#WFP #nywfpcon

Hard to tell what's going on, but Cuomo decided he would join the convention by phone.

Presumably the fix is in, but the crowd hasn't accepted it yet.

Update: Blasio endorsing Cuomo. @CharlesMonaco 's WFP list is pretty good.

Update 2: All over but the shouting.

Was her deal “@eorden: WFP co-chair Karen Scharff, who predicted earlier this week that the WFP wouldn't endorse...votes for Cuomo/Hochul.”
— Kevin C. Brady (@LevittownBrady) June 1, 2014

All In All It's Just Another Trip Up The Wall

It's gone through various incarnations and sponsors, but the annual bike race here in the urban hellhole has been a tradition for quite some time. It isn't just a bike race, but a street/park party, too. In other words, it's one of those days when the cops pretend public drinking is legal.

Overall the city isn't too bad with such things. Block parties are pretty easy to organize, and there are lots of street festivals and popup venues these days. But these things are usually incredibly popular and crowded. That's mostly a good thing, but it points to the fact that for whatever reason people like to drink in public places and there is a tremendous shortage of times/places when they are allowed to do that.

Urban hellholes have a comparative (and absolute) advantage in public spaces. They should exploit that more. Either that or build another wing onto the convention center.

Nominal Illusion

I do think some olds (as always, defined as anybody older than I am) do suffer from serious nominal illusion, and fail to mentally adjust for inflation when they compare the plight of The Kids Today with the horrors of their youths. Awhile back I saw some academic blogger deriding her undergraduates for their absurd expectations that they should make $40K year at their first job. And, you know what? Maybe today that is an absurd expectation, but while that could be a sober assessment of the current state of affairs, it's more importantly an observation about the fact that things are totally fucked up and bullshit.

I graduated from a mediocre (in reputation and ranking, not knocking it) state school in 1993. Damn straight students expected that they could earn TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS annually at their first jobs, which is what $40K today would have been then. I'm not saying all students did. We graduated into a recession, and things don't always work out as they should, but nobody at that time thought TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS was some absurd amount of money for someone just out of college to earn. It was pretty much the minimum of what people expected. 40 hours/week 50 weeks/year is 12 bucks per hour.

And I haven't even mentioned how much cheaper tuition was then...

What day is this, again?

Ruth wanted a rescue thread, so here it is. While I'm here, for those of you who want stuff to read, I just posted a bunch of links. Readers' guide: Work your way down from the top if you want to get the depressing stuff over with and then get to the fun stuff for relief. The rest of you, start at the bottom and work your way up until it starts to look serious. But do check out the fun stuff, 'cause we all need it.

Saturday, Saturday

Not too much planned for the day. Farmers market probably.

Overnight

Rock even harder.

Late Night

Rock on.

Friday, Friday

Also, Friday.

Out Of Gas

Because I've banned gas stations!!!

I kid. Weekend's here. Have fun.

Afternoon Thread

From Bean To Cup

I finally unsubscribed. It's horrible.

Lunch Thread

enjoy

The Good Guys On Immigration Reform

We all know team D is better on the issue in their hearts, but at some point the people may stop seeing all that internal goodness.

On the same day that White House officials revealed that President Obama had delayed for two months making any decisions on changing his deportations policy, enforcement agents fanned out in immigrant neighborhoods in Milwaukee, detaining 21 foreigners in homes and workplaces.

...

But some immigrants who were detained were longtime Milwaukee residents with no criminal histories other than migration violations because they had entered the country illegally.

Your Morning Read

Surprising for various reasons.

Late Night

Rock on.

Infallibility

A commenter responding to this post reminded me of this. It used to be one of my big pet peeves. Spot the (then very common) error.

While we're playing, spot the error in this NYT article!

Sometimes People Should Resign

I have no opinion nor enough knowledge to have an opinion on how directly responsible Shinseki is for the VA problems. In general I do think we don't have enough of a tradition of honorable resignations, in which the people in charge take the fall simply because they were in charge. I think when such resignations happen more commonly people understand that they're somewhat symbolic. The point isn't "I am horrible," but instead, "this is just unacceptable." The resignation acknowledges that.

The Empty Lives Of The BoBourgeoisie

Conservatives are truly weird.

Triggers

One of the authors of this is a friend, and I think it covers things pretty well, though I'd like to expand a bit on one thing.

4. PTSD is a disability; as with all disabilities, students and faculty deserve to have effective resources provided by independent campus offices that handle documentation, certification, and accommodation plans rather than by faculty proceeding on an ad hoc basis.

Colleges and universities should and do have systems for dealing with disability accommodations, students with disabilities including PTSD should make use of them, those offices should consider how to make appropriate accommodations for those disabilities, and professors should (and presumably will) make those accommodations. That's very different from asking professors to anticipate a range of content which might upset some students and regularly warn them about it. In conversations around this subject there seems to be this notion that we all know what might be disturbing, but especially in the context of actual PTSD, in which triggers can be anything, that's completely untrue.

And if mandatory trigger warnings on everything are the policy, it's the equivalent of stamping "this product may contain nuts" on every food item. Not actually helpful to the people who really need the information.

Wanker of the Day

And in this case probably a bit more literally than usual... Terry Shoemaker.

Mary Rosh

I suppose it was when Ralph Reed started to reappear on the teevee that I realized there's literally nothing a conservative can do to get his or her "media person in good standing" card revoked.

2.5

Who knows what Kinsley meant, because, hey, he hasn't got the time to explain it to you, but only clear reading is that government should have power of prior restraint, failing to submit to that power should result in criminal punishments, and that the government should generally allow publication and make the decisions quickly.

How this squares with what he subsequently wrote I have no idea.

Happy Suck On This Day

11 years. My how time flies.



If my blog has contributed one thing to the world it's making people aware of this (thanks to a commenter's tip).

The Worst Person In The World

Fred Hiatt.

The Limbaugh Era

It's probably coming to an end. I don't just mean him, but that particular brand of conservatism. It's pretty weird to remember, but when I was in college Limbaugh was actually kinda cool with the kids, with the dudebros of the day who fancied themselves "intellectuals" buying his book.

But conservatism isn't dead, and neither is conservatism for the young or a young audience receptive to conservatism. Culture's a bit more fractured now, but presumably there's the new version of the Limbaughs out there who I'm not even aware of.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

300K new lucky duckies.

But -1% growth in GDP in Q1. oops

Matlock

Nothing against the olds, but it's actually hard to comprehend how this is even possible.

The median age for Mr. O’Reilly’s audience reached a new high, 72.1.

The point being...that's the median. Half are older.

Overnight

Rock on.

Wednesday Evening

Enjoy.

Longer Atrios

Jon likes to write more than I do.

The NYT Web Site Should Be Nothing But A Direct Stream Of Michael Kinsley's Thoughts

People in this profession (broadly defined) get so weird when it's their friends.

For The Best

The urban hellhole probably wouldn't be such a bad place for the olympics, but the only good reason to do it is if you have a big commitment from the state and the feds to fund lots of great transit improvements. I don't see that happening, so good that the city isn't going to bid for it.

What Problem Does A Driverless Car Solve

As I've said many times, I really doubt the fantasy version of the driverless car, one which really works everywhere, is going to be real anytime soon. The driverless limited area golf cart certainly might.

But even if the fantasy version works, how does it change the world? I think people who have relatively car dependent lifestyles just think, "cool, I won't have to drive." Urbanists imagine that driverless cars will reduce the need for car ownership and parking.

I guess I don't share that urbanist-utopian vision of them. We'll still have the problem of peak car, both in terms of needing vehicles and in terms of road congestion. Ok, sure, it's a better taxi/carsharing service. That's something. But not world-changing.

The Worst Person In The World

Jeffrey Goldberg.

Usually like these things to speak for themselves, but basically "my friends have a first amendment right to be paid lots of money by elite outlets to publish whatever they want, other people should be arrested for what they write."

Consistency!

Also, Jeffrey Goldberg really is in the running for worst person in the world. It isn't always a tongue in cheek post title.

Morning Thread

Overnight

Rock on.

From Bean to Cup, You Fuck Up

Two DCCC emails, about 3 hours apart.

first:

OBLITERATED
Inbox
x
DCCC Rapid Response Unsubscribe

2:54 PM (5 hours ago)

to me

Duncan --

We told you earlier that the Koch brothers have unveiled a master plan to spend $125 million this year to destroy Democrats.

Second:

throw in the towel
Inbox
x
Democratic Headquarters Unsubscribe

6:38 PM (2 hours ago)

to me

Duncan --

We’re beginning to think we should just throw in the towel.

Tuesday Night

enjoy

NERDS

I often use the term nerd even when "geek" is probably the more precise one, because I think geeks have to some degree retaken the term, while nerd includes the implicit insult which is required. If geeks run the world and geekstuff is cool, then the term no longer has much derision attached to it.

But, anyway, dudes who show up to fast food restaurants open carrying automatic weapons (yes, gun nerds, they probably weren't technically automatic weapons or maybe they were but I don't care because big scary gun that can fire multiple rounds quickly is automatic enough for me, so stop being such a damn nerd about it) are nerds. They're mad that their little hobby of showing their external death penises to the world doesn't get quite the respect that it deserves, or more importantly they're mad that they don't get quite the respect that they of course deserve and are confused that their giant external death penis waving isn't giving them that respect. They want more adulation than they're getting, and don't get that their hilariously deadly hobby occasionally inspires a few eye rolls. Also, too, fear, but so what, nerd, any of us can buy an external death penis, because USA. It doesn't make you special.

I don't expect everyone to appreciate my hobbies, and certainly don't expect anyone to think they make me supercool or worthy of adulation. And walking into a Wal-Mart and plunking down a bunch of cash for giant external death penis isn't especially impressive, really. Waving them around is silly. Nerds.

He Crashed The Party And Pissed In The Punchbowl And He's Such A Jerky Jerk

I really have never quite understood the enmity that Greenwald inspires, mostly from the "Center" to the "Left." Journalists against journalism are bizarre, as are people who think revelations about the Surveillance State are somehow direct attacks on Obama. Yes, ultimately, the guy in charge is the guy in charge and I haven't seen a lot of evidence he disapproves of much of this stuff, but it isn't really that simple. One can think in combination that the surveillance state is out of hand, some programs might be "worth it" but not all, that Obama doesn't sign off directly on every program, and that even if he doesn't support all of these things it isn't so simple to turn over the bugged applecart instantly.


Even if I trusted Obama completely (I don't), and even if I thought he knew as much about this stuff as he should (I doubt it), I can't imagine trusting the massive unaccountable agency. Even if I trusted the nice patriotic government workers, I wouldn't trust the massive private contractor system that has grown up around it. Snowden showed how easy it was to "abuse" his access. You think he's the only one? (We know he isn't, of course, we just don't know how bad it is).

Wanker of the Day

Jonathan Alter.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

What Is Wrong With These People

It's an obvious point made a million times, but if you're a guy with a gun and see another guy with a gun don't you think he might be a bad guy? If you're a guy without a gun and you see a bunch of yahoos with guns, don't you think they're probably bad guys? If you're cops with guns and you are called to respond to a situation, aren't you going to assume the guys with guns are the bad guys? Because guns.

Rich Countries With Disasters

I don't claim to know what Teh Science is, but I do think wealthy governments should step up their game in disaster response. They (we) can afford it.

Memorial Evening Thread

Happy Hour

At Hecate's place: Memorial Day Poetry and Anger Blogging.

~ Rudyard Kipling

I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.

Go read the whole thing. Had me in tears.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

The Kids Are Alright

And Haverford president Daniel Weiss is a horrible human.


Free speech means I can say that!!!

Guns Kill People

Just the occasional rerun of this anecdote. Yes you can hurt and kill without guns, of course, as our recent mass killer did (too).

We all have our moments, though hopefully most of us aren't especially likely to go on a highly pre-meditated murder spree. Still it's probably best that most of us don't have a nuclear missile launch button nearby, as occasionally we all feel rage. Also, too, it'd be best if most of us didn't have a gun nearby.

Who Gets The Money

We've had about 7 billion articles about how the evil unions overcharge at the convention center. Surprisingly (not), it's the middlemen who get most of the money.

Morning Thread

Here's probably the best blog post I've read on The Butcher of Santa Barbara, by Echidne, who else?

Interestingly, it seems the guy never actually got rejected by a woman because he never asked one out. I cannot say for certain.  But the impression I got is that he never approached women at all, that he expected women to approach him, and when they did not, he felt enormous pains of rejection.

Sunday Night

Tomorrow is Monday. Holiday Monday!!!

Did He Read Three Shakespeares?

25 volumes!!!

Some reporters are quite stupid, but nobody is this stupid. The Jeb Bush beat sweetener race begins!

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Gun Nuttery

Tbogg shares.

I'm reminded of the "organized shoots" where they basically release a bunch of domesticated fowl so angry old dudes can shoot their external penises over and over again, and then sometimes shoot people in the face.

Hunting for food is fine, otherwise play a damn video game like the rest of us.

Only Tool Left

As I've said many times, when I am your benevolent dictator I will actually take away all of your guns. I'm also happy to support any marginal chipping away at "gun rights" that we can manage, but given current interpretation of constitutional law and the weird politics of this country, marginal is going to be marginal at best.

So this is why we must mock. If you obsess about guns you are, at best, ridiculous. Time to turn "gun culture" into a joke. Trying to shame it as a death cult didn't work.

Ironic

Am I the only one to find it ironic that the guy who said this Iraq adventure is gonna cost way more than you think ends up in charge of a massively underfunded VA system?

Saturday Night

Let the disco dance party begin.

Afternoon Thread

Where'd the sun go.

Simple Solutions To Simple Problems

We've had basically non-existent anti-trust law enforcement for years, but to some extent the understanding that you just weren't supposed to do some things remained. That era is obviously over.

Mockery

Obviously they're a scary crowd to mock, because they, you know, have guns. Which is part of the point. But it is time to up the mockery of the giant external penis of death crowd. They're ridiculous cowards at best, and sociopathic wannabee serial killers, or occasionally actual serial killers, at worst. Losers.

Freedum

There was a story a few weeks back about some guy who was waving his gun around a park or playground where there were a bunch of kids, saying he was legally entitled to do so. Understandably the parents flipped out and called the cops, but he was completely right. I never saw exactly what his claimed motive was, but unlike some people I thought, "good for him." Not that I want people waving guns around playgrounds, but if it's legal for them to do so then it's legal for them to do so. If the open carry everywhere crowd starts openly carrying them everywhere, maybe a few more people will be inclined to freak out and call their state reps.

Nobody Wants To See You Wave Your Giant External Penis Of Death Around

Gun nuts are too stupid to understand this.

Everything Changed

Things changed for some people, of course, but the thing about same sex marriage suddenly being legal is that nothing really does change for most people, and that's why ultimately no one will remember opposing it in 20 years.

Blue Grass Journalism

Reporters ask followups!

Mitchipoo looks like an idiot!  You can't run against Obamacare but not Kynect.

Via Greg Sargent, who's been hammering on this point.

Also, it's a lot easier doing this when you embrace the ACA. Yes, I'm talking to you, Michelle (Damn she looks a lot like Sam) Nunn. It's not like you have a choice.....

Friday Night

Still Friday!!!

Wanker of the Day

Michael Kinsley.

Happy Hour Thread

Early! It's Friday!!!

Earlier

I've long been mystified by the standard 8pm curtain time for performing arts. It's too early for a non-rushed early dinner, and too late for a late dinner for any show that's over 2 hours (most). I live in the urban hellhole and not too far from most major venues, but if attending an orchestra show meant that I had to brave the highways back out to the burbs at 10:45 and then get up and go to work at a respectable hour the next day I probably wouldn't bother very often.

7pm really should be the standard.

New Exciting Taxes

I'm always fascinated when local politicians decide that exciting new taxes will be more accepted than modest increases on existing tax rates. New taxes require a whole additional level of administration, enforcement, and collections. These things cost money. Nudging up the sales or property tax a bit doesn't.

Bipartisanismship

I think the untold story of the Obama era is that he offered Grand Bargains to Republicans on issues they claim to care about, and on issues the media generally pretends they care about, that they don't actually care about. Whether this was eleventy-dimensional chess or whether the Obama administration didn't actually understand what Republicans care about is an exercise left to the reader, but while the WaPo/"center right nation"/"objective journalist" crowd wants to cut your granny's Social Security check, Republicans don't actually give a shit. Sure they'd gut it if they could, but they can't, and they certainly don't want to take responsibility for trimming it. Cutting taxes for rich people is really all they care about.

Journalists Against Journalism

I think there's a lot of "get off my lawn" going on with this stuff. There are people who once identified with the People Who Run The World. Suddenly the kids with their hippity hop and their ipods and their bloggering are taking their places, so what those kids are doing must be wrong.

Kinsley's long been a bit of a weirdo suckup to power, but if it were his pals doing Teh Journalism he wouldn't be saying this stuff. Watching our relevancy fade sucks, but this is the equivalent of Kinsley waiting in his darkened garage with a gun. Gotta take those kids out.

Do Not Spend Money On Yale Law Tuition

Unless you want to be taught by horrible stupid people.

Also, too, because Big Law is over and it isn't worth the money.

The Worst Person In The World

Ben Carson.

Late Night

Rock on.

Thursday Night

Tomorrow is Friday!!!

Idaho Stops

Badler communicates my view pretty well. I don't have any problem with responsible Idaho Stopping anymore than I have a problem with responsible jaywalking. Responsible jaywalking means that drivers (and cyclists!) traveling at legal speed should not have to worry about slowing down or swerving to avoid pedestrians, and responsible Idaho Stopping means that cars or pedestrians traveling in legal ways shouldn't have to worry about hitting, or being hit by, cyclists running stop signs or lights. Traffic enforcement focusing on responsible jaywalking or Idaho Stopping is absurd, but that doesn't mean we should legalize them. And in my experience, too many cyclists do it irresponsibly and I have to worry about dodging them in the crosswalk.

Scoops

Not what they used to be. Or, rather, exactly what they used to be.

Still Growing

Census Bureau thinks the urban hellhole grew in population again last year, growing by about 25,000 people since 2010. That isn't a big number at all, but after 50+ years of steady population decline, "growing slightly" is actually a big deal. The powers that be still haven't caught up enough, and generally still focus on attracting jobs and visitors, instead of giving nice things to residents.

30 Feet

Here in Philly the basic height restriction now is 38' (not universal, but in most neighborhoods). It should be higher. 30' isn't very high, and 2500 sq. ft lots are big in an urban area. Forget the exact dimensions of my lot, but it's less than half that.

At least they didn't say 30".

Hard To Do

While "bus flexibility" is often touted as reason to block inflexible rail projects, in practice doing bus route overhauls is pretty difficult. People depend on existing routes, even if we're talking about routes that not many people use. Hopefully things work well in Houston.

Post Lunch, Pre-Happy Hour Thread

Lunch Thread

enjoy

Bad, If True

All for looking out for number one, but this is a stupid way to look out for number one. As in, doing the opposite.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

326K new lucky duckies. Not bad, but wrong way.

Whose Interest

I'm sure plenty of people think that using the surveillance state to further interests of American companies is perfectly cool. Whatever it takes for the economy!!!

But even if your attitude is "fuck companies from other countries," it's obviously not the case that all American companies can get the surveillance state to do their bidding. Just the, uh, "important" ones. Not the new ones, not the potential ones, just the big ones. The connected ones. The contributing ones.

Wednesday Night

Tomorrow is not Friday.

Happy Hour Thread

Don't worry.

Blaidd Drwg Is Still Gonna Beat You

But we have progress.

Gov. Corbett on Wednesday announced he would not appeal the federal court ruling that struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriages.

In a statement, the governor repeated his personal opposition to same-sex marriage but said his administration lawyers had concluded that an appeal of Tuesday's historic decision was "extremely unlikely" to succeed.

Out Of Gas

I don't object to gas stations except to the extent that I object to any strip-mallish development in the urban hellhole, but I'm guessing the economics will work against them here as it has in NYC. We've lost a couple in broader Center City, and I would be shocked if anyone tried to build a new one. I think the issue is that people are pretty price sensitive to gas for various reasons, so places operating in locations with expensive real estate can't really raise prices much.

More Snuff

The promise of technocratic centrism is, in part, competent efficient government. Because of that they deserve criticism for failures. Obama's been in office for 5 years.

Yes I get that Republicans don't give a shit about any of this stuff, but the "good guys" should get better at running the place. Not enough to be "more concerned and competent than the other guys." Be better.

Prison planet thread

David Atkins alerts us to a worthy NPR report on increasing court fees that further disadvantage the poor. The logic of the poor house seems to have overtaken our "justice" system with startling effectiveness. "Defendants are charged for a long list of government services that were once free - including ones that are constitutionally required."

Ohio Prison Shows Pirated Movies to Prisoners Convicted of Pirating Movies

Ohio Replaces Lethal Injection With Humane New Head-Ripping-Off Machine

Simple Answers To Simple Questions

Joe Nocera:

Why is it that the fear of moral hazard only applies to homeowners, and not to the banks?

Because Tim Geithner will be set for life.

This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

Maybe Make That A Bit More Expensive?

In order to preserve their right to essentially free parking, current residents want new residents to shell out $10-$20K or more for a private parking space.

On the contrary: several neighbors did complain about the likely impact of this project on the neighborhood’s parking situation. One resident, referring to residents of another new development nearby, said, “Nobody has one car any more, they have two cars.” When this development is finished, she said, “it’s gonna be overrun with cars. There’s no plan for dealing with them, and the neighborhood is gonna be overrun with cars, and it’ll destroy the character of the community.”

No it won't "destroy the character of the community." It might make it a bit harder to find a parking spot.

What drives me nuts about parking-over-everything people is so often they get it wrong. They support curb cuts, which convert one public space into one private one. They demand new residents buy parking spots, ensuring that those new residents will be car owners, likely owning more than one.

But walk around Philly neighborhood and you'll find plenty of long term parkers. Cars which just sit there, almost if not completely unused. It currently costs $35/year to store your first car, $50/year for the second one, and $75/year for the third. That's new. Until this year, every car cost $35 for the initial permit and then $20/year for the renewal. $100/year for five cars. There's space on the street on most blocks for one car/home.

I don't think parking fees should be extremely punitive. I'm fine with that first car in a household being pretty cheap. But parking is a scarce resource in some neighborhoods, and it is way underpriced. It's so cheap that there's no disincentive for owning multiple cars. That's the parking problem.

Wanker of the Day

David Brooks.

Cabdrivers of the World Unite

Apparently they already have. Little Tommy Friedman:

Which is why it is not surprising that I now often hear regular people — not high government officials — saying to me in conversation: “This is off-the-record.” Huh? What are you secretary of state?

Your Moment Of Zen

Election Results

Blaidd Drwg is the Dem nominee for PA governor.

Tuesday Night

Forgot to write myself in for Dem gubernatorial candidate :(.

Sajaked

Way back in 1993 or so I saw Pat Sajak give a speech (on CSPAN) to some conservative organization, probably Heritage. It was bad. Really bad. So bad it made the audience visibly squirm. I can't tell you specifically what he said, but his problem was that he didn't know he to speak in the appropriate code of the time. He was just talking shit on the poors, basically.

Pat's still with us.

How It's Done In Jersey

Republican governors cut taxes, skip pension payments, leave the mess for the next person.

Jersey strong!

Years ago I remember Lawrence O'Donnell talking about how New Jersey was "center right" because they loved their Christine Todd Whitman-style governance. You know, lower taxes. Of course this is just sending the pension bill to the next person, who will either have to increase taxes to pay it or gut the pensions because sanctity of contracts.

Maybe We'll Help The Olds, But Not The Cripples

I hope Dems get smart at these things, not just about the potential for expanding Social Security but also recognizing that if Republicans come up with a parade of SSDI "frauds," it's going to be ugly. Yeah, yeah, there are probably a few people who are getting disability checks that they shouldn't and some of them might even be working a bit on the side under the table, but they're also, you know, poor.

And Pennsylvania

huzzah. We joined the force everybody to gay marry club. No stay at the moment, so go tie the knot!

Maybe I'm Getting Soft

But just not feeling as much schadenfreude as I thought I would. I guess it's because it's a bit like getting Capone for tax fraud. Valid, but not a punishment for the real ways D'Souza has been one of America's Worst Humans.

High On Own Supply

I don't care all that much who wins the Dem governor primary today. It's possible that one of them would actually make a superior general election candidate and a superior governor, but if that's the case it's unknown (and likely unknowable) to me.

But the campaign of one-time frontrunner Schwartz was a bit annoying from the beginning. It's one thing to run an inevitability campaign, as in get on the train because I'm going to win, it's another to believe it. She just didn't have the broader name recognition she seems to believe she had. Sure political junkies know her, but I doubt too many other people outside her district did.

Should Have Given That Advice In 2010

Instead we got "Recovery Summer" happy talk.

“As a start, Democrats should bury any mention of ‘the recovery,’ ” stated an April memo from the group, which includes Mr. Carville and Stanley B. Greenberg, who were two political strategists for Bill Clinton.

Wanker of the Day

Denny Bonavita.

Morning Thread

Here's Echidne on Operation American Spring. Be careful of bubbles.

Game Theory

Area aging glibertarian probably shouldn't have missed that Best Picture winning movie about that Nobel Prize winning guy.

Well, I missed it, too, but I know game theory isn't about the Xbox. har dee har har, dumbass.

Monday Night

Tomorrow is not Friday.

Mothers: Always Doing It Wrong

We get too much of the "nothing's better than parenting and I want to spend 24 hours/day with my children" ideal of motherhood. Maybe it's even true for some! But it isn't true for all at all stages of parenthood, and people should feel a bit more comfortable expressing such thoughts.

Nepotism

Reviewed!

Always Doing It Wrong

I'm sure that activist college kids don't always go about things in the brightest or most constructive way. Because, well, nobody does. But for all the elite poo-pooing of how these kids today just don't go about protesting the right way, and how they're preventing a free exchange of ideas blah-blah-blah, clearly the worst statement in all of this came from Birgeneau himself who accused the students of "violent verbal attacks."

Ok.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Who Knew Animal Rape Was Different Than Consensual Gay Sex

The people who manage to succeed in this life...

Nobody Could Have Predicted

For awhile the big trend was international campuses, seen as a way to have a money spigot aimed at the home institution, or at least aimed at certain people in those institutions. Not everybody thought it was a good idea, of course.

Facing criticism for venturing into a country where dissent is not tolerated and labor can resemble indentured servitude, N.Y.U. in 2009 issued a “statement of labor values” that it said would guarantee fair treatment of workers. But interviews by The New York Times with dozens of workers who built N.Y.U.’s recently completed campus found that conditions on the project were often starkly different from the ideal.

Virtually every one said he had to pay recruitment fees of up to a year’s wages to get his job and had never been reimbursed. N.Y.U.’s list of labor values said that contractors are supposed to pay back all such fees. Most of the men described having to work 11 or 12 hours a day, six or seven days a week, just to earn close to what they had originally been promised, despite a provision in the labor statement that overtime should be voluntary.

The Worst Person In The World

Tim Geithner.

Sunday Night

Don't forget to vacuum your cat.

Sunday Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

American Justice

You'd think a high speed DUI chase from the cops would warrant a little jail time, but you'd be wrong.

I'm Gonna Shit On Your Parade

Because I'm an old rich white guy and you're a captive audience.

Wanker of the Day

Tim Geithner

Madawaska

I've always wanted to go to Madawaska, situated at the top of the state on the St John's River.

Openly gay Dem Congressman Michael Michaud is running for Governor LePage's seat. The Press Herald looks to the town as a bellwether.

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Evening

enjoy

The Worst Possible Thing Is People Saying Mean Things On Twitter

Back in the early days of internet/blogging, mainstream media types hated it because they were confronted with actual criticism that had largely eluded their beautiful minds before that. Well, not just criticism, but contempt.

That's much less of an issue than it used to be, but the "civility" discussion still goes on. How dare you say mean things about that person who is being paid lots of money to speak to a captive audience at your graduation!!!

Whenever you identify with elites, pause for a second. You're probably doing it wrong.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Torture

Har dee har har har har har har!!!!!!!

The foreign policy that Rice guided for George W. Bush — two wars on the credit card, making torture a word associated with the United States — was clearly a debacle. Contemporary assessments were not kind, and history will be brutal.

But if every speaker has to pass a test for benign mediocrity and politically correct sensitivity, commencement stages will be home to nothing but milquetoasts. You want torture? Try listening to the Stanford speech of 2009, when Justice Anthony M. Kennedy gave an interminable address on the intricacies of international law, under a broiling sun, with almost no mention of the graduates.

On the Blog, Blogging, As a Blogger, Because Blog

Lazy blogging day probably. It's Saturday!!!

Wanker of the Day

Timothy Egan.

Friday Night Thread

Stopped Clock

Scalia gets one right.

Come Fire Walk With Me

Friday Crass Commercialism... Twin Peaks Blu-Ray with new extra stuff supposedly.




Time for me to head to the black lodge.

Tip Your Damn Servers

Except for really high end places, which if you can afford you can also afford the tip, the difference between a bad tip and a good tip is usually just a few bucks. Tip, assholes.

As I've Said For Years

All they had to do was help the homeowners. It wasn't even a zero sum game. They could have helped homeowners and saved the banksters. They just didn't want to.

The Rot At The Top

Pierce:

I speak as one who took a paycheck from Mother Times for nine years at what was then its Boston-based subsidiary. There is no group of people on earth more deserving of an ensemble Liquid Plum'r enema than those people in the upper echelons of the New York Times Company. By and large, they are nasty, backstabbing careerists who would sell their white-haired grannies to Somali pirates for one more small step up the corporate ladder. When they are not being timid, they are being arrogant. (I watched them pretty much demolish the morale of a newsroom full of brilliant journalists at the Globe, as well as squashing the newspaper's individual identity. New editor Brian McGrory, and new owner John Henry, are bringing it back, thank god.) They have as much to do with journalism as Charlie Manson does with thoracic surgery. And they're calling the shots here.

Wanker of the Day

Dylan Byers.

All I Really Needed To Know I Learned In 2 Hours Of Econ 101

My big question for the "free market fundamentalist" economists is... why did you bother getting a Ph. D? If your message is that everything we need to know can be learned in a the first week of Econ 101 - and that is their message - then why bother with the rest of it?

Economists aren't all stupid, but for various reasons the public face of economics has been this stupid for years.

We Need To Have A More Accurate Cost Of Living Index

For years this has been the fundamental fraud behind "chained CPI," that it was a more accurate measure of changes in cost of living. Maybe it is overall (not saying it is, just not bothering to argue here), but its proponents were oddly uninterested in embracing a genuine CPI for Social Security recipients. Because, you know, the elderly don't buy the same stuff as the rest of the population.

CPI-E would give Social Security beneficiaries a small raise. It's a start.

The Fresh Prince Was Wrong

Parents do understand.

A Times Lawyer Just Flipped His Shit

Because that would be breaking the law.

Abramson’s attempt to raise the salary issue at a time when tempers were already frayed seemed wrongheaded to Sulzberger and Thompson, both on its merits and in terms of her approach. Bringing in a lawyer, in particular, seems to have struck them as especially combative. Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, argued that there was no real compensation gap, but conceded to me that “this incident was a contributing factor” to the firing of Abramson, because “it was part of a pattern.” (Update: Murphy wrote to me after this post went up to dispute this. Her quote is accurate and in context, as I’ve confirmed in my notes. However, she now e-mails: “I said to you that the issue of bringing a lawyer in was part of a pattern that caused frustration. I NEVER said that it was part of a pattern that led to her firing because that is just not true.”)

NEVER ALL CAPS lol.

Stink

As with the various attempts to cut Social Security, raising a stink seems to have had some effect on the FCC.

Overnight

Go to bed.

Thursday Evening

Tomorrow is Friday!!!

Superheroes On The Teevee

I think the show Arrow started out kinda crappy and then slowly got better until it became a good if not great show. Good if you like that kind of thing, maybe not for people who don't. Flash looks promising, as if the Arrow people figured out all their initial mistakes.



Non-nerds can click elsewhere.

Gotta Grift

A problem with corruption at the top is that eventually we all get the signal and become grifters, too. Can't make it any other way. I have no expert opinion on what combination of cultural norms, criminal laws, tort system, etc... maintain an equilibrium in which we aren't all trying to con each other all the time, but I think that equilibrium is not necessarily a permanent one. And I don't really want to live in a society where everything is a hustle. Not every interaction should be a nightmare used care salesman scenario.

Oregon Adopts Program To Allow Gas Guzzler Drivers To Lower Their Gas Taxes

Yes it's just a pilot program, but that's what it encourages people to do. People with high MPG vehicles will stick with the gas tax, and people with low MPG vehicles will switch to a mileage tax.

One day a vehicle mileage tax might be a necessary replacement for a gas tax, but we are nowhere near that day. Just increase the damn gas tax.

Displacement

Generally I think concerns about gentrification displacement are overblown. Not saying it never happens, just that there is much less involuntary displacement in most cases than people, who often invoke it for other purposes, claim. Still the one worry is that poorer people get priced out of areas with good transit. That's not about displacement per se, it's about a lack of neighborhoods with transit access being available to people who really need, as opposed to just want, it.

(Regarding displacement: neighborhoods have a normal amount of population churn, and some poor people actually own their houses. Involuntary gentrification-displacement is really about existing residents being priced out due to rising rents or property taxes, not simply people choosing to move and then their replacement being a bit richer.)

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

297K new lucky duckies.

Morning Thread

Lots of good links at Avedon's Sideshow.

Late Night

Rock harder.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Update

More:

[Update: A third associate told me, “She found out that a former deputy managing editor”—a man—”made more money than she did” while she was managing editor. “She had a lawyer make polite inquiries about the pay and pension disparities, which set them off.”]

But There's A Very Important Difference Between Bill Keller And Jill Abramson

I wonder what it could be.

Several weeks ago, I’m told, Abramson discovered that her pay and her pension benefits as both executive editor and, before that, as managing editor, were considerably less than the pay and pension benefits of Bill Keller, the male editor whom she replaced in both jobs. “She confronted the top brass,” one close associate said, and this may have fed into the management’s narrative that she was “pushy,” a characterization that, for many, has an inescapably gendered aspect. Sulzberger is known to be believe that the Times, as a financially beleaguered newspaper, has had to retreat on some of its generous pay and pension benefits[.]

I bet Keller was paid absurd amounts, and was continued to be paid absurd amounts for his horrible column. Still, we must "retreat on some" of that "generous pay."

Elite Networking For Administrators

I guess I can't say it's always the case, but to a great degree "high profile" college commencement speakers who are big in government/media/business/etc. are just part of the elite networking for top administration game. Also, too, lucrative for the speakers.

Worth remembering when Bob "Thanh Phong" Kerrey had John "Bomb Bomb Bomb" McCain speak at the New School. In 2006. Take it away, Jean Rohe.

Right now, I’m going to be who I am and digress from my previously prepared remarks that I had been working on for the past several weeks. I am disappointed that I have to abandon the things I had wanted to speak about, but I feel that it is absolutely necessary to acknowledge the fact that this ceremony has become something other than the celebratory gathering that it was intended to be due to all the media attention surrounding John McCain’s presence here today and the student and faculty outrage generated by his invitation to speak.

The senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded. Not only this — please, not only this, but his invitation was a top-down decision that did not take into account the desires and interests of the student body on an occasion that is supposed to honor us above all and to commemorate our achievements. What is interesting and bizarre about this whole situation is that Senator McCain has stated that he will be giving the same speech at all three universities where he has been invited to speak recently, of which ours is the last, those being Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Columbia University, and finally, here at the New School. For this reason, I have unusual foresight concerning the themes of his address today.

Based on the speech he gave at the other institutions, Senator McCain will tell us today that dissent and disagreement are our civic and moral obligation in times of crisis, and I agree. I consider this a time of crisis, and I feel obligated to speak. Senator McCain will also tell us about his strong-headed self-assuredness in his youth which prevented him from hearing the ideas of others, and in so doing, he will imply that those of us who are young are too naive to have valid opinions and open ears. I am young, and although I don’t profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous and wrong, that George Bush’s agenda in Iraq is not worth the many lives lost. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Every Step

Treasury under Geithner obstructed every attempt to help homeowners, and every attempt to get around those obstructions, quite often lying about it.

Signalling

I think quality education has much greater value than simply some rate of return on human capital investment (improvements your future career income stream). Higher education is probably destroying itself by trying to downplay the non-pecuniary benefits of liberal arts education, especially as the pecuniary benefits aren't exactly materializing these days. Signalling has long been an important part of a college education. It isn't just that college make you smarter and gives you skills - though it presumably does that, some - it's just a simple filter for potential employers, an external validation device.

But as tuition goes up, and the financial benefits of a college education go down, that signalling benefit stops being worth the expenditure.

Wednesday Crass Commercialism

Apparently Glenn Greenwald wrote a book.

Here, Too

Regular reminder.

Newark’s schools, which have been under state control for two decades, remain a fiercely contested topic. Indeed, under Mr. Booker, the city became a laboratory for the education reform movement.

The state controls the schools here in Philadelphia, too. Somehow nothing's ever their fault.

And How Would It Do That Then

Raise the retirement age. Cut benefits for people on the upper end (the only way this saves money is if you cut the benefits of people who don't make all that much money). And this:

Rubio wants to open up the federal Thrift Savings Plan -- which is available to members of Congress and their staff -- to people who don't have access to a retirement plan through their employers. Similar to a 401(k), the thrift plan lets workers contribute up to $17,500 of their pay annually before taxes in a retirement account. The thrift savings plan also comes with lower fees than what most consumers are charged through private defined-contribution plans, Rubio said.

"The twisted irony is that members of Congress – who are employees of the citizens of the United States – have access to a superior savings plan, while many of their employers – the American people – are often left with access to no plan at all," Rubio said during the speech.

Oh the twisted irony that a government plan is superior to private sector plans. Such twisted irony.

Anyway, opening up the TSP is fine, but it isn't going to help low income people because the problem for low income people is that they have low incomes.

The World's Worst Human

No, Social Security doesn't add to the deficit. The only way you can conceive of it doing so is if you think all that money the general fund borrowed from Social Security contributions doesn't need to be paid back. Which, of course, was the Greenspan con but...

And Idaho

Occasional reminder that the state's interest in marriage is about 70% how to deal with property at the end of the marriage due to death or divorce, 20% tax treatment, and 10% some other random legal/rights issues. Yes I made up those numbers but you get the point.

Even some of my liberal gay marriage supporting friends sometimes say stupid things like, "why doesn't the state get out of the marriage business entirely and just issue civil unions??!?!" Well, you know, that's what the state does. You go sign some papers. We can call it marriage or civil unions or Parcheesi or whatever. Yes our culture tends conflate the religious ceremony with the state's role, but they really don't have anything important to do with each other.

Primary Season

I haven't managed to care all that much about my local primaries. My state and federal reps are running unopposed, leaving governor and lieutenant governor. There are some interesting primary races in the burbs, but I hesitate to get "involved" (as in, try to raise money or even use the power of my mighty blog to sway dozens of votes) unless I really do some due diligence about the candidates.

Over in one week, then all my various "more involved in local politics than I am" friends can stop arguing with each other on facebook.

Wanker of the Day

Ron Fournier

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

The Worst Institution In The World

The NCAA.

The Great Grift

What education really needs is some consultants.

During the next two years, more than twenty million dollars of Zuckerberg’s gift and matching donations went to consulting firms with various specialties: public relations, human resources, communications, data analysis, teacher evaluation. Many of the consultants had worked for Joel Klein, Teach for America, and other programs in the tight-knit reform movement, and a number of them had contracts with several school systems financed by Race to the Top grants and venture philanthropy. The going rate for individual consultants in Newark was a thousand dollars a day. Vivian Cox Fraser, the president of the Urban League of Essex County, observed, “Everybody’s getting paid, but Raheem still can’t read.”

Everybody's getting paid. Well, not everybody.

Differences

Terry Mac isn't perfect, but...

RICHMOND — Gov. Terry McAuliffe moved to free Virginia’s abortion clinics from strict hospital-style building codes on Monday, loading up the state health board with abortion rights supporters and ordering it to review rules that clinic operators say threaten to put them out of business.

Lady Hoops

Anyone else remember Berenson rules bball?

Shorter (And Subtler) Karl Rove

Don't you think she looks tired?

Reminder

The spy-on-everyone program under Bush did not start after 9/11. It started in March.

Meanwhile, through the usual channels, there was lots of chatter all summer about how bin Laden was up to something. The directors of the FBI and CIA both had their hair on fire about it.

So, as far as we can tell, Bush/Cheney and NSA did not decide to start collecting all of your data because of 9/11, because 9/11 had not happened yet. They decided to do it in spite of the fact that they obviously did not care about terrorism and then persisted in ignoring all of the warnings about it.

So, how come nearly every article I see about the spying program has a phrase saying that the program was started after or because of 9/11?

I bet there's a simple answer to this simple question. Grrr.

Afternoon Thread

Got some things to do. On your own.

10, 50, 100, 200

The consequences of rising sea levels depend on the time frame. Let's hope it happens more slowly.

The collapse of large parts of the ice sheet in West Antarctica appears to have begun and is almost certainly unstoppable, with global warming accelerating the pace of the disintegration, two groups of scientists reported Monday.

The finding, which had been feared by some scientists for decades, means that a rise in global sea level of at least 10 feet may now be inevitable. The rise may continue to be relatively slow for at least the next century or so, the scientists said, but sometime after that it will probably speed up so sharply as to become a crisis.

2016 Dem Primary Thread

I'm gonna vote for Kodos.

He Kept Us Safe

Right wingers are so weird.

The Corruption Tax

I'm not sure if it's better to just pay it and get people enrolled, or gamble on the reasonable possibility that after November a new governor will have a better plan.

Everybody's Favorite Subject

I do wish some civic groups would do some customer surveys for local businesses to determine how customers generally travel to their stores. Owners of local businesses tend to drive, for understandable reasons, so they're concerned about parking. Customers who drive tend to complain about parking. But here in the urban hellhole, if your business depends on customers who drive, you're doing it wrong. The fact is that there just isn't enough parking to support you. Adding one more lot or carving out a few more spots isn't going to change that.

Not Understanding Your Customers

Yes, big markets should be more like 7-11. That's definitely what the customers are there for.

Some vendors inside the market are concerned that the closure of a section of 7th Street SE on weekends to accommodate outdoor vendors is hurting the business of the indoor vendors. Customers, they argue, have to park several blocks away, creating a disincentive to visit the market for their food shopping. So they've crafted a proposal to re-open the street on Saturdays, increasing the supply of nearby parking at the expense of perhaps a few dozen vendor stands on the street.

Bill Glasgow, who runs Union Meats and serves as the indoor vendors' delegate to the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee, says weekends account for 70 percent of vendors' sales, but that business drops off considerably on rainy days because people can't park close enough to the market.

...
Glasgow counters that there are more than 200 vendors, and given the high turnover among them, the loss of 30 wouldn't make a big difference. He'd like a system, he says, that's more like 7-Eleven, where customers can park briefly to pick up their groceries.

Business drops off on rainy days because, you know, people take transit and walk there. It's a 'fun thing to do on a nice day' experience, not a 'drive in to pick up your meat' experience.

Small Government

Protecting the interests of large oligopoly is way more important than innovation or quality.

Even for those who would serve locovores.

Governor LePage is one of those Republican governors who turned down the free Medicaid money because government interference.

Sunday Night

Looking forward to Friday tomorrow.

Horrible People Arguing

Tim Geithner's all like Glenn Hubbard DID TOO say that Romney had a secret plan to increase taxes, but then G-Hub's like NUH-UH girl that never happened you lying liar I was talking about revenue not taxes or something something derp.


You can find it in politico if you really need to read the whole thing.

How'd They Fail To Make That Work

Atlantic City could have been a nice place, even with the gambling, but extreme obsession with taking money from visitors instead of making it a nice place for locals (too), will likely leave it with nothing.

Afternoon Thread

H-Mart and Bell's Market. full fridge.

The End of Football

Tomorrow's Rusty Limbaugh show should be fun.

Journalism!

Jay Rosen is looking for some help.

When you think about it, it's pretty amazing. There's no evidence whatsoever that there is a fraud problem that voter ID would solve.  And it's not as if the Republicans are even bothering to say there is such evidence.  But that's not part of the story.

There ARE some fraud problems, of course. For instance, people with two residences sometimes vote twice, especially on local issues that affect their property taxes at the beach house.

Overnight

Rock on.

Caturday Thread

Afternoon Thread

Actually kinda hot here today.

Saturday Crass Commercialism

Along those lines, Hannibal is pretty good. It is about, you know, a serial killer cannibal, so perhaps not for everyone.

A Thousand Barefoot Children Outside Dancing On My Lawn

I think my favorite ur-old fogie comment that I see in various versions on the internet is something along the lines of "I haven't watched TV in 30 years - there's nothing good on." There's no obligation to watch or enjoy TV, or movies, or music, or video games, or contemporary novels, or anything else. We all have our likes and dislikes, we all have ways we spend our "free" time. I'm certainly not aware of all internet and TV and movie and music and video and fiction traditions and don't claim to be. But, you know, unless you dip your toe in the water you don't actually know if it's cold, hot, or warm.

Where The Poors Are

The big problem with suburban and exurban poverty is that an automobile is a necessary expense, and there are fewer available nearby social services. Not that the urban hellhole provides some super awesome secret welfare program, but density does mean there are more reachable options.

Morning Thread

Late Night

Rock on.

Cancel This Show

Apparently Rob Ford has been banished to the Black Lodge.

Ford has two ways of communicating as he drives — his cellular phone and his Onstar device, a General Motors product that acts as a cellphone. During one call as he drives that night, Ford is recorded as saying the following about Jews, blacks and Italians:

“Nobody sticks up for people like I do, every f---ing k--e, n----r, f---ing w-p, d-go, whatever the race. Nobody does. I’m the most racist guy around. I’m the mayor of Toronto.”

Friday Evening

Today is Friday!!!

Manly Fantasies

Sorry, NFL players, Limbaugh doesn't think you're manly enough for him anymore.

Afternoon Thread

In search of the one true liberal.

The Hunger Games

This is real.



Click to embiggen.

Not Getting It

There's nothing wrong with journalism grounded in a particular ideological perspective. The plight of billionaires dealing with shoddy gold-plated-tub installers can be a genuine news story. The problem with conservative "journalism" is that it's generally 100% hackish.

Bigger Swinging Dick, Mr. President

Fareed Zakaria is so serious.

In his speech to European leaders on Ukraine, Obama struck most of the right notes but also offered caveats about not acting militarily. It is difficult to stir the world into action, and into following the United States, if the president is telling you what he would not do rather than what he would do.

But the broader problem is that critics want the moral and political satisfaction of a great global struggle. We all accuse Vladimir Putin of Cold War nostalgia, but Washington’s elites — politicians and intellectuals — miss the old days as well. They wish for the world in which the United States was utterly dominant over its friends, its foes were to be shunned entirely and the challenges were stark, moral and vital.

I'm old enough to remember that world, and, you know, it never existed. But if only Obama would be more enthusiastic about blowing shit up, it would again!

Read Some

Krugman with your second cuppa. Guaranteed to get your blood pressure going.

Evening Thread

Narrow, Deep, And Tall

Sure people live in apartments and condos and various floorplans associated with "urban living," but much of the housing stock in Philadelphia is made up of 3 story rowhouses (and, in more western parts of the city, giant Victorians), which, except for the tiny "trinities" that are basically stacked one room floors, are usually pretty big. And all but the tiniest trinities are more than enough room for a couple, if not a family. Since they're narrow - 16 feet wide is typical - people unused to seeing that configuration assume there isn't a lot of space inside. They're narrow, but they're sometimes deep, and 3 stories is pretty tall (there are lots of two story blocks, too, and they're a bit smaller obviously).

Anyway, the more general point is that people associate urban living with shoebox 1 bedroom apartments, but you can have big living spaces and quite a bit of population density (and associated neighborhood supported retail) even without that. Setbacks and massive amounts of off-street parking are what prevent the density necessary for pedestrian-friendly urban living. You can still have houses with a lot of living space.

Bloodlust

Asshole indeed.

Not Gonna Fall Down

Is it too much to ask that in the richest country in the universe, the majority of the population should be able to go to school, get a job, find a place to live, have kids if they want, send those kids to school, and retire without having to worry that one or two bad events (health, employment) will ruin it all?

Chemical Plant Go Boom

I'm sure this well end well.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

We Know How To Stop Inflation

One not often addressed issue with our inflation fear crowd is that we know how to stop inflation. Even if inflation does start ticking up to some unimaginable horror like 3.5% per year, the Fed can quickly take away the punchbowl. To keep beating the inflation drum, you have to believe both that despite being wrong for the past 5 years, it really is around the corner this time, and that the Fed wouldn't react to kill it if it appeared. And that last part is truly nuts. Of course they would (even if they shouldn't).

Hypotheticals

I'm not saying I think it would or could happen (no idea!), but just for the sake of discussion, what if fracking caused some catastrophic city-leveling earthquake. I guess I'm wondering what level of disaster would cause any change in the status quo. Would they just keep on fracking? Suck it, rubble covered people!

A Horrible Person

Someone in a position to know once told me something along the lines that Geithner is as horrible as, or even worse than, you think.

The maddening thing is that it didn't have to be either/or. You could have easily committed to helping homeowners and the banks, but that didn't fit the morality story they wanted to tell. The banks weren't at fault, it was all the people who took out bad loans who were. They had to be punished.

Thursday Is New Jobless Day

319K new lucky duckies.

Moving in the right direction again.

Morning Thread

It's still not Friday.

Late Night

Rock on.

Kudos

I was at the Hillman Foundation awards last night.  Some fine work was recognized, including Digby's.

Freak

The online front page headline for this story is "Penn student dies in freak overpass fall."

Tragic, but I'm not sure what makes it freakish.

A 27-year-old Wharton student died from injuries suffered Tuesday when he fell 38 feet from an elevated section of Walnut Street after he was hit by a car involved in a two-vehicle crash, police said Wednesday.

There's Something I Need To Say

And I suppose I should just come right out with it. You people need to talk about more important things than you usually do. The fate of the world depends on it.

Less Obvious Than You'd Think

One would think that the security gate at the White House would be rather obviously a security gate, but I remember thinking that I could see how a driver would accidentally head through it given the right circumstances. A lot of people come in and out of that place every day, so it can't quite be a fortress even if there are snipers on the roof.

The man arrested Tuesday afternoon when he followed the Obama daughters’ motorcade made a mistake and was simply confused about D.C. roads, the U.S. Secret Service confirmed Wednesday.

An Internal Revenue Service computer worker, the man does not come to downtown Washington often and did not realize he was trailing a Secret Service motorcade.

All About The Benjamins

I still have no idea what Benghazi is about (something something talking points something email something talking points 4 Americans dead something something terrorism something), but the money people do. It's a code word for "give us your money."

Own Goal

Why on Earth would Dem candidates in MD let themselves participate in a debate moderated by Dancing Dave?

"Are you all wearing your flag pins?"

"If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?"

"Some have some kind of perception of something, how will you change that?"

It's Always 1998

Our failed media experiment.

Tuesday Later

Tomorrow's Friday, right?

Tuesday Night

Busy in my official capacity of "guy who opens front door and sends party guests up to the roof deck."

Happy Hour Thread

So glad it's Friday.

The Great Grift

Some corruption tax in government is inevitable. But here in Philadelphia the grifters are on their way to killing the golden goose.

Without $216 million in additional funding, Moody's analyst Dan Seymour wrote in a report to clients, the district threatens to increase the average class size to 41 students and lay off more than 1,000 staff. " This is credit negative because a further deterioration in education services will likely result in additional student flight to charter schools and other alternatives," further reducing district revenues, Seymour added. 3 in 10 Philadelphia students already go to charter schools.

"Rising charter school enrollments have been a drag on the district’s finances, as state law mandates that public school districts pay the costs of sending students to charter schools. Driven largely by charter school tuition costs, the district’s costs per pupil have increased 70% since 2004. Further enrollment declines would exacerbate the district’s financial pressure as charter schools capture a larger share of the district’s expenditures," Moody's adds.

The state took over the school district and the city has little power over it, except deciding how much additional money give it.

Back To The 90s

I'm sure the inevitable Maureen Dowd columns will follow. From The Human Stain:

The summer that Coleman took me into his confidence about Faunia Farley and their secret was the summer, fittingly enough, that Bill Clinton's secret emerged in every last mortifying detail—every last lifelike detail, the livingness, like the mortification, exuded by the pungency of the specific data. We hadn't had a season like it since somebody stumbled upon the new Miss America nude in an old issue of Penthouse, pictures of her elegantly posed on her knees and on her back that forced the shamed young woman to relinquish her crown and go on to become a huge pop star. Ninety-eight in New England was a summer of exquisite warmth and sunshine, in baseball a summer of mythical battle between a home-run god who was white and a home-run god who was brown, and in America the summer of an enormous piety binge, a purity binge, when terrorism—which had replaced communism as the prevailing threat to the country's security—was succeeded by cocksucking, and a virile, youthful middle-aged president and a brash, smitten twenty-one-year-old employee carrying on in the Oval Office like two teenage kids in a parking lot revived America's oldest communal passion, historically perhaps its most treacherous and subversive pleasure: the ecstasy of sanctimony. In the Congress, in the press, and on the networks, the righteous grandstanding creeps, crazy to blame, deplore, and punish, were everywhere out moralizing to beat the band: all of them in a calculated frenzy with what Hawthorne (who, in the 1860s, lived not many miles from my door) identified in the incipient country of long ago as "the persecuting spirit"; all of them eager to enact the astringent rituals of purification that would excise the erection from the executive branch, thereby making things cozy and safe enough for Senator Lieberman's ten-year-old daughter to watch TV with her embarrassed daddy again. No, if you haven't lived through 1998, you don't know what sanctimony is. The syndicated conservative newspaper columnist William F. Buckley wrote, "When Abelard did it, it was possible to prevent its happening again," insinuating that the president's malfeasance—what Buckley elsewhere called Clinton's "incontinent carnality"—might best be remedied with nothing so bloodless as impeachment but, rather, by the twelfth-century punishment meted out to Canon Abelard by the knife-wielding associates of Abelard's ecclesiastical colleague, Canon Fulbert, for Abelard's secret seduction of and marriage to Fulbert's niece, the virgin Heloise. Unlike Khomeini's fatwa condemning to death Salman Rushdie, Buckley's wistful longing for the corrective retribution of castration carried with it no financial incentive for any prospective perpetrator. It was prompted by a spirit no less exacting than the ayatollah's, however, and in behalf of no less exalted ideals.

It was the summer in America when the nausea returned, when the joking didn't stop, when the speculation and the theorizing and the hyperbole didn't stop, when the moral obligation to explain to one's children about adult life was abrogated in favor of maintaining in them every illusion about adult life, when the smallness of people was simply crushing, when some kind of demon had been unleashed in the nation and, on both sides, people wondered "Why are we so crazy?," when men and women alike, upon awakening in the morning, discovered that during the night, in a state of sleep that transported them beyond envy or loathing, they had dreamed of the brazenness of Bill Clinton. I myself dreamed of a mammoth banner, draped dadaistically like a Christo wrapping from one end of the White House to the other and bearing the legend A HUMAN BEING LIVES HERE. It was the summer when—for the billionth time—the jumble, the mayhem, the mess proved itself more subtle than this one's ideology and that one's morality. It was the summer when a president's penis was on everyone's mind, and life, in all its shameless impurity, once again confounded America.

Department Of Bad Ideas

I don't think there's any way to do this without freaking out the people who might actually watch it.

MOOOOARRR SOCIAL SECURITY

It really is the only option. We can debate what our overall retirement program should be like for now-25 year olds if we want (and, yes, given tax treatment and other issues 401(k)s are as much a government retirement program as Social Security, just a shitty one), but the near-retirees are pretty fucked.

Nobody Has Any Money For Retirement

Something's gotta change.

The median size of a 401(k) is $24,400 as of March 31, with people older than 55 having $65,300, according to Fidelity Investments. Those funds can disappear quickly in retirement, and the early withdrawals indicate that the coming retirement crisis could be even more acute than expected.

Meetup

Confirming that we do have a meetup in NYC today starting at 830 pm at Rudy’s, 9th Ave between 44th and 45th. the original home of Drinking Liberally. Digby will stop by after 10, following Hillman festivities.

We’ll be in the outdoor space in back, unless it gets too cold.

Questions? Post in comments or tweet me.

Wakey, Wakey

Monday Night

Enjoy

Monstered

Was hunting for something else and came across this randomly. We don't really have a word or concept for the press monstering someone, because I think we like to imagine our press doesn't do that sort of thing. But sometimes it does, so when it does let's give it a name.

I Declare

HAPPY HOUR.

Enjoy.

Afternoon Thread

Spring is here, and boy-oh-boy, is it wonderful out there.

Freedum

It takes an atheist, or perhaps even a Protestant, to get why this stuff matters.

There are no Protestant supremos. In my experience even hard core US Protestants tend to have a greater understanding that even Christianity, let alone religion generally, isn't all the same thing.

An Election About Nothing

I suppose the basic 2010 story is that of a wave of angry tea partiers and Dem voters just stayed home and there was nothing anybody could do. But in 2010 I couldn't have told anybody why they should vote for Democrats. I mean, sure, I could explain at length why team D is usually better than team R, etc. etc., but there was no message being put out there. It was like they didn't try.

Except for 2006, when they, you know, won, this is always the Dem approach to midterm elections. Don't make it a national campaign. Don't be too specific about policy. Make your election about biography and character. Don't spend any money until after Labor Day, then spend it all on teevee. Then they lose and it's all, well, our voters suck because they stayed home sucky voters, probably because of those negative Daily Kos diaries.

We'll see this year...

Nothing Says Libertarian Like Free Use Of The Commons

Libertarians is weird.

In most places, yes. But not here in charming Keene, where parking officers figure in a philosophical tug of war between a small band of activists who live by the motto “Free Keene,” and the great majority of residents who were unaware that their city was in bondage.

Keene’s two parking officers, both women, are often videotaped by young adults known as “Robin Hooders.” They track the whereabouts of the officers by two-way radio, feed expired meters before $5 tickets can be written, and leave a business card saying that “we saved you from the king’s tariff.”

Well That's Alarming

If the Hudson River tunnels cease to function...um, let's just say no more "Jersey Strong."

The Great Grift

But, yes, let's worry about what people are spending $130/month of food stamps on.

In doing so, International Relief and Development increased its annual revenue from $1.2 million to $706 million, most of it from one corner of the federal government — the U.S. Agency for International Development. IRD has received more grants and cooperative agreements from USAID in recent years than any other nonprofit relief and development organization in the nation — $1.9 billion.

Along the way, the nonprofit rewarded its employees with generous salaries and millions in bonuses. Among the beneficiaries: the minister, Arthur B. Keys, and his wife, Jasna Basaric-Keys, who together earned $4.4 million in salary and bonuses between 2008 and 2012.

Spreading Good Around The World

I'm sure there's no connection between this:

The World Health Organization on Monday declared the spread of polio a public health emergency of international concern.

Alarmed by the spread of polio from conflict zones in three continents, the agency issued the health alert to try to stop the further spread of the disease, a paralyzing virus once thought to be nearly eradicated.

An emergency committee convened by the organization announced in Geneva that three countries — Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon — had allowed the spread of the virus and should take extraordinary measures to stop it.

and this:

In its zeal to identify bin Laden or his family, the CIA used a sham hepatitis B vaccination project to collect DNA in the neighborhood where he was hiding. The effort apparently failed, but the violation of trust threatens to set back global public health efforts by decades.

It is hard enough to distribute, for example, polio vaccines to children in desperately poor, politically unstable regions that are rife with 10-year-old rumors that the medicine is a Western plot to sterilize girls—false assertions that have long since been repudiated by the Nigerian religious leaders who first promoted them. Now along come numerous credible reports of a vaccination campaign that is part of a CIA plot—one the U.S. has not denied.