When I am your benevolent dictator, I will outlaw the use of any and all sports metaphors in our political discourse.
...and while I know nothing about Cazayoux other than the fact that he has a (D) after his name, it appears he just hit a game winning home run in the bottom of the 9th.
SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE: This morning I e-mailed the Clinton campaign to find out more about this pledge. I wrote: "Am interested in learning more about the senator's plan to give residents of Guam the right to vote in presidential elections. Would that mean making Guam a state? Bestowing citizenship upon these US nationals? Same with Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa? Would they get Senators and full voting members of Congress? How about DC? Wouldn't this require major constitutional changes?"
People born in PR, the US Virgin Islands, and, yes, Washington DC are born US citizens, though people from American Samoa are not.
...adding, since it wasn't crystal clear in the post: People from Guam are born citizens too.
Susannah Moss's trendy one-bedroom Adams Morgan condo, in a converted warehouse, has become a potential money drain.
Since Moss contracted to buy the unit in early 2005, she has married, had a child and outgrown the space. She is trying to sell the condo but has been hampered by the housing slump. Three months after putting it on the market, she has yet to receive an offer.
Now Moss, 33, wants to find a tenant for her condo while she waits out the economy. But the condominium association allows only 20 percent of the units to be leased at once, so Moss is on a waiting list. If she tries to rent the unit without permission, she could face a $500-a-month fine.
But then when specifically asked by an Associated Press reporter if, when he made the statement, he was “thinking about the first Gulf War,” he said no.
“No, I was thinking about- it’s not hard to- we will not,” McCain stumbled. “By eliminating our dependency on foreign oil, we will not have to have our national security threatened by a cut off of that oil. Because we will be dependent, because we won’t be dependent, we will no longer be dependent on foreign oil. That’s what my remarks were.”
My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.
Sounds like BoA is planning to take over all the good stuff and abandon the bad stuff. How they can legally do this is a bit of a mystery to me, but there you go.
May 2 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. bank, said it may not guarantee $38.1 billion of Countrywide Financial Corp.'s debt after taking over the mortgage lender, increasing the likelihood of a default.
``There is no assurance that any such debt would be redeemed, assumed or guaranteed,'' the bank said in an April 30 regulatory filing, adding that no decision has been reached. Investors had grown more optimistic the bank would back Countrywide debt, and Standard & Poor's said this week it may raise Countrywide's rating to match Bank of America's.
...
``This confirms how tenuous this transaction is,'' said Christopher Whalen, managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics, a banking research firm in Torrance, California.
Whalen expects Bank of America to absorb the best assets, including Countrywide Bank, while the debt remains with a new company created by the merger, Red Oak Merger Corp. Red Oak may then file for bankruptcy, shielding Bank of America from liability, Whalen said.
Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said as many as 60,000 extra troops are needed to bolster the 170,000 coalition forces already there - and predicted they will stay a decade.
The Delaware Democrat, who recently returned from Iraq, said NATO allies France, Germany and Turkey should participate in the peacekeeping force.
"That's one way to communicate to the Iraqi people we are not there as occupiers. The international community is there as liberators," Biden told "Fox News Sunday."
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said U.S. troops ill-equipped to maintain order have grown "very tired" and suggested forces from India, Pakistan and Europe should step in to help set up a new Iraqi army.
'Straight talk'
McCain, an Armed Services Committee member, faulted the Bush administration for fueling a "growing sense of unease" in the American public.
"They need some straight talk about what the plan is, how long we're going to be there," McCain told CBS' "Face the Nation."
[bumping because this got lost in the stupid] Reuters:
This week it was the ill-timed "Mission Accomplished" banner that the White House hung behind Bush five years ago when Bush declared major combat operations over in Iraq.
"I thought it was wrong at the time," McCain said in Cleveland Thursday, proceeding to criticize Vice President Dick Cheney's various comments over the years that the Iraqi insurgency was in its "last throes" with "a few dead-enders" all that was left.
Reality.
CAVUTO: ... Senator -- after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn't over.
MCCAIN: Well, then why was there a banner that said 'mission accomplished' on the aircraft carrier? ... the conflict -- the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished...
Okay, I think I've figured this out. The YouTube clip is crap. I was going to ignore it until Drudge posted it, but stupid me anyway.
I'm not going to try for a complete transcript, but basically Kantor gets polls from Indiana. They're close. He says even if they don't win the White House has got to be shitting themselves. Then what I think he says is something along the lines of "how would you like to be beaten by a worthless white n*****," presumably meaning Bill Clinton himself and referencing the Bush I campaign team's likely view of Clinton.
"I've never used that word in my entire life, ever, under any circumstance, ever," an angry Kantor told The Huffington Post, citing his and his parent's work fighting for civil rights. "I have listened to [the video] and so have you. You can't tell what it is I'm saying in that second sentence, you can't decipher that."
Indeed, a review of the original copy of the 1993 film The War Room, from which the excerpt was taken, is virtually inaudible. The sound suggests, if anything, that instead of saying "How would you like to be a worthless white n****r?" Kantor says, "How would you like to be in the White House right now?"
In the YouTube clip it does sound like the "white n*****" is said, but even if it is it isn't directed at the people of Indiana.
Anyway, dumb fake controversy. Apologies for even linking to it.
...here's the original war room. about 4:20 in. The offending phrase is certainly less audible than in the bullshit Youtube clip, and most likely is just something along the lines of "how would you like to be working in the white house" though it's hard to hear.
I'm not really sure if 16 year old comments by Mickey Kantor are especially relevant to the question of whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama should be the Dem nominee for president, but since Matt Drudge rules their world I suppose they're now "out there."
But one would have thought they would've been relevant to, say, whether Mickey Kantor was confirmed as Commerce Secretary once upon a time. Searching reviews of the War Room, where this clip is taken from, no reviewer thought the comment worth mentioning.
...putting on the headphones and cranking it up, the first quote from Kantor is incorrect. He says these people have got to be shitting, and he's referring to the White House. The 2nd quote doesn't really make any sense in context, so it's possible it's doctored.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home goods retailer Linens 'n Things has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and plans to close 120 underperforming stores, the company said on Friday.
The struggling seller of textiles, housewares and other home goods also said it had secured $700 million in financing from General Electric Co's GE Capital affiliate to ensure it can stock its stores with merchandise for the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons.
• You favor eliminating the cap on earnings subject to the 12.4 percent Social Security tax, which now covers only the first $102,000. A Chicago police officer married to a Chicago public-school teacher, each with 20 years on the job, have a household income of $147,501, so you would take another $5,642 from them. Are they undertaxed? Are they rich?
I'm not even sure Obama is proposing this, but in any case lifting the cap above 102,000 on this couple wouldn't impact them at all as the cap is on individual incomes, not joint incomes. They're already both being taxed on their full salary, and lifting the cap wouldn't impact them at all.
This in the magazine about how out of touch Obama is.
Short term price elasticity of demand for gas is pretty low. Medium term it might be a bit higher.
DETROIT — Soaring gas prices have turned the steady migration by Americans to smaller cars into a stampede.
In what industry analysts are calling a first, about one in five vehicles sold in the United States was a compact or subcompact car during April, based on monthly sales data released Thursday. Almost a decade ago, when sport utility vehicles were at their peak of popularity, only one in every eight vehicles sold was a small car.
CAVUTO: ... Senator -- after a conflict means after the conflict, and many argue the conflict isn't over.
MCCAIN: Well, then why was there a banner that said 'mission accomplished' on the aircraft carrier? ... the conflict -- the major conflict is over, the regime change has been accomplished...
.jpg)
