A kid wears a Playboy sweats, and a high-school senior 2 days detention.
We’re not talking nipples. We’re talking the word “Playboy”, and the bunny logo.
This is about making sure that children learn to obey arbitrary nonsensical authority without question.
It’s bad for civil rights, it’s bad for the leaders of the future.
We have unemployment rising, homes being foreclosed, Iraq and Afghanistan collapsing, and what does Delegate Lionell Spruill think is important? Truck nuts.
Yep, this man, to my great shame a Democrat, is proposing a bill to ban truck nuts, saying, “It comes to a point where there are certain things you just can’t do. And putting testicles on the back of a truck is just too much. So I am trying to stop it.”
About the only person that this benefits is David Letterman.
The New York Times and Forbes have reported that it has over $18 billion in write-offs, resulting in $9.83 billion in losses.
The job cuts, looking to be as high as 10% of the workforce, are normal during a problem, but they have cut the dividend on their stock, which indicates far deeper problems*.
Citibank is in real trouble, and I think that foreign investors will snap up an even bigger portion of the company, assuming that they can be found.
*Of course, the fact that in business cutting jobs and putting people out on the street is normal, and cutting dividends is outrageous and extreme indicates just how f%$#ed up the values are of American business.
They have recommended a 40¢ a gallon to meet the infrastructure maintenance for roads and bridges.
Obviously, I think that we need to maintain our infrastructure, but I would add a couple of caveats to any gas tax:
Obviously, our infrastructure is falling apart, and needs to be fixed, but it should not be another subsidy.
Let me make this clear, Richard Cohen’s proposed “Farrahkan Test” is stupid and racist.
The idea that Obama some signs off on an editorial decision made by the daughter of his pastor is insane.
Henry at Crooked Timber, in his post, Six degrees of Louis Farrakhan, makes the following point:
There’s something else going on here. I strongly suspect that Barack Obama is being asked to condemn Louis Farrakhan not because there’s some bogus two-degrees-of-separation thing going on, but because Barack Obama is black, and because black politicians are supposed to condemn Louis Farrakhan before they can be trusted. This isn’t racism, but it’s an implicit double standard, under which black politicians have a higher hurdle to jump before they deserve public trust than white ones. More generally, this is a bad, wrongheaded, and even dangerous article. Richard Cohen shouldn’t have written it, and the Washington Post shouldn’t have printed it.
I will go further. This is explicitly, and intentionally racist.
BTW, Obama’s response, as given to Talking Points Memo is as follows:
I decry racism and anti-Semitism in every form and strongly condemn the anti-Semitic statements made by Minister Farrakhan. I assume that Trumpet Magazine made its own decision to honor Farrakhan based on his efforts to rehabilitate ex-offenders, but it is not a decision with which I agree.
Richard Cohen is a shanda before the goyim, and a miserable excuse for a human being.
This explains why he works writing openions for the Washington Post.
Romney 38%, Mccain 30%, Huckabee 16%
The Nevada Supreme Court says that the first amendment protects NBC on the debates.
Listening to the debate streaming..I love FIOS.
It appears that the allegations of vote fraud may be more than just bluster, as exit polls released by the International Republican Institute show that pposition leader Raila Odinga beat Mwai Kibaki by 8 percentage points.
In related news, the opposition party won the vote for speaker of the parliament.
I have no clue as to where this is headed, but I think that it’s now clear that Kibaka needs to go, and it’s better if it happens sooner rather than later.
From Nancy Pelosi’s blog“
As part of its ongoing investigation into executive pay, the Oversight Committee has invited three CEOs implicated in the subprime mortgage crisis to testify on February 7, 2008, about their severance and compensation packages.
Read letters to Charles Prince, the former CEO of Citigroup (pdf) and E. Stanley O’Neal, the former CEO of Merrill Lynch (pdf).
Full letter to Angelo R. Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide Financial (pdf):
January 14, 2008 Mr. Angelo R. Mozilo
Chairman and CEO
Countrywide Financial Corporation
4500 Park Granada
Calabasas, CA 91302Dear Mr. Mozilo:
I am writing to request your testimony at a hearing on February 7, 2008, before the Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform. The hearing will address executive compensation and severance arrangements for CEOs involved in the ongoing mortgage crisis.
According to recent press reports, if Bank of America completes its proposed purchase of Countrywide Financial, you stand to collect tens of millions of dollars in severance payments and other compensation. I request that you be prepared to provide your perspective on this reported pay package. You should plan to address how it aligns with the interests of Countrywide’s shareholders and whether this level of compensation is justified in light of your company’s recent performance and its role in the national mortgage crisis.
The Committee on Oversight and Govemment Reform is the principal oversight committee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth in House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides additional information about testifying before the Committee.
If you have any questions regarding this letter, please contact Roger Sherman or David Leviss of the Committee staff at (202) 225-5051.
Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
ChairmanEnclosure
cc: Tom Davis
Ranking Minority Member
Countrywide’s Mozilo To Leave In Luxury
Andrew Farrell, Forbes – January 14, 2007
Angelo Mozilo made nearly $150 million selling Countrywide shares before they tanked. The mortgage lender’s chief executive can nearly double that windfall and also earn some luxurious perks if he leaves his post following the struggling company’s acquisition by Back of America.
Mozilo will reportedly receive up to $115 million in severance in cash and stock if he resigns or is fired. Mozilo’s future at the company he founded is in doubt after its sale.
On Friday, Bank of America confirmed it will buy Countrywide Financial for $4.1 billion. Bank of America Chief Executive Ken Lewis has said only that he would like Mozilo to stay at Countrywide until the acquisition closes. Then, “I would guess that he’ll want to go have some fun.”
Mozilo, the son of a Bronx butcher, would be able to have some fun in style thanks to some perks in his severance package. In addition to the huge payout, Mozilo can take free rides on the company jet and have his country-club bills paid for, according to a Friday report in the Los Angeles Times.
Wholesale inflation rose at the highest rate in 26 years, 26%, which would seem to indicate that the Fed won’t cut rates, but they have to, or the market will implode, leaving nothing but a greasy stain.
The Fed auctioned off $30 billion in loans, and this time the interest rates were lower, 3.95% as versus the previous 4.65% and 4.67%.
The banks borrow this money, so that they can lend it out at higher interest, and make money on the spread. The interest rate has dropped because another fed cut is expected, and because the lenders are still retrenching, so they have fewer loans to make.
And Merrill-Lynch is selling another piece of itself in a bit to hold onto solvency, this time to Kuwait Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund.
And in real estate, San Diego County house prices are down 13.1% year over year, and the recovery in UK house prices is over, it turned out to be a dead cat bounce, as the UK house price slowdown continues.
Lovely, Mike McConnel, the man who says that waterboarding is torture for him, but not for other folks, because he has a deviated septum, is low looking for the power to, “read all the information crossing the Internet in the United States in order to protect it from abuse”.
Sir, I am more concerned about your abuse of this nation than I am of any sick man with Marfan syndrome hiding in the tribal regions of Pakistan.
Haley Barbour loses one. The judge judge rules that the special election must be held sooner, rather than later.
In his order, DeLaughter said the election should be held “within 90 days of the governor’s Dec. 20, 2007 proclamation of writ of election…on or before March 19, 2008.
Hood cited Mississippi Code 23-15-855, which applies to U.S. senator vacancies. He and Barbour have differing interpretations of that statute.
This is significant for a number of reasons:
I’m doing a happy dance now.
That’s what the Iraqi Defense Minister said, he wants US troops in country until 2018.
To quote Ahnuld Schwartzenegger from Terminator 1, “F*^% You Asshole!”
The NTSB has determined that the gusset plate were under-size for the structure.
The interesting thing is that this is below spec for the 1960s, when the bridge was constructed. Since then, with more sophisticated analysis tools, the safety factors on designs have gotten smaller.
I’m not sure of the legalities, but he was offered a spot, and then it was withdrawn, and he had made arrangements to be in Las Vegas for the debates, so I think having him in the debate is the right thing to do.
It would appear that the judge made his ruling based on some sort of implied contract, and the public service requirement for broadcasters, but I’m completely unequipped to evaluate the law here, I’m an engineer, not a lawyer, dammit*!
*I love it when I get to go all Doctor McCoy!!!
Hmmm…..An 80 year old megachurch leader has been charged with perjury as a result of a sex scandal.
80 years old? I had no idea that the psalms were so “uplifting”.
An 80-year-old leader of a suburban megachurch who is at the center of a sex scandal has been charged with lying under oath for saying he had sex outside marriage with only one other woman, court documents show.
A warrant for the arrest of Archbishop Earl Paulk, co-founder of Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church, was issued Monday, according to court documents. …
Former church employee Mona Brewer is suing Paulk, his brother and the church on allegations that Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. In a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer.
But the results of a court-ordered paternity test revealed in October that Paulk is the biological father of his brother’s son, D.E. Paulk, who is now head pastor at the church. As part of Brewer’s lawsuit, eight women have given sworn depositions that they were coerced into sexual relationships with Earl Paulk.
I get the sense that super-sizing your church has much the same effect on one’s spiritual fitness as super-sizing one’s fast food does on one’s physical fitness.
When Maureen Dowd filed her story on the New Hampshire primary, it had a Derry, N.H. dateline, even though she was in Israel when she filed it.
In fact, she wasn’t at the party that she discussed, she had some stringer do the leg work.
Well, the kerfuffle that has blown up over it has driven him, “Out of My F#@$ing Mind“.
Accountability sucks*, doesn’t it Mr. Rosenthal. Spencer Ackerman notes that NY Times Reporter Rick Bragg was suspended, and then resigned after he did something similar.
At the very least, Ms. Dowd needs to explain to her readers.
*And it is the accountability that blogs occasionally force on “real journalists”, that gives them much of their value, and engenders the hostility of the “Kook Kidz”.
By virtue of the depth of the layer in the disk (0.6mm), HD-DVD players can play a standard DVD without an additional lense (Blu-Ray uses a 0.1mm depth with a super hard coating to protect it, which is why it’s more expensive), so standard DVD is pretty much standard on all HD-DVD players, and now Toshiba, following slashing the prices on their player, are attempting to sell their machine as a superior way to play standard DVDs.
“Major initiatives… are designed to spotlight the superior benefits of HD DVD as well as the benefits HD DVD brings to a consumer’s current DVD library by upconverting standard DVDs via the HDMI output to near high-def picture quality,” the company said.
“With DVD upconversion via the HDMI output, HD DVD players instantly make a movie lover’s existing DVD library look better than ever,” it claimed.
Assuming I was wrong in my prediction that HD-DVD would win the format battle, I would say that this was a death rattle, though this might be a good alternative for people with large DVD libraries and large HD screens.
Me, I’ve never been impressed by HD-TV. I only notice the difference on really big screens, or when they are side by side, so my interest is purely of a sporting variety.
I am woefully unimpressed by Obama’s $120 billion economic stimulus plan. It’s primarily tax cuts, the Republican way.
His plan for people who might lose their homes is a subsidy, when a better and far cheaper solution is to allow bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of the loan, as they do for vacation and rental homes. (It also hits the bad lenders where it hurts, which should be a goal).
I do approve extending unemployment benefits though, and the aid to municipalities who are hemorrhaging property tax money.
That being said, e have bridges falling down, and we need massive investment in alternative energy, and his primary thrust is cutting taxes.
A better solution is stepped up infrastructure repair, and money for alternative energy programs. The money these people will earn will be spent more quickly, and it is the velocity of money that causes a recession or a recovery.
I would note that his policy is not surprising given that Obama’s economic advisers are all wingers: (hat tip to Louis Proyect)
Considering who Obama is surrounding himself with, I’m beginning to think that his embrace of right wing memes is not a pose, but who he actually is.
Update: I do have to note, however, that Brad Delong likes Obama’s plan, and he is an economist, and I am not.
Well, according to the WaPo, the House is likely to vote on contempt against Josh Bolton and Harriet Miers in the “next few weeks” for their refusing to testify on the US Attorney scandal.
I’ll believe it when I see it, but I don’t see Pelosi having the guts.
We know what she said about impeachment:
NOT ON THE TABLE! NOT ON THE TABLE!
Why it’s good to have Democrats in control of Congress, when the EPA political apparatchiks decide to ignore the recommendations of professional staff, and veto California’s clean air standards, you have someone looking into what happened, and why, in this case, Henry Waxman.
Dear Administrator Johnson:
On December 20, 2007, I wrote to request that you provide the Committee with documents relating to your decision to reject California’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. I requested that the documents be produced on a rolling schedule, starting on January 10 with responsive documents from your immediate office. On January 4 and January 11, 2008, your staff responded to my letter, but did not provide any documents.
I appreciate the efforts EPA is taking to collect responsive documents, but I am concerned about the failure of the agency to meet the Committee’s January 10 deadline. I am also concerned that no schedules for document production are proposed in your letters.
In an effort to accommodate the agency without unduly delaying the Committee’s investigation, I ask that your staff work with Committee staff to establish by the close of business on January 16 mutually agreeable deadlines for producing documents to the Committee.
The Committee will also be conducting transcribed interviews or depositions of agency staff who may have knowledge of the agency’s deliberations. As a first step in this process, I request that a schedule be established by the close of business on January 16 for the interview or deposition of the following officials:
* Robert Meyers, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Air and Radiation
* Jason Burnett, Associate Deputy Administrator, Office of the Administrator
* Margo Oge, Director, Office of Transportation and Air Quality
* Karl Simon, Director, Compliance and Innovative Strategies Division, Office of Transportation and Air Quality
* Brian McLean, Director, Office of Atmospheric Programs
* Dina Kruger, Director, Climate Change Division, Office of Atmospheric Programs
* Rob Brenner, Director, Office of Program Analysis and ReviewIn prior investigations, the Committee has allowed counsel representing the agency to be present during transcribed interviews. In this case, since your own conduct is being examined, this accommodation would not be appropriate, although counsel employed by the agency may participate if they certify that their presence is as counsel for the witness. Attachments to this letter provide additional information about Committee interview and deposition procedures.
If you have any questions concerning this request, please have your staff contact Greg Dotson of the Committee staff at (202) 225-4407.
Sincerely,
Henry A. Waxman
Chairman
Mr. Johnson, it won’t be pretty.