June, 2010 archive
“How They Would Govern” 0
Via Steve Benen.
Aside: Fact Check dot org report:
Steele’s reference to “Main Street” was edited out. Frankly, I think that, as far as Republicans are concerned, Wall Street is synonymous the main street, but full disclosure and all that.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Morgan Stanley settles with Massachusetts AG for facilitating dicey mortgages so it could in turn sell dicey (in)securities (emphasis added):
Morgan Stanley “uncovered signals pretty early on that the lending practices of New Century were not sound,’’ Coakley said at a press conference yesterday. “Morgan Stanley knew they were making loans designed to fail.’’
Another State Goes after U. S. Navy Vets Association 0
From the Roanoke Times, emphasis added:
Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said Thursday he has applied for temporary restraining orders to halt solicitations by U.S. Navy Vets, saying he has “every reason to believe this outfit is a phony outfit.” Cordray said the court orders are needed because U.S. Navy Vets did not comply with a cease-and-desist order his office issued last month. The requests were filed in two Ohio counties where U.S. Navy Vets has rented UPS mail drops to use as business addresses.
The Richmonder put up a post on U. N. Navy Vets’ political contributions and Attorney-General Cuccinelli. His phrasing is perhaps harsher than mine would be, but he points out a viewpoint I missed:
Driving While Brown 0
The hysteria spreads.
Underlying this is that modern Republicanism feeds on creating and exploiting fear.
“A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” 0
From the Guardian. Read the whole thing:
They are misleading because as anyone with any familiarity with the field knows, the basic consensus is almost universally accepted. That is, the planet is warming, that human activities are contributing to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (chiefly, but not exclusively CO2), that these changes are playing a big role in the current warming, and thus, further increases in the levels of GHGs (green-house gases–ed.) in the atmosphere are very likely to cause further warming which could have serious impacts.
QOTD 0
Henry Ward Beecher, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Doctrine is nothing but the skin of truth set up and stuffed.
This Is Not Right 0
Apparently, British Airways considers every man to be a child molester.
The Revolutionary War was clearly justified.
Delusions Illustrated 0
“Personally, I take every thing Glenn says on faith . . . because there’s never any evidence . . . .”
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Yahweh or No Way – The Blues Brothers & Glenn Beck | ||||
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Martin Luther King, Jr., is spinning in his grave.
Via TPM.
Three Card Monte, Regency Style 0
Joel lays it out.
Since my mother depends on the Virginia Retirement System, I do not like to see it the subject of the old shell game.
Have Cake, Eat It Too, Old MacDonald Dept. 0
They really do think that they should have it both ways.
Just to get this straight, I’m not against farm subsidies per se, as long as they go family farmers, rather than to Huge Corporate Oligopolies.
It’s the hypocrisy.
We Need Single Payer 0
Zandar has the evidence.
Color Coded 3
Michael Tomasky meditates on race and American political party identification in the light of recent Republican primary results in which a Sikh and an African American both won over white guys. A nugget:
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still over 450k:
The decline in claims was the largest since the week ended April 17. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to 460,000.
Separately, durable good orders excluding transportation rose 0.9 percent last month, the Commerce Department said. However, overall durable goods orders fell 1.1 percent, the first decline in six months, dragged down by the volatile aircraft component.
Signs of the Apocalypse 0
LCD signs seem to have made much greater inroads here than in the Greater Philadelphia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Up there, I remember some LCD billboards along I-95 south of the Philadelphia Airport, but I did not see them at schools and churches. Furthermore, the billboards would rotate among several advertisements, but each ad would be a static display, except possibly for a temperature display.
These sign down here are more animated than a Pixar movie, with dancing text, fade-in-fade-out, graphics, and pictures. (Probably look good on the computer screen when they are composed and allow the persons who program the signs to think they have l33t hax0rz sk1lz, but from the road they are really uglificated.)
Schools and churches and some businesses have them and more businesses want them. More to the point, the people who sell them want to sell more of them, until Atlantic Avenue looks like the Lost Wages strip.
Personally, I find them obnoxious, ugly, and distracting from my driving. (A church with an LCD sign is a church whose door I shan’t darken.)
So, when Virginia Beach restricted them, I did not regret it, though I didn’t feel strongly enough to, say, write a letter about it to a council critter.
I would still prefer that they went away, but, on reflection, I think Joel has a fairer idea.
Especially the brightness.
(The local rag says garden clubs were responsible for the ban.)
Without Debate 0
Ask and ye shall receive:
The City Council on Tuesday didn’t debate the issue and the discussion lasted less than 15 minutes, but the 6-5 vote indicated how controversial leasing these public spaces has been behind-the-scenes.
(snip)
The city built the garage for the Hilton in a public-private partnership with Thompson.
The rate the Beach will charge Thompson is less than the $1,080 a year that the city markets for a reserved space and lower than the $1,275 annual fee the Beach’s parking staff initially recommended.
As I mentioned last week, the speed of this sort of gives me the creeps.
