First Looks category archive

What Ray predicted is coming true (emphasis added).

For years, Joe Palombo of Joe Palombo’s Mirabella Cafe in Cherry Hill paid $14.50 for a 50-pound bag of semolina flour for pasta. Last week, it was $44. Prices are rising so quickly, it’s hard to comparison-shop, Palombo said.

The regional office of the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday reported that the average price of food eaten at home had risen 2.3 percent from February 2007 to February 2008. Food eaten away from home rose 3.7 percent.

. . . is on AMC tonight.

What a great movie.

I’ve turned my mobile plug-in back on. It seems to have nothing to do with the connection problems experienced by my brother some users.

Bank runs (emphasis added).

I’ve heard about bank runs from my mother. They happened in the Great Depression.

The global credit crunch claimed its biggest victim yet yesterday when the US Federal Reserve orchestrated an emergency bail-out for Bear Stearns after a cash crisis prompted a run on America’s fifth biggest investment bank.

In a move that eclipsed the enforced rescue of Northern Rock (a British bank–ed.) six months ago, the 85-year-old Wall Street institution admitted it was looking for a buyer after being thrown a temporary lifeline by rival bank JP Morgan Chase guaranteed by the US central bank.

George Bush sought to calm fears of a deep recession in the world’s biggest economy when he said that despite the current “tough times”, the US economy remained fundamentally sound.

But the president’s words did nothing to dampen speculation on Wall Street that other blue-chip investment banks may also be facing a cash crisis as a result of their exposure to the collapsing US real estate market.

The ratings agency Standard & Poor’s responded to the rescue announcement by cutting Bear Stearns’s credit rating to BBB – the second-lowest investment grade – putting more pressure on its beleaguered stock.

Speculation about Bear had mounted for days. By Thursday, worried institutional clients were withdrawing large sums of money. That evening, the Fed’s governors unanimously voted to come to the bank’s aid by guaranteeing a 28-day loan provided by JP Morgan Chase. “Bear Stearns has been subjected to a significant amount of rumour and speculation over the past week,” said Bear’s chief executive, Alan Schwartz. “Concern on the part of counter parties, on the part of customers and lenders, got to the point where a lot of people wanted to get their cash out.”

Picture via Delaware Liberal.

I told you so.

Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.

Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that “no one” in the U.S. and Iraqi governments “feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation,” or in the provision of basic public services.

John Cole seems to have taken it harder than I did.

Today’s episode, from Josh Marshall:

Snow Geese in a field near Milford, Delaware:

You can view two little movies (together they are shorter than a minute) here and here.

I tried to spook them into taking flight, but they just looked at me. Well, actually, they didn’t even look at me. They just continued to mill around.

Seamy details here.

(Go ahead. Click on the link. You know who you are.)

Via Avedon.

Phillybits sums it up.

Check this out.

Addendum:

Computer Generated Speech.

As a matter of policy, I refuse to address name-calling between candidates in this space.

I can do my own name-calling quite well, thank you.

I’m going to point you towards this post from Josh Marshall, which does address the current kerfuffle involving Geraldine Ferraro, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, because I think it’s worth reading as a thoughtful consideration of the situation.

Full disclosure: The first ballot I cast for a Presidential Candidate was a write-in for Shirley Chisholm.

Can anyone seriously claim that it’s an asset to be an African-American in a US presidential race? Happily what we’re now seeing is that it does not in itself seem to be an eliminating factor in a presidential race. But an advantage? There’s no doubt that Obama’s race is the central factor in allowing him to consolidate almost unanimous support from African-American voters, especially in the South. But African-Americans make up only about 13% of the population. And does anyone doubt that that advantage he gains there is not balanced at least to a substantial degree by resistance to voting for him among white voters? Why is Obama running so poorly among white voters tonight (compared to his rates in northern states) in Mississippi? And in South Carolina? We hear a lot about Sen. Clinton’s bedrock of strength among non-college educated white voters. Do we really think that’s simply a matter of appeal of Sen. Clinton? More speculatively, but I think no less true, is that a lot of the Farrakhan/Muslim/foreign influence stuff has more sticking power because of Obama’s race.

Most of the same points could be made about the advantages and disadvantages Sen. Clinton is under because of her gender. In fact I think there’s a pretty striking symmetry. It’s clearly helping her with her big advantage among women voters, especially her generational peers. But we’d be foolish not to realize that some of Obama’s big margins among white men are not simply a reflection of support for Obama.

You might support Obama or not, think he’s qualified or an empty suit but suggesting he’s only where he is now because he’s black is something much worse than outrageous. It just seems obviously false.

Food for thought from Delaware Watch.

From the Southern Poverty Law Center (Morris Dees is the real deal–send him a check today):

Sheriff’s deputies gunned down by “Aryan” gangsters in Bastrop, La. Tax protesters with bombs arrested in New Hampshire. Gun-toting white supremacists marching in Jena, La. A police officer murdered in Salt Lake City. Nativist leaders demanding sniper teams and mines along the Mexican border. Calls for assassinating politicians, immigrants and Jews. Rapidly spreading racist conspiracy theories.

The end of 2007 brought to a close another year marked by staggering levels of racist hate in America. Even as several major hate groups struggled to survive, other new groups appeared, and the radical right as a whole appeared to grow.

Tomorrow, 6 to 9 p. m., Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Center City, Philadelphia, right behind Jeff.

I can tell you right now that I would much rather be there tomorrow night, instead of at the meeting I am scheduled to attend.

Over at Susie’s place.

Follow the trail.

The White Whale:

The white killer whale spotted in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands sent researchers and the ship’s crew scrambling for their cameras. The nearly mythic creature was real after all. “I had heard about this whale, but we had never been able to find it,” said Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist with the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle who photographed the rarity. “It was quite neat to find it.”

A. Jane Fonda went to Viet Nam.

(From the annual joke show.)

From Pam’s House Blend:

In 2004, our menu for president consisted of a silver-spoon rich white man from the Northeast who attended Yale and was a member of Skull & Bones vs. a silver-spoon rich white man from the Northeast who attended Yale and was a member of Skull & Bones, and the country narrowly chose the rich white man they most wanted to have a beer with.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton is desperately trying to become the first Washingtonian insider white woman with years of experience who voted for Iraq, voted for Iran, and voted for the PATRIOT ACT to face a Washingtonian insider white man with years of experience who voted for Iraq, voted for Iran, and voted for the PATRIOT ACT.

Afterthought: Josh Marshall on experience.