This just seems more relevant than ever:
Nothing particular in the news that made me post this, just a nagging feeling I have had for a while. Plus, I think everyone should watch this and read about the Milgram experiments.
by John Cole| 56 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
This just seems more relevant than ever:
Nothing particular in the news that made me post this, just a nagging feeling I have had for a while. Plus, I think everyone should watch this and read about the Milgram experiments.
by John Cole| 37 Comments
This post is in: Election 2008, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, General Stupidity
Some people are still stuck in the denial stage:
Big news folks – it looks like our efforts in contacting those Superdelegates are starting to pay off, so keep on writing to them (ok, maybe Donna B’s a waste of time). There are unconfirmed reports, based on phone banking efforts to reach out to Super Ds, that eight previously Obama SDs expressed that, given the opportunity, they would vote for Hillary at the convention.
In the immortal words of some blogger somewhere:
And they call Obama supporters a cult?
This post is in: Open Threads
Via Matthew Yglesias, it seems that the Saudi claim that the kingdom can produce up to 15 million barrels a day is just blowing smoke. Business Week:
But the detailed document, obtained from a person with access to Saudi oil officials, suggests that Saudi Aramco will be limited to sustained production of just 12 million barrels a day in 2010, and will be able to maintain that volume only for short, temporary periods such as emergencies. Then it will scale back to a sustainable production level of about 10.4 million barrels a day, according to the data. BusinessWeek obtained a field-by-field breakdown of estimated Saudi oil production from 2009 through 2013. It was provided by an oil industry executive who said he had confirmed it with a ranking Saudi energy official who has access to the field data. The executive, who has proven reliable over several years of reporting interaction, provided the data on condition of anonymity to protect his access to the kingdom and the identity of the inside contact who confirmed the information.
and…
On oil matters, the kingdom’s credibility has been clouded by intense secrecy. The Saudis, for instance, refuse, unlike Russia, Venezuela, and Norway, to release detailed assessments of their oil reserves, which has made many skeptical. “They are just a bunch of empty boasts,” Matthew Simmons, chairman of Houston investment bank Simmons & Co. International, says of the kingdom’s recent promises of 12.5 million barrels a day. He is also skeptical of Saudi reserve estimates.
Oil took a small dive yesterday on speculation that global demand for oil will go down because of the high prices (which would be good). When you factor in the high demand from China and India, I wouldn’t look for them to go down much further. I was having a conversation with a friend this morning, and we talked about gas prices hitting $6.00 a gallon around Labor Day. We’ve already hit $5.00 in some places.
Saudi Oil: Not as Much as They’re SayingPost + Comments (44)
by John Cole| 16 Comments
This post is in: Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.
Why did he have to quit:
A GOP lobbyist and fundraiser with close ties to the White House has quit a Homeland Security Department advisory committee following allegations of influence peddling and quid pro quo donations to the Bush presidential library.
Department spokeswoman Laura Keehner confirmed to United Press International that Stephen Payne was asked to resign after being surreptitiously videotaped by a British newspaper apparently offering to arrange meetings with senior administration officials in return for a six-figure fee, including a quarter-million-dollar donation to the library.
“The department asked him to step down” from his post on the Secure Borders and Open Doors Subcommittee of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, Keehner said, declining to comment on the reasons.
The news comes as questions began to emerge about whether Payne properly disclosed his work on behalf of a number of foreign entities as required by federal law.
Interesting.
by John Cole| 37 Comments
This post is in: Humorous, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
The Daily Show has video of the liberal blogosphere explaining “funny” to the masses:
For good measure, the opening monologue was one of the best:
See also, Gary Kamiya.
by John Cole| 25 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Missed in all the trivial bullshit of the past few days is this really big story:
The broad cutbacks included a 20 percent reduction in payroll for salaried workers, elimination of health care for older white-collar retirees, and suspension of G.M.’s annual stock dividend of $1 a share.
The retirees will receive an additionally $300.00 a month, but as we both know, that will not make up for the loss of their health-care plan. If it did, GM wouldn’t be cutting it in the first place. The $300 is just a cushion. Additionally, how easy is it going to be for 70 year-old retirees to find a new plan other than Medicare? By 65-70, pretty much everyone has a pre-existing condition.
This is a sign of things to come:
General Motors Corp.’s (GM) plan to cut health benefits for certain salaried retirees may make only a small dent in profits at Medco Health Solutions Inc. ( MHS), GM’s pharmacy benefits manager, but it could signal broader, more significant changes to come for the health-benefits industry.
“GM’s decision to cut retiree benefits is likely to have only small impact on (Medco’s) 2009 earnings. Even so, we see the move as a watershed event for the retiree benefits marketplace that is likely to lead other employers to do the same, which will, in turn, cause the issue to grow as an overhang for the stock, ” Morgan Stanley analyst David Veal said.
Probably a good thing the Bush Medicare veto was over-ridden yesterday.
by Tim F| 26 Comments
This post is in: Republican Crime Syndicate - aka the Bush Admin.
People who are obsessed with the appearance of balance naturally freak out when something happens that is so crazy that its natural consequence would look unbalanced under normal circumstances. For example, sending a shitload of government officials to prison is normally the kind of cuckoo nutjobbery that only a Gingrich Congress and a compliant national press corps would even consider. These Bushies are normal guys like you and me. If I was a prominent reporter like Stuart Taylor Jr., I would know that because I just came back from a great cocktail party where I schmoozed with two or three of them. These guys aren’t non-wealthy minorities, after all. They’re real people. The thought of people like them going to prison is almost too much to bear.
Or something like that. Naturally this attitude that people who knowingly broke the law should be protected from consequences because that would be, like, crazy man, is exactly what the powerful white guys planned when they broke the law.