan, who lends his Oxford-educated perspective to the Tea Parties: the one in Boston in 1773, the movement that has arisen here in the past year, and the one just underway back in Great Britain.

The American Revolution, in other words, was inspired by British political philosophy and – more to the point – by British political practice. American patriots saw themselves as part of a continuing British tradition, stretching back through the Glorious Revolution, back through the agitations of Pym and Hampden, back even through the Great Charter to the folkright of Anglo-Saxon common law.

We here owe so much to those who risked everything for freedom, the ones who stayed behind when our ancestors debarked for America.

Three cheers, if distant and delayed.  

The Brighton UK Tea Party--SRO And More

Dan Hannan (the man we need to lease for eight years), reports an SRO turnout to the UK's kickoff Tea Party.

Let's hope they have time to rev things up by the May election.  One thing working in their favor is the relatively small geographic size of the UK--about the size of our state of Illinois.

Wishing ya'll well over there.  Take courage. The citizenry have the US Congress sweating bullets in anticipation of November 2010.  A lot of them have bailed out, including the Democrat congressman in this district. This guy wouldn't even announce meetings with constituents in advance last summer, he was that afraid of what he would encounter.

Make your voice heard. It's OK to get a bit loud, just can't be violent. Loud, vociferous, with a sense of humor works well. Laugh those fools out of office.

And this will give you a bit of ammunition...

You Must Remember This...

...a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is still a sigh;
The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.

It's a wonderful old song, made immortal by that scene in Casablanca.

And like most wonderful old songs, it is memorable because it conveys truth.

OS saw a few minutes of the Health Care Summit, brought to us by the Obama administration.

Millions of words have been spoken and written already, so no need to analyze more.

But OS hopes his readers 'remember this': Obama, Joe B, Miss Nancy and Mr. Harry would never have consented to sit in front of the cameras (as they so often dishonstly promised) and pretend to discuss health care,  had the voters of Massachsuetts not elected Scott Brown.  The Tea Parties and town meeting near-riots left a number of Democrat members in shock.

They were running for cover, pure and simple, as the plan is hatched to just pass Senate health care via 'reconciliation' is now quietly being put into place. They really think they can pass this turkey under cover, in the dead of night, without anyone taking notice! If they do, they will blow up the Senate, and the country with it. Obama will have a veritable tiger by the tail.

..it's sill the same old story, the fight for love and glory, a case of doe or die...
 No matter what the future brings, as time goes by.

OS hopes this will lend encouragement to his friends in the UK, who have suffered so under their unelected Prime Minister.

The Tea Party Movement Launches In England This Saturday

This comes to us from Daniel Hannan, who OS hopes to meet one fine day, and convince him to allow the US to lease him for a decade or so. Fond hope...

The Tea Party launches in the UK this weekend.

They're even serving tea, in the great British tradition.

Three cheers from your American cousins!

OS has to go earn his keep...moh' latuh'.

Not One Mention Of The 'AstroTurf Word' From The New York Times

Today's New York Times features a long and thoughtful article by David Barstow, telling the stories of previously apolitical citizens who have become Tea-Party activists.

Well worth reading and considering, especially if you are visiting this blog from overseas. Barstow presents an even-handed account, and carefully avoids the temptation to create cartoon characters, as so many in the MSM have attempted.

A brief excerpt:

The Tea Party movement has become a platform for conservative populist discontent, a force in Republican politics for revival, as it was in the Massachusetts Senate election, or for division. But it is also about the profound private transformation of people like Mrs. Stout, people who not long ago were not especially interested in politics, yet now say they are bracing for tyranny.

Again, highly recommended, and worthy of sharing, especially for readers outside our shores. America can look very confusing from a distance, and this article helps provide some focus.

As OS has mentioned before, Cintons/Gore/Obama/Pelosi/Reid et al could always count on the uncritical support of the New York Times. Those days are drawing to a close. The Massachusetts 'attitude adjustment' is beginning to take hold in the editorial suite. The fact that they are going broke has also focused their attention a bit. One reader at a time, they alienated their readership, one half-truth and outright whopper at a time.

Chill winds are blowing, and Obama and Company have lost a great deal of their traditional shelter.

(Two loyalist Democrat senators, Bayh and Mikulski, announced their exit this week. They've had enough.)