Prometheus 6

I always wondered, why Section 8? It's not like the Feds would have spent more on mortgage subsidies. 

America's Other Housing Crisis
By Michael Kelly
Saturday, May 24, 2008; A21

There's a housing crisis in America -- but it doesn't have anything to do with the thousands who have been forced from their over-leveraged residences or the steps Congress has taken to help those caught in the subprime debacle. This crisis doesn't generate many headlines, but it threatens Americans nationwide.

Over the past eight years, the Bush administration has tried to cripple public housing. It has devalued and defunded key programs. The president's proposed 2009 budget includes massive cuts in affordable-housing programs that will hit the working poor, people with disabilities and seniors while dismantling the crowning achievement of federal efforts to revitalize and redevelop city neighborhoods.

So much for her "experience." 

Hillary Clinton Raises the Specter of the Unspeakable  

In the context of Obama, Clinton's words broke a double taboo, because since the beginning of his candidacy, some of Obama's supporters have feared that his race made him more of a target than other presidential hopefuls. Obama was placed under Secret Service protection early, a full year ago. To be unaware that one's words tap into a monumental fear that exists in a portion of the electorate -- a fear that Obama's race could get him killed -- is an unusual mistake for a serious and highly disciplined presidential candidate.

It's surprising, too, because something very similar just happened last week, when Mike Huckabee made a joke at an NRA convention about somebody aiming a gun at Obama. He later apologized and called his remarks "offensive." He also could have called them "instructive" for any politician paying attention.

If they didn't already know.

This isn’t just about the presidency though. Remember that magic number, and where the bulk of the new Democratic seats will come from. Inevitably the party will STILL be driven by the concerns of conservative whites. Which means that at some point we still have to work hard to convince white working class voters that their economic interests not only lie in voting for Democratic candidates, but in expanding the role of government to deal with their material needs. This is why I thought that Edwards was a better candidate than Obama or Clinton, and why I hope that Obama picks someone like Edwards to run as his VP candidate. But more importantly this is why people like Adolph Reed are right to argue that we need to organize a working IDEOLOGICAL majority that can lead to a working VOTING majority.

Magic number?

Yeah, Spence explains that.

Like Mr. Obama (and many others), we strongly encourage diplomacy, including contacts with adversaries. If Mr. Bush cannot use his remaining months in office to do the same, he can at least get out of the way.

Bush should get out of the way, period. 

Look, when Black folks talk about racism, we hear there is almost none left. Yet when white folks SHOW racism, we can't all it that, right? Those folks in West Virginia and Kentucky said things like, "I'm not racist, but I can't vote for a black for President." But if that's not racist, nothing is.

So. The term is racial resentment now. Fine. I will adopt whatever term white people use for their racism. I will use "racial resentment" EXACTLY as I use the word "racism" now.

The White Stuff
A new NEWSWEEK Poll underscores Obama's racial challenge.
Jonathan Darman
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Updated: 7:41 PM ET May 23, 2008

Even as he closes in on the Democratic nomination for the presidency, Sen. Barack Obama is facing lingering problems winning the support of white voters--including some in his own party. In a new NEWSWEEK Poll of registered voters, Obama trails presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain 40 percent to 52 percent among whites. Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama's challenger for the Democratic nomination, also trails McCain among white voters but by a smaller margin, 44 percent to 48 percent. (For the complete results, click here).

So Hillary really screwed up, right?

No...she invoked Robert Kennedy's assassination before.

So I'm shocked and surprised, right?

No...I've said she and her husband are typical Southern politician.

I once said I would like to see a national primary. When it became apparent that was pretty much what we were going to have, I became less enthralled by the idea. It looked like the primary would be over by March. Everyone expected Hillary's reputation and fund raising power to be dispositive.

It didn't turn out that way. And now I find it necessary to show appreciation to Hillary for hanging in there. Because had Hillary won as she thought she would, or if she had dropped out earlier, we would not have found out that she really doesn't care about anything but her own victory.

So congratulations, Mrs. Clinton. Your reputation has been destroyed by your own hand. 

I remember this guy. I guess it's best we got into such a dramatic discussion about Uncle Clarence instead of a discussion of what turned out to be a wimp.

Jilted lover behind threats to black men
For 20 years, he posed as an angry white woman threatening castration
The Associated Press
updated 10:21 a.m. ET May 17, 2008

CLEVELAND - A man who wrote hundreds of hateful letters to black and mixed-race men seen with white women apparently was motivated by a girlfriend who left him for a black man, the FBI said Friday.

David Tuason, who is of Filipino descent, admitted his motive when he was captured two months ago, said Frank Figliuzzi, the head of the FBI in Cleveland.

"One of the first phrases out of his mouth was, 'You wouldn't understand 'til it happened to you,' and when they inquired what that meant, he said, 'My girlfriend left me for a black man,'" Figliuzzi said.

Paying a punished LAPD officer
When the department disciplines an officer with suspension, the police union replaces any lost wages.
May 22, 2008

So let's get this straight. A Los Angeles police officer does something so bad that he or she is suspended without pay. But the officer gets paid anyway. The punishment comes down to this: The check comes from the Police Protective League instead of the LAPD, and the officer gets what amounts to a few days of paid vacation. This is discipline?

Praise is due Police Commission member Anthony Pacheco for raising the issue Tuesday. The commission ought to take a look at how the union's practice of offering suspension insurance to its members affects the department's discipline system. The surprising thing is that, for seven years now, officers supposedly suspended without pay have been paid, with no one so much as raising an eyebrow. 

Come to think of it, this whole thing has a familiar ring to it.

Paterson Sees 'Desperation' By Clinton, Disagrees On Florida And Michigan

Gov. David Paterson, who is right now being interviewed by WAMC's Alan Chartock and taking calls from listeners on "Vox Pop," just disagreed sharply with his presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, on her last-ditch efforts to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations.

While he stressed that he continues to support Clinton and will do so until "she makes a different determination," Paterson, a superdelegate, said he doesn't believe the DNC should change the rules after the fact on Florida and Michigan and added that he's not buying her claims about leading the popular vote if the ballots cast in those states were counted.

"I would say at this point we're starting to see a little desperation on the part of the woman who I support and I'll support until whatever time she makes a different determination," Paterson said, adding: "I thought she was the best candidate and I thought she had the best chance of winning."

No, this is a beautiful thing. I got it from one of those Fox Attacks! emails.

Y'all DJs need to pay the kid his $.69. I'm sure y'all can work it into the mix. NOT SAFE FOR WORK, though.

I love it so they get the whole comment published:

Bill O'Reilly Loses it: DANCE REMIX.

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Video directed by Torrey Meeks.
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Video conceptualized by my gorgeous wife, the razor-sharp journalist and pop culture junkie who constantly makes me smile, Ashley 'Danger' Meeks

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FTC Wants to Know What Big Brother Knows About You
'Behavioral Targeting' on Web Is Debated
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 22, 2008; A01

How do you find a bride these days?

One of the nation's leading online tracking companies knows.

Monitoring consumers at roughly 3,000 Web sites, Revenue Science identified brides by picking out bridal behavior it had seen: anyone who'd gone online to read about weddings in the news, entered "bridesmaid dresses" into a search engine or surfed fashion pages for wedding styles.

The company found 40,000 such people, whom it knows by random number, not name, and sent them a tailored online ad.

"A successful campaign," according to company president Jeff Hirsch.

John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described as a "wake-up call" the Israeli and Syrian announcement of the first peace effort in eight years. "What did the leaders of Israel, already engaged in negotiations with Syria, think when President Bush stood before the Israeli Knesset and invoked Hitler in labeling engagement with rogue nations 'appeasement'? " he asked.

U.S. on the Outside in Peace Efforts
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 22, 2008; A20

Just days after President Bush returned from the Middle East, the Middle East is moving beyond the Bush administration.

Two major peace efforts -- a surprise announcement of indirect talks between Israel and Syria brokered by Turkey and an eleventh-hour deal to prevent a new Lebanese war brokered by Qatar -- were launched without an American role, and both counter U.S. strategy in the region.

Clinton Desperate to Count Votes, Compares Fla. Primary to Zimbabwe

SUNRISE, FLA. -- Desperate to get attention for her cause to seat Florida and Michigan delegates, Hillary Clinton compared the plight of Zimbabweans in their recent fraudulent election to the uncounted votes of Michigan and Florida voters saying it is wrong when “people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded.”

This Clinton woman is even more annoying than that stupid editorialist the Washington Post is syndicating. She wants to steal Black folks' history in support of her own ambition.

You REALLY want to play Most Oppressed Minority? 

Zogby says

The so-called revolving door between journalism and campaigns has been drawing increasing attention. Before joining The National Journal, Ms. Douglass had worked for decades in television news, starting at network affiliates in Los Angeles and becoming a Washington correspondent at CBS News and then, until 2006, at ABC News, where she covered Capitol Hill.

There, Ms. Douglass covered Mr. Obama’s entering the Senate, appearing on ABC the night he won election in 2004 to predict, “He’s going to be received by the Democrats as a conquering hero.”

Ex-Network Reporter Leaves Journalism to Join Obama’s Campaign
By JIM RUTENBERG

Linda Douglass, a longtime network news correspondent in Washington now working as a contributing editor to The National Journal, said Wednesday that she would leave the magazine to work for Senator Barack Obama’s campaign.

Return of the Bad Apples
Miscreant officers are back on the force because the D.C. police department missed a deadline -- again.
Thursday, May 22, 2008; A24

"IT'S ABSURD that we are stuck with them." So said then-D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly in 1994 about having to rehire police officers deemed unfit for duty, all because the city couldn't keep track of time. More than a decade later, the problem persists, and that is more than absurd. It is intolerable.

Seventeen officers who had been fired for misconduct are returning to the force after their dismissals were overturned in court. These were not instances in which a judge found officers not culpable or their punishment overly harsh. Instead, as The Post's Allison Klein reported this week, the department missed a 55-day deadline mandated in disciplinary proceedings. It is the same issue that was identified in a 1994 Post investigative series and that the District vowed would be corrected. Because it wasn't, the city must take back officers who are guilty of lying, double dipping, falsifying documents and misusing police powers. The very thought, as D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) so aptly stated, gives one "chills."

"People don't get it," said Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) at a Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday at which senior oil company executives were grilled about prices. Kohl said: "Demand is not crazy. Why are prices going crazy?"

Skyrocketing Oil Prices Stump Experts
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 22, 2008; D01

Confused about oil prices? So are the experts.

Executives from the giant oil companies say it's partly the fault of "speculators" or financial players. Key financial players say it's really a question of limited supply and expanding global demand. Some members of Congress accuse the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for bottling up some of its production capacity. And OPEC blames speculators, wasteful U.S. consumers and feckless U.S. policy.

Almost everyone points at China's growing appetite for fuel.

This woman is getting on my nerves.

Clinton cleared the hurdles often cited as holding American women back, yet she is unlikely to surmount the final barrier. So you have to wonder.

Is it something about Hillary, or something about us?

This is one of my rules of thumb to screen out nonsense: immediately discount anyone who uses "we" and "us" in a way that obviously does not include themselves.

Cosbyites should also take note of that.

A woman? Yes. But not that woman.

It is the platitude of the moment, an automatic rejoinder to any suggestion that Hillary Clinton has struggled so desperately -- and so far unsuccessfully -- to grasp the Democratic presidential nomination in some measure because she is female.

The world’s other major credit agency, Standard and Poor’s, was the first to award triple A status to CPDOs but many investors require ratings from two agencies before they invest so the Moody’s involvement supplied that crucial second rating.

S&P stood by its ratings, saying: “Our model for rating CPDOs was developed independently and, like our other ratings models, was made widely available to the market. We continue to closely monitor the performance of these securities in light of the extreme volatility in CDS prices and may make further adjustments to our assumptions and rating opinions if we think that is appropriate.” 

Moody’s error gave top ratings to debt products
By Sam Jones, Gillian Tett and Paul J Davies in London
Published: May 20 2008 23:36 | Last updated: May 20 2008 23:36

Moody’s awarded incorrect triple-A ratings to billions of dollars worth of a type of complex debt product due to a bug in its computer models, a Financial Times investigation has discovered.

Internal Moody’s documents seen by the FT show that some senior staff within the credit agency knew early in 2007 that products rated the previous year had received top-notch triple A ratings and that, after a computer coding error was corrected, their ratings should have been up to four notches lower.

News of the coding error comes as ratings agencies are under pressure from regulators and governments, who see failings in the rating of complex structured debt as an integral part of the financial crisis. While coding errors do occur there is no record of one being so significant.

TOTALLY irrelevant side issue...on the way to Philadelphia a couple of weeks back I met an interesting young woman while waiting for the train at Penn Station. She was from Florida, divorced ex-stripper with two kids now part owner of an escort service. There's a lot...a LOT...I could go into about that conversation, but what brought it to mind was this:

“It’s all going to boil down to a few old Jews in Century Village,” he added, referring to a nearby retirement community.

...because I don't remember what brought it up, but she noted that Century Village was full of swingers.

Right...we were discussing drugs, and I noted an article that said baby boomers that started getting high in the 60s are still getting high in THEIR 60s. She validated the observation with hers.

Many Florida Jews Express Doubts on Obama
By JODI KANTOR

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — At the Aberdeen Golf and Country Club on Sunday, the fountains were burbling, the man-made lakes were shining, and Shirley Weitz and Ruth Grossman were debating why Jews in this gated neighborhood of airy retirement homes feel so much trepidation about Senator Barack Obama.

Folks are starting to take specific notice of the fact that Hitler was a tool of the God John Hagee worships. Terrance at Republic of T wrote one of his typically intelligent posts about it and ended with this clip, which amused me so I stole it.

"Getting three political all-stars together like this is a clear lose-lose-lose situation for everyone involved," NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell said. "By themselves, none would have been capable of uniting the country. But the possibilities of what they could do together to drive it ever further apart are limitless."

Obama, Clinton, McCain Join Forces To Form Nightmare Ticket
May 21, 2008 | Issue 44•21 

WASHINGTON—Presidential hopefuls John McCain (R-AZ), Barack Obama (D-IL), and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) announced Monday their plans to form what many Beltway observers have already dubbed the "2008 Nightmare Ticket," a calculated move that political analysts say offers voters the worst of both worlds.

After nearly a year of verbal attacks and negative campaign ads, the nominees announced that, for the good of the country, they were willing to push their differences to the forefront and grant the American people the ticket they've been dreading all along.