CRS concludes ACORN broke no laws

From the Nation:

"To have liberals, moderates--a lot of Democrats--just be willing to throw us under the bus and wipe away 40 years of working for poor people in this country without due process…" said Lewis. "This story is bigger than ACORN. And that's what we're going to try to get folks to continue to focus on."

Indeed. Read the rest of this post...

GOP candidate for Kennedy's seat did nude centerfold

As Joe remarked to me earlier today, imagine he were a woman who had done a nude centerfold and then wanted to be in the Senate. Read the rest of this post...

China now the largest car market

When you think back to the not-so-old film footage of mobs of people riding their bikes in China, it's hard to imagine this. It's also a bit funny to think how many in the west are now encouraging bike riding to ease traffic, combat climate change and get healthy. The Guardian:

China has overtaken the US to become the biggest car market in the world as government policy initiatives spur demand.

China sold more than 13.5m vehicles last year, the official Xinhua news agency said today, compared with 10.4m cars and light trucks sold in the US, the lowest level in 27 years.

The Chinese tally includes heavy vehicles but is still higher than that of the US after roughly 650,000 units of heavy trucks are deducted, according to Orient Securities, the Chinese brokerage.

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Airline passenger removed after joking about terrorism

Ha, ha. Have fun with your prosecution. What goes through the minds of these people?

An aircraft passenger was removed from a plane by counter-terrorism officers after uttering a hoax threat as it readied for take-off, it was reported tonight.

The unnamed white man was on an Emirates flight to Dubai taxiing at Heathrow when he made the comments, which were overheard by a fellow traveller.

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President Obama continues to disregard laws he finds objectionable, unless the laws discriminate against gays - then he's fine with them.

I just penned a rather long piece on AMERICAblog Gay about the latest evidence that the Obama administration is willing to outright ignore laws with which it does not agree, unless of course the victim of the unjust law is gay.

I think if you read the piece, you'll see many a Democratic constituency depicted. It's not just gays this is happening to. It's happening to all of us, on practically every issue. Perhaps it's time we all embraced our own commitment to "Don't Ask Don't Give."

Here's a snippet of my piece:

Via this blog, Joe and I have raised over $300,000 for Democratic candidates and causes (the exact figure is on ActBlue). Our allegiance to the party cannot be questioned. But at some point you have to ask yourself why you are helping put politicians in office who don't keep their promises, who don't put a high value on your own humanity. As Democrats, we routinely mock gay Republicans for supporting politicians that doesn't see them as fully human. We make perhaps too harsh comparisons to Jews who would be Nazis, and blacks who cozying up to the Klan. But how can we look at gay Republicans with a straight face, as it were, and tell them that they're selling out when our allegiance to our own party is not equally contingent on a basic respect for our own humanity?...

Our party is stuck in the past. And so, unfortunately, is much of the leadership of our community. How else to explain why Joe Solmonese, the head of the Human Rights Campaign, attended a hastily arranged Oval Office meeting intended to give the President political cover following the DOMA brief fiasco? At the time, Solmonese told Michelangelo Signorile that when the president calls, you come running.

No, his dog comes running.

The leader of the largest gay civil rights organization in our country, when asked to provide political cover for an incredibly homophobic act, does not come running until and unless he exacts a good pound of flesh in return. And a commitment to speak at an HRC fundraising dinner is not the quid pro quo we had in mind. Too many of the old gay guard seem incapable of fighting today's battles. They're too accustomed to the old days and the old ways, when simply being acknowledged (oh my God, he spoke to me!), or invited to the table (regardless of whether dinner was actually served), was enough. It didn't matter what we got out of the deal, so long as the new guy beat us less than the old guy (sure he keeps breaking his promises, but at least he's not ReaganBushMcCainPalin!). We promise to be good, and to accept whatever scraps were thrown our way.

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Americans continue to use less credit

A good trend for individuals though not as good for the banks who would prefer more credit at ridiculous rates. Is cash king again?

Americans are borrowing less for a number of reasons. They remain fearful about their job prospects and they are also trying to replenish depleted investments. The government reported Friday that employers cut an additional 85,000 jobs in December, bringing total job losses to more than 8 million since the recession began in December 2007.

Even consumers who would like to increase their borrowing are finding it hard to get credit at banks. Many banks, hit by the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, have tightened lending standards. While economists have worried for years about the low rate of U.S. savings, the concern now is that consumers could derail the recovery if they start saving too much of their incomes. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of total economic activity.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

KarenMrsLloydRichards continues to deliver in her continuing series "Haiku for the Obama Administration." # 390 was for Peter Orzsag:

Nerdy can be hawt!
He can compartmentalize
Trillions and Nookie.

And, #385 was for Brit and Tiger:

Brit Hume counsels:
Dwell in my Christian outrage,
Lose the Buddhism.

The series should be in a book.

This morning, the President gives his weekly address on all the benefits you'll see in the health care bill -- after it becomes law, of course. Funny thing, but he doesn't mention the extras that people in Nebraska and Louisiana will be getting.

It's still freezing in D.C., but the wind has died down a bit. It only feels like 19 degrees (Farenheit).

Let's get threading... Read the rest of this post...

The Fast Show - Competitive Dad

We're still seeing snow (flurries) here in Paris which is really strange. I can't remember ever seeing snow stick around for more than 24 or maybe 48 hours. The terrace has a nice blanket - thin, but still a blanket - and the cats are having fun running through the snow. I never thought I would look forward to my rainy 40F winter days, but I'd really like to see it return. I know it's not that cold, but I'm not much of a winter or cold weather person. As expected the climate change deniers are out in the right wing media and telling us about warming is fake. Predictable as ever. Read the rest of this post...

Banks preparing to pay out $65 billion in bonuses

Change we can believe in.

Figures already published by the five highest-profile US banks reporting in the next fortnight show they have already set aside $50bn to pay their staff in the first nine months of the year. In the final three months of the year, analysts at Sanford Bernstein reckon a further $10bn will have been put aside by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan even though 2009 was the worst year for the US economy in 30 years.

While the Sanford Bernstein estimate takes the Goldman compensation cost to $19.8bn, analysts reckon it could swell further to $22bn and the other two banks might amass an estimated $5bn. Brad Hintz, an industrialist turned banker and now an analyst, conceded that workers on Wall Street are overpaid. "I've worked in the industrial world and I know there was equal talent in industrial America but when I went to Wall Street my compensation went up by a factor of three."

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