Just read the inauguration speech of Nola mayor Mitch Landrieu, who was sworn in today.
Month: May 2010
Hmm
The Grand Ole Opry, which has all the charm and ambiance of a large regional high school auditorium, is under several feet of water, while the historic Ryman auditorium, its original home, is in no immediate danger of flooding.
Happy 91st Birthday
To Pete Seeger:
Waist Deep in The Big Muddy:
Tier 5
Apparently we unemployed bums are being far too meek for our elected representatives to hear us.
Pelosi: Bush Knew
This dovetails nicely with my theory that the Republicans knew it was so bad, they didn’t even try to steal the election:
Nearly two years after the Wall Street meltdown drove the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse, and forced the U.S. government to prop up major financial institutions with hundreds of billions of dollars, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now claims that the Bush Administration prohibited its own top officials who were handling the emerging crisis from briefing Congress until a complete financial collapse was only hours away.
In little-noticed statements to reporters over the last few weeks, Pelosi has alleged that the Bush administration knew well in advance of its intervention that the financial crisis would hit, and that Congress would need to authorize a historic and unpopular bailout – but that top officials, including then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, told her that they had been barred from briefing Congress about true extent of the crisis.
If accurate, the allegation could constitute a major indictment of the Bush administration, which may have worsened the crisis and resulting economic fallout by delaying the call for congressional action. Pelosi says the admissions from Bush administration officials that they had kept Congress in the dark came in private conversations between her and those officials in person and by phone. None of the other parties to those conversations would comment for this story. Nor is it clear if the Administration’s alleged decision not to brief Congress earlier was a calculated strategy to avoid spooking the already shaky financial markets thus hastening the crisis or, as Pelosi suggests, a political calculation in advance of the 2008 presidential elections, or a combination of the two.
During her weekly press conference on April 15, a reporter asked Pelosi a seemingly innocuous question about taxes. Pelosi prefaced her response with a fairly standard litany: explaining the dire state of the U.S. economy inherited by President Obama and setting the blame at the foot of the Bush administration. But she also added this: “When accepted the nomination in Colorado, the Administration had kept from the public the idea that, in a matter of weeks, the financial community would be in crisis, and we would need to pass the TARP legislation.”
R.I.P.
Isn’t That Nice
So Uncle Alan was protecting us from the better-informed!
As top Federal Reserve officials debated whether there was a housing bubble and what to do about it, then-Chairman Alan Greenspan argued that the dissent should be kept secret so that the Fed wouldn’t lose control of the debate to people less well-informed than themselves.
“We run the risk, by laying out the pros and cons of a particular argument, of inducing people to join in on the debate, and in this regard it is possible to lose control of a process that only we fully understand,” Greenspan said, according to the transcripts of a March 2004 meeting.
At the same meeting, a Federal Reserve bank president from Atlanta, Jack Guynn, warned that “a number of folks are expressing growing concern about potential overbuilding and worrisome speculation in the real estate markets, especially in Florida. Entire condo projects and upscale residential lots are being pre-sold before any construction, with buyers freely admitting that they have no intention of occupying the units or building on the land but rather are counting on ‘flipping’ the properties–selling them quickly at higher prices.”
Had Guynn’s warning been heeded and the housing market cooled, the financial collapse of 2008 could have been avoided. But his comment was kept secret until Friday, when the central bank released the transcripts of Federal Open Market Committee meetings for 2004 and CalculatedRisk spotted it. The transcripts for 2005 to the present are still secret.
Rachel Ray Comes to Philly
I hardly ever watch Rachel Ray, but every time I do, I end up sobbing. Today’s show is about her remodeling of a culinary arts classroom at Frankford High, not far from where I live.
Wilma Stephenson, the culinary arts teacher, came to Ray’s attention through the documentary film “Pressure Cooker.” What’s noteworthy is that in a school where so many kids don’t even graduate, her kids not only graduate, they go on to cooking school and successful careers.
Meet two students who are able to rise above their hardships because of Ms. Stephenson’s support both inside and outside Room 325. Eighteen-year-old Diamond has already endured the death of her father when she was 5 and the incarceration of her mother. Now, she not only goes to school but also works to support the household, which consists of her mother, two sisters, and four children under the age of 7. Still, she maintains a 3.6 grade point average, and she gives a lot of that credit to her culinary arts teacher. “Ms. Stephenson is like a second mother to me,” says Diamond. If I need to talk to someone, she’s there… she makes me feel wanted.”
Likewise, 18-year-old Christian attributes his confidence to Ms. Stephenson. “All my life I’ve been told that I can’t,” he says. He stopped caring about school, started hanging out with the wrong crowd, was drinking, and even contemplated suicide — until his beloved teacher took him under his wing. “I think Ms. Stephenson is the one person who never gave up on me,” says Christian. “I love her.”
Not only did Ray’s foundation gave each of the graduating seniors a $5000 culinary arts scholarship, she brought in chef Bobby Flay to teach the students.
No matter how bad things are in the world, you can always find some good. And if you can’t find it, go make some yourself.
Ruh Roh
Looks like McCain’s not getting any votes from these guys:
Adam Bustos, a third-generation Mexican-American, has voted Republican since Ronald Reagan ran for president. But he has been reconsidering his party affiliation since Arizona State Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation’s toughest immigration law last month.
“I’ve been thinking I might leave the party,” said Mr. Bustos, a 58-year-old Arizona native. “A lot of my Latino Republican friends have been talking about it after this law.”
The new Arizona law requires police to question people whom they suspect are in the U.S. illegally. Supporters say the law is necessary to combat rampant illegal border crossings. Opponents say it can’t be enforced without violating civil liberties.
Many Hispanic-Americans say they feel stung by a law they allege invites racial profiling, incites hatred and discriminates against all Latinos.
The law in Arizona was passed by a Republican legislature and signed by a GOP governor. Republican lawmakers in Texas, Utah and several other states have said they would consider introducing laws similar to the one passed in Arizona.
See, that’s the brilliance of the Arizona Republicans. Why, it never even occurred to them that the good Mexicans would take racism personally!
Ingrates
There was a time when American businesses actually took pride in being American businesses, employing Americans. Now that The World Is Flat, companies are in a constant game of musical chairs, seeking out the cheapest possible foreign locations to bump the price of stocks.
Even if a federal subsidy helped them bump up their first quarter profits:
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal rebates for energy-efficient appliances pulled shoppers back into stores, helping Whirlpool Corp.’s revenue rise and its first-quarter profit more than double, the company said.
Guess how Whirlpool is repaying American taxpayers for their support:
Whirlpool Corporation is shutting down a refrigerator plant in Evansville, Indiana that will put 1100 people out of work. Are they having trouble selling refrigerators in these bad economic times? No. Whirlpool is profitable and still selling plenty of refrigerators here. But they want to ship these jobs to Mexico where they can produce them cheaper and without having to respect U.S. labor and environmental regulations.
Whirlpool took $19 million in economic recovery money and now instead of helping our economy recover, it’s destroying 1100 good American jobs. The AFL-CIO has started an online petition drive telling Whirlpool to “Keep It Made In America” to save our jobs. You can find it at unionvoice.org/campaign/Evansville.
The AFL-CIO says Whirlpool should reverse its decision to keep these 1100 jobs in the U.S. and help our economic recovery. The labor federation says taxpayer economic recovery money should be used to create jobs in America, not ship them to cheap labor markets in other countries.
I know if I ever buy another refrigerator, it won’t be a Whirlpool.