– When I read that headline in Crosscut I thought to myself “That doesn’t seem to jibe with many of the people I know in the city” and then made a note to come back to read it. But it looks like it was wrong, and there are plenty of families in Seattle.
– Seems like the Yakima law enforcement authorities should have shown up for the forum on the Secure Communities program.
– I’ve written before that my mind what should determine if Anthony Weiner has to go or not is if he had consent to send those pictures, and sadly it’s looking more like he didn’t.
– And speaking of disappointing Democrats: Jon Tester.
– In fairness to Newt Gingrich his is just a nonsense vanity campaign for him to keep his name in the news, so it doesn’t really matter to his presidential hopes, and hey his name is in the news.
Interesting video available from Iowa. It seems that the Iowa state legislature is holding hearings on the governor’s spending plans for higher education.
Among those testifying as to the impact of the governor’s plans were: Spencer Walrath, president of the University of Northern Iowa student government; Jared Knight, vice president of the student body at Iowa State University; Eliot Higgins, president of the University of Iowa student government; Dr. Lyndsay Harshman, a medical school graduate from the University of Iowa (past president of the Council of Graduate & Professional Students); and Michael Appel, a University of Iowa Law School student (current vice president of the Executive Council of Graduate & Professional Students).
Not exactly a bunch of slackers. The student who was testifying immediately before the video began is neatly dressed, shaved, with short hair, and in a suit and tie. I doubt we would expect that much from a student here – I’d wager that a good many of them have never owned a suit, and don’t expect to own one in the future. Not that it matters, it’s just a different fashion culture out here on the coast, where even company executives rarely wear ties. But it does show that the students were showing respect to their representatives in government, and they took their role seriously.
Much more seriously, and with much more respect, than they received from the ranking Republican on the committee, Iowa State Senator Shawn Hamerlinck. Rarely has there ever been displayed a more patronizing dismissal of their concerns:
‘Go home,’ senator tells student leaders
If you want to hear how this went down on video, here’s the link:
Hamerlinck tells students to “go home”
If you want to see who Shawn Hamerlinck listens to, you merely have to look at his campaign donation records. In 2008, when he was first elected to the state Senate, he received 63.45% of his campaign funding from the Iowa Republican Party. The next largest contributor was Iowans for Tax Relief, with 11% of his total funding. The third largest contributor was Hawkeye Pac with 3.3% (a PAC controlled by U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassly (R), which gives exclusivly to Republican candidates).
The remaining donations include a fair number of conservative business and political interest groups before you get to the smattering of individual donations of $500 or less.
Here’s the link for Hamerlinck’s donations record for 2008: 2008 Campaign Donations for Hamerlinck
A suggestion: When posting an “Open Thread”, try to name it. It’s a bit confusing when we look at the recent comments posted “From the Cesspool” on the right-hand side to see two or three or more different “Open Tread” topics. Maybe you should just call it “Friday Open Thread”?, for example?
So, everyone seems to be in this mini panic about the Stock market going down under 12000. OMG huge selloff, everyone run for the hills!
Look at the numbers, people. This is a prime example of how propaganda works. Take any graph, take any outlying motion in trend and blow the graph up to the point where it only focuses on that trend, you can manufacture any perception of the issue you want.
Here is the real trend.
The Bankers and the Billionaires control the message. Their message is: “We will run the nations economy in any way we see fit, and we see fit to extract as much cash out of the system as we can squeeze, even if it means everyone gets to live in the streets and eat roadkill rats to survive. This is how we will disturb and control your perceptions.”
Old school CIA/Gestapo psychological tactics used against the American people, for the purpose of attaining and retaining political and economic power. The GOP has long since sold it’s soul to the Banks, both foreign and domestic. But this goes without saying. The Democrats have followed this trend, both parties forgetting the purpose of our Government as stated in the United States Constitution. They are robbing us blind, and the cult of the Free Market bows its collective head, drops to its knees and opens its mouth as wide as it can. It exists only to service.
Carl: Don’t be too quick to knock Tester. He was getting local pressure from his small community banks and credit unions which don’t have the options of the bigger banks.
The fight in the Senate the other day was between BoA et al and Walmart / other big retailers — there wasn’t a “good” side.
Here’s a link to a different side of the story:
Montana Cowgirl Blog
@4 “Here is the real trend”
Here is the trend along with some technical indicators. You can see that the 13-day moving average has recently crossed below the 50-day. This hasn’t happened since the rally began last year. You can see that the rally started in 2010 with the 13-day crossing above the 50-day. Look at the support levels. They’re way down there. I’d say that this chart sucks. For a triple suck, consider that the NASDAQ and S&P charts are no better. That’s not propaganda. It’s just technical analysis showing that an upward trend has been broken and that a downward trend has been established. This is not a prediction of doom. After all, trends are made to be broken. Sigh! If only I knew when that will happen. Nobody really knows when. As a bet, I’d go with our eventually bouncing off of 10,500 or so, going sideways for the summer, then either crash or rally in the October. Yup, when I look in my own crystal ball, I come away worried about October.
http://clearstation.etrade.com.....8;period=d
@ 6
I’m not a stocks geek at all. The reality is that, while profits are kept to the highest possible level for the smallest number of people possible, but when things go to shit, everyone gets a lick, except the people that profit from these sorts of trends.
But these trends are manipulated. Most are carefully set up to generate these types of cycles. The shit is smashing our economy. They are stripping the treasury no matter what the stock markets do. Companies like Goldman Sachs and CitiCorp run computerized trading systems that can generate as many as 100,000 trades per second, and then analyze trends based on those trades. They then can use these analysis to generate trending cycles that they exploit for profit. Its the ultimate insider/pump and dump/slump and chump scam. They control the trends, they control the prices, and they control the machine that generates the information.
@6 and 7: Stocks, etc. have been a suckers bet since the judicial coup of 2000 and repeal of Glass-Steagall.
In my revenge fantasy, these guys are condemned to eternal anal rape for what they’ve done to this country and the world. But that’s obviously not going to happen.
The banksters are evil, the Rs are insane (and evil), and most of the Ds are “captured”.
IMO, there is no recourse that doesn’t involve violence of some sort, because I think we are getting our dose of Disaster Capitalism and we’re armed to the teeth. It’s only a matter of time. I’m rooting for an outcome something more like Chile or Argentina (Social Democracies after a bloody dictatorship) as opposed to say, Russia (Criminal Oligarchy).
One glimmer of hope is that it appears folks are waking up to the overreach at the state level (e.g., Wisconsin, Ohio) and the Teahadist House Rs.
We are truly living in “interesting times”.
@4 The Dow average isn’t really all that indicative of the stock market anyway. Most people with a smattering of knowledge about stocks consider the S&P 500 average more informative and useful. It’s fine with me the market is going down because when it does billionaires lose more than anyone else. In addition, I plan to invest my inheritance from the late Pop Rabbit, who was almost 100 years old when he went to the Meadow In The Sky last month, and I prefer that the market be in the toilet while I’m doing that so I can buy stocks from rich people on the cheap. Some people think there’s no God but believe me this wouldn’t be happening if the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit didn’t want to take money from them and give it to me. =:-D<
Alaska Releases 250 Lbs. of Palin E-Mails
The state of Alaska this morning released 24,199 “Governor Palin” e-mails weighing a total of 250 lbs. (presumably printed out on 20-lb. copier paper). She sure was talkative.
@9: Thanks for that, Roger.
Re the stock market…
“Sell in May and go away”
Sometimes it’s wrong, but the exception proves the rule.
The OPEC decision to increase production might have some interesting short and long-term effects: it would eventually cause oil-sensitive stocks to rise (food, transportation, airlines, etc.), but if mutual funds are heavy in oil stocks they might be dumping them short-term.
But you have to ask: where is the money going? A stock sell-off means investors have other, better places to park their money for a while. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see anything else out there right now. Money market funds aren’t that great a place to be right now, and even treasury certificates are a bit suspect if the GOP forces a default over the debt ceiling. I had expected to see a recovery in real estate, but foreclosure inventories are still high and so no help in tha regard within the rest of this calendar year. Gold? It’s a sucker’s bet right now – it’s been hyped on right-wing radio for so long that it is the next bubble about to collapse, which will occur when they the last gold buyers cannot find any more “greater fools” who are willing to buy after them. Other commodities are a bit of a wild card right now, crop commodities face an uncertain summer with potentially ruinous storms and drought conditions.
That leaves manufacturing, but unless the job market improves, consumer markets aren’t going to improve much.
Of course, further budget cuts and a federal default aren’t going to help any of this. But the GOP game plan is to keep the economy as bad as possible until the 2012 election – which is the only chance they’ve got to get back in power, considering the weak field they are running.
RR @ # 9:
Well, based on my experience, we can expect the stock market to recover and reach new heights right before the 25th of the month. My monthly 401(K) gets invested on that date, or a few days thereafter, and it always seems to hit the markets at the high point for the month. “Sell low, buy high” seems to be the philosophy of my company’s 401(k) administrators.
Yep, and they need that kick-ass playground Goldy’s ben talking about,
been talking about.
LOL… I really need to get a new keyboard.
@13
I’d wait and see how much they can actually increase production. We know they’ve been lying about how much oil they have, but we don’t know by how much they’ve been over stating things.
@5: Except that banks and credit unions with assets under $10B are exempted. It’s not pressure from small banks and credit unions that he’s bowing to, unless they (and he) haven’t bothered to read the Durbin Amendment.
http://thinkprogress.org/econo.....x-country/
Here trolls…c’mon, c’mon over here…yeah good trolls…yeahhhh….
http://thinkprogress.org/econo.....-tax-cuts/
More troll-fuck fodder…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....via=blog_1
There are those god-damned FACTS again…
@18
Thanks for posting that. I hadn’t seen it before. From what I’m seeing online it looks like I’m not the only one that didn’t know.
Chief Democrat Spokesman Weiner now appears to have direct messaged a 17 year-old and was following her twitter feeds.
What a douchebag.
It just keeps getting worse & worse for the Democrat Party. The economy sucks, unemployment sucks, the Middle East sucks and we are still up to our asses in there with no end in sight. I’d say things aren’t looking up for President Obama.
When’s Vitter resigning, fuckwad?
Mr. Fuckwad (the obviously paid troll) forgets:
1) Bush and the fucking republiklowns got us into this mess.
2) Boner (sic[k]), Ryan, Cantor and the rest of the know-nothing republiklown asshats in the House want to finish the job of tanking the economy.
Sorry sonny, yer gonna have to do better than that here.
I thought right wingers supported that so we could kick butt on teh teruists..
Last I looked Iraq was drawn down quite a bit and Afghanistan is due for some troop pullouts in July.
Better late than never I suppose.
Yes, as many have stated, the Republicans goal is to do NOTHING about jobs so they can take the White House with the very weak bench they have.
Well, this spring may have sucked for just about everything else but, it’s been great for my rhubarb. I’m cruising the recipe sites for new things to do with yet another arm load of rhubarb. Last week I discovered the joys of the rhubarb mojito. Those are seriously good.
http://www.brooklynfarmhouse.c.....rb-mojito/
Newt’s campaign is not nonsense!
And if I may quote one of the acknowledged leading lights of the Republican Party for the past quarter century, Newt’s campaign for president is “something that happens once or twice in a century, a genuine grass-roots campaign of very big ideas,”
And you cannot tell me that running a national campaign for 18 months without a paid staff and taking 2 weeks vacation every 3 weeks during that campaign is not a VERY BIG IDEA!
Laugh all you like, but this is a man who has had 3 wives and an interest free 1/2 million dollar revolving credit account at Tiffany’s.
And I bet you did not even know that Newt has sought and received an extension from the Federal Election Commission to file his personal financial disclosure form.
This is ABSOLUTELY a once or twice in a century presidential campaign!
ps. As the former half-term governor has shown, quitting is a sign of leadership, and Newt has taken it to the next level by leading his staff to quit en masse.
Weiner’s been lying for two weeks. When do you guys back away from a loser? I agree, let’s get rid of Vitter too. It’s arrogant asshats like Rangel, Waters, Frank, Ensign, Vitter, Craig, etc. that have ruined Congress. Darryl is this still e-flirting, you sucker? Heh.
@30. Seattle Mom,
OK, you get rid of Vitter and I’ll get rid of Weiner the following Tuesday.
@14 It takes an evil employer to move his employees from a defined benefit pension plan to 401(k)s. Evil.
Even more evil is the employer who tells prospective hires the company “has a pension plan” but after they’re hired the employees find out it’s a 401(k) to which the employees contribute and there’s no employer match. That, of course, is no pension plan at all. The employees would be better off if they just got paid the money in their paychecks and invested it themselves in IRAs.
A 401(k) without an employer matching contribution is nothing more than a sneaky way for employers to claim they have a pension plan when they don’t.
@28 It’s been great for rhodies, too.
@30 “Weiner’s been lying for two weeks.”
Is that all? Republicans start lying the minute they’re born.
RR: I’ve got employer matching – they match half, up to the first 6% of salary contributed to the plan. So in effect, it’s 50% matching with a ceiling of 3%.
But the company has a long tradition of keeping wages low and making up for it with overtime. But your 401(k) isn’t based on overtime, only your regular time. So during the time I was hourly, my 15% of annual salary contributions (the maximum allowed) were actually more like 8%, and their matching contribution was correspondenly lower.
But the real problem was the selection of investment options. For a long time, we had a choice between one money market, two bond funds, and two mutual stock funds – one conservative, and the other ultra-conservative. It’s expanded since then, but it’s still not great. I figured out once that if the employer included a “stick it under the matress option”, I would have been better off than I was under their investment options.
I believe that is still true now – the sum of my contributions plus their limited matching is actually more than the current balance of my 401(k) plan. Of course, with any 401(k) plan you have “administrative expenses” – the plan administrator takes a few percentage points every year just to receive the money, send out quarterly statements, and give the money to the mutual fund companies. The mutual fund companies do the same. You have to have an annual return greater than 4% just to break even.
So, after over 15 years of contributions, my 401(k) plan now has enough money for me to retire for two years. At this rate, by the time I turn 70 I can retire only if I don’t live for more than four years. Assuming I don’t have any major medical problems, and die quietly in my bed at home.
I don’t blame my company for the miserable performance of my 401(k) as I do the Bush administration. The decade from 2000 to 2010 will go down in history as the “Lost Decade” of the U.S., just as Japan considers the 1990’s to be their own “lost decade”.
By the way, remember in early 2003 when the Bush administration assured us that the war in Iraq was going to be paid for with Iraqi oil revenues?
Still waiting on that one…..
So what Roger, do pension funds invest in (or the GET program in Wash for that matter, that they will be able to sustain their current level of distribution?
If long term Treasuries are 3% or less
If savings are .01%
If the Stock Market is tanking
If the legislature or fed gov are spending the contributions instead of funding the plans
If the state and Federal revenues continue to plumet
Just askin??????????
19. Rujax! ? spews:
Here trolls…c’mon, c’mon over here…yeah good trolls…yeahhhh….
———————————–
I already told you yesterday that the figure doesn’t include state and local taxes, you can’t even read your own chart, you effing nitwit.
@30
Well, for my part it was when he opened his mouth and what was obviously a big whopping lie came out. And there’s the issue of knowing you have enemies that are watching you every second waiting for you to screw up and you’re out email crotch shots around. Total loose cannon, that boy.
If you look beyond HA you’ll find plenty of folks on the left who want Weiner to step down. What you wont find are people who are willing to let the right get away with doing worse while calling for for Weiner to step down. I’m kinda the odd-man-out in that I really couldn’t care less what the right does or doesn’t do with their freak-show.
There They Go Again!
Damn! Federal bureaucrats are interfering with an honest businessman trying to make an honest profit! If only federal regulators would just get out of the way of honest business people and let them run their businesses with bureaucratic meddling or interference, we’d have plenty of jobs! We don’t need no damn gummint regulation!!!
“Federal officials on Friday sought a permanent injuction against the Wisconsin firm accused of making and distributing medical products potentially tainted with life-threatening bacteria, a spokeswoman for the Food and Drug Administration said.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43....._diseases/
“The Undefeated” sounds like the political blockbuster movie of the year to rival “Atlas Shrugged Part One”
Wow! To put that in perspective, 25,000 employees is almost double that of King County and almost half of that of Washington state. And Palin did that for an entire half term!
Oh, I know where you Obamabots are going to go. If the governor of Alaska is a CEO of 25,000 employees, then President Obama, as Commander-In-Chief, of the US Armed Forces is more significant because he is CEO of 2,936,396 Active & Reservists… and for 4 years!
Not really. Because as a non-US citizen and Bill Ayers puppet his CEOness is not legitimate. Also too, Obama is a Kenyan Muslim who is hiding Usama bin Ladin in his basement.
Sarah Palin baby! UNDEFEATED! and the mother of a reality teevee star!
LOL… Of course she’s undefeated she gave up halfway though her term.
Population of King County: 1,931,249
Population of Alaska: 710,231
Dow Constantine for President!!!
@44 I thought they were going to name it “The Decider” or something like that. And have her land a helicopter on a drill rig. In a flight suit and all that.
Gawd it’s easy to make fun of Republicans! Almost too easy. It feels like cheating.
@47 Republicans… like cheating. I see what you did there.
NSA Whistleblower case collapses:
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....13248.html
Charges of ESPIONAGE beaten down to a misdemeanor with no fine.
Thank you for your service and your courage Thomas Drake.
@45. Michael
Wait a second.
King County has more than double the population of Alaska and less than half as many government employees?
Dow Constantine would be a shoe in as the 2012 GOP nominee as the candidate with the most fiscally conservative record in the race!
In the words
aladofUndefeated CEO Sarah PalinGeneral MacArthur said, “We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”@49. YLB spews:
Thank you for your service and your courage Thomas Drake.
———————
for once a sensible post from you. From what has been released about the details it looks like Drake was a patriot who released no truly secret information at all. He was blowing the whistle on incompetent hacks at NSA who, among other things, were completely blind-sided by 9-11 after having been led for 8 years by a Clinton administration notable for filling important posts with worthless democrat drones.
Like Michael Hayden who you favorite President kicked upstairs to CIA?
After the disastrous failure of Trailblazer (which like 9/11 happened on the Bush administration’s watch) why wasn’t Hayden retired?
Maybe because of “worthless” Republican drones waging a “worthless” war to create more terrorists or having great fun padding well-connected defense contractor pockets?