Open thread

Happy birthday to me.... Just got back from a nice bday dinner of a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, and a warm brownie with ice cream. And who says America doesn't have cuisine. :-) Read More......

Is this ad campaign appropriate or inappropriate?

I'm divided. And the link probably isn't worksafe, or it's borderline at least. More from the Stranger. Read More......

Airport security scenes that don't instill confidence

The problem wasn't that the women running the x-ray at O'Hare wasn't paying attention - in fact, she was doing a very good job. The problem was that the poor woman was having to hold up a plastic tray to block the sun from hitting her monitor, lest it apparently wash out the evidence of any bombs, guns, or other off-limits materials that potential terrorists might try to sneak on board a plane. It just kind of creeped me out that with all the money we've spent on Homeland Security (a department that is in serious need of a name change when the Democratic president takes over) simple sunlight could cause such problems, and that the woman was forced to use a make-shift solution that was probably tiring her arm out after a few minutes and thus making her less attentive to the monitor (what, O'Hare couldn't get a maintenance person to put some paper over the window?) Hopefully shining a little sunlight on the situation will get the folks at Homeland Security to pay a little attention next time. Read More......

Home prices drop record amount

Republican economics at work.

Prices of existing U.S. single-family homes in the third quarter slumped 4.5 percent from a year earlier, matching a record decline from the previous period as the housing downturn deepened, according to a national home price index on Tuesday.

The S&P;/Case-Shiller National Home Price Index fell 1.7 percent from June, marking the largest quarterly decline in the index's 21-year history, S&P; said in a statement.

Read More......

Romney: Muslims need not apply in his government

This is classic "Romney the hypocrite" in action. Religion for Mitt only matters when it's someone else's religion. He doesn't think it's important to include a Muslim in his administration because they just don't amount to any significant population in the US. While their population is admittedly small, how can any serious presidential candidate not find such inclusion a positive idea considering where we are today? Is it really that horrible that we - gasp! - include a representative who can broaden our horizons and provide feedback on reaching out to this community both at home and abroad?

I asked Mr. Romney whether he would consider including qualified Americans of the Islamic faith in his cabinet as advisers on national security matters, given his position that "jihadism" is the principal foreign policy threat facing America today. He answered, "…based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration."

Romney, whose Mormon faith has become the subject of heated debate in Republican caucuses, wants America to be blind to his religious beliefs and judge him on merit instead. Yet he seems to accept excluding Muslims because of their religion, claiming they're too much of a minority for a post in high-level policymaking. More ironic, that Islamic heritage is what qualifies them to best engage America's Arab and Muslim communities and to help deter Islamist threats.

Well, as long as they can carry Mitt's bags or perhaps sweep a floor or two. This is all quite interesting coming from a guy who belongs to a faith that barely represents 2% of the population, compared to the 1% in America who are Muslims. Are we really doing that well with our existing Muslim outreach programs that we can afford to exclude Muslims from senior positions in the next administration? Yes, he's the guy who cries "foul" when anyone discusses his Mormon faith (that he can't stop talking about) but he doesn't mind making a bigoted remark about Muslims. During our so-called war on terror, no less. How insulting, careless and downright offensive. Read More......

Questions raised about Zogby poll on Hillary's chances

Yesterday we reported that Zogby had a new poll showing Hillary losing to all of the major Republican presidential candidates. Since that time, there's been a lot of discussion as to whether Zogby's poll was a valid poll. Apparently, Zogby's polled people who opted in to a "please poll me" email list that he runs. Normally polls are done with random voters from around the country, not people who opt in to an email list. For starters, I'd be concerned that known partisans would opt-in to this list with the intent of totally skewing its results - i.e., it might not be a representative cross-section of random voters. Pollster.com has far more about the poll and its problems. Read More......

Hillary tied with Obama in Iowa; Romney and Huckabee neck and neck

From Political Wire:

Political Wire got an advance look at a new Strategic Vision poll in Iowa that shows Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama tied in the Democratic presidential race at 29%, with John Edwards trailing at 23%.

On the Republican side it shows, Mitt Romney barely leading with 26%, followed closely by Mike Huckabee at 24%, Rudy Giuliani at 14%, Fred Thompson at 10% and Sen. John McCain at 7%.

Read More......

Bush forgives Gore

Bush forgives Gore for Bush stealing the 2000 election. What a mensch. From the NYT:

Mr. Bush made no comment when the Nobel was announced, and today, the two stood silently, and a bit awkwardly, during the photo opportunity.

But the president did personally telephone Mr. Gore to extend the invitation, and the White House changed the date of the event so Mr. Gore could attend. Mr. Bush’s press secretary, Dana Perino, told reporters the president is willing to let bygones be bygones.

“This president does not harbor any resentments,” she said. “He never has.”

(Hat tip to Riki.) Read More......

Edwards: Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell

The Human Rights Campaign is asking the candidates to clarify what they will do to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell if elected president. John Edwards is the first up.

UPDATE: Senator Dodd agrees. Read More......

Annapolis gathering

I haven't said much about next week's Middle East meetings because, well, it certainly looks like it will just be a huge photo op. There doesn't seem to have been any significant diplomacy in preparation, and there are 46 countries and international organizations coming. But hey, don't take my word for it, apparently the Bush administration doesn't see it as particularly important either:

In fact, Mr. Bush and his aides still deplore what they view as President Clinton’s disastrously hands-on involvement in the peace process in 2000. And they insist that Mr. Bush does not intend to negotiate personally the two-state peace he has pronounced as his vision . . . For all the pomp of the Annapolis gathering, the White House is not calling it a summit meeting or anything else suggestive of substantive progress. Mr. Bush’s vision is ambitious, but his strategy is cautious — he may be repeating Mr. Clinton’s role, yet he rejects what he sees as the meddlesome quality of it.

To call this "repeating" the role that President Clinton played is hyperbole, to say the least -- while people can (and do) argue over particular Clintonian successes and failures, by all accounts he really, really knew his stuff when it came to Israel/Palestine issues. Down to the neighborhoods in Jerusalem, locations of settlements, etc. Somehow I don't think Bush has quite the same command of the details.

In any case, though, there's no real goal to the conference, the administration has ignored the issue for seven years, and it refuses to put any pressure on Israel, so it's not like anybody has high hopes. On the other hand, one *can* hope that it goes well, because as with most diplomacy, baby steps are needed at the beginning. Perhaps this can set the stage for further movement in the coming years, especially if a Democrat takes office in 2009 (anybody want to guess who might be names Special Envoy to the Middle East in a Clinton administration?).

Finally, kudos to the Times for including this paragraph:

Mr. Bush’s aides often point out that in 2002 he was the first American president to declare support for a Palestinian state. That is true, but they fail to mention that he did so while refusing to negotiate with Yasir Arafat, then the Palestinian leader, effectively endorsing a deadly stalemate.

Far too often, that kind of ridiculous administration claim is allowed to pass without context of, y'know, the facts. Nice to have them in this instance. Read More......

GOP's 2008 prospects getting uglier by the day

Remember all the talk about George Bush and Karl Rove making Republicans the dominant party for the foreseeable future? Remember how the punditry gobbled that up? Remember that? Yup. Not exactly:

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott's resignation announcement on Monday was the latest in a wave of retirements to hit congressional Republicans, making an already difficult 2008 electoral landscape even more complicated for the minority party.

Party officials insist that the retirements -- 17 members of the House and six senators -- are simply the result of individual decisions and not indicative of a broader negative sentiment within the party. "I don't hear a drumbeat that 'We're not effective and I don't like it here anymore,' " said National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.).

But with so many lawmakers -- including a large number from competitive states and districts -- heading for the exits, it's hard not to point to the GOP's newfound minority status in Washington, the turnover in party leadership and the perilous political environment heading into 2008 to explain the exodus.

Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Lots going on. The Mideast summit starts today. The campaigns in Iowa and New Hampshire are really heating up. Oh, and Dick Cheney is fine. Just fine. His staff said so. They won't tell the media what medication Cheney takes. But, he's fine. Just believe them.

Get it started. Read More......

Riots return to France

This comes as no surprise. After the 2005 riots there was the usual talk though nothing really changed. On the left, there has been a stubbornness to take any useful action because in the eyes of many (especially the traditional, white elite men who never share power) the French constitution provides equality so to even suggest otherwise or treat any disadvantaged group differently, would go against the constitution. On the right there have been numerous inflammatory public comments that have offered nothing to help bridge the gap.

With such positions it's hard to make any progress on this ongoing problem. Sarkozy used to talk about affirmative action plans and perhaps that will receive renewed interest. In France, affirmative action is considered to be an idea of the right, not the left. It's interesting to see how there is such a different interpretation on this issue. Somehow I doubt the pro-Sarko crowd in America would be in agreement with him. Regardless, something needs to change if France is ever going to start moving on with this problem. It's not going to disappear by throwing police at the problem.

UPDATE: CNN has a video discussion with a local reporter that is worth watching. Read More......

Supreme Court reviewing retirement loss case

While I can appreciate the complications this may cause 401K administrators, if they are not following requests, it's not the fault of the worker. Is it so wrong to ask for administrators to act according to the demands of the 401K owner? If someone has to seek a court order (as was suggested) to force action, there just might be an issue here.

The Supreme Court struggled with the changed world of retirement plans Monday, trying to decide whether a worker has a right to sue to recover losses when his instructions on where to invest his retirement money are disregarded.

The justices debated the case of James LaRue, who says he lost $150,000 in a market downturn when administrators at his 401(k) retirement plan twice failed to carry out his requests to sell stocks and move his money into safer investments.

Read More......

Citigroup to chop 45,000 more jobs due to staggering losses

It did not have to be this ugly, but because Bush, Greenspan and the GOP thought that industry could regulate itself we're now looking at some horrendous job termination numbers. How many of these people will enjoy a cool $50 million payout?

Citigroup, Wall Street’s largest financial services firms, is planning its second round of large-scale layoffs in less than a year, CNBC has learned.

People inside Citigroup say the firm hasn’t set a target number of cuts from its roughly 320,000 employees. But people with knowledge of the matter have described the pending job reductions as "massive" and "large." The total number could reach as high as 45,000, these people estimate.

This comes on the heels of 17,000 people fired earlier this year. Merry Christmas from the GOP and Greenspan. Read More......

More about Trent Lott

It seems the blog claiming to have a "scoop" about Trent Lott is now claiming that Larry Flynt has confirmed the scoop. Uh, no. Dan Savage explains. Huff Post has more about this increasingly non-story.

I'm all for nailing Trent Lott as another family values hypocrite, but come on folks, we're no better than the people we're fighting if we're not willing to fight with the facts. Read More......

Open thread

Read More......