Freedom of the press is great. But that's not the central issue here. Frankly, I think Corsi got deported for his own safety.

I lived in Nairobi in '92-'93 when the independent press was under constant threat of getting shut down. My first day in Nairobi happened to be the day of the first multi-party elections, in which Mwai Kibaki was one of the challengers. It was very inspiring to see people walking for miles to the polls, even if that election was rigged (Daniel arap Moi, the president at the time, was a corrupt fraud; I'm amazed he handed off to the next corrupt fraud, Kibaki, more smoothly than that corrup fraud refused to hand off to the next corrupt fraud, Odinga).

So I know a little something about Kenya (though I'm out of date; the place went to hell in the '90's, and I'm still shocked the country has even a rough approximation of a multiparty government today).

In short, in pieces like http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=76861, Corsi is amazingly full of it, even for him. It's so bad it's not even wrong.

For example, he mentions, correctly, that Islam has a hold on the coast and in the northeast (where it has for 1000+ years). But he inconveniently forgets to mention that the Luo are from the southwest of Kenya, and most are not Muslim.

In short, Corsi is conflating tribal tensions in Kenya with Christian/Muslim tensions in his quest to make Obama a Muslim. Luo-Kikuyu tensions go back to power struggles between Odinga's dad, the 1st VP, and Jomo Kenytaa, the 1st President of Kenya.

Corsi welcome to embarrass himself here in the US. But leave the tribal-baiting in Kenya to the government; they are experts and don't need Corsi's bush-league help. He doesn't have an even basic understanding of the issues at play in Kenya, not that he cares.

He's lucky he got picked up when he did. If he had waltzed into Huruma to pay a visit to George Obama, he may very well have met some new friends. Petty thieves get necklaced in Kenya (burning tire around the neck); I'm not sure how guys like Corsi would fare. I'm not saying that's right, I'm just saying there are parts of Nairobi this mzungu didn't dare to tread.

I'd rather go duck-hunting with Cheney wearing a Patrick Leahy T-shirt with a bullseye on the back than carouse around Kenya's slums while publicly defaming Obama and spewing a bunch of lies that Kenyans know to be complete BS.

But a great economist. His articles shine when discussing economics, but are otherwise somewhat middling.

He should really stick to his knitting, especially now.

Congratulations to him.

DJI:

10/29/29 230.07

10/30/29 258.47 +12.3%

10/31/29 273.51 +5.8%

Then...

11/06/29 232.13

11/13/29 198.69

Then the Dow rallied to 300 or so before dropping below 50 in July 1932.

Color me not quite relieved...

1. It's "pompous". Or were you being ironic.

2. 43 snarky posts in 3 days. Don't I know you from somewhere?

http://inflationdata.com/inflation/images/charts/Oil/Inflation_Adj_Oil_Prices_Chart.htm

Alternatives to oil are generally viable if oil is above $40 a barrel or so. It'll be interesting to see where prices head next.

It's not coming. He's playing rope-a-dope 'til election day.

It's not entertaining, but it's risk averse and is a pretty good strategy.

Justice Breyer? Appointed in 1994 Justice Breyer?

Palin knows about autism? Her child has Down Syndrome- another, different disease.

But don't we have a pretty good handle on the extreme dangers of too much leverage?

I'm not saying "leverage = bad", but I am saying "extreme leverage = inevitable disaster", and I think we have enough data to support that, LTCM being a good case study.

I know regulating leverage would life less fun (you can't find any old approach that gets you 0.1%/month 99% of the time and leverage it into double-digit annual gains), but it would also make life a lot less painful.

No fair; you made a logically coherent argument, with numbers.

I agree with your numbers but disagree with your conclusion; nothing, *nothing* will ever surpass the 2004 ALCS. Yankees, 86 years, Big Papi and all that.

And now it oscillates between 900 and 950 or so.

jackuws said what I was going to say (but more articulately).

The markets are completely out of whack right now. We may well see another steep decline tomorrow, a rally after the US elections, and then another decline when people realize that Obama (or McCain???) doesn't have a magic wand.

If the market was rallying day after day, that would be euphoria. This is just twitchiness.

So Chalfie is capable enough to do research that earns him a Nobel Prize, but not capable enough to get some decent lighting for his Youtube video? Someone get that man a decent lamp!

But I think it will help energize Obama's base, at the very least.

What I currently find surprising is that I suffered Obama-fatigue for much of the summer and early fall. I like the guy, but this election cycle has been taking f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

But every time I see or hear him recently, I get pretty fired up. Though he appeared pretty fatigued at times during the primaries, he seems to be getting stronger toward the finish, a la Michael Phelps. I happened to listen to his speech in Richmond, VA last week on the radio while near DC on business- it was an awesome speech.

I do know first-hand that his campaign is taking nothing for granted. My wife got roped into to running *yet another* phone bank for Tuesday, to place GOTV votes to NH and other states. They are simply not taking things for granted. Which is good.

I just hope Obama a) wins, and b) can govern as well as he can give a speech or run a campaign.