Lord Atrios says "Not all things are unknowable" about how bad the toxic/troubled/misunderstood Assets are. There is actual documentation for the subprime loans in the form of "LOAN TAPES" (caps in the original): Read below the fold...
Shit happens. For a reason. While there is a worthy discussion going on in the internets about the varying degrees of morality on either side of the conflict, I particularly like to look at the policy-related causes and effects. Read below the fold...
Just saw Cindy Sheehan on Market St. in SF doing some last-minute campaigning.
This morning I voted for her (as opposed to Leader Nance), Obama (happily but skeptically), no on Prop. 8 (anti-Ghey-marriage), and yes on naming the city sewage plant in honor of George W. Bush. Read below the fold...
Do politicians in our system really need to earn *your* vote? Do individual choices really matter or does it only count when millions of people do the same thing at the same time?
This is in response to the question I see often on this blog: why is Obama not speaking to me and my concerns? The short answer is that he doesn't have to.
The longer answer has to do with what I think is an American cultural myth about the individual voter. Read below the fold...
[This was orignally posted in 2008, and boy, did Shystee call his shot. I'm stickying it because the talking point is even more relevant today. --lambert]
This whole thing about the Bush administration taking control of the US treasury, using the Nation's credit to buy junk and and selling it out the back door reminds me of something:
Davey Scatino: You told me not to get in the game. Why'd you let me do it?
Title is inspired by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez and this comment by Leah in this very lively thread:
And if I note that your statement is a deeply racist one, are you going to go away and spend the next twenty-five years of your life traumatized because someone called you a racist.
OK folks. It took me a whole month to come up with that one. Stay tuned for my next exciting post. It's going to be a humdinger! Read below the fold...
Most folks in the blogosphere have chosen to give their support to one primary candidate or the other without really demanding anything in return. When the next election comes around, a different strategy may be in order.
Most liberal/progressive interest groups also gave away their support without really getting any policy guarantees from the candidates. Why?
It seems to me that groups and individual voters themselves were motivated by the Corporate Media-driven horse race hype more than anything else. This turns politics into team sports. Read below the fold...
The first meetings with Ghorbanifar, which were disclosed in August 2003 by the Long Island, N.Y., newspaper Newsday, took place in Rome in December 2001. They were attended by two Pentagon Iran experts, Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin; by an Italian military intelligence official, and by Ledeen.
From the smoke-filled back rooms of Northern California Power Politics, where Bay Area Bloggers and Readers (BARBARians) decide the fate of candidates and ballot initiatives, I bring you these suggestions:
In the theme of "there are other things happening in the world besides the nomination pie-fight", here is something that really "hits home".
Proposition 98 is a deceptive measure that a group of wealthy landlords placed on California's June 3, 2008 ballot. These landlords want you to believe the measure is only about ‘eminent domain', but Prop. 98 is full of hidden provisions that would hurt Californians.
