The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly:

"At the exact same time the RNC was slamming the Obama campaign for using the Wall Street crisis to raise money, the McCain campaign was using the Wall Street crisis to raise money. In emails sent to McCain donors, the campaign explained, 'The American economy is in a crisis. It is in a crisis,' and promoted headlines such as, 'McCain Promises to 'Clean Up Wall Street.'' The McCain campaign email also connected the solicitation to a recent TV ad, which begins, 'When our economy's in crisis, a big government casts a big shadow on us all. Obama and his liberal Congressional allies want a massive government, billions in spending increases, wasteful pork.'"

Joseph A. Palermo: A Fitting Denouement to Eight Years of Miserable Rule

Joseph A. Palermo: A Fitting Denouement to Eight Years of Miserable Rule:

"Franklin D. Roosevelt told the nation that the economic collapse he inherited after twelve years of Republican Party dominance proved that unbridled greed is not only bad morals but also bad economics."

political comics i'd like to see

(postmodernbarney.com):

"'Doctor Blake...I'm a little confused. You say you want our school district to adopt geology textbooks that claim that earthquakes are 'the shaking of the Midgard serpent'?'
'Ja. I vøuld like før yøu tø teach der cøntrøversy.'"

Nathan Gardels: Stiglitz: The Fall of Wall Street Is to Market Fundamentalism What the Fall of the Berlin Wall Was to Communism

Nathan Gardels: Stiglitz: The Fall of Wall Street Is to Market Fundamentalism What the Fall of the Berlin Wall Was to Communism:

"In this sense, the fall of Wall Street is for market fundamentalism what the fall of the Berlin Wall was for communism -- it tells the world that this way of economic organization turns out not to be sustainable. In the end, everyone says, that model doesn't work. This moment is a marker that the claims of financial market liberalization were bogus."


Can I get an "Amen!"?

The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly:

"Major bank failures? Financial fraud and greed? Political ineptitude? We're seeing these factors play out now in the financial industry, but we saw the same thing 20 years ago, in the biggest scandal of McCain's career."

Chocolate bar giving away cake in just a few minutes

Police chief cites need for safety; new storm strikes | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Police chief cites need for safety; new storm strikes | Front page | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

"As the area endured another spate of potentially damaging thunderstorms a day after Hurricane Ike ravaged the area, Houston officials announced an overnight curfew for the entire city starting at 9 p.m. tonight."

damn. guess i won't be going to the bar tonight after all.

The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly:

"And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor's career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.

'You should be ashamed!' Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. 'Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!'"

Mayberry Machiavellis

The Washington Monthly

The Washington Monthly:

"Whether McCain runs a relentlessly negative, substance-free campaign has nothing to do with his proposal for extra debates. If McCain wanted to be an honorable candidate, he could be an honorable candidate, whether his opponent is a Senate colleague or a total stranger. Building a rapport is not a prerequisite for honest campaigning -- character, integrity, and respect for the political process are prerequisites for honest campaigning."

news from me - ARCHIVES

news from me - ARCHIVES:

"Many years ago, I attended a lecture by a man named Akio Morita, who may well have been the smartest person to ever be in the same room as me. (He was the co-founder of Sony.) He said — this is not an exact quote but it's close — 'The thing that will eventually doom much of American business is that your executives pay no price for failure. You can become CEO of a corporation, do everything wrong, drive your company into the ground and then retire and buy several mansions with the money they will pay you for doing this.'"

How an AMERICAblog reader asked John and Sarah real questions at a photo opp today. Palin notes that Stevens is under indictment.

How an AMERICAblog reader asked John and Sarah real questions at a photo opp today. Palin notes that Stevens is under indictment.:

"McCain worked his way up to me and Cat and as I shook his hand, I asked, 'Sir, I respect your service but, why were you against the GI bill?' Senator McCain, paused, he looked a bit surprised at the question and then he said, 'Nice to meet you.' I repeated the question and he repeated his non-answer. He quickly worked his way down the line. So much for straight-talk!"

Space City Gamelan at Discovery Green

Debate: 'Behavioural economics: is it such a big deal?' by Pete Lunn | Prospect Magazine September 2008 issue 150

Debate: 'Behavioural economics: is it such a big deal?' by Pete Lunn | Prospect Magazine September 2008 issue 150: "Meanwhile, a revolution is under way in economic thought. Behavioural economics is no bell or whistle on the contraption of traditional economics; it is a big departure which will deliver a revolutionary new way of understanding the world. The founding assumptions of orthodox, neoclassical economics—that people can be thought of as rational, selfish and independent—are collapsing under the weight of empirical refutations."

I stopped going to my economics class.
The one I had left to graduate.
The assumptions were so asinine,
so perverse as to be ridiculous -
but for me infuriatingly ridiculous
sure b follows a but when yr looking at
some monstrous hybrid of c and d and calling
it a you can't be sure b is coming along right quick...
anyway,
classic economics pisses me off.

Rant: Take Your Greasy Fingers Off The Reboot Button, Hollywood!

Rant: Take Your Greasy Fingers Off The Reboot Button, Hollywood!:

"But anyway, the idea behind CIOE was to make things simpler and more friendly to new readers. And at first, this worked reasonably well. Creators like Frank Miller and John Byrne put their stamp on the old-school DC superheroes, and everybody had a clear backstory. Until each new batch of creators wanted to put their own stamp on the characters, and you ended up with things like: 'Hawkman is a Native American Egyptian archeologist from outer space.'"

The other day in the back room of the candy store I was giving a brief history lesson on the DC universes and all I could say about Hawkman is that there would have to be a separate class to cover him. Seriously.

So, the crazy thing is that there are at least 4 multi-verses, right?
The DCU proper, The Animated DCU, Smallville DCU, and our actual universe.
See, the DCU proper is the only one that has gone through the crises. So the other universes must represent other multi-verses. I suppose there could just be two multi-verses. The one with the crises and the one without.
eh, see...
go faux complexity...

Urban Surprise: More Bicyclists Means Fewer Accidents | LiveScience

Urban Surprise: More Bicyclists Means Fewer Accidents | LiveScience:

"'It appears that motorists adjust their behavior in the presence of increasing numbers of people bicycling because they expect or experience more people cycling,' said Julie Hatfield, an injury expert from the university."

Join me! I am afraid I am becoming a bike evangelist...
I regularly reflect
on how much better
my life has become
on bicycle

Exclusive: David Cronenberg Knows What Defamer Is And Still Lets Us Interview Him

Exclusive: David Cronenberg Knows What Defamer Is And Still Lets Us Interview Him:

"CRONENBERG: People don't pay enough attention to the body. My understanding of life is very existential. I think that we are our bodies. There's nothing else, and when we die, that's it. No afterlife. I'm very anti-religious because religion tends to disembody you. There's an emphasis on your spirit, or where you'll be when your body's gone, and that's misleading. I think the world would be a better place if it we admit that's not the case."

Palin on Guns

well, we agree on one thing...


Palin has also endorsed an insurrectionist interpretation of the Second Amendment. In February of this year, she signed Alaska on to a multi-state amicus brief authored by the State of Texas in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. The brief reads, in part: "The Framers were understandably wary of standing armies and the powers of a potentially oppressive government ... The introductory clause [of the Second Amendment], properly understood, confirms the primary benefit of the operational clause -- a citizenry capable of defending its rights by force, when all other means have failed, against any future oppression."

fact checking palin

Just to reiterate what others have said: Congress' requirement that funds be spent on that bridge (aka the 'earmark') were removed before Sarah Palin became governor. She was therefore in no position to tell Congress anything about the bridge, one way or the other. During her campaign, she said she supported funding for the bridge. Brad Plumer, citing the Anchorage Dialy News via Nexis:
"5. Would you continue state funding for the proposed Knik Arm and Gravina Island bridges?
Yes. I would like to see Alaska's infrastructure projects built sooner rather than later. The window is now--while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist