Dry summer in England reveals ancient history

There's definitely lots of upside to having an especially dry summer from time to time. Archeologists are having their best year in decades.

From Roman forts to Neolithic settlements and military remains dating to World War Two, English Heritage has been busily photographing the exciting discoveries from the air.

Known as crop marks, the faint outlines of unseen buried structures emerged because of the length of the dry spell, leading the national conservator to label 2010 a vintage year for archaeology.

The outlines show up when crops grow at different rates over buried structures. Shallower soils tend to produce a stunted crop and are more prone to parching, bringing to light the new features.

Read the rest of this post...

Texting while cat

Read the rest of this post...

Credit card issuers getting around new law

They will never learn. Well done by Schumer for calling out the banks but who has much faith in Bernanke to do anything, let alone the right thing?

Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, asked the Federal Reserve to look more closely at credit-card issuers pitching business cards to consumers, as the cards are exempt from provisions of the credit-card legislation.

“Credit-card companies are purposely hawking corporate cards to consumers who don’t own a business and may even be retired,” said Schumer in a statement today. “It is a dirty trick meant to get around the new credit-card law.”

Issuers increased mailings of corporate-card offers by 256 percent in the first quarter of 2010 compared with a year earlier, the statement said, citing data from Synovate, a London-based market research firm.

Read the rest of this post...

Obama & the Embeds (DOJ edition)

This is another case, unfortunately, of a self-inflicted Embed, or perhaps something worse.

The trail starts with this recent item at Scott Horton's No Comment blog, entitled "Obama's War on Whistleblowers":

As a young lawyer, Obama represented a whistleblower; as a presidential candidate, he pledged to “strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government.” But as president, Obama has unleashed the most aggressive assault on whistleblowers Washington has ever seen—surpassing even George W. Bush. The latest example comes in a remarkable prosecution of Steven Kim, a well-known scholar of North Korea’s nuclear program.

Steven Kim is, among other things, a consultant with the State Dept. His crime? Speaking to Fox News about likely North Korean reactions, in a report that, according to former prosecutor and current professor Ruth Wedgwood, “contains completely unremarkable observations about what a country would do if it was sanctioned for its poor behavior.”

Horton makes all the appropriate points about why this prosecution, by the Obama DOJ, should never have been brought. And he's clearly right. But I'd like to focus here:

Assistant Attorney General David Kris brought the charges.

So there are roughly two explanations for these charges — either (1) the Obama administration wants them brought as part of its explicit policy, or (2) someone in the DOJ is acting Bush–like, draped in the Obama flag. (You know how that goes; convince your boss that an action is reasonable, then pursue it unreasonably, hoping to stay under the radar.)

The key, of course, is David Kris. And it didn't take much checking to tell part of the tale. Kris was in the Bush DOJ as "Associate Deputy Attorney General for national security issues" from 2000 to 2003, when he left to become a VP at Time Warner.

While at Bush Justice, he was considered a strong advocate of the administration's positions regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the USA PATRIOT Act. He appeared before Congress, while at DOJ and after leaving, to express those views.

It's also true that David Kris is respected as a careful lawyer and noted for his public 2006 opposition, on legal grounds, to the NSA domestic spying program. (See Marty Lederman's discussion for more on that; and note that Lederman is currently in the Obama DOJ as well.)

Nevertheless, Kris remains true to his muscular FISA and PATRIOT Act views.

So which is it? An overly aggressive Bush lawyer re-embedded by Obama during one of his team-of-rivals moments? Or an Obama lawyer doing just what the boss wants done?

I don't have an answer; it depends on why you think Kris was hired. On the one hand, David Kris is the inverse of someone as servile as David Woo. On the other hand, Kris has a Bushian track record, balking only where many others balked — at that still-undetailed NSA spying program.

And frankly, I'm not sure either answer does our guy many favors, unless you like Bush's idea of muscular. Embed? It's getting hard to tell.

GP Read the rest of this post...

If conservatives act like morons on camera, why does it matter if a liberal is holding the camera?

The Daily Caller has a post up about our good friends at New Left Media who do all the great video documentaries of Sarah Palin's book signings, Glenn Beck's rallies, and the Teabagger conferences. Putting aside the fact, for a moment, that the Daily Caller can't even be bothered to get its facts straight - for instance, Erick and Chase at New Left never tell people they're working on a school project, they identify themselves as journalists, albeit college students who are journalists.

Somehow, that's very very sneaky to conservatives, actually telling people who you are when asked. So sneaky in fact, that the two guys who are just barely old enough to drink have now bamboozled the Teabaggers, the Beck fans, and the Palin fans with their young whipper-snapper tomfoolery.

An example the Daily Caller gives of just how sneaky Erick and Chase are when exposing what utter morons conservatives are at these rallies: Erick and Chase tell people that they attend Wright State, a college in Dayton, Ohio. Put aside for a moment the fact that the guys actually do go to school at Wright State. It seems that some of the people attending these rallies, and being interviewed by the guys, thought that Wright State was spelled Right State, and therefore the guys worked for RightState.com, a non-existent conservative Web site.

And this is the Daily Caller's smoking gun that Erick and Chase are sneaky, and that conservatives attending these rallies aren't morons?

Favorite quote from the Daily Caller piece:

Whiteside said it’s not his or Stoll’s fault if an interviewee confuses Wright State with Right State.

No, it's not his fault that he told people the name of his university, when asked, and the people were simply morons.

But putting even all of that aside, is the Daily Caller really trying to tell us that the attendees at all these rallies are willing to be total idiots on camera for Chase and Erick because they thought the guys were conservatives? So you mean, they'd act smarter, or less crazy, if they knew the guys were liberals? How about they just act normal, and tell the truth, regardless of who's doing the interview. Read the rest of this post...

Rachel Maddow on Obama ending Bush's war

The Obama Iraq–pullout speech received mixed reviews.

Martin Wolf called it "too cautious" in the Financial Times. The NY Times editors were more positive ("There was no victory to declare last night, and Mr. Obama was right not to try") but then wondered "why he talks to Americans directly so rarely and with seeming reluctance." The Post's Dan Balz wrote about the "tension inherent in his Oval Office address." Bill Kristol liked it; that's a mixed review all by itself, in my opinion.

But I think the best evaluation belongs to Rachel Maddow. During MSNBC's post-speech chat, Rachel Maddow went easy on Obama's Team Looking Forward act and offers this interesting thought:



Then on her own show she clearly tweaks Obama for not looking back, by showing what he's not looking back at. Here's Rachel, refusing to "go down the memory hole" with some other unnamed person. Nice work:



"On the day the war ends, what the war was for is sort of the elephant in the room."

Thanks, Rachel.

GP Read the rest of this post...

FBI (that would be Obama's FBI) concludes not a hate crime for two Marines to knock a gay guy unconscious for supposedly winking at them

Apparently the injury wasn't serious enough, the FBI and local police concluded. Mind you, they hit him in the head and knocked him unconscious. Not a serious injury. Read the rest of this post...

Roubini: 'No Chance of a V-Shaped Recovery'

And in "fun with economics" news, this from Nouriel Roubini. My headline is his headline. Some selections (emphasis mine; see below for links):

The curtain has opened on Act Two of our “Year of Two Halves”—RGE’s theme since the end of 2009—with the slowdown forecast for H2 2010 getting here a bit earlier than expected. Growth in Q2 2010 registered a very weak 1.6%, revised down from an original estimate of 2.4%—a sharp slowdown from the 3.7% of Q1. This implies much weaker growth in H1 than even bearish forecasters had expected. Moreover, most of the growth was driven by a temporary inventory adjustment; final sales grew a mediocre 1.1% in Q1 and 1.0% in Q2.

Personal consumption—70% of aggregate demand—seems off to a rocky start this quarter: Core retail sales for July showed the third decline in the last four months. In the week ending on August 21, same-store sales data released by ICSC-Goldman Sachs showed a fourth straight decline. With inventory restocking over, the investment outlook is equally bleak. Corporate sector capital expenditure, the only component of aggregate demand that grew robustly in H1, appears set to slow[.]

A growth rate of 1% or lower (now likely for H2 2010) is a severe growth recession, as potential growth is closer to 3%.

Note that last — he's saying H2 GDP potential is close to 3%, and the "demand gap" (unrealized growth) could be most of it.

GDP of at least 2.5% is one of our magic numbers. Krugman says we need 2.5% growth to keep unemployment stable.

You can subscribe to RGE and read the full analysis. The lead page for this article is here. The free subscription link is here.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Orrin Hatch comes out in favor of not-a-mosque that isn't at Ground Zero

Via Huff Post Hill:

In an interview with Salt Lake City's Fox 13 News, the Utah senator expressed his unequivocal support for the planned community center several blocks from Ground Zero. "And there's a huge, I think, lack of support throughout the country for Islam to build that mosque there," Hatch said, "but that should not make a difference if they decide to do it. I'd be the first to stand up for their rights." Do the 1,2,3, E and R trains, which pass near Ground Zero and contain ads for Dallas BBQ's Texas-sized margaritas (complete with a test tube shot of liquor) also desecrate that hallowed ground?

Read the rest of this post...

In 2009, it paid to fire large numbers of American workers

It's good to be da' king. And to think the poor little lambs are being asked to provide more pay transparency that can easily be generated with a simple Excel spreadsheet in minutes.

As U.S. companies shed millions of workers during the recession, the CEOs who laid off the most people brought home pay that was significantly higher than that of their peers, a study released Thursday found.

The CEOs of the 50 U.S. companies that laid off the most workers between November 2008 and April 2010 were paid $12 million on average in 2009, or 42 percent more than the average across the Standard & Poor's 500, according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington think tank.

Read the rest of this post...

And yet another mosque attack that involved a gun

Should this really be a surprise considering the constant stream of attacks by the Teabaggers?

A group of teenagers in western New York has been accused of harassing members of a mosque by yelling obscenities and insults during evening prayers for Ramadan, sideswiping a worshiper with a vehicle and firing a shotgun outside, the authorities said Tuesday.

The teenagers were cornered by members of the mosque, who held them for the police. They were charged with disrupting a religious service, a misdemeanor.

The obscenities episode occurred Monday and the shooting last Friday, both outside the World Sufi Foundation mosque in Carlton, N.Y., the authorities said. They said a 17-year-old fired the shotgun; no one was hit.

Read the rest of this post...

State GOP lawmakers who are trying to overturn health care reform are also taking its funds

From Huff Post, via Huff Post Hill:

Conservative legislators appear conflicted by the same, uneasy mix of death wishing and wallet-pilfering as Anna Nicole Smith did with wealthy octogenarians. "More than half a dozen states suing to overturn President Barack Obama's health care law are also claiming its subsidies for covering retired state government employees, according to a list released Tuesday by the administration. About 2,000 employers have been approved for the extra help to cover early retirees, mainly private businesses. But the list also includes seven states suing to overturn the health care overhaul as an unconstitutional power grab by the federal government. The seven are Arizona, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and Nevada."

Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Big foreign policy week for Obama. Last night, he told the nation that our combat mission in Iraq had ended. Today, he's working on the Middle East. Throughout the day, he's got one-on-one meetings (they're called bilaterals in diplomatic lingo) in the Oval Office with Israel's P.M. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Palestinian Authority's President, Mahmoud Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah II of Jordan, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. At 5:20 PM, Obama will make a statement to the press. Then, at 7 PM, Obama and these four leaders will make press statements. Then, they're all having dinner. Every President since I can remember has held meetings like this.

Last night, Lisa Murkowski conceded to teabagger Joe Miller in the Alaska GOP Senate primary. Palin is causing more and more problems for the GOPers these days. John McCain plucked her from obscurity to shake up the 2008 campaign. But, he really set Palin on her path of destruction -- and wealth. She's getting really rich these days after she quit that low-paying state job. She's sure doing a number on Republicans. And, she's helped put the Alaska Senate race in play. The Democratic candidate is Scott MacAdams.

After Obama solves the Middle East problems today, he really needs to get focused on the 2010 elections, which are shaping up to be a disaster for Democrats. The Democratic leaders need to rally their base. They've got just a couple weeks to do it. Here's an idea: Maybe the the White House could pretend that Obama's on the ballot. Then, maybe they'd be doing things to help everyone win. Consider this a dry run for 2012. And, do something. FAST.

And, Earl is still predicted to affect the East Coast over the next couple days:
Read the rest of this post...

Blair blasts Brown, still supports wars and economic chaos in new book

Surprise, surprise. The $100 million dollar man who has cashed in working for the banking industry is out there in strong defense of the banking industry. While some of his criticism of Gordon Brown may be fair, Blair has yet to realize that this is no longer 1997 before the economic collapse that ruined the lives of so many people around the world. Blair is obviously struggling to come to terms with the disaster that he helped bring to Iraq so adding one more catastrophe is one more than he can handle.

The political inner circles on the so-called left (think Bill Clinton, President Obama) still have yet to accept the failures of the banking greed culture that made so many promises yet delivered little outside of criminally high bonuses for the bankers. Leaders such as Blair and Clinton still believe that it's possible to cave in to business, strip regulation and then have everything work out. Sure, it's worked out well for both who make millions from the banks as consultants but for the rest, it's been a costly experiment.

And the UK's Freedom of Information Act? A terrible idea, says Tony. Lots more of the same old, same old Blair in all of his sickening arrogance and blindness.

On Iraq, Blair offers no change of heart but gives his most detailed defence yet of the policy of overthrowing Saddam Hussein in 2003. He writes emotionally of his anguish at not having anticipated "the nightmare that unfolded" after the initial success of toppling Saddam, and says he is devoting "a large part of the life left to me" to Middle East peace and interfaith reconciliation with the Muslim world.

He mounts a strong defence of the continuing war in Afghanistan and says that he would "not take a risk" of allowing Iran to acquire nuclear capability. However in his book Blair reveals that he "hesitated" before backing the renewal of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons in 2006.

Blair's outspoken remarks about the financial crisis and the aftermath of the British general election of 2010 in his book's postscript are likely to have a wide party political impact, especially his caution about any embrace of the view that "the state is back".

"The problem, I would say error, was in buying a package which combined deficit spending, heavy regulation, identifying banks as the malfeasants and jettisoning the reinvention of government in favour of the rehabilitation of government. The public understands the difference between the state being forced to intervene to stabilise the market and government back in fashion as a major actor in the economy."

Read the rest of this post...

Rupert Murdoch's pay dropped 6%

Shareholders are probably wondering why it's so little compared to the crashing stock price. News Corp stock (NWS) is down around 45% from it's one year high. How do performance bonuses only drop 20% when the performance of the company that you run is doing so poorly? Who would want to invest in that?

While Rupert Murdoch's British newspapers laid off journalists and fought their way through a global advertising recession, the Australian-born media mogul endured a modest degree of personal belt-tightening – his take-home pay dropped by 6% to $16.8m, or £10.9m.

Although still a hefty sum, Murdoch's annual pay packet was his smallest since 2003. The 79-year-old billionaire's salary was unchanged at $8.1m, but his performance-related bonus fell 20% to $4.4m. He got stock and share options worth $4.05m and he enjoyed $275,117 worth of personal use of a corporate jet.

Read the rest of this post...

50 Yahoo Answers FAILs

From Fork Party (h/t Huff Post Hill). Read the rest of this post...

Time Warner raising charges for customers

They get away with slamming customers with fee increases like this because Washington allows it. Adding $24 per year for a service that you don't want sounds crazy. Is this really capitalism or is it the best system money can buy?

Just to be clear: That's $1.99 a month not to be in a phone book that Time Warner doesn't even publish.

AT&T;'s and Verizon's fees are a little more understandable. After all, they make extra cash selling ads in their phone books. The more people who choose not to be listed, the less valuable the directory becomes to advertisers, so the phone company wants to discourage people from leaving.

But Time Warner isn't in the phone book business. Its recurring fee for unlisted numbers is a money grab, pure and simple.

And the unlisted number charge isn't the only way that the cable giant has started reaching deeper into people's pockets.

As of Aug. 6, the company raised its fee for customers to pay their bill by phone to $4.99 from $2.99. It also raised it fee for ordering pay-per-view by phone to $4.99 from $2.99.

Read the rest of this post...