"The short-term way to level the playing field is to update the New Deal so it includes and addresses the current workforce. We need to accept that many people don't work full-time for an employer and that "jobs" no longer mean just W-2 employees, as Douglas Rushkoff explained. Richard Cass, a self-employed technical and business consultant and Freelancers Union member, also puts it well: "Government programs that promote small business generally focus on companies with scores of employees and millions of dollars in annual revenue, which is short-sighted." That has immediate implications for our economic and job policies.

But to really bring a thriving middle class back to life, we need a dramatic shift in thinking, institutions, and assumptions. The role of policy should be to foster newer, more self-sustaining systems that follow this new mutualist paradigm. In the long run, our institutions need to move away from regarding the office as the center of a person's economic life, from business as the provider of benefits, and from government as the provider of social supports. The middle class does not have to be built by focusing on individual wealth. Instead, we can build stable markets and societies where people make a living, communities flourish, and businesses survive -- and not at the expense of others. It's not utopian -- it's a necessity if we want a successful middle class again."

"The positive lesson for the US is that we have a lot of scope to give employers incentives to cut hours rather than jobs, including improving and expanding "work-sharing" (part-time unemployment benefit) programs as well as implementing new direct tax credits to firms that expand paid time off (paid sick days, paid family leave, paid vacations, and other measures).

The negative lesson is that focusing on supply-side issues such as training, education, and improved job-matching for the unemployed --as much sense as they make in the long run-- is not likely to get us very far when the economy is at 9 percent unemployment. Denmark does far more than we could ever hope to accomplish along these lines and the unemployment there almost doubled between 2007 and 2010."

So despite most of the bill not applying to them, domain registers and registrars are now encouraged to simply take down sites on a voluntary basis, if they believe they're dedicated to infringement. And if they do so, they are immune from liability for damages caused. In other words, pretty much any domain can be disappeared by its register or registrar with little real recourse, and, in fact, there is encouragement for this to happen.

We were already very unhappy about the fact that the review was conducted on 2800 mortgage files across 14 servicers and there seemed to be no scientific process for how the cases were selected. The GAO signaled it had reservations about the exercise. And no wonder. Not only was it a garbage-in, garbage out process (whether the borrowers were delinquent was based on the servicers’ say so, not any analysis to see if the fees, charges, and applications of payments were in compliance with the law and the various agreements), it effectively said pretty much all foreclosures were warranted when it looked at only 100 completed foreclosures:

"If the government can take over giant global insurer AIG and the auto giant General Motors and replace their CEOs, in order to keep them financially solvent, it should be able to put BP’s north American operations into temporary receivership in order to stop one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history."

"No matter who is technically in control of the company, i.e. receivership or not, the one thing that is needed is for the government to have the authority it needs to force the company to fully disclose all the information it has about the leak, and about how to stop it. It also needs to be able to force the company to take particular actions to stop the leak even if the actions demand so many resources it results in the company going bankrupt.…"

awesome

"The folks at CreditSuisse have created a new figure making this point by re-ranking sovereigns according to credit risk based on this multifactor model. The upshot is that China, Germany, Switzerland, the U.S., Australia, Japan, and Canada lead the way in terms of least sovereign credit risk. Agree or disagree with the absolute levels from the model, the point stands that naive models of sovereign risk are mostly fodder for idiotic headline writers, not helpful standalone measures for assessing real risk."

"Good financial regulation and supervision are important in their own right. A good financial system will better serve the interests of borrowers and lenders. It will create benefits on the supply side. And financial crises will almost certainly cause demand to fall. But just because something causes demand to fall doesn't mean monetary and fiscal policy can't work. The whole point of Keynesian policy was that when (not if) something did cause demand to fall, monetary or fiscal policy could and should be used to increase it back again."

"There is no huge constituency worried about the estate tax--just the wealthy few whose estates might be subject to some taxation. But apparently Sens. Kyl, Baucus, Grassley and Lincoln are working to include a "bipartisan" proposal in the small business tax bill that they hope to put through Congress. Odds are it will cut the estate tax rate and increase the exemption amount, making the wealthy even less likely to pay any estate tax. ..."

"Now folks, it's pretty revealing when lobbyists have become so accustomed to their privileged access and backroom dealings with politicians --as went on in regards to Cheney's energy discussions, and each of the Bush tax cuts drawn up by a secretive group of GOP without any sunlight (or bipartisansip), for example, and too much with the health care bill as well--that they don't even bother to hide their scorn for the public's views and their hopes for getting that back room deal to go their way. No wonder Wall Street honchos have been so brazenly arrogant about their "entitlement" to bonuses, their rights to continue proprietary trading and hedge funds and derivatives desks--"doing God's work" says Goldman CEO Blankfein--when they are merely running a casino market to strip as much gold off suckers as possible with their "financial innovations" like synthetic CDOs that made the market many times more volatile than "real" securitizations…"

"Yowza! Somewhere in 2004, the world changed, and we didn’t realize it. Employers in the private sector put a lid on the cost of benefits (which includes healthcare, retirement, vacation, and supplemental pay of all sorts). Meanwhile the cost of benefits in state and local govt jobs just kept rising, with barely any break, both before and after the financial bust. This is not good."

"I strongly implore you on behalf of myself, independent inventors like me, and for the good of our country to support the patent reform legislation before you. And if upon reflection you recognize how truly vital the Patent Office is to the future of our country then I would ask you to do more and to consider the issue of “revenue diversion”.

The U.S.P.T.O. is unique in American government in that it costs the taxpayer nothing while providing the best dollar for dollar value in the intellectual property industry. The U.S.P.T.O. should have the authority to set its fees so that they are appropriate to the services provided and “in the aggregate” sufficient to fully optimize the functioning of that office, and to reasonably budget for the capital expenditures that will be required in the future for it to continue to do so."

"Rightsizing will not “shunt” development to the exurban fringe. That’s what’s happening already. Most of the neighborhoods we’re discussing haven’t seen significant investment since the 1950s. If nothing is done, they will continue to deteriorate and the exurban fringe will continue to grow. If they can once again be made dense and sustainable, in part through consolidation, Detroit might have a fighting chance to compete against suburban neighborhoods by providing a safe, viable urban alternative."

"What really makes the current period stand out is the number of people (and percent) that have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more. In the early '80s, the 27 weeks or more unemployed peaked at 2.9 million or 2.6% of the civilian labor force.

In January, there were 6.3 million people unemployed for 27 weeks or more, or 4.1% of the labor force. The number declined slightly in February, but this is much higher than earlier periods."

"This is the nightmare scenario if one cares about democracy, because it implies that the apparatus of government is essentially controlled by private interests rather than the common good and the broad interests of society as a whole. It isn't "pluralism", because there are many important social interests not represented in this system in any meaningful way: poor people, non-unionized workers, people without health insurance, inner-city youth, the environment, people exposed to toxic waste, ..."

"One such story was our earlier case about the old lady and her troubles with the Revenue Department official over a land title. Fed up with requests for bribes and equipped with a zero rupee note, the old lady handed the note to the official. He was stunned. Remarkably, the official stood up from his seat, offered her a chair, offered her tea and gave her the title she had been seeking for the last year and a half to obtain without success. Had the zero rupee note reached the old lady sooner, her granddaughter could have started college on schedule and avoided the consequence of delaying her education for two years. In another experience, a corrupt official in a district in Tamil Nadu was so frightened on seeing the zero rupee note that he returned all the bribe money he had collected for establishing a new electricity connection back to the no longer compliant citizen."

"Since the launch of DataSF last summer, the City’s clearinghouse of government datasets, we have seen our tech community create new services and products never dreamed of within the walls of government. And now we are giving people access to technology systems like our 311 call center through open source, so they can decide how and when they interact with government.

We face many challenges today, none more urgent than the economic crisis, but with it comes an opportunity to seek new ways of governing. In San Francisco, like other cities, we are using this opportunity to engage our greatest resource, the public, to build a government that works better for all of us."

"But health care is not zero-sum villainy. This post is not arguing that insurers are better than you think and providers worse. This post is arguing that nature of both groups is beside the point. They work within the market the government constructs. And both the market for insurance and the market for health care need reform. But we're comfortable reforming only the market for insurance, and so we are leaving half -- or maybe more than half -- the job undone."

"The majority of Council voted against the Anglin - Briere resolution to publish the Council meeting emails. The Council majority have said that if this is important to the citizens of Ann Arbor let them pay for it and do the work the Council claims is so expensive.
We ask your help in obtaining the information. There will be some minor expense but if shared by many it should not be prohibitive. The typical charge so far has been less than $3.00 per meeting for the requests.
because many sites will host material without charge, we believe our group can make the information publicly available at very little cost. In any case we can have some fun and a learning experience."

"In October, 35.6 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more...."

"Recovery.gov can’t bootstrap itself out of this circular trap. But if we use the tags that it has helpfully provided, we might be able to find out a lot more about where the money is going."

"By grinding all those rectangular datasets into triples, they’ve actually managed to make it *less* useful than in its original form. In the original form at least I had a little context of what this data was for and from, which is lost here. A surprising achievement, but I bet you won’t read about it at semantic web conferences any time soon.

Now, will this gigantic hairball of triples enter the LOD map of Middle Earth and double it in size overnight with a big “data.gov” stamp of self-validation?"

"In fact, democracy is in deep trouble in America. The financial crisis has inflicted hardship on a population that does not like to face harsh reality. President Barack Obama has deployed the “confidence multiplier” and claims to have contained the recession. But if there is a “double dip” recession, Americans will become susceptible to all kinds of fear mongering and populist demagogy...."

"President Obama promised us “Change We Can Believe In,” and the Democrats control Congress. Ironically, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission whose unwillingness to be compromised by a gangster was featured in the Martin Scorsese film Casino. Mr. Reid has since been accused of some personal ethical lapses, but he could easily redeem himself if he used his gaming regulation expertise and spearheaded a movement to take on Wall Street’s powerful lobby and create a no-nonsense regulatory agency akin to the Nevada Gaming Commission."

"To use the satellite, pirates typically take an ordinary ham radio transmitter, which operates in the 144- to 148-MHZ range, and add a frequency doubler cobbled from coils and a varactor diode. That lets the radio stretch into the lower end of FLTSATCOM's 292- to 317-MHz uplink range. All the gear can be bought near any truck stop for less than $500. Ads on specialized websites offer to perform the conversion for less than $100. Taught the ropes, even rough electricians can make Bolinha-ware.
"I saw it more than once in truck repair shops," says amateur radio operator Adinei Brochi (PY2ADN) "Nearly illiterate men rigged a radio in less than one minute, rolling wire on a coil.""

"Justice Holmes once famously dissented that it’s a form of judicial activism to base our courts on “an economic theory which a large part of the country does not entertain.” It seems like the same should be said for our government and our regulatory bodies, especially as they try and figure out how to fix the mess that is the financial markets. And it’s worth noting that the founder of this economic theory, The Efficient Markets Hypothesis, doesn’t even believe that people actually in the financial markets entertain it."

"So what happens next? >The House Financial Services Committee has refused to publish his testimony, offering “the dog ate my homework” level excuses, first that they hadn’t gotten it, then that it was in the wrong format, then that their IT department was experiencing difficulties (always a good one when real reasons are running thin). The last one was pure Catch-22: that he had gotten his written testimony in too late."

"By AHIP's own admission, they have to be stopped or they'll kill again. The report is a taunt, a thug-level threat, terrorism, if you will. With no government alternative to corporate health insurance, it's like asking captured bank robbers if they'd mind not robbing banks anymore. When they say, "Yes, we mind," you ask if they'd stop shooting hostages. And when they say, "We'll think about it," you thank them for accepting their punishment so gracefully and release them."

"Today I believe some people are getting upset about the wrong thing at the wrong time. As Samwick noted, during a recession the deficits will increase - from falling tax revenues, automatic stabilizers and stimulus spending. Maybe some people disagree with the stimulus package, but that isn't going to change (except additions like extending unemployment benefits again).

Eliminating the recessionary deficit requires the economy to recover, and unfortunately the recovery will most likely be choppy and sluggish, but eventually a recovery will happen. Eliminating the structural deficit will be much more difficult and will require hard choices, but now is not the time."

"You want to know why the left has ideas and the right has discipline? Because people who like ideas and dislike authority tend to identify with the Democratic left, while people who feel threatened by new ideas and more comfortable in a disciplined and ordered world tend to identify with the Republican right."

'I asked her whether the city government would support large-scale urban agriculture. “City government is irrelevant,” she answered. “Positive change, leaps forward in the evolution of humankind do not start with governments. They start right here in our living rooms and kitchens. We are the leaders we are looking for.”'

"This is a nice example of a tic unique to legislators and particularly common with Ben Nelson: the constituent voice. Some politicians talk in the first person ("I oppose raising taxes on the rich"). Some talk in the third-person ("Bob Dole opposes raising taxes on the rich"). And then some talk in the constituent person ("Voters oppose raising taxes on the rich"). The problem with the constituent person, however, is that it's falsifiable. And in this case, it's false."

"A number of you have told us that there is great excitement about the drafting process in your communities, but that it has taken time to raise awareness about this important effort. We’ve heard you and have decided to extend the time period for drafting and voting.

Drafting of recommendations will now continue through midnight Eastern Friday, July 3rd. Voting will stay open through the holiday weekend, until 5pm Eastern Monday, July 6th.

Thank you for your enthusiastic participation. Help us continue to spread the word!"

Excellent visualizations of legal and government datasets, with analytical discussion

"Analysts, regulators, and politicians are beginning to recognize that most if not all of the widely touted benefits of modern finance redounded only to its purveyors. The decidedly retro Canadian banking system, with simple products, high equity requirements, and relatively modest securities operations that focus on domestic customers, is the soundest in the world."

"Welcome to HackingCongress! This site is just starting up as of March 14, 2009 --- the goal is to be a hub, or at least a links page, for the developer community surrounding the intersection of civics and technology especially (but not exclusively) as it relates to the U.S. Congress."

"Collabforge is developing the online collaboration strategy for what will be a Web portal that helps Australians to find, navigate, understand and act on federal, state and local government environmental efficiency programs. The site will provide information for households, schools and small businesses, and is investigating options to best engage the public including via social media and web 2.0 opportunities."

“Hi all. Over the last day or so I have talked about your project with a few DDA members and what arose from these conversations was a shared concern that because the project was not an initiative created by/run by the DDA there are no controls in place for this at present. For instance, there is no DDA policy about how to allow /or even if it should allow an outside group to use the DDA’s parking data for a private enterprise. There is a concern about how unsecure/secure the DDA website is made when sharing this data. And finally, a concern that if the project had value to parking patrons, that the DDA itself should consider providing this service as an extension of what it is already doing on-line.”

"The self-employed and micro-business communities face an overwhelming regulatory burden in complying with IRS regulations. According to the General Accounting Office, a small business owner faces more than 200 IRS forms and schedules that could apply in a given year. Vague and complex rules and forms can mean the demise of their business. According to a study by the Tax Foundation, in 2005 individuals, businesses and nonprofits spent an estimated 6 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code, with an estimated compliance cost of over $265.1 billion. Businesses bear the majority of tax compliance costs, totaling nearly $148 billion or 56 percent of total compliance costs. "

"You didn't have the time to read the 1100 page stimulus bill. And neither did members of Congress—by their own choice. Most lawmakers—on both sides of the aisle—were only given 13 hours to read the bill before it was passed."

"If I get enough named supporters so it looks like a real show of force, I’ll include the list in the spot at the bottom. If I don’t get a big response, I’ll probably leave the list of supporters off. Either way, your expression of support will be appreciated.

Note that I am very upset over the proposed rule and the text and tone of my comment reflects this as best I know how without using profanity. And the proposal deserves profanity. If you work for an alphabet organization or otherwise have a relationship with the TSA that requires not angering the TSA, this is not the comment with which you want to be associated. Only the brave and the independent need sign up here."

"Following the completion of the process, all of the individual budgets were aggregated into one single “Citizen’s Budget”, which gave a clear picture of the participants’ wishes for the 2009/2010 municipal budget.

Overall, 1800 citizens registered to use the website, with 1291 writing individual budgets (750 of whom provided written justifications). Although this is less than 1% of the city’s population (217 000), it still represents a sevenfold increase over the roughly 150-200 citizens who might show up for an offline, townhall consultation process."

"The sort of bureaucracy that would label Op-Ed writing an act of war goes a lot deeper than just Bush and Cheney and their immediate circle. There are a lot of people who need to be fired at the very least and prosecuted in many cases. Equating an Op-Ed with war suggests to me that Joe the Plumber is running the Pentagon."

"In a much-discussed magazine article last year, Lee Kwan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, raised an important question: Why does the rest of the world view China’s rise as a threat but India’s as a wonderful success story? The answer is that India is a vast, unwieldy, open democracy ruled by a coalition of 20 parties. It is evolving through a daily flow of ideas among the conservative forces of caste and religion, the liberals who dominate intellectual life, and the new forces of global capitalism."

"High school students in Maryland are using speed cameras as a tool to fine innocent drivers in a game, according to the Montgomery County Sentinel newspaper. Because photo enforcement devices will automatically mail out a ticket to any registered vehicle owner based solely on a photograph of a license plate, any driver could receive a ticket if someone else creates a duplicate of his license plate and drives quickly past a speed camera. The private companies that mail out the tickets often do not bother to verify whether vehicle registration information for the accused vehicle matches the photographed vehicle."

"These companies might be pressed into renegotiation, rebidding, cancellation and even fee-recovery, if this practice of abusing emergency overrides can be shown to have a stench of collusion. The possibility of recovering tens of billions of dollars in graft or overcharges should not be overlooked. Moreover, offers of safety and rewards for whistleblowers may put the US government in an unfamiliar position of actually holding the high cards."

"Of course it’s crazy to imagine retargeting our industrial capacity in such dramatic fashion, and turning it on a dime, isn’t it?

Not necessarily. For months I’ve been meaning to blog a segment from a Lester Brown podcast, which I can’t find now, but here’s the same point from his book Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization:..."

"In an attempt to make up partly for that information deficit, I’ll suggest that we put together an online survey available here on The Chronicle to serve two specific purposes. The first goal would be to add citizen input to Fraser’s directive to staff: how do you think we could save 15% over the next two years? The second goal would be to supplement the picture of Ann Arbor that the National Citizens Survey gives.

So until the end of the year, we’ll take suggestions in the comments section of this article for survey questions along those lines. We’ll launch the survey on Jan. 1, 2009. Thanks in advance for your help."

"Nesson argues that the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 is unconstitutional because it effectively lets a private group — the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA — carry out civil enforcement of a criminal law. He also says the music industry group abused the legal process by brandishing the prospects of lengthy and costly lawsuits in an effort to intimidate people into settling cases out of court."

"Because the public doesn't understand the intricacies of finance, it's easily persuaded that this is definition of "soundness" is the same as keeping savings flowing to the banks so that the banks can lend to them to Main Street. That's why the public and its representatives have committed $700 billion of taxpayer money to Wall Street and another $500 to $600 billion of subsidized loans to the Street from the Fed -- bailing out the investors and creditors of every major bank, including , any moment, Citi -- only to discover, at the end of this frantic and unbelievably expensive exercise, that American jobs and communities are more endangered than they were at the start."

"This decision has confirmed what was already obvious from a plain reading of the statutes, that Minnesota cities can use their bonding authority for deploying the essential infrastructure of the next century."

"Not all science needs to have a purpose. The nature of humans is that, sometimes, they simply want to know. Everything else is just a bonus.

Srinivasa Ramanujan and Albert Einstein, the two scientific geniuses of the 20th century, made their earliest discoveries while working as clerks, not as professors working on taxpayer-funded projects; but why risk, in the 21st century, that some diamond might remain forever unearthed for want of a government grant?"

"Clearly, these are not your everyday sharks. Great Whites think alike and because of their size, they all think BIG. The Feds know this and are going to loan them (indefinitely) any amount of money they want - whenever they want it - at 2% or less so they can turn around and loan this money to you and I and every business in America at newly restrictive but higher "credit rates". How did the Feds solve the world's biggest credit crunch? They gave its perpetrators an offer they couldn't refuse. And this is euphemistically called re-liquefying.
Now, the crew who's angry about all this can ask themselves the alternative. What else could have been done? Wall Street could have sold the American financial industry to the Arabs for $1 trillion, a fee about equal to ARAMCO's 1H2008 oil profits. Or they could have sold it to Singapore, or China, or some of the fat cats in India or Japan. Instead, the U.S. Treasury bought it, rotten fish heads and all."

"Top White House officials were told in early 2002 about harsh measures used by the CIA to extract information from suspected al-Qaeda terrorists in the agency’s secret prisons, according to an account given to congressional investigators by the office of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The details of the controversial program were discussed in multiple meetings inside the White House over a two-year period, triggering concerns among several officials who worried that the agency’s methods might be illegal or violate anti-torture treaties, according to separate statements signed by Rice and her top legal adviser. . . ."

"I don’t know the answer to these questions. But, the arguments made by people who believe in the so-called “PPT” are interesting. If true, it would serve to explain a lot of the irrational market action we all observed over the past years. One thing I do know. Dow Jones’ Marketwatch reported that China has announced new regulations that order Chinese banks to temporarily not lend money to American financial institutions, because of the danger of default."

""According to one GOP lawmaker, some House Republicans are saying privately that they'd rather "let the markets crash" than sign on to a massive bailout.

"For the sake of the altar of the free market system, do you accept a Great Depression?" the member asked.""

"We have said before that this program is an inefficient, covert way to recapitalize the financial system. If I were a foreign central bank, I'd have a lot more confidence if the US imposed regulatory reform, took over dud banks, got rid of top management, and then did the good bank/bad bank split. That's a model that has worked and could be modified and improved. But for some unknown, the powers that be are refusing to employ formulas that have worked and prefer their own home-cooked brew."

"But not everyone did better. Workers, in real terms, did not get a share of the profits from the boom, their wages stagnated over this time period. So why should they pay for the bailout? This is nothing more than The Little Red Hen run backwards, they ate the bread first and now the hen is asking "Who will help me pay for the bread?" It shouldn't be those who weren't allowed to sit at the table.

So I would increase taxes progressively, and I would do it in proportion to the changes in the distribution of income over this time period. And I like this a little better than Luigi Zingales' solution for precisely that reason, it puts the burden directly on those who benefited from the boom."

"Further, the word confidence keeps coming up, we must restore confidence in the American financial system. It is not enough that we hand over our money, we must hand over our trust as well. Surely, then, if this is a new era of trust, there should be no problem with requiring sellers to disclose at precisely what value the assets for sale had been booked on their financial statements, with criminal penalties for misstatement. We should be able to evaluate, in the light of day, how forthright financial institutions have been in representing their true condition to potential investors and the public-at-large. We may find that some have played things relatively straight, while others survived by sleight-of-hand and exaggeration. The former group will have earned our confidence. The latter will have earned something else."

"This proposal is an expensive boondoggle and should be opposed by all. As one bit of evidence here, how many noticed that mortgage rates went up on the day the deal was announced? Here is a graph for Fannie 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (click to enlarge):..."

"The public doesn’t like a blank check. They think this whole bailout idea is nuts. They see fat cats on Wall Street who have raked in zillions for years, now extorting in effect $2,000 to $5,000 from every American family to make up for their own nonfeasance, malfeasance, greed, and just plain stupidity. Wall Street’s request for a blank check comes at the same time most of the public is worried about their jobs and declining wages, and having enough money to pay for gas and food and health insurance, meet their car payments and mortgage payments, and save for their retirement and childrens’ college education. And so the public is asking: Why should Wall Street get bailed out by me when I’m getting screwed?"

"The list of reasons the financial system is unsound grew massively today, by the tune of a $1.2 trillion taxpayer funded bailout designed to bail out the wealthy at the expense of the poor.
Earlier today Paulson had the gall to state "this will cost the tax payer less than the alternative".
No one bothered to ask why it should cost the taxpayer anything at all."

"Back in May this year, California announced an 800MW solar farm project as a part of plans to cut greenhouse emissions. As we can see, the state is really warming up to achieve its goal. No doubt other cities in the state will also come up with similar plans to tackle the greenhouse gas emission. Beginning in 2007, the California Energy Commission managed $350 million targeted for new residential building construction. It will use funds already allocated to the Energy Commission to foster renewable projects between 2007 and 2011. According to the California Energy Commission, the so called "New Solar Homes Partnership" will focus on new residential construction."

"OK, got it cracked. Don’t be a shareholder, or a preferred shareholder, or even a creditor or a policyholder. Just be a counterparty to a sleazy derivatives bucket shop — AIG Financial Products (AIG), to pick a name at random — and your chips, with applicable profits, will be returned no questions asked. "

"Judging from the targets here, they especially fear the organizations that carried cameras in the streets of NYC in 2004. They fear this so much that they would dispatch their minions in force to go after the people with signs and cameras before they can leave their homes. The next time there’s an anti-war protest in the LA area, if at all possible I need to attend…with camera in hand. We must show them a display of cameras and signs like they’ve never seen before. Unfortunately, my cell phone camera is crappy. Yes, I have a better camera, but a camera that doesn’t transmit can be confiscated before the images are uploaded."

"With NORTHCOM taking the lead on briefing the public, it’s clear the Bush Administration wants to send the message that everything is under control. Instead, to those that do this for a living, the message is clear that everything is absolutely and completely broken.

Perhaps the state governments need help. Perhaps FEMA is not up to the job. Perhaps the Bush Administration simply wants a uniform on camera, and this way of doing things is preferable to things happening the way that they should (a process, by the way, that WORKED before Bush screwed it up)."

Please, entrepreneurial startuppy convocations of the movers-and-shakers of local human-scale community-supported life with programming and Your Very Important Book: watch and hear. Watch. Hear.

"Elected officials don’t run our government. Government employees do. Every citizen interested in changing our country must understand this."

Worth reading every word. Worth commenting on, I think.

'One of the interesting problems for the 21st Century is, “How can such a state survive?” The tragic answer so far seems to be, “Rather easily”.'

"The Administration has been so insistent on maximizing executive authority through foolish decisions that it has destroyed those elements of trust and confidence. As a result, the other branches must now check the President."

The ground is a foreign country

The comments thread is surprisingly vociferous