Video: Obama Remarks after Meeting with BP Executives
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A.M. News Break – 6/12/2010 – BP Spill, Tea Party Momentum, OH Gov Money
- Who is Alvin Greene? – New York Times
- Strange Senate Campaign Moves Forward – The State
- Is the Tea Party waning? – Washington Post
- NY Pension Fund Shell Game – New York Times
- OH Governor’s Race: Lots of Cash on Hand – Columbus Dispatch
- Rescued Teen Sailor Wants Another Go at Record – Fox News
The BP Mess
- Spilled Oil Makes Way Into Supply Chain – Associated Press
- Deepwater Horizon Incident Response – U.S. Government Official Site
Daily Graphic: 01/12/2009 – One in Five Twittering
From Pew Research:
Daily Graphic – 1/11/2010 – What’s In Their Netflix Queues?
In case you missed it over the weekend, click on the screen shot below to go to the New York Times‘ interactive map of what people are renting from Netflix. Pretty cool …
Click Graphic to Go to Original at the New York Times
On Vacation …
Gone fishing in Canada … be back in a week or so …
Daily Graphic: BP’s Updated World Proved Oil Reserves Map
Daily Graphic: Are Blacks Better Off Than Five Years Ago?
I found this interesting and it made me wonder if this question or one similar has been asked by a reputable polling organization since the election of President Barack Obama? If you know, leave a comment.
The graphic comes from a Pew poll done in November 2007.
Why GM Stock is Still Trading … and Where …
Frankly, if a company goes bankrupt, I don’t see why the stock isn’t just completely finished. GM’s stock wasn’t finished today though — trading at one point at just over a dollar on the NYSE.
This great article from the Los Angeles Times lays out the details of why stocks trade after a bankruptcy. Essentially it has to do with short sellers needing to cover positions and those unfortunate to be holding for the really long haul needing a place to sell their shares. Who in the hell buys those shares?
At any rate, GM, formerly ticker symbol “GM” on the NYSE, will trade beginning June 2 as GMGMQ on the “penny” stock market at pinksheets.com.
Author of Why GM Matters, William Holstein, took questions today over at the Washington Post. Check out the transcript. Here’s what he had to say about GM’s shareholders:
Washington, D.C.: What happens to GM Stockholders now? I’ve seen a lot of info about bondholders, but that’s not the same (or is it)?
William Holstein: GM stockholders are expected to be wiped out. You get nothing for your shares. They become collector’s items.
Video: Bruno’s ‘Kugelsack’ in Eminem’s Face
Government Waste: Members of Congress Get Attention for Expense Accounts
I’m surprised it took the U.S. media this long to look into what sorts of purchases U.S. lawmakers are making after hullabaloo over expenses in the U.K. Parliament.
The Wall Street Journal has what is as far as I know the opening salvo in what should be a healthy vetting by the Fourth Estate into the expense accounts of members of the U.S. Congress:
Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs.
The expenditures were legal, properly accounted for and drawn from allowances the U.S. government grants to lawmakers. Equipment purchased with office expense accounts must be returned to the House or the federal General Services Administration when a lawmaker leaves office.
But as British politicians come under widening scorn for spending public money on everything from candy bars to moat-dredging, an examination of U.S. lawmakers’ expense claims shows Washington’s elected officials have also used public funds for eye-catching purchases.
Daily Graphic: Nearly Half of Americans Rate Sotomayor Pick as Good or Excellent
Past Nominations …
Gallup conducted similar reaction polls immediately after former President George W. Bush’s nominations of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court in 2005. Although in all instances, the reactions were more positive than negative, the net positive rating (the percentage excellent or good minus the percentage only fair or poor) was highest for Roberts and Sotomayor, and lowest for Alito and Miers.
Daily Graphic: Percent Change in U.S. GDP From Preceding Quarter 2007 to Present
Data From Dept. of Commerce
First Appraisals of Sotomayor from the Left & the Right
The Left
Jeffrey Rosen, The New Republic
In my view the strongest case to be made for Sotomayor is not her inspiring life story: Clarence Thomas overcame similar personal obstacles, but far from giving him a sense of empathy, his background has created a sense of anger and ideological rigidity. Instead, the strongest case to be made for Sotomayor is the idea that the range of her experience–as a trial judge, appellate judge, and commercial litigator–might give her the humility to recognize that courts participate in a dialogue with the political branches when it comes to defining constitutional rights, rather than having the last word.
Erwin Chemerinsky, The New Republic
From a political perspective, a Supreme Court nomination can be treacherous, as presidents need to please their political base without risking undue political capital over a confirmation fight. Sotomayor’s record shows her to be a moderate liberal who is unlikely to provide fodder for her opponents. Her having been first nominated to the federal bench by a Republican president, George H.W. Bush, will make it harder for Republicans to paint her as an ideologue. Moreover, it is highly unlikely that many Republicans are going to want to strongly oppose the first Latina selected for the high court. The political reality is that with 59 (and likely soon to be 60) Democratic senators, Sotomayor will surely be confirmed. It doesn’t make political sense for Republicans to fight a losing battle that risks alienating a key and growing political constituency, Hispanic voters.
The Right
Michael Greve, The New Republic
Any Obama nominee was sure to be reliably liberal on high-salience ”social” issues. Judge Sotomayor adds another qualification: She is among the most aggressively pro-plaintiff, anti-business appellate judges in the country. Her rulings in class actions, preemption cases, and other commercial matters are of a piece with her contempt for property rights (noted by Richard Epstein) and her anti-employer bias in discrimination cases (a matter of notoriety).
Prior to the nomination, business constituencies signaled that a nominee in the mold of Justice Breyer or Justice Souter (social liberal/moderate on “business” issues) would produce considerable goodwill in the business community. With Sotomayor’s nomination, the hard-left administration has signaled back: It does not believe that it needs any goodwill.
John Yoo, American Enterprise Institute
But conservatives should not be pleased simply because Sotomayor is not a threat to the conservative revolution in constitutional law begun under the Reagan administration. Conservatives should defend the Supreme Court as a place where cases are decided by a faithful application of the Constitution, not personal politics, backgrounds, and feelings. Republican senators will have to conduct thorough questioning in the confirmation hearings to make sure that she will not be a results-oriented voter, voting her emotions and politics rather than the law. One worrying sign is Sotomayor’s vote to uphold the affirmative action program in New Haven, CT, where the city threw out a written test for firefighter promotions when it did not pass the right number of blacks and Hispanics. Senators should ask her whether her vote in that case, which is under challenge right now in the Supreme Court (where I signed an amicus brief for the Claremont Center on Constitutional Jurisprudence), was the product of her “empathy” rather than the correct reading of the Constitution.
Top Countries for Use of the Marijuana
Running an experiment … Seeing how many hits something dealing with Maryjane will get on Reddit. This is real data courtesy of Nationmaster.
Daily Graphic: Table of America’s Wars and Their Casualties
| American Revolution (1775–1783) | |
| Total servicemembers | 217,000 |
| Battle deaths | 4,435 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 6,188 |
| War of 1812 (1812–1815) | |
| Total servicemembers | 286,730 |
| Battle deaths | 2,260 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 4,505 |
| Indian Wars (approx. 1817–1898) | |
| Total servicemembers | 106,000 |
| Battle deaths | 1,000 |
| Mexican War (1846–1848) | |
| Total servicemembers | 78,718 |
| Battle deaths | 1,733 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
11,550 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 4,152 |
| Civil War (1861–1865) | |
| Total servicemembers (Union) | 2,213,363 |
| Battle deaths (Union) | 140,414 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) (Union) |
224,097 |
| Nonmortal woundings (Union) | 281,881 |
| Total servicemembers (Conf.) | 1,050,000 |
| Battle deaths (Conf.) | 74,524 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) (Conf.) |
59,297 |
| Nonmortal woundings (Conf.) | unknown |
| Spanish-American War (1898–1902) | |
| Total servicemembers | 306,760 |
| Battle deaths | 385 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
2,061 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 1,662 |
| World War I (1917–1918)3 | |
| Total servicemembers | 4,734,991 |
| Battle deaths | 53,402 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
63,114 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 204,002 |
| Living veterans | fewer than 25 |
| World War II (1940–1945)3 | |
| Total servicemembers | 16,112,566 |
| Battle deaths | 291,557 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
113,842 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 671,846 |
| Living veterans | 3,242,000 |
| Korean War (1950–1953) | |
| Total servicemembers | 5,720,000 |
| Serving in-theater | 1,789,000 |
| Battle deaths | 33,741 |
| Other deaths in service (theater) |
2,833 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
17,672 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 103,284 |
| Living veterans | 3,086,400 |
| Vietnam War (1964–1975) | |
| Total servicemembers | 8,744,000 |
| Serving in-theater | 3,403,000 |
| Battle deaths | 47,424 |
| Other deaths in service (theater) |
10,785 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
32,000 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 153,303 |
| Living veterans | 7,286,500 |
| Gulf War (1990–1991) | |
| Total servicemembers | 2,225,000 |
| Serving in-theater | 665,476 |
| Battle deaths | 147 |
| Other deaths in service (theater) |
382 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
1,565 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 467 |
| Living veterans | 1,852,000 |
| America’s Wars Total | |
| Military service during war | 43,185,893 |
| Battle deaths | 653,708 |
| Other deaths in service (theater) |
14,560 |
| Other deaths in service (nontheater) |
525,930 |
| Nonmortal woundings | 1,447,281 |
| Living war veterans | 17,835,000 |
| Living veterans | 23,976,000 |
| Global War on Terror (as of Sept. 30, 2006) | |
| Total Servicemembers (Worldwide) |
1,384,968 |
| Deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan |
165,000 |
| Battle Deaths | 3,776 |
| Other Deaths (In Theater) | 958 |
| Non-mortal Woundings | 21,649 |
| Living Veterans | 588,923 |
Transcript – Obama Remarks at Arlington Cemetery | Memorial Day 2009
(Source: White House Press Office)
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Admiral Mullen, for that generous introduction and for your sterling service to our country. To members of our armed forces, to our veterans, to honored guests, and families of the fallen — I am deeply honored to be with you on Memorial Day.
Thank you to the superintendent, John Metzler, Jr., who cares for these grounds just as his father did before him; to the Third Infantry Regiment who, regardless of weather or hour, guard the sanctity of this hallowed ground with the reverence it deserves — we are grateful to you; to service members from every branch of the military who, each Memorial Day, place an American flag before every single stone in this cemetery — we thank you as well. (Applause.) We are indebted — we are indebted to all who tend to this sacred place.
Dick Cheney’s Classic Misdirection
I got suckered. Perhaps you did too.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney gave dueling speeches on National Security policy. The man who is trying to re-invent hope versus Darth Cheney is the way this blogger interpreted what was billed by the Washington press as the “Thrilla on The Hilla.”
By early afternoon the results were in. Obama gave a long, thoughtful better angels treatise on the rule of law and maintaining the moral high ground. Cheney, gave a shorter, pithier shout from the undisclosed location.
It was the Constitution versus the red, orange, yellow threat meter.
RNC Video – Pelosi as “Pussy Galore”
The Internets buzzed a bit about this video which was released during the past week by the Republican National Committee. The video was pulled off of YouTube after the media coverage. Of course, someone copied it and here it is if you missed it.
How Did I Miss This? Olbermann Special Comment on Cheney’s “Paranoid. Neurotic.” Speech – Video
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