Friday, October 31, 2014
Games People Play
So Much Stupid
...more
The Math
Most people who worry about parking don't have their own off street parking. That's why they worry about it.
But, hey, empty lot.
The Evidence Is Not In
Ok the most maddening thing actually is that a bunch of grifters are destroying public education. I've noticed a lot of eventheliberals have just sort of shut up about the whole thing lately.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Um, David?
...oh the horror....
Oh, Orange County
Tampering with the lake's water can be a touchy subject for some longtime association members, who chafed at the suggestion of reducing or changing the lake levels.
"We love coming down here where there aren't too many people," said Carlos Lopez, an association member whose 4-year-old daughter, Dayleen, splashed in the water. "She's a fish. I'd have to take her down to the beach, and that's a pain."
Wakey, Wakey
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
How To Deal With A Serial Killer
A mixture of new issues and lingering problems could violate earlier settlements that imposed reforms and fines on the banks but stopped short of criminal charges, according to lawyers briefed on the cases. Prosecutors are exploring whether to strengthen the earlier deals, the lawyers said, or scrap them altogether and force the banks to plead guilty to a crime.
That effort, unfolding separately from a number of well-known investigations into Wall Street, has ensnared several giant banks and consulting firms that until now were thought to be in the clear.
Maybe if we make them pinky-swear this time?
Sleep, Disrupted
Shorter Reverse Frank Bruni
hint: pay them and give them job security and stop demonizing them in national newspapers for the failures of the highly paid people who are supposed to be in charge of the system
Wakey, Wakey
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Just Toss Them
Because It Hasn't Been Said Enough
Why Can't We Have Nice Things
Horrible People
Strange People
We Don't Spy On Americans
WASHINGTON — In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations.
Monday, October 27, 2014
Gotta Get On With The Show
Rare Moment Of Sanity
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia City Council president Darrell Clarke today notified the Nutter administration that it is not endorsing the sale of the Philadelphia Gas Works to a private owner, effectively killing the deal.
Pron'd
Seamus McCaffery, a former Philadelphia police officer elected in 2007 to the state's highest court in 2007, is retiring today, one week after four of his fellow justices voted to suspend him from the bench.
Seamus gained public status due to being an "Eagles Court" judge back when the stadium had its own court to deal with fan problems.
What To Do About Oxford Street
Commissions
I keep asking this question and never quite get a satisfactory answer. Why do I see so many ads for people in Jersey and the burbs? Maybe ad buyers know what they're doing. I don't know.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Who Needs Toilets And Showers?
There's no way we're going to survive the zombie apocalypse.
Morning Thread
Saturday, October 25, 2014
We Love America So Much We Need To Destroy It
Yes occasionally some hippies advocate for the secession of Northern Californiandia or whatever, but it really isn't a thing.
Democrats Against Democrats
Election Soon
And then the 2016 primary begins! Huzzah.
Morning Thread
The Hobby Lobby case applied to a prisoner being held in Guantanamo.
Sports figures and misogyny.
Killing for love.
Friday, October 24, 2014
The James O'Keefe Era
The latest is pretty funny. At least no one pays much attention to it anymore, except to make fun of it.
825 Comments
If elected governor, Tom Wolf plans to end the asset test, a measure that ties federal food stamp benefits to people's bank accounts and car ownership.
Food stamps benefits are so tiny, and asset tests mean they aren't available to people for temporary help. One has to spend down everything before getting a bit of help which could, maybe, let you stay afloat.
First, We Clear Out All The Black People
Parking
A man and woman from South Los Angeles have been arrested for stabbing a woman to death in front of her children over a parking space at a swap meet, authorities said.
And They Were Heroes
According to the report, a prosecutor who confronted Lewinsky “exercised poor judgment and made mistakes in his analysis, planning and execution of the approach.” The report, written by two lawyers appointed to investigate the matter by Robert W. Ray, Starr’s successor as independent counsel, concluded that the “matter could have been handled better.”
The report also lays out the encounter in detail, suggesting that it quickly spun out of control as a shocked and hysterical Lewinsky asked to consult a lawyer or a parent — even as prosecutors grew increasingly determined to persuade her to agree on the spot to cooperate against the president.
Morning Thread
Maybe buy two bags of candy. One expensive for the immediate neighborhood children and one cheap bag for the others. That'll show them. Or, yannow, just buy some candy for all the kids and count your blessings.
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Happy Hour Thread
Earmark'd
Woo Hoo!!!
Spain’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest since the end of 2011 in the third quarter as its economy turned into one of the fastest-growing in the euro region.
Joblessness fell to 23.7 percent in the three months through September from 24.5 percent in the previous quarter, Spain’s national statistics institute INE said in Madrid today. The economy grew 0.5 percent in the period, the Bank of Spain predicts.
Time for more austerity because reasons!
Thrilla
Heckuva job.
Not A Drop
SAO PAULO — Sao Paulo residents, half of whom are already complaining of hours-long water shortages, were warned yesterday by a top water regulator to brace for more-severe cutoffs.
“If the drought continues, residents will face more-dramatic water shortages in the short term,” Vicente Andreu, president of Brazil’s National Water Agency, known as ANA, told reporters in Sao Paulo as he prepared to speak to the state’s Legislature.
“If it doesn’t rain, we run the risk that the region will have a collapse like we’ve never seen before,” he later told lawmakers.
Hippie Nation
Oh, wait, you don't remember that? You were probably too stoned.
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
"You should always check the accuracy of quotes you read on the internet." - Abraham Lincoln
What a cover.
Where Do They Go
Cars are big. Time for people to understand this.
I Don't Pee In Your Pool
I admit they entertain me so I appreciate their contribution to humanity, but I still wonder why. I don't spend my time at suburban news sites writing negative comments about where they live.
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Nobody Could Have Predicted
The Islamic State has released a new video in which it brags that it recovered weapons and supplies that the U.S. military intended to deliver to Kurdish fighters, who are locked in a fight with the militants over control of the Syrian border town of Kobane.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist social media accounts, drew attention to the video Tuesday. At one point, it appears to show a masked militant raking his hands through a crate filled with hand grenades.
Take conflict, add more weapons. What could go wrong?
Ross'd
Trump'd
Donald Trump is personally liable for operating a for-profit investment school without the required license, a New York judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General against the real estate entrepreneur.
New York state Supreme Court Justice Cynthia S. Kern said he was notified by the state in 2005 that his Trump Entrepreneur Initiative - known as Trump University until 2010 - was in violation of state education law.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Suck On That
A judge granted the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers an injunction Monday, temporarily halting expected changes to their healthcare plan.
Earlier in the month, the School Reform Commission canceled teacher contracts and required them to pay minimum healthcare premiums. The move sparked outrage and protests from the teachers union.
At least the lawyers for the SRC will get lots of money now.
I really hate the arguments about this, which tend to come down to "well everyone else pays something for their health insurance." Total compensation is total compensation. Paying you a salary and then suddenly yanking some of it back for health insurance is just a salary cut.
The Great Grift
All of this was foretold by dirty hippies.
I Blame The Internet
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
I Hate Readers
I so should be able to sell a million copies to justify my big advance by just having my smart and well-connected friends buy them. Why doesn't it work that way???
Midtermia
I pay attention to this stuff. As was the case in 2010, a few weeks before election day I still can't fill in the blank of "Vote team D because _______!" Don't get me wrong, I know why people should vote team D (mostly, but not entirely, because team R is much worse), but there is no narrative out there. No simple storyline of "Dems will do this" or even "Dems will try to do this."
There's some improvement. They seem to have finally decided that abortion and contraception access might actually be winning issues in some places. But overall... I couldn't give a bumper sticker pitch to my neighbor if I tried. And, again, I pay attention.
The people who get paid a lot of money to run campaigns need to figure out how to get people to vote. It's their job.
Drive Until You Die
Friday, October 17, 2014
Courageous Enough
Life+
New Math
The first thing I looked for was the amount of cocaine that the story said “the CIA’s army” had brought into the country and funneled into the crack trade. It turned out to be relatively small: a ton in 1981, 100 kilos a week by the mid-1980s, nowhere near enough to flood the country with crack.
...
There was no response from the CIA in the story. But the claims Gary made, man, were they extraordinary:
“For the better part of a decade, a San Francisco Bay Area drug ring sold tons of cocaine to the Crips and Bloods street gangs of Los Angeles and funneled millions in drug profits to a Latin American guerrilla army run by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a Mercury News investigation has found.
Wow, man, extraordinary, that a ton of cocaine in one year could mean that over a decade there would be tons.
And a ton of cocaine is a shit-ton of cocaine.
As I understand it, the only real quibble in this story is "active encouragement" versus "turning a blind eye." The idea that our supposedly all-knowing intelligence agencies were unaware is ridiculous. They knew what they were doing. And in supporting these people, they were encouraging it.
Czar Of Agency Coordination
Then the "need a general operator/manager" arguments would make sense.
I Am The Czar Of All The Ebolas
I'd kinda like to think that the technocratic don't do stupid things administration would think having someone capable of coordinating a response to a public health emergency around at all times would be a good idea. Because emergencies.
They Actually Believe This Stuff
It all makes sense, really. It was twice as hard for Andrew Cuomo to become a successful politician because of the curse of his name!
Incentives
But a deal with the bank poses political risks for both the state and the city. Chase had initially sought, by one account, more than $1 billion in concessions from the city and the state while it continues to pare its payroll in the city. According to executives and officials, Chase wants to build the two towers — whose total space would be the equivalent of about two Empire State Buildings — at Hudson Yards on the north side of 33rd Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. They would become home to 16,000 employees.
All In The Family
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Buy Some Gifts For Your Dear Loved Ones!
Thanks to you, Jeff Bezos gives me a nice Xmas bonus every year. It's the only one I get, and all you have to do is click a link from here before buying the stuff you would have bought anyway.
Surgeon General Lex Luthor
And I'm not especially worried about Ebola, but it's quite clear our medical system can't handle a serious outbreak for all of the talk about how we have the bestest of everything in the world.
My Dream Trip To The Meadowlands
Unlike Manhattan's Javits Center, the Meadowlands area is served by major highways with many travel lanes and room to accommodate parking, said Ron Simoncini of Axiom Communications.
You're going to get conventions of 35,000 in the middle of nowhere (okay, it's not nowhere, just isolated) because you put in a casino.
right.
Rick Scottery
Nothing To Be Done
I imagine some design flaws could be fixed - some curves straightened a bit, for example - but that highway isn't getting any bigger.
That Thing We Promised? We Do The Opposite Of That
The company behind Whisper, the social media app that promises users anonymity and claims to be the “the safest place on the internet”, is tracking the location of its users, including some who have specifically asked not to be followed.
The practice of monitoring the whereabouts of Whisper users – including those who have expressly opted out of geolocation services – will alarm users, who are encouraged to disclose intimate details about their private and professional lives.
Whisper is also sharing information with the US Department of Defense gleaned from smartphones it knows are used from military bases, and developing a version of its app to conform with Chinese censorship laws.
Ultimately I don't know what the point of any of this is, except that there's money to be made.
Not A Drop
Tom Mosby heads the Montecito Water Authority. Faced with running out of water, he imposed drastic water cuts on the area's 10,000 residents.
He's already handed out $2 million in fines to people who use more than they're allowed.
"It's been difficult," Mosby said. "We've had many people come to us with appeals asking us for more water."
Montecito has almost no ground water access. Eighty-five percent of its supply comes from nearby Lake Cachuma. It is now just 30 percent full -- part pond, but mostly prairie. If the drought continues, it could be empty next year.
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
DOWN DOWN DOWN
We'll Handle It
"Were protocols breached?" said union spokeswoman Rose Ann DeMoro, "There were no protocols."
"These nurses are not well protected. They're not prepared to handle Ebola or any other pandemic," said DeMoro. "We are deeply alarmed."
DeMoro said the nurses who had come forward were afraid to reveal their identities "because of a culture of threat in the hospitals."
Quite likely we'll handle it well enough because ebola isn't that contagious (not airborne), but if it was...
Easy
I don't know the truth, but when you can borrow money essentially for free, you should do it, no matter what the deficit scolds say.
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Exciting!
"For the sake of pure civic engagement, I would like to draw your attention to this weekend's New York Times profile of the Dutch pension system. "A profile of the Dutch pension system? Sounds boring as hell, when I could be reading about various 'hot' celebrities of the moment, and their picayune fashion choices for the upcoming awards shows," you're probably thinking to yourself, if you are Caity Weaver. Not true at all. All this bullshit news about celebrity bullshit is nothing but a bullshit smokescreen. I'll tell you what is really exciting: the cold hard fiscal facts about how this nation is screwing its retirees and what we might learn from a friendly nation by the name of "THE NETHERLANDS," when it comes to proper accounting practices that can assure pension stability. That is "exciting." Because you don't want to be old and broke!"
Also, Too, DUI
Miniature American Flags For Others
Run Mittens Run
Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee and now the tacit head of the Republican Party, visited Iowa as part of a feverish nationwide tour designed to help the GOP take control of the Senate.
Just how Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry were treated...
Monday, October 13, 2014
Emphasis
VATICAN CITY, Oct 13 (Reuters) - In a dramatic shift in tone, a Vatican document said on Monday that homosexuals had "gifts and qualities to offer" and asked if Catholicism could accept gays and recognise positive aspects of same-sex couples.
The document, prepared after a week of discussions at an assembly of 200 bishops on the family, said the Church should challenge itself to find "a fraternal space" for homosexuals without compromising Catholic doctrine on family and matrimony.
Netflix Mysteries
As long as there are DVDs, the first sale doctrine means that Netflix can have the greatest video library in the world and nobody is likely to try to compete with that directly.
Maybe the DVD-by-mail model won't last forever, and probably getting into streaming was a smart move. But their streaming library will never be as awesome as their DVD library potentially can be.
The Hill You Choose To Die On
Wrong In The Same Way
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Fabulous
A federal judge ruled Sunday that Alaska’s ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, paving the way for gay couples to begin marrying in the state for the first time.
Happy Hour
If you didn't need a drink before, you will now.
Better Make More Cuts To Food Stamps
Much of the money was probably used by the Iraqi government in some way, he concluded. But for years Mr. Bowen could not account for billions more until his investigators finally had a breakthrough, discovering that $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion had been stolen and moved to a bunker in rural Lebanon for safe keeping. “I don’t know how the money got to Lebanon,” Mr. Bowen said. “If I knew that, we would have made more progress on the case.”
Mr. Bowen kept the discovery and his investigation of the cash-filled bunker in Lebanon, which his office code-named Brick Tracker, secret. He has never publicly discussed it until now, and his frustration that neither he nor his investigators can fully account for the missing money was evident in a series of interviews. “Billions of dollars have been taken out of Iraq over the last 10 years illegally,” he said. “In this investigation, we thought we were on the track for some of that lost money. It’s disappointing to me personally that we were unable to close this case, for reasons beyond our control.”
Saturday, October 11, 2014
Expert Trolling
We'll Just Do What We Want
Friday, October 10, 2014
Tea Party Democrats
Fear Of A Black Planet
But I've realized this horribly racist view is sincere. They really do believe that young black men are all super-predators, that there are places in the city where you will be instantly killed. All young black men are actually supervillains.
And the cops believe this, too.
Very
If only someone had the unlimited power of commutation and pardon.
Obviously The Pentagon Needs More Money
The Defense Department destroyed nearly half a billion dollars worth of defective Italian aircraft that U.S. taxpayers bought for Afghanistan and then sold the scrap for $32,000, according to an agency watchdog.
The Grand Conspiracy
Almost Correct
Thursday, October 09, 2014
Don't Know Nothing
Will slapped together a column this morning hyping a potential Christie run in 2016, writing that Christie “radiates serenity,” pairs “occasional pugnacity” with a “sedate, diplomatic manner,” and is a “zestful political combatant.” Perhaps most significantly, Will speculates that candidate Christie could make the quadrennial Republican pipe dream of winning Pennsylvania a reality, based solely on the fact that Christie advertised in the Philly media market during his runs for governor (Philadelphia is just across the Delaware River from Camden).
New Jersey is a weird place that basically doesn't have its own media market. It's got a big population, but it's New York in the north and Philly in the south. Given that cable increasingly allows for hyperlocal ad targeting, I don't know why political campaigns waste their money in this way (ok, I do, bigger fees for lazy media buyers), but I guarantee it wasn't some cunning plan to make Philly love him.
More generally...yes, a Republican can win Pennsylvania, but Pennsylvania will never be the crucial state that puts them over the line. If they win Pennsylvania they'll have won Florida and North Carolina and Virginia and Ohio and New Hampshire etc. In other words, PA will fall if a Republican wins big nationally, but it just isn't a prize to be pursued by itself. But every 4 years...
Just Give Up Already
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says his office will no longer fight a court challenge to West Virginia's ban on same-sex marriages.
I've always thought that the constitutionality of states banning same-sex marriage was more of a judgment call than their failure to recognize out of state gay marriages which was clearly unconstitutional. In any case, given the number of states that have had their bans struck down...just join the party already.
Nobody Cares About The Deficit
I Can Do What I Want
It's a $50 ticket. If you're a local you get it once and learn your lesson. Not a big deal.
(ht billymeltdown)
Wednesday, October 08, 2014
Young Women Voters
Panic Time
Obviously it's time for a tax cut. It always is.
Civilization
Use It Or Lose It
More seriously I'm glad no one decided to pull the trigger in this situation, but the whole point of open carry is to signal a willingness to do so.
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
Savvy
Shit Is Fucked Up And Bullshit
I can't quantify this, but I do sense that as the great stagnation creeps up through the income distribution, as we go from things sucking for the bottom 40% to the bottom 50% to the bottom 60% (etc.), as people increasingly see that there's no possible way for their kids to have the kind of life that they had, that attitudes are changing. People who thought they won the meritocracy lottery are seeing things a bit differently.
Of course we need some politicians to champion some policies to help people, but Third Way.
Not A Ripple
Not A Drop
tl;dr: water gets expensive, lawns disappear, agriculture changes, central valley towns empty out, but the state survives.
Monday, October 06, 2014
Peak'd
Looking forward to some damn good coffee.
Get Your Marriage On
Need Four New Tunnels
But in the near term, if they do have to shut down one tunnel before there are any replacements... It would be bad. Total protonal reversal bad.
Probably Need More Austerity In Spain
German factory orders (GRIORTMM) plunged the most since 2009, underlining the risk of a slowdown in Europe’s largest economy.
Sunday, October 05, 2014
Sunday Afternoon
Don't privatize Social Security.
George Bush sucks.
Our news media loves Republicans.
Fred Hiatt is the worst.
Build more SUPERTRAINS
Give free money to people.
Public option please.
Shit is fucked up and bullshit.
Parking minimums suck.
Just posting Cliff's Notes of the archives for those who came in late.
Maybe A Few More Then
Isis fighters have pushed to within little more than a mile of the centre of the city of Kobani, undeterred by western air strikes which are proving ineffective, a leading Kurdish official in the city has said.
Emphasis
And it isn't just the church, it's the entire focus of the political religious right. "Values Voters" means no gays and slutshaming. Um, ok, great values.
Saturday, October 04, 2014
Afternoon Thread
Dead Man Walking
First Cuppa Thread
Friday, October 03, 2014
Good Works
Apocalypse Soon
Thursday, October 02, 2014
Great Moments In Horrible Governing
Today, at an unrelated event, a reporter asked Governor Andrew Cuomo if he had any intention of helping fund another tunnel under the Hudson River so that Amtrak could take the existing tubes out of service and properly repair them.
"The, uh, I haven't seen the Amtrak report so I can’t really comment on it," said the governor.
400,000 people per day go through those tunnels. Cuomo's precious Tappan Zee bridge? 135,000 cars.
*Only Applies To Blah People
Rose Petals Must Be Scattered In Front Of Them As They Walk
Their brand sponsorship monopoly requirements were so absurd that in 2012, London was shutting down restaurants with "Olympic" in the name and preventing pubs from doing so much as advertising "come watch the Olympics here!"
And It All Falls Down
I know transit nerds who didn't like the ARC project for various valid reasons, but right now the alternative is... nothing.
Effed
Amtrak officials said on Wednesday that they will have to sharply curtail use of the century-old rail tunnels leading to New York City for at least a year to repair the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy, a move that would affect train service for tens of thousands of commuters.
One of the four tubes that carry trains under the East River between Manhattan and Long Island would be the first to close, possibly in late 2015. The work on that tube would take a full year and would affect service on the two railroads that also use the tunnel, the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit, which uses a rail yard in Queens to park its trains.
They're going to have to fix the Hudson tunnels, too, and then things will really be fucked. Thanks Christie.
Good Enough For The Ladies
“Two months ago, attorneys for a coalition of leading players informed officials from the Canadian Soccer Association [CSA] and FIFA that forcing the 2015 women’s World Cup to take place on artificial turf rather than grass was not only wrong but also constituted illegal sex discrimination,” Hampton Dellinger, attorney for the players’ coalition, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Men’s World Cup tournament matches are played on natural grass while CSA and FIFA are relegating female players to artificial turf. The difference matters: plastic pitches alter how the game is played, pose unique safety risks and are considered inferior for international competition.
Wednesday, October 01, 2014
Evening Thread
I'm not that sensitive to pain and discomfort, which is why I didn't have any damn drugs in the house, but cross a certain threshold...