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Tuesday, May 31, 2005
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Click the green dinosaur on your way out, Okrent.
Read Paul Krugman's replies to departing Public Douche Bag,
Daniel Okrent, formerly of the New York Times. Here's a fine snippet of
Krugman's long suffering anti-invective: Moreover, I not only played
fair with my readers, I urged them to check...
[Majikthise]
9:19:58 PM 
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Gulag.
Here's what can happen when you start imprisoning people without fair
trials: "When we went to Pakistan the local people treated us like
brothers and gave us good food and meat," said another detainee. But
soon, he said, they were...
[Ezra Klein]
9:16:11 PM
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70,000 prisoners of war on terror.
Talkleft charts the archipelago:
Here are Amnesty International's latest numbers. USA’s “war on terror” detainees, April 2005 (approximate totals/estimates)(11)
USA: Naval Brig, Charleston, South Carolina 2 “enemy combatants”
Cuba: Guantánamo Bay naval base 520 (234 releases/transfers)
Afghanistan: Bagram air base 300
Afghanistan: Kandahar...
[Majikthise]
9:14:48 PM
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College Dropouts.
Mark Thoma tells us to go read David Leonhardt: Economist's View: The
Dropout Boom and the Growing Education Gap: This article describes the
rising college drop-out rate, particularly among lower income students,
and the widening education gap this is bringing about. The article also
looks at potential causes of the rising dropout rate and policies
attempting to reverse the trend: The College Dropout Boom, By DAVID
LEONHARDT, NY Times: One of the biggest decisions Andy Blevins has ever
made, and one of the few he now regrets, never seemed like much of a
decision.... He had been getting C's and D's, and college never felt
like home, anyway.... So he quit college... and... joined one of the
largest and fastest-growing groups of young adults in America. He
became a college dropout... Only 41 percent of low-income students
entering a four-year college managed to graduate within five years, but
66 percent of high-income students did. That gap had grown over recent
years.......
[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal]
9:12:07 PM
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Rumors that GM *Is* Going to Shovel Lots of Cash Out of the Enterprise.
The question of why the auto companies aren't shoveling cash out of their enterprises is partially answered.
Lee Hawkins reports:
Heard on the Street: Wall Street is betting that General Motors Corp.
-- facing the twin issues of having its bonds rated 'junk' and Las
Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's tender offer under way -- soon will
undertake a more ambitious restructuring... GM's highly profitable
finance arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., which last year earned
$2.9 billion, or about 80% of GM's total net income. GMAC's potential
for growth was crimped when Standard & Poor's downgraded GM's
credit ratings to junk status earlier this month.... Now, some analysts
say selling all or part of GMAC would help GM raise more cash to pay
for an overhaul of its money-losing North American auto business -- or
a payout to shareholders -- while allowing GMAC to obtain an
investment-grade debt rating that will allow it to grow.... Action in
GM's shares suggests that investors are betting that something big will
happen, but watching the debt situation warily.... Getting concessions
from the UAW to close more plants and reduce GM's work force still
might not be enough to make a significant difference, says Ron...
[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal]
9:11:23 PM
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Raise Up!. USA Today writes on states raising their minimum wages thanks to federal inaction on the issue.
Now, the normal arguments are raised - a crippling blow to certain
minimum-wage dependent industries, such as the restaurant biz. Of
course, you can also check out this map of America's minimum wage laws
(not quite up to date yet), and note that a good number of very rich
states have higher minimum wages, and a good number of very poor states
have minimum wages equal to the federal government's. (This isn't even
to note that Ohio's minimum wage, nearly 20% less
than the federal average, pretty much tells you all you need to know
about the reason workers are leaving Ohio like it's a sinking ship. It
automatically rises to the national average, but the fact that the
legislature is so far behind that meager progress is telling.)
The minimum wage doesn't happen in a vacuum. And wages to low-income
workers don't just disappear down an economic sinkhole. I'm interested
to see a study done on its impact, but most of the research I've seen
to this point tends to pretend that if there's a recession and a
minimum wage increase, any job loss occurs because of the minimum wage
increase. Cause and effect doesn't really matter, as long as the right
group is blamed, and it tends to boil down to those greedy cashiers and
janitors who'd like to be able to go to a restaurant without a 99-cent
menu every so often. [Pandagon]
12:23:56 PM
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Find The Minority At The Core of Every Problem.
If you don't have a small minority to blame for the problem of the
majority, what sort of solution are you coming up with? Illegal
immigrants are taking our jobs. A welfare queen is living in a mansion.
The liberal elite are corrupting our culture....
[MyDD]
12:22:01 PM
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The GOP agenda.
In November 2004, the GOP retained the White House and increased its
majorities in the US House and Senate. This is what they've done with
their mandate. U.S. House Change ethics rules so DeLay can be as corrupt as he wants. Destroy Social Security Pass MBNA's bankruptcy elimination bill. Meddle in the Schiavo family's private business Prevent life-saving stem-cell research U.S. Senate Destroy Social Security Pass MBNA's bankruptcy elimination bill. Meddle in the Schiavo family's private business Violate Senate rules to destroy historical protections for minority rights Prevent life-saving stem-cell research President Bush Destroy Social Security Pass MBNA's bankruptcy elimination bill Destroy Social Security Terri Schiavo Destroy Social Security Destroy separation of powers doctrine -- get involved in Senate fight over filibuster Prevent life-saving stem-cell research Notice that the Iraq quagmire is nowhere on that agenda. Let's hope they keep it up. This agenda is a one-way ticket back to minority status for the Republican Party.
[Daily Kos]
12:18:50 PM
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Embryo adoption is not enough. Lindsay has a modest proposal after
reading about people who "sacrifice" by adopting the embryos left
behind by the privileged people who can afford IVF treatments. The
problem is there are not volunteers for embryo adoption to save all
those itty-bitty cell clumps.
A reproductive draft is the only fair way to settle
this. I don't care how many kids a lady fundamentalist has, or whether
it's healthy for her to be pregnant, or what she might rather be doing
with her uterus. If her number's up, it's up. No excuses. Jesus hates
whiners.
This is a great idea, but it doesn't go far enough, since there are
still nearly 1.4 million abortions performed in this country a year,
and pro-lifers invariably describe the vast majority of these as
"selfish". Well, who's being selfish here? Randall Terry was all about
making that 13-year-old ward of the state in Florida have a baby but I
didn't see any of his followers jump up and offer a womb transfer. That
fetus needed a home! And so did its mother, but let's not overwhelm the
followers of Christ with the miseries of real people quite yet.
I know you're saying to yourself that there's no practical method of
transferring fetuses like this, but I have an answer to that--all those
scientists that were hoping to work with stem cells in order to help
even more real people. Let's get them on board with the saving
potential people instead of saving real people. Direct their energies
to finding a way to do quick fetal transfers from one woman to another.
Or, better yet, put those scientists to work on finding a way to
transfer fetuses to men's bodies and double up the number of
anti-choicers who can put their bodies to the hard work of saving
babies. I'm positive that Randall Terry would be the first to offer to
carry the babies of women who are looking to abort once these
scientists figure this out. I bet he steps right up, no prompting
necessary. [Pandagon]
8:31:49 AM
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'Cause He's The Birdman. Bush's political capital is rapidly dwindling, or at least that's becoming the common take on his presidency.
What causes lame duckness, however, isn't simply Bush picking his
platform out of the Asshole Bag, but the fact that the Republican Party
is stuck without an heir to his throne for 2008. If there were a strong
frontrunner in Congress who were somewhat ideologically in line with
Bush (hard enough because of the policies he's pursing, even harder
because Bill Frist thinks he's actually got a chance to win and
doesn't), Bush would at least have some victories and someone invested
in making him look good. It's exactly Bush's problem - he's leaping
into a Congressional election year with dangerous issues, not realizing
that even if he doesn't have to worry about paying for his
ideas, there's an entire legislative body whose worry is continued
employment, not remaking the government to preserve a legacy that ends
in early 2009.
Of course, Cheney's out here predicting that Bush will shed a major albatross before then, and Cheney's word on Iraq is as good as gold. [Pandagon]
8:31:09 AM
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Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday. From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE... Late Night Snark...
"President Bush met with Palestinian president Abbas. There was one
embarrassing moment when he said to Abbas, `I love your hit, Dancing
Queen.'"
--Jay Leno "How many folks saw
the pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underpants? I don't know...I'm
from the school of thought that if I want to see a hairy guy in his
underpants I'll just hail a cab."
--David Letterman
"The paperback version of President Clinton's book came out and in it
Clinton admits that the hard cover version may have been too long.
Clinton admits his mistake in a new 200 page introduction."
--Conan O'Brien
"The U.S. Army has a new program that will allow soldiers to leave the
service a couple years before their full four year contract is up. They
can leave early. This is based on a plan developed by President Bush
when he was in the National Guard."
--Leno "Star Wars took in $158 million in just four days. Yeah, that's more than some gas stations."
--Letterman Cheers and Jeers burns diesel in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
[Daily Kos]
8:29:54 AM
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© Copyright
2005
Michael Mussington.
Last update:
6/1/2005; 1:35:30 AM.
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