The Onion had an amusing piece on the DC hostage crisis: Emergency Team Of 8th-Grade Civics Teachers Dispatched To Washington.

It’s a funny concept, but it wouldn’t work as 8th-Grade Civics is too advanced for many members of Congress, like my Congresscritter, or Alabama’s Senators. No, what is needed is 537 copies of the Schoolhouse Rock! DVD collection [they have aides who can deal with the complexities of DVDs]. That’s one for every member of Congress, plus the President and Vice President.

Some might limit the order to the America Rock series on history and government, but, after watching them, it’s apparent that they need math, English, and science help too. We have these people talking about the government budget with no proof that any of them know how to balance a checkbook, or can tell the difference between different car loan options.

CNN says that S&P downgrades U.S. credit rating. They are saying that instead of being AAA, the US debt is now AA+.

[Update: Serious People should just ignore the inconsequential, minor, not-even-worth-mentioning $2 trillion error in the S&P analysis used for the downgrade. Hey, math is hard, OK?]

S&P [Standard and Poors], it should be remembered, popped up in the middle of the debt limit hostage crisis to say that the US had to slash $4 trillion in order to retain its AAA rating.

For those just joining the discussion, here is what Professor William Black thinks: Downgrade S&P! Rating Agencies “Harm The World” and Should Not Exist, Says Prof. Black [There is an auto-run video at the link].

Ratings agencies have failed the public before. Moody’s, S&P and Fitch all labeled many of the sub-prime mortgage-backed securities as AAA, when in reality these MBS were junk. And, who can forget that all three have failed to accurately assess the debt of many European countries until after it was already considered a crisis.

With a less than stellar track record over the last five years, William Black, professor of economics at the University of Missouri has a very strong opinion on whether we should care what the top three rating agencies say.

“[They] are one of the best indicators of the real situation,” he says. “You take the opposite of whatever they say, and then you are very likely to have the truth.”

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Bill Black, his area of expertise is white-collar crime, specifically fraud among financial institutions. His best selling book was The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry.

Given the way the ratings agencies operate, the relevant question is who paid S&P to get involved and downgrade the US? The ratings agencies sold the AAA ratings to the people hawking the MBS junk bonds, so someone paid for this.

We elected these ‘maroons’ who are pushing us over the cliff.

A Gentleman of Leisure

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[Editor: This is Blaze, the alpha tom, doing what he does best – nothing. Of course, when the heat indexes are running above 120°F [48.9°C], that’s probably a smart move … well, non-move.]

Friday Ark