Tuesday-->Thursday Open Thread
The SCOTUS severely limits the Voting Rights Act.
Obama calls for stricter teacher accountability .
Will Iraq's continuing deterioration cause Obama to readjust his withdrawal plans?
Sea rise is expecteded to exceed projections causing trouble for more than 600 million people.
Submitted by Specter on Tue, 2009-03-10 10:59
Tags:
Comments :
Bernanke speech on the future regulation
This is his speech
given at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Arnold Kling pulls out
this quote:
Yes. "Regulation" and "Deregulation" are indeed generic words that don't explain much without context.
This quote by Bernanke is a sort of paraphrase of the idea I offered recently that regulations/deregulations work in groups and need to be viewed as such. Action or change in policy usually requires a counterveiling action or policy adjustment for everything to make sense or work properly. Any regulation or deregulation (from the current status) will have multiple effects. Further regulation/deregulation will most likely be needed to account for that.
Bernanke is basically telling us that the current brew policies has flaws that lead to perverse results for all involved. That's pretty obvious...and was very obvious before the fact to many writers I've read over the last few years.
The real nugget here is what exactly this all means for Bernanke and what adjustments he sees as necessary. How far back/how deep into the regulatory log of policy actions is willing to go?
Then again,
others have posited that the regulation brew simply behaved differently when other factors changed...outside of the regulatory structure. See: Monetary Policy, perhaps among other factors. (This is an exogeneous explanation while the bernanke quote above is an endogeneous explanation.)
Don't say we didn't tell you so ...
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4ON both fronts he
is cleaning up the ginormous mess that Bush left our country in.
All things considered, in a short period of time, he has had a lot on his plate and his doing a damn decent job. It would help if Republicans would stop being the party of no.
The republican solution to everything is, wait for it ....... *tax cuts* ....... a bit stale after decades of increasing wealth disparity.
I'm only half stupid
That assumes
Iraq is part of the GWOT. I think we know where each of us stands on that issue.
He is actually stepping up
the actual and legitimate front in Afghanistan. Remember Osama bin Laden? That guy. Yeah, he's somewhere in the vicinity of Afghanistan and Pakistan where we are sending the troops.
We are all mediators, translators. - Derrida
http://signicide.blogspot.com/
He's murdering innocent women and children ...
in Afganistan and Pakistan. He's indisrminantly firing missiles at them. He obviously has no respect for human life the vile heartless bastard. Oh yea, and we have also determined that he is a pedophile (because he is screwing America's children with his porkulus bills).
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4He is forced
to deal with the unfortunate ungodly mess that Bush left him.
I'm only half stupid
What mess would that be?
Things (economy, security in Iraq, etc.) were better under Bush than they are now. It is amazing how quickly Obama has managed to MISMANAGE everything he has touched (except the teachers union). The most incompetent President evah.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Mohammed Saïd al-GoRight
Mohammed Saïd al-GoRight
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
What a bunch of Chicken Little handwringers the red-bars are :-p
What a sad state of affairs for the red-bars. I understand that the red-bars got nothin right now-- no rising political stars to hype, no achievements to tout, no good ideas to solve our nation's problems-- but the least they could do is pull for the team while they sit on the bench. Instead they just try to undermine everything that is being tried with their constant whining, doomsaying, and fearmongering.
The economy is entirely psychological. If the red-bars would merely quit scaring the American people with all their dire predictions and negativity, we could have a recovery here as soon as the latter part of this year. But the fact is that these "True Patriots" would rather see additional millions of their fellow Americans lose their jobs rather than have a "democrat" president get credit for turning the economy around.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
Of course you could say the
Of course you could say the same thing about the blue bars a year ago.
Yeah!
The G.O.P. is actually debating whether it wants our president to fail. It's pathetic.
If we believe that Warren Buffet is correct, and Sept, 18th, 2008, was in fact our Economic Pearl Harbor, then aren't we fighting a war to save our economy.
Those who express the wish that Obama fails (for mere political expediency) are coming close to the edge of treason.
I would put Glenn Beck specifically in that category, of borderline traitor. He is riling up his viewers to the point of mass hysteria. I guess it is good for his ratings but making money by pouring gas on peoples fears that really is dangerous to our country. He is like Judith Miller on crack.
You are exactly right, that these "True Patriots" would rather see additional millions of their fellow Americans lose their jobs rather than have a "democrat" president get credit for turning the economy around.
I'm only half stupid
Red States vs Blue States
It is interesting that Obama's stimulus plan and the push for changing health care are likely to benefit the folks concentrated in the Red States, whose Republican leaders have been 'starving the beast' for a long time.
It is ironic that corporations in these states often get massive tax breaks and subsidies (socialism?) while individual citizens are left to particiate in the 'free makret'.
I think Mississippi received the most stimilus of any state.
Red states across the South, which now offer limited benefits to low-income residents, stand to receive billions of dollars to cover large populations of uninsured citizens. Blue states in the North and Midwest, which are wealthier and already offer insurance to many, are likely to take a financial hit.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19874_Page2.html
I'm only half stupid
Isn't this just "spreading the wealth" around ...
like Obama promised?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4You missed
the point. The Red States who worship Reaganomics are the ones that are in the worst economic shape.
I'm only half stupid
So you are saying when Obama said he wanted to
spread the wealth around he was actually talking about giving more stuff to the Republicans? Weird, I would have thought that would be unpopular with Democrats.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4It's just a reality
that the 'we the people' are the in more dire and pressing needs in states governed by Republicans, who insist that starving the beast is the best medicine.
I know that as a partisan GOP you are more interested in sticking it to anyone with a D after their name, but it's hard to ignore that whatever color your district, red or blue, losing homes, jobs and teachers is an issue that should not be partisan.
Obviously the policies fomented by the Reds seem to be floating yachts not boats.
The 'losers' that Rick Santelli wants to throw a tea party revolt against, are in mostly Republican districts.
http://www.examiner.com/x-1765-Underground-Examiner~y2009m3d13-Santellis...
Today's losers losing their homes
are Republican districts. At least according to the Center for Responsible Lending, who has just issued a new report that shows nine of the top ten districts with the most foreclures are Republican and most likely to receive the bulk of any homeowner bailout, and thus, at least according to one On Air editor of a major cable network, fit the definition of "losers". Those districts are 
:
I'm only half stupid
Hey there, forked tongue?
I seem to recall you making the case that it was Patriotic to express dissent and WRONG to call dissenters unpatriotic. Now all of a sudden the dissenters are not only unpatriotic, but traitors? So much for you principles.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Cheering
for the US economy to fail is not analogous to not wanting to fight an unnecessary war.
Remember the old adage, "We are fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight em over here."?
Well it looks like destroying Wall Street was an inside job. We did this to ourselves.
It's ironic that the terrorists took down the World Trade Towers in an effort to disable our economy and our government and it was hubris and deception of unscrupulous investors that ended up doing the trick.
While the Grover Norquists of the world were busy trying to tear down our government, venture capitalists were busy destroying the economy in the name of global growth.
And you have the gall to say now is a good time to destroy safety nets. Tell that to the soldiers coming home who can't find work, lost their homes, had their savings destroyed, and now have to listen to Rush cheering for our President to fail.
I'm only half stupid
Cheering for the US economy to fail?
Who wants the economy to fail? Not me. This is PRECISELY why I am hoping that Obama's economic policies fail, because I wasn the economy to come back sooner rather than later as it would if Obama succeeds in his quest. Obama the pedophile is heading in the wrong direction.
Still, my point still stands. When you were the one's dissenting why that was the very height of patriotism. Now that we are the ones dissenting you suddenly feel like dissenter = traitor. That says a lot about your principles, at least it does to me.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4There is a big difference
between dissent, and traitor.
Don't play your usual stupid games and try to blur the lines.
OH wait nevermind. I forgot who I was talking to.
I'm only half stupid
Sorry, MissL
But I actually mostly agree with GR here. Talk of traitors and treason made me ill when it was coming from the right, and it makes me ill when it's coming from the left. Nobody on either side wants to destroy America. The extremes on both sides are guilty of stupid rhetoric that taken at face value could be considered treasonous, but that's all it is - stupid rhetoric.
We are the environment. There is no distinction. What we do to the earth we do to ourselves. —David Suzuki
Agreed.
110%.
Why do you feel the need to apologize.....?
to me?
Stand up for what you believe, buddy. No need to hide behind my crazy skirt!
I'm only half stupid
Nah, we know the economy will turn around.
So does Obama. In fact he is betting BIG TIME on it. That's why he is spending so much now under the guise of it being a "democrat stimulus package." That way when things do turn around he can try to claim credit for it. Just remember, you heard it here first! :)
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4And just when you were convinced I am reflexively bashing Obama
On this point I completely agree with him and I hope he is successful in implementing the required changes.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Wait until your guru instructs you
I am sure Rush will find a way to slam Obama for this somehow. Tune in tomorrow for further instructions from dear leader! =)
I'm only half stupid
Aw cmon, give GR a break :-)
GR has proven that he can think independently of Rush AT LEAST 2% of the time :-)
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
I think you're in the same boat as me
We'd both like to see teachers held more accountable, but we'd rather not be seeing the POTUS doing the accounting.
Local/state school boards are where this needs to be addressed.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
Actually
that is exactly what the rallying cry from Obama mentioned. He wants all hands on deck to help with solutions in education, from top to bottom, school boards included.
If there wasn't so much other bad news out there, it is an exciting positive step in revamping our educational system.
I'm only half stupid
Obviously, I like Obama's move to take on the teacher's union
I liked that he mentioned not only the merit pay, but that underperforming teachers need to be fired. The two things go hand in hand. Mediocre teachers hate the idea of merit pay not only because they won't be getting it, but because they fear that they will be in danger of being fired because of the kind of evaluations that will be necessary to determine the allocation of merit pay.
If the union doesn't play ball, Obama should look into his executive power and see if he has the authority to dissolve it. The education of the next generation is much more important than the job security of uninspired, ineffective teachers being allowed to go thru the motions year after year.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
Part of the deal with teaching
It is a thankless job, pays crap, and you have to put up with snot-nosed brats all day.
A co-worker of mine mentioned that I could probably be fast-tracked as a teacher because I've got a BS in Math and Math is one of the subject areas that there is a shortage.
I'm not doing that work. I don't care if you're paying $60,000/yr. No freakin' way.
I never broke the law; I am the law! --
George W. BushJudge DreddI'm listening to...
I've had a thankless job before...
I sat in a cubicle all day and took customer service calls for a pharmacy benefit manager. There were always calls on hold, so you basically were on the phone talking to people with problems for your full shift. All shift, just you, your computer screen, and unhappy people on your phone. Now that's a thankless job!
Teachers get all summer off and get the opportunity to leave their small mark on the next generation. And while there may be a fair share of "brats" out there, I wonder if that's partially because there the schools are boring kids to death rather than challenging and inspiring them.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
and you have to put up with teachers and administrators
And you have to put up with other teachers! I base this comment not on my experience as a student, but from what I've heard from a family member who is a teacher. She has constant stories about politicing, backstabbing, and plain old laziness/stupidity. This applies to the administrators as much as it does to the teachers.
Then there's the entitled kids with political connections within the school system, On top of that, a white teacher in a largely black school gets to sit on the front line of our still dysfunctional race relations.
In my expert opinion, you should do what I tell you to do.
Greenspan: The Fed didn't do it.
Via Mark Thoma
, we see an article by Big Al in the WSJ where he deflects responsibility for the housing bubble and its ensuing problems.
Whatever, Al.
It's a bald-faced lie. Either that or he is so engrossed in the finest minutia of monetary policy that he has sincerely convinced himself that he is right.
Either way, he is wrong. He can search long and wide and all he wants for some alternate explanation. The 800lb gorilla remains.
Says Mark Thoma, a liberal Keynesian if there ever was one:
I agree with Thoma even though he puts less weight on it than I would.
Such declarations from Greenspan are the ultimate in Chutzpah.
Face it, Al:
The buck on this matter started with YOU. And since the ripple effects of it are irreversible and must now take their course, the buck stopped with you too. Yes, you can't fix it...no one can. And you may even be right on some things going forward. But that doesn't change anything about why we got here.
Go home. Anything useful you may have to say will come from someone else if it's worthwhile.
Jerk.
Liberty Papers on Greenspan's "non-mea-culpa"
See here
.
I wanted to bring this up
I wanted to bring this up earlier but I've been increadibly busy with work these last few weeks. What Greenspan has started engaging in leads me to believe that the message of some economists is actually getting out and into the minds of some of the general public. And on that front I think I couldn't be happier. But Greenspan was still the root of the problem. Not even a kindly editorial in the NYT can save him that fate. I wonder if anyone reading the WSJ still believs him?
Banks are starting to say "No, Thanks"
to the bailout money.
Here's Megan McArdle
and here's Russ Roberts 
.
All this made me think instantly of one thing:
I guess they didn't need the money that badly.
Hank forced banks to
take money, even if they didn't want it, so that 'competitors' wouldn't be tipped off as to which banks were 'weak' in the global community.
I'm only half stupid
Bush Redemption
Ari Fleisher is on a media blitz meant to whitewash Bush's legacy.
Rush Limbaugh gives Obama credit for destroying global wealth.
GOP trashes Nancy Pelosi, for something about planes. ABC debunks story as fabrication.
Frank Schaffer says that GOP is acting like Jane Fonda because they are rooting for America to lose.
Democrats and libruls are evil cause they use computers to hack = new neocon talking point.
Nobody knows how to fix the economy except to change accounting rules and fudge the books just a little...... or modify market to market.
Frank Schaeffer, former compassionate conservative sounds bitter, recommends that Democrats not negotiate in any manner with Republicans, ever.
I'm only half stupid
Irony meter pegged at ludicrous
The rest of Frank's editorial (which you didn't bother to link to) amounts to a "if you're not with Obama, you're against him" mantra that calls anyone who doesn't believe in The One's plan a traitor. It suprising the number of liberals who eat this up after having nearly exploded over the identical marching song of Neo-Con's during the beginnings of the war in Iraq.
Whatever dude
The Republican power brokers cynically used God, as a wedge issue, as a way to paint democrats as immoral whiners, and as a way to promote trickle up economics. The whole compassionate conservative spiel.
Be as cynical as you like. Make whatever, neo-con, marxist comparison gets your feel good on.
I would expect nothing less than this from someone whose mantra is, "My country, what can it do for me as long as I don't have to pay?".
I'm only half stupid
What does that have to do
What does that have to do with Frank Schaeffer being a hypocrite? If you at least attempted to stay on topic rather than make unfounded accusations people might actually begin to take your seriously...
The point was that Frank Schaefer is now employing the very tactic that drove him away from the Repulican party. He's using Presidential support as a wedge to question people's patriotism. It's the same nationalistic crap the the Rovian's pushed.
I should have expected such a nonsensical response from you, I suppose. But I thought you could at least identify with the chidlish overtone of Schaeffer's article. I guess that particular brand of childishness is right up your alley?
Yes it is
I am a child at heart.
The neo-cons and their double speak was a low class act.
As to Frank, it's pretty obvious that the Republican party's God Crazy syndrome has pushed them further out of the mainstream.
If you think owning up to the unscrupulous insertion of religion into politics for a sheer unfettered power grab is 'nationalism', or hiding behind Obama's skirts, so be it.
I welcome folks that are willing to have a change of heart.
I also welcome folks that are willing to work together.
I like Sesame Street too.
Obama makes sense. The neo-cons never did.
I'm only half stupid
If Bernie Madoff was a banker
he wouldn't have to go to jail! He could get some of Hank Paulson's TARP funds and be saved!
It feels like hollow justice.
I'm only half stupid
Ross Douthat to replace Kristol at the NYT
Megan McArdle has a take on it
Ross Douthat blogs
and writes at the Atlantic.
Though I don't regularly read his blog, what I know of him from links and whatnot is reassuring that he's definitely a step up from Kristol. Then again, that isn't too hard. ;)
Deleted.
.
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4Bad Quiz
Via Ezra
we happen upon a quiz 
from the Center for American Progress to see just how "progressive" you are.
As would be expected, there are a lot of loaded questions that take a lot for granted. I agree with Ezra that the quiz isn't very good.
I suppose the real answer to how much a committed progressive (by CAP's standard's) someone is can be found in the reaction to the quiz. If the questions strike you as correct, accurate and not lacking, you're on board!
Congrats.
131/400. They call that very conservative for some reason.
Who woulda guessed?
I'm the Bugs Bunny of Swords Crossed!
-4 Strongly Disagree - 0 Meh - Strongly Agree +4235/400... I beat you by over 100 points :-)
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
225/400
And I still say it's a bad quiz. Many poorly worded questions.
It is a bad quiz
I've never come across a political litmus test like this that was any good. A good test would include more specific questions, extending beyond the buzzwords and simplistic treatment of issues.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
i would give an honest try to making one but...
I don't know how to "create it" in a press-button format that assigns a score or a point on a graph.
Do you know how people do that?
They made their quiz in Flash
It's a decent choice because it allows you to embed the quiz easily in a blog web page or other web page where you have no access to server-side scripting.
I have Flash MX 2004, a somewhat dated but still workable version of the flash development environment. My flash skills are pretty basic-- I pretty much only use it for making animated advertisements-- but I could probably re-create something along the lines of that quiz app somewhat easily.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
what about quizzes like
this:
http://www.okcupid.com/politics
what app is that?
political compass uses the same one...I believe.
as does moral politics.
any idea?
Just uses html and some scripting
They use Ajax/javascript. This would be an example of something that could not be embedded easily on a Swords Crossed page.
skymutt: accept no substitutes!
Adobe Flex
would be better...
btw, the quiz is too 2-dimensional; i scored a 164, which made me a conservative republican, which, of course, i'm not...
yeah...
the questions take a lot for granted and are based on a very the very biased POV of CAP.
BTW, the dumbest question had to be the one
that Ezra himself points out...the one about whether markets or government are better at creating jobs and economic growth. That is a truly dumb question...unless you're a flat out marxist.
286, I doubled up GR
286, I doubled up GR
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
Get your Galt On
Stephen Colbert celebrates Ayn Rand and Going Galt.
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/stephen-colbert-goes-galt-about-...
I'm only half stupid
World's smallest violin
Ayn, if alive today, would still be ticked off that those commies took dear old daddy's drug store.
Either critics do a horrible job explaining Raynd's arguments or she does, she loves the selfish gamblers that syphon the money from the people that actually make products, but hates the selfish moochers.
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,
I like the idea
of having all the meritorious producers of wealth, 'the Galt's, moving to an island.
Let's see how well off they are with no moochers to demonize.
If you review history you find that the plague in Europe, killed off so many of the workers, that in Italy for example the aristocrats had to get their hands dirty because there no one left to work their land. What's most fascinating is that it freed the land to produce crops, other than just for survival. Thus a rich array of fruit trees and crop varieties were cultivated.
I'm only half stupid
...
.
I'm only half stupid
David Brooks=Dolt
What a moron
...as William Anderson easily demonstrates by picking apart his latest column.
Radical Millionaire planned on using Dirty Bomb
Pay No Attention to the Man Buying All that Cesium
The home grown sleeper cell scare has some truth to it.
In our society, people are rewarded for pretending to be certain about things they're clearly not certain about. -- Sam Harris,