Something reminded me today of this video I made back in those heady days of August. It was a response to this video (via) by some teabaggers that featured a Thomas Jefferson "quote" about welfare. I've always been struck by the disinclination of wingnuts to perform even the most rudimentary fact checking when the fact or quote in question confirms their biases. Obviously it's not exclusively a rightwing phenomenon, but it does seem to me that there's an asymmetry.
Keep threading!
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Big Train
Hey, jobs.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A company that makes light-rail trains in south Sacramento is in the midst of hiring about 200 people and has announced a big new contract with San Diego Metropolitan Transit System.
The Al Franken Decade
Aside from being a good amendment, we now know who the 30 objectively pro-rape Republican senators are.
Washington, D.C. [Oct 6, 2009] – Today, the amendment offered by U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) to stop funding defense contractors who deny assault victims their day in court passed the United States Senate by a vote of 68 - 30
Mysteries
Why do conservatives dislike an organization which tries to prevent low income people from dying in fires...
Lost
I guess editor doesn't quite mean what we think it does.
And this is still in Sullivan's bio:
Which doesn't exactly square with this claim:
And this is still in Sullivan's bio:
TNR also published the first airing of 'The Bell Curve,' the explosive 1995 book on IQ, and 'No Exit,' an equally controversial essay that was widely credited with helping to torpedo the Clinton administration's plans for universal health coverage. In 1996, Sullivan was named Editor of the Year by Adweek magazine.
Which doesn't exactly square with this claim:
But look: it was one piece in a magazine. It's being treated as if it were a turning point in history. Please. There's one reason the Clinton healthcare bill failed and it isn't Betsy McCaughey. It's Hillary Clinton.
Resources
In an age of dwindling resources for journalism, Newsweek decided that what its readers needed most was an interview with Tom DeLay. And they emailed me to tell me about it.
They Bombed In New Haven
Ruh roh.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) _ Police in Connecticut say they have arrested a man after stopping a car full of explosives in a New Haven residential neighborhood.
Authorities have not released the man's name.
Oh Boy
I don't care about casinos, but the construction of a giant parking lot on the riverfront is maddening. When will people ever learn...
Dominoes
Hotels are defaulting in California. While that could just mean their ownership is being transferred to the lenders, lenders aren't necessarily interested in keeping them open.
Statewide, more than 300 hotels were in foreclosure or default on their loans as of Sept. 30 -- a nearly fivefold increase since the start of the year, according to an industry report released Tuesday.
...
Most struggling hotels remain open, but industry experts believe many properties are likely to be closed down in the months ahead, even if they are not in foreclosure, because they are losing so much money. The owners of the renowned Quail Lodge Resort and Golf Club in Carmel, for example, plan to close the hotel Nov. 16.
"I have never seen so many lenders contemplating mothballing properties," said Jim Butler, a hotel lawyer and chairman of the global hospitality group for Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro. "It can and it will get worse for the hotel industry."
Studio 54
Like Krugman I worry that the powers that be think the party was great, and we just need to buy some more booze and get it going again. I don't know this, but I worry.
Corzine
Obviously anything's possible, but I oddly couldn't ever begin to worry about that race. Corzine will probably win...
Ugh
I normally roughly agree with Inga Saffron about stuff, but what the hell is the point of moving this art collection to the city and moving it into a building which shuns the city...
Early Morning Devotion
This moment for Hannity is more awkard than when the FoxNews PA stole Michael Moore's baseball cap.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Should've Advocated Bombing And Killing Civilians Somewhere
I really don't know what it'll take for this country to stop being frightened of TEH SEXXXXXXX.
The Urban Hellhole Administration
Still don't have a very good handle on just what the administration has in mind, but it's encouraging that they're thinking about sensible urban revitalization projects and a bit of a general policy reorientation.
And over at DoT, LaHood sums up years of me trying to force you all to move to Manhattan rather succintly.
And over at DoT, LaHood sums up years of me trying to force you all to move to Manhattan rather succintly.
- Q: You talk a lot about livable communities. How would you describe one?
A: It’s a community where if people don’t want an automobile, they don’t have to have one. A community where you can walk to work, your doctor’s appointment, pharmacy or grocery store. Or you could take light rail, a bus or ride a bike.
As Long As He Doesn't Blog About It
The FTC probably won't worry about it.
Actually even if he does blog about it they probably won't consider him to be a blogger.
As far as I could tell, bloggers are different because they're more easily bought, presumably because they're poor.
Actually even if he does blog about it they probably won't consider him to be a blogger.
As far as I could tell, bloggers are different because they're more easily bought, presumably because they're poor.
More
If only they'd listened to the dirty fucking hippies to begin with. At least the Obama people are now musing out loud about further don't-call-it-a-stimulus stimulus measures.
Platforms For Liars
Some people wrongly imagine that the purpose of news is to inform readers and viewers.
Do Not Get
What exactly is the point of putting an art museum in the city on a main boulevard and then doing everything possible to hide it from that boulevard and the city?
Do not understand.
Do not understand.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Blogger Ethics Panel
I'm all for transparency, but just a little bit the FTC has decided the bloggers are somehow "different" and deserving of special attention and regulation. I doubt that this will really matter in practice, but in principle they're basically saying that reviewers employed by big media are less likely to be corrupt.
As I said, I'm all for transparency, but how often in any publication are you told "this review product was given to the reviewer for free." You don't because it's usually obvious, and bloggers are of course much less likely to get such freebies.
But the elite conspire to ensure that the rules for the rest of us are more binding than the rules for them.
As I said, I'm all for transparency, but how often in any publication are you told "this review product was given to the reviewer for free." You don't because it's usually obvious, and bloggers are of course much less likely to get such freebies.
But the elite conspire to ensure that the rules for the rest of us are more binding than the rules for them.
Controversial Discussion Topic Of The Evening
Because I'm not in the mood to throw rocks at cyclists or take away your much-treasured tax breaks.
The age of consent in most states is too high! Discuss.
The age of consent in most states is too high! Discuss.
California Nightmare
As Digby says, the article about California is freaky.
Economic catastrophe aside, I was a bit puzzled by one thing when I lived there. Southern California really wasn't the place for me, but I get that the coastal bits of it have their charms. But I didn't get why Inland Empire, a place which mostly didn't have those charms, was booming. Sure it was because it was cheaper to live there, but once prices started going up it... stopped being cheap to live there!
...adding, I didn't mean to say it's such a horrible place that I couldn't understand why anyone would live there. What I meant to say is once the housing prices started shooting up it wasn't clear why people would pick the Inland Empire over other places with similar attributes outside of California.
Economic catastrophe aside, I was a bit puzzled by one thing when I lived there. Southern California really wasn't the place for me, but I get that the coastal bits of it have their charms. But I didn't get why Inland Empire, a place which mostly didn't have those charms, was booming. Sure it was because it was cheaper to live there, but once prices started going up it... stopped being cheap to live there!
...adding, I didn't mean to say it's such a horrible place that I couldn't understand why anyone would live there. What I meant to say is once the housing prices started shooting up it wasn't clear why people would pick the Inland Empire over other places with similar attributes outside of California.
Primary Care
I don't think it's necessary to move to an NHS-type system for the entire health system, but in my ideal world basic primary care, including basic dental, would be available in standardized, inexpensive, and accessible community health clinics.
Happy Talk
I have no idea what kind of health care bill we will ultimately get, but they are currently making some more pleasing noises.
Busview
I don't think I was even aware that my local transit authority was looking into providing live bus information, let alone that they were this close...
The internets and iPhone type devices have made what would have been a very expensive project relatively cheap. Buses already have GPS, so the issue is how to make the information available to people. Before portable internet devices, the solution would have required expensive capital expenditures (electronic signs). Now they just need to create an application.
Will cut down on my late night cab usage...
PhillyResident19146: Busview is getting closer. We are validating data and presntation [sic] formats. I hope by next month!
The internets and iPhone type devices have made what would have been a very expensive project relatively cheap. Buses already have GPS, so the issue is how to make the information available to people. Before portable internet devices, the solution would have required expensive capital expenditures (electronic signs). Now they just need to create an application.
Will cut down on my late night cab usage...
Heckuva Job, Larry
Yes we all understand the reality of political constraints, but something more than an insurance policy against universal catastrophe might have prevented millions of individual catastrophes.
Looting For Profit
Buy companies, leverage them, pay yourself a dividend, and then go bankrupt.
I think we've finally found the secret phase 2 of the underpants gnomes.
Phase 1: Collect Underpants
Phase 2: Use underpants as collateral for multibillion dollar loan.
Phase 3: Profit
I think we've finally found the secret phase 2 of the underpants gnomes.
Phase 1: Collect Underpants
Phase 2: Use underpants as collateral for multibillion dollar loan.
Phase 3: Profit
Lagging
I get why unemployment is generally considered to be a lagging indicator, but also think that this guy is right...
Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Mohamed El-Erian says economists are wrong to dismiss unemployment as merely a lagging indicator, a sign of where the economy has been. For the chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., the 26-year high jobless rate is also an omen of things to come. The climb in the September rate to 9.8 percent, double the level at the start of last year, leaves the U.S. saddled with about 15 million people out of work and with limited prospects. That will further hurt the housing market and weigh on the wages of those still employed, threatening to undercut the economic recovery, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
“Today’s unemployment rate is much more than a lagging indicator,” said El-Erian, whose Newport, California-based Pimco manages the world’s largest bond fund, in an e-mail after the Labor Department report on Oct. 2. “It is also a signal of future pressures on consumption, housing and the country’s social safety net.”
The job market tends to trail the economy in a recovery because companies hesitate to take on more workers until they are convinced the expansion will last. What’s different this time is the “large and protracted” rise in joblessness and the likelihood that it will stay high for years, according to El- Erian. That means unemployment will affect the economy going forward, not merely reflect where it has been.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Why Are We There?
Just left a screening of Robert Greenwald's Rethink Afghanistan.
Worth seeing. Worth sending clips to your elected officials.
Worth seeing. Worth sending clips to your elected officials.
Sunday Evening Thread
I'm sure the Greek elections were somehow all about American politics, as all elections are, but I'm at a loss to figure out why.
Good Luck With That
I think too many people have the wrong idea about how many very rich people there actually are in this country.
And most of those who are probably aren't especially interested in a 3200 sq. ft. master bedroom in the OC foothills.
Two years ago, Larry Igarashi bet he could build a sprawling house in Orange County's foothills that would sell for at least $10 million. These days, you can easily guess how that turned out.
On Saturday he put the eight-bedroom house in the gated Coto de Caza community on the auction block and got a high bid of $6.6 million -- less than he was willing to accept.
And most of those who are probably aren't especially interested in a 3200 sq. ft. master bedroom in the OC foothills.
Do Villagers Ever Get The Concept Of Justice Right?
They really just don't believe in trials. I'm glad Cokie Roberts isn't making gross defenses of Polanski, but flippant calls for vigilante justice aren't really appropriate either.
The judge, jury, and executioner has spoken.
“Roman Polanski is a criminal, Roberts said. "He raped and drugged and raped and sodomized a child. And then was a fugitive from justice. As far as I’m concerned, just take him out and shoot him.”
The judge, jury, and executioner has spoken.
All That Money's Gotta Go Somewhere
I try to avoid (not always successfully) making predictions and certainly don't claim to have any particular insight about "the markets," but I do suspect that the Fed blew up a financial asset bubble...
Dumb Ideas That Don't Go Away
PRT is loved by people who really don't get the concept of mass transit.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has NSA adviser James "Kool-Aid" Jones, Carl "The Carl" Levin, Anthony "Old Vine" Zinni, Ike "Red" Skelton.
This Week has Alan "Galt" Greenspan, Chuck "Up" Schumer, John "Box Turtle" Cornyn
Meet the Press has Dancing Dave "Ratings Killer" Gregory, Kool-Aid Jones, and Susan "Don't Call Me Condi" Rice.
document the atrocities!
This Week has Alan "Galt" Greenspan, Chuck "Up" Schumer, John "Box Turtle" Cornyn
Meet the Press has Dancing Dave "Ratings Killer" Gregory, Kool-Aid Jones, and Susan "Don't Call Me Condi" Rice.
document the atrocities!
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Open thread
Looks like you folks need one. Lucky for you, I'm home working on my wireless USB typewriter, so here you go.
Also, heh indeedy.
Also, heh indeedy.
Pity The Poor Super Rich
For awhile the NYT was running a series of sob stories about those I call the not quite rich enough, the type of people who may have had to downsize from 3 to 2 houses because of the recession. Lately they've moved on to writing about the troubles of the super rich. Make sure you remember them in your prayers.
Thanks For Compromising
The big stimulus "compromise" was the evisceration of state government aid.
In the past, government hiring had managed to somewhat offset losses in the private sector, but government jobs declined by 53,000, with the biggest number of cuts on the local and state levels. Even the Postal Service, which is included in the public-sector job statistics, dropped 5,300 jobs.
"The major surprise came from the public sector, where every level of government cut back," Naroff said. "The budget crises at the state and local levels have caused an awful lot of belt-tightening."
Friday, October 02, 2009
And People Should Only Be Allowed To Have One Child
Happy hour thread. Bank failure Friday hasn't started yet!!
Time To Stop Subsidizing Home Ownership
Though I wouldn't get rid of the mortgage tax credit without replacing it with an expanded standard deduction. Juinst Fox misses one impact of the subsidies, something Ed Glaeser pointed out recently, which is that subsidizing homeownership also encourages lower density development in the form of single family detached homes, because governance/ownership issues of common property areas are problematic.
Plan B
I'm curious if Obama's people ever had a serious "what if unemployment ends up being much higher than we predicted" conversation.
Things are not turning around. I'll be quite surprised if unemployment doesn't hit 10% next month.
Things are not turning around. I'll be quite surprised if unemployment doesn't hit 10% next month.
The Poor Aren't Just In My Urban Hellhole
Rural poverty doesn't get enough media attention, and the rural poor generally have less access to helpful social services than the urban poor do.
Misallocation Of Credit
I do think a fundamental issue that isn't being grappled with is that our banking system failed completely in its purpose of allocating credit efficiently. Propping up that failed system in the short term may have been necessary, but longer term that failure needs to be addressed.
More Stimulus Needed
Back in January, Obama administration people projected that if the stimulus plan was enacted employment would be under 8% by now. They projected that without stimulus it would just be at 9%.
Unlike conservatives I don't take this as evidence that the stimulus was a bad idea, just that once again the dirty fucking hippies, who thought we needed more and better stimulus, were right.
Unlike conservatives I don't take this as evidence that the stimulus was a bad idea, just that once again the dirty fucking hippies, who thought we needed more and better stimulus, were right.
Erasing History
The 90s Clinton scandal mongering basically created our modern cable news centric Village press corps, and they seem to have no idea what happened.
I've largely lost interest in re-running the 90s. It's what brought me to the politics-as-media-criticism perspective, but at some point it's time to move on. Still, it's maddening.
I've largely lost interest in re-running the 90s. It's what brought me to the politics-as-media-criticism perspective, but at some point it's time to move on. Still, it's maddening.
Free
I don't know what it's like under the new owner, but I've long said that if I were rich and crazy enough to start a newspaper I'd clone the Evening Standard.
LONDON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- More than 180 years as a paid-for newspaper
will end as the London Evening Standard positions itself as a free newspaper, its new Russian owner said.
Alexander Lebedev, who purchased 75.1 percent of the Evening Standard in January, said, "the London Evening Standard is the first leading quality newspaper to go free and I am sure others will follow."
Monthly Jobs Report
Not over.
U6, the broadest measure of unemployment, is at 17%.
Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in September (-263,000), and
the unemployment rate (9.8 percent) continued to trend up, the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses were in construction,
manufacturing, retail trade, and government.
U6, the broadest measure of unemployment, is at 17%.
Tort
One of the things that is irksome about stuff like "tort reform" is that the arguments are not only not entirely true, but also are not presented in good faith.
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Promises, Promises
Obviously not everything that could be called a 'public option' is any good, but...
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said today there will be a "public option" in whatever health insurance reform bill comes out of Congress.
"We are going to have a public option before this bill goes to the president's desk," Reid said in a conference call with constituents, referring to some kind of government plan.
Little Ricky
I think Ricky is exactly right!
WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa - Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum argued Thursday that only a sharply conservative Republican message can "stem the tide" of change President Barack Obama is seeking in Washington, and he wants to play a role in that debate.
The Poor and Transit
While I think quite often concerns about urban gentrification are a bit misplaced, an exception to that is when the poor get priced out of areas with access to decent mass transit.
And Also
People who go to football games have a tendency to drink. A lot.
110,000 people...all arriving by car, all leaving at approximately the same time. I realize a public transit system doesn't create itself overnight, but it's amazing that even seems like a workable idea.
110,000 people...all arriving by car, all leaving at approximately the same time. I realize a public transit system doesn't create itself overnight, but it's amazing that even seems like a workable idea.
If I Ran The Zoo
All health clinics with sufficient resources would provide all needed health care, including abortions, but I don't actually run things, so...
Mysteries
I get that some people are truly confused and think health care reform means someone's going to take away their Medicare, or whatever, but aside from the truly confused I really do not understand why people really want to maintain the status quo where just about all of us are one moderate medical problem away from financial hardship or bankruptcy.
I Hope They Know What Problem They're Trying To Solve
Reading the various news articles about my local transit authority moving towards a smart card type payment system I never quite get the sense that they know why they're doing it. That doesn't mean they don't know, I just can't tell.
Basically, my local transit authority is very inconvenient for occasional riders. For subway/trolley/bus we're on a token system. Most stations don't have token machines. Fare without token is exact change $2. For the regional rail system, they got rid of all the ticket machines, and many stations don't have a ticket window. You can pay for fare on board, but with a nontrivial penalty.
For passholders (weekly/monthly), the system works pretty well, although the need for passes to be calendar week and month instead of any 7- or 30- day period is a bit annoying.
Anyway, the point of moving towards a smart card system (with credit payments) is that it should make riding and fare paying more convenient for both regular and occasional riders. Hopefully they get this...
Basically, my local transit authority is very inconvenient for occasional riders. For subway/trolley/bus we're on a token system. Most stations don't have token machines. Fare without token is exact change $2. For the regional rail system, they got rid of all the ticket machines, and many stations don't have a ticket window. You can pay for fare on board, but with a nontrivial penalty.
For passholders (weekly/monthly), the system works pretty well, although the need for passes to be calendar week and month instead of any 7- or 30- day period is a bit annoying.
Anyway, the point of moving towards a smart card system (with credit payments) is that it should make riding and fare paying more convenient for both regular and occasional riders. Hopefully they get this...
SUPERTRAINS To Nature
Once nice thing about Yurp is that civilization and nature are often a bit more integrated, which means that one can do things like take public transit to small towns and then go hiking from place to place without worrying about getting stranded or having to somehow find your way back to the car. This is a nice idea.
In a region famous for nurturing nature and high technology, Bay Area conservation and transit groups have unveiled the first interactive Web site for planning how to take public transit to trails, parks, beaches and campgrounds.
Now available for public use, the site acts as trip planner to reach the 1.2 million acres of parks and protected space in the Bay Area without an auto.
Anyone can use the free site — accessible at www.openspacecouncil.org — to get routes, fares and schedules to take the bus and trains to trails leading to Mount Diablo near Walnut Creek, Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, Ocean Beach in San Francisco, and other popular outdoor spots.
"Popular Obsession"
It was a "popular obsession" in elite media writers who regularly reach for any backlash-friendly tale they can spin.
...adding, you can see how this played out. A couple people in the right social circles felt conflicted about leaving their careers to have children, spawning a wave of articles written to justify their decisions.
A first census snapshot of married women who stay home to raise their children shows that the popular obsession with high-achieving professional mothers sidelining careers for family life is largely beside the point.
Instead, census statistics released Thursday show that stay-at-home mothers tend to be younger and less educated, with lower family incomes. They are more likely than other mothers to be Hispanic or foreign-born.
...adding, you can see how this played out. A couple people in the right social circles felt conflicted about leaving their careers to have children, spawning a wave of articles written to justify their decisions.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
The CNBC tells me the number of lucky duckies this week increased to 551K.
It isn't over.
It isn't over.
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