whose title tune, "Amazed by America," was co-written by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Mormon).While the crisis may have begun in New York, it will likely find its fullest bloom in the interior of the country—in older, manufacturing regions whose heydays are long past and in newer, shallow-rooted Sun Belt communities whose recent booms have been fueled in part by real-estate speculation, overdevelopment, and fictitious housing wealth. These typically less affluent places are likely to become less wealthy still in the coming years, and will continue to struggle long after the mega-regional hubs and creative cities have put the crisis behind them.Our heart pumps piss for the poor bastards & their fictitious housing wealth. "Ain't that a shame," as Fats Domino would have it.
Yet the boom itself neither followed nor resulted in the development of sustainable, scalable, highly productive industries or services. It was fueled and funded by housing, and housing was its primary product. Whole cities and metro regions became giant Ponzi schemes.The entire article is actually interesting; its major thrust is that what we've known for the last seventy-odd yrs. is over, baby!
[...]
Will people wash out of these places as fast as they washed in, leaving empty sprawl and all the ills that accompany it? Will these cities gradually attract more businesses and industries, allowing them to build more-diverse and more-resilient economies? Or will they subsist on tourism—which may be meager for quite some time—and on the Social Security checks of their retirees? No matter what, their character and atmosphere are likely to change radically.
Some cities and regions will eventually spring back stronger than before. Others may never come back at all. As the crisis deepens, it will permanently and profoundly alter the country’s economic landscape. I believe it marks the end of a chapter in American economic history, and indeed, the end of a whole way of life.That's your life (maybe even lives) bourgeois pigs/suburban scumbags!
On this date:
Surgeons have revealed embarrassed spinster Mirjana Gavaric is recovering after getting steamy with the seedy item in the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
Dr Sava Bojovic explained: “She was lonely and she took a pine cone from a tree and unfortunately it got stuck and she needed surgery to get it out.”
By all accounts, she did have a TREE-mendous time with it though.
Bachmann’s record in Congress is not one of a representative whose district faces such a crisis. Bachmann hasn’t authored or sponsored any legislation to assist homeowners facing foreclosure, but she has co-sponsored 14 bills to restrict abortions and five to promote Christianity in government.You go, girl! Gettin' it done! Saving the American dream from the money-changers!
“Because of CRA," Bachmann said, “[President Bill Clinton] turned the two quasi-private, mortgage-funding firms into a semi-nationalized monopoly that dispensed cash to markets, made loans to large Democrat [sic] voting blocs and handed favors, jobs and money to political allies. This potential mix led inevitably to corruption and the Fannie-Freddie collapse.Bear in mind she's reading from that unimpeachable source, Investors Business Daily. Never had an original idea herself, apparently.
“Loans started being made on the basis of race, and often little else,” she said.
Gun enthusiasts of all stripes were there — from the National Rifle Association and sportsmen to militia members to white supremacists and Obama birthers.That's quite a spectrum of stripes there. Wasn't just any old gun event either, but a Machine Gun Shoot!
Plenty of Nazi/Hitler memorabilia, right next to the "Obama is Hitler" merch. This takes the classic "I'm not saying Hitler was right, but I'm not saying he was wrong, either," to a new level.
"The Birthers had two sets of petitions, one just for members (or retired members) of the military who wanted to join Orly Taitz’s legal actions against Obama. Taitz is the blonde woman with the pink nametag, obscured slightly by Theresa Padget, the woman in the sweatshirt."
SS hat & AmeriKKKan flag shoulder patch. Get used to it, chumps. Tomorrow belongs to us!!
The United States Northern Command, based in Colorado Springs, issued a statement on Sunday that portrayed the launching as a major failure. It based its information on a maze of federal radars, spy ships and satellites that monitor global missile firings.
The command said that North Korea launched a Taepodong-2 missile at 11:30 a.m. Sunday local time, or 10:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, and that its first stage fell into the Sea of Japan, which analysts had expected as the point of splashdown in a successful launching.
However, “the remaining stages, along with the payload itself, landed in the Pacific Ocean,” the statement said. Analysts had expected the rocket’s second stage to land in the Pacific but its third stage and its ostensible satellite payload to fly into space.
The command emphasized that “no object entered orbit,” apparently a reference to both the rocket’s third stage as well as the supposed satellite.
Well, D. L., we'll be the first to tell you that you just can't win them all.The launching itself of the three-stage rocket on Sunday, which the North Korean government portrayed as a success — even bragging that the supposed satellite payload was now broadcasting patriotic tunes from space — outraged Japan and South Korea, led to widespread rebuke by President Obama and other leaders, and prompted the United Nations Security Council to go into an emergency session.
Hey, whether the damn thing worked or not, it drummed up a load of hysteria among the sour-pusses in the "international community," didn't it? And that's at least half your game, right? 
No sooner had we discussed vehicle fatalities (below) than our friends (& enablers) at the AP (via MSNBC) brought us up to date:Preliminary figures being released by the government Monday show that 37,313 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes last year. That's 9.1 percent lower than the year before, when 41,059 died, and the fewest since 1961, when there were 36,285 deaths.Still more impressive than the twenty thousand or so annual firearm deaths. But no figures on the walking (or not) dead from accidents. Or ammunition.
"The silver lining in a bad economy is that people drive less, and so the number of deaths go down," said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "Not only do they drive less but the kinds of driving they do tend to be less risky — there's less discretionary driving."Sounds like more mouths to feed to us. Remember, every silver lining is surrounded by a dark, impenetrable wall of cloudy matter.
In 1969, bassist Pete Quaife quit the Kinks.Each entered the national consciousness when he picked up a gun and ended multiple lives. Uyesugi, 1999, Hawaii office building, seven dead. Hawkins, 2007, Nebraska shopping mall, nine dead. Barton, Ratzmann and Stewart — 24 dead among them in 1999 (Atlanta brokerage offices), 2005 (Wisconsin church service) and last week (North Carolina rehab center).Guess so. Might even be the sensible course. It never stops (Has there been a Sunday-go-to-meeting shooting today?) but there's nothing that can be easily done about it, so we do our best to step over it, as if it were a homeless type napping in a doorway, & go on w/ our business of destroying the continent (if not the whole world) our ancestors stole for us by murdering & then marginalizing the original inhabitants.
Each has been largely forgotten as the parade of multiple killings in America melts into an indistinguishable blur. We bemoan, we mourn, we move on.
Even in a media-saturated nation that encourages short memories, these numbers are conversation-stopping: Forty-seven people dead in the past month in American mass shootings and their aftermaths.Not yet on the author's radar as he typed: The man in Washington state who plugged his five children & himself on Saturday, because his wife was dropping him like the hot potato he turned out to be. (No word yet on his employment status.)
Put aside for a moment the debate over guns. This isn't about policy. It's about asking the urgent question: What is happening in the American psyche that prevents people from defusing their own anguish and rage before they end the lives of others? Why are we killing each other?It's who we are & it's what we do, to coin two perfectly awful phrases. We've no idea who or what Ted Anthony is, other than AP National Writer, but we don't see much analysis going on here. Shouldn't the AP's "National Writer" have noticed that we are, as Frank Zappa put it, a "scab of a nation/driven insane?"
For so long, the national narrative has been so bullish about equality of opportunity, so persuasive in its romance of possibility for all.Who could have been persuaded by such a bald-faced lie? State Lottery players & bitter gun-clingers are high on the list. Not that it makes a hell of a difference if you're force-fed the impossible dream, or confronted w/ the grim truth of the system from the first day of school, either way you're crushed. If anything, deluding the proles that "working hard," ad nauseum, will result in anything more than harder work for them seems to lead to trouble.
"The big picture is that, currently, there is not one single state legislative or congressional district that has a majority of the voters registering Republican," says Allan Hoffenblum, who just finished an analysis for the California Target Book, a nonpartisan publication that regularly analyzes state congressional and legislative races.Not much, if you're a Republican, & want to keep that family values image.
"Republican registration in California is dropping like a rock.And they'll decline-to-vote for the wretched old guy whining about taxes, & how they should work more overtime to pay the mortgages on their de-valued houses.
"There's a large slice of voters there being turned off by the Republican Party," said Hoffenblum. "What's really hurting them there is an increase in middle-class Asian and Latino voters - and they're not voting Republican. They're registering decline-to-state.
California GOP state Chair Ron Nehring says Democrats won't find their work easy.The All-American Killer Diet; heavy on the fats & starches. Imagine eating this monstrosity, Representative Ken Calvert of Norco, Corona & Riverside.
He notes that none of the eight districts will have an open seat in 2010, giving all eight GOP incumbents a huge advantage.
And 2010 "is on track to be a 'correction' election where the opposition party picks up seats ... as voters correct for Democrats' overreaching," he said.
Hoffenblum observes that Democrats will have an even tougher job if they fail to offer more centrist candidates to appeal to the all-important decline-to-state middle ground.
But California Republicans, he said, haven't shown they are focused on the job, either.
"They're too busy recalling all those (moderate Republican) legislators to do something about it," Hoffenblum said. "It's a sign of a party in decline - they're eating their own."
Mostly interesting here is speculation on the health of Dear Leader.In recent times top American intelligence officials have told Congress they believe Mr. Kim is back in charge of the country, but they admit considerable mystery surrounds the question of whether he has regained all of his faculties.
David C. Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group in Cambridge, Mass., [who] said the North Korean rocket might be able to lift a small satellite of 220 pounds into an orbit some 250 miles high. If used as a ballistic missile, he added, the rocket might throw a warhead of 2,200 pounds to a distance of some 3,700 miles — far enough to hit parts of Alaska.
On this date:
In 1985, "We Are The World" by USA for Africa was played simultaneously in a special Good Friday broadcast on more than five-thousand radio stations in the US.Ahmanson, who was born to and inherited great wealth, has spent a lifetime trying to figure out what to do with his good fortune. It has been, at times, a burden of guilt, complicated by a lonely childhood. He also has Tourette's syndrome, which has contributed to his reclusiveness.Well, that's putting it mildly. Old Rushdoony's "literal application of biblical teachings" includes the stoning (to death) of "homosexuals" & many other harsh biblical favorites. "Association with," of course, means financing the old bastard's fantasies of theocracy.
[...]
One can't mention Ahmanson without also discussing his association with Calvinist theologian R.J. Rushdoony, who believed in a literal application of biblical teachings and is credited with inspiring the Christian home-schooling movement.
Just as news breaks that political fundraising is down for both parties, Republicans have lost one of their more generous contributors.Which brings us to Ms. Parker's column this Sunday. Some of the more intelligent (it's all relative) may have realized that there was an indeed an election (Just last November, wasn't it?) & their lunch was handed to them by quite a margin, a fact seemingly lost on many on the right who are still shouting about "the usurper Obama," the monolithic mainstream media giving the election away, and the country somehow having been taken from them, ad nauseum.
The older generation, represented by such icons as James Dobson, who recently retired as head of Focus on the Family, has compromised too much, according to a growing phalanx of disillusioned Christians. Pragmatically speaking, the Christian coalition of cultural crusaders didn't work.(Really? There was some sort of Xmas a couple of months ago, wasn't there? Or did they lose that war, & we're remembering an earlier Xmas? Or was the war for Xmas not one of the "big cultural battles?" It certainly seemed important at the time. )
For proof, one need look no further than Dobson himself, who was captured on tape recently saying that the big cultural battles have all been lost.
For Christians such as Moore -- and others better known, such as columnist Cal Thomas, a former vice president for the Moral Majority -- the heart of Christianity is in the home, not the halls of Congress or even the courts. And the route to a more moral America is through good works -- service, prayer and education -- not political lobbying.Back to how they plied their scam prior to the Moral Majority & other such naked grabs at political power, in other words. Someday they may even realize that the economic policies pursued by their partners in repression from the Country Club/Wall Street section of the Big Republican Tent are infinitely more anti-family than anything the Gawd Squadders have imagined concerning welfare, "gay agendas," sex on tee vee or McDonna.
He did make some observations about the GOP, however, and said he sees the party's current problems as tension between "the upscales and the downscales" -- the upper middle classes and the lower middle classes.Ah, more tea-parties? Sober, cloth-coated Republicans standing up against Wall St. excess? Would-be small business owners? (Sam the not-licensed plumber, baby!)
"If I were in the GOP, I'd advocate the party should be downscaling." Heading, that is, toward a populist position.
Whether James Dobson's admission of failure -- or Deace's challenges to Minnery -- foretells a crackup of the older Christian right remains to be seen. But something is stirring, and it sounds like the GOP may be losing its bailout money. God apparently has his own stimulus plan.Oh, let's do!"You have the choice between a way that works and brings no credit or money or national attention," says Thomas. "Or, a way that doesn't work that gets you lots of attention and has little influence on the culture."
It is hard to imagine a political talk show without a self-appointed moral arbiter bemoaning the lack of family values in America.
But, do let's try.
The gunman who killed 13 people in a rampage at an immigrant community center and then committed suicide was wearing body armor, indicating he was prepared to battle with law enforcers, the Binghamton police chief said Saturday.As was today's, in Pittsburgh, PA, per Police Chief Nate Harper.
Poplawski was wearing a bulletproof vest, armed with a high-powered assault rifle and a pistol, and had a significant amount of ammunition as he fired a weapon out of his window.A friend of suspect Poplawski revealed another indication of trouble to come: Failure at the Internet.
Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn’t successful. Vire said Poplawski had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.Not a good cocktail. Add a dash of bitters,
Another friend, Joe DiMarco, said Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year. DiMarco said he didn’t know the name of the company, but knew his friend had been upset about losing his joba jigger of Creme de Paranoia,
Edward Perkovic said Poplawski, his best friend, feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on the way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon”
Country singer Steve Gatlin (The Gatlin Brothers) is 58. Writer-producer David E. Kelley is 53. Actor Phil Morris is 50. Actress Lorraine Toussaint is 49. Actor Hugo Weaving is 49. Rock musician Craig Adams (The Cult) is 47. Actor David Cross is 45. Actor Robert Downey Jr. is 44. Actress Nancy McKeon is 43.
In 1963, The Hollies auditioned for EMI Records at Abbey Road studios.
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is 79. Actor William Gaunt is 72. Actor Eric Braeden is 68. Actress Marsha Mason is 67. Singer Wayne Newton is 67. Singer Billy Joe Royal is 67. Singer Tony Orlando is 65. Comedy writer Pat Proft is 62. Folk-rock singer Richard Thompson is 60. Country musician Curtis Stone (Highway 101) is 59. Blues singer-guitarist John Mooney is 54. Rock musician Mick Mars (Motley Crue) is 53. Actor Alec Baldwin is 51. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 50. Rock singer John Thomas Griffith (Cowboy Mouth) is 49. Comedian-actor Eddie Murphy is 48. Rock singer-musician Mike Ness (Social Distortion) is 47. Rock singer Sebastian Bach is 41. Rock musician James MacDonough is 39. Actress Jennie Garth is 37. Comedian Aries Spears is 34. Actress Cobie Smulders is 27. Minnesota Vikings star Jared Allen is 27. Rock-pop singer Leona Lewis is 24. Actress Amanda Bynes is 23.
Actress Pamela Reed is 60. Rock musician Dave Robinson (The Cars) is 56. Country singer Buddy Jewell is 48. Actor Christopher Meloni is 48. Singer Keren Woodward (Bananarama) is 48.
[Don't think she's always that posed & arty. — Ed.]
Country singer Billy Dean is 47. Actor Clark Gregg is 47. Actress Jana Marie Hupp is 45. Rock musician Greg Camp is 42. Rock musician Tony Fredianelli (Third Eye Blind) is 40.
And at One Step Up from Free Republic the peasants are not only revolting, but hoping for Revolution!!!Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots* or the government apparatchiks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.
