"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by Doctor Science
When people started talking about the TSA offering passengers a choice of “nude pix or enhanced pat-down”, I was at first kind of confused about why there was so much fuss. You see, I remember getting the old “enhanced security examination” years ago, and no-one then took real umbrage.
The different circumstances, though, shed light on why the TSA’s policies have really crossed a line (James Fallows, *very* frequent flier and occasional pilot, is a good source for background).
by Jacob Davies Ours is – learning to walk, that is: One day about a week ago he took one tottering step and two days later he was rampaging around the house anywhere he wanted. I am also helping him prepare for a career in the Godzilla-sized-monster business, since I feel everyone should learn a … Read more
by Eric Martin In what should have been heralded as a dramatic triumph for our criminal justice system and our laudable dedication to the rule of law, Ahmed Ghailani (who was involved in the embassy bombings in Africa in the late 1990s) was convicted and will likely serve life in prison (he faces a minimum of 20 … Read more
by Jacob Davies Via Naked Capitalism, the FDIC is starting investigations into 50 executives, directors, and employees at failed institutions: The agency responsible for dealing with bank failures is stepping up its effort to punish alleged recklessness, fraud and other criminal behavior, as U.S. officials did in the wake of the savings-and-loan crisis a generation … Read more
by Eric Martin The numbers from the Simpson-Bowles commission (as discussed by russell below) have been crunched by the expert, and the results have caused at least one prominent supporter, Jonathan Chait, to jump ship. The reasons are simple: The wonks have finally gone through the debt commission's plan, and the findings are… not so … Read more
by Jacob Davies Can we just leave them alone? Please? Would you rather live under a lunatic Christian fundamentalism or have your house blown up? What about having your house blown up by Americans is supposed to be making your life any better? You know those badges that say “What if there was a war … Read more
by Jacob Davies So, the new Republican line on quantative easing is that because unemployment is far too high and has been for far too long, the Federal Reserve needs to … stop trying to get unemployment down. “The Fed’s dual mandate policy has failed,” [GOP Rep. Mike] Pence said in a statement. “For a … Read more
by Doctor Science
Andrew Sullivan linked to Morgan Meis’ review of George W. Bush’s official portrait:
That can’t be serious, I thought to myself when I turned a corner at the Gallery and saw the portrait. The mundane kitsch of the thing was shocking. There are standards. By God there are standards. Aren’t there? A vase of flowers sits on the table of a dining room set behind him. The set is more middlebrow than anything you could find even at a mainstream outfit like IKEA. It is a set you’d find, I suppose, at Jennifer Convertibles. The whole scene is resolutely suburban. Aggressively suburban.
Meis is shocked at how much the portrait looks like “a Sears portrait” in quality, but what shocks *me* is how resolutely unpresidential it is.
by Jacob Davies
The story you must read today is Matt Taibbi on the massive fraud by banks and loan servicers in the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
I had a few things to say about this over the last month or two, but I think people had a hard time believing that fraud and perjury on this scale was actually possible; that people were being thrown out onto the street on the basis of affidavits that were forgeries and perjury through and through. Forged, back-dated documents purporting to be contemporaneous records of the transfer of mortgage notes from one party to another. Complete circumvention of the existing legal system for recording real estate ownership – and its associated taxes and fees – and its illegal replacement with an unreliable, understaffed private system. The employees of the corporation running that system passing themselves off as vice-presidents of dozens of banks and servicers so they could foreclose on mortgages. Banks even claiming both that they were and were not the actual owner of the mortage in the very same filings. Failures to convey the actual mortgages to the real estate trusts that backed the securities that were sold to investors. Attempts to convey mortages to those trusts only at the moment of foreclosure. Servicers with a vested interest in the mortages they service going into foreclosure so they can collect fees, and associated failures to collect payments. People given mortgage modifications by the bank, then foreclosed on for failing to pay the original amounts. People without mortgages being foreclosed on. Multiple banks claiming to own the same mortgage foreclosing on the same property.
And at the sharp end of all this, an automated process of perjury and fraud. Notarized affidavits claiming that the signer has personal knowledge of the facts of the case described that were signed by someone else with no knowledge of the facts and not notarized at all. And a court system overloaded with foreclosures unable to and uninterested in examining the facts of the cases in front of it. Families thrown out on the street in the tens or hundreds of thousands on the basis of minute-long hearings in courts where judges refused to consider questions of fraud.
It’s hard to comprehend just how pervasive and serious this problem is. Trillions of dollars have already been lost in the bursting of the real estate bubble, but trillions of dollars more of the remaining mortgage-backed securities may be entirely worthless. Not to mention the massive destruction of households and neighborhoods wrought by a mindless, mechanical legal process.
If you don’t have time to read the whole thing at RS, I’m excerpting the key parts after the fold. But I recommend taking the time to read it.
by russell OK, so the President's bi-partisan Fiscal Commission has released a initial draft report on how to reduce the national debt. Or, not really the whole commission, just the two co-chairs, Bowles and Simpson. The document contains a number of bold proposals. By "bold" I mean, guaranteed to enrage an amazingly broad cross-section of … Read more