June, 2009 archive
Domestic Terrorism 0
What Digby said.
Plus Atrios on the “Obama Effect” (from MSNBC’s coverage of the shootings at the Holocaust Museum):
All the News that Fits, Recidivism Dept. 0
Dick Polman recounts how the New York Times allowed itself to get spun–again (or is that “still”?)–on behalf of the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq. In doing so, he takes again takes on the Myth that Will Not Die: the myth that big media is somehow “liberal.”
Follow the link for the full analysis; it’s worth the five minutes.
That translated into a 14.3 percent recidivism rate,
(snip)
And once again, the story was flat wrong.
This past weekend – more than two weeks after the print story ran – The Times finally took steps to clean up the mess. On Saturday, it ran a lengthy “editor’s note” which admitted that the “1 in 7” statistic was way off base. Actually, said The Times, it would have been far more accurate to report “that about one in 20 former Guantanamo prisoners described in the Pentagon report were now said to be engaging in terrorism.”
Well, that’s very different. One in 20 translates to a 5 percent recidivism rate – a far cry from 14.3 percent. (And as for that 5 percent figure, here’s a bit of perspective: According to the Justice Department’s own figures, the recidivism rate for American prisoners – as measured by the rate of rearrests within three years of release – is typically in excess of 60 percent.)
Afterthought: The New York Times is the true recidivist here, backsliding to its reflex to support Bushie wars.
RTFM 0
DJ explains why men don’t read directions (or ask for them).
Flag Day 0
My three or our regular readers know that one of the things that drives me absolutely batty is improper flag etiquette.
Perversely, those who most routinely show disrespect for the American flag are also often those who most vociferously protest of their devotion to it, while being the most willing to trample the rights for which it stands.
Walter Brasch over at the Democratic Daily:
Americans use flags and flag-decorated clothes, most of them made by non-union labor in China and other overseas countries, to “prove” they are more patriotic than the next person. They have demanded that politicians wear flag lapels. They have bought bigger and bigger flags, in the mistaken believe that flying a flag and being patriotic are the same thing. But, these “patriots” have also flown their flags improperly, often hanging the blue field in the wrong corner, sometimes tacking the flag to wooden walls. They have allowed their flags to have flown in rain and snow storms, to have become tattered and faded. And when some flags become too faded or too torn, their owners just throw them out, rather than give them the proper retirement that the Flag Code requires.
Twits on Twitter 0
Let’s all go to the comedy club to watch persons type:
Twits on Twitter 0
Details here. A couple of days old, but still relevant.
Down Discomforter 0
Dour Bauer:
(snip)
Eddie Bauer had $187.9 million in long-term borrowings and $2.62 million in cash in the quarter that ended April 4, according to a company filing. The company reported a loss of $44.5 million in the first quarter on sales of about $180 million.
If you read below the headlines, many of the bankruptcies are coming, not because of what’s happening today, but because of what happened yesterday–companies contracted oodles of debt figuring that they could just keep refinancing it forever.
Many Happy Returns 2
After taking the weekend mostly off to “summerize” (if “winterize” has become permissible, so too should “summerize”) my boat, a three-day task involving two trips to Boats-R-Us, I return to good news: Brendan has a gig.
Read his first effort here.
I will spend the rest of the day catching up with the news (I’ve ignored all but that in the daily paper), resting, and figuring out why my father liked putting peanuts in cokes (preliminary results are inconclusive).
Teachers Gone Wild 0
When I was in high school, we had a substitute who like the chunk erasers at boys who, in his opinion, were not paying attention.
The mother of 15-year-old Ahmad Pone says she took him to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he received four stitches in his forehead Friday afternoon.
No Such Place 0
The prosecution rests:
How To Store Your Snowplough 0
No one’s ripping this off, not without a forklift:
What Goes Around, Stops, Water Dept. 0
So I’ve spent the weekend getting my old boat ready. It’s licensed, cleaned, vacuumed, and polished. The battery holds a charge and the motor starts just fine even with two year old gas.
The trailer tires are pumped, the winch cable has been replaced, everything with a grease fitting has been greased, and this, and that, and so on.
And today’s forecast: Thunderstorms.
Little open boats and thunderstorms do not work and play well together.
The cover has been returned.
The shakedown cruise has been postponed.
Lock and Load for Christ 0
Andrew Sullivan keeps the powder dry.
When Zombie Banks Walked the Earth 0
Bank profits up. On paper.
This appears to have more to do with eliminating “mark to market” than with improved business practices.
From Bloomberg.
The revival may be short-lived. Analysts who have examined the quarterly profits and government tests say that accounting rule changes and rosy assumptions are making the institutions look healthier than they are.
(snip)
Citigroup’s $1.6 billion in first-quarter profit would vanish if accounting were more stringent, says Martin Weiss of Weiss Research Inc. in Jupiter, Florida. “The big banks’ profits were totally bogus,” says Weiss, whose 38-year-old firm rates financial companies. “The new accounting rules, the stress tests: They’re all part of a major effort to put lipstick on a pig.”
But, hey, these guys are the geniuses who crashed the world economy.
They must know what they are doing.
And what’s Sarah Palin got to with it, anyway?
Stray Question 0
Is it just my imagination, or am I seeing more commercials on the telly vision depicting Not White characters and families as just, well, characters and families?
