Last Call

A certain segment of the GOP is well aware of the fact they can't effectively oppose Sonia Sotomayor without coming across as misogynist racist old white men.

Too bad for the GOP that the rest of the party doesn't mind being misogynistic racist old white men, and this group is clearly holding the bullhorn.

Good luck getting that Hispanic and women's vote in 2010, guys.

Defending The Village

You know, I have my own personal problems with the Village and many of the idiots in it. But I certainly would never advocate specifically targeting them in military actions like NY Post columnist Ralph Peters.

n his latest essay, in a segment titled "The killers without guns," Peters suggests that the media is responsible for "saving" Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, but that media had "failed to defeat" the U.S. government's charge toward Iraq.

"Rejecting the god of their fathers, the neo-pagans who dominate the media serve as lackeys at the terrorists’ bloody altar," he gallingly charges.

It culminates:

Pretending to be impartial, the self-segregating personalities drawn to media careers overwhelmingly take a side, and that side is rarely ours. Although it seems unthinkable now, future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow's conventional wisdom.

Because, of course, in Peters' mind America can do no wrong:

The point of all this is simple: Win. In warfare, nothing else matters. If you cannot win clean, win dirty. But win. Our victories are ultimately in humanity’s interests, while our failures nourish monsters.

Jason Linkins over at Huffington Post evicerates this stunning outpouring of hatred.

And that's exactly what it is. Peters is certifiable. Dehumanizing Muslims as the faceless Enemy was one thing, but adding Liberals, Democrats, and even journalists to that same group is intolerable.

But then again, we torture people for false intel and the media ignores it. What moral authority do they have to complain, especially when the same journalists are the ones enabling the GOP to lie in the first place?

Maybe the Steno Pool will finally take notice that the GOP hate them almost as much as minorities, liberals, Democrats, atheists, gays, lesbians, and people who make less than six digits a year.

That Word Does Not Mean What You Think It Means

Mark Halperin on the Sotomayor non-fight:

President Barack Obama knows how to avoid a fight — and still do what he thinks is right. The media and conservative activists might be spoiling for a Supreme Court nomination battle, but the choice of Circuit Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill a high court vacancy is a classic Obama decision that makes the chances of political smooth sailing a near lock. Obama was clearly inspired by his selection, but he just as obviously kept an eye on the politics of his pick.

Assuming nothing surfaces in Sotomayor's background that causes controversy, expect her to be seated when the court opens for its new term in October, after thorough confirmation hearings that will seem more like a lovefest than a legal firing squad. By both design and luck, Obama faces a Supreme Court–pick process that has been drained of the tension and combat that has characterized such moments in the past several decades.

The fundamentals of the environment in which Obama has made his choice account for much of this reality. Democrats have a solid majority in the Senate, and Obama is seeking to replace one reliably liberal vote with another, meaning the balance of the court will not shift, lowering the stakes. And the social issues that used to fire up the right when it came to judicial disputes have lost some of their power, with the economy in the dumps and younger citizens drifting toward the left.

Has Halperin been, you know, actually paying attention to Republicans in the last four months? How they have been doubling down on obstructing everything Barack Obama is trying to do just because he's Barack Obama?

And he's counting on the support of his own party? The one that knifed him in the back over Gitmo, cramdown, and still can't get Dawn Johnsen past a filibuster? The Senate led by Harry "Chickenshit" Reid? You're counting on these guys to do the right thing?

"Near lock" my ass. By the time the new court session starts in October, it will start with either justices or Souter will still be there, twiddling his damn thumbs.

[UPDATE] Via BooMan, we see Charles Krauthammer basically call Sotomayor a racist. How many ConservaDems will buy this argument even though it's not the truth?

[UPDATE 2]Why does Type 1 Diabetes supposedly disqualify her from the position? Are you serious?

The Tyranny Of The Majority

As widely expected, California's Supreme Court has ruled to uphold Prop 8, but to also affirm the legality of the marriages done before the proposition went into effect.

Expect another proposition vote on the books this fall to overturn prop 8, will be my guess. It's nice that the people can overrule "activist judges" according to other "activist judges".

Price Drop

The Case-Schiller Index numbers are in for 1Q 2009, and home prices dropped a staggering 19.1% in America's major metro areas.

"Declines in residential real estate continued at a steady pace into March," said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor's in a prepared statement. "All 20 metro areas are still showing negative annual rates of change in average home prices with nine of the metro areas having record annual declines."

The ugly report was somewhat unexpected, according to Mike Larson, a real estate analyst for Weiss Research.

"The market was anticipating better results," he said. "There had been some signs of increased sales in post-bubble markets."

But that sales increase has not translated into higher prices. Bargain hunting - bottom fishing really - for foreclosures and other distressed properties has driven sales volume up while further depressing prices.

In other words, people are buying foreclosed homes at the bottom end, but not at the top. Since high-priced homes have a lot further to fall still, that's knocking down the prices for the entire market in these areas and indeed America as a whole.

Plus, new home starts will continue to depress the market as the supply of homes continues to increase. People are buying dirt-cheap homes...but that's all they are buying.

We still have a long way to go, and another wave of foreclosures to come that will only continue to depress housing prices well into 2010, maybe longer.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

If a minority is a conservative from a lower class or even a lower-middle class background, they are proof that America is a land where hard work is rewarded.

If a minority is a liberal from the same background, it's just affirmative action and they don't really deserve the success.

Suddenly Sonia

Obama's SCOTUS pick is Sonia Sotomayor, several news outlets are reporting this morning. Considering the sandbag job on her began three weeks ago, it's nice of Obama to go ahead with her selection anyway.

The Wingers are going to trip over themselves trying to see which idiotic conclusion they jump to first, that Obama picking a Hispanic judge makes him a racist (because of course she can't possibly be a good judge), or that picking a female judge makes him a sexist for the same reason.

To quote Kenneth Brannagh in Wild Wild West, "Let the pahrty....begiyun!"

[UPDATE] The "Sonia Sotomayor = Harriet Miers so she should just withdraw now" train has already left the station.

This would have been the case no matter who Obama picked. After all, none of US are smart enough to be Supreme Court justices, so clearly we should rely on the opinions of people who are not smart enough to be Supreme Court justices to tell us Obama's pick is not smart enough to be a Supreme Court justice.

But as Amanda Terkel notes at Think Progress:

Coming from a housing project in the Bronx, Sotomayor ended up graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton. She also was a co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Prize, the highest honor Princeton awards to an undergraduate. Sotomayor then went to Yale Law School, where she served as an editor of the Yale Law Journal and managing editor of the Yale Studies in World Public Order. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) said on Fox News this morning that of all the nominees, Sotomayor “brings the most in terms of judicial experience — in terms of serving on a federal court — in 100 years.”

SCOTUS Blog has pointed out that women and minority candidates for the Supreme Court are often portrayed as not being smart enough for the job. As Matt Yglesias has also written, underscoring this point, “I recall a lot of issues being raised during the Samuel Alito confirmation fight, but at that time I don’t remember anyone raising questions about the intelligence of a Princeton/Yale Law graduate who’d done time on an Appeals Court.”

But the "not too bright Latina" meme will roll on...

Can You Hear The Wingers Scream, Clarice?

With North Korea, Obama's Supreme Court pick, and California's Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, our favorite wingnuts are in full-blown meltdown mode, wondering why we haven't bombed Pyongyang Tehran (Iran is behind everything bad in the universe because our good friends the Israelis who would never lie to us say so) yet and how Barack Ocarter has just failed failed failed failed failed. After all, it's his fault we haven't won in the Middle east yet, he's had four whole months now.

Look guys, let's be honest here. Are we ready to declare war on the Norks right now? If we weren't still tied down in Iraq and Afghanistan after seven years, perhaps the rest of the world would take our military might seriously. But the Wingers are correct in their assumption that Kim Jong Il is laughing at us. He knows we're wayyyy too busy with Iraq, Afghanistan, and oh yeah, Pakistan, to be worrying about what he's up to.

It's no secret. Bush dug us into a quagmire and we're stuck. We were wrong on Iraq, we all but abandoned Afghanistan, and we ignored Pakistan until it almost became too late. Yes, North Korea is going to kick us while we're down...but let's remember why we were down in the first place: Bush failed to prevent 9/11.

Would we be in Afghanistan, Iraq, or sending drones into Pakistan right now if Bush hadn't dropped the ball eight years ago?

StupidiNews!

• North Korea has tested another two short range missiles, raising tensions even higher.
• Obama's SCOTUS pick is expected to be announced today, and the GOP is already preparing to filibuster it.
• Somali pirates are becoming experts in a much more modern crime: money laundering.
• Scientists in Holland are trying to revive and reinvent Polaroid's instant film.
• Microsoft takes on Google with the company's new rollout of its search engine Bing.

Memorial Day

The one thing about Memorial Day is that it's probably the one day out of the year that people of any political bent can agree on something, and that is we owe much to our men and women in uniform who died for this country.

What you think about those reasons is one thing. But the lives lost...well, it's only human to mourn them. And in the end, we're all human.

StupidiNews, Memorial Day Edition

• North Korea has conducted a second successful nuclear test, causing concern around the globe.
• Fifty-one percent of Israelis said in a poll that they would support an immediate attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
• American troops in Afghanistan have limited options to protect civilians from the Taliban.
• Canada may follow the US in passing climate change legislation.
• The U.S. Army will adopt Windows Vista and Office 2007 by the end of the year.

Not Even Trying To Hide It Anymore

And why should they? Republicans have already proven the terrorist fear card will get the Senate to do whatever they want. Why not play it 100% of the time when there's no downside anymore? What's going to honestly happen to the GOP if they do this, they'll lose control of Congress or the White House?

So why not try to scare everyone out of their minds?

Echoing Dick Cheney during an appearance on Meet the Press, Gingrich insisted that “people should be afraid” because of President Barack Obama’s alterations to former President George W. Bush’s terror war.

“If you look at the behavior the last few months, if you look at the effort to open up past wounds,” said Gingrich. “… If you were a CIA employee today, and you understood there were people who wanted a truth commission, that people wanted to say to you, ‘I want to go back six, seven, eight years and I wanna put you on trial potentially … If you look at what Speaker Pelosi said, they lie to us all the time … This has hurt morale. The question is, is the most important thing to us today to find some sort of American Civil Liberties Union model of making sure that we never offend terrorists, or we’re gonna cover your back, we’re proud of you and we want you to defend America.”

Newt Gingrich on on my TV telling me I have to be scared to the point of pissing myself and that Obama is going to get thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of Americans killed.

Doesn't matter if it's a false choice and a lie if people cave in to the GOP. And Democrats in Congress have been caving in on this since 9/12. Doesn't matter if it's simple Village publicity stunts gone bad. FEAR FEAR FEAR FEAR! OBAMA WILL KILL YOUR FAMILY! ONLY THE GOP CAN SAVE YOU! BE AFRAAAAAAAAAAAAID!

And yet, it works every time. We still treat Newt Gingrich as a serious person.

Another Milepost On The Road To Oblivion

What a concept: not only admitting that the financial system is rigged, but admitting that in order to profit from it, you have to play with the intention of gaming the rigged system.

His honesty is in fact refreshing, but it's in fact one of the logical endpoints of what I've been saying since January 2008. Quite frankly, what do you think the big banks and the insurance companies have been doing for the last ten years if not profiting by in fact gaming the rigged system for themselves?

Would I recommend following his advice? Not in the least. But the guy has a hell of a marketing tool on his side -- "Where's my bailout?" -- and he's marketing the hell out of it. He will sell this system. He will make money from this. The people who buy into this? Not so much.

Good or bad, that's capitalism in 2009, folks.

"Blood In The Streets" Of Phoenix

Phoenix, Arizona is trying to live up to its name as far as the housing market is concerned.

Every weekday morning, Lou Jarvis drives the sun-baked suburban streets looking for investment gold: a family that will lose its house in a foreclosure auction within a few hours.

If the property looks promising, Mr. Jarvis puts in a bid on behalf of any of his dozens of clients eager to become landlords. When he wins, he offers to let the family stay in the house and rent for much less than their mortgage payment.

With this sweltering desert city enduring one of the largest tumbles in housing prices for any urban area since the Depression, there is an unrelenting stream of foreclosures to choose from. On some days, hundreds are offered for sale at the auctions that take place on the plaza in front of the county courthouse.

There is also a large supply of foreclosed families who can no longer qualify for a loan. And that is prompting a flood of investors like Mr. Jarvis, who wants to turn as many of these people as possible into rent-paying tenants in the houses they used to own.

There's three major problems with this.

1) It does nothing to stop the glut of unsold homes on the market in places like Phoenix. Turning homeowners into home renters like this means these individual homeowners aren't getting equity. It's good for the investors, but bad for the renters. It's better than being out on the streets, but should these homes continue to lose equity, both the owner-investor and the renting family are going to have to make tough decisions. This plan only works if there's a bottom to the housing market and prices go back up. If prices go back down, the investor may have to sell the place, and then there's an even bigger problem. Only when new buyers are buying these houses do prices go up. Right now, this plan is just treading water at best.

2) Potential new homeowners still can't get credit from lenders. This remains a problem. Banks are more than willing to refinance existing homeowners with good credit. Refinancing to the new lower rates does lower payments and helps keep people in their homes. But that's again a "treading water" step. Originating new mortgages is not happening. Not in this market. Until new mortgages and new buyers get into places like Phoenix to snap up unsold and new homes, home prices will continue to fall.

Banks and mortgage lenders face the "Paradox of lending." If all the lenders servicing the housing market originate new mortgages, then all the lenders win because new buyers will start stabilizing prices. If only a few originate new mortgages, it won't be enough to stabilize the market and home prices will fall, and the lender loses money and may have to pull out of the market or even go under themselves. If nobody originates new loans, then all the lenders lose.

If you choose to originate new loans, you only win if everybody else does so. If you choose to not do that, you only lose if nobody does so, and there's always somebody willing to take the risk to lend or the government will...ergo you can't lose if you don't originate new mortgages, ergo lenders aren't originating new mortgages. Solid business sense individually, terrible collectively.

3) There's nobody trading up to bigger and better homes. This is still the key to stabilizing the market. Foreclosed entry level homes are one thing, but foreclosed mid-sized and high-end homes are still going unsold. There's a lot more to lose should prices fall, and that end of the housing market already had the biggest bubble built into it. As the old real estate joke goes, "What's the difference between a half-a-million dollar home and a million dollar home? $500,000." That's a lot of money to anyone in this market, and people are trading DOWN, not UP, if only for the relative stability in payments and equity. Losing 20% on a $150,000 home is bad. Losing 20% on a million dollar home is devastating.

Needless to say, this end of the market will continue to see falling home prices even if the low-end of the market stabilizes somewhat, and that's going to continue to be bad.

Mr. Jarvis, 47, the former co-owner of a wood moulding company that thrived in the boom and faltered in the crunch, also made some mistakes. Last spring, he contracted for three new homes in the distant suburb of Copper Basin, convinced that real estate was bottoming.

He was wrong. He managed to get out of two of the contracts but had to buy one of the houses, which is now substantially under water.

“You need to buy when there’s blood in the streets,” he said with a shrug. “Even if it’s your own blood.”

Ahh, but then again if there's that much blood in the streets and it IS your blood...you just end up dead, figuratively speaking. And not many people have the taste for their own blood. The market will continue to get worse.

Last Call

So, here's what California is facing financially:

This week, voters said they no longer want the Legislature to balance budgets with higher taxes, complicated transfer schemes or borrowing that pushes California's financial problems off into the distant future. In light of that, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it clear he intends to close the gap almost entirely through drastic spending cuts.

The governor's cutbacks could include ending the state's main welfare program for the poor, eliminating health coverage for about 1.5 million poor children, halting cash grants for about 77,000 college students, shortening the school year by seven days, laying off thousands of state workers and teachers, slashing money for state parks and releasing thousands of prisoners before their sentences are finished.

"I understand that these cuts are very painful and they affect real lives," Schwarzenegger said. "This is the harsh reality and the reality that we face. Sacramento is not Washington — we cannot print our own money. We can only spend what we have."

Those of you who think that these cuts are good and exactly what California deserves, remember that basically every state and municipality in America is in varying degrees of the same situation or will be eventually, and America has about $50 trillion in unfunded liability in Social Security and Medicare and basically no way to pay for it. You're probably next.

Those of you who think this is terrible and want us to bail out California, remember that basically every state and municipality in America is in varying degrees of the same situation or will be eventually, and America has about $50 trillion in unfunded liability in Social Security and Medicare and basically no way to pay for it. You're probably next.

Have a nice weekend.