Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Taking Sides
Bunch's key point is that in their efforts to - or pretend to - not take sides, the press of course... took sides.
Afternoon Thread
If it's working.
...the geniuses at Echo are working on it. I'll just pull the comments until it's fixed.
...the geniuses at Echo are working on it. I'll just pull the comments until it's fixed.
Ideas Too Stoopid To Work
Looking around my urban hellhole, which like all aging urban hellholes has its troubles, I'm again flummoxed by the idea that there's just nothing to be done jobs wise.
There are a lot of flat black roofs in Philadelphia. For a not very high per-unit cost, they could all be painted white/silver. This isn't public infrastructure per se, but it would have public benefits in terms of reducing energy use/carbon emissions, and there are also externalities impacting the heat level of the city as a whole.
The DC version of this cunning plan would be to have a program, so that organizations could apply for grants, which could then... Or maybe they'd have some tax credit which would partially offset costs.
My version is...just go to door and offer to paint peoples' roofs. I get that it's a bit more complicated than this, but not too much.
There are a lot of flat black roofs in Philadelphia. For a not very high per-unit cost, they could all be painted white/silver. This isn't public infrastructure per se, but it would have public benefits in terms of reducing energy use/carbon emissions, and there are also externalities impacting the heat level of the city as a whole.
The DC version of this cunning plan would be to have a program, so that organizations could apply for grants, which could then... Or maybe they'd have some tax credit which would partially offset costs.
My version is...just go to door and offer to paint peoples' roofs. I get that it's a bit more complicated than this, but not too much.
Consequences
Michael Hiltzik:
Thus far there's been a complete failure to comprehend the magnitude of the problem, and there is and will be a complete failure to comprehend the magnitude of the consequences. I used to joke, "you know what else causes deficits? unemployment." Mass widespread long term unemployment will cause all kinds of things, including increasing the likelihood of continued mass widespread long term unemployment.
Gates recently said, of the Pentagon:
The unemployed may have to do stupid things if their supplemental isn't passed, too.
The deficit-cutting craze of the modern day threatens another such double dip. Its promoters say they're out to protect long-term economic prospects, but without a short-term recovery there may not be a long term to protect. If they get their way, we may not feel the consequences of their error before it's too late to fix.
Thus far there's been a complete failure to comprehend the magnitude of the problem, and there is and will be a complete failure to comprehend the magnitude of the consequences. I used to joke, "you know what else causes deficits? unemployment." Mass widespread long term unemployment will cause all kinds of things, including increasing the likelihood of continued mass widespread long term unemployment.
Gates recently said, of the Pentagon:
We begin to have to do stupid things if the supplemental isn’t passed by the Fourth of July recess
The unemployed may have to do stupid things if their supplemental isn't passed, too.
Food Chain
The spill will have a very, very modest impact and the food is perfectly safe.
Oil droplets have been found beneath the shells of tiny post-larval blue crabs drifting into Mississippi coastal marshes from offshore waters.
The finding represents one of the first examples of how oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill is moving into the Gulf of Mexico's food chain. The larval crabs are eaten by all kinds of fish, from speckled trout to whale sharks, as well as by shore birds.
Still No Jobs
This is the private forecast of private jobs, the government number comes out on Friday. Unless the ADP estimate of +13,000 private jobs is really wrong, there will be big job losses recorded on Friday due to poor private sector growth and the loss of Census jobs.
Maybe somebody should do something?
Maybe somebody should do something?
HARRUMPH, HARRUMPH!
I love it when Villagers like Joe Klein go off and accuse someone of false accusations by using slanderous old tropes.
Holy crap, you're stealing Joe McCarthy's act Joe, FoxNews won't stand for that, they already claimed it.
Greenwald--who, so far as I can tell, only regards the United States as a force for evil in the world
Holy crap, you're stealing Joe McCarthy's act Joe, FoxNews won't stand for that, they already claimed it.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Completely Shocked
McClatchy:
WASHINGTON — Reversing its oft-repeated position that it was acting only on behalf of its clients in its exotic dealings with the American International Group, Goldman Sachs now says that it also used its own money to make secret wagers against the U.S. housing market.
A senior Goldman executive disclosed the "bilateral" wagers on subprime mortgages in an interview with McClatchy, marking the first time that the Wall Street titan has conceded that its dealings with troubled insurer AIG went far beyond acting as an "intermediary" responding to its clients' demands.
...
A McClatchy examination, including a review of public records and interviews with present and former Wall Street executives, casts doubt on several of Goldman's claims about its dealings with AIG, which at the time was the world's largest insurer.
No We Can't
I know not everyone shares my fondness for supertrains, but it is depressing how easy we can light hundreds of billions of dollars on fire every time someone shouts war, but building a tunnel and running a choochoo through it is almost an unimaginable act, unlike elsewhere.
Maybe I just need to figure out how to convince the right people that the subway tunnels will be key to our defense against the zombiepocalypse.
Maybe I just need to figure out how to convince the right people that the subway tunnels will be key to our defense against the zombiepocalypse.
God Has A Plan For Women To Be Raped
Unlike some, I don't find being against a rape exception to be any more repugnant than being against choice generally. It's much more morally consistent to be against all abortion than it is to be against all except a few that are ok. It's one of those carveouts designed to give the squishy middle crowd a Sensible Centrist position on the issue.
But having the view that raped and impregnated women are all part of God's plan, well, interesting God you've got there.
But having the view that raped and impregnated women are all part of God's plan, well, interesting God you've got there.
Friday Jobs Number
Forecast is for 100k or so lost jobs. Spin will be that it's due to lost Census jobs, the way that last months "big" number was due to Census hiring. This will be true, but will also likely obscure the fact that jobs-excluding-Census-jobs will probably also be miserable.
Hope I'm wrong!
Hope I'm wrong!
Poll'd
I've long been a bit skeptical of lots of polling, particularly the polls which seem to appear just a bit too fast.
Soccer Wars
I've never quite figured out why its existence seems to enrage people so. It's a sport, more popular in other countries, but growing in popularity in this country due, in part, to increasing immigrant populations from places where it is more popular.
Some people like a sport you don't. Who cares?
...the flip side complaint is valid too. Somebody doesn't like a sport that you like. Who cares?
Some people like a sport you don't. Who cares?
...the flip side complaint is valid too. Somebody doesn't like a sport that you like. Who cares?
Contracting Our Way To Expansion
Krgthulu:
One hopes something will wake up our elite policymakers. Maybe a stock market crash would do it. But their track record has not been very impressive, though as we all know, nobody could have predicted...
That’s why the Irish debacle is so important. All that savage austerity was supposed to bring rewards; the conventional wisdom that this would happen is so strong that one often reads news reports claiming that it has, in fact, happened, that Ireland’s resolve has impressed and reassured the financial markets. But the reality is that nothing of the sort has taken place: virtuous, suffering Ireland is gaining nothing.
Of course, I know what will happen next: we’ll hear that the Irish just aren’t doing enough, and must do more. If we’ve been bleeding the patient, and he has nonetheless gotten sicker, well, we clearly need to bleed him some more.
One hopes something will wake up our elite policymakers. Maybe a stock market crash would do it. But their track record has not been very impressive, though as we all know, nobody could have predicted...
Thurgood Marshall Is History's Greatest Monster
Since they obviously aren't planning to derail Kagan, the GOP's coordinated trashing of Thurgood Marshall is just some catnip for their base.
Austerity
The approach can work...if your currency can devalue. Ireland's currency is the Euro, which has devalued some, but not nearly as much as it "should" for the benefit of Ireland, Greece, Spain, etc. The bond vigilantes don't like economic policies which turn your economy to shit. This is very surprising!!
Morning
Virtually Speaking with Digby and Avedon. Thanks Jay. Digby rocks. Avedon rocks. Susie Madrak and Driftglass join in. And did I mention, Digby rocks.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Source Laundering
But these journalists wouldn't see it that way. To them, they've given their quotes to a serious journalist who can magically transmute their dirty nasty anonymous quote into a vetted piece of Serious Journalism.
Bork'd
You know, this would be forgivable except for the fact that his name comes up every single time there's a new Supreme Court nominee.
(ht read b)
(ht read b)
NYT Did It Too
The Washington Post wasn't the only major newspaper that hired someone to cover the conservative movement beat without hiring someone to do the same for liberals. The New York Times did it too. Six years ago.
Recession
Obviously not every country in Europe is doing awesomely, but too much focus on the problems of Europe (neener neener they suck stupid yurp) obscures the fact that some countries are doing fine, and in fact better than our country is.
Our elites have decided 9.7% unemployment is just fine. But they know what they're doing so shut up Shut up Shut UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.
Our elites have decided 9.7% unemployment is just fine. But they know what they're doing so shut up Shut up Shut UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP.
Mousse Patties
mmm....Mousse...
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. -- Tar patties from the Gulf oil spill starting washing ashore Front Beach around noon on Monday, a day after the oil first made landfall on the Mississippi mainland in Jackson County.
Monetizing Indebtedness
Frankly we should consider it, but it isn't happening, and nor is there any evidence that the big money people perceive that it's happening.
Basically it's the Alan Greenspan culture. They know something should be happening (rising inflation and interest) but it isn't. But invisible beings perceive it might be happening, even though if such a perception existed it would show up in interest rates.
Basically it's the Alan Greenspan culture. They know something should be happening (rising inflation and interest) but it isn't. But invisible beings perceive it might be happening, even though if such a perception existed it would show up in interest rates.
Big Media
Certain media outlets suffer from a great degree of entitlement syndrome, objecting to bloggers and search engines (which they could block) posting up fair use excerpts of their work while feeling entitled to post up a full .pdf version of that Rolling Stone article... just because.
The Deficit Will Kill Us All
In Greenspan's last pronouncement he wrote this paragraph which I highlighted at the time.
It's quite a remarkable paragraph, essentially saying the dire things that should have happened have not happened making the dire things more likely. Or something.
In any case, those dire things are... still not happening.
Despite the surge in federal debt to the public during the past 18 months—to $8.6 trillion from $5.5 trillion—inflation and long-term interest rates, the typical symptoms of fiscal excess, have remained remarkably subdued. This is regrettable, because it is fostering a sense of complacency that can have dire consequences.
It's quite a remarkable paragraph, essentially saying the dire things that should have happened have not happened making the dire things more likely. Or something.
In any case, those dire things are... still not happening.
LEAVE BEN BERNANKE ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE
I got bored pretty quickly with that essay, a poorly written combination of "people I agree with are smart, people I disagree with are stupid" and "elites know what they're doing so shut up Shut Up SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP."
There's little reason to believe the high priests at the Fed had any clue what they were doing as the housing bubble was happening. More than that, there's plenty of reason to believe that they are much more concerned with inflation than unemployment, and millions will continue to suffer because of it.
Economics provides a framework for thinking about certain problems, but there's rarely any one "right" answer. Too often the existence of tradeoffs are unacknowledged or completely ignored. If the priests knew what they were doing we wouldn't have 9.7% unemployment. They, uh, failed.
There's little reason to believe the high priests at the Fed had any clue what they were doing as the housing bubble was happening. More than that, there's plenty of reason to believe that they are much more concerned with inflation than unemployment, and millions will continue to suffer because of it.
Economics provides a framework for thinking about certain problems, but there's rarely any one "right" answer. Too often the existence of tradeoffs are unacknowledged or completely ignored. If the priests knew what they were doing we wouldn't have 9.7% unemployment. They, uh, failed.
Guard
Haley Barbour's made many comments minimizing the impact of the gusher.
I don't know if there's anything mobilized National Guard members can do, but if there is... shouldn't they be doing it?
Countless patches of light oil sheen moved into waters north of the barrier islands of Alabama and Mississippi on Sunday, as brown and orange blobs washed ashore from Orange Beach to as far west as Ocean Springs.
I don't know if there's anything mobilized National Guard members can do, but if there is... shouldn't they be doing it?
Grim
Krgthulu:
So I don’t think this is really about Greece, or indeed about any realistic appreciation of the tradeoffs between deficits and jobs. It is, instead, the victory of an orthodoxy that has little to do with rational analysis, whose main tenet is that imposing suffering on other people is how you show leadership in tough times.
And who will pay the price for this triumph of orthodoxy? The answer is, tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Filler
Thread. And if you want to hear digby and avedon talk about Panetta's war on dozens of al qaeda members who represent an existentialist threat, they are live now.
Update....
No longer live now, of course.
Update....
No longer live now, of course.
The Pain Caucus Goes Global
When I was young and foolish I believed "we'd" learned the lessons of Vietnam and of the Great Depression.
Oh well.
Oh well.
Urban Hellhole Revolution
Reading through the comments here I'm struck once again at how people can be completely horrified by the thought that somewhere that isn't their neighborhood and is no where near where they live might actually have some dense walkable development in a relatively small area near a train station.
I find it all rather depressing because jokes about me moving you all to Manhattan aside, my urban hellhole revolution has always been very modest. Yes, more money to build better inner city and intra-regional transit rail systems. Yes, transit oriented development around stations and transit corridors. A rollback of suburban design a few decades, before some of the worst features of contemporary suburbia were implemented. You can have your yard, your single family home, even your single use zoning. But get rid of single access road development, reduce setback requirements, allow retail development, if not in neighborhoods, closer to them, etc.
I find it all rather depressing because jokes about me moving you all to Manhattan aside, my urban hellhole revolution has always been very modest. Yes, more money to build better inner city and intra-regional transit rail systems. Yes, transit oriented development around stations and transit corridors. A rollback of suburban design a few decades, before some of the worst features of contemporary suburbia were implemented. You can have your yard, your single family home, even your single use zoning. But get rid of single access road development, reduce setback requirements, allow retail development, if not in neighborhoods, closer to them, etc.
What's It All About Then
So we have 100,000 troops to deal with 50-100 people.
Makes sense, we sent more than that to get one (Saddam).
Makes sense, we sent more than that to get one (Saddam).
What's It All About Then
From ABC in email:
Can I take a moment to point out out that none of this makes even the slightest bit of sense. The stability of the state of Afghanistan and its willingness to house bad actors are completely unrelated to each other. More than that, potential bad actors can, roughly, find a "safe haven" just about anywhere they want.
In the fog of war, how do we know when we’ve won? Ask the CIA.
In an EXCLUSIVE interview on “This Week,” CIA Director Leon Panetta explained what winning in Afghanistan would look like.
“Winning in Afghanistan is having a country that is stable enough to ensure that there is no safehaven for Al Qaeda or for a militant Taliban that welcomes Al Qaeda,” Panetta told host Jake Tapper. “That’s really the measure of success for the United States.”
“Our purpose, our whole mission there, is to make sure that Al Qaeda never finds another safehaven from which to attack this country. That’s the fundamental goal of why the United States is there,” he said. “And the measure of success for us is: do you have an Afghanistan that is stable enough to make sure that never happens.”
Can I take a moment to point out out that none of this makes even the slightest bit of sense. The stability of the state of Afghanistan and its willingness to house bad actors are completely unrelated to each other. More than that, potential bad actors can, roughly, find a "safe haven" just about anywhere they want.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Face the Nation has Leahy, Levin, and Sessions.
Dancing Dave's Meet the Press has President McCain and Barbara Lee.
This Week has Panetta.
Document the atrocities!
Dancing Dave's Meet the Press has President McCain and Barbara Lee.
This Week has Panetta.
Document the atrocities!
Morning Again
Just how big are the tar balls washing up in Pensacola. Sister told me she heard on the local news that one of them weighed a ton. Sounds oily to me.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
And Of Course
Take the top 3, add 3 more... from the catfood commission propaganda tour:
The bolded ones (my bolds) are, of course, the really important ones.
(via jro by email)
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Thousands of Americans across 60 cities participated in a national discussion today on AmericaÕs fiscal future. Reflecting the nationÕs rich diversity, approximately 3,500 participants sent a strong message to leaders about the importance of action to strengthen the nationÕs economy in the short-run and their willingness to make tough choices to address growing deficits over the long-term. Reforms that were preferred by participants at the National Town Meeting included options that:
á Raise the limit on taxable earnings so it covers 90% of total earnings.
á Reduce spending on health care and non-defense discretionary spending by at least 5%.
á Raise tax rates on corporate income and those earning more than $1 million.
á Raise the age for receiving full Social Security benefits to 69.
á Reduce defense spending by 10% - 15%.
á Create a carbon and securities-transaction tax.
The bolded ones (my bolds) are, of course, the really important ones.
(via jro by email)
All That We Can Do
Or not.
GULFPORT, Miss. — A morning flight over the Mississippi Sound showed long, wide ribbons of orange-colored oil for as far as the eye could see and acres of both heavy and light sheen moving into the Sound between the barrier islands. What was missing was any sign of skimming operations from Horn Island to Pass Christian.
Above It All
As we've seen again with the Weigel/WaPo nonsense, many reporters have a conceit that because they pretend to be superhuman truthtellers unswayed by the petty concerns of mere mortals, that they actually are that. They begin to believe their impossible claim of having no opinions, and start confusing their opinions with facts.
Of course Weigel didn't lose his job because he had opinions, he lost his job because he had the wrong ones. Also bloggers suck.
Of course Weigel didn't lose his job because he had opinions, he lost his job because he had the wrong ones. Also bloggers suck.
At Least We Painted Some Schools, Right?
Just appalling.
"I have so much anger," Abbas said outside the music store he runs in the poor neighborhood of Amil, in western Baghdad. When there is no power, there is no music playing in the store, and customers don't come. "I can't work," he said. "I can't support my family. We're dying from the heat. Where are these politicians?"
Abbas's comments reflect a wave of fury that has erupted across this country of 30 million as Iraq's sweltering summer begins. Most people are having to deal with electricity shortages that leave them with no respite from the heat and no water when their household electric pumps shut off.
"Inner-City Suburbia"
I don't love the Piazza - though it's ok - but I have no idea why a writer would refer to it in that way. Or "architectural beauty" for that matter. It's the kind of place you'd typically find in smaller European cities, a pedestrian square flanked with shops, restaurants, and apartments.
And, yes, crime happens here, but jeebus it's basically safe. Residents don't run around being scared.
And, yes, crime happens here, but jeebus it's basically safe. Residents don't run around being scared.
Morning
I'm beginning to think we're going to have to take up a collection and send a reporter to NOLA to get arrested. Unfortunately, that probably won't be enough to stop the harrassment. It needs to be someone big, with a national reach. Maybe someone from 60 Minutes? They've not done anything about the gusher yet. This could be just the angle they need.
Adding: 60 Minutes did do a story about the gusher in mid-May. It's a big enough story to revisit, afaic.
h/t reader S
Adding: 60 Minutes did do a story about the gusher in mid-May. It's a big enough story to revisit, afaic.
h/t reader S
Friday, June 25, 2010
BFF
Another week, another couple of banks get eaten.
Peninsula Bank, Englewood, FL
First National Bank, Savannah, GA
Peninsula Bank, Englewood, FL
First National Bank, Savannah, GA
QOTD
Adam Serwer:
Goldberg's metaphor is apt because it really is quite plainly about where you piss, and who you're pissing on. Learn to mark the right trees and you're, well, golden.
Offenses Big And Small
The worst person in the world, Jeffrey Goldberg:
Yes, that Jeffrey Goldberg.
At least Goldberg didn't hurt Matt Drudge's feefees. In a just world he'd spend his life cleaning bedpans in an Iraqi hospital. If he had any conscience he'd volunteer for the job. Instead, he lectures guilt free about good journalism from his perch at The Atlantic.
...more from Cole.
- The sad truth is that the Washington Post, in its general desperation for page views, now hires people who came up in journalism without much adult supervision, and without the proper amount of toilet-training. This little episode today is proof of this. But it is also proof that some people at the Post (where I worked, briefly, 20 years ago) still know the difference between acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior, and that maybe this episode will lead to the reimposition of some level of standards.
Yes, that Jeffrey Goldberg.
Prior to the American-led invasion of Iraq, Goldberg wrote two lengthy articles in the New Yorker which argued that there were extensive ties between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Much of what he wrote in a mammoth March 2002 story was based on the testimony of Mohammed Mansour Shahab, a prisoner in a Kurdish-controlled town in northern Iraq. Jason Burke of the London Observer later demolished Goldberg's story when he spoke to the same prisoner and found that he couldn't even describe the city of Kandahar, where Shahab had claimed that he'd traveled on Al Qaeda-related business. “Shahab is a liar,” Burke concluded. “[S]ubstantial chunks of his story simply are not true.” Goldberg also peddled the Iraq–Al Qaeda connection during a February 2003 interview on All Things Considered, delivering the grim news that Saddam's agents had some years earlier helped Al Qaeda “in the teaching of the use of poison gas.”
Goldberg's hysteria peaked when it came to his claims regarding Saddam's “weaponization” of a biological agent called aflatoxin. Aflatoxin, he wrote on October 3, 2002 in Slate, “does only one thing well: It causes liver cancer. In fact, it induces it particularly well in children.” (In this same Slate item Goldberg attacked Slate contributors who opposed the war, saying the critics had “limited experience in the Middle East” and that this led them to “reach the naive conclusion that an invasion of Iraq will cause America to be loathed in the Middle East, rather than respected.”) Within an hour of President Bush signing a congressional resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, Goldberg was on CNN and again claimed that Saddam had “weaponized aflatoxin, which is a weapon that has no military value. Its only value is to cause liver cancer, primarily in children.”
At least Goldberg didn't hurt Matt Drudge's feefees. In a just world he'd spend his life cleaning bedpans in an Iraqi hospital. If he had any conscience he'd volunteer for the job. Instead, he lectures guilt free about good journalism from his perch at The Atlantic.
...more from Cole.
Expectations
Ezra Klein writes for the Post. He's on the liberalish side of things. But if someone released some private emails in which he said mean things about Supreme Commander Markos, Paul Begala, and Rachel Maddow, no one at the Post would have batted an eye. Probably they would have seen it as evidence that he was a great hire for his willingness to Stand Up To Powerful Liberals.
Weigel was hired to cover the conservative movement, and he's really the only person who does that well. I don't know much about about his personal politics, though I've generally inferred from knowing him at bit and his time running in Reason circles that he's a liberalish libertarian, which is really just another way of saying he's a libertarian whose concerns aren't usually in lockstep with the glibertarians in the sponsored libertarian movement. But apparently the Post needs its "conservatives" to be conservative hacks, and not hurt Matt Drudge's feefees.
Weigel was hired to cover the conservative movement, and he's really the only person who does that well. I don't know much about about his personal politics, though I've generally inferred from knowing him at bit and his time running in Reason circles that he's a liberalish libertarian, which is really just another way of saying he's a libertarian whose concerns aren't usually in lockstep with the glibertarians in the sponsored libertarian movement. But apparently the Post needs its "conservatives" to be conservative hacks, and not hurt Matt Drudge's feefees.
But I'd Really Like To Have A Beer With The Guy Who Doesn't Drink
The press really never came to terms with the fact that George Bush eventually became hideously unpopular (and, in fact, if not for 9/11 was destined to be hideously unpopular way earlier). They're repeating this "mistake" with Sarah Palin.
Her unpopularity doesn't make her irrelevant, of course, but it's not exactly clear why she's relevant either.
Her unpopularity doesn't make her irrelevant, of course, but it's not exactly clear why she's relevant either.
Your Liberal Media
Still really liberal.
WaPo thought they were hiring a movement conservative, despite the fact that they were actually hiring someone to report on movement conservatism, and apparently it is unpossible for someone like that to criticize conservatives in private. Or something.
Shoulda stuck with goatfucker comments, Dave, or called Hillary Clinton a bitch.
WaPo thought they were hiring a movement conservative, despite the fact that they were actually hiring someone to report on movement conservatism, and apparently it is unpossible for someone like that to criticize conservatives in private. Or something.
Shoulda stuck with goatfucker comments, Dave, or called Hillary Clinton a bitch.
New York Transit Service Cuts
Big shame. New York couldn't be New York, or anything like it, without its massive transit network. Not everyone wants to live in a place like New York, which is perfectly fine, but the point is that even upping the cars/person ratio a little bit in a city like that would require giving over massively more amounts of space to the storage of cars. Cars are big. They take up a lot of space!
Sadly, No
A soccer stadium with less than awesome public transit access and highway offramps that essentially go right into the parking lot is not going to revitalize anything. People will drive in, watch the game, and drive out.
Even In Urban Hellholes
Just to illustrate the point from yesterday, even in New York agencies propose ridiculous parking requirements that developers don't want themselves. Queens is not Manhattan, but still.
The amount of space we give over for the part time storage of vehicles is immense.
But Flushing Commons will also include around 1,600 parking spaces, all priced below market rates. That means residents, shoppers, and workers at the mixed-use project will be driving into downtown Flushing, not taking transit. That doesn't exemplify sustainability; it enshrines a car-centric lifestyle in steel and cement.
Keep in mind that the total amount of parking is far greater than the developer wants to build or than the Department of City Planning itself requires. It was mandated by EDC and essentially pulled out of a hat.
...
This project, which replaces a vitality-sapping 1,100-spot surface parking lot, is very close to being, as Burden argues, a transit-oriented home run, putting hundreds of thousands of square feet of new development in one of Queens' most walkable and transit-accessible sites. But instead, it's going to give more space to storing private vehicles than to retail and office space combined.
The amount of space we give over for the part time storage of vehicles is immense.
Morning and Stuff
Just as an addendum to the McChrystal brouhaha, I heard more than one bobblehead snicker that the article didn't even appear in a real newspaper, but something called Rolling Stone that had Lady Gaga on the cover. They really need to get out more often. Rolling Stone has been around forever and is known, outside the Village at least, for producing some seriously decent investigative pieces. You know, journalism.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Total Failure
Letting bankruptcy courts deal with primary mortgages was always the best way to deal with this mess, which is of course why it didn't happen. The administration supported it in theory, but made no effort to get people to vote for it. The HAMP program will ultimately probably do more harm than good.
I gather the basic thinking was that they could blow a little air into the bubble and then wait for the economy to turnaround to catch up and support it. The economy hasn't turned around.
Of course causality goes both ways in these things, and the ongoing foreclosure crisis combined with the Senate failure to act on unemployment benefits means - hope I'm wrong! - the economy is fucked.
I gather the basic thinking was that they could blow a little air into the bubble and then wait for the economy to turnaround to catch up and support it. The economy hasn't turned around.
Of course causality goes both ways in these things, and the ongoing foreclosure crisis combined with the Senate failure to act on unemployment benefits means - hope I'm wrong! - the economy is fucked.
Some Weird Conversation Happening In Another Room
I'm sure old white dude editors will push this crap on us for decades, but I'm increasingly confident that the whole thing just sounds increasingly bizarre to younger people. I think society is, if slowly, getting a bit less dumb about sex generally and more specifically notions of female chastity and the idea there's something wrong with women actually being interested in sex other than for the purposes of trapping a man into marriage.
Very, Very Modest
Silly dolphin, should have just swum away.
Fla., June 23 (Reuters) - Florida saw its worst impact yet from the BP (BP.L) (BP.N) oil spill as thick oily sludge washed ashore on Pensacola Beach on Wednesday and emergency workers found an oil-covered dolphin stranded on the shore.
Forever War
I caught a bit of an NPR segment with some guy from Brookings and he basically said what they're doing in Afghanistan isn't working very well so we're going to have to keep doing it and there's no way we can remove troops in 2011.
Awesome.
Awesome.
Even In The Urban Hellhole
When I post things like the absurdity of mandatory bar parking, I'm not demanding that every suburb transform themselves into urban hellholes overnight (or ever). I get that car dependent places are, well, car dependent and therefore retail establishments need parking. Whether or not too much parking is mandated at times is a reasonable question, but I get that even bars are going to have parking. But Long Beach is a relatively dense city. Within Long Beach there are places that are more car-centric/dependent and places that are less, but to have a high mandatory parking requirement for all bars city wide is absurd.
In my urban hellhole, too, there are always pushes for greater parking requirements. Big surface lots destroy the walkability of the place, leading to more people to drive, leading to more parking lots....
In my urban hellhole, too, there are always pushes for greater parking requirements. Big surface lots destroy the walkability of the place, leading to more people to drive, leading to more parking lots....
Austerity Comes To America
It's depressing watching the utter failure of our elite institutions to deal with the problems we face. How did 9.7% unemployment become acceptable?
Mandatory Bar Parking
We all agree drunk driving is bad, but most people can't conceive of the world without the driving part so they just try to convince people to be responsible with the drinking part. Given fatality statistics, this has been successful in no small degree, but anyone who drives and drinks, no matter how well-intentioned, is at least occasionally going to drive after drinking more than they should.
THE TRAINS WILL KILLS US ALL
In a world of the automobile, I really don't get the crazy concerns about safety. You know what also runs on streets? Cars and buses. They, unlike trains, can be highly unpredictable.
Deathtrain #15 in Philadelphia
The plan to lay track at street level by Dorsey has been opposed by some neighborhood associations, students, teachers, Dorsey alumni and community activists who have fought for almost four years to change the project's design.
Unless the rails are elevated or put below ground like other sections of the project, they say, the line will create an unacceptable risk for pedestrians and motorists, especially when students head to class in the morning and leave campus in the afternoon. The school has about 1,600 students.
"It is clear that the commission has pulled out its rubber stamp and doesn't care about the safety of Dorsey High School students," said Damien Goodmon, a community activist who chairs the Fix Expo Campaign, a coalition of community organizations, Dorsey alumni and civil rights groups.
Deathtrain #15 in Philadelphia
Thursday Is New Jobless Day
457K new lucky duckies.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000 in the week ended June 19, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The decline in claims was the largest since the week ended April 17.Yes, still high.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to fall to 460,000 from the previously reported 472,000, which was revised up to 476,000 in Thursday's report.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Unacceptable
If I went back in time and informed the Obama administration's economics people that the stimulus they were planning to enact resulted in the May 2010 unemployment rate being 9.7%, they would freak out and realize that more needed to be done. Now that we're here, there's not a lot of freaking.
And I'm not surprised that economists will continue to come up with increasingly clever explanations as to why this is the new normal, as they always do. The Great Recession will just been seen as the Great Shirk, with all those lucky duckies on extended periods of funemployment.*
Yes I'm repeating myself. But, hell, maybe eventually someone will listen and it's more important than Sarah Palin's latest tweet.
*The funemployment article was written a year ago. Are we having fun yet?
And I'm not surprised that economists will continue to come up with increasingly clever explanations as to why this is the new normal, as they always do. The Great Recession will just been seen as the Great Shirk, with all those lucky duckies on extended periods of funemployment.*
Yes I'm repeating myself. But, hell, maybe eventually someone will listen and it's more important than Sarah Palin's latest tweet.
*The funemployment article was written a year ago. Are we having fun yet?
Less Positive
The Fed is now less optimistic about the economy.
Obviously the best course of action is to do nothing at the federal level while having state and local governments slash their budgets and lay off lots of people.
Obviously the best course of action is to do nothing at the federal level while having state and local governments slash their budgets and lay off lots of people.
Losing the Argument
It is indeed depressing that what is so obviously right has been rejected by global elites.
Monthly jobs report comes out on July 2. I hope for truly good news, but if it isn't there let us hope the measured number is truly bad.* Maybe that will spur some action.
*What I mean is I hope that I am truly wrong and just super negative and that the economy is really turning around. But if it isn't, and unemployment remains truly awful, I hope the measured level overstates things as much as possible.
Monthly jobs report comes out on July 2. I hope for truly good news, but if it isn't there let us hope the measured number is truly bad.* Maybe that will spur some action.
*What I mean is I hope that I am truly wrong and just super negative and that the economy is really turning around. But if it isn't, and unemployment remains truly awful, I hope the measured level overstates things as much as possible.
Bad Politics
The silver lining of Congress's failure to do anything about mass unemployment is that a lot of shitty politicians will lose their jobs. That they fail to understand this is a bit weird, and inevitably when it happens they'll fail to understand why. But at least we won't have them to kick around anymore.
Some Days I Think He's Just Messing With Me
Michael O'Hanlon.
Eight and a half years later we're starting "the most crucial six months?"
Make it stop.
At this moment, as we enter into perhaps the most crucial six months of the entire war, I hope and pray that President Obama will decide we cannot afford to be without the leadership of such an amazing American.
Eight and a half years later we're starting "the most crucial six months?"
Make it stop.
Perhaps They Could Focus On Things That Matter?
In the real world property rights - and enforcement of them - are more complicated than glibertarians generally comprehend. Also, and more importantly, there are a huge amount property rights restrictions (cough minimum parking requirements cough) which, unlike ice cream truck bans (which run on public streets so...oh never mind), have tremendous impacts on both personal property rights and broader communities.
Peter Beinart Is Making Sense
As much as it pains me.
Last summer, he tried to split the difference—surging in Afghanistan while simultaneously pledging to retreat on the theory that within eighteen months the U.S. could so weaken the Taliban that they would sue for peace. Six months in, that strategy looks increasingly absurd. As its most honest proponents concede, counterinsurgency is a long, messy business, especially when the president whose country you’re trying to save is indifferent, if not hostile, to the effort. In all likelihood, when the deadline for troop withdrawal arrives a year from now, Obama will be forced to choose between something that looks like an unlimited commitment and something that looks like defeat. He’ll be forced to make the choice that he avoided last year.
Obama should make it now. He should use McChrystal’s transgression to install a general who will publicly and unambiguously declare that America’s days in Afghanistan are numbered. He should use this moment not just to show that he won’t tolerate insubordination, but to take control of his foreign policy, as Truman did in 1951. Calling McChrystal on the carpet isn’t the point; the point is ending a war that could wreck Obama’s presidency.
Everybody's A Star
Another media obsession: supposedly rising GOP stars.
Not sure there's a Republican with a pulse who isn't a likely 2012 contender. Also, Zombie Reagan.
Not sure there's a Republican with a pulse who isn't a likely 2012 contender. Also, Zombie Reagan.
Morning
Hot and sticky. Anyone else notice that when an ad pops up you have to search for the close button? It's never in the upper right hand corner anymore.
Must be time for more coffee.
Must be time for more coffee.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Just Barely Not Shrinking
It'll be interesting if my urban hellhole continues to transition from a city trying to prevent population decline, to a city more accepting of its population decline, to a city that actually might have some population growth in its future.
There Are 8.4 Million Stories In The Naked City
It's too crowded, no one goes there anymore.
New York is within striking distance of a record population of 8.4 million people, according to July 1, 2009 estimates released Tuesday by the Census Bureau.
Shoddy Construction
The Chinese drywall issue has gotten a lot of attention in part, I think, because people get to blame foreigners, even though domestic companies knew and didn't care. but during the housing boom there was an immense amount of crappy construction. Some problems are bigger than others, but my housing inspector was telling me about whole neighborhoods where they'd screwed up the stucco requiring tens of thousands of work per house.
Not So Small
I agree that addressing the needs of small businesses, both in rhetoric and in policy, is a good step for Democrats. A big problem, however, is that according to the government, small businesses... aren't so small. It varies by industry, with some having revenue limits and some having employment limits, but 500 employees is a common maximum (.pdf).
500 employees doesn't make you Microsoft, but I don't think it's what voters have in mind when they hear about "small businesses."
500 employees doesn't make you Microsoft, but I don't think it's what voters have in mind when they hear about "small businesses."
LEAVE BP ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE
I suspect there's much to criticize the Obama administration for with respect to dealing with this spill. I say suspect because it gets into things which are unknown and even unknowable (at least by me). Still I'm surprised at the conservative rush to defend BP. I shouldn't be surprised, I guess, by now I should know that they just can't help it.
What's It All About
This flap will come and go, one way or another, strangely without anyone really asking: what the hell is the US still doing in Afghanistan?
Compelling
Yes journalists should do a better job of making issues, even "boring" ones, compelling. I think they're hamstrung by outdated notions of journalistic style, false balance considerations, various ways of dealing with sources, anonymous or not, access concerns, etc. What Jay Rosen calls "the view from nowhere" is almost intrinsically uncompelling. They're performing a weird dance not to please their readers, but to adhere to strange cultural routines and unnecessary practices.
COIN
I frequently see intelligent people taking the whole COIN thing very seriously, if with skepticism about its chances for success. Maybe I'm an idiot, but to me it always just sounds like "kill all the people who want us to leave and then we can finally go."
Forever War
Politico posted up the full scanned Rolling Stone story, one of those horrible copyright violations bloggers are always engaging in. Not going to link, but there's this shocker.
But facts on the ground, as
history has proven, offer little
deterrent to a military determined
to stay the course.
Even those closest to Mc-
Chrystal know that the rising
anti-war sentiment at home
doesn’t begin to reflect how
deeply fucked up things are
in Afghanistan. “If Americans
pulled back and started paying
attention to this war, it
would become even less popular,”
a senior adviser to Mc-
Chrystal says. Such realism,
however, doesn’t prevent advocates
of counterinsurgency
from dreaming big: Instead of
beginning to withdraw troops
next year, as Obama promised,
the military hopes to ramp up
its counterinsurgency campaign
even further. “There’s
a possibility we could ask for
another surge of U.S. forces
next summer if we see success
here,” a senior military official
in Kabul tells me.
So it has come to this?
Richard Cohen, America's concern-troll, is re-writing in his dreadful prose, badly written Maureen Dowd columns.
One can understand. Obama's father deserted the family and afterward visited his son only once. He twice was separated from his mother, who lived in Indonesia without him. He was partially raised by his grandparents -- an elderly white couple. If the president is what the shrinks call "well-defended," who can blame him? It's ironic that Oprah Winfrey was maybe Obama's most significant early backer when the man himself is so un-Oprah. He cannot emote.How much cough-syrup was involved in that paragraph?
Monday, June 21, 2010
A Lovely Card
I suppose I should have known such things existed, but still, gloriosky. Via Scott, here is a sympathy card created out of the conviction that heterosexual men are the real victims of legal abortion, as indeed, they appear to be the real victims of everything else.
What The Hell Do They Need Oxygen For?
They breathe water!!
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Monday released new data from the agency's latest research trip through the Gulf of Mexico, showing concentrations of oil below the surface at more than 3,600 feet below the surface, about 7.5 nautical miles southwest of the BP's blown-out well.
The Thomas Jefferson research ship found evidence of depleted oxygen, a potential sign of microbes digesting oil, in the area. Acoustic and fluorometric instruments likewise indicated the presence of oil. Water samples taken on the trip have not been analyzed.
Other People Are Stupid Too
I suppose we can find some comfort in the fact that there are Hoovers all over the world, and not just here, or at least we could if they weren't going to destroy the world.
Didn't Work
It should be remembered that when the Obama administration announced the HAMP program they said they were allocating $75 billion for the project. If instead of kinda sorta maybe trying to nudge lenders to help homeowners they'd just used that money to pay down mortgages directly they could have reduced the principal by $100,000 on 750,000 mortgages. I'm not saying this is what should have happened, but my point is that there seems to be this obsession with bank shot policies, with the government not doing anything directly.
Not Optimistic About This Either
Yes the federal government needs to send more money to states and cities, but no I don't think they're likely to. All the serious people agree that the unemployed need to suffer a little while longer.
Way Too Optimistic
These commissions are bad ideas anyway, and this one is extra bad, so I imagine that zombie debt commissions, like zombie lies, are rather hard to get rid of.
That 9/12 Feeling
The post-9/11 "unity era" was an era in which people were told to watch what they say. Crazy hippies who suggested that maybe going to war in Afghanistan might not be as awesome as everyone thought were shouted down, and we all agreed that the Dixie Chicks were history's greatest monsters because Natalie Maines said she was ashamed Bush was from Texas.
It was a unity era where some part of the population, along with the White House, the mainstream media, and conservative media had fun shouting down the all powerful hippies. Such an awesome time.
It was a unity era where some part of the population, along with the White House, the mainstream media, and conservative media had fun shouting down the all powerful hippies. Such an awesome time.
Making Them Pay
The extent to which conservatives manage to find reasons to object to Obama maybe actually getting BP to pay for the damage they wrought is truly baffling.
Too Many Cars
It's good to see more urban areas recognizing that reducing the number of cars per person is a way to improve the local quality of life. For people who don't need a car to commute, car sharing is an affordable and convenient replacement for that extra car for occasional errands or recreational trips. For a long time I think most of the focus on transportation and cars was on the driving, and finally there's increased recognition that a big issue with them is that they simply take up a hell of a lot of space.
I don't need a car very often in the urban hellhole. For most purposes car sharing is almost as convenient as owning my own, and I don't have to deal with registration/maintenance/insurance/etc.
I don't need a car very often in the urban hellhole. For most purposes car sharing is almost as convenient as owning my own, and I don't have to deal with registration/maintenance/insurance/etc.
Blogger Ethics Panels
Back when such things were all the rage, I was always so amused by journalists who fretted about the possibility of a blogger making a few bucks when the entire political-media industrial complex in DC is utterly corrupt. I guess now I get that maybe they were just worried about the competition.
Worse
We should lift the moratorium on wells of Mississippi's coast, withhold all federal aid for the effects of the spill, and send the bill to Barbour if any new wells cause problems.
I'm not being serious, but Barbour should be forced to live in the world he claims to want to.
I'm not being serious, but Barbour should be forced to live in the world he claims to want to.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Maybe Not The Right Approach
Appreciate the effort, but perhaps tourism is down for an obvious reason...
Infrastructure
David Ignatius thinks we should be building it...in Afghanistan.
Once upon a time when the Afghanistan invasion happened I thought that what might work would be to bring an economic miracle to the area by investing heavily in their infrastructure. But that was over 8 years ago.
Once upon a time when the Afghanistan invasion happened I thought that what might work would be to bring an economic miracle to the area by investing heavily in their infrastructure. But that was over 8 years ago.
Firm
I'll believe it when I see it, but they're sticking to it for now.
We'll see how hard the military fights it..
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is reaffirming its pledge to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan next summer.
But the Pentagon and the White House are still saying different things about how many troops will leave , and when.
President Barack Obama's chief of staff tells ABC's "This Week" that the July 2011 date to begin withdrawal is firm. Emanuel isn't disputing quoted remarks from Vice President Joe Biden that "a whole lot" of troops would leave.
We'll see how hard the military fights it..
Poor Defenseless Giant Multinational Companies
It's a fascinating if digusting view of the world which sees elite interests as being beyond reproach. LEAVE BP ALOOOOOOOONE.
Sunday Bobbleheads
Meet the Press has Barbour, Landrieu, and Ed Markey.
Face the Nation has Barbara Boxer, Bill Nelson, Richard Shelby, and Joseph Cao.
This Week has Rahmbo.
Document the atrocities!
Face the Nation has Barbara Boxer, Bill Nelson, Richard Shelby, and Joseph Cao.
This Week has Rahmbo.
Document the atrocities!
Morning, Morning
Had some of Feral Liberal's home made port last night. Sipped after a bite of good, dark chocolate it was like a little bit of heaven. Thanks Feral.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Maybe Not A Bad Idea
And I have no particular beef with the World Bank (there maybe be a beef, just not expressing one personally), but I think it's fair to be skeptical of ideas which implicitly assume the relative non-corruption of supposedly benevolent international institutions.
Brought To You By BP
A CNN promo just informed me (rough quote): "Fareed Zakaria says we need to stop vilifying Big Oil because we aren't going to end our addiction any time soon."
I imagine that if big oil dropped a few million gallons of the crap on his house he'd be in a bit more of a vilifying mood.
I imagine that if big oil dropped a few million gallons of the crap on his house he'd be in a bit more of a vilifying mood.
The Great Shirk
I fear the war on the unemployed is just heating up.
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul on Friday urged Americans who have been unemployed for many months to consider returning to the workforce in less desirable jobs rather than continue relying on government unemployment assistance.
Recovery Summer
This NYT article says this summer is when the bulk of the stimulus infrastructure projects happen. Hope the administration is right, and recovery summer is here...
Friday, June 18, 2010
You Got It, Dude
The good news is that the new face of BP is the evil villain from every Bruce Willis movie.
Don't Be Mean To The People Who Are Destroying Everything
Once upon a time the major media outlets were called "the establishment media." After years of strategic badgering by the right, that somehow morphed into "the liberal media." It's time to bring back the term "establishment media."
50 Little Hoovers And One Big One
Sadly it's starting to look like stating the obvious that more stimulus is needed is going to be about as effective as trying to point out that Colin Powell was, in fact, full of shit at his slam dunk UN speech. But I'll keep saying it.
My Facebook Postings Are Important News
I'm not sure it's such a bad thing if the era of mandatory interviews with certain media outlets for politicians is over, however as Eric says, mainstream reporters have enabled this situation by rushing to type up every twitter and facebook utterance from Sarah Palin.
Meth Mouth
The government needs to take care of all of this as best they can, but sadly I think this isn't a problem that can be solved.
The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.
That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.
Grow Up You Big Poopyface
It seems we have Very Serious People on the Left too.
There are people roughly 'to my left' who I don't always agree with either on policy or tactics, but I also generally think we need more of them, not fewer.
There are people roughly 'to my left' who I don't always agree with either on policy or tactics, but I also generally think we need more of them, not fewer.
The Man Who Destroyed The World
Uncle Alan tells us it is very sad that all the problems he predicts have not happened because it makes it more likely that the problems he predicts will happen.
And The Great Recession will continue, becaus fools will continue to listen to this Very Serious Person.
An urgency to rein in budget deficits seems to be gaining some traction among American lawmakers. If so, it is none too soon. Perceptions of a large U.S. borrowing capacity are misleading.
Despite the surge in federal debt to the public during the past 18 months—to $8.6 trillion from $5.5 trillion—inflation and long-term interest rates, the typical symptoms of fiscal excess, have remained remarkably subdued. This is regrettable, because it is fostering a sense of complacency that can have dire consequences.
And The Great Recession will continue, becaus fools will continue to listen to this Very Serious Person.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Welcome to 1937
Krgthulu:
Suddenly, creating jobs is out, inflicting pain is in. Condemning deficits and refusing to help a still-struggling economy has become the new fashion everywhere, including the United States, where 52 senators voted against extending aid to the unemployed despite the highest rate of long-term joblessness since the 1930s.
Many economists, myself included, regard this turn to austerity as a huge mistake. It raises memories of 1937, when F.D.R.’s premature attempt to balance the budget helped plunge a recovering economy back into severe recession. And here in Germany, a few scholars see parallels to the policies of Heinrich Brüning, the chancellor from 1930 to 1932, whose devotion to financial orthodoxy ended up sealing the doom of the Weimar Republic.
These Programs All Cost Money
They'd all cost quite a bit of money. Yet, to any particular individual, they'd be of fairly little help. If we're going to spend money on this stuff, why don't we just spend it on jobs? I get tired of all of these bank shot proposals. Fix the bridges. Fix the sewers. Give money to school districts and community health clinics. Clean the streets of South Philly. Whatever.
People On The Internets Are Mean
Subtitle: even sucky bloggers have feelings too.
After doing this for 800 years or so now, I'm pretty thick skinned. It's sort of necessary. Though occasionally I do get a bit peeved when people suggest that I don't spend any time on this blog, or that I hate the commenters, or whatever. Whatever the quality of this sucky enterprise - and people are entitled to their opinions! - it takes up an immense amount of my time and is in its own weird way rather stressful. Trying to gently nudge the comments section in the right direction is also a lot more time consuming than people think.
Not really complaining, just sharing. Because I know you care.
After doing this for 800 years or so now, I'm pretty thick skinned. It's sort of necessary. Though occasionally I do get a bit peeved when people suggest that I don't spend any time on this blog, or that I hate the commenters, or whatever. Whatever the quality of this sucky enterprise - and people are entitled to their opinions! - it takes up an immense amount of my time and is in its own weird way rather stressful. Trying to gently nudge the comments section in the right direction is also a lot more time consuming than people think.
Not really complaining, just sharing. Because I know you care.
Crazy Plans That We Can't Possibly Afford
An absurdly expensive high speed rail plan that we could've done 7 times over if we didn't blow the money on the Excellent Iraqi adventure.
Selfish desires aside, to the extent that we'd spend that much money on upgrading inter-city rail, I'd spend most of it elsewhere, and my preferences would be to blow a bunch of money on improving intra-city transit in many places. But as we see $100 billion as an impossible expenditure, we should remember that the military wants another emergency supplemental bill for $33 billion...
Selfish desires aside, to the extent that we'd spend that much money on upgrading inter-city rail, I'd spend most of it elsewhere, and my preferences would be to blow a bunch of money on improving intra-city transit in many places. But as we see $100 billion as an impossible expenditure, we should remember that the military wants another emergency supplemental bill for $33 billion...
AT&T Station
As long as it avoids confusion, I don't have a problem with selling naming rights for subway stations. For most stations it would cause confusion, but the "Pattison" station name was never especially helpful anyway, as it's basically the stop for the stadium/arena/ballpark complex and there was no real association with Pattison. AT&T Station might even stand out a bit more and be more memorable for the occasional riders.
They Didn't Make Us Do It!!!
Obviously MMS does suck, but it's a ridiculous thing for BP to claim.
But officer, you didn't stop me from killing him!
In response to a U.S. senator's questions in a letter, BP said it never follows a federal law requiring it to certify that a blowout preventer device would be able to block a well in case of an emergency. The inquiry stemmed from a hearing in May into the Gulf oil spill from the explosion and fire which sank the Deepwater Horizon rig.
But, at the same time, the British oil giant blamed the federal oversight agency, Minerals Management Service, for not asking it to comply with the law.
But officer, you didn't stop me from killing him!
Things To Hire People to Do
Yes I'm broken record on this, but water systems all over the country, including in the urban hellhole, need almost unlimited work. And, hey, when they're done fixing it all they can probably just go ahead and start all over again.
The Great Shirk
As evidenced by growing sentiment in Congress as reflected in DiFi's comments, elites are coming to the conclusion that they are not the failures in this employment crisis, but that people are simply too lazy to find jobs in a world with 9.7% unemployment.
It is very depressing.
It is very depressing.
Tragedies
I hope Republicans continue to their strategy of apologizing to a foreign oil company that has destroyed a big chunk of our country.
We Could Hire Them To Dig Holes And Fill Them Up Again
I'm kidding, just, but the way to get people working is to hire them. The way to do that is not to set up a program, or a subsidy, or a grant, which is administered through some office, which is then used by some business or nonprofit, which maybe eventually one day filter down into someone's paycheck. The way to do it is to have the government hire people to do stuff. Inevitably not all of that stuff will be tremendously productive, but plenty of it will be.
Work Until You're 80
The increase-the-retirement-age fetishists, most of whom don't realize it's a already been increased to 67, don't comprehend that when you lose your job and you're over a certain age you aren't going to find another one.
Or as Dianne Feinstein puts it, "lazy old people get too much in unemployment benefits."
Or as Dianne Feinstein puts it, "lazy old people get too much in unemployment benefits."
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Our Dumb Country
And Haley Barbour personifies it.
President Barack Obama insisted BP set the money aside, and the company agreed to put $5 billion a year into the fund for the next four years.
"If they take a huge amount of money and put it in an escrow account so they can't use it to drill oil wells and produce revenue, are they going to be able to pay us?" Gov. Haley Barbour told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday.
For Realz
I've said a few times that the spill won't be real until it hits land, will be more real if it hits Florida, will be even more real if it hits Atlantic coast states. Exxon Valdez was less real because it was off in that crazy Russia bordering state. I'm not saying that I think that makes any sense, just that there is a certain hierarchy to these things and to people who don't live in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle, such places are ranked pretty low in importance.
Think Of The Pensioners!!!
BP is suspending its dividend.
I really can't believe how fast the "you can't hurt BP! If you do, you're just hurting poor little old ladies!!!" idea was spread.
I really can't believe how fast the "you can't hurt BP! If you do, you're just hurting poor little old ladies!!!" idea was spread.
Dianne Feinstein's Net Worth Is Around $75 Million
But no unemployment benefits for you.
Feinstein did actually vote for the measure, but she's really concerned about your lazy ass.
"We have 99 weeks of unemployment insurance," Feinstein said. "The question comes, how long do you continue before people just don't want to go back to work at all?"
Needless to say, no help is forthcoming from Congress for the 99ers, the several million people who will have exhausted all available benefits by the end of the year.
Feinstein did actually vote for the measure, but she's really concerned about your lazy ass.
Who?
As for who told Obama offshore drilling was safe, this article suggests it was ultimately Carol Browner. Though there's this too:
Nobody could have predicted, yada yada.
Top Obama administration officials say that they did an exhaustive job marshaling information for more than a year, and that the president asked what he needed to ask when it arrived at his desk. Anyone, they said, would grow complacent about the safety of offshore drilling after decades without a major spill.
"It's really important to understand you have decades of nothing going wrong," said one senior administration official, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity as a matter of White House policy.
"The last time you saw a spill of this magnitude in the Gulf, it was off the coast of Mexico in 1979," a second senior administration official said. "If something doesn't happen since 1979, you begin to take your eye off of that thing."
Nobody could have predicted, yada yada.
Pricing Carbon
Ambinder:
I actually don't think this is true, at least in the broad sense. Pricing carbon might be a good (or best) way to reduce carbon emissions, but it isn't the only thing that can achieve that goal. We could subsidize the hell out of other means of energy production. We can remove all kinds of car-dependent sprawl encouraging policies. We could set up a massive program to have people go door to door and, for free, improve insulation in existing buildings. Hell, just painting every roof in Philadelphia silver/white would do a lot.
- But Obama wants action on climate change, and the only way to wean our dependence off fossil fuels is to put a price on carbon.
I actually don't think this is true, at least in the broad sense. Pricing carbon might be a good (or best) way to reduce carbon emissions, but it isn't the only thing that can achieve that goal. We could subsidize the hell out of other means of energy production. We can remove all kinds of car-dependent sprawl encouraging policies. We could set up a massive program to have people go door to door and, for free, improve insulation in existing buildings. Hell, just painting every roof in Philadelphia silver/white would do a lot.
Escrow
NYT breaking news tells me BP is going to put "about $20 billion" in escrow. Obviously making BP pay is important, but so is cleaning things up as fast and as comprehensively as is possible.
Why So Sensitive
I thought Risen's defensiveness was rather weird. The basic criticisms, that the Afghanistan minerals "scoop" wasn't really new for the most part and that the story was timed, are confirmed.
Get Behind This Thing Whatever It Is
Obama supporters are supposed to support some amorphous "energy bill" or "climate bill" depending on the week. The specifics of it aren't clear, and there are no specific policies put out there to be supported. But it will make the ponies appear, because it will so trust them.
This Is A Good Idea But There Are Other Ones And Well Who Knows
It'd be nice if they could just get behind...something...
Lies and the Lying Liars
They are not dealing with good faith actors.
Last month, Mark Hafle, BP's senior drilling engineer for the oil well that's now spewing millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, testified in Kenner that he and his team believed they had worked in concert with a contractor to come up with the safest possible design for encasing the well with cement and steel tubing so that "all the concerns had been addressed."
But now, e-mail messages released by congressional investigators paint a different picture of Hafle's confidence in the troubled well.
They show Hafle expressed concerns in the week before the April 20 disaster on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, calling the Macondo well 5,000 feet below that rig "a crazy well."
Partners
Deep in what only can be called the ideology of Washington, DC is the idea that the government's role with respect to large corporations is as a partner. Regulatory agencies do not demand compliance with the law. Rather they work with their business partners in some kind of mutual interest. Glenzilla:
While Axelrod is pushing back against this idea here, much of our difficulties to date stem directly from the idea that the way to fix problems is to partner up with industry--the NSA with the telcos, HHS with the insurance and drug companies, MMS with the oil companies, Treasury and the banksters--to deliver "private sector" solutions. Of course, they say "free market," but this kind of thing is pretty much the opposite of a free market, and is, just by the way, a distance away from anyone would generally mean by "liberal" or "progressive." Large profit-making entities do not have the public interest at heart; they (at best) care about their shareholders' dividends. The notion that the relationship between them and the government should be accommodating, rather than adversarial is quite a radical shift away from the views of FDR or LBJ.
But this notion runs deep. It is so strong in Dancin' Dave that it is like a fish's awareness of water. He seems to be literally unable to understand what Axelrod means by accountability.
(You can take the tire-swinging, watersports, and Blackberry stylin' as given here.)
MR. GREGORY: But this is a straightforward question. If you are in partnership with somebody -- and make no mistake, the government is in partnership with BP to get this problem solved -- does the, does the president of the United States trust the man on the other end who is leading this operation?
MR. AXELROD: Our, our mission here is to hold them accountable in, in every appropriate way, and that is what we're going to do. I, I'm not -- I don't consider them a, a, a partner, I don't consider them -- they're not social friends, they're not -- I'm not looking to make judgments about their soul. I just want to make sure that they do what they're required to do.
While Axelrod is pushing back against this idea here, much of our difficulties to date stem directly from the idea that the way to fix problems is to partner up with industry--the NSA with the telcos, HHS with the insurance and drug companies, MMS with the oil companies, Treasury and the banksters--to deliver "private sector" solutions. Of course, they say "free market," but this kind of thing is pretty much the opposite of a free market, and is, just by the way, a distance away from anyone would generally mean by "liberal" or "progressive." Large profit-making entities do not have the public interest at heart; they (at best) care about their shareholders' dividends. The notion that the relationship between them and the government should be accommodating, rather than adversarial is quite a radical shift away from the views of FDR or LBJ.
But this notion runs deep. It is so strong in Dancin' Dave that it is like a fish's awareness of water. He seems to be literally unable to understand what Axelrod means by accountability.
(You can take the tire-swinging, watersports, and Blackberry stylin' as given here.)
Like when Alexandria lost the Great Lighthouse
Farewell Big Butter Jesus, and let us consider that the gigantic dirty bookstore directly across it on I-75 was not smote in the least.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
If Nancy Says No, We'll Just Call John
The lack of women on the Sunday shows is one of those glaringly obvious things. What's also glaringly obvious is how to fix it, if anyone there cares.
Al Gore Gains 75 Pounds
I'm not sure why the World Wrestling Federation has a blog, but apparently Al Gore is still very fat.
So Much Space
On those occasions that I head out into the burbs I'm struck by just how much space is used. It reminds me of when I was living in Pwovidence, Vo Dilun, during a time when they were trying (somewhat successfully) to revitalize the downtown area. A presenter noted that you could fit the entire downtown inside the footprint of one of the local malls. Anyway, it's helpful for understanding why people see mass transit as some sort of alien and at best unpleasant thing, given the distances involved. For me, 3 miles is a a rather generous estimate of the radius of my every day life. For many, 3 miles is the minimum distance to anything.
Gonna Be There Awhile
Very, very modest.
Nothing says luxury like "corrugated steel boxes."
With no Marriott, Hilton or Holiday Inn hotels nearby, BP is housing hundreds of oil-spill clean-up workers on the Louisiana coast in "flotels" - 40-foot-long corrugated steel boxes that contain dormitory style beds, the Associated Press reports.
The white boxes that resemble giant shipping containers are stacked atop a barge at Port Fourchon, the story says. The 1,300-acre shipyard that serves as the oil industry's Gulf hub is surrounded by sensitive marshes, the story says.
Nothing says luxury like "corrugated steel boxes."
Cranky Blogging
I know I've been a bit cranky lately, but it's just rather distressing to see that even with Democratic control elites just aren't up to the task of governing this county in an adequate fashion. I didn't have high hopes for a great liberal revolution, but I did expect, well, better.
The Catfood Commission
While we're thinking about deficit scolds, it's important to remember what the basic thrust of Peterson's merry gang of thieves is. In the early 80s Uncle Alan Greenspan had a cunning plan to deal with Social Security, which was to jack up regressive payroll taxes and collect a surplus in the form of obligations from the general fund which will then be paid down as the boomers retire. The deficit scolds will claim that they essentially can't afford to pay this money back, stealing your promised retirement money.
New Rule
Digby:
We could save a bit of money by, say, not having as many lovely wars, but in terms of trends it's all about health care. Nothing else matters.
- Any deficit scold who doesn't put reducing health care costs at the very top of the agenda is just a demagogic crank doing the dirty work for the aristocratic overlords.
We could save a bit of money by, say, not having as many lovely wars, but in terms of trends it's all about health care. Nothing else matters.
Accepting The Unacceptable
I have no idea if this employment forecast is correct, but if it is then our overlords have indeed decided to accept the unacceptable. There was a time when suggesting unemployment would hit the 10% range was crazy talk. Obama's people, in 2009, projected that unemployment would fall to around 7.5% at the end of 2011 without any stimulus and with a stimulus package would hit around 6.5%.
It's truly depressing.
It's truly depressing.
Austerity
Nobody could have predicted that measures likely to tank the economy would undermine market confidence.
It's really weird that people are actually thinking this way, but they are and people will suffer the consequences.
It's really weird that people are actually thinking this way, but they are and people will suffer the consequences.
Our Overlords
I guess as long we return to the prior GDP peak, the level of unemployment is irrelevant. Also if we double GDP and triple the population it's all good.
Can Do Better
I don't know what the best way to organize something like this is, but it's clear that it isn't being done perfectly.
From the beginning, the effort has been bedeviled by a lack of preparation, organization, urgency and clear lines of authority among federal, state and local officials, as well as BP. As a result, officials and experts say, the damage to the coastline and wildlife has been worse than it might have been if the response had been faster and orchestrated more effectively.
“The present system is not working,” Senator Bill Nelson of Florida said Thursday at a hearing in Washington devoted to assessing the spill and the response. Oil had just entered Florida waters, Senator Nelson said, adding that no one was notified at either the state or local level, a failure of communication that echoed Mr. Bonano’s story and countless others along the Gulf Coast.
Monday, June 14, 2010
They Write Books
Deanna Zandt, who I know from various conferences and things, wrote a book.
Sadly she did not use my recommended title, Suck On This! But I suppose that one has to be saved for the autobiography of Tommy Friedman.
Sadly she did not use my recommended title, Suck On This! But I suppose that one has to be saved for the autobiography of Tommy Friedman.
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