Reason Morning Links: Obama Backs TSA, EU Approves Irish Bailout, St. Louis Most Dangerous City in America

• Obama administration says pat-downs, scanners will continue.
• Pope gives okay to condom use in limited circumstances.
• Ireland gets $130 billion EU bailout.
• New Zealand mine blast traps 29 miners.
• St. Louis overtakes Camden as America's most dangerous city.

Comments

[Johnny Longtorso]

Top political scientist: U.S. voters are 'pretty damn stupid'

The ethics of climate change
...Derek Bell (2010, pp. 423?441) argues for justice rather than cost-benefit based calculations in deciding who should pay for mitigation and adaptation. He starts from the proposal contained in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that 'the Parties should protect the climate system ? on the basis of and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities' (United Nations 1992, p. 4). ...

[Johnny Longtorso]

Facebook-banning NJ pastor acknowledges threesome

On the anniversary of Climategate the Watermelons show their true colours

[Johnny Longtorso]

From the Climategate article

First of all, developed countries have basically expropriated the atmosphere of the world community. But one must say clearly that we redistribute de facto the world's wealth by climate policy. Obviously, the owners of coal and oil will not be enthusiastic about this. One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole.

[pancakes]

Climate change is real, and we are killing our planet more every day. It just sickens me that people are too caught up in this namecalling hackery to stand up and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

[heller]

and waffles.

[heller]

and waffles.

[Jerry]

On another Sunday talk show, CBS's "Face the Nation," Mrs. Clinton said she would not like to go through a security pat-down.

"Not if I could avoid it," she said. "No. I mean, who would?"

It's called a Boeing C-32 Madam Secretary.

[Fluffy]

And Ireland writes another chapter in the story titled We'll Do Anything Rather Than Just Liquidate Our Failed Banks.

This story never ends well, no matter how long you try to draw out Act II.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

We should start calling bankers what they really are, welfare queens.

[John]

But if we liquidate our banks, lots of really rich people will just become ordinary rich people. It is all about politics. Contrast the way the banking collapses are being handled now to how the S&L crisis was handled back in the late 1980s. The S&L crisis was mostly a bunch of small timers from the Southwest. So the Feds had no problem closing all of the failed S&Ls; and throwing more than a few people in jail. The current wave of failures are connected and powerful Wall Street people. Now instead of shutting them down and throwing the crooks in jail all we hear is how we need to bail these people out and let bygone's be bygones and get on with saving the world economy.

Mrs. Suderman is the worst about this. She is Ms. princpled free market when it comes to any other bailout or doing things like extending unemployment benefits that might help average schmucks. But when it came to TARP and the possibility that some of her buddies from Wharton might lose their jobs then she was Ms. Pragmatism and Concern. It wasn't fair that people who worked for AIG who had nothing to do with the collapse were going to lose their jobs. And the people who were responsible had already lost so much anyway. She really wrote that crap.

[MNG]

I'm not sure it is crazy to not want to see widespread bank failures considering how many parts of the economy depend on the services banks provide.

[#]

and you noticed that where there were widespread S&L failures in the 80's, guess what happened? Other firsm bought them up, their assets were liquidated and new banks were formed. There lacks a good quick resolution process for bank holding companies in this crisis, but if you had failures, as long as the Fed prevents the moneys upply from shrinking, someone will buy up the usefull assets in liquidation. Banks wont disappear. Just as mortgage lending didnt disappear because of the S&L crisis.

[MNG]

Er, the government rushed in there dude.

[MNG]

From wikipedia
"The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around $160.1 billion, about $124.6 billion of which was directly paid for by the U.S. government via a financial bailout under the leadership of George H.W. Bush."

[MNG]

Interestingly, those of us old enough may remember that the Left vigorously attacked Bush I and the GOP for that mess and subsequent bail out.

[Isaac Bartram]

Interesting that Bush I and the GOP got blamed for the S&L crisis when the legislation was passed under Jimmy Carter and entirely authored (especially the bad parts, like raising the FSLIC limits for deposits covered) by a Democratic Congress.

[JoshINHB]

You realize allowing the banks to fail does not mean eliminating all banks forever, right?

[MNG]

Yes, but there could be some serious damage done while we wait for new banking systems to be set up.

[Rich]

there could be some serious damage done while we wait for new banking systems to be set up.

Serious question: Exactly what damage?

[SugarFree]

Unemployment might rise to some crazy level, like 10% or somethin'!

[Ben Bernanke]

Zombie plague. duhhhhh.

[Fluffy]

As far as I can determine from reviewing the economic history of the 19th century, that serious damage consists of:

1. A system-wide reset of asset prices lower - while wages also decline, but not as far.

2. A system-wide reset of the balance sheets of firms employing capital-intensive assets.

3. A system-wide churn of the class structure, as some holders of assets fall, and new holders of those assets prosper.

In other words, lots of GOOD things.

[John]

The panics of 1837 and 1893 ended the economy. It never recovered. Didn't you know that fluffy?

[TrickyVic]

""Yes, but there could be some serious damage done while we wait for new banking systems to be set up.""

Allowing banks to fails doesn't mean you are trying to create a new system. Nor does it mean all banks will close. Failed banks can be bought be other banks.

[Tulpa]

Yes, but there could be some serious damage done while we wait for new banking systems to be set up.

It's been over two years since TARP, and the damage has been pretty bad during that time. Not to mention the damage that's still hanging over our heads due to Fannie and Freddy and the deficit.

The banking system would have recovered by now if we hadn't done TARP. True, there would have been a really terrible year in 2008-2009 in all likelihood, but it would all be behind us by now.

[Joe M]

But it would've been MUCH WORSE!!!

/idiocy

[shrike]

Obama will fix it. he's the only one smarter than me, and I'm a genius.

[John]

I guess Bobby Jindal made a good point on one of the news shows this weekend. The same administration who says requiring anyone to show proof of citizenship is turning the country into a police state thinks the TSA forcibly groping every American who wants to fly on an airplane is just a-ok.

As has been said many times, police states are just dandy as long as we are the police.

[Lost_In_Translation]

I just want to smack the shit out of all those talking heads that say "well if it will keep a bomb off the plane...". Jesus Christ on a cracker it does nothing of the sort. All it does is shift terrorists tactics while making Mr. McDouchie ScaredAlot feel slightly better. And it annoys the shit out of the rest of us.

Targeted, strategic intelligence and infiltration is what stops terrorists, not Agent Boob Squeezer or Agent Cock Cupper. Idiots.

[John]

There was some security expert on Fox this weekend who made a great point. If you look at the 12-25 bomber, the guy couldn't get past our normal security measures and was reduced to carrying a make shift bomb in his pants on the plane and spending 30 minutes in the bathroom trying to put the thing together. And even then it didn't work and succeeded only in burning his balls off. That is what security success looks like. You are never going to stop everyone. The best you can do is make it so they have to go to extraordinarily and mostly unsuccessful lengths to target you.

[kinnath]

I said that last week. The shoe bomber and the underwear bomber failed because they didn't have detonators. They didn't have detonators, because the old security measures worked just fine.

[jasno]

But as far as I can tell, they're phasing out the magnetometers which can detect the metallic detonators in favor of the new backscatter machines - which can't detect anything if you shove it up your ass.

Combine that with the idiotic 3oz rule - which only means you need to send 3 terrorists with liquids instead of 1 - and the next thing you know we'll all be getting cavity checked.

I really think the media should be giving more attention to the 2009 keister bomber in Saudi Arabia. I'd love to see someone bring that up in an interview with Mr. TSA.

[TrickyVic]

""But as far as I can tell, they're phasing out the magnetometers which can detect the metallic detonators in favor of the new backscatter machines - ""

I agree. I think they will eventually respond to the opt-out problems by ending the opt-out option. It's really all about the scanners.

[Lost_In_Translation]

When success becomes failure.

Scary liquid gets on plane. Hundreds panic from unsuccessful bombing.

Just wait until a terrorist hides a canister of H2S in his pants or chlorine gas. Soon everyone that had a bean burrito before bording or washed their clothes recently will be strip searched and probed.

[TrickyVic]

Failure becomes success is more appropriate with airline security.

[Tulpa]

I would actually appreciate it when flying if recent burrito eaters were kept out of my "restricted airspace", so to speak.

[TrickyVic]

"" reduced to carrying a make shift bomb in his pants on the plane ""

He got a bomb on the plane, that enough for a lot of people. The fact that it didn't/couldn't work seems to be irrelevant for them.

[Bingo]

I think there's a very vocal, very small percent of the population that is absolutely terrified of any risk whatsoever. These people will enthusiastically support every intrusive measure in the name of greater safety. Because if a policy could prevent the loss of even a single life, then our freedom is a small sacrifice to make.

The bulk of Americans will unfortunately put up with this logic to a point, and I think the TSA has pushed this point with their latest policies.

[John]

Most of the time the risk averse pass laws that either can be ignored or don't affect most people. The TSA scan and grope affects everyone and can't be ignored.

[Ben Rosengart]

By "most", did you mean "rich"?

[Lost_In_Translation]

I think some culling the herd needs to happen...for the good of humanity.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Well, there was a confirmed case of bird flu in Asia last week, so maybe we will finally get that pandemic the media has been so looking forward to the last 10 years or so.

[CoyoteBlue]

A funny comparison to make is that this x-ray and/or frisk policy is more than you get entering the White House or Congress and it's office buildings. In fact, it is more than I got entering the Green Zone in Bagdad when I was there four years ago - that was when suicide bombers were lining up at the gate every morning.

[jasno]

I think there's a very vocal, very smalllarge percent of the population

Fixed that for you.

[cynical]

"I think there's a very vocal, very small percent of the population that is absolutely terrified of any risk whatsoever."

We should ban secondhand servitude.

[Bingo]

Honestly, it's just typical cognitive dissonance from major party partisans. TEAM BLUE cheerleaders can never admit that some of their policies might be contradictory.

[#]

That's because liberals don't generally care about police abuse in of itself. What they care about is if it happens to fall mostly on a minority. When its everyone getting screwed, the left is fine with a police state - as long as its "fair."

[#]

*minority group that is

[Montani Semper Liberi]

They really don't care even then except to exploit the outrage for their own political purposes. If they really did give a shit about police abuse of minorities, they would end the drug war.

[MNG]

Wait a minute, a lot of people and groups on the left have been opposing this stepped up security stuff from the very beginning. Check out the ACLU on this.

[MNG]

http://www.aclu.org/technology.....p-searches

[#]

we're talking about politicians and your average partisan voter

[MNG]

Politicians of whatever stipe are going to be amazingly risk-averse. Getting a plane blown up on your watch can be a career killer, unless you are George Bush, then it becomes a boost in the polls!

[Tulpa]

Which definition of the left are you using this time? The broad one that includes people who aren't socialists, or the narrow one that you have to use if you want to credibly say the left opposes the drug war?

[Ben Rosengart]

What a load of horse puckey. My liberal friends and I are all up in arms about this TSA thing. And if you think it didn't take a bipartisan effort to get us to this sorry state of affairs, think again.

[Rich]

Obama administration says pat-downs, scanners will continue

Oh, let me be first: "until morale improves!"

[SugarFree]

Tis The Season... Epic Thread: Trample Friday

[waffles]

a classic if there ever was one. I was much more erudite then. Ah, the times they are a changin'

[John]

If that Wall Mart had been unionized, there would have been paid thugs at the door who could have kept that rabble in line. No one but a few shoppers, and who cares about them, would have been hurt.

[Abdul]

Not stir the shit again, but as tough as union thugs are, they would only hurt scab workers.

Thus, the only way they would perform effective crowd control is if the mob was trampling people in order to fill out applications for non-union employment instead of buying discounted Nikes.

[wylie]

Easy fix: "Free Non-Union Job Application with Every Pair of Nikes."

[Trespassers W]

That was a great day in H&R history.

[Bingo]

Wow, I clicked on the link and almost immediately started to responde to a joe troll. Damn my weak will.

[Brett L]

Will they fly the flags at half-mast on Black Friday in honor of those brave, fallen employees?

[SugarFree]

I think it's enough that the entire H&R community rises up to say in one voice:

We Shall Never Forget!

[Spoonman.]

Wow. "joe pretzel logic" indeed.

[J sub D]

Thanks for the reminder. That thread showed joe at his childish and disingenuous worst.

[robc]

Combining thoughts: bomb outside a walmart early friday morning is a lot easier than getting one on a plane.

[SugarFree]

And only the United Transit/Retail Security Local 631 can stop it!

Molesting Rent-A-Cop! I CHOOSE YOU!

[jasno]

We'll have a lot of those around to staff the malls once the TSA starts getting privatized. Instead of Chester the Chi-Mo, Billy from Blackwater will be stroking our taint when we try to board a plane. At least Chester enjoys the experience, and may offer some pleasure in return.

[kinnath]

Walmart fights back

[Fluffy]

Wow, I used to curse a lot less.

The funny thing is that I somehow believed if I just broke it down for Joe into simple enough terms, eventually he'd say, "Oh, yeah, OK."

I am sometimes shocked by my own naivete.

[waffles]

So glad you dug this up SF. That thread has kleinfan92, she was my favorite.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Reason should put together a list of links to the top commented posts through the years for those of us newer commentators. The epic Santorum post was enough to make me contribute.

[Rich]

Ron Paul will be live on the Ron Smith radio show at 1105 Eastern. You can listen here.

[Max]

Is he finally going to come clean on those racist newsletters?

[SugarFree]

Are you going to stop masturbating by fucking a jar of chunky peanut butter?

[Spoonman.]

That sounds scratchy.

[Jar of Skippy]

Please kill me.

[Peter Pan]

You don't know the things Max has done to me. If I had arms and legs, I'd get out of the cabinet, grab a gun, and shoot myself AND Skippy over there.

[Max]

I just scrape out the middle, and use the rest of the peanut butter for sandwiches.

Mom helps me 'cause I hafta use a knife, but she never throws the middle part in the trash...

[Old Mexican]

Re: Max,

Max, H&R's pet yorkie.

Here, Max! Here, boy! Go fetch! That's a good boy, Max! That's a good boy!

[Max]

Ron Paul is racist because I say he's racist. You morans just refuse to accept the truth.

[Keith Olbermann]

Good, Max. Your check is in the mail.

[Ice Nine]

You, Max, are clearly a racist for calling us "morans"

[Max]

It's okay when WE say racist things!

[Fist of Etiquette]

St. Louis overtakes Camden as America's most dangerous city.

These urban centers need to attract more artists and free thinkers.

[Lost_In_Translation]

I blame the free thinkers and artists that turn violent when they realize no one is going to pay for their overpriced garbage.

[SugarFree]

"Why won't anyone buy my tampon Christmas tree ornaments?"

/artist's lament

[J sub D]

Because my colostomy bag ornaments are kicking your lame Tampax? ass in the marketplace.

[SugarFree]

It's just another patriarchal conspiracy. If it wasn't for those bastards, everyone would want to hang sanitary products on their Christmas trees.

[Bingo]

*vomit*

[MNG]

If you got the Rams in exchange for the Cardinals wouldn't you be violent?

[Montani Semper Liberi]

At least the Rams won a SB in recent history. Cardinals have decade upon decade of failure.

[Tulpa]

Yeah, what Montana said. Do you know anything about the NFL, MNG? The Rams are ahead of the Cardinals in the standings, btw.

[John]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....odels.html

European right right wing anti immigrant types are just much cooler in Europe than here. Why can't we ever get a political ad like this?

[John]

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/the.....-of-truth/

Here is the full ad. I vote for the Switzerland of today.

[Brett L]

80% of our immigrant chicks don't wear burkas, so the comparison doesn't hold up as well. Although I'd like to see the ad race that brought the hottest and most revealing pictures of native and immigrant women to grace my screen.

[John]

I think an ad campaign that showed hot, half naked Mexican and Central American chicks with the caption "you wouldn't invite me in?" would be great.

Fortunately we don't have a real culture war here like they do in Europe. We just have fake ones were people call each other names for entertainment.

[Lost_In_Translation]

I thought NBC fired Conan cause he was Irish. You mean the English protestants aren't still fighting the irish Catholics?

[Brett L]

Nah, the English have completely assimilated here in the US. They wear green on March 17.

[robc]

I wear orange...when I remember.

[Brian]

Some pretty serious meat curtains going on with second-from-the-left.

[wylie]

Alas, no Sideboob.

[Ice Nine]

"Some pretty serious meat curtains going on with second-from-the-left."

Yeah, but her dingy yellow head scarf is a real turn-off.

[robc]

Without watching it -- unless it references Charles Martel, I judge it a failure.

WWCMD?

[Brett L]

And what did the Gauls say when Martel's Franks invaded them 200 years before that?

[robc]

uuuuuuuggggggghhhhhhh

mostly

[robc]

Plus, its the Germans' job to sack Paris once every century or so.

[Brett L]

+1. I hadn't thought of that.

[Mainer]

I'm 54. Any of those 4 look just fine to me.

[Brett L]

Poll: Americans still favor race between turd sandwich and giant douche.

[Bingo]

I think Huckabee might be preferable to Mitt, at least in terms of bumbling entertainment value. Although the Romney dog on vacation story was pretty damn funny too. If I can't have a competent president I at least want one I can laugh at.

[John]

Romney is a sure loser in 2012. He would do worse than Palin in the general election. In a year that is going to be another fuck you to the establishment and Washington, Romney would be the worst possible choice. The guy is the picture of the liberal David Brooks "can't we just get alone and split the difference and increase the growth in spending by five percent rather than ten?" Republican. He is just terrible. Only the Republican establishment would be dumb enough to run the guy who developed the prototype for Obamacare (this biggest political gift ever given to an opposition party) for President.

[MNG]

Which Romney are you talking about? I'm sure you won't like the Romney that tried to win elections in Mass., but the Romney that tried to win the nomination in 08 agreed with the conservative line 100%. And if the line changed, he would too!

[John]

And no one would ever talk about his record in Mass. And no one would ever mention Romneycare. You are right, he is shameless enough to try to pretend to be something he is not. But no one would buy it. He would just look like the opportunist he is and do worse.

McCain won the nomination in 2008 for a reason. That was because every other candidate running was horrific. None of those losers from 2008 is going to win anything. Take it to the bank.

[T]

Fred wasn't completely horrible.

[John]

True. He is who I liked. But he didn't seem to try very hard, which I suppose is good argument for why he would have been a half way decent president.

[Tulpa]

McCain won the nomination because of independents and Dems crossing over to vote for him.

He was still struggling to get 50% of the primary votes even after it was clear he was going to be the nominee.

[Bingo]

Yep, if I had a guess, voters will be looking for a real reformer, particularly after Obama finishes up W's third term. The GOP frontrunners in 2008 were mostly establishment Republicans, and it seems a political body seeking reform will pick someone else. Mitch Daniels or Chris Christie are looking pretty hot in that regard. Then again, this is the GOP we're talking about, so they may put up Romney anyways.

The big question is whether Obama will seek a second term...

[MNG]

Christie keeps saying he is not going to run. Plus, he is a fat man in a little coat.

And Daniels is, well, bald.

[Brett L]

Christie has to say he's not going to run. If the NJEA and State Employee's union knew he was running, they'd fund his campaign and run out the clock. He does more by staying out for 12 months than getting in.

[Gray Ghost]

Didn't Christie just get the NJ Gov job? At least Daniels would be term-limited out of the IN Gov seat in time for the 2012 election. I could see Jindal or Pawlenty making a run too.

But I agree with you all that the GOP is stupid enough to back Romney because it's his turn or something, and that he'll get stomped worse than Palin.

[Gray Ghost]

Now I could see Christie making a run in 2016...(assuming the GOP runs Romney, Huckabee or Palin and gets crushed.)

[An Annoying Pedant]

I though Marco Rubio was the GOP Anointed One for 2016.

[TrickyVic]

""particularly after Obama finishes up W's third term. ""

That's funny.

"""The big question is whether Obama will seek a second term...""

You mean Bush's 4th term. 😉

[Tulpa]

In a year that is going to be another fuck you to the establishment and Washington, Romney would be the worst possible choice.

Romney has never had a job in Washington and spent much of his career in the private sector, so I'm not sure where you're getting that conclusion (other than the fact you love Palin and hate Romney).

[Tulpa]

Also, in view of the total sea change from '08 to '10, pretending that we know what the mood of the electorate is going to be two years from now is pretty stupid.

[John]

Romney is the son of a CEO and the author of the proto Obamacare. He is as establishment as they get. I establishment and Washington not Washington Establishment. There is a difference.

And yeah, I will bet you the mood in 2012 will be the same as it was in 2008 and 2010; throw the bums out and try something different. The country elected a half term Senator from Illinois because it wanted to get rid of Republicans so bad. 08 was hardly a pro establishment election.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

There are so many better candidates for the GOP. Ryan, Pawlenty, Jindal, Daniels, Christie, and Johnson to name a few. If they nominate either of Huckabee or Romney, fuck them. Let them stay in the wasteland for decades.

[Jerry]

If the GOP picks a Baptist, Methodist or Evangelical, they deserve all the loathing they could get.

[BakedPenguin]

Johnson would get me to vote Republican. Christie and possibly Daniels would be tempting, especially if they were willing to not laugh about the subject of marijuana legalization.

[Tulpa]

Ryan voted for TARP and Medicare Part D. He's even more of a flip flopper than Romney; he was all too happy to lick the boots of the Republican establishment until it became fashionable to care about the deficit. Same with Mitch Daniels.

Pawlenty and Jindal are pretty noxious in some areas too. Johnson's not going to get the nom (and he would get pummelled in the general even if he did) and Christie is almost certainly not running.

[Joe M]

Buncha n00bs are getting trolled by Kenneth again.

[P Brooks]

That fucking scumbag Pistole was on Morning Joe; Jesus, that guy has a Joan of Arc complex.

And, of course, the drooling imbeciles sat and nodded politely: "Well, Yah, we hafta keep America safe. We gotta do what we gotta do. Thank you for your devoted service, blarghleblargh glug glug glug ummm that's delicious!"

One of the resident mental defectives seized the opportunity to blurt out, "We're circling the drain, ten percent unemployment, Cheap Chinese Craaaaap! Repooooplikkkanz! and all these people can do is whine about THIS."

*tears hair out, beats bead on desk*

[Lost_In_Translation]

For a more soothing therapy, I recommend to find the resident mental defective, rip his hair out and beat his head on the desk. Its much more calming.

[John]

Pistole is the worst the public servant I have ever seen. I saw in on CSPAN and couldn't believe it. Normally political people go before Congress and grovel a lot. They say all the right things and then go back to their jobs and do just the opposite.

But Pistole doesn't even do that. He flat out says "this is how it is so fuck you".

[Apostate Jew]

Worse than "heck of a job Brownie"?

Also, when did Republicans stop being bedwetters about security? I would have thought that Pistole's performance would remind you of Rumsfeld or Cheney or Gonzalez.

While you and I have the same opinion of the utility of TSA's "security theater" you're completely wrong about Pistole. He is an extremely efficient security functionary and his bureacratic logic is impeccable.

[John]

WTF? He is an idiot. You don't appoint someone to run an agency to piss off the entire country and Congress. At best you are telling me he would be a good second level drone at an airport. We expect a little more political acumen than this out of an appointed head of a department.

And Rumsfeld and Chaney were at least smart. You not have liked their positions, but no one ever said they were stupid, just hard headed and mistaken. But Pistole is an idiot. I have yet to see him give one intelligent answer. And he is defending an indefensible position. The scanners and the gropes won't stop any plots normal security wouldn't stop. The GAO has said so on numerous occasion. But he won't back down despite the huge political damage his agency is doing to the administration.

[MNG]

"And Rumsfeld and Chaney were at least smart."

Were they elites?

[Tulpa]

You not have liked their positions, but no one ever said they were stupid, just hard headed and mistaken.

Is "hard headed and mistaken" the analogue of "big-boned"?

[MNG]

Rep. Micah was on Fox. He went through a rant about the new procedures. The host mentioned privatizing the TSA and he said "oh no, we don't want to do that, we just want to focus our measures better."

The GOP decrying heavy handed WOT tactics is sensible only to those with a memory hole one could go spelunking in.

[SugarFree]

If only the Democrats had held the House, Senate, and the Presidency in recent human memory. They might have been able to something about the TSA.

[MNG]

The Democrats are never, ever, going to significantly alter the following:

security policy
military policy
drug policy

because they don't want to get the "soft on" meme that was so prevalent in the 1970's and 1980's going again. That kind of change will have to come from the GOP, a Nixon goes to China kind of thing. Interestingly we are starting to see such a moment peek its head out. But if you can remember the 08 authoritarian-fest that was the GOP presidential debates I wouldn't hold my breath...

[TrickyVic]

""because they don't want to get the "soft on" meme that was so prevalent in the 1970's and 1980's going again.""

I agree with that, but the reason is the people. We respond to negative political attacks and our buying into the "soft on" concept is why they play that card.

[Tulpa]

So what you're saying, MNG, is that Democrats are wimps. The GOP has attempted to advance the agenda items that Dems beat them over the head with (tax cuts, SS privatization, etc), why can't the Dems do the same? Well, unless you think the Dems don't really believe their rhetoric and just want to hold on to power.

[John]

Of course they are hypocrites. All politicians are. But that fact doesn't excuse Pistole. He is a moron who needs to be run out of town on a rail. If it takes putting up with hypocrisy to do justice, then that is a price that has to be paid.

What shouldn't be done is let people like you change the subject and excuse Pistole. When the Republicans come back in power, we can then use the hypocritical Democrats to run the worst of them out to.

[SFC B]

I would support the building of high speed rail if we could use it for running politicians out of town.

I'm thinking high speed rail like the one they use a rocket-sled on to test what happens when you crash things into a wall at high speed.

Whether you put the politician on the sled, on the rail itself, or on the wall is up to you. I'm nothing if not a believer in choice.

[NoVAHockey]

What bothers be most about Pistole is his view of the TSA. I think he views the TSA as more of an intelligence service and isn't going to be content with simply screening passengers.

[BakedPenguin]

Matt Lauer went further up his ass than any TSA employee would do. I've seen fewer softballs at a women's fast pitch tournament.

[John]

http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....ed_it.html

TSA groping works for aging sexless women.

[P Brooks]

They didn't have detonators, because the old security measures worked just fine.

Butbutbutbut- James Bond! Q! Don't you watch movies? Movie terrorists can make a thirty megaton Atom Bomb out of apple cores and pencil shavings, and detonate it with an ipod nano.

We can't take any chances.

[J sub D]

That thread displayed joe at his childish, disingenuous worst. He got chewed up and spit out and lacked the good sense to admit error and retire from the scene.

[John]

He was the worst about trying to defend the indefensible. He could never admit that maybe in this case the Democratic dogma might be wrong.

[dietrich]

In other news, Angela Merkel gets a PMoF for doing the jobs that Americans just won't do.

[moob]

So nice of His Pedophileness to give the okay for condom use. I mean, if they're going to rape children, the least they can do is wear a condom.

[P Brooks]

You wouldn't want UN "peacekeepers" to contract any horrible diseases while they're raping the natives.

Fuck the Pope.

[Warty]

For no particular reason, Iron Maiden.

[BakedPenguin]

You could have at least tied it into one of the stories:

St. Louis overtakes Camden as America's most dangerous city.

[P Brooks]

"Why won't anyone buy my tampon Christmas tree ornaments?"

I'm flummoxed.

[Alec Schwetty]

No one can resist my Schwetty Balls!!

[SugarFree]

A nation mourns...

[marlok]

I guess my hopes for a Passenger 57 2 are dashed.
His best role was probably opposite a young Laurence Fishburn in King of New York.

[John]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/.....tml?hpt=C1

47th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.

[Mike M.]

He called his Secret Service detail "Ivy League charlatans"? Man, talk about a lack of self-awareness.

Christopher Hitchens was right about the revolting Cult of the Kennedys. Thank goodness that family is almost completely out of our public life.

[NoVAHockey]

First time in 60 years there hasn't been a Kennedy in public office

http://www.nationaljournal.com.....n-20101117

[J. G. Ballard]

The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered As A Downhill Motor Race

Author's note. The assassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, raised many questions, not all of which were answered by the Report of the Warren Commission. It is suggested that a less conventional view of the events of that grim day may provide a more satisfactory explanation. Alfred Jarry's "The Crucifixion Considered as an Uphill Bicycle Race" gives us a useful lead.

Oswald was the starter.

From his window above the track he opened the race by firing the starting gun. It is believed that the first shot was not properly heard by all the drivers. In the following confusion, Oswald fired the gun two more times, but the race was already underway.

Kennedy got off to a bad start.

There was a governor in his car and its speed remained constant at about fifteen miles an hour. However, shortly afterwards, when the governor had been put out of action, the car accelerated rapidly, and continued at high speed along the remainder of the course.

The visiting teams. As befitting the inauguration of the first production car race through the streets of Dallas, both the President and the Vice-President participated. The Vice-President, Johnson, took up his position behind Kennedy on the starting line. The concealed rivalry between the two men was of keen interest to the crowd. Most of them supported the home driver, Johnson.

The starting point was the Texas Book Depository, where all bets were placed in the Presidential race. Kennedy was an unpopular contestant with the Dallas crowd, many of whom showed outright hostility. The deplorable incident familiar to us all is one example.

The course ran downhill from the Book Depository, below an overpass, then on to the Parkland Hospital and from there to Love Air Field. It is one of the most hazardous courses in downhill motor racing, second only to the Sarajevo track discontinued in 1914.

Kennedy went downhill rapidly. After the damage to the governor the car shot forward at high speed. An alarmed track official attempted to mount the car, which continued on its way cornering on two wheels.

Turns. Kennedy was disqualified at the hospital, after taking a turn for the worse. Johnson now continued the race in the lead, which he maintained to the finish.

The flag. To satisfy the participation of the President in the race Old Glory was used in place of the usual checkered square. Photographs of Johnson receiving his prize after winning the race reveal that he had decided to make the flag a memento of his victory.

Previously, Johnson had been forced to take a back seat, as his position on the starting line behind the President indicates. Indeed, his attempts to gain a quick lead on Kennedy during the false start were forestalled by a track steward, who pushed Johnson to the floor of his car.

In view of the confusion at the start of the race, which resulted in Kennedy, clearly expected to be the winner on past form, being forced to drop out at the hospital turn, it has been suggested that the hostile local crowd, eager to see a win by the home driver Johnson, deliberately set out to stop him completing the race. Another theory maintains that the police guarding the track were in collusion with the starter, Oswald. After he finally managed to give the send-off Oswald immediately left the race, and was subsequently apprehended by track officials.

Johnson had certainly not expected to win the race in this way. There were no pit stops.

Several puzzling aspects of the race remain. One is the presence of the President's wife in the car, an unusual practice for racing drivers. Kennedy, however, may have maintained that as he was in control of the ship of state he was therefore entitled to captain's privileges.

The Warren Commission. The rake-off on the book of the race. In their report, prompted by widespread complaints of foul play and other irregularities, the syndicate lay full blame on the starter, Oswald.

Without doubt, Oswald badly misfired. But one question still remains unanswered: Who loaded the starting gun?

[Ted S.]

Who gives a shit?

I was born in 1972, and am sick about everything in this country being analyzed through a prism of events that happened between the assassination of John Kennedy and the resignation of Richard Nixon.

[Kenneth]

Can we think of any other developed country that has cities as uninhabitable as Detroit, Cambden, St. Louis, or Youngstown?

I don't think so.

Why does this country have so much crime, so many violent gun deaths, ad such awful cities compared to western Europe and Japan?

[MNG]

It's liberals! They are the reason!

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

It's liberals! They are the reason!

"They imposed all these pro-capitalist policies that increased crime!"

"Uh . . . wait . . ."

[Bingo]

Let me guess, is it because Western Europe and Japan have high-speed rail?

[Kenneth]

No, but with high-speed rail we could tell the TSA to go to hell and create jobs that can't be outsourced:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....speed-rail!-Part-2

[wylie]

Until someone shoebombs a highspeed train, then it gets TSA'd too.

[Tulpa]

You know what else creates jobs that can't be outsourced? Digging ditches on American soil and then filling them back in. No way you can have some Indian with a headset do that.

And that's a lot less carbon-intensive than high speed rail, not to mention just as sustainable without govt subsidy.

[R C Dean]

Why does this country have so much crime,

Other than murder, crime rates are higher in many other countries.

so many violent gun deaths,

I, too, weep for the guns brutally murdered on the streets of our cities.

ad such awful cities compared to western Europe and Japan?

Here, you're on to something. The social pathologies that drive crime, including murder, are concentrated to a very large degree in our large cities.

What makes large cities so dysfunctional in this country? They have high tax rates, large unionized bureaucracies, lefty-liberal politics, and are generally the part of America that most resembles, in its public administration, Europe.

Something about overlaying a European-style public sector on American culture just doesn't seem to work. Its a mystery, I'll grant you that.

[Kenneth]

No higher than any other countries?

HAHAHAHA! Seen our prison population recently? It's #1 IN THE WORLD.

[Fluffy]

The crime rate and the incarceration rate are not the same.

We incarcerate more people for non-violent crimes, and in general incarcerate prisoners longer for comparable crimes than they do in Europe. Do that for a couple of decades and you end up with wildly different incarceration rates even if you have similar violent crime rates.

Math is your friend, Barbie Ken.

[Tulpa]

Increasing the use of capital punishment would help decrease the prison population. China the Model.

[R C Dean]

No higher than any other countries?

Why, yes.
http://www.travelersdigest.com/global_crime.htm

[Old Mexican]

Why does this country have so much crime, so many violent gun deaths, ad such awful cities compared to western Europe and Japan?

You must be jesting. Have you been in Paris during off-work hours? I dare you.

[Mike M.]

He obviously hasn't been to London recently either.

[Kenneth]

If you think London or Paris are anywhere near as bad as Detroit or Baltimore, you must be high.

[Brett L]

Or have visited both places. I must have missed the nightly car burnings and rock fights with police in Baltimore. The Paris headlines obscured them, I'm sure.

[kinnath]

Was visiting a customer in Toulouse a while back. They told us which streets in the area not to use, because autos were still burning.

[wylie]

I bet there's an app for that...

[BakedPenguin]

It depends where you are within those cities. If you're in the West End of London or the Champs ?lys?es, you're a lot less likely to have a gun or knife pulled on you than if you wander through Lambeth, Elephant & Castle or the Parisian suburbs.

[NoVAHockey]

They have business hours in Paris?

[Old Mexican]

Re: NoVAHockey,

Yes, from 9 to 2... maybe.

[BakedPenguin]

But not in August.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

Kenneth has never been to Hull apparently.

[Trespassers W]

Can you blame him?

[Spoonman.]

Every fucking city in China, actually.

[Tulpa]

Um, no. There are benefits to living under a totalitarian dictatorship, among them a vastly reduced crime rate (as long as you don't count state-sponsored crime).

[Fluffy]

The United States made a larger investment than Europe in development patterns based on the automobile, and made it decades earlier.

This gave us a much different population distribution than Europe.

In Paris, the suburbs are shitholes full of unemployment and crime. In Cleveland, it's the inner city that's a disaster. The difference is the respective development patterns.

[Fluffy]

And yeaj, this means liberals are the reason.

[Kenneth]

The big difference between being poor in Paris and being poor in Cleveland is that in Paris at least you have univerisal healthcare, decent schools, and are free from gun violence.

And theres more social mobility in Europe than the US, despite what American Exceptionalit Myth tells us:

http://cep.lse.ac.uk/about/new.....bility.pdf

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

The big difference between being poor in Paris and being poor in Cleveland is that in Paris at least you have univerisal healthcare, decent schools, and are free from gun violence.

I don't know about univerisal healthcare, I don't think I would want that - is that like eviscerating health care? Maybe.

As for being free from gun violence, again - you're a hopeless fool: when you have NOTHING to defend yourself with, the LEAST of your worries is that your assailant is using a chain or a knofe instead of a gun.

Also, you should read your links more carefully. I cannot fathom why you would take this seriously:

"The level of intergenerational mobility in society is seen by many as a measure of the extent of equality of economic opportunity or life chances."

"Seen by many"? And then it goes to confirm this view, basically a theory in search for facts, instead of the other way around.

[Old Mexican]

knife.

[Fluffy]

No no no, I fear the knofe much more.

[Old Mexican]

You should - that thing is nasty.

[jasno]

with his money for nothing and his chicks for free?

[Kant]

In countries where engineers get paid the same as social workers, all it takes is a small increase in intelligence to jump large percentages in the income range.

[Bingo]

This is one of my favorite arguments to make with liberals, that market distortions caused by federal jobs projects like highways actually contributed to their much-hated suburbanization of America and dependency on the automobile.

Kenneth, in alternate reality Libertopia America, there would be no federally funded highway system, and it is very likely that high-speed rail systems would have been developed privately just as the initial rail systems were developed privately.

Unfortunately, Dear Government thought better and created the highway systems, and instead of Green Trains we have Nasty Big Rigs.

[BakedPenguin]

Between the Eisenhower administration subsidizing national highways, and the Kennedy administration enforcing featherbedding and other union work laws, the US government did a lot to kill off the train system. It's amazing a few companies survived.

[John]

That is an interesting counter factual. If we had never built the interstate highway systems would there have been trains instead? I don't know. Also consider that in a libertarian counter factual, there would have been private roads built and the airlines would not have been regulated. My guess is the interstate highway system would have been built as toll roads and people would have flown more.

Once the car and the airplane came, I think the train's days were numbered at least in a big country like America.

[Tulpa]

Once the car and the airplane came, I think the train's days were numbered at least in a big country like America.

Rail is still the most efficient method of transporting freight over long land distances, both in terms of energy and cost, once you correct for the federal highway subsidy. Interstate trucking is an utterly artificial creation of our warped highway system.

[John]

I don't think it is the interstate highway subsidy. Interstate trucking is the creation of unions and featherbedding and federal regulation of the rail industry.

[John]

And I think also libertarians never consider the distorting effects of private toll roads. If all of the interstates were privately run for profit, the operators of them would be making a profit. That people who own choke points could charge the highest possible price the market would bear. That would raise the cost of transport for everyone. Think of it like the castles that sat on the Rhine. For hundreds of years anyone who wanted to could build a castle and throw a chain across the Rhine and collect a toll. That is basically what a road builder can do. Now it is true he built the road. But the tolls pay for the road in no time. Why not build and maintain the road collectively with tax money and save the profit margin provided to the road builder?

[BakedPenguin]

That is where the trains and airplanes come in, and why they wouldn't disappear in a free-market setting.

Also, you could stop one exit prior on the Interstate, and use local roads if the prices were truly outrageous.

[John]

Good point about the trains and airplanes. But you are only using the train or the airplane because the asshole is charging too much at the choke point. The optimal price for the owner is may not be the optimal price for society. If the marginal price of driving the road was just the cost of gas, you would get some amount of traffic. The owner will in many cases to be willing to take a dip in volume in order to charge a higher price that gives a higher revenue. In that case, we are poorer every time someone takes the train when they would have driven otherwise.

[John]

And no owner is going to let you exit early without paying close to full toll.

[BakedPenguin]

And no owner is going to let you exit early without paying close to full toll.

My point, apparently poorly phrased, was that you could leave at another owner's exit and drive the rest of the way on local roads.

As far as society is concerned, fuck society if they refuse to recognize property rights. If some idiot wanted to charge as much as possible for using his roads, all the idiot would be doing is spurring people to develop alternate means of transport, or alternate routes.

Note: for this statement and others on this thread, I'm assuming that the Interstates have been privatized, but not other roads. The reason is that the Interstates have very limited entry / exit points where tolls could be charged, while local roads (in many areas) would be impossible to charge user fees for.

[TrickyVic]

The owners could create rules like no firearms, and random searches. You have less constitutional protections on private property.

[Tulpa]

Also, you could stop one exit prior on the Interstate, and use local roads if the prices were truly outrageous.

I never thought libertarians were monopoly apologists. It's competition, not privatization, that is the lifeblood of the free market.

[BakedPenguin]

I mentioned airplanes, rail & side roads as possible other means of transportation to the same place.

[John]

For some libertarians Tulpa privatization is a fetish.

[BakedPenguin]

And for some authoritarians, government control is.

If there are other methods of achieving the same ends, it's not a monopoly.

[Tulpa]

If there are other methods of achieving the same ends, it's not a monopoly.

That's a damned narrow definition. So if only one company controls all meat production in the US, that wouldn't be a monopoly because you can still get protein from beans, nuts, and tofu?

[Tulpa]

Kenneth, in alternate reality Libertopia America, there would be no federally funded highway system, and it is very likely that high-speed rail systems would have been developed privately just as the initial rail systems were developed privately.

I'm assuming your version of Libertopia includes widespread use of eminent domain, because the "private" rail system developed in the US would have been impossible without it.

[CoyoteBlue]

Cuz we're hardcore.

[J_L_B]

The name Belfast comes to mind. The threat of terrorist attacks and not violent street crime makes some parts of Europe as uninhabitable as those cities you mentioned (northeast Spain comes to mind).

[Old Mexican]

Obama administration says pat-downs, scanners will continue.

"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"

Ireland gets $130 billion EU bailout.

"Ask, and ye shall receive!"

[MNG]

Iirc Ireland resisted calls for a bailout from their Continental masters.

They were just going to issue potato money.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

Ireland resisted calls for a bailout from their Continental masters.

"They said 'no' when they meant 'yes.'"

[wylie]

They were just going to issue potato money.

Fools. Clearly, French Fries (Chips) would make a far superior currency.

[Old Mexican]

Pope gives okay to condom use in limited circumstances.

"Yes, only for male prostitutes, because those don't reproduce."

[Thank God!]

[P Brooks]

And another thing:

In the good old days, like ten or twelve years ago (I confess- I really really miss Bill Clinton), a guy with the sort of grandiose megalomaniacal paranoiac delusions exhibited by Pistole (on national television, no less) would have been physically restrained and hustled off to a padded cell in the booby hatch, as a danger to himself and those near and dear to him.

Things being as they are, I expect we'll be seeing a Medal of Freedom ceremony in the very near future.

"For your tireless efforts in advancing the cause of the Total Control State, and your relentless steamrolling of personal rights and civil liberties, for your indefatigable grinding of the American people under the heel of your authoritarian boot, I award you this Presidential Medal of Freedom. God bless you, Mister Pistole. Keep up the good work."

[Brett L]

Janet Reno didn't get her PMoF for the Waco stuff?

[Kenneth]

Why we NEED high-speed rail:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyo.....speed-rail!-Part-2

[Brett L]

Why Chinese style high-speed rail won't work in the US.

[Kenneth]

Megan McArdle??

HAHAHAHAHAHHAA!

[Brett L]

What's the frequency, Kenneth? What do I tune my tinfoil hat to?

[Kenneth]

That's the woman who spent the entire summer of 2008, and even some of September, telling us the economy was just fine and there wouldn't be any recession.

How can anyone take her seriously after that?

[Fluffy]

A. OK, so getting economic forecasts wrong mean that we can stop taking people seriously.

B. The economic forecasts put forth by the Obama administration in early 2009 were all wrong.

C. Therefore: _____________________

Come on Barbie Ken, fill in the blank for me.

[wylie]

"Therefore....more stimulus spending?"
-Kenneth

[Kant]

Where on the other hand you expect us to respect information provided by Daily Kos? interesting double standard...

[Montani Semper Liberi]

The love affair with the car has brought Americans to gridlock on the interstate system. Americans love affair with air travel has now created gridlock at the airport. Isn't it time to get on board with hi-speed rail?

Then we can have gridlock on the rails. Don't we want to complete the transportation gridlock trifecta?

[TrickyVic]

Rail travel is largely a bust in the US. A faster train will not increase ridership enough to make it anything other than a tax-payer subsidised white elephant. Something we don't need.

[Kenneth]

Yes, we want our white elephants to be stuff that can kill people, like the Raptor or new aircraft carriers we don't need.

[TrickyVic]

Because they want their white elephants, you want yours? Is that what it's about? Dog pile on the out of control spending.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

Why we NEED high-speed rail[...]

What's with this "we" business, Kimosabe?

[Warty]

The most improtant reson is taht R&D FOLOWS HIGH SPEED RAILS

[John]

If we needed high speed rail someone would be building it making a fortune. No one writes articles bemoaning the lack of stuff we actually need and want like computers or cars or airplanes. Amazingly through something called a market those things get built on their own.

Here is a simple rule for you to follow; if it requires a government subsidy to build and or operate, it is not profitable and by definition not worth the cost.

[Kenneth]

I guess we should get rid of subsidies to air and highway travel then and watch our airports close up shop.

Go read the article.

[Fluffy]

Yes. Exactly.

[John]

What he said.

[Pope Jimbo]

John,

How about a slight modification?

Since the gubbment does actually run/maintain the roads (different discussion in Libertopia), it does garner some benefit from people using mass transit. The more people that ride mass transit, the less the need for expensive expansion of existing roads and there is also less wear and tear on the roads which means less expensive road repair projects.

Ideally, I would like to see someone put a price on how much that benefit was. Then the governments could simply get rid of their own transportation departments and pay anyone who can prove they provided mass transit to people that subsidy.

It would be a huge savings for government, and I'm sure the results would be far more inventive than anything put out by a government run transportation agency.

[John]

"The more people that ride mass transit, the less the need for expensive expansion of existing roads"

That is true. But if the cost of building and maintaining the mass transit is greater than the cost saved in maintaining roads, the shift is a net negative and we are all poorer for it.

[Voros McCracken]

I NEED a Carne Asada burrito. The price-tag on mine is much cheaper, so pony up.

[P Brooks]

Yay, "Kenneth" is here!

[Mike M.]

Horrible news: the Washington Independent, one time home of legendary journalists like chat room tough guy Spencer Ackerman and professional concern troll David Weigel, will be ceasing operations at the end of the month. Soros must have decided to redirect his funds elsewhere.

[Warty]

I WILL THROW YOU THROUGH A PLATE GLASS WINDOW

[marlok]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like their primary function was self-promotion for a bunch of Obama-worshipping Hunter Thompson wannabes.
Did they break any stories or write anything I couldn't find on kos?

[PapayaSF]

Oh, didn't you read the link? Dave Weigel, who defined the modern conservative movement and understood it like no one else.... Of course, some might disagree just a tad on that point.

[Slap the Enlightened!]

Congress getting richer. You aren't.

[Detroit]

The study by CQ Press found St. Louis had 2,070.1 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, compared with a national average of 429.4. That helped St. Louis beat out Camden, which topped last year's list and was the most dangerous city for 2003 and 2004.

Detroit, Flint, Mich., and Oakland, Calif., rounded out the top five.

[Detroit]

We demand a recount!

[P Brooks]

Go read the article.

If it's on Kos, you know it's right.

[hmm]

I'm guessing the study is just another study that counts St. Louis as being like every other large city and not as a small 300,000 population independent city it is. Saint Louis is tiny in comparison to its outlying municipalities, and most moved to the burbs.

Shitty geographical stats work.

[Tulpa]

Camden and Flint should suffer from that assumption even more.

[hmm]

Neither are independent cities that have no county.

[Warty]

Gun granny who kept WWII pistol under mattress has five year sentence quashed

What a horrible place.

[John]

England left its best and brightest and those who loved liberty on the fields of Flanders and Normandy. All that is left are the shirkers and their idiot sons and daughters.

[Steve]

I suspect that explains the Baby Boom generation as well...sigh.

[Fluffy]

I think it's pretty funny that we were told Ireland had to be bailed out to prop up the markets, and the bailout news is leading to further declines.

[Tulpa]

I recall that happening when we passed TARP here too.

[Warty]

Cool Japanese WW2 footage

[SIV]

The Nips are some tough customers. We ought to let them fully rearm. Might come in handy someday.

[R C Dean]

I have a proposal to make:

We all agree to stop complaining and disrupting the new airline security measures, if:

every single person who gets on Air Force 1 is required to be screened the same way we are. And it needs to be done in public, so we can be sure they are complying.

Hey, if its not so bad, Mr. President, why don't you, your wife, and your young daughters do the pron-scan, or the gate grope? Lead by example, and all that.

[John]

They don't teach "lead from the front" at Columbia and Harvard RC.

[Pope Jimbo]

Joe Baures: "Why me? Every time Metsler says' 'Lead, follow, or get out of the way,' I get out of the way."

Sgt. Keller: "Yeah, when he says that, you're not supposed to choose 'get out of the way'. It's supposed to embarrass you into leading or at least following."

Joe: "That doesn't embarrass me."

[Dr Lexus]

Your chart says your shit's all retarded and you talk like a fag. But it's no prob, scro; many 'tards go on to live happy lives. My ex wife is a 'tard, now she's a pilot.

[Nasty BO]

Let me be clear: There are those who say I am a hypocrite on this issue. Now, come on, let's be serious. To those folks I say, elections have consequences.

[Warty]

I figured he was a tranny, but I never thought Epi would be so ugly.

[waffles]

Epi is a chubby hipster girl? makes sense.

[John]

A newly discovered exchange of e-mails led the House ethics committee on Friday to delay its trial of Representative Maxine Waters, a California Democrat accused of helping steer bailout money to a bank in which her husband owned shares.

The e-mails are between Mikael Moore, Ms. Waters's chief of staff, and members of the House Financial Services Committee, on which Ms. Waters serves. The e-mails show that Mr. Moore was actively engaged in discussing with committee members details of a bank bailout bill apparently after Ms. Waters agreed to refrain from advocating on the bank's behalf. The bailout bill had provisions that ultimately benefited OneUnited, a minority-owned bank in which her husband, Sidney Williams, owned about $350,000 in shares. ..

The subcommittee's original report found that in early September 2008, Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts and the committee's chairman, told Ms. Waters not to get involved with any issues involving OneUnited and that Ms. Waters agreed to refrain from advocating on the bank's behalf. The case against Ms. Waters hinged largely on a series of e-mails between Mr. Moore and OneUnited, which may suggest that Ms. Waters's office continued to lobby on behalf of the bank, although Mr. Moore has argued that he was primarily on the receiving end of the messages.

A person directly involved in the investigation said the new e-mails could show that members of her staff continued to work on the bank's behalf.

"It may directly contradict a bit of Maxine's story, if not the actual facts, the way she has told it," said the person, who did not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of the trial.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11.....mp;emc=rss

Most ethical Congress ever!!

[Kenneth]

Yes John, we should pine for the days of Jack Abramoff, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, and Tom Delay instead.

[John]

yes because "they did it to" means you can do it as well right? Is that your moral standard now?

[Warty]

Kenneth's posts are a lot better if you read them in Towelie's voice. "Don't forget the high-speed rail!"

Kenneth, you're the worst character ever.

[Shorter Kenneth]

It's okay when Democrats do it!

[Mainer]

Remember, two wrongs don't make a right, but three rights make a left. Ba-da-bing !

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

Yes John, we should pine for the days of Jack Abramoff, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Mark Foley, Larry Craig, and Tom Delay instead.

How quaint - a Tu Quoque argument.

[heller]

Life is a board game. There is no right and wrong, only what you can get away with. Winner takes all.

[PapayaSF]

Of course they're all gone, while Rangel and Waters and etc. are still there....

[P Brooks]

And, speaking of ass-backwards government issue logic, how long 'til some moron comes along and tells us we need to shut the fuck up and pledge our obeisance to the TSA because "freedom isn't free"? I haven/'t heard it *yet* but I'm sure it's coming.

[Rhywun]

"For the second straight year, the safest city with more than 75,000 residents was Colonie, N.Y."

For the record, Colonie is not a "city" - it is a suburban "town" (i.e. township) adjacent to Albany.

[BakedPenguin]

Blog pimping: I did a test at Urkobold to see if resistance to Obama was actually due to race.

[P Brooks]

"It's K-k-k-kenneth! He's coming to k-k-k-kill me!"

[Kenneth]

Beijing-Tianjin supertrain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related

It's amazing, and we have nothing like it!

[Old Mexican]

Re: Kenneth,

It's amazing, and we have nothing like it!

We're fortunate in many other ways as well, Kenny. For instance, foolish jack-offs like you are free to express their inanities, which is amazing - they have nothing like it!

[Not Dead Yet]

I've lived in St.Louis my whole life, and I've never been murdered. What am I doing wrong?

[John]

The old Deep Thoughts on SNL was making fun of a real author. His name was Hugh Prather. He died at 72 this weekend. The real deep thoughts included such thoughts as

?"Another day to listen and love and walk and glory. I am here for another day. I think of those who aren't."

?"My prayer is: I will be what I will be, I will do what I will do."

?"When I get to where I can enjoy just lying on the rug picking up lint balls, I will no longer be too ambitious."

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2.....uthor.html

[Old Mexican]

One of the many TSA molesters arrested for allegedly raping a 14-year old girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAZaYO2Zz1E

Wonder how many more of those are there working "to keep us safe"?

[Hobie Hanson]

It's better to be molested than killed in a terrorist attack.

[Warty]

I realized he was right and headed for the bathroom. I noticed there was only one other customer in the store, a very tall man who looked like he was about to pour a half-gallon of milk over his head but had stopped, his body frozen except for his eyes.

"Milk will stop the transmissions, but it will kill me," he said in a muffled tone of voice.

[Hobie Hanson]

Correction:

It's better to be raped by a TSA employee than killed in a terrorist attack.

[Anonymous]

Actually, when I heard the story about St. Louis, my first impression (which I still hold pending evidence to the contrary) was that someone in the source change screwed up, and dropped the small but critical "East" from the city name. St. Louis, MO, and East St. Louis, IL, are two very different cities. (And the latter has been on the worst crime list for years.)

[Rhywun]

Maybe they only looked at cities over a certain population... which, like making up your own definition of "city", is another way to make your statistics like that say whatever the hell you want them to.

[Not Dead Yet]

What they dropped was the "North", not the "East".

[Tulpa]

Looks like Gary Condit is off the hook.

A jury found a Salvadoran immigrant guilty on Monday of murdering Washington intern Chandra Levy back in 2001, when her disappearance became a national sensation.

...

Prosecutors Amanda Haines and Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez obtained a conviction even though they had no eyewitnesses and no DNA evidence linking Guandique to Levy. And Guandique never confessed to police. Prosecutors hung their hopes in large part on a former cellmate of Guandique, Armando Morales, who testified that Guandique confided in him that he killed Levy.

Morales said Guandique was worried about being labeled a rapist by fellow inmates if word got out that he was a suspect in the Levy case. According to Morales, Guandique admitted killing Levy as part of an attempted robbery, but said he never raped her.

...

Defense attorneys said Morales' testimony couldn't be trusted. They also pointed to DNA from an unknown male that was found on Levy's black running tights. The DNA matched neither Guandique nor Condit, and the defense said it was powerful evidence that the wrong person was on trial. Prosecutors argued the DNA was the result of contamination during the testing process.

[Rhywun]

Further evidence that only dumb people wind up on juries - they seem incapable understanding that whole "beyond a shadow of a doubt" thing.

[J_L_B]

The Innocence Project usually gets people released after DNA not matching them is found somewhere on victim. Nevertheless, this guy already attacked to other girls in the park so I'm not losing sleep over him eventually ending up a prison cemetary.

[Tulpa]

I don't think they'll be able to overturn this verdict on that basis, since the jury knew about the non-matching DNA when it rendered the verdict.

[????? ??????]

Thanks