Reason Morning Links: Earthquake in Turkey, Ron Paul Confounds David Gregory, WikiLeaks Temporarily Shuts Down

* Earthquake in Turkey kills more than 200.

* European debt crisis staggers closer to near-term resolution.

* Tunisia counts up ballots from country's first free election.

* Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) appears on Meet the Press, talking such apparently confounding policy as denationalizing the mortgage industry.

* Speaking of which, President Barack Obama is set to announce new program to aid underwater homeowners.

* "Supercommittee" tasked with reducing the deficit is being super-lobbied.

* WikiLeaks temporarily suspends publishing operations in a fight with credit card companies.

* Washington Post Ombudsman: "I think The Post erred in republishing this story, or at least in the way it did. And when the Kochs complained to The Post after publication, The Post's response wasn't handled well….[T]he story lacked context, was tendentious and was unfair[.]"

Recently at Reason.tv: "The Drug War in Guatemala: A Conversation with Giancarlo Ibarguen."

Comments

[Name Nomad]

Qaddafi was probably the richest man in the world, worth about $200 billion or over two and a half times Carlos Slim who tops the Forbes list
STEVE SMITH enthusiast takes case to NH state supreme court

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Those gold chains are expensive man. A fashionable dude like Moammar needs funds to keep up with the Kardashians.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Not to mention his wardrobe. You need some serious cheddah to keep up on that Barbary Pirate ensemble he wore.

[sarcasmic]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....Vegas.html

Kirstin Dunst is still hot.

[John]

She needs some sun. But she does have a fantastic body. There has always been a lot of Dunst hate on here. I never got that. She is the classic girl next door.

[Restoras]

I don't mind the pale skin - beautiful is beautiful regardless of epidermis tincture.

[John]

I don't either. I think she is great. Love her body, thin but not too thin and very natural.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

In the pale category, Eva Green takes first place. No competition at all.

[John]

Eva Green takes first place in any category.

[Blight Engine]

I think Dunst's friend beat green, but that's what makes a horse race.

[Troy]

Her boobs are too big.

[sarcasmic]

Your hands are too small.

[Troy]

Your mom's hands aren't.

[KDN]

More than a mouthful is a waste?

[Ice Nine]

mmmo!

[Heroic Mulatto]

Her boobs are too big.

The hell? Are you a homosexual?

[Lord Humungus.]

I love pale skin - heck, I'm married to a half-Finn/Half-Irish.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

How does that work out, given the volatile nature of the Irish and the super-reserved nature of the Finns? Of course, the drinking capability must be prodigious.

[Lord Humungus.]

I shall not comment since she lurks (and sometimes even comments on) H&R.

[SugarFree]

It takes a brave man to admit to being married to rather. You poor fucker.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Can't be rather, he said she lurks. If only rectal would lurk more, life would be so much better.

[Fluffy]

He also cannot comment because if he angers her she will plant a pipe bomb under his bed and then retreat to a guerrilla redoubt in impenetrable forested mountains.

[Lord Humungus.]

^^this^^

[Ice Nine]

He also cannot comment because if he angers her she will plant a pipe bomb under his bed and then retreat to a guerrilla redoubt in impenetrable forested mountains.

Or just morosely bore him to death and then move in with her mother.

[OO=======D]

I know her well.

[questioner]

Does she inhale?

[Lord Humungus]

regularly.

[questioner]

Balls to the Wall, man.

[Fluffy]

Pale skin is actually vastly preferable.

You guys really need to start pulling your own weight in terms of enforcing white privilege. I can't do all this work myself with no help.

Get with the program or turn in your monocles.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Black people still get monocles, if they are libertarian. They just have to get whale bone monocles, unlike our fine ivory monocles. It's how the libertarian hierarchy is maintained(gays get monocles covered in rainbow sparkles, if you were wondering).

[Old Mexican]

Re: John,

She needs some sun. But she does have a fantastic body.

She has bowed legs and sagged tits. If he had this body, then I would agree with you.

[John]

Her tits are not saggy at all. Her tits are perky works of art. You have lost your mind OM.

[sarcasmic]

^^aye^^

[SugarFree]

If he had this body, then I would agree with you.

Massive Freudian slip.

[sarcasmic]

OM's got a sparkly rainbow monocle?

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

Sparkly Rainbow Monocle would be a good name for a punk album.

Or maybe just a screen name.

[WTF]

If that photo he linked to is a man, I think I just turned gay.

[Old Mexican]

Actually, massive el-cheapo keyboard fail 😛

[Tulpa]

Good keyboards cost what, $10? Foregoing a couple of chalupas at Taco Smell would cover it.

[Troy]

That is a level ten Boner woman there.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

Nothing at all wrong with the way Dunst looks, but her friend in the background has the same complexion as Edward Scissorhands/Robert Smith.

[Kevin]

I love me some pale skin. My wife is an ivory skinned brunette. My fave combo, although I am partial to redheads as well. At the time I married my wife, she put both those women to shame. My gal was HOT! Of course, two kids, and a couple auto accidents later, and she had gained some weight. Now she's getting back to fighting trim and is milf-tastic.

I remember a time when we were dating, and she had picked me up from work. She was wearing a form fitting skirt and top. When we got out of the car, a young guy next door said to his buddy, "That guy is so lucky."

Yes, I am!

[MJ]

Looking to get off the couch tonight, huh?

[Anacreon]

That woman has implants. Everyone is saggy compared to surgery-supple.

[Troy]

+420 🙂

[Ice Nine]

I want to start dressing like I'm 30. 'Some of the things I have are like, "I can't wear this anymore, it's not cute".'

Wouldn't hurt her to start talking like she's 30.

[sarcasmic]

I mean, like, what's wrong with the way she talks and stuff, you know?

[Ice Nine]

I'm like, it's the talking things more than anything.

[WTF]

Wouldn't hurt her to start talking like she's 30.

Stop imposing teh Patriarchy on the way of wymyn's speaking!

[Lord Humungus.]

Estonia Lives the European Dream
http://www.spiegel.de/internat.....93,00.html

Just what is it that makes such a country work? What's so great about Estonia?

"Muchas cosas peque?as," or many little things, says Spaniard Naphtali Peral. He says that he established his company here in only half a day, mainly online. The record for establishing a company, he adds, is only 18 minutes. In other words, the government doesn't say: Hey, Peral, who do you think you are, starting a company, just like that? No, he says, the state actually encourages entrepreneurship, and says things like: So you have an idea, Peral! Go for it! And then he says that it takes him 20 minutes to prepare his semi-annual tax return, and that when it was time to slash the government budget, Estonia's cabinet ministers started with their own salaries.

[BakedPenguin]

That's awesome. Also sad, since the US used to be like that.

[JW]

Appropos....an very cute Estonian girl I knew in HS gave me the worst case of blue balls ever. Depsite that, I don't hold it against Estonia itself.

I would love to see the reaction from the 99% Retarded as to implementing a system like this in the US. Exploding heads, I presume.

[John]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/n....._term=Tina Brown List

Bernard Henri Levi sours on his favorite war after he figures out wars are hard.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....c-law.html

New Libyan leader to introduce radical Islamic Law.

Sure you can just randomly bomb a country and put a group in charge that you have no idea whatsoever their intentions. But as long as no American lives are lost it must be a success right?

[Tim]

The radio news this AM was that they've adopted Sharia Law as a template for governing. If true: sooper.

[John]

In some ways it is their business. But once we intervened and put these people in power, it became our business. We are spending money to install a radical Islamic government in Libya exactly why?

[Barack Obama]

Fuck you, that's why.

[Blight Engine]

1 man, 1 vote, 1 time. It's a tough time for civilization.

[RC Dean]

Its one man, one vote. The mullah's the man, so he's got the vote.

[Ice Nine]

So, Tim, have we won there yet?

[BakedPenguin]

But as long as no American lives are lost [in Libya] it must be a success right?

It's a huge win, unquestionably.

[John]

But we were there to save lives and make Susan Power feel good. It just can't be that the people fighting Kadafi might be just as bad or worse. It is not like that has ever happened before.

[Samantha Power]

Don't mix me up with that Susan Rice bitch! CASS!

[Susan Powter]

CUT YOUR HAIR OFF AND EXERCISE WITH ME!! COME ON, GIRLS!!

[Poet Luareate sloopyinca]

Well, "Stop The Insanity" certainly applies to this thread, Ms Powter.

[Neu Mejican]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6282.....onal-Stage

Draft of the Constitutional Charter that the transitional government is putting forth. Has a guaranteed freedom of religion, multiparty democracy, equality under the law (with women specifically mentioned), innocent until proven guilty, property rights, freedom of speech, the press, academia, etc...

Sound horrible.

The draft needs some work, but the "Oh My. It's sharia" so far seems mostly like a bogeyman.

[Ice Nine]

I'm guessing that sharia law has pretty unique definitions for all of those things.

[RC Dean]

I seem to recall the Soviet constitution had some very pretty words about freedom, as well.

I'm more interested in what the putative leaders are actually doing, rather than what they put out for the Western press to nibble on to keep the aid checks coming.

[Ice Nine]

I'll get back to you after the first bare ankle exposure beheading.

[Timon19]

Jesus, I agree with Neu Mejican.

Seriously, it's like the word "Sharia" turns off any and all capacity to reason in the receiver's brain.

[Ice Nine]

it's like the word "Sharia" turns off any and all capacity to reason in the receiver's user's brain.

FIFY

[rather]

Survivor cast member Rupert Boneham is running as a Libertarian for governor of Indiana.

http://www.idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=83646

I can't wait to see this Governor's Cabinet 🙂

[rather not]

Three hummers and a facial?

[rather]

Sometimes but not all the time.

[Lord Humungus.]

Alabama Voices: Should have supported voter ID law
http://www.montgomeryadvertise.....ter-ID-law

The truth is that the most aggressive contemporary voter suppression in the African American community, at least in Alabama, is the wholesale manufacture of ballots, at the polls and absentee, in parts of the Black Belt.

Voting the names of the dead, and the nonexistent, and the too-mentally-impaired to function, cancels out the votes of citizens who are exercising their rights -- that's suppression by any light. If you doubt it exists, I don't; I've heard the peddlers of these ballots brag about it, I've been asked to provide the funds for it, and I am confident it has changed at least a few close local election results.

[John]

And of course letting in huge numbers of illegal Mexicans to compete with blacks for lower end jobs helps them a lot too.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

"You've heard of Mexican Salsa... but MEXICAN VOTING?"

[Fist of Etiquette]

Speaking of which, President Barack Obama is set to announce new program to aid underwater homeowners.

I don't want to bail out Aquaman.

[Tim]

It's the orange scales that bug me.

[Quetzalcoatl]

You'd need one heck of a bucket to bail out Atlantis.

Or is that Namor?

[Pro Libertate]

Bailing out people living in underwater domes? That may be a literal bailing out--maybe their domes are slowly flooding?

[Jar Jar]

Weesa need a bailout Obammy!

[SFC B]

I'm fairly certain this is double rasiss.

[Kevin]

Jar Jar is the reason I prefer Star Trek.

[Kevin]

and 7 of 9, Counselor Troi, the uber hot blonde chick from the first few seasons of ST TNG, that green chick that Kirk boffed, Yeoman Rand from the original series, the hot Vulcans...

Star Trek is way better.

[PS]

Aquaman was kind of a dick in Justice League, but I don't know what he's like in real life. Either way, I don't think it's the taxpayer's problem.

[Beloved Rev. Blue Moon]

But would you lend Seaman a hand? (hurr)

[robc]

Its a little late for a Katrina aid plan.

[Joe M]

That David Gregory guy is intolerable. I just happened to see that Ron Paul was going to be on the show about fifteen minutes before he was on, but I couldn't even listen to the entire interview. Gregory referred to Paul's budget cuts as "draconian" within the first minute.

[John]

His interviews with Paul and Cain have boiled down to him saying over and over in his most outraged face "well you can't possibly believe that!" He is just sorry.

[Ice Nine]

Tim Russert would puke.

[Tulpa]

Russert (rest his soul) chewed up Ron Paul and spit him out like an undercooked chicken wing back in 2008.

[Zeb]

I didn't know that Draco was known for his budget cuts.

[Draco (to his budget)]

"I must break you..."

[David Gregory]

You know I could have been a much bigger dick to him, right?

[Lord Humungus.]

The Little State With a Big Mess
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10.....f=business

After decades of drift, denial and inaction, Rhode Island's $14.8 billion pension system is in crisis. Ten cents of every state tax dollar now goes to retired public workers. Before long, Ms. Raimondo has been cautioning in whistle-stops here and across the state, that figure will climb perilously toward 20 cents. But the scary thing is that no one really knows. The Providence Journal recently tried to count all the municipal pension plans outside the state system and stopped at 155, conceding that it might have missed some. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission is asking questions, including the big one: Are these numbers for real?

[sarcasmic]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....arges.html

Cops who were filmed pulling a man out of a wheelchair and throwing him face first onto the sidewalk will face no consequences.

Nobody is surprised.

[Tim]

It's just the way they roll.

[Charles Krauthammer]

My dear boy, I resemble that remark!

[mad libertarian guy]

Dunphy? I'm expecting your "a]most cops are good guys" speech right about now.

[sarcasmic]

He hasn't been around in a while.
Probably getting paid overtime to write fiction in the form of police reports.

[mad libertarian guy]

I'd bet that the vast majority of police reports contain fiction of one sort or another, even those which don't "require" it (from the police perspective).

I once read that about 90% of all arrests involve busting someone's civil rights somewhere along the line; I wouldn't doubt if falsifications in police reports were much higher than 90%.

[sarcasmic]

Look at the story in my link. Cops are caught on camera pulling a guy out of a wheelchair and throwing him onto his face in such a manner that he required hospitalization after lying in a pool of blood.

All charges against him were dropped.

It's a commonly recurring pattern. Someone does not show the police the proper respect that they feel that they deserve, so that someone is beaten to a bloody pulp. Charges are filed so the cops can have an excuse to take that someone to jail (and probably beat him up a little more behind closed doors).
Charges are summarily dropped because they were falsified in the first place.
Nobody is disciplined.

And then people wonder why some of us fear the police.

[Ice Nine]

Wait, you mean their tasers weren't working?

[Poli = [metro]Polis = Police]

There has never been an agricultural city-State without Police.

Police are just doing the Political enforcement of the Poli [city-state people] in the [mega]Polis.

You stupidly keep thinking that:

City-State = Good.
City-State = Evil.

How's that working out for you, living in fear of POLI[x]?

[Lost]

WTF are you on about? NM...WTF are you on?

[Thwack]

Shoulda got a dog.

[Montani Semper Liberi]

So if you're the Colts, do you draft Luck with the #1 pick or trade it to another team? On one hand, Manning is coming back, and if he is playing well, you've got a really expensive QB riding the bench for several years. Also, you could use the extra picks from trading #1 overall to strengthen other positions. On the other hand, Luck is probably the most "can't miss" type QB in years, and if Manning isn't the same after back surgery, he would be a major upgrade over their other QBs. Decisions, decisions.

[Xenocles]

Since they don't play Miami, we could easily be looking at two 0-fers this season.

[mad libertarian guy]

Though having the opportunity to get a guy like Luck would be nice, I'd actually like Miami to NOT have that chance just to further dishearten the SuckForLuck contingency of Dolphans.

Reading supposed Dolphins fans relish in a Miami loss is sickening. It's like hoping that Obama completely destroys the economy just so he won't get re-elected.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

I think the difference is that most people knew Miami was already a bad team when the season started, and it wouldn't have been surprising to see them end up with the #1 pick. It's hard not to believe, on the other hand, that the Colts are deliberately phoning it in this year so they can get Manning's replacement, especially after Peter King reported earlier this year on Bill Polian scouting Luck.

[Brian D]

"Since they don't play Miami, we could easily be looking at two 0-fers this season."

The Rams also are in that mix, although they'll likely trade the top pick to fill other holes.

[KDN]

They need help everywhere, and with the (justified, imo) hype Luck is getting, they might be able to pull a king's ransom for that pick and make one last run with Peyton. A team like the Pats would keep Luck and phase him in over three years, but the Colts can't afford to do that since they just have too many holes, they have to decide if they want to start over with the new guy or make one last run. Since neck injuries are scary and I hate the Colts' roster I'd go with the former. I mean, the Bungles got two firsts for a dude with a blown out elbow, the Colts should be able to get quite a bit more for a HOF QB / Offensive Coordinator.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Also, what is Manning's contract status? That has to play a role.

[KDN]

Signed for the next 4 seasons with a lot of insurance clauses:

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nf.....-cant-play

[Ted S.]

I hope they trade the #1 pick, only for Manning to discover he won't recover from the neck injury enough to play football.

Miami is more likely to get the #1 pick anyway.

[MiNGe]

But as long as no American lives are lost it must be a success right?

Exactly.

[Lord Humungus.]

Chinese Rare Earth Company Strokes Mustache, Cuts Off World's Access to Rare Earths to Inflate Prices
http://www.popsci.com/technolo.....ate-prices

China may only have 30 percent of the rare earths in the world, but they essentially have a monopoly--which the rest of the world has been tirelessly trying to work around. (To wit: Japan looks to Vietnam, the U.S. looks to California and Missouri, everyone looks under the sea.) In a slightly devilish business move, China sought to tighten their grip and raise prices by eliminating all sales to its major buyers, the U.S., Japan, and Europe, for one month.

[Tim]

It will backfire, it will only hasten innovation and exploration for new resources.

[Greenpeace]

Not in the US of A if we have anything to say about it! And you bet we do!

Of course we're generally pussies when it comes to the nations that don't cotton to our jive.

[Quetzalcoatl]

Didn't we just find a bunch of rare earths in Nebraska or something?

[Almanian]

You're thinking of the "Rare Earth" [band] reunion, which was held at the Lincoln (NE) High School.

Understand they had a crowd of tens show up.

[#]

exactly... the issue isnt that there ar enot rare earth metals in other places - there are a ton of them in the US and australia.

The issue is that its not economically viable currently to extract them there. But if they are driving up the price, it becomes so. They keep this up for a few years, all of a sudden a lot of mines will be opening up int he western US.

[cynical]

So, how's that trade war thing working out?

[John]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/.....7206.story

Two Chicago teachers' union goons, work a day a substitutes, get to count their time as union goons towards a state pension and get huge pensions for a day's work. But unions are not the reason why states are going broke or anything.

[Lord Humungus.]

Protesters Occupy GE CEO Jeff Immelt's Connecticut Front Lawn
http://www.forbes.com/sites/cl.....ront-lawn/

"In the land of the free they tax me but not G.E.!" read the invitation to take an hour bus ride to Immelt's family home to join the protest, organized by liberal political party Connecticut Working Families. "General Electric made billions last year; they paid no taxes, outsourced thousands of jobs, and got over $3 billion in tax refunds! Join us on a free bus trip to G.E's CEO's front lawn to see how our friends in the 1% live."

[John]

Doesn't GE own NBC and are generally big donors to the Dems?

[T]

Nah, Immelt got that seat on Obama's business commission because he's a likeable guy.

[Barack Obama]

"Somebody tell those little shits they're supposed to be at the Koch's house, not at...uh..wait..is this thing on?"

[Joshua]

NBC was sold to Comcast.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

At least they're getting closer to the culprits now.

[Fluffy]

GE pays no taxes because they are heavily involved in the stupid green energy shit these people adore.

Guess what, dumbasses? When you give preferential treatment to companies that do green energy shit, occasionally you will end up with a huge company with billions in sales paying no taxes.

[BakedPenguin]

Unpossible. Corporations never do things like cost-benefit analyses.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They're only hurting the undocumented workers who will have to reseed that lawn.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

No, FoE, they're creating or saving those undocumented workers jobs.

[Old Mexican]

Protesters Occupy GE CEO Jeff Immelt's Connecticut Front Lawn

... to fertilize it - a win-win for everybody.

[Chatroom Crank]

Over at CounterPunch, they have an article today bemoaning how "the man" is cracking down on people using the bathroom on public streets.

Damn dirty hippies.

[Zipper]

I think a free bus ride balances everything out.

[$6M RoboTorso]

Godzilla Hedge Fund Fannie Mae Was 'Guaranteed to Fail': Books
A number, like a picture, can be worth 1,000 words. In England, 1066 means the Norman Conquest. The world over, 3.14159 screams pi.

For Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the figure to remember is 79.9 -- the percent ownership that the U.S. Treasury took in each when it seized control in 2008. If the stakes were 80 percent, the mortgage companies would land on the federal budget, as we're reminded in "Guaranteed to Fail," a valuable book on how two quasi-public companies became "the world's largest and most leveraged hedge funds."

Kiss all the political posturing about the U.S. public debt ceiling goodbye: With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's debts tacked on, the total would lurch to $15.84 trillion, well over the current limit of $14.29 trillion, the authors say....

[Red Rocks Rockin]

In other words, the government's doing the same thing that the banks are doing--hiding the true market value of their debt obligations knowing that it would blow their balance sheets to hell. Yet somehow, I doubt we're going to see an "Occupy Government Bureaucracies" protest anytime soon.

[Fluffy]

Let the Tunisian Islamist party win.

Let the Libyan Islamist party win.

Let the Muslim Brotherhood win in Egypt.

Long term, the best thing we can have happen in the Muslim world is for the Islamists to have the opportunity to govern - and fail miserably, as they inevitably will.

Worried about a caliphate? Don't. Islamist unity will disintegrate under the same pressures that pan-Arab unity disintegrated under: namely, that none of these guys is going to want to surrender power to anyone else once they've got it. And there are too many clerics who all want to be top dog on the religious side, and no established clear mechanism for elevating any one of them over any other.

The clock's already ticking demographically on the Iranian regime. Its sands will run out soon enough. In fact, playing the bogeyman for its rulers is probably delaying its fall unnecessarily.

[John]

There is some truth to that. But here is the problem, if you have all the guns, you can stay in power for a long time even if you are discredited with the people you govern. Stalin and the purges discredited communism with the Russian. But communism still held on for another fifty years. You can kill a lot of people and do a lot of damage before your discrediting yourself finally comes back to haunt you.

And in Libya at least, they didn't win an election. The Islamists came into power because of US and NATO bombing campaign. That ranks as a pretty big fuck up.

[Warty]

No, real communism has never been tried. You should know better, John.

[Pro Libertate]

I tried it once with some rats in a basement. It failed.

[Tulpa]

Three legs good, four legs bad.

[Elspeth Flashman]

+1

[MR]

First uprisings against communists started almost immediately after they took power and showed their true colors. Stalin was still a nobody then. Check Kronstadt Rebelion, Tambov Rebellion etc.

[Lord Humungus.]

Ten times as many people are demonstrating in Westminster for an EU referendum as in the City against banks. Who do you suppose will get more coverage?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/n.....-coverage/

[Elspeth Flashman]

surprisingly I heard this "separate from the EU coverage" on NPR today.

[$6M RoboTorso]

Wall Street Did It?
...But based on the number of toxic loans in the system in 2008, the government was responsible for not just a simple majority, but more than two-thirds. It's quantifiable ? 71% to be exact (see chart). And the remaining 29% of private-label junk was mostly attributable to Countrywide Financial, which was under the heel of HUD and its "fair-lending" edicts....

Fannie Freddie Lawsuit and Risk Arbitrage
...To understand how casual Fannie and Freddie were about credit risk, consider the two types of activity they engage in. One, they buy and pool mortgages, issuing securities backed by these pools, a process called securitization. They've been doing this longer and on greater scale than anyone else?by comparison Wall Street was a newcomer to the business.

Two, they buy such securities, whether issued by themselves or others. The lawsuits just filed concern this second type of activity, the purchase of readymade mortgage securities. The main accusation is that materials pertaining to certain securities the defendants sold from 2005 to 2007 contained wrong or deficient information, "unbeknownst" to Fannie and Freddie.

At the time they bought these securities, Fannie and Freddie were competing furiously with the same banks for mortgages to securitize?-and earn fees on. They were buying mortgages as they had for decades, but now they faced growing pressure from banks seeking lucrative securitization business. This led to all-around lowering of underwriting standards and the rise of higher-risk mortgages, the race to the bottom described in Guaranteed to Fail.

Being both suppliers and buyers in the mortgage security market on a gigantic scale, Fannie and Freddie were uniquely positioned. Because they bought mortgages to securitize, they too were lowering standards and taking higher risks. For the reality underlying the securities to be "unbeknownst" to them, they had to willfully avoid knowing it. Even if they did not do the analysis themselves, they could have easily asked for third-party reports?-which existed at the time and are presented as evidence in the cases....

[Old Mexican]

But the banks! The eeevil banks!

[Lord Humungus.]

"In Three Years, He Never Slept With Me Once!"
http://dearwendy.com/columns/i.....h-me-once/

My ex and I recently ended our three-year long relationship because we were stuck in a rut and there was no willingness from him to work it out. He told me that he had lost attraction to me sexually during the last few months of our relationship, but we never slept together the whole three years! I told him after a year and a half that I was ready and he wasn't, which I respected at first but then this came up. What does it mean? We would always make-out passionately and even lived together for six months and I had no trouble getting him "happy" but we never had sex. I am just so confused at to what happened?any advice? ? Un-Happy One

[Fluffy]

My ex and I recently ended our three-year long relationship because we were stuck in a rut and there was no willingness from him to work it out he was gay and I was a dumbass.

FIFY

[John]

This happened to a good friend of mine in law school. She made the mistake of meeting a guy through church. He played the "its immoral to have pre-marital sex" card for months until he finally admitted the truth and came out. I have no problem with being gay. But in this day and age, if you are gay and won't admit it and suck women into relationships, you are one sorry bastard.

[.]

Shit, lesbians have been doing that to men for years.

[Devil's Advocate]

I agree with the everyone else... GAY.

[Old Mexican]

I'm going to be a contrarian and say that he married her on a dare because he's really... Oh, ok, so I guess I am not really being a contrarian.

[Spoonman.]

Sometimes the simple answer is the correct one.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Guys, you are missing the other answer: This poor man was engaged to rather. OF COURSE he lost sexual interest.

[SugarFree]

Wendy edited the letter, she left out: "And he vomits every time I take my clothes off. It that normal?"

[Elspeth Flashman]

+1 oh, and he has to get drunk before we make out.

[P Brooks]

When did the Secretary of State decide it would be a good idea to copy Joan Cusack's hairstyle from Toys?

[Fist of Etiquette]

WikiLeaks temporarily suspends publishing operations in a fight with credit card companies.

WikiLeaks contends no one there charged that George Foreman Grill on their Discover card.

[Elspeth Flashman]

this could be old news to some of you, but in case you haven't heard:

LANSING -- Michigan drivers could become the first in the nation subject to roadside drug testing under a bill introduced Wednesday in the Legislature.

The legislation would authorize police to administer a roadside saliva test for illegal drug use, just as they do breath tests for alcohol, when they stop a driver suspected of being intoxicated.

State Rep. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, a former Eaton County sheriff and sponsor of one of the bills in the package, said the tests are easy to administer, reliable and cost effective. The tests could largely replace costly and time-consuming procedures, often requiring search warrants and hospital-administered blood tests, Jones said.

. . .

The presence of any level of any illegal drug is grounds under Michigan law for a charge of drugged driving.

Read more: Michigan may be 1st to adopt roadside drug testing | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/2.....z0z4w8Rlo1

[Elspeth Flashman]

Sorry, link at the end is expired.

[SugarFree]

Moved to the pay archives.

[SugarFree]

WTF? Even Breathalyzers aren't warrantless. You have to submit to them under the threat of automatically losing your licence, but they aren't warrentless.

Of course, I guess they could set up a blackmail scheme for the spit tests as well.

[Elspeth Flashman]

and if you refuse, you auto-magically get 6 points on your license as well. PBT (roadside) tests you can refuse with only a civil infraction though. I think Breathalyzers are warrantless, they are part of the "Implied Consent" law, and if you refuse those, your blood will be taken via warrant.

[SugarFree]

"Implied Consent" is usually the excuse of date rapists. Our government, the date rapist.

[Almanian the MI State Police]

The perp...I mean "driver"...was not unresponsive...

[Zeb]

OK. Add Michigan to the list of states not to visit.

[Almanian]

Shit - I live there. NOW what the fuck am I gonna do?

[Lord Humungus.]

Don't worry - as long as you're doing nothing wrong...

/sarc

[Burke]

Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don't we try that?

[Elspeth Flashman]

stop driving, I guess.

[rather]

"It's extraordinary how the Gadhafi regime squandered so much oil wealth and left it a deprived country in terms of infrastructure," Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS CERA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Manmade_River

I wonder how someone can be such a contradiction

[Spoonman.]

Sure, they (and by that I mean American engineering companies) could build a massive pipe system to tap an aquifer that will some day run out, but they didn't have a functional postal system.

[a dollar a day keeps Obama awa]

Maybe if Gadhafi had put through a stimulus plan....

[rather]

So that's where Biden got his 'stimulus prevents rape' idea

[a dollar a day keeps Obama awa]

That's a pretty bleek outlook.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

The Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street.

No, this isn't the same as the one posted last week. Most of these women are actually attractive.

Needless to say, this tumblr and the associated Youtube video have multiple feminists acting super butt hurt.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Also, just going through the first page-

#1-Cute, appears to be decently endowed
#2-Hot face, can't see body
#3- Hot, but something about her doesn't work for me.
#4-Cool Invader Zim hat, but not hot
#5-Nope
#6- Hell yes hot.

[Brett L]

A) Many of them are the same
B) Wherever you live, it isn't near a southern university campus. Seriously. With the exception of the tatt'd one in the black, I doubt I'd doubletake at any of the others.

[Restoras]

You guys are really harshing the OWS and thier trollers mellow today!

[$6M RoboTorso]

DAVID FRUM: It's Time We Republicans Finally Admitted That Paul Krugman Has Been Right

The Sins of the Flash
...That's right ? code on a remote computer somewhere decides whether or not random web sites can spy on you. If someone changes that code, accidentally or deliberately, your own computer has just been turned into a bug, without any need for them to attack your machine.
From a technical perspective, it's simply wrong for a design to outsource a critical access control decision to a third party. My computer should decide what sites can turn on my camera and microphone, not one of Adobe's servers.
The policy side is even worse. What if the FBI wanted to bug you? Could they get a court order compelling Adobe to make an access control decision that would turn on your microphone?...

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Fuck Frum and the Bush he rode in on.

[John]

Biggest indictment of the Bush administration is that he employed Frum.

Frum is following a long trodden path for conservative mediocrities and climbers. That of conservative concern troll. If you suck and everyone hates you on the right, you always have a glorous career waiting for you in the major media as designated concern troll. You can just spend the rest of your career telling liberals what they want to hear and how horrible conservatives are. It then allows them to tell conservatives that even one of their own thinks they are nuts. It is a pretty pathetic existence. But it is a living. And really the only one available to someone like Frum.

[DJF]

Frum is proof that we need tighter immigration laws.

[dave b.]

We can call it the David Brooks corollary.

[RC Dean]

What does he mean, "we" Republicans?

[Fist of Etiquette]

...suggests that companies are taking the [super]committee seriously and hoping to blunt whatever comes their way, even as hopes fade on Capitol Hill for a major deal.

At least somebody is taking them seriously.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

New Jersey school will get day off to honor our Lord, Krishna.

But not Hare Krishna, cuz those fuckers are ANNOYING.

[SugarFree]

Good. The less time spent in public schools, the better.

[KDN]

We've been getting the Jewish high holy days off for ages, with how Indian this state is getting it's only appropriate. I can't wait for the day when there's 50 religious holidays observed over the course of the year and the NJEA still refuses any reduction in salaries to compensate and purchases a $10m ad buy to fight any initiative to.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

They'd have to go to year-round schooling, or close to it, just to make up the number of lost days.

[CoyoteBlue]

Who had Stockton in muni Dead Pool?
http://www.businessweek.com/ne.....-debt.html

[Fluffy]

Dude, who DIDN'T have Stockton?

Stockton was like the Bob Hope or George Burns of the muni dead pool.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

The City Paper gets to the bottom of why DC Craft Beer is so expensive.

The District's neighborhood politics?which make it very easy for local residents to get in the way of liquor licenses, adding new costs for retailers?also pushes prices above where they'd be elsewhere. Washington may have seen a gastro-pub population boom, but many of those births required tavern owners to hire pricey lawyers to navigate Advisory Neighborhood Commissions, who are able to wring sometimes costly concessions from new establishments. The overall effect also reduces competition.

Most retailers I spoke with point to a standard mark-up of 40 percent on beer. But sometimes even that substantial margin doesn't begin to cover the high rent and overhead. "A markup of 1.4 times the cost of the product is suggested retail price, but that figure in D.C. is pretty rare to find," says George Aguilar, manager of D'Vines wine and beer shop in Columbia Heights and De Vino's in Adams Morgan. "It'd be very difficult to survive. The cost of living is too high."

Add to that 40 percent figure a 10 percent sales tax on alcohol in the District, and us brewhounds are paying nearly 50 percent over wholesale prices for each six pack.

If it's a rare brew, the rate can go even higher. Thanks to D.C.'s lax import laws, some retailers choose to go outside the traditional distribution channels and bring in unusual beers from all sorts of far-flung places. Those beers tend to cost extra, not only because of the added cost of procurement and transportation but also the value of scarcity.

It's pretty telling that in our nation's capitol, good crack is cheaper than good beer.

[Xenocles]

"D.C.'s lax import laws"

Yeah, I can see why a tiny city with no real industry would want to restrict the flow of goods into it.

[robc]

DC has the advantage of not being a state, so they dont have any of the silly 3-tier restrictions.

If a retailer can get hold of a beer, they can serve it. There is no distribution requirement, like in every state (although the exact rules vary from state to state).

Holy Grale, which has become a world-class (literally, they were one of ~22 bars world wide to get to host Zwanze Day) beer bar in less than a year, has been reported to the ABC twice, by a competitor, for selling beer that isnt distributed in KY. Both times, they had their paperwork in order so it was just an annoyance (one was due to Zwanze Day).

There is another bar in town that does regularly violate this rule, it is located without obvious competitors, so no one has turned him in yet, I guess, but he regularly buys kegs out of state and puts them in tap.

[robc]

The list of American Bars that got to participate in Zwanze Day:

* Monk's Caf? in Philly
* Spuyten Duyvil in New York
* Lord Hobo in Boston
* Novare Res in Maine
* Churchkey in Washington DC
* West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago
* The Avenue Pub in New Orleans
* Holy Grale in Kentucky
* Russian River in Northern CA
* Stone in Southern CA

[T]

I am constantly amazed at the levels of complexity the state has managed to add to the fairly simple transaction of me buying a beer from somebody.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

For every animal vegans don't eat, they kill 2

DAMN YOU AGRICULTURAL CITY-STATE!

Why can't those farmers just let the poor vegans gambol?

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Please don't summon WI, pretty pretty please....

[White Indian]

I'm living in your head rent-free now.

You're slowly realizing that you hold a contradiction. The contradiction being:

City-State = Good
City-State = Evil

The agricultural city-State is a single cultural package. You can't divorce the State from the rest of the system. Never has been done, never will be done.

[WTF]

You know who else was a vegetarian?

[Vegetarian? This guy?]

"I absolutely insist on protecting private property ... we must encourage private initiative."

~Adolph Hitler, March 24, 1942

Guilty by association is so much fun. Want to play again?

[Vegetarian? This guy?]

*WOOOSH*

[White Indian]

Mmmm... I sure do love sucking cock.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Wasn't Gandhi a vegetarian? Also, Kellogg, of the cereal?

[Jersey Patriot]

Eating animals takes a more grain than just eating the grain, a lot more for beef, a little more for chicken. If you're worried about animal suffering, vegans not only don't eat the animals but require less land area to feed themselves, disturbing fewer animals. Perfection is not an option, but if animal welfare is your ethic, veganism is a marked improvement.

(I shouldn't have to say that I eat meat here, but people always assume that defending the ethics of vegetariarianism equals accepting vegetarianism. Let me be clear, bacon is delicious.)

[Rhywun]

As long as I pay for it, who gives a flying fuck? It's the same with real light bulbs & everything else we're constantly being told is "bad".

[P Brooks]

Thanks to D.C.'s lax import laws

WTF?

The cure for high prices is to impose tariffs and restrict supply.

Thanks for playing.

[Troy]

"Supercommittee" tasked with reducing the deficit is being super-lobbied.

So now the corruption is concentrated like a neutron star?

[SugarFree]

One teaspoon weighs as much as Barney Frank.

[P Brooks]

My ex and I recently ended our three-year long relationship because we were stuck in a rut and there was no willingness from him to work it out.

He's obviously a passive-aggressive monster who stole three of the best child-bearing years of her life, while feeding off the warmth and generosity of her Earth Mother Spirit.

MAKE HIM PAAAAAAAAAAY!

[Old Mexican]

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) appears on Meet the Press, talking such apparently confounding policy as denationalizing the mortgage industry.
And the host keeps demonstrating his cluelessness by making the same question over and over again.

[John]

I would not be surprised if David Brinkley's ghost roams the earth for the single purpose of kicking Gregory in the balls. What a sorry host he is.

[Old Mexican]

Re: John,

What a sorry host he is.

He's terrible. Despite the example that Paul gives him of what happened in 1946 after the expenditures of WWII disappeared, he still insists on the same question: Wouldn't we have a bigger recession?

The best worst question: "So you want the market to crash?" Right after Paul said that the market needed to correct the inflated house market. He's not only clueless, he's also sly.

[SugarFree]

"Some of these retards are quite clever."

[John]

He is just not bright and has lived in a liberal cocoon his whole life. He really has no idea that anyone thinks the way Paul does and can't understand how it is a serious position.

[MNG]

It's very counter-intuitive to "do nothing" in an emergency. Even Friedman used to tell a great story about how counter-intuitive it is. According to the story these foriegn heads of state from a poor nation travel on a fact finding mission to the US. They marvel at our economy and ask "what do you do to get that?" The guide says "our secret? we do nothing and let it happen." They get mad assuming he is lying to protect the secret...

I've often thought a real dilemma for pols is that in bad times they must politically look like they are doing something, but from an economic perspective most of what they might do either won't help or will make things worse. A great leader would make it look like something is being done when in reality pretty much nothing is.

[John]

Paul is not doing nothing. He would do a lot. He just wouldn't throw money out of helicopters. I suppose at a very simple level it is "counter intuitive" that throwing borrowed money at the economy by the trillions doesn't do any good. But if you give the issue more than a minute's thought, there is nothing counter intuitive at all thinking that borrowing or taxing money to give it away is just robbing Peter to pay Paul and does nothing to grow the economy.

[MNG]

Now John, stop pandering about Paul. I've long liked Paul and said so many times here, as a "national security conservative" you're one of those GOPers that does not support Paul one bit. He's opposed to you on your main, identifying issue, so stop pandering.

Do you need to be liked by the people here so desparately?

When I say Paul will do nothing everyone else here knows what I am talking about, he will offer no "positive" government aid during the emergency. His idea is to make changes, yes, but changes to get rid of such aid.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

It's very counter-intuitive to "do nothing" in an emergency.

Depends - whose emergency?

Because if by "doing something" the "great leader" meanst taking what's mine to give it to some he deemed a "poor soul", then he's not really fixing anything. It wasn't my emergency, it was someone else's.

[MNG]

If the emergency was that the other person was starving and you would not be much worse off with what was took I'm not sure he hasn't fixed it...But we disagree on that I'm guessing 🙂

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

If the emergency was that the other person was starving and you would not be much worse off with what was took I'm not sure he hasn't fixed it...

Not for me it wasn't. If another person is starving, I have the choice of helping or not helping, but I hold the freedom to choose. However, how or why would someone's starvation give the government the right to take anybody's property? Once the government intervenes, my freedom to choose is abridged. What if I had all the intention of sending food to the starving soul? Yet the government never takes just what is needed - it requires MORE to pay for the army of bureaucrats (their salaries and pensions) that are "required" to manage the assistance.

[MNG]

Look, Gregory is a tool, but just because he doesn't take one example Paul gives him as Gospel truth on a complicated issue doesn't make him one.

History is replete with examples that, if looked at in a certain way with a certain leaning, can justify just about any economic course.

[John]

Some how I a not surprised that you would see someone either deliberately ignoring a fact or not understanding its implication to be perfectly acceptable.

As a matter of fact, David Gregory does live in Maryland. You wouldn't be him would you?

[MNG]

It's not about ignoring a fact (is this the same guy that I have a list of flip flops on things he asserted as "facts" I can re-post for fun?). It's that what are the facts, and especially what are the conclusions to be drawn from that in light of many other facts, id debatable. Pointing to one only solves such debates in the minds of the simple.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

History is replete with examples that, if looked at in a certain way with a certain leaning, can justify just about any economic course.

That is what people would call "modern journalism."

As you can see if you read again what you posted, you can see there's no difference between stretching the truth to fit a narrative and lying.

[MNG]

There's a difference, some assertions are less supported than others, and some may simply flatly contradict what we know to be true. But only a fool would think that referring to one instance of lower gov spending followed by propsperity means the general claim is true.

[MNG]

If you take pretty much any metric, like government spending as a % of GDP and overall GDP or % growth and run a correlation I think you'd get a relationship in the way libertarians predict but it damn skippy won't be 1.000. Fundamentalism of the market or market variety rarely works empirically.

[MNG]

"market or non-market" that is

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

If you take pretty much any metric, like government spending as a % of GDP and overall GDP or % growth and run a correlation I think you'd get a relationship in the way libertarians predict but it damn skippy won't be 1.000.

I don't understsnd what you're trying to tell me. I can tell you, I believe you understand economics better than most of the liberals that post here, so you should know that GDP is not a real indicator of productive efforts, as it emphasizes consumer spending [the end of the productive process but NOT the productive process] and government expenditures [i.e. theft] instead of capital expenditures, which would show unequivocally the productive level of an economy, as no one would spend in raw materials, energy, mobile equipment and machinery if they did not intend to put them to work.

Fundamentalism of the market or non-market variety rarely works empirically.

Again, I don't understand what you mean by that. The evidence shows that a freer economy outperforms a highly constricted one, so I have no clue what you want to show with that assertion.

[Is Life-Expectancy performance]

The evidence shows that a freer economy outperforms a highly constricted one

Libertarian(1,2) Somalia: Life-Expectancy 50.1 years.

Socialist Cuba: Life Expectancy 78.9 years.

There's the evidence.

(1) Stateless in Somalia, and Loving It
Mises Daily: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 http://mises.org/daily/2066

(2) The Anarchy Advantage in Somalia
Brian Doherty | December 27, 2006
http://reason.com/blog/2006/12.....e-in-somal

[Old Mexican]

Re: White Imbecile,

Socialist Cuba: Life Expectancy 78.9 years.

Do you want to live in Cuba?

[The Ingenious Hidalgo]

You pick those cherries! Need to build a store for winter.

[Jordan]

And Somalia was known for its high life expectancy when it had a government in place. Oh...

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

But only a fool would think that referring to one instance of lower gov spending followed by propsperity means the general claim is true.

But Paul mentioned two instances, MNG - the Depression of 1921 and the end of WWII. In both cases, you had a great curtailment of government expenditures and less or no internvetion in the markets, and the result was recessions that lasted only a year.

Yet Gregory continuously asked the exact same question even after Paul offered these two different instances. The guy is clueless, face it.

[MNG]

But again it would not be hard to point to one or two instances when, by some metric, it appears government action was followed by greater propserity or such. Gregory may well be a fool (and I didn't see his performance), but one is not a fool simply for not being swayed by mention of these two occurrences any more than you should be swayed by me mentioning that the predicted collapse of capitalism after Clinton's BIGGEST TAX HIKE IN HISTORY never happened.

[Joe M]

Well, why not take a counter example, say, oh, I dunno, the current recession, in which the government has spent a shitload of money on "stimulus," which has done nothing to get us out of it.

[Old Mexican]

Re: MNG,

But again it would not be hard to point to one or two instances when, by some metric, it appears government action was followed by greater propserity or such.

Oh, there are a few examples of that, the housing bubble being one - there's no doubt it spurred activity at least in one area.

you should be swayed by me mentioning that the predicted collapse of capitalism after Clinton's BIGGEST TAX HIKE IN HISTORY never happened.

But it DID happen, MNG - the dot.com collapse. When Clinton raised the Capital Gains tax level, all that capital shifted from the stock market to treasury bonds, housing and real estate. What Clinton did was to inflate a different bubble by taxing capital that was going into start-ups.

[Fluffy]

But only a fool would think that referring to one instance of lower gov spending followed by propsperity means the general claim is true.

Perhaps not, but is does flatly debunk Gregory's point, which is "Large reductions in government spending always and everywhere result in recessions".

[Matrix]

A good response to people who act like you want to hurt the economy in this manner would be to equate it with drug addiction.

Following down the path of drug addiction will eventually kill the person. Immediate withdrawl, in many cases, will be very painful, but necessary to save the patient. In the end, they will get better and be stronger.

Same with this... the economy needs correction. It will be painful, and a lot of people are going to be miserable as it corrects. But once the cycle is over, they will find themselves more prosperous than before.

[Neu Mejican]

http://bigthink.com/ideas/40797

I discuss studies identifying an "issue public" of Americans supporting political action and a similarly sized segment of Americans opposing action. Between these tail-end segments, more than 2/3 of Americans still remain relatively ambivalent about the importance and urgency of climate change.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/40767

"Occupy" and the Tea Party: Two Clueless Solutions to the Same Problem?

Followed by a clueless solution.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Neu Mejican,

Between these tail-end segments, more than 2/3 of Americans still remain relatively ambivalent about the importance and urgency of climate change.

That is what 20 years of exaggerations and downright lying will do to people. Like the idea that we have less polar bears than ever - just one example.

[Neu Mejican]

The lies come from both sides, of course...but, yes, that is a big part of it.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Neu Mejican,

The lies come from both sides[...]

If you can find me an example of a very important global organization that used someone's term paper and a popular magazine's essay as scientific "evidence," I am willing to accept that assertion.

[MNG]

Future GOP Nominee: Four More Years (Of Occupying Iraq, not Obama)

Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential front-runner, led his party's attacks on Barack Obama after his announcement that all US troops would be brought home from Iraq by the end of the year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new.....l-out.html

[MNG]

B-but, Bush's SOFA!!!!

[John]

And those evil conservatives at the New York Times were right behind.

On Friday evening, an American official in Iraq, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations are confidential, said that negotiations would now center on arrangements that would begin next year, after all United States troops leave.

Possibilities being discussed are for some troops to return in 2012, an option preferred by some Iraqi politicians who want to claim credit for ending what many here still call an occupation, even though legally it ended years ago. Other scenarios being discussed include offering training in the United States, in a nearby country such as Kuwait, or having some troops here under NATO auspices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10.....l?_r=3&hp;
Obama wants troops in Iraq. He just fucked up the negotiations like he fucks everything else up.

[MNG]

It's tough being a GOPer lemur. The GOPers were terrified this weekend when Obama announced the end in Iraq, terrified because they thought it would be a popular decision. They raced out with their prepared meme (Bush's SOFA!!!) and then their future nominee says "I'll take that rug you're standing on there fellas, thank you."

[John]

It was Bush's SOFA. That is the truth. Obama followed the SOFA agreement of 08. And was lying during the campaign when he said he would be out in a year. He knew in the fall of 08 that wasn't going to happen.

And as we see from the NYT article, he doesn't want to get out now. He just screwed up the negotiations. And the chances are we will be back in Iraq shorted after the 2012 election.

[MNG]

"And as we see from the NYT article"

Look how much faith John puts in an article crediting an "anonymous source" from an outlet he's repeatedly told us he doesn't trust.

Do you have any critical thinking faculty at all John?

"Obama followed the SOFA agreement of 08."

And your last nominee (McCain) and your future one (Romney) expressed wishes not to follow it. And you know that is an unpopular decision, so you run from it.

Boo John. Happy Halloween.

[John]

I put a lot of faith in any New York Times article that criticizes the President. I also put a lot of faith in my own experience in Kuwait last summer where the party line among all of the leadership there was that we fully intended to stay in Iraq and it was just a question of the Iraqis finally saying yes after they got everything they wanted.

Everyone who knew anything expected the US to keep troops there. And it was made very clear to the leadership of the military that that was what the administration wanted.

[MNG]

"I put a lot of faith in any New York Times article that criticizes the President."

So the NYT is an unreliable rag, except when it prints something you agree with. But of course that has always been your metric, and look how well that has worked out for you!

[John]

The NYT is a leftist newspaper that occasionally reports the truth. When the truth cuts against the President and is so obvious even they have to report it, it is almost certainly true.

[MNG]

"The NYT is a leftist newspaper that occasionally reports the truth."

We understand John, when they report something you agree with it is true.

Lord you are a hack, doesn't it embarrass you sometimes?

[Tony]

Ok name an instance where the NYT lied. Except when it licked Bush's ass going into Iraq in the first place.

[MNG]

Tony
John has already given us his criteria. If the NYT criticizes the guy he hates it is telling the truth, otherwise is is always lying.

See how easy that is if you just surrender your critical faculties to mindless partisanship?

[Red Rocks Rockin]

See how easy that is if you just surrender your critical faculties to mindless partisanship?

Why are you instructing Tony in matters in which he's already an expert?

[Mr. FIFY]

Your Team went along with giving Bush the power to invade Iraq, Tony. Stupid shits that they were, they went along with it.

How's that withdrawl from OTHER places going, BTW? I see we're still in Afghanistan, for instance...

[Fluffy]

Look, I hate Obama as much as the next guy, but it's kind of dumb to say that he "screwed up the negotiations".

When your counterparty adamantly wants one outcome, failing to budge them from it says literally nothing about your negotiating skills.

You could bring the world's best salesman and the world's best negotiator in here, but it wouldn't help get me to suck your dick. Because I'm just not going to do that and there's nothing else to discuss.

When commentators say, "Obama mishandled the negotiations" what they really mean is "Obama should have found a way to interfere in Iraq's internal politics to produce a government that would give us what we want, even though every significant political group in Iraq doesn't want that."

[John]

Maybe. But, it is clear he wanted to keep people there and was told by the Iraqis no. Now maybe there was no way to avoid that. Time will tell.

But the more important thing is that he clearly wanted to keep people there and tried to. So lets no here any bullshit about Obama got us out of Iraq. No, Obama wanted to stay in Iraq and the Iraqis told him no.

[MNG]

"it is clear"

Yeah, clear from the anonymous source from an outlet you've proclaimed unreliable many times.

"So lets no here any bullshit about Obama got us out of Iraq."

Uh oh, John's so terrified Obama might get some credit here he's losing his control of grammar again...

Deep breaths John, deep breaths.

[John]

Good God you are annoying. Can't you just make an honest argument admit the truth once in a while. Obama wanted to stay but couldn't. That is what he has been telling the military for the past two years. And that is what the New York Times is saying today.

You are just pathetic MNG.

[John]

More from the NYT

BAGHDAD ? President Obama's announcement on Friday that all American troops would leave Iraq by the end of the year was an occasion for celebration for many, but some top American military officials were dismayed by the announcement, seeing it as the president's putting the best face on a breakdown in tortured negotiations with the Iraqis.

But it is a triumph.

[MNG]

Do we need any more evidence of John and other GOPers partisan terror than him going to the NYT?

Just in time for Halloween.

[John]

It says what it says. He wanted to keep troops in Iraq, he just screwed up the negotiations. I don't really care that we have left Iraq. Iraq has had eight years to recover. It is up to them. Obama apparently disagrees with me.

Now if you have something interesting to say about what actually happened, say it. But running around screaming GOP doesn't really add much.

And you forgot to scream about Shirley Sherrod. You are getting slack in your screeching.

[MNG]

Reminding you about your embarrasing reversal on Sherrod would be a good thing considering the limb you are yet again climbing out on.

Is this going to be like the "exception-less ESA that has exceptions" or more like the Muslim bomber in Oslo you warned us about? Or the assasination of the Syrian leader that you claimed ended the Cedar Revolution but which actually triggered it? Or is this like the GPS trackers that were but then were not in the guns?

You're so easily duped John.

[John]

I am so duped the NYT. Look Obama lied to you you idiot. He never intended to leave Iraq, is only leaving because the Iraqis are kicking him out and is likely to return to Iraq the first chance he gets.

I am sorry those facts make you uncomfortable. But sometimes life is like that. Being a prick doesn't change them. It just makes you look like well a prick and defensive one at that.

[MNG]

"I am so duped the NYT."

He's coming unhinged...I think he's red in the fact with anguish about Obama getting a bump out of this. You go Keyboard Kommando, stop that from happening!

[James Ard]

I'm thinking he got out of Iraq to make war with Iran inevitable. He thinks that's his only shot at getting reelected.

[John]

He didn't choose to get out of Iraq. He was asked to leave. He wanted to stay.

In response to your theory James, it is easier to make war in Iran with an entire corps sitting in Iraq.

[James Ard]

I didn't say Obama intended to win a war against Iran.

[Fluffy]

Of course, in 2008 Romney thought that the "honor" of the United States demanded that we stay in Iraq to "fulfill our commitments".

[John]

Which we did. It is a non issue. They want us out and we are leaving. Good for them. Now Obama thinks we should stay and tried to get them to let us stay. I would be curious to hear his reasons for that.

[Fluffy]

I would be curious why Romney in 2008 felt that our national "honor" demanded that we "fulfill our commitments" but in 2011 Romney feels that we should ignore our commitments if that interferes with his perception of our interests.

Oh wait, that's right, he'd never resolve that contradiction because he's a fucking two dollar whore who disgraces the word "honor" every time he passes it through his whore lips.

[John]

If you want to call Romeny a two dollar whore, you will get no arguments from me. But Romney isn't President and is unlikely to be. In the mean time I would think you would be curious why the actual President lied his ass off in 2008 and apparently had no intentions of ever leaving Iraq unless he was forced to leave.

[Tony]

Grasping at straws much?

[MNG]

Dude, the grasping by John is just beginning! This is going to be the most fun election season EVAH.

[Tony]

No kidding. Bets on the month John becomes pragmatic for Romney? I've got $1 on February.

[MNG]

It will be March and here is how it will look:

"I hate Romney, but if we don't support him and Obama wins the Republic WILL FALL!!!"

That start "I hate Romney, but" is going to get worn out by the GOPers around here...

[Fluffy]

Oh, yes.

Obama lied his ass off in 2008.

Still, I guess I have to give credit where credit is due: if Bush had wanted the troops to stay in Iraq and had faced opposition from Iraqi political figures, I have to think it's pretty likely he would just have toppled the governing parties in Iraq under some pretext and bribed/extorted/shot/exiled his way into the outcome he wanted.

Letting the Iraqis tell us to leave is a step up from what I would have expected from the Bush foreign policy team.

[MNG]

That's right. We can be forgiven due to Obama's campaign but Bush and his SOFA were not running against Obama, it was McCain, who said we would be in Iraq for a hundred years. And the nominee now is looking like Romney and he seems to think, SOFA be damned I would stay longer. So sorry John, I realized your terrified, but Obama comes out better than what you have to offer even if he did simply follow the SOFA.

[John]

Bush let the Iraqis dictate a lot. I don't see any evidence they would have toppled the Iraqi government or had the ability to do so if they had wanted to.

Obama made fools out of people like MNG and Tony. But they are such fools to start with, it doesn't seem to bother them.

[MNG]

Recall McCain's statements at the time about staying for decades or one hundred years.

GOPers hate memory.

[Pantless Deviant]

Recall the context within which that was said, dickhole.

Fuck you in the ass.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Pantless Deviant

Recall the context within which that [commnet by McCain] was said, dickhole.

What possible context would make that comment by McCain less insane, PD?

[John]

He said we may have to stay there that long. He never said he wanted to stay there that long. He said reality may dictate. It was a rare slip into the truth. And if you don't think that is the truth, watch Obama go back into Iraq if he is re-elected.

[Marshall Gill]

Recall McCain's statements at the time about staying for decades or one hundred years.

GOPers hate memory.

So anything a politician with a D after his name or any self styled Leftist or "progressive" says you agree with? Oh, only those who you disagree with have to take responsibility for everything said by people you disagree with?

McCain? Romney? Sure, John has been a big supporter of both, oh no he hasn't. I guess you support every word Obama and Joe Biden have ever uttered? Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, the NYT, everything they say you "remember"?

For someone who calls himself "nice" you really are a royal turd.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

SO, I've been thinking of starting a Flicker or Tumbler blog called "Shit I accidentally got through airport security" but I really don't feel like getting arrested or never being able to fly again.

Advice?

[Ask Wendy]

Yes, Goldwater, you are indeed gay.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Well, I did have a great day yesterday. Saw the Bears beat the Bucs, saw that Real Steel movie (which actually kind of works as a boxing movie), and watched the new Downton Abbey (poor Lady Edith is just so desperate to be loved). I suppose it has left me in a rather gay mood.

[SugarFree]

My main problem with BBC shows are all the British actors and actresses they insist on using.

[T]

British actors have more of a tendency to look like people plucked off the street. If I want to see lumpy proles and pink puffy people, I'll go outside. When I turn on the TV, I want pretty people to look at.

Or FX and explosions. Whichever.

[The Art-P.O.G.]

I actually admire that about British theater. Hell, Hollywood imports these somewhat odd-looking but excellent actors such as Timothy Spall or Eddie Marsan.

[Apple]

It must have been tough to be the ugly sister in an age where being a slut just wasn't an option.

[Surly Chef]

Fake accounts, public wireless, proxy, Tor, disposable laptop, etc.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I think Bruce Schneier already runs that blog.

[Lord Humungus.]

Thousands protest in Italy against high-speed train
http://www.breitbart.com/artic....._article=1

France and Italy signed a deal in 2001 on building a high-speed line through the Susa Valley area, a strategic link in the European network that would cut travel time between Milan and Paris from seven to four hours.

The cost has been estimated at 15 billion euros ($21 billion). But Susa Valley residents fiercely oppose the plan, saying the construction of tunnels would damage the environment.

[MNG]

But how will they get to the protest without the train?

[Old Mexican]

I would guess by riding their Piaggios.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Grinnell College adding gender neutral locker room to gender neutral dorms, bathrooms.

More students today don't identify with the binary. That is a more recent shift," said Astrid Henry, an associate professor of gender, women's and sexuality studies at Grinnell.

I mean, they had this kind of shit at my school, but it was mostly a way for people to shack up together.

[Ice Nine]

Zou really think that's why zey did it?

[SugarFree]

Astrid Henry

[Marshall Gill]

"Sorry, I gendered you."

And people say there is no hope for the future.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

Good god, what is that thing?

[Zeb]

I am all for co-ed bathrooms, etc. but that (what Astrid Henry said) is definitely not the reason I would give for it. Maybe Grinnell is a special place, but I'm pretty sure that even at college, the vast majority still "identify with the binary".

[FlyoverCountry]

Grinnell is a pretty unique place - there are more hipster d-bag looking people running around than I can shake a stick at- but I imagine you are probably right.

From my dealings with the colleges admin/professors, I am assuming this drive for 'gender neutral' locker rooms did not originate from a student uprising. Probably one student brought up the issue, and the profs agreed that this would be the most appropriate way to show how progressive the college is.

My office looks out on to the main street in Grinnell, so I'm going to try to 'gender' as many of the students that walk past as possible.

[Lord Humungus.]

World power swings back to America
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fin.....Pu4g.email

t is almost the only economic power with a fertility rate above 2.0 - and therefore the ability to outgrow debt - in sharp contrast to the demographic decay awaiting Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Italy, and Russia.

Europe's EMU soap opera has shown why it matters that America is a genuine nation, forged by shared language and the ancestral chords of memory over two centuries, with institutions that ultimately work and a real central bank able to back-stop the system.

The 21st Century may be American after all, just like the last.

[Barack Obama]

The 21st Century may be American after all, just like the last.

Not if we have anything to say about it!

[Joe M]

...with institutions that ultimately work and a real central bank able to back-stop the system.

Uh, no. If we can get rid of that "real central bank," we have a chance.

[Mango Punch]

President Barack Obama is set to announce new program to aid underwater homeowners

More like FHFA announced at 9am, before this was posted.

[Elder Scrolls Enthusiast AuH20]

Also, I'm seeing a lot on leftist sites about "How you can support the Occupy Wall Street movement".

How can I show my opposition? Or, get them to go the fuck home?

I mean, other than providing free soap samples.

[mr simple]

Play more Slayer.

[Sanitation Committee]

Lysol.

[Elspeth Flashman]

good question. There is a smallish Occupy presence in my town, and across the street, I thought I saw counter-protestors when I drove by, but it was "America will die in fire" protestors. (oh well.) I had heard they were'nt occupying overnight, b/c the local police force got them to leave, but the local liberal church let them camp in their parking lot.

[P Brooks]

For some, it may be easy to ridicule as ivory-tower babble, but an entire new field ? transgender studies ? has emerged, and television personalities such as Chaz Bono are bringing the often confusing topic to light.

Intellectually rigorous, I tells ya!

[WTF]

And then they will be baffled as to how they could go $60,000 in debt to get that degree and then can'y find a job.

[WTF]

can'y = can't

[P Brooks]

they will be baffled as to how they could go $60,000 in debt to get that degree and then can'y find a job.

But they're cool with the whole "communal sleeping bag" thing.

[P Brooks]

"How you can support the Occupy Wall Street movement".

I think I may have misread this question, the first time. Maybe I confused "how" with "why".

Send drums. Lots of drums. Or maybe just pots and pans and wooden spoons and rape whistles.

[P Brooks]

This is going to be the most fun election season EVAH.

This sounds eerily similar to a statement made by a certain prissy scold from New England in days of yore. Not long before he went completely off the rails.

[SW_Ohio]

Occupy Dayton video where one of the occutards loudly shares his opinions:
http://www.breitbart.tv/occupy.....he-police/

"In response, the "Media Committee" of Occupy Dayton issued [a] press release.. in which organizers threaten to sue? someone? for libel."

[Mike M.]

U.S. pulls its ambassador from Syria, citing "safety concerns".

Gee, I wonder where the next war is going to be? What a brain bender this one is.

[Joe M]

Syria has been on the short list for almost a decade.

[James Ard]

I think Israel and the State Department are quite comfortable with Assad. We've heard hardly a peep out of the DC media despite 3000 dead protestors.

[East Africa Report by Mongo]

Kenya's been taking some casualties with their incursion into Somalia against Al-Shabaab militants.

Their have been reports of French naval shelling and airstrikes, and US warplanes aiding Kenya. The French have denied any action on their part.

There are many links with slim info... if interested, try a Google search.

[Auntie Zeituni]

That's my sweet nephew just defending his homeland.

[Cytotoxic]

I'd just like to give a shout out to David Cameron for getting on the shortlist for "Biggest Asshole in the World Award" after he triple-whipped his MPs against voting for the upcoming motion to allow the British people to vote on whether to stay in the EU or not.

[Zeb]

Isn't he supposed to be the "conservative"? I'm not too up on UK politics, but I would think that the conservatives would be the ones who would want out of the EU.

[Cytotoxic]

He's Frum-approved.

[Lord Humungus.]

He's conservative in that Romney way.

[Realist]

Have Ron Paul's handlers made the fake eyebrow over his right eye into a permanent X to make it look natural?

[p petty]

Denationalizing the mortgage industry....Yea then we wont have another mortgage crisis based on inflated value of Homes created by the Federal reserve, Fanny and Freddie. Why are you confounded?

[Nike Dunk High]

Greetings Now i'm for that reason happy I stubled onto any site,Nike Dunk High Prefer came across you will just by error, at the same time Document was first Nike Dunk 2008 Gold Black browsing relating to Bing just for something, Regardless Now i'm right at this time and additionally Dunk Shoes Ac Vntg may just as to share thank you in a tremendous content along with at all times entertaining web page (Document likewise absolutely Blink 182 Dunk Shoes love all the theme/design), Document don experience moments to read the whole thing inside the moment still I had book-marked the software together with added in any RSS OR ATOM rss feeds, while I had Nike Dunk Burgundy Meteor effort I'll be oh no- look at a lot more, Delight implement preserve all the great work.

[Nike Dunk High]

Greetings Now i'm for that reason happy I stubled onto any site,Nike Dunk High Prefer came across you will just by error, at the same time Document was first Nike Dunk 2008 Gold Black browsing relating to Bing just for something, Regardless Now i'm right at this time and additionally Dunk Shoes Ac Vntg may just as to share thank you in a tremendous content along with at all times entertaining web page (Document likewise absolutely Blink 182 Dunk Shoes love all the theme/design), Document don experience moments to read the whole thing inside the moment still I had book-marked the software together with added in any RSS OR ATOM rss feeds, while I had Nike Dunk Burgundy Meteor effort I'll be oh no- look at a lot more, Delight implement preserve all the great work.

[Nike Dunk High]

Greetings Now i'm for that reason happy I stubled onto any site,Nike Dunk High Prefer came across you will just by error, at the same time Document was first Nike Dunk 2008 Gold Black browsing relating to Bing just for something.

[Nike Dunk High]

http://www.lovedunk.com/nike-dunk-high

[Nike Dunk High]

thanks