In DC for what was once Take Back America and is now...IT'S ALL OURS NOW BITCHES or something like that.
Overnight thread.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Crap
Just crap.
WICHITA - George Tiller, the Wichita doctor who became a national lightning rod in the debate over abortion, was shot to death this morning as he walked into church services.'
Recast
Subprime was just the beginning, and never was the problem. I keep making this point...
At issue is just how many people have been making minimum payments, tacking on unpaid interest to the principal. Some of these people were steered into those loans by brokers who were getting side payments.
(ht reader j)
Today, there are 18,000 Alt-A mortgages in Sonoma County. They account for about 18 percent of the county’s 102,000 home mortgages — triple the U.S. average, according to First American CoreLogic, a real estate research company.
It is a far larger share of the county’s real estate holdings than subprime loans, which accounted for about 10 percent of local mortgages at their peak five years ago, according to First American CoreLogic.
Over the next three years, about two-thirds of the Alt-A borrowers in Sonoma County will see their payments jump sharply, according to First American CoreLogic. The trend will peak in the summer of 2011, the research firm projects.
At issue is just how many people have been making minimum payments, tacking on unpaid interest to the principal. Some of these people were steered into those loans by brokers who were getting side payments.
(ht reader j)
QOTD
From the president of the Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau, Charles Ahlers:
- A subsidy is the normal course of doing business.
The College Business/Investment Model
Since I've been an adult I've seen three waves of "crises" hitting universities and their endowments. I'm not as young as I used to be, but I'm not all that old. Perhaps they need to rethink their approach to things?
Sunday Bobbleheads
Leahy, Sessions, and a bunch of CEOs on Meet the Press.
Kyl and Feinstein on Face the Nation
Cornyn, Schumer, and Ed Gillespie on This Week.
What year is it again?
Document the atrocities!
Kyl and Feinstein on Face the Nation
Cornyn, Schumer, and Ed Gillespie on This Week.
What year is it again?
Document the atrocities!
Mission Accomplished
Arnie set to destroy California.
- The cuts Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed to make up the difference, if enacted by the Legislature, would turn California into a place that in some ways would be unrecognizable in modern America: poor children would have no health insurance, prisoners would be released by the thousands and state parks would be closed. Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians, although prisons and schools would take hits, as well.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Crazy Prices Slightly Less Crazy
Back when I was house hunting I accidentally/out of curiosity wandered into an open house for this listing. I believe it was listed for about $1.7 million at the time. Now it can had for the bargain price of $1.2 million!
Oil
I guess we'll find out if my hyper-sophisticated model of the markets for oil and gas is corect. If, as Yglesias says, oil price starts spiking anytime there's a bit of good economics news then what that means is that the demand curve is dangerously near the verticalish part of the supply curve. Worldwide slowdown rescued us from high oil prices temporarily, but economic rebound or the general trend growth in oil demand will push the demand curve back outwards and then....
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
But, hey, what do I know. I though oil prices might come down somewhat from their highs, but never again as low as they have been.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
But, hey, what do I know. I though oil prices might come down somewhat from their highs, but never again as low as they have been.
I Guess We're Broke Too
Yet another reason why my pessimism is increasing: broke states.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans (D., Phila.) says continued slumping state revenue figures have bumped this year's projected deficit up to $3.2 billion, $1 billion more than Gov. Rendell predicted three months ago, and have raised the prospect of an increase in the personal-income tax.
Business Decision
This is a couple of days old, but I meant to link to this bit from Froomkin:
At this point I'm not sure how much stylistic tweaks matter relative to the structural/technology change and the recession, but it's nice seeing someone acknowledge that much of what journalists perceive as the standards of their profession, the "objectivity," was a business choice. Journalists are still wedded to this model even if it doesn't make financial sense anymore in part because they see it as The Way Things Should Be Done rather than something which was done to maximize circulation.
But we’re hiding much of our newsrooms’ value behind a terribly anachronistic format: voiceless, incremental news stories that neither get much traffic nor make our sites compelling destinations. While the dispassionate, what-happened-yesterday, inverted-pyramid daily news story still has some marginal utility, it’s mostly a throwback at this point — a relic of a daily product delivered on paper to a geographically limited community. (For instance, it’s the daily delivery cycle of our print product that led us to focus on yesterday’s news. And it’s the focus on maximizing newspaper circulation that drove us to create the notion of “objectivity” — thereby removing opinion and voice from news stories — for fear of alienating any segment of potential subscribers.)
At this point I'm not sure how much stylistic tweaks matter relative to the structural/technology change and the recession, but it's nice seeing someone acknowledge that much of what journalists perceive as the standards of their profession, the "objectivity," was a business choice. Journalists are still wedded to this model even if it doesn't make financial sense anymore in part because they see it as The Way Things Should Be Done rather than something which was done to maximize circulation.
New Financing
I really don't know much about all of the details of commercial real estate, but I do find it somewhat puzzling that all of these buildings which have an expected lifespan of several decades are being financed with relatively short term financing. What's the reason for that?
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wanka Rap
Kevin K says you can't watch all the way to the end. You gonna take that?
(Actually, you really shouldn't watch it; may cause blindness, death, etc.)
(Actually, you really shouldn't watch it; may cause blindness, death, etc.)
Sugar High
I worry he is correct.
May 29 (Bloomberg) -- World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned policy makers that fiscal-stimulus plans are insufficient to turn around the “real economy” and rising joblessness threatens to set off political unrest across the globe.
“While the stimulus has given an impulse, it’s like a sugar high unless you eventually get the credit system working,” Zoellick said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” scheduled to air tonight and over the weekend. “When unemployment increases, that’s probably the most political, combustible issue.”
Really Tiny Penises
It must be really bizarre to be so threatened by the thought of a woman in power. The world I grew up in was, thankfully, if not perfect, much better than the one they did.
Lies and the Lying Liars
And we inhabit a media ecosystem in which people happily let Karl Rove make stuff up and then dine on quail at his table.
Home Field Advantage
All this Sotomayor stuff is another reminds of how the press plays along with whatever horseshit conservatives come up with. We find ourselves having to argue about things - she's a racist! empathy is bad! being a female Puerto Rican from the Bronx gives you unfair advantages in life! - which are transparently absurd.
Still Bad
Another month, another month of bad data. The green shoots crowd sometimes points out that all data is a bit delayed, so the green shoots are there but we just can't see them yet.
I have no desire to be right about this, but my pessimism about the economy continues to grow. The knock on effects of the foreclosure crisis, which isn't even close to being over, along with growing unemployment... well, as I said, I'm very pessimistic and I think even now there's an incredible bias in favor of happy talk in the political-media industrial complex.
I have no desire to be right about this, but my pessimism about the economy continues to grow. The knock on effects of the foreclosure crisis, which isn't even close to being over, along with growing unemployment... well, as I said, I'm very pessimistic and I think even now there's an incredible bias in favor of happy talk in the political-media industrial complex.
Riding the SUPERTRAINS
A big problem in this country is that many of the people responsible for making transportation policy have no personal experience with mass transit other than airplanes. To put it in the language of the day, they lack the appropriate amount of empathy for transit users. So good for LaHood for riding the SUPETRAIN.
The Villagers And Roe
I've long been a bit puzzled why Villagers tend to hate Roe v. Wade so much, aside from their general love of pissing off hippies. As a group they seem to be a bit to the right of Lord "ABORTIONS ARE ICKY!!!" Saletan, not necessarily wanting abortion to be illegal, but quite happy to pass any law making it harder for poor women to have access to proper health care.
Inflation Will Kill Your Mother
Just agreeing with Krugman, that inflation concerns are overhyped. First, there's no reason now to think inflation is inevitable. Second, modest inflation isn't a big deal for most of us anyway.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Must See TeeVee
- THIS SUNDAY, MAY 31, SENATE MINORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY) WILL EXCLUSIVELY APPEAR ON
CNN’S STATE OF THE UNION WITH JOHN KING.
THE INTERVIEW WILL FOCUS ON PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SOTOMAYOR NOMINATION, THE ECONOMY AND THE FUTURE OF THE GOP.
TUNE IN TO STATE OF THE UNION WITH JOHN KING ON SUNDAY AT 9 AM (ET) FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW. THE PROGRAM AIRS SUNDAYS 9 AM – 1PM (ET).
Going To Get Worse
I'm glad someone realizes it. I wish policymakers did.
More defaults by unemployed homeowners could shunt more houses onto an already saturated market, economists said, dragging prices down farther.
“We’re still caught in this vicious cycle,” said Patrick Newport, an economist at IHS Global Insight. “These numbers were horrible, and they’re going to get worse. This problem’s going to be with us for a while.”
Exciting Maps With Lots Of Colors
Play around with maps at the H&T Affordability Site. Not very surprisingly, people who live (for example) in the city of Philadelphia drive less and have lower vehicle carbon emissions per household. Though not surprising, there is a weird tendency to equate environmentalism with being near nature when in fact the enviornmentalist thing to do is LEAVE NATURE ALOOOOONE and live a modestly-sized place in an urban hellhole with decent mass transit.
(via the overhead wire)
Though I live car free in my urban hellhole because I don't need a car and like my urban hellhole, not because of environmental concerns.
(via the overhead wire)
Though I live car free in my urban hellhole because I don't need a car and like my urban hellhole, not because of environmental concerns.
Wingnuts Are Awesome
Their latest discovery is that people who own car dealerships tend to be Republicans.
12%
Just adding to what's linked below, 12% of people with mortgages are behind in their payments or in foreclosure.
And it's going to get worse. Bankruptcy cramdown would have helped. Oh well.
And it's going to get worse. Bankruptcy cramdown would have helped. Oh well.
Green Shoots
I take no delight in bad economic news, but I do worry that policymakers are really oblivious to what's going on out there. The instant the very serious people got around to recognizing there were problems they were ready to declare that they were over. They aren't over.
Durable Orders Jump A Lot If You Ignore Revision
This report is fine, but I read others this morning touting the big jump when the real news is that the previous number was much worse than first announced.
May 28 (Bloomberg) -- Orders for U.S. durable goods hovered near the lowest level in 13 years in April as demand for business equipment weakened, indicating that investment will be one of the last areas of the economy to recover.
Orders rose 1.9 percent from the previous month after a revised 2.1 percent drop in March that was more than twice as large as previously estimated, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. A rebound in automobile orders and a jump in defense spending spurred the gain in April.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Still very bad.
A separate report from the Labor Department showed initial claims for state unemployment insurance dropped by 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 623,000 in the week ended May 23, falling for a second straight week.
However, the number of people staying on benefit rolls after drawing an initial week of aid increased 110,000 to a higher-than-forecast 6.79 million in the week ended May 16.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
My Guest Posters Is Better Than Me
Regularly mainstream media types pick up on stuff my guest posters do and credit me instead. This was on Olbermann last night.
That post was actually by Thurs.
The runner-up, Pete Hegseth, the chairman of the conservative group Vets for Freedom, and a contributor to the “National Review” Online, with this comment: “laying aside the debate over what is and what isn‘t torture, it‘s hard to argue with eight-plus years of safety since 9/11.” Swing and a miss; eight plus years wouldn‘t be until like late November this year, when it would be eight years and a day since the death of the last Anthrax victim, or 9/11 was in May of 2001, or Mr. Bush wasn‘t present during 9/11. As the blogger Atrius note, “NRO contributor attempts to count to eight, fails.”
That post was actually by Thurs.
Scary Black Men
oy.
....and then:
The local online racists were having good fun with this one today.
The mother reported she and daughter were taken by two black men after they were involved in a minor accident with the Cadillac on Street Road in Upper Southampton Township, about a mile north of the city, Klaver said.
....and then:
The Bucks County woman who made a frantic 911 call yesterday reporting that she and her daughter had been kidnapped is now believed to be in Florida with the girl, a law enforcement official said this afternoon.
The woman was caught on video surveillence at Philadelphia International Airport yesterday about an hour or so after her call to authorities. Using fake identification and cash, she bought two one-way tickets to Orlando, the source told the Inquirer.
The local online racists were having good fun with this one today.
Senator Admiral
While replacing the senior senator from Pennsylvania is certainly something I support in any case, even if Sestak doesn't succeed it's important for someone to be there to make sure Arlen behaves.
I'm in for $100 once it's officially official.
I'm in for $100 once it's officially official.
Corner Stores
Neighborhood retail is a good thing, and while I think Philly is a quite a bit better than DC generally, I have noticed that neighborhood opposition tends to make it hard for certain types of establishments to open. Commenters over there express understandable concerns about drunks loudly leaving bars at 2 in the morning, but the point of having neighborhood bars is that they're.. just one bar instead of a large group of them. And being neighborhood-serving bars they don't attract the same kind of crowd.
I wouldn't want to live just off the eastern end of South Street, because it's an area where suburbanites drive in to have a good time, seeing it as an adult theme park instead of a residential neighborhood, there are quite a few bars, and there are a lot of drunks being assholes after closing time. But there are neighborhood bars which seem to coexist with their surroundings without too much trouble.
I wouldn't want to live just off the eastern end of South Street, because it's an area where suburbanites drive in to have a good time, seeing it as an adult theme park instead of a residential neighborhood, there are quite a few bars, and there are a lot of drunks being assholes after closing time. But there are neighborhood bars which seem to coexist with their surroundings without too much trouble.
Hyperinflation
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I don't think this is even approaching a legitimate concern, just passing it on for fun.
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy will enter “hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe because the Federal Reserve will be reluctant to raise interest rates, investor Marc Faber said.
Prices may increase at rates “close to” Zimbabwe’s gains, Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Hong Kong. Zimbabwe’s inflation rate reached 231 million percent in July, the last annual rate published by the statistics office.
I don't think this is even approaching a legitimate concern, just passing it on for fun.
Um, So?
It isn't opposition to any Latino which might upset Latinos, it's opposition based on assuming that any nonwhite nonmale is unqualified and, in this case, adding in all sorts of race and gender stereotypes.
That conservatives cannot see the difference is kinda funny except when it isn't.
That conservatives cannot see the difference is kinda funny except when it isn't.
Worst Of Both Worlds
In areas with relatively high land values, planners get the need for density but are unable to envision anything other than completely car-dependent suburbia so they end up building these horrible "neverlands" which neither have appealing features of low density development nor any benefits of density.
Race/Identity
What's so absurd about how this conversation is unfolding is that our white males on the teevee have never had any problem with the identity politics that they associate with American Whiteness - the identity politics of white ethnics - but get freaked when a member of a non-approved (nonwhite) group achieves some prominence. None of these guys have any problems with an Irish-American touting his Irish tribal identity or an Italian-American doing the same, but the slightest suggestion of that coming from anyone nonwhite makes them discover a new concern for racism. You know, racism against downtrodden white people.
I'm So Old
I can remember when liberals sat around moaning about our lack of institutions. And AEI and Heritage still have no trouble getting on the teevee to suggest women are inferior or that tax cuts cure cancer. As Yglesias suggests, conservatives need start acknowledging that there are problems that need to be addressed, other than too high corporate taxes or slutty women, before they can actually start thinking about solutions.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
A Rather Obvious Point
But, sadly, one which frequently needs to be made. The greatest practitioners of whatever it is we call "identity politics" in this country have always been white males. The lack of self-awareness of this fact is what is termed unexamined privilege.
This City Would Be Illegal In This City
One thing I mention frequently but which some seem not to believe is that just about everywhere in this country it would be illegal to build the kind of dense residential urban neighborhoods one associates with, well, urban living. My block, a completely typical South Philly block (not my block, but similar), could not be built today without an unlikely to receive zoning waiver. Most units on my block, and in my area generally, do not have dedicated off street parking. Any new development - say, a new block of rowhouses - with 5 units ormore requires dedicated parking for each unit. Parking takes up space, requiring more land which inreases the cost/sq. ft, and reduces, all things equal, residential density.
Far from wanting to mandate a specific kind of development or land use, people like me want to loosen restrictions in areas which prevent dense development from being built, even if local land costs and demand warrant it. In my area that means reducing parking requirements for residential and commercial construction, around transit lines farther out it means allowing medium rise mixed use development around stations. In the completely car-centric burbs it means reducing minimum lot sizes and setback requirements.
And then if no one wants to live in the resulting urban hellhole that's fine with me. Developers won't build them, but they will be allowed to.
Far from wanting to mandate a specific kind of development or land use, people like me want to loosen restrictions in areas which prevent dense development from being built, even if local land costs and demand warrant it. In my area that means reducing parking requirements for residential and commercial construction, around transit lines farther out it means allowing medium rise mixed use development around stations. In the completely car-centric burbs it means reducing minimum lot sizes and setback requirements.
And then if no one wants to live in the resulting urban hellhole that's fine with me. Developers won't build them, but they will be allowed to.
Turning To Really Important Issues
When you come to Philly, skip the cheesesteak and get a pork sandwich with greens and sharp provolone. If you must have a cheesesteak, find a place which serves up a really good chicken cheesesteak. And no one cares what kind of cheese you put on it.
Not Even Watching The Teevee
But I bet Sotomayor is an extremely liberal activist judge.
...and of course Drudge is highlighting TNR's "Sotomayor is a stupid bitch according to my anonymous friends" article.
Turned the teevee on..."liberal political activist in the first order." According to a former clerk for Clarence Thomas. President Gingrich has not weighed in yet.
...and of course Drudge is highlighting TNR's "Sotomayor is a stupid bitch according to my anonymous friends" article.
Turned the teevee on..."liberal political activist in the first order." According to a former clerk for Clarence Thomas. President Gingrich has not weighed in yet.
Let The Fun Begin
NYT tells me that Supremo nominee to be announced at 10:15...
...and the teevee says it's Sotomayor.
...and the teevee says it's Sotomayor.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Deep Thought
Flashback.
Here’s one story out of the Washington Post’s New York bureau that won’t make it into the paper: It’s about columnist Richard Cohen and why he’s just moved his office from the twelfth floor of the paper’s New York bureau to the twenty-second floor of the Newsweek building. The New York-bureau chief, Blaine Harden, passed along to management a complaint against Cohen made by Devon Spurgeon, a 23-year-old female special correspondent in the bureau. One Post insider says Harden and others in the bureau witnessed several instances in which Cohen made inappropriately sexual remarks to the young assistant. Management took the situation seriously enough to fly to New York to talk with Cohen on April 3, the insider continues, while Spurgeon was asked to take a paid leave of absence during the negotiations. Eventually, management decided that Cohen’s office would be moved. Cohen vehemently denies the charges. “There was, for want of a better term, a personality conflict,” he explains. “It didn’t involve sexual harassment -- it didn’t involve sex, it didn’t involve harassment -- and no disciplinary action was taken.” Neither a Washington Post spokeswoman nor deputy managing editor Milton Coleman would comment on personnel matters, and neither Harden, Spurgeon, nor managing editor Robert Kaiser returned calls.
And:
Staff members said Ms. Spurgeon and Mr. Cohen clashed soon after his arrival in New York. Ms. Spurgeon's post was quasi-clerical; she was given spot news assignments but was also expected to monitor the office fax machine and telephones. She made no secret of her journalistic ambitions, fellow staff members said, to the occasional detriment of her lesser duties. This, they said, seemed to annoy Mr. Cohen enough that he upbraided her from time to time, making reference to his connections to Post higher-ups in Washington in a way that Ms. Spurgeon read as an implicit threat to her job security.
Despite his displeasure with Ms. Spurgeon's job performance, Mr. Cohen seems to have sought out her opinion on matters relevant to his column. After reading a Lewinsky-related article that referred to oral sex as "casual sex," Mr. Cohen engaged Ms. Spurgeon in a discussion on the subject that other staff members found offensive. Staff members said that Mr. Cohen sometimes used foul language in the office and that he remarked on Ms. Spurgeon's appearance, telling her she "looked good in black," according to a Post staff member. On another occasion, the staff member said, Mr. Cohen asked Ms. Spurgeon to "stand up and turn around."
Mr. Cohen has denied to friends that he made that last comment and said that the other comments on Ms. Spurgeon's appearance were made innocently. Speaking to Off the Record, Mr. Cohen would only say, "It was a personality dispute at an office, but it had nothing to do with sexual harassment as the term applies today."
Mr. Cohen's defenders said discussions of oral sex are unavoidable in newsrooms these days because of the allegations swirling around President Clinton. And they add that while Mr. Cohen may cuss heartily, he does so only in the tradition of his trade. "Anyone who has worked in a newsroom knows these are not sedate places," said Mr. Auletta. "There is a wise-guy element of journalism that doesn't get into what we write, but we bluster.… That's the way journalists talk."
Tensions between Mr. Cohen and Ms. Spurgeon escalated in late March, eventually culminating in a peculiar circumstance: For three weeks, the 57-year-old columnist gave his 23-year-old colleague the silent treatment. Staff members in the New York bureau expressed their concern to bureau chief Blaine Harden, who in turn contacted assistant managing editor Karen DeYoung in Washington. Ms. DeYoung took the matter to Mr. Downie, who went into crisis mode.
...
While Ms. Spurgeon awaited word of her fate, Post sources said, Mr. Cohen's friends mounted a defense of their colleague, using a familiar tactic-they trashed the young reporter. Because she had cried on occasion in the office, Ms. Spurgeon was depicted as unstable by critics in calls to Post management. Ms. Spurgeon's sympathizers said she was upset about her mother, who is stricken with cancer, and they called the comments a cheap shot. An item in The Washington Times reported that Mr. Cohen's friend Sally Quinn was behind the campaign to discredit Ms. Spurgeon, a charge Ms. Quinn vehemently denied. "I never made a single phone call to people at the Post on behalf of Dick," Ms. Quinn said. "I've stayed out of it because I don't think my involvement would help anybody."
Wingnuttery
That's some serious wingnuttery.
I also like this.
I also like this.
This most profound aspect of marriage--protecting and controlling the sexuality of the child-bearing sex--is its only true reason for being, and it has no equivalent in same-sex marriage. Virginity until marriage, arranged marriages, the special status of the sexuality of one partner but not the other (and her protection from the other sex)--these motivating forces for marriage do not apply to same-sex lovers.
Villagers Love Nepotism
It is one of the fascinating thing about The Villagers, their general embrace of the idea that status and rank should be inheritable.
We're About To Have A Big Problem
It's in the NYT, so now maybe someone will notice. Nobody listens to me.
It was never just a subprime problem, though it has been more of a lower end of the market problem, and at this point in time it's absurd for a reporter to speak of it that way.
If this is the third wave, then there will also be a fourth, when option ARM rates start recasting. Good thing the banksters got rid of bankruptcy cramdown, because we'll get to bail them out again.
In the latest phase of the nation’s real estate disaster, the locus of trouble has shifted from subprime loans — those extended to home buyers with troubled credit — to the far more numerous prime loans issued to those with decent financial histories.
It was never just a subprime problem, though it has been more of a lower end of the market problem, and at this point in time it's absurd for a reporter to speak of it that way.
Economists refer to the current surge of foreclosures as the third wave, distinct from the initial spike when speculators gave up property because of plunging real estate prices, and the secondary shock, when borrowers’ introductory interest rates expired and were reset higher.
“We’re right in the middle of this third wave, and it’s intensifying,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “That loss of jobs and loss of overtime hours and being forced from a full-time to part-time job is resulting in defaults. They’re coast to coast.”
If this is the third wave, then there will also be a fourth, when option ARM rates start recasting. Good thing the banksters got rid of bankruptcy cramdown, because we'll get to bail them out again.
Gullyvornya
Like Krugman, I worry that as California goes so goes the nation. We live in a political-media world ruled by people like Charlie Gibson, who perceive a slight increase in the top marginal tax rate as a holocaust-level evil.
Getaway Train
Trains might bring "these people."
Some residents of Gloucester County worry that a proposed new light-rail line between Camden and Glassboro will bring an increase in crime to the small towns along the route.
...
"More people are coming up here from Camden. Palmyra used to be so quiet. It seems like so much change. It scares me for it to be here. . . . You have these people walking the quiet neighborhoods.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Everywhere That Isn't A Police State Is A Safe Haven
The "safe haven" idea was always kinda dumb. That's something different from a place where resources and culture and the apparatus of the state or state-equivalent is dedicated to bad ends. But places where would-be terrorists with terrorism lust in their hearts get to frolic freely are....pretty much everywhere!
Giant Linear Park With Commerce
I'm someone who is less enthusiastic about the prospects for successful pedestrianization of parts of cities than I used to be. It certainly can succeed, but it isn't as simple as closing blocks to cars and calling it a day. But it's pretty easy to imagine that it could work quite well for big chunks of Broadway. Worth a try!
(via my)
(via my)
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has Colin Powell and Alvin Poussaint.
Meet the Press has Dick Durbin and President Gingrich.
This Week has Michael Mullen.
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has Dick Durbin and President Gingrich.
This Week has Michael Mullen.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
I Guess That's Something
If they're too big to fail they should pay a modest price for guaranteed perpetual bailout.
"Controversial" to lobbyists being paid by government-supported big banks to make it sound controversial.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which guarantees bank deposits against loss, yesterday approved a controversial change requiring big banks to pay a larger share of the bill for that insurance.
"Controversial" to lobbyists being paid by government-supported big banks to make it sound controversial.
Friday, May 22, 2009
I Heart Immigrants
The area around my block is increasingly Vietnamese and Hispanic (mostly Mexican fom Puebla), and it's all good.
(via my)
(via my)
Stabilization
The fact that US unemployment might now exceed Europe's isn't especially notable, but the idea that theEuropean social safety net might be a superior means of stabilization policy than Fed interest rate adjustments is. It's quite likely a superior way of smoothing out fluctuations in human welfare at the very least, even though there's no consistent way of measuring that, if not employment and GDP themselves.
Vice President Liz Cheney
What's fascinating is that the Villagers consider this to be a perfectly normal state of affairs.
Congratulations!
To Montana, Vermont, Arkansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Florida. You did not lose jobs in April.
$254,500 Well Spent
As much as we spend trying to discourage people from drinking and driving, simply providing other options rarely seems to occur. Phoenix:
However, starting July 1, the trains will leave from both ends of the line at 2 a.m., which means if your stop is somewhere in the middle, the final train will sometimes come past 2 a.m.
...
According to a METRO news release, the estimated fiscal and maintenance impact for extended weekend service is $254,500 annually to the METRO operating budget.
Timmeh And The Banksters
And on and on.
May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Banks negotiating to reclaim stock warrants they granted in return for Troubled Asset Relief Program money may shortchange taxpayers by almost $10 billion if Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s first sale sets the pace, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
DON'T TALK ABOUT TEH GAIIIIII
One of the absurd things people who think that simply mentioning gay people is the same as talking about SEXXXXX, something not true for heterosexual people who are always chaste. Or mentioning them doens't automatically start a porn reel in peoples' minds. Or something.
(meant to post this earlier but got the time stamp wrong)
- The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday threatened to sue a San Diego County school that refused to let a student present a report on slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk until her classmates got permission from their parents.
David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego County, said the principal of Mt. Woodson Elementary School in Ramona violated the free speech rights of 6th-grader Natalie Jones, who was the only student in her class prevented from giving an in-class presentation.
According to Blair-Loy and Natalie's mother, Mt. Woodson Principal Theresa Grace concluded last month that the subject of the girl's project triggered a district policy requiring parents to be notified in writing before their children are exposed to lessons dealing with sex.
(meant to post this earlier but got the time stamp wrong)
That Was Quick
Wonder if there's a real story here.
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward Liddy told the board he plans to step down once the directors replace him.
Liddy recommended the two roles be split, the insurer said today in a statement. Liddy, 63, was appointed in September by the government after the company agreed to turn over a majority stake in exchange for a federal bailout.
Great Minds
I was just about to make this same point: Bush and Cheney let a bunch of bad guys go who supposedly continued to be bad guys and this is somehow a good thing?
Also, they kept us safe, except for 9/11.
Also, they kept us safe, except for 9/11.
Service Expansion - Almost!
Franklin Square's a weird oasis amidst a horrible road system. Still, it'll be a good way to get to The Electric Factory for concerts!
The long-slumbering ghost beneath one of William Penn's five original Philadelphia squares is about to awaken.
The 73-year-old subway station beneath Franklin Square, last used in 1979, will be remodeled and reopened to PATCO commuter trains, Delaware River Port Authority chairman John Estey said yesterday.
Our Bastards And Their Bastards
What's long fascinated me about this is how our mainstream media echoes the current Serious People view of foreign countries and leaders. One understands why the executive branch, and to a lesser extent Congress, might pick good guys and bad guys even if their justifications for doing so aren't exactly valid or consistent. But the mainstream press echoes such views almost perfectly.
Though, frankly, the major difference between how countries are treated doesn't depend on them being "pro" or "anti" American, it's whether they're right or left wing.
Though, frankly, the major difference between how countries are treated doesn't depend on them being "pro" or "anti" American, it's whether they're right or left wing.
Industrial Policy By Lobbyists
As Reich says, we now have an explicit but still incoherent industrial policy. We've always had one, but we've also been unwilling to talk about it, preferring to pretend that we don't. So we get an industrial policy dictated by lobbyists and the concerns of powerful senators.
Speechifying
I'm traveling on some of our nation's glorious highways, so no speech for me, but here's the text.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Still in holy crap territory.
Weekly jobless claims drop to 631,000; continuing claims increase to 6.62 million
Meanwhile
Over there.
BAGHDAD -- Suicide bombers struck today in Baghdad and a northern city, killing at least 19 people, including three American soldiers, and wounding dozens of civilians in a burst of violence only weeks before U.S. combat troops are due to leave Iraqi cities.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Meanwhile
Over there.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Thirty-four civilians were killed in Baghdad, Iraq, on Wednesday when a parked car rigged with explosives blew up, an Interior Ministry official told CNN.
Make The Cuts
I'm not actually sure that's the message Gullyvornya voters sent, but I guess it's what's going to happen.
Lying Sack Of Dog Mess
And in this one, Beck is the biggest whiny ass titty baby in the universe. No wonder conservatives love him.
Mo Money For Mo Of The Same
I'm getting a series of press releases about money released for Pennsylvania transportation projects. Aside from new bus purchases, stuff in Philly is basically about maintenance. The thing about living in an old city with an old transit system is that while you actually have one - good! - the system needs a lot of very expensive maintenance due in part to the fact that so much maintenance was deferred over the years. So, stations need to be fully rebuilt, for example. And while a rebuilt station might have somewhat better functionality and accessibility, including handicapped accessibility, it isn't exactly transforming your transit system either. It's necessary, and it will improve things, but it isn't sexy or exciting.
Amusing But Mysterious
I really don't quite get what motivates people in basically every newspaper market to flock to the website and absoluely hate on everything urban - (the city itself, public transit, parking issues, etc..). It isn't that my or any city is perfect, or that I expect everyone to want to live in one, but the degree to which people are absolutely enraged by them is entertaining if still puzzling.
Recast
The important thing to look at is the yellow bit. With interest rates remaining low, loan rate resets won't necessarily be so bad, but loan recasts, when mortgage holders are no longer able to pay interest only or neg-am payments, will be brutal. And then people will walk away.
Truth
It really isn't something many journalists seem to care about it. John McCain says something, they type it up and pass it on.
Industrial Policy
Dean Baker:
Discussions of "industrial policy" and the implicit assumption that the US doesn't have one have driven me mad for years. Of course we do but, as Dean says, we just pretend we don't so that we don't talk about it. The fact that we don't talk about it makes it less explicit, and sectors and companies which benefit from it do so with much less transparency.
In short, industrial policy would not be new to the U.S. economy, even if an explicit discussion of it might be.
Discussions of "industrial policy" and the implicit assumption that the US doesn't have one have driven me mad for years. Of course we do but, as Dean says, we just pretend we don't so that we don't talk about it. The fact that we don't talk about it makes it less explicit, and sectors and companies which benefit from it do so with much less transparency.
Gulyvornya
California always seems to be about 2 weeks away from completely imploding, yet somehow it manages to lurch onwards.
I'm so old I can remember when our national media decided their greatly inflated claims about California's deficit and Davis's attempts to address it were reason enough to chuck him out.
I'm so old I can remember when our national media decided their greatly inflated claims about California's deficit and Davis's attempts to address it were reason enough to chuck him out.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
The One True Christian
I spent much of the day trying to figure out which part of Douthat's dumb column was worth commenting on. I guess this is the one I decided on:
Theological debates are meaningless to me because I'm agnostic and have no interest in any particular faith tradition, and tedious because participants are too often convinced that they've got a handle on The One True Religion while often failing to perceive a rather important implication of that: it's a pretty lonely religion.
But the success of this message — which also shows up in the work of Brown’s many thriller-writing imitators — can’t be separated from its dishonesty. The “secret” history of Christendom that unspools in “The Da Vinci Code” is false from start to finish. The lost gospels are real enough, but they neither confirm the portrait of Christ that Brown is peddling — they’re far, far weirder than that — nor provide a persuasive alternative to the New Testament account. The Jesus of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John — jealous, demanding, apocalyptic — may not be congenial to contemporary sensibilities, but he’s the only historically-plausible Jesus there is.
For millions of readers, Brown’s novels have helped smooth over the tension between ancient Christianity and modern American faith. But the tension endures. You can have Jesus or Dan Brown. But you can’t have both.
Theological debates are meaningless to me because I'm agnostic and have no interest in any particular faith tradition, and tedious because participants are too often convinced that they've got a handle on The One True Religion while often failing to perceive a rather important implication of that: it's a pretty lonely religion.
Out For The Evening
As is customary, I will take two buses to Drinking Liberally at Triumph Brewing, 2nd and Chestnut in Old City, conveniently located near the 2nd St. Market-Frankford El stop and the various bus lines which run down Chestnut St.
$3 beer, $4 wine, cheap burgers and pizzas.
$3 beer, $4 wine, cheap burgers and pizzas.
Perpetual Refinancing
It may be good policy at the moment, with real estate projects being canceled due to lack of expected financing, but I just don't think we should return to a world where perpetual debt refinancing is so normal.
WATB
My lawyer has advised me to make clear that Leahy is not actually a whiny ass titty baby, just someone who behaves like one.
Holy Crap
Did Steele really just say that change is being delivered in a teabag?
I don't even know what that means.
...yes he did.
I don't even know what that means.
...yes he did.
Big Train
It would be good if a major American company actively got in the passenger rail business, so that there's some lobby to offset the power of Big Highway.
Developing The Park
There aren't enough details in this article to really form an opinion, but I'll express what's probably an unpopular opinion and say that adding a bit of development to Fairmount Park might not be such a bad idea. Devil's in the details, of course, but I think urban parks should be better integrated with the city than it is. That doesn't mean I'd support paving over big chunks of it.
Recession
The problem with low housing starts is that residential investment tends to be one of the first things to pick up during a recession. For obvious reasons that's not happening. But if not residential investment, then what?
Housing
I lived in Irvine in 2000-2002 (well, I worked in Irvine then, lived in Laguna Beach for most of that time). Housing was expensive there, and in Southern California generally, at that time. But this was before the bubble. It was still... affordable expensive, as in, if you had a good job with a relatively high salary you could afford to live there if you wanted to. Then the housing bubble hit... and.... not so much anymore.
I knew that there was an absurd housing bubble because I knew that not enough people make enough money to afford those prices, absent teaser loans or fraud.
I knew that there was an absurd housing bubble because I knew that not enough people make enough money to afford those prices, absent teaser loans or fraud.
Where The Logic Leads
HuffPo:
(via Philebrity)
PHILADELPHIA PA - Ira Einhorn, the 70's environmental and anti-war activist currently serving a life sentence for murdering a former girlfriend and keeping her mummified remains in a trunk in his closet before jumping bail and fleeing to Europe, has been hired as a columnist by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Harold Jackson, The Inquirer's editorial page editor, feels Einhorn will compliment the paper's other recent hire, John Yoo. "John advocates and rationalizes policies that inevitably lead to dead bodies. Ira has expertise on what to do with those bodies. It's a no brainer."
(via Philebrity)
When Newt Was King
I, too, was rather stunned to get a press release touting Pelosi's "Gingrich-like" approval ratings. The press treated him like an oracle then, and they treat him like one now. The casual reader is supposed to get that Newt was actually unpopular despite this?
Department Of Really Absurd People
I usually avoid picking at the primary scab, and am not suggesting this reflects on Clinton at all, but man are some people clueless.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Roberts
Toobin describes him perfectly.
Roberts’s hard-edged performance at oral argument offers more than just a rhetorical contrast to the rendering of himself that he presented at his confirmation hearing. “Judges are like umpires,” Roberts said at the time. “Umpires don’t make the rules. They apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.” His jurisprudence as Chief Justice, Roberts said, would be characterized by “modesty and humility.” After four years on the Court, however, Roberts’s record is not that of a humble moderate but, rather, that of a doctrinaire conservative. The kind of humility that Roberts favors reflects a view that the Court should almost always defer to the existing power relationships in society. In every major case since he became the nation’s seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff. Even more than Scalia, who has embodied judicial conservatism during a generation of service on the Supreme Court, Roberts has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the contemporary Republican Party.
Please Let Us Pay It Back!
Not going to hold my breath.
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley applied to repay the combined $45 billion they received in October from the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, said people familiar with the matter.
Standards
This seems like good news.
The lack of certainty has been a major issue, providing a disincentive for firms to engage in R&D.
Under the new standard, the national fleet mileage rule for cars would be roughly 42 miles a gallon in 2016. Light trucks would have to meet a fleet average of slightly more than 26.2 miles a gallon by 2016.
...
The current standards are 27.5 miles a gallon for cars and about 24 miles a gallon for trucks. The new mileage and emissions rules will gradually tighten, beginning with 2011 models, until they reach the 2016 standards.
The auto industry is not expected to challenge the rule, which provides two things they have long asked for: certainty on a timetable and a single national standard.
The lack of certainty has been a major issue, providing a disincentive for firms to engage in R&D.
And Philly
Real estate prices in and around center city never got completely crazy, though at some point bubble fever hit some developers and speculators. That is, not that many houses/condos were sold at crazy prices but some parcels were purchased by developers at crazy prices.
Kinda ugly and doesn't really fit the neighborhood well.
American Loft was to be the centerpiece of a booming real estate empire, an 11-story, 40-unit luxury condominium project at North American and Brown Streets in Northern Liberties.
Now, the 63,000-square-foot, 21st century mid-rise designed by architect Winka Dubbeldam and looming over a hodgepodge of 19th-century rowhouses, warehouses, and vacant lots, is headed to Philadelphia sheriff's sale.
Kinda ugly and doesn't really fit the neighborhood well.
Not Over
Another foreclosure wave is coming, and for a variety of reasons those properties aren't going to sell very fast.
Pelosi!
McClatchy:
They tortured the shit out of people and obtained false confessions in order to justify their monstrous war. This, aside from sadism, is the purpose of torture. And the Villagers are okay with that.
WASHINGTON — Then-Vice President Dick Cheney, defending the invasion of Iraq, asserted in 2004 that detainees interrogated at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp had revealed that Iraq had trained al Qaida operatives in chemical and biological warfare, an assertion that wasn't true.
Cheney's 2004 comments to the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News were largely overlooked at the time. However, they appear to substantiate recent reports that interrogators at Guantanamo and other prison camps were ordered to find evidence of alleged cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein — despite CIA reports that there were only sporadic, insignificant contacts between the militant Islamic group and the secular Iraqi dictatorship.
They tortured the shit out of people and obtained false confessions in order to justify their monstrous war. This, aside from sadism, is the purpose of torture. And the Villagers are okay with that.
Disgusting Lowly Blogger
I was amused at the swipe the wanker at the Inqy took at Will Bunch, reducing him to a mere "blogger." While Bunch does write a blog, something many journalists know they can sneer it, he of course has also been (and continues to be) a reporter for a long time.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Crazy Thoughts
DougJ:
I've made similar statements before and haven't gotten much agreement in comments. I've also lived enough places to know that the quality of local TV news varies substantially from place to place. When I lived in SoCal it was awful in all the ways that people usually suggest. But I also think there's a tendency to judge newspapers by their best aspects and local TV news outlets by their worst. Local TV news can be pretty good. More than that I think the local news organization of the future will likely be TV-based, with an online component to flesh it out. The near future, anyway.
[L]ocal television reporters (who aren’t in the same danger as newspaper reporters) are a lot better than anyone gives them credit for.
I've made similar statements before and haven't gotten much agreement in comments. I've also lived enough places to know that the quality of local TV news varies substantially from place to place. When I lived in SoCal it was awful in all the ways that people usually suggest. But I also think there's a tendency to judge newspapers by their best aspects and local TV news outlets by their worst. Local TV news can be pretty good. More than that I think the local news organization of the future will likely be TV-based, with an online component to flesh it out. The near future, anyway.
Deep Thought
Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Black in a thousand generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest?
Ha Ha
As I said in comments I think sometimes people freak out too much about plagiarism. There are various flavors of it. People confuse poor attribution with deliberate plagiarism with copyright violation, etc... But when you do it, even accidentally, just cop to it!
Unless you're Mo Do!
UPDATE: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, in an email to Huffington Post, admits that a paragraph in her Sunday column was lifted from Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall's blog last Thursday.
Dowd claims that she never read his blog last week but was told the line by a friend of hers. In a follow-up email, she forwarded her desire to apologize to Marshall, writing that had she known, she would have gladly credited Marshall.
Unless you're Mo Do!
We Want A Piece Of That
Ultimately the anti-Google and anti-blogger stuff isn't about making bloggers stop linking or Google stop indexing, it's a fantasy that somehow newspapers have some right to make money off of what Google and bloggers do. I'm sure they've been, for example, sending large checks to movie production companies and book publishers over the years for the right to publish reviews of their products.
I'll throw in the usual disclaimer, that of course legitimate copyright issues exist and people should stay within the bounds of Fair Use. But this isn't really what this discussion is about. It's about newspapers perceiving that people are somehow unfairly profiting off their work, which is apparently produced in a vacuum somewhere.
I'll throw in the usual disclaimer, that of course legitimate copyright issues exist and people should stay within the bounds of Fair Use. But this isn't really what this discussion is about. It's about newspapers perceiving that people are somehow unfairly profiting off their work, which is apparently produced in a vacuum somewhere.
Holy Crap
I have to say, as bad as some of us dirty hippies warned the Bush administration would be, most of us were way too optimistic.
Afternoon Thread
I now own the fact that it is afternoon. Do not mention it without giving me a royalty.
Whoops
Apparently, to the surprise of the villagers, the current President is popular with the young people if measured by their prolonged standing O.
They Choose
One of the dumbest things journalists/columnists/editors do is pretend that part of their function is to simply air a wide range of voices. This is, of course, horseshit, as there are plenty of people and perspectives which never get any kind of airing in their reported stories or on their opinion pages. But, hey, if my bankrupt local newspaper thinks airing the views of a man who claimed to believe that no treaty or existing law could prevent the president from ordering a child's testicles to be crushed is an important part of their civic responsibility...
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has Peter King, Anthony Romero, John Dickerson, and Joan Biskupic.
Meet the Press has Tim Kaine, Michael Steele.
This Week has Jon Kyl, Jim Webb, and a discussion with Carville, Liz Cheney, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Steve Schmidt, and George Will.
Document the atrocities!
Meet the Press has Tim Kaine, Michael Steele.
This Week has Jon Kyl, Jim Webb, and a discussion with Carville, Liz Cheney, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Steve Schmidt, and George Will.
Document the atrocities!
It's a grey London morning....
A couple of things to start your day with:
I was thinking: The last thing our owners want is to lose distractions like this one by putting actual facts before the public.
A really great torch song.
Signed,
Not Atrios
I was thinking: The last thing our owners want is to lose distractions like this one by putting actual facts before the public.
A really great torch song.
Signed,
Not Atrios
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Random Observation
I continue to be surprised by the number of wheelchair-bound people who ride the local buses and trolleys.
Whitey Tape Day
I think we should just call it "Whitey Day." After all, Whitey just can't catch a break these days, so at least Whitey could have a day.
(via MY)
(via MY)
Civility
I am pretty sure Michael Gerson is responsible for the deaths of many more people than I am.
So he can, as they say, Suck. On. This.
So he can, as they say, Suck. On. This.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Salt Lake City SUPERTRAINS
One place which has been doing a lot of rail construction in recent years, but which doesn't seem to get much attention from transit nerds, is Salt Lake City. And they're still going.
Press Playing Dumb
CNN translates Panetta saying it isn't policy to mislead into: "CIA doesn't mislead."
It isn't the policy of the White House or Congress to mislead either. Just, you know, sayin'.
Idiots.
It isn't the policy of the White House or Congress to mislead either. Just, you know, sayin'.
Idiots.
Nancy Pelosi Under Fire
That's what CNN prominently displayed, though I think this story is more important.
Had to festoon their tortoise.
(CNN) -- Finding a "smoking gun" linking Iraq and al Qaeda became the main purpose of theabusive interrogation programtorture program the Bush administration authorized in 2002, a former State Department official told CNN on Thursday.
Had to festoon their tortoise.
Republicans Still Rule Their World
The ease Republicans have in shifting the conversation from "torture is illegal" to "NANCY KNEW," as if the latter, even if true, in any way changed the former. They kick the soccer ball, and the press follows. After all these years I'm not entirely sure why that is, but there you are. And, you know, disgraced former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has precisely zero power but his every pronouncement is treated as Incredibly Important News. Any journalists want to explain why?
Monsters
We should always remember the morality of Elite Villagers, those who supported the pointless war in Iraq and who mostly are now decidedly not horrified at the fact that the administration tortured the shit out of people in order to justify the atrocity that was the Iraq war. The Villagers loved their little war. It made them feel heroic. They wanted justification for it, too.
The Weirdest Genre
Is journalists/columnists telling random rich people that they really really really should buy their newspapers.
Green Shoots
Maybe we can look for hope in the sign of the third derivative.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors notified 1,100 of its 6,000 dealerships Friday that it is terminating their contracts with the struggling automaker, the first step in an even deeper 40% cut in its retail network.
Just So We Remember
Cheney and the gang tortured the shit out of people to get false information for an excuse to invade a country in a war which has led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people including over 4000 US troops.
Even Better Than An Inqy Parking Thread!
I do love my commenters.
- I live on an island in the middle of 100 acres of Douglas Fir, Alder, Cedar, and Madrone trees. I consider it slightly too dense. I make it a point to visit a large city like Otumwa, Iowa or Spearfish, South Dakota once every 5 years to get reacquainted with urban dis-function. I understand that the placement of Yosemite National Park is considered racist because it is so far away from urban centers and public transit. What I sense you would like is sort of a "Pol Pot in Reverse" where we round up all the rural and suburban folk and cram them into cities.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
And New Hampshire
I'm pretty sure the requested extra language saying that clergy aren't required to marry gay people is superfluous and assuming that's all it is I don't have any problem with it. Your turn, Little Rhody.
As New England goes, so goes the nation.
As New England goes, so goes the nation.
Deep Thought
I'm so old I can remember when Jon Chait of The New Republic accused liberal bloggers of being little other than propagandists.
Deep Thought
Very glad the Inquirer thinks the pro-crushing a child's testicles viewpoint deserves a place in their pages.
I Want It All
An important thing that most people don't get is that large lot sizes just aren't compatible with large numbers of people having proximity to transit, with having a viable mass transit system which can reach many people. Obviously you can have one "big suburban home" in the midst of denser development, but if you have blocks and blocks of big suburban homes you can't have density which makes affordable mass transit viable.
Normally I'd say "and a pony" was a cheap shot in the generational warfare, but to the extent that this survey really says what is being claimed it's valid. I am making assumptions about what "big suburban homes" mean - driveway, 2+car parking, moderately sized lot - and about that I could be wrong. My house is large, but I have no driveway or parking and my "yard" is small back patio.
Young buyers want big suburban home, close to work and transit, and a pony
Generation Y buyers are willing to pay more to live closer to their jobs but still plan to eventually abandon cities for the suburbs, according to a new survey. They also want a larger home that is near alternative transportation.
Normally I'd say "and a pony" was a cheap shot in the generational warfare, but to the extent that this survey really says what is being claimed it's valid. I am making assumptions about what "big suburban homes" mean - driveway, 2+car parking, moderately sized lot - and about that I could be wrong. My house is large, but I have no driveway or parking and my "yard" is small back patio.
National Broadband Plan
Susan Crawford of Obama's National Economic Council is talking about the national broadband plan, which the FCC is working on. Main issues are obviously speed, accessibility, and affordability. Public comments period is currently open at the FCC, so if you'd like to communicate your knowledge or concerns please do before June 8! (National Broadband Plan Notice of Inquiry).
Torture
The point of torture, aside from sadism, has always been to elicit false information/confessions.
Changing The Media
I'm at this conference listening to Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps. I still hope that the Hopey Changey administration will in this area be far superior to the last one.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Still deep into holy crap territory.
Continuing claims reached a new record....
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased 32,000 to a seasonally adjusted 637,000 in the week ended May 9, the Labor Department said, reversing an easing trend of the previous two weeks.
Continuing claims reached a new record....
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Keep Doing What You're Doing
I'm not gonna get outraged about this, just point and laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh...
It'll be even funnier if the media bites. You know, "The Democratic Party, otherwise known as the Democrat Socialist Party..."
It'll be even funnier if the media bites. You know, "The Democratic Party, otherwise known as the Democrat Socialist Party..."
Hey, Someone Noticed
Was wondering when the local press would pick up on the fact that the neighborhood around the southern part of the Italian market and down Passyunk Avenue has been changing fast. Fishtown and Northern Liberties get all the attention.
I Think Giant Squirrels Ate The Green Shoots
They've been eating mine at least.
- NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Foreclosures in April exceeded even March's blistering pace with a record 342,000 homes receiving notices of default, auction notices or undergoing bank repossessions, according to a regular industry report.
Not Over
I hope I'm wrong, but I really have been puzzled by optimistic noises people have been making about the economy. I just haven't seen it in the data.
The Commerce Department reported that retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 0.4 percent last month, a worse drop than expected. Economists predicted that sales would be flat, their declines halted by increases in consumer confidence and some signals that traffic in stores was improving.
I Do Not Actually Express These Ideas
But people always seem to hear them anyway. From email:
While I realize you consider yourself oh so superior to everyone else because you live in ‘one of those small number of walkable downtowns’ and you don’t own a car blah, blah, blah,… not everyone wants to live crammed on top of each other in some inner city and having to walk or ride some crowded city bus everywhere. What you consider utopia, I would consider hell. While I realize you are anti-home ownership and anti-car and all that, some of us like to have a little space to call our own and the freedom to move around. Call us selfish if you will, but that’s the way it is and that’s the way it will always be.
Nice Work
Shame the party's over.
About $12 billion was pulled out of accounts at Bernard L. Madoff’s firm in 2008, according to several people briefed on an analysis of Mr. Madoff’s business records.
About $6 billion, or half, was taken out in just the three months before the financier was arrested in December and charged with operating an extensive Ponzi scheme, these people said.
Those figures offer a bit of hope for Mr. Madoff’s thousands of defrauded customers. Under federal law, the trustee overseeing the Madoff bankruptcy can sue to retrieve that money from the investors who withdrew it.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Car Free
Some people at the Times discuss the possibility.
I think a key point is that while it isn't realistic to imagine that much of the country will become a car free paradise, it is realistic to imagine that relatively small changes to land use, planning, and transit could reduce the number of cars that households need. They may need one, but not one per driving age member.
As for me, personally, living in one of those small number of walkable downtowns, I'm quite content without a car and lacking one doesn't negatively impact me at all. That wouldn't be the case if affordable and convenient carsharing wasn't available. I easily could live without a car in that case, but at some point I'd probably decide it was a luxury I was willing to pay for. Cars are useful things, even if you don't need one.
I think a key point is that while it isn't realistic to imagine that much of the country will become a car free paradise, it is realistic to imagine that relatively small changes to land use, planning, and transit could reduce the number of cars that households need. They may need one, but not one per driving age member.
As for me, personally, living in one of those small number of walkable downtowns, I'm quite content without a car and lacking one doesn't negatively impact me at all. That wouldn't be the case if affordable and convenient carsharing wasn't available. I easily could live without a car in that case, but at some point I'd probably decide it was a luxury I was willing to pay for. Cars are useful things, even if you don't need one.
AA
Adam writes about not getting why affirmative action enrages people so much. There are only tiny pockets of society where affirmative action is implemented in such a way that people might actually notice. I remember Al Franken, in one of his books, talking about how he'd give paid speeches to rooms full of upper level management and he'd joke about what a big impact affirmative action had obviously had on the composition of the group.
As Adam says, if any of those enrgaged by affirmative action would spill half as much ink on legacy admissions, a practice which, whatever its intended purpose, has the clear effect of privileging the progeny of wealthy white people, I'd be more sympathetic.
As Adam says, if any of those enrgaged by affirmative action would spill half as much ink on legacy admissions, a practice which, whatever its intended purpose, has the clear effect of privileging the progeny of wealthy white people, I'd be more sympathetic.
WE MUST DESTROY SOCIAL SECURITY TO SAVE IT
Hey, it's Trustees report day. I had almost forgotten. The bad news is that with absolutely no changes whatsoever to the program it can pay scheduled benefits in full until 2037 after which it could continue to pay out about 75% of scheduled benefits forever. The good news is that the Social Security Administration believes we're going to live a bit longer!
Connections
I'm also not really sure what it the ultimate impact of the internet on thinking will be. I do find (both in myself and from teaching students) that in order to be able to connect the dots, and be good at connecting dots, you have to have a lot of dots. Without a decent amount of knowledge in your brain you can't really have a good big picture sense of things.
We Will Always Have Newt
I actually don't mind if the media anoint him the unofficial leader of the GOP. It isn't as if he's going to do them any favors. But it still says something fascinating about our media that they've elevated the disgraced former Speaker to such a position.
Deep Thought
I didn't care what Ross Douthat thought about anything before he had a New York Times column, and I still don't care.
PELOSI KNEW 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I admit to mostly not following and not caring about what Nancy Pelosi knew or didn't know about which torture methods the Bush administration was using on what day. This whole conservative belief that torture is awesome and Nancy Pelosi knew about it so shut up stupid liberals is just odd. To the extent that Pelosi or anyone was complicit I would hope that they would be held accountable. That's bipartisanship I can believe in!
Monsters
In 2006, Richard Cohen explained why he thought the Iraq war was a good idea:
And Tom Friedman explained it in 2003:
This is elite Washington. These are your betters.
On the contrary, I thought. We are a good country, attempting to do a good thing. In a post-Sept. 11 world, I thought the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic.
And Tom Friedman explained it in 2003:
What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, "Which part of this sentence don't you understand?"
You don't think, you know, we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we're just gonna to let it grow?
Well, Suck. On. This.
Okay.
That Charlie was what this war was about. We could've hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. We coulda hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could.
This is elite Washington. These are your betters.
Morning Thread
Funny how little coverage there is of this even though it occured just after Big Dick spoke about how awesome torture can be.
Why it almost gets to the Washington Post's "Walter Pincus Memorial Page", but not quite.
A former CIA high-value detainee, who provided bogus information that was cited by the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war, has died in a Libyan prison, an apparent suicide, according to a Libyan newspaper...
In their book "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Michael Isikoff and David Corn said Libi made up the story about Iraqi training after he was beaten and subjected to a "mock burial" by his Egyptian interrogators, who put him in a cramped box for 17 hours. Libi recanted the story after being returned to CIA custody in 2004.
Why it almost gets to the Washington Post's "Walter Pincus Memorial Page", but not quite.
Monday, May 11, 2009
We're All Subprime Now
Foreclosures spreading from city to suburbs in Chicago area.
Recession is here, and option arm implosion coming...
Home foreclosures are surging in Chicago's suburbs just as they level off or decline in many city neighborhoods already ravaged by mortgage defaults.
Foreclosure cases filed in the first quarter jumped between 25% and 70% from the fourth quarter in DuPage, Will, McHenry, Lake and Kane counties, according to new data provided to Crain's by the Woodstock Institute, a Chicago-based housing advocacy group. Meanwhile, foreclosures fell 8% in Chicago, the first quarterly decline in a year.
Recession is here, and option arm implosion coming...
I Dined With Chase Utley Once
Well, he was across the room dining with other people. Not really sure why anyone would want to dine with Specter.
Dealers
Some business owners are going to have a crappy week.
Thousands of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC dealers may learn their fate within the next few days as both auto makers finish the list of the dealerships they plan to cut.
GM dealers will be notified this week as to whether they will continue to receive new cars and trucks from the auto maker, GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said Monday. Mr. Henderson said he expects to "wind down" most of the targeted dealerships during the year.
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