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. . . we aren't building a ring of alliances around China to contain its rise is smoking crack. Seriously, the United States should spend less time flattering India's ego about China and making nuclear technology transfers and spend more time shoring up its critical alliance with Japan. The idea that the Chinese could make it over the Himalayas is laughable. How else would they invade? And they call themselves serious thinkers?
If Republicans take the House, they will undoubtedly do all sorts of destructive things: they will probably shut down the government, if not officially then for all intents and purposes, they will try to muck around with health care legislation—they probably won’t repeal it but don’t be surprised if they manage to fuck around in a way that deprives lots of Americans of access to health care. Most of these actions will be cheerfully heh-indeeded, not only by the right but probably by most of the Village as well. Impeachment, on the other hand, may be a bridge too far for many observers.
Why? Well, this for starters:
It’s the same reason I was happy to see O’Donnell win rather than Castle. It’s not just that O’Donnell will lose whereas Castle probably would have won, it’s that O’Donnell is portrayed as a lunatic, whereas Castle is portrayed a principled, serious centrist…even though, as Senators, they would likely vote exactly the same way on everything. With O’Donnell, at least, what you see is what you get.
Look, I fully understand the risks here, and I do wonder how Obama would react. But the roots of the crazy tree are deep right now and they need to be exposed. And it's better to have certified crazies in Congress than the stealth crazies like Snowe and Collins.
There's a disturbing incident that occured over the weekend in Alaska. In case you missed it, Joe Miller, Sarah Palin's handpicked candidate for the Senate seat currently held by Lisa Murkowski (R), held a campaign event in which he was answering questions from the audience, a "town hall" as it were. As the meeting wound down, Miller began to make his way to the exit, surrounded by private security, when Tony Hopfinger attempted to confront Miller to ask him at least one question. Hopfinger was detained, physically manhandled and handcuffed by Miller's security detail. Once the police arrived, he was released.
Barbara Billingsley, known throughout her acting career as television’s June Cleaver, has died at age 94. The seven years she spent portraying June Cleaver starting in 1957 on the Leave it to Beaver television series marked her career permanently, though she managed to escape being typecast by landing different starring roles on television in the 1970s and 1980s, and most notably as a jive-talking passenger on Airplane.
She often attributed her success as June Cleaver to the fact that she took the role very seriously, portraying the sort of mother on television she tried to be in real life. As such, she created an idealized television Mom – warm and caring, self-sacrificing, stern when necessary, a dutiful wife and homemaker, and obviously devoted to her two boys: Theodore “Beaver” Cleaver (Jerry Mathers), and Wally Cleaver (Tony Dow).
Reuters - Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has accused rich nations such as the United States of offloading food it would not feed its own children to poorer countries as food aid.
MSF said the world's biggest donors of food aid -- including the U.S., Canada, Japan and the European Union -- continued to supply and fund nutritionally "substandard" food to developing countries, despite scientific evidence showing it was of little value in reducing child malnutrition.
"Foods we would never give our own children are being sent overseas as food aid to the most vulnerable children in malnutrition hotspots in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia," MSF's international president Unni Karunakara said in a statement issued ahead of World Food Day on Oct. 16.
Are we indeed, as we like to think of ourselves, rational agents; or are the decisions we arrive at dictated by more primitive forces, on whose behalf reason merely provides rationalizations?
Somes bloggers get burnt out, which explains why I've been largely absent the last two weeks. But I'll be back Monday, hopefully refreshed. Some cool things are in the works, two or three trips, and more, soon!
Big banks have stopped foreclosures in 23 states due to legal challenges to their ownership of mortgage notes. On Wednesday, JP Morgan upped their total to 41 states in which foreclosure operations had ceased. (Image)
Why the halt in foreclosures? It seems that the banks have ignored long established state property and title procedures and may not actually own the title to the homes subject to foreclosure (and others subject to the same procedures).
"We've identified issues relating to the mortgage foreclosure affidavits and those include signers not having personally reviewed the underlying loan files but instead having relied upon the work of others. … And there are circumstances where affidavits have not been properly notarized" Oct. 13.
Failing to "personally review" loan documents means that asserting that the review took place was perjury. This happened for countless mortgages. Failing to properly notarize mortgage signatures violates state property law. It could also be seen as negligence by investors in the mortgages.
Reuters -
You thought the foreclosure mess was bad? You’re right about that. But it gets so much worse once you start adding in a whole bunch of parallel messes in the world of mortgage bonds. For instance, as Tracy Alloway says, mortgage-bond documentation generally says that if more than a minuscule proportion of notes in a mortgage pool weren’t properly transferred, then the trustee for the bondholders can force the investment bank who put the deal together to repurchase the mortgages. And it’s looking very much as though none of the notes were properly transferred.
But that’s not even the biggest potential problem facing the investment banks who put these deals together. It also turns out that there’s a pretty strong case that they lied to the investors in many if not most of these deals.
I've been challenged to come up with areas where I disagree with President Barack Obama. It seems that my blog posts mocking the moronic right wing of this country have been taken to mean I'm a buttboy for the current administration. I'm not.
First, in my defense, so much anger has been wrongly directed at the President. Much of what people are whining about-- higher taxes, job loss, a struggling economy-- are either patent bullshit or misinterpreted. Also, in my defense, so many other have jumped on the Bash Barack bandwagon that I haven't felt a need to point out the obvious flaws in his programs and policies. Third, where I have disagreed with him, in areas like environmental policy, bank bailouts, and energy programs, I've posted about those programs, and incidentally criticized the President within.
Judy White is in a desperate struggle to get her incarcerated husband Gary medication critical to his well being. Gary White was convicted by Federal prosecutors for refusing to cooperate as a witness in one of the Don Siegelman trials in Alabama Federal Court. White, a Republican County Commissioner, refused to testify in what he said was an unlawful prosecution. He was found guilty of "petty corruption" charges after refusing to cooperate despite the fact Siegelman's conviction was recently vacated by the Supreme Court of the United States. Upon arrival at Federal prison in South Carolina on September 29, White's prescription medication was confiscated. He has had no medication since.
Judy White says she doesn't know the system but she's gone public and written an open letter to President Barack Obama appealing for his help to save her husband's health. The Bush era Alabama Federal prosecutors who convicted Wright in their relentless persecution of former governor Siegelman remain as Federal prosecutors to this day. Michael Collins
After the break...
Judy White Fights For Incarcerated Husband's Access to His Prescriptions By Joan Brunwasser
A great ad by the Public Campaign Action Fund, showing how Colorado Teabagger Ken Buck used his position in the US Attorneys office to help a gun dealer with 37 criminal counts against him escape justice, before taking his money to run for the Senate. And this guy may be a US Senator soon...
Well, well, well, Jonah Goldberg really doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, does he?
Even though the incident made headlines for no discernible journalistic reason, it was noteworthy as a succinct example of Obama's arrogance problem. Rather than make a self-deprecating joke, he opted instead to make a self-inflating one, as if to say that the title mattered less than the man.
First, the joke was actually funny: he was standing at the podium giving a speech as President of the United States, the most recognizable office in the world.
The foreclosure scandal surrounding the US financial industry is being portrayed by the banks as a technical problem which requires that some documentation errors be fixed. The White House has rejected the calls of many in the Congress for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures on the grounds that there are quite a lot of them that are legitimate and should be processed. Government officials say it is going to take just a little bit of time to sort out these from the flawed foreclosures.
Terms like “technicalities” and “document flaws” are meant to sound innocent and minor, when the truth is that the foreclosure problem is just one part of a much bigger crisis that is still out of sight for the media, and apparently being downplayed by the industry and its political apologists. This crisis at its core revolves around an attempt by banks, mortgage brokers and other financial institutions to privatize and usurp the government-run county record system that for over 200 years has guaranteed the property rights of American citizens. The long term question is whether this private usurpation, which was implemented without review or approval from any elected representatives of the people, should be allowed to stand. The short term question is whether use of this private records system has irrevocably corrupted the unbroken chain of title to property that existed in government records, and in so doing fatally undermined American confidence in private property rights (rights which are guaranteed to Americans under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution). The following series of initiatives by the banking industry will explain what transpired, and it will be seen that these initiatives from the start were plagued by false legal assumptions, misrepresentations, shoddy record keeping, and loss or deliberate destruction of critical original real estate documents such as deeds, titles, and notes.
Wondering if you are one of those suckers paying a mortgage in limbo, with all the payments due to some non-existent mortgage noteholder getting retained at the servicer banks? Well, if you can spare 3 minutes then "Where's the Note" is for you. The website, which is on the verge of a viral break out, has a simple message: "Whether you are facing foreclosure, have an underwater mortgage, or are just a concerned homeowner, it’s important that you contact your bank and demand to see the original note on your mortgage. It only takes a few minutes using our free online tool." Quick, simple and easy. And in a few days your mortgage bank will have no choice but to tell you if they do in fact have your original mortgage note. And if not - welcome to cost-free living, courtesy of MERS and millions of rushed and fraudulent mortgage note assignments. Yes, it will mean the end of the GSEs, but it will also mean the accelerated write downs on thousands of MBS tranches which will rapidly collapse into insolvency (there is only so much Mark to Unicorn can cover up) and eventually take the insolvent TBTFs banks with them.
KTLA - A federal judge in Riverside, who last month struck down the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, on Tuesday imposed an injunction ordering federal officials not to enforce the controversial policy on gays in the military.
The federal government has 60 days to appeal, but Justice Department attorneys have not said whether they will.
"Defendants United States of America and the Secretary of Defense immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding, that may have been commenced under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Act, or pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 654 or its implementing regulations, on or prior to the date of this Judgment," U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips wrote.
In September, Phillips said the policy banning gays did not preserve military readiness, contrary to what many supporters have argued, and that evidence shows that the policy in fact had a "direct and deleterious effect" on the military. She also found that "don't ask, don't tell" violated the 1st Amendment.
Phillips said at the time that she would issue an injunction barring the government from enforcing the policy.
The case was filed by the Log Cabin Republicans, the largest political organization for gays in the GOP, in 2004.
[Updated at 1:14 p.m.: During the trial, Justice Department attorney Paul G. Freeborne argued that Congress -- not a federal court -- should have the authority and the responsibility to enact military policy. The sole evidence presented by the Justice Department was the legislative history of the ban, which government lawyers argued showed that the policy was properly adopted by Congress through a deliberative and reasoned political process. No witnesses were called.
The event had a lot of buzz, because author and fantastic Nation writer Ari Berman, was conducting a Q & A of sorts with Howard Dean, the main protagonist in his story of how Democrats came to rebuild The Party of Jefferson and obtain electoral dominance in 2006 and 2008.
It's kind of an odd twist of fate in a nation terrified of a YMCA that the scariest group of people are the squeaky wheels of the Tea Party.
(side note: how is it that an editor at Cracked is the most coherent spokesman on the subject of the Islamic community center opponents? But I digress...)
And yet they are. Intentionally. When you strip away the frothing "anger" at tax hikes (because as we all know, Obama has actually cut taxes for 98% of Americans) there's really nothing there except hatred, bigotry, homophobia and, to be blunt, a fucking bunch of loons who would be the first against the wall when the revolution really does come.
Last night as we left the museum
there were no lights, just pale roses
bordering the path out.
There is a word for this
but I can't remember it, a word
for the sky in balance, just as light
as dark. For years I have tried to call it up.
I long for it most when I'm someplace new,
strange lawn furniture darkening into sky
as roses whiten, shadows unhook
from table and post. Lately
I can't seem to hold a single thing–
my keys are gone, hair scripts the sink,
even the good days seem rolled
in some other carpet.
May this slipping away protect us,
may the loss of days ease the ones I love
from their anger, that sturdy chair
circled all day by its shadow, without which
a dim sea would come to level our yard, level
as in make right.
British aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been accidentally killed by US forces during a rescue mission in Afghanistan, David Cameron has said.
International forces originally said she died on Friday when one of her captors detonated a suicide vest.
But the prime minister said new details had come to light suggesting her death may have resulted from a US grenade.
Mr Cameron said he had spoken to her family about the "deeply distressing" news.
It had been thought that she was killed by her abductors just as US forces reached the compound in which she was being held.
But Mr Cameron said Gen David Petraeus, the top allied commander in Afghanistan, had telephoned him on Monday morning to say she could have died as a result of a grenade detonated by the taskforce during the assault.
He said the general had told him US forces were deeply dismayed at the outcome.
And he added that it was "deeply regrettable" that information published on Saturday about Ms Norgrove was highly likely to have been incorrect.
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent Nicholas Witchell in Kabul said British officials there were " utterly dismayed and dumbfounded".
He said the situation affected the credibility of the Americans and added: "They say the Americans were so certain on Saturday so why has it taken them 48 hours to revise their position?"
DAWN -
Supplies through Torkham to US and allied forces in Afghanistan resumed on Sunday after eleven days of suspension.
About 120 containers and 25 oil tankers queued up at the border in the morning, following an announcement made by the government that the border crossing would be reopened for vehicles carrying Nato supplies.
Customs officials made special arrangements for clearing the vehicles on Sunday.
Truckers had some anxious moments when the local administration refused to issue gate passes, saying it had not received written orders about the reopening of the border.
A Fine Line
