April 2010 archive

Stephen says we should not but I find it far more plausible to accept the fact we already have.

http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_…

All because of a study done years ago saying “we” can’t handle the truth.

http://www.americanchronicle.c…

Obama’s critics constantly portray him as a “weak-livered pole-cat!”

But after the passage of Obama’s landmark healthcare reform, the child-like faith of Obamabots all over America was apparently justified! Although…

Hard-boiled editor Perry White wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as Lois Lane, because…

Obamacare depends on $455 billion in spending cuts from Medicare!  

Open Thread

Almost a Fantasy

Be Still, Stop Chattering

Wilbert Rideau who once offered “Conversations with the Dead” has been in the news a few times over the years. This week on CBS Sunday Morning he was back in the news and sounding so much better.

“My name is Wilbert Rideau. And I guess the best way to describe me is, I’m a very, very fortunate man.”

If few people recognize Wilbert Rideau as he jogs through the streets of his neighborhood, they may soon. This week, Rideau’s memoir, “In the Place of Justice,” will be released.

It’s likely to get people talking…

“I guess I should have been dead, and I’m alive, and I’m here to tell you about it – and I’m still amazed,” he said.

The title of the segment was “Life After Death Row.” Wilbert Rideau was a death row inmate for a murder he committed on February 16th, 1961 and he lived to talk about it. Because of that short period of time where the Supreme Court suspended the death penalty, he was spared and his sentence commuted to life. 44 years after a viscous and stupid act that took a woman’s life, he was set free.    

But 44 years was not rehabilitation enough for governor after governor. Even  “Life Magazine” calling Wilbert Rideau “the most rehabilitated prisoner in America” was not enough for the privileged elected. In 1990 Governor Buddy Roemer said, “Frankly given the nature of that crime, I’m not sure his debt’s been paid.”  

I saw Krugman on the TVeee over the Weekend. Something he said, made me think the Goldman Email Gate, was a big Mis-Direction.

So I decided to follow up on that hunch; I took to the Intertubes, and began to follow his trail of breadcrumbs …

Berating the Raters

By Paul Krugman, NYTimes — April 25, 2010

No, the e-mail messages you should be focusing on are the ones from employees at the credit rating agencies, which bestowed AAA ratings on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of dubious assets, nearly all of which have since turned out to be toxic waste. And no, that’s not hyperbole: of AAA-rated subprime-mortgage-backed securities issued in 2006, 93 percent – 93 percent! – have now been downgraded to junk status.

What those e-mails reveal is a deeply corrupt system. And it’s a system that financial reform, as currently proposed, wouldn’t fix.

I’m on the levees.org email list and I got a message from them today:

Thanks to you, Levees.org was featured in the New York Times!

The article focused on our success in encouraging national media to report accurately on the man-made causes of the metro New Orleans flood.

And making the true story about the flooding as common knowledge as ‘the sun rising in the east’ will help the region recover.

This fine piece of journalism by reporter Brian Stelter greatly increases the reach of Levees.org message!

And it gives evidence that your ongoing efforts are paying off.

And that’s good because when the American people understand that the flooding was a federal responsibility, they may understand that rebuilding is a federal duty.

Thank you for your support!

We’re winning!

Sandy Rosenthal

Founder, Levees.org

levees.org

Here’s the New York Times story.

I can recall my grandmother carefully peeling the lables from cans after cutting to bottom off and then crushing it flat. It was a habit I guess, born out of the war effort.

http://www.straightdope.com/co…