First Looks category archive

Brendan makes a phone call.

Steve catalogs the atrocities.

The Republican Party is culpable for welcoming–nay, inviting–these persons and their attitudes into its ranks.

It sowed the wind. Let it reap the whirlwind.

Addendum:

The Booman Tribune has more.

Whaddya got?

P-R-E-T-E-X-T

Auxiliary Bishop Roger Morin of New Orleans, chairman of the US bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) committee, announced yesterday that the campaign would no longer fund the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ‘There will be no funding relationships with ACORN groups in the future,’ he said. The action was prompted by reports of embezzlement; CCHD funds, said Bishop Morin, ‘were not involved with those that had been embezzled.’

This would, of course, have nothing to do with ACORN’s registering voters who tended to vote Democratic and whose votes could therefore be considered inimical to the Catholic Church’s anti-abortion, anti-birth control policies.

I did a little research. The embezzlement happened eight years ago and a donor made up the losses.

It is not uncommon for organizations to try to deal with such things privately, especially when family is involved and the organization’s finances can be made whole.

Not saying it’s right, but it’s not uncommon, and, I think, something that one can understand, even though one may not approve.

Frankly, I would not want to hang my brother out to dry, at least, not since I grew up (when I was nine years old, I might have thought differently).

(Damn, the way Karen’s been feeding me links, I’m going to have to put her on the payroll. ‘Cept I don’t got one. This blog is a relentless money-loser.)

From Paula Pounstone dot com:

PAULA ON NPR THIS MORNING

Paula’s has (sic) an excellent commentary on NPR today.
It would be nice to get some web action for her…

Best way to do that is send this link (see below) to everyone you know…and ask them to sign up to comment and if they like the piece to press ‘recommend’.

Here it is — send away.
She’s leading the NPR opinion page today:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96890409 or simply click here

Thank you for your help.
Sincerely,

Bonnie Burns, Personal Manager

I heard the commentary. It was pretty good. Not excellent, but pretty good.

There’re reasons I support the SPLC.

John Cole at Balloon Juice.

Some great pictures over here. Phillybits told me about them tonight. They live up to his billing.

Off to drink liberally.

Addendum:

Quite a nice little victory celebration.

’bout time.

Now, where’s my handout?

In honor of my father and my son.

And all the rest.

From the Booman.

It would make me want to drink liberally.

Which I plan to do tomorrow, Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Philadelphia, Pa. 6 p.

Join the fun.

Marketwatch:

On Friday, the government will report on retail sales for October. Given the credit squeeze, as well as exhaustion and despondence among consumers, bad news is expected.

Analysts see a fourth consecutive month of falling retail sales. A fourth drop would be the first time there has been such an extended decline since 1974.

For September, the Commerce Department reported that U.S. retail sales fell 1.2%, with weak results in almost all kinds of stores. For October, economists surveyed by MarketWatch are looking for a drop of 2% — the biggest decline since 2001.

There is considerable pessimism at CIBC World Markets, where analysts are looking for a 2.5% decline.

As I pointed out a long time ago, it’s the Bushie Midas touch.

Natch, they probably voted for McMaverick.

Gun stores and trade groups have reported a spike in firearms sales in the run-up to the November 4 election victory of Democrat Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who many perceive as strongly pro-gun control.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the shooting, hunting and firearms industry, reported a 10 percent jump in gun sales this year based on its analysis of an excise tax placed on firearms and ammunition, and a spokesman said the increase had grown dramatically ahead of the election.

“Gun owners are afraid of what Obama is going to do as far as guns,” said spokesman Tony Aeschliman. “He has a clear record of being against us.”

Obama stated his support for the right to bear arms during campaigning, although both he and Biden back a permanent ban on assault weapons — military style semi-automatic rifles — and “common sense measures” to keep guns away from children and criminals, positions which spurred concern among some gun enthusiasts.

Then, again, maybe they are children and criminals.

By their behavior shall ye know them.

Learn how here.

Or download the PDF.

Bonddad on the National Debt (follow the link to see the full analysis):

I’ve been complaining about the deficit for the last 4 years. And I will continue to complain about the deficit for one primary reason: as a country we have to make choices. Some things are more important than others. Those things we find important we should spend more money on.

Over the last 8 years we have not made any choices. Instead we have funded, well, everything that has come down the pike. In addition, we cut taxes, further exacerbating the problem of deficit financing. As a result, we have issued mammoth amounts of public and intra-government debt. Here’s a reading of the last 8 years from the Bureau of Public Debt:

09/30/2008 $10,024,724,896,912.49
09/30/2007 $9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2006 $8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 $5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000 $5,674,178,209,886.86

The current total is $10,566,146,196,490.58.

My words, not Bonddad’s: Republican Economic Theory is beggaring the nation.

And anyone who understands arithmetic saw it coming.

Now that baseball is over, the Sports Section has lost its allure.

From John Cole.

Cumberland Country, North Carolina:

Obama: 73,926

McCain: 51,596

Cumberland County is the home of Fort Bragg.

It doesn’t take an IT certification to know that nothing that passes through the internet is private.

Exhibit one:

See, here was Buck’s (Buck Burnette–U. of Texas footballer–ed.) Facebook status following Barack Obama’s win the presidential election:

“all the hunters gather up, we have a #$%&er in the whitehouse”

Geez, Buck. Even if you actually feel that way — which is sad — why not just keep it to yourself? You know, instead of telling five million people. But he didn’t, and naturally, he is now paying the price; he’s been kicked off the UT football team.

Exhibit two (from across the Big Pond–later in the article, the author explores whether such a firing would be legal in the US):

Virgin Atlantic airline fired 13 employees for what they said on Facebook. The charge: The employees “brought the company into disrepute.” The evidence: a discussion that said its airplanes (their workplace) harbored cockroaches and that its customers were “chavs,” the British slang equivalent of “white trash.”