November 2008 archive

Expose: Lawless Lands

DEBORAH AMOS:

At the Justice Department, recent scandals have dragged public confidence to an all time low. A special prosecutor is now digging into charges that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales put political partisanship ahead of the law.

Jodi Rave investigates crimes against Native American women

This Pony Party should be treated as an open thread!  Please do not rec the Pony Party!

That might as well be the title of the Wall Street Journal article Surprise Drop in Power Use Delivers Jolt to Utilities.  

An unexpected drop in U.S. electricity consumption has utility companies worried that the trend isn’t a byproduct of the economic downturn, and could reflect a permanent shift in consumption that will require sweeping change in their industry.

OH NO!!!! Americans using less electricity and this might be something permanent rather than simply a lousy economy.

Now, as for the ‘lousy economy’, as we have yet to hit bottom and have a long way to go, hard to assert (yet) that it is not economic distress that is driving reduced energy use.  Perhaps people are ‘turning off lights’ to save pennies in the face of economic distress. And, patterns begun in economic turmoil could become life’s new patterns.  Thus, unlike what the WSJ‘s coverage might suggest, there is much to hope for as to a start in a shifting of American culture toward more energy efficient patterns.  

Cedric the Entertainer thought he’d try being Cedric the Actor. On Monday he made his professional stage debut, on Broadway, at the Belasco Theater in a new production of “American Buffalo,” David’s Mamet’s 1975 play about male friendship and revenge. Sadly for the actor, the play is scheduled to close on Sunday unless there is an upsurge in ticket sales over the weekend, but for a brief period, his familiar marquee appellation has been listed on the program as playing the slippery Chicago junk-shop proprietor and con man Donny Dubrow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11…

So I thought for this pony party it might be fun to skip through some of Cedric’s YouTubes:

The Pony Party is an open thread.  Please do not REC the party (unless you’re a huge fan of Cedric).

1. The NY Times reports the U.S. unveils new programs to ease credit.

   The Federal Reserve said that it would buy up to $600 billion in mortgage-backed assets from the government-sponsored mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The agency would also buy up to $100 billion in debt directly from the companies and up to $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities…

   Separately, the Fed and Treasury Department announced a $200 billion program to ease commercial lending on debts like student loans, car loans or business loans. The Fed would lend up to $200 billion to holders of asset-backed securities supported by car loans, credit card loans, student loans, and business loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration.

   The NY Times also reports the Outlook grows more dire for the housing market. The scarcity of credit, making home loans difficult to get, are continuing to hurt the housing market. “Of the sales that did go through in October, nearly half were the result of a sale after a foreclosure. And sellers were forced to lower prices again, sending home values down at a record pace.”

   “Prices declined in September in all 20 cities surveyed in the Case-Shiller report, with San Francisco and Phoenix suffering the biggest drops… The report also suggested that conditions in the housing market were worsening” with house price drops accelerating.

2. The Washington Post reports President-elect Barack Obama picks Peter Orszag to head the Office of Management and Budget. “Obama said that Orszag will take the lead in scouring the federal budget, which is straining under record deficits, with an eye toward eliminating programs that do not work.”

   Orszag is currently the “director of the Congressional Budget Office, where he oversees a staff of 235 people who produce nonpartisan analyses of economic and policy issues. Orszag is widely respected for his work on how Americans receive medical care. Unlike many of his predecessors, who hewed closely to pure number-crunching, Orszag has carved out a niche as a leading international thinker on health policy.”

   In an essay in September, I wrote about Orszag’s assessment that “The nation is on an unsustainable fiscal course.”

Four at Four continues with an update from Iraq, Brazil sending troops after a violent protest by Amazon loggers, and an interesting op-ed on Tibet.

Ozymandias is burned on toast

He’s dragging his bony ass back to Crawford

He’s fat and hairy like Peter Lawford

He’s the Least where once he was the Most

Ozymandias is no longer green as grass

Now we’ve discovered we can be Black as a berry

No way can Ozy regain his Cherry

Because Our Boy is a flat out pain in the ass

We’ve suffered Ozy through his sullen spaces

We’ve starved our senses through events we never wished

To experience; poor Laura Oz has missed her menses

Experienced menopause in all those juicy places

Lord Cheney Oz has become meaner than mean

Condi Oz has finished propping up the plaster

God knows poor Condi was never alabaster

At least she was capable of cutting the scene

Powell Oz has pulled the skids out from under

All these Brute Beasts …

    not that they were ever tony

Their mutual Dawn has now come up like thunder

Since Ozzie Powell endorsed Mister Ebony

Yes:

Ozymandias is  now royally Toasted

But not in France and not in Monteneg’

If we forget how Oz was once Too Big

We can now rejoice how he’s become roasted

Ozymandias has become Yesterday’s News

For those of us who knew he really wasn’t nice

We can all congratulate ourselves

    OZYMANDIAS STINKS ON ICE

So lock all the doors

    screw in all the screws

Since now Old Ozymandias has turned vanilla

We have to deal with that Turkey-Chopper

    sticking her brute neck out of Wasilla

Congratulations fellow taxpayers!  The federal bailout of Citigroup comes with some perks you may have overlooked.  Citigroup has a contract for the naming rights to a new baseball stadium for the New York Mets.  A mere $400 million buys the name “Citi Field” for 20 years:

Under the naming-rights agreement, Citi pays the Mets $20 million a year. What is not known is if Citi could get out of the agreement through a buyout or escape clause. Citi officials insisted on Friday that baseball games would be played in 2009 with the Citi Field sign on the new stadium.

What perks do we get for our bailout of Citi?  Well, it only seems fair that if it’s our money paying for the naming rights, we should get to choose the name!  With so many taxpayers involved, however, agreeing on one name would be difficult.  So I propose a revolving name system for the Mets’ field, where all taxpayers get a chance to have the stadium named after them for one game.