Sunday, January 31, 2010
November Reality
And taking the longer view, a shitty jobs picture 11 months from now will mean that we will have had a shitty jobs picture for 11 months longer. Long term unemployment really really impacts people.
Turning The Machines Back On
Real Economy
Banks that take too much risk should be allowed to fail, Mr. Ackermann said, and all banks should concentrate firmly on working to develop what participants here repeatedly referred to as “the real economy.”
Blogging In The Age Of Obama
Maybe we Should All Take a Civility Pledge
Kevin K of RumpRoast is getting hassled with one of the more appalling cases of trying to out a blogger I've come across. It's appalling because (1) the crazy person behind it is going after Kevin's wife too, as well as his co-bloggers; (2) the crazy obscure blogger behind it is claiming he's the victim of attacks on the part of Daily Kos ultimately financed by George Soros, and wingnuts of course, are eating this lunacy up (see for instance the serially irresponsible Glenn Reynolds) despite the fact the obscure crazy blog's claim to getting persecuted is as transparently false as it is completely unhinged.
Taking internet blog arguments personally to the extent of trying to find out where someone's family members work is nasty enough, but it's especially awful when the guy doing it is making obviously crazy claims that are uncritically swallowed whole by the right blogosphere (the guy BTW has also done a Breitbart internet radio show).
By Now They Write Themselves
Except For The Stuff That Might Help The Little People
In his latest quarterly report to Congress, special inspector general Neil Barofsky said that the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, has failed to boost bank lending as well as halt the spread of foreclosures -- two key aims of the sprawling program.
"Whether these goals can effectively be met through existing TARP programs is very much an open question at this time," Barofsky said in the report.
oh well.
Strange Concerns
I get that on relatively short routes, where automobile travel will be a close substitute for most people, this is somewhat of an issue, but I see concerns like this generally.
Nothing About Nothing
Sunday Bobbleheads
This Week has President Scott Brown.
Face the Nation has Thune, Granholm, Barbour, and Rendell.
Document the atrocities!
Ha-ha funny or...
Scurrilous Videos Besmirch, Enrage Forum, Leaders, WorldSigned,In a series of diabolically stupid video manipulations, a cabal of anti-poverty filmmakers have performed an elaborate slander of the World Economic Forum, showing its "leading lights" taking a dramatic departure from the litany of meaningless pledges they usually make at the annual gathering in the Swiss resort town.
In response, WEF spokesperson Adrian Monck could barely contain himself. "The only defense to satire is common sense!" he sputtered, before racing back into the WEF war room to deal with the burgeoning crisis.
Fortunately for the WEF, few media outlets picked up on the WEF's fantastic but fictional approach to world poverty ("World Leaders Pledge Strategy to End Poverty Now"). Instead, the media was dominated by coverage of a real WEF press release warning of "Over Regulation of the Financial Sector" (sic).
Not Atrios
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Just A Prank
SALISBURY, Conn. (AP) — Actor Elmore "Rip" Torn has been charged with breaking into a Connecticut bank and carrying a loaded handgun while intoxicated.
Human Recession
Unemployment data comes out on Friday. I'm hoping it's a really horrible one, not because I want things to be worse but if we get an official measurement of things that's really bad maybe someone will consider doing something about it.
Of course I'm so old I can remember when 10% unemployment was "really bad."
Is Health Care Reform
Difficult for me to believe that the Dems will let it wither in an election year. They need something to run on.
Damnit.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Whatever
"Now I've taken a 45-day unpaid leave of absence from my job at Merrill Lynch. It's not right to draw a salary when I'm out every day campaigning. Fortunately, I've still got a little NYU teaching job and some MSNBC, so for a while I think I can put food on the table."
I know plenty of hardworking people fighting the good fight like Harold Ford. Taking a temporary leave of absence from a major financial institution, a little here and there from private universities and cable news networks. Just enough to scrape by.....
My New Neighbor
More Like That
GOP Follies
Might do will in November elections after all.
I'm So Old
They do bust heads on the important stuff, like Bernanke.
Gambling Our Way To Propserity
Block Killers
Maybe If We're Nicer To Chuck Grassley
Not Sure I Believe It
The United States economy grew at its fastest pace in over six years at the end of 2009, but a sluggish job market is still souring economists on the sustainability of the recovery.
Gross domestic product expanded at an annual rate of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, well above analysts’ expectations. It had grown at an annualized rate of 2.2 percent in the previous quarter. Analysts had forecast annualized growth of 4.8 percent in the quarter.
Morning Thread
Something our supposedly "better" system will never have the guts to do with Bush or Cheney.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Because It Worked
My DVD remote wasn't working. Replacing the batteries didn't work, but oddly the linked advice did.
Sally's Village
Not Over
Good Job
I don't think it's a coincidence that the program which might have helped people and not banks was the one to fail, and fail predictably.
Heckuva Job
U.S. house prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two years, noted Bernanke, currently chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, in testimony to Congress's Joint Economic Committee. But these increases, he said, "largely reflect strong economic fundamentals," such as strong growth in jobs, incomes and the number of new households.
...
"House prices are unlikely to continue rising at current rates," said Bernanke, who served on the Fed board from 2002 until June. However, he added, "a moderate cooling in the housing market, should one occur, would not be inconsistent with the economy continuing to grow at or near its potential next year."
Epic Fail
Still A Problem
It's a tremendous personal and social burden, and they didn't take the necessary steps to deal with it. The press has moved on, as if the problem is over. It isn't.
Spread Thin
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
SOTU
Drink when he says "Some on the left..."
Horrors
Not Confused About Everything
Priorities.
Good Luck With That
Point being: it was the job of the publishers to figure out how to make money. They failed and they're still dreaming of Apple Jesus.
Catastrophic
Why I Blog
Small and infrequent victories, but they're satisfying.
Tipping
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Ghost of Reformers Past
Americans of every background and belief are hungry for a new kind of politics -- a people's politics that reconnects them with their government; one that offers not just a vote at the ballot box, but a voice in Washington and an assurance that the leaders we send there will hear it.
The people I've met across this country don't just want reform for reform's sake, they want reform that will help pay their doctor's bills, or ensure that their tax dollars are spent wisely, or put us on the path to energy independence. They want real reform and they're tired of the lobbyists standing in the way.
Afternoon Thread
Gonna Take Out Some Fire Insurance On My Neighbor's House
They turned the machines back on.
- Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley are encouraging clients to buy swaps that pay higher yields for speculating on the extent of losses in corporate defaults. Trading in credit- default swap indexes rose in the fourth quarter for the first time since 2008, according to Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. data. Federal Reserve data show leverage, or borrowed money, is rising in capital markets.
Also
Bizarre culture, really.
When A Freeze Isn't A Freeze
Fear Is The Mindkiller
I thought a charismatic president would alter that dynamic a bit.
Oh well.
But They Got Special Goodies!
The people in charge have no idea what they're doing.
Deep Thought
CRE Hell
The Urban Land Institute, a research center, said in an emerging trends report this month with consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers that respondents to its survey predicted that "commercial real estate vacancies will continue to increase and rents will decrease across all property sectors before the market hits bottom in 2010 and projects value declines of 40 percent to 50 percent off 2007 market peaks."
Monday, January 25, 2010
Permit Reform
Bad Ideas
WASHINGTON – The top Democrat in the Senate is proposing tough new budget rules that would make it much more difficult for Congress to extend emergency unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for laid-off workers.
The tough anti-deficit rules being proposed by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada would also make it harder to permanently extend some of the tax cuts that expire at the end of this year, though middle-class tax cuts would not be affected.
Because in a time of deep recession, the people want fewer benefits and higher health care costs.
Plan B
What bugs me is that they should have had a plan 'B' in place. And they didn't.
Fuck The Labor Market
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, in a recent interview with Mike Allen of Politico warned that the financial markets could react negatively if Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke isn't confirmed for a second term. (READ Politico's full story here.)
Geithner suggested that the market would see a failed Bernanke confirmation as "very troubling," but claimed that he was "very confident" Bernanke would receive enough Senate votes to win a second term.
"The markets would view this as very troubling thing for the economy as the whole," Geithner said. "I don't think they should be uncertain. I think they can be confident because we're very confident."
So the fate of our economy, or at least the parts of it that Timmeh cares about, depends on the confirmation of One Great Man, otherwise everything goes to hell. What if Ben has an accident and is unable to continue in his position? Are we just fucked because The Great Man is gone?
I hate these people.
Accountability Free
Surprised they're not advocating we put zombie Ken Lay in charge of the Fed.
The Strategery
Lucky for Republicans, Democrats are set to spend the last year of their large majority explaining why they can't pass their own bills.
Going to be a fun year. sigh.
Business Plans Gone Bad
Via Avedon
Perhaps the little people would less worried and angry if they didn't have to worry about losing their life's savings or even dying because they don't have health insurance. Just a thought.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday Night
And that's how stupid you have to be to write an op-ed for our elite papers.
My Big Concern Was That They Believed Their Own Bullshit
The Obama legislative agenda was built around an "advancing tide" theory.
Democrats would start with bills that targeted relatively narrow problems, such as expanding health care for low-income children, reforming Pentagon contracting practices and curbing abuses by credit-card companies. Republicans would see the victories stack up and would want to take credit alongside a popular president. As momentum built, larger bipartisan coalitions would form to tackle more ambitious initiatives.
And now they're fanning out with the "we're just powerless" message. Jeebus.
CRE Hell
"The middle class, they're just dead in the water," said Cathy Lada, owner of the flooring store, A Lada Flooring. "We're basically (living) paycheck to paycheck right now. There's no security."
With tenants hurting and unemployment rising, banks are bracing for another round of shaky loans, this one to borrowers who own property such as shopping centers and office buildings.
Regulators warn that banks haven't fully accounted for the trouble ahead. And while Shore-area banks say they have enough money on hand to cover it, their stock prices have taken a hit and they have reined in lending even more.
Priorities
Heckuva job, Democrats...
Good Plan
Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said the kingdom will continue to pump money to boost growth in 2010, even as the economy rebounds from last year’s stagnation.
...
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is spending $400 billion on infrastructure over a five-year period starting from 2009 to stimulate the economy. Rising oil prices, which have rebounded to around $75 a barrel from less than $35 in February, are also likely to boost growth this year.
Orchestra
Sunday Bobbleheads
Dancing Dave's Meet the Press has Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Valerie Jarrett.
This Week has Axelrod, DeMint, and Menendez.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Times Change
Federal data released Friday underscore a striking national shift: 30.7 percent of 16-year-olds got their licenses in 2008, compared with 44.7 percent in 1988. The downtrend is even sharper in Virginia and Maryland, state figures show. Numbers from the District, which go back to 2003, show a decline in the past two years.
"Driving is real important to a lot of the kids in the culture, but it is not the central focus like it was 25 years ago," said Tom Pecoraro, owner of I Drive Smart, a Washington area drivers education program, who said plenty of his students are older teens. "They have so many other things to do now," he said, and, with years of being shuttled to sports, lessons and play dates, "kids are used to being driven."
Some of this is due to states making the permit/initial license a bit more restrictive.
I'm still trying
I Doubt He Wants The Job
That's a joke, of course. I'm so old I can remember when Krugman was a pretty standard "sensible centrist." I don't think his views have changed all that much on things, though I'd say he's grown more skeptical about conservative arguments and largely ceased swatting flies to the left of him. But the center, as defined by Villagers, has shifted so far to the right in the past few decades...
We Could Do Better
And, aside from Ben specifically, as I wrote before it's time for Democrats to stop filling important positions with GOP Daddies.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Timmeh, Larry, And Ben
Unemployment is at 10%. The foreclosure crisis is ongoing. There should be discontent.
Better Ways
CRE Hell
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. life insurers, a group led by MetLife Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc., may face $15 billion in additional commercial real estate losses, most of which will be recognized in the next two years, Fitch Ratings said.
Helicopter Ben
But, more than that, Bernanke sucks. He presided over this disaster, did nothing to prevent it, and now thinks minuscule inflation is a bigger concern than jobs, and gutting social security is more important than increasing tax revenues by helping people to get employed.
Don't let the door hit you, wanker.
It's So Easy
POST-IT NOTES
records demanded information from phone companies in a variety of
"startling" and illicit methods, including e-mail and post-it
notes, in an "egregious breakdown" of safeguards and oversight,
the Justice Department's inspector general reported Wednesday.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Dreaming
Too much to hope that Ben, Timmeh, and Larry will be shown the door...
Air America Is Dead
Oh well.
Bankster Reform
Heckuva job, Larry.
People Hate Parking Garages
(via streetsblog)
Is Anyone Trying?
Obviously it isn't just about zoning board meetings, but the point is that I don't see a lot of effort to improve coverage of local news. Maybe there is no business model there, but who is even trying?
Heckuva Job
"More troubling, more than 70 percent of modifications result in an increase in the principal amount owed," according to the report by the State Foreclosure Prevention Working Group, a collection of 12 state attorneys general and three state banking supervisors (underlined in the original). This occurs because modification programs typically allow for mortgage companies to tack on delinquent amounts and any fees incurred by servicing to the mortgage principal. The Obama administration's signature effort, the Home Affordable Modification Program, allows for this, too.
This occurs despite estimates that at least one in four homeowners currently owe more on their home than it's worth. Loan modification programs thus put these homeowners further "underwater." Less than 10 percent of loan modifications through October of last year involved significant cuts to principal.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Geography Of Poverty
I Suppose They Could Still Surprise Us
Going forward, I suppose there's some chance they don't run and hide but instead get convinced that they'd better give out some popular goodies soon.
We'll see.
Shorter Dems
I'm starting to think these people have no idea what they're doing.
Good Luck With That
But, good luck to the New York Times! I doubt it's a good idea, but...maybe not!
Keep It Simple
Which is, of course, why it won't happen.
Car Free And Loving it
I'm specifically talking about urban living. Enjoy your suburban and rural communities if that's what you like!
Unlike The Deficit
And, yes, Congress and the administration could, if they wanted to, do a lot about the jobs situation. I don't think they're likely to, however, and therefore November's going to be a lot of fun.
Clock Ticks
They Control Everything
Swing/"independent" voters will vote for Democrats on the hope that they'll deliver some goodies to them, believing that usually the Dems give the goodies to undeserving brown-hued people. Obama's been in office for a year. Where are the goodies?
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
What's This Country Coming To
I admit I'm always a bit surprised about how saddened some people are by this.
Stupid
Two posts. The narrative is getting set. Regardless of who wins in MA. It is not The Economy Stupid. It is Dems in disarray, and deficits.
America thrived with 90 percent marginal rates in the top bracket.
Big Turnout
Lessons
And the lesson of 1994 is clear: the folks who killed health care in 1994 didn't gain any benefit from it. They were the ones who got slaughtered in November.
Is that clear? I mean, I've never really gotten the impression that was actually the lesson learned in Washington, whatever the truth.
Anyway, a few months ago I would've thought the idea of a Republican resurgence in 2010 was absurd, and now I don't.
Unemployment is at 10%. Still.
Legalizing Ultimate Fighting
ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson proposed what would be the largest cut to school aid in more than two decades and nearly $1 billion in new or increased taxes and fees as he unveiled his budget on Tuesday, a plan that is sure to touch off fierce opposition in the Legislature.
Scouring for new sources of tax revenue amid a fiscal crisis, the governor is also proposing to legalize ultimate fighting, allow the sale of wine in grocery stores, tax cigarette sales on Indian reservations and deploy speed-enforcement cameras in highway work zones.
Back In The Saddle
Our Dumb Discourse
The interview - granted under the condition that the questions be limited to his rationale for running, and not issues - comes at the end of a rocky first week of buzz surrounding his potential candidacy.
...
"This race isn't about feet, it's about issues," he said of ribbing he has taken on the web and elsewhere of his regular pedicures.
So his rationale for running has nothing to do with issues, but it's about issues. Harold Ford is so awesome.
Dud
I don't think the economy can turn around until the foreclosure crisis is over. Damaged abandoned properties are destroying neighborhoods. This has been a big failure.
Nobody Could Have Predicted
The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Run Away
Because it always works so well.
Win Or Lose
Anyone remember the name of that weirdo from upstate New York who was going to win but didn't? Me neither.
Deep Thought
Wrong
Desperate homeowners scrambling to get a loan modification through federal foreclosure relief programs are beginning to shun the offer, opting for a strictly business approach to the dilemma — walking away.
Because the majority of modifications don't reduce the principal payment on loans made during the overpriced boom years, underwater mortgages could still be drowning 10 years out.
The better option for those borrowers, some say, is to take the hit now and attempt a short sale, deed in lieu, or even allow their home to go into foreclosure.
I've talked to quite a few people about just why it hasn't made sense for the various stakeholders to be more open to principal modification. I really don't think anyone quite has the definitive answer. Roughly it seems that the incentives for the various people/institutions involved are just completely screwed up. Investors don't want to have to revalue their portfolios, servicers benefit from extending the process because of fees they can charge, etc.
There was never going to be a perfect program, but bankruptcy cramdown was always the best hope to achieve sensible principal modification through an established process.
By the way, the foreclosure crisis? Not even close to being over.
If Only They'd Listened To Me
This, of course, was a grand idea a couple of years ago. Oh well.
Wrong
Why was the stimulus underpowered? A number of economists (myself included) called for a stimulus substantially bigger than the one the administration ended up proposing. According to The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, however, in December 2008 Mr. Obama’s top economic and political advisers concluded that a bigger stimulus was neither economically necessary nor politically feasible.
Their political judgment may or may not have been correct; their economic judgment obviously wasn’t. Whatever led to this misjudgment, however, it wasn’t failure to focus on the issue: in late 2008 and early 2009 the Obama team was focused on little else. The administration wasn’t distracted; it was just wrong.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Really Bad Form
It's Always Excellent News For Republicans
Sunday Bobbleheads
This Week has Presidents Clinton and W. You also don't want to miss George's tearjerker of a farewell.
Face the Nation has Presidents Clinton and W.
Very diverse lineup.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Pretty Tough Already
But, anyway, just about everyone who drives to drink will at least occasionally drink and drive over the legal limit. Not saying this is a good thing, just inevitable as long as people don't have other options.
Millionaires Don't Worry About Your Health Care
Frames
Newspaper Commenters The Same The World Over
Urban dwellers are your friends, car commuters! They own fewer cars and are less likely to get in your way during your morning commute. No one is forcing you to join them.
Still Hungry
St. Stephen State Bank, St. Stephen, MN and
Town Community Bank and Trust, Antioch, IL
Friday, January 15, 2010
Bwahahah! Life Imitating A Cartoon Show
Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of the Simpsons over a spoof news ticker, the show's creator Matt Groening has claimed.
Mr Groening said Fox News raised the unlikely prospect of suing a show broadcast by its sister channel, Fox Entertainment, because it wanted to stop the Simpsons parodying its famously anti-Democratic party agenda.
The alleged row centred on a parody of Fox News' rolling news ticker, which included headlines such as "Do Democrats cause cancer?"
Scroll forwards to 2010. Here's Rush Limbaugh on...you guessed it: "Voting Democrat Causes Cancer."
Another Reason to Take Notice
In the course of his career, Brown has earned more than a few headlines for playing a conservative role in the ongoing cultural wars. Brown was one of only three members of the heavily Democratic State Senate to vote against a repeal of a state law that barred out-of-state gay couples from marrying in Massachusetts. Later, he would vote for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage - for which he earned the endorsement of the group The Coalition for Marriage -- and he opposed the repeal of the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
If his immoral and emotionally stunted stance on gay rights wasn't bad enough, this incident raises even more eyebrows about his judgment and temperament.
Your Modern GOP
On Scott Brown of Massachusetts
On October 17th, 2001, Brown voted against a bill that would authorize "leaves of absence for certain Red Cross employees participating in Red Cross emergencies." The bill gave 15 days of paid leave each year to state workers called up by the Red Cross to respond to disasters. At the time, state workers called for such emergencies were required to use sick and vacation days.
This suggests an almost-stunning callousness. It's all the more galling that Brown knew it was going to pass -- 148 to 3 -- but opposed it anyway, just to make a point.
I shudder to think what Republicans would say about a Democratic lawmaker who cast a vote like this just a month after the 9/11 attacks
The Brown campaign has said the vote was about fiscal responsibility -- Massachusetts couldn't afford assistance for Red Cross workers who had volunteered with 9/11 recovery efforts.
That's not a bad line, I suppose, but here's my follow-up question: why, then, does Scott Brown recommend tax cuts now that the nation can't afford? Why would tax cuts for the wealthy be more important that help for 9/11 recovery volunteers?
Tax cuts. It's the Republican panacea for everything that hurts you, never mind that it was the Bush tax cuts and the associated free-market (read: jungle of the greediest and most reckless) ideology which brought us the current economic recession. I don't see the logic of voting the architects of the collapsing building to be the ones to fix it.
Sister
They Know More Than That
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Great Expectations
CBO now sez:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. unemployment rate, currently at 10 percent, is unlikely to drop below 8 percent before 2012 unless Congress takes further steps to boost the economy in the short term, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday.
Perhaps someone should do something?
The Candidate Protecting The Big Banks
The fact is this money has already been paid back by the banksThey should run on that. It's a great message.
Things I Worry About
Given how easy it is to pressure Arlen Specter from the left during a Democratic primary, isn't it extremely likely that Specter will move to the right in the general election when Toomey is pressuring him instead of Sestak?This primary seems to be really flying under the radar online, for various understandable reasons. And while I'm glad Specter has been behaving himself since he switched parties, the threat of a primary won't last forever.
Something to think about.
Who's Your Daddy Now?
A few days ago Maureen Dowd pined for a strong daddy in the White House, one which would check under our beds for any terrorists.
But it seems that the majority of Americans approve of Obama's handling of terrorism:
Addressing the popular meme that Barack Obama is weak on national security and should act more like America's daddy, Greg Sargent pointed out yesterday that polls on the subject show precisely the reverse sentiment from the American people:
We now have enough polls to call BS on this. Today's Gallup poll finds Obama's rating on terror has actually inched up since the foiled plot. Today's Quinnipiac poll says that 66% view Obama as a "strong leader." Yesterday's CNN poll found that 64% like Obama's personality and leadership qualities.
Yesterday's CBS poll found that 57% approve of Obama on terrorism. Still another poll found that 65% have confidence that Obama will protect them from terror. Is that enough yet?
Just in case it's not enough, Pew released a poll today showing that Obama's ratings on dealing with terrorism are higher than on any other single issue at 51 percent. So can we definitively say that the torture wing of the GOP's assault on the president has been a complete failure?
Could it be that this country is finally growing up?
via echidne
Note: This 1.5% doesn't include wars.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Job market isn't turning around. Unemployment is over 2 percentage points higher than the administration projected a year ago.
Not sensing the fierce urgency of now.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Big Misses
However, Dimon cautioned, "You never saw losses in these products, because home prices were going up."
The sector's failure, he added, was the assumption that prices can only go up.
By 2006 there were plenty of reasons that the existence of a housing bubble was rather obvious, even if all the details weren't known yet and the eventual consequences weren't completely clear.
My main reason, a rather simple one, was that not nearly enough people had the kind of incomes that allowed them to afford homes at those prices. I know that because the helicopter is not my primary mode of transportation.
There Goes The Neighborhood
The Worst Person In The World
Given the way he's spent his time in NYC, he probably thinks the primary mode of transportation for everyone there is helicopter.
Now This Is Fun
Help
"The U.S. State Department Operations Center set up the following number for Americans seeking information about relatives in Haiti: (888) 407-4747. The department cautioned that because of heavy volume, some callers may hear a recording. The State Department said those interested in helping immediately may text 'HAITI' to '90999' and a donation of $10 will be made automatically to the Red Cross for relief efforts. The donation will be charged to your cellphone bill. The department also suggested contacting agencies such as the Red Cross or Mercy Corps to help with relief efforts."
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
More Jam Today, Please
This is especially true when it comes to increasing access.
The poll also asks a question about how dissatisfied people are with the way Obama, the Democrats in the Congress and the Republicans in the Congress are handling the bill. It turns out that the respondents are more frustrated by the Republicans (61% dissatisfied) and the Democrats (57% dissatisfied) than Obama himself (54% dissatisfied). No jam for anyone, including the Republicans who are fighting the bill.
Freak Show Vacation
Good Luck Sen. Gillibrand
I am pro-choice -- have always been since I entered politics almost 15 years ago. My cumulative grade with NARAL during 10 years in Congress was right at 80 percent. Any assertions to the contrary are false.Harold Ford Jr. in 2006:
WALLACE: Congressman, you voted for the Iraq war. You're pro-life. You voted to ban gay marriage and flag burning. If a Democrat who votes as a conservative on guns, gays and God can't win this year, in Tennessee, does any Democrat ever chance in a red Southern state?And Harold Ford Jr. in 2006:
FORD: Well, that's why we're going to win, to prove that one, to prove that right. I think the other issue that my opponent has is that he's wrong on taxes. He's never, ever cut a tax in his entire life, not as mayor of Chattanooga or as finance commissioner for our former governor, Don Sundquist, who actually introduced a state income tax.
COLMES: Why would you change your view? You were pro-choice at one time. What happened?And on and on.
FORD:Let me say this. No, no. I was not pro-choice at one time. We don't have votes like that in the Congress, sir. I voted for parental notification. I voted against partial birth abortion. I voted for the procedure my first two or three years in the Congress.
Harold Ford Jr. is a slimier-than-most politician who wraps himself in sanctimony. Plus, he's a horrible pundit. I've never seen him reject the premise of a question, and as a frequent Fox News contributor, that says a lot.
That's a lot of
Clean up will be hazardous. I watched the bomb squad in NYC approach a suspicious package, in full haz mat gear. Those guys have balls.
Operation Leper
Scroll down and have fun!
Sources
It doesn't fit in very well with their polices on anonymous sourcing.
Also odd that Reid was the source Halperin and Heilemann chose to burn.
Update: Should have included a link to the actual NYT policies.
Oh Pay Them Anyway
KABUL (AP) -- The U.S. agency overseeing the multibillion dollar Afghanistan reconstruction effort is investigating 38 criminal cases ranging from contract fraud to theft -- most involving non-Afghans, officials said Tuesday.
Field of (my) Screams!
Why not immediately admitting the taking of steroids in baseball, that's what!
Brian Williams opening last night's NBC Nightly News:
Good evening. Because this is a family broadcast, we probably can't say what we'd like to about the news today that Mark McGwire—the home run hitter, the family favorite from the St. Louis Cardinals—stopped lying today and admitted that he did it while on steroids.
Lying is something that can be proclaimed only for what a "baseball player" like Mark McGwire ever did or said. Certainly it cannot be uttered against a mere President, like George Bush.
Not Dick Cheney, not George Bush, not anybody who got us into a war we didn't need to get into at all because because -- no matter what Sarah Palin still says -- Saddam wasn't associated with 9/11, but he was somebody to bomb for fun and profit. No they just acted in "good faith" and no "serious" person can ever proclaim them to be liars. That's just impolite and is reserved only to those who engage in serious endeavors like sporting events.
UPDATE: Just to compare and contrast Mark McGwire with, say, Rudy Giuliani. While McGwire was called a "liar" yesterday, last week when Rudy said there were no domestic terror attacks under George Bush it was said -- hours later -- that he was "not quite correct".
Fuck the Daily Mail
And you know what? It's crazy bullshit!
You really have to read this Climate Progress piece -- it's brilliant journalism.
MORE. Oh and this. If someone says to you the name "Monckton," pelt them with garbage until they stop.
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Glamorous Jet Trainsetting Life
Implication: not much exciting blogging immediately forthcoming from me.
The Hillary Effect
There are 25 female ambassadors posted in Washington -- the highest number ever, according to the State Department.
"This is breaking precedent," said Selma "Lucky" Roosevelt, a former U.S. chief of protocol.
Women remain a distinct minority -- there are 182 accredited ambassadors in Washington -- but their rise from a cadre of five in the late 1990s to five times that is opening up what had been an elite's men club for more than a century.
A key reason is the increase in the number of top U.S. diplomats who are women, what some call the "Hillary effect."
Too bad that the online version of the Post has this story under "arts and living."
Broderesque jockularity
Well, that's so very important isn't it? But there was one statement that seemed particularly awkward:
In all that time, I don't recall ever doing a favor for Dodd.
So Matlock, who have you done favors for?
Jobs
With another "bad" number this month, which really isn't much worse than last month's but, hey, it's all about perception baby, on one hand we have Romer saying, "The sense that we need to do more is overwhelming," but on the other hand we have Obama saying:
- In fact, in November, we saw the first gain in jobs in nearly two years. Last month, however, we slipped back, losing more jobs than we gained, though the overall trend of job loss is still pointing in the right direction.
Which is just another way of saying we aren't losing jobs as fast as we used to!! The employment situation doesn't start to improve until job gains start exceeding 100-140K per month. Inflection points aren't worth throwing a party over.
You Go to the Box and Feel Shame!
As an aside, Mr. Pierce is more than welcome to my blog's old Flann O'Brien tag-line, but only on condition that in future whenever he references Ed Reed, he is careful to use the proper descriptor, which would be "former University of Miami Hurricanes great Ed Reed." (With "great" as the noun, naturally.) This would be more than fair.
To those Eschaton readers who don't care about sports or sports movies, Nathan Fillion playing Ralph Hinckley in a remake of The Greatest American Hero would be The Greatest Fucking American Movie Ever. But only if they don't fuck with the theme song (which I can still sing in its entirety, unless I haven't been drinking). That guy who did Buffy the Vampire Slayer, whatsisname, Judd Apatow, should direct it.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
And While I'm Linking Digby
Bad Daddy
Why that is, I do not know...
Off The Grid
Sorta back, though not really. Still in my undisclosed location, just not in the secured bunker.
Science is for Pansies
Joe the Plumber
Cha-Ching
Bank executives are grappling with a question that exasperates, even infuriates, many recession-weary Americans: Just how big should their paydays be? Despite calls for restraint from Washington and a chafed public, resurgent banks are preparing to pay out bonuses that rival those of the boom years. The haul, in cash and stock, will run into many billions of dollars.
Industry executives acknowledge that the numbers being tossed around — six-, seven- and even eight-figure sums for some chief executives and top producers — will probably stun the many Americans still hurting from the financial collapse and ensuing Great Recession
I'd like the banksters to explain to every 55 year old whose retirement was destroyed why they deserve so much money.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Europe: The New Evil (And Dying) Empire
But underlying all those stories about the sinful-yet-fruitless streets of Old Europe is the old conservative fear: That a less capitalistic and more sharing society might actually economically outperform a Wild West one, the kind the conservatives would like to see here. Whether it would turn into a Banana Republic is of no concern to those who would live in the guarded enclosures.
The most recent story in this vein has to do with James Manzi's article in National Affairs:
But it is important to see that this robust growth means only that America has not lost ground in global economic competition, not that it has gained much. From 1980 through today, America's share of global output has been constant at about 21%. Europe's share, meanwhile, has been collapsing in the face of global competition — going from a little less than 40% of global production in the 1970s to about 25% today. Opting for social democracy instead of innovative capitalism, Europe has ceded this share to China (predominantly), India, and the rest of the developing world. The economic rise of the Asian heartland is the central geopolitical fact of our era, and it is safe to assume that economic and strategic competition will only increase further over the next several decades.
The story has been eagerly picked up by all sorts of conservative writers. But John Chait and Paul Krugman have doubts about Manzi's data:
But as Jonathan Chait quickly pointed out, Manzi's definition of Europe included the Soviet bloc (!), so that he was attributing to social democracy an economic decline that was mainly about the collapse of communism. Chait also suggested that Manzi wasn't comparing the same dates for America and Europe; and most importantly, Chait pointed out that to the extent there has been a growth divergence, it's almost entirely because America has faster population growth; since 1980, real GDP per capita in Western Europe and the US have grown at almost the same rate.
But I went back to Manzi's source of data, and it turns out that it's even worse than that. If you use the broad definition of Europe, which includes the USSR, it did indeed have 40 percent of world output in the early 1970s. But that share has not fallen to 25 percent — it's still above 30 percent.
The only thing I can think is that Manzi compared Europe including the eastern bloc in 1970 with Europe not including the east today.
Interesting...