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76 Comments
Here’s an absolutely wonderful idea…NOT.
“The Kansas City Missouri mayor is looking for creative ideas on ways to recruit more minority cops. So, Mayor Mark Funkhouser said lowering the standards to be a cop may be the solution.
Mayor Funkhouser said why not let people with a criminal record be a police officer?”
http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5527343&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Are there so few minorities without felonies in KC?
Testing, 1, 2, 3.
The Kansas City Missouri mayor is looking for creative ideas on ways to recruit more minority cops. So, Mayor Mark Funkhouser said lowering the standards to be a cop may be the solution.
Mayor Funkhouser said why not let people with a criminal record be a police officer?
http://www.myfoxkc.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5527343&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Is it really that difficult to find minorities who don’t have a felony in Kansas City?
The commander of Camp Lejeune, N.C., ordered her leathernecks to stay away from an anti-military and anti-gay group that has promised to demonstrate at the base following the death of a pregnant Marine.
The Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, which frequently pickets the funerals of military members, said it will demonstrate at the base at noon Saturday.
“God hates the U.S. Marines,” the group said in a statement.
Col. Adele Hodges, base commander, told her troops to “leave the area immediately” if they came into contact with the group.
“Do not attempt to engage in any verbal taunting or physical altercation with this group,” Hodges said, in a written message to the Marines. “We believe they want to generate additional publicity by provoking such a confrontation. Do not help them in this effort by engaging in any provocative behavior.”
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/marine_westboro_protest_080116/
Looks like those fine representatives of Kansas culture are at it again. I propose that we take up a collection here in Kansas and make a donation to the Phelps family…on condition that they relocate to Borneo.
It would have been a new low in Fire Department race relations: the apparent mock lynching of a stuffed toy monkey in a city engine house last month.
Black firefighters called it a “terrible act of hate.” Racial tension in the department flared. City Hall requested a federal investigation.
After a two-week inquiry, the FBI concluded that happenstance, not hate, was the leading factor. The monkey, retrieved from a fire scene, had been draped from a coat rack to dry. The noose was actually an equipment strap around its neck. No racial bias was involved, the agency said.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/9871ABEB32A6084D862573D400157FD1?OpenDocument
Call Jesse! Call Al!
It’s getting to the point where you can’t clear your throat without inciting a racial incident.
A transgender woman in California has gone to court, claiming that a Catholic-affiliated hospital discriminated against her when it denied her request for breast augmentation surgery.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,323791,00.html
I saw it on Fox first.
Complete with icky pic.
Professor David Noble of Canada’s York University is a committed environmentalist and a man-made global warming skeptic. Noble now believes that the movement has “hyped the global climate issue into an obsession.” Noble wrote a May 8 essay entitled “The Corporate Climate Coup” which details how global warming has “hijacked” the environmental left and created a “corporate climate campaign” which has “diverted attention from the radical challenges of the global justice movement.”
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=57&ItemID=12771
Another interesting article about Prolls or Paid Trolls.
I bet you will INSTANTLY recognize a few of our very own wingnuts in this discription…
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103×332629
Good morning farmgirl!
What’s your weather doing there? We usually get your weather down here when you’re done with it.
Is it getting better or worse?
So my namesake who now posts under other nics is a paid shit er shill for R Murdoch….surprise surprise!
Good Morning Hank. Sunshine but cold here. Very cold. We are supposed to get flurries this weekend but for now, I’ll take the sunshine!
On another note, I notice that #4 on the list of IPCC authors (listed in alphabetic order) is not a ‘climatologist’.
So, students, can we now agree that pointing out that a scientist with an opinion on AGW cannot be debunked merely by pointing out that he is not a climatologist?
Thankyou.
We’re kinda partly cloudy, 12 degrees at feeding time. I gotta move some hay around today, I’m going to put it off ’til later!
Hmmm, well, as soon as I posted that, the clouds rolled in, and now we’re partly cloudy too. I think we are at about ten degrees.
The chickens and cats are gonna hafta wait a while for water too!
Fine day for rabbit butchering.
History Channel this morning a program on “Presidents and UFO’s” going back to Truman. things I’d never heard before. Purportedly, JFK and a sailing party witnessed a large UFO, A UFO crash in Pennsylvania during LBJ as well as a UFO landing at Holloman AFB NM in 1965 with pictures somewhere and a sighting by Pres Carter ….. .
If the gov’t knows about the existence of UFO’s (extraterrestial) should they tell us?
“B-r-r utal: Upper Midwest Locked In Deep Freeze
Air Temperature May Hit 25 Below Overnight In Northwest Wisconsin; 14 Below in Minnesota, Minus 3 In Chicago”
And below 10*F this morning right here in ‘River City’. I’ve had all the ‘global warming’ I can take.
How convenient for the WH, re. which tapes are missing, like I said, it’s about Plame and the mis-use of intelligence. Two points Sen. Roberts wasn’t terribly concerned with.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080119/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_e_mail_37
Meanwhile… the forecast for Abuja, Nigeria is sunny, and a high of 96 deg F.
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/65125.html
And tropical cyclone Funa has max winds of 120 mph, gusts to 150.
http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/sp200812.html
“On another note, I notice that #4 on the list of IPCC authors (listed in alphabetic order) is not a ‘climatologist’.”
Irrelevant. The IPCC authors authored a report that was a meta-analysis of a huge volume of research that looked at not only temperature change, but potential causes for temperature change. A meat-analysis is an accepted form of research review that takes a lot of work and uses it to take a snapshot of best available knowledge in the field. And, the IPCC people are authors, they conducted the meta-analysis and evaluation of the far flung research that underlies the report.
The list you are pulling from is just a list of people put together by paid political shills who started out under the simple premise that they oppose the idea of human caused global warming, or more specifically they oppose the idea that we should change our behavior to do something about it. The people on the list are only united by the fact that they have publically questioned the consensus of global warming, and at least in a few cases, said something that could be misconsctured as opposition to the consensus on global warming. Other than the fact that these are names on a list, there is no uniting factor other than they are people that Inhofe and associates can point to and say, “see, they don’t agree with global warming, or they don’t agree that humans cause it, or they don’t agree that its bad” That’s it, it is nothing more than a list that any political hack who is looking to oppose an idea can put together.
“So, students, can we now agree that pointing out that a scientist with an opinion on AGW cannot be debunked merely by pointing out that he is not a climatologist?”
No, because your leading question is based on premises that are at best misleading, and at worst downright dishonest. The IPCC authors are not a “list” of experts, they are the authors of a report who analyzed an enormous volume of research conducted by an enormous number of practitioners in a variety of fields, one of which is climatology. These research projects were conducted for a variety of reasons, including questions about global warming (there was very real debate about the relative amount of human verses other causes for global warming, and the nature of the global warming, and as scientists do, they tested the variety of hypotheses). The people on the IPCC list of authors are not as important as the work that they did, and the work that they analyzed. That is one of the points cosmos has repeatedly made, and that you have blithely ignored. It’s the peer reviewed work, the great volume of it, that was analyzed, and the picture that has emerged (drawn not by people who have had a predetermined conclusion, but who are all simply conducting their research), that is the core of the IPCC report, not the people on the “list”.
This is not dueling lists, which is why your rhetorical question is so wrong. Your list, once again, was fabricated by political hacks under the name of the Senate’s biggest jackass (with the possible exception of Alaska Senator Ted Stevens). Their conclusion (the idea that we as a country need to do something about global warming must be opposed was predetermined. And the utter lack of discrimination in putting together the list reveals that agenda.
Your only argument is still Inhofe’s list of people. Their political motivations, their lack of credentials or actual research support for what they say, and the nature of the individuals who put together the list is still fair game. Because there is nothing, repeat nothing, else thst underlies the list other than it is a list of names, most with PhD’s after them, who at some time somewhere, said something derogatory about the idea of human caused global warming (and what one person on the list says often contradicts what another person on the list says).
And cosmos has hardly limited himself to so and so is not a climatologist, which is the other misleading aspect of your rhetorical question.
You are still getting your clock cleaned. Cosmos is still on point, and your responses are still reduced to noting more than rhetorical misdirection.
ksagnostic,
Hans Alexandersson (IPCC’s WG1 contributor #4) is a climate scientist at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.
And Hank Price’s historian is a funny read.
He does not even know that the CO2 we exhale is carbon neutral! The carbon comes from the plants we ate, which recently captured it from the atmosphere.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=57&ItemID=12771
“Don’t breathe. There’s a total war on against CO2 emissions, and you are releasing CO2 with every breath.
…
Historian David Noble teaches at York University in Toronto. Canada.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F._Noble
“He currently teaches in the Division of Social Science, and the department of Social and Political Thought at York University in Canada.“
A New Revenue Stream for Local Governments?:
Arizona Governor’s Proposed Budget Counts on Cash From Photo Radar on State Highways
01-19-2008 5:57 AM
By PAUL DAVENPORT, Associated Press Writer
PHOENIX (Associated Press) — Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano says the deployment of new photo radar or other speed enforcement technology on state highways is all about public safety. But her proposed state budget counts on the anticipated speeding fines to help erase a projected revenue shortfall.
The proposal, submitted to the Legislature late Friday, anticipates $120 million in revenue the first year, including $90 million in net income after expenses from the statewide effort. Even bigger dollar amounts are expected in future years.
The state faces a projected revenue shortfall of at least $1.2 billion in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
While some states use photo radar and similar technology on a limited basis in areas such as construction zones, experts said Arizona is in the vanguard of moving toward a widespread deployment of speed technology on highways.
“It wasn’t designated primarily for revenue generation but since we have it (and) it works, we want to move statewide,” Napolitano said. “We made that decision before the whole budget issue arose. Now we take advantage of it and use it for law enforcement highway safety purposes.”
ksgrm
Do you believe that Hank Price’s historian, David Noble, is a “credible source” re climate science?
Which one of Kansas’ finest Republicans said that we exhale more CO2 if we jog two miles than if we drive two miles?
That is what the scientific community is up against.
Morons.
Soo, how are you all gonna spend your “Oops, I didn’t mean to cut your head off but here’s an $800.00 Band Aid for you” rebate?
I was thinking about saving mine, you know?, for that rainy day?
Was just watching the History Channel, they said the ‘Little Ice Age’ in the 1300’s was caused by 1/2 to 3 deg. temp. change. Resulted in major social upheavals, including the black plague, French Rev., end of the Viking culture. Society couldn’t adjust to wide unpredictable weather swings, but rats did just fine.
KFG — Let’s all hear it for all those Paid Trolls in our midst!! Hip Hip Hooooray!!!
That well-educated, insighful R who made the “we exert more CO2 by walking” comment was Speaker of the House Melvin Neufeld. Kansans are soooo proud!
The French Revolution came almost 500 years after AD 1300. Heck, its has been 500 years since Columbus floated into the western hemisphere! Imagine today’s social problems stemming from some weird climate swings during year of Columbus’s voyage. Very likely….
The other day, I posted about a neighbor who’s dogs were neglected. One of the dogs was screaming in pain at 4:30 am from the cold, I assume. It was 17 degrees with a wind chill of 1 degree. The dogs never had any straw or bedding. I had contacted Animal Control a couple of weeks ago but they said there was nothing they could do. There’s no law that says a dog has to have bedding in sub-freezing weather. The dogs didn’t have food most of the time and their water was usually frozen when they had water.
The local police contacted me this morning. One of the dogs died last night. They told me to be careful of the neighbors. They’re swearing that someone poisoned the dog and are looking for trouble.
I recall how excited everyone was when Magnum’s Law passed. Guess what? Magnum’s Law is a bad joke. It means nothing. Want to torture an animal around here? Go ahead….toothless Animal Control will be glad to tell you why they can’t do anything.
If I’m getting paid to post, someone has failed to send the checks. :)
Paranoia strikes fear…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHMzpqtGLUw
Commercial Break…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDhhyXQWZlY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWK3S8LhuZo&feature=related
WoW, who would have thought?
OH and BTW Paul is tied with Mc Cain according to CNN right now in Nevada
somethng is amiss
The Paul campaign complained that voters have received postcards with incorrect caucus locations, that eligibility requirements to participate have been changed several times, and that several rural counties could run out of ballots.
“The inconsistencies, errors and multiple changes in the rules reek of playing politics with the what should be a neutral process,” said campaign manager Lew Moore said in a statement. “The people of Nevada deserve to know exactly what the rules are and to know that those rules are being fairly enforced. This has not happened up to this point, and the caucus appears to be in chaos.”
A Las Vegas Review-Journal survey published today showed Romney leading with 34 percent and Paul in fifth with 7 percent. John McCain had 19 percent, Mike Huckabee 13 percent, Fred Thompson 8 percent, and Rudy Giuliani 6 percent.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/01/nevada_gop_dism.html
Don’t think extra ballots is going to help Paul.
The latest figures I’ve read is Romney with 55 percent and Paul with 12 percent.
Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate that equals change and the start to correct almost a hundred years of bankster rule.
For more of the same vote for anyone else.
Maybe, but do you think the extra Ballots might help Mc Cain he is tied with Paul. Still, but don’t give up hope, I noticed that is starting to be a trend. Paul does well as the counting is active. But by the time they finish the MSM reports that no one voted for him. Or they report it like the old story about a race between a Russian car and a American car. In the U.S. the report was “USA car comes in first and Russian car comes in last”.
In Russian it was reported “Soviet car comes in second while American car comes in next to last!”.
Fair and Balanced reporting! Oh Yeah least we forget, the MSM has a liberal Bias too! There for any Socialist that is running!
Dawg -that reminds me of an old story told about Earl Weaver, the former manager of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.
He told an umpire that he had been voted the Second Best Umpire in Baseball.
The Ump asked who was the voted the Best.
Weaver replied that the rest of the umpires were tied for First.
Weaver got booted from the game.
:>
You know what Sam Brownback and Ron Paul have in common?
Neither one of them has won a single delegate in any of the caucuses.
That’s true Regular, you want to know something else that Ron Paul does not have in common with any of the other GOP candidates? Well here you go!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DVGx4ZtvI4
Seen it before Dog, but thanks.
OH and BTW, it seems that the Fair and Balanced news in their re-broadcast of that debate. Edited that part out. Oh well it goes to show that no one wants to be reminded how great they once were!
Dog,
Never understood that decision by Fox News. Too bad, everyone should have their say in a race for the Presidency.
Totally agree Regular, if I had never noticed it before which I had not. It is amazing to me how the media is actually trying to move the voters to their choices. I watched a video of Rupert Murdock while on a foreign new show. Telling about how the media can effect the public’s perception of the issues, Candidates and world events. Simply by picking and choosing what to report and how to report it. If a Candidate is a nut let them show themselves as a nut. Otherwise there would always be the idea that someone candidate did not get a fair shake. Likewise if a candidate stands out among the others we need to know that to before we vote.
To be fair Fox also edited out Huckabe’s statement I was applauding several days ago. Where he was talking about his faith and how it would not effect his presidency. But then of course he blew that a few days later by saying he thought the Constitution should be amended to reflect biblical principles. He could not do that on his own. But it spoke to the fears many have of him trying to turn America into a theocracy.
“Regular” and “Writerdog” –
Welcome to reality.
The Faux Noise Channel is not in any way, shape, or form a news outlet; it’s a propaganda machine for the corporate wing of the Republic Party coalition.
If your only source of information were FNC, you’d think Rudy Giuliani is still a factor in the Republic Party nomination process!
Paul-bearers have been marginalized by Ruppert Murdock because Ron actually believes all the so-called “conservative” talking points the GOP has claimed for the past 20 years. The Huckster is marginalized because the Country Club Repubs have done nothing but pander to evangelicals for decades — right up to election day, then delivered squat to them.
Now Monkeyhawk you are assuming I watch Fox for the news! I watch it for OReilly! How else would I have found out that American troops slaughter German troops who had surrendered at Malmedy during World war two. He did it not just say it once but twice in his comic defense of how the Prisoners were treated in Iraq. Telling General Wesley Clarke that history show that American troops have always committed war crimes during war. That it was recorded in the history books! When everyone knows it was the Germans who killed 88 U.S. soldiers many by shooting them in the head.
LOL but I digress, I do watch Fox Sunday for Bill Kristol he’s my hero why when the Neoconservatives manage to turn the U.S. into Trotsky-ville west I will vote him to chancellor of information! If they will still allow me to vote, do Communist allow you to vote?
I am not helping am I?
Ron Paul supporters:
It is disgraceful the way the GOP is treating you.
If you read me, you know we would agree on almost nothing except maybe the war. Well maybe that is enough.
The GOP is BROKEN. You can’t fix it from inside. Ya don’t have the money. For that is ALL that party represents anymore is money.
Vote Democratic and make the GOP come looking for YOU. Don’t knuckle under to them.
I feel it’s time for the 3rd party run. That should stir things up a bit.
Country Club Repubs have done nothing but pander to evangelicals for decades — right up to election day, then delivered squat to them.
————
I dunno Monkeyhawk, the judges have been pretty good lately. Thanks for your concern though.
You were probably thinking of the false promises Democrats deliver to African Americans.
“You were probably thinking of the false promises Democrats deliver to African Americans.”
As opposed to the “true” promises that the Republicans deliver to African Americans.
Like, if you join the GOP, you too can be a token.
Ever wonder about all those prolls?
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/crooks/7231
Count me in, as in as I can be in far western kansas. I can hook ya up with other bloggers and I can write.
BTW, check out the blog section in the wichita paper and scroll down to the WE blog link. It is more of a chat room, but the libs are kickin’ ass in there!!!!!
ksfarmgrrl | 02.21.06 – 11:45 am
I suspect we have at least one “proll” as a regular poster here. As the election lines out and things become clearer, we will see.
By the way? That poster would be econ101. The suspected “proll” I mean?
IF you bother to click on “Blog editor”s (wishful thinking James?) link, realize that the folks there are organizing to FIGHT AGAINST “prolls”.
Kfg’s agenda here is clearly her own as her own posts show.
“I dunno Monkeyhawk, the judges have been pretty good lately.”
Ya know outlander? For the first time in over 2 years, I THINK you just admitted that you want a woman’s right to choose taken away by law.
Thanks the late honesty.
I read something interesting today. More than 60% of abortions are for women who already have kids! It’s an ECONOMIC issue. They already have kids to care for and cannot afford more.
It’s welfare “reform” done that. Anyone that was for that? Congrats. You’ve CAUSED more abortions in a demographic they didn’t use to be in. How very “pro life” of you.
ame “1″ Governor. She has conspired for years with the House and Senate to walk all over us. AG Six just got here. Lets give him support and demand the House and Senate grow some backbone and stand up for us. Lets remove them if needed and lets take back Kansas. One Corrupt Politician at a Time!!!! Herbert West III, west.herb@yahoo.com
My article got cut up above. We need to blame the Politicians who have conspired with the corrupt Governor all along and help the new AG. We need to find Senators and Representatives with backbone and Constituant caring. AG Six cannot be to blame all of a sudden. He just made AG as of Feb 1st 2008. Governor Sebelius and the House and Senate have been messing us over for years. Name “1″ media story or article about the Judge Six. I havent heard of any. The House, Senate and Governor have been blasted and articled non-stop for years. Go figure. Lets help ourselves and support the new AG. Lets remove the House and Senate. Herb West III west.herb@yahoo.com
Outlander I believe your heart is in the right place but it is your head that is clouded. The Religious Right has gotten in to bed with a group that by their own words. Think that Religion and a believe in God is what they call a “popular Myth”. It is to be used to control and teach people like you and I to be subservient to higher authority. Which works out pretty well for them since they are seeing themselves as our rulers.
The only thing that they and the social Conservatives have in common is a believe that there is too much freedom and people need guidance and direction in their lives. That is the real reason they have pushed though all these laws that infringe on your Constitutional rights. The forth and fifth Amendments are only the beginning. Stop and look objectively at the news coverage today, what have you seen mention here and how much of it do you see the MSM reporting?
A good example is what happened in Nevada, Yes Romney won by a landslide and the second runner up was some guy named Ron Paul. But Paul beat out two of the named “front runners”, yet even on the first page of this News paper’s website. There is mention of Romney victory and how Mc Cain and Huckabe did in S.C. But not a word on Paul’s placing and beating out Mc Cain and Huckabe. It does not matter if you like or dislike Paul. But to not mention him is not a failure to report it is intention withholding of information from the public. I would expect such from Fox News, they go to no extent to hide they are the mouth piece of the Neo-Con agenda. But everyone else? CNN, MSNBC all those who are claimed to have a liberal bias. And if that was the case would they not jump at the chance to show two pillars of the Conservative, right wing, “value voters”, GOP candidates landing behind someone that is being called a “Kook”.
The judges you said are doing pretty good lately, they might be following a higher power but it might not be who you follow.
Paul only got 3 delegates from Nevada, as I recall. Huckabee in Carolina got twice as much or more, don’t know what the finally tally is.
If the candidate doesn’t rack up delegates, they don’t stand a chance.
So far, Paul is getting near the statistical dead end for gathering delegates.
TEST
I have no delusions of Paul winning the nomination but he serves as a control element. Both of the GOP voters and the voters at large. It test the level of the desire for change, of all the candidates his is the strongest message of change. It does not matter Republican or Democrat, the rest are still status Quo.
A bad showing means that the people are not serious about wanting a change and will not resist the status Quo. Is that good or bad, it depends on what you see the statues quo is. And the effect you want the Status Quo to play in your life.
Night all.
Dog,
I don’t know about the assumption about people not wanting a change is valid.
Most people are not wanting a lot of change which would deviate from the norm. That applies is most situations, politics or not.
Paul is proposing drastic changes, all untested and unproven. That is his downfall.
Wow, looks like somebody got a leash or two on the Sock Puppets today. Sure looks a lot better than usual. WTG Editors!
Sugar = Chas = Sock Puppet
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: January 20, 2008
WASHINGTON
When President Bush finished doing his sword dances and Arabian stallion inspections, when he finished making a speech in Abu Dhabi on the importance of freedom that fell flat, when he finished lounging in his fur-lined George of Arabia robe in the Saudi king’s tent, he came home.
Or he came to what was left of home.
A Washington Post cartoon by Tom Toles summed it up best: “Great to be home,” W. enthuses on Air Force One, heading toward the East Coast. “Anything interesting happen while I was gone?” Hanging on the skyline of New York is a sign reading: “U.S.A. Now a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Foreign Investors.”
Wherever he went, W. seemed dazzled by the can-do spirit of the J. Pierrepont Finches of the new Middle East. “It’s important for the president to hear thoughts, hopes, dreams, aspirations, concerns from folks that are out making a living,” he told Saudi entrepreneurs.
In Dubai, he commended young Arab leaders, saying, “The entrepreneurial spirit is strong.”
In Abu Dhabi, he marveled at the royal family’s plans to build a city based entirely upon renewable energy. “Amazing, isn’t it?” W. said.
You know you’re in trouble when your Middle East oil pump is greener than you are.
Even as W. played cheerleader for Arab business, the Arabs were cleaning our clocks — then buying them. Our addiction to oil has allowed our pushers in the Persian Gulf to go on a shopping spree to snap us up.
Hillary Clinton was right when she said it was “pathetic” that President Bush had to beg the Saudis to drop the price of oil.
One cascading rationale he offered for invading Iraq was the benign domino theory, that bringing democracy to Iraq would sway the autocrats in the region to be less repressive.
But when W. visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt last week, he did not have the whip hand. He could not demand anything of the autocrats in the way of more rights for women and dissidents, much less get the Saudis to help on oil production. He needs their help in corralling Iran, which has been puffed up by the occupation of Iraq.
So he was a supplicant in Saudi Arabia. The American economy is a supplicant, too.
Two decades ago, we fretted that Japan was taking over America when Sony bought Columbia Pictures and Mitsubishi bought a chunk of Rockefeller Center. But they overpaid for everything.
Now, because of Wall Street’s overreaching, our economy depends on foreign oil and foreign loans to stay afloat.
China and Arab countries have a staggering amount of treasury securities. And the oil-rich countries are sitting on so many petrodollars that they are looking beyond prestige hotels and fashion labels and taking advantage of the fire sale to buy eye-popping stakes in our major financial institutions.
Like the president, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch came with tin cups to Middle Eastern, Asian and American investors last week, for a combined total of nearly $19.1 billion, after the subprime mortgage debacle blew up their books.
Citigroup, which raised $7.5 billion from Abu Dhabi in November, raised another $12.5 billion, including from Singapore, Kuwait and Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal. Merrill Lynch gave $6.6 billion in preferred stock to Kuwait, South Korea, a Japanese bank and others.
(While the great sage Bob Rubin was advising Hillary Clinton on sound fiscal policy, he seemed to be asleep at the Citigroup switch.)
As Warren Buffett has said, we are giving ourselves a party to feed our appetite for oil and imported goods and paying for it by selling off the furniture, our most precious assets.
When the president got back Thursday night from a trip that made it clear he has no clout overseas, he had to rush the ailing economy into intensive care.
Next to the cool, strong euro, the dollar is a comparative runt in the world’s currencies. The weak dollar lets foreigners snap up real estate in Manhattan.
It is striking that the Bush scion, who has tried so hard to do the opposite of his father, also ends up facing the prospect of a recession in his final year in office.
Maybe if the president had spent the trillion he squandered on his Iraq odyssey on energy research, we might have broken the oil addiction.
Now it’s a race between Iraq, stupid, or the economy, stupid, to see which one will usher out W.
The country is engaged in a fit of nativism and Lou Dobbsism, obsessing about the millions of Mexicans who might be sneaking across the border when billions in foreign money are pouring into Citigroup. You figure out what might be a bigger problem.
The national boundaries that really matter are the financial ones: Who’s going to own the American economy?
Thanks, that was intellectually wilting.
Here’s something I just saw, a video on a Las Vegas Resort – a brand new one – a 1.9 Billion Dollar new one.
It has over 7200 suites, a million dollar gold and platinum-inlaid dance floor, the largest spa in the world and etc.
And what was that discussion we were having the other day about homeless Vets in Las Vegas?
It appears the Vegas folks have plenty of money to spend on luxury.
JR On Abortion
I read something interesting today. More than 60% of abortions are for women who already have kids. It’s an ECONOMIC issue. They already have kids to care for and cannot afford more.
It’s welfare “reform” done that. Anyone that was for that? Congrats. You’ve CAUSED more abortions in a demographic they didn’t use to be in. How very “pro life” of you.
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JR, You have no evidence to base your conclusion on. Abortion has no tie to welfare reform. It’s called personal choice. No one is forced into abortion in this country.
And once again, you rely on the false premise that the taxpayers have the responsibility to support folks indefinitely who are able to support themselves. Only a few illogical extremists believe that. Safety net for a while, OK. Welfare as a way of life, no. No one should have suffer the indignity of such a life. And they don’t.
The article was Saturday’s Eagle section A outlander.
“And once again, you rely on the false premise that the taxpayers have the responsibility to support folks indefinitely who are able to support themselves.”
Infants?
“No one should have suffer the indignity of such a life. And they don’t.”
Yeah, I think that is what the article and I said.
You’re “pro life” as far as the birth canal oulander. Then you bail.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/post_11.html
Sentiments are even more negative among the group that might place the highest value on being able to escape an unwanted pregnancy: young people. In 2003, Gallup found, one of every three kids from age 13 to 17 said abortion should be illegal in all circumstances. More revealing yet is that 72 percent said abortion is “morally wrong.”
By now, pro-life groups know that outlawing most abortions is not a plausible aspiration. So they have adopted a two-pronged strategy. The first is to regulate it more closely — with parental notification laws, informed consent requirements and a ban on partial-birth abortion. The second is to educate Americans with an eye toward changing “hearts and minds.” In both, they have had considerable success.
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Getting real information about the humanity of the child in the womb to mothers to be is sparking this “changing of hearts and minds”. The trend is going in the right direction!
You need to go read the article in yesterday’s Eagle outlander.
You have it just as wrong as I did.
Teenage women are NOT the main demographic getting abortions. Instead, it is largely women already with children getting them. That because in this economy, they want to be able to care for the kids that they already have. They cannot afford more.
More to the point, there’s no “village”. Or, mostly folks like you outlander are not really pro life at all.
What other laws would you like to inflict on others outlander? Would you like to mandate folks into a worship service each Sunday?
Who said anything about laws?
JR, you aren’t exactly a positive person, are you? It is within your power to change that, you know.
How do you mean outlander?
It’s not me looking to take freedoms and rights away from others. I could be wrong. But my sense is your comment as to judges indicates a desire on your part to deny or restrict the rights of others. This suggests you are not happy in your own skin and have a need to impose your own prejudices on other people.