1/ Two stories on the same theme - the refusal of Governor Chris Christie to approve the New Jersey portion of the budget for a new rail tunnel to New York. Note Gov. Christie is a poster child for the Republican leadership, and was recently campaigning in California for Meg Whitman, superbitch for Governor.
Paul Krugman focuses on how this pathetic decision is a symbol of the hopeless failure of leadership we have in this country, and specifically of the Republican agenda to veto, stop and degrade anything that might make President Obama look good, no matter if it's good for the country or not.
This column will make you angry.....
So here’s how you should think about the decision to kill the tunnel: It’s a terrible thing in itself, but, beyond that, it’s a perfect symbol of how America has lost its way. By refusing to pay for essential investment, politicians are both perpetuating unemployment and sacrificing long-run growth. And why not? After all, this seems to be a winning electoral strategy. All vision of a better future seems to have been lost, replaced with a refusal to look beyond the narrowest, most shortsighted notion of self-interest.
Bob Herbert takes issue with the way we are slipping behind the rest of the world, and how this tunnel is a perfect way to stimulate the economy and get people back to work, being derailed by partisan politics.
This column will make you angry and depressed......
The Chinese could build it. The Turks could build it. We can’t build it.
One day after Governor Christie made his devastating announcement about the tunnel, the U.S. Labor Department released its latest unemployment statistics. They show that the nation remains locked in an employment crisis, unable to provide work for millions who want and need it. One of the major potential solutions to this crisis is all around us. America’s infrastructure is indisputably in sorry shape, and upgrading it to meet the needs of the 21st century is far and away the best strategy for putting people back to work.
2/ Obama has appointed someone we've never heard of [Tom Donilon] to replace General Jones as National Security adviser.....why is this important?
Two reasons -
1/ he voted with VP Biden to get out of Afghanistan last year - a debate they lost.
2/ the Pentagon hates him because he wants out of the cesspit. The military and "the boys" love being in the shithole because they are making so much money.....
So this is a good appointment, unless of course you like throwing our tax dollars at the most disgusting medieval peasants in the world.....from the Guardian UK......
Donilon, with no military background, is much more political than Jones and sided with the vice-president, Joe Biden, in pushing for as early an exit from Afghanistan as possible and was reluctant to accede to the generals' insistence on sending an extra 30,000 troops this year.
His stance will put him at odds with the US commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, who took over this summer and is reluctant to begin withdrawing significant numbers of US troops until it is clear that progress has been made.
3/ There's a great phrase for detail types - "policy wonks" - so this article is for you, about how we need to implement the "Volker Rules" for the big banks.......it's actually great background so you will understand what happened when the lobbyists, Bernanke, Geithner and Goldman Sachs derail any meaningful enforcement of the new rules.....
Behind the scenes and inside the regulatory debate, there are two opposing sides developing with regard to how compliance with the Volcker Rule should be monitored and enforced.
On one side is the view that compliance should be monitored only through periodic existing supervision and some spot checks. This was the position that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke took before the Senate Banking Committee last week. His idea seems to be that the industry will follow instructions and only needs a moderate degree of broad-brush enforcement.
Another Side
On the other side is the view that enforcement should be more assertive and based on real-time access to detailed trading data. The thinking here is that regulators would need the ability to look at transaction data to understand what is really going on.
4/ We try to be careful with this blog to be non-partisan [we will always be against stupidity], but this election coming in November is so important I have decided to take a stand and make my choice public to our readers.
After careful consideration and studying all the facts, I've made my decision - I'm voting Republican......and I think you should too.
This video helped me make up my mind - please feel free to forward it on to your friends so they can make the right choice as well........2 minutes.....5/ Just an amazing story - Supreme Court Justice Thomas's wife is the head of a powerful Tea Party that is getting funding from anonymous political groups, essentially freed up by a Supreme Court decision to give unlimited money without disclosure, so the oligarchs and billionaires like the Koch brothers can buy elections.
The Supreme Court is [theoretically] supposed to be apolitical, but this Roberts court is far right Republican....awful......
For three decades, Mrs. Thomas has been a familiar figure among conservative activists in Washington — since before she met her husband of 23 years, Justice Clarence Thomas of theSupreme Court. But this year she has emerged in her most politically prominent role yet: Mrs. Thomas is the founder and head of a new nonprofit group, Liberty Central, dedicated to opposing what she characterizes as the leftist “tyranny” of President Obama and Democrats in Congress and to “protecting the core founding principles” of the nation.
It is the most partisan role ever for a spouse of a justice on the nation’s highest court, and Mrs. Thomas is just getting started. “Liberty Central will be bigger than the Tea Party movement,”
6/ Gays in the Military - at last, a group that's willing to stand up for what they believe in, which is no gays in uniform. Ever.
Yeah baby......unusual group though.......hmmm......funny..
7/ Two articles about a subject dear to all our hearts [or used to be]....Real Estate....and how the market is paralysed right now.....eeek......
The first is how the foreclosure crisis is affecting house sales - in effect there is a freeze on bank short sales and foreclosed homes as noone can be sure of the titles.....
With home sales this past summer at the lowest level in more than a decade, real estate is ill-prepared to suffer another blow. But as a scandal unfolds over mortgage lenders’ shoddy preparation of foreclosure documents, the fallout is beginning to hammer the housing market, especially in states like Florida where distressed properties are abundant.
“This crisis takes a situation that’s already bad and kind of cements it into place,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist for MFR Inc., an economic consulting firm.
The second is about "What's next? Title insurance?" Oy veh......
Title companies are getting really nervous as millions of homes have been foreclosed illegally, so they are backing away from new business......
But all of the sudden, the importance of title insurance is becoming crystal-clear. In recent weeks, big lenders like GMAC Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have halted many or all of their foreclosure proceedings in the wake of allegations of sloppiness, shortcuts or worse. And a potential nightmare situation has emerged that has spooked not only homeowners but lawyers, title insurance companies and their investors.
What would happen if scores of people who had lost their homes to foreclosure somehow persuaded a judge to overturn the proceedings? Could they somehow win back the rights to their homes, free and clear of any mortgage?
8/ Vote Yes on Florida Amendment 4 - the latest ad......I think it's excellent - even Fox viewers will get it........zombies, vampires....they like that stuff....30 seconds.....
9/ I-Phonites - [much prefer this to I-Phonies] - good news! Apple will license the I-Phone to Verizon wireless......AT&T has fixed the connectivity issues they had, my problem is the way they screw you on International coverage [which includes Canada].....so maybe Verizon will use some vaseline......
Many potential customers have chosen to buy Android handsets from other carriers to avoid problems with dropped calls and dead zones.
But many surveys show that many owners of Android handsets would buy an iPhone, if it were available on Verizon. At the same time, AT&T iPhone customers may switch to Verizon as their contracts expire, even though they would have to buy a new phone to do so. Apple’s AT&T phone, which uses G.S.M. networking technology, would not work on Verizon’s network, which uses a different networking technology called C.D.M.A.
10/ What to do when your house is infested with pests.....call the exterminator....but the pests are quite unusual in this 2 minute video....very funny.....
11/ Ladies - one for you...."how to put on makeup" from the Guardian UK.....I just love the picture of the model......
We're bombarded with wild expert advice every single day, when what we really need is a list of rules average women can live by. Thankfully, I've written some:
Todays video - should have been a superbowl commercial
Todays groaner......
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