If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. -- Benjamin Franklin
Ironically, Bachmann’s son, Harrison, has now joined Teach for America (TFA). According to the TFA website, “Teach For America is currently a member of AmeriCorps, the national service network.” The Serve America Act, which she voted against, supports programs such as TFA.Rebel with a cause, it seems.
Still a long way to go, prices will continue to fall well into next year and possibly beyond. All that lost real estate waelth will smother the recovery effort. It's going to be a long couple of years. That's the problem with happy face calculus numbers: when your rate of descent has stopped accelerating and you've hit terminal velocity, you're still falling.In the vast majority of metro areas -- 129 out of 155 -- median prices dropped year-over-year. Some of the decline can be traced to an increase in the percentage of foreclosures and short sales. They accounted for 36% of all transactions during the quarter.
These "distressed properties" are usually sold at discounts of at least 15% compared with traditional sales.
Patrick Newport, a real estate analyst for IHS Global Insight, while admitting the year-over-year results are still awful, said recent evidence indicates that prices are stabilizing.
"The state sales data show sales picking up across the country," he said.
Newport expects prices and sales to trend down again, especially when the impact of the first-time homebuyers tax credit starts to fade. The credit ends December 1. "Afterward, sales will take a hit," he said.
His forecast is for prices to drop another 5% this year, driven down by added inventory as the foreclosure plague continues to worsen.
At the town-hall discussion in New Hampshire yesterday, President Obama addressed the ridiculous "death panel" argument the right has been carelessly throwing round. He noted, "The irony is that actually one of the chief sponsors of this bill originally was a Republican -- then House member, now senator, named Johnny Isakson from Georgia -- who very sensibly thought this is something that would expand people's options. And somehow it's gotten spun into this idea of 'death panels.'"Isakson is now having to explain to his GOP whackjob friends that he's one of them still instead of being a heretical liberal Palin-hater and Grandma murderer, which explains pretty much everything you need to know about Senate Republicans right now.The president's remark came soon after Isakson told Ezra Klein that Sarah Palin's attacks on this are "nuts." Isakson added, "You're putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don't know how that got so mixed up. It empowers you to be able to make decisions at a difficult time rather than having the government making them for you.... And it's a voluntary deal."
The problem, from Isakson's perspective, is that he's now inadvertently defended reality, when his party is committed to doing the opposite. Republican senators aren't supposed to debunk nonsensical talking points; they're supposed to repeat nonsensical talking points.
When you're betting on the whackjobs as the future of the party and as the path out of the wilderness, more and more Republicans are discovering that this particular path has some very nasty potholes in it, and all that goes back to what I said earlier today about the GOP betting everything on pulling in people to the right of where the party is, and not the more moderate left.
Partisan screaming matches, fringe paranoia and outright lies are the order of the day. Sen. Isakson got busted this week for telling the truth, which in the world of Republican politics is a sin that requires a press statement in order to "correct".
Republicans have no interest in an honest discussion of health care reform. They never did. Why do Democrats stupidly continue to act like the GOP is still acting in good faith, or that they ever did have any intention of doing so? That continues to bother the hell out of me. Why aren't Democrats honestly using this example to say "Look, Sen. Isakson told the truth and now he's having to duck and cover from his own party."
Reconciliation is looking better and better.
[UPDATE 12:06 PM] Anyone want to make some predictions on how long it will take before Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski will have to walk this comment back?
"It does us no good to incite fear in people by saying that there's these end-of-life provisions, these death panels," Murkowski, a Republican, said. "Quite honestly, I'm so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn't (in the bill). There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill."Will it happen before or after Democrats thanks her for trying to tell the truth on health care reform legislation?
A staggering 97 percent of global growth over the next 40 years will happen in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet.Needless to say, the planet doesn't have the resources to handle that kind of growth for long. How we respond to this issue as a global entity will decide much about our future on Earth."The great bulk of today's 1.2 billion youth -- nearly 90 percent -- are in developing countries," said Carl Haub, a co-author of the report. Eight in 10 of those youth live in Africa and Asia.
"During the next few decades, these young people will most likely continue the current trend of moving from rural areas to cities in search of education and training opportunities, gainful employment, and adequate health care," Haub continued, calling it one of the major social questions of the next few decades.
In the developed world, the United States and Canada will account for most of the growth -- half from immigration and half from a natural increase in the population -- births minus deaths, according to the report.
High fertility rates and a young population base in the developing world will fuel most of the growth, especially in Africa, where women often give birth to six or seven children over a lifetime, the report says. The number is about two in the United States and 1.5 in Canada.
Sadly, I personally believe we'll see more so-called "resource wars" where countries or groups will be fighting over basic items like water and land for crops, or in our case, oil. No matter how you feel about global warming, the real problem is population growth. It's simply unsustainable at its current rate.
Sounds like a good time to explain a few facts about the modern insurance market. Start with the reality that nine out of 10 people under 65 are covered by their employers, most of which cover all employees and charge everyone the same rate. President Obama's horror stories are about the individual insurance market, where some 15 million people buy coverage outside of the workplace.The WSJ conveniently ignores the 50 million Americans who aren't covered, but they don't count. And yes, the 150 million Americans under 65 who have health insurance, roughly 90%, 135 million or so, have employee-based insurance.Mr. Obama does have a point about insurance security. If you develop an expensive condition such as cancer or heart disease, and then get fired or divorced or your employer goes out of business—then individual insurance is going to be very expensive if it's available. But what the President and Democrats won't tell you is that these problems are the result mainly of government intervention.
But blaming the higher cost of self-insurance on government intervention is a bit like blaming the cost of a $200,000 Italian sportscar on import fees. I've been in the insurance business, folks. Insurance works off of the Law of Large Numbers, which basically says if you have a large enough group of people insured, you'll make more money off the premiums on the healthy people than you'll pay out on the sick ones. Self-insurance is expensive because it's just that...self-insurance. For the most part that means that large number is one...which is not a large number. Needless to say, you'll pay more. Government intervention has nothing to do with it, it's actuarial science and economics, and profit motive. Period.
Now, the op-ed piece goes on to suggest that forcing the insurance companies to cover sick people is going to basically double everyone's premiums. If that was done without a mandate to cover all Americans, without a public option, and without an insurance exchange for people to shop around in, the WSJ's board would be correct. Lack of competition is the exact reason why insurance premiums are higher. The point is, a major part of the Obamacare plan is to take measures to lower costs through both competition (public option, insurance exchange) and increasing the number of people covered (Law of Large Numbers, mandates) will lower the premiums for all Americans.
It's the entire package that is the reform. Just saying you're going to cover people regardless of illness, without the rest of the measures, will not work. But saying that's all the reform plan consists of and not mentioning the rest of the plan is rank dishonesty.
Then again, this is the Wall Street Journal's editorial board we're talking about here.
Louisville coach Rick Pitino told police that he had consensual sex with and paid for an abortion for the woman who has been charged with trying to extort him, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Tuesday.This case is ugly all the way around, and I don't want to make any judgments on the matter before it goes to court. But $10 million? Pitino's a college basketball coach, not an NBA team owner. Where the hell is he going to get that kind of money from? If you're going to extort someone, make it reasonable.Karen Cunagin Sypher was federally charged in April with demanding cars, tuition for her children and finally $10 million. Police interviewed Pitino, who is married, regarding the incident last month, and according to the newspaper, he said that he gave the woman $3,000 to have an abortion.
Police records obtained by the Courier-Journal show that Pitino said he had sex with the then Karen Cunagin at a Louisville restaurant where he had been drinking on Aug. 1, 2003. He denied Cunagin Sypher's allegations that he raped her at the restaurant and then again later at a different location.
Sypher's attorney, James Earhart, said Wednesday morning that he hadn't yet talked to Sypher about the release of the police documents, but planned to later in the day. He said he didn't know how it would affect the case against her since all those involved were already aware of the documents.
Sheesh.
Looking back on the first two years of the Clinton administration, there was a lot more legitimate cause for alarm on the Right. Clinton really did sign the Brady Law and the Assault Weapons Ban. Clinton really did try to allow gays to serve openly in the military. Clinton really did sign NAFTA into law. Federal agents really did kill seventy-six people during the siege of Waco. It wasn't just HillaryCare that upset the Right during the early years of the Clinton administration. And, in spite of all the vicious rumors that were spread about the Clintons, there were tangible government-led changes for the Right to oppose.No, we cannot dismiss the racial component to the Right's anger over this. Nobody appears to want to admit the issue, but it's getting to the point where the combination of the worst of the paranoia over the Clintons/liberals/Democrats and the worst of the anger over racism/Muslims/foreigners has combined into something truly horrific.Then, as now, there was a lot of talk about the Democrats wanting to do away with our national sovereignty and lead us towards a world government. We began to hear the black helicopter talk and saw the rise of the militia-movement. But, back then, it was a lot easier to see some evidence that the government in Washington was getting leftward of where the country was politically. The opinions polls showed the country moving towards the Republicans. There was plenty of advanced warning that the Gingrich Revolution was coming.
Today, while Obama's polling numbers have returned to Earth, the president and his party remain popular, and certainly much more popular than the Republicans. The fringiness we're seeing is both more mainstream (in that it is embraced by more Republican leaders and has broader purchase in the GOP's base) and more uncoupled to any hint of reality. But, despite these differences, there is a certain disconcerting commonality. In both cases, a significant portion of the Right responded to the election of a Democratic president with revolutionary and secessionary rhetoric and actions.
Ever since Kennedy replaced Eisenhower, it seems that the default position of the Right (when they do not control the White House) is revolutionary and secessionist. There is a longer pattern here that cannot be explained by Obama's hue and Muslim-sounding middle name. Yet, the Crazy does seem somewhat amplified by racial anxieties at the moment, and we cannot dismiss this new component.
Johh Cook at Gawker has more on this phenomenon:
But let's be clear: anyone watching the mounting rage over, of all things, health care — perhaps one of the most boring and complex policy subjects — has to worry that these people are going to try to kill Barack Obama. That's not an extrapolation from unhinged rhetoric, or a partisan reading of the imagined intentions of our political enemies. It's a rational reading of the anticipated behavior of a man who brandishes a gun at the location where the president is expected to imminently arrive while holding a sign that openly advocates his assassination. And the astonishing, breathtaking, maddening fact that he hasn't been violently taken to the ground by large men wearing suits and earpieces is an open encouragement to anyone else so inclined to give it a shot. There are always people who want to kill the president. Generally speaking, they are politically marginalized, insane, and/or too incompetent to come close to achieving their ends. But in the past six months, people who would be inclined to do violence to our political leaders have been affirmatively embraced by the Republican Party and its messaging operation. It's as if there had been a 24-hour cable news channel in 1981 devoted to coverage of Jodie Foster, and what it would take for someone to get her attention.And the sad part is that the GOP is embracing these nutbags because they are the only type of demographic growth they can get right now. For the most part, these are the people that until now thought the Republicans were incompetent wimps and spineless losers, the George W. Bush Keystone Kops party.
In a January 2007 email, White House political director Sara Taylor wrote:But hey, that's what the White HousePrior is going after Griffin. He's made this his cause.... We need to find some folks to defend Tim and his credentials, not to mention our policy.Your thoughts? Rich Lowry offered to help Tim
The best part? Taylor went on to ask: "Anyone better?"
Ouch.
The House Judiciary Committee has now released over 5400 pages of Bush administration and Republican Party emails (pdf) related to the firings. Several of these emails suggest coordination between Post reporter John Solomon and Bush administration officials on how to manage the Post’s coverage of the widening scandal.Your liberal media, folks.In one email to a Department of Justice spokesperson, Solomon even appears to be suggesting what spin to apply in order to minimize damage from the revelations.
The world economy still risks a double-dip recession if oil prices rise toward $100 per barrel and if huge U.S. government debts frighten investors, Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics and chairman of RGE Monitor, told CNBC.Helicopter Ben sure has printed a hell of a lot of money to help save the economy. Eventually that will come back to bite us in the ass, and the only reason it hasn't yet is the fact that the real estate collapse has taken trillions out of the economy in wealth.
"There is a risk, a low probability for a double dip," Roubini said on "Squawk Box."Although the risk of a depression has been virtually eliminated by the massive monetary stimulus, "we are in the middle of the worst recession in 60 years" and the rallying stock market may have gotten ahead of itself, he added.
"Asset prices should go higher, the question is too much, too soon, too high? In my view there is the risk of a correction," Roubini said.
"I can still see downside risks for financial institutions," he said.
Because of the United States' large budget deficit—monetized by the Federal Reserve—investors may at some point next year begin to worry and pull out of government bonds, pushing yields higher, according to Roubini.
The idea is that the recovery will be slow enough to allow the Fed to put on the brakes, but given the overly eager rate that the stock market is betting on a huge recovery, it may just jump the tracks and turn into another bubble bursting at a time when the economy is the most vulnerable to shock.
We'll see.
There are two things to keep in mind here.A Georgia congressman who faced down a rowdy town hall meeting last week found his office vandalized Tuesday with a swastika painted over the official congressional sign.
Rep. David Scott told FOX News that the swastika spray-painted in black on his office door in Smyrna, Ga., is about four feet wide.
Cobb County police were informed and a report was filed with the U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI. David Johnson, Scott's district director, said the Capitol Police are handling this incident as a hate crime.
Johnson said he suspects the incident happened between the office's closing on Monday night and opening on Tuesday.
Scott, who is black, is both a fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrat and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
One, is that a nasty, violent section of the anti-health care reform side of this debate is not interested in the least in civil debate. They are interested in tagging the offices of an African-American Congressman with a swastika and doing other garbage like this:
Scott said that the press twisted his comments at the meeting because he was talking about the residents not being permitted to talk about the highway plan. Residents said they were told they could ask questions about anything.The other thing to remember is that we have at least three more years and change of this stupidity to go.However, Scott told FOX Business Network on Monday that the opponents to health care were manufactured, and he accused the audience members of having a racial undertone in the debate.
"There were tea baggers all around the place," the congressman said of the meeting, later holding up a flier with a picture of a now infamous poster of President Obama styled as The Joker from the Batman movie series.
"If you look at this, that's a picture of President Barack Obama," Scott said holding up the sign. "He's grinning there like he's the clown from Batman. Underneath that it says, 'N---a, n---a David Scott. It says you were, and you are, and you always forever shall be but a n---a.' If that ain't it I don't know what is.
The heat keeps getting turned up, the pot will boil over and make a mess. Only in this case, a whole hell of a lot of people are going to get hurt when it finally happens.
"I was loyal to him. I ended up being loyal to a terrible, terrible fault," Frank DiPascali told a judge during a hearing at which his long-rumored cooperation deal with the government was confirmed.Also, there is the small matter of DiPascali assisting in scamming the universe out of $65 billion, the magnitude of which just might have influenced Judge Sullivan.
Both prosecutors and defense attorneys portrayed DiPascali as the man who could unlock his former boss' epic Ponzi scheme and potentially make cases against other defendants.Since Madoff revealed the fraud to his sons in early December and was arrested by FBI agents, investigators have looked into the actions of his wife, Ruth, his brother and two sons, who ran a trading operation under the same roof, and other insiders.
No other Madoff family members have been charged.
Attorneys argued the former chief financial officer should be free on bail to help investigators sift through a mountain of evidence.
But U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan surprised both sides by ordering DiPascali jailed immediately -- a rarity for a cooperator in a white-collar case who had pleaded guilty.
Sullivan said he felt compelled to keep 52-year-old DiPascali locked up after hearing the defendant admit that, at Madoff's direction, he lied to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2006 when he thought they might discover the fraud.
Still, puts an end to the whole "noble" idea that Madoff acted alone. I'm betting a whole hell of a lot more people are going to end up following the both of them, it's just a question of how many people and for how long they will be in prison.
Steal $65 thousand, and you're a common criminal. Steal $65 billion, and you're in government.
The next morning, I met Taitz in a Cracker Barrel parking lot outside of Louisville. She was joined by a small group of Kentucky citizens, and they were the nicest people you could imagine — warm and welcoming, quiet and modest, dressed as if they were going to church: a tweed jacket for the homeschooler teaching six children, a flowered shirt for the woman who was a delegate to the last Republican convention, a row of medals for the small white-haired man who once commanded a Navy submarine, a white cowboy hat for the pastor of a Children of God church.Remind me to send George Wilding a thank-you letter."It gets worse and worse and worse," one said. "Did you see Obama bowing to the Saudi Prince yesterday?"
"They financed his Harvard education," said another.
"That's his sugar daddy right there," said a third.
We set off in a flotilla of cars. When we got to the state office complex an hour later, it took less than ten minutes for us to get badges and pass through security. A man named George Wilding, the manager of Kentucky's Public Corruption Unit, led us to a conference room. A few minutes later, we were joined by Bob Foster, Kentucky's Commissioner of Criminal Investigations.
Then Taitz began to talk, and she did not stop for 15 solid minutes: Obama forged this and his campaign forged that and these are his false addresses and here's something very strange that Justice Scalia told her at a book signing and here are the 500,000 signatures collected by WorldNetDaily magazine demanding an investigation...
Finally Wilding held up a hand. "Let me just stop you right there. What applies to Kentucky?"
One of the citizens starts showing him documents. "This is clearly his school record that shows that he was a citizen of Indonesia..."
"I don't understand what that has to do with the Kentucky attorney general's office," Wilding repeated.
"He was on the ballot here in Kentucky," Taitz said.
"That was a federal election. There are federal-election laws. The FBI investigates those. So I believe that your best venue and jurisdiction lies with the U.S. district court and the FBI."
That's when Taitz lost it. "I can see that you are hell-bent on doing absolutely nothing," she said, eyes flaring. "You want to pass the buck."
"No ma'am. I'm trying to follow the law."
"I'm going to the FBI and not only reporting Obama, I'm going to report you for refusing to investigate crimes. You have a duty to investigate those crimes! Why are people paying salary for this whole office of attorney general of Kentucky? To do nothing?"
"I think we're finished," Foster said.
But Taitz wasn't finished. She marched her troops straight over to the secretary of state's office and did the exact same presentation all over again. Then she headed to the FBI to do it a third time. And the whole time, she never stopped talking:
Goldman Sachs runs the treasury.
Obama is a puppet.
There's a cemetery somewhere in Arizona where they just dug 30,000 fresh graves, which wait now for the revolution.
Baxter International — a major Obama contributor — developed a vaccine for bird flu that actually kills people.
Google Congressman Alcee Hastings and House Bill 684 and you'll see that they're planning at least six civilian labor camps.
Google an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about train cars with shackles.
The communist dictator Hugo Chavez way back in 2004 purchased the Sequoia software that runs our voting machines and the mainstream media won't report any of it — not even Fox because Saudi Arabia bought a percentage of Fox in 2007.
This is the stuff that the media never gives Taitz a chance to say because it's so focused on the news hook of the "birther" issue. (And, believe me, this has been merely a tiny sample of what I saw on my road trip this spring.)
There is crazy. There is sociopathic detachment from reality. And then there are these guys.
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