Auto Makers Going Out Of Business, But Still Have Enough Money To Lobby Congress from Consumerist

excerpt from http://consumerist.com/5102443/auto-makers-going-out-of-business-but-still-have-enough-money-to-lobby-congress

CBSNews is reporting that while, at this very moment, the big three auto bosses are testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee (watch this now at CSPAN, if you like.) about how they need emergency bridge loans in order to continue functioning — they still apparently have enough money to continue to spend millions lobbying our government.

CBS says that the auto industry has spent $50 million dollars on lobbyists in the first 9 months of 2008, and gave another $15 million in campaign contributions.

CBS also highlights some conflicts of interest among our public servants. Check this out:

Take Sen. Carl Levin, who received $438,304 from the automotive industry. And in the House, Rep. Joe Knollenberg received $879,327. Rep. John Dingell got nearly a million from the industry. All have enjoyed generous support from the auto industry over their careers, with GM and Ford as their two top contributors. All support a bailout.

But nobody's been a bigger advocate for Motor City interests than Dingell. And for him, the stakes aren't just political, they're personal.

"There's an actual conflict," said Ryan Alexander of the nonprofit group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "His personal financial health, you know, the wealth of his family is tied up in the car industry."

Dingell's wife Debbie once worked as a lobbyist for GM.

Gingrich wants Israel to set a deadline for Iran attack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qxg3o_h3-E

CBS: $15 billion auto bailout agreement reached from Daily Kos

excerpt from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/6/113725/725/139/670074

It appears agreement has been reached between the White House and Congress on an auto industry bailout to the tune of $15 billion. The $15 billion will not be drawn from the $700 billion stimulus package, but from the fund supposedly dedicated to getting energy-efficient car production up and running, according to CBS:

(CBS/AP) After weeks of tense discussions with the heads of the U.S. auto industry, Democratic Congressional leaders have reached an agreement that may just clear the way for the Big Three to get the money they need to survive ... for now.

CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports that significant progress came Friday night, when Democrats from both the House and Senate agreed to bail out the struggling General Motors, Chrysler and Ford with federal funds.

Several officials say the White House and congressional Democrats have agreed on $15 billion in loans, which is less than half of what the car chiefs were seeking.

They say the breakthrough came after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bowed to a demand by President Bush that any aid come from a fund that had been intended to help Detroit produce more fuel-efficient cars.

Pelosi said the House would consider legislation next week to provide "short-term and limited assistance" to the U.S. auto industry.

Paulson Asks Obama For Rest of Bailout Money: Figures Obama Born Yesterday from Firedoglake

excerpt from http://firedoglake.com/2008/12/06/paulson-asks-obama-for-rest-of-bailout-money-figures-obama-born-yesterday/

Seriously, Paulson and the Treasury department are asking Obama for the rest of the TARP money, since they know that the Senate won't agree without Obama's ok.

Given how well they've spent the money so far—hiding who much of it is going to, getting lousy collateral in exchange for the money, not convincing banks to actually lend again or reduce interest rates (in fact some, Citi for example, are increasing credit card interest rates) and so on, it's hard to imagine why Obama would be willing to give this crew the money.

Oh I'm sure that they'll tell Obama they'll spend it wisely, and I'm sure they'll threaten him with economic apocalypse if they don't get the cash. But the bottom line is that so far Paulson has used the TARP money as a personal slush fund to bail out his friends and make sure no one important loses their jobs by not tying the money to any real reform or requirements that the people who caused the crisis step down and let actual competent people fill their shoes.

Pols, Public Weigh In On Ryan from Chicagoist

excerpt from http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/06/pols_public_weigh_in_on_ryan.php

While everyone is getting themselves in a tizzy over this Obama Birth Certificate issue, one of the major local political stories continues to be Sen. Durbin's (pictured right) letter to President Bush asking for a commutation of former Governor George Ryan's sentence. While Gov. Blagojevich has already come out in favor of Durbin's request (no surprise as he will probably be facing a similar fate to Ryan's very soon), earlier this week, U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk (Rep.) sent Pres. Bush a letter disputing Durbin's request and State Attorney General Lisa Madigan also said she was opposed to a commuting of Ryan's sentence.

AIG 'retention' and 'cash awards' draw ire, explanations from Daily Kos

excerpt from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/6/103444/778/172/670049

On November 25, AIG CEO Edward Liddy assured the public that the insurer would "freeze pay and forgo bonuses for seven top leaders," according to Bloomberg. Yet the next day various "retention payments" for executives were announced, a move that drew the ire of Congressman Elijah Cummings, who demanded that specific executives be named, the amounts they are receiving be made public, and an explanation as to why the very same people who led the company to the point where it needed a taxpayer rescue are being rewarded. From the December 2, 2008, Bloomberg article:

American International Group Inc., the insurer rescued from failure by the U.S., should name executives getting "retention" payments and explain why the awards are needed, said Representative Elijah Cummings.

AIG, which said in a September filing that 130 managers will get "cash awards" to stay through 2009, isn't providing enough information, said Cummings, a Maryland Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a letter to AIG dated yesterday.

"Taxpayers have a right to know why senior executives at AIG, who are frankly lucky to still have jobs, need to receive additional bonus payments," Cummings said in the letter....

"AIG made some grand pronouncements about how they were going to change their bonus structure, but they found ways to give their people the same things," Cummings said today in a phone interview. It's unclear why retention pay is needed "when thousands of people would line up to take their jobs," he said.

Cummings wasn't the only one questioning the "cash award" and "retention" packages for AIG executives; at Daily Kos, user Tasini hit the recommended list with a diary expressing community outrage at the news of the packages.

In response to Cummings' letter, AIG's Liddy responded with a letter of his own (full PDF available). Broken down point by point, the AIG's justifications and details for "retention" and "cash awards" are as follows:

An end to raw deals from government? If Obama has his way from Scholars and Rogues

from http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/12/06/an-end-to-raw-deals-from-government-if-obama-has-his-way/

Seems the last time a president tried to provide for the American people was LBJ (overshadowed, though, by getting a substantial number of America's youth killed in Vietnam).

One reason Americans hate taxes so much is that we have no concept we can get anything for our deductions except war. Looks like Obama's trying to show us that there's more to government.

Who Would've Thought, It Figures from Daily Kos

excerpt from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/6/44527/5802/211/669986

So here is a footnote to the Enrons and the Washington Mutuals of 2008; to all the companies that grew temporarily fat on the illusory con-game of the Bush "ownership society."  A particularly ironic footnote.  Let BearingPoint be the point man and standard-bearer of this message: Deregulation and Friedmanite proposals are not arguments to be rebutted, but scams to be revealed.  No one in power who asserts them, means them seriously.  Those underneath who take the rhetoric at face value, who vote for "conservative principles," are not so much wrong as suckers.  But this poetic moment of justice for BearingPoint is also a reminder.  As bad as things are here, they go far worse for the people in countries where we forcibly export this deregulatory sham; where the citizens never voted nor asked nor fell for it, at all.

The machine creating water out of thin air - CNN.com

entire article http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/12/04/clean.water/?iref=intlOnlyonCNN

LONDON, England (CNN) -- As Zimbabwe battles a cholera epidemic that has already killed hundreds, one company thinks it may have found a potential solution to the world water crisis.

Element Four, a small Canadian firm, has applied its water technology to create the WaterMill, a novel electricity-powered machine that draws moisture from the air and purifies it into clean drinkable water.

The compact WaterMill, which goes on sale in the spring, is designed for household use.

More crucially for countries such as Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Element Four is also working on another device, the WaterWall, which could potentially supply an entire village in the developing world.

The team at Element Four shares an ambitious goal: to quench the world's growing thirst for water. Now the 10-person company is taking on a challenge that global multinationals have struggled to meet.

Wall Street: Profiles in Panic: About Us: from vanityfair.com

entire article http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2009/01/wall_street200901?printable=true&currentPage=all

With Wall Street hemorrhaging jobs and assets, even many of the wealthiest players are retrenching. Others, like the Lehman Brothers bankers who borrowed against their millions in stock, have lost everything. Hedge-fund managers try to sell their luxury homes, while trophy wives are hocking their jewelry. The pain is being felt on St. Barth's and at Sotheby's, on benefit-gala committees and at the East Hampton Airport, as the world of the Big Rich collapses, its culture in shock and its values in question.

A snapshot: East Hampton, late summer, a lawn party at a house on the ocean overlooking the dunes. The host is a prince of private equity known for dressing well. One of his guests is Steven Cohen, the publicity-shy billionaire whose SAC Capital, with $16 billion under management, is perhaps the most revered of the 10,000 or so hedge funds spawned by this giddily rich time. Nearby is Daniel Loeb, of Third Point, one of the better-known "activist" hedge funds, who hopes to move soon into a 10,700-square-foot, $45 million penthouse at l5 Central Park West, a Manhattan monument to the new gilded age. Gliding easily between them is art dealer Larry Gagosian, so successful at selling Bacons and Serras to Wall Street's new titans—including to Cohen—that he now travels in his own private jet and has his own helicopter to take him to it.

But here's the odd thing: despite the beauty of the ocean view, nearly all the guests have their backs to it. Cohen is deep in conversation with a colleague who seems to be pitching him a deal. Loeb hovers close to his wife, a former yoga teacher. Gagosian is near his stunning young girlfriend. No one notices the clouds that are, quite literally, on the horizon. Snap.

Six weeks later, the photograph is cracked and sepia-toned, curling at the edges, a historic print. In just that short time, the storm has hit and nothing looks the same.

It may be premature to say our gilded age has ended. Third Point dropped 10 percent in October, bringing it down 27 percent for the year, but Daniel Loeb is still moving into his extravagant new apartment. Steven Cohen's SAC was down 11 percent in October and 18 percent for the year to date, but that still leaves him plenty of money to add a second ice-skating rink to his Greenwich, Connecticut, estate. And Larry Gagosian is still selling plenty of art.

What's definitely gone—along with Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns—is leverage, at least to the dizzying degree it was recently used by Wall Street's investment banks, hedge funds, and private-equity firms to parlay each dollar of their assets into $10, $20, even $30 or more of credit to make gargantuan deals and profits. The credit crunch has made such leverage as quaint as the market in Dutch tulips. Without it, Wall Street salaries have already started drifting gently back to earth like so many limp balloons.

Gone, too, are jobs—lots and lots of them. Along with a sizable portion of Lehman's 26,000 worldwide, and Bear Stearns's 14,000, Wall Street firms across the board—even Goldman Sachs—are cutting back, and that pain radiates out to the limousine drivers and caterers and lawyers and personal trainers and restaurant owners and real-estate brokers who rely on Wall Street clients, not to mention to the many nonprofits and charities that have grown accustomed to Wall Street money. The latest estimate of jobs New York will lose, both on and off Wall Street, is l60,000. Governor David Paterson says the state's budget deficit has already reached $12.5 billion. In New York City, where Wall Street accounts for more than a quarter of the tax revenues, Mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks the financial-sector crisis will leave a $2 billion hole in the next fiscal year's budget.

China To US: Get Your Economy In Order

entire article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/04/china-to-us-get-your-econ_n_148618.html

BEIJING — China is urging Washington to rein in debt-fueled spending and stabilize its economy in high-level talks on their commercial relations, reflecting Beijing's growing economic assertiveness.

Speaking at the opening of the Strategic Economic Dialogue, Vice Premier Wang Qishan appealed Thursday to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other U.S. officials to take steps to calm the global financial crisis and protect Beijing's U.S. investments. China's central bank governor said U.S. financial excesses were to blame for the crisis.

"The important reasons for the U.S. financial crisis include excessive consumption and high leverage," said Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan, according to Jin Qi, a central bank official who briefed reporters. "The United States should speed up domestic adjustment, raise its savings rate and reduce its trade and fiscal deficits."

The unusually pointed Chinese comments reflected the close links between the world's biggest and fourth-biggest economies and the global significance of their ability to maintain steady trade relations.

Malaysian man killed for hogging karaoke microphone from guardian.co.uk

A Malaysian karaoke enthusiast hogged the microphone for so long that people set upon him and stabbed him to death.

Abdul Sani Doli refused to hand over the microphone at a coffee shop that doubles as a karaoke bar in the town of Sandakan, Borneo. Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the altercation erupted a few minutes before midnight.

The town's police chief, Rosli Mohammad Isa, said initial investigations showed the victim had sung several numbers on Wednesday night. Other patrons fumed as Abdul Sani hogged the microphone, a scenario perhaps familiar to karaoke devotees the world over.

Three men on a neighbouring table confronted him on the pavement outside the coffee shop and witnesses saw a heated argument break out. It turned into a punch-up and Abdul Sani was killed.

rest http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/05/karaoke-killing-malaysia

GOP kept buying clothes for Palin, even at Victoria's Secret from Chicago Sun-Times News

WASHINGTON -- Despite the furor over a $150,000 campaign shopping spree for GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, the Republican Party continued to spend money on clothing and accessories for her in the contest's final weeks, new campaign reports show.

rest http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/1317657,CST-NWS-palin07.article

IIT reaches out to neighbors from Chicago Sun-Times Business

Mariah Scott was a middle-school student when she took a computer workshop at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Scott, now 14 and a freshman at De La Salle Institute, credits her college campus experience with helping put her at ease with the laptop she received in high school.

"IIT taught us how to work with PowerPoint and do projects on the computer. I was prepared," Scott said.

The IIT workshop, one of a series called "Inside Stuff," is among several projects that the university's Digital Media Center oversees aimed at closing the digital divide.

The Digital Media Center is part of IIT's Office of Community Affairs and Outreach, which started nearly 20 years ago with a three-year, $75,000 grant from the James S. Kemper Foundation and the goal of building relationships among IIT and surrounding neighborhoods.

IIT hired Leroy Kennedy, a long-time community activist, to lead the effort as community affairs director.

"You have to listen. You don't talk," Kennedy said. "You have to identify community-based organizations, business associations, formal and informal leaders and ask folks, 'What do you need? How can we be helpful?'"

The efforts have resulted in a long and impressive list of neighborhood partnerships.

Cheryl Watkins, principal of Pershing West Middle School in the Douglas neighborhood, says the school relies on IIT's Digital Media Center to host special events such as the workshop that Scott attended; to keep its computer lab updated, and to tutor students in after-school math, algebra and science five days a week.

"We want to build an area for videoconferencing so the students can learn to use that equipment," Watkins said. "We depend on IIT for everything."

rest http://www.suntimes.com/technology/guy/1317604,CST-FIN-ecol07.article

533,000 jobs gone from Chicago Sun-Times Business

More than half a million people lost their jobs in the U.S. last month -- the most in 34 years -- shoving the nation's unemployment rate up to 6.7 percent from 4.7 percent a year earlier as continuing economic turmoil caused employers to retrench. Since the recession started a year ago, the ranks of the unemployed have swelled by a whopping 2.7 million, the Labor Department said in releasing the numbers Friday.

rest http://www.suntimes.com/business/1317330,CST-NWS-jobs06.article

A buck-a-gallon gas? We're close from Chicago Sun-Times Business

Oil prices hit four-year lows Friday as employers cut the highest number of jobs in 34 years. The continuing decline in prices is so dramatic and so sudden that it is raising the prospect that gas prices could soon fall below $1 a gallon.

rest http://www.suntimes.com/business/1317039,CST-NWS-gas06.article

Your Weekly Address from the President-Elect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGpIT2bVZDw

Obama: Lobbyist docs go online from Raw Story Breaking News

Special interest meetings will see full disclosure on Web, says President-elect.

entire article http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/dec/06/obama-to-open-interest-group-talks/

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team will publicize any official meetings that staffers have with outside interest groups and will post online any policy documents the groups present during those meetings, according to rules put in place Friday.

"Every day, we meet with organizations who present ideas for the transition and the administration, both orally and in writing. We want to ensure that we give the American people a seat at the table and that we receive the benefit of their feedback," transition chief John Podesta wrote in a memo to his staff, obtained by The Washington Times.

The rules apply to "official meetings," which Mr. Podesta defined as those in which at least three of the participants are from outside organizations. Any written document those in attendance present to the transition team also will be posted on the Web site www.Change .gov.

Mr. Podesta said the transition staff should consider the rules "a floor, not a ceiling," and consider posting documents even from meetings that don't meet the standard of at least three outside participants.

Mr. Obama has vowed to run an open transition process and to allow more sunlight on the way his administration operates once he takes office. During the Democratic primaries he contrasted that with the way Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, his then-rival and now his nominee to be secretary of state, ran her health care task force when her husband was president.

Obama: Biggest public works investment since Eisenhower planned from Daily Kos

via http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/6/9452/77027/278/669927

In this morning's weekly address, President-Elect Obama promised to roll out the biggest investment in public infrastructure since the federal highway system of the 1950's was undertaken. In addition to roads and bridges, the new administration will upgrade public schools, build out broadband, make public buildings energy efficient and modernize medical record-keeping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGpIT2bVZDw

Good morning.

Yesterday, we received another painful reminder of the serious economic challenge our country is facing when we learned that 533,000 jobs were lost in November alone, the single worst month of job loss in over three decades. That puts the total number of jobs lost in this recession at nearly 2 million.

But this isn't about numbers. It's about each of the families those numbers represent. It's about the rising unease and frustration that so many of you are feeling during this holiday season. Will you be able to put your kids through college? Will you be able to afford health care? Will you be able to retire with dignity and security? Will your job or your husband's job or your daughter's job be the next one cut?

These are the questions that keep so many Americans awake at night. But it is not the first time these questions have been asked. We have faced difficult times before, times when our economic destiny seemed to be slipping out of our hands. And at each moment, we have risen to meet the challenge, as one people united by a sense of common purpose. And I know that Americans can rise to the moment once again.

But we need action – and action now. That is why I have asked my economic team to develop an economic recovery plan for both Wall Street and Main Street that will help save or create at least two and a half million jobs, while rebuilding our infrastructure, improving our schools, reducing our dependence on oil, and saving billions of dollars.

We won't do it the old Washington way. We won't just throw money at the problem. We'll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve – by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world.

Today, I am announcing a few key parts of my plan. First, we will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. Our government now pays the highest energy bill in the world. We need to change that. We need to upgrade our federal buildings by replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs. That won't just save you, the American taxpayer, billions of dollars each year. It will put people back to work.

Second, we will create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s. We'll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways, and we'll set a simple rule – use it or lose it. If a state doesn't act quickly to invest in roads and bridges in their communities, they'll lose the money.

Third, my economic recovery plan will launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen.  We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. Because to help our children compete in a 21st century economy, we need to send them to 21st century schools.

As we renew our schools and highways, we'll also renew our information superhighway. It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption. Here, in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm President – because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world.

In addition to connecting our libraries and schools to the internet, we must also ensure that our hospitals are connected to each other through the internet. That is why the economic recovery plan I'm proposing will help modernize our health care system – and that won't just save jobs, it will save lives. We will make sure that every doctor's office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records so that we can cut red tape, prevent medical mistakes, and help save billions of dollars each year.

These are a few parts of the economic recovery plan that I will be rolling out in the coming weeks. When Congress reconvenes in January, I look forward to working with them to pass a plan immediately. We need to act with the urgency this moment demands to save or create at least two and a half million jobs so that the nearly two million Americans who've lost them know that they have a future. And that's exactly what I intend to do as President of the United States.

Thanks for listening.

Aside from the commitment to what sounds like a great progressive stimulus plan, one sentence struck me: Will your job or your husband's job or your daughter's job be the next one cut?. Read that closely. In a speech about universal fears and hardship, he is addressing his primary listeners as women. Never have I heard sentence construction like that from a president -- women addressed directly in a non-"women's issues" setting as legitimate, fully fledged and very concerned and invested breadwinners. The effect is stunning.

Enable swearing on your iPhone from Boing Boing

Are you an iPhone user who talks (types) like a sailor and it annoys you when the device autocorrects a perfectly good insult to read "Duck you!" Over at Boing Boing Gadgets, Brownlee has a good tip on how to quickly teach bad words to your iPhone.
"Teach your iPhone to swear"

VIA http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/05/enable-swearing-on-y.html

Interior Department Changes Rule to Remove Congress Veto from Truthout

 In another regulatory action in the waning days of the Bush administration, the Interior Department on Thursday unveiled a new rule that challenges Congress's authority to prevent mining planned on public lands.

    Congress has emergency power to stop mineral development, and has used it six times in the last 32 years. The most recent was in June, when it put a three-year moratorium on uranium mining on one million acres near the Grand Canyon. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has ignored that Congressional directive, saying it was procedurally flawed.

    The new rule issued by the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management comes as environmental groups are suing the bureau in federal court for failing to obey Congress's directive, which under a 1976 law can be invoked when "an emergency situation exists and extraordinary measures must be taken to preserve values that would otherwise be lost."

    The revision of the rule eliminates all references to Congressional authority. The revision moved through the often-cumbersome rule-making process with lightning speed; it was proposed in October, and the public was given just 15 days to comment.

    The rule seems intended to speed a judicial confrontation on the constitutionality of the 1976 law, and to underscore the Interior Department's determination to leave public land near Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona open for mineral development.

    Tina Kreisher, a spokeswoman for the department, said that revising the rule did not relieve the department of its legal obligation to obey Congress. "We are obliged to follow the law," Ms. Kreisher said.

REST http://www.truthout.org/120508EA

Bureau of Labor Statistics: This is ‘one of the worst jobs reports’ ever. from Think Progress

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that employers slashed 533,000 jobs in November, "much higher than the 320,000 economists forecast." BLS commission Keith Hall presented his report to the Joint Economic Committee this morning, and said that it was "one of the worst jobs reports" in the agency's 124-year history:

REST http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/05/hall-jobs/

Supreme Court Silent on Obama Birth Certificate Lawsuit from Chicagoist

The Supreme Court made no announcement today whether or not it will hear Donofrio v. Wells, the lawsuit challenging the election based on Barack Obama's release - or alleged lack thereof - of his official birth certificate and his citizenship status. (The court did decide to hear two cases, one of which is the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, an Al Qaeda combatant seized on American soil.) Of course, there's no guarantee the Court will ever actually issue any statement on the Obama case since it was simply petitioned to the court and, along with hundreds of other cases, could be dismissed without any comment at all. But as Frank James, over at The Swamp, says, "the lack of an announcement doesn't mean the court definitely won't hear Donofrio." So either we will or we won't. Hmm.

rest http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/05/no_word_from_supreme_court_on_obama.php

Exclusive video: Tiny crowd prays Supreme Court will invalidate Obama presidency from Raw Story Breaking News

A small but determined band of conservative protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court Friday morning to pray the justices would invalidate Barack Obama's election.

The court was deciding whether it would hear oral arguments in Donofrio v. Wells, which argues that Obama's placement on the New Jersey presidential election ballot was invalid because he is not a natural born citizen. The justices are expected to dismiss the case.

Discussions with several of the 18 demonstrators who gathered despite freezing temperatures revealed disjointed, confusing and increasingly conspiratorial reasons for their presence. Several alleged varying degrees of a coverup to hide the circumstances surrounding Obama's birth; none were willing to accept the much simpler explanation that Obama was in fact a natural-born citizen eligible to be president.


rest http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Demonstrators_pray_Supreme_Court_will_invalidate_1205.html

If Plaxico Burress Had a Comic Book from Kissing Suzy Kolber

VIA http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/12/if-plaxico-burress-had-a-comic-book.html

Holy Taco is one of the funniest sites on the web. They're always good for at least one horse-laugh and two guffaws a day. It's been a while since they did a football comic, but this one was well worth the wait…

If only Burress' real future was so filled with adventure and derring-do. Looks like the only case he has to look forward to now is "The mystery of how Plax pissed away $35 million."

Woman Swept to Sea During Proposal:

 "NESKOWIN, Ore. (Dec. 5) - A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea.
Police don't suspect foul play in the disappearances Saturday of Leafil Alforque, Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson said. Thick fog and dangerous water conditions off Neskowin Beach hampered the rescue efforts, and the search was called off Monday.

Scott Napper had a ring in his pocket and planned to pop the question to Alforque, 22, at Proposal Rock, which got its name from couples ready to marry.

Napper said the tide had receded around the rock when the couple began to walk to it, but then a wave around 3 feet high suddenly came in."

REST http://news.aol.com/article/woman-swept-to-sea-during-proposal/268675

Virus making rounds on Facebook from Raw Story Breaking News

a new variant of a virus known as Koobface is making the rounds on the Facebook social network, a security software firm warned this week.

McAfee Inc., in a company blog posting on Wednesday, said the virus, known as a worm, was being spread in the form of a message with a subject line along the lines of "You look just awesome in this new movie."

When users click on the message it informs them their Flash player is out of date. They are then prompted to download or open the file flash_player.exe, a new Koobface variant.

McAfee said Facebook, which has more than 120 million members, was purging the spammed links from their system "but with dozens of Koobface variants known to exist, the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better."

ENTIRE ARTICLE http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Koobface_virus_making_rounds_on_Fac_12052008.html

Coldplay Sued For Plagiarism from PerezHilton.com

Rock guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay for copyright infringement.

In a suit filed yesterday, Thursday, in Los Angeles federal court, Satriani claims that the band's hit song Viva La Vida contains "substantial original portions" of his 2004 instrumental If I Could Fly.

rest http://perezhilton.com/2008-12-05-coldplay-sued-for-plagiarism

Girls flee circumcision in Kenya

entire article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7766806.stm

At least 300 girls in south-western Kenya have fled from home and sought refuge in churches in a bid to escape forced female genital mutilation (FGM).

The girls, some as young as nine, are at two rescue centres in rural Nyanza province, police told the BBC.

Female circumcision is banned in Kenya, but remains common in some areas where it is considered to be part of a girl's initiation into womanhood.

The traditional ceremonies take place between November and December.

Security

The girls in Kuria District are now in the care of the two churches and Maendeleo Ya Wanawake, a women's organisation.

Police are providing security at the centres to ensure that the girls are not forcibly removed or harassed.

Beatrice Robi, Maendeleo Ya Wanawake's district chairperson and a gender activist, says that at least 200 girls are undergoing circumcision in the district a day.

She said she had found a seven-year-old girl who had just been circumcised.

"There are more girls who are still in their homes and they are undergoing it [circumcision], whether it is voluntarily or they are being forced," she told the BBC.

She says her organisation along with the local churches and authorities have been trying to convince the community to stop the practice and rescuing girls from forced circumcision.

Paul Wanjama, the commanding officer in Kuria District, says girls in the region usually flee to the rescue centres until the season ends.

He said that in some cases, parents encourage the girls to go to the rescue centres to avoid being circumcised.

"There are some parents who are against that [FGM practice] but they get pressure from these traditional people," he told the BBC.

At Illinois, No Jock Left Behind from Deadspin

entire article at http://deadspin.com/5102321/at-illinois-no-jock-left-behind

Here is stately Wayne Manor The Irwin Academic Services Center at the University of Illinois. Here, Illini students can use computer labs and classrooms, schedule sessions with tutors and special counselors, and even relax in oversize leather chairs and gaze at expensive oriental rugs. Wait … you're not an athlete? You're just a regular student? Get the %$#! out of the expensive Irwin Academic Services Center, Poindexter. (Kicks student out front door; throws book bag after him). And stay out!

The Irwin Center, you see, is for athletes only; the $6 million facility is not to be wasted on nerds. And Illinois is not the only campus that has them. There are also such facilities at Michigan, Louisiana State and Texas A&M, the latter which cost $27 million.

Some are not amused.

"These athletic tutoring palaces perpetuate resentment and stereotyping on campus," said Allen Sack, a University of New Haven professor who played football for the University of Notre Dame and has become a critic of what he sees as the corrosive effect of sports on university life.

"A student who is not an athlete will say: 'I'm working nights to get through school, why don't I get free tutoring?' " Sack said. "That the athletes do perpetuates the image of a dumb jock who couldn't get through school without special help."

Blade Runner Named Best Sci-Fi Movie Of All Time from dailystab.com

entire article at http://www.dailystab.com/blade-runner-named-best-sci-fi-movie-of-all-time/

 

The 1982 action film Blade Runner has been named the best sci-fi movie of all time in a new online poll.

The futuristic film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer, tops a list compiled by editors at Moviefone.com, beating all the "Star Wars," "Alien," and "Terminator" movies hands down.

Moviefone editors explain their choice:

"A box office dud at the time of its release, this movie has undergone more facelifts than Joan Rivers. Regardless, it's a dark future with film noir elements dripping from every pore."

Congress to Detroit: Want Your Bailout? Quit Opposing New Emission Standards from The Washington Independent

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) offers a new angle today on the Detroit bailout, saying that he'll support the plan only if the automakers stop trying to kill states' efforts to tighten emission standards.

California has famously applied for an Environmental Protection Agency waiver forcing emission reductions of 30 percent by 2016. But the automakers claim the change would threaten the industry by forcing it to produce two sets of vehicles: one catering to the national standard and another to the stricter standards of California.

Defending the carmakers, the EPA rejected California's waiver last December.

The EPA denial has only fueled the debate, and more than a dozen other states have signed on to the California proposal. Florida is the latest to move in that direction, after a state panel endorsed the plan just this week. Daniel Becker, who heads the Safe Climate Campaign, said the participating states represent enough of the new car market that the automakers would be forced to make just one set of vehicles complying to California's stricter standard.

In a Dec. 4 letter to the heads of the Big Three, Florida's Nelson urges the begging CEOs to quit stonewalling the state waivers:

rest http://washingtonindependent.com/21129/congress-to-detroit-want-your-bailout-quit-opposing-new-emission-standards

Steve Dahl Off JACK from Chicagoist

from http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/05/steve_dahl_off_jack.php

Just a little over a year after Steve Dahl made a move to WJMK -- a.k.a. JACK-FM -- after his former home, WCKG, went through a format change, Dahl today announced on the air that he would no longer be continuing at the station. Dahl currently has a contract with the station worth more than $1 million a year, which is set to expire in 2011 -- and Dahl is going to make sure it doesn't run out a day sooner:

"They were saying, 'Well, do a couple of weeks, a farewell.'" Dahl said. "I said, 'It's not a farewell. You guys are taking me off the air. I'm not retiring.' ... "I still have 2 1/2 years left on my deal so, quite frankly, I'm not letting them out of it."

Blockbuster Will Offer 99 Cent DVD Rentals from Consumerist

Reuters says that Blockbuster will begin offering 99 cent rentals for the first time ever, according to CEO Jim Keyes. The details of which movies will be 99 cents have not been announced, but Keyes did say that the price point would include "thousands of DVDs, including many classic older movies."

rest at http://consumerist.com/5102615/blockbuster-will-offer-99-cent-dvd-rentals

The movement to sue Obama out of office for not being a citizen is analyzed here in this article from crooks and liars

entire article at http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/obamas-citizenship-wingnuts-desperat

It seems the outer fringes of wingnuttia are still clinging to a last little acorn of a conspiracy theory as their last hope for stopping Barack Obama from becoming president. It comes down to this:

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a continuation of a New Jersey case embraced by some opponents of Obama's election.

The meeting of justices will coincide with a vigil by the filer's supporters in Washington on the steps of the nation's highest court.

The suit originally sought to stay the election, and was filed on behalf of Leo Donofrio against New Jersey Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells.

Legal experts say the appeal has little chance of succeeding, despite appearing on the court's schedule. Legal records show it is only the tip of an iceberg of nationwide efforts seeking to derail Obama's election over accusations that he either wasn't born a U.S. citizen or that he later renounced his citizenship in Indonesia.

David Weigel at Slate has a rundown on how widespread this has gotten, from the Donofrio case now before the court, to 9/11 troofer Philip Berg's lawsuit, to WorldNetDaily's ongoing fundraiser, to the peculiar case of one Bob Schulz:

That's the same argument made by Bob Schultz, the founder of the paleoconservative We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education. On Monday and Wednesday, Schultz gave the Obama conspiracy its biggest burst of attention—at least since Rush Limbaugh speculated that this was the real reason Obama visited his dying grandmother—by purchasing full-page ads in the Chicago Tribune. In the "open letters" to Obama, Schultz asserts that Obama's certificate of live birth is "forged," that his "grandmother is record[ed] on tape saying she attended your birth in Kenya," and that Obama would have lost his citizenship anyway when Ann Dunham married her second, Indonesian husband, Lolo Soetoro. (Lou Dobbs would be delighted to discover that the 14th Amendment can be nullified so easily.)

Schultz has asked Obama to allow forensic investigators to inspect Obama's files in Hawaii's Department of State. "Have one guy go in and do his thing," explains Schultz. "Have another guy go in, do his thing, put the certificate back in the envelope. These are scientists. They should all come to the same conclusion."

Eric Ward observes that the Schulz campaign is being touted heavily by the white-nationalist crowd. That's unsurprising: Schulz has been selling far-right tax theories to gullible suckers for awhile now, and as Ward observes, this is a crowd that has been a major seedbed for far-right organizing for a considerable time.

Schulz has been running an outfit called We the People Foundation for a number of years that sells these schemes. He has been featured on Fox News a couple of times -- Brit Hume interviewed him once propounding a tax scheme that is built upon a hash of groundless conspiracy theories that have their origins in the far-right Posse Comitatus and other extremist tax protest schemes. It was, in fact, also remarkably similar to the Montana Freemen's theories. And for the duration of the interviews, Hume listened intently and evidenced no skepticism whatsoever about the fantastic claims regarding federal taxes Schulz was making.

This wasn't the only time Fox interviewed Schulz. When he staged a "hunger strike" (there's no evidence he actually went without food) later that year, Fox's Hannity and Colmes interviewed him and were only a little less credulous than Hume.

Obama thanks Illinois donors personally at reception from Daily Kos

via http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/4/21394/1172/733/669488

John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune just filed a pool report--complete with a touching speech by Barack Obama--on a reception that the president-elect for his early supporters in Chicago and members of his finance committee. Reading this, you get a sudden stunning sense of just how far the man has come and what a journey it has been.

After leaving his transition office in Chicago's Loop at 5:55 p.m., the PEOTUS and his motorcade traveled approximately two blocks to The Standard Club.

The private club, located at 320 South Plymouth Court, played host to a thank you reception for many of Barack Obama's fundraisers, mostly from Illinois. Obama entered the building at 5:56 p.m. and the pool was held in the van.

After holding at the base of a stairway inside, we were ushered into the room about 7:17 p.m. There were about 100 people in the small room and they all stood as he spoke.

In the back were the standard buffet tables and a bar (cheese, bread and crackers were some of the offerings).

Obama had spoken privately with people before we entered and also posed for photos. Michelle Obama was in the room as well, but did not speak as part of the brief program that we saw.

The president elect spoke for about seven minutes (a few quick quotes are below). He was introduced by John Rogers and James Crown, key members of his Illinois finance committee.

Penny Pritzker, the chairwoman of his national finance committee, was also in the room, although did not speak while we were there. Aides said the crowd was a mixture of Illinois finance committee members and national finance committee members.

"I could not have asked for better leadership," Obama said of his finance committee leaders.

Obama said he wanted to do the small event because of the long friendships in the room.

"This is a gathering of friends, and we wanted to do it precisely because all of you are friends. You know in politics, often times you say folks are friends, when what you really mean is they supported you and sometimes only after it became apparent you were winning. In this case, it's absolutely true."

Obama looked out onto the crowd and said he saw classmates, friends, co-workers, past bosses and some of his earliest political supporters, including Bettylu Saltzman.

"I'm almost speechless here, which I don't usually get, because this is really a tapestry of our lives. You know, we workout out at the East Bank Club. We worked on education stuff together. We've rabble-roused together. We've played basketball together. We have golfed, not so well, together. We've sat on foundation boards together. And we've seen frustrations, but also seen some dreams come true together. And so, I just want you to know that all of you had more to do with us being successful than just raising money. You helped shape Michelle and myself. Many of you have been part of our children's lives. Many of you have helped to support us, through thick and through thin. And so, I'm just very grateful to all of you. Now, we've got a lot of work to do, and I don't want to sugar-coat the amount of work there is to be done."

"We didn't just win, but we ran and won in the right way," Obama said.

rest at http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/4/21394/1172/733/669488

Undead White Guilt in Florida from Firedoglake

by Felix42

The GOP has a little problem in Florida

Derek Black says "of course" he will attend a meeting Wednesday for new members of Palm Beach County's Republican Executive Committee. Never mind that the party chairman says Black's "white supremacist" associations are not welcome and he will not be seated.

"I was elected," Black, 19, says...

Sorry, says county GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein. In the qualifying period in June, Black didn't sign a loyalty oath pledging he would not do anything injurious to the party. And that's not the only problem.

"He participates in white supremacist activities," Dinerstein said. "We're the party of Lincoln. We're the party that says we don't judge anybody by the color of their skin."

Derek Black's response: "I've told (Dinerstein) I'm not a white supremacist; that's an insult. I would describe myself as a white person who is concerned about discrimination against white people."

rest http://firedoglake.com/2008/12/04/undead-white-guilt-in-florida/

Bush to exempt toxin from federal regulation from Daily Kos

More departing gifts from the Bush administration as it continues its long goodbye:

Feds Set to Eliminate Water Regulations for Neurotoxin

By Brandon Keim

Among the Bush administration's final environmental legacies will be a decision to exempt perchlorate, a known neurotoxin found at unsafe levels in the drinking water of millions of Americans, from federal regulation.

The ruling, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in October, was supposed to be formalized on Monday. That deadline passed, but the agency expects to announce its decision by the year's end, before president-elect Barack Obama takes office. It could take years to reverse.

rest http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/4/21151/9494/76/669128

The Raw Story | Gulf Oil CEO: $1 a gallon gas in 2009

CEO also claims carbon-driven warming a 'myth' as Merrill Lynch predicts $25 a barrel oil

Joe Petrowski, CEO of Massachusetts-based Gulf Oil, has some good news for consumers.

In years past, market speculation inflated prices, said Petrowski. Now that the prices are deflated, speculators may 'overshoot' and actually drive the consumer cost down further.

His statements came shortly before Merrill Lynch & Co. predicted oil prices will plunge to $25 a barrel in the coming year if the global recession begins heavily affecting China.


rest http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Gulf_CEO_1_gallon_gas_in_1204.html

Old People Feel 13 Years Younger Than They Are FROM LiveScience:

 "Older people tend to feel about 13 years younger than their chronological age, a new study finds.

The seniors in the study, all 70 and over, also thought they looked about 10 years younger than their numerical age, with women perceiving their appearances to be closer to their actual age than men.

'People generally felt quite a bit younger than they actually were, and they also showed relatively high levels of satisfaction with aging over the time period studied,' said researcher Jacqui Smith, a psychologist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.

She added, 'Perhaps feeling about 13 years younger is an optimal illusion in old age.'"

REST http://www.livescience.com/health/081204-seniors-feel-young.html

HERE IS A VIDEO OF A DOG TRYING TO SAVE HIS INJURED FRIEND

http://www.break.com/index/dog-saves-best-friends-life.html

Turn your iPod touch into a free phone FROM TechRadar UK:

 "Want to make free phone calls to your fellow iPod touch owners? Now you can, courtesy of the recently announced Truphone for iPod touch.

'Make free calls to other iPod touch owners: no SIM, no contract, no money,' reads Truphone's marketing blurb.

'Described by Apple itself as the 'funnest' iPod ever, the iPod touch may now be the 'useful-est' too thanks to FREE software that effectively turns one into a mobile phone.'

We like 'free'"

REST AT http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/turn-your-ipod-touch-into-a-free-phone-490806

Oil Just Keeps Dropping! from AllFinancialMatters

Oil dropped another $3.12 to $43.67…the lowest level since January 2005.

If someone would have told me back in July that oil was going to be trading in the 40s by the end of the year, I wouldn't have believed them. It's simply amazing how quickly things can turn.

REST http://allfinancialmatters.com/2008/12/04/oil-just-keeps-dropping/

GQ Names Chicago "City of the Year" from Chicagoist

GQ Magazine has named Chicago its 2008 City of the Year, concentrating on four different categories: Film (Batman, check); Literature (Aleksandar Hemon, check); Architecture (Spire, um...); and Politics (Mayor Daley? Seriously). Okay, so maybe we have a few issues with some of the things they picked. Hizzonah is not exactly high on our happy-with list right now. Still, what with Obama's election and the Olympic bid, we guess we understand the focus on our fair city right now. At least it's better than that New York Times story.

REST http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/04/gq_names_chicago_city_of_the_year.php

Bush, Paulson, and their T.A.R.P. of S.N.A.F.U. | BuzzFlash.org

via http://buzzflash.com/articles/carpenter/252

Let's just consider it their parting gift of wanton incompetence, the final bow of squalid mismanagement, the last tip 'o the hat to operatic farce and unaccountability.

As the Washington Post reports, while revealing no shock or even dismay: "The Bush administration has failed to adequately oversee its $700 billion bailout program."

Failure, inadequacy, lack of oversight -- three commonly referenced subjects in any story on the Bush regime, which parachute into the same inclusive sentence with almost perfunctory regularity and, after eight years, have devolved to the reportorial level of a yawning S.N.A.F.U.

What the Post takes note of, you see, is that the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has found there is no "guarantee that banks are complying with the plan's limits on conflicts of interest and lavish executive compensation."

What's more, the GAO's recently released investigative report "said the Treasury Department has yet to impose necessary safeguards or decide how to determine whether the program is achieving its goals."

The "evolving nature of the program," said the GAO, has "hampered efforts to put a comprehensive system of internal control in place." And "until such a system is fully developed and implemented, there is heightened risk that the interests of the government and taxpayers may not be adequately protected and that the program objectives may not be achieved in an efficient and effective manner."

Oh, stop. Please stop. You're killing me. What cards, those accountants at the GAO, what with their boundless sense of humor and playful bent for naked irony. To arms! To arms! The Bush Babies with machine guns lack "internal control"; they've put taxpayers at risk; they've thrown "adequate protections" overboard; they -- brace yourself -- don't seem all that "efficient and effective."

Hmmm. What a fine but familiar kettle of fish. Can you say, "Katrina"? Or, "fiscal responsibility"? Or, "Iraq"? Or "Afghanistan" or "Geneva Conventions" or "regulatory oversight" or "independent Justice Department"? If not, just say "S.N.A.F.U."

The proverbial roots of the many problems -- generally defined, simply, as wasteful impotence -- of the $700 billion bailout program, however, would seem to be wedged in the GAO and Post's terminology of "its goals" and "evolving nature."

You will recall the bailout's acronym: T.A.R.P., a tidy, self-explanatory little term that indicated a "relief program" would be established to -- what else? -- relieve banks of their "troubled assets."

Here, for instance, from ABC News, was concise reporting during the week of the bailout bill's Congressional passage: At "the heart of the bill" is the "plan to provide the Treasury with $700 billion to buy troubled assets from financial institutions -- an effort that proponents say will help ease the credit crunch by allowing banks to clear their balance sheets and lend money."

Good enough. That made sense. Banks weren't loaning to one another -- hence to you, or me, or anyone else -- because of their prodigiously valid concern that the institutional loan recipient might be as poisoned by lethally problematic assets as, let's say, Lehman Brothers was.

Consequently, or rather synonymously, credit markets were frozen. But hellfire, if Hank Paulson just relieved those institutions of their mortgage-related doubts, through complex but, we were told, ultimately workable reverse auctions, then the financial sewers would clear and the confidence skies would part and the reciprocal rivers would once again run green.

But in midcourse planning (to use a charitable term), Mr. Paulson instead began heaving mountains of cash on banks that hadn't even asked for the money. Just take it, he insisted -- no bad securities bought, but on the other hand no questions asked and no answers or guarantees demanded.

So they took it. And then, stunned by their good fortune, they kept it.

Meanwhile, those financial sewers still clogged with dubious mortgage-related securities are still running red, extending the period of no confidence in this wreck of an economy created largely by the Bush administration's wholesale absence of oversight and surfeit of farcical incompetence.

What a perfectly fitting, parting gift to the nation.

White House finally admits the U.S. economy is in a recession. from Think Progress

Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that despite the National Bureau of Economic Research determining that the U.S. is in a recession, the White House still couldn't bring itself to use the word. Today, however, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino appeared to finally recognize that relying on strained euphemisms is not an effective way to hold an informed discussion about the nation's struggling economy.

REST AND VIDEO http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/04/perino-admits-recession/

KBR, Halliburton sued for sickening U.S. troops from Daily Kos

KBR and Halliburton are the targets of a new class-action lawsuit alleging that U.S. troops have been sickened by water, food and fumes produced by the two massive private contractors, according to the Army Times:

Joshua Eller, who worked as a civilian computer-aided drafting technician with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, said military personnel, contractors and third-country nationals may have been sickened by contamination at the largest U.S. installation in Iraq, home to more than 30,000 service members, Defense Department civilians and contractor personnel.

The details of the charges laid out in the lawsuit are macabre:

The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that "still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces."

Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.

"Wild dogs in the area raided the burn pit and carried off human remains," the lawsuit states. "The wild dogs could be seen roaming the base with body parts in their mouths, to the great distress of the U.S. forces."

REST http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/4/112526/419/958/669263

An Inspiring Day-After-Thanksgiving Tale Of Perseverance from Deadspin

Here's Justin Weisner, the water boy for the Newton-Conover varsity football team. Weisner has Down syndrome, and even though he wanted to play football, his coaches and parents had always said no. But he somehow changed everyone's mind, his doctor gave him clearance, and this season he went out for the junior varsity and made it. And what he did at the very end of the season rocked the house.

Good story in the Charlotte Observer about how Weisner, who played only a handful of downs this season and never came close to making a tackle, surprised everyone at the very last minute. On the last play of the last home game of the season, the 17-year-old finally made his dream come true. He made a tackle.

rest at http://deadspin.com/5099878/an-inspiring-day+after+thanksgiving-tale-of-perseverance

100 Movie Spoilers in 5 Minutes from Open Culture

via http://www.oculture.com/2008/12/100_movie_spoilers_in_5_minutes.html

In case you haven't seen this yet …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN5avIvylDw

7 Common Mac Myths Exposed from Dumb Little Man - Tips for Life

You have heard them from friends, family members or even work colleagues. They are the stories you hear by people afraid to try something new and find comfort in their world of Windows-goodness.

I am not here to convince, I am here to educate and help you see through the clutter of misinformation. Let's look at some of the most common Mac myths to see whether they are justified or not.

rest http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/12/7-common-mac-myths-exposed.html

Scarab: A Human Transporter for the Tomb(orrow) | Autopia from Wired.com

Lara Croft is a damn fine tomb raider and a great shot with those big guns, but it looks like she missed one — the Scarab.

This futuristic, single-passenger urban transporter is designer David Goncalves' answer to congested city streets and gridlocked highways. Yeah, it might look like something raised from hell in a Predator movie made 50 years from now, but Goncalves is to be commended for coming up with a cool concept that pushes the envelope on greener, self-driving vehicles.

The Scarab gets its power from one of three sources — battery, fuel cell or biofuel — so you can pick a fuel that's most readily available or most suits your needs. Such a feature could come in handy when dealing with our volatile energy market. Pick the battery option and you've got regenerative braking to help keep the battery charged.

But what makes this Lay-Z-Boy recliner with wheels really cool is its shape-shifting chassis.

rest http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/12/scarab-a-human.html

A Look Inside a Facebook for the Filthy Rich | Epicenter from Wired.com

Recession — and social network glut — be damned! Frank DeRose, managing partner of Ferrata Capital Management, plans to invest at least $1 million into Total Prestige, an invitation-only networking site for one of the world's most underserved internet demographics: the super- and super-duper rich.

The 15-year-old organization used to just be a Rolodex with 50,000 names — a sort of offline LinkedIn of the Rich and Famous doing introductions in all the non-digital ways. But it's now catching up with technology and taking on an online presence with a social network that launched in September, with plans also for a global rollout of quarterly print magazines in some glittering world capitals.

There are currently around 637 members on the site, and an additional 400 high-profile people have decided against creating a public profile but can still view all the content. Ten members are billionaires. Most of them come from Europe and the Middle East, and range from royalty and entrepreneurs to entertainers.

To get an idea of what these folks are blogging about: One recent post seeks advice for avoiding pirates while yachting up the African coastline.

But after-hours activity is not the main thrust — there are several other networks for that out there, including A Small World and Decayenne (and others mentioned in the comments). This one's not about play. "It's sort of like going to a conference," DeRose told Wired.com. "You're there to network and conduct business."

rest http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/12/a-look-inside-f.html

GM Financed 50% of Car Purchases Last Year; Can Only Finance 6% Now from Firedoglake

Jeebus. This gives you a sense of why GM's in such dire straits:

GM's financing arm, GMAC, cannot effectively access the secondary markets today. With each passing day, it is less able to finance the sale of GM vehicles, either for dealers or for the public. One year ago, GMAC was able to provide either installment or lease financing for nearly half of GM retail sales. That number has fallen to 6% today. In addition, GMAC is no longer able to buy contracts for customers with a credit score under 700, which excludes roughly half the buying population. All of this has been especially toxic to GM sales in the past two months, with sales running about 40% behind year-ago levels. [my emphasis]

rest http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/12/03/gm-financed-50-of-car-purchases-last-year-can-only-finance-6-now/

Obama has postponed the repeal of the Bush tax cuts, and now he's backed off his plan for a windfall profits tax

Ben Smith's Blog: Another tax, cut - Politico.com: "Obama has postponed the repeal of the Bush tax cuts, and now he's backed off his plan for a windfall profits tax -- on the grounds, evidently, that low gas prices may mean the oil companies aren't making windfall profits.

Depending on how you see it, the change is either a welcome adjustment to a changed reality, or another mark that he feels free to dismiss commitments made amid the 'heated campaign rhetoric' he's been deploring lately. (David Sirota, from whom got this news, takes the latter tack.)

Reported the Chronicle: rest http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1208/Another_tax_cut.html

Virginia GOP Chairman Defends Comparison To Bin Laden from Daily Kos

Remember Jeff Frederick, the Virginia GOP chairman who told McCain canvassers to compare Barack Obama to Osama Bin Laden? Well Mr. Frederick is sticking to his guns. Although he concedes his remark was dumb, he's defending it as 'true.'

Va. GOP chief: Obama remark was stupid but true

Virginia's Republican chairman said Tuesday that his remark tying Democrat Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden during the presidential campaign was stupid, but he refused to apologize...

...Frederick was asked about the remark Tuesday during a discussion of the 2008 Virginia presidential campaign with a group of newspaper editors. Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Virginia in 44 years.

"It was a stupid joke I gave to somebody in a small crowd of people and that's what happens," Frederick said. "But you know, it's really unfortunate. We live in a 'gotcha' society."

rest http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/3/03020/5669/433/668747

Police Officer Speaks Out Against Taser

"Nick Dial was a police officer who volunteered to be Tasered. Since then his health has suffered to such an extent that he can no longer work. And he's not alone; other police officers have suffered serious health problems, from vertebrae misalignments to heart arrhythmia and stroke. 'In its video, Taser International claims that nobody has suffered a serious injury or death as a result of the Taser, but that just isn't true,' says Dial."

rest http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=605&Itemid=27

Economy darkens heading into holidays

he country's economic picture has darkened further as Americans hunkered down heading into the holidays, forcing retailers to ring up fewer sales and factories to cut back on production.

The Federal Reserve's new snapshot of business conditions nationwide, released Wednesday, suggested the economy was sinking deeper into recession.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, which covers the Fed's 11th district, reported a general weakening.

"There was a broad-based weakening of the Eleventh District economy in October and the first half of November," the Dallas Beige Book said. "While there were a few exceptions, most businesses reported declines in production and/or new orders."

Manufacturing and staffing services noted particularly sharp reductions in activity. And many businesspeople say they're feeling the effects of the intensifying national downturn.

"Many contacts reported that they were being impacted by the weakness in the national economy and the crisis in the credit markets," the Dallas Fed said. "Almost all respondents voiced concern about the near-term outlook with expectations of improvement ranging from about four to twelve months away."

"Economic activity weakened across all Federal Reserve districts," the report concluded.

rest http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=604&Itemid=35

Private sector loses 250,000 jobs

The U.S. economy shed a quarter-million private-sector jobs in November, according to a payroll processor's report that was worse than economists expected.

Non-farm private employment fell by 250,000 jobs from the previous month on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report.

The report was expected to show a decline of 200,000 jobs in November, according to a consensus of economist projections compiled by Briefing.com.

"It's impossible to find any ray of light here," said ADP spokesman Joel Prakken in a conference call with reporters. "All of the major industries that we record had declines in employment."

The goods-producing sector lost 158,000 jobs last month, its 24th consecutive month of decline, according to the report. This includes 118,000 positions in manufacturing and 44,000 construction jobs.

The service industry shed 92,000 jobs, its second month of losses since the ADP reports began tracking employment in 2002.

rest http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=603&Itemid=35

UK:Big brother police to get power to stop you in the street to demand ID

State officials are to be given powers previously reserved for times of war to demand a person's proof of identity at any time.

Anybody who refuses the Big Brother demand could face arrest and a possible prison sentence.

The new rules come in legislation to be unveiled in today's Queen's Speech.

They are presented as a crackdown on illegal immigration, but lawyers say they could be applied to anybody who has ever been outside the UK, even on holiday.

The civil rights group Liberty, which analysed clauses from the new Immigration and Citizenship Bill, called them an attempt to introduce compulsory ID cards by the back door.

The move would effectively take Britain back to the Second World War, when people were stopped and asked to 'show their papers'.

Liberty said: 'Powers to examine identity documents, previously thought to apply only at ports of entry, will be extended to criminalise anyone in Britain who has ever left the country and fails to produce identity papers upon demand.

rest http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=600&Itemid=33

You Can Steal The Empire State Building In Only 90 Minutes from Consumerist

The Daily News has stolen the Empire State Building, and it only took 90 minutes. They made up some fake paperwork and successfully got the deed to the 102-story landmark transferred to a fake company called "Nelots Properties LLC." Get it? Nelots? Stolen? The information provided to the city register was laughably fake — King Kong star Fay Wray was listed as a witness.

From the Daily News:

Of course, stealing the Empire State Building wouldn't go unnoticed for long, but it shows how easy it is for con artists to swipe more modest buildings right out from under their owners. Armed with a fraudulent deed, they can take out big mortgages and disappear, leaving a mess for property owners, banks and bureaucrats.

"Once you have the deed, it's easy to obtain a mortgage," Farrell said.

Many crooks have done just that:

rest http://consumerist.com/5101536/you-can-steal-the-empire-state-building-in-only-90-minutes

White House Guts Stream Protections Near Mining Operations from The Washington Independent

In a last-minute genuflection to the mining industry, the Bush administration yesterday finalized its contentious plan to lift restrictions on mine-debris disposal, allowing companies to fill valleys and streams with the waste from their operations.

The change is of particular threat to Appalachia, where coal miners have adopted the practice of blasting the tops off of mountains to reach the coal seams within — a process that produces enormous amounts of waste, or "overburden," that needs disposing.

A 1983 Interior Dept. rule, called the "stream buffer zone rule," prohibits disposal within 100 feet of live streams — a restriction requiring companies to truck the waste elsewhere. But the mining industry has long-pushed for explicit allowances to dump the debris in adjacent valleys, even if that means burying streams.

rest http://washingtonindependent.com/20760/white-house-guts-stream-protections-near-mining-operations

GM Financed 50% of Car Purchases Last Year; Can Only Finance 6% Now from Emptywheel

Jeebus. This gives you a sense of why GM's in such dire straits:

GM's financing arm, GMAC, cannot effectively access the secondary markets today. With each passing day, it is less able to finance the sale of GM vehicles, either for dealers or for the public. One year ago, GMAC was able to provide either installment or lease financing for nearly half of GM retail sales. That number has fallen to 6% today. In addition, GMAC is no longer able to buy contracts for customers with a credit score under 700, which excludes roughly half the buying population. All of this has been especially toxic to GM sales in the past two months, with sales running about 40% behind year-ago levels. [my emphasis]

rest http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/12/03/gm-financed-50-of-car-purchases-last-year-can-only-finance-6-now/

Priced Out of College from The Big Picture

via http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/priced-out-of-college/

Does it make much sense that CPI inflation is less than education, medical care and income? I guess food, energy and housing costs must have been pretty soft over that same period.

Oh, wait a minute . . .

>

courtesy of the NYT

Priced Out of College from The Big Picture

via http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/priced-out-of-college/

Does it make much sense that CPI inflation is less than education, medical care and income? I guess food, energy and housing costs must have been pretty soft over that same period.

Oh, wait a minute . . .

>

courtesy of the NYT

Reports: Mumbai Attackers Took Coke, LSD, and Steroids; Wore Versace; used GPS and VOIP from Boing Boing

(Image above by keerthi). Today marks one week since the attacks in Mumbai that killed and injured hundreds (BB post #1, BB post #2). Skimming headlines this morning in the Times of India, the post-attack narrative has now turned to the possibility of punitive strikes on Pakistan by India, with some Indian media implying US support -- things could get a lot scarier, fast, given that both nations have nukes. US Secretary of State Rice just arrived, and on this same day, they've found bombs in the Mumbai train station that was an attack site.

One of the other aftermath stories I've been following: what tech devices the attackers used to orient themselves and coordinate communications before, during, and after the attacks. VOIP phones, SIM cards, and Garmin GPS units, among them. Some of this information is apparently the result of interrogation with the one known surviving attacker, and is being printed in Indian tabloids, so I'm not sure of how reliable all of this is. Anyway, snip from one more reputable account:

rest at http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/03/reports-mumbai-attac.html

Parting Shot: Bush Lifts Mining Ban That Protects Mountain Streams from Pensito Review

George Bush's trashing of America is not quite complete:

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal companies to bury streams under the rocks leftover from mining.

The 1983 rule prohibited dumping the fill from mountaintop removal mining within 100 feet of streams. In practice, the government hadn't been enforcing the rule. Government figures show that 535 miles of streams were buried or diverted from 2001 to 2005, more than half of them in the mountains of Appalachia. Along with the loss of the streams has been an increase of erosion and flooding.

rest http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/12/03/parting-shot-bush-lifts-mining-ban-that-protects-mountain-streams/

Chicago To Lease Parking Meters To A Company That Will Charge $6.50 An Hour? from Consumerist

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago is trying to get "quickie" approval for a proposal to privatize the city's parking meters. Under the 75 year lease, Chicago's 36,000 parking meters would be controlled by a partnership that includes Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners and LAZ Parking. This partnership will, naturally, raise prices. Critics of the proposal say that charging $6.50 an hour by 2013 to park downtown would hurt local businesses.

rest http://consumerist.com/5101428/chicago-to-lease-parking-meters-to-a-company-that-will-charge-650-an-hour

Reuters: Obama Backs Off Promise to Pass Windfall Profits Tax on Big Oil from Open Left - Front Page

Off the Reuters wire:

CHICAGO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama is not planning to implement a windfall profit tax on oil companies because prices have dropped below $80 a barrel, an aide said on Tuesday...

Obama, who signaled early in his campaign for the White House that he would take an active approach to oil markets as president, had planned to use the revenue from a windfall profits tax to fund a tax rebate for low- and middle-income families struggling with high energy prices.

Between this move and the move to wait to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, it seems like the Obama team is buying into the right-wing frame that raising any taxes - even those on the richest citizens and wealthiest corporations - is bad for the economy. Of course, that frame is debunked by history. And while sure, it's OK to rack up deficits so as to spend our way out of the economic crisis, it's sorta silly to ignore the tax moves that could be implemented to limit those deficits where possible. 

rest http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=10252

Chambliss Defeats Martin; Dems Lose Chance at 60-Vote 'Super Majority' from TPR: The Public Record

Sen. Saxby Chambliss won a runoff election in Georgia Tuesday against Democrat Jim Martin ending Democrats' chances of controlling a 60-vote filibuster-proof majority in the House.

With 95 percent of the precincts reporting, state election officials said Chambliss won 58 percent while Martin won 42 percent of the vote. Election officials reported that about 2 million people voted in the runoff compared with 3.7 million who voted on Election Day.

The runoff was held because neither Chambliss nor Martin captured 50 percent of the votes cast on Election Day to be declared the winner of the race as required by Georgia law.

rest http://www.pubrecord.org/politics/534-chambliss-defeats-martin-dems-lose-chance-at-60-vote-super-majority.html

The best post you will read in a while from deadspin: "F–K from Kissing Suzy Kolber"

all via http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/12/f-k.html

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. FUCK. Fuck me in the ass. Fuck me in the goat ass. Fuck me in the goat ass while forcing me to listen to a Sugar Ray CD. Fuck. Fucking shitburning cocksucker god dammit piss on my head. Did I forget to say fuck? Well FUCK. Fucking A. Fucking hell. Fucking elbow deep in my asspipe. Fucking fuck shitty fuck fuck fuck.

Fuck me. Fuck you. Fuck the world. Fuck a very small pygmy woman. Fuck a duck. Fuck a mallard. Fuck a gun. Fuck a bottle of gin. Fuck Little Richard. Fuck me sideways. Fuck me blind. Fuck me deaf. Fuck me mute. Just fucking god dammit. I mean, really. Fuck. FUCK! FUUUUUUUUUUCK! Grand Fuck Railroad.

Shit.

Fuck.

Peeved Elisabeth Hasselbeck Tells Noted Indian Scholar to 'Go Light a Bowl of Incense' from Defamer

While attempting to reference Deepak Chopra's recent remarks on the Mumbai massacre (he implied the terrorists had an eye on America), a frustrated Hasselbeck first called him "Glitter Glasses Whatshisface," and then, dismissing his comments as beneath her recognition, muttered, "Go light a bowl of incense." Why stop there, Elisabeth? Tell those minorities how you really feel using the most stereotype-laden kiss-offs you can muster! If your stylist tries to dress you in another pirate shirt? "Oh, go take your AIDS pills!" Joy Behar got you down? Just say, "Whatsa matta, you-a? Something land in your spaghetti? Oh, what-a spicy meatball!" It's fun, easy, and guaranteed to get the letters pouring in!

rest http://defamer.com/5101093/peeved-elisabeth-hasselbeck-tells-noted-indian-scholar-to-go-light-a-bowl-of-incense

Credit-Card Hackers in New Attack [Hackers] from Gawker

It's the last thing cash-strapped banks need right now: Holders of credit and debit cards are reporting an epidemic of unauthorized charges on their bills. It could be the sign of a massive card-fraud operation in the making. A company called Adele Services, based in Melville, N.Y., has been charging cards small amounts — 21 to 29 cents. Such charges are usually attempts by card fraudsters to test whether a particular card number is valid.

rest http://gawker.com/5101011/credit+card-hackers-in-new-attack

City Cutting Side Street Plowing from Chicagoist

The same City Hall that's shelling out almost $60 million for new SUVs is now telling us they don't have enough money to plow and salt side streets in a timely fashion. Streets and Sanitation Cmdr. Mike Picardi said that less salt is being used and side streets may have to wait longer to be plowed in an effort to save money, citing yesterday's snow as an example: according to Picardi, it cost the city $500,000 to salt and plow the city's streets.

rest http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/02/city_cutting_side_street_plowing.php

VA GOP chair refuses to apologize for comparing Obama to bin Laden. from Think Progress

In October, Virginia GOP Chairman Jeff Frederick compared Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden, telling an audience that they "both have friends that bombed the Pentagon."

rest http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/02/va-gop-chair-refuses-to-apologize-for-comparing-obama-to-bin-laden/

City Buying Police Department 2,000 SUVs, Still No New Officers from Chicagoist

In one of the more mind-bending announcements to come out of City Hall as of late (which is saying something), the City of Chicago has signed a $59.2 million deal with Advantage Chevrolet to provide the Chicago Police Department with 2,000 SUVs over the next three years. All this could possibly mean that by 2011, squad cars would be replaced by Chevy Tahoes, which is a car that CPD Superintendent Jody Weis likes. What gets us is this Sun-Times article, which focuses on the fact that the City went to a suburban dealership instead of a city dealership. Hugh Clark, vice president of special accounts for Advantage Chevrolet "acknowledged the city would have preferred to award the lucrative contract to a Chicago dealership at a time when dealerships across the city are struggling to stay in business."

Here's the thing that concerns us: why can the Daley Administration spend $60 million on new cars when what we really need is more officers? In a time when Mayor Daley is getting ready to layoff hundreds of city workers, raise taxes, and privatize airports just to make ends meet, the best idea you can think of is to spend more money on gas-guzzling cars that handle like tanks in high-speed chases? It's clear that the Mayor has his head so far in the 2016 Olympics cloud - or somewhere else - that he has lost touch with fiscal reality. For months, we've been reading about the escalating crime rate in this city and listening to Hizzonah preach on and on about how there's just not enough money to hire more officers. And yet he thinks nothing of dropping $60 million? The same mayor who claimed SUVs were tearing up city roads just a few years ago? We're apoplectic over here.

rest http://chicagoist.com/2008/12/02/city_buying_police_department_2000.php

Bush strips collective bargaining rights from federal employees. from Think Progress

via http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/02/bush-collective/

Yesterday, President Bush issued an executive order "that denies collective bargaining rights to about 8,600 federal employees who work in law enforcement, intelligence and other agencies responsible for national security." 900 of the employees affected were already represented by collective bargaining units. Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said that employees "had their collective bargaining rights stripped away for no justifiable reason." For more on Bush's last-minute regulations, orders, and proposed rule changes, check out ThinkProgress' updated report: "Bush's Backward Sprint To The Finish."

An honest-to-God advocate gets a top job from Scholars and Rogues

No, not on the national security team — get real. And not exactly a top job — her power as head of a panel. . . .

extends a bit beyond the "bully pulpit" but falls far short of a veto over specific proposals or programs

I speak of Elizabeth Warren, who, in a move I completely missed, was named by Harry Reid to be chairperson of the federal bailout oversight panel.

If you're unfamiliar with the amazing Ms. Warren and haven't seen her, on, for example, PBS, she's a Harvard law professor specializing in consumer credit laws and personal bankruptcy reform. She also co-authored The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke (Basic Books, 2003), a classic of American empathy.

In other words, she's on our side. From the New York Times today by Diana Henriques. . .

Bailout Monitor Sees Lack of a Coherent Plan

Excerpts (emphases added):

Elizabeth Warren [said] that the government. . . seemed to be lurching from one tactic to the next without clarifying how each step fits into an overall plan. …

Meetings with Treasury officials so far have made her question whether they understand that "household financial health is profoundly tied to the economic health of the nation," she said. "You cannot repair this economy if you can't repair those families, and I'm not sure the people directing the bailout see that as their job."

In her view, the government should be trying to create more reliable customers for those banks by shoring up the fragile finances of the millions of American families that could not save, borrow or spend even if their banks were flush with capital.

"Any effective policy has to start with the households," she said. "Years of flat wages, low savings and high debt have left America's households extremely vulnerable."

She understands us. She really understands us.

rest http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2008/12/02/an-honest-to-god-advocate-gets-a-top-job/

Palin Recycles Old Stump Speech In Georgia, But Replaces ‘McCain’ With ‘Chambliss’ from Think Progress

Today, Gov. Sarah Palin traveled to Georgia to campaign for Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R), who faces a tough runoff election tomorrow against Democratic challenger Jim Martin. In the first of four stops today, in Augusta, Palin told the crowd, "The eyes of the nation are on you," adding, "The stakes are so high" and that "America is counting on you."

Palin On Independence:

On CHAMBLISS: Saxby has not forgotten why he was sent to Washington. He has stayed true to his principles. Today those principles are needed more than ever. Senator Chambliss, he has such a strong, independent spirit. And that's another reason I really like him.

On McCAIN: John McCain and I, what we represent is that maverick independent spirit that will not let the self-dealing and excessive partisanship get in the way of what's right.

Palin On Herds:

On CHAMBLISS: Saxby doesn't just run with the Washington herd.

On McCAIN: John is his own man. He doesn't run with the Washington herd.

Yesterday, Palin's home-state newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News, sharply criticized her for campaigning for Chambliss, citing Chambliss' dirty campaign tactics against renowned war hero Max Cleland in 2002. "As a justifiably proud military mom, she might ask herself why she is using her conservative star power to support such a reprehensible Republican chicken hawk," the editorial said.

rest http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/01/palin-chambliss-stump/

Bush apologetic exit interview: 'I'm sure some people voted for Obama because of me'; On economy: 'I'm sorry;' On war; 'I was unprepared' from Raw Story Breaking News

Bush apologetic exit interview: 'I'm sure some people voted for Obama because of me'; On economy: 'I'm sorry;' On war; 'I was unprepared'

In an interview to be broadcast on ABC News tonight, President Bush conceded that he just might have been part of the reason Barack Obama won the White House.

"I think it was a repudiation of Republicans," he said. "And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."

He apologized for the economic crisis, saying, "I'm sorry it's happening, of course... Obviously I don't like the idea of people losing jobs, or being worried about their 401(k)s. On the other hand, the American people got to know that we will safeguard the system. I mean, we're in. And if we need to be in more, we will."

rest http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Bush_Im_sure_some_people_voted_1201.html

Bush WH Ignored Mortgage Meltdown Warnings from The Big Picture

"In hindsight, it was spot on."

-Jeffrey Brown, former top official at the Office of Comptroller of the Currency, one of the first agencies to raise concerns about risky lending.

>

A brutally damning article about the warnings the Bush administration received and ignored was published this morning by AP. The AP summed up the philosophy of the Bush White House, writing: "The administration's blind eye to the impending crisis is emblematic of its governing philosophy, which trusted market forces and discounted the value of government intervention in the economy. Its belief ironically has ushered in the most massive government intervention since the 1930s."

The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the economy collapsed, buckling to pressure from some of the same banks that have now failed. It ignored remarkably prescient warnings that foretold the financial meltdown, according to an Associated Press review of regulatory documents.

"Expect fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January 2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a job.

Bowing to aggressive lobbying — along with assurances from banks that the troubled mortgages were OK — regulators delayed action for nearly one year. By the time new rules were released late in 2006, the toughest of the proposed provisions were gone and the meltdown was under way.

"These mortgages have been considered more safe and sound for portfolio lenders than many fixed rate mortgages," David Schneider, home loan president of Washington Mutual, told federal regulators in early 2006. Two years later, WaMu became the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

rest http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/12/bush-administration-ignored-mortgage-meltdown-warnings/

As Palin campaigns in Georgia, Alaskans wonder where their governor went from Crooks and Liars

Download | Play    Download | Play

Sarah Palin's out in Georgia today, ostensibly campaigning for the execrable Saxby Chambliss with her usual brand of right-wing populism that plays especially well in places like Gwinnett and Forsyth counties.

I say ostensibly, because who she's really campaigning for is Sarah Palin in 2012. These campaign stops are all about Palin positioning herself to become the leading figurehead of the Republican Party. Lotsa luck with that, of course. (You betcha!) [Wink]

But in the meantime, the fine folks back in Alaska are wondering what became of their governor. The Alaska Democratic Party's chairman, Patti Higgins, held a press conference a little earlier today raising that question. From their press release:

rest http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/draft-palin-campaigns

For Nearly A Year After Recession Started, Bush White House Insisted That ‘We’re Not In A Recession’ from Think Progress

Earlier today, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced that "the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy." The group, which the White House has previously pointed to as the determinative body for declaring a recession, said in a statement that the "decline in economic activity" after Dec. '07 "was large enough to qualify as a recession."

White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto commented on the news "without ever actually using the word 'recession.'" Instead, Fratto released a statement saying the White House was focused on what they "can do for the economy right now."

It's not surprising that Fratto would avoid the word "recession." Though economic analysts and experts were predicting in late 2007 and early 2008 that the U.S. economy was likely to face a recession, Fratto declared on Jan. 8, 2007, "I don't know of anyone predicting a recession." This wasn't the only time that the Bush administration dismissed the idea of a recession during the same period that NBER now says a recession was underway:

rest http://thinkprogress.org/2008/12/01/white-house-recession-nber/

Selling A War-Shill Exposé [Journalismism] from Gawker

In April, the Times published a 7,600-word story on how major news networks presented as their own military "analysts" former officers who were on the payroll of major defense contractors and who had received talking points in special Pentagon briefings. The networks declined to cover the story and the scandal never caught fire. The newspaper's solution? Recast the story to focus on a single villain, retired General Barry McCaffrey, who NBC News' Brian Williams defended as a "passionate patriot" the last time around.

Wrote BriWion his NBC News blog: "At no time did our analysts, on my watch or to my knowledge, attempt to push a rosy Pentagon agenda before our viewers. I think they are better men than that, and I believe our news division is better than that."

But the Times severely undercut this conclusion by expanding its coverage of McCafferty from two sentences in its prior exposé to the entire focus of its new one, detailing his tight working relationship with many defense contractors that benefited hugely from the policies he advocated on NBC News. Among the embarrassing details:

rest http://gawker.com/5100150/selling-a-war+shill-expos

More Trump $$$ Woes from PerezHilton.com by Perez Hilton

When it rains it pours!

The Donald's already twice bankrupted Atlantic City-based biz, Trump Entertainment, is in money trouble again.

It can't make a $53.1 million loan payment due today, Monday, to its creditors!

Is this one of the reasons why Donald tried to get out of paying that multi-million dollar bill for his Chicago project?

On Friday, it was announced that Trump Entertainment has a 30-day grace period to pay up. Donald's boys and girls will be chatting with lenders to sort this messy business out!

rest http://perezhilton.com/2008-12-01-more-trump-woes

Howard Stern’s High Pitch Mike admits he’s gay live on radio from dailystab.com

 

High Pitch Mike, news producer for Howard Stern's Howard 100 News at SIRIUS Satellite Radio show, came out of the closet this morning.

Here's the first paragraph from his MySpace blog titled 'I'm Gay: the High Pitch Mike coming out story

rest http://www.dailystab.com/howard-sterns-high-pitch-mike-admits-hes-gay-live-on-radio/

Why Bush's presidency was an Epic Fail from Crooks and Liars

Karen DeYoung at the WaPo had an interesting report on the change of style that Obama is bringing to the White House, particularly in how it approaches the military:

Obama has been careful to separate his criticism of Bush policy from his praise of the military's valor and performance, while Michelle Obama's public expressions of concern for military families have gone over well. But most important, according to several senior officers and civilian Pentagon officials who would speak about their incoming leader only on the condition of anonymity, is the expectation of renewed respect for the chain of command and greater realism about U.S. military goals and capabilities, which many found lacking during the Bush years.

"Open and serious debate versus ideological certitude will be a great relief to the military leaders," said retired Maj. Gen. William L. Nash of the Council on Foreign Relations. Senior officers are aware that few in their ranks voiced misgivings over the Iraq war, but they counter that they were not encouraged to do so by the Bush White House or the Pentagon under Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"The joke was that when you leave a meeting, everybody is supposed to drink the Kool-Aid," Nash said. "In the Bush administration, you had to drink the Kool-Aid before you got to go to the meeting."

rest http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/why-bushs-presidency-was-epic-fail

Bush Admits He Was ‘Unprepared for War’ from Truthdig

President Bush looked back on his time in office, airing some regrets and looking to have some say in framing his legacy, during an interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson airing Monday. Figuring foremost among his regrets, he said, was that he had acted on flawed intelligence about the infamous WMDs (or lack thereof) in deciding to invade Iraq.

---

ABC News:

"A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein," Bush said. "It wasn't just people in my administration. A lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington, D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence.

"I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess," Bush added.

rest http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20081201_bush_admits_he_was_unprepared_for_war/

Not Quite Superman, But Maybe Superdrugs from Popular Science

Weeks before President-Elect Obama's choice for Secretary of Defense was finalized, the U.S. Department of Defense was blazing full speed ahead. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (a division of the D.O.D.) recently awarded a contract to GE Global Research, the technology development branch of the mammoth General Electric Company, for a two-year, $1.1 million project to develop a Biotic Man. In partnership with the Transformational Medical Technologies Initiative (TMTI), GE is undertaking development of the first physiologically based "virtual human," a computer model that will mimic the impact of disease, infection, bacteria and other unpleasant agents on the human body and simulate the effects of new drugs (anti-virals, antibacterials, etc.) that combat those illnesses.

GE Global Research has already developed a less sophisticated, though tongue-twisting, software program called Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic (PBPK), which measures drug response in the body far faster than clinical trials can. The new project will advance this product.
The Department of Defense is interested because it hopes that the endeavor will promote and help develop dramatically fast-acting drugs, which could be put to use during armed conflicts or in the event of biological warfare, where a fast recovery can often mean the difference between life and death. In this new era of biological and other types of untested warfare, having the right medicines developed, and developed quickly, is a national security issue.

While the Biotic Man is "all about speed," as one researcher put it, it is equally about accuracy and thoroughness. For example, the new PBPK will be able to simulate the physiological changes in a person that has suffered from burns, trauma, or recent surgery, so scientists can record how specific drugs react when subjected to a myriad of conditions.

rest http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-12/not-quite-superman-maybe-superdrugs

It's official: Recession since Dec. '07

The National Bureau of Economic Research declares what most Americans already knew: the downturn has been going on for some time.

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

Last Updated: December 1, 2008: 1:02 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy .

The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures.

rest http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/01/news/economy/recession/index.htm?postversion=2008120112

Exclusive: Treasury Department investigating Bush US Attorney for leaking state Supreme Court judge's tax returns, documents show from Raw Story Breaking News

Exclusive: Treasury Department investigating Bush US Attorney for leaking state Supreme Court judge's tax returns, documents show

The Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility and the US Treasury Department are investigating allegations that a Bush-appointed US Attorney inappropriately shared private income tax information on one of his targets with a state judicial commission that included one of his relatives, according to court documents and a source close to the investigation.

Dunnica Lampton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi, is already under investigation for allegations of political prosecutions in his state. According to new documents viewed by Raw Story, Lampton allegedly shared the private income tax records of then-Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver E. Diaz Jr. with the Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance and with one of its then-commissioners, his distant cousin Leslie B. Lampton.

rest http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Treasury_Department_investigating_US_Attorney_for_1201.html

Palin Rallies Wingnut Base For Chambliss, Says Rebuilding The GOP Starts With Him from Firedoglake

graphic by twolf

Sarah Palin was in Augusta this morning campaigning for Big Daddy, and unveiled some really groundbreaking, out-of-the-box ideas about how to resurrect the Republican party.

"It takes rebuilding, and I say, let that begin here in Georgia tomorrow," Palin said.

She said Chambliss is needed to provide a check on the Democratic majority. She stressed Chambliss's support for gun rights, opposition to abortion and opposition to tax hikes.

Yeah, if only the Republicans would start running on guns, tax cuts and criminalizing abortion, they wouldn't be in this mess.

But at any rate, is Saxby Chambliss really a guy you want to rebuild your party around?

rest http://firedoglake.com/2008/12/01/palin-rallies-wingnut-base-for-chambliss-says-rebuilding-the-gop-starts-with-him/