Additionally, Quarashi..........

It's late...what can one expect???



They are Icelandic...how often does one get to write that clause about killer musicians?

At the Drive-In - One Armed Scissor

Just because it's on YouTube.....


The 90's so rocked..

Liz Phair - Supernova

Filed Under: General awesomeness........

Housing Bubble - Continued

If you read this blog back in the early days of aught-five, the current credit crisis should come as no surprise:

According to today's NY Times, we are alerted to the fact that in 2007, $1 Trillion (12% of the nation's mortgage debt) in ARM's will kick into adjustable rates. How many people are truly prepared for the upswing in their mortgage payments that will come due then?

Let's also note that we quoted The Economist in calling it: "the biggest bubble in history".

Let us further note that yesterday, Nouriel Roubini, who was on top of this from back in the day, whipped out the I-told-you-so line:

Following the meltdown in new home sales - down a whopping 9% in November alone based on data published today – it is clear that this is not going to be the worst housing recession in the last 50 years as I predicted; it is rather going to be the worst housing recession since the Great Depression or, better, the worst housing recession ever in US history.

(Note that a 9% "annual" decline in sales would be awful...he appears to be talking "monthly" decline. Super-double-ouch!)

Happy New Years, y'all!

Update 2007-12-29-04:58: Admittedly, my call on the Iranian War of 2007 was narrowly averted. So take that for what it's worth.

And the best part is, now we'll have freed up a bunch of soldiers who can be deployed into the 2007 War on Iran! w00t!

Phish - Down With Disease

Courtesy of Wendy, I was a newly-minted fan of Phish when this album came out.

It still manages to stir the jaded soul...



Bouncing balls in the crowd, bouncing band-members on trampolines, and fishman with the snorkel-looking thing...does it get better than this???

Bhutto Assassination - Spillover

I neglected to comment on the conveniently-timed assassination of Benazir Bhutto, coming as it did just weeks before an conflicted electorate was to go to the polls in Pakistan. I blame my slacktardery on the failed policies of the Clinton Administration.

Today, of course, the Pakistani government declared that her assassination was the handiwork of al Qaeda.

“We have the evidence that al-Qaida and Taliban were behind the suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto,” Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz said.

The government also reported that Bhutto died from a skull fracture suffered when her head slammed against her car during a suicide attack — not from bullet wounds.

Certainly, the shifting stories of how she died (bullet, bomb, "hit her head"), not at all complicated by any political motivations, it is clear that this is not a simple politically-motivated assassination, but rather a devious al Qaeda plot.

As luck would have it, we now discover that the government is freaking over repurcussions spilling over into Afghanistan. Thank you, BushAdmin!!!

Technorati Tags: bhutto, pakistan

Mystery Solved! - Korean Rudolph Traffic

Aha!

As my longtime reader knows, for about a year now, I've been getting pretty much daily traffic from Korean search engine naver.com. on searches for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". This was perplexing, but lacking any written Korean-language skills, and any real motivation, I failed to figure out why this might be. Judging by the exitramp posts I found on Naver, it looked like the rolled out a blog search in 2005, and just indexed every major blog platform around that time, and exitramp got indexed. (Original Rudolph post here)

"But why", I wondered, "Why were so many RoK-ans searching for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?" Luckily, this cold, rainy December eve gave me the opportunity and the motivation to find the answer.

Turns out that there's a superstar cutie-pie pop sensation, BoA who did a cover of the classic holiday tune. I can't find the album on her wikipedia discography, but you can hear a sample here.



Well, mystery solved, BoA is now officially my favorite RoK musician.

Technorati Tags: BoA, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, naver.com

(Late) Merry Christmas Post

We had a busy night of meeting with the various familial groups, so I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and etc.

Since we're reaching a critical juncture at which our surviving WWI vets are diminishing significantly, I just want to throw out a special Happy Holidays to any Veterans of the Great War. This is especially driven by the 93rd anniversary of the Christmas Truce.

Here's a shout-out to all those who have served their country in times of war, and times of need.

WWI Vet Passes Away

J. Russel Coffee, one of three known living US WWI vets, has passed away at age 109. As the article and fark submitter noted, he drove a car until he was 104.


Since I've established a history of tracking the lives of the remaining WWI vets, I figured it was appropriate to note. I've always been interested in WWI, since it seems like WWII kind of pushed it out of the national attention.

As the article notes:

The other known surviving American soldiers are Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, W.Va., and Harry Landis, of Sun City Center, Fla., according to the Veterans Affairs Department.

He was the last Ohio WWI veteran, and had never seen action since he enlisted a month before the world ended.

Peace, J. Russel.

Technorati Tag: WWI Veterans

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

There is a bite to the air, and the first snow has fallen, and there's a magical feeling of expectation in everyone's hearts.

Yes, once again, it's that time of year:

Time for the Pentagon to announce that if the current conditions in Iraq are maintained, we should be able to begin drawing down troops next year. And it feels like it was just yesterday that I put away my "Bring Home the Troops" wreath.

The United States now has about 158,000 troops in Iraq. Under the current plan, the Pentagon would pull five brigades out by July, reducing the force by about 20,000 combat troops plus support personnel.

Gates has said he would like to see another five brigades taken out of Iraq in the second half of 2008 as well.

That would leave about 10 combat brigades, or about 100,000 U.S. troops, in Iraq by the end of the Bush administration.

Reading that, it seems that General Casey's 2005 "worst case scenario" of "well over 100,000" troops over there in 2009 is more or less playing out like a well-oiled machine. I only started this blog in 2005, and this appears to be my first "sometime next year" drawdown post. Recall that in the 2004 election year, calls for bringing home the troops were tantamount to treason.

Since there seems very little reason to assume that I wont be making this post next year, let's officially consider this my First Annual "Troop Drawdown Next Year Announcement" Post. Merry Drawdown Announcement, y'all. Sigh....

Technorati Tags: iraq troop drawdown

Lakota Nation Secedes

Okay, seriously, what's going on here?

The Lakota Tribes have now withdrawn from 150-year-old treaties with the US and are claiming secession.

"We are now a free country and independent of the United States of America," Means said in a telephone interview. "This is all completely legal."Means said a Lakota delegation on Monday delivered a statement of "unilateral withdrawal" from the United States to the U.S. State Department in Washington.

Just to make things better we are told that they are in talks with other beleaguered nativist minorities in other countries:

Meanwhile, the delegation has delivered copies of the letter to the embassies of Bolivia, Venezuela, Chile and South Africa. "We're asking for recognition," Means said, adding that Ireland and East Timor are "very interested" in the declaration.

I'm not familiar with the situation, but holy crap, what's going on here? The article goes into some detail about the situation, but not in any meaningful depth that would enable us to understand.



Currently researching exactly what pushed the Lakota Nation over the edge at this point in time...

Technorati Tags: lakota nation secession

Radiohead - "In Rainbows" Arrives

So I just received my copy of the premium "physical" copy of In Rainbows. Since I've been listening to the downloads for months now, and I currently do not have a turntable, this fact is a bit anticlimactic.

However, I will confidently assert, without even having seen the competition, that they are a shoo-in for the 2007 Confounding Artsy Packaging of the Year Award.

Never before, has one group gone through such exquisite lengths to present high quality glossy photos of splatters and blobs in such a glorious fashion.

The above comments are meant to be only slightly-serious, as I think it's freaking awesome to have an actual LP jacket that's all jacked-up and badass.

Technorati Tags: radiohead, in rainbows

Dodd is the D00d!!!

Holy freaking crap! Senator Dodd's filibuster has prompted Harry Reid to shelve the FISA update bill until next year! Telco immunity for domestic spying is not the done deal I thought it was this morning.

I was busy all day today, and what updates I saw were not terribly promising. I'd basically accepted that the filibuster would happen, and eventually fizzle, and we'd have to figure out how to fix it '09.

Dodd has re-invigorated my worn-out activist self, y'all! I had started to assume that we were going to have to hope for a Dem landslide in '08, and fix the mess from there. I now believe that something can be accomplished in the next year. Serious props to Senator Dodd, and Sens. Feingold and Kennedy for explicitly supporting this effort beforehand.

Sidenote: For those who missed it, The Russinator has a post on TPMCafe today explaining his take on the situation.

So, in closing, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone. Santa Dodd has come to town.

Technorati Tags: fisa, telco immunity, dodd, russ feingold

Writer's Guild Strike Update

First, let's start with teh funnay. Here, an AMPTP (The organization representing the various Big Media companies) member explains their offer to the writers for everybody's benefit.



Okay, now the serious. Apparently, the studios do not seem to have been coming to the negotiating table in good faith. All of the evidence strongly seems to suggest that they're basically trying to starve the strikers out so that they'll accept whatever crap offer the media companies toss at them. Remember that the people affected by this strike are not just the writers, but all the associated tradespeople and support staff that keep the shows running.

More tellingly, according to United Hollywood, the AMPTP recently employed the assistance of a crisis management firm, Fabiani and Lehane. According to the WGA author of the post, they are being secured to help refine Big Media's PR push regarding the strike. Some quick google research seems to support the idea that this would be a task at which they would be well-suited.

The strange and annoying bit is that Fabiani & Lehane have a long history of working with some of the big recent Democratic campaigns, including Clinton/Gore, Wes Clark, and, even more surprisingly, a recent stint working with the Studio Actors Guild. Now, they appear to be working for the Studios in what the WGA author's post credibly argues looks like a strike-breaking gig.

Lacking any conclusive proof, it's hard to say, but the United Hollywood link proposes a Call to Action to pressure Clinton, Edwards and Obama to lean on these major Democratic operatives to step back and/or hold them accountable. I pass this information on to those who would be motivated to act.

Technorati tag: wga strike

Gabe and Max's Internet Thing

For whatever reason, I think this is the funniest damned thing I've seen on the Tubes in a long time. The humor is very Homestar Runner-ish.

As they say, it's A TOTAL SYSTEM!!!!!!111

A New Hope - Help Us, Hank!

Tanta over at Calculated Risk has analyzed the "Hope Now" Plan and has put her eminent expertise to fine use. Her initial thoughts after reviewing the details, which should surprise exactly no one, are that the objective here is primarily to salvage as many mortgage-backed securities as possible.

She observes that the rather specific partitioning of troubled borrowers is the key to understanding what's going on. The people who are already screwed...well, they remain screwed. The people who can qualify for a refinance...let 'em eat refi.

It's the people who are currently paid in full but are likely to begin defaulting when their rates reset that get the help. Why this group? Because, if we allow them to keep paying at a current or modified rate, it keeps the cash flow moving into the mortgage backed security. Thus, the MBS does not deliver the originally-expected returns that were expected, but it's better than what would occur if masses of otherwise liquid mortgagees were forced into foreclosure.

The primary action which drives this plan is a clarification of some tax and accounting rules which were previously unclear, and might have prohibited loan modifications. With this clarification, the parties owning the loans are now free to preserve their coupon payments, and hopefully stanch some of the bleeding from their portfolios.

So, in case you were wondering what may have motivated this particular action, rest securely in the knowledge that BushCo is passively working to preserve the solvency of capital markets. Holders of MBS, sleep soundly tonight, secure in the knowledge that "Hope is on the way!!"

Cold War 2 - How are we doing?

This is depressing.

According that favored of all sources, "Some Guy from the Blogs", this is a Russian SU-30 fighter, which is allegedly more advanced than anything we have. It has all sorts of crazy active aerodynamic features that enables it to do unbelievable aerobatics.

NPR Presidential Debates - Observations

I've been listening to the whole NPR Iowa Presidential debate, and here are my observations so far.

Apparently, this wasn't intended to be a Dem-only debate, but all of the Republican candidates had scheduling conflicts. Whatever the reason, I'm pleased that the outcome was thus.

I'm not sure what's up, but the NPR questioners are all asking questions with the Republican framing hardcore front-and-center. Every question and follow-up about illegal immigration is being aggressively pursued from the Republican rhetorical angle. It's very bizarre.

I'd say all of the Dem candidates presented themselves very well, and made the NPR questioners sound foolish and simple-minded. (The odd Gravel meltdown, notwithstanding) The Dems did a good job of reframing the conversation away from the questioners' Republican slant. The only annoying bits were the constant chants of why each candidate is uniquely qualified on whatever topic and "I was first!"

My personal "favorable" numbers for both Obama and Hillary went up substantially. I still think Edwards is the man, but I'm a lot less inclined to agree with the statement that "Hillary and Obama are both tools of their corporate masters."

Admittedly, it might be my own personal bias, but I'd have to say Obama, Hillary and Edwards came out of this sounding the best. Although the questioners seemed not to shut them down as frequently as they did to the rest of the pack.

Final Verdict: No surprises from this, (excluding the bizarre Republican framing from NPR) I think they all did a really good job on presenting a message, and I'd be comfortable voting for whomever happens to get the nomination.

Update: I forgot about Hillary's explanation about having voted to formally declare the Iranian Special Guard a terrorist organization. I found her statements annoying and a little naive. I still don't see how that decree could be taken as anything other than another incremental tool for Bush/Cheney to go to war with Iran, specific prohibitions in that same bill or not. -10 pts. for Hill.

Annoying Buzzwords

I'm listening to the Dem. Presidential debate on NPR right now, and it occurs to me that there are a number of currently popular buzzwords in political circles that are really annoying.

Chief among these are "on/off the table" and "carrot and stick".

Also, in the world of business, the use of the phrase "out of pocket" (to mean "out of reach") must be stopped. Calling PowerPoint presentations "decks" is also moderately grating.

That is all.

Living out of a U-Haul

Saw this on Fark...



this dude is moving from Philly down to Florida by living in his modified former U-Haul truck. As much as I have to admit that I couldn't do it myself, at this point in my life, I have to give the guy a serious "Right On!" and if I'd thought of this myself 10 years ago, I'd probably try the same thing. Here's the link to his blog.

I'm sure Mr. Harne is going to get a lot of crap, both from the cops and from the "get a job you damned hippie" coalition, but I have to say it's a freaking awesomely elegant solution to a big problem.

It's especially pertinent, since I was just made aware of the Tiny House Movement, which also intrigues me.

Technorati Tags: truckhouse, Tiny House

Video - Linkin Park

What I've done. Pretend the link below exists........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sgycukafqQ

Buck Cherry - Just 'Cuz It's Friday

Huttah!

Video - Flight of the Conchords

The Humans are dead.

Video - Liz Phair - Never Said Nothing

Just because it's Liz...



liz phair

Time to Diversify Out of China?

So, according to this columnist, it sounds like much of the stellar returns Chinese companies have been showing are from investment returns, rather than actual business operations, and also some shady accounting practices.

Much of the stellar growth in Chinese corporate earnings has been generated by the rise in stock values because many companies have invested heavily in the market rather than core businesses.

Yay! Is there any asset class that isn't approaching the peak of a bubble right now? I just recently saw a quote in the comments on Felix Salmon's blog:

Gold is for optimists. I'm diversifying into canned goods.

Seems like a good idea right now.

Update (2007-11-26 noonish): Fixed the source attribution on the Gold quote.

Jobs, Candidates and NAFTA

While checking out some diaries on dailykos, I noticed this item of interest which I'd apparently missed back in February: Hershey is shutting down some of it's production in Hershey, PA and sending 1,500 jobs to Mexico. That will reduce U.S. and Canadian production from 90% to 80%. This floored me and pissed me off.

It was probably that same diary that reminded me of how that fact dovetails into Hillary's laughing off the results of NAFTA.



Screw this Hillary shit. She is part of the problem.

Vote for Edwards.

Kelly from The Office Tours Scranton

Slideshow, via boston.com.


The reason I noticed it was because I was perusing this article about how Europeans on shopping holiday in weak dollar America might bail out the retailers this X-Mas season.

Aussies Vote Labor

John Howard's Liberal (Note: That's the name, but they are ideologically Conservative) party was voted out Saturday, at something like a 53-46 margin. Labor, headed by Kevin Rudd, is expected to get over 80 seats in the 150 seat lower house of Parliament.

Rob Griffith / AP

Without having followed the elections, it appears from my brief reading that John Howard was brought down by something similar to an "Abramoff scandal", as well as some employment policies that shifted a lot of power away from labor and towards employers.

It sounds like some Australians are taking quarrel with some lefty American bloggers citing Howard's close friendship with Bush as being a big factor in this election, suggesting that Americans need to get over ourselves. As such, I shall avoid making any such observations.

Tangential question, from the msnbc article cited above: Why do news agencies insist on referring to situations like this as "a humiliating defeat"? The Liberals still got 46% of the votes. It's just that more voters wanted them out than wanted them in. This is the nature of politics, and it's not clear to me why that should be considered humiliating. (I mention this even though from what news I've heard about JH, I'm quite pleased that his party got the boot.)

Cool Web Tools - CatalogChoice

Just heard about this today on NPR's All Things Considered - New web tool, CatalogChoice.

Basically, you sign up on this site, and tell them what catalogs you're receiving that you do not wish to receive, and they get you off the list. As the founder explained, this is especially helpful for catalogs that arrive for previous residents. In our current apartment, we regularly receive solicitations for about 3 previous residents.

At the moment, I don't have any catalogs from which I need to unsubscribe, but as soon as one arrives, I'm signing up.

Annoyances

I suddenly realize how much I hate sites that require cookies, but don't tell you which site you need to allow cookies from, in order to use them.

My 401(k) provider has a site, and I've tried enabling every obvious source domain combination in Firefox's Extended Cookie Manager extension, but I still can't seem to get it working. It's not even like this is a free content site that would make money putting ad-tracker cookies on my machine, so it makes no sense.

Proposal: Any web site/application which requires cookies should explicitly specify any and all cookie domains necessary for access.

First-hand Account of Pakistani Demonstrations

Via Boingboing, we are informed of this blog post from a Pakistani journalist who was involved in a protest over Musharraf's takeover, and their subsequent police beatdown and arrest.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) had called for a peaceful demonstration at 03:00 Tuesday (yesterday) outside the Karachi Press Club. The purpose was to demand the freedom of the Press, etc. Please note, all of us were totally unarmed, while the police surrounding the area were in complete riot gear with shields and motey dandey and bulletproof vests, helmets, knee pads, and whatnot. The entire area around the press club had been cordoned off.

The moment the rally got out of the Press Club, we were attacked (yes, "attacked") by the policemen. There was a LOAD of brutal baton-charging, and one policeman hit ARY's Aajiz Jamali so hard on his back with the shield, that the shield broke in two. :-S Women and men were hit indiscriminately and very VERY brutally -- yes I can emphasize that enough. I'm skinny -- I crawled around and got out unhurt, but a lot of other people were seriously injured. Everyone ran back towards the press club. Some of our office bearers and senior people had been picked up.

Coincidentally, the preznit just made some comments on his buddy in an interview just last night:

Bush said that Musharraf hasn’t yet “crossed the line” and insisted Musharraf has “advanced democracy in Pakistan.”

Ah, yes...Freedom is on the march. Sigh...

Technorati Tag: pakistan

NPR and "Balanced Opinions"

The other day on NPR, they presented a story which left me wondering what possibly qualified it as newsworthy. It appears to be the direct result of the active Republicanization of NPR.

Basically, it was about an informational roadshow going around the country since 2005 attempting to sustain the misunderstanding of the crises facing Medicare and Medicaid, and conflate those with the modest potential problems facing Social Security.

Dean Baker commented on it that day, and did his usual fine job of analyzing the core message of the Road Show.

However, he raised a point that's been bothering me about NPR's reporting lately. During this particular segment, they attempted to illustrate the road show's bipartisan creds, by explaining that its participants include a member from "the conservative Heritage Foundation" and one from the "left-leaning Brookings Institution". They've been doing this a lot lately, pairing up Heritage and Brookings to present "both sides of the story".

The reason this portrayal is complete bullshit: Brookings, despite whichever way their particular policy recommendations may lean, is an "Independent" institution. The Heritage Foundation, by contrast, has a core mission of promoting conservative public policies.

Thus, typical of modern media procedures, the pairing of an active partisan advocate with a representative of an independent think tank becomes "balance". Our "Liberal Media" - nay, the ultimate bastion of Our Liberal Media - still can't manage to get an actual liberal partisan involved in the dialogue.

Unsurprisingly, the conclusions drawn by the participants seem to suggest that we must make "tough political choices". In case you haven't been following the debate, the "tough choice" is not "raise taxes", it's "reduce benefits".

Less surprisingly, it appears that our representative from the left-leaning Brookings Institution, Douglas Elmendorf, has been beating the "Social Security is in Crisis" war drums for some time now.

So, let's just recap...thanks to the magic of our modern political climate, "Both Sides of the Story" is comprised of the conservative side, and the right of center side. Thank you, Our Liberal Media.

Update: Just before I posted this, I decided to google "left-leaning brookings institution". Clearly, I'm not the first person to make this observation. However, I took way too much time writing this post, so it's going up anyway, dammit!

Technorati Tags: npr, Liberal Media, left-leaning brookings institution

Catchin' up on some housecleaning

Here are some videos I've been meaning to put up.

CollegeHumor presents the lost pilot for "24" from 1994. I love the hair, but I'd say it looks more like '97 to me. (Thanks, Geo!)



Also, some of the writers from The Daily Show put together a clever analysis of the issues behing the writers' strike.



Enjoy!

Feingold Comes Swinginig on FISA Telco Immunity

In hindsight, I'm actually glad that the Russinator didn't run for Prez. He still drops the law without pandering to "The Center"

The Senator from the great State of Wisconsin brings the 2x4 to the fistfight on FISA Telco Immunity.

Feingold says: Hell, no! No immunity for lawbreakers.

Thank you very much, Senator.

No. Retroactive. Immunity. for Lawbreakers, Period!

The Senator proves once again why he is "The Only Senator That Matters", dammit!

Legend of a Cowgirl

Imani Coppola...Awesomeness from the past.......

I actually have this as a cassingle, never saw the video until tonight.

Local ties for spending bill veto

Whoa what's this? Disgustedem (yes, that lapsed blogger Disgustedem) is making a post? You betcha.

On Tuesday 11/13 Preznit Bush vetoed a $606 billion spending bill due to what he calls "pork" earmarks. Well as TP notes most of these are from Republican requesters:

However, much of the “pork” Boehner complained about was requested by Republicans. Aside from the “National Programs and Activities,” the single biggest earmark in the Labor-HHS-Education section of the bill belongs to Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Ala., who won $9.3 million for the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The second-largest was requested by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — $8.4 million for the University of Louisville Research Foundation.

Read it here: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/14/bush-mcconnell-shelby-earmarks/

Also today there is this well timed Times article which goes into detail of the local repercussions the veto has: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/14/bush-mcconnell-shelby-earmarks/

While it appears this money is still possible when did Chimpy start becoming so fiscally conservative? Oh ya - this money isn't for Iraq.

Outsourcing Bargain, Doh!

The other day my friend, (and lapsed contributor to this blog) disgutedem, picked up a bunch of stocks in one of the big Indian outsourcing firms. From our uninformed perspective, it was a reasonable hedge against the possibility of having our jobs outsourced to them.

Also, on the day he was buying it, there was still Street cred for the argument that "techs aren't as exposed to subprime."

Today, Kedrosky points out that the big Indian outsourcers are rather heavily exposed to the "It's-cheap-for-a-reason" financial sector.

The race to the bottom continues apace!!!!!!!

Radiohead covers Smiths via BigPicture

Huh! I normally go to The Big Picture for witty economic commentary, not music, but it's becoming increasingly clear that Barry R. and I share some similar tastes.

From BP, Radiohead doing a pretty album-faithful cover of The Smiths "The Headmaster Ritual". I don't even want to start a Johnny-vs.-Johnny guitar conversation.

Basic summary: One of my favorite post-college bands covers one of my favorite "college/high school bands". Effin'-Ay right!

Update (2007-11-16): Ha! I just watched this vid again and apparently, Johnny has decided he ain't allowing any more frontal shots unless they're from the guitar-up and neck-down on a crappy webcam. As someone who tends to look crappy in photos, I applaud this move. As a band geek who wants to watch him play, I'm disappointed by the quick cut edits. Yay/boo!

Pakistan becomes a dictatorship

So on Fri/Sat, Pakistan's President declared a state of National Emergency, and suspeded the constitution, based largely on the threats of:

an Islamic militant movement that has spread from border regions to the capital and an increasingly defiant Supreme Court, which was expected to rule soon on the validity of his recent presidential election win. Hearings scheduled for next week were postponed, with no new date set.

A general consensus suggested that this was a move towards dictatorship, and less concerned with national threats.


Not surprisingly, today, the military and police rounded up political activists. The Pakistani-friendly U.S. Government was understandably rendered egg-faced on the subject.

UFS pimpin' out snoopy to the interns

Okay, I just got this Metlife ad on the sidebar of my yahoo financial pages. Now, I am admittedly a purist, but this Snoopy artwork appears to have been done by a moderately promising intern in MS Paint.

WTF? Are there no standards anymore? Can't the United Features Syndicate afford Photoshop for their licensed images? Line weight, anyone?

Free Jammie Thomas

In case anyone doesn't know, Jammie Thomas is the person who was sued by the RIAA for uploading 24 songs on Kazaa. Ultimately, this story is about the RIAA turning their business model into a "Sue people for screwing up our failed money-making scheme" versus a "Figuring out how to adapt our business model to give people what they want"

The RIAA was awarded (depending on the article, the exact dollar amount is not clear) approximately $220,000. I'll save you the trouble of doing the math...that's over $9,000 per song.

I haven't followed the story closely, but it sounds like this case was won under questionable circumstances. It's also not clear to me, the casual observer, whether she actually admitted to sharing the songs or not.

She's fighting the ruling on the grounds that the damage amount is unconstitutional. I don't know if she's got a legal leg to stand on, but my sense is that -whether or not she was actually guilty of the crime- the punishment is completely out of line with the magnitude of the offense.

Here's the page for freejammie.com, the proceeds of which are allegedly going to her legal fees for the motion to overturn.

wikipedia entry (not terribly informative)
wired blog post

Secret History of LOLCats

Courtesy of Attack of the Show, we learn that - contrary to popular opinion - LOLCats predate the Internet by quite some time. I'm peeing myself laughing...and ceiling cat is watching me do so.

The History of LOLCats - Watch more free videos

Siouxie Sue - Kiss them for me

The reason we saw the first Lollapalooza twice was because Siouxsie had a throat thing the first time.

Cherub Rock - Smashing Pumpkins

For real, this time........


I recall these guys getting booed off the stage, at Rec Hall at PSU, because people wanted to see the opening band and headliners...Pearl Jam and the Chili Peppers, respectively..........

Jane's - Ocean Size

Much in the same way that Bush realized that man and fish could co-exist, this was the song that made me realize that Freak/Weirdo music and Metal could co-exist, dammit!



Update 2007-11-12: Video fixed. They can keep pulling the videos, we will keep linking to the new ones......

The Ditty Bops

Just because they're awesome...



Update 2007-11-12: I get really tired of YouTube videos that are eventually removed. Free advertising, people. Grrrr...........

White Man's Burden

Time was when a man was a man and something..something...something. Thank the good lord that people like voting chief John Tanner are looking out for downtrodden masses like me.

Nowadays, being a middle-class white man ain't the sure ticket to success that it used to be. I spend my days slaving away at the I/T Mills, while younger, completely marriage-able ladies are wasting valuable child-bearing years pursuing careers as Internet news pundits.

It makes me want to spit, I tell ya.

(completely serious)
No, seriously....it makes me want to spit. Let me tell you, please! If I was only born ten years later, I could'a been an Intertube contender, fer shure!!!
(/completely serious)

In these web-two-dot-aught days, with sites like The Webb Alert and Black20News, and their streaming talkies, any attractive female with a talent for news commentary can be a star.

But what about us thirty-somethings? We never had this shot at the big time. I could wear a low-cut shirt and smile all purty, but nobody'll watch my vidcast. Heck, all I get are a bunch of hits from Koreans looking for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", following their links from Naver.com. Whatever they're looking for, they don't find it here...they just move on.

Bah, some day...there will be justice for the middle-class 30-something American white man...we will have a voice.

Siamese Dream - Rocket

Smashing Pumpkins, just because.



....memories of listening to this album when it was new, sitting in the woods with my cats, LOLcats!

Update 2007-10-30 22:34: Updated the title of the post. For whatever reason, I had it in my head the name of the album was "Cherub Rock". Personally, I blame the Clinton Administration. That or the booze.

eff it, modest mouse

Dashboard follows.....



Johnny Marr, y'all........

I'll Take Mine in "Go Mango" Green, Please

(Your author drools...)

The AutoBlog article isn't sure if this is an official (the automaker formerly known as Plymouth) car, or some custom one-off, but dear lord, I want one. Even with the godawfully ugly interior.

Update 2007-10-30-02:03 EST: From the update on AutoBlog, it is apparently a one-off. Curses!

Paulson and the Administration's Message

Back in late July, our Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson hit my radar by reportedly making the following comments on the economy:

Speaking on CNBC television, Paulson said the economy was moving to a sustainable pace of growth and the risks in the subprime mortgages market were largely contained.
(This was from a yahoo news article which has since expired.)

Now, bear in mind that when he said it, it was becoming clear that the subprime problems were not terribly well contained. I believe it was earlier that week that Mozillo explicitly said that the delinquencies were showing up in Alt-A and even Prime loans. Furthermore, the "subprime is contained" talking points had started to become something of a joke.

So to hear the Secretary of the Treasury tossing out talking points past their expiration date was a bit troubling. Either he was doing a really poor job of trying to bamboozle, or he was woefully uninformed.

Consequently, I've been trying to keep an eye on what Hank has to say about the economy since then.

Today, Bonddad informs me of his latest masterpiece. Now that the dollar is at all time lows against the Euro, and down substantially against just about every major currency which isn't on a dollar peg, Hank tells us:

"I believe that a strong dollar is in our nation's interest and also that currency values should be set in a competitive marketplace based upon underlying economic fundamentals,"

Bonddad comments:

Look -- if the US wants a "strong dollar policy" they have to act like a strong dollar economy. That means things like exporting more than they import and not issuing mammoth amounts of new debt every year. You just can't say it; you have to act in a way that leads to that result.

Indeed.

At this point, it's really hard to shake the belief that everyone in the Administration genuinely believes that if you just say something enough times, it will magically become true.

Victory!

When I was first waking up this morning, I thought I heard the news announcer say that the Red Sox had finally delivered victory over the insurgent Iraqis, but then I realized I was half asleep and misunderstood.

Congrats to Boston, anyway, I guess.

The "Comcast Blocking BitTorrent" Story Continues

Since I wasn't blogging while this was happening, I missed discussing this story initially. However, like all good juicy stories, this one keeps on giving.

Earlier this summer, there were reports that Comcast was blocking BitTorrent traffic. Comcast offered a denial that basically said they didn't monitor what types of traffic it's customers were using, but that they did reserve the right to shut down people who hogged bandwidth. More recently, the AP investigated and found some fairly conclusive proof that, contrary to what Comcast said, it sure looked like they were sending spoofed messages that appeared to be from the downloader to the seed host to stop sending. (Summary here)

Consumerist subsequently received some internal emails from Comcast that indicates that their official line is now that they are not "blocking access" to BitTorrent users. Which, in classic hair-splitting language, is arguably true. They're not technically blocking anyone's access, they're simply telling the seed file hosts to stop sending. The reps are being told, very sternly, not to deviate from their scripts, so I can't imagine there's some extremely precise legal arguments being utilized here.

And then, from an update in that same consumerist post, it is discovered that the software Comcast denies using to interfere with BitTorrent traffic is available as a choice on their internal troubleshooting system.

We'll be watching this one closely...

Domestic Wiretapping Prior to 9/11

This post is going to be rather sparse, and the main reason I'm putting it up is so I can easily find the WaPo link later on.

Main point: Everyone talking about providing retroactive Telco immunity in the upcoming FISA update argues that "Hey, it was after the 9/11 Terrorist attacks! They were trying to help the Gov't out in a very troubling time." However, as this article suggests, the domestic surveillance had started long before the Sept 11th attacks occurred.

Former chief executive Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted in April of 19 counts of insider trading, said the NSA approached Qwest more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to court documents unsealed in Denver this week.
(emphasis mine)

This information has been significantly absent in all discussions I've heard lately, so it may have been refuted. Still trying to find out the status on the validity of the claim. More to come...

Update: Here's an article where emptywheel examines the SSCI arguments in favor of retro immunity for the telcos.

Irrational Exuberance, Oct 2007-style

Hey, everybody! It's Saturday!

Let's review what I consider the most interesting stock market news from yesterday.

Troubled home lender Countrywide Financial reported 3Q results yesterday. Here are the highlights:

- Countrywide Financial Corp (CFC.N) posted a $1.2 billion third-quarter loss on Friday
- The quarterly net loss totaled $2.85 per share, or $1.20 more than Reuters Estimates said analysts on average expected
- Countrywide wrote down $1 billion related to capital market disruptions.
- It set aside $934.3 million for credit losses, up from $38 million a year earlier, as more borrowers fell behind on payments
- Countrywide said borrowers were delinquent on 29.08 percent of subprime loans it serviced as of September 30, up from 23.71 percent in June.

Truly some grim results. I can only imagine the market must have really pummeled their stock.

Countrywide shares rose $4.23 to $17.30 on the New York Stock Exchange

Huh. You don't say...

Makes you wonder what all those buyers were expecting CFC to report, no?

So, at this point, I'm convinced that the financial markets are just completely covering their ears and shouting "la-la-la...I can't hear you!" for about half of the economic news coming in. There can't be a recession, because I called bull market, no takebacks.

AP Editorial Slant on Oil Revenues

So I get that this article is from the business news section, but this might well be the most transparently biased lead line I've ever seen.

The oil industry is under assault globally by nations and even provinces who want companies ... to cough up more royalties they can use to address issues like poverty and education.

The oil industry is under assault? Oh dear! Who will look out for the interests of those defenseless multi-billion dollar megacorporations? Forget the freaking children, wont someone please think of Big Lovable Oil? Curse those greedy nations (and provinces, no less!) for depriving these businesses of their profits and then frittering them away on the greedy poor and uneducated.

So, either....Wow! That's an interesting take on the subject. Or else, I tip my hat to the most subversive sarcasm since "A Modest Proposal".

Ouch!

Okay, so I'm basically just going to copy (and link to) Mark's boingboing post, because he pretty much sums this one up as elegantly and succinctly as possible:

Nad Shot is a blog that posts comic book panels of violent punches and kicks to the groin.

Nad Shot. A blog posting pics of comic characters getting hit in the nuts. I suppose "brilliant" is not the right word, but maybe "awesome" is close.

10/19 Changed Everything

Uh oh...from MSNBC...

Plane hits building near Vancouver airport
Two elderly people aboard aircraft injured, Canadian media report

Let's see if Harper is going to prove his Conservative cred and declare a Global War on Elderly People.

Sarkozy elected President of France

Well, in what (I believe) NPR called the highest french voter turnout ever, voters have elected conservative Nicolas Sarkozy as President over Segolene Royal. He is expected to push for reforms that would push France towards a more US/UK-style of social and economic policies to help increase French growth and employment.

Kos luminary Jerome a Paris isn't completely convinced. Further, he again argues compellingly that, contrary to the standard line in most economic reporting, the economies of the US and UK aren't necessarily superior to that of France.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Van Johnson on the Future of Content Networking

This is already a bit old, but I was just alerted to it via slashdot.

Van Johnson, one of the people responsible for building computer networking as we know it today, gives a lecture at Google summarizing how we got to Web 2.0 and proposing where we need to go from here. His basic premise is that we're currently at a "Coppernican Revolution" moment in terms of content delivery, similar to where we were in the 60s and 70s when they were working on what would become the Intertubes as we know them today...and suggests that we need to change the way we think about networking.

He suggests that the biggest problem with networking as we have it today is that it is still fundamentally too "conversation-based", which worked fine for the pre-commercial academic/military/research networks for which it was designed, but in our emerging ubiquitous computing world, it needs to be more "data-centric".

For those who care it's well worth watching.

Huge in Korea

So my regular reader knows that I've been perplexed by my inexplicable traffic resulting from searches on "tiananmen square", we now have chapter 2 of the story. (Sidenote: I've still never managed to find this blog when searching on any of these terms, which is one of my key sources of perplexity)

The (apparently) Korean search engine naver.com seems to be sending a lot of traffic my way on searches for "Gorillaz".

To this I say: "Huttah!", and further... 환영, 나의 한국 친구

(This is likely one of those cases where babelfish totally screws up and that text manages to be some Korean insult.)

4/29truth.com - don't believe the hype

Unlike the situation on 9/11, we now know how to evaluate gas-fire-related structural collapses. As such, we now have a site devoted to debunking the "official story" on the so-called *accidental* collapse of the overpass leading to the Bay Bridge, only days after the actual event.

Was it Liberals? Or the Jews? Or perhaps George Soros, even?

I'm sure this site will get beyond the *official story* in no time.

Johnathan Coulton - First of May

exitramp's favorite musician, Johanathan Coulton, has new (?) a song appropriate for MayDay. He maintains and/or exceeds most favored musician status with this one.

Link. (Definitely NSFW.)

Ah, spring...

Viacom Takedown on Coulton/Mix-a-lot Mashup

I had planned to do a post on the phenomenal time-synched mashup of Jonathan Coulton's cover of "Baby Got Back" with the original video by Mix-a-Lot, but apparently Viacom issued a takedown, so it's no longer available.

Once again, I've missed the trolley.

To make up for it, here's a Coulton doing "B.G.B." live video from L.A. last year. Suck it, Viacom.

• Previous exitramp post about Coulton: (Re Your Brains, machinima video)


• Link to the took-down YouTube link: ("No such thing as bad publicity" link)

Is The Internets Be Making We Stupid?

For the last four or five days, I've been refusing to look something up on the Internet. Sometime last week, we heard a cover of "I Melt With You", and I realized I couldn't remember the name of the band who originally performed that song.

Please understand that I loved this song when it first came out   got "alternative" big, but before it was a popular song. At my parents' house, I have both albums on which this song was released. In summary, I used to be a fan.

As such, I was extremely pissed that I couldn't remember the band's name. I refused to look it up on the Internet or even try to find the CD. I've been using the Internet as a crutch for good memory for way too long, and I think my long-term memory is suffering as a result. Not wasting brain cells on the syntax for a given command is one thing...not being able to remember the name of a favorite band from back-in-the-day is a completely different situation.

Tonight, I finally remembered their name. (Modern English) I'm totally enthused about having remembered it without any crutches, and I think I'm going to try to avoid using the Internet as a memory-aid to try and avoid allowing my long-term memory to stagnate.

Yet Another Post

Dear Internets,

I know it's been a while since I rapped at ya, but...

I did just go through the archives here the other day and noticed that I've been really bad about posting for many months now.

Recently, I started a new job. This one will likely involve far less after-hours and weekend work, so hopefully I'll have more time to find clever things to say.

We should totally spend more time together starting....NOW

Sincerely,

mergenow

P.S. John Edwards is a total fag LOL!!!!

Suck It, Pandora

If you didn't know me in college, you may as well skip this post.

I personally enjoy pandora.com, as far as algorithm-based music-recommendation services go.

However, today, they pushed my music snobbery to the limit...

While following a link to get the full song title tonight, I was presented with a page that presented me with the following challenge via a banner ad:

"Huh!" my inner music snob screamed out, "My freaking ass other Pandora listeners like the same music I do!"

Instantly, an old college favorite came to mind:

A tense minute elapsed while the hourglass thingy clocked away....until finally:

Yeah. That's what I thought, punk.

Test of new blogger

Let's see how the new blogger format works....