The Strib has real time numbers here.
So far, Franken has gained 41 votes relative to Coleman, though both have lost total votes, with 279 votes being challenged by one side or the other, and 18% of the votes counted.
It will likely come down to the challenges, and it will be very close.
Fire upper management, and imprison them, because anyone who flies to a Congressional hearing on private jets at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars in order to plead poverty and beg for money is criminally stupid.
As you may be aware, Henry Waxman is challenging John Dingell for chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and today, the Democratic Steering Committee went 25 to 22 for Waxman.
I think that there are a number of things that may trump Dingell’s seniority (He’s the longest serving Dem in Congress).
Me, I’m rooting for Waxman.
Considering his performance this cycle, my conclusion is that he must have video of congresscritters having carnal knowledge with a goat.
A very shallow explanation of bonds, done in the style of Schoolhouse Rock.
They finally finished the count, and McCain won Missouri.
Also, Ted Stevens concedes in the Alaska Senate race.
So now it’s down to the runoff in Georgia, and the recount in Michigan.
Indian Navy Destroys Pirate Ship.
I find it odd on so many levels.
BTW, the proximate cause of the piracy is that because there is no government in Somalia, fishing fleets from various nations have strip mined the waters off the coast, leaving fisherman with no other means of support.
Though I would have to say that Pwn463† of Ms. Shlaes is like shooting fish in a barrel:
When you hear claims that the New Deal made the depression worse, they often come directly or indirectly from the work of Amity Shlaes, whose misleading statistics have been widely disseminated on the right.
…
Krugman then goes to show that Shlaes is suggesting that actions based on Keynes theories failed to contain unemployment in the 1960s.
Yes, I was unaware of the historically high unemployment rates in the 1960s too.
Just go read… A few hundred words, and he destroys her.
*Owns.
†Ownage.
I’ve posted occasionally on the FCC’s rules process on white space, space between channels that is currently unused, or more accurately unallocated.
A number of people, including me, feel that if this bandwidth should be made available to unlicensed users, much in the same way that Wi-Fi is, because it promises better bandwidth, greater penetration, and better range.
The complicating factor is that it has been used, largely almost completely illegally by the wireless microphone industry.
As a result, I’ve attracted the attention of the above mentioned gentleman, who deals in said microphones, and we had a bit of discussion on the matter.
He mentioned that, “There are no handheld military RF communication devices that do what he [Telco Expert Harold Feld, who is a friend] claims.” (emphasis mine)
By what he claims, he means using “sense and avoid” to avoid interfering with other devices sharing the spectrum.
I find his argument complete bullsh^%, because I have personal knowledge of vehicle mounted communications systems in various stages of test and deployment, JTRS comes to mind because I had to package components when I worked a military contract, but he was insisting on “hand held.”
Well, Mr. Cohen, I have your handheld right here. It’s not just a handheld, they’ve got the system on a chip:
Researchers here are developing new, handheld, wireless radios fitted with a single processor chip that is embedded with algorithms for compressing as many as 5 simultaneous, stealthy conversations into the same time and frequency slot and then, on arrival, untangling them.
Equally importantly, while in transit messages and data packages are seemingly hopelessly mixed – to the point of sounding like static. The chance of intercepting even the digital gibberish is unlikely since foes or potential adversaries don’t have the receiver technology to sort through such high levels of interferences.
….
They also are working to discover what’s necessary and what’s not, allowing them to take computing short cuts and use new techniques to increase performance and efficiency. Such advances in signal processing have allowed researchers to reduce the amount of “overhead” or needless digital instruction in the protocol that is not voice traffic. “Protocol overhead” as part of the total message has decreased to 20% from 50%. That is a key strategy for freeing room for more transmissions. Phase three is to conclude in June with demonstration of up to a 20-radio network. By the end of 2010, researchers expect to have completed design and implementation of a full-waveform protocol and hardware for a brick-size radio.
It’s from the minds of DARPA, and it’s here, it’s real, and it’s on a chip, and here is a video: (4:24)
Yep, an additional $3 million to fired executives at the failed insurance giant.
The they will give the Sirius Cybernetics Corp marketing division a run for their money in the, “first up against the wall when the revolution comes,” sweepstakes.
Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary.
Also, at the non cabinet level:
Well, it looks like the deflationary trap may be here, with the CPI down 1% last month, and core CPI falling 0.1%, the first drop since 1982.
The fact that housing starts and requests for building permits are falling off reinforces the idea that we are heading towards a major downturn.
Of course, it’s not just residential real estate. We are now seeing that mortgage backed securities for commercial properties are seeing increasing insurance costs and delinquencies.
In the larger world of the credit crunch, Calculated Risk’s Credit Crisis Indicators are largely unchanged.
BTW, S&P has downgraded monoliner bond insurer Ambac again.
In energy, oil fell again, on high inventory reports.
In currency, the dollar fell in response to continued news of a recession.
Let’s see…Anything else??? Oh…Yeah, the Dow closed below 8,000 for the first time in 5 years, 7,997.28.
Gee, following a crushing electoral defeat, conservative windbag Kathleen Parker goes and blames it all on the what she sees as right wing medieval religious types:
As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.
….
To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.
Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth — as long as we’re setting ourselves free — is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
….
So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners.
Ouch!!! Reading further it appears that her problem with the Religious right is that it is insular, nativist, and so is hostile and frightening to the majority of the population who are not a part of this. Well put
However, honesty forces me to note that her argument would be far more convincing if she hadn’t endorsed the idea of fear and hatred of those who don’t look like us using a right wing evangelical just this May:
“A full-blooded American.”
That’s how 24-year-old Josh Fry of West Virginia described his preference for John McCain over Barack Obama. His feelings aren’t racist, he explained. He would just be more comfortable with “someone who is a full-blooded American as president.”
…
Full-bloodedness is an old coin that’s gaining currency in the new American realm. Meaning: Politics may no longer be so much about race and gender as about heritage, core values, and made-in-America. Just as we once and still have a cultural divide in this country, we now have a patriot divide.
Maybe she’s just pro bigotry, and since it’s no longer acceptable, at least not in the Washington Post OP/Ed pages to call the President-Elect a n*gg*r (yet), she just needed someone else to hate.
It’s circular firing squad time, and unlike in 1964, there are no moderates left to target….
I’m going to get some popcorn.
*It was a typo, then I realized that I was funnier by accident than I was on purpose.
A judge has determined that Aafia Siddiqui is mentally unfit for trial.
Not surprising, considering that she was apprehended by the Pakistani ISI, and, along with three children were handed over to American authorities about 5 years ago, and held with recourse to…anything. (JFGI)
I have no knowledge of what was done to her, but it is unquestionably clear that she was held by Pakistani and/or US authorities over that period, and I’m sure that it was not a tea party.
In this case, a change to bankruptcy laws that would allow judges to modify mortgages on primary residences.
Right now it can be done on a vacation home, recreational boat, etc., but not on a primary residence, but Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is bringing back a change in bankruptcy law to change this.
According to reports, this will be a priority of Obama, but we are hearing that about a lot of things right now.
This is a very good law for a number of reasons:
To demand full obedience, no thought, no doubts, no conscience, just obedience.
And only 72.9 miles driving distance from me:
Rob Foster was 16 when his family unraveled.
He had told his parents that he wanted to leave Calvary Temple, the Pentecostal church in Sterling the family had attended for decades. But church leaders were blunt with his parents: Throw your son out of the house, or you will be excommunicated. And so that December two years ago, Gary and Marsha Foster told Rob that he had to leave. They would not see him or talk to him.
It’s repulsive, and if subjected churches to the same level of fiscal accountability as other non-profits, it’s clear that he would be in jail for that
It looks like he is taking some steps backward from his suggestion that he would install missiles in Kaliningrad.
The question is whether this is a change in direction, or merely tactics.
It’s nice that Krugman was there when George Will started spewing the standard talking point of the Republicans about the Great Depression, that Roosevelt made it worse because investors went on strike.
The reality is, that the economy clawed its way back because of the New Deal, and when Roosevelt eased up on the fiscal gas in 1937, everything went down again.
In 30 seconds, he showed Will that he did not know what he was talking about.
What worries me is that most days, Krugman would not have been there.
*Owns