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"The banks could start losing these cases," says Maddow. Yes, there's hope — the real kind.This is an excellent primer on the mortgage mess (it's actually a crime scene, as you'll see). Very watchable, easily grasped. Please take time, if you have it, to view. This is ground-zero

As a follow up to John's last post, today, David Plouffe punted on the marriage in the DNC platform question. Via Buzzfeed:George Stephanopolous asked Obama aide David Plouffe about the plank on "This Week" this morning, and Plouffe retreated into obscure questions of party proce

The massacre in Homs has not suppressed opposition to the Assad regime. Earlier this week the fighting reached the heavily guarded neighborhood where many of the senior members of the government have their homes. Reporting from the region is still prohibited by the regime. Globa

It's been a rough week here at La Maison chez nous, and my view into next week isn't more promising. So how about some fun. I wanted to put up a song by a terrific French singer-writer named Cali, but his best so far is "Elle m'a dit" — ("She told me she didn't love me between th

On the surface, this doesn't sound like a step in the right direction. The oil spill in Brazil has been a serious problem and the follow up by the local prosecutor suggested that Big Oil might be held accountable for their actions. Shouldn't those most impacted by the oil disas

Apparently the surgery was today.  He was on the donor list 20 months.  I checked Wikipedia to see what the prognosis is: The prognosis for heart transplant patients following the orthotopic procedure has increased over the past 20 years, and as of June 5, 2009, the survival rate

Things must be ugly if the bank has ignored multiple requests for information about mortgage backed securities that went bad. How is it that the banks can even get this far along without responding to the SEC? They certainly enjoy a privileged position within certain circles, s

When people ask me why I don't have a Facebook account, it's precisely because of moves like this by Facebook. I tired of their ever-changing privacy policies and their latest flip-flop is no better. The initial response to employer demands for the passwords of job applicants w

In the coming months, we're likely to see a lot more of this reach the west coast of North America. CNN:A fishing trawler swept away more than a year ago by a tsunami off the east coast of Japan has been spotted floating near British Columbia, Canadian officials said Friday. "I

Chris in Paris has written about the employer-intrusion topic before — "Employers now demanding job seekers turn over their Facebook passwords, usernames" — but the Hyatt employee handbook goes beyond that. Take a look: Note:■ "Blogging" is defined. That's not a friendly defini

After spending a few months in the US, I'm heading back to Paris later today. Something tells me that the sunny and warm weather that I've been experiencing will be gone. The great part of the weather change means I will have two springs. Can't wait for that.

Besides the latest story about ghost towns in China, yet another story of economic difficulties in China. The lack of demand for iron ore suggests a slowing manufacturing and building industry, which appears to be confirmed with the factory activity dropping. This may be one of

Keep in mind that Greece or even Portugal or Ireland are small problems, relatively speaking. There is simply not enough money out there to bail out Spain if the situation deteriorates. Spain has horrendously high unemployment (almost 23%, youth unemployment over 50%) and with

Now that the threat of a DADT investigation has passed, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham sure is talking like a tough guy. He's also talking nonsense. From Yahoo: South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham celebrated the second anniversary of President Barack Obama's health care la

So we can blame the decline of the American family on the Republican recession. Why do Republicans hate family values?The proportion of women living with men without marriage almost quadrupled to 11 percent as of 2010 from 3 percent in 1982, according to data released today by t