Saturday, January 09, 2010

Wonkette makes me laugh:

"Osama bin Laden’s whole goddamn strategy has always been to draw the United States into a direct confrontation with Al Qaeda on as many fronts as possible. Our crack team of analysts have determined that he has been successful in this pursuit over the past decade. Because it’s been so easy. And it’s just getting easier! At this point a Mexican or Filipino can throw an orange through a storefront screen anywhere in the United States and it will be labeled muslin terror because some other Mexican in “Yemen” maybe e-mailed him at some point and was probably in Al Qaeda and we will have to bomb Jordan and Syria and Lebanon and Turkey, to save airplanes."

Jesus H. Christ:

Senate Majority Leader Reid apologized today for a comment during the presidential campaign in which he praised then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as politically attractive because he was a “light-skinned” African American “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” The comment was reported in “Game Change,” a new book about the 2008 campaign by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. In a statement, the Nevada senator said, “I deeply regret such a poor choice of words. I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments.” After Reid's statement, Obama said he accepted Reid's apology and praised his “passionate leadership" on issues of social justice.
Added Obama, "Plus, I like him because he doesn't sound too Mormony."

(Quoting CongressDaily, which is behind a paywall.)

Friday, January 08, 2010

Interesting point:

And given that nearly a quarter of mortgages are underwater, and that 10 percent of mortgages are delinquent, White, of the University of Arizona, is surprised that more people haven’t walked. He thinks the desire to avoid shame is a factor, as are overblown fears of harm to credit ratings. Probably, mortgagees also labor under a delusion that their homes will quickly return to value. White has argued that the government should stop perpetuating default “scare stories” and, indeed, should encourage borrowers to default when it’s in their economic interest. This would correct a prevailing imbalance: homeowners operate under a “powerful moral constraint” while lenders are busily trying to maximize profits.
Oh, yeah: I'm back, baby!