there's never going to be enough money in being anti-finance as there will be in being pro-finance alas.
― Mordy, Friday, 3 February 2012 21:57 (twelve years ago) link
When Obama wanted to do that "Grand bargain" (cutting entitlements and such in exchange for some token tax increases) the argument was that he wanted to look like the "reasonable adult". Too often on many items it seems he believes that a centrist approach is the only "reasonable adult" option. Ok SEC we will just settle with these firms...
― curmudgeon, Friday, 3 February 2012 22:00 (twelve years ago) link
the SEC and other regulatory agencies pay a decent salary and have good benefits (well, until the GOP starts screaming about overpaid federal bureaucrats and Obama dutifully signs onto the cause the way he did with "entitlement reform"). but no, not as much as a hedge fund or a white-shoe law firm will -- nor should they (the taxpayers won't stand for it).
― wad of baloney (Eisbaer), Friday, 3 February 2012 22:00 (twelve years ago) link
(When a modern US president does something morally right, it's always pure coincidence.)
Really? This is where your position starts to look less and less principled than lazy. What did Bush get for expanding AIDS treatment in Africa?
― le ralliement du doute et de l'erreur (Michael White), Friday, 3 February 2012 22:01 (twelve years ago) link
continued fealty from the religious right, for starters.
― wad of baloney (Eisbaer), Friday, 3 February 2012 22:02 (twelve years ago) link
kinda wish we had message boards in 1937...
― Mordy, Friday, 3 February 2012 22:02 (twelve years ago) link
I think any president elected in the wake of the 2nd biggest economic meltdown in US history (and one with international ramifications every bit as large as the GD) is going to put the economy first, quite naturally. That Obama has done this is not suprising but that he's done it and passed healthcare reform is quite ambitious.
The real institutional capture is that nobody wants to mess w/finance when everybody's doing well and no-one dares mess w/them when times aren't doing so well. I just don't see OWS having the same intensity and breadth if unemployment were under 6%.
― le ralliement du doute et de l'erreur (Michael White), Friday, 3 February 2012 22:06 (twelve years ago) link
The Rudy Guiliani Story!
What did Bush get for expanding AIDS treatment in Africa?
good press, future markets.
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Friday, 3 February 2012 22:23 (twelve years ago) link
not to be a pedant, but i don't want to let "anti-finance" slip unnoticed: it's not about being anti-finance, it's about being anti-FRAUD (esp when the cost of such fraud ends up on the taxpayers' shoulders).
― wad of baloney (Eisbaer), Friday, 3 February 2012 22:46 (twelve years ago) link
my biggest beef w/ obama is in him not putting the economy first *enough*
― iatee, Friday, 3 February 2012 23:22 (twelve years ago) link
i kind of agree with parts of, or the spirit of, the post this is from, but idk whatthe heck this means:
- I don't think putting centrist judges who lean left on the Supreme Court is a bad thing; in fact, I think it is a very good thing.
other major beef was the "usefulness of indef. detention" post but JD already called you out on that one
(don't mean to seem like i'm picking on you but you had the longest posts so this is your prize)
― tebow gotti (k3vin k.), Saturday, 4 February 2012 00:45 (twelve years ago) link
http://i41.tinypic.com/icjnk7.jpg
there are a few nuggets in this image, if you really dig
― Z S, Monday, 6 February 2012 14:27 (twelve years ago) link
oh ew
― Critique of Pure Moods (goole), Monday, 6 February 2012 14:32 (twelve years ago) link
is that rush limbaugh??
yeah, the krafts were at his wedding
― max, Monday, 6 February 2012 14:35 (twelve years ago) link
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/02/soaking-poor-state-state
Surprise surprise, state taxes are not very progressive
― curmudgeon, Monday, 6 February 2012 17:05 (twelve years ago) link
it looks like Limbaugh is "digging for treasure" (so to speak) in that pic.
― it might look subversive, but it's actually crap ... crap does exist (Eisbaer), Monday, 6 February 2012 17:11 (twelve years ago) link
excerpt from latest moveon.org petition:
President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor, a former VP and lobbyist for Monsanto, the widely criticized genetically modified (GM) food multinational, as senior advisor to the commissioner at the FDA. Taylor is the same person who as a high ranking official at the FDA in the 1990s promoted allowing genetically modified organisms into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty. Taylor was in charge of policy for Monsanto's now-discredited GM bovine growth hormone (rBGH), which is opposed by many medical and hospital organizations. It was Michael Taylor who pursued a policy that milk from rBGH-treated cows should not be labeled with disclosures. Michael Taylor and Monsanto do not belong in our government. President Obama, Monsanto has been seen as a foe to family-based agriculture, the backbone of America, by introducing dangerous changes to plants and animals and by using strong-arm legal tactics against farmers for decades. Naturally occurring plant and animal species are permanently threatened by the introduction of DNA and hormonal modification, Monsanto's core businesses.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 6 February 2012 18:09 (twelve years ago) link
Report: US drones target rescuers, funeral attendees
A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.
Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.
There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/u_s_drones_targeting_rescuers_and_mourners/singleton/
ANONYMOUS "senior American counterterrorism official" tells NYT: "One must wonder why an effort that has so carefully gone after terrorists who plot to kill civilians has been subjected to so much misinformation. Let’s be under no illusions — there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed."
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/06/top_official_drone_critics_are_al_qaeda_enablers/singleton/
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 February 2012 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
Getting a full picture of the drone campaign is difficult. It is classified as top secret, and Obama administration officials have refused to make public even the much-disputed legal opinions underpinning it. --from the NY Times
― curmudgeon, Monday, 6 February 2012 18:47 (twelve years ago) link
"it is difficult, are we supposed to ask somebody else?"
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 February 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
I wonder if the ACLU lawsuit re the legal memos will get anywhere? I doubt it.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 6 February 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
don't hold your breath. Justice Department will probably make some appeal to top-secret details that nobody else can look at and the judges will go "welp, can't argue with that, you'll just have to take my word for it"
― max buzzword (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 6 February 2012 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
also if the president says it's legal, it is - B.Milhous Obama
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 February 2012 19:46 (twelve years ago) link
http://debbiespenditnow.com/#anchor3
the Debbie Spend it Now ad/website/campaign is pretty awful, but i do have to express some admiration for the cool little animated shit that flies around in the background of the website, behind the text
― Z S, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 05:42 (twelve years ago) link
is there anything in this besides momentary embarrassment? not sure what to think, potential GOP attack ad fodder but what else??
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/politics/major-obama-donors-are-tied-to-pepe-cardona-mexican-fugitive.html?hp
― buzza, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 05:50 (twelve years ago) link
just momentary embarrassment.
How about the Republican's latest negotiation tool re extending the payroll taxes again. More extraneous demands:
At the behest of the manufacturing lobby, for example, Republican negotiators still want to delay an environmental regulation that would require industrial boilers and incinerators to release less mercury, lead and soot. What does that have to do with the payroll tax cut? Nothing, of course; Republicans are simply trying to get Democrats to pay a price for something they want.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/opinion/the-payroll-tax-fight.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha211
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 14:28 (twelve years ago) link
If this glowing piece from Sunday's Washington Post Business section is credible, Gene Sperling is the White House's liberal economic guy--trying to push Geithner slightly leftward and advocating to Obama for job-creation ideas
When Obama tapped him as Treasury secretary, Geithner asked Sperling to join as a no-title adviser. “The great thing about him was he was willing to come help do anything,” Geithner said. Sperling asked to be Treasury’s top adviser on fiscal policy. But he also encouraged Geithner — who was focused on stabilizing the financial system and faced critics who accused him of being too sympathetic to Wall Street — to pay more attention to populist ideas such as curbing executive pay.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/gene-b-sperling-obamas-jobs-creator/2012/01/17/gIQAJ8KXqQ_story.html
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago) link
so glad Congress is authorizing drones to be flown in the US ugh way to go you stupid assholes
― max buzzword (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:22 (twelve years ago) link
gotta get em ready for use on the Occupy Conventions
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
would it be hilar if people figured out how to shoot them down?
― Waxahachie Swap (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
^ srs question
or would it be like for sumter
The FAA is also required under the bill to provide military, commercial and privately-owned drones with expanded access to U.S. airspace currently reserved for manned aircraft by Sept. 30, 2015. That means permitting unmanned drones controlled by remote operators on the ground to fly in the same airspace as airliners, cargo planes, business jets and private aircraft.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-congress-oks-faa-bill-allowing-drones-in-us-gps-air-traffic-control-20120207,0,3563340.story
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:44 (twelve years ago) link
I want my own drone
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:45 (twelve years ago) link
PRIVATELY-OWNED DRONES
argh
― max buzzword (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:46 (twelve years ago) link
Lots of issues involved in this bill
The labor provision, which was opposed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, became the principal issue holding up the bill. A compromise reached two weeks ago by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, allows the mediation board's rules to stand, but it also toughens some lesser requirements that must be met in order to hold a union organizing election.
While the compromise was acceptable to some unions, more than a dozen other unions that represent airline industry workers — including the Teamsters, Communications Workers, Machinists and Flight Attendants — complained the deal was reached without their input and urged its rejection.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:48 (twelve years ago) link
Well you can presently fly remote-controlled model airplanes, this just becomes an issue of air traffic.
Also, prownes?
― le ralliement du doute et de l'erreur (Michael White), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:53 (twelve years ago) link
superfluous hyphen
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:57 (twelve years ago) link
unmanned cargo aircraft isn't such a bad idea
― Critique of Pure Moods (goole), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:58 (twelve years ago) link
http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/02/07/karen-handel-resigns-from-komen-for-the-cure/
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 16:59 (twelve years ago) link
Apparently 'they' have been saying that for ages. The pilots of commercial carriers are basically just hostages.
― le ralliement du doute et de l'erreur (Michael White), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:01 (twelve years ago) link
I totally want a drone. I could put a slim jim and some little debbies in it and fly it to DJP in Boston and be all here are your intergalactic snacks in a robot voice.
― Unleash the Chang (he did what!) (Austerity Ponies), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:09 (twelve years ago) link
good morning!
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:12 (twelve years ago) link
if drones are allowed over the US, just a matter of time before one is hacked by anonymous and crashes
― http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tAYmMjLdY (dayo), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:57 (twelve years ago) link
preferably when [redacted]
― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 17:59 (twelve years ago) link
DIY drones
― Z S, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:27 (twelve years ago) link
I don't have a problem with private drones anymore than I do with private aircraft
govt drones are more sinister if you ask me.
― i love pinfold cricket (gbx), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:42 (twelve years ago) link
the pilot of a private aircraft is much more likely to be responsible about its use if he or she is inside it imo
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, that's why I referred to them as hostages
― le ralliement du doute et de l'erreur (Michael White), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:47 (twelve years ago) link