Reason Morning Links

Radley Balko | June 2, 2009

• GM files second largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history.

• Missing Air France plane continues to vex investigators.

• Muslim convert opens fire on a military recruiting center in Arkansas, killing a U.S soldier. Authorities play down possibility of ties to broader terrorist organizations.

• Tiananmen Square, 20 years later.

• Meet the 31-year-old central planner in charge of "dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism."

Comments

|6.2.09 @ 9:19AM|#

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Xeones|6.2.09 @ 9:25AM|#

• GM files second largest industrial bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Good thing they got all that bailout money, or else they would have had to file bankruptcy a couple months earlier!

birdman|6.2.09 @ 9:26AM|#

figures Brian Deese, aka 31-yr old wunderkid, has never had a real job in his life. just school and campaigns.

i'm officially dropping off the grid

Spoonman|6.2.09 @ 9:33AM|#

Isn't it a little ridiculous that people are talking as if there's some chance the people on board aren't dead, though? The plane dropped off the face of the earth in the middle of the Atlantic. It's gone.

|6.2.09 @ 9:37AM|#

The plane dropped off the face of the earth in the middle of the Atlantic. It's gone.

Or is it?

JACOB|6.2.09 @ 9:47AM|#

That depends on how attractive the passengers are, JJ, and how compelling their back-stories.

squarooticus|6.2.09 @ 9:52AM|#

"Abrams" FTW. ;-)

Rib O\'Flavin|6.2.09 @ 9:53AM|#

While there, Muhammad - a U.S. citizen who is a recent convert to Islam and was previously known as Carlos Bledsoe - studied jihad with an Islamic scholar, Jihadwatch.org reported.

How do you study jihad? Are there field trips and lab assignments?

|6.2.09 @ 9:55AM|#

How do you study jihad?

The best way to study jihad is to wrangle an invite to their Winter Formal.

|6.2.09 @ 9:59AM|#

I'm glad to see that the Obama administration is continuing the Iraq reconstruction tradition of putting inexperienced political hacks in crucial positions. I expect about the same level of success.

Fascitis Necrotizante|6.2.09 @ 10:04AM|#

You're gonna want to see the boy genius for yourself.

Doom...

|6.2.09 @ 10:04AM|#

• Meet the 31-year-old central planner in charge of "dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.

I thought Obama was in his 40s.

|6.2.09 @ 10:04AM|#

I don't get why any black American would want to convert to Islam. Aren't they supposed to be opposed to slavery?

-jcr

|6.2.09 @ 10:06AM|#

I thought Obama was in his 40s.

Obama's not a central planner, he's a salesman. He works for the central planners.

-jcr

|6.2.09 @ 10:09AM|#

Meet the 31-year-old central planner in charge of "dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism.

Jesus, he's like the Wet Nurse squared.

|6.2.09 @ 10:10AM|#

Yikes, I have a date with an Obama enthusiast type lady this evening - must resist snarky comments!!!

Seriously, a 31yo grad student is put in charge of the GM restructuring? When do I get appointed to head up an investment bank.

Eric Dondero|6.2.09 @ 10:11AM|#

Surprise! ABC News just reported that the Little Rock Jihadist shooter traveled to Yemen on a Somali passport.

Just now breaking...

He has strong ties to Nashville and Memphis Somali Jihadist communities. And was employed as - what else? - an (Airport?) Transportation Worker, in Little Rock and Memphis.

Spoonman|6.2.09 @ 10:12AM|#

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Warty|6.2.09 @ 10:17AM|#

The best way to study jihad is to wrangle an invite to their Winter Formal.

Yeah, but then when you get shitfaced, the fat ones will take advantage of you.

Maybe we can get Dondero to do it for us.

hmm|6.2.09 @ 10:20AM|#

I have no problem with the age of people running things. I have a problem with people who have no practical experience running things.

|6.2.09 @ 10:33AM|#

Chief Executive Frederick "Fritz" Henderson appealed to consumers to "give us another chance."

Eat shit and die, Fritz.

Abner MacGillicuddy|6.2.09 @ 10:50AM|#

Well we can count on Depends having brisk sales with Dondero peeing his pants at every mention of them Moooslims.

At least that part of the economy is staying afloat.

Invisible Finger|6.2.09 @ 11:17AM|#

Here's the scariest thing:

The US Federal Government will now own the OnStar service, tracking your every move if you own a GM automobile.

Abner MacGillicuddy|6.2.09 @ 11:19AM|#

Or, you could say that the company that makes depends wil not be having any liquidity problems.

|6.2.09 @ 11:21AM|#

Mr. Deese's route to the auto table at the White House was anything but a straight line. He is the son of a political science professor at Boston College (his father) and an engineer who works in renewable energy (his mother). He grew up in the Boston suburb of Belmont and attended Middlebury College in Vermont. He went to Washington to work on aid issues and was quickly hired by Nancy Birdsall, a widely respected authority on the effectiveness of international aid and the founder of the Center for Global Development.

I'll be sharpening my axe, if anyone needs me.

|6.2.09 @ 11:22AM|#

Almost forgot-

Shut the fuck up, Dunderooooooooooooooo!

Kreel Sarloo|6.2.09 @ 11:22AM|#

The US Federal Government will now own the OnStar service, tracking your every move if you own a GM automobile.

But the government is being run by good people now, Invisible.

I'm so glad I was able to put your mind at ease like that.

tarran|6.2.09 @ 11:33AM|#

Belmont! My home town!

It also contained the headquarters of the John Birch society for several decades.

|6.2.09 @ 11:43AM|#

CNN is reporting Hummer is sold

http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/02/news/companies/gm_hummer/index.htm?postversion=2009060207

perilisk|6.2.09 @ 12:14PM|#

"Meet the 31-year-old central planner in charge of "dismantling General Motors and rewriting the rules of American capitalism."

Christ, if it wasn't for the NYT logo, I would have sworn that was an article on the Onion.

|6.2.09 @ 12:19PM|#

Finally, one night, he decided to get into his car with his dog and just started driving back to Washington. Tired, he pulled over to catch some sleep in the car.

But the question that comes to mind (and the hotshot NYTimes reporter doesn't ask) is: what kind/brand of car does he drive now? Will he buy and 2010 GM or Chrysler? Will they follow up in five years and see what he's driving?

Mokers|6.2.09 @ 12:30PM|#

But the question that comes to mind (and the hotshot NYTimes reporter doesn't ask) is: what kind/brand of car does he drive now? Will he buy and 2010 GM or Chrysler? Will they follow up in five years and see what he's driving?

Professor father + environmentalist mother. Went to middlebury. I'm guessing Saab or Volvo, both owned by US companies, so he may skate on this one. Although I can see a lot of Jetta potential there.

|6.2.09 @ 12:30PM|#

I have no problem with the age of people running things. I have a problem with people who have no practical experience running things.

Why? You don't need those things when you have Hope And Change.

|6.2.09 @ 12:39PM|#

I have no problem with the age of people running things. I have a problem with people who have no practical experience running things.

Of course, practical experience comes with age.

|6.2.09 @ 1:22PM|#

I'm less concerned about his being 31 than I am with his being a star pupil of Larry "unhealthy" Summers:

"Brian grasps both the economics and the politics about as quickly as I've seen anyone do this," said Lawrence H. Summers, the head of the National Economic Council who is not known for being patient whenever he believes an analysis is sub-par - or disagrees with his own. "And there he was in the Roosevelt Room, speaking up vigorously to make the point that the costs we were going to incur giving Fiat a chance were no greater than some of the hidden costs of liquidation."

VM|6.2.09 @ 1:23PM|#

Re: Air France plane: someone bumped an überglock loaded with HFCS glaser slugs, covering the fuselage of the plane with the aeronautic glycemic index equivalent of a 500.

duh. it's all so simple.

Professor Jihad|6.2.09 @ 1:37PM|#

'OK, class, raise your hands if you completed your assignments.

'Liars! If you had completed your assignments, you wouldn't be in class! Pieces of you would be scattered all over the remains of the Hillel Club dinner dance!

'You all get Fs!'

|6.2.09 @ 3:15PM|#

Tulpa, it sounds to me like Larry Summers subscribes to the belief that the degree of someone's intelligence is identical to the degree of their agreement with Larry Summers.

That anecdote makes it pretty clear that our new car czar is very adept at figuring out what the Boss Man wants to hear, and giving it to him good and hard.

|6.2.09 @ 3:39PM|#

If he's anything like many of the aspirational students I met at Middlebury, he'll be very well trained in ass-kissing and boot-licking.

Russ 2000|6.2.09 @ 5:59PM|#

Larry Summers subscribes to the belief that the degree of someone's intelligence is identical to the degree of their agreement with Larry Summers.

Larry Summers gave the big "F" to Paul Volcker a few weeks back.