Disconnected

As I write, it is a Thursday afternoon. The stock market is closed for the day, and the Dow ended the day at 10,322.44. It must be nice in their world.

Meanwhile, foreclosures are at a record high, with 14.41% of mortgages either in foreclosure or with at least one past due payment. Think about that a moment. Knock on 20 doors in an “average” community and 3 of them are likely somewhere on the road from “missed a payment” to “bank owned”. Needless to say, the rate is lower in most of the country, but higher in Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada.

In addition to residential mortgage loans being in a tough spot, industrial and commercial lending is down 20% year over year. At first, you might think “good, that means that banks are only lending to companies that are likely to pay it back.” In fact, this crash of lending means that firms which might otherwise had a short term liquidity problem will go bankrupt for lack of financing, putting more people out of work. In addition, it is clear that almost no loans are available for new and small businesses, which are now unable to take up their role creating jobs for the rest of us. Remember, SBA loans are government insured second mortgages; nobody has equity anymore, so just forget about it. The rest of the SBA’s functions are largely consulting.

Official unemployment — which is traditionally undercounted — is over 10%, more like 17% once you include people like “discouraged workers,” and over a million people are due to run out of unemployment benefits before the end of the year. Merry freakin Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, I found out today about a family that all they really want for Christmas is electricity! Sure, I bet there’s someone like that in your neighborhood too. Help them out if you can, mmkay?

Roubini is right. We have two economies going on in this country right now: one for the top companies where everything is wonderful and bonuses all around; and one that you and I live in. I believe two radical things when it comes to economics. First, interest rates all by themselves don’t magically fix the economy. Second, there’s no such thing as a jobless recovery (and by extension, I think what we are now experiencing is still the 2001 recession).

Ok, a few quick items on health insurance reform: An economist tells you how he’d fix the problem; best and worst health care by state roughly correlates to political leanings; Ezra goes mining for silver linings in the Senate version of the reform bill; and one item of interest to everyone who even knows a woman in Nevada. Some idiots who believe that a fertilized but not yet implanted egg has the same rights I do — a grown woman and mother — wants to outlaw “pills that induce abortion.” However, due to sloppy writing and even sloppier understanding of biology, the amendment would also most likely make all hormonal birth control illegal. Get the word out, this could be a mess.

In Closing: Views of Mt. Fuji; short history of the internet; only 2 countries have failed to ratify an 20 year old international treaty on children’s rights — Somalia and the United States; Just Say No to plastic crap at Thanksgiving and the whole year through (seriously, don’t you have better things to spend money on??);  and finally, a hilarious Thanksgiving letter.

City of the Shorties

Sorry I’ve been underground this week. Anybody want to guess why? Points to anyone who said Modern Warfare 2. It’s good. Anyways, time to tab dump.

Sex, Lies, and Misogyny: Oh, I could keep going on, but I’m so disgusted with Congress I could scream. Mike put it well when he said “Because nothing says freedom like forcing a woman with a dead fetus to get a sepsis infection.” Of course, big business is taking advantage of the fact that women make less than men and firing the employees who make “too much”. Except for the big bosses of course! We couldn’t ask them to take less money or anything like that. I’ve got news for both political parties: women are roughly 50% of voters and no candidate can win without at least some of us voting for his or her worthless  hide.

Fail Fail: High school’s autodialer system accidentally calls “thousands” of parents to tell them their kid is failing at least one class. Oops, that call should only have gone to parents of kids who were actually in fact failing. I sure do hope no kids were punished as a result of this message. I can imagine the conversations: “You liar!  The school says you are failing a class, what is it??” “I swear dad, I don’t know! I thought I was doing good in all my classes!” Insert profanity as the conversation continues.

Pretty darn good as dreams go: A dream “That Congress actually cared about working people.”

Speaking of Congress Screwing the People: Dylan Rattigan goes off on the 10th anniversary of repealing Glass Steagal. Wow, I am liking the new, improved, angry Dylan!

Well Named: The TARP continues to live up to it’s unfortunately accurate acronym, and will cost the taxpayer money that could have gone to healthcare, education, roads, the aqueducts, etc.. We all would have been better off if Congress had given $100,000 towards each primary mortgage.

The Supreme Court may Change Everything: It looks like the entire court is ridiculing the idea that a business practice can be patented. The interesting and potentially game-changing part of this is that software patents are a subgroup of business practice patents.

The WPA Built my High School: (Seriously. But it’s just not the same since they tore out half the front lawn to widen the freeway.) Some interesting thoughts on building public works in the modern economy.

Does she like photographs? Eh? Eh?: Say no more. Releasing risque photographs as a form of sexual assault.

Omnibus: Bruce Schneier distills all his thoughts on security theatre into one brilliant essay.

Japanfilter, Take a Bow: Ok, this is really a pretty simple gaffe. Obama-sama is bowing to Akihito-sama as if he were a Japanese citizen, not as if he is the leader of a sovereign nation of at least equal importance to Japan. Notice the slight bow from Akihito-sama and the even slighter inclination from Michiko-sama? However, the people screaming about this sure didn’t say much when Bush-sama was off kissing Saudi princes!

Crystal Ball

Or — Back to the Future Part 3962

Or — How to Confirm that We’ve Been Screwed.

Ok. By now we all know that the House passed a health insurance reform turd — I mean bill — last night. While it still needs to get through the Senate (and there are signs that might be difficult), it’s being hailed as historic. It squeaked through on a 2 vote margin, and apparently to get that they had to insert something called the Stupak Amendment which effectively prevents health insurance from covering abortions.

Now, don’t start thinking this is about sluts. Sure, it’s easy to support this if you are thinking “dirty sluts can pay for their own abortions.” The overwhelming majority of women seeking abortions are not sluts who need retro-active birth control. The vast majority of abortions are sought because either birth control failed, the pregnancy is the result of rape (after all, good girls wouldn’t need to use the pill, now would they??), the fetus is too deformed to live, or the mother will DIE if she tries to carry the pregnancy to term. And follow me on this for just a moment, women living in poverty are more likely to be the victim of crime and less likely to have access to the very best pre-natal care. This puts the women who can least afford an abortion without financial assistance at risk of 3 out of 4 of the above.

This isn’t about sluts. This is about life saving surgery.

And now it won’t be covered by insurance. Thanks a whole bunch, Congress.

To be brutally honest, that’s not really even the worst of it. This turd is littered with gifts to highly profitable insurance companies, highly profitable drug companies, and other highly profitable health care companies at the expense of the voter and taxpayer. I left hospitals off the list of corporate beneficiaries for now because many hospitals, [Diety] bless them, are still not for profit entities. In fact, in Michigan, hospitals are non-profits by law. This is why Dennis Kucinich couldn’t bring himself to vote in favor of the bill — I highly encourage you to read his complete statement, because it is informed and eloquent.

Tomorrow is Monday, and we will find out who really benefits from this bill. I predict that the real winners will be apparent on CNBC tomorrow. Keep an eye on company stocks like these:

I bet the majority of them will be up tomorrow on news of the “reform” bill passing. Maybe if there were a large, profitable corporation that represented the American people, we could get Congress to listen to what we want. In the meantime, I’m with Susie: the party gets no more money if they continue to treat us like crap and then make us stories about how that’s a good thing.

Fort Hood

I spent some of my youth living near Waco, TX. It was about a half hour drive to Temple and Kileen, home to Fort Hood. Horrific things happened out there today, and my deepest thoughts for peace and happiness go to everyone involved.

We may never know why 3 men he opened fire on their his fellow soldiers, the second shooting incident this year. We may never know how they he managed to kill a dozen people* and wound over 30 on a military base where thousands of men have sidearms and the skills to use them. We may never know why Major Hasan, a psychiatrist,** holed up with a big sniper rifle a couple of guns, although there is conjecture that he was about to be deployed to Iraq — despite his recent arrival at Fort Hood. There is no telling why this happened to take place the day a graduation ceremony was to be held on campus.***

Truly the President was correct when he called it “a horrific outburst of violence,” but he promised that all these questions will be answered. Since Major Hasan is dead, this seems unlikely. Let’s hope the Commander in Chief is correct.

Update: See also changes, original text crossed-out. Looks like Maj. Hasan is alive, and we have confirmation that a “first responder” was injured but not killed. They’re also saying he was the only shooter, and had only civilian weaponry. Of all the crazy things, he’s an expert in combat stress. Please tell me this isn’t his idea of an experiment on inducing combat stress.

* An early report indicated that one was a police officer. I can no longer find this detail, which may have been reported in error. If this was true, was it military police, local police, or just a guy who happened to show up for the graduation? See update. Still no idea what sort of “first responder”: civilian or military.

** Apparently, even army docs can shoot with the best of them! I don’t know if this pleases me or terrifies me. The surgeons on M*A*S*H didn’t do that! Can you imagine Col. Blake with a 50 cal??

*** Although there are several local colleges, it appears to have been a ceremony for soldiers who completed coursework through distance learning programs while deployed overseas.

In Closing: the story of Maneki-Neko; how to make baguettes; 45 things you didn’t know you could make at home; this Political Compass quiz is an interesting way to spend 5 minutes; Schneier on zero tolerance policies; Gaza life sucks; reinstate Glass-Steagall!; medical advice brought to you by Coke; Shark-fu is brilliant, and she tells you how it is; personal bankruptcies are up 9%, which could have something to do with the job numbers (but hey, they’re productive!); CBO laughs in the face of the Republican health insurance reform plan; and 50 years of economic history in one picture. Notice that nice big uptrend line from the 60s to roughly 1980? Then notice that down-trend during the reign of St. Ronnie? Yeah, trickle-down really worked great, thanks for nothing. Literally.

Open Letter to Dr. Howard Dean

Dear Doctor:

Or, do you prefer Governor? Mr. Chairman?

On last year’s Election Day, we elected our first African American President, and validated your strategy for the Democratic party — the 50 state strategy. My husband and myself were two of the people out there on the ground, giving what little money we could, literally knocking on doors asking people to vote for Mr. Obama, and turning a “red state” blue.

Frankly, now we’re not sure we got a good deal.

Our troops are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, with “support” from profiteering corporations instead of fellow servicemen. Guantanamo is still open for business, and few of the men there are seeing anything that might approach “due process.” The Obama Administration is defending the use of warrantless wiretaps. The GLBT community has a list of grievances and what they see as broken promises.

The government pleads poverty when it comes to helping ordinary citizens weather the biggest recession ever, yet there always seems to be plenty of money for bankrupt banks and poorly run auto makers. We’ve got long term, possibly structural unemployment, and we are being told that private industry is going to have to pick up the slack and hire people. Few companies are hiring, and the combination of a banking mess and a health insurance mess means that few new companies will be opening their doors anytime soon. This is no longer a land of opportunity for anybody willing to work for it. Too much depends on luck, knowing the right people, and having the money up front. Instead, it’s a land where half of all kids will at some point receive food stamps.

And lets talk about this health insurance reform thing for a minute, can we? I’m really sick of writing about health insurance reform, but there are things that must be said. To be honest, I knew we were in trouble when Rahm Emanuel arrived and you weren’t offered any position in the Administration. Let’s face it, Doctor: nobody has experienced the insurance industry from more angles than you. You’ve been insured, bought insurance for your employees, bought COBRA (you mentioned that in the debates, remember?), negotiated contracts and received reimbursement from insurance companies, and helped regulate insurance on the state level. You managed to get coverage for every kid in your state, no questions asked!

Fixing the health insurance mess is critical to getting people back to work — which is in turn critical to getting our economy moving again, fixing the housing market, and getting long term stability for our banking sector. Most Americans want a public option (preferably Medicare For All) that is going to bring prices down, they want “pre-existing conditions” to go away, they want insurance companies to pay what is owed promptly and without argument. Instead, Congress has argued and cut back-room deals with the insurance companies and drug companies that, in the eyes of Joe and Jane Average, are screwing us.

Once they finally put together legislation that looked like it might not be horrible, they set right back to work messing it up with junk like coverage for prayer treatments and separate coverage riders for abortion — which like it or loath it is sometimes a life-saving surgery that shouldn’t require an extra fee to be covered! These are only 2 items that have come to light today; who knows what other junk is in there to turn this franken-bill into a real monster?

I’ve stopped giving money to the Democratic Party in all its forms for the reasons outlined above. Every time they call, I send money to Democracy for America or Move On. And that, Doctor Dean, is where you come in.

It is clear to me that for the most part my [former] party is hopeless: hopelessly corrupt, stupid, spineless, and generally worthless. You were clearly right to leave when you did, while you still had a reputation as a winning political tactician. I think that with your guidance, DFA and MoveOn could and should form a new political party, reclaiming “liberal” as a good word, and based firmly on the principles of the Bill of Rights. I feel certain there are a number of Democratic figures that would want to be part of such a movement (Dennis Kucinich and Ed Schultz come to mind), and if you truly embrace civil liberties right, there might even be some “moderate” Republicans who might at least be friendly.

Please just consider it. Let’s be real here, if you thought there was hope for the party, you’d still be Chairman.

Thank you for your time. I hope all is well for you and your family.

— Bridget Magnus, AKA the ShortWoman, Realtor, former Democrat, and proud American

Sorry, comments closed due to too much spam.

A Tale of Two Restaurants

Las Vegas is one of the top foodie cities in the nation — or the world, depending whose list you like to use. When Top Chef did a season here, we thought “it’s about time!” We’ve got our own copy of the latest Michelin guide. There won’t be a 2010 edition for economic reasons, but a fresh version will be out in 2011.

Last Saturday, we had the occasion to visit 2 restaurants mentioned (but not starred) by Michelin. We had been both places several times before, but this was more of an adventure than it needed to be.

Saturday afternoon, we made a dinner reservation through OpenTable at Vintner Grill, a restaurant in the city’s West Side planned community of Summerlin. It is known for its extensive wine list, cheese list, and fine dining. Oh, and it does have something of a local reputation as a Cougar hangout. We arrived a few minutes early and were seated fairly promptly. Then things began to go wrong.

Someone had already long since taken care of water for our table by the time the waitress arrived. For some reason, she decided not to bother asking for our drink order. Perhaps she assumed that we wouldn’t be having any beverages; perhaps she assumed that a couple with a pre-teen child wouldn’t be tipping very well anyhow (and perhaps she should have asked her co-workers about those assumptions!). Either way, we almost had to beg to put in a drink order. She never did ask if we wanted any appetizers.

In the long wait that ensued, I overheard the hostess remind her about the table that had been seated right before us, I watched her stand at a table for about 5 minutes giving a dissertation on one of the menu items, and saw her go to another table to give what I can only assume was a similar lecture on a menu item. By this time, we were very hungry and there was no sign of our drinks. The server in charge of water came and left again, the server in charge of dinner rolls and butter had been to visit our table, but even though we had a view of the bar, not a sign of our cocktail orders.

A half hour after we had been seated, there were still no cocktails — if they had been shaken but not poured they would certainly be unpalatable by this time —  our waitress had not taken any of our food orders, and we had enough. We left some money on the table for the sparkling water and left. Notably, the host did not make any attempt to stop us or placate us in any way. No manager appeared. Since I have gotten no follow up email from OpenTable, I suspect they falsely listed us as “no-shows”.

So, still hungry, we went just down the street to Red Rock Casino Resort to one of our favorite restaurants, Terra Rossa (sister restaurant to Terra Verde at Green Valley Ranch, where one of the Hell’s Kitchen winners is working). We were immediately recognized as regulars and seated. Within 5 minutes we had a plate of cheese and veggies, dinner rolls, and a pair of martinis. The service was impeccable, the food great, and we had the kind of quality dining experience that one expects from a restaurant mentioned in the Michelin guide.

Guess which restaurant we will be visiting again?

By the way, if Italian isn’t your thing and you happen to be out at Red Rock, Hachi is good too.

Maybe We’re Going About this the Wrong Way

We’ve tried writing our elected officials, calling and emailing them, threatening them with the loss of our votes, giving money to progressive organizations, telling the DNC the way things are when they call on the phone, crashing events, and anything else we could think of. Still, it seems at times that the actual constituents are the last people our Congressmen, Congressmice, and Congresscreeps think about.

Clearly there’s got to be another way to get through their thick skulls.

Maybe the problem is that we’re talking to them in their offices, while they are set for business and wearing suits. Perhaps the key is to catch them when they’re sweating in their workout gear.

It’s no secret that the President likes a good game of hoops, but fewer people know about the Congressional P90X club. It’s a group of almost 30 elected officials — so far! — and a big enough deal that Tony Horton himself has come out to lead workouts with them a couple of times. Most important are the bipartisan relationships they are making in the gym: it’s “an opportunity to build relationships that go beyond grabbing a glass of recovery drink together.” More:

And how does trainer Horton feel, knowing that his program’s not just building bodies but building the relationships that guide the fate of the nation?

“I have goose bumps,” he says. “That question gave me goose bumps.”

I can just hear Tony saying that too.

Excuse me, gentlemen, did you remember to log that workout into WOWY for your chance to win up to $1000?

In Closing: 20 worst kids foods; can you afford to stay home when you are sick?; 7 more bank failures yesterday brings us to 106 and counting for the year; Yakuza; and unusual clouds.

One more time

Let me repeat this, nice and slow, so certain Congressmen, Congressmice, Congresscreeps, and other armchair politicians can keep up.

If we can only agree on one thing that requires reform in the entire health insurance industry, it needs to be that pre-existing conditions must go away. Seriously. The use of pre-existing conditions for any and every purpose must be outlawed. This includes but is not limited to using it for underwriting, rate setting, or coverage. This includes conditions such as chronic diseases, any issue related to a past or present pregnancy, genetic conditions regardless of whether they have been diagnosed, prior or current use of medication, or status as a crime victim.

True story, I happened to be looking at my health insurance booklet last week. I noticed that the small print says they won’t charge me higher rates on the basis of genetic testing. Bully for them! I bet a shiny quarter that if I actually had some genetic tests done for the genes that are associated with a higher risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer and the tests came back positive, they would find a way to not cover me should I actually get breast cancer!

The insurance industry has demonstrated over and over again that they will abuse their covered individuals whenever money is involved. This must be stopped. There is no potential compromise on this issue, except maybe in the minds of certain Congressmice and Congresscreeps. Eliminating the pre-existing condition is far more important than anything else, even the public option. Implementing a “universal”, “socialized“, or mandatory coverage scheme without eliminating pre-existing conditions is a literal sick joke on the American people.

Seriously people, how many stories do we have to hear about ordinary, hard working folks who can’t get their single biggest health concern covered — or can’t get coverage at all — because somebody decided they had a pre-existing condition?

In closing: best thing you’ll read today about the unemployment numbers; get used to high unemployment, by the way; after all, where will the jobs come from?; when the Government is your biggest shareholder, they get to say what your top execs make, and if you don’t like it you can buy them out of their shares!; on pensions and why you are unlikely to get one (ergo, why you need to support Social Security); CNN realizes that the Catholic Church in America is increasingly Latino (way to notice trends there, CNN);  and make sure the name on your ticket matches the name on your ID exactly, because goodness knows we can’t trust the TSA to figure out that John S. Smith is the same person as John Samuel Smith. It isn’t like they’re required to have a high school diploma or pass a civil service exam or anything like that.

Paranormal Shorties

How Stimulating: Jobs created by the stimulus bill. Not as many as might be hoped, but it’s a start.

Exactly where are the government economists shopping?: No Cost of Living Adjustment for those on Social Security. Just because you’ve seen prices of bread, eggs, and fuel rising must surely be a statistical anomaly! What did they do to get these figures? Make sure that Vegas and Detroit housing prices were put in the basket?

About time somebody asked: A Federal Judge has officially asked how — exactly — gay marriage is any threat to those of us with heterosexual, traditional marriages in any way shape or form. The lawyer on the receiving end of this question had no good answer.

Bankerpalooza: Bank of America loses $2,200 Million in a single quarter, mostly on bad mortgages and credit cards. Banks and investment companies are robbing us blind, and their executives are taking home huge bonuses based on the money they take from us. Meanwhile, in the real economy, there is “no downside limit for the dollar.” Nuts.

How to read a corporate balance sheet:  Start with the footnotes.

What a strange world we live in: Kiko’s House has a more complete rundown, but the week is well summarized by America’s distraction, the balloon boy who wasn’t.

Have a safe and sane weekend, folks.

This is Not a Halloween Post

Sorry it’s been a while since I posted. I’m a little burned out on health insurance reform, and that continues to be the important topic out there.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes.

Maybe when you were a kid you had creative parents. Or at least thrifty ones. A set of black sweats could with just a few accessories or trim turn into a Halloween costume for a ninja, cat, skeleton, or even a vampire. Grey sweats could be the base for a robot costume. White ones could put you on the road to being a ghost or dalmatian or angel or even Princess Leia. Add an oversized orange t-shirt? Future jack-o-lantern costume!

In addition to being relatively cheap and reusable, these costumes were warm enough for late October. It always felt dorky to have to put a winter coat on over my costume. (So, the year I went as Princess Leia outfitted for Hoth? Perfect!)

Don’t go running out to the discount store thinking I’ve just solved your costuming problem.

For some reason, the overwhelming majority of sweats available this year are already pre-adorned with silkscreens, patterns, embroidery, or other crap. Finding plain sweatshirts is harder than finding a new job this season, particularly in kids’ sizes. I’ve been to Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, S-Mart, you name it. My net haul is a total of one black hoodie. It was at least on sale for a mere $5.

In addition to thwarting many Halloween dreams, this poses a problem for parents whose kids are subject to uniform codes or “standard student attire” allowing only plain, solid color sweatshirts in one of several school-approved colors — over an “approved” collared shirt, of course. A quick search shows this is not uncommon, and and it is policy in at least one of the 10 largest school districts in the nation. I mention this to any sympathetic store employee I can find, but the fact is that they are limited to what corporate sends them.

I am almost desperate enough to visit one of the crafting stores.

In Closing: banks reducing lending to small businesses, ensuring that we will either all be corporate pwned and/or the Great Recession will not end anytime soon; 5 ways banks rip you off; Elizabeth Warren on preventing banks from continuing to rip you off; and making abortion illegal doesn’t even reduce how many of them happen, but access to contraception does prevent abortion. Stuff that in your so-called-pro-life pipe and smoke it: the only way to prevent abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancy in the first place.