Reason Morning Links: Dems Lose Two Senators, Banks Hit Back, Closer Than Expected Race in Massachusetts
- Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) announce they won't run for reelection.
- CIA investigating how Jordanian double agent was able to infiltrate base, kill seven CIA agents.
- New consumer protection laws have banks taking preemptive strikes at consumers.
- Job satisfaction in America hits an all-time low.
- GOP candidate running surprisingly close in election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
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I haven’t, but am considering it.
Peter Schiff has more fans
GOP candidate running surprisingly close in election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.).
I hope it is not an identical replacement other than party name.
Cokeley was responsible for some of the worst child molestation hysteria cases in the 1990s. I don’t care if the guy running against her is a communist, anything would be worth seeing her go down.
It’s a Rasmussen poll so it’s probably slanted a bit toward the GOP.
This guy is actually the state senator for the town that I grew up in. Though he wasnt there when I lived there, my parents still live there and from what I’ve been told hes actually reasonably libertarian.
The writing is on the wall. There must be some devastating internal polls to get these career pols to quit. With New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts all in play, this could be a very interesting year.
NY, CT, MA Senate seats – “in play”?
Coakley is a 9-1 favorite on Intrade. Blumenthal is 3-1 headed higher in Conneticut. NY doesn’t have a serious GOP challenger yet.
GOP pickups listed near even money are Delaware and Nevada.
There are seven open GOP seats of 40 with three in the toss-up range (MO, OH, NH).
The Senate won’t change much in 2010.
If those a-holes know their public careers are unsalvageable, and other senate fucks come to the same conclusion, this year we will see even more bullshit coming from that chamber. The only thing the taxpayer had going for him was their strong sense of self-preservation. Take that out of the equation and it comes dangerously close to a free-for-all.
Chris, you’re a pussy.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Nor is there anything wrong with me simply wanting to spend more time with my family.
Fuck Chris Dodd.
Him and Barney Frank deserve to be strung up.
New consumer protection laws have banks taking preemptive strikes at consumers.
RTFA’ing, I’m sure the column’s author thinks that all they have to do is pass the exactly correct number of banking regulations, and service will be blindingly inexpensive and customer service will be flawless. Just a few more tweaks and it will be perfect. You’ll see.
Leaving those things up to the market is just silly talk. What did that ever do for prices at Wal-Mart or customer service at Nordstroms?
I tried reading that article but dear Gog, you could feel the damn bias. Shit people, at least try to hide it a bit.
To somewhat illustrate what I’m saying…
“This isn’t about market forces. This is about good-old-fashioned greed, and the need to keep shareholders placated as the banking industry tries to adjust to a new era of transparency and scrutiny.
“The tricks and traps that the banking industry uses to ensnare consumers is a business model that needs to change,” said Sally Greenberg, executive director of the National Consumers League.
“What happened to the days when banks made an honest buck by treating people fairly?”
Did such days ever exist? Not that I can recall.”
Wow, what a douchebag.
All I can say is thank god someone is paid to read that excrement for me. My head would explode on a daily basis if I had to. That, or my computer monitor would be full of bullet holes.
I don’t know that banks ever “made an honest buck by treating people fairly”, but they certainly did use to operate on a different model.
The market wasn’t allowed to work when it came to the mortgage backed securities he wonders about. The market was about to hand those idiots their hat and We the People bailed them out. I refuse to believe life on Earth would have ceased if they were all allowed to fail naturally.
Who’s “we” Kemosabe?
I prefer to think that “‘dem ‘dose guys” were doing the bailing. We just do the piper paying.
Good point. I get very tired of people talking about government as if it is the same thing as taxpayers. I’m paying for this shit whether I like it or not, but I sure as hell am not bailing out any banks or taking over GM. The government is doing it, not the taxpayers.
Did we make the decision? Of course not. But we are paying for it. The government is just a forced money laundering operation.
It’s all cool. I just want to make sure the blame is laid at the correct feet.
I got this t-shirt for christmas. It’s my new very favorite thing to wear.
The problem is, of course, that banking is heavily regulated. As a result, banks have a strong tendency to be conservative about introducing new ways of doing business, whether it be loan types or new fees (or no longer requiring fees). In other words, if it hasn’t been done by someone else and signed off on by the regulators, there’s an inhibition against anything too aggressive.
Couple that with sometimes unreasonable safety and soundness requirements (which didn’t work so well when the crap came down, did they?), and you get a not very diversified or innovative industry. That’s one of the reasons that credit unions took off so much in the last decade and why industrial loan companies were once the go to place for credit card lending.
Don’t worry, the credit union regulations are always catching up to the bank ones and the same fear to innovate exists.
Why is that? It’s because banks have been lobbying for years to get the regulators to similarly restrict those damned credit unions.
It’s a free market in banking, just like it’s a free market in healthcare.
Tax experts say that as many as 400,000 tax returns are outsourced to workers in India
Are those workers considered white-cholera or blue-cholera?
:clapping: Well done.
Nicely done.
Does Balko do the Morning Links like twice as often as anyone else, or do I just lump the writers into “Balko” and “Not Balko”? (The west-coasters obviously get a pass.)
Dodd gets to ride off into the sunset with his huge pension and God knows what do nothing big paying job. And he doesn’t even have to face the humiliation of losing an election. Fucking bastard.
** sigh **
Yes, it is a huge pension.
On the plus side, perhaps on former constituent will kick him squarely in the dick, while waiting in line at the grocery store.
What’s a “grocery store”?
don’t forget the Irish cottage.
Suh-weet!
I saw Mr. Rasmussen on O’Reilly the other night. His polling is predicting a shift back to the right in the next 2 elections IIRC. With Dems abandoning ship, I am curious just what kind of healthcare and environmental legislation is gonna be shoved through since it’s now or never.
Exactly. If they’re gonna lose, they might as well go for broke. And that’s a really bothersome thought.
And the chances of getting it repealed are slim to none. It’d be nice to be wrong on this part though.
Yes. It is really disturbing. I think they know that they are going down and down big in 2010. So they figure they will grab as much loot as possible for their supporters and then filibuster any attempt to undo the damage and run new candidates who can lie and say they are different than the old ones. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Obama doesn’t run in 2012.
I suspect Hillary will.
The Dems are so concerned at this point that they are abandoning customary House-Senate conference negotiations in order to fast-track the remaining details.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov……alth-care/
That’s actually not the definition of a sociopath.
It is, however,the definition of of a ‘Congressman(-woman)’.
Actually, I don’t think it’s appropriate to call the Jordanian guy a “double agent”.
Apparently the CIA was running him as a double agent, but since it turns out he was deceiving the CIA, that makes him a triple agent.
And as for the question of “how” he was able to succeed – when you run guys as double agents, if they decide to fuck you, sometimes they win. Since he was supposed to be hanging around Taliban and Al Qaeda guys as part of his job, you can’t tell from his behavior if he’s gone triple. You just get to wait for him to fuck you. Until we invent mind reading.
Maybe he just got confused?
The guy was posting on forums.
I’d say counter-intelligence failed.
I mean, you’re walking around as a double or triple agent, acting like your for one side, then another, and you just screw up this one time.
Could the guy have been caught and set up? Maybe drugged and sent on his way?
Not if one of the things he was tasked to do was go on forums and act like an Al Qaeda member.
None of us here are counterterrorism experts, but it’s actually a pretty straightforward game theory question: If you are paying someone to pretend to others that he is your enemy in order to gain their confidence, any sign that he is actually your enemy can just be interpreted as the guy doing a really good job. Until the moment he strikes, his triple agent status exists only in his head.
With Dems abandoning ship, I am curious just what kind of healthcare and environmental legislation is gonna be shoved through since it’s now or never.
Based on the legislation we’ve seen up to this point, I’d say one may safely predict that it will be the most bizarre crap imaginable.
Then this is a chance to see whether, given their head, the Democrats really do take a softer line on drugs.
Add Colorado governor Bill Ritter to the ever-growing list of democrats who can see the writing on the wall.
I can’t understand why Dodd wouldn’t want to see tales of the great “constituent services” he provided for Angelo Mozilo every five minutes for six months.
He should be proud; “just doin’ his job” and all that.
If we had anything but a state run media, it would be fun to at least ask the bastard a few obnoxious questions. “Senator Dodd, considering your sins, don’t you feel you owe your constituents the honor of kicking your sorry ass out of office?” “Senator Dodd, do you feel like the next Senator from Connecticut will be able to properly represent the interests of Angelo Mozilo the way you have?”
John, I’ll get right on it.
I mean, right on Senator Dodd’s huge pension.
And, yes, I agree; the Congressional Leadership(!) will be fanatically committed to ramming through any and every idiotic idea they can, before the elections.
Which is why the GOP had better run, in part, on undoing some legislation. Why Congress is so reticent to undo stupid laws is beyond me. This healthcare deform nonsense is all on the Democrats, so you’d think a resurgent GOP wouldn’t hesitate to repeal the whole thing.
Failing to do that, the GOP will further demonstrate how we’re screwed no matter who is in power.
I would hope they would. But then there are dumb asses like Mickey Klaus who claim that campaigning to undo the Obamacare will just motivate the Dem base and hurt them. Klaus is nothing if not a conduit of conventional Washington wisdom. So, I am sure there are some GOP nitwits who believe that. Never underestimate the stupidity of the allegedly politically adept.
Mickey is usually a bright and sensible guy, but he is bonkers when it comes to this health care “reform.”
They’d need 60 votes of their own to repeal it. Not gonna happen.
In the past Congress has been known to repeal things recently passed, though, like that incident that had seniors chasing Tip O’Neill (?) down the street.
I think that was Rostinkowski.
Rostenkowski, yes, that’s who it was.
when you run guys as double agents, if they decide to fuck you, sometimes they win
You’ll never get a job as a CIA analyst if you can’t make that more complicated.
And in other news, Miami, Florida has its coldest Orange Bowl ever in its 76 year history.
Yeah… that’s caused by global warming
Was at it. It sucked. Was probably warmer for the Iowa fans though.
It got down into the 20s in Tampa last night. And another front is coming. We may actually see some snow!
Will no one save us from the new Ice Age?
I blame Al Gore.
Global warming causes unpredictable and unusual weather extremes. Damn our decadent American gluttony.
I’ve worn a sweater to work all week. In Tampa. What’s next, hunting the woolly mammoth with spears? Eating blubber?
Is that some chubby-chaser doublespeak?
Hell if I know.
In parts of upstate New York it’s been snowing practically nonstop for over a week. Fulton is up to nearly five feet.
49 degrees? It’s 4 goddamned degrees here in Iowa. It was like -12 last night.
I’m surprised you guys didn’t include the story about Northrop moving its corporate headquarters to Washington.
Shorter Pelosi:
“Ramming speed!“
Countdown to rude awakening #1:
Countdown to rude awakening #2:
Countdown to rude awakening #3
Gee, he never seems to want to have sex.
“He’s just so tired when he gets home from work at the women’s shoe-store that stocks extremely large sizes.”
@nuclearwinter: My man turned down my offer to do a threesome with my hottie roommate (the one with the big boobs). Instead, he suggested bringing some guy over. Weird!
Can’t click through to Jezebel (damn, I’m so unlucky……), but I see the title of the post “men hate makeup and other myths.” To clarify for Jezebel, men love women that look good with or without makeup, not that they hate makeup. You would think that would be sort of obvious, no?
Not that obvious ever meant much there anyway.
The point of the article is that men don’t hate make-up, they hate obvious make-up. Which is:
1. The type of gross overgeneralization of gender differences that they shit themselves in rage when applied to women.
2. A willful misunderstanding of the semantic context of what men are saying. Easier to disprove that they think men are saying rather than figure out what men are actually saying.
3. A willful blindness to the reason why most men say they don’t like make-up: That women like them freak out when anything normative is applied to them with regards to beauty standards. (Just like all the women on Feministing who vowed never to wear dresses again because on article in the NYT came out talking about how attractive dresses are.) The guys are engaged in CYA.
Basically, women like them set up a lose-lose-lose-lose situation:
You say you like her in make-up->”Patriarchal oppressor!”
Say you don’t like her in make-up->”We all wear it! You’re trying to control us!”
Say you think she’s pretty with or without it->”You’re hiding your feelings!”
Don’t comment on her looks->”You never tell me I’m pretty.”
The obvious solution is to date a girl without gross emotional disturbances. They’re out there. You just need to look harder.
The obvious solution is to date a girl without gross emotional disturbances.
That doesn’t seem to leave very many IMO.
ben–Save yourself the time and date both simultaneously.
The obvious solution is to date a girl without gross emotional disturbances. They’re out there. You just need to look harder.
Yes, out there, as in out of country. Asian/russian women are the way to go. A guy I work with married a russian woman. She not only makes more money than him working as an RN, but she also single-handedly put the roof on their house, knows how to do drywall, makes dinner and does the laundry. And she’s hot. Most American women are basket cases.
Thanks for showing that I cannot mind read a Jezebel post. It’s a very good thing that I can’t.
I do get to click through and read your feministing links, but have to be really careful when I do. It’s just not the sort of thing you want the other cube monkeys to observe.
Yesterday, one of the few straight guys here was telling me about how his new wife is royally pissed at him for “not taking her side” in a tiff of hers with one of her friends.
I tell him to bring her flowers tonight. You don’t have to say a word, just show up with them and let her fill in the blanks as to whatever she wants the flowers to mean. He doesn’t want to do it as he thinks it will mean he’s admitting he was wrong.
Sigh. The young always have to do things the hard way.
all the women on Feministing who vowed never to wear dresses again because on article in the NYT came out talking about how attractive dresses are.
I think the Feministing crowd’s dresses are more accurately called mu-mus.
One did complain about how hard it is to find “sexy” dresses in size 28.
No, I’m not kidding.
I can’t even comprehend how large size 28 is. That’s three times the width of a standard chubby girl, right?
That’s a lotta axe handles.
52-53″ Bust
48-50″ Waist
56-57″ Hips
According to JC Penny’s sizing chart.
Big enough to slap her on the thigh and catch a wave in.
+1
Femifisting comments won’t load in FF using NoScript.
Hallelujah! Technology saves the day again!
you’re missing some great stuff… I wonder if the posters on those discussion forums read things like reason and think “wow those guys are soo stupid…”
@tinkerbelladonna: My guy isn’t afraid to show his emotions at all and he just bought these assless chaps! Just for our “special play time” he says. He’s so much fun! Just like having another BFF.
Plus, he’s really built and waxes off all that nasty body hair. :::dreamy sigh:::
After reading those blogs for years now, I can confidently assert that the aggregate vision that they have of the perfect man is a gay guy who is only straight for them.
Bingo. This is blog populated largely by single 20-something Wesleyan grads and bitter, older lesbians, right?
WHICH IS RADICALLY AND FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE MALE IDEAL, WHICH IS TWO HOT, WELL-BUILT LESBIANS, WHO ARE ONLY HETEROSEXUAL FOR SAID MALE. AND WHO DON’T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH.
You left out “And they own a liquor store.”
And a slaughterhouse.
and they don’t speak a word of english
FTFY
And have rich parents who are very ill.
And are gourmet chefs who don’t mind cooking for their man at all.
Only 2?
FOOLS! SUCH NUANCES ARE IRRELEVANT TO THE TROLL–ER, MAN–OF WEALTH. EXCEPT FOR THE THIRD WOMAN. YES, THE URKOBOLD COULD MANAGE A THIRD WOMAN, PROVIDED THAT HIS PENIS MIGHTIER SUBSCRIPTION DOESN’T RUN OUT.
Shut it down.
Valley cabin burns, but fire crews won’t respond
Published: January 5th, 2010 11:44 AM
Last Modified: January 5th, 2010 11:45 AM
Link: Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman Frank Shor of Palmer got a “baptism by fire” on Sunday when he learned — as his cabin was burning down — that he lived in an area of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough where residents don’t pay fire service taxes. The borough fire department wouldn’t come put out his fire because no human lives were in danger and because his land, just off the Glenn Highway near the Glenn-Parks interchange, is a half-mile outside the Greater Palmer Fire Service Area. “This is unreal,” Shor told the Frontiersman. “This is a state-maintained road, you know, and I cannot get a fire truck down here.” John Owen, director of public safety for Palmer, said it’s a dilemma faced by most borough fire services, which can’t have crews tied up in an untaxed area and perhaps then have to let a taxpayer’s home burn. “Communities join together and pay fire service area taxes to the borough,” he said. “Some areas, particularly in outlying places, have chosen not to do that.”
http://www.adn.com/3437/story/1079875.html
Huh. I wonder if they would have come if he paid actual fire insurance?
My sister lives in Palmer. A lot of people burn wood for heat. I wonder if this was a chimney fire gone wrong.
Wow, no way dude thats incredible. I like it.
RT
http://www.total-anonymity.at.tc
“He’s just so tired when he gets home from work at the women’s shoe-store that stocks extremely large sizes.”
“I must be losing weight. these panties feel really baggy on me now.”
Interesting. All this talk about Dodd, and not one mention of Peter Schiff. Are you guys slipping, or does it just go without saying? I can understand WaPo not mentioning him, but here?
I was just wondering the same. I haven’t heard anything from his campaign, either.
Actually, is this good or bad news for the Schiff campaign? The Dems will now put up a candidate who is not obviously evil to the core, which can’t be good.
Dodd retiring means the dems hold the seat… which reduces the chances of gridlock in the senate next year
Dodd retiring means the dems hold the seat… which reduces the chances of gridlock in the senate next year
A willful misunderstanding of the semantic context of what men are saying.
You just don’t get it.
“Job satisfaction in America hits an all-time low.”
Actually, lowest in two decades. I’ll bet job satisfaction was pretty low in Nov. 1982 (jobless rate, 10.8%) and even lower in Nov. 1932 (jobless rate, 25%).
What? Why would people be unsatisfied with their job in 1932 when a quarter of everyone they know didn’t even have one? Just having one should make you happy with it.
Don’t listen to them, Chrissy my boy! Stiff upper lip! Like when I faced down the Nazis at Nuremburg. Bravissimo for your book about my heroic efforts at Nuremburg! Bravo again, I must say, for your work in the finance committee. You make a father proud! There’s nothing wrong with a bit of cream skimming every now and again. There’s nothing wrong with refusing, on human rights grounds, an honorary medal from Poland yet later accepting lobbying funds from a Guatemalan dictator. But there is something noble about being censured by your peers . . . but I digress. You had big shoes to fill and fill them you did.
Reading nothing, do unemployed people factor into job satisfaction surveys? Don’t you have to have a job to be satisfied or dissatisfied about?
We need more TSA comedy.
I used to fantasize about manhood handling all day. But now, it’s my reality. Thank you, Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. Your name is a mouthful, but I’ve got the room to show you my gratitude.
TSA Scrotum Puller
Couldn’t we outsource this job to a taffy-pulling machine?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CdBxYGBjls
I’ve personally trained my scrotum checkers not to knead as hard as that machine of yours does. We like a more personal touch.
“But if signs could vote,” he said, “Ron Paul would be president.” – from the re: scott brown article.
Hope he wins though.
0
That was supposed to read:
Why does Reason hate the “
DAMN YOU REASON PROGRAMMERS
Just come out and say it already fluffy!
It’s too late, the moment is gone.
L’esprit de squirrelier.
I don’t know how the actual comment could top the string of failed posts for pure amusement value.
Until the moment he strikes, his triple agent status exists only in his head.
Hence the term “secret” agent.
Does that make me a secret schizophrenic?
No, you let those cats out of the bag.
Dodd speech.
-saved the world with health care
-mention Teddy
-acknowledge you are going to lose the seat anyway
-key the rocky music, he’s going out on top!
-mention Teddy again
-mention my place in American history
-martyr comment, “my time to step aside”
-thank the underlings
-bipartisanship, only when civil and everyone agrees with me
-thank family
-god does this fucktard ever shut up.
newsflash! Lemme find the link. Palin buys house in Connecticut…
Is that your prediction or an actual live-blog?
That was live noting.
With extra sarcasm and a touch of you need to die you fucking shitbag of a politician.
It’s kind of hard to believe that two years ago this douchebag actually thought he could get elected president.