Reason Morning Links

Radley Balko | May 29, 2009

• Previous year of federal spending comes to $55,000 per household.

• Pentagon prepares new military command for cyberspace, "to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare."

• European countries growing cold to taking in released Gitmo detainees, citing American politicians' refusal to take any into the U.S.

• New accounting rules encouraged by feds will allow banks to ignore losses and liabilities, or shift them to the future when issuing their quarterly reports.

• Chicago alderman keeps family tradition alive. Or maybe it's a Chicago alderman tradition.

Comments

|5.29.09 @ 9:18AM|#

Wow, that actually makes sense when you think about it!

RT
www.privacy-tools.echoz.com

Spoonman|5.29.09 @ 9:24AM|#

$55k is more than the US's per capita GDP in 2007, which was $45,790.

robc|5.29.09 @ 9:25AM|#

Radley,

Federal debt obligation, not federal spending.

Spoonman|5.29.09 @ 9:30AM|#

robc, that sounds far more plausible. Don't get me wrong, still way out of line, but $55k was implausible.

|5.29.09 @ 9:32AM|#

It's funny, but you hear the term "cyberspace" so infrequently now that I read "[the] Pentagon prepares new military command for cyberspace" as meaning that the Pentagon was building a command base in space.

|5.29.09 @ 9:36AM|#

"Mr. Carothers is the first alderman to face federal charges since 2007."

That makes it sound like 2 years without an alderman being indicted is something to celebrate.

Spoonman|5.29.09 @ 9:37AM|#

I miss joe. We used to have such good arguments on here. We really need some other idiot to come along and say ludicrous things.

Seward|5.29.09 @ 9:37AM|#

Median household income for 2008 was roughly $50,500.00.

robc|5.29.09 @ 9:44AM|#

Spoonman,

Yeah 55k in spending made no sense (I was afraid it was true somehow) so I actually, you know, RTFA. Which apparently Radley didnt do. :)

|5.29.09 @ 9:44AM|#

FASB is making it easier to hide liabilities which have a material effect; at the urging of Treasury and Congress.

What could possibly go wrong?

WTF?|5.29.09 @ 9:53AM|#

"New accounting rules encouraged by feds will allow banks to ignore losses and liabilities, or shift them to the future when issuing their quarterly reports"

WTF???

JLM|5.29.09 @ 9:54AM|#

They are just allowing the banks to adopt the government model for accounting, because it works so well for them.

|5.29.09 @ 9:57AM|#

"New accounting rules encouraged by feds will allow banks to ignore losses and liabilities, or shift them to the future when issuing their quarterly reports"

Thank God the Right People are in charge, protecting us from the lies of Big Capital.

robc|5.29.09 @ 10:01AM|#

The funny thing is, the market doesnt fall for these fuzzy accounting things. They tend to treat all the companies using it as toxic because of the WTF risk level attached now.

Seward|5.29.09 @ 10:01AM|#

Spoonman,

What do you consider a "good argument?"

|5.29.09 @ 10:11AM|#

I don't know what a good argument is, but with Joe the argument was:

Republican or anyone that disagreed with the current Democratic Party stance = "Black"

Joe's response without any thought on the subject = "White!"

In other words, a cyber equivalent of fighting with your little sister when you are ten years old.

WTF?|5.29.09 @ 10:15AM|#

" as meaning that the Pentagon was building a command base in space."

i DID TOO.

|5.29.09 @ 10:17AM|#

The funny thing is, the market doesnt fall for these fuzzy accounting things. They tend to treat all the companies using it as toxic because of the WTF risk level attached now.

Oh, sure; next you'll tell us the world is looking at what's going on in the lunatic asylum which is the Congress of the United States, and dumping their dollar holdings like so many hot rocks.

Mike M.|5.29.09 @ 10:17AM|#

$55k is more than the US's per capita GDP in 2007, which was $45,790.

And the GDP just shrank at a 5.7 percent pace in the first quarter.

At what point can the country accurately be said to be insolvent?

robc|5.29.09 @ 10:20AM|#

Mike,

At what point can the country accurately be said to be insolvent?

Well, we arent Zimbabwe. Yet.

|5.29.09 @ 10:21AM|#

Can we sell the Northeast to Canada and use the proceeds to pay off some debt?

MNG|5.29.09 @ 10:30AM|#

"Can we sell the Northeast to Canada and use the proceeds to pay off some debt?"

Yeah, of course it would be better for us to sell the Southeast, but I doubt we could give it away!

robc|5.29.09 @ 10:35AM|#

MNG,

Yeah, of course it would be better for us to sell the Southeast, but I doubt we could give it away!

Fuck you. Well, except Florida, Im okay with selling it. Too many yankees there anyway.

|5.29.09 @ 10:35AM|#

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Seward|5.29.09 @ 10:38AM|#

MNG,

Unlike the northeast, the southeast is one of the most dynamic regions of the country.

Telly|5.29.09 @ 10:38AM|#

MNG, you are nothing but a bigot.

Seward|5.29.09 @ 10:44AM|#

robc,

Well, more and more of the southeastern states are making their way into the top ten most populace states in the nation (I think it is four out of ten at this point), and more and more northeastern and midwestern states are dropping out of that ranking. In a few decades it is likely that only New York state will remain in the top ten.

Anyway, much of this is due to migration, and that ought to be something of a proxy for where it is most desirable to live.

robc|5.29.09 @ 10:52AM|#

Seward,

Interesting stat (to me!) related to internal migration. I was playing with some census numbers recently and my metro area (Louisville) has a large internal net migration recently. No surprise here to me. However, Jefferson Co which is over 1/2 the population of the metro area has a negative net internal migration. The Co is till growing due to birth rate, but the shift from city to outer county suburbs is stronger than the migration into the area as a whole.

Im not sure how this changed the last few years with gas prices, census data is always a bit lagging. However, considering some of the downtown housing construction stalled, I doubt it has reversed.

WTF?|5.29.09 @ 10:54AM|#

"I was playing with some census numbers recently"

What's wrong with you people?

Joel|5.29.09 @ 11:17AM|#

I read "[the] Pentagon prepares new military command for cyberspace" as meaning that the Pentagon was building a command base in space.

There are plans for that, but first they have to get that secret flying combination headquarters/spaceplane carrier with the fifty helicopter blades to stay working for more than a week at a time. Fucking thing's supposed to stay airborne perpetually, but they keep having to ditch at Area 52 (it's even more secret) for one mechanical problem after another. Stupid mechanical problems.

Spoonman|5.29.09 @ 11:20AM|#

A good argument is an entertaining one, and seeing joe do backflips was endlessly entertaining.

Texas, I believe, has the highest rate of internal immigration, and will likely be the only state to have had more jobs at the end of 2008 than at the beginning.

|5.29.09 @ 11:20AM|#

Ahoy JSH and ROBC!

I'd rather be a part of Canada than say I'm from the same country as all you Toby Keith worshipping, 500 miles of left-turn watching, Bible-beating, evolution-denying, slow-talking simpletons.

robc|5.29.09 @ 11:27AM|#

Toby Keith worshipping, 500 miles of left-turn watching, Bible-beating, evolution-denying, slow-talking simpletons

Only one (well, sometimes two) of those apply to me.

|5.29.09 @ 11:29AM|#

I'd rather be a part of Canada than say I'm from the same country as all you Toby Keith worshipping, 500 miles of left-turn watching, Bible-beating, evolution-denying, slow-talking simpletons.

Well, you know where the border is.

Spartacus|5.29.09 @ 11:31AM|#

I'd rather be a part of Canada than say I'm from the same country as all you Toby Keith worshipping, 500 miles of left-turn watching, Bible-beating, evolution-denying, slow-talking simpletons.

If it wasn't for the 500 miles of left turns thing, I'd swear you were talking about Maine.

Spartacus|5.29.09 @ 11:34AM|#

Come to think of it, with the 500 mile bit, that probably makes it Indiana. Add in some skinhead groups and you have most of Michigan.

Which part were we trying to sell again?

phalkor|5.29.09 @ 11:35AM|#

I do not talk slowly!

|5.29.09 @ 11:40AM|#

Ahoy!

My charts show the Southeast to be everything west and south of NJ to the Rockies. Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Alabama, what's the foxtrotting difference? Unemployment numbers? Illiteracy rates?

I would also be remiss if I didn't thank you for keeping Bush in office for 8 years...because of that Obama got elected and now we're all up Sh*t's Creek (oh sorry, RUN) without a paddle.

|5.29.09 @ 11:42AM|#

Huntsville and Atlanta are really nice, but I don't know a lot about most other parts of the South because I've spent too much time in Ohio/overseas.

Well, some parts of (rural) Florida and Tennessee struck me as pretty backward, but the same is true of Ohio.

|5.29.09 @ 12:00PM|#

Larry Beaumont, who is representing Mr. Carothers, said his client will enter a plea of not guilty. "We're looking forward to the trial," he said

I entered this into Babel Fish and got "We're looking for the best plea bargain we can get".

MNG|5.29.09 @ 12:06PM|#

"Unlike the northeast, the southeast is one of the most dynamic regions of the country."

They are always coming up with new and interesting forms of racism and Bible'thumpin', if that's what you are getting at.

But do you mean economically dynamic? Like having new and interesting forms of poverty? Poverty rates are typically higher in Southern States than in, say, New England states. And if you only count the Deep South, well then P+U!

http://www.nemw.org/poverty.htm

"MNG, you are nothing but a bigot."

I don't know what's funnier, Telly's selective outrage (notice no condemnation of the 10:21 [prior to mine] post as bigotry), or Southern conservatives wrapping themselves in the language of racial victimization. Since the liberals in their head are like something from the Goode Family show I'm supposed to recoil in tears at his charge of bigotry towards our Medieval States down below. Oh woe, sackcloth and lamentations for me!

robc
Florida and NC are about the only parts worth keeping imo...But don't worry, as I said, we couldn't GIVE the South away if we tried...

MNG|5.29.09 @ 12:09PM|#

I've long advocated perhaps the only compelling strategy of getting rid of the South:

Sneak into Mexico's front yard at night. Place South in paper bag and put on Mexico's front porch. Light bag on fire, ring doorbell, run, and hide behind the shrubs. Boy, you don't want to see Mexico's face when it sees what it got on its new slippers!

|5.29.09 @ 12:11PM|#

But do you mean economically dynamic? Like having new and interesting forms of poverty? Poverty rates are typically higher in Southern States than in, say, New England states. And if you only count the Deep South, well then P+U!

It depends on whether you're talking about growth versus current wealth. The South does pretty well overall by domestic migration numbers, which certainly measure economic dynamism in one way. But feel free to defend established wealth as the better metric, MNG.

I also suppose you hate New York and think it's poor, since it has a SC, AL, AR level of poverty by your numbers?

Gus|5.29.09 @ 12:18PM|#

"They are always coming up with new and interesting forms of racism and Bible'thumpin', if that's what you are getting at."

Oh fuck you, you bigoted cunt.

Gus|5.29.09 @ 12:20PM|#

"Southern conservatives wrapping themselves in the language of racial victimization."

FTR, I'm a northern liberal.

Telly|5.29.09 @ 12:21PM|#

"I don't know what's funnier, Telly's selective outrage (notice no condemnation of the 10:21 [prior to mine] post as bigotry), or Southern conservatives wrapping themselves in the language of racial victimization."

It's because you spew it forth all the damn time, and fling out accusations of "OMG! Conservative!" to anyone who disagrees with you, as if I'm supposed to recoil in tears at your charge of conservatism toward your bigoted and narrow minded point of view. Oh woe, sackcloth and lamentations for me.

|5.29.09 @ 12:28PM|#

Also, let's not forget the South is responsible for all the big expansions of the Federal Government, starting with the War of Northern Aggression or whatever you call it when you wear your great-great-great-great granddaddy's grey wool uniform and run around barefoot hoping for different outcomes.

Ahoy!

Zeb|5.29.09 @ 12:29PM|#

I love these regional disputes. It's fun to see who can get baited to respond emotionally to attacks on their regions.

Every part of the country sucks in its own special way. Where is the hate for the west? We've tried to give away the south, the north-east and the upper mid west so far. Let's finish this fucker off!

Seward|5.29.09 @ 1:12PM|#

MNG,

I would just note that most of the current crop of intelligent design in schools efforts are coming out of places outside the South. Including of course Pennsylvania.

As for poverty, a snapshot of it (which is what a four year measurement is) isn't a proxy for economic dynamism. The South and Southwest are the most dyanmic, growing areas of the U.S. and that has been the case for decades now. It is indeed illustrated by the number of well, "Yankee enclaves" which dot the South. That is areas where northerners moved en masse to a town or region to take advantage of work opportunities, become entrepreneurs, retire, etc. I'm not quite sure what is exactly wrong with that.

John Thacker,

Apparently MNG didn't read this very important qualification found at the bottom of the link MNG provided:

The Northeast-Midwest Institute does not rank states according to their poverty rates because the standard error ranges for the poverty estimates make comparisons difficult.

|5.29.09 @ 1:15PM|#

Wow, this is a major fail by the FASB. Now the the gov't is running the show, GAAP goes out the window? WTF?

Now we'll recognize losses...whenever we feel like it. Balance Sheets You Can Believe In!

Stamp|5.29.09 @ 1:47PM|#

"Now we'll recognize losses...whenever we feel like it. Balance Sheets You Can Believe In!"

The Enronning of America!

United States\' Department of |5.29.09 @ 1:58PM|#

"Losses? We ain't got no steenkin' losses!"

Spartacus|5.29.09 @ 2:17PM|#

Zeb--

There's no hate for the West because nobody really lives there. LA is just part of New York that escaped through a wormhole. Like Miami.

Paul|5.29.09 @ 3:57PM|#

Pentagon prepares new military command for cyberspace, "to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare."

The same Pentagon that had its computers infected with a virus? Check. Put these guys in charge of Cyber Security. I think a new Czar is in order.