Sunday, July 5, 2009
News The Morning News
Posted by Unpaid Intern on Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 8:17 AM
Post by news intern Alexander P. Brown
We Got Beat By Croatia: Costa Rica rated as greenest and happiest country.
NFL Jersey Doesn't Come With Invulnerability: Former NFL star Steve McNair murdered.
Because Their Governor Woes Wasn't Enough: South Carolina has a serial killer.
Time To Man The Boats With Harpoons: Giant squid found in West Seattle.
Oh, You Thought This Was Fixed?: New round of foreclosures to hit.
Didn't They Do This In Batman Begins?: 33 pounds of heroin seized, found inside Build-A-Bears.
James Bond Doesn't Have These Problems: Wife of incoming MI6 chief blows husband's cover on Facebook.
In Case You Thought It Wasn't A Revolution: Iran's leading cleric group calls for new elections.
Just Another Day In Seattle: If every other day included shootings, dragging police by car, and fireworks.
Aren't You Proud To Be American?: We've got Muppets at least.
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4
Obama hasn't fixed anything for average Americans. And that's what you can expect from a centerist Democrat bought and paid for by Wall Street. But thank God he made sure our "too big to fail" banks didn't fail!!
5
Obama put us $2TRILLION in debt but did nothing to actually redress the root problem which is the residential mortgage mess thus we still have not seen the worse of it in foreclosures and falling home values. And over the next year commercial mortgages will begin to reset and crash as well.
6
Eight months after the election every month a half million jobs are being lost and unemployment is the highest since Carter and already 2 points higher than Obama and Biden said it would get and we are nowhere near done.
7
Real Giant Squid are 60+ feet long and have eyes like dinner plates. They eat whales; or if they're really hungry, they may go after your mom.
8
@1, 7, it's all relative. That squid is HUGE for Puget Sound. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to tangle with it if I was out scuba diving.
9
Costa Rica rated as greenest and happiest country.
No, the score measures the efficiency that Costa Rica obtains that "greenness" and "happiness". We just pay more than them to be fatter, and a little less "happy" according to a Gallup poll.
I mean, I find it hard to believe that the answer to the question, "Who could we be more like so we can improve how we relate to ourselves and the environment?" would be Mauritania (+7.5), Kazakhstan (+7.8), Yemen (+17.4), Algeria (+20.5), Tajikistan (+22.8), Moldova (+23.4), Egypt (+29.6), or the Dominican Republic (+41.1).
No, the score measures the efficiency that Costa Rica obtains that "greenness" and "happiness". We just pay more than them to be fatter, and a little less "happy" according to a Gallup poll.
I mean, I find it hard to believe that the answer to the question, "Who could we be more like so we can improve how we relate to ourselves and the environment?" would be Mauritania (+7.5), Kazakhstan (+7.8), Yemen (+17.4), Algeria (+20.5), Tajikistan (+22.8), Moldova (+23.4), Egypt (+29.6), or the Dominican Republic (+41.1).
10
That life happiness report is suspect. I have no problem believing that Costa Rica tops the chart, but the Dominican Republic at second? Jamaica third? Cuba seventh? Egypt and Saudi Arabia 12th and 13th? Haiti 42nd? HAITI? Uzbekistan? These are some of the poorest, most miserable, most repressive countries on earth, whose people are desperately trying to get the fuck away from them.Trinidad & Tobago is 30th, even though their life expectancy is FALLING (a remarkable feat, in today's world)? Iraq much, much higher than the US?
It would be pretty easy to come up with an exactly opposite conclusion from this data: happiness correlates very highly with unsustainable levels of development. Which isn't good news.
It would be pretty easy to come up with an exactly opposite conclusion from this data: happiness correlates very highly with unsustainable levels of development. Which isn't good news.
11
@4,5,6 Do you know how ridiculous you sound? Obama inherited this mess from your beloved Bush. And it was Bush who spent trillions on wars that we didn't need and banks that failed because of his blind ideology. Wait till you get the bill for Saint Sarah's retarded baby crusade!
12
Re James Bond: I don't get it- what part of his "cover" was blown, exactly? Is it a secret who the head ofMI-6 is? Did his wife caption a picture with "Here's my wonderful hubby Clem, who is the head of MI-6, at the beach."
Sure, posting personal pictures on the internet of him and his family probably was stupid, but how did that blow his cover?
I thought everyone knew who the head of MI6 was... and the head of the CIA, and NSA, and the FBI, and Interpol, and so on.
Sure, posting personal pictures on the internet of him and his family probably was stupid, but how did that blow his cover?
I thought everyone knew who the head of MI6 was... and the head of the CIA, and NSA, and the FBI, and Interpol, and so on.
13
Sousa is rolling in his grave over that rendition. His descendants are equally appalled.
As for those scum sucking dog Obama's not fulfilling our every little dream and hope. Think it would be better with McGrumpy and SheWhoMustBeObeyed?
As for those scum sucking dog Obama's not fulfilling our every little dream and hope. Think it would be better with McGrumpy and SheWhoMustBeObeyed?
14
Why does Sam the Eagle suddenly talk just like Grover?
And why do I know that he used to sound different?
And why do I know that he used to sound different?
16
11
Vince.
Vince.
Vince.
Are you auditioning for poster child for the Retarded Baby Crusade?
You're doing a killer job...
Bush's last (and largest) deficit was $400billion. The year before a third that, two years before half that.
That's billion with a "b".
Obama's first deficit is $2TRILLION.
That's trillion with a "T".
That's FIVE TIMES Bush.
That is more than half of all the government will spend this year.
What did we get for $2TRILLION in debt?
4 million new unemployed (so far, the year is only half over!).
Obama's unemployed.
And no end in sight to the housing crash.
Tighten you seatbelts.
Oh yeah-
Obama projects a $1.5Trillion deficit next year.
By 2019 the annual deficit will still be over a Trillion dollars.
I personally did not think McCain would be a good president.
I was not disappointed when Obama was elected.
I am now.
Vince.
Vince.
Vince.
Are you auditioning for poster child for the Retarded Baby Crusade?
You're doing a killer job...
Bush's last (and largest) deficit was $400billion. The year before a third that, two years before half that.
That's billion with a "b".
Obama's first deficit is $2TRILLION.
That's trillion with a "T".
That's FIVE TIMES Bush.
That is more than half of all the government will spend this year.
What did we get for $2TRILLION in debt?
4 million new unemployed (so far, the year is only half over!).
Obama's unemployed.
And no end in sight to the housing crash.
Tighten you seatbelts.
Oh yeah-
Obama projects a $1.5Trillion deficit next year.
By 2019 the annual deficit will still be over a Trillion dollars.
I personally did not think McCain would be a good president.
I was not disappointed when Obama was elected.
I am now.
17
11
BTW, why don't Obama and the filibuster-proof Democratic Congress end the war In Iraq?
And in Afghanistan?
And in Pakistan?
Why?
BTW, why don't Obama and the filibuster-proof Democratic Congress end the war In Iraq?
And in Afghanistan?
And in Pakistan?
Why?
18
Pass this on and post it to show that we can say anything we want about Sarah Palin and do so with impunity.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7…
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7…
19
Today Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration "misread how bad the economy was".
duh
Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high."
double duh
Biden said it's premature to say whether the country will need a second stimulus package.
no worry-
I've got a spare $2Trillion right here!
duh
Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high."
double duh
Biden said it's premature to say whether the country will need a second stimulus package.
no worry-
I've got a spare $2Trillion right here!
20
@17 We didn't elect Obama to be irresponsible. The money spent is an investment in this country. Here. For our people and businesses. It wasn't the trillions spent on Iraqis. It's not the trillions spent on military weapons. It's not the hundreds of billions spent on a never ending war on drugs and prisons like nowhere else in the world. It's called an investment. Understand? I doubt it.
21
Just curious; why do people keep arguing with the trolls (who, since they read Slog and comment on it every day, are no more Republican than any of the rest of us)?
24
@11 is right. And Seattle has some of the biggest cephalapods in the world.
But you need people to capitulate for their to be a bottom. Which is what's happening.
You can do one of three things:
1. panic and save like crazy and watch the GDP go even lower.
2. spend like mad Bush fools and the GDP will get to 8 to 10 percent and then crash again soon.
or 3. spend a little less than you earn and pay off debts with some of it - and the GDP will do fine in the 6 to 8 percent range and downturns will be fewer.
Actions speak louder than words.
But you need people to capitulate for their to be a bottom. Which is what's happening.
You can do one of three things:
1. panic and save like crazy and watch the GDP go even lower.
2. spend like mad Bush fools and the GDP will get to 8 to 10 percent and then crash again soon.
or 3. spend a little less than you earn and pay off debts with some of it - and the GDP will do fine in the 6 to 8 percent range and downturns will be fewer.
Actions speak louder than words.
25
@24: No, Seattle does not have some of the biggest cephalopods in the world. That is nonsense.
As for "spending a little less" and "actions speak louder than words" -- all you're saying is that people should moderate their spending but not too much. Brilliant! If only everyone had known that it was as simple as not panicking, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!
Problem is, with an unemployment rate at nearly 10%, everyone who still can would actually have to start spending more than they were previously in order to merely stop the economic contraction that we're experiencing. This is the basic premise of Keynesian economics: an economy based solely on rational, self-interested individual actors is not self-correcting when faced with a crisis of demand.
Yes, Will, actions do speak louder than words, but putting some effort into making your words bear some relationship to reality is considered by many of us to be more than mere finesse.
As for "spending a little less" and "actions speak louder than words" -- all you're saying is that people should moderate their spending but not too much. Brilliant! If only everyone had known that it was as simple as not panicking, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place!
Problem is, with an unemployment rate at nearly 10%, everyone who still can would actually have to start spending more than they were previously in order to merely stop the economic contraction that we're experiencing. This is the basic premise of Keynesian economics: an economy based solely on rational, self-interested individual actors is not self-correcting when faced with a crisis of demand.
Yes, Will, actions do speak louder than words, but putting some effort into making your words bear some relationship to reality is considered by many of us to be more than mere finesse.
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