7.24.2010

Awwww, isn't this cute

The president said he's already started explaining the basic concepts of money, savings and interest to his daughters, Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9. He says they're almost old enough where they may be able to "earn some money babysitting," and that they have their own savings accounts.

link: President Obama Talks About Elizabeth Warren, shirley sherrod, financial reform and his daughters as babysitters - ABC News

Or maybe a lemonade stand on the White House lawn.


Cool

It turns out Chopin's First Piano Concerto is just exactly long enough for me to walk to the grocery store, fill my big blue bag with whatever stuff I walked to the grocery store to get, and walk back. Home. So, not ideal listening conditions, I guess, but a pleasant shopping trip nonetheless.

7.23.2010

Why do we keep paying these guys?

Conceding that they can't find enough votes for the legislation, Senate Democrats on Thursday abandoned efforts...

link: Lack of votes for Senate Democrats' energy bill may mean the end


Main Street

Fox News, NY - Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper.

link: UNDERNEWS: ENTROPY UPDATE


"Like ugly on a toad"

Yes, the banking barons now have to adjust to stricter regulations, many of which are good and long overdue. But these guys are experts at slipping out of governmental leashes. Indeed, JPMorgan Chase alone has had 90 "project teams" at work for months, plotting end runs around new regulations long before they were even passed.

Read: t r u t h o u t | Jim Hightower | Grinning Bankers


7.22.2010

Baloney

President Obama said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack erred in pushing out Shirley Sherrod over allegations of racism that later proved unsubstantiated, but the real culprit, he told ABC News, was the media.

link: Obama Blames Media For His Administration's Firing Of Shirley Sherrod


Today in crime

Johnson was charged with possession of marijuana for having a marijuana cigar in his ear as he talked to police.

link: Lemonade stand help pours in from far away | freep.com | Detroit Free Press


7.21.2010

Squirm

The president had been briefed [about the incident involving Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod], [White House press bimbo] Gibbs said, and "he talked about the fact that a disservice had been done, an injustice had happened and, because the facts had changed, a review of the decision based on those facts should be taken."

link: WH apologizes to fired Ag worker; she mulls return - Yahoo! News

No, actually, the facts did not change. At all. Not one bit.


Dinner time


No news but non-news

Obama signs financial overhaul law

The legislation creates a bureau with the power to make rules...

link: Financial overhaul: Obama signs financial overhaul legislation - latimes.com

Which would be, in other words, YA regulatory agency. And we all know just how much good regulatory agencies have been doing for us in the last decade or two. Or three.


"Poopheads all around"

Yesteday, we linked to a dumb attempt by human poop-leech Andrew Breitbart to paint the NAACP as racist hypocrites. Wow, that certainly was silly! Everyone can see how silly that was! Oh no? Not everyone? Right, our modern political discourse requires us to treat baseless incendiary attacks by scumbags as serious while treating the actual things that matter as unimportant. SORRY, WE FORGOT. You know who treats the drivel Andrew Breitbart says seriously? Not nobody. Just the NAACP and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and also the Obama administration, the most powerful thing in the country. OH, THEM.

link: Tom Vilsack Fires Shirley Sherrod As the Summer of Firings Over Nothing Continues

We should read Wonkette more often. It tens to brighten the day.


You thought we were kidding about the end of civilization?

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are, in fact, shopping around the idea of a reality show about their relationship — but the sticking point appears to be the level of commitment on the network side.

link: Bristol Palin & Levi Johnston Want Full-Season Deal for Reality Show - PEOPLE TV Watch

We rest our case. And, for bonus points...

Should Bristol and Levi get their reality show, and get back in Sarah’s good graces, she might be able to offer some tips: Palin’s own reality show, for TLC, has already started filming.

Imagine.


I guess they don't learn "bullshit" until later

Less than two months after the nation’s governors and state school chiefs released their final recommendations for national education standards, 27 states have adopted them and about a dozen more are expected to do so in the next two weeks....

Second graders, for example, should be able to read two-syllable words with long vowels...

link: States Embrace National Standards for Schools - NYTimes.com

Surely I must have some kind of memory fault. I keep remembering we used to look down on those totalitarian countries and their regimented schools. Communist China, for example. Or the Soviet Union. I must be just imagining that.


7.19.2010

Yellow Tugs

Photo: Lynn C Dot

Get a horse

Paved roads, historical emblems of American achievement, are being torn up across rural America and replaced with gravel or other rough surfaces as counties struggle with tight budgets and dwindling state and federal revenue.

link: Economic Crisis Forces Local Governments to Let Asphalt Roads Return to Gravel - WSJ.com


Speaking of which, who owns GM now?

To understand what's going on here, imagine that the government decides that everyone must buy a new car every three years and if you don't do it, you have to pay a penalty. Whether you argue the case for such a law under the commerce clause or under the power to tax, any sane citizen would understand that that such a law was massively unconstitutional. Just change the word car to health insurance and the problem becomes clear.

link: UNDERNEWS: OBAMA PLAYS LEGAL CON GAME ON HEALTHCARE MANDATE


7.18.2010

What a new job can do

Austan Goolsbee, who is now part of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in a 2003 New York Times piece titled "The Unemployment Myth," that the government had "cooked the books" by not correctly counting all the people it should, thereby keeping the unemployment rate artificially low. At the time, Goolsbee was a professor at the University of Chicago. When asked whether Goolsbee still believes the government undercounts unemployment, a White House spokeswoman said Goolsbee wasn't available to comment.

link: The Real Unemployment Rate: Is It 9.5%, 16.5%, 22%, or Higher? - DailyFinance


How to throw a party

BERLIN – Germany's autobahns are renowned for average speeds well in excess of 80 miles (130 kilometers) an hour. But the average dropped near zero Sunday as tens of thousands of people sat at a 37-mile table for a cultural celebration titled, appropriately enough, "Still Life."

Cars were strictly verboten.

link: No autos on the autobahn: Germans party on highway - Yahoo! News