Let's run the numbers

Happy Thanksgiving My parents and brother are coming up, so we're cleaning and cooking fiends today. My computer has been giving me problems here, hence the paucity of postings, and with company I doubt I'll be able to catch up this weekend. So, I'll take a break and see you all next week sometime.

They're trying to expand the Patriot Act Well, here they go. Let's hope that a few moderate Republicans in the Senate will help the Democrats stall this thing out. Since they started charging strip-club owners with the Patriot Act, I know something has gone wrong. And if they pass these provisions, they could seize the records of the strippers to see who put one dollar bills in each girls g-string. Yahoo! News - House OKs Intelligence Bill, But Not Easily The provision in the intelligence bill that became contentious would allow the FBI to execute warrants without court approval to follow suspected terror finances through pawnshops, casinos, travel agencies and other venues not traditionally considered financial. The FBI can now take such action with traditional financial institutions like banks. Rep. Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who approved the bill, said the votes against it were due to a misunderstandin...

The sad, scandalous state of the National Parks And privatization is supposed to help? And why am I reading about this on a travel site, not in a major news magazine or paper? This is a scandalous waste of our natural resources, letting them deteriorate like this. Endangering our National Parks: An editorial The Bush Administration has targeted the Department of Agriculture - which oversees the National Parks and Forest services - to be analyzed for the first round of "Competitive Sourcing." That is another term for privatizing, turning over to outside contractors what are currently government payroll jobs - 1,700 of them, in the case of the National Park Service. The Administration has claimed this will produce a savings of 20 percent for taxpayers. Since when was adding a layer of middlemen a way to save money? The idea is that government will pay private companies to manage park resources, and those companies will in turn hire and pay workers to do ...

My father reads my blog, and is mad at AARP Why would I pick this particular time to make a comment about my dad and the AARP newsletter? And then it turns out they're just as venal, just as avaricious and scheming as the Republican Party? I'll write more about this soon, but I'm surprised that they endorsed the Medicare Deform Bill. I shouldn't be, they're a big organization, and their head did write the forward for Newt Gingrich's book. Oh well, more to come.

My father reads my blog And frequently makes suggestions on things to post. I presume they came from his AARP newsletter, but it does often improve my output. Plus, it keeps me from writing about our scandalous dinner parties here at Maison Datanerd, where we might even open a second bottle of wine! The Onion | Mom Finds Out About Blog : MINNEAPOLIS, MN—In a turn of events the 30-year-old characterized as "horrifying," Kevin Widmar announced Tuesday that his mother Lillian has discovered his weblog. "Apparently, Mom typed [Widmar's employer] Dean Healthcare into Google along with my name and, lo and behold, PlanetKevin popped up," Widmar said. "I'm so fucked."

Interesting results of the RIAA lawsuit strategy The uptick in sales may only be a coincidence of releasing more new albums and the economy in general increasing. So sayeth Salon.com, an online magazine. And the general impression of the industry has been damaged by the lawsuits. Ars Technica: Are the RIAA's tactics working? : Last week the Recording Industry Association of America filed another 80 lawsuits against suspected music pirates. These 80 were part of a group of 204 who were greeted by thugs with baseball bats ...er...notified they would be sued unless they contacted the RIAA about possible financial settlements. The remaining 124 settled by paying penalties ranging from $2,500 to $7,500 each. As part of the settlement, the signees were required to delete copies of illegally obtained copyrighted songs and refrain from badmouthing the RIAA in exchange for no admission of wrongdoing. The RIAA claims their lawsuit strategy is working since the majority ran for th...

Brad DeLong finds this strange Wal-Mart is calling for cool sales in the quarter. People are spending on paydays mostly, and going for the cheapest things. Even the Labor Department was saying last weeks unemployment claims number was possibly a statistical abberation, and this weeks number was higher. Are we finally seeing the consumer spending recession that has been feared but so far unrealized? Strange Third Quarter News From WalMart: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal : Strange Third Quarter News From WalMart WalMart doesn't seem to have seen the same third-quarter spending boom that the NIPA estimates did, which is quite strange. Something seems to be wrong with our collective visualization of the Cosmic All: Forbes.com: Wal-Mart dumps cold water on U.S. economic bulls : CHICAGO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Economists and politicians giddy about prospects for U.S. economic growth got a dousing of cold water on Thursday from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(nyse: WMT...

Alan Kreuger is Unhappy At least, I think he is unhappy. I think he's trying to warn us about our lack of educational attainment in the United States, and how the slowing of growth of the workforce will result in fewer jobs. Also, our tax policies have been more focused on increasing consumption instead of putting people to work. But I could be wrong. The New York Times: November 13, 2003 ECONOMIC SCENE Why Jobs Were So Late By ALAN B. KRUEGER THE latest reports from the Labor Department suggest that what might be called the Energizer Bunny recession in the job market - it just keeps going and going - might finally have come to an end. If sustained job growth has indeed arrived, why did it take so long? Although there are no definitive answers, it is possible to piece together some plausible stories and to rule out others. A popular explanation for why it has taken at least 20 months from the official end of the recession for job growth to resume - seven and a...

Eric Alterman is in high dudgeon I'm glad he's able to say this. I could say the same thing, but I wouldn't have the extensive sources he has. Eric Alterman: Altercation Liberal wimpiness is the far-right’s best friend. Take Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who has done magnificent work in bringing the crisis in Africa to the mainstream, demanding that liberals lay down and die before the hard-right steamroller that is the Bush administration. The comparison he makes between Bush-hatred and Clinton-hatred is fallacious on so many grounds one hardly knows where to begin. Here are just a few salient points. Since I’ve been identified by the Wall Street Journal as a prime example of the latter, permit me to point out a few significant differences. 1) Bush “haters” talk about policy not personality. 2) Bush “haters’ support the country and its soldiers in wars they believe to be misguided 3) Bush “haters” do not accuse the...

Another attack, another reprisal I don't like getting shot at, and I don't like American troops getting shot at. But it seems like we're taking a page from the Israeli playbook, with attacks and reprisals. And it hasn't been a very successful play for them either. We need some new ideas. U.S. Forces Destroy Building in Iraq NASIRIYAH, Iraq - A suicide bomber blew up a truck packed with explosives at an Italian paramilitary base Wednesday, killing at least 26 people. The United States struck at the Iraqi insurgency hours later, destroying a building in Baghdad in an assault that thundered across the capital.

Tennessee 10, Miami 6 That's the way to play some football. You know, when the Pride of the Southland Band comes through campus playing Rocky Top, it brings a tear to your eye.

The way to deal with annoying questions Is to not take any more, apparently. At least that's what the White House has decided. White House Puts Limits on Queries From Democrats, Friday, November 7, 2003 The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers. The decision -- one that Democrats and scholars said is highly unusual -- was announced in an e-mail sent Wednesday to the staff of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. House committee Democrats had just asked for information about how much the White House spent making and installing the "Mission Accomplished" banner for President Bush's May 1 speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The director of the White House Office of Administration, Timothy A. Campen, sent an e-mail titled "congressional questi...

Bush's New Coalition Al Kamen has such a wonderfully developed sense of irony. He doesn't always hit you over the head with things, he lets them slip in subtlely. In the Loop, Friday, November 7, 2003 "Bush's New Coalition" There is concern these days that some members of the Iraq "coalition of the willing" might be having second thoughts about hanging in there. Problem is that withdrawing would leave them dangerously coalition-less. Not to worry. President Bush has got a coalition for you. He's formed a new coalition -- a kind of Third Way -- called the "Coalition of the Peaceful," which he announced last month on the eve of his Asia trip. Bush, in an Oct. 14 meeting with Asian journalists in the White House, talked about efforts to defuse the ongoing nuclear threat from those wacky North Koreans. He mentioned that the four countries working with Washington in trying to persuade North Korea to back off were "making pr...

Today's Washington Post This will teach me. I only got to page A27 this morning on my ride in. Turns out all of the juicy bits were on page A29. Here's one from Al Kamen's column: In the Loop, Friday, November 7, 2003 "Someone to Watch Over Me . . ." Ever get the feeling someone is watching you stroll along the Mall? That's because someone is -- from atop the 555-foot Washington Monument. Seems four surveillance cameras were installed there back in March to keep an eye out for terrorists and other evildoers. Where visitors had eight windows -- two in each direction -- to survey the vista, now there are four. The cameras, likely mounted on tripods, are hidden in small plywood closets and look out the other four. The cameras have attracted the attention of Hill folks, including Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, (W.Va.), ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee. Rahall wrote National Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella, asking whether the camera...

Molly Ivins is outraged at the mutual funds She's mad, and justifiably so. And she hits on one of the big points I've been trying to make to my friends: If regulation is so bad, why in the hell did we start doing it? Its because, when unregulated, these companies will take advantage of the American people. We don't like that, and we as a people need to realize that these conniving bastard Republicans want to take our money and put it in their pockets, under the guise of "free markets". Molly Ivins 11/4/03: Mutual fund fleecing AUSTIN, Texas -- I'd really like to know: What were they thinking? What did the traders, directors and managers of mutual funds think they were doing? Did they think, "Everybody does it?" Did they figure, "It's not really stealing; not actually taking money away from someone, it's just that they won't make as much as they might have?" Did they think the big customers were entitled to more? W...

Election Day It's Election Day here in Virginia, anyway. Seats up for election include our county board of supervisors, and state house and senate. There were lots of people at my polling place this morning, more than were there last year for the congressional races. I think this is due to a great deal of interest in the board of supervisors chairperson seat which was up for grabs, after Kate Hanley decided not to run again and instead challenge Jim Moran next year in the Democratic primary for U.S. Congress. But anyway, we have beautiful weather, so I came home early and took the dog for a long walk. That's a good way to spend some time outdoors.

Two Knives and a Blowfish make a sushi bar This is good, very very good. News media consumers could use a lesson on leaks [H]ere is a modest proposal for clearing up the confusion these stories often create. Why don't news outlets start using a set of standard warning symbols to accompany any news story based on leaks? Every such story would come with a graphic icon of a leaking water tap, and would include a legend to define other key symbols that would be inserted to flag leakers' self-serving motives: Knife -- Warning: The purpose of this leak is to hurt or destroy the source's political enemy. (Mr. Novak's CIA agent disclosure needed such an icon.) Pointing finger -- Warning: The source is attempting to shift blame to someone else. (This icon would have been suitable for the rush-to-war leaks cited above.) Blowfish -- Warning: The anonymous source is puffing up himself or his boss. Be skeptical. (This icon should be used for virtually ev...

That tricky tricky liberal media Goddamnitall, the Republicans are working the referees in the media again, and CBS is caving. Go read the whole article. And if all of Hollywood was liberal like they say, do you really think they'd be able to suppress a fictionalized portrayal of a president? UPDATE: CBS cancelled it. It may run on Showtime. Cowards. But there's a good side as well. Josh Marshall puts it well on his blog. 'The Reagans': Too Hot for CBS to Handle? (washingtonpost.com) Sunday night, CBS executives attending the network's 75th-anniversary celebration in New York laughed out loud as Dick and Tommy Smothers recounted how CBS had caved in to complaints from conservatives and scrubbed their politically charged '70s variety show. Yesterday morning, some of those same CBS execs were working on how best to scrub their upcoming biopic on Ronald and Nancy Reagan after receiving a letter of complaint about it from the Republican National ...

Jobs growth and GDP growth Richard Berner at Morgan Stanley has two articles recently on the GDP growth number of 7.2% annual rate for the Summer 2003 quarter. He's been fairly bullish about the recovery. These articles take a bit more subdued tone. The thing to watch this Friday, November 7, will be the Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This will tell us if the September uptick in payroll employment continued into October or not. If it did, we may be on the way to a slow, slogging, but sustainable recovery. If not, and the "job-loss recovery" continues, we may be into the very bad side of things that Brad DeLong forecasts. "[T]he longer the disjunction between fast output growth and stagnant employment continues, the less likely this smack-in-the-middle forecast becomes. Things are very likely to be either significantly better or significantly worse than the current consensus forecast--but we have no idea which." Fr...

Notes from Ireland II Monday Night: Headed up to Christ Church area to try restaurant near there. It turned out to be much too expensive, so we instead went down to the River Liffey and visited the Brazen Head pub, supposedly the oldest in Dublin (this pub was founded in the 1750's, but a pub had been on the location since 1172). The pints were expensive, and the food mediocre. Mrs. Datanerd and I decided to have our own pub crawl, hitting every one on the list from the Top Ten: Dublin guide. Of course, the Brazen Head was on this list as well, so I suppose it was the triumph of hope over experience. First stop: The Stag's Head pub, just off Dame Street. Every guidebook said, "Look for the mosaic in the sidewalk by the alley." The mosaic in the sidewalk on Dame Street was not to be found. Instead, after walking back and forth several times, we cut down South Great George’s Street and down a small street from there to find it. A wonderful pub, mainly loc...