NPR.org, April 30, 2009 · NPR has learned that Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
The Bipartisan Thing To Do
Is re-nominate Bork.
Durbin
dday has a post up on the failure of Durbin's cramdown provision. Durbin pulls no punches. Maybe some phone calls are in order. The post includes Democrats (and Arizonans) who put the banksters ahead of their constituents.
Getting There
Wouldn't have expected this so quickly.
At its low, in 2004, just 32 percent of Americans favored gay marriage, with 62 percent opposed. Now 49 percent support it versus 46 percent opposed -- the first time in ABC/Post polls that supporters have outnumbered opponents.
More than half, moreover -- 53 percent -- say gay marriages held legally in another state should be recognized as legal in their states.
Taking Kyl Seriously
His opposition to the Durbin amendment was notionally about how it might increase interest rates. It wouldn't, because it would've applied only to existing loans (it would likely hardly impact interest rates anyway, but whatever). More generally Kyl seems to think the problem is that home prices need to get back to where they were. This is pretty nutty, given that at the height of the bubble prices were pretty unaffordable.
Marginal And Average
I'm not sure if it was on my local subway or on some other subway system I've been on, but recently I saw some posters touting the benefits of taking public transit by informing riders of the difference between carbon emissions of an average transit trip versus those of an average automobile trip (or average per mile, or whatever, can't remember). While this is a useful to think about if you're evaluating the green value of public transit in general, it seriously understates the relative benefits of me, personally, choosing to take the subway instead of driving to the baseball game. I'm reasonably sure the extra carbon emissions the world gets when I choose to board a subway is basically zero.
Obviously Foreclosures Are Not A Big Problem For People From Arizona
Senator Kyl is on the floor on behalf of the banksters instead of his constituents.
Nice system we have.
Nice system we have.
Destined to Fail
The Senate is currently debating the Durbin amendment which would provide some opportunity for bankruptcy judges to modify existing loan terms. I'm not even sure why the banking industry is opposed to it. But it's really the only reasonably fair way to help homeowners in trouble. In the name of moderation it will probably fail. At least liberal bloggers will have a new shit list of Democratic senators. I'm guessing the senator from Indiana will be on it.
And Their Enablers
As Glenn suggests, it's remarkable, at times, what isn't remarkable. And the system of legalized bribery we have in this country is so part of how our government runs that unless someone is literally funneling cash into their bank accounts (and sometimes not even then) it's just seen as business as usual. The media, aside from turning a blind eye to the worst of this stuff, enables it by cloaking the worst of corrupt practices and their practitioners by blessing it all with the label of "moderation." It's moderate, you see, to let the banksters dictate your vote. It's moderate to transfer wealth upwards from poor to rich.
BK
No deal with Chrysler's creditors.
April 30 (Bloomberg) -- Chrysler LLC will proceed today with a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to reorganize into a more viable carmaker in a partnership with Italy’s Fiat Spa, an Obama administration official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the failure of some small creditors to agree to a final settlement is prompting the bankruptcy option. President Barack Obama will speak at noon New York time on the auto industry, the White House said in a statement today.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
631K new lucky duckies. Still in holy crap territory, and continuing claims hit new record.
CRE
It's going to be bad.
Thousands of commercial mortgages valued at hundreds of billions of dollars are approaching a renewal date. By some estimates, two out of every three will no longer meet the original loan conditions and won't be able to refinance. And with prices for commercial properties expected to plunge, a vicious cycle may unfold much as it has in the nation's housing market.
Reagan's Legacy
Could someone please remind Broder and the rest of punditocracy that the President who signed the 1984 Conventions banning torture was named Ronald Reagan?
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Balances & Checks
Funny, I don't remember all this GOP concern over "checks and balances" back in '04...
Not to mention that they don't seem to understand the actual constitutional concept of "checks and balances."
ALSO. Unrelated, but RMJ has an interesting meditation on violence.
Not to mention that they don't seem to understand the actual constitutional concept of "checks and balances."
ALSO. Unrelated, but RMJ has an interesting meditation on violence.
Presser
Stupid question #1...CLOSE THE BORDER!!!
...hey, Tapper asks a DFH question for once.
...Chuck Toddler!
...oh boy, Ed Henry.
....NYT with the most vapid pointless question.
... where does Jeff Zeleny go next? Daytime soap critic?
...Telemundo, who the hell are they? Only NYT has serious questions.
...BET!!! Get that NYT guy back. I think he has a question about Obama's most special day.
...hey, Tapper asks a DFH question for once.
...Chuck Toddler!
...oh boy, Ed Henry.
....NYT with the most vapid pointless question.
... where does Jeff Zeleny go next? Daytime soap critic?
...Telemundo, who the hell are they? Only NYT has serious questions.
...BET!!! Get that NYT guy back. I think he has a question about Obama's most special day.
Evening Thread
Press conference tonight. I do hope we get a fresh round of whining from the elite press about the fact (if it happens) that Obama dared to take some questions from less important outlets.
EATED
Ken Lewis gets EATED by shareholders.
nomnomnom
...there was a big push for this by SEIU.
- Bank of America Shareholders Remove Kenneth D. Lewis From Chairman Post
nomnomnom
...there was a big push for this by SEIU.
Strange Times
Chrysler:
- If the bankruptcy proceeds as expected, the administration would create a new Chrysler that would purchase assets of the old company. The ownership of the new company would be divided between the union's retiree health fund, which would get a 55 percent stake, Fiat, which would get at least a 35 percent stake, and the United States, which would take an 8 percent stake. The Canadian government would receive two percent. Chrysler's creditors would get $2 billion in cash and no equity stake. The automaker's current owner Cerberus Capital Management would be wiped
Parking
Worked as planned.
The point of increasing parking fees isn't just to soak drivers, it's to reduce the amount of additional congestion cost by people driving around looking for parking spaces. If I was the benevolent dictator I'd soak drivers and spend it on SUPERTRAINS, bad sadly even if I was the benevolent dictator, the Philadelphia Parking Authority would be more powerful than me.
Parking is getting easier in Center City, apparently because of higher parking meter rates enacted in January, according to the most recent "meter occupancy rate" survey by the Philadelphia Parking Authority.
A year ago, 97 percent of Center City meters were occupied during business hours. Now, 77 percent are, said PPA spokeswoman Linda Miller.
The point of increasing parking fees isn't just to soak drivers, it's to reduce the amount of additional congestion cost by people driving around looking for parking spaces. If I was the benevolent dictator I'd soak drivers and spend it on SUPERTRAINS, bad sadly even if I was the benevolent dictator, the Philadelphia Parking Authority would be more powerful than me.
Meanwhile
Over there.
Don't worry Tom Friedman, they're still sucking on it!
- BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Six car bombings in a four-hour period killed 48 people and wounded 81 in various Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday, according to Iraq's Interior Ministry.
Don't worry Tom Friedman, they're still sucking on it!
Need
Certainly not a surprising fact for me. Most people in this country, given where they choose to live, need cars. Living without not just a household car but one car for every driving age member of the household is, if not impossible, quite unpleasant.
Policies are in large part to blame for this, and this can be true even if you think typical car-centric suburban living is what most people genuinely want. People do make choices, but their choices are impacted by available options and their prices. With minor policy changes (transit, zoning and land use) you can leave in place car-centric suburbia while reducing car dependency. Your teenage children will thank you for it.
Policies are in large part to blame for this, and this can be true even if you think typical car-centric suburban living is what most people genuinely want. People do make choices, but their choices are impacted by available options and their prices. With minor policy changes (transit, zoning and land use) you can leave in place car-centric suburbia while reducing car dependency. Your teenage children will thank you for it.
Since I Was Picking On North Philly Yesterday
I should note that things are frequently not too much better south of City Hall. While not exactly at subway stop, the block between Catharine and Christian on Broad St. really should not have a gas station, a Dunkin Donuts, a McDonalds, a Popeye's and a Rite-Aid all with front of store parking.
H1N1
Local teevee station interrupted my sausage purchasing at the Italian Market. They're doing a piece on whether or not fear of swine flu is hurting the pork products trade.
Who's The Boss
Must be nice to be a bankster. Almost destroy the world economy, and still senators beg for your approval.
Fluff
I'm one who thinks that it's perfectly fine to have a vegetables and dessert approach to news. Provide some tasty sweets along with the broccoli, and people can enjoy informing themselves. The problem is, as Boehlert says, for so many in the press corps the fluff is what's important. More than that, the news consuming public also starts to think that the fluff is what's important and that being an informed citizen is about knowing what was in MoDo's latest column.
I don't have a problem with reporting on presidential puppies and other similar things, I just have a problem with an elite press that is more interested in presidential puppies than policy.
I don't have a problem with reporting on presidential puppies and other similar things, I just have a problem with an elite press that is more interested in presidential puppies than policy.
She Should Call Michael Moore Fat
The trouble facing so-called Republican "moderates" (all 2 of them) is that aside from a general fealty to the Bush years and, of course, tax cuts, being a conservative in good standing has little to do with anything policy related. It's why snarlin' Arlen couldn't just come up with a couple wingnutty proposals (flat tax!) and expect conservative Republican voters to applaud. Even though Specter was hardly a thorn in Bush's side over the last several years, he didn't sufficiently adopt the identity politics of the Republican tribe. So the tribe rejected him.
Olympia Snowe probably should make a few more Michael Moore is fat comments.
Olympia Snowe probably should make a few more Michael Moore is fat comments.
Boom
So many people underwater.
There's been much less reporting lately on the state of foreclosure-filled neighborhoods and related.
Phoenix home prices fell 35 percent from February 2008 to February 2009, according to the new S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index. That’s the largest decline of any of the 20 largest cities in the U.S. In addition, Phoenix home prices are down 51 percent from their peak.
There's been much less reporting lately on the state of foreclosure-filled neighborhoods and related.
Ouch
I don't think people really get how bad this is getting....
The U.S. economy contracted at a surprisingly sharp 6.1 percent rate in the first quarter as exports and business inventories plummeted.
The drop in gross domestic product, reported by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, was much steeper than the 4.9 percent annual rate expected by economists and followed a 6.3 percent decline in the fourth quarter.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Almost There
I expect politicians to be way behind the public, but that's pretty common.
All we'd need is a popular charismatic politician to take the lead on an issue like this... I wonder who that person could be...hmm...
Forty-two percent of Americans now say same sex couples should be allowed to legally marry, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. That's up nine points from last month, when 33 percent supported legalizing same sex marriage.
All we'd need is a popular charismatic politician to take the lead on an issue like this... I wonder who that person could be...hmm...
Spectered
I'm obviously not very optimistic that this will lead to good. I've lived under the wanktitude of Specter long enough to know that he rarely actually does anything positive. As Harry Reid said to a small group of bloggers last year in Denver, (quote from memory) "Arlen Specter's with us except when we need him." Question now is whether Specter will be with them when they do need him.
On the plus side, Senate staffers inform me that Republicans in the Senate are visibly in agony right now. So at least we have that!
On the plus side, Senate staffers inform me that Republicans in the Senate are visibly in agony right now. So at least we have that!
Promises
Shuster just said that Dems promised not to field primary candidate against Specter. Obviously they can't stop someone from running, but it does mean the state party and the DSCC will throw their weight behind Specter to some degree.
Craptacular.
Craptacular.
Crap
I hope this works out better than I expect, but 60 nominal Ds doesn't equal 60 votes. Specter's still free to be a dick in the Senate, and I expect the state Dem party to welcome him with open arms and push all challengers away from the primary. Though it does open the door for a non-insider candidate to run and perhaps have a more realistic chance than they would have otherwise.
SUPERTRAINS TO NOWHERE
In an article comparing two exurbs, Badler thinks the unthinkable.
It's almost impossible to imagine now, but right now we build highways to nowhere in advance of development. That drives the development patterns, and makes it difficult and perhaps pointless to later add in any kind of mass transit. Back in the good old days before widespread automobile use, train lines drove the development patterns, including in the original streetcar city, Los Angeles.
Ideally, trains should be built in advance of, not after, residential and commercial development. That is how the subways were built in New York City a century ago, where they extended to the then-rural far reaches of the outer boroughs while the commuter train went to small towns that are now big suburbs. This allowed dense development nodes to spring up around the train stations. As a result, New York has the best mass-transit use in the nation: 57 percent of New York City commuters use mass transit to get to work, whereas 85 percent of the nation's workers need a car to get to their job. New York is also proof that traffic is good: Many of those commuters would drive were it not for Manhattan's density and resulting traffic snarls during business hours.
It's almost impossible to imagine now, but right now we build highways to nowhere in advance of development. That drives the development patterns, and makes it difficult and perhaps pointless to later add in any kind of mass transit. Back in the good old days before widespread automobile use, train lines drove the development patterns, including in the original streetcar city, Los Angeles.
TOD
A sad issue in some places is that even when there is actual mass transit, the development around the transit isn't suitable.
Through the magic of the Google you can see the area in question.
Girard's just a few stops north of City Hall. The #15 trolley also runs through that intersection. North Philly hasn't exactly been booming in recent decades, so it's somewhat understandable that the city welcomed any development at all to places like that, but hopefully things...will change.
Bev Coleman, executive director of NeighborhoodsNow and an outspoken advocate for transit-oriented developments in middle- and low-income neighborhoods, points to the subway stop at Broad and Girard as a perfect example of what's wrong.
"On two of the corners, the north corners, you have two drive-thru fast-food restaurants," Coleman said. "Well, why do you need such an auto-oriented use at a transit hub?"
Through the magic of the Google you can see the area in question.
Girard's just a few stops north of City Hall. The #15 trolley also runs through that intersection. North Philly hasn't exactly been booming in recent decades, so it's somewhat understandable that the city welcomed any development at all to places like that, but hopefully things...will change.
Journalists Against Journalism
I know Scarborough is more political hack and commentator than journalist, but he nonetheless participates in part of the universe of what we, for better or for worse, call journalism. And he's against it.
In a sane world such a comment, both insulting and stupid, would cause a few more people to reconsider going on his show. And I bet Dana Priest won't go on his show! But, you know, Dancing Dave and the gang will.
In a sane world such a comment, both insulting and stupid, would cause a few more people to reconsider going on his show. And I bet Dana Priest won't go on his show! But, you know, Dancing Dave and the gang will.
Positive 2nd Derivative!!!
Home prices were still down in Februrary.
- Prices of U.S. single-family homes fell 18.6 percent in February from a year earlier but the rapid pace of decline slowed, perhaps indicating the housing market may be nudging closer to a bottom, according to Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released on Tuesday. ... S&P said its composite index of 10 metropolitan areas declined 2.1 percent in February from January for an 18.8 percent year-over-year drop. The 10-city index dates to 1988.
Mysteries of Twitter Revealed
You know how when you look at the picture on Rick Sanchez's Twitter feed, you don't see above his hairline?
That's so you don't see the clown head on the spring. Hehindeed.
(Below: Rick Sanchez drives a car!)
That's so you don't see the clown head on the spring. Hehindeed.
(Below: Rick Sanchez drives a car!)
Monday, April 27, 2009
Our Awesome Media
But kudos to the NYT for revisiting.
Suck on that America!
- In late 2007, there was the first crack of daylight into the government’s use of waterboarding during interrogations of Al Qaeda detainees. On Dec. 10, John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer who had participated in the capture of the suspected terrorist Abu Zubaydah in Pakistan in 2002, appeared on ABC News to say that while he considered waterboarding a form of torture, the technique worked and yielded results very quickly.
Mr. Zubaydah started to cooperate after being waterboarded for “probably 30, 35 seconds,” Mr. Kiriakou told the ABC reporter Brian Ross. “From that day on he answered every question.”
His claims — unverified at the time, but repeated by dozens of broadcasts, blogs and newspapers — have been sharply contradicted by a newly declassified Justice Department memo that said waterboarding had been used on Mr. Zubaydah “at least 83 times.”
Suck on that America!
Our Moral Betters
The people the Villagers have anointed as our moral leaders are, for the most part, monsters.
Supervillains
The Villagers and the bedwetter crowd really bought into the alleged-terrorists-as-supervillains frame. It helped justify the extreme treatment they received. It's pretty damn hard to keep Magneto locked up, after all, the consequences of letting him get out would catastrophic.
Once A Genius Like Larry Realizes It
It's sad that in finance, as with going to war and killing lots of people, only the people who get a clue 10 years too late are "serious."
Nationalizing The Means Of Production!
Some actual socialism!
The U.S. Treasury would own at least a 50 percent stake in General Motors under a plan the company released today to avoid bankruptcy.
The strategy would essentially formalize the government's control over one of the icons of corporate America.
...
Under the outlines announced yesterday, the federal government would take an equity stake of at least 50 percent, the United Auto Workers would take as much as 39 percent, the company's bondholders would get 10 percent and the existing shareholders 1 percent.
Even More Car Share
Former PCS employee gives his take. As I said, as a customer, I, personally, have been satisfied and never had the complaints that I've seen many make, which is not to suggest that the complaints of others aren't valid. Not having any knowledge of their expenses/revenue/financial situation I can't comment on that. The too-frequent rate changes haven't really bothered me, though as Albert says they did suggest a company unsure of just what the hell it was doing. While an operation like theirs can't function solely on customer goodwill, I also think that customer goodwill is very important for a car sharing program. You can't always rely on people to behave appropriately just because they're good citizens, but fostering a climate where more people feel inclined to behave well can definitely reduce problems, and since their accelerated expansion they haven't been very good that.
Heckuva Job
Bush long clinged to climbing homeownership rates as proof the economy under him was awesome. Oh well.
I personally don't think perpetually rising homeownership rates are a good thing. Not everyone wants the responsibility of homeownership. There are large transaction costs involved, so it can diminish geographic mobility.
I personally don't think perpetually rising homeownership rates are a good thing. Not everyone wants the responsibility of homeownership. There are large transaction costs involved, so it can diminish geographic mobility.
The Tell
Of this piece was, of course, that it was directed at women. Women should marry young so that they have fewer sexual partners so that they don't waste time "barhopping" in their 20s.
Our elite media seems to love to publish creepy old dudes who are obsessed with what young women spend their time doing.
Our elite media seems to love to publish creepy old dudes who are obsessed with what young women spend their time doing.
More Carsharing
I pay the $15/month, which is actually a household rate, not an individual one, so this change isn't going to impact me. But to respond to people who wonder why anyone bothers with carsharing instead of just using rental cars, a bunch of reasons:
1) Renting cars downtown is generally a bit more expensive than other places.
2) If you don't have a car and car insurance, renting a car is even more expensive because you need to add on liability insurance.
3) Quite often you just don't need a car for an entire day! Just want to run an errand that takes 90 minutes.
4) Using carshare is easy and takes zero time. Click on the online reservation system, then go get your car. Key FOB opens door, keys are in car. No paperwork, no dealing with humans, no inspecting the car, no need to always return with full tank, etc. Transaction cost/time almost nonexistent.
5) Cars are much more conveniently located than rental companies. Cars are placed in neighborhoods either on designated on-street spots, in reserved spots in municipal or private parking lots, or sometimes in private household spots that people have provided to the organization. There are probably 30 vehicles, including vans and pickup trucks good for hauling, within a 10 minute walk from me.
6) Even if you want a car for a whole day, daily rates (which regularly change depending on the mood of the organization), are just about competitive with rental car companies, depending on what kind of specials they're offering.
1) Renting cars downtown is generally a bit more expensive than other places.
2) If you don't have a car and car insurance, renting a car is even more expensive because you need to add on liability insurance.
3) Quite often you just don't need a car for an entire day! Just want to run an errand that takes 90 minutes.
4) Using carshare is easy and takes zero time. Click on the online reservation system, then go get your car. Key FOB opens door, keys are in car. No paperwork, no dealing with humans, no inspecting the car, no need to always return with full tank, etc. Transaction cost/time almost nonexistent.
5) Cars are much more conveniently located than rental companies. Cars are placed in neighborhoods either on designated on-street spots, in reserved spots in municipal or private parking lots, or sometimes in private household spots that people have provided to the organization. There are probably 30 vehicles, including vans and pickup trucks good for hauling, within a 10 minute walk from me.
6) Even if you want a car for a whole day, daily rates (which regularly change depending on the mood of the organization), are just about competitive with rental car companies, depending on what kind of specials they're offering.
Philly Car Share Fail
While I'm a big booster of them generally, I do think a late-Friday cancel your account by May 1 or you'll start getting charged a monthly fee email is a pretty asshole way to do business. I think it's a shame if they end the no monthly fee rate tier,* though it might be something they need to do to maintain their business model, but it's the kind of thing they should give a bit more warning about.
Generally, the organization has made it quite easy to be car free in the city, with a full range of vehicles available throughout center city and beyond. A system like that is never going to be perfect, though I've never had the complaints that I've seen expressed by many online grumblers.
*There were two rate tiers: if you paid $15/month, the hourly rates were cheaper than if you didn't pay the $15/month.
Generally, the organization has made it quite easy to be car free in the city, with a full range of vehicles available throughout center city and beyond. A system like that is never going to be perfect, though I've never had the complaints that I've seen expressed by many online grumblers.
*There were two rate tiers: if you paid $15/month, the hourly rates were cheaper than if you didn't pay the $15/month.
Torture Is Bad
I'm not really sure that the job of the news media should be to "moral clarity and leadership" as Will Bunch suggests, but it's obviously the role that many of them have imagined for themselves. It is David Broder's job, and he sucks ass at it. He's an enabler of moral monstrosities, wrapping sociopaths in neat WASP packages. But I think much of the problem is that elite journalists have styled themselves as the country's shepherds, trying to herd the wayward flock towards its appropriate destination.
But, more generally, it is the case that journalists should stop pretending they can't make judgment calls. They do it all the time, both explicitly (I think they're allowed to think that racism is "bad," even if the details are messier than that), and in ways which require them to spend a lot of time going through contortions to pretend that they aren't.
But, more generally, it is the case that journalists should stop pretending they can't make judgment calls. They do it all the time, both explicitly (I think they're allowed to think that racism is "bad," even if the details are messier than that), and in ways which require them to spend a lot of time going through contortions to pretend that they aren't.
Ruled By Their Base
I'm so old I can remember when it was Village conventional wisdom that Democrats were too ruled by the all-powerful Left. Then in 2004 the Dems proved it by, for a moment, making it look like they were going to nominate a centrist governor from Vermont who committed the sin of opposing the stupidest fucking war ever. The point being, it was never true. More importantly, if it was the case that one politcal party was dominated by its base, one wonders why our sainted agendaless news media never bothered to actually give any kind of platform to those who apparently ran the party.
Now, of course, the Republicans are run by residents of crazy base land. Good that the media is finally starting to notice.
Now, of course, the Republicans are run by residents of crazy base land. Good that the media is finally starting to notice.
Saving The Local Newspaper
As I've written a couple of times, too often the "how do we save newspapers" issue is written as a content-based criticism (how do we make people like our product more?!?) rather than a focus on other aspects of the business. But, still, circulation declines some places are huge.
And while obviously the internet is an issue, as are financial issues (big debt) facing some newspapers, it's also the case that there's probably still time to ask that question... just what will inspire people to pay 75 cents (or whatever) for this pile of paper every day? In an overwhelmingly Democratic city, it ain't Rick Santorum columns.
The Philadelphia Inquirer lost 13.7% of its daily circulation to 288,298. Sunday was hit just as hard, down 12% to 550,400. Daily circulation at its sister publication the Daily News fell 7.6% to 99,103.
And while obviously the internet is an issue, as are financial issues (big debt) facing some newspapers, it's also the case that there's probably still time to ask that question... just what will inspire people to pay 75 cents (or whatever) for this pile of paper every day? In an overwhelmingly Democratic city, it ain't Rick Santorum columns.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The New Vikings
The story of Iceland's financial collapse is pretty fascinating, though admittedly not all that much different than what happened here.
WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!
Whenever there's a potential emergency looming, I really get the feeling that many internet dwellers get a bit too excited to the point of cheering for it.
Why Not More Like This
I have been a bit puzzled why there haven't been more things like this.
I don't mean precisely that model, necessarily, and this kind of thing isn't a substitute for comprehensive health insurance (or, of course, comprehensive national health care). But it's a bit weird that people have trouble just going to the doctor for the little stuff, and it seems like there should be opportunities for either for-profit or non-profits to fill that gap fairly affordably.
Dr. Ores is also a physician who runs a nonprofit health care cooperative for city restaurant workers that he sees as a model for how national health care could work. The undertaking, which he began last summer, is particularly timely as President Obama contemplates an overhaul of the nation’s health insurance system.
“It’s like a food co-op,” Dr. Ores, 51, said of the project. “Except it’s health care.”
Under the plan, he charges each restaurant a dollar each month for every seat in the establishment and pools the money. In return, any employee from those restaurants can visit him free of charge, whether for a cut finger or the flu.
I don't mean precisely that model, necessarily, and this kind of thing isn't a substitute for comprehensive health insurance (or, of course, comprehensive national health care). But it's a bit weird that people have trouble just going to the doctor for the little stuff, and it seems like there should be opportunities for either for-profit or non-profits to fill that gap fairly affordably.
Larry's Not Optimistic
That sounds a bit harsher than previous assessments.
April 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy will continue to contract “for some time to come,” said Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council.
“I expect the economy will continue to decline,” with “sharp declines in employment for quite some time this year,” Summers said today on “Fox News Sunday.”
Right Track
I was long somewhat puzzled by the extraordinarily bad "wrong track" numbers that pollsters would obtain during the last couple of years of the Bush administration. By puzzled I mean that I wasn't exactly sure what was driving them. There were a bunch of possibilities, but I just wasn't sure what the main answer was.
Now that the right track numbers are pretty good again, despite all of the problems in the economy, I think we have our answer. People just couldn't fucking stand George Bush.
Now that the right track numbers are pretty good again, despite all of the problems in the economy, I think we have our answer. People just couldn't fucking stand George Bush.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Hitler of the Week, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on This Week.
Shocker guest John McCain and Patrick Leahy on Face the Nation.
Robert Gibbs, King Abdullah, and Doris Kearns Goodwin on Meet the Press.
Document the atrocities!
Shocker guest John McCain and Patrick Leahy on Face the Nation.
Robert Gibbs, King Abdullah, and Doris Kearns Goodwin on Meet the Press.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Spring in an Urban Hellhole
I dodged the bullets whizzing overhead to go out to have a nice lunch at Bistrot la Minette, followed by a post-lunch drink at Parc.
It's hell.
It's hell.
SELL SELL SELL
A bit of a signal.
April 24 (Bloomberg) -- Executives and insiders at U.S. companies are taking advantage of the steepest stock market gains since 1938 to unload shares at the fastest pace since the start of the bear market.
So Sorry
It's really quite absurd for the Washington Post to let some anonymous people spin on Jay Bybee's behalf.
But Dick Cheney Has Memo
Explaining how waterboarding stopped the Mothra attack.
WASHINGTON — The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.
Glennzilla En Fuego
Dancin' Dave and his colleagues really, really want torture to be a partisan issue. Glenn says "Ahem. No." This is about Versailles on the Potomac.
Friday, April 24, 2009
EATED
First Bank of Beverly Hills, Calabasas, CA gets EATED.
Heritage Bank, Farmington Hills, MI gets EATED.
American Southern Bank, Kennesaw, GA gets EATED.
Heritage Bank, Farmington Hills, MI gets EATED.
American Southern Bank, Kennesaw, GA gets EATED.
Hey, Someone Seems To Get It
Rick Sanchez:
@westphillyguy,so 1st we lie 2 go 2 war,then we execute badly,in process we torture people to get them 2 say we didn't lie,but we did.damn
On Dancing With The Devil
I really never understand the point of pretending everybody agrees when...they don't!
Residential Gentrification
One issue in neighborhoods like mine and ones nearby, which once had more thriving retail (either corridors or on corners), then went into decline, and now are returning to life, is the degree to which neighborhood groups will welcome the return of more commercial establishments. Concerns about parking and noise are real, and it's easy to decry NIMBYism until someone tries to put in a bar next door to you, but following the various goings on at neighborhood groups I get the sense that there's a bit more resistance to projects than would be ideal.
Checked Baggage
I don't have any particular fetish for increasing the ease of transporting firearms around, but I don't think there's any problem with allowing guns in checked baggage on trains.
Didn't even know you could check your baggage on Amtrak. Apparently you can in many stations!
Didn't even know you could check your baggage on Amtrak. Apparently you can in many stations!
Radicalizing
As Krugman says, the period leading up to the Iraq war was indeed a radicalizing experience. I think there were plenty of people like me who had a degree of faith in elite opinion, in the sensible people in nice suits, which I never will again.
And those people hate the dirty fucking hippies more than ever for the simple crime of being correct.
And those people hate the dirty fucking hippies more than ever for the simple crime of being correct.
Stupid Pennsylvania Tricks
The state party's tendency to try to anoint a candidate for any statewide office and push everyone else out of the way is very annoying. Primaries can be good things, in terms of forcing candidates to actually campaign, the airing of any potential scandals/bad information early, increasing the name recognition for the eventual winner, etc.
Servicers
The banksters don't want to be responsible for anything it seems.
I'm sure some beancounters think this is a good idea, but I'm pretty sure this is really really stupid. Failure to maintain these properties is going to leave the banks with title to squatter-filled gutted shells with a mosquito farm in the pool.
With tens of thousands of homes across Florida left abandoned and overgrown by the foreclosure crisis, governments from Miami to Winter Garden have responded by sending crews out to mow lawns, clean pools and do other basic work -- leaving behind bills for the banks to pay once they take possession of the property.
The state's banking industry wants to put a stop to the practice.
Banking lobbyists have quietly crafted a measure in the Florida Legislature that would prevent cities and counties from forcing the banks that hold mortgages on properties in foreclosure to maintain those properties until they have actually acquired the title to the land -- a process that can take six months or more to complete. The language, written by the Florida Bankers Association, would also prevent cities from establishing registries to keep track of all the foreclosed homes in their area.
I'm sure some beancounters think this is a good idea, but I'm pretty sure this is really really stupid. Failure to maintain these properties is going to leave the banks with title to squatter-filled gutted shells with a mosquito farm in the pool.
PIKs
I really do hope that Larry and Timmeh get that turning the machines back on and returning to a world where massive amounts of cheap credit are available regardless of ability to repay is actually a bad idea.
And this idea that banks just need to lend more... to whom? For what?
And this idea that banks just need to lend more... to whom? For what?
Meanwhile
Over there.
BAGHDAD — Twin suicide bombers struck outside the gates of the holiest Shiite site in Baghdad on Friday, killing at least 60 people and wounding scores more, according to preliminary reports from police officials.
Versailles
During the 90s and the whole Lewinsky saga I just thought the Villagers were a bunch of shallow childish gossips. Now I understand that they're much more malicious than that, a corrupt class of moral monsters dedicated to the preservation of their status and privilege.
At least it's easier to point that out, now.
At least it's easier to point that out, now.
Morning Thread
Today Joe Barton will outwit the Surgeon General by asking "Where do babies come from?"
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Intends
It is weird how every story about financial institutions reminds us they they plan to pay the money back...some day...
April 23 (Bloomberg) -- American Express Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, beat analysts’ profit estimates and said that it intends to repay the government’s rescue-fund investment. The bank rose in late New York trading.
Humble Beginnings
I believe I first met Ezra Klein when he was unable to legally drink.
And let's hope his new employer lets him, politely at least, point out just how awful they can be sometimes.
And let's hope his new employer lets him, politely at least, point out just how awful they can be sometimes.
How About "Alleged Torture"
I could settle for that. You know, Dick Cheney, alleged torture mastermind and alleged war criminal.
Know Nothing
I'm not even sure what point O'Reilly is trying to make by drawing a distinction between meeting with Mao vs. meeting with the Prime Minister.
Obsessed With The Sex Lives Of Girls
Just watched Jessica Valenti on the Today Show swimming upstream against the stupid that is Kathy Lee Gifford. Talk about women "giving themselves" to men makes me want to shoot someone in the face.
So buy her book!
So buy her book!
Who's The Boss
The most depressing thing about this story about the behind the scenes maneuvering on mortgage modification in bankruptcy is just how much it's acknowledged that the members of the Senate negotiate with the banksters.
No self-respect, apparently.
No self-respect, apparently.
Meanwhile
Over there.
BAGHDAD — Two massive suicide attacks killed at least 50 people and possibly dozens more in Iraq on Thursday.
Times Change
It's remarkable that it's no longer seen as remarkable when a plurality (in NJ) support gay marriage.
The Villagers Heart Torture
The number of media outlets who have done what Andrea Mitchell has done, emphasizing the awesomeness of torture while ignoring the not awesome, tell us a lot.
Thursday is New Jobless Day
No it's not over.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 640,000 in the week ended April 18 from a revised 613,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said.
...
Continuing claims rose 93,000 to 6,137,000, setting a record for the 12th straight week. That number measures the amount of workers who collected unemployment benefits for more than one week during April.
Breaking News
Irrelevant Lunatics Throw Pointless Tantrum.
I'm glad Politico got this hot hot scoop, and with any luck Drudge may give them a link.
I'm glad Politico got this hot hot scoop, and with any luck Drudge may give them a link.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Knowns and Unknowns
Passing over Harman was always slightly odd.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was notified that intelligence agents had eavesdropped on Rep. Jane Harman’s conversations three years ago.
This means the Speaker knew about the wiretap when she decided to stop Harman from becoming chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Monsters
The worst people in the world.
Condoleezza Rice, John D. Ashcroft and at least 10 other top Bush officials reviewed and approved as early as the summer of 2002 the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods on detainees at secret prisons, including waterboarding that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has described as illegal torture, according to a detailed timeline furnished by Holder to the Senate Intelligence Committee.
...
Rice gave a key early approval, when, as Bush's national security adviser, she met on July 17, 2002, with the CIA's then-director, George J. Tenet, and "advised that the CIA could proceed with its proposed interrogation of Abu Zubaydah," subject to approval by the Justice Department, according to the timeline. Rice and four other White House officials had been briefed two months earlier on "alternative interrogation methods, including waterboarding," it states. Waterboarding is a technique that simulates drowning.
Dear Steny
If members of Congress don't have anything to hide, then they don't have anything to worry about.
Mobility
Census sez that people moved a lot less last year. On one hand it isn't too surprising, given the problems with the housing market. On the other hand it is a bit surprising, given the problems with the economy.
Only Liars And Idiots
The Saddam-al Qaeda-9/11 connection was always transparently false. It was an obvious fabrication. I don't know if all involved with torturing the shit of people knew that, but certainly the people pushing for the "information" did. So false confessions were, you know, what they were looking for.
Thanks Oh Wise Men Of Washington.
Thanks Oh Wise Men Of Washington.
Majorities
I noticed Timmeh's comment in press reports yesterday, too. What I wondered was who he was trying to deceive? I mean, presumably the masters of the universe, as much as they've fucked everything up, understand the distinction. And I'm not sure what deceiving the general press or the public achieves. So what's the point?
The Wise Men Of Washington
From 2001.
The author, Alter, is a Village liberal, remember.
Thanks Oh Wise Men Of Washington for all you're responsible for.
In this autumn of anger, even a liberal can find his thoughts turning to... torture. OK, not cattle prods or rubber hoses, at least not here in the United States, but something to jump-start the stalled investigation of the greatest crime in American history. Right now, four key hijacking suspects aren't talking at all.
Couldn't we at least subject them to psychological torture, like tapes of dying rabbits or high-decibel rap? (The military has done that in Panama and elsewhere.) How about truth serum, administered with a mandatory IV? Or deportation to Saudi Arabia, land of beheadings? (As the frustrated FBI has been threatening.) Some people still argue that we needn't rethink any of our old assumptions about law enforcement, but they're hopelessly "Sept. 10"--living in a country that no longer exists.
The author, Alter, is a Village liberal, remember.
Thanks Oh Wise Men Of Washington for all you're responsible for.
The Purpose Of Torture
Aside from providing an outlet for sadists is, of course, to extract false confessions.
Thanks, Oh Wise Men Of Washington. It's always a bit traumatic remembering those crazy days of 2002 when only stupid dirty fucking hippie bloggers thought invading Iraq was a bit of a bad idea.
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration put relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.
Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. No evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime.
Thanks, Oh Wise Men Of Washington. It's always a bit traumatic remembering those crazy days of 2002 when only stupid dirty fucking hippie bloggers thought invading Iraq was a bit of a bad idea.
Odd Developments
No idea what to make of this.
(CBS/AP) A top executive at Freddie Mac was found dead Wednesday morning in an apparent suicide, according to CBS affiliate WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C.
David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer and senior vice president of the government-sponsored mortgage lender, was found dead in his home after his wife alerted Fairfax County Police to his suicide, authorities told WUSA.
Good Morning!
So is it a SUPERTRAIN day? A day to celebrate walkability? Or will our traditional media friends catch up on the whole "extra-legal" torture business? I still find it kinda astounding that Joe Klein would actually write down that particular euphemism.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Support Marcy Wheeler
Marcy Wheeler represents the best of the left blogosphere; from the Plame investigation, the Scooter Libby trial, to the current torture memo stuff, she's gone into the weeds and come back with treasure the insider media would rather ignore. Hell, just a few days ago she scooped the New York Times on the waterboarding memos.
She's earned our support. So go support her.
MORE. NTodd wants money too -- ordinarily I'd just laugh, but then, it is to help get him out of the country...
She's earned our support. So go support her.
MORE. NTodd wants money too -- ordinarily I'd just laugh, but then, it is to help get him out of the country...
Dear Jane
If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.
Love,
All the people illegally wiretapped in the program you repeatedly supported.
Love,
All the people illegally wiretapped in the program you repeatedly supported.
Big Time
Obviously I have no personal insight into the evolution of Dick Cheney's character, but I think it's a big mistake to buy into theories about medically-induced personality transformation. Some people are evil bastards who when constrained by the normal circumstances of life feel the need to behave. Then you go earn tons of money at a major international corporation and evolve into a fourth branch of government and you suddenly find yourself unfettered by previous constraints on your behavior.
Deep Thought From Newt Gingrich
Please never stop.
- @JohnNess slurp is much more than a teabag. Slurp is proof of the phony accounting and long term debt of the geithner system.
Capitol Parking
I wandered in the vicinity of the Capitol today, the area between Union Station and the Senate offices, and I was struck, as I have been before, by how all the surface parking in that area pretty much ruins what could be very nice area. Apart from removing the potential for desirable retail development in an area which doesn't have all that much (at least right by the Capitol), it's pretty damn ugly. I'd lean towards development, as the Mall area generally is already a bit too commerce free, but even some nicely landscaped parks would improve the aesthetics of the area greatly.
Dr. Doom
When reading this, it's worth remembering that while Roubini may have been a bit early with some of his predictions, otherwise he has, if anything, been more optimistic than he should have been.
Go Away Norm
I'd be a little more in the mood to the transparent foolishness that is Norm Coleman if we hadn't had a rather important transparently foolish and ultimately catastrophic election-related judicial ruling in the not too distant pass.
We'll find out eventually...
We'll find out eventually...
Panty Sniffing Perverts
This is all so absurd. At least the girl gets it.
Marissa and her parents joined a group of about 50 others at the courthouse. Before showing the photos, Mr. Skumanick explained his offer to the crowd, answering one father's question affirmatively, that -- yes -- a girl in a bathing suit could be subjected to criminal charges because she was posed "provocatively."
Mr. Skumanick told them he could have simply charged the kids. Instead, he gave them two weeks to decide: take the class or face charges.
He then told the parents and teens to line up if they wanted to view the photos, which were printed out onto index cards. As the 17-year-old who took semi-nude self-portraits waited in line, she realized that Mr. Skumanick and other investigators had viewed the pictures. When the adults began to crowd around Mr. Skumanick, the 17-year-old worried they could see her photo and recalls she said, "I think the worst punishment is knowing that all you old guys saw me naked. I just think you guys are all just perverts."
Justice
I'm so old I can remember those ancient days when it was accepted that the Justice Department was independent from the president, that the Attorney General and others should make decisions absent political considerations, and that when it seemed as if independence might not be possible, the AG should recuse him/herself and appoint a special prosecutor.
I'm not the first person to bring this up recently, but the point is that it shouldn't be Obama's and Rahm Emmanuel's decision whether to prosecute anybody. If there's suspicion and clear evidence that people broke laws, an inquiry should begin. If the AG feels undue pressure from President Change and his gang then he should appoint a special prosecutor to try to wall off the investigation from political pressure.
I'm not the first person to bring this up recently, but the point is that it shouldn't be Obama's and Rahm Emmanuel's decision whether to prosecute anybody. If there's suspicion and clear evidence that people broke laws, an inquiry should begin. If the AG feels undue pressure from President Change and his gang then he should appoint a special prosecutor to try to wall off the investigation from political pressure.
Oust
Perhaps they should go, no?
But then, we live in the accountability-free "look forward, not backward" era.
April 21 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc.’s board will likely survive a shareholder vote at today’s annual meeting, even after overseeing $28 billion in losses and a 77 percent stock decline last year. The U.S. government may be less forgiving.
The Treasury Department, which will become the biggest shareholder in New York-based Citigroup when the bank converts as much as $52 billion of preferred stock into common shares as soon as next month, may order the resignations of some long- serving board members to show they’re accountable, according to Peter Sorrentino, a senior portfolio manager at Cincinnati-based Huntington Asset Advisors, which has about $13.3 billion under management, including 1.5 million Citigroup shares.
“There has to be a cleaning of all that was at Citigroup,” Sorrentino said. “Anyone who was involved with the board in the lead-up to the crisis is tainted.” Board members who “sanctioned the risks that were taken and the business practices followed” will likely be replaced by the government by the end of the year, he said.
But then, we live in the accountability-free "look forward, not backward" era.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Torture
Joe Klein bobs and weaves. Torture is torture. But now at least he seems to feel bad about it. Not so bad that people who broke the law should be prosecuted, but he feels bad.
Looking Out For Shareholders
I don't ever want to hear about fiduciary obligations to shareholders again.
Top officials at Chrysler Financial turned away a $750 million government loan because executives didn't want to abide by new federal limits on pay, sources familiar with the matter say.
The government had been offering the loan earlier this month as part of its efforts to prop up the ailing auto industry, including Chrysler, which is racing to avoid bankruptcy. Chrysler Financial is a vital lender to Chrysler dealerships and customers.
In forgoing the loan, Chrysler Financial opted to use more expensive financing from private banks, adding to the burdens of the already fragile automaker and its financing company.
And Speaking Of Old Media Ethics
I don't think a Pulitzer will be enough to give the military analyst story more attention.
If You Respond Only To Crazy Critics, Your Critics Are Crazy
I really don't know why the Treasury is responding to Hal Turner.
Oh Make It Stop
Steve Roberts now worries that on the internets people only go to sites which reinforce their pre-existing opinions.
This is cutting edge conventional wisdom from 2004.
...and it stopped!
This is cutting edge conventional wisdom from 2004.
...and it stopped!
Reporters Confuse Me
Steve Roberts is defending spending immense amounts of money putting multiple reporters on campaign planes because good campaign reporting requires (paraphrasing) having a diversity of opinions, viewpoints, and interests.
I though all such things were supposed to be checked at the door by serious journalists?
He also thinks Dan Rather (who should have had his career destroyed) and Mayhill Fowler were critical moments in the evolution of new and old media.
I feel smarter.
...Roberts tells me that new media can learn "a sense of ethical standards" from old media.
Awesome.
I though all such things were supposed to be checked at the door by serious journalists?
He also thinks Dan Rather (who should have had his career destroyed) and Mayhill Fowler were critical moments in the evolution of new and old media.
I feel smarter.
...Roberts tells me that new media can learn "a sense of ethical standards" from old media.
Awesome.
More Revelations
Hayden doesn't think we should reveal any awful stuff we've done because if we do so then even more awful stuff might be revealed.
Maybe we shouldn't have done the awful stuff?
Maybe we shouldn't have done the awful stuff?
Overstating
Glennzilla's correct that I overstated by making it sound as if there was some deal between Gonzales and Harman as opposed to Gonzales realizing the desirable of having a valuable team player in place and unsullied by scandal.
Politics
The thing about politics is that it is, in part, about cutting deals to try to achieve certain ends. We all basically agree that cutting deals for personal enrichment is wrong. Cutting explicit deals for campaign contributions is also wrong, but making friendly noises to various interests in the hopes of getting those donations is seedy but standard. And you can go on down the line and come up with various examples of "dealmaking" which would probably seem pretty sordid, but which aren't illegal and might not really be corruption even if there's something a bit smelly about the whole process.
So, yes, I imagine if, say, the executive branch decided to put wiretaps on members of Congress they would, at the very least, obtain stuff which which sounded corrupt even if it was part of the normal sausagemaking process. The point is most of them could be shamed out of office even if they were playing by the understood rules of the day.
This is part of the reason why liberal hysterics like me think expansion of the surveillance state and the tolerance of clearly illegal surveillance might be a bad thing. But, we're a bunch of terrorist loving nutters. The good news is that it's Obama's surveillance state now! Suck on that, Republicans!
So, yes, I imagine if, say, the executive branch decided to put wiretaps on members of Congress they would, at the very least, obtain stuff which which sounded corrupt even if it was part of the normal sausagemaking process. The point is most of them could be shamed out of office even if they were playing by the understood rules of the day.
This is part of the reason why liberal hysterics like me think expansion of the surveillance state and the tolerance of clearly illegal surveillance might be a bad thing. But, we're a bunch of terrorist loving nutters. The good news is that it's Obama's surveillance state now! Suck on that, Republicans!
If You Ignore All The Bad Debt...
Then they're profitable!
I really do worry that the administration thinks that if you turn the economy around then flowers sprout in Big Shitpile. Don't think it'll happen regardless.
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors are having doubts about banks' profit reports and wondering whether their better-than-expected performance masks larger problems with bad debt.
I really do worry that the administration thinks that if you turn the economy around then flowers sprout in Big Shitpile. Don't think it'll happen regardless.
Payback
I guess I'm a bit confused by the Treasury letting some banks pay back TARP funds but, at least supposedly, not letting all of them pay it back. Is this just an obvious signal about Treasury's belief about the health of individual institutions?
Technology Discussion Can Be Kinda Weird
My travels have been, in part, to attend this conference. Current panel discussion is ranging from the persistence of identity in the online world to the appropriate use of hashtags in twitter. I find such talk interesting to some degree, but when it geeks out a bit too much I also find it to be a bit odd. I do think there's a tremendous not very understood generation gap forming between those who grew up online and those who didn't, along with the class-based digital divide within generations. I guess what I'm saying is I think the sociological discussion is fascinating, the geeky discussion not so much. Anyway, get off my lawn!
The Important Part
Without knowing more, it's certainly possible that the NSA wiretap which snared Harman was proper (as reported it was court-approved, though whether that means precisely what it should isn't necessarily the case in FISA/illegal wiretapping land) by the standards of such things. But what obviously isn't proper is the suggestion that in exchange for dropping the investigation, Harman became a cheerleader for Bush's illegal wiretapping program. I bring up the Joe Klein character because Klein was a defender and conduit of misinformation for FISA-reated stuff. And Klein's close to Harman...
...update/correction here.
...update/correction here.
Grand Unified Scandal
Over at that place where he moonlights, Attaturk has a good point by point rundown of the disturbing revelations in the CQ story. The story was the first thing I read this morning and my first thought really was that this must be a summary of a Glenn Greenwald written screenplay about Washington. All we need is the Joe Klein character to step in and say something stupid and it's all there.
Crazy Glenn Greenwald's Paranoid Delusions
Or Congressional Quarterly? Can't tell.
Nobody could have predicted...
- Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.
Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.
...
And that, contrary to reports that the Harman investigation was dropped for “lack of evidence,” it was Alberto R. Gonzales, President Bush’s top counsel and then attorney general, who intervened to stop the Harman probe.
Why? Because, according to three top former national security officials, Gonzales wanted Harman to be able to help defend the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program, which was about break in The New York Times and engulf the White House.
Nobody could have predicted...
Bobbleheads
I rely on CultureOfTruth's interpretation of the Sunday shows, so I don't have to watch them. But I'm told via twitter that Harry Smith actually raised the question of Texan secession.
Journalism!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Does The Energy Secretary Really Need That Kind Of Security Detail?
Not taking a position either way, but it's a bit sad.
- Is it true you don’t drive a car? My wife does, but I no longer own a car. Let me just say that in most of my jobs, I mostly rode my bicycle. And now? My security detail didn’t want me to be riding my bicycle or even taking the Metro. I have a security detail that drives me.
At Least A Little Help
COBRA help, in case you need it.
- Short-term COBRA subsidy for involuntarily terminated workers. This provides a 65 percent subsidy for COBRA premiums for up to 9 months, which will put a dent in the considerable cost of COBRA health benefits for the unemployed.
The Mall Is Flat
It's important to remember that as with General Growth Properties, some retailers and other businesses didn't go under simply because sales dropped a bit and suddenly they weren't making any money. They went under because they amassed immense amount of short term debt which they thought they could just keep refinancing until the end of time. The economic downturn exacerbated this, but a big issue has simply been the increased difficulty in refinancing.
Your view of the financial crisis probably depends on whether you think the state of affairs which allowed GGP to borrow to expand so much is the good and normal one, and the drying up of credit to companies like them a temporary aberration, or if you think that cheap money for everyone all the time regardless of ability to repay is problematic.
Loans were given out without concern for repayment ability because refinancing was always an option.
- General Growth Properties Inc.'s decision to file one of the biggest Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases in U.S. history Thursday resulted from its inability to refinance mounds of debt, taken on during a rapid expansion, when credit markets crumbled...The Chicago-based company, which is master developer of Columbia and owner of most of the Baltimore area's regional malls, amassed $27 billion in debt by buying malls and shopping centers. Much of that debt came with its acquisition of Columbia's Rouse Co. in 2004.
Your view of the financial crisis probably depends on whether you think the state of affairs which allowed GGP to borrow to expand so much is the good and normal one, and the drying up of credit to companies like them a temporary aberration, or if you think that cheap money for everyone all the time regardless of ability to repay is problematic.
Loans were given out without concern for repayment ability because refinancing was always an option.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Rahm Emanuel on This Week.
David Axelrod on Face The Nation.
Extreme Leftist Larry Summers, Moderate Centrist Harold Ford, and respectable Republican Dick Armey will be on Meet the Press.
Document the atrocities!
David Axelrod on Face The Nation.
Extreme Leftist Larry Summers, Moderate Centrist Harold Ford, and respectable Republican Dick Armey will be on Meet the Press.
Document the atrocities!
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Woo-Hoo! Only 7.8%! PA Rocks
Pretty sad when 7.8% unemployment is good news.
Hopefully things are getting more sucky less quickly!
- Pennsylvania's unemployment rate rose last month to 7.8 percent of the workforce, the highest since September 1992, as the job market nationwide continued to be battered by the recession.
Hopefully things are getting more sucky less quickly!
Depends On How You Define Things
Saying that the economy isn't going to worsen quite as fast as it has been isn't exactly...all that reassuring.
Nor am I convinced that it's true.
- NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - Top U.S. officials on Saturday offered reassurances that the worst of the economic downturn is likely over, helped by unprecedented efforts to keep credit flowing, though the recovery will be slow. Two Federal Reserve policy-makers, Vice Chairman Donald Kohn and New York Fed chief William Dudley, both pointed to signs that measures taken by the U.S. central bank are indeed working to help revive the economy. And Paul Volcker, a senior economic adviser to the Obama administration and a former Fed chairman himself, said the rate of the economy's decline is set to slow.
Nor am I convinced that it's true.
That's High
I really don't get the sense that our elite press really has a sense of how bad it is places. They tend to talk about recession in terms of what new accessories it my inspire. Oh, and those poor people who might have to send their kids to public schools.
- SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 (Reuters) - California's unemployment rate rose to a record 11.2 percent in March and analysts expect job losses across most industries in the most populous U.S. state to increase through much of this year.
Morning Thread
A few Parsons will fit in with the Uriah Heeps of the GOP:Parsons was Winston’s fellow-employee at the Ministry of Truth. He was a fattish but active man of paralysing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms—one of those completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Friday Evening Thread
Weekend's here, weather's nice, and I'm on the road.
Roundabout way of seeing: be prepared for sucky weekend blogging!
Roundabout way of seeing: be prepared for sucky weekend blogging!
SUPERTRAINS
It certainly sounds like the administration is committed in a serious way to improving our mass transit infrastructure. I won't get too excited until more money starts appearing. Plenty of members of Congress will probably squeal about every penny taken from their beloved highways.
The Grand Iranian Conspiracy
It really does make the most sense to see the entire Iraq war as an incredibly successful operation by Iranian intelligence.
I Don't Think They'll Listen
But I do think that the peak of the Hate The Gay All the Way Into Office movement has passed.
And Schmidt? Well, when a Republican starts to do the right thing it's usually because something has affected them personally.
And Schmidt? Well, when a Republican starts to do the right thing it's usually because something has affected them personally.
Mr. Schmidt, who has a sister who is a lesbian, plans to say that there is nothing about gay marriage that is un-American or that threatens the rights of others and that in fact it is in line with conservative principles.
Saving My Local Newspaper
Little Ricky edition.
Nice work if you can get it
Former U. S. Sen. Rick Santorum is collecting $1,750 a shot for the columns that appear every other week in the Inquirer, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The checks are sent to a post office box in Great Falls, Va. - close to a Starbucks, we figure.
SUPERTRAINS
The Great Orange Satan writes:
Snark aside, I do think there's a pretty good case to be made for, on balance, funding mass transit of various types in places which have historically had some commitment to it. It's important to strengthen existing systems, and it's also easier to build systems where there's actually local support (from both the public and local politicians).
That Georgia network might be nice, but they want to secede, so send the money (and jobs and economic development) elsewhere.
Snark aside, I do think there's a pretty good case to be made for, on balance, funding mass transit of various types in places which have historically had some commitment to it. It's important to strengthen existing systems, and it's also easier to build systems where there's actually local support (from both the public and local politicians).
Deep Thought
I sure hope Naomi Klein writes another column informing me that contrary to my expectations, Obama is not the messiah.
Impeach Bybee
It of course won't happen, as the Villagers know there should be no consequences for official misconduct not involving Democratic officeholders receiving blowjobs.
It would at least be something.
Happy To Be Wrong
But, like Stiglitz, don't see how this bank shareholder/bondholder bailout is going to end well. If you ignore all the losses and change the accounting rules they're profitable! But, you know, not profitable enough to give it back.
Stiglitz is going to get in trouble again for daring to suggest that maybe people are unduly influenced by their peers and economic benefactors. He practically got himself declared persona non grata for suggesting similar in his book. The econ can be weird.
Stiglitz is going to get in trouble again for daring to suggest that maybe people are unduly influenced by their peers and economic benefactors. He practically got himself declared persona non grata for suggesting similar in his book. The econ can be weird.
Morning Thread: Epilogue
Since the right-wing blogs likely will not revisit and the press certainly will not.
The coda of the Beauchamp Affair:
If you cannot place the name, Master Sgt. Hatley was the direct superior of Pvt. Scott Beauchamp and the person most used to discredit (along with the gay porn star) the New Republic diary of the life of a soldier in Iraq and the ways they dealt with the pressures of Operation Clusterfuck. All of which Hatley said was absolutely not what his ever virtuous soldiers did.
Which was exactly the subject Scott Beauchamp was writing about.
The coda of the Beauchamp Affair:
A senior enlisted Army soldier was convicted on Wednesday of killing four handcuffed and blindfolded Iraqi men with pistol shots to the backs of their heads shortly after arresting them in Baghdad two years ago, The Associated Press reported.
A military jury in Germany, where his unit is deployed, found the soldier, Master Sgt. John E. Hatley, guilty of premeditated murder in the deaths of the men, whom he and several other members of his unit had detained after a firefight with insurgents in Baghdad in spring 2007, according to testimony in the case.
If you cannot place the name, Master Sgt. Hatley was the direct superior of Pvt. Scott Beauchamp and the person most used to discredit (along with the gay porn star) the New Republic diary of the life of a soldier in Iraq and the ways they dealt with the pressures of Operation Clusterfuck. All of which Hatley said was absolutely not what his ever virtuous soldiers did.
In February, another military jury convicted the unit’s medic, Sgt. Michael Leahy Jr., 28, of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison. On March 30, Sgt. First Class Joseph P. Mayo, 27, pleaded guilty to murder and received a 35-year sentence.
Military legal experts said the soldiers’ rank showed the frustration of fighting insurgents who blended in with the locals.
Which was exactly the subject Scott Beauchamp was writing about.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
But It Didn't Piss Us Off!
I think that really is a psychological difference. I did think that anti-war protests back in the day enraged many conservatives. But the tea parties? Hilarious! Please have them every week. They don't make us mad, they make us laugh.
Deep Thought
I'm so old I can remember when everyone would tell me that Tom Maguire was a "reasonable conservative."
Just In Case
You imagined these people weren't monsters who deserve life imprisonment... you were wrong.
Great Deal of Misunderstanding
Yeah, right.
Anyway, good news for now. Cable operators are concerned that people will dump their TV packages for internet video and the way to combat that is by setting caps low enough that people get too much video over the internet will have to pay more.
Time Warner Cable has shelved plans to test consumption-based billing until it can improve its "customer education process," the company announced Thursday.
"It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing," Time Warner CEO Glen Britt said in a statement. "As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met."
Anyway, good news for now. Cable operators are concerned that people will dump their TV packages for internet video and the way to combat that is by setting caps low enough that people get too much video over the internet will have to pay more.
Getting Smaller
NYT is shrinking.
In a bid to save millions of dollars in annual costs, The New York Times plans to eliminate several weekly sections, with other parts of the newspaper absorbing some of the content, Bill Keller, the executive editor, said on Thursday.
He's Hot And Clean Cut And A J. Crew Model
MSNBC is rather focused on the fact that a murder suspect is white and sexy and well-dressed. Not sure if he was wearing denim.
Lucy's Football
Please let us pay back the money! Please please please!!!
- April 16 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, who today reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ expectations, said his firm could repay U.S. government rescue funds “tomorrow.” Dimon, calling money received through the Troubled Asset Relief Program “a scarlet letter,” and “the TARP baby,” said on a conference call today that the New York-based bank is awaiting guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department. “We could pay it back tomorrow,” he said.
Not Enough Cash, Too Many Corridors
While talk of SUPERTRAINS of course gets me excited, it's also the case that without more money not much is really going to happen. Hopefully more money will be coming!
The Mall Is Flat
The mustache of understanding droops with sadness today.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – General Growth Properties Inc, the second largest U.S. mall owner, filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday in one of the biggest real estate failures in U.S. history.
Ending months of speculation, the Chicago-based mall owner, which listed total assets of $29.56 billion and total debts of $27.29 billion, sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors along with 158 of its more than 200 U.S. malls, while it seeks to restructure some of its debt.
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
Initial claims a bit better, but still deep into holy crap territory.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits declined 53,000 to a seasonally adjusted 610,000 in the week ended April 11 from a revised 663,000 the week before, the Labor Department said.
...
It was the highest level of continued claims on record and pushed the insured unemployment rate to 4.5 percent, the highest since 1983, from 4.4 percent the previous week.
Giant Puppets
All fun aside, there's obviously nothing wrong with the right attempting to engage in protest politics. The problem is that it was never clear what they were protesting. So far Obama has cut taxes for most of the population and... well, that's it. The protests of "The Left" have long been mocked for lacking message discipline. That criticism has often been fair. The difference is that our side's protests generally have a single point ("don't do this stupid fucking war in Iraq") which gets hijacked by a bunch of other causes when the speakers hit the stage. But the teabaggers... honestly, I still have no idea what it was about. I mean, I know it was about tribal allegiance against Barack Mumia Saddam Obama III. But it wasn't actually about anything else.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Hoisted
I've long thought, and said, that there was a good chance that the Republicans would seize on the kind of abuse of power argument that Dems were never willing to follow through with.
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, according to government officials.
Readers' Comments
Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “over-collection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to be unintentional.
Teenage Wasteland
I definitely sympathize with those who think it's crazy to let 16 year olds drive - cars kill a lot of them! - but I also am not a fan (know from experience!) of the adverse social and psychological effects of being carless in suburbia. In my utopian urban hellhole, where George Soros's ACORN army will soon be marching you all for reeducation and relocation, teens wouldn't really need to drive as they could get around by walking or on buses and SUPERTRAINS and whatnot. In Indiana:
Thank Jeebus for the internet, I guess.
Under the bill, teen drivers with learner’s permits would be required to have 50 hours of supervised driving experience — 10 of those hours at night — with a licensed driver age 25 or older before obtaining a driver’s license. That would take effect in July 2010 under the revised bill.
It also would raise the minimum age for a probationary license from 16 years and one month to 16 years and six months.
Thank Jeebus for the internet, I guess.
Sigh
I don't even know what to make of people like this.
She said she retired on disability from M&T Bank three years ago after undergoing knee replacement and back surgeries. She lives on her Social Security and disability benefits. Last year, she petitioned the bankruptcy court for protection from creditors.
She said she did not have to pay federal income taxes last year because her income was too low.
"I don't want to see this country turn into a welfare, nanny state, where we stand in line for groceries, and we're in welfare lines, and in socialized medicine lines," Wilder said.
Things Cable News Tells Me
Conservatives don't like Obama and they're fired up.
I bet they can run with this story pretty much every day.
I bet they can run with this story pretty much every day.
100,000 Nationwide
I'm so old I can remember when hundreds of thousands of people were just a focus group.
Mobility And Old People
I was glad to actually see this paragraph, as I think it's something often left out of the discussion about public transit generally.
Golf cart retirement communities are one solution, but public transit in relatively dense areas allows older people to still get around after they perhaps shouldn't be driving anymore.
This story is about a potential longer distance project, where I think this is less of an issue, but enhanced mobility for old people is a good reason for mass transit.
"I'm going to not want to be driving my car, particularly on I-10 with semis and tailgaters all around me. Ten years from now either ADOT will take my license away from me, or I will say, 'Gee, if I could go on public transportation, would that be great!' I'm sort of a stand-in for all those retirees around the state who normally wouldn't think of something like this themselves, and wouldn't have the ability to implement it."
Golf cart retirement communities are one solution, but public transit in relatively dense areas allows older people to still get around after they perhaps shouldn't be driving anymore.
This story is about a potential longer distance project, where I think this is less of an issue, but enhanced mobility for old people is a good reason for mass transit.
Can't Do Anything Right
But I hope they never stop, because they're very entertaining.
(ht reader j)
But a funny thing happened en route to a visually pleasing Tax Day protest. The National Park Service said the tea party protesters didn't have the proper permit to dump their bags.
...
"We have a million tea bags here, and we don't have a place to put them because it's not on our permit," said Rebecca Wales, lead organizer of D.C. Tea Party.
...
A local think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said it would allow the dumping of the tea bags in its 12th floor conference room instead. Not quite the same impact, though.
(ht reader j)
Probably Could Make Kitten Killing Popular
It is interesting, as Harold Meyerson notes, that the Right's linking of Obama to socialism will just succeed in making the latter popular.
Like many commonly used words in our political discourse, "socialism" isn't very well-defined. If the Right defines it as Obamaism, then we may yet get our government health and SUPERTRAINS. People like the skinny black guy.
Like many commonly used words in our political discourse, "socialism" isn't very well-defined. If the Right defines it as Obamaism, then we may yet get our government health and SUPERTRAINS. People like the skinny black guy.
Unplugging
Obviously I generally consider myself to be very fortunate in how I get to make my living, but it is the case the unplugging is very hard to do...
A Little Late, But Progress
Finally my local transit authority is going to... eventually... make its data available to The Google.
Obviously this kind of thing is of most use to people with iPhones and similar portable devices which is not the full universe of transit riders. Still it's at least a bit of progress towards making using transit a bit easier. SEPTA has had their own decent online trip planner for some time, but a map-based version that Google can provide is superior.
SEPTA is set to start testing new rail schedules next week with the site and hopes its train schedules will be on Google next month, officials said, although bus routes won't be included until later this year.
Obviously this kind of thing is of most use to people with iPhones and similar portable devices which is not the full universe of transit riders. Still it's at least a bit of progress towards making using transit a bit easier. SEPTA has had their own decent online trip planner for some time, but a map-based version that Google can provide is superior.
Go Pat!
Gonna have to become a Republican.
Was 51-49 in 2004...
Conservative Pat Toomey, a former Lehigh Valley congressman, this morning announced he is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in the 2010 election.
Was 51-49 in 2004...
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Obviously An Editorial Decision
Trying to write about the winner without calling the winner is actually hard to do.
How About Some Love For My Supertrolley?
Why Portland?
I want my supertrolley, damnit.
The hint about a Portland announcement could mean approval of federal money for the Portland Streetcar's eastside extension, which would be the first streetcar project with substantial federal funding. As The Oregonian has reported, the Bush administration resisted the project for several years.
I want my supertrolley, damnit.
Dick Armey
I think the move towards making cable news a bit bluer can only be good for ratings and good for America.
Projects
As Krugman says, stimulus projects coming in under budget is good... but only if that extra money is used for more projects. The money should be spent!
I recommend it be spent on the restoration of the number 23 SUPERTROLLEY but maybe you readers have other ideas.
I recommend it be spent on the restoration of the number 23 SUPERTROLLEY but maybe you readers have other ideas.
Always The Victims
I can never figure out if the teabaggers really believe evil libruls are going to show up with 2x4s at their stupid rallies.
No one gives a shit. If any evil libruls show up it will be to laugh at you.
No one gives a shit. If any evil libruls show up it will be to laugh at you.
Still Riding
I remember reading objections to the Phoenix light rail which amounted to "no one will ride it in summer when it's hot." It's quite possible that when summer rolls around fewer people will ride, although the real point is that plenty of people in Phoenix already took public transportation in the summer. Those bus riders didn't just disappear. Sure riding a lovely air conditioned car might be the choice of those for whom it is... a choice. But not everyone owns a car, even in Phoenix.
Very generous estimate of a capacity of a lane of highway is 2000 vehicles/hour.
"We topped our previous two months, in terms of, just, purely the number of riders," said Metro Public Information Officer Hillary Foose. "We reached about 972,000, which is equivalent, or results, in an average weekday ridership of about 34,000. Saturday ridership of about 28,500."
Very generous estimate of a capacity of a lane of highway is 2000 vehicles/hour.
Sanity
Emphasis in original.
Whatever the wisdom of teens sending naked pictures to each other, the idea that people are going to prosecuted for child pornography and branded sex offenders for the rest of their lives for this is absurd. It's doubly absurd because simple nudity isn't, you know, by any reasonable definition pornography anyway. But even aside from that, this stuff is increasingly going to be part of "normal" teen sexual exploration. And while we do prosecute other "normal" teen behaviors which we have deemed to be illegal - such as drinking - such prosecutions don't quite carry the weight that "convicted child pornographer" does.
- MONTPELIER, Vt. (CBS) ― Text messaging graphic pictures of yourself could soon be legal for teens in Vermont.
Whatever the wisdom of teens sending naked pictures to each other, the idea that people are going to prosecuted for child pornography and branded sex offenders for the rest of their lives for this is absurd. It's doubly absurd because simple nudity isn't, you know, by any reasonable definition pornography anyway. But even aside from that, this stuff is increasingly going to be part of "normal" teen sexual exploration. And while we do prosecute other "normal" teen behaviors which we have deemed to be illegal - such as drinking - such prosecutions don't quite carry the weight that "convicted child pornographer" does.
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