A short while back the Fed announced a new program to buy up to $600 billion worth of mortgage backed securities. Remember, this was what the TARP was originally supposed to do. But then Paulson decided to invest money directly into the banks to recapitalize them. And then the Fed decided on its own to do basically the same thing on its own. They've already bought up $100 billion worth and they've now hired BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, PIMCO and Wellington Management Company to purchase and manage $500 billion more worth of the stuff.
Why did these four companies get the contract? That's none of your business. The Fed just decided.
[From Talking Points Memo | The Feds New Plan To Buy Toxic Assets]
12.31.2008
So take that
A miracle!
Alberto Gonzales, who has kept a low profile since resigning as attorney general nearly 16 months ago, said he is writing a book to set the record straight about his controversial tenure as a senior official in the Bush administration.
[From Gonzales To Write Tell-All Book]
Now he remembers everything!
And you were expecting this to make some sense?
The Illinois Senate appointment is a truly strange story. Or perhaps not. At the very moment when liberals are talking so smugly about moving into a post racial society, the Senate Democrats have voted not to admit a black man because they are embarrassed by the white guy who appointed him. Roland Burris would be the only black member of the Senate. If blacks were proportionally represented, there would be 13 of them.
[From UNDERNEWS: AN EARLY BLACK VICTIM OF THE POST RACIAL SOCIETY]
Blah, blah, the weather something something
Of course. It's snowing. And just at the wrong time (not to mention the wrong amount, which is lots). Never mind. I don't even want to talk about it. Don't ask.
"Green" tops this year's banished word list
Lake Superior State University "maverick" word-watchers, fresh from the holiday "staycation" but without an economic "bailout" even after a "desperate search," have issued their 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. This year's list may be more "green" than any of the previous lists and includes words and phrases that people from "Wall Street to Main Street" say they love "not so much" and wish to have erased from their "carbon footprint."
[From Lake Superior State University :: Banished Words List]
12.30.2008
The nanny is an iPod
"You know how they are -- they're going to sneak it if they can. They don't listen to their parents, but they listen to their iPods..."
[From Blow into the iBreath and your iPod plays a blood-alcohol alert -- chicagotribune.com]
With apps and gadgets, iPods or iPhones become breathalyzers, prevent you from making phone calls you might regret in the morning, even hail you a cab.
Am I craZy or is this beginning to look like some kind of shell game?
The Treasury Department said Monday that it will provide $5 billion to GMAC Financial Services LLC, the ailing financing arm of General Motors Corp., from the $700 billion bank rescue program.
The government will receive preferred shares that pay an 8 percent dividend and warrants to purchase additional shares in return for the money, the department said.
Treasury also said it will lend up to $1 billion to General Motors so that the company can purchase additional equity that GMAC is planning to offer as part of its effort to raise more capital.
[From TPM: News Pages | Talking Points Memo | GMAC receives $5B in bailout funds ]
12.29.2008
Who knew?
UMD (University of Minnesota at Duluth) Bulldogs win NCAA II national championship.
The Bulldogs, buoyed by a defensive unit which has been nothing short of stifling all year long, put a huge exclamation mark on a season for the ages by holding off No. 3 Northwest Missouri State University 21-14 in the NCAA II championship at Braly Municipal Stadium in Florence, Ala. With the historic victory, UMD finishes the year a perfect 15-0 -- one of only three NCAA II schools to ever reach that mark.
[From UMD Bulldogs - News]
Woohoo!
How retro is this?
Dude - pocket calendars, on paper!
[Just the first one that popped up on Google Imprinted Calendars for your Business from Amsterdam ]
Really. Paper. We have some at the office we're handing out, even. Who knew these things still existed, even?
And how far would that be, exactly?
"This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it...
[From Websites could get cinema-style ratings | Technology | Reuters]
Brits hope to involve Obama in drawing up rules for English language web sites. It's all for the kiddies, of course.
Where there's a buck, there's a way
WASHINGTON — A tight-knit group of former senior government officials who were central players in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s are seeking to capitalize on the latest economic meltdown, enjoying a surge in new business in their work now as private lawyers, investors and lobbyists.
With $700 billion in bailout money up for grabs, and billions of dollars worth of bad debt or failed bank assets most likely headed for sale or auction, these former officials are helping their clients get a piece of the bailout money or the chance to buy, at fire-sale prices, some of the bank assets taken over by the federal government....
Some of these former federal officials, like L. William Seidman, the first chairman of the R.T.C., are serving as advisers — sharing ideas with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the transition team for President-elect Barack Obama — even while they are separately directing investors or banks on how to best profit from this advice.
[From Veterans of ’90s Bank Bailout See Opportunity in Current One - NYTimes.com]
Out it all goes
New Yorkers put the tanking economy at the top of their list of things to forget about 2008.
Scores of people headed to Times Square Sunday to feed this year's bad memories through an industrial-sized paper shredder on the second annual "Good Riddance Day."
[From '08 goes straight in the shredder]
"I'm shredding my 401(k)," said Barbara Backer, 55, a recently retired professor from Manhattan...
Also into the shredder: Bank statements, letters from former lovers, and a sock without a mate.
12.28.2008
Yeah, we can guess about the "other factors"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Those eager to put 2008 behind them will have to hold their good-byes for just a moment this New Year's Eve.
The world's official timekeepers have added a "leap second" to the last day of the year on Wednesday, to help match clocks to the Earth's slowing spin on its axis, which takes place at ever-changing rates affected by tides and other factors.
[From Tick tock ... tick - Extra second added to 2008 | Reuters]
They've screwed that up too.
But only one life left
A Gold Coast cat has lived up to its name of Voodoo by magically surviving a 34-storey plunge from a high rise building.
[From Magic cat survives 34-storey fall - New Zealand, world, sport, business & entertainment news on Stuff.co.nz ]
12.27.2008
Cowboys to the end
One way to quell a violent and deteriorating situation, according to the U.S. military, is to flood the place with guns.
That's exactly what is planned for Afghanistan, where a rising tide of chaos is slowly pushing the country past Iraq as the most dangerous battlefield Americans tread upon....
"There are worries...putting even more weapons in the hands of local communities could lead to tribes fighting each other instead of the Taliban. U.S. troops could get caught in the middle." The plan would also hinge upon the weak Afghan government to maintain the loyalties of the newly armed populace.
[From The Raw Story | U.S. will give free weapons to Afghan civilians]
No risk in this investment
From California, Charlie sends this quote from Steven Wright:
"Hard work pays off in the future, laziness pays off now."
Enough for one day
I've played around all day with wiki software, finally found one called dokuwiki I really like, installed it on my laptop, and found out in the process my Unix skills are really rusty. Ouch. Gotta work on that.
But not today. Enough is enough. Starting to get too much like work.
Another cost of energy
(CNN) -- Estimates for the amount of thick sludge that gushed from a Tennessee coal plant this week have tripled to more than a billion gallons, as cleanup crews try to remove the goop from homes and railroads and halt its oozing into an adjacent river....
Environmental advocates say the ash contains concentrated levels of mercury and arsenic.
[From Tennessee sludge spill estimate grows to 1 billion gallons - CNN.com]
12.26.2008
Blue pill goes to war
WASHINGTON (AFP) — CIA agents are offering the potency drug Viagra and other gifts to win over Afghan warlords in the US-led war against Taliban insurgents, the Washington Post reported on Friday....
Four Viagra pills transformed the attitude of one influential 60-year-old warlord who had been wary of the United States.
"He came up to us beaming," one official told the Post.
[From The Raw Story | US offers Viagra to win over Afghan warlords: report]
Holy pixels, Batman!
VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is endorsing new technology that brings the book of daily prayers used by priests straight onto iPhones.
[From Sacred texts: Vatican embraces iTunes prayer book - BostonHerald.com]
The math test isn't funny enough already?
Imagine what would happen if a Hollywood comedy writer started thinking up questions for the SAT.
[From A funny thing happened on the way to the SAT - Los Angeles Times]
Beyond Christmas
ASK most British people what Boxing Day is for, and they will answer, “It’s the day the sales start.” Or, possibly, the day for “visiting the rellies” — Brit-speak for relatives. Ask an Irish person and you will get a history lesson on Christian saints and martyrs, reminding you that it is St. Stephen’s Day in Ireland. Ask an American, of course, and the answer is: “Boxing what?”
[From Op-Contributor - Why Even Americans Should Celebrate Boxing Day - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com]
Without rail, would stimulus plan go off track?
In proposing a stimulus plan that could total as much as $1 trillion, Obama has promised a new federal infrastructure program that would dwarf President Dwight Eisenhower’s interstate highway system that began in 1956. Obama told reporters at a Dec. 7 news conference that his effort would go beyond “roads and bridges” and fund more innovative projects.
His plans are colliding with deep fiscal shortfalls among states with a backlog of road-building needs and pressure from lawmakers to use his economic recovery package mainly for “ready to go” projects that will immediately bolster the economy.
[From Bloomberg.com: Politics]
Hold that metaphor
From the Arcata police log:
11:17 a.m. Tensions bubbled up ’twixt a man and woman like a pot of boiling oil at the everlasting donut shop. In this metaphor, they would play the donuts, bobbing in the searing grease of anger. Police dunked the drama in an eye-opening cup of disturbing the peace, clearing the shop of tensions like crumbs wiped from a pastry aficionado’s double chin, leaving a surface sheen of relief.
[From Arcata Eye :: The mildly objectionable weekly newspaper for Arcata, California]
It was a bad year for the shopkeepers
Online sales fared best with 2% decline.
Price-slashing failed to rescue a bleak holiday season for beleaguered retailers, as sales plunged across most categories on shrinking consumer spending, according to new data released Thursday.
Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell over the year-earlier period by 5.5% in November and 8% in December through Christmas Eve, according to MasterCard Inc.'s SpendingPulse unit.
[From Retail Sales Plummet - WSJ.com]
12.25.2008
An early nominee
Maybe we'll get into the end-of-year game ourselves in '09, something like Top Ten Work Avoidance Efforts might work - and with that in mind we're nominating today's NYTimes piece on news of Christmases past.
The ur-event of Christmas past in the greater New York region, the one whose happening in some sense led to all the others, was George Washington’s historic crossing of the Delaware River to attack Trenton, in 1776. Not to leap too far ahead of the game here, but one cannot help but think that but for Washington’s feat, Bernard King of the Knicks would never have been able to score 60 points, 208 years later, in a valiant losing effort against the Nets on Christmas Day 1984.
[From News May Slow, but Doesn’t Stop, Even on Christmas - NYTimes.com]
Looking for a place?
The modest, red-brick home once owned by Al Capone is expected to hit the market this spring for an estimated $450,000, marking a new chapter for the infamous South Side landmark that has had just two owners since the death of Capone's mother in 1952.
[From Al Capone's house to go on the market - Chicago Breaking News]
Except the other ones, that is
“[Obama] is the first president who might actually have eaten organic food, or at least eats out at great restaurants,” Ms. Gehman Kohan said.
[From Advocates of Change in Food Policy Look to Obama With Hope - NYTimes.com]
12.24.2008
Why it's difficult for journalists to report on Santa Claus
This week, the Chicago Tribune published an online column by health and fitness reporter Julie Deardorff, but decided not to publish it in the paper.
The reason: The column was titled "Mommy, is there a Santa Claus?," and the paper didn't want little kids to read it.
[From Poynter Online - Al's Morning Meeting]
Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue, who adds:
Al's another good guy -- he went to Murray State University, launching pad for some awesome journalistic careers. Read to the end -- it goes to the heart of the struggles journalists face. The only time I ever stopped the presses was to correct an ad -- offering a piece of furniture for 75 cents instead of 75 dollars (it was a long time ago, when 75 bucks was still a lot of money.)
A formidable list with, one notes, an omission
Writes Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue:
Another heartbreak for Bengals fans -- the toothless tigers are so bad that they can't even make the list of the all-time worst teams ever. Fire Mike Brown!
But ah, the memories. Those '62 Mets may have been lousy at playing baseball but Casey's descriptions of the games on the late evening news made it all worthwhile.
And the '81 Northwestern football team? Some Chicago-area wag that year modified a highway sign to read:
Interstate 294
Northwestern 0
Here's looking at you
From Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue:
From columns of cloud streaking over the Caspian Sea in January to vast tracts of cleared forest in Bolivia in December. In 2008, the NASA Earth Observatory has captured more stunning images of the Earth.
[From NASA captures stunning pictures of Earth - CNN.com]
Garrison Keillor: Christmas without translation
A man gets a keener sense of the divine in a church that is not your own. Maybe Luther and Calvin and Jan Hus and all them were dead wrong and literacy is not the key nor an understanding of Scripture, and maybe the essence of Christmas is dumb childlike wonder and the more you think about it, the less you understand. Which makes me glad I am no smarter than I am. Let's go have lunch.
[From Garrison Keillor: Christmas without translation | Salon ]
Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue.
Yes, Virginia
On Sept. 21, 1897, The New York Sun published what was to become the most widely read letter to a newspaper. It was sent by 8-year-old, Virginia O'Hanlon, who lived with her parents in Manhattan. Below is the full text of that letter and the reply by Sun editorial writer Francis Pharcellus Church.
Dear Editor, I am 8 years old.
Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
Papa says, "If you see it in The Sun, it's so."
Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O'Hanlon
115 W. 95th St.
Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see.They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable inthe world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God he lives and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10 thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
[From Bush's forgiveness of Brooklyn mortgage shark smacks of political favoritism]
Screwing up to the end
Add one more bit of anxiety to the lives of Louisianians who fled to Texas to escape Hurricane Katrina: the threat of identity theft, an unexpected byproduct of handing over personal information to FEMA.
FEMA has confirmed that an "unauthorized breach of private information" resulted in the information release of 16,857 names, Social Security and phone numbers, and other private details of people who had applied for benefits. The information was flashed on a pair of privately run Web sites, but for how long was unclear.
[From FEMA data on Katrina evacuees leaked - Breaking News from New Orleans - Times-Picayune - NOLA.com ]
It's gonna be a deep winter in the Northland
Snowy winter: Duluth has received about 40 inches of snow so far this season [36 of it in December], 10 inches more than normal. That’s near the pace of the record snowy winter of 135.4 inches set in 1995-96.
[From More snow on the way after Christmas Day | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota ]
Just making stuff up
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a core inflation index that excludes food and gasoline because those items, you know, fluctuate (and math is hard!); turns out some wealth management outfit (I'll manage my own wealth, thank you) in Pittsburgh applies the same imaginative method to calculating "The 12 Days of Christmas" gift list.
The tab [this year] will be $15,480.10. But that price is valid only if the costly flock of trumpeter swans — the song calls for seven swans a-swimming — are struck from the gift list...
Swans, which vary widely in price because of their scarcity, have caused big swings in the index. The gift package this year would shoot up to $21,080.10 if the swans were included because the going price for the seven is $5,600. That is a 33 percent increase, or $1,400, for the swans compared with the price last year.
[From Skip the Swans and Shower Your True Love - NYTimes.com]
An incidental item
Six paragraphs down in an article about a new medical product being used by Army medics comes this sobering note:
Today, 90 percent of injured troops survive their wounds, the highest rate of any war, Cordts said in an interview. He credited better training of combat medics, better body armor the troops wear and better tactics they use on the battlefield, as well improved bandages, tourniquets and so on.
[From Army halts use of new battlefield first aid item | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser]
GlobalSecurity.org reports 4,141 US killed and 30,182 US Wounded in Iraq as of this month.
12.23.2008
Better try hitching a ride on the sleigh
Airlines have canceled more than 400 flights at O'Hare International Airport as of 3 p.m. today because of the snowstorm moving through the Chicago area, city aviation officials said.
[From 400 flights canceled at O'Hare - Chicago Breaking News]
A Democrat lawyer finds hippie Nirvana
From Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue:
Don Mooney's a good guy, and this is a nice piece about spending the holidays in Taos. I hate the cold, but this makes me want to go back. It's a beautiful place.
An aside:
The first time we visited to Taos was on our first RV adventure in a rented Class C rig, with Cruise America (the rental company) ads plastered all over the sides and back. We were a rolling billboard.
With us was our trusty sidekick Rocket, a retired racing greyhound who was reduced to a 90-pound quivering mass by the motion of the motorized box. We were desperate for a way to ease his anxiety attacks when we ran into a vet in a blustery campground on a mountain ridge outside of town. We described the symptoms, and she told us to go to a natural health store in Taos and ask for a certain concoction -- the name of which we promptly forgot.
In the store, we told the helpful clerk with rainbow-striped hair what the vet had told us, but that we didn't know the name of the product. She smiled and handed us a bottle: "This always works for me."
It worked for Rocket, too -- he spent the rest of the trip on a small bed in the back, blissfully zonked.
Sadly, Taos is also where my friend Max Jennings -- retired editor of The Dayton Daily News, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a wonderful companion on anybody's boat -- suffered a heart attack on a ski slope. Max was a great editor, an incredible teacher and one of the best story-tellers I've ever shared a bottle of bourbon with.
RIP, old friend.
The Radical Left (Coast)
From Charlie in California:
This made my day:
Ted Costa, of the People's Advocate group (led the recall of Gov. Davis which gave Calif. Arnold), has a new initiative for 2010:
If the Calif. legislature fails to enact a budget by its fiscal ending date (June 30th), it would immediately dissolve and the incumbents would be prohibited from running in the replacement election.
Ya gotta love California. If the cliche that California leads the nation's direction is true, then there's hope for the federal legislature.
Dave Barry's Holiday Gift Guide
Are you stressed out and uptight? Do you often feel tense? Would you like to enjoy the kind of physical relaxation and peace of mind that result from looking like the biggest dork on the planet? If so, you, or the lucky individuals on your holiday gift list, need the Head Spa Massager.
[From DAVE BARRY: Dave Barry's Holiday Gift Guide -- chicagotribune.com]
Bear weather
The hardy souls who braved the weather at Soldier Field as the Chicago Bears beat their most hated rival, the Green Bay Packers, experienced the coldest Bears game ever at the stadium.
[From Snow falls as temps rise - Chicago Breaking News]
The 2-degree game tied a 1951 cold-weather record at Wrigley Field, but beat the previous Soldier Field record of 5 degrees, set in 1983. The Bears moved to the lakefront stadium in 1971.
12.22.2008
From deep in some bizarre, otherworldly time zone
You gotta love Dick Cheney.
[From Op-Ed Columnist - William Kristol - Popularity Isn’t Everything - NYTimes.com]
But nowhere near as fun to watch
At least Dick Cheney, as wrong a guy as we've ever had this close to the presidency, goes out in character, thinking that he and George W. Bush were right about everything. The problem is that Cheney's character now sounds as weird and unhinged as Jack Nicholson's in "A Few Good Men."
[From I'll be thrilled to see you go, Dick Cheney]
Curiously Toyota
TOKYO — Toyota Motor, the Japanese auto giant, announced Monday that it expected the first loss in 70 years in its core vehicle-making business, underscoring how the economic crisis is spreading across the global auto industry.
[From Toyota Expects Its First Loss in 70 Years - NYTimes.com]
So that would be, I happen to know - the 70 years, I mean - since 1938. And that, in turn, would mean Toyota, according to this announcement as reported by the NYTimes, suffered no loss in its "core vehicle-making business" even during WWII. Which is pretty impressive. Or mysterious. Or...well what were you expecting, Bunky, anyway?
Did we just hear a pin drop?
[A Cheney interview on Fox] comes as part of a broad effort by Bush and his aides to focus attention on issues that they consider major accomplishments of their two terms in office.
[From Cheney offers blunt defense of Bush administration's record - The Boston Globe]
Newsweek: The Global Elite
From Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue:
Fascinating reading. The 50 most powerful people in the world include #34 Steve Jobs, beloved by his employees, and #50 Jim Rogers, vilified by his; #16 David Petraeus, the savior, according to John McCain and #24 Nancy Pelosi, Satan herself, according the McCain/Palin followers; #9 Vladimir Putin and #46 The Dalai Lama.
See Newsweek The Global Elite | Newsweek.com
12.21.2008
Kettle, meet pot
In a scathing 500-word statement, the White House ridiculed The New York Times for a front-page Sunday story that suggests President Bush is directly responsible for the mortgage crisis....
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino wrote the response to the article, accusing the paper of "gross negligence" and extremely biased reporting.
[From The Raw Story | White House slams NY Times for 'gross negligence']
How awesome is that? Dana Perino accusing the Times of bias.
Next month, after the Obamas get sworn in, maybe the Bushies could all get together and start a new comedy channel.
Not too early to start planning an escape
Tourist Traps You Love
[From Tourist Traps You Love - Budget Travel]
Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue.
The Suite Life
Once upon a time, celebrities swinging through New York City often spun through the Plaza hotel’s famous revolving doors to check in, dine, or cavort.
[From The Suite Life at the Plaza: About Us: vanityfair.com]
Photos of celebrities at New York's Plaza hotel noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue, who also notes, accurately, the Plaza had one of the world's great bars, nearly as good, in fact, as the Algonquin.
:-)
And as soon as we can figure out what that is, we'll let you know
The flip side of Nashville
The 'Athens of the South' has much more than country music
By Phil Vettel | Tribune Reporter
December 21, 2008
[From The flip side of Nashville -- chicagotribune.com]
Related links
Spike O'Dell's favorite eats
Story, in toto, on Chicago Tribune web site (11:14 EST 12/21).
News you would never in a million years believe
Or, then again, maybe you would.
Overall, 33 states are now in a recession, while 17 are at risk for one, according to Moody's. The District of Columbia, with its government and government-related jobs, still has an expanding economy.
[From ABC News: Recession Nation: No State Spared]
Yup, that's right. The only place in the country with an expanding economy is DC.
Quelle surprise.
Nearly as surprising, to moi, here, is that Massachusetts is still listed by Moody's as "at risk," although certainly that judgement is based on whatever's happening in Boston and not anywhere near the aforementioned moi. Here in Appalachia North (yes, that's the north end of the Appalachian chain out there) it ain't so swell. But maybe it's still better than some places else, which is, for the moment and for us, good.
The scandal factor
The recession has many victims, but one of the least heralded is the collapse of the juicy sex scandal. It seems like ages since anyone cared about John Edwards’s extramarital folderol. Madonna’s divorce settlement is a footnote. Eliot Spitzer is so pre-Fannie Mae....
...when greed trumps lust, and fraud is more fascinating than infidelity, it’s safe to say that the recession has arrived.
[From Critic’s Notebook - Scandals to Warm To - NYTimes.com]
Economy booms for shoe company in Turkey
Demand quadruples
4,000 pairs ordered by Maryland company
The brown, thick-soled “Model 271” may soon be renamed “The Bush Shoe” or “Bye-Bye Bush,” Ramazan Baydan, who owns the Istanbul-based producer Baydan Ayakkabicilik San. & Tic., said in a telephone interview today.
“We’ve been selling these shoes for years but, thanks to Bush, orders are flying in like crazy,” he said. “We’ve even hired an agency to look at television advertising.”
[From Bloomberg.com: Europe]
12.20.2008
Back in the driver's seat?
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Federal Express Corp's decision this week to force its salaried workers to take at least a 5 percent pay cut and to suspend its 401(k) match isn't just bad news for the shipping giant's employees....
The moves also underscore how much the tables have turned on U.S. workers as a result of the economic crisis, which has put employers firmly back in the driver's seat.
[From FedEx delivers ominous new twist with benefit cuts | U.S. | Reuters]
When were they out?
Crime and punishment
Fallen financier Bernard Madoff Friday was ordered confined to his $7 million upper East Side penthouse 24 hours a day by a Manhattan federal judge.
[From Feds confine Bernie Madoff to his $7 million penthouse until trial]
On hitting the wall
The financial services industry has claimed an ever-growing share of the nation’s income over the past generation, making the people who run the industry incredibly rich. Yet, at this point, it looks as if much of the industry has been destroying value, not creating it. And it’s not just a matter of money: the vast riches achieved by those who managed other people’s money have had a corrupting effect on our society as a whole.
[From Op-Ed Columnist - The Madoff Economy - NYTimes.com]
GOP's new idea: Get an idea
In a frank and private memo sent today to Republican National Commitee members, the RNC chairman acknowledges that the GOP has grown too addicted to ideology, places politics before policy, and is bereft of ideas -- and that it's imperative that the party shift towards a genuine effort to develop concrete policy solutions to people's problems in order to rescue itself.
[From TPM Election Central | Talking Points Memo | In Private Memo, RNC Chief Concedes That GOP Is Bereft Of Ideas, Vows Change Of Direction]
(Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue)
On fruit
WASHINGTON -- It is a legitimate question: Why is the resume-thin Caroline Kennedy being treated seriously as a prospective appointee to the U.S. Senate when the comparatively more-qualified Gov. Sarah Palin received such a harsh review?
It is legitimate, at least, to those inclined to see apples and oranges as essentially the same.
[From Caroline Kennedy Is No Sarah Palin - washingtonpost.com]
(Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue)
12.19.2008
And it's a Ford?
Had Ford made a few hundred thousand of these cars available in June -- along with the financing to sell them -- we'd be erecting 50-foot equestrian statues of William Clay Ford and Alan Mulally in city squares, and the streets of Dearborn, Mich., would be repaved with diamond cobblestones.
[From 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid: 52 mpg and the darkness before dawn - Los Angeles Times]
Well, yes. It is.
Shoes news
Wired's Underwire presents a whole page of throwing-shoes-at-Bush toys online, while Danger Room assesses the fighting footware arsenal.
OK, let's just take a deep breath here
Butter Holds the Secret to Cookies That Sing
[From Butter Holds the Secret to Cookies That Sing - NYTimes.com]
Sing? Cookies?
And here's the beauty part...
Fed OKs rules barring unfair credit card practices
[From Fed OKs rules barring unfair credit card practices | Reuters]
...they don't go into effect until 2010.
12.18.2008
2008 Mug Shots Of The Year
DECEMBER 17--What makes a good photograph? A compelling subject, proper lighting, and exquisite composition would certainly be components. But what makes a good mug shot? A compelling subject, of course. And a cow costume never hurts.
[From 2008 Mug Shots Of The Year - December 17, 2008]
Could be quite a show, but don't buy tickets in advance
Now, a bipartisan report by the Senate Armed Services Committee has made what amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; his legal counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.
The report shows how actions by these men “led directly” to what happened at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in secret C.I.A. prisons.
[From Editorial - The Torture Report - NYTimes.com]
And especially in the Oval Office
(By the way, we’re approaching the one-month-to-go mark on the George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown calendar. The presidential quote of the week is: “Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods.”)
[From Op-Ed Columnist - Send in the Celebrities - NYTimes.com]
(Noted by Midwest Bureau Chief Phil Compton)
Over the side they go
Facing $114 million in state budget cuts, Boston Medical Center announced yesterday that 250 employees will be laid off or have their hours reduced and that patient services will be cut in key areas, including primary care, pediatrics, and geriatrics.
More than half of the hospital's patients are low-income residents, so the reductions are likely to hit hardest on the city's most vulnerable, the immigrants, poor families, and senior citizens who receive free or subsidized care at the hospital, patient advocates said. The cuts were to take effect immediately.
[From Boston Medical to cut staff, services - The Boston Globe]
Some guys are just easy to surprise
Dr. Paul Grabb, a pediatric brain surgeon, said he was surprised when he discovered a small foot growing inside the brain of 3-day-old Sam Esquibel.
[From Colorado Doctor Finds Foot In Newborn's Brain - Staying Healthy News Story - KMGH Denver]
(Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue.)
Taking the paper out
This might go down as the week that they took paper out of the newspaper business.
Detroit's two daily newspapers announced Tuesday that they plan to reduce home delivery to just three days a week. And the trade organization for newspaper editors scheduled an April vote on whether to drop "paper" from its name.
[From How long can newspapers keep delivering the news? - Los Angeles Times]
"Frightening times for those of us with ink in our veins. (aka: dinosaurs)," notes our Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Pall Knue.
12.17.2008
And we're lucky to get the streets plowed
In Paris, nude models are a public service.
Models who pose for Paris' Beaux Arts workshops have staged a nude strike to have their work recognised as a "proper profession".
Braving freezing conditions, the models - of all ages, shapes and sizes - bared all in front of the cultural section of the Paris town hall, which runs the art workshops, saying their aim was "not to shock but to show how we work".
The models, who are paid by the Paris town hall, said the mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, should spend a little less on grand cultural gestures and more on lower-profile activities like theirs. They also want fixed contracts.
[From Paris nude models bare all in strike to be recognised as professionals - Telegraph]
(Noted by our Seattle bureau)
YA shoe-throwing game
The aim of "Sock and Awe" (www.sockandawe.com), launched by Britain's Alex Tew, is to knock Bush out with a shoe, a feat already attained by 1.4 million players, according to the website Tuesday.
Aptly named after the US "Shock and Awe" military campaign to knock out Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the game gives players 30 seconds to aim at a figure of Bush ducking behind a rostrum.
[From The Raw Story | Taking a swipe at Bush: Zaidi-inspired shoe game on Internet]
While you're waiting to get on to this extremely busy web site you can have a go with Kast sko mot Bush (on our ever-expanding Work Avoidance list).
Update:
From "Sock and Awe," 9:14 AM, 12/17/08: 7,369,971 hits so far. Two mine.)
If there's anything scarier than this, we don't want to know what it is
WASHINGTON — The White House has prepared more than a dozen contingency plans to help guide President-elect Barack Obama if an international crisis erupts in the opening days of his administration...
[From Bush Prepares Crisis Briefings to Aid Obama - NYTimes.com]
And no, it's not the international crisis part that frightens me. It's the George W. Bush contingency plan. If there's anything you don't want to happen, Bunky, take my word, it's that.
No wonder they were slow to notice Wall Street...
Hub firm cuts ties as feds probe National Lampoon - BostonHerald.com
...they were investigating the National freaking Lampoon.
'Tis the season of make-believe
SPRINGFIELD -- State lawmakers insisted today they could fairly investigate Gov. Rod Blagojevich following years of criticizing him as a terrible leader as they opened unprecedented impeachment proceedings against him.
[From Impeachment panel begins, teeth clenched - Chicago Breaking News]
On the Bank Crisis - March 12,1933
We had a bad banking situation. Some of our bankers had shown themselves either incompetent or dishonest in their handling of the people's funds. They had used the money entrusted to them in speculations and unwise loans.
[From On the Bank Crisis - March 12,1933 ]
--F.D.R.
(Fireside chats from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum)
12.16.2008
Et tu, Newt?
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sent a rather scathing letter to Mike Duncan on Tuesday, accusing the RNC chairman of engaging in "a destructive distraction" by attempting to tie Barack Obama to Rod Blagojevich. In particular, Gingrich hit the RNC for putting out a web ad that made it seem as if the President-elect was hiding a nefarious chapter of his personal history with the embattled Illinois Governor.
[From Gingrich Rips RNC For Its Blagojevich Attacks]
(Noted with wonder by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue)
And from those left standing, a sigh of relief
Trend of the Year: Epic Organizational Failure
[From Regret the Error » Crunks 2008: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections]
It’s rare to look back over a year of corrections and errors and see so many examples of organizational failure. Years past have seen plenty of malfeasance by individuals, but 2008 is remarkable for news organizations that pursued completely outrageous behavior.
(Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue)
What we need here...
To make it possible Yahoo introduces a notion of “connections” where various account owners can be suggested as “connections” for you to be able to track updates of their use of various services and see what they are up to - same as what you do on a social network like Facebook but right from your Yahoo Mail interface.
[From Blog Posts powered by BlogBurst | Reuters.com]
...is a social network for hermits. Because pretty soon there will be nowhere else to go.
Next, slop
LIGHT SNOW WILL BEGIN TO OVERSPREAD MUCH OF SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND TONIGHT AS LOW PRESSURE MOVES NORTHWARD UP THE MID ATLANTIC COAST. THE SNOW WILL GRADUALLY MIX WITH SOME SLEET AND LIGHT FREEZING RAIN WEDNESDAY MORNING FROM SOUTH TO NORTH.
[From Severe Weather Alert - weather.com ]
For the last few days I've been looking with wonder at the photos of the recent New England ice storm. Nestled here in the river valley, we saw none of it. But elsewhere in the state, and further north, it was brutal - roads closed, trees down, utility poles snapped, families without power indefinitely.
Next up, a New England slop storm. We might get lucky again, but time is clearly running out.
Oh well. For the people who are into grayish-glop Christmases, this might be just the thing.
File under Stuff I Want To Just Forget About
However, research has shown the teenage brain and the young adult brain is not fully developed. A part of the brain called the dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex is still developing through these years. The dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex is believed to be responsible for judgment and consideration of risk, so its lack of development in adolescents and young adults might lead them to make risky or poor decisions.
[From Teens unaware of long-term repercussions of 'sexting' :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Laura Berman]
Not a good time to own a shoe store in Dallas
WASHINGTON—In movies, Secret Service agents leap in front of bullets aimed at the commander in chief. But in Baghdad, agents failed to block not one, but two shoes hurled at President George W. Bush during a weekend news conference.
So a day after Bush dodged flying footwear, Secret Service officials faced questions Monday about how an angry television reporter was able to throw his shoes before agents moved into the line of fire.
[From Secret Service takes a hit after shoes thrown at George Bush -- chicagotribune.com]
Everybody has to take them off in airports, I'm told (I'm waiting for some headline writer to coin "pants bomber") - now, what, anywhere close to the doofus too?
You could save yourself a lot of bother by just going barefoot.
When frightening headlines are written...
Auto industry rescue on hold as Bush looks at the data
[From Auto industry rescue on hold as Bush looks at the data | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press]
YA book they won't want at the Bush Library
BAGHDAD — An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.
[From Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders - ProPublica]
Hacking trees
Hackers have accessed Brazilian government computer systems and helped 107 companies obtain permits that enabled them to fell over £546million ($833m) worth of timber illegally....
"By hacking into the permit system, these companies have made their timber shipments appear legal and compliant with the forest management plans. But in reality, they're trading illegal timber which is making the problem of deforestation worse, and a lack of control and policing in the areas they're logging means they think they can get away with it."
[From Hackers 'Responsible' for £546m of Illegal Deforestation in the Amazon]
12.15.2008
It's Wi-Fi Man!
Dude, this is very possibly - no, absolutely - the geekiest thing I've ever seen. T-shirt lights up when it detects Wi-Fi, indicates signal strength. Standing in just exactly the right place, I can become, literally, a flasher. (Instructions say, "Caution: Don only in phone booth." Does anybody remember what a phone booth is?)Yea, Lynn!
"News You Can Lose"
More on the decline of ink:
There’s no mystery as to the source of all the trouble: advertising revenue has dried up.
[From News You Can Lose: Financial Page: The New Yorker]
(Contributed by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue)
Pervert in Europe
Sounds like a Henry James novel. But, no...
While researching my book on salacious history, Napoleon's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped, I realized that this deviant itinerary could still be traced through the underbelly of Europe—in short, a Pervert's Grand Tour. I'd always avoided the most popular attractions of Britain, France, and Italy, but this was an inspiring prospect: I would pick three "official" destinations and seek out some tasteful historical filth.
[From The pervert's grand tour of Europe. (1) - By Tony Perrottet - Slate Magazine ]
(Noted by Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue)
Zombies on Ice
About 100 people dressed in their zombie finest hit Millennium Park on Sunday for some ice skating....
"Anybody can be a zombie. You just need makeup," said Joe Penn, 19, a Harper College student.
[From A really dead crowd at downtown rink :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Lifestyles]
Bonus feature: Zombie fonts
Warning: Has audio, and it's really scary stuff.
While we're at it, let's end the first one too
For more than a decade, federal officials have denied that sick veterans of the Gulf War share a distinct illness. But a 452-page federal report by an independent committee of scientists and veterans, released last month by the Boston University School of Public Health, found that at least 174,000 veterans, or 1 in 4 people deployed by the US military to the Persian Gulf in 1990 and 1991, have Gulf War illness, manifesting in a range of symptoms, probably caused by pesticide exposure and an experimental drug that hundreds of thousands were ordered to take as a precaution against chemical attack.
[From BU report traces veterans' Gulf War illness to experimental drug - The Boston Globe]
File under There's a First Time for Everything
At Harvard University, the talk of billion-dollar losses in its massive endowment has blown in a new age of austerity across the campus....
Faculty members, who are not slated for raises next year, will be expected to pitch in on clerical work (Question: How many Harvard philosophy professors does it take to work a Xerox machine? Answer: Unclear. It's never been done).
[From Harvard pursues an unfamiliar discipline - The Boston Globe]
My annual concession to merriment
I'm loading my Christmas music collection onto my iPhone today - five renditions of The Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting...): Ella, Barbara, Mel Tormé, Lew Rawls, and Nat "King" Cole; Nina Simone's Chilly Winds Don't Blow and Sophie Milman's This Time of Year; and the Vince Guaraldi Trio's album, A Charlie Brown Christmas.
It's a veritable OD of cheer.
But hey, it's only ten days.
Heckuva job
(Noted by our Midwest bureau)Imagine if President Bush, on his last day in office, invited his friends to lift the Lincoln portrait from the White House Dining Room, take the 18th- century furniture from the Map Room and — for good measure — poison the Rose Garden on the way out.
In essence, he is doing the same thing this month with land that belongs to every American — the magical redrock country of the Southwest.
[From Op-Ed Guest Columnist - Final Days Fire Sale - Editorial - NYTimes.com]
12.14.2008
In Vermont, not all job news is bad
Business is so brisk at the state unemployment office that it is hiring workers.
[From Jobless claims strain phone lines, state fund | burlingtonfreepress.com | The Burlington Free Press]
Unwitting
President Bush is trying mightily to rewrite the history of the Iraq war before his administration leaves power. He and members of his national security brain trust, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, would like to dispel the narrative that they misled the country into war. Instead, both Bush and Rice are trying to characterize the White House as the unwitting recipient of faulty intelligence.
[From Revisionist history about the Iraq war]
Is that anything like witless? Just asking.
Meanwhile, while all eyes were on Illinois
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
[From Bloomberg.com: Exclusive]
From the Editor
Undoubtedly due to our recent staff expansion here on YAME's flagship blog, our readership has skyrocketed into the mid-20s and Technorati now ranks us 1,425,369th in the world.
Move over, Rupert.
Swedes brace for immigration spike
There is good news, sort of, for folks living in Brazil. A new presidential decree has imposed stringent demands on how consumer calls must be handled. In theory, no more long waits, no more endless transfers.
But before you pack up and relocate, here’s the thing. Companies are already pointing out that consumers will bear the extra costs, and one executive said there is no way to offer “Swedish quality at Indian prices.”
[From Oddly Enough » Blog Archive » Your call is important to us… Do you GET sarcasm? | Blogs | ]
A little cheating in the Most Corrupt State game
If Blagojevich ultimately goes to prison, he will become the fourth out of the last eight governors to wear stripes, joining predecessors George Ryan (racketeering, conspiracy, obstruction), Dan Walker (bank fraud), and Otto Kerner (straight-up bribery).
[From Which state is the most corrupt—Illinois or Louisiana? - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine ]
It's a "fact" making the rounds these days - and as stated it may be true enough - but Dan Walker doesn't really belong on the list. Although he served for a while on Adlai Stevenson's staff, Walker was not a career politician - and most emphatically not a machine politician.
Walker was corporate attorney for Montgomery Ward when he was named by Richard J. (Da Mare) Daley to head the Chicago Study Team set up in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention riot, in part because he was widely known to be one of the few Democrats in the city not in Da Mare's pocket. On the strength of public acclaim for the study team's report, Walker conducted an outsider campaign for the Democratic nomination and went on to win the Governor's mansion in 1972.
(One of my friends in Chicago wrote the police section of the study team's report and on the basis of that association I wound up working on the outer fringes of Walker's campaign. Others more central to Walker's election had names that have become familiar again today - Axelrod and Pritzger among them.)
With no big fan base in either party, Walker proved an ineffective governor. But not a crook - or at least not one that was caught. Walker's legal troubles came later - after leaving office and becoming involved in a Chicago-suburban Savings and Loan, Walker was convicted of "banking improprieties."
Imagine that.
(For more info, Wikipedia's entry on Walker is here.)
'Tis the season to be merry
A man called police on Wednesday night after he came home from work and spotted an intoxicated woman drinking a beer on the roof of his home. The 28-year-old woman was taken into custody after she refused to get down and leave. The police report said the woman agreed to leave only if the man agreed to give her more beer.
[From Fla. woman drinking on roof asks man for more beer]
"Pretty memorable" cold forecast in WA
Confusion reigns
Mount Vernon reported four inche ofd snow...
[From Snow falls; bitterly cold weather looms]
But if the idea catches on...
What went down in the Land of Lincoln is just the reductio ad absurdum of an American era where both entitlement and corruption have been the calling cards of power. Blagojevich’s alleged crimes pale next to the larger scandals of Washington and Wall Street. Yet those who promoted and condoned the twin national catastrophes of reckless war in Iraq and reckless gambling in our markets have largely escaped the accountability that now seems to await the Chicago punk nabbed by the United States attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.
[From Op-Ed Columnist - Two Cheers for Rod Blagojevich - Editorial - NYTimes.com]
The Windy City way
Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to declare Blagojevich "disabled." She called on the justices—some of whom are there by grace of the Chicago machine—to remove Blagojevich, pronto....
Madigan's stunt was treated as legitimate jaw-dropping news by the national networks. She declared herself "the people's lawyer," over and over....
What they didn't report on the evening news is this: Lisa Madigan is more than just "the people's lawyer." She's a candidate for governor and Dead Meat is in her way. Her daddy is Mike Madigan, powerful boss of the machine's 13th Ward and speaker of the Illinois House who hates Dead Meat.
Her dad wants to make her governor. She wants to be governor. And the best way to get there is to whisk Dead Meat into a political straitjacket and lock him in the political version of a padded cell.
[From Will 'feditis' spread to Obama and Daley? -- chicagotribune.com]
12.13.2008
There'll always be an England
A West Yorkshire grandmother has sold the best seat in front of her TV on eBay for Christmas to avoid family rows.
[From Ananova - Gran sells best seat in front of TV on eBay ]
Sex trials: Small potatoes in Illinois
Embattled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich is searching for an A-level criminal defense attorney, but apparently he hasn't pulled the trigger just yet....
So far, Blagojevich has been represented on federal corruption charges by Sheldon Sorosky, a family friend who is a little-known lawyer. Sorosky is an unlikely candidate for such a powerhouse political corruption case. Although he represented a co-defendant in former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds' sex trial--and won an acquittal for his client--most of his cases are more ordinary.
[From Gov. spends day at lawyer's office - Chicago Breaking News]
But a step up from parking tickets, nonetheless.
A man walks into a pro shop with underwear on his head
OK, true, the assailant was wearing underpants on his head. And, yes, the weapon was only a kitchen knife. And yes, he did move at the speed of Willard Scott on stilts, but what did you expect? We did say the guy got caught by golfers.
[From Rick Reilly: A man walks into a pro shop with underwear on his head - ESPN The Magazine]
Noted by our Underpaid and Underappreciated Midwest Bureau Cub Reporter Paul Knue.
(Hey, is that a promotion? Looks like a new title to me.)
Worst jobs ever
Noted by our Midwest bureau Cub reporter (who also mentions his own: "no-pay, no-credit-on-the-masthead, no-hope-for-the-future") Paul Knue:
[From Open Salon: You make the headlines ]
Saturday is Windows day around here
It's the day I go out and run errands, so I boot up Windows before I leave so it can have a little quality time to play with itself. Usually it gets done in an hour or so, but it's running slow today. Must have been a lot of patches in the queue. Maybe I'll take a nap.
High hopes
Michael Johnston is a political science professor at Colgate University in New York — which is ranked just after Illinois for corruption convictions. Johnston, who has studied political corruption for 30 years, said places such as Illinois gain a bad reputation that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"Expectations build up … and you replicate those expectations when you get to the top of the ladder," Johnston said.
[From North Dakota tops analysis of corruption - USATODAY.com]
But North Dakota is most corrupt state, paper says.
Oh, the shame.
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