Morning Must Reads: Opportunity

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/us/12loughner.html?_r=1
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“A friend of Mr. Loughner’s also said in an interview on Tuesday that Mr. Loughner, 22, was skilled with a gun — as early as high school — and had talked about a philosophy of fostering chaos.“

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Now who has it been over the years to advocate for chaos again?

The cover? Really? You *needed* to put his face on the cover? Really?

I don’t see what the Joker and his dreams for Gotham City have to do with any of this?

A question mark in the middle of the forehead?.
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I think the artist could have come up with something a little more fitting: Crosshairs perhaps?

Henri Poincaré?

Or “Get Smart”

More corporate bailout news
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110113/ap_on_bi_ge/us_automakers_bailout_watchdog
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As the rich multi-national corporations sit back with their billions of tax payer dollars, Washington can gleefully go on it’s merry way while we struggle wondering how we will pay for the next meal to put on the table with rising food and gas prices.
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WASHINGTON – By selling a block of its shares in General Motors Co. for $33 each — a price far below the “break-even” point — the government sharply reduced the chances of taxpayers fully recovering their $50 billion investment in the auto giant, a new report from a congressional watchdog says.”

The guy who played Doc on “The Love Boat”?

Roger Waters?

S@tan?

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/01/12/20110112gabrielle-giffords-arizona-shooting-pima-county-wont-release-jared-loughner-records.html
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In retrospect….how do we hide the truth yet again?
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“The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and Pima Community College have declined to release documents that could shed light on run-ins they had with 22-year-old Jared Loughner in the months prior to the shooting.”

Of course within hours of the killings, Sheriff DipStick instead of looking into this to get all the facts decided to go on a political crusade to attach political opponents.
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Why not? When you have not done your own job you were elected to do, why not blame someone else.

“–Obama’s speech last night in Arizona is worth watching in full if you haven’t already seen it.”

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“Yes We Can”……ah ah ah I mean, “Together We Thrive”.
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Yea, if you want to watch a political rally go for it.

Time magazine should be ashamed of itself for trying to make money off of this tragedy. Why put this dirt-bag on the cover of your magazine?

You are letting other dirt-bags know that if they gun down a politician you will make them famous with their picture on the cover of your magazine. Is that what you want to encourage?

Anyone that pays money for this issue should be ashamed of themselves for encouraging you to make lunatic dirt-bags famous.

Bush’s Fault

Minutes before the political rally to mourn 6 dead people.
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http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//110112/480/urn_publicid_ap_org_ffb533d16d6548058df1085e682a679d/
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A picture that tells the entire story of last night’s event.

Hell, before it’s over with they’ll make him Time’s man of the year.

“Facing a maximum term of 10 years in prison, Habermann could be released from federal detention as early as Thursday.”

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Why? Why are we releasing someone like this?
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http://www.seattlepi.com/local/433303_congress12.html

Rustydog/Returns/NewBlog,
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May I ask a favor? Can you please answer one question with a direct “Yes” or “No”? (It will help me know whether to ignore your posts as I do some others here.)
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– Do you believe Loughner acted totally independently of the current political discourse, that the present political language and media had NO impact on him whatsoever?
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Thanks in advance.

How many other names does rusty have?

Rusty the more I read your comments the more this chinese proverb comes to mind;

“Outside noisy, inside empty”

Telling quote from the EPA link:
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“Any congressional attempt to limit regulatory authority is always difficult to achieve, an industry lobbyist told POLITICO. But given the sluggish economy and the long list of moderate Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2012, “the chances are better than ever” for a vote to limit EPA’s authority.”
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..the reelection part. That’s how industry does it. Donations to reelection coffers and commercials for those that support them, or likewise for an opponent to those that don’t. Add to that the advertisement revenue they supply major media and they can manipulate the language and climate around any issue. This, to me, is problem number one. Limit this power and we’ll see better laws, effective regulation and a weakening of the so-called military industrial complex.

In this week’s newsstand edition of TIME: David Von Drehle retells the Tucson shooting as a war on normalcy…

Drehle is engaging in false equivalency just to present the middle as the sane, non-culpable party in all this. What’s funny is that, while promoting the “Vital Center” and bashing everyone else as “sensationalists”, he’s just as guilty of “Dramatizing the Trivial” as they are.

Drehle writes: “The events of the past week should awaken us to the danger of further indulging their delusions.”

Pot. Kettle. Black.

My first thought was of Sauron, but he was always more of a lawful evil than chaotic…

John Boehner skips Tucson…

…to attend a RNC fundraiser.

“Last night as President Obama was delivering his “We can be better” speech in Arizona Speaker John Boehner was attending a cocktail party fundraiser in Washington D.C. Multiple Republicans joined President Obama on Air Force One for the trip to the Tucson memorial, including Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Ben Quayle (R-AZ). Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Representative Debbie Wasserman-Shultiz (D-FL) were also on the trip. Speaker Boehner was invited to join all of them, but declined the invitation to stay in Washington for a Republican National Committee event.”

“When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.”
Confucius

You may want to read this before you ask this question.
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http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/jared-loughners-friend-says-suspect-did-not-watch-tv-disliked-the-news_b48040

Wow rusty, maybe you should have read the other parts of the article:

“College officials have not indicated when or if they will release the information, saying they want prior approval from the FBI and are concerned about violating federal laws protecting the privacy of student information.”

So the college is holding off on currently releasing information because they are worried about violating federal laws, and because the FBI asked them to hold back in order to not impede the investigation. What an awful thing, the college wants to make sure it doesn’t release any data unlawfully!

“Carlson said providing these documents would be tantamount to releasing criminal history.”

“Sean Holguin, a deputy county attorney representing the Sheriff’s Office, said he “will respond substantively” to the request, possibly by Wednesday.”

And the Sheriff’s Department actually said that they would “respond substantively” to the request by Wednesday. I don’t mind that they are taking a day or two to get all their ducks in a row before they release this information which will undoubtedly bring a barrage of media attention to scour whatever tidbits of probably unimportant records they release. In our society where most information is available at the click of a button doesn’t mean that all public information requests have to met THIS VERY SECOND. The information is being released slowly to ensure its accuracy and legality.

Why so knee-jerk Rusty?

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/when-i-looked-for-light/

….have to get better at formatting in here! I spend too much time in MS Word!

Um, okay?

You were expecting something more?

“Winners as whiners”

“…what’s true is that the gap between the rich and the superrich has grown dramatically. Here’s the Piketty-Saez data showing the top 1 percent pulling away from the next 4; the same thing is happening for the top 0.1 versus the losers who are in the 99.0-99.9 range, and so on…[...]

The net result is a society of winners as whiners, where people who are not only doing fine but doing much better relative to the median than they were a generation ago nonetheless feel left behind.”

Okay, Rusty. I suppose I take that as a “Yes”, meaning no influence from the current political/media environment whatsoever.

For deficit hawks, the Center for American Progress launches its “Tax Expenditure of the Week” feature.

“The Center for American Progress has long called for greater scrutiny of ‘tax expenditures.’ These are special exemptions, credits, and deductions littering the tax code that add up to $1.1 trillion annually. Subjecting these dozens of tax breaks to greater scrutiny is part of our broader focus on making government work better and achieving better results for the American people, which is the goal of CAP’s ‘Doing What Works’ project.

To that end, our new ‘Tax Expenditure of the Week’ series aims to explain the often-confusing constellation of tax breaks in a way the average taxpayer can understand. Every Wednesday we will focus on one tax expenditure, explaining what it is, what purpose it is intended to serve, and whether it is effective toward that purpose. We will also review any applicable reform proposals.

Greater examination of tax expenditures is long overdue. Tax expenditures are really just federal spending programs administered by the Internal Revenue Service, as we have emphasized. While most government agencies promote policy goals by directly spending taxpayer money, IRS programs promote many of the same goals by distributing tax breaks. Tax expenditures are accounted for differently in the federal budget, but there is no meaningful difference between the expenditures and government programs that directly spend money. Yet tax expenditures don’t get regular performance reviews to determine whether they are serving their intended purpose. And most tax expenditures are permanent fixtures of the tax code, so they tend to keep growing unless Congress specifically repeals them.”

Third Way proposal would limit bank liability for foreclosure fraud.

“So by looking at this proposal, we are looking at the state of play among high level policy makers in DC, particularly of the New Dem bent. This is how the administration will probably try to play foreclosure-gate.

Their proposal, not surprisingly, is yet another bailout.

The big difference between the original and the new, improved version of the bailout model is that the payouts to the banks were at least in part visible the first time around. This is an effort yet again to spare the banks any pain, not only at the cost of the rule of law but also of investor rights.

This proposal guts state control of their own real estate law when the Supreme Court has repeatedly found that ‘dirt law’ is not a Federal matter. It strips homeowners of their right to their day in court to preserve their contractual rights, namely, that only the proven mortgagee, and not a gangster, or in this case, bankster, can take possession of their home.

This sort of protection is fundamental to the operation of capitalism, so it’s astonishing to see neoliberals so willing to throw it under the bus to preserve the balance sheets of the TBTF banks.”

It’s not like he’s saying to actually do it, only providing ‘Fun Facts’ about how to do it, if you were so inclined, which he’s sure that you’re not, because it would be considered retaliation for an exercise of free speech.

“363,909 total votes were cast for sheriff in 2008, meaning that 90,978 residents of Pima County would have to sign a recall petition to force a recall election of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. (Dupnik’s Republican opponent received 128,146 votes.) The petition would have to contain a general statement of 200 words or fewer outlining the case for recall.”

(next up; ‘Fun Facts’ on how to build a nuke and set it off for maximum carnage)

Even if dealing with global climate change is a “collective action problem” for our political leadership, not everyone is ignoring the issue.

“Last summer, as torrential rains flooded Pakistan, a veteran intelligence analyst watched closely from his desk at CIA headquarters just outside the capital.

For the analyst, who heads the CIA’s year-old Center on Climate Change and National Security, the worst natural disaster in Pakistan’s history was a warning.

“It has the exact same symptoms you would see for future climate change events, and we’re expecting to see more of them,” he said later, agreeing to talk only if his name were not revealed, for security reasons. “We wanted to know: What are the conditions that lead to a situation like the Pakistan flooding? What are the important things for water flows, food security … radicalization, disease” and displaced people?

As intelligence officials assess key components of state stability, they are realizing that the norms they had been operating with – such as predictable river flows and crop yields – are shifting.”

And it’s not just security agencies that are concerned, either.

“”Climate expertise is an emerging factor of competition,” according to the survey of 60 insurers, banks and asset managers including Aviva, Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ and Citigroup.

“More than half of the respondents feel that the level of information today is not sufficient,” according to the study by the U.N. Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Finance Initiative, sponsored by the German Ministry of Education and Research.

Better information could help financial institutions to assess and adapt to increases in floods, heatwaves and droughts as well as creeping threats such as higher sea levels and the encroachment of desert, projected by the U.N. panel of climate scientists.

Respondents reckoned the risks of climate change were likely to increase.”

Thanks, grape. Ugh, another bailout? For once the TP would on the side of the angels to oppose this. Grape, what ideas would you offer to deal with still-troubled banks? I’d suggest a Government Motors solution, or just update FDIC powers: if banks are on brink of collapse, give them the money, BUT…
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1. kick out all top execs. and turn ‘em over to Fed and state prosecutors for investigation, but keep the tellers. They didn’t cause the mess. Assign new managers.
2. mark all assets to market …write them way down. No more goodwill or other inflated crap.
3. rewrite all troubled mortgage principals.
4. sell all foreclosed properites and get ‘em off the books. Is an absolute auction the one where the items sells no matter the price? Just get rid of the empty houses and office buildings, period.
5. if they engaged in robosigning and losing mortgage papers, fire the guilty ones, buy back the mortgages provided the paperwork’s there and rewrite ‘em. Those that are lost, TS and write ‘em off as total losses.
6. wipe out stocks and void all options. If one’s stupid enough to buy bank shares without checking the loans / books then one deserves to lose one’s ass.
7. THEN inject the new money and rebuild the balance sheet.
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I hope state court rulings hold up that banks must prove they hold the mortgage papers or TS.

He probably wanted the dinner menu from the fundraiser. What do rich republicans eat at fancy dinners? And appetizers? Caviar on blini or mystery meat spread on triscuits?

Grape,
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In other words – we give money to banks that can’t prove that they own the mortgage in the first place, while nothing gets resolved and the issue of ownership remains on the books.
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Why should I as a tax payer pay for a banks inability to follow the law and good praxis? If I fail a IRS tax audit I face fines or jail time; if banks can’t get their sh!t together we give them money. I’m tired of this primadonna called banks and their inability to do math and keep their paperwork straight.

It will sell. That was the editorial decision that was made.

Quick, get into the “cone of silence”!

Thanks for this, grape_crush.

No that’d be your department.

In other words – we give money to banks that can’t prove that they own the mortgage in the first place, while nothing gets resolved and the issue of ownership remains on the books.
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Is asking why too obvious of a question?
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Here’s a phrase I [read somewhere]; “Too Big For Fraud”.
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The emphasis on homeowners is tangential to the billions mortgage lenders would be on the hook for if they were selling packaged-mortgage securities that they didn’t own/couldn’t prove ownership of…you wonder why states are low on cash and some people on the right are p*ssing and moaning about civil employee pension plans? It’s because those guaranteed benefits purchased by institutional investors were sold as ‘safe’, highly-rated, real estate-based securities.
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Those lenders – which include some of the largest banks in this country – want even more immunity from the consequences of their actions than what they’ve received so far.

http://the-reaction.blogspot.com/
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Beck and Limbaugh are interchangable.
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In a rant that should be remembered only in the history archives of national radio as the beginning of a giant’s end, Limbaugh lambasted the left for capitalizing on a tragedy and criminalizing all Americans by anticipating the assassination as a means for pushing through a political agenda.

“I guarantee you,” he said, “that somewhere in a desk drawer in Washington, D.C., someplace, in an FCC bureaucrat’s office or some place, the government machinery will be in place to take away as many political freedoms as they can manage on the left. They already have it in place… just waiting for the right event for a clampdown. They have been trying this ever since the Oklahoma City bombing.”

He continued:

Here you have a 22-year-old kid, a dopehead – marijuana – just genuinely insane. Irrational. And the first thought – the desperate hope that the losers in November of 2010 had – was that they could revitalize their political fortunes because of this unfortunate shooting of a Congresswoman in Arizona. That was the most important thing to them, and that to me is sick. You know that they were rubbing hands together. You know that they were e-mailing and calling each other on the phone saying, “Ah-ha, this might be the one. This might be the one where we can officially tie it to these guys and shut them up and shut ‘em down.” They want you to believe that sadness was on the order of the day, and I’m sure it was, but… they couldn’t help themselves. They just couldn’t help themselves.

I have a better solution. They get the money to flush the system clean, the person keeps the house paid for in full and I get to kick the person who sold the security in the b@lls. Plus tar and feathered, but that’s minor details.

And what about any of this is not possibly true again, april2563?
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Do you have any proof that it is or isn’t? Or is it just merely words written on blogspot for total brainless idiots to read?

Who wanted to capitalize the Ft Hood shooting by removing peoples rights?
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We’re not liberals because we want to remove peoples rights, we’re liberals because we want to safe guard them.

I get to kick the person who sold the security in the b@lls.
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As long as you do it with honesty and civility, no one should take issue with doing so.

ugh. clarity edit in itals:
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It’s because those guaranteed benefits to be paid were backed by assets purchased by institutional investors, which were sold as ‘safe’, highly-rated, real estate-based securities.
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still needs wordsmithing, but it’s at least coherent.

I will be polite and kick only once.

Rights like Freedom of Speech?
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http://www.slate.com/id/2280674/

Read Limbaugh’s statement, then read the DHS on the rise of rightwing extremism (link). Substitute “(Linbaugh)”, etc. for “extremists” and “conspiracy theorists, and you have:
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“(Limbaugh has) feared, predicted, and anticipated a cataclysmic economic collapse in the United States. (He has) incorporated aspects of an impending economic collapse to intensify fear and paranoia among like-minded individuals and to attract (listeners) during times of economic uncertainty. (Radio programs) involving declarations of martial law, impending civil strife or racial conflict, suspension of the U.S. Constitution and the creation of citizen detention camps often incorporate aspects of a failed economy. (His) Antigovernment conspiracy theories and “end times” prophecies could motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition, and weapons…”
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That’s my point for linking to this report in a previous thread. This type of discussion is dangerous and has the potential to lead to violence. Include too labeling the President as “anti-American”, a “terrorist”, “foreign”, “socialist”, and the over-all harsh anti-liberal rhetoric. It creates an “Us v Them” mentality among US citizens that is very unhealthy. Many of us predicted negative repercussions as the political atmosphere got nasty during the ’08 elections. We can’t know if this led directly to the recent shootings, but it is important that we consider how politics is discussed and the potential ramifications of our words.

“Rights like Freedom of Speech?
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http://www.slate.com/id/2280674/”
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Ironic that you’re linking to slate saying that he can’t. Also, it’s ironic that you re-post this thing again when I from a different thread disagreed with this guy. Again – when you say liberal do you mean some or all. He doesn’t represent my point of view. Don’t you get tired of that – nothing goes in, every stupid sh!t in your head comes out. Just wondering.
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And to be completely clear – you do not represent all of the conservatists. At least I don’t hope so.

Any strategy that would utimately limit the power of the EPA would have my full support. Along with that of the MAJORITY of the American people.

“we can’t know if this led directly to the recent shootings”
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Gimme a f-ing break. I want to call you stupid, but I know you’re smart enough to know better.
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Some liberals are stupid, but the majority of em play stupid. A ploy as old as the hills. Just another form of deceit, which is pretty much the sole basis of liberalism.

Along with that of the MAJORITY of the American people.[Citation Needed]
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Also, why? Do you just blindly support potentially harming the environment? Like other, do you just blindly support anything against “regulation?”