– The legislature adjourns sine dud. Don’t worry, there will be a special session where there’s a brand-new chance to not get anything accomplished starting in a few weeks.
– A background checks initiative drive starts today.
– Jesus and Muhammad and the Question of the State
– I am not one who spent much of the Bush presidency trying to figure out how smart he actually was, but some of these (especially the Swedish Army!) are pretty yikes.
– The WMD Wing (h/t)
S&P, Moodys, Morgan Stanley screw King county (and many others) by giving mortgage packages that they knew were toxic their highest rating, and settle out of court. I wonder what the settlement for King County is. And why anyone else is still listening to them.
http://apnews.excite.com/artic.....34O82.html
From 1,
Don’t forget Fitch Rating Service. They are equally guilty.
People often don’t understand that firms like S&P and Moody’s were accomplices in the CMO scam. They put AAA ratings on stuff that was guaranteed to default and helped the big investment bankers sell the stuff to the rubes out there.
From the Chait article…
…that’s gonna make puddybigot and cheapshotBob have a sad.
Which of them was touting the ridiculous Jennifer Rubin article the other day?
Speaking of cheapshot, does anyone suppose he’s going to show his face around here again?
This is extremely cool…but conflicts with a 6000-year-old universe worldview.
Digby nails it, again…
The plutocracy is running rampant and anyone who labors is fast becoming a wage slave, a serf, in the service of the rentiers. To thrive is to exploit the cash flow generated by some poor sap who works – wage theft is the new industry.
Digby, again, quoting RFK…
Apropos discussions on these threads regarding what sorts of educations are worthwhile, and which frivolous, where we direct our energy and support and resources, and what we let wither.
Sandra Day O’Connor Renounces Bush v. Gore Decision
Former SCOTUS justice O’Connor, who voted with the 5-4 conservative majority that appointed G. W. Bush president, said today the decision was a mistake.
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_.....-gore?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: What took her so long? Is this a deathbed confession? (She’s 83; when was the last time someone checked for a pulse?) When will the other 4 own up to SCOTUS’s biggest screwup since Dred Scott?
7) I have great respect for Justice O’Connor,but I think that Bush vs. Gore will forever taint that legacy. It set in motion the road to the Citizens United decision.
Well, at least GOPers are consistent about WMDs. They want to blow up Syria, too. This time their argument might have some actual merit.
@1 The banksters are still listening to them because there’s money to be made from lying. And guess what Wall Street is now promoting as the latest “hot” investment? Mortgage-backed securities.
@2 How many rubes you know bought MBSs? I don’t know any. That toxic stuff was sold to pension funds, sovereign funds, mutual funds, etc. It hurt us all, but indirectly, which from a thief’s standpoint is the best way to steal because most of the victims don’t know they’re being robbed.
@8 It also gave us G. W. Bush’s eight disastrous years.
12) Set in motion the Iraq War, which, based on the Civil War, and WWI, we will be paying for at least a century
@4. That is dang cool. Things in Perspective.
Reminds me of, I think, Prey, where Crieton goes on an on about how systems start slow and build. Things were really boring for a couple of billion years, then things got really hoppin. You could say the same for human civilization. Really slow for a couple of millennium, then it got really hopppin. We do more in a couple of decades than they did in centuries before.
@10 …and I dunno about you, but recently I’ve been hearing anecdotal reports that more poor sods are getting kicked out of their homes again.
@11 In other words, the real answer is that almost all of us (except a few folks like you, Roger, who can and want to spend all day in their bathrobes diddling with their portfolios) bought Wall Street’s used toilet paper. We just didn’t know it at the time. Many of us probably still are…and don’t know it or worse yet, can’t really do much about it.
From 10,
I used to own part of a CMO, but that was a long time ago. I go out because it wasn’t something that was right for me.
I used the term rubes in a general sense. It doesn’t matter if the purchasers were pension funds or semi-wealthy old ladies living off their accumulated funds. It may be an insult to those who got duped, but they still were duped.
S&P, Moody’s and Fitch got away with it, as did Goldman Sachs, Merrill, Morgan Stanley and the rest.
And the home buyers got cleaned-out.
@16 I never bought any mortgage-backed investments, and I would hope that you didn’t, either. We got screwed when pension funds, insurance companies, and banks bought them — then tried to pass their losses through to us in various sneaky ways. They weren’t completely successful at that, though. In the end, many shareholders of financial companies took it in the shorts. But those shareholders included pension funds and insurance companies — it just goes in circles, doesn’t it? The banksters take another skim off the top every time a dollar makes another circle, and at the end of the day, consumers pay for it all.
Gun Checks Backlash
“Senators in several states who voted earlier this month against increasing background checks for gun buyers have since seen their approval ratings noticeably drop, according to new polls released Monday by … Public Policy Polling.
“Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) net approval rating dropped 16 points, as she shed much of her previous cross-party appeal. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) saw his numbers dive 18 points, from a positive to a negative rating.
Not all of the change can be attributed to the [gun bill] vote. Portman, for instance, saw his approval drop among Republicans when he announced his support for gay marriage in March. But in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada and Ohio, at least 60 percent of voters supported background checks, and many expressed disappointment with politicians who voted otherwise.
“Fifty-two percent of Arizona voters said they were less likely to support Sen. Jeff Flake (R) for reelection due to his ‘no’ vote, while 46 percent of Nevadans said the same of Sen. Dean Heller (R). … A previous PPP poll found that Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) also saw her ratings tumble 15 points, likely due in part to her vote against background checks.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....77865.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Let’s hope the outcome of this is a Democratic House majority and a filibuster-proof Senate supermajority after the 2014 elections. And no chance of a Republican being elected president in 2016.
@17 Although some people were duped, what’s really odious about the whole thing is that people who weren’t duped were nevertheless robbed. The banksters have learned to go after your wealth in indirect and invisible ways, e.g. by selling trash to pension funds and college endowments. You end up paying for it, even though you didn’t want it, and there’s nothing you can do about it. And no bankster goes to jail. It’s a beautiful world for banksters.
@17 “S&P, Moody’s and Fitch got away with it, as did Goldman Sachs, Merrill, Morgan Stanley and the rest.”
They sure did, and they’ll get away with it next time, too. Some things never change.
“And the home buyers got cleaned-out.”
I would argue that no small number of home-buyers did some of the cleaning. Specifically, those who bought homes they couldn’t afford, didn’t make the payments, and got to live in nice homes rent-free for several years while banks dithered in processing foreclosures. I would guess that some flippers made out okay, too, by not making payments while collecting rent and then walking away from the mortgage. The people who got hurt bought the Realtors’ propaganda that home prices never go down, ended up underwater, and still tried to meet their obligations. In other words, the more honest they were, the worse they got slammed.
“A student at an all-male parochial high school pulled out a gun in a classroom Monday morning and shot himself in an apparent suicide attempt, police said. The youth was taken to a hospital, and there appeared to be no threat to other students at La Salle High School, a private school west of Cincinnati …, police said.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....ostpopular
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Background checks? What background checks? We don’t need no friggen background checks! [sarcasm]
My guess is he got the gun at home. You’d think parents of a suicidal teen would at least put trigger locks on their guns, but some parents don’t think, not gonna name names …
http://tinyurl.com/cvslg9q
Apparently, those who were hoping that the Kings are coming to Seattle, going to have to try for another team. The NBA relocation committee, which included the owner of the team in OKC, said the KING’s are staying. Although if the Hansen deal is legally binding, could it be the owners on the committee that are in trouble? The current owners prefer the Seattle deal. What is Stern going to do, take the team away from the Maloofs so the Sacramento group wins, despite the lesser offer?
From 22,
Must have been a Catolic parochial school. That faith really likes to lay the guilt on its followers.
If I was selected to be on a jury of some guy who shot one of these banksters, I’d automatically vote “not guilty” and offer to take the accused out for a beer.
“Speaking of cheapshot, does anyone suppose he’s going to show his face around here again?”
What happened to Bob?
@27
Got thrashed, badly, on this thread, by Darryl and myself.
Very very not pretty. Haven’t heard from him since…been over a week.
This week in gun fail…
At least we learned that there are still child endangerment laws in Texas, even if there aren’t adequate zoning laws.
Then there’s this…
What is it with these jackasses and their armed toddlers?
From the webpage of the above Greenville SC TV station came this headline…
With this subhead…
Quote from the Sheriff…”It’s a sad, sad set of circumstances…”
Clearly, none of this would have happened, if there had only been more good guys with guns at these incidents.
But I’m astounded, as I was with the last set of Gun Fails I linked to, at the passive voice, the almost resigned nature of the reaction…like this is just a sad facet of an immutable fact of life, that 4 year olds are going to kill people.
Sick.
Didn’t Cheapshot stop posting just about the time the question was raised as to why he posts and if he was a shill, testing out the strength of various conservative talking points?
Just Say’n.
@30
Yup. That’s where the discussion went – we couldn’t figure out why he kept digging his hole deeper, and Darryl asked him if he was a shill, trying out memes.
See here, and here.
Is it just me, or has the stoopid been especially pervasive in the past 2 weeks?
re @30 & @31, the disappearance of the Serial RENEGER may be the the best thing I’ve read in those 2 weeks.
The Sonics Are Dead … Long Live The Sonics!
Looks like NBA Commissioner David Stern has killed a Seattle basketball team: “The NBA lowered an emphatic boom Monday on Seattle’s hopes of bringing the Sonics back, as the league’s Relocation Committee unanimously recommended that the Sacramento Kings not be allowed to relocate. The recommendation … will be forwarded to the NBA Board of Governors for a vote …. But it is expected that the board will follow the recommendation of the Relocation Committee. That puts a halt, for now, to Chris Hansen’s nearly three-year quest to bring the NBA back to town. … Stern had said his preference was to not relocate a team, and his support of Sacramento’s offer was likely a critical part of the team staying. Stern has said that while expansion is ‘not a complete non-starter’ in the long term, it is not being considered now, and there is no thought it is a serious immediate option.”
http://seattletimes.com/html/l.....texml.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Apparently there are still some things even money can’t buy.
As I recall, Stern didn’t have a problem with relocating teams a few years ago. I think this guy has it in for Seattle. Not that I want another taxpayer-subsidized sports palace in our town anyway. After all, 90% of Seattle voters voted against it.
I don’t know a lot about the sports business, but is it possible to simply create a new NBA team in Seattle? Why do the people who want the Sonics back try to buy an existing team when maybe they should create a new team?
@33,34 Roger,
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Despite the fanaticism for this Sonics deal, the costs outweigh the benefits. Don’t believe me, ask a Longshoremen.
@28 “Very very not pretty.”
An effort capped by one of the best comments in the history of blogging,
“BobFail™
Hats off to Darryl. You too, Lib Sci.
Yeah…it’s hard to know if Serial Conservative simply couldn’t take being repeatedly shamed, or whether he wasn’t willing to answer “the question.”
I suspect the former.
It shows one difference between Bob and Puddy. Puddy is totally unaffected by what would put sane people to shame, including being called out on (and fessing-up to) outright lying, being pummeled by facts and well-constructed rational arguments.
Bob is bothered when he ends up looking like a fool. Puddy…not so much.
@36 Oh, I’m not a Sonics booster, I’m against building any more taxpayer-funded sports palaces in Seattle. We already have several of ’em.
If we need more sport around here, we could join #29 in posting gun fails, but my heart isn’t in it tonight. People getting killed by toddlers and dogs with guns is depressing. Who the hell ever came up with giving dogs guns, anyway? That’s a cockamamie scheme if I ever heard of one. Next thing you know dogs will be shooting rabbits. Now that is depressing.
I hate DC politicians. Corrupt republicans and spineless democrats. I include Obama in that. They passed the sequester but they repealed it on Air Traffic Controllers because it hurt them. The dream of equality and shared sacrifice is dead. Rat Bastards.
@19 You dumb fuck, how many democrats voted no?
You don’t know shit.
@42 In answer to your question,
Yea votes: 49 Democrats, 3 Republicans, 2 Independents
Nay votes: 41 Republicans, 5 Democrats*
* Sen. Reid is actually a “yes” vote but cast a “no” vote to allow the bill to be re-introduced, so there are only 4 Democratic “no” votes
How is it again that Democrats defeated this bill? It took only 40 votes to block it, and 41 Republicans voted to block it, so its defeat is a GOP show, pal. What are you gonna post next, that the NRA is a liberal lobby? You’re the dumbfuck who doesn’t know shit. You really ought to think twice before making an ass of yourself by posting nonsense.
@42 I don’t think this is a new troll. It smells like one of the old ones. Of course, we don’t know who the trolls are, because they use aliases. It’s interesting when a troll posts a comment using a new alias because he doesn’t want his existing alias associated with the comment. Some fascinating psychology going on there.
Don’t know if this was brought up, but the debate between Sanford and Colbert-Busch was interesting to say the least, and yes, his trip to Argentina was brought up.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.....anford.php
As for debates, our neighbors to the north do it differently, and a good example happened last night, too. The live blog, and notice in the leaders debate, there were 4 debating. Just passing it on for the informative value, it’s just a provincial election, has no bearing on relations between Ottawa and the other Washington,and maybe not much here either. To see the voters know that they have other choices than the BC Liberals and the NDP is interesting.When was the last time we had a third party or independent candidate in the Presidential debate, 1992?
http://live.cbc.ca/Event/BC_debate?Page=0
Alan Keyes is baaaaaaaaaack!!
Full on CRAAAAAAAZY!
Calling the ‘faithful’ to paranoid delusions that the Kenyan MOOSLUM!!! is coming for their guns and their wimmins, and he gonna burn their Bibles, too!
I’m having visions of puddybigot and the voices in his head, with an AR-15, and not liking what I’m seeing…
Keyboard Kommando Pat Dollard, “The War Starts Here”, calls Keith Ellison “Jihadi Democrat.”
Yes he did.
I just stopped by (un)SoundPolitics, and the first post up is by Jim Miller, in part casting aspersions on the consent agreement between DOJ and the Seattle PD.
No comments allowed, of course.
I followed the link to his own site, just to see if he allows comments there.
Nope.
I did find this nugget, though, regarding Hurricane Sandy…
Having food available leads to obesity?? Having beer leads to alcoholism?? Having cars leads to auto accidents and speeding??
Doesn’t mak sense.
@50
Jim Miller’s ‘thinking’…doesn’t mak sense.