2011 archive
Driving while Brown 0
When I was growing up, history books and commentators would refer to the United States as “a nation of immigrants.”
They left out the word “white.” Appears that not-white means not-welcome, at least to some folks.
Harold Myerson:
If the Republicans have a long-term strategic plan, it seems to derive from King Canute, who commanded the tide to stop.
In related news, “whites-only” scholarships.
On! Wisconsin 0
Writing at the Denver Post, David Sirota tries to figure out why multi-million dollar bankster bonus babies are okay, while $50k teachers are too much. A nugget:
Facebook Frolics 0
From El Reg:
If you tried to make this up, no one would believe you.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy (Updated) 0
Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect floats a proposal in the Boston Globe.
Here’s his summary of how the banks created this mess. Follow the link for his proposals:
To complicate the mess, during the bubble phase when lenders were on steroids, many banks neglected to do the paperwork properly. When a note (the promise to pay) or lien (the right to take the house if the loan defaults) is sold to a third party, the transfer must be fully documented.
But adrenalized banks got careless with paperwork as they sold off the loans. Today it’s not clear who, if anyone, has the right to foreclose. More and more foreclosures are tied up in court, and the average duration of a foreclosure case is now close to two years.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration’s main remedy, the 2009 Home Affordable Mortgage Program, is far too feeble. It has nudged the banks to give modest loan modifications to fewer than 700,000 homeowners — one-tenth of those at risk — and half of these are expected to go back into default. The program is voluntary for the banks, which often prefer to disguise their balance-sheet losses rather than offer homeowners enough relief to keep their homes.
Addendum, Later That Same Afternoon:
Interesting little report at Bloomberg:
Details at the link.
Responsible fiscals, indeed.
QOTD 0
Oliver Wendell Holmes, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilization they give me.
Dustbiters 0
When will the FDIC run out of banks to shut down?
Only one in tonight’s crop:
This isn’t even news any more.
It is merely routine testament to the incompetence of an industry.
Stray Thought 0
Spring must be near.
The joggers are in bloom.
Mythbusters 0
Connie Schultz busts myths in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. A nugget:
A wise man once wrote, “The working classes didn’t bring this on. It was the big boys that thought the financial drunk was going to last forever and overbought, overmerged and overcapitalized.”
That came from Will Rogers on Oct. 25, 1931.
Today, he’d be accused of engaging in class warfare.
I am reminded of the union mantra: They only call it class warfare when we fight back.
Break Time 0
Off to drink liberally.
Driving While Brown 1
Shorter Connie O’Brien (Republican member of Kansas House):
I know she’s illegal because of how she looks.
Longer version:
“My son, who’s a Kansas resident, born here, raised here, didn’t qualify for any financial aid,” according to a recording of her statement to the committee. “Yet this girl was going to get financial aid.”
“My son was kinda upset about it because he works and pays for his own schooling and his books and everything and he didn’t think that was fair. We didn’t ask the girl what nationality she was, we didn’t think that was proper. But we could tell by looking at her that she was not originally from this country,” she says on the recording.
During the meeting, Rep. Sean Gatewood, D-Topeka, asked O’Brien to clarify her remark.
“Can you expand on how you could tell that they were illegal?” Gatewood asked.
“Well, she wasn’t black,” O’Brien said. “She wasn’t Asian. And she had the olive complexion.”
Representative O’Brien denies any racist content in her words, characterizing it as an “innocent remark.”
But, you see, that’s the thing about racism. By and large, most racists don’t consider themselves as racists; they think they are normal and that everyone else is wrong.
It’s just part of how they were taught to view the world, to them as natural and innocent as an April shower.
Via Tapped, where Julianne Hing provides excellent commentary.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Keeping home prices within reach (of the moneyed minority):
A “bloated supply of foreclosures and weak demand from homebuyers” are depressing the market, James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s chief executive officer, said in the statement. Residential real-estate prices dropped 4.1 percent in the fourth quarter from a year a earlier, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index of home values in 20 cities.
Beer Giggles 0
I’m waiting to see the video on World’s Dumbest:
A video surveillance tape released Wednesday shows the men entering the Chevron Food Mart in La Mirada just before 4 a.m. on Jan. 23 and rushing out with $18.76 worth of snacks and beer.
The deputies, however, noticed them.