Author's posts
Dec 03 2008
The Morning News
The Morning News is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Gates: Military looks to accelerate Iraq pullout
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 1 min ago
| WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates signaled a willingness Tuesday to forge ahead with two key priorities for the incoming Obama administration: accelerating the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention center.
As the only Republican Cabinet member asked to stay on by President-elect Barack Obama, Gates told reporters that military commanders are looking at ways to more quickly pull troops out of Iraq in light of the 16-month timetable that was a centerpiece of the Democrat’s campaign. He also said it will be a high priority to work with the new Congress on legislation that will enable the U.S. to close the detention center at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, where about 250 terrorism suspects are still being held. |
Dec 02 2008
The Stars Hollow Gazette
Madam Zelda! Madam Zelda!
Has it only been 7 trading days?
| 11/20 | Thursday | -444.99 | 7,552.29 | |
| 11/21 | Friday | +494.13 | 8,046.42 | |
| 11/24 | Monday | +396.97 | 8,443.39 | |
| 11/25 | Tuesday | +36.08 | 8,479.47 | |
| 11/26 | Wednesday | +247.14 | 8,726.61 | |
| 11/28 | Friday | +102.43 | 8,829.04 | |
| 12/1 | Monday | -679.95 | 8,149.09 |
Dec 01 2008
The Stars Hollow Gazette
So. Seneca has exposed me for the horrible nag I am. I hate to push him down with something this slight, but it will be Robyn and mishima if not me.
I kind of laugh at his concern because ‘centrist’ is a label I’ve always worn proudly, Armando and I used to joke about it. Even ‘purist’ fails to wound me because I know the policies I advocate are hardly substantive, they are political and oriented toward electoral victory.
My shallowness is astounding. My platform but 2 primary planks.
My prescription for Democratic Officeholders and Politicians is that they stand for fucking something, anything. The reason people don’t vote for you is that you are cowards, weaklings, and liars. They are right not to trust you.
On the other hand Republicans are shameless bullies and bigots, common thieves, torturers, murderers, and war criminals.
My second plank is the Village, the blow dried air headed vacuous vacant Versailles access addict asskissing idiots who think they tell us what to think.
And that’s the power new media has. To avert your eyeballs for an instant.
The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. There’s also a negative side.
As little effort as that takes, it has it’s effects. They are terribly sensitive to negative popular opinion. They can hardly stand to be confronted with facts in public debate.
- Brian Williams by Greenwald
- Brian Williams by Spencer Ackerman
You can smell the fear in the morning like coffee. They hate us for a reason, and they should. If we have excess energy we should expose them to others as the fools they are. Show them our scorn and derision in concrete ways.
The reaction shows they are vulnerable, the business model is not working for them any more than it did for the Music Biz. Even now giving live performances is more lucrative than airtime and who is advertiser supported after all?
And why are we doing it if revenue is down anyway? Madison Avenue leads directly from Detroit down to Family Ford with the six cute kids a shilling, five new models, four finance programs, three months no payments, two SUVs.
And from NBC to Channel 3.
We know what you are. We’re just negotiating the price.
Nov 30 2008
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Lie, cheat and steal: high school ethics surveyed
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
51 mins ago
| NEW YORK – In the past year, 30 percent of U.S. high school students have stolen from a store and 64 percent have cheated on a test, according to a new, large-scale survey suggesting that Americans are too apathetic about ethical standards.
Educators reacting to the findings questioned any suggestion that today’s young people are less honest than previous generations, but several agreed that intensified pressures are prompting many students to cut corners. “The competition is greater, the pressures on kids have increased dramatically,” said Mel Riddle of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. “They have opportunities their predecessors didn’t have (to cheat). The temptation is greater.” |
Nov 29 2008
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Bases brace for surge in stress-related disorders
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 29, 11:34 am ET
| FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. – Some 15,000 soldiers are heading home to this sprawling base after spending more than a year at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and military health officials are bracing for a surge in brain injuries and psychological problems among those troops.
Facing prospects that one in five of the 101st Airborne Division soldiers will suffer from stress-related disorders, the base has nearly doubled its psychological health staff. Army leaders are hoping to use the base’s experiences to assess the long-term impact of repeated deployments. The three 101st Airborne combat brigades, which have begun arriving home, have gone through at least three tours in Iraq. The 3rd Brigade also served seven months in Afghanistan, early in the war. Next spring, the 4th Brigade will return from a 15-month tour in Afghanistan. So far, roughly 10,000 soldiers have come back; the remainder are expected by the end of January. |
Nov 28 2008
Black Friday
Who wants to be long?
For stores, the holiday season may already be over
By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer
Thu Nov 27, 4:33 am ET
Major department stores and mall-based chains have cut prices up to 70 percent to move out mounds of excess inventory stuck in the pipeline since the financial crisis hit in September and people snapped their wallets shut.
Big moves of merchandise happen every year – but usually after Christmas. This year stores are desperate to shed inventory even before Thanksgiving.
…
It wasn’t supposed to be this bad. Stores, which typically place orders about four to seven months in advance, had cautiously planned their holiday inventories about 15 percent below last year’s levels.
But because of the free fall in consumer spending, stores are now stuck with about 15 percent to 20 percent excess holiday inventory, estimated Burt P. Flickinger, managing director of Strategic Resource Group.
…
How bad will the season ultimately be for stores? Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Corp., expects total retail sales to fall 0.5 percent for November and December. That would be the first decline in holiday sales since 1982.
The problem for a retailer is that most of their capital is tied up in merchandise, most of which is ordered up to 6 months or even a year ahead of time. Like everyone else they buy on credit and count on income from sales to pay off the loans when they come due.
This year, just like hedge funds, they are liquidating assets (inventory) in anticipation of margin calls and redemptions.
But Wait!
Nov 27 2008
The Stars Hollow Gazette
This song is called Alice’s Restaurant, and it’s about Alice, and the restaurant, but Alice’s Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that’s just the name of the song, and that’s why I called the song Alice’s Restaurant.
Nov 26 2008
The Morning News
The Morning News is an Open Thread
120 Stories. Top, World, U.S., and Science
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Obama: Economic rescue will trump deficit fight
By BETH FOUHY and DAVID ESPO, Associated Press Writers
11 mins ago
| CHICAGO – The economy growing weaker, President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday that recovery efforts will trump deficit concerns when he takes office in January. Yet he pledged a “page-by-page, line-by-line” budget review to root out unneeded spending.
The president-elect set no goals for reducing the federal deficit – now in record territory and headed ever higher – an obvious contrast to Monday’s announcement that he hopes to create a recession-busting 2.5 million jobs by 2010. He spoke as he appointed Peter Orszag, currently head of the Congressional Budget Office, to be his own budget director. |
Nov 24 2008
Monday Morning Business News
| From Yahoo News Business |
1 Government unveils bold plan to rescue Citigroup
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
42 mins ago
| WASHINGTON – The government unveiled a bold plan Sunday to rescue Citigroup, injecting a fresh $20 billion into the troubled firm as well as guaranteeing hundreds of billions of dollars in risky assets.
The action, announced jointly by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., is aimed at shoring up a huge financial institution whose collapse would wreak havoc on the already crippled financial system and the U.S. economy. The sweeping plan is geared to stemming a crisis of confidence in the company, whose stock has been hammered in the past week on worries about its financial health. |
Nov 23 2008
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 APEC: Financial crisis to be overcome in 18 months
By JOSEPH COLEMAN, Associated Press Writer
31 mins ago
| LIMA, Peru – The global financial crisis can be overcome within 18 months by acting “quickly and decisively,” Pacific Rim leaders said Sunday as they pledged to make food cheaper, governments cleaner and markets more open.
But the 21 leaders, who represent more than half the world’s economic power, offered few details of their recovery plan. The biggest accomplishment of the two-day summit was broadening support for the Washington Declaration made last weekend by major economies, pledging to maintain free trade despite domestic pressures. “We are convinced that we can overcome this crisis in a period of 18 months,” the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum said. “We have already taken urgent and extraordinary steps to stabilize our financial sectors and strengthen economic growth.” |
Nov 22 2008
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Nepal’s Buddha boy returns to jungle to meditate
By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 47 mins ago
| KATMANDU, Nepal – A Nepalese teenager revered by many as a reincarnation of Buddha has returned to the jungle to meditate after emerging for less than two weeks, officials said Saturday.
Ram Bahadur Bamjan, 18, reappeared on Nov. 10 after several months of meditation to bless thousands of his followers, speaking to them on at least two occasions. He made his last appearance on Friday and then returned to the jungle to meditate, said Biswo Prakash Newpane, a government administrator in the area. It was not clear when he would return again. |
Nov 21 2008
The Stars Hollow Gazette
digby- Back to The Future–
Bill Bennett just said that he thought the new president would have his biggest fights with Henry Waxman and said that he himself would side with the president. That’s very interesting and it tracks with my ongoing observation that village is airbrushing Bush out of history and the last eight years never happened. In fact, they are in the process of disappearing McCain too.
Christopher Hitchens said it directly last night on Larry King:
The Clinton era is over. That’s why we voted for Obama. Ok.
Actually I completely understand why Hitchens would want to pretend that’s true. After all, he has written some of the most embarrassing garbage it’s possible for any quasi sober person to write over the last eight years. If I were he, I’d want a mulligan too.
(Extended Hitchens quote- ek)
After all that, he’s back to clucking hysterically about the “immoral” Clintons just like every other Bush supporter and sophomoric media drone trying to make everyone forget how epically wrong they were during the past eight years.
Sorry, fellas, I don’t think we’re going to be able to let that happen. The political system may not be interested in accountability, so they will live to fight another day. But we do have memory — and they will never be able to get away with disappearing their criminal stupidity.
People forget.
Video and lyrics below the fold.