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